So this year we decided to have a
theme for our conference and that's what you
see in the two banners here and these
are verses we can look at them first
of all in Ephesians 4 and verse 15
that we have in the banner right at
the back here.
Growing up in all aspects into Christ.
It says in Ephesians 4.15 that speaking
the truth in love we are to grow
up in all aspects into him who is
the head even Christ and the emphasis we
want to place is on the word all.
We can grow up in some aspects and
not fulfill God's purpose which is that we
should grow up in all aspects and sometimes
we can make the mistake of congratulating ourselves
because we have grown up in some aspects
and in some aspects we are better than
other Christians and better than other churches and
therefore we can have a sense of satisfaction.
The Lord warned the church in Laodicea that
you are satisfied.
You sit back and you say I'm alright
but you don't know the Lord said to
him the leader in the church that you
are wretched and miserable.
You know whenever we sit back satisfied we
are going to get that rebuke from the
Lord.
So it's important that we think of that
during these days because we have to acknowledge
that the last 27 years since we started
the work there are many many things the
Lord has done in our personal life, in
our family, in our churches that is I
believe really glorified God and pleased him but
it's possible that we have got so taken
up with all the good things the Lord
has done and missed out on certain other
aspects and that's like I often there many
ways we can picture this like a bodybuilder
who develops one side becomes very muscular on
his left side and his right side is
weak.
It looks so funny.
He needs to now concentrate a little more
on his right arm and right leg and
not keep on developing his muscles on the
right left side alone.
But I think a lot of churches are
doing that.
They're already pretty good on the left side
and they're keeping on building up the left
side and the right side sometimes is paralyzed.
So that's what we see also in that
little diagram of a circle.
You know when a little child is asked
to in these coloring books to fill up
a circle that's usually how a little child
begins.
But as that child grows older it learns
how to fill up the whole circle, finish
the course and it also knows how to
stay inside the circle, to stay within one's
boundaries.
The reason why a child does not fill
up the circle is because he's used up
all the crayons and the crayon has been
used up to color a lot of things
outside the circle.
Now that's a child and when a Christian
goes outside his boundaries and do all types
of things that don't concern him, like a
lot of brothers and sisters gossip and discuss
so many things which have got nothing to
do with them, which have got to do
with other people.
Remember this picture and that's why you have
problems in so many other areas which should
have been filled up because you used up
the crayons to color things outside without nothing
to do with you.
You became busy bodies in other people's matters.
I have seen through 43 years that the
people who do not grow spiritually are the
people who become busy bodies in other people's
matters.
They are not elders but they judge elders.
Okay, you can do that.
You'll end up your life like that circle.
Don't let it happen.
Let's wake up and see what is God
called me to do and let me concentrate
on that and let me leave the other
things for other people.
There was a psalmist who said, I will
not exercise my heart on things that are
too big for me.
They don't concern me.
He was sensible.
So you see we make two mistakes pictured
in that circle.
One is we don't finish what the Lord
told us to finish.
The course that God has planned for us,
the plan God's made for each of our
lives and the other is that we get
involved in a whole lot of other things
that have got nothing to do with God's
plan for our lives.
Now I'll tell you something, if you can
keep that picture in your mind from now
till the end of your life, you will
do a wonderful job with your life and
you'll stand in eternity without regret, at least
from today, even if you have a lot
of regret about the past.
So to grow up in all aspects under
Him is something we need to think of,
staying within our boundaries.
The other verse is on there on the
board is Colossians 1 and verse 24.
A little expression there in the last part
of verse 24 which is filling up that
which is lacking and we can think of
that circle again.
Filling up what is lacking.
How do you know whether you're a mature
Christian or an immature Christian?
Supposing I were to ask you, was that
drawing done by a grown-up person or
a child?
Everybody here can give me the answer.
No grown-up person will fill a circle
like that.
That's a child and when you go outside
your boundaries, you're a child.
Maybe you have been a child for 25
years, maybe you'll be a child for the
next 25 years.
That's your choice, but you're a child.
When you become busybody in other people's matters,
when you get concerned about things that don't
affect you, which have got nothing to do
with you.
You want to have an opinion on this
thing and that thing and the other thing,
what's happening in that church and this church
and the other church and about this elder
and that elder and that elder.
You are a one-year-old child even
though you may have been a believer for
30 years.
There are a lot of people who've been
believers for 30 years who are exactly like
that.
I say show me, don't tell me the
age of a person, just show me how
they color.
I'll tell you whether that's a child or
a grown-up.
You can do that also.
The same thing, let me see how a
person, what type of conversation a person talks
about.
All about other people, you know like young
teenage girls spend their time gossiping about 101
things that don't concern them.
Okay, they're like that.
When will they grow up?
You don't have to be like that.
Jesus was serious at the age of 12.
Samuel was serious when he was a child.
Timothy was serious as a young teenager and
you don't have to follow all those gossiping
teenagers and be like that.
We want to raise up a generation in
our church.
You know the Bible speaks about old wives
tales.
People who are like old wives.
Why does the Bible speak in that about
old wives?
The Holy Spirit speaks about old wives means
that the Holy Spirit knowing human nature says
that older women have a tendency to be
like this, to get involved in a lots
of things that don't concern them.
And some of you older sisters need to
take that seriously and say I don't want
to be like that.
The purpose of our coming together in the
church is to press on to perfection.
A lot of Christians are afraid of the
word perfection.
They don't like that word.
They like the word sinfulness.
It's like you some people like the word
dirt, filth.
Okay if you like that go ahead.
I like the word health, cleanliness.
If you prefer words like sickness, dirt, you
know it's sad.
Think about that in terms of your Christian
life.
Are you serious about perfection?
Are you serious about perfection in your speech?
Think of that circle as your speech.
Are there things you speak about which you
should not be speaking about?
Are there things that you should have spoken
about to other people?
About Jesus and about his word when people
came to visit your home which you didn't.
Parts of the circle left blank.
A lot of conversation among believers is exactly
like that circle.
A lot of the way we can think
of that circle as the way people spend
their money.
You earn a certain amount of money and
you can spend it like that.
And that's how a lot of people get
into debt.
If you want to know why people get
into debt think of that circle.
If you want to know why people are
covetous and they long to get more and
more money think of that circle.
It's because somewhere in their life they're spending
money where they should not be spending it.
And that money should have been spent in
some other areas where it should have been
spent.
There are many many areas we can think
of of staying within our boundaries.
Think of that my brothers and sisters.
I want to begin with Adam.
It says here in Genesis in chapter 2,
the Lord God, verse 8, Genesis 2 verse
8, planted a garden in the east in
Eden.
And there he placed the man whom he
had formed.
And out of the ground the Lord caused
to grow, listen to this, and think of
that circle, every tree that is pleasing to
the sight and good for food.
Those are all trees inside the circle.
And in the middle of the circle there
was a tree of life which God really
wanted Adam to take part of.
But he put one tree outside the circle
and that was the tree of knowledge of
good and evil.
And the Lord told him, verse 16, from
any tree of the garden you can eat
freely.
That whole circle is yours Adam.
There are thousands of trees there, wonderful fruit,
wonderful trees, and especially the tree of life
in the middle.
Boy, if you take that, you'll have eternal
life.
And Adam, just to test you, I've kept
one tree outside the garden.
Now he didn't tell Adam, this is a
test.
He just said, don't eat of that tree.
You know very often when God tests us
in some area, we don't realize we're being
tested.
Somebody comes to your house to gossip.
God doesn't announce from heaven, I'm sending somebody
to your house to gossip and I'm testing
you.
Do you hear such a voice?
No.
The person comes, you sit gossiping with each
other for one hour and you didn't realize
that that one hour you were being tested.
You probably don't realize it even after he's
gone.
It's just one area.
You suddenly get a lot of money, promotion,
increment, some windfall of money that comes along.
There's no voice from heaven saying, I'm testing
you to see what you're going to do
with that extra money.
No.
And God did not tell Adam, I'm testing
you.
My brothers and sisters, you and I have
already been tested in many areas without our
knowing it.
You find some defect in an elder brother.
There is no elder brother without defect.
I'll tell you that right in the beginning.
The only elder brother without a defect that
I know is Jesus Christ, our eldest brother.
Even Paul had defects.
So if you want to look for defects,
you'll find it in everybody.
But when you see a defect in a
person, you may forget the thousand and one
good things that there are in that elder
brother.
But that one defect that is outside the
circle, just like this one tree outside the
circle, that's what Adam goes for.
And when you go after that one defect
that you see in an elder brother, you
can be sure that you are a disciple
of Adam because you don't see the many
good things inside the circle.
So God told Adam, listen, there's one tree
kept outside.
Don't eat of it because in the day
you eat of it, you'll surely die.
But you have a choice.
Death outside the circle, life inside the circle.
You have a choice.
It's a sort of an invisible wall and
you sometimes don't know when you crossed it.
Some of you came from Tamil Nadu, many
of you.
Can you tell me what time you crossed
into Karnataka, last night or this morning?
Tell me the time.
You don't know.
Some of you came from Kerala.
Do you know when you crossed into Tamil
Nadu?
When did you cross into Karnataka?
You don't know.
But you did.
This going outside the circle is like that.
We can be careless and go outside, not
even know it, till we are right outside.
And a lot of people can spend years
outside, not even realize it.
That's because they are children.
You know how children will go to the
edge of a cliff without thinking about it.
You take a two-year-old child to
a railway station, it'll go right up to
the edge of the platform when a train
is coming.
Believers are like that because they are two
years old.
A mature person will never do that.
A mature person knows his boundaries.
There's a line drawn in some railway stations,
a yellow line saying don't cross that because
don't go too close to the train.
I want you to know that right from
the time God created man, he's drawn a
line around us.
Don't think that there is no boundary to
your life.
God has drawn boundaries for all of us.
The only person without a boundary is God
Almighty.
And I want to say to you, I
don't want to say this in a spirit
of condemnation, but I want to say it
in a spirit of helpfulness.
You know like a doctor, you go to
a doctor and you ask him, doctor why
am I having weakness and this thing and
that thing.
And the doctor examines you and says, you're
eating too much of this and you're eating
too little of this.
He may say you're eating too many chocolates
and you're eating too little vegetables.
See what I mean?
An occasional chocolate is all right, but you
eat too many of them and you go
outside the circle.
You get sick and you don't eat any
vegetables and you've got a whole lot of
parts in your circle not filled up.
This circle and apply to health.
The same thing spiritually, that you're not having
certain things in your daily diet spiritually.
And you got too much of something else,
too much of sinful things.
We shouldn't have even one sinful thing.
There's a boundary God has drawn around us.
We got to be careful.
And the great danger of keeping on going
outside the circle is, I believe that I've
not drawn it on that banner there, but
there's a little beyond all that.
There is another circle, a very big one,
where when a man keeps on sinning, sinning,
sinning, sinning, sinning, he crosses the second circle.
And then he has sinned against the Holy
Spirit and he can never be saved.
He's lost eternally.
Jesus spoke about that, you know, sinning against
the Holy Spirit.
When does it happen?
It happens when a man keeps on going
outside his circle.
He couldn't care less.
He listens to messages.
It doesn't bother him.
They keep on doing things that are wrong.
They keep on, on and on and on
and on, backbiting, speaking evil, lusting, fooling around
with pornography and telling lies and false statements.
And they call themselves believers and they're in
the meetings and they keep on doing it
and nothing happens, no judgment, nothing yet, nothing
yet, nothing yet, till one day, over the
next line and that's it.
And how do we know they have crossed
the second line?
They've got no more desire for repentance.
You know, sin is very light.
Yeah, what to do?
I sin.
I'm like that.
When sin is no longer serious for you,
you can be sure you're getting close to
that other line, which I don't even want
to draw here because I hope none of
us will get that far.
There's no danger of you're going anywhere near
that circle.
If you stay within the circle, God has
drawn for you.
Filling up that which is lacking, growing up
in all aspects unto Christ, finishing our course,
staying within our boundaries.
God gave Adam a job to do.
He told him, it says in verse 15,
I put you in the garden of Eden
to cultivate it and keep it.
That's your job.
Fill up that circle.
That's the garden of Eden.
Fill it up.
He didn't do it.
In fact, the very first thing he did
before he…
Adam was really crazy.
He didn't do anything inside the circle.
The first thing he did was outside.
He straight away went because he was led
by his wife.
It's a very sad thing when a home
is led by the wife.
There are elders who just listen to their
wives and even lead the church in the
way the wife feels.
Wife tells her husband, you know, brother, so
-and-so is not like this, brother, so
-and-so.
And that stupid elder listens to his wife.
Oh, then he changes his attitude to brother,
so-and-so and sister, so-and-so
and destroys the church.
We have had cases like that.
It's just like Adam.
That's amazing.
It's amazing though these things are written so
clearly in scripture that people, they think they
know so much.
And I'll tell you something, all going outside
the circle is due to pride.
Only pride.
No one can ever fall.
I'll tell you this, the only person who
can fall is a proud man.
A humble man can never, never fall.
When it says he is able to keep
us from falling, it's because he can only
keep humble people from falling because he gives
grace.
Grace is what keeps us from falling.
You see, when I'm standing, you can make
me fall.
When I'm sitting, you can still make me
fall.
If I sit on my haunches, you can
still make me fall.
But if you see me lying flat on
the ground with my mouth in the dust,
can you make me fall?
Tell me.
That is the definition of humility.
Flat on the ground with your mouth in
the dust, which I've always exhorted people to
stay there.
Try and make a man fall who is
down on the ground with his mouth in
the dust.
It's impossible.
It's impossible to make such a believer fall.
God can bless him in a million ways,
he will not fall.
But the trouble is when God blesses that
man whose face is with the dust in
the ground and gifts him and he gets
natural, he has natural gifts and supernatural gifts,
gradually from the dust he begins to lift
up his head.
Nothing happens for a while because the devil
is waiting.
Let me get a good shot at him.
And he thinks nothing is happening and he's
lifting himself up, lifting himself up.
And then he comes in the devil's gun
sight.
He's gone.
That would never have happened if the chap
had kept his head in the ground.
But God blessed him and it went to
his head and he was better than all
the other people lying on the ground.
And so he began to lift up his
head and he got shot first.
That's happened to elders in our midst.
It's happened to brothers and sisters.
But do you think others will learn a
lesson?
Some have learned a lesson, many have not.
Many see these elders being shot down one
after the other and they lift up their
head and say, ah, it won't happen to
me.
And they get shot down next.
I hope there's nobody here who says, that
won't happen to me.
You're next in line, brother.
Sister, you're next in line.
It's a verse in Lamentations 3, I think
it's verse 27 or something which says, if
you keep your mouth in the dust, there's
hope for you.
Keep your mouth in the dust.
Let God judge you constantly.
You'll never have a problem.
Say, Lord, where am I going outside my
boundary?
Just show me.
I say that today.
I never want to go one centimeter outside
the boundary God has drawn for me.
Many people have pressurized me through the years
to go into some ministries, which are good
ministries.
I say, sorry.
I've not got nothing against those ministries, but
they're not in my circle.
You brothers do it.
Go ahead.
People have advised me to spend my money
on different things.
I say, sorry.
No, I'm not going to do it.
We say we spend our money on necessities.
But do you know what some people's definition
of necessity is?
Any luxury that you see in somebody else's
house becomes a necessity for you.
You're the one who's going to have problems
financially, because you don't know how to stay
within your circle.
Yeah, stay within your circle.
And let's recognize God.
I know that also many people have tried
to pressure on, put pressure on me not
to go to certain places for ministry where
I feel I should.
I say, that's fine brother.
You don't go.
I'm not telling you to go.
I feel free to go.
I want to fill up the circle.
I don't want to leave some part of
the circle blank just because you think I
shouldn't go there.
You don't go there.
That's fine.
It may not be in your circle.
It's in mine.
Through the years, I have learned to respect
the circle of other people and to watch
my own circle.
And don't think that your circle and somebody
else's circle are the same.
We need light on what areas of my
circle have I not filled up and what
areas am I going outside and wasting my
time?
This can apply to many other areas.
Think of the study of the scriptures.
If you take a bag, think of your
brain and your memory like a bag or
a suitcase.
And okay, even one of these expandable suitcases,
you fill it, fill it, fill it, fill
it.
After some time, you can't fill anymore, right?
Okay, your memory has got a capacity, mind
has got a capacity to expand.
But after some time, you can't fill anymore.
And if I fill my mind with all
the useless information about who's getting married and
who's getting pregnant and who's this and who's
that and who's the other thing and what's
happening to this family and that family and
the other family, I won't have place in
this bag for the word of God.
And that's exactly the reason why even some
elder brothers don't have, don't know the word.
Their mind, their bag is filled with a
whole lot of useless information.
And say, what to do brother?
I don't know, I'm trying to study the
word.
No, get rid of a lot of things
from your bag and there'll be a lot
of empty space there to put God's word
in.
It's a question of priority.
It's a question of how you spend your
time.
You can spend your time, think of that
as time.
You got a certain amount of time like
one crayon and the more you rub that
crayon, the crayon is getting smaller and smaller
and smaller and smaller and the crayon is
finished and you have not finished your circle.
You could have finished the circle.
You could have finished the circle if you
had concentrated on staying within your circle, spent
your time in things which are really profitable
for eternity, spent your money, spent your life,
your energy.
And how wonderful it is if you can
start when you're young to say, I'm going
to finish the task God has given me.
Why did Jesus very often say to people,
I can't come there.
I can't do that.
My time has not come.
My hour has not yet come.
There were many things Jesus couldn't do.
He didn't have time for it.
Was there anything wrong in a servant of
the Lord who is working so hard day
and night that he doesn't even have time
to eat like Jesus was, to take a
small break to go to Rome for a
holiday?
What's wrong in Jesus taking a holiday to
Rome?
You know, he's got enough money in the
bank to take a trip to Rome.
It's a dangerous thing when you have a
lot of money.
You know why Jonah went to Tarshish instead
of Nineveh?
Because he had money to buy a ticket.
The ship company was offering a tour to
Tarshish.
You know, like you see the advertisements in
the company, tour to Spain.
Tarshish is in Spain, by the way.
Tour to Spain, people cost us so much.
And Jonah says, well, I preached a lot
and I got a lot of money.
I can spend it on a tour to
Spain.
I'm not going to sin.
But that wasn't where God wanted him to
go.
If he didn't have the money, he'd have
looked at the advertisement and said, well, I
can't go for that.
I don't have the money.
Sometimes when you don't have the money for
something, that's your salvation.
And sometimes when you have money, it can
cause real problems.
Jesus said, no, there are a lot of
things I don't have time to do.
I have only 33 and a half years.
I don't have time to waste for unnecessary
things.
How many of you are gripped by the
fact that you don't have a lifetime of
1000 years or something?
No, I don't have a lifetime of 1000
years.
63 years of my life is already gone.
I want to make sure that I spend
my time, my life, my money, my energy
on that which will produce results for eternity.
I decided that when I was 21.
When I was 19 and a half, I
decided I want to live for eternity.
I don't want to live for time.
I'll tell you, I haven't regretted it.
Maybe when I got married, I did not
have all the things that you young people
have when you get married.
Okay, I hope you'll finish your course.
I hope when you come to the age
of 63, you'll be able to look back
and say, I spent my time, my money,
my energy wisely.
A man's life, Jesus said, does not consist
in the number of things he possesses.
Please remember that.
A man's life does not consist in the
number of things he possesses.
You read Luke chapter 12.
It consists in fulfilling what God has called
you to do.
Even if you live in a little hut,
remember that.
It's not in the type of food you
eat or the clothes you wear.
It's in fulfilling what God has called you
to do.
Stay within the circle.
I want to show you another example in
1 Samuel chapter 13.
1 Samuel 13.
You know, when Saul was made king, he
was one of the humblest men in the
whole of Israel.
On the day of his coronation, no, before
that, let me tell you something before that.
We read in 1 Samuel chapter 10 that
Samuel, verse 1, took a flask of oil,
poured it on the head of Saul and
said, the Lord has anointed you to be
ruler, the first king of Israel.
And he says, I'm doing this because the
Lord has appointed you to be the king
of his people.
And the spirit of the Lord, verse 6,
will come upon you mightily and you will
prophesy.
And when Saul went home, his uncle, verse
14, asked him, where did you go?
He said, I was looking for the donkeys.
My father told me to went out and
look for the donkeys.
And then I went to meet, we met
Samuel.
And Saul's uncle said, what did Samuel tell
you?
Saul said, well, Samuel told us the donkeys
have been found.
But Saul did not tell his uncle, verse
16, about the matter of the kingdom.
He didn't say, you know, Samuel anointed me
to be the next king of Israel.
What a man, anointed to be king and
he won't even tell anybody.
Think if God did some mighty powerful thing
for you and you don't tell anybody.
The apostle Paul was taken up to heaven
and heard amazing things.
And for 14 years, he never even told
anybody about it.
These are men of God.
They have experiences and they never tell anybody
about it.
They never get up and give a testimony
of what God did for them.
They know what to keep secret and what
to keep hidden.
Why?
Because they don't want to make other people
feel small.
You know, if you give some fantastic testimony,
if you're going to the third heaven, how
do all those people sitting over there feel?
They'll feel so small.
Oh, this great man of God is up
there.
So if any of you go to the
third heaven, please don't come and tell me
about it.
I'll feel very small in front of you.
Go there by all means, go.
I'm going to, I'm going to go there
one day in any case.
You may see it a little before me,
that's okay.
But don't make people feel small.
That's a humble man is a man who
never makes other people feel small.
And Saul was like that.
He never said it.
And we read that finally they want to
anoint him as king.
They gather the people together and they take
lots with all the names.
Samuel says, God controls the lots.
Let's take out the lots so that people
don't think that Samuel was partial.
They took out all the lots and it
says here, the tribe of Benjamin was taken,
verse 20.
And they're from the tribe of Benjamin.
They took the names and the Matt Wright
family was taken.
And finally they took out one name, the
last one, Saul.
See how God controlled the lots?
Verse 21.
Okay, where is Saul?
The whole crowd of people are there.
The fellow standing right in front should be
Saul because he already knows his name is
going to come.
And they could not find him.
And they went searching for him.
Imagine the man who was supposed to be
king, he was hiding.
He did not want to be king.
And it says in verse 22, he was
hiding in the baggage.
All the suitcases and all lying there.
He got underneath there.
He said, nobody will look for me here.
But they caught him.
And they pulled him out and anointed him
king.
This is how he started.
But in two years, he became a different
man because he got victories.
It says here in chapter 11, verse 11,
Saul went against some of the enemies and
defeated the Ammonites.
And he had victories.
And the great danger is when God gives
us victories.
Victories go to our head.
And it went to Saul's head.
And when he had reigned for one year,
in the second year of his reign, he
selected chapter 13.
This is things began to change.
There was a huge number of enemy troops.
And verse 6, chapter 13, 6, the men
of Israel lost their nerve entirely and tried
to hide in the caves and thickets.
Meanwhile, Saul was in Gilgal.
And verse 8, this is a very important
verse, 13, 8.
Samuel had told Saul, wait for seven days.
I will come.
I will offer a burnt offering.
Because Samuel was a priest.
Saul was not a priest.
And there were very strict rules in the
book of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, that only the
priests could offer sacrifices.
Any Tom, Dick and Harry in Israel couldn't
come and offer a sacrifice.
Even if you're a king, you're not a
priest.
God kept those ministries completely separate until Jesus
came, who could be the first king priest.
It had to be Jesus, the first king
priest.
But Saul thought, what's wrong with me?
I'm okay.
God's blessed me as a king.
And after seven days, Samuel didn't come.
Verse 8.
So Saul decided, verse 9, to become a
priest as well.
That position which God had reserved for Jesus
Christ, who was to be the first king
priest, Saul decided, I'm going to take it.
You know, whenever an elder brother or a
preacher or a music leader attracts people to
himself, he's making the same mistake.
Instead of attracting people to Jesus Christ, gets
people to admire him.
Do you fellas see what a wonderful preacher
I am?
What a wonderful knowledge of scriptures I have.
It's the same mistake.
That place is reserved for Christ.
He's the only one to whom people should
be drawn.
Do you think it's a very wonderful thing
to stand up here?
Some of you may envy those who stand
up here, and even some elders may envy
someone like me standing up here so often.
I'll tell you honestly, I stand with fear
and trembling, because I know how many people
have stood here and fallen, and how easy
it is when we stand here to take
the place of Jesus Christ.
And that's why the Bible says, my brethren,
don't be many teachers, because your judgment will
be more severe.
No, I stay here.
I stand here only because I'm thrust here
by the Lord.
I have no desire.
I would rather sit in the back seat
any day.
It's a dangerous thing.
If your aim in life is not to
lead people to Christ, away from yourself to
Christ, lead them there, I would encourage you
never, never to want to stand up here.
It's a dangerous place.
It's like the front line of the battle.
How many of you would like to stand
in Kashmir in the front line of the
battle?
If you're a good soldier, and you're appointed
by the army to go there, go.
But if you don't know how to fire
a rifle, and you try to stand up
there because it's exciting, you'll be the first
one shot down.
So it's like that, you know, Jesus is
the first king priest, and Saul, who was
a king, decided to be a priest.
Saul's circle was king.
Priest was outside his circle.
He said, why not?
Why can't I go outside my circle?
I've done well as a king.
He hadn't finished his job as a king,
but he wanted to go outside his circle.
The whole of scripture is like, teaches this
lesson you see in that circle, whether Adam
or Saul, it's the same thing, going outside
the circle.
And he said, I waited seven days.
Well, he didn't wait fully seven days.
Maybe he waited from Sunday till Saturday morning.
Seventh day had not finished.
Well, he said, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, six days are over.
Half of Saturday is also over.
No sign of Saul.
Samuel, let's hurry up.
And this offering was probably taking about one
hour.
As soon as he finished the offering, it
says in verse 10, just as he was
finishing, Samuel arrived.
Samuel had said, I'll come in seven days.
And he came.
When people are impatient for God to act,
they make this mistake.
God, we want you to do something.
We wait for a few days.
Okay, God's not going to do it.
I'm going to do it myself.
That was the mistake of Abraham.
Waited, waited, waited for to get a son.
And finally, he said, Sarah is not going
to bear.
Let me.
They both had a discussion, Abraham and Sarah,
and decided, okay, let's have a child through
Hagar, the servant woman, and produced Ishmael, which
is, Ishmael and his descendants have always been
in conflict with Isaac and his descendants.
Where did it start?
When one man of God became impatient.
You know that verse in James chapter 1,
which says, let patience have its perfect work.
Beautiful verse.
The mark of a man who's pressing on
to perfection is patience.
When you're impatient with other people in the
church, or impatient with your wife, because she
doesn't do things on time, or you want
to come to the meeting on time, and
your wife is making you late, but she's
got children to look after, and you don't
help her.
How can she be on time?
And then you have a big fight, and
come to the meeting five minutes late with
that grumpy mood, and sing, God is on
the throne, and praise the Lord.
It's all a farce.
Better to come ten minutes late in a
good spirit.
Any day.
Come ten minutes late in a good spirit.
Yeah, it's good to come on time for
a meeting, but it's worse to come to
a meeting with a bad spirit.
Patience, patience.
Let patience have its perfect work.
All of you who think you're so spiritual,
just test yourself in one area.
Patience.
Okay, Samuel didn't come.
He'll come.
God didn't act when you think he should.
He will act, don't worry.
Just wait.
Hang on.
You need patience.
Hebrews 10 says, let patience.
You have need of patience, that after you
have done the will of God.
It's the verse towards the end of Hebrews
10.
After you have done the will of God,
you need patience, that you may receive the
promises.
Many people don't receive the promise.
They've done the will of God.
Why they don't receive the promise?
Because they're not patient.
Let patience have its perfect work.
How is it believers, who've been believers for
30-40 years, still upset and irritated?
Are you upset and irritated?
And you sit in a church, where you
have the verse in front every week, let
us press on to perfection.
Where are you pressing on to perfection?
You want to press on to perfection in
making better food in your home, sisters?
Or doing up your home nicely, and the
curtains are good, and the floor is good,
and the wall is good.
Is that the garbage of perfection you got?
What's the use of living in a home
like that, if you're not patient?
I would rather live with walls like this,
with not properly cemented, or cracks and all
that, and have patience in the home.
Any day, any day.
Don't be a worldly person, thinking you live
in a grand house, and there's no patience
there.
Your house is perfect, but you're not.
Your house will collapse.
Jesus said, not one stone will remain upon
the other.
And the real house which God is building,
you're not serious about.
Patience.
Saul was not patient.
That's why he lost the kingdom.
And Samuel told him, what is this you've
done?
Verse 11.
How dare you become a priest?
Samuel said, I didn't try to become a
king.
God appointed me as a priest and a
prophet, and I did not dare to become
a king.
Samuel was the most spiritual man in Israel.
Why didn't God make him the king?
Because the post of priest king was reserved
for Jesus Christ.
He had to be the first priest king.
Even if you're the most spiritual person in
Israel, if you're a priest, you cannot be
a king.
And even if you're the most spiritual elder
brother, you have no right to draw people
to yourself.
We have seen enough cases of elders who
draw people to themselves with their eloquence and
their flattery and destroy the church.
Don't go in their footsteps.
And it says here, Samuel came and said,
what have you done?
And Saul had an excuse.
Saul was a great person at making excuses.
You read here, you read later on.
He was a great expert at making excuses.
And Adam was a great person at making
excuses also, right?
This woman whom you gave me.
And if you are a great person at
making excuses, you're not in the footsteps of
Jesus Christ.
You're not a spiritual man.
Are you great at making excuses?
When some fault in you is pointed out,
yeah, this, this, this, this, this, this, this.
Not much hope for you, brother, sister.
Not much hope for you.
You follow Adam.
Be like David.
When Nathan came to him and said, you're
the man.
He said, that's right.
He wrote a Psalm, Psalm 51.
Oh God, I'm the man.
Nobody else.
It's my fault.
It's not Bathsheba's fault.
It's me.
Let your judgment be against me.
I wish not only that we had many
brothers and sisters like that in the church,
I wish in all of our churches, everybody
would be like that.
Not these masters of making excuses for their
justification, justifying themselves.
Jesus said to the Pharisees, you fellows justify
yourselves.
That's why you're Pharisees.
One of the number one marks of a
Pharisee is he justifies himself.
Jesus said that in Luke chapter 16, verse
14, 15, 16.
You are, you justify yourselves.
Saul justified himself.
What is the result?
The Lord said, Samuel said to him, you
have acted foolishly.
You didn't stay within your circle.
You didn't stay within your boundary.
The Lord would have established your kingdom forever.
You've been on the throne just two years,
but now finished.
Oh, please give me another chance.
Sorry.
There's no other chance.
The Lord has already started looking out for
another man, a man after his own heart,
and he's already found him and he's appointed
him as ruler over his people.
I mean, it is still a long way,
way up to chapter 16 before David was
selected, and David may not even have been
born at this time, but the Lord had
already seen that's the man.
I'm going to choose him, man after God's
own heart, who will not justify himself.
When somebody comes up, the prophet comes to
him and says, you're the man.
He says, yes, I'm the man.
There were many kings in Israel who got
upset when the prophets told them the truth.
They'll kill the prophet, lock him up.
Not David.
He said, I'm the man.
The other mistake of Saul was, one, he
went outside his boundary.
The second is 1 Samuel 15, where it
says the Lord told him to kill all
the Amalekites, go depart.
The Lord told to go and strike Amalek,
verse 3, utterly destroy all that he has
and don't spare him.
Put to death man, woman, child, infant, ox,
sheep, camel, donkey.
The whole circle must be completely covered.
All that white portion must be destroyed, covered
up with God's will.
Saul said, yeah, he killed most of it,
but he left out some good sheep.
Little parts of the circle.
Yeah, I mean, these are good parts.
Why should we kill them?
Again, Samuel came in the morning.
The Lord said, I gave Saul a second
chance.
He didn't deserve it, but I gave a
second chance.
But now I regret, verse 11, that I
made him king.
He's not carried out my commands.
He's not filled up the whole circle.
He did a lot of it, but he
left out bits.
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said,
well, praise the Lord.
Verse 13, I have carried out the command
of the Lord.
I've filled up the whole circle.
You filled up the whole circle?
And what's all this bleeding of the sheep?
Verse 14, that I hear.
What are all these patches that are still
white?
And Saul said, well, you know, the master
of excuses is ready.
These people, they brought it, and the people
spared it.
And Samuel said, okay, wait, let me tell
you what the Lord said to you last
night.
Isn't it true?
Verse 17, listen to this word, my brothers
and sisters.
Verse 17, when you were small in your
own eyes, God made you the head of
the tribes of Israel.
And he gave you a simple command saying,
kill everything.
Why in the world did you use your
brain?
Why in the world did you listen to
your wife?
Why in the world did you listen to
people?
Didn't God tell you what you should do?
He said, I did obey, but the people
took again the same old excuses.
And then he says, Samuel says, what's the
use of all your sacrifices?
You say you want to keep the sheep
for sacrifice.
God doesn't want your sacrifices.
What's he saying?
I sacrificed to do this for the Lord.
Sacrificed to do this.
I opened my house to serve the Lord.
I gave money for the Lord.
God says he doesn't want your sacrifices.
He wants obedience.
To obey is better than sacrifice.
Disobedience is like practicing witchcraft.
When you don't fill up the circle, it's
like practicing witchcraft.
It's what it says there.
It's like idolatry, verse 23.
Then Samuel, Saul says, okay, I've sinned, but
please don't let the people know about it.
Please keep me as the elder.
Don't let anybody know.
Just come with me and act as if
nothing has happened.
I'll confess to you privately.
I've had elders tell me that.
I said, I'm sorry.
I can't do that.
It's like Samuel told Saul, I'm sorry.
I can't do that.
People have to know.
Why do you want to hide it?
God has taken away the kingdom from you,
verse 28.
And he's given it to your neighbor who's
better than you.
And God will not change his mind.
Please honor me, he says in verse 30.
Please honor me before the other elders.
Come with me, so that people don't think
anything is wrong, verse 30.
Samuel said no.
Verse 35, Samuel never saw Saul again until
the day of his death.
Samuel said, I'll never come to your house
again, because you don't repent.
I've said that to some people.
I won't come to your house, till you
repent of that thing, that evil that you've
done to somebody.
That's what Samuel told Saul.
People may have got angry with Samuel.
People got angry with me.
It doesn't make a difference.
My brothers and sisters, if you want to
be a Christian, be a serious Christian.
Don't play games with God.
Be a wholehearted, radical Christian, who is determined
to fulfill all of God's will.
Let's all be like that in our churches,
to grow up in all aspects unto Christ.
Stay within our boundaries, to say at the
end of our life, I finished my course
like Jesus said.
Father, I finished the work you gave me
to do.
Amen.