Let's turn
to 1 John chapter 4.
This is one of the most important truths
that we need to be gripped by.
The truth that's written here in 1 John
chapter 4 and verse 16 onwards down to
19.
1 John 4.
I want to read in the Living Bible.
We know how much God loves us because
we have felt his love and because we
believe him when he tells us that he
loves us dearly.
God is love and anyone who lives in
love is living with God and God is
living in him.
And as we live with Christ, our love
grows more perfect and complete.
So we will not be ashamed and embarrassed
at the day of judgment but can face
him with confidence and joy because he loves
us and we love him too.
We need have no fear of someone who
loves us perfectly.
His perfect love for us eliminates all dread
or fear of what he might do to
us.
If we are afraid, it is for fear
of what he might do to us and
that shows that we are not fully convinced
that he really loves us.
So you see, our love for him comes
as a result of his loving us first.
Most Christians, particularly when we are young, have
a problem with not loving the world, not
loving money, not loving anything other than God.
Many people find it a tremendous battle, if
they are honest, that there are other things
in the world that seem to draw us
and we are drawn.
It could be our job, it could be
a person, it could be an ambition, it
could be a profession, it could be anything,
something that competes with God for our affection.
And what is the reason for that?
The Bible says that the reason is that
we are not convinced of God's love for
us.
More and more, I have come to see
that that is the real reason.
We are not convinced that God loves us
perfectly because, it says in the last verse
we read in verse 19, our love for
God comes as a result of his loving
us first.
We love him because he first loved us.
And if ever in your life you meet
a Christian who is fervently and passionately in
love with Jesus Christ, willing to do anything
for him and sacrifice anything for him, and
who has no interest in anything in the
world or in money or honour or pleasure
or anything, you can be absolutely sure that
that Christian was first of all convinced about
God's tremendous love for him.
That's why he came to such a passionate
devotion to Jesus Christ.
Why is it that the Lord had to
tell one church, you are neither hot nor
cold, you love me a little bit, you
don't love me fervently, at the same time
you are not like those unbelievers who don't
love me at all, you love me a
little bit.
And we think that's a good thing.
A lot of Christians think that, yeah I
love Jesus a little bit and that's okay.
And I want to say to you, it's
not okay.
In fact, the Lord said to that church
in Laodicea, because you are lukewarm, I'll spit
you out of my mouth, means I don't
want a person who is not fervently in
love with me, because God's love is fervent,
passionate, wholehearted.
There are no half measures in God's love
for us.
And he expects that type of love from
us.
So you see, our love for him comes
as a result of his loving us first.
In all heathen religions, the God they worship
is a God whom they are afraid of.
In fact, that is the way to identify
a heathen religion.
One of the primary marks of a heathen
religion is that it has a God who
is a God to be afraid of.
And the people who worship this God also
become like that.
They are not loving, gracious people.
They are people who like to terrify others.
There are Christian leaders like that.
You can't get very close to them, because
they put you in awe and fear of
them, because they worship a God who is
like that.
There's a verse in the Old Testament where
God said, I think it's in the Psalms
or Isaiah somewhere, where God says about the
people who worship idols, that they become like
them.
They worship idols and they become like them.
They become like the God they worship.
And that's a principle which is true, that
if you worship a God whom you can't
get very close to, you will also be
a person whom people can't get very close
to.
People have to keep a little distance from
you, because you become like the God you
worship, whom you can't get close to your
God and nobody can get close to you.
So this is very important for us that
we get all these wrong concepts, ideas of
God out of our head.
In every heathen religion, as I said, they
worship a God who is to be feared,
whom you have to appease by going on
sacrifices or pilgrimages or doing things to please
him, somehow make him happy.
Now the reason I emphasize that is because
there is a Christianity also, which is like
that.
There is a version of Christianity that is
being preached and presented, which has got a
God like that, who you have to somehow
try to please, otherwise he'll be very angry
with you.
I'm not talking about unbelievers, I'm talking about
preachers who tell people, unless you give God
some money, he's not going to be very
happy with you, he'll give you some sickness.
There are pastors who actually say that.
But if you don't give money to the
God, you'll have to give it to the
doctor, because you'll get sick.
See God is a pretty covetous person, he
wants your money.
Let me tell you, what would you think
if, supposing you were a Christian for 40
years, and you never gave one rupee to
God, what do you think God would think
of you, if in your whole life you
never gave him one rupee for his work
or anything?
It's a good question to answer.
I don't think it would make any difference,
at all.
Not the God I worship.
I mean, supposing my wife never gave me
one rupee in 40 years of our married
life, would it change my attitude to her?
Is God better than me or worse than
me?
That's all my question.
We worship a God of our imagination.
It's not the God of the Bible.
We worship a God whom we have manufactured
in our imagination, and no wonder, many of
us, our lives are not very happy.
God is the most wonderful person to live
with.
The Bible says, in his presence there is
fullness of joy.
You'll be a very joyful person if you
live with God.
I'll tell you this, you will not be
a grumbling, sour, grumpy, long-faced person if
you live with God.
It's impossible.
If you live with a heathen God, sure,
you'll be grumpy and long-faced.
I really believe a lot of Christians are
living with some other God, because they are
so grumpy and long-faced and sour and
hard to get along with and so mean.
God's not mean, God's so generous.
He's not calculating in how much he gives
us.
He's so generous, because love is like that.
And we have to see that if there's
any element of fear in our thoughts, that
if I don't do this, then God will
do this to me.
See what it says here, in the middle
of verse 18, it says, if we are
afraid, and we are afraid of what he
might do to us, that shows that we
are not fully convinced that he really loves
us.
If you are afraid of something that God
may do to you, it could be due
to any reason.
You know, I've had people come to us
and ask me this question.
You know, some difficulty, some suffering has come
into their life, some sickness or something.
Brother, am I reaping for all the sins
I committed in the past?
They're afraid God's doing something to them.
They're not absolutely sure that God loves them.
If you're afraid of what he might do
to you, that shows that you're not fully
convinced that he really loves you.
Everything that I have to reap, I'll tell
you my faith, I don't know what's yours,
but my faith is this.
I have to reap a lot of terrible,
terrible things for the sins I committed in
my life, but Jesus reaped it all on
the cross.
So, I don't have anything to reap.
That's why I'm so happy.
Then why are you so miserable?
You know the reason now.
I don't believe a Christian who has understood
that can ever be unhappy.
And a Christian who has tasted the generosity
and the goodness and the lavishness with which
God blesses us.
I cannot imagine how such a Christian can
be stingy and calculating in his attitude to
other people.
I want to say to you, my dear
brothers and sisters, I don't know your private
life, but I fear that some of you
are stingy and calculating, even though you're very
religious in your activity in CFC.
And the reason is, because the God you
worship is a pretty stingy God.
It's not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible is a loving,
generous Father.
He never makes anyone miserable.
He makes us happy.
So happy that even when he doesn't give
us something, he doesn't take away our happiness.
Isn't it amazing to have such confidence in
a loving Father that if I ask him
for twenty-five things and all twenty-five
he says no, that makes no difference.
We're still happy.
We are absolutely convinced he loves us.
Do you know God like that?
Do you have a complaint in your heart
today, like Mary and Martha had?
They told Jesus when he came after Lazarus
died, Lord, if you had been here, this
would not have happened.
I wonder if in your life there is
something like that, about something that you have
to say to God, Lord, if only you
had answered that prayer, or if only you
had done this or done that, things would
have been different.
You know, you're not really convinced that he
loves you because you feel he's punishing you
in some way, afraid that he might hurt
you in some way.
And the sad thing is that this affects
our relationship with other people in the church
and in our home.
It makes us very insecure.
I was like this in my younger days,
very insecure, because the God I worshipped was
a very strict God.
He was a very stingy God.
He was a miserly God.
He wasn't the God of the Bible, he
was the God of my imagination.
He was a cold, calculating God that I
worshipped, and he made me cold and calculating.
He was a God with whom I had
to do business.
I did things to please him.
Now, you know, there's a good way to
please God.
You can please God because you love him,
but there's another way of pleasing him because,
you know like the heathen do things to
please God because they're afraid if you don't
please him, he may be a bit unhappy.
Jesus spoke so much about doing things in
secret without knowing about it.
He said when you give money, for example,
your left hand must not know what your
right hand does.
How can you do that without your left
hand knowing what your right hand...
If I have given some money to someone,
or done some good to someone, how is
it possible for me, myself, other people okay,
they don't know about it is okay.
If Jesus had said when you give some
money, make sure other people don't know about
it, that I can understand.
But that also he said, don't blow your
trumpet when you give your gifts.
But he said more than that.
He said when you give your gifts, don't
let your left hand know what your right
hand is doing.
That means you yourself must not know.
How is that possible?
I've thought about that.
And I felt that, you know, some of
these difficult verses, we mustn't skip through.
We must try to understand it.
And I've discovered that difficult verses can be
understood not by study, not by meditation, but
by practice itself.
By practicing what that verse says, then you
understand it.
So if you sit down and try to
study and get some books on Greek and
all that, you won't understand.
But if you do what that verse says,
and seek to do it the way the
Lord told you to do it, you'll understand.
I believe what it means is that when
you give something or do something to someone,
it should be done in such a way
that you're pretty quickly forgotten about it.
That means a few months later, you don't
even remember that you did good to somebody.
You don't even remember that you gave some
money somewhere.
So that when somebody comes and tells you,
you know, brother, I'm so thankful for what
you did.
You really don't remember that you did that.
Your left hand has forgotten what your right
hand did.
But many people who give to God are
not like that.
I mean, years later they can tell you
exactly how much they gave and where they
gave and whom they gave.
That's like the heathen.
They've got a pretty good account of what
they've done.
And such people also keep an account of
all the wrong things that other people have
done to them.
They keep an account of all the good
they've done and keep an account of all
the bad that other people have done to
them.
Because their God is like that.
They worship a God who keeps a very
accurate account of all the evil things they've
done.
And they keep a very accurate account of
all the evil things other people have done
to them.
But imagine if you start worshipping the true
God of the Bible.
The true God of the Bible is one
who, when he looks at me, I've repented
of my sins and I've cleansed, been justified
in the blood of Christ.
He looks at me and he doesn't remember
any of the bad things I've done.
But he does remember all the few good
things I did in my life.
If I keep on worshipping this God and
delight myself in his presence, you know what
will happen?
Gradually when I look at other people, I
won't remember any of the bad things they've
done.
But I will remember all the good things
they did.
I'll remember the cup of cold water they
gave me somewhere or some little thing they
did for me here or there.
And I'll be very thankful and grateful.
I want to ask you, my brothers and
sisters, do you remember the little things that
other people have done for you?
Let's forget the whole wide world, let's stay
within the church.
Can you honestly say that from the day
you came to this church, you remember the
things that people have done for you and
that you try your best to forget all
the bad things that people did?
Then you have seen the God of the
Bible.
We all want to be like Jesus.
We say that.
But one characteristic of Jesus Christ is, he
said that if somebody gives even a cup
of cold water to one of my disciples,
I will never forget it.
And I say, Lord, I want to be
like you.
That means, if somebody somewhere 20 years ago
gave me just one cup of cold water,
I never want to forget it.
Leave alone things which are much more than
a cup of cold water.
You know why we are generally speaking a
bunch of ungrateful people?
Because we worship the wrong God.
You may call him Jesus, but he's not
the Jesus of the Bible.
You may call him Father, but he's not
the Father of the Bible.
That's why Jesus said that eternal life is
to know God and Jesus Christ whom he
sent.
That's why the Bible says, no one has
seen God in any time but Jesus Christ
came and explained him to us.
And for me, the greatest longing in my
life is to know my Father better and
to know Jesus Christ better.
Because the more I know Jesus Christ, the
more I can know my Father.
I want to encourage you, my brothers and
sisters, take seriously this thing of being like
Christ in this area, that he remembers even
a cup of cold water given.
Jesus said, if somebody gave a cup of
cold water to one of my disciples, do
you remember the good things that some people
have done for your children?
Maybe somebody somewhere gave a cup of cold
water to one of your boys or girls.
Don't forget it.
Be like Christ.
We forget so easily because the poison of
selfishness is deep-rooted in us.
The thing that Jesus came to save us
from.
When the Bible says that thou shall call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins.
I see that almost the greatest sin I
need to be saved from is selfishness.
There is a tremendous amount of selfishness in
all of us.
If you haven't seen it, ask God to
show it to you.
And the wonderful good news is that Jesus
came to save us from all of it.
It's like, you know, if a serpent has
bitten me and the poison has gone into
my system, I'd be very happy if there's
some type of suction machine that could get
into my veins or arteries and suck out
all the poison.
I'd be very happy if there's some machine
like that.
I don't want one drop of that cobra's
poison in my system.
That doesn't do me any good.
And the old serpent bit our forefather Adam.
That poison flowed into his veins.
It's the poison of selfishness.
And it has come down to all of
us.
And Jesus has come to save us from
it completely.
Make it your goal in life.
How is this connected with love?
Because love and selfishness are opposites.
The more selfish you are, the less loving
you are.
There is absolutely no selfishness in God, because
he's totally love.
When it says here, God is love, when
it says, we read this, verse 16, the
middle, God is love.
And anyone who lives in love is living
with God.
That means anyone who is free from selfishness.
It's particularly in our decisions that we find
selfishness coming forth.
It's not feelings.
We must get rid of a religion of
feelings.
I'll tell you the type of religion we
must get rid of.
We must get rid of a religion which
is only in doctrines.
We must get rid of a religion which
is only in feelings.
We must get rid of a religion which
is only in words.
And we must have a Christianity which is
reality.
And that is where I'm actually being freed
from my selfish way of life.
Actually, the most of us who are married,
if you're honest, all of us who are
married will acknowledge that we discovered how selfish
we were when we got married.
Because in our single days, we don't usually
discover how selfish we are, how self-centered
we are, how we want a certain way
of life.
That's part of our selfishness.
Nobody must disturb it.
And that's how we live as single people.
And if somebody disturbs that, I mean if
you try to disturb my selfish way of
life, I'll just keep little distance from you.
Because you're disturbing my selfish way of life.
And I'll fellowship with those who don't disturb
my selfish way of life.
And all those people who disturb my selfish
way of life, I keep away from them.
And then, as a single person, I can
always retreat to my room at night.
But the trouble when you get married is
that when you retreat to your room at
night, there's somebody else there, whom you can't
escape from, who's also in that room, who's
an equally selfish person as you are, who's
also interested in preserving her selfish way of
life, or his selfish way of life.
And what wonderful opportunities when these two people
decide to follow Jesus.
Tremendous opportunities to develop character.
Like iron sharpens iron.
I feel sorry for you if you've got
a weak wife who is like clay, who'll
say, yes sir, yes sir, yes sir, yes
sir, yes sir, to you.
She can't sharpen you.
Have you ever tried sharpening iron with clay?
Try it sometime.
You can't do it.
But if you've got a wife who is
strong, or hopes, tremendous hope, both
will sharpen each other, if you're determined to
follow Jesus.
I remember when I wanted to get married,
I wanted to get married to a strong
wife, because I'll tell you why.
Because I felt I'm going to be away
from home so often, preaching the gospel.
I don't want a weak wife, who with
some little problem comes in the home and
says, oh, please come back, please come back,
there's a problem here, and then I'll be
always running back home from wherever I am.
I don't want a wife like that.
Do you want one?
Or do you want a strong wife?
The strong wife is certain other, you know,
if you really know how to live together,
they can sharpen you.
The same thing with a brother.
You know, God gives us brothers who are
different from us.
And I've never tried to change my wife
to be like me, and I've never tried
to change any brother in the church to
be like me.
I see that God gives us people like
that.
And in this wonderful process of living together
in the church also, I'm using the example
of the home, you can apply it to
the church as well, that in the church
we meet with brothers who are so strong
and so different, and if you can learn
to fellowship with them, you will discover their
selfishness being scraped and smoothened out.
And that's the reason why some people have,
even after years and years and years and
years, they are unhappy in their marriage, and
they are unhappy in almost every church they
go to, because they never want to get
rid of their selfishness.
They don't live in God.
The Bible says, he who lives in love,
lives with God.
That's what it says in this verse.
That means you've got to be really, if
you want to live with God, you've got
to live in love.
As I said, love is the opposite of
selfishness.
So, if you want to live with God,
you have to be determined to be totally
unselfish.
We may not reach that height before Jesus
comes, but that must be your goal.
I want to ask you, my brothers and
sisters, many of you have been Christians for
so many years.
How many of you can honestly say your
goal in life is to become totally unselfish
in your life, like Jesus Christ?
That totally you want to live for other
people, and not like Jesus Christ, and like
Jesus Christ lived.
Never seeking your own.
That's the really happy life.
That's the way God wants us to live.
Totally for him and for others, so that
self is out of the center altogether.
But we never think of what we can
get from God for ourselves.
God gives fine.
Why is it so many people have complaints
about prayers not answered?
God's done one million good things for us,
but five or six things he didn't do,
and those are the things we remember.
It's the same thing with our relationship with
human beings.
People may do so many good things to
us, but if they do one or two
bad things, that's what we remember.
You know why?
Because we are so saturated with selfishness.
That's the reason.
We're not living in God.
If we live in God, we live in
love.
So that's what we should make our goal
in the coming days.
Not to use people for our benefit.
A lot of people in the world, they're
always thinking of using people for their benefit.
They like to make friends with influential people.
Why?
For their own benefit.
They like to mingle with big people and
famous people for their benefit, to get some
gain.
And they despise people who are poor or
who cannot do anything for them.
I'll give you my testimony in the last
25 years, as we have travelled, my wife
and I, to all these poor, poor, poor,
poor, poor, poor people in the villages in
Tamil Nadu.
They have blessed me more than any rich
man could ever have blessed me.
Their simplicity and the joy that has come
being able to do something for them and
not expect anything.
I want to say to you, my brothers
and sisters, time goes by.
By the time you come to the end
of your life and you look back over
your life, make sure that you've lived a
worthwhile life.
Make sure that you didn't live seeking your
own.
You'll have a lot of regrets on earth
and even more regrets in heaven, in eternity.
Determine that you're going to be totally free
from selfishness.
That you're determined you're going to live for
God and for others.
Jesus lived on earth for God and for
others.
He never sought his own.
What does it mean when it says, let's
look at this verse again.
Verse 16, in the middle, God is love
and the one who abides in love abides
in God.
That means somebody who is permanently rooted in
love dwells in God.
And I want you to turn to 1
Corinthians 13.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 13 it says, which
to me is one of the most important
characteristics of love mentioned here, is what I've
been saying so far.
One of the most important characteristics of love
is the middle of verse 5, love does
not seek its own.
You got it?
Love does not seek its own.
I know I have love, but I don't
seek my own.
You know, we have to get out of
our head.
This falling in love concept that we have
read in romantic novels and maybe you've seen
in the movies.
That's all false.
In fact, that is the false idea of
love which the devil tries to put upon
the world, where they are seeking their own.
In the world, when a boy says, oh,
I'm madly in love with that girl.
Tell me, is he seeking his own or
is he seeking the good of that girl?
You know the answer.
He's seeking something for himself from her.
Definitely.
And when a girl says, oh, I'm madly
in love with that man, I want to
marry him.
What she's seeking?
Is she seeking his good or her good?
She's seeking her good.
All this love in the world is like
that, seeking their own and that's why they're
so unhappy.
That's why it's so difficult to find a
happy marriage in the world, even among Christians.
Most Christian marriages are terribly unhappy, even though
they had some wonderful hopes on the day
of the wedding.
You know why?
Because they don't understand love does not seek
its own.
And even after hearing it so much, Jesus
came to save us from seeking our own.
How much has he saved you?
I remember when I got married to my
wife, I said to her, I'm a preacher,
you're a doctor.
We both love Jesus Christ and we want
to serve other people.
We can never use our professions to make
money for ourselves.
Never.
Not if we do it in the name
of Jesus Christ.
If we do it in our own name,
oh, I can make a lot of money
as a preacher and you can make a
lot of money as a doctor.
But if you do it in the name
of Jesus Christ?
Because we live in a poor country.
You know, 85% of India is villages.
I remember years ago I said to the
Lord, I said, Lord, all the great preachers
go to the cities.
Send me to the villages where these great
preachers don't go.
I want to go there.
There are people in this land who need
to hear and nobody goes to them.
I'll go.
What has been the result?
My life has been so tremendously blessed and
enriched.
I have become a very rich man spiritually.
You never lose out.
I want to say to you, live for
other people.
You'll be a very happy person when you
come to the end of your life.
If you live for yourself, you'll be miserable
and unhappy.
If you live for money, you'll be unhappy.
My wife has helped other people for 30
years as a doctor.
She's never earned one rupee.
We don't regret it.
I believe that's the spirit of Jesus Christ.
He never sought his own.
He always sought to bless people and never
wanted anything.
He didn't even want them to tell his
name to other people.
So often when we think of being like
Christ, we don't realize this is the fundamental
root of it.
That's why in our churches we've always said,
we're never going to have paid pastors or
paid preachers because we won't know whether these
fellows are coming for the money or for
Jesus Christ.
And that's what's preserved us through 28 years.
If you come, come because you love the
Lord and serve him.
Serve the people and don't take anything from
them.
Serve them, bless them.
God will take care of you.
Serve them and bless them and learn something
of the way Jesus lived on this earth.
Learn something of God's nature.
Dwell in love.
A love that does not seek its own,
but always seeks the good of the other
person.
That's the mark of spiritual growth.
If you want to know whether you've grown
spiritually, having been in this church for so
many years, ask yourself, how much does your
mind think of how you can bless other
people?
Of the needs of other people?
How you can encourage somebody?
How you can build a little more fellowship
with somebody with whom you don't have fellowship?
We don't have to think of the wide
world.
This local church, you know, many clever people
think that the mark of discipleship, if you're
a Christian, people must see that you love
them.
I'm sorry, that's not what Jesus said.
That's what clever worldly people say and clever
worldly people are a million miles opposite to
Jesus Christ.
Do you know what Jesus said?
Something which will surprise you.
People will know you're my disciples not when
you love them, but when you love one
another.
Isn't that a crazy thing to say?
What is the right thing to say?
Those worldly people will know you're my disciples
when you love them.
Show them love and then they'll know that
you're my disciples.
But Jesus never said that.
That's what clever people think.
And those clever people are the people who
don't know God.
Jesus said, people will know you're my disciples
when you love one another.
I believe Jesus, I don't believe these clever
people.
That means my mark of my discipleship is
not the love I show to the worldly
person, it's the love I show to my
fellow believers in the church.
And I understand that very well.
You examine your own life and you'll see
that sometimes it's easier to love that worldly
person than to love somebody in the church.
It's true.
Many husbands speak more courteously to a stranger
who comes to their house than to their
own wives.
Many wives speak more courteously to a stranger
who comes to the door than to their
own husbands.
It's easy to love that stranger who comes
to the door.
That's why Jesus said it's not your love
for that person that's going to prove you're
my disciple.
You're going to prove you're my disciple when
you love one another.
It's not the way you speak to the
stranger who comes to your door that shows
you're a Christian.
It's the way you speak to your wife
whom you live with every day, and the
husband you live with every day, and the
brother whom you see every day.
And if you can't love the brother whom
you see, you can't love God.
It's not possible.
We need to get a lot of these
clever ideas out of our head and come
back to what Jesus said.
But God says, My ways are not your
ways.
My thoughts are not your thoughts.
The reason we don't grow spiritually is we're
far too clever.
We got all these ideas in our cleverness
instead of coming as simple children to the
Bible and say, Lord Jesus, I believe what
you say.
I'm not a disciple because I don't love
my fellow believers.
I show a lot of love to strangers.
Imagine if a wife has to say to
her husband, Will you please treat me just
like you treat the strangers who come to
the house?
That's enough for me.
Please treat me like you treat the strangers
who come to my house.
Imagine if a wife has to say that.
Isn't that pathetic?
And yet that's how it is.
He who dwells in love dwells in God,
because God is love.
God is a good God.
I'm thankful for that lovely word in James
1.
It's a beautiful verse.
I'm very thankful for it and I want
to be more and more like that.
I know in my younger days, I didn't
know God like this.
It says in James 1 verse 5, If
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask
God, who gives to all men generously and
without reproach.
And in one translation it says, And God
will not scold him for asking.
Do you know the meaning of scolding?
Scolding.
Teachers do it to children.
Foolish fathers and mothers do it to their
children.
Scolding.
How many times I told you not to
do that?
One thousand times I told you not to
do it.
Maybe you said it two or three times,
but it has become one thousand times.
I'm sick and tired of you.
Nothing good will come out of you.
That's scolding.
Imagine if God said that to you sometime.
Nothing good will come out of you.
God, nothing good will come out of me.
I'm finished.
Thank God he doesn't say that.
He doesn't say such things.
He never scolds.
No matter how many times you failed.
No matter how big a mess you've made
of your life.
He doesn't scold.
You come to God after years and years
and years and years and years and years
of laziness.
Years and years and years and years and
years of doing nothing for him.
Years and years and years of living for
yourself.
Okay Lord, I'm 70 years old now.
I'd like to live for you a few
years now.
God said, come.
You know there's a verse in the Bible
that teaches that?
There's a parable that teaches that.
Do you know which one it is?
At the eleventh hour, the master went looking
for servants.
It says, eleventh hour means the day finishes
at six o'clock in the evening.
And these fellows for eleven hours, they were
just lazily doing nothing.
And the master went out and saw these
fellows hanging around.
You read in Matthew chapter 20, doing nothing.
And he said, what are you doing the
whole day?
Nobody told us to do anything.
Come.
And he called them.
And they worked only for one hour.
And, you know what happened?
When the pay was being given for the
day, he called these fellows first.
He said, come, I'll give you your pay
first.
I really like that.
I worship a God like that.
And I want to be like that myself.
You know, you and I will be able
to hit it off much better with each
other, if we all begin to worship this
God.
I tell you, we're so demanding on each
other, because we don't worship this God, who
is so large-hearted and so generous, who
is not calculating.
How much did they work?
One hour, eh?
Okay.
One denarius per day.
Okay, what these fellows should get?
One divided by twelve.
He didn't calculate.
Lord, make me like that.
It'll be so much easier to fellowship.
I met a lot of good believers who
are very stingy.
And that's why they never grow.
They're good.
Twenty years later, they're still good.
But they haven't developed.
They never did any gross evil.
But they never grew, because they never got
to know God.
They keep grudges against somebody.
Are you one of those who keep grudges
against someone?
Somebody did something to you, or said something,
and you got a grudge against that person.
I'll tell you, you must be worshipping a
God who keeps grudges against you.
Otherwise, how did you be like that?
How can you be like that, unless you
worship a God who's got a grudge against
you?
I don't want that God.
You can keep Him.
I don't want that God.
I worship a God who keeps no grudges
against me.
His mercies are new every morning.
You know the meaning of that verse?
That means in the morning, God says, OK,
you, you haven't sinned at all, right, so
far?
That's right, Lord, I've never sinned so far.
New every morning.
And if I sinned that day, the Lord
says, oh, that's the first time you've sinned,
right.
Why?
Because the past was all blotted out.
I was justified by the blood of Jesus.
When we are young, I know from my
own life, we tend to be very legalistic.
We worship a God who's got rules, thick.
I worshipped a God who had a huge
book of rules.
I studied those rules, and I made sure
everybody else lived according to those rules.
You know, Paul said, as I grew up,
when I was a child, I behaved like
a child.
When I became a man, I put away
childish things.
He says in the same chapter on love,
when I was a child, I did childish
things.
When I grew up, I put away those
childish things.
And this legalism is all childish stuff.
Rules and books, you didn't do this, you
didn't do that.
It's gone from my life.
Many of you who have known me 20
years ago would probably see that.
And I haven't changed because somebody taught me
something.
I changed because I came a little closer
to God and saw what the God of
the Bible was like.
And I'm very, very thankful that he opened
my eyes to see who he really was,
a loving father who never scolds, who doesn't
hold grudges, who overlooks the past, who is
so saturated, who is dripping with love.
And it's gripped my heart so much that
I say, Lord, I want to be like
that.
This is the ultimate goal of the Christian
life.
It doesn't matter if I don't travel the
world.
It doesn't matter if I don't preach wonderful
sermons.
It doesn't matter even if I don't bring
people to Christ.
If I can become like this God of
mine, full of love to others, hold no
grudges against people, forget whatever they did or
didn't do, forgive them, Lord, they don't know
what they're doing.
If I can have that attitude toward all
the people and smile at everyone in the
church.
Can you smile at everybody in the church
today?
Forget the outsider.
In this church, do you have a warm
heart towards every single person in the small
church God gave you?
If you don't, start working on it today.
Say, God, I missed something.
I missed the central thing in the Christian
life.
May God help us.
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