I want
to speak today on the most important thing
in the Christian life.
There's a phrase called majoring on minors.
You probably heard it.
What it means is that among a lot
of things that we have to do in
life, some very important, some not so important,
if we spend a lot of time doing
the things that are not so important, we
won't have time to do the things that
are really important.
And that applies in all areas of life,
whether in our home or in our work.
And a lot of people major on minors.
And that's very true in the Christian life
too.
You know, when you look at all the
Christian denominations, there are so many of them.
And many of them have got something they
major on.
And if that thing you major on, they
major on, is not what the Bible majors
on.
And they are majoring on minors.
And that can happen to us too.
So it's very important to find, to see
from Scripture, not from our own understanding.
When we come to the Word of God,
we must recognize that our human understanding that
we have got from Adam is corrupted by
sin.
It's worldly in its thinking, because those are
the values we have acquired from childhood.
And we have to change our way of
thinking if we want to understand what the
Bible majors on.
Have you ever wondered why there are some
Christians you have met in your life who
never seem to lose their passion for Jesus
Christ and to serve Him ever.
Every time you meet them, they are, as
it were, on fire for God.
I am always delighted to meet such Christians.
Have you ever wondered why there are some
sins that even after 20 years you never
seem to get rid of.
There is a reason for both these things.
It's because you are majoring on minors.
And that man whom you see who has
a growing passion for Christ and to serve
Him has learned to major on majors.
And that man who has got victory over
sin in areas where you are continuously defeated,
the difference is you are majoring on minors
and he is majoring on majors.
So it's very simple.
It's just like in the rest of the
world.
Why is it two students of equal intelligence
go to school and one tops his class
and the other does pretty badly and one
goes on to do well professionally and the
other is mediocre.
Both are equal intelligence.
It's because one majored on majors and the
other chap with equal intelligence majored on minors.
So, what is the most important thing in
the Christian life?
Only God can tell us that.
I want you to turn to Romans chapter
8 and verse 29.
Romans 8 verse 29.
Here is a word called predestined.
Predestined.
Predestination means, you know that pre means before.
Destination you mean, you know, when you get
into a train and you want to go
to Delhi, that's your destination.
And when you get your ticket, you have
determined beforehand, you have predestined where you are
going to land.
Delhi.
God also, it says in the word of
God, before we were born, before Adam was
created, before the worlds were created, God who
knew the future, knew each one of us
by name.
He knew where we would live.
He knew what century we would be born
in, which year we would be born in.
Jesus says, He even knows the number of
hairs on your head.
He knows every detail concerning us.
And knowing everything, He predestined something.
He determined a destination for you.
He got a ticket for you, on this
train of life, to reach a particular destination.
And I want to tell you, that destination
is not heaven.
A lot of people think it is.
It's not.
It says here, He predestined us, verse 29,
to become like Jesus Christ, to be conformed
to the image of His Son, so that
Jesus Christ in heaven might be the firstborn
among many brothers who look just like Him.
You know, heaven, God was so delighted with
His Son, that He wanted to populate heaven
with a whole lot of people who look
just like Jesus.
That was His goal.
He said, I want heaven to be full
of people who are like My Son.
And He chose different ones in different centuries,
from different countries.
You there, and you, and you, and you,
and you.
You are chosen to be like Jesus, to
populate heaven.
That's your calling, brothers and sisters.
Now if you get sidetracked from that, onto
something good, but which is not God's destination,
you can miss the goal.
And the sad part of it is, this
train runs only once.
If you missed it in this life, you've
missed it forever.
And all you can do is spend the
ages of eternity regretting, regretting, even if you're
in heaven, that you did not live on
earth for the things that God chose you
to live for.
It's not enough to go to heaven.
I tell you honestly, I'm not interested in
just going to heaven.
I want to accomplish what God created me
for before I leave this earth.
Many times I have prayed to the Lord
and said, Lord, as much as it is
possible for a human being, a child of
Adam, who is born again, to follow in
the footsteps of Jesus Christ on this earth,
I want to do that.
As much as it is humanly possible by
the power of the Holy Spirit.
I want to do that.
And I'm willing to pay any price.
I want to go as far as I
can in being conformed to the likeness of
Christ in my character, my speech, in my
actions, in my attitudes to people, in the
thoughts I think when I'm by myself, in
my prayer life.
I want to preach like Jesus.
I want to pray like Jesus.
I want to live like Him.
I want to use money like Jesus used
money.
I want my attitude to everything.
I want to treat my enemies like Jesus
treated His enemies, because I've seen my destination.
A lot of exciting things along this way
and along the journey, but I don't want
to get sidetracked.
I don't want to jump off at some
station, which is not the final goal.
A lot of things along this way.
You know, and you can get excited with
something which is good, but which is not
the ultimate goal.
For example, take something very good like evangelism.
Can you think of anything better than that?
Reaching lost people with the gospel.
Such a good thing.
And I'll tell you what I have seen
through 44 years of being a Christian.
A lot of people have made evangelism their
goal.
And they're not Christ-like.
They're reaching people, reaching people, and they're behaving
in such an un-Christ-like way that
people are being turned off.
They say your life speaks louder than your
words.
And the name of Jesus is dishonored.
But they have a tremendous passion for evangelism.
To give out tracts, to reach people.
They don't realize that the way they live
their family life, the way they behave at
home, and the way they conduct themselves, their
attitude to money, and so many things are
canceling out the message they preach.
So you see the danger of even being
involved in evangelism if you don't make your
goal becoming like Christ.
It's like a station.
And you get excited with evangelism and get
off at that station.
I don't want to get off at that
station.
And you come to another station where you
find somebody laying hands on people and everybody's
falling down on the platform.
And you say, boy, this is an exciting
station to get off at, to see everybody
falling off like that.
And the train moves off and you're still
falling down and getting up on the platform.
Well, people who want to do that can
do that.
But I've got a destination to reach.
I want to tell you that.
And I don't want to get sidetracked to
all these exciting things that I see on
various platforms along the way because I see
that God determined a destination for me.
And everything I do must be in the
light of that goal.
Must I do evangelism?
Definitely.
Like Jesus did it.
Not any other way.
Must I be filled with the Holy Spirit?
Of course.
Like Jesus was.
All the things in relation to, in Scripture
to me are like, you know, a jigsaw
puzzle.
Supposing you're trying to make a jigsaw puzzle
with 200 pieces.
And each of those pieces, I mean, it
doesn't have any picture or meaning to it.
But when you put it all together, if
you can see the face of Jesus, you
got it right.
So to me, evangelism, gifts of the Holy
Spirit are all little pieces in this big
puzzle.
You know, serving others, worship, praise, everything.
Even worship and praise, it's such a good
thing.
I know people are so taken up with
it that they don't think that that's a
spirit that must continue all through their life.
They praise the Lord on Sunday morning and
then go home and yell at their wives
Sunday afternoon.
Actually, that's not Christianity.
That's a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that
you take out all by itself and concentrate
on that on Sunday morning.
I don't want to concentrate on that.
I want to put that piece of the
jigsaw puzzle called praise and worship into that
face of Jesus and find its proper place
there.
That's what I mean.
I believe in praise and worship.
I believe in serving the Lord.
I see the whole jigsaw puzzle is the
face of Jesus.
And if I don't see the total picture,
I can get taken up with one favorite
piece of my jigsaw puzzle.
And different people have got different favorite pieces.
And each thinks we've got the most important
thing because that's the thing they like.
Majoring on minors.
And when God himself has made a destination
for me that that picture on the jigsaw
puzzle must be reproduced in my character, I
say, Lord, that's what I want.
Everything in life must fit into this overall
goal like a little piece of the puzzle
to make me like Christ.
And it says here in the previous verse,
verse 28, that God will help me in
this because he's going to cause everything that
ever happens to me to work together for
this good purpose.
Those who are called according to his purpose
means this is the purpose described in the
next verse.
So, God is going to make everything around
me over which I have no control to
work in an amazing way to bring me
to this goal, this destination of becoming like
Christ.
He's going to arrange difficult people across my
path to teach me humility and patience.
He's going to put me along with irritable,
annoying people, neighbors and co-workers, because I
have to become like Christ.
I have to learn patience and I have
to learn long-suffering.
He's going to put me through difficult financial
circumstances so that I learn to be frugal
like Jesus was.
He's going to make the meal that's cooked
in your home one day not so tasty
so that he can deliver you from the
love of food and gluttony and make you
like Jesus who was not a lover of
food, who used food for health, but didn't
worship it like a lot of people do.
See, God is sovereign and I'm excited when
I think that almighty God who runs this
universe can look down on this small speck
of dust called planet Earth and on that
speck of dust find an even smaller minute
speck of dust called me and take so
much interest in me to plan everything so
that I can become like Jesus.
Isn't that exciting?
And when you see it, I say, Father,
how You love me.
I mean, You don't put me in a
class with 50 students and teach me.
You give me personal private tuitions.
Each one of us, the Holy Spirit gives
you personal private tuitions.
And that's why your experiences are different from
the experiences of other believers around you.
Because you're not in the same class.
He doesn't put 50 people in the same
class and give them all the same homework.
No.
That's in worldly schools.
In God's school, every student has got private
tuitions.
Only God can do that.
And I'm thankful that I'm getting private tuitions.
That's why I don't compare my lot with
yours and you shouldn't compare your lot with
mine.
No.
Because I'm in private tuitions.
And I have certain weak subjects, so He
gives me extratution in those things.
And you've got certain weak subjects, and He'll
give you some extratution in those subjects.
I mean, if your weakness is physics and
mine is math, why should God give me
extratution in physics?
He's got to give you extratution in physics.
He's got to give me extratution in mathematics
or English or something like that.
But I'm weak.
That's where I need to not ever compare
myself or my lot with anybody else's in
the whole world.
That's why I'm not jealous of anyone.
That's why I'm not in competition with anyone.
I'm having private tuitions.
See the folly of believers who wonder why
God's dealing with me like this and why
other people are having an easy time.
It's because He loves you, brother, sister.
He wants to make you like Jesus.
There's a verse in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15.
Here's what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
And about Adam.
Now we came from Adam.
But we've been cut off and put into
Christ.
We've been fixed into this tree called Christ.
We've been transplanted, taken out of Adam and
put into Christ.
And if so, just like the characteristics of
Adam were ours when we were part of
that tree.
Now, it's these characteristics that should now be
part of ours.
1 Corinthians 15 speaks here about verse 47.
The first man is from the earth.
Earthy.
That's Adam.
The second man, Christ, is from heaven.
In verse 48, this applies to us.
As is the earthy, so also are those
who are earthy.
We know that very well.
That we all lived for so many years
as unconverted people with the character of Adam
coming forth from us, gushing out like rivers
of living water.
Not living water, sorry.
Dead water.
You know, anger and bitterness and jealousy and
all the filthy things that gushed out of
us.
And now we've been planted in Christ.
Why are you content with trickles of goodness
and trickles of patience and trickles of humility
and trickles of purity?
Why are you happy with that?
As is the earthy, so also are those
who are earthy.
And, verse 48, as is the heavenly, so
also are those who are heavenly.
And just as we have, listen to this,
this is a promise.
Just as we have borne the image of
the earthy, verse 49, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly.
I want to take that as a promise
from God.
Lord, just as for so many years I
have borne the image of the earthy, of
Adam so faithfully, I believe your promise is
true that I shall bear the image of
the heavenly.
The things are going to change in my
life as I allow the Holy Spirit to
get me focused on my destination and major
on that while I do all these other
secondary things.
It's very important.
It's the most important thing in the Christian
life that in everything I never lose sight
of my destination.
If I got to go to Nagpur, I'm
not going to get off at Hyderabad or
if I'm going to Delhi, I'm not going
to get off at Hyderabad or Nagpur or
Itarsi or Gwalior.
No.
I want to get off at Delhi.
Whatever interesting things there may be along the
way, I can enjoy them.
I don't lose sight of my final destination
and I'm not going to get off the
train and branch off into some on some
tangent into some side issue which however exciting
it may be is not God's final destination
for me.
God's bought a ticket for me and I
know where that ticket is for.
It's for my final destination to be like
Christ.
And the Bible says that if I have
this hope in me, 1 John 3, 3,
I will purify myself as He is pure.
And everything I do will be in relation
to that total picture of Jesus.
So, when I look at Jesus, I see
a heavenly man who lived on this earth
and he spoke and lived bringing the values
of heaven before people.
I'm to bear that image.
People who meet me, talk to me, must
see that this man is interested in something
outside of this earth.
Do people get that impression from you when
in your place of work that your sense
of values is different?
I'm not saying that we preach the gospel
to everybody at our place of work.
That may not be appropriate.
There may be a time and a season
for that.
We got to do it only when God
opens the door.
But I'm talking about your whole value system.
Do people see your value system is different?
I remember when those refugees from Sri Lanka
some years ago came to the refugee camp
in Tamil Nadu and some of our brothers
contacted them and many of them, a number
of them were converted really gripped.
And then in that refugee camp one day
one of those brothers their hut caught fire.
He was not there.
And his hut caught fire and everything in
his hut was burned.
And you know these refugees had come from
Sri Lanka with all the everything they owned
there.
They converted into cash and brought it as
currency in Indian rupees and they had it
in their hut.
And I don't know how much he lost,
50,000 rupees or something in currency notes,
all burnt up.
Everything gone.
And when he came back from where he
had gone people told him, you know your
hut is burned.
And they thought he'd be so distressed that
all his life's earnings were burnt up.
And he wasn't.
He said, well in any case I'm only
a pilgrim.
And if God allowed it to be burnt
that's fine.
I can start working again and earn something.
He was a fisherman.
Now he would not have said that two
years earlier when he was not converted.
But because he was born again and his
born again was a thorough new birth and
he was radically gripped by the message of
discipleship that he heard in our midst his
life changed more in two years than other
people have changed in 20 years.
It's not a question of time.
It's a question of how soon we get
focused on what is most important.
He got focused on what is most important
pretty quickly.
What is the most important thing.
So when his mind was renewed to think
and to place a right value on earthly
things and heavenly things he didn't get so
disturbed when that type of misfortune took place.
It says in Romans chapter 12 Romans 12,
you know it says how this transformation into
the likeness of Christ takes place.
It says in Romans 12 verse 2 Don't
be conformed to this world but be transformed
that is into the likeness of Christ by
the renewing of your mind.
So there it tells us that transformation begins
in our mind.
Just like conformity to the world also is
first of all in the mind.
You know when a person dresses in a
very worldly let's say a sister dresses in
a very immodest worldly way the problem is
not with her dress.
No.
The problem is with her mind.
The worldliness is not in her dress.
The worldliness is in her mind.
And if you get her to change her
dress and wear a modest set of clothes
you haven't changed her.
Not at all.
Because her mind is still the same.
It's the wolf in sheep's clothing.
And first she was the wolf in wolf's
clothing.
Now you get the wolf to wear sheep's
clothing and you think she's a believer and
make her sit there like a pious saint.
She's not a pious saint.
She's just a wolf.
In fact she's more dangerous when she's in
a wolf in sheep's clothing than when she's
a wolf in a wolf's clothing.
So changing the dress doesn't change a person.
Now I want to say to you that
you can come to the meetings in the
church dressed in a particular way.
But has it changed in your mind?
Worldliness is in the mind.
If you don't deal with it there you're
just a hypocrite pretending to be holy on
the outside.
And the same way holiness is also in
the mind.
From there it penetrates all our life.
In other words to paraphrase those words it
is in your value system.
You see in our mind we have a
certain value system.
A value system that we have developed through
many years of living in this world.
We went to school and developed a certain
value system.
We learnt in the world that winning is
everything.
That's a very popular statement in leadership circles.
Winning is everything.
Well I say winning is not everything for
me if I've got to cheat other people
and trample on other people and win like
that.
I don't want to win.
I certainly want to win but not at
the cost of exploiting others and depriving others
of their rights and doing all that and
cheating and...
No.
To be upright and Christ-like is everything
for me and then by all means come
first in your class.
By all means excel in your profession.
But not at the cost of losing Christ
-likeness and uprightness of character.
That's because of my value system.
Now another person doesn't have that value system.
He says making money is everything.
And he doesn't care how he makes it.
Well I'm not against people becoming rich or
getting a good salary.
It's all a question of how you do
it.
It's all a question of what you're living
for.
If it comes as a result of your
seeking God's kingdom first and other things just
being added to you, OK.
But if you spend your life pursuing that
you've got the wrong value system.
So in my mind I have a certain
value system.
I place value on certain things and I
don't place value on other things.
For example Why are you disturbed if you
heard 20 people say bad things about you?
Does it disturb you?
You heard 20 people say some really nasty
things about you which are not even true.
It disturbs you because your value system is
this.
Man's opinion is very very important.
It used to disturb me.
It doesn't disturb me so much now.
Because I have changed my value system.
I have changed my thinking and convinced myself
from God's word which is true that man's
opinion is fit for the garbage bin.
OK, 20 opinions 20 pieces of garbage and
I have also convinced myself that God's opinion
is very important.
Now, 300 years ago in France, 400 years
ago there was a lady in France, 450
years ago or something like that a lady
in France called Madame Guillaume I think in
1600 she lived in, right.
And she made this statement once.
Listen to it carefully.
I am more afraid of one reproach of
my conscience than of the outcry and criticism
of all human beings.
Boy!
Imagine if you can say that.
That I am more disturbed by one voice
from my conscience than all the evil speaking
of all the men in the world.
If you can live like that boy, I
tell you, you'll be Christ-like pretty quickly.
Won't take long.
You change your value system.
Say the voice of my conscience is very
important.
What people say not so important.
Now, if the man who gives me his
opinion is a very very godly man who
loves me then his opinion may be important
because his opinion may also be God's opinion.
That's different.
But if worldly people say something about me
I couldn't care less for that.
The voice of my conscience is far more
important.
That's what I mean by changing my value
system.
If I lose something spiritually that should disturb
me more than if I lose money.
I mean, we are all disturbed if we
lost money.
I don't mean 5 or 10 rupees.
But supposing you suddenly lost 20,000 rupees
one day.
Maybe some people who can write it off
but for most of us that would be
a tremendous shock to lose 20,000 rupees.
But what if you lost the anointing of
the Holy Spirit upon your life?
Would that also disturb you?
God, I don't feel the anointing today in
my life.
I don't sense the anointing of God in
my service for you.
I feel I've lost some of that fire,
that passion, that devotion.
God, it seems to have gone.
Does that disturb you?
Or is it only 20,000 rupees that
disturbs you?
I'm not saying money is not important.
I'm just saying we got to put it
a little lower down in the scale than
the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
That's all I'm saying.
I'm not saying money is garbage.
No, money is very useful.
But put it a little lower down the
scale than the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Change your value system.
You know, Jesus had a proper value system.
Judas Iscariot was stealing His money all the
time.
It didn't disturb Him.
It's okay.
If He steals, what can I do?
I'm not going to kick up a row
over that and fight with Him.
I hope He'll change.
But Jesus lived.
You know, you remember in the Gethsemane how
He prayed, Oh Father, don't let me lose
that fellowship with You.
Don't let me lose my fellowship with You
on the cross.
Can You take away this cup from me?
That's what disturbed Him.
The possibility that for 3 hours on the
cross, fellowship with the Father would be broken.
It disturbed Him so much that He prayed
and prayed and prayed for 1 hour in
Gethsemane and He didn't even pray for 2
seconds when Judas Iscariot was stealing His money.
That's value system.
As is the earth, these so are the
earthy.
As is the heavenly, so are the heavenly.
And as we bore the image of the
earthy, we are to bear the image of
the heavenly.
Why haven't we pursued this?
Because it has not been a major in
our life.
We majored on minors.
Coming to meetings, good!
Coming to meetings is much lower down my
value scale than becoming like Christ.
What if I'm locked up in a jail
for preaching the gospel?
And I'm in jail like in communist countries,
people were in jail for years.
I can't come to the meetings.
And I sit there for 10 years, am
I going to lose miss out on God's
plan for my life?
Impossible!
Because going for meetings is good.
But if I don't have the opportunity for
it, it's ok, I can still be like
Christ.
That doesn't stop.
The reason why some people never lose the
anointing and never lose the passion is because
it's a top priority in their life.
The reason why some people get victory over
sin in their life and their home life
becomes smooth and peaceful is because it's a
priority in their life.
The reason why some people's homes disintegrate, even
Christian homes, is because their home life is
not a priority.
Other things are priority.
Other things which are not a priority in
scripture.
Making money.
Getting on in the world.
That's good, provided it's lower down in the
scale.
Jesus was a carpenter for at least 12
years.
He worked hard.
But he didn't work hard to become the
richest carpenter in Nazareth.
He worked hard to support his family.
And his priority was not getting a name
in Nazareth as a great carpenter shop.
No.
His priority was fellowship with the Father and
blessing poor people and helping widows and things
like that.
And you spend your life doing that, you're
not going to be the richest carpenter in
Nazareth.
No.
So it's all a question of priority.
And you get your priorities right, and I
guarantee my brother, sister, you will find more
change in the next one year than you
have seen in your entire Christian life till
now.
It's all a question of priorities.
Is your destination and God's destination for you
the same?
Or have you got some other destination?
What is your primary aim in life?
The heavenly.
You know, I thought about that when we
were praising the Lord and that verse we
read from Psalm 8.
I want you to turn to Matthew 21
where that same verse is quoted.
It says here that Jesus rode on a
donkey and entered Jerusalem and came into the
temple in Matthew 21.
And as Jesus entered the temple, it says
here, verse 14, the blind and the lame
came to Him and He healed them.
And then the chief priests, listen to this,
now here you see the contrast between religious
earthy people and a spiritual heavenly man.
Sometimes we confuse a religious earthy person with
a spiritual heavenly man.
I mean, we don't confuse worldly earthy people
with a spiritual heavenly man.
That we can distinguish quite easily.
Oh, that's a worldly person, this is a
heavenly person.
But sometimes, many of us can confuse being
religious with being spiritual.
Now here the religious people, the chief priests
and the scribes, the most religious people in
Israel, they saw the wonderful things that He
had done and then they saw the children
crying out in the temple and saying, Hosanna
to the Son of David.
They became angry.
They said, children shouldn't be yelling in the
temple like that.
Nobody should be yelling in the temple like
that.
There must be dignity and decorum in the
temple like a funeral service, right?
And Jesus, Jesus had quite a different opinion
about this.
He said to, they said to Him, don't
you hear what these fellows are doing?
Ruining the decorum of the temple.
And Jesus said to them, haven't you read
what it says in Psalm 8?
Out of the mouth of infants and nursing
babes thou hast prepared praise for thyself.
And He said in another gospel, it says,
if these people stop praising Me, the stones
will stop praising Me.
Why did Jesus get so excited when He
saw all those people praising God?
Because, I'll tell you why.
Because He came from heaven.
And heaven is full of people yelling the
praises of God with such a loud voice,
it says it's like thunders.
We're not even 1% of that.
He came from heaven where people not just
praised God, but praised God with such joy
and radiance in their faces.
And then He came to earth and for
33 years He saw these long faced, glum,
sour looking people complaining, murmuring, but would come
religiously to the temple and talk about God.
And then He saw these children excited and
praised.
Hey, that reminds me of heaven.
And He got so excited.
While these serious, long faced, long bearded, I
mean the face is long enough, but they
had a beard as well.
Looking at these children.
And Jesus took the sight of the children.
I like that.
Jesus took the sight of the most unlikely
people.
He took the sight of a woman caught
in adultery against all the self-righteous Pharisees.
He took the sight of the children against
all these so-called religious leaders.
He took the sight of a thief on
the cross.
He was always taking the sight of the
underdog, the person who was poor.
He went and put His arms around lepers.
And boy, I want to bear the image
of the heavenly in my life.
I'm sick and tired of this false sense
of dignity and decorum that the children of
Adam have taught me.
I want to change my value system.
I want to think like Jesus.
And if it offends people, well, it offends
people.
Jesus spent His life offending people.
He didn't start out His life saying, Oh,
I must tread very carefully, not offend anybody.
You know once we read in Matthew 15
that the disciples came to Jesus once and
said, Do you know that what you just
said offended the Pharisees?
He said, Leave them alone.
Every plant which my heavenly Father has not
planted will be rooted up.
Why are you worried about that?
They got offended, they got offended.
That's it.
Let's seek to please our Father.
I mean, we don't go out of our
way to offend people.
But if in the process of serving God,
praising Him, and becoming like Christ, and becoming
more heavenly, we offend a lot of religious
people, so be it.
Let them be offended.
Until they change, and become heavenly themselves, then
they won't be offended.
We're not here to argue with anybody.
But when we see that Jesus was this
way, that's the way I want to be.
Because He is the only one who came
to earth and showed us what heaven was
like.
We've got all these crazy ideas of what
a spiritual man should be like.
And they're all wrong.
Jesus is the perfect example of what it
means to be spiritual.
Actually, I want to be like Him.
I want to be tender towards the leper.
I want to be forgiving towards the woman
caught in adultery.
I want to be forgiving to the people
who crucify me.
And assume that they don't know the evil
of what they are doing.
Like Jesus was.
At the same time, I want to take
a whip and chase out of the church
those who make money in the name of
religion.
That's what Jesus did.
I want to be like that.
Of course, that will make you unpopular.
As long as you're just comforting the widows
and putting your arm around the leper and
washing their feet, nobody will be disturbed.
But once you begin to shake their traditions,
a lot of people get disturbed.
But actually, we're going to continue to do
that.
And if you continue doing that, they may
finally crucify you like they crucified Jesus.
They crucified some of the apostles too.
Okay, fine.
It's the best way to leave the earth.
Can you tell me a better way to
leave this earth than by being crucified?
Try and think of that.
How do you want to die?
In an air-conditioned hospital room with drips
and all that type of stuff and fellows
coming there and saying prayers for you and
then a grand funeral with a very expensive
casket and all types of people saying things
about you which were never true in your
life.
And you go.
I don't want to go like that.
I want to go as a martyr for
Jesus Christ.
It's the best way to go from this
earth.
I'm not saying I'll get that privilege.
I think it's a tremendous honor to be
a martyr for Christ.
Not everybody gets that honor.
But I say, Lord, if you give it
to me, I'll take it.
I hope you'll say that too.
That's the best way to go.
Like Jesus.
Can you imagine a better way to die
than the way Jesus died?
You know, they were going to crucify Peter.
Saying, you talk about this crucified master.
OK, we'll crucify you.
And he said, I have one request.
Please crucify me upside down.
Because I'm not worthy to be crucified straight
like Jesus.
So they put him upside down.
Crucified him upside down.
Can you imagine the reward these people are
going to have in heaven?
They had a completely different value system.
The things of earth, even life on earth
was not important.
To glorify God, to accomplish God's purpose before
we leave this earth.
Not just to get a great name and
belong to a good church or make a
lot of money.
Or even get a reputation as one who
has served the Lord or done so many
things.
Who cares for these things?
Many who are first will be last when
Jesus comes again.
We've got to change our value system.
We've got to learn to praise God like
the angels in heaven praise God.
I'm trying.
To praise God like the angels in heaven
praise God.
Because I want to bear the image of
the heavenly.
I want to change my attitude to money.
To the heavenly attitude.
You know, one of the clearest differences in
earth and heaven is where they place the
gold.
Where do you find people place gold on
earth?
Usually on people's heads.
Or on their neck or hand or something
like that.
Do you know where they place gold in
heaven?
How many of you know there's gold in
heaven?
There's gold in heaven.
Do you know where the gold is found?
On the streets.
Under our feet.
And do you know a heavenly man is
a man who's learned to put gold under
his feet even now.
Is gold under your feet?
Then you're ready for heaven.
If it's still on top of your head.
Brother, you better hurry up and push it
down.
Put it under your feet.
Don't let it just come half way down
to your fingers or something.
All the way down to your feet.
Not even on your toes.
Under your feet.
That's the place for gold.
I want to be ready for heaven.
You know what I mean.
That he doesn't rule me.
It's a very useful servant.
And a terrible master.
I want to have the same attitude that
Jesus had.
How many of you are serious?
How many of you are going to really
not just go away from here and say,
well that was a good message, wasn't it?
It wasn't a good message, brother.
It was a challenge to your heart from
Almighty God to change your whole way of
life.
It wasn't just a nice three-point sermon.
It was a word from God to your
heart to change your whole way of life
so that your life will change more than
any three-point sermon ever did to your
life.
And he changed your whole value system.
Look at Jesus.
And if you don't agree with something that
I say, go to the Bible and see
how Jesus was like.
His attitude to praise.
His attitude to money.
His attitude to sinful people.
How he was merciful to them.
He was not in competition with anybody.
How careful he was with his speech.
You know, a heavenly person is very careful
with his speech.
An earthly person is absolutely careless.
He doesn't care what rubbish comes out of
his mouth.
He's spewing out garbage morning, noon and night.
Jesus was very careful.
You know, there were times we read when
he was just quiet.
Once when they were provoking him, provoking him
in the case of the woman caught in
adultery, he took a long time to reply.
And he just bent his head and wrote
something on the sand.
And he didn't have a clear word from
his father.
Then he got a word from the father.
Just tell them, he who is without sin
cast the first stone.
So he got up and said, he who
is without sin cast the first stone.
And they all went away.
You know, one sentence from the father instead
of preaching half an hour sermon.
That's how we need to be.
A heavenly man is like that.
He doesn't speak immediately.
He thinks and waits.
Which most earthly people do not know how
to do.
And waits till he's got something useful to
say.
The Bible says in Colossians chapter 4.
It's one of those words where you find
the word always.
I'll give you a good bit of homework.
Those who are serious about Bible study.
Take a concordance and look up the word
always.
Rejoice always.
Always bear in your body the dying of
Jesus.
Pray always.
There's certain things we must do always.
And here's one of those things we must
do always.
Colossians 4.6. Let your speech always be
with grace.
Seasoned with salt so that you may know
how you should respond to each person.
Now, supposing you're invited for a meal somewhere
and as you put the first morsel of
food into your mouth.
Say, hey this doesn't have enough salt.
And you say, there's no crime in saying
could you please pass the salt.
You know, some people like more salt and
some people like less.
So you say please pass the salt and
usually the salt is there on every table
according to each man's taste.
And you put the salt and then you
enjoy the meal.
You know how you can detect immediately when
there's no salt.
Our taste buds are so smart.
It must be like that in our speech
also.
The same tongue that can detect no salt
or salt should also be able to detect
in our speech in what comes out of
our tongue.
There's no salt in that word.
That means there was no grace in it.
Do you detect it?
I mean if you can detect it before
it comes out even better.
As you're about to speak something say, hey
I think I should add a little more
salt to that sentence before I speak it
to this person.
Maybe to your wife.
You know how blessed your wife will be
if you have a little salt in all
your speech.
I mean a little grace of how blessed
your husband will be before the words come
out.
Just add a little salt.
Makes a tremendous difference.
Just a few grains.
Tremendous difference.
Why don't we do it?
It's so cheap.
It's so cheap, so easy.
Just a little grace.
Always your speech must be seasoned.
You know how our Indian curries are terrible
without seasoning.
If you get a curry without seasoning you'd
say, well no thank you.
I'm not particularly hungry today.
Fact is you just can't stick the taste
of that food without any seasoning.
Our speech is like that.
Let it always be seasoned.
Jesus was like that.
He said be careful with your mouth because
by your words you'll be justified.
We all know justification by faith.
Jesus said in Matthew 12 36 to 39,
by your speech you'll be justified.
By your words.
Out of the abundance of your heart the
mouth speaks.
It's very easy to find out what's in
a person's heart.
Just listen to his speech the whole day.
I will tell you what's in his heart.
Because he can't keep it inside.
You cannot keep, I mean you can sit
here with a zip on your mouth in
the meetings that's only for a little while.
You can't keep it on for too long.
But if I can secretly listen to what's
going on in your home and different places
when you're in the bus in the train,
in the office, I'll tell you what's in
your heart.
Because out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaks.
And Jesus spoke out of the abundance of
his heart.
So I'm not saying just control your tongue.
Watch your heart.
Because it's from the heart.
The salt must be in the heart.
A heavenly man is a person who is
very careful.
I know the number of times I've had
to repent.
I've spoken to somebody and I've just gone
away in two seconds.
The Holy Spirit says to me that's not
the way Jesus would have spoken.
Or you could have said the same thing
a little more graciously.
And I feel like getting away somewhere by
myself and having a little weeping session before
the Lord and say Lord have mercy on
me.
Help me.
When will I learn?
But it's getting better.
Because I want to major on majors.
There are many many areas like this my
brothers and sisters.
And you know the areas in your life.
We need to seek God.
Think how Jesus prayed for the anointing of
the Holy Spirit when he was baptized.
Because he wanted to go out and serve
the Father in the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Not with all the good life he had
lived for 30 years.
Many of us have lived good lives.
And we think we can serve the Father
like that.
Jesus did not.
With a good life he prayed for the
anointing of the Holy Spirit so that he
would have the supernatural gifts of the Holy
Spirit to serve the Father.
And perhaps you and I have failed depending
on money, depending on music, depending on many
other things other than the supernatural power of
the Holy Spirit.
We need to repent of that.
Jesus did not depend on television broadcasting to
spread his message.
He depended on the power of the Holy
Spirit.
He didn't depend on the newspapers giving him
a good report.
He depended on the power of the Holy
Spirit.
He didn't depend on clever points in his
sermons.
He didn't depend on having good musicians to
prime up people before he spoke.
No, he depended on the power of the
Holy Spirit.
And I really believe we need to seek
God and say, God, help us to depend
on the power of the Holy Spirit once
again like Jesus did.
Heavenly people are like that.
So there are many other areas.
I've just touched on a few.
I just want to encourage you, my brothers
and sisters, recognize the destination God has already
determined for you to become like Christ.
To live the way he lived, to serve
others the way he served others, to evangelize
people the way he evangelized, to teach people
the way he taught, to bless people the
way he blessed, to bless every home that
you ever enter the way he blessed every
home that he entered.
Think of every one of us sitting here
are going to change our value system from
today.
Can you imagine what our church is going
to be in another year?
Can you imagine what's going to happen?
It's going to be like the burning bush.
People will stop and say, hey, this is
different.
May God help us.
Let's bow our heads for a moment of
prayer.
Bow your heads about.
I want you to forget about everybody else.
Just think that you're standing before Jesus Christ
today.
Imagine that you're standing at the judgment seat
of Christ right now.
And you're standing before him.
And he's asking you, what did you do
with that message you heard that Sunday morning?
It's the judgment seat of Christ you're standing
before.
What are you going to reply to him?
It's going to happen one day.
You're going to stand before him.
And a lot of things that appear very
important to you right now will not be
important in that day.
And a lot of things that you think
are not so important today will be very,
very important in that day.
Change your value system now, so that you
don't have any regret in that day when
you stand before Jesus Christ, our Lord and
our Master.
Heavenly Father, I believe you have spoken to
many hearts this morning, and I pray that
it will produce a change in our life.
I pray it will produce a change in
our homes and in our church.
We humbly ask in the merit and in
the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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