What the real Jesus is, as we see
it in scripture.
And I want to share with you this
evening something concerning serving God.
Remember, we saw that the ministry of the
Holy Spirit is to make us like Jesus.
First of all, to show us the glory
of Jesus, and then to make us like
Him.
So if we don't see the real Jesus
clearly first, we're going to be like the
false Jesus.
You know there's a verse, I don't know
whether you've seen this verse, I want to
show it to you in Psalm 115.
In Psalm 115, I want to encourage you
if you've got a Bible to turn to
these verses, because that's how we become familiar
with the Bible.
It's very important that Christians become familiar with
their Bibles.
And let me repeat what I said earlier,
anytime you read a verse or hear a
verse, you don't know what it contains, stop,
pick up your Bible, turn to that verse.
I've done that for 45 years, and I've
come to know the scriptures.
Anytime you hear a verse quoted in a
meeting, or a verse quoted in a book,
and you don't know what it says, put
the book down, turn to the Bible in
the meeting, look at that verse, and I
tell you in one year, you'll know more
of the Bible than you probably know so
far.
Now it says in Psalm 115 about idols,
about people who make idols.
Idols, verse 4, of silver and gold, and
various descriptions of how the idol is.
And then, I want you to see this
verse.
Verse 8 it says, those who make them
will become like them.
We become like the God we worship.
And it's saying here that if you worship
an idol, you'll be, it's talking about in
verse 5 to 7, that these idols are
lifeless.
And if you worship a lifeless idol, you'll
become lifeless yourself, spiritually.
Now the same thing applies to our seeing
the glory of Jesus.
If the Jesus you have seen, because that's
the Jesus you heard from various preachers, is
the false Jesus, you know what's going to
happen to you according to this verse?
You'll be like that one.
You'll be like that false Jesus that you
heard of.
And that's why it's very important to know
the Scriptures, because there's only one book in
the whole world that tells us what the
real Jesus is like, and that's the Bible.
So if you don't know the Bible, you're
going to have preachers who are going to
fool you, deceive you.
One reason why I keep quoting Scripture, is
because I don't want your faith to rest
on the fact that you know that I'm
a man of integrity.
That's not good enough.
I never want you to develop the habit
of trusting even a godly man, if he
can't show it to you from Scripture.
You must be able to see it in
Scripture.
You know when Paul wrote to many of
the churches, to the Ephesians, to the Galatians,
very often to a number of churches like
the Galatians, the Corinthians, and the Thessalonians, there
were many, many doctrines he had to correct.
There was another place where Paul went and
planted a church.
It's a place called Berea.
And you know why there's no epistle of
Paul to the Bereans?
I'll tell you why.
Because the Bereans had a very good habit,
which apparently none of the other people had.
And if you have that habit, you'll be
protected from a lot of wrong doctrines.
Paul did not have to write to correct
any wrong doctrine in Berea, because those Berean
Christians had this attitude described in Acts 17
and verse 10 and 11.
Paul and Silas went to Berea, and there
they arrived, went to the synagogue of the
Jews.
And Acts 17 and verse 11 says, These
Berean Christians were more noble-minded than those
in Thessalonica.
Now, there was a church that Paul planted
in Thessalonica, but these folks in Berea were
more noble-minded than them.
The Holy Spirit says that.
What is the reason?
First of all, they received the Word with
great eagerness, and then they examined the Scriptures,
not once in a while, but daily, to
see whether these things were actually so.
Here is the great apostle Paul, standing in
the pulpit with all this tremendous ministry behind
him.
You read what fantastic revival he had in
chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 in
Thessalonica.
And then he comes in Thessalonica.
They said, this is the man who's turned
the world upside down in verse 6.
So the man who's turned the world upside
down comes to Berea with his reputation behind
him.
Here is the great man of God who's
turned the world upside down.
He's going to come and hear him.
And they come and hear him.
And Paul says, well, what do you think
about what I said?
Well, Paul, we've got to go and check
the Scriptures.
We don't care if you're the man who
turned the world upside down.
We've got to check the Scriptures, and we'll
come back and tell you next week whether
we agree with you or not.
What a wonderful habit to have, that even
if a man who's turned the world upside
down comes here and preaches in this pulpit,
you say, well, brother, we'd like to check
up in the Scriptures whether what you say
is right or wrong.
You won't need any episode written for you
then.
That's the reason.
They had that habit with every preacher.
It doesn't matter who it was, even if
it was the great apostle Paul.
And I want to tell you that that's
the thing that's protected me through more than
40 years.
And that's the thing that's led me on
from one...
I've left many churches in my life from
one to another to another to another.
You know, people have told me, Brother Zac,
you're so unstable.
You leave one church and you go to
another church, then you leave that and you
go to another church.
I said, I've been like that all my
life.
I left first grade and went to second
grade, and then I left second grade and
went to third grade, and left that and
went to fourth grade.
I've been unstable all my life from childhood.
I'm not one of these stable people who
stay in first grade all my life.
If you want to be stable like that,
that's fine.
But I don't want to be stable like
that.
I want to go on.
So, there's no virtue in a stability that
keeps you in first grade all your life.
If you find something better, you've got to
move on.
Particularly something more in line with Scripture.
So, the Holy Spirit has come to change
us into the likeness of Jesus.
And we've got to see the real Jesus
in order to be transformed into His likeness.
And when we say transformed into His likeness,
there are two parts to it.
One is character, and the other is ministry.
Now, many people when they think about becoming
Christ-like, they think only in terms of
character.
I've got to be humble, I've got to
be loving, I've got to be good, I've
got...
All that's right.
But if that leaves you just improving yourself,
and there's no ministry, you haven't become like
Jesus.
Because Jesus, as I said, was always concerned
about other people.
He came all the way from heaven because
He was concerned about other people.
He wasn't just becoming holier, sitting in Nazareth.
Even in Nazareth, before He went out to
preach, I think He was thinking of other
people.
And certainly in the last three and a
half years of His ministry, of His life,
which is described more in detail, boy, what
a ministry He had.
He did more in three and a half
years than other people have done in hundreds
of years.
And to become like Jesus, the Holy Spirit
shows us the way Jesus conducted His ministry.
Do you want to be like Jesus only
in His life?
In the way He lived?
Or do you also want to be like
Jesus in His ministry?
Remember what I said, those who worship idols
become like them.
You become like the God you worship.
The more you see clearly how Jesus lived
and how He served the Father, the more
the Holy Spirit will say to you, do
you want to be like that?
I won't force you.
God loves a cheerful giver.
Not only a cheerful giver of money, He
loves a cheerful giver of obedience.
God doesn't want this Old Testament type of
obedience.
You know in the Old Testament, they had
to give, let's say, sacrifices or tithes.
But there was no rule in the Old
Testament that you can't come with a grumpy
long face and give a sacrifice.
You are permitted.
You could come and give your tithe with
a long face and say, okay, here you
are.
You have obeyed God.
But not in the New Testament.
In the New Testament it says, God loves
a cheerful giver.
He doesn't want anybody to come with long
faces and do anything for Him.
You see, you can hear a message like
you heard last night, that Jesus never sought
His own and all the children of Adam
seek their own.
They are only interested in themselves and their
family.
How will this benefit me and my family?
And they don't seek the glory of God
and His kingdom.
And you can hear that and get all
stirred up.
I mean, if I were one of these
preachers who had mastered in psychology, I would
proceed on from there and say, what are
you fellows doing?
Why don't you get out in the mission
field?
I don't say that.
And there is a reason I don't say
that.
Because no man can tell you where you
should go or what your ministry should be.
You got to listen to God yourself.
Don't think that just going off to India
or Africa or China, to some difficult place,
to some unreached area of the world will
make you more spiritual.
I come from a country with a lot
of unreached areas and I have seen missionaries
who spent 30-40 years in India.
I am sure with great sacrifice.
They are some of the grumpiest and nastiest
people I have met on the face of
the earth.
They didn't become spiritual.
You don't become spiritual by going to a
foreign country.
No.
And then there are others who are such
sweet saints.
So it didn't come by going to a
country.
Do you think you can become spiritual by
going to Africa?
You got to be crazy.
How can you become spiritual by going to
Africa?
You become spiritual by looking at Jesus.
Not by going out to some country and
not by giving up your job and going
into full-time work.
I have met hundreds of full-time workers
in India.
They are some of the laziest people on
the face of the earth.
So don't think that you hear a message
like this and say, okay, I am going
to leave my job and going to go
back and resign my job and I am
going to go off to some country.
You are not going to become spiritual and
you are not going to be obeying God.
The most important thing is to listen to
what God wants you to do.
Do you know that Jesus never went to
Africa?
Do you know that?
Do you know that Jesus never went to
China?
Do you know there were thousands dying in
sin in India and Jesus never came there?
There are lots and lots.
In fact, He never went outside of Israel
except one or two small visits to Tyre
and Sidon and things like that.
And yet at the end of His life,
He could say to His Father, Father, I
have finished the work You gave Me to
do.
Listen to that, John 17, verse 4.
I have glorified You on earth by finishing
the work You gave Me to do.
This is a very beautiful paraphrase.
I read the Living Bible a lot.
Not for study because it is not a
translation.
I read the New American Standard Bible for
study.
But I read the Living Bible which is
a very beautiful paraphrase and sometimes it brings
out the meaning of a verse in some
places.
I really love it.
And the paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 4, 2.
1 Corinthians 4, verse 2.
It says here, It is required of stewards
that a man be found trustworthy.
And the paraphrase of that verse in 1
Corinthians 4, 2, which I believe is the
right meaning, is this.
The most important thing about a servant is
that he does just what his master tells
him to do.
Did you get that?
The most important thing about a servant is
that he does just what his master tells
him to do.
See, that is how Jesus served the Father.
He did not just go around doing, like
they say, let us do something for God.
That sounds very spiritual.
Come on brother, let us do something for
God.
Do you know what Jesus taught us to
pray in the Lord's Prayer?
Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
It does not stop there.
That is the point.
Thy will be done on earth, that is
in my life, as it is done in
heaven.
Now, how is God's will done in heaven?
By the angels.
And Michael does not go to Gabriel and
say, hey, let us do something for God
today.
They do not do like that.
They wait on the Father and say, Father,
no, they cannot call Him Father, sorry.
God, what can you do?
What do you want us to do?
And God may say, okay, go and do
this.
And they go and do that and come
back.
They do it immediately.
They do it joyfully.
They drop whatever else they are doing and
they go and do it.
But they do not move till God tells
them to.
Have you thought about that?
That is how Jesus lived.
That is how His ministry was.
You know, He was there in the Garden
of Eden, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
They planned together to make Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve sinned.
And God said to Adam, well, the seed
of the woman is going to come and
it will crush the serpent's head.
And I do not know whether you know
this, that Eve thought that that meant her
first child, the seed of the woman, would
crush the serpent's head.
She thought, I mean, she did not know
all about the mystery of the virgin birth
and all, but she thought, the seed of
the woman is going to crush the serpent's
head.
And that is why the Bible says in
Genesis 4.1, when Adam had relations with
his wife Eve, she conceived and gave birth
to Cain.
And she said, I have gotten a man
-child, even the Lord.
I have gotten a man-child.
That is Jehovah.
That is a real translation of that verse.
She thought that was Jehovah who had come
in human form.
It was not.
You know, Cain was a murderer.
But she thought God would immediately send his
son, because sin had come into the world.
Now, what would you have done if you
were in God's place?
When would you have sent Jesus?
I think if I were there, I would
have sent Jesus immediately.
The first child.
Send Jesus immediately through Eve, before even she
has any relations with Adam.
But God did not do that.
He did not send Jesus for 4,000
years with all the mess that was on
the earth.
Jesus waited.
The world was dying in sin.
People were going to hell by the millions.
Can you sit comfortably in heaven when millions
are going to hell?
I suppose you could not.
But Jesus could.
Because He was not the restless type like
some of us are.
He was the obedient type.
He wanted to hear the Father.
He was not motivated by millions are going
to hell.
It sounds a good motivation.
A lot of missionary preachers use it.
I wish you could find it in the
Bible.
I do not find it in the Bible.
I told you I could spend a whole
hour telling you things which I preached today
which are not in the Bible.
This is one of those things.
Millions are going to hell.
What are you doing?
Okay.
I am a Berean.
I would say, Brother, show that to me
in the Scriptures.
You know, Jesus saw that in heaven.
And I tell you, Jesus had more compassion
for lost sinners than anybody sitting here.
But He did not move.
He did not move till His Father said,
Go.
Then He went.
Four thousand years, He sat there seeing millions
going to hell.
And He did not move.
Did He seek His own?
No.
He did not even seek His own for
the adventure of a missionary life.
I have seen people come to India as
missionaries.
It is the adventure.
You know, usually these adventurers come on short
term missionary trips.
Three months, two months, go and get stuff,
come back home.
It is not like the old time missionaries
who came a hundred years ago who committed
themselves for life.
People like Amy Carmichael who came to India
and never went back for fifty years.
They were called by God.
What a work they did.
Their work lasts for years.
Thousands.
Millions.
People are blessed through her writings around the
world.
These were men and women of God.
But a lot of others are adventurers.
They come seeking adventure.
And there is, you know, you can think,
particularly when you are young, let's do something
for God.
And you don't have time to listen to
God.
You don't have time to wait.
You are the restless type.
All I want to try to show you
is, if you got a restless Jesus, you'll
become, you'll become like that restless Jesus.
I worship the real Jesus who is always
at rest.
Now this may change your theology.
It changed mine.
But it made my life so much more
fruitful.
When I learned to serve God like Jesus
served the Father.
He didn't go running around here and there
doing something.
Think of a great vineyard that the Father
has.
And isn't it wonderful if the Father can
tell me, listen, you should go there now.
And I go there and the fruit's ready
to drop.
I just got to keep the basket underneath
the fruit drops.
And I just collect it.
And then I wait on the Father sometime
and it's almost as though I'm doing nothing
and then the Father says, go there.
And I go there and the fruit's ready
to drop.
Now if I didn't consult the Father, and
I say, I've got to do something for
God with my one life in this vineyard.
And I run around here and there and
I wait under a tree which is still
green.
And I wait there 25 years and finally
the fruit drops.
I've wasted 25 years of my life.
In those 25 years, if I had listened
to the Father, He could have sent me
to a hundred different places and I collected
a lot more fruit.
Which is a better way to do it?
Run around doing something for God in the
vineyard?
Or wait on the master of the vineyard
and say, Dad, yeah, I call him Dad
by the way.
Dad, where do you want me to go
now?
I mean, you know where the fruit is
ripe.
I don't know.
Tell me where you want me to go.
And then you tell me, go there.
That's how Jesus lived.
You know where I learned that from?
From Jesus.
That He could sit 4,000 years in
heaven and not move.
And then He came to earth and He
lived another 30 years actually seeing with His
own eyes people going to hell.
Never did a thing about it.
Can you do that?
Can you sit for 30 years making stools
and benches when people are going to hell?
Or are you more spiritual than Jesus?
The trouble is we have a whole lot
of Christians today who think they are more
spiritual than Jesus.
I'd like to see 30 years later what
is the result of that work.
It will be wood, hay and straw.
I predict it right now.
You can't be more spiritual than Jesus.
If you want to serve God I'm telling
you I've been in full-time Christian work
for 40 years nearly.
I'm telling you from my experience.
You can't do it better than Jesus did
it.
Learn from Him.
Jesus said, learn from Me.
Take My yoke upon you.
And the yoke is the picture of service.
You know, two bullets under one yoke plowing
a field.
And the Lord is saying, take My yoke
upon you.
Let's do this together.
It's the senior bullet teaching the junior bullet
how to plow a straight furrow in the
field.
Here's the inexperienced bullet.
That's Me.
And the experienced senior one, one who became
like Me, Jesus.
He's saying, take the other end of the
yoke on your neck.
And I'll teach you.
If you listen to Me, if you don't
rush ahead of Me, I don't know whether
you've seen, we see it all the time
in India, two bullets with a yoke on
their neck.
And you know, when you got a yoke
on your neck with another bullet, you can't
go faster than the other one.
You can't go slower than the other one.
And you can't go in a different direction
from the other one.
You're just stuck with that other one.
Do you want to be stuck with Jesus
like that?
I want to.
I say, sure Lord, I want to be
stuck with you for life.
And I don't want to rush ahead of
you.
I don't want to lag behind you.
I don't want to go in a different
direction.
The Lord says, take My yoke upon you.
And learn from Me.
It's like the senior bullock telling the junior
bullock, listen, you don't know how to plow
a straight furrow.
If I leave you alone, you'll go wander
and mess up this place.
Just put My yoke upon you.
Humble yourself.
Listen to Me.
You think you know a lot.
That's because you're young and foolish and stupid.
But if you listen to Me, I'll teach
you something.
And if you're humble enough and say, Lord,
I want to learn.
I don't want to be influenced by the
teachings of men and the books that men
write which stir Me.
These great masters of psychology who know how
to manipulate human beings, who know how to
stir human beings to do this, that or
the other.
Karl Marx stirred people to be communist.
And they're fervent.
They're more fervent than most missionaries.
The early communists were fervent with psychological manipulation
of the human mind to get for a
cause, for something that seemed worthy.
And today you're reading the papers of these
religious fundamentalists who stir people to become suicide
bombers.
Boy!
Isn't that something?
How many of us would be willing to
be suicide bombers for our religion?
These are fervent people.
They're stirred.
They're stirred with promises of reward if they
are martyrs.
And we know it's all false.
But we can stir people like that in
Christendom too with...
Jesus never did it.
He was so calm and at rest.
He could make stools and benches patiently planing
away that table while hundreds were going to
hell.
Can you do it?
You can do it if you know the
real Jesus.
Because you're called not to do this, that
and the other.
Not to run around trying to do something
for God.
But to listen.
A habit which I have found less than
1% of believers are even interested in
having.
The Christian world in service is divided between
Marys and Marthas.
And you see in Luke chapter 10 verse
38 to 42 the Marys and the Marthas.
The Marys are the one who sit and
listen to what Jesus says.
The Marthas are the one who are busy
in the kitchen working, working, working, working.
Not for herself.
Oh no!
She's working for 13 people who come for
lunch.
And she's slogging away in the kitchen and
you think that...
I mean if you went into that home
and you saw Marys sitting there lazily listening
and Marthas slogging away perspiring in the kitchen
working for these...
cooking a meal for these 13 hungry men.
I'm sure most of us would think Martha
is the spiritual one.
What's this lazy sister of hers sitting here.
That's exactly what Martha also thought.
And she thought that Jesus would take her
side.
Boy!
What a surprise she got.
When she came before Jesus and complained about
Mary and Jesus said Martha you're the one
who's bothered about a lot of things.
Do you know that only one thing is
needful?
One thing is needful.
That's Luke 10.42. And Mary has chosen
the good part and nobody is going to
take it away from her.
Have you learnt that one thing is needful?
What did Mary do?
She listened.
But she wasn't a nun just sitting there
in a convent listening, listening, listening all her
life.
She served.
She listened and served and listened and served
and listened and served.
That's how we're supposed to do.
How was Jesus?
Did his listening just make him sit forever?
No, there was a time came when the
father said Go!
He quit everything and went.
And he did more in three and a
half years than other people have done in
three thousand years.
Why?
Because he listened to his father.
So, when we come to the end of
time and we stand before the Lord and
our works are evaluated you'll see the Mary's
and Martha's very clearly.
You'll see the Martha's were the ones who
were moved by human manipulation and did a
lot of things which impressed people.
Their statistics were great.
How much they cooked for the Lord.
How much they served the Lord.
Even today, statistics are very impressive.
And the Mary's are not very impressive today.
But you wait till eternity.
You wait till Jesus comes.
And the first will be last and the
last will be first and you'll discover that
the people who learn to listen to God
like Samuel, like Jesus and like Mary were
the ones who built with gold, silver and
precious stones.
A lot of things which look very impressive
in the short term but which are not
long lasting.
I want to know whether a building is
going to last for 30 years, 50 years.
I don't want to know whether it's going
to just last for one year.
Somebody puts up a fantastic construction so quickly
like the foolish man who built on the
sand.
His building came up very quickly and he
hardly spent any money on it either.
And here was the other wise man digging
away, digging away into the rock and laying
a foundation.
By the time he laid the foundation the
other man had completed his house.
Who looked wise in the eyes of the
earth?
The other man.
But wait till the flood came.
And when the flood came you discovered pretty
soon who was wise and who was foolish.
My dear brothers and sisters in the best
of churches I have found people preaching things
which are not found in the Bible.
In the best of churches I have found
people using the methods of psychology.
Even illiterate people who have not been educated
in psychology are using the methods of psychology
because they have been influenced more by the
preachers in their time and the books that
other preachers have written more than they have
been influenced by the Bible.
They are not like the Bereans.
And I tell you particularly here in the
United States there are so many Christian books
so many types of pressures put on preachers
and a lot of it comes to India
too.
And I see a lot of people in
India influenced by these things and I decided
long, long ago I don't care what anybody
from any country says.
Show it to me in the scriptures.
Show it to me in the life of
Jesus.
That's why I have been protected from a
lot of false spiritual gifts and a lot
of false healings and healing crusades and I
believe in healing.
I believe there are miracles taking place in
healing in India but that's mostly in the
places where the gospel is going for the
first time.
Many people don't realize that in the Acts
of the Apostles wherever it mentions healing it's
always in the frontiers where the gospel is
spreading newly for the first time.
And wherever the gospel is spreading newly for
the first time God still confirms His word
with signs following.
Yeah, we've seen in villages where the gospel
has gone for the first time.
Demons cast out.
Sick people healed.
It happens.
But it doesn't happen so much where the
gospel is already being established where church is
established.
It didn't happen in the first century.
There were, I mean I told you Paul
and Timothy were sick but wherever the frontiers
wherever the gospel is going out for the
first time even today like in the first
century God confirms His word with signs following.
But if you stick to the scriptures and
you see the way Jesus did it you
will not go wrong.
So how did Jesus do His ministry?
It's very important to understand these principles.
First of all I told you He could
live for 4,000 years in heaven and
see thousands going to hell and not move.
He'd come to earth and live for 30
years making stools and benches while millions are
going to hell.
He didn't have this tremendous urge to go
here and there and everywhere.
He never even wrote a book.
Now I'm not saying therefore we should not
go to Africa or we should not write
a book.
That's not my point.
My point is what we learn from Jesus
is to listen and to do what the
Father tells.
That's all and to stop that.
And when the Father says your work is
over, ready to go.
Father, only three and a half years of
ministry.
Is that enough?
That is enough because man's calling is not
to run around doing this, that and the
other for God and get a personal satisfaction.
You know, I know your nature because it's
the same as mine.
We get a certain satisfaction out of having
done something for God.
We get a certain satisfaction out of supporting
some orphan in some poor country.
There's a satisfaction we get.
It's similar to sexual satisfaction.
Some other guy gets satisfaction out of sex.
You get satisfaction out of supporting a poor
orphan.
It's your personal satisfaction.
You don't realize that in supporting that orphan
you are just as self-centered as the
other fellow who gets satisfaction out of sex.
It's just that your satisfaction is in another
area.
But it's you in the center still.
I am helping that poor orphan.
Oh, I gave some money for those widows.
You don't realize it.
And that's why I say the most important
thing is to listen.
Jesus had nothing about that.
There was nothing of that about Him.
Look at the healing ministry of Jesus and
compare it to the healing ministry today.
I don't know whether you have seen.
I don't go to Healing Crusades.
But I have seen some videos and TV
shows of these Healing Crusades.
Christian Healing Crusades and different people.
These people are brought up to the platform
and made to testify as soon as.
And usually some invisible thing.
I could hear only 60%.
Now I can hear 70% or something
like that.
Or there's some pain here or something like
that.
Or people getting out of a wheelchair.
I mean, I see people getting out of
the wheelchair in every airport they travel in.
People are being pushed to the wheelchair, to
the aircraft, and then they get up from
the wheelchair and walk in.
I see it every day almost.
That's not something spectacular.
So when I see that in a Healing
Crusade, I'm not that impressed because most people
who are on wheelchairs can walk a little.
Where is the type of healing that Jesus
did which is the only thing like Dr.
Luke wrote about.
Like people's blind eyes were opened and things
like that.
It just isn't there.
A lot of people are being fooled and
deceived by a lot of psychosomatic, that means
illnesses that are healed through changed mental attitudes
and people are being deceived.
But the thing I wanted to mention is
when Jesus healed a person, listen to this,
His aim was not thereby to prove to
everybody, did you see that?
I've got a healing gift.
You know a lot of healing ministries I
see today, I don't want to mention any
of them personally.
I mean they may be good men, I
just say I don't agree that I'm not
here to criticize them, but I say what
I see in Jesus is something different.
There was a children's rhyme we used to
sing as children.
A little Jack Horner sat in the corner.
He put in his thumb and pulled out
a plum and said what a good boy
am I.
And it's something like that.
A lot of ministries I see today.
Here's this guy, he's healed.
Do you see what a healer I am?
Jesus never had anything of that.
He was only concerned that this poor man
who's been suffering should be healed.
That was all.
He didn't want to convince anybody that he
was a healer.
He didn't want to convince anybody, do you
see what gift I have?
There's none of that.
There was not an atom of that in
Jesus.
The real Jesus, when he healed a person,
he didn't even want anybody to know about
it.
He said don't tell anybody.
Don't tell anybody.
Just keep it to yourself.
Because his only heart was after this poor
man whom the devils harassed for so long
with the sickness.
He's got to be healed.
That's all.
And when the person was healed, Jesus was
happy.
He didn't want anybody to know about it.
Have you ever seen a healing ministry like
that in the world today?
I haven't.
I'm looking for it.
How is it that we have this other
type of healing ministry?
Can you imagine Jesus standing on a platform
today with the spotlight shining on him?
Think, come out here.
Tell the people what I did for you
just now.
The Father did it.
Of course, I didn't do it.
We keep giving glory to the Father.
But you know the whole spirit of it
is so different.
And at the end of the program, Jesus
says, now fellas, we need a lot of
money for this ministry.
Now Judas Iscariot will come and give a
little talk about how much money is needed
for this ministry.
And he gets up and gives all the
statistics of the number of fellas healed and
the number of countries we're traveling to.
Come on, give out your tokens.
And if you send so much, I'll send
you this little book.
Can you imagine Jesus doing this?
Which Jesus is this?
Is this the Jesus of the Bible or
not?
Do you know the number of Christians who
sit with their mouth open watching all this?
Saying, boy, this is God.
That is the amount of blindness there is
in Christendom today.
I say, I'm a Berean.
Show it to me in Scriptures.
I will also sit with my mouth open
and swallow it.
But show it to me in the Scriptures
first.
Don't tell me it works.
They go to Lourdes with the holy water,
the Roman Catholics.
They say that works.
We've got places in India where people say
they go to some Hindu pilgrimage center and
say we got healed over there.
We went to this pilgrimage center and we
got a little baby.
Don't tell me these stories.
I'm not interested.
Show it to me in Scripture.
Show me Jesus doing it.
Show me the way Jesus did it.
And I'll follow it 100%.
I'll accept it.
I'll preach it.
But if you can't show it to me
in Scripture, I don't care which Tom, Dick
or Harry does it.
You know, have you ever heard anybody exposing
this type of thing?
People are scared.
You say, oh brother, don't talk against the
Holy Spirit.
Some calamity will hit you.
Don't talk against the Holy Spirit.
You may commit a sin which will never
be forgiven.
The only verse they know is don't speak
against the Holy Spirit.
They don't know the other verse in 1
John 4 which says, My beloved children, don't
believe every spirit, but test the spirits to
see whether they are of God.
And then only believe it.
Don't just swallow it.
And if a spirit does not confess that
Jesus came in the flesh, it's not of
God.
That means, do you see Jesus in the
flesh doing that?
That's 1 John chapter 4.
Do you see Jesus in the flesh doing
that or not?
If you don't see Jesus in the flesh
doing that, brother, forget it.
People asked me the other day somewhere, what
do you think about these people who lay
hands on people and people fall down?
I said, I'm not here to criticize anybody.
But all I want to say is Jesus
never did it.
I see Jesus picking people up who have
fallen down, not pushing people down.
And he says, what about when people are
struck with the glory of God?
I say, yeah, I see that.
I see John the apostle struck with the
glory of God.
But he fells with his head down before
Jesus first, not showing his legs to Jesus
and falling down the other way.
You know, I don't know whether you folks
know this, but in India, we know it
very well.
The way to insult a person, listen to
this.
I mean, Jesus, the Bible is in an
Eastern culture and I understand it better in
India than folks in the West do.
If you want to insult a person, show
them your feet.
If you want to respect a person, bow
down and put your head down.
And when you fall backwards and show God
your feet, do you know what you're doing?
You're not respecting him.
It's the biggest form of insult in an
Eastern culture.
And the devil's got all these people fooled
that they're worshipping God.
They're not worshipping God.
Everyone's showing their feet to God and insulting
him.
I'll tell you what they should be doing.
They should be falling on their faces with
their head down.
Don't believe every spirit.
Test the spirits to see whether they are
of God.
We do read in the Bible that demons
cast people down.
I've seen cases like that myself where they
cast out the demon and the demon threw
the fellow down.
I had to pick him up.
So, there are so many things.
If you look at the ministry of Jesus,
you see clearly what is right and what
is wrong.
You won't be deceived.
And there are things, it's very easy to
see what somebody else is doing wrong, but
the important thing is for us to see
what we're doing wrong.
Where are we, also perhaps, doing it in
a different way from the way Jesus did
it.
So, it's not just those other people.
I mean, there may be things which I
said today which concern you.
Take, you know, Jesus' whole attitude towards the
ministry was I want to do exactly what
my Father says.
I want to listen.
And he believed, you know, like he taught
us to pray, our Father who art in
heaven.
That means I've got to think of two
things before I pray.
One is that I've got a loving Father
who's up there in heaven.
A loving Father, first of all, but one
who's in heaven, which means one who controls
everything that happens in the universe, including the
earth.
I've got to think of that before I
pray.
That's how I get faith.
Our Father who art in heaven.
Two things.
A Father which shows me I'm the object
of His love.
I'm God's favorite.
You know, you're God's favorite too, by the
way.
He's got many favorites.
It's not just me.
To look up to Him and say, I'm
God's favorite.
Dad, I'm one of your favorite children.
Do you believe that?
You know what the devil tells you?
Oh, you're not good enough.
You're not good enough.
He keeps telling you that till you believe
it.
Don't you believe it?
You're God's favorite.
Look up to Him and say, Dad, I
thank you.
I'm your favorite daughter.
I'm your favorite son.
Jesus said pray like that.
And one who's in heaven.
That's the second thing we need to know.
One who controls everything that happens on the
earth.
Do you know one of the most fantastic
statements of the sovereignty of this Father of
ours in heaven was made by a heathen
king.
I tell you, what he says puts a
lot of Christians to shame.
I want to turn you to what a
heathen king said in Daniel chapter 4.
When he got a revelation of God, he
said, this is Nebuchadnezzar.
Perhaps he got converted.
I don't know.
Maybe we'll meet Nebuchadnezzar in heaven.
Because look what he says here in Daniel
4.35. When he learned a lesson, God
taught him a lesson.
And when he learned that lesson, he came
to his senses.
You know, he became mad for a season
because he was so proud.
But then it says in Daniel 4.34,
I raised my eyes toward heaven and my
reason returned to me.
And I blessed the Most High.
And I said, His dominion is an everlasting
dominion.
His kingdom from generation to generation.
And Daniel 4.35 is the verse I
was referring to.
The most complete statement on the sovereignty of
God ever expressed by a human being that
I found in the scriptures.
All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted
as zero.
You put all the inhabitants of the earth
and there's six billion of them.
In God's eyes, they are zero.
That person who scares you.
That person who's your boss at work or
your landlord or whoever it is.
In God's eyes, they are zero.
The person who's trying to harass you, he's
zero.
The person who's taking you to court, he's
zero.
All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted
as zero in God's eyes.
And God Almighty does exactly according to His
will in the host of heaven.
In heaven, He does what He wants to
do.
And He does what He wants to do
among the inhabitants of the earth.
And in heaven and on earth, no one,
no one can stop His hand from doing
what He wants to do or say to
Him, what are you doing?
And you start praying.
You'll have a lot more faith.
But how is it with a lot of
us?
We have a problem, some small little thing
and we worry and worry.
Do you think God can handle that?
Is it big enough?
And I say, listen.
Do what I do.
Sometimes I sit, I look outside when it's
a clear sky and I see the stars.
And I've studied a little bit of geography
like you have.
And I know that the stars are so
huge and so far away.
And this universe is so big that the
earth is like a small speck of dust
in the universe.
It looks very big to us, this earth.
But in terms of the whole universe, if
you were looking at the earth from heaven
with all the millions of stars scattered through
millions and millions of miles, the earth would
be some small little speck over there.
That's what the earth is.
And on this earth are still smaller specks
called you and me.
Don't ever forget, get a proper estimate of
your size.
Small little speck walking around this earth.
And this small speck who is living on
this small speck has got a problem.
How big is that problem?
And this almighty God who runs this universe
is wondering how to solve this problem for
this small little speck on this small little
speck called planet earth.
Have you ever thought of anything more crazy
than that?
I look at that, my faith is strengthened.
That this one who runs this universe is
my dad.
He's my dad.
That's what happened to you when you were
born again.
He became your dad.
Call him dad.
The Bible says it's one of the first
marks of the Holy Spirit filling a person.
In Romans 8 verse 15 and 16 it
says, The Holy Spirit comes within us and
cries out, Abba, that's Hebrew.
Let me translate it into English.
Dad.
I wonder why no translator had the guts
to translate that Hebrew word into English.
Father is the next word.
Abba, father?
But Abba is Hebrew.
I mean that's, it's like hallelujah.
Hallelujah is a Hebrew word.
I remember I was in Germany the other
day and I came to the airport and
there was a Turkish brother there who had
to meet me.
He knew Turkish and German but not a
word of English.
And I knew English and not a word
of Turkish or German.
And we didn't know.
We had never seen each other.
How to identify each other.
I said hallelujah.
He said amen.
It's good for such things.
Hallelujah and amen.
But when I talk to my father in
heaven I don't say Abba because Abba is
a strange word for me.
I don't even know what it means.
It's some Swedish singing group I think.
I'm not interested in Abba.
I say dad.
That's what I do.
Okay.
So, here's my dad.
He's the one who runs this universe in
this small little speck.
I always like to think of planet earth
as a small little speck in this universe
that's run by my dad in heaven.
And you know different times when we have
to catch flights and things like that.
I say well my dad runs the airline
so I suppose he can handle that problem
too.
I remember I was traveling with I used
to work in the Navy.
And some years ago I was traveling in
a plane in India and there was a
senior naval officer who happened to be my
colleague who we studied together when we were
younger.
And he was sitting next to me and
we were flying up to Delhi and suddenly
the plane went through one of these deep
air pockets.
It went up and down and up and
down.
And he held my hand and said Zach
I know nothing will happen to this plane
as long as you're in it.
Because he knew me from 40 years earlier
that I had preached Christ to everybody all
of my colleagues.
They knew where I stood.
He remembered that.
They don't forget.
I tell you.
You witness about Christ.
You meet a saint and you'll never forget
him for the rest of your life.
You got to be like that to other
people.
But that's what I believe.
Our dad runs this universe.
I'm not saying we'll never die but it
won't happen before God's time.
It cannot happen.
I'm not afraid of cancer or car accidents
or anything because I've got a dad in
heaven who's planned every day of my life.
And I have this wonderful promise in the
book of Exodus and chapter 23 in Exodus
chapter 23 and it says here I'm
getting old.
Can't find the verse.
Okay.
Exodus chapter 23 and verse 26 the last
part.
I will fulfill the number of your days.
Have you heard that?
You say that was old covenant.
Right.
Is the new covenant better or worse?
What do you think?
It's better.
I say Lord that's for me.
You're going to fulfill the number of my
days.
I don't know how long that is.
It doesn't have to be long.
For Jesus it was only 33 and a
half years.
For John the Baptist it was also around
that time.
For David Brainerd the missionary of the Red
Indians in the 1700s it was only about
29 years.
For some other people for Paul it was
around 67 or 68 I don't know.
For the Apostle John it was 95 or
100.
It's different for different people but He'll fulfill
the number of our days.
Jesus was absolutely sure of that.
His security was in the fact that He
trusted in the Father's love.
Turn to Luke's Gospel chapter 4.
Luke's Gospel chapter 4 It says here that
Jesus was preaching in a synagogue in Nazareth.
It's the first sermon He ever preached in
His hometown in Nazareth.
Luke chapter 4 He came to Nazareth where
He had been brought up.
Luke 4.16 You know one of the
amazing things I see about Jesus is that
as a little boy He used to go
to Nazareth to the synagogue.
And He knew the Bible by the time
He was 12.
And can you imagine He sat there for
18 years listening to all these boring Pharisees
preaching away in the synagogue every Saturday and
He just kept quiet.
That's a miracle.
How can you keep quiet when you know
so much and these boring people get up
and bore you Saturday after Saturday.
You know He never spoke till His Father
told Him to speak.
Oh boy!
I have learned so much from looking at
Jesus in ministry.
As a young preacher I said Lord I
don't want to pattern myself after these American
preachers who jump up and down the platform
with a mic to their mouth.
I mean if I see Jesus doing that
I'll do it.
I want to see how Jesus preached.
How did He preach?
And it doesn't say exactly how He did
it but I get a certain picture when
I read the Gospels.
I say Lord I want to preach like
that.
I don't care how long it takes.
And I learned a lot of things.
I made a complete study of the Gospels
of Jesus, my example as a preacher.
How He did, the subjects He spoke about.
If you are serious about wanting to preach
like Jesus I would encourage you to study
the Gospels.
See how Jesus preached.
The subjects He preached on.
One of the things I've encouraged people to
do recently is if you got a red
letter Bible like mine where all the words
of Jesus are in red do this Bible
study once.
Go through only the red letters.
Only the red letters through the four Gospels.
It's been a very interesting study for me.
Because and as I went through the Gospels
I wrote down one of the subjects Jesus
preached on.
It's not a very big list.
I'll just mention some of them.
I wrote down He preached on the first
thing He preached on was repentance.
I say Lord I want to be like
that.
That's Matthew 4.
Then I just went through the red letter
portions.
He preached on poverty of spirit, mourning for
sin, gentleness, purity, forgiveness, mercy, persecution, being persecuted
by others, witnessing, obedience, anger, sexual sin, truthfulness,
perfection, not seeking the honor of men, giving,
praying, fasting, love of money, anxiety, seeking God's
kingdom, not judging others, hypocrisy, faith, false prophets,
deceptive miracles, a simple lifestyle, boldness, breaking with
old traditions, praying for shepherds to be raised
up among God's people, the dignity of a
preacher, fearlessness, being radical.
I went through all the four Gospels and
I learned a lot about the subjects Jesus
preached on.
And I say Lord, I want to be
like that.
I want to spend my life preaching on
the subjects Jesus preached on.
And I want to be like Him.
He never preached on making money or prosperity.
He hardly ever preached.
He never preached a single sermon on healing.
Did you know that?
I'm a Berean.
Show me a single sermon Jesus ever preached
on healing.
He healed thousands.
But He never preached a sermon on healing.
Today we have thousands of sermons on healing
and hardly anybody healed.
That's the difference.
Jesus was different.
He had the gift of healing.
I don't have it.
But people who claim to have it, I
wonder whether they have it either.
They preach a lot about it.
If you look at Jesus, I tell you,
it will completely change your understanding of Christianity.
A lot of people's understanding of Christianity has
not come from the Bible.
It's come from books that they've bought in
Christian book shops.
They've been influenced by it.
They've seen television programs of Christian preachers.
And they're not Bereans.
They don't study the Scripture.
They're too lazy to read the Gospel.
They're too lazy to study the life of
Jesus.
And they think they are Christians.
Look at their life, defeated by sin.
Look at their family life, shallow.
It's because they don't study the Scriptures.
Why not get back to the Bible?
Why not come to the Bible and see
how Jesus was?
The real Jesus.
Did He try to manipulate people psychologically?
Did He try to play music to get
people to move, to take a decision?
Never!
He depended on the power of the Holy
Spirit.
He did not need any soloists or quartets
or anybody else to stir people up.
And there's nothing wrong in all this.
But He depended on the Holy Spirit.
You know what's happened today?
Because the Holy Spirit's gone, people depend on
music.
Ah!
Let's get the choir to sing.
We've got to get people moving now.
It's all psychological manipulation.
I wish your eyes would be open to
see it.
Go to the Scriptures and see how Jesus
did it.
Music has replaced the Holy Spirit in many,
many churches.
I've often said in our home church, I
don't want a single person to be attracted
to our church by our music.
I remember once, very clearly, a very musically
gifted couple, husband and wife, were both musically
gifted, came to our church for the first
time.
And that particular day, lot of things went
wrong with the music and I wondered why
God was doing it for that musically minded
couple.
They never came again.
I said, thank God.
We're not seeking to draw people with music.
We want to draw people with the message
of godliness and holiness.
If you're interested in that, come here.
If you want to listen to good music,
there are a million other places in the
world.
Go there.
You'll come to the wrong place, brother.
And the other thing that you find has
replaced the Holy Spirit is money.
Music and money are the two things I've
discovered has replaced the Holy Spirit in today's
Christianity.
How much did Jesus use music?
I'm not against music.
If you read in the Bible that Jesus
sang a hymn and I'm willing to sing
a hymn.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 2 that
he leads the praises of his people before
the Father.
I believe in that.
Praising God, worshipping God.
But I don't depend on that to manipulate
people.
That's what I'm trying to say.
Don't misunderstand me.
Jesus was so excited when he saw the
children praising and shouting God in the temple.
And those long faced Pharisees said, Lord, will
you please tell these children to keep quiet.
But Jesus was so excited.
You know, he came from heaven where everybody's
praising and shouting hallelujah like loud thunders over
there when they praise God.
And he came to this earth where people
are grumbling and complaining and murmuring.
And he felt homesick for heaven.
And when he saw these children praising God,
he said, Hey, there's a little bit of
heaven I see here in this temple.
Everybody's shouting and praising God.
It reminds me of heaven.
And the long faced Pharisees said no.
And Jesus supported those children.
He said, if they stop crying, these stones
will stop crying out.
God is to be praised.
So he believed in praise.
But what I'm saying is, he did not
believe in manipulating people's feelings by music.
That's what I'm talking about.
Don't misunderstand me.
I'm a great worshipper in praise.
When we have our Sunday meetings, we spend
45 minutes praising God with drums and guitars
and keyboards and everything.
We make a joyful noise to the Lord.
We don't just read Psalm 150.
We practice it.
With timbrels and everything else.
That's what it says there.
We haven't got to dancing yet.
I mean, we haven't got that far.
But that's partly because we don't want to
cause offense to anybody.
We try to not offend people unnecessarily.
But the point is this.
Jesus did not manipulate people with music.
And what about money?
Do you know the amount of emphasis there
is on money in Christian circles today?
It's almost as though God's work cannot go
forward without money.
Now you go to the scriptures and see
the real Jesus.
What was his attitude to money?
It's so important for us to understand this.
Because if you don't see Jesus' attitude to
money, you'll go all wrong.
Why?
Because there are only two masters.
God and money.
Jesus said that in Luke 16.13. Only
two masters and you can't serve both.
And the trouble with a lot of people
in Christian work today is they're trying to
serve God and money.
I see that in India.
I see that in the United States.
I see it in every country.
Because most countries copy the United States, unfortunately,
in Christian work.
And they're trying to serve God and money
and it doesn't work.
It's like trying to mix oil and water.
When you mix oil and water, it's not
good for your car and it's not good
for drinking.
If you keep it separately, the oil is
good for your car and the water is
good for drinking.
And when you keep God and money separate,
that's fine.
Money is good in the business world.
Let them do that.
God is for Christian work.
You can't mix God and money.
Jesus made that so clear.
I remember as a young Christian, I began
to seek God about, Lord, how can I
be your mouthpiece?
How can I be like Samuel?
It says about him, every word that he
spoke.
It's an amazing verse in 1 Samuel 3.
I don't have time to show it to
you.
Not a word that he spoke dropped to
the ground, it says.
Every word that he spoke went straight home
to people's hearts.
I said, boy, I want to speak like
that.
And then I read another verse in Luke
24 where it says, Jesus walked with the
disciples to Emmaus, Jerusalem to Emmaus, seven miles.
It took him two hours to walk.
And it was a two-hour Bible study
through the Bible from Genesis to Malachi, showing
them the scriptures.
And at the end of the two hours,
you know what those people said, those two
disciples?
Didn't our hearts burn within us?
And I said, Lord, I know this is
the mark of Jesus speaking.
When Jesus speaks in a meeting, my heart
must burn within me.
If my heart doesn't burn, then Jesus isn't
speaking.
And it was a two-hour Bible study.
And their hearts were burning for two hours.
And I said, Lord, are you the same
yesterday, today and forever?
Can you do it today?
Can you do it through a human being?
Yes.
But we need to be filled with the
Holy Spirit.
He was anointed with the Spirit.
That's why He spoke like that.
And I want to say to you, any
of you who are called to minister the
word, I'm not talking about everybody here, because
not everybody is called to minister the word.
But if you are called to minister the
word, and you speak, and people's hearts don't
burn, I'll tell you what you should do.
Get on your face before God, repent fast
and pray, and seek God and find out
the reason.
Why not?
Jesus is not speaking through you.
And I wanted Jesus to speak to me,
and the Lord said, you've got to be
careful in two areas if you want to
be my mouthpiece.
Two areas.
Luke 16, 11, If you are not faithful
with unrighteous mammon, who will give to you
the true riches?
The Lord said, first of all, be faithful
with money, otherwise I'll never put my word
into your mouth.
And then I understood why God's word is
not in the mouths of many preachers today.
They are not faithful with money.
I don't know their private life, but when
I listen to them, I can make out,
hey, this guy is not faithful with money,
that's why he doesn't have a word on
his mouth.
God hasn't given him riches.
God hasn't given him revelation on his word.
I listen to people, and I don't hear
anything new from scripture.
That means, new from scripture.
God has to show you the riches of
His word.
And He'll never show it to you if
you are not faithful with money.
The second thing God said is, be faithful
with your mouth.
Jeremiah 15, verse 19.
If you separate the precious from the non
-precious things in your conversation, you will be
like my mouth.
And I learned that I had to be
extremely careful with what I speak in ordinary
conversation.
I've got to get rid of lot of
things in my conversation.
Rude words, angry words.
If I slip up, I've got to go
to that person and ask his forgiveness.
And I've done that.
I've done that to young people.
I say, I'm sorry brother, I slipped up
there, that's not the way to speak, forgive
me.
I do that to anybody.
I do that to a beggar on the
street because I want to be a mouthpiece
of Jesus.
Are you willing to apologize every single time
you hurt somebody and you know you hurt
him or her?
Are you willing to write a letter of
apology?
Are you willing to humble yourself if you
hurt your wife three times a day?
You go three times a day and say,
I'm sorry for hurting you.
I tell you, God will see that you
mean business with Him.
We have a bunch of lazy Christians nowadays
who want to be God's mouthpiece but don't
want to pay the price.
They're careless with their speech.
We've got to be careful.
The Lord told me, eliminate words like, didn't
I tell you?
I told you so.
Are these words found in your vocabulary?
The great expert telling other people, didn't I
tell you that would happen?
How many Christians speak that and they don't
realize?
That's not the way to speak.
God can say that, not me.
I'm a fallen sinner talking to another fallen
sinner.
I've got to encourage him.
Not tell him, didn't I tell you?
Didn't I tell you?
We're so careless with these words and we
want to be God's mouthpiece when we stand
in the pulpit.
Not in a thousand years.
Jesus was very careful with His speech.
Very careful.
He was extremely careful with money.
That's why He, He would sometimes sleep under
the trees.
He was careful with money because He knew
that a lot of that money that people
gave was given by poor widows and different
people and He couldn't just use it as
He liked.
I remember one of the great missionaries who
came to India 200 years ago, William Carey.
I'll never forget the words that he spoke
to his son who was his co-worker.
I wrote it in front of my Bible
as a young man.
His son's name was Felix.
He said, Felix, money that's given for God's
work is the most sacred of all the
money on the face of the earth.
Be very careful how you use it.
God used that man so mightily in India
200 years ago to translate the Bible into
so many languages.
No computer, no typewriter, nothing.
It's amazing what God did through these people.
I've studied the lives of some of the
greatest men of God in different denominations.
Pentecostal, non-Pentecostal, great mighty men of God.
John Wesley, Watchman Nee, different ones, different times
in different countries and I've learned one common
thing about all of them.
There may be other differences.
There were differences in doctrine.
Some spoke in tongues, some didn't speak in
tongues.
These things were different.
But when it came to this area, they
were all alike.
They were all absolutely faithful with money.
Like Jesus was.
Jesus never pleaded with people to give money
for God's work.
Did He receive money for God's work?
He certainly did.
We read in Luke chapter 8 that there
were certain rich women who supported Jesus financially.
Jesus wasn't so super spiritual as to say,
no, no, no, I will not receive any
gifts from anybody.
That's a lot of rubbish.
Jesus served the Father and people.
He never asked anybody for any money.
Never.
He never made His needs known at a
single time.
If He was starving, He'd keep quiet.
He'd tell His Father.
But it says in Luke chapter 8 verse
3 that certain rich people, Herod's palace manager's
wife.
Can you imagine what Herod's palace manager's salary
was?
It must have been a fantastic amount.
And his wife paid a tithe out of
that.
That is a pretty large amount.
And they contributed to the support of Jesus
and His disciples.
That's how they took care of their families
who were back home.
Because they had given up fishing.
That's how they took care of their needs.
That's how they took care of their food.
And all that.
But He was very faithful.
And there were huge amounts of money coming
in.
He received it.
What did He do with it?
He didn't go and stay in the five
-star hotels with that money.
That was the difference between Him and today's
preachers.
He was faithful with that.
I asked the Lord once.
I said, Lord, why does it say in
the scriptures, in John chapter 7, the last
verse, everybody went to his own home, but
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Have you read that verse?
Can you imagine at the end of a
meeting, a powerful meeting, where Jesus spoke, where
everybody says to Jesus, Well, Lord, good night.
Have a good night.
And they all go off to their home
and Jesus looking around and He goes and
sleeps under the trees on the Mount of
Olives.
I said, Lord, didn't you have money?
Herod's palace manager's wife is giving you money.
Couldn't you use that to find a decent
place to live?
Stay?
And the Lord said to me, that a
lot of that money that came in, came
from poor widows who lived very simply.
He could not, with a clear conscience, take
that money and go and live in grand
style.
And he went and slept under the trees.
This is the real Jesus.
Don't be fooled by today's preachers who look
for comfort, who want good food and they
won't serve, they won't come unless you give
them this and give them that and give
them the other thing.
Jesus never demanded that if I come there,
you must pay my fare.
I never see Him saying that.
He served the Father.
He served the owner of Heaven and Earth.
You know, it's such a tragedy that Christian
work today is in such a wrong, has
got such a wrong attitude towards money.
So many people begging and pleading, Oh, God's
work is suffering because we don't have enough
money.
The Almighty is in a tight spot because
He doesn't have enough money.
The pleading that goes on on television, Christian
programs.
Oh, brother, this, that and the other and
this and over from pulpits and all over.
Got to give money, money, money, money, money.
I mean, never mind if we have the
Holy Spirit or not.
We need money.
Jesus depended only on the Holy Spirit.
He did not dare to serve the Father
without the power of the Holy Spirit.
And I want to say to you, you
cannot serve God without the baptism in the
Holy Spirit.
If I look at my ministry, my entire
ministry is based on the fact that one
day Jesus anointed me, baptized me in the
Holy Spirit, just like He baptized those apostles
on the day of Pentecost and like He
Himself received the anointing when He came out
of the waters of Jordan.
I cannot imagine what my life and ministry
of preaching would have been if it were
not for that anointing of the Holy Spirit
which I did not receive just once.
I seek for it constantly.
To constantly be anointed, to constantly be filled
because that's what I see in Jesus' life.
The Bible says we are ambassadors for Jesus
Christ.
Have you read that verse in 2 Corinthians
5?
We are ambassadors of Jesus Christ.
I have said this in India.
Now the United States is one of the
richest countries in the world.
So let me take that example.
Supposing I said in India, I have used
this example.
Supposing one day a white man comes with
a suit and a tie knocks at your
door and you open the door and he
says to you, I am the ambassador for
the United States of America.
We are going through a hard time financially
and he comes with a little tin box.
Can you give us some money for keeping
our country going?
You would turn around to him and say,
you are a hoax.
You can't be the ambassador of the United
States of America.
You are just pretending.
I am not going to give you any
money.
Get away.
Okay, the next day somebody comes and knocks
at your door and says, I am an
ambassador of Jesus Christ.
God's work needs money.
Can you give me some money?
You would give him promptly.
You don't believe he is a hoax.
Why is that?
Because in your opinion, the United States of
America, his kingdom is up here and God's
kingdom is way down there.
But not in my understanding.
In my understanding, God's kingdom is way up
there.
And God's servants are not beggars.
And God's servants have got more dignity than
any ambassador of any country in the world.
Not even the ambassador of some poor African
country would go around begging like that.
Why do the ambassadors of Jesus Christ plead
and beg and plead and beg and plead
and beg?
I tell you, it's the biggest disgrace.
I remember once I had to tell somebody
who came like that.
I said, brother, you are a disgrace to
the name of Jesus Christ.
I am not against people giving for God's
work, but this begging and pleading and asking
people to give and forcing people to give
and then living in grand style themselves with
the money given by poor people, this is
because people are following another Jesus.
It's not the real Jesus in Scriptures.
He who has ears to hear, let him
hear.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, as we bow before You, help
us to see more clearly the way Jesus
lived on earth and served You so faithfully
in every area.
And help us to walk in that way.
Lord, we pray.
We pray, dear Lord, that we follow in
His footsteps and glorify You.