You know, there are two
contrasting loves spoken of in scripture.
One is love for Christ, and the other
is love for the world, or love for
God and love for the world.
And it says in 1 John and chapter
2, if anyone
loves the world, verse 15, the love of
the Father is not in him.
To love Jesus and to love God is
the same thing, and a lot of Christian
preaching is negative.
And a lot of preaching that we have
heard through the years, things that we have
read, are very negative.
That means, don't do this, and don't love
the world, and don't lust, don't get angry,
don't do this, don't do the other thing.
And yet, if we are honest, we have
to say that a lot of these things
we are told not to love, we really
love.
There is something in our flesh that draws
us to them.
It says about Jesus that he loved righteousness
and hated sin.
And if he could get there, it would
be very easy to give up sin.
Like, you know, you are given a command
like, don't stoop down and lick this floor.
Not a difficult command to obey.
Or, don't go and put your head in
the toilet bowl, or something like that.
These are easy, because you hate it.
Or, don't eat garbage.
And if you...
Now, when you think of the story of
the prodigal son, why was he eating what
the pigs were eating?
Pigs eat garbage.
And why do you think he was eating
what the pigs were eating?
Jesus told that story, and it was a
pretty sad state of affairs.
And I think when the angels from heaven
looked down at the world, and all the
people in the world, and the things people
in the world run after, which look so
attractive to the people in the world, the
angels look at it and say, boy, it's
amazing how these people are eating all this
garbage.
Just like we would look at the pigs.
But those pigs themselves, they really enjoy it.
They don't have any problem.
They don't have the same outlook on that
that we have.
But it's because the prodigal son had nothing
better.
You tell a person who's hungry, don't eat
what the pigs are eating.
Well, he knows it's not good.
He knows he can get sick.
He knows it can cause so many problems.
But he still does it, because there's a
hunger in him.
He says, I've got to eat something.
And you know, you and I would never
eat from a garbage bin.
But we have seen children eat from garbage
bins.
What is it that drives them to a
garbage bin, when you and I would never
eat from there?
It's hunger.
It's a great hunger to satisfy a need
in the body, which is not being satisfied
any other way.
But once that prodigal son came to his
father's house and started eating all that good
food on the table, see how all of
a sudden his hunger for all that other
stuff disappeared.
And if we were as hungry as those
little boys who eat from the garbage bins,
we would eat that too.
You see in these railway stations, some of
the poorer stations in India, how little poor
beggars, they eat the scraps of what people
have thrown out from their leaves, which they've
already eaten.
Now we'd never do it.
We'd think, even if I'm hungry, I won't
do it.
Well, you will.
Hunger is such a tremendous force that it'll
drive you to eat from a garbage bin.
It'll drive you to eat the leftovers of
other people.
It'll drive you to eat one day what
the pigs are eating.
If that's the only way you can satisfy
your hunger.
In fact, the Bible, you read about mothers
who killed their children and cooked them and
ate them.
Can you believe it?
Can you imagine a mother killing her children
and cooking the child and eating it?
Hunger is a tremendous power and the flesh
is like that.
It's got a tremendous hunger and goes for
all this stuff.
But like I said, when the prodigal son
got something better to satisfy his stomach, the
other hunger disappeared.
And we have to say that it's because
we haven't really found a satisfying life in
Christ that we hanker after these other things.
It's true.
If you face up to it, then there's
some hope.
Lord, the reason I hanker after all these
things is because I haven't found a satisfying
life in Christ.
I believe that's the reason why a lot
of people hanker after money.
I believe all of us need money to
live and we must look for jobs, good
jobs.
That's why right from the beginning of CSC,
I've always encouraged young people to get the
highest education possible and get the best job
possible.
We're not against all that.
I taught my own children to do that.
But there's a lot of difference between that
and hankering after money and money and money,
more and more and more.
It destroys people.
It's because they think there's a hunger.
You know, there's a hunger in all of
our bodies for more comfort and more pleasure.
Now, to tell you quite frankly, I don't
know why the Bible says the love of
money is evil, except that I've seen the
results of it in many places and why
God has put money and God as opposites.
To my human reason, money doesn't look evil
like committing adultery with somebody or killing someone.
In no stretch of my imagination can I
equate running after money with killing somebody.
And that's why you have, you know, what's
known as the prosperity gospel, which teaches that
you can have God and money also.
You can rather love God and money, which
is totally wrong.
I believe that God gives us enough for
our needs if we seek his kingdom first,
so he may take us through periods of
testing.
I'm just using that as an example.
Just like it says here, don't love the
world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of
the Father is not in him.
Now, many people don't understand that.
That you can't love the world and love
the Father.
But that's a very clear contrast, which is
never mentioned in the Old Testament.
It's exactly the same type of contrast in
the use of the word love.
In Luke chapter 16, in Luke 16 and
verse 13 it says, no servant can serve
two masters.
He will either hate the one and love
the other, or else be devoted to one
and despise the other.
And there the two masters are God and
wealth.
So, here it speaks about being devoted to
one and loving one.
And not just not loving the other.
It says you've got to hate the other.
So, Jesus spoke about God and wealth as
opposites.
God and the world as opposites.
A lot of things I look out in
the world and I say, what's wrong in
a lot of things in the world?
And a lot of Christians pursue those things.
Well, to tell you honestly, I don't know
the reasons for all that.
But through many, many years, I have discovered
that God's word is true.
Even if I can't understand it.
There are a lot of things that our
children can't understand.
Why we as parents tell them, don't do
that.
Don't play around with that.
I think a little two-year-old won't
even know why you can't play around with
a plug point.
It's dangerous that they don't understand it.
You know, the hole in a plug point
is so tempting for a two-year-old.
They don't understand the seriousness of it.
And I suppose many times we're like that.
We don't understand the seriousness of a lot
of things.
But if there's a sensible two-year-old,
and that's rare to find, but if some
sensible two-year-old will just say, OK,
Dad says that, that's right.
And I say that's all I can say.
God says you can't love Him and the
world.
OK, I believe that.
God says you can't love Him and money.
I believe that.
So when we talk about love for Jesus
Christ, you know, if you hear a negative
message, don't love the world, don't love money,
it's very difficult to do that, because there's
something in us that draws us to these
things.
So, I've used an illustration in the past
of how, you know, there's a girl who
is madly in love with a boy, and
he's not a good boy.
If it's not a good boy, and the
parents are always telling her to give it
up, give it up, give it up, give
it up, and she doesn't give it up,
and no matter what the parents try to
do, she doesn't give it up.
And there's always secretly, when nobody's looking or
listening, she phones her up, phones him up,
and, you know, this is how a lot
of believers love money and the world.
You know, they hear, don't love it, don't
love it, don't love it, don't love it,
and it's like this girl being told not
to love this boy whom she's madly in
love with.
There's so many stories we've heard of girls
who just secretly made contact with boys like
that, and finally get married to them as
well.
And all the exhortations of the parents don't
seem to succeed.
Supposing this girl, one day suddenly, she drops
this man, and the parents are delighted, and
they say, what happened?
We tried to stop you from, told you
to give him up for so long, and
you didn't do it.
What happened now all of a sudden without
our telling you did it?
You know what happened?
She found somebody better.
She found someone more handsome and richer and
kinder and better, and then what happens?
Even when the other person calls her, she
doesn't want to talk to him.
What a deliverance!
This is called the expulsive power of a
new affection.
A new love can push out of your
heart another love which you tried so hard
to give up, and which no matter how
much you tried, you couldn't give up, because
there was something in you drawing towards it,
because you didn't have anything better.
So, you know, if we are honest and
say, Lord, I haven't really seen your beauty.
I've only heard about you.
Go back to this illustration I used about
this girl who was madly in love with
a boy who was a bit of a
rascal.
The parents don't want her to be attached
to him.
And if the parents just tell him, listen,
you know, there is a wonderful boy out
there, and tell him, keep on telling her
stories about this wonderful boy, and you know,
you really should fall in love with him.
It's just up in the air.
She doesn't know anything about, I mean, she's
got to see him and get to know
him.
And boy, that's more than hearing the parents
say, there's a boy out there, you know,
in that other street, or who lives the
other side of town, and you really got
to meet him, and he's all the good
qualities you tell the girl.
It may all be true, but she's not
impressed.
So, very often a lot of Christian preaching
has that effect on us.
We hear all these wonderful things about Jesus,
and we say, well, if you really get
Him, you don't need all this.
It's all stories.
We go away from the meeting and we're
still attracted to the old boy, to that
old chap.
But if one day you meet this new
boy, all of a sudden the other love
is gone.
I really believe that's the answer.
And that's why the New Testament speaks about
love, not just the New Testament.
In the Old Testament it was a command,
you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, soul, strength and mind.
And it was a very difficult thing to
do.
Why was it difficult?
Because they didn't know what God was like.
Very often they had this fear, you know,
a God who got a person killed because
he was picking up sticks on the Sabbath
day, or killed a son who was rebellious
to the parents, or killed a woman caught
in adultery.
Life under the law, they didn't really know
what God was like, because the whole purpose
of the law was to teach people the
seriousness of sin.
It's not that God has started loving sin
now.
I believe He hates sin just as much
today as in the Old Testament.
I wouldn't say more.
He hates it just as much because He
never changes.
Even a million years ago God hated sin
because that's His nature.
He doesn't hate sin anymore or now.
He didn't hate sin anymore in the Old
Testament time.
But the full revelation of God came through
Jesus Christ.
And that's why one of the things that
Jesus said was, I have revealed Father, I
have revealed your name to them, John 17.
I have made known to them that you
are a Father.
And why is the death of Christ given
us in such detail and such explanation as
to how much He suffered and how much
He died?
Because that is the way in which our
senses are stirred to realize that somebody loved
me enough to die for me when I
didn't even want Him.
And the Bible says in 1 John chapter
4, 1 John 4 verse 19,
we love Him because He first loved us.
So the basis of our love is that
He first loved us.
So if you want your love for Jesus
to grow more, you have to understand how
much He loved you more.
The more you understand how much He loved
you, the more you love Him.
I mean, you may love somebody who did
a small favor for you, like say somebody
who got admission in a college for you,
when it was difficult to get admission for
your son.
Yeah, you love that person.
But somebody else who risked his life to
save you, maybe your son was kidnapped and
he went and risked his life and fought
against those kidnappers and delivered your son.
I think you love that man a little
more, because that man did more.
Why is it you love the other person
less?
You say, well, college admission, that's not a
great thing.
This one saved my life or saved my
son's life.
So, the measure in which we understand how
much Jesus loved us, that's going to determine
how much you love Him.
So I'd say, if you love Jesus so
little that you're always drawn to the world,
what am I going to tell you?
Am I going to tell you, don't love
the world, don't love the world, don't love
the world?
Well, I say, you haven't really seen how
much Jesus loved you.
In fact, I believe that's one of the
first things that right from the beginning of
our Christian life, we should meditate on and
let our hearts be gripped by.
I remember when I was a young Christian,
I didn't know much about all these things,
but I think one big advantage I had
was that most of the time, I was,
in the early days of my Christian life,
I was alone, usually without any believers around
me, on a ship most of the time,
and used to travel around, and I wouldn't
be meeting the same believers.
I couldn't really, I really didn't become a
part of a local church, in a sense,
for three, four years after I was saved.
And I think, when I was saved, I
was for a short time, but then most
of the time I was out, and that
really helped me, because I didn't get brainwashed
with all the doctrines that people hear in
meetings.
I think if I had gone to a
lot of boring meetings, I would have just
got fed up with Christianity.
But because I was alone, I sort of
developed my own theology of understanding what Jesus
was like, and knowing him from the Bible.
And I think God allowed that.
And I'm very thankful for it, because I
used to meditate a lot in those days
on the cross.
I didn't understand the deeper meanings of the
cross, like I shared the other day about
Jesus being forsaken by the Father, and losing
fellowship.
I didn't understand all that.
I didn't understand all that for maybe nearly
thirty years after I was converted.
And I don't think those are the things
that stir us initially.
Initially, we are stirred by the fact that
Jesus suffered physically.
And that's why that is described in detail
in all the Gospels, because that's where we
begin.
And death, that cruel death is such a
terrible thing that if we even just meditate
on that, it will produce in us the
love for Jesus.
Because we have the Holy Spirit cooperating with
us in this one area to really make
us love Jesus.
So if you haven't meditated sufficiently on the
cross and the physical sufferings of Christ, I
would encourage you to do it.
Think of how much he suffered for you,
and think of why he would do it.
Why would he do it?
And did he have to do all that
in order to win me and deliver me
from sin?
Yes, he had to.
And the more you understand his love, the
more you'll be able to love him.
And I think the other thing that helped
me very early in my Christian life was
to have a sense of what is going
to matter in eternity.
I think that's also very important.
Everything that you look at and see in
the world, how much is this going to
matter in eternity?
I'm not saying therefore you neglect it.
For example, some of you are students and
you're studying and you say, well studies are
not going to matter in eternity, so I
neglect it.
Now don't misunderstand me.
I mean if you were going to enter
into eternity tomorrow, I'd say, forget your studies,
brother.
But you may not enter into eternity for
another 50 years.
I don't know when Jesus is going to
come.
And if you're not going to enter into
eternity for 50 years, your studies now are
going to matter.
Otherwise you'll be begging on the streets.
So it's not going to matter in eternity,
but we don't know when we're going to
enter into eternity.
And therefore we've got to work harder.
What is the purpose of studying?
It's in order to get a job, to
support ourselves so that we don't become dependent
on others, we don't become beggars.
And so, I understand what I'm saying in
the right context, but to see things from
the perspective of eternity, without going into a
fanatical extreme, and in other words, you know,
I can understand if somebody is going to
have a fight with me over some little
earthly thing, I say, brother, take it, I'm
not interested, I'm not going to have a
fight with you.
Because it's not worth having that fight with
that person over some silly thing like that.
So, when we think about...
I'm thinking now particularly about human opinion, man's
opinion.
I'm not thinking of studies or material things
or clothes or...
I'm thinking particularly now about man's opinion, the
worklessness of man's opinion in eternity.
That is another thing you really have to
meditate on.
You know, the reason I say meditate is
because it's got to sink into you.
It's got to sink into your heart that
man's opinion is worthless.
And I don't know whether it has sunk
into all of our hearts, because, I'll tell
you the reason why we don't love Jesus
enough is because we're so concerned about man's
opinion.
What does that person think of me, or
what do the other people in the church
think of me, or what do the other
people at my workplace think of me?
And do they think I'm odd or peculiar?
You know, when I was saying this morning
about the amount of immorality there is among
young people nowadays, I'm amazed at what I
hear is going on in particularly residential colleges
nowadays.
It's absolutely evil.
And lot of these boys and girls are
going to some so-called evangelical, even Pentecostal
churches in Bangalore.
Big ones, they go to.
And then, you know, these big churches, nobody
is there to shepherd these young people, nobody
is there to watch out for each of
them.
These people are living in sin and nobody
knows it.
Why is it?
For example, I can understand why a young
man goes after immorality.
There is a drive in him.
But why does a young girl go after
an immoral relationship with a boy?
There is no drive in a girl for
that.
In fact, she's got much more to lose.
Why does a girl go for an immoral
relationship with a boy when she's got so
much to lose in it?
I'll tell you.
It's because she cares for people's opinions.
What will people say?
And all the other girls say, Oh, come
on, all the boys also, they know how
to deceive the girls.
And they say, Oh, come on, don't be
so old-fashioned.
And then you don't want a reputation as
old-fashioned.
That's why they make, that's why girls are
sort of compelled to dress in the way
all the models and all dress on TV
and advertisements.
They say, come on, what's this?
The old-passion dress.
And that 16-year-old girl is terribly
disturbed that she's called old-passion.
And she can't stand it.
And she loses her love for Jesus because
she's concerned about something that will have no
value in eternity.
What is that?
The opinion of some of her colleagues.
So, it's very important to meditate on what
is this person's opinion going to matter in
eternity?
Nothing.
But if I follow this way of trying
to become popular and accepted, I'm going to
destroy myself.
I'm going to stop loving Jesus altogether.
And I believe a lot of young people,
their love for Jesus is gone because there's
this tremendous pressure to conform to the standards
around us.
Because otherwise you look odd.
They laugh at you.
We can't stand people laughing at us.
I'll tell you something.
If you want to follow Jesus, you've got
to be willing to have people laugh at
you, mock at you, and in our place
of work.
I know they did that to me when
I was in the ship.
They'd mock at me and laugh at me
and call me all types of names.
And I said, fine.
And, you know, one of the good things
is that the Lord was so merciful that
He never allowed me to be tested beyond
my ability.
Every now and then I'd get fellowship with
believers and that preserved me.
So, fellowship is important.
You can't live all alone.
You need fellowship.
But, you know, I mean, today you come
to a church where you're challenged all the
time to live for Christ, to deny yourself,
to live a holy life.
I never had a church like that in
my younger days.
And that's why I say that in my
case, fellowship wasn't going to be a big
help.
If I'd gone to some dead church where
they just preached boring Christianity, I'd just get
turned off.
But when you have the opportunity to be
in a good church, fellowship is a very
good thing.
To be in fellowship with those who have
a fervent love for Jesus.
Those are the people who should be your
best friends.
Not the...
You know, in every church there are those
who are in the core, who are devoted
to Jesus.
And then there are those who are on
the periphery.
Every church has got a peripheral group of
people who just come along and they're casual.
They're always talking about useless things and worldly
things.
Now, that's the type of people you keep
companionship with.
Well, that's the type of person you're going
to become over a period of years.
And don't think you'll be able to resist
it.
Because it says in 1 Corinthians 15, don't
be deceived.
Verse 33.
Bad company will ruin, corrupt good morals.
So, if you've got a good moral standard
in your life and you keep company with
people who are bad, it's going to corrupt
everything in your life.
Sure.
So, don't think that bad company will not
affect you.
Because it does affect you.
The type of company you keep...
I mean, even in the world they say
that.
The type of company you keep will show
me what type of person you are.
So, that's one thing which we have to
really seek to be free from.
And you know, when we are young, I
don't know whether you have this...
See, nowadays there are so many things in
which we can keep ourselves occupied, particularly computers
and internet and all that.
There are a lot of dangers there too.
But one of the dangers of all these
things that my growing up years, television was
almost unheard of.
I think it was invented only in the
1950s when I was a teenager.
So, we didn't have television.
I am very thankful to tell you honestly.
Because there is so much in television which
is so attractive.
I don't mean evil things.
So many other things which are so attractive
which can be a tremendous waste of time.
Good things.
But which are not necessary.
I mean, it gives you information.
For example, the study of science.
You go to something like Discovery Channel or
History Channel.
There are things you can...
Very interesting.
You see once in a while, OK, but
to just keep on, there is no end
to the accumulation of knowledge.
And you know the result of this.
The result of this is, today we have
a generation of people who don't know the
Bible, who are not studying the Bible.
It's true.
It's one of the greatest griefs of my
heart that we have young people who are
not serious students of the Bible.
Because they got so many other distractions.
I want to say, be careful in your
younger days.
Devote yourself to the study of the scriptures.
Because that will increase your love for Jesus
too.
See, I am just giving you some practical
helps.
Devote yourself to the study of the scriptures,
the New Testament and you know, we have
so many things to help us today in
the study of the New Testament.
We have a whole lot of tapes available
on number of Old Testament books, New Testament
books.
Study the scriptures.
Read books that help you to understand scripture.
I got a letter the other day from
a...
last week from a Roman Catholic old man
who...
I haven't met him yet.
But he said he had been living abroad
and he came back to India couple of
years ago and his sister was an old
nun who died, been a Roman Catholic nun
all her life and who died recently in
a convent somewhere in Kerala and he went
there to the convent and asked them, what
was my sister like?
And he said, your sister had such a
godly good testimony here, highly respected.
How did she spend her days?
And they said, she used to read most
of the time she'd read the Bible and
she'd read one other book, some Christian book.
So he said, can I see that book?
And that book was Beauty for Ashes.
And he'd never seen it, never heard of
me.
He took that book.
Imagine this old nun was reading it along
with the Bible and reading it many many
times.
So he took it back to Delhi where
he lives and he read it so many
times and he went to a Christian book
shop and discovered some other books of mine
and he wrote to me that, I have
read 18 books of yours many times over.
Can you see the hunger there?
See, we have them all available here and
I wonder if how many people have even
read through them once.
Okay.
Now this chap says, he says, from the
month of March onwards I've been wanting to
come and meet you because I want to
be born again.
I don't know how to do it and
I want to travel to Bangalore.
I inquired in the month of April and
you were not there.
I inquired in the month of May I
wanted to come for the conference.
I was told conference is only for some
people and I couldn't come.
Now I sent you this letter by courier
and I've got my cousin, nephew there to
ring you up and as soon as I
know that you are there I'm going to
book my ticket and come to Bangalore because
I want to be born again.
Now, let me ask you, do you think
God would probably do a little more for
somebody like that than for you if you
don't have that type of hunger after Him?
How many people would want to travel and
take a ticket and come all the way
from Delhi to Bangalore just to know how
to be born again?
See, God is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him and like the old saying,
familiarity breeds content.
We can get so familiar with certain things
that we don't value them anymore.
Just like that with the Jews.
Jesus said, the Queen of Sheba travelled all
the way from wherever Sheba is, many hundreds
of miles to come and see Solomon.
And Jesus said, someone greater than Solomon is
here, in your midst.
And you don't value Him.
So, God is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him and He's got no respect
of persons.
If He finds a Roman Catholic hungry after
Him, He'll meet with him.
And if He sees somebody else who's got
all his doctrines right and says, well, I'm
not a person who worships Mary and all
that, but doesn't have a hunger after God,
He's just going to miss out on what
God has.
So, if you, anything that takes away your
hunger for God, you must give up.
I want to tell you that.
If you find watching a lot of television
takes away your hunger for God, give it
up.
You read the story of David Wilkerson and
the cross and the switchblade, and you know
that whole story, the foundation for that story
was that one day when he was watching
television, as a young 28-year-old man,
God said, stop seeing that.
And he decided, he'd only spent half an
hour watching news or something.
This is when, 1960 or something, and when
television didn't have any filthy programs and he
decided that that half an hour that he'd
spent watching television every day, he'd spend in
prayer.
It's just a little discipline.
And it was in one of those times
of prayer when God put a little burden
in his heart to go up to New
York to try and help some of these
boys, young boys who were gangsters.
And from that came a whole ministry.
But it came out of a little discipline
where he saw something is taking away my
hunger and love for Jesus.
I don't know what it is in your
life, it may not be that, it may
be something else, it may be your job,
it may be, you know, we should work
hard in our job.
But I personally believe, from the time I
became a Christian, I lost ambition to go
to the top.
Because if I wanted to go to the
top, I'd have to sacrifice my Christianity, not
compromise, but be devoted to my job.
And I was not going to be devoted
to my job.
I would do my job faithfully, do the
minimum necessary for the salary they were paying
me.
Because every job is such that you can
spend as many hours as you like.
That's up to you.
But something else has to be cut out.
And I decided that I'm not going to
do that.
Before that, before I was converted, that was
everything for me.
But afterwards I said, I want to be
devoted to Jesus.
And you know, you see how people who
do science and research, they're always a challenge
to me.
They're so devoted to their research.
They sit late at night in the laboratories
and all, and they're determined to get to
the bottom of something.
When you're devoted to something, you forget about
everything else.
There are people who neglect their families to
do research.
The people are so impressed with computers that
they neglect their families.
We call them computer widows, we used to
call them.
They're so taken up with their, the people
who are devoted to their jobs.
But very often it is for some satisfaction.
I'm not talking about survival.
I mean, if your job is such that
you have to work so long to survive,
that's another thing.
But if you're giving more to your job
because it's not survival, it's a question of,
you want to get on in the world,
and get on, and be somebody big, and
earn much more, and all that.
Actually, you better forget about devotion to Jesus.
It's not possible.
You have to make a choice.
Is it this boyfriend or that boyfriend?
It's the same old question.
So, devotion to Christ is similar to the
devotion a research scientist has for his research,
and a businessman has to his business.
His mind is always thinking of how to
expand his business, or like a boy and
a girl who are in love with each
other, always thinking, where shall we meet next,
and what shall we do, and how can
we spend the time, and etc.
See, there is a, we have the ability
to be devoted, and we make a choice
what to be devoted to.
And that's where we make the mistake.
God says, I am the one you should
be devoted to.
And the world is full of people who
made the wrong choice.
And from this world, God has picked out
a few people, that's you and me.
And God has to love him.
And the sadness in God's heart is, not
that the worldly people don't love him, but
the people who claim to be his children
are not devoted to him.
The worldly people are devoted to their God,
but his children are not devoted to him.
And that is a form of idolatry.
You know, if you really examine your life,
many of you may discover, dear brothers and
sisters, you've got your feet in two boats,
that are going in opposite directions.
And you've got to decide to put both
your feet into one boat.
That's another way of saying what Jesus said
to the church in Laodicea, you be cold
or you be hot.
Don't be lukewarm.
I mean, live all out for the world
and live like that.
Or live all out for God.
That's the only way.
And you can hear all the pep talks
you like on being devoted to Jesus, and
you won't be devoted.
Unless you make a decision, you're going to
put both your feet in one boat, and
from now on, you're just going to go
in one direction.
See, the other thing that helps us to
love Jesus is what we read in Luke
chapter 7.
In Luke chapter 7 we read the story
of this woman who anointed the feet of
Jesus.
We know how she was a prostitute, she
was a sinful woman.
And she had taken the money which she
earned as a prostitute and poured it at
the feet of Jesus.
Simon the Pharisee, in whose house Jesus was
eating the dinner, said, hey, how does this
holy man accept this ointment bought with harlot
money?
In fact, there was a law in the
Old Testament in Deuteronomy 23 that harlot money
must never be given to God.
And he said, no, this can't be a
prophet.
I thought he was a prophet, that's why
I invited him home, verse 39, but he's
not a prophet.
And Jesus answered him, saying, Simon, I've got
something to say to you.
He said, there was a money lender who
had two debtors.
One owed him 500 silver pieces, and the
other 50.
Neither of them could pay up, and so
the money lender cancelled both debts.
Which of the two will be more grateful?
Or who will love him more?
Who will love him more?
That's the question.
You gave me no water for my feet,
but she's wet my feet with her tears.
You gave me no kiss, but she's been
kissing my feet.
You didn't anoint my head with oil, but
she anointed my feet with perfume.
For this reason I say to you, her
sins which are many have been forgiven.
It's like saying, because she loved much.
In other words, I know that she has
been forgiven much.
How do you know?
Because she loved so much.
That's what Jesus is saying.
Here is the proof, that she has had
many sins forgiven, because she is loving so
much.
She took her entire life savings and poured
it out at my feet.
And the other fellow, how do we know
that he was forgiven very little?
Because his love is so little.
So what do we learn from this?
That our love for Jesus is dependent on
what?
Tell me.
Any other answers?
How much we've been forgiven?
Right.
How much we realize we've been forgiven.
Is there anybody here who has been forgiven
very little?
Anybody among perhaps the young people, brought up
in good homes from childhood?
Some of them born into the church.
Can you say you've been forgiven very little?
There is nobody.
Everybody has been forgiven much, but some think
they have been forgiven little.
How do we know that?
Because they love so little.
But some realize they've been forgiven so much.
How do we know that?
Boy!
See their love for Jesus.
So you see, we need to ask God
to show us, how much he has forgiven
us.
We don't really need.
You just got to exercise your memory.
You don't need to ask God for that.
Just exercise your memory, and see how much
you've been forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.
That also helps us to forgive other people.
See these people who love Jesus very little,
they are very hard on others.
What a lot of husbands there are, who
are very hard on their wives, when they
make some small mistake.
Some small silly mistake, that a wife does
concerning some earthly thing.
This husband, who thinks he has been forgiven
very little, finds it very difficult to control
his temper.
It's usually some worthless earthly thing, leave alone
eternity, it won't even matter next month.
But, he's very upset.
Because he hasn't realized how much he's been
forgiven by God, concerning much more serious things
that he did.
I'll tell you honestly, the thing that's helped
me most in my life to forgive others,
is to understand how much God's forgiven me,
and how freely he forgave me.
It's taught me to be merciful to all
people.
And if you find it difficult to forgive
somebody, here's the reason.
If you don't love Jesus much, here's the
reason.
You feel that you have been forgiven very
little.
But we've been forgiven a tremendous lot.
And that's why you often hear me quoting
2nd Peter 1, that we should not forget
our purification from our former sins.
2nd Peter in chapter 1, it says, having
forgotten, verse 9, 2nd Peter 1, 9, speaks
about those who forget their purification from their
former sins.
Do you forget how much you've been forgiven?
Then, you'll be blind, like that verse says.
You'll be short-sighted.
Short-sighted means, you can't see eternity's values.
You see only the next 50 years' values.
You know how children are stupid.
They don't see ahead for 50 years.
They usually see just today, tomorrow.
As we grow older, we tend to look
a little further.
That's why children don't want to go to
school.
I mean, the first day you put a
child in the kindergarten, he doesn't want to
go to school.
He can't see the future.
But, then you see that same boy, when
he's in college, boy, he's studying on his
own, and his parents always say, hey, get
to bed, man.
They suddenly realize, they got to the future,
but they're still short-sighted, because they're thinking
only of a certain time.
Or they get a job, they get a
good job, and they're still short-sighted, because
they think of only a short time.
They don't think about eternity.
Is my life going to count?
Am I going to live on earth in
the way I should live?
Why are they short-sighted?
Because they've forgotten how much they have been
forgiven.
You know, when we are living in sin,
and many of you have had that type
of life, and you came to Christ and
you were forgiven, what tremendous gratitude you had.
But as time has gone on, and now
as you look back over the last many
years, it's been relatively free from those wicked
old days.
And we begin to forget all those old
days, how much we've been forgiven.
And if we forget how much we've been
forgiven, we love little.
It's true.
That's why just as much as we must
meditate on how much Jesus loved us, I
would encourage all of you to meditate on
all the wicked things that you did, frequently.
Am I telling you to get condemned over
them?
No.
No condemnation.
It's all forgiven.
It's not a single sin that you have
repented of, and confessed that it's not forgiven.
However gross it may be, however evil it
may be, it's cleansed.
But if you don't know it's cleansed, then
don't meditate on it.
You better first get sure that your assurance
of being forgiven, cleansed in the blood of
Jesus, is gone.
But once you're sure, I'm sure, absolutely sure,
that all my sins are cleansed in the
blood of Christ, so I can meditate on
them every day.
Because the more I understand how much He
forgave me, the more I love Jesus.
And not only that, I find another thing
happens when I meditate on my own sins.
I don't meditate on other people's sins so
much.
I tell you, you husbands and wives who
have a problem with each other, here's a
simple bit of marriage counseling.
Why do you meditate so much on your
partner's sins?
Because you don't meditate on your own.
That's why.
Why not switch?
Put the switch the other way from now
on and start meditating on your own sins.
And your wife will get a different husband,
your husband will get a different wife.
You won't be so impatient.
Do you know how impatient people are with
each other for silly little things?
Every, some small little thing, we jump, why
you do that?
Yeah, we have forgotten how much we've been
forgiven.
And I would encourage you to meditate on
it.
See, that woman, I mean, she was a
prostitute.
But, you don't need to be a prostitute
to know how much you've been forgiven.
The apostle Paul said, once said this in
Acts 23.
He said, a remarkable testimony which I certainly
don't have.
I don't know if any of you have.
In verse 1, Brothers, I have lived with
a good, perfectly good conscience before God right
up to this day.
What a testimony!
Even that rich young ruler said that.
From my childhood I've kept, of course the
standard was lower in those days.
It was only the law.
According to that they kept it.
And the same Paul says in 1 Timothy
1.15, I am the chief of sinners.
I am the greatest sinner in the whole
world.
How did this man, who never committed adultery,
never bore false witness, honored his father and
mother, from childhood, kept all the commandments, better
than probably all of us sitting here, could
say at the end of his life, I
feel I'm the greatest sinner of all.
Do you know how that was?
Because, I'll tell you, the closer you come
to God, the more you realize His holiness
and how you see sin in far greater
intensity than when you're far away.
And you see a lot of sins which
you don't see when you're far away from
God.
God is so holy that even the sinless
angels have to cover their faces.
When we come close to Him, we see
a lot of sins in us which we
never see otherwise.
And when you think you're okay, many of
us may think, I'm okay, I'm a good
Christian.
That reminds me of the child who just
learned the multiplication table and says, yeah, I
know everything about mathematics now.
What has he learned?
Up to twelve times multiplication table he's learned,
he thinks he knows everything in math.
And here's this PhD, post-doctoral studies math
student saying, boy, he says, math is such
a vast subject, I know almost nothing about
it.
See a different testimony from the seven-year
-old and the twenty-five-year-old who
is doing post-doctoral mathematics.
He feels he knows nothing.
It's like that when you get close to
God, you feel that, oh Lord, I know
almost nothing.
And how much sin there is in me,
lot of things I never thought were sin
before.
I want to say, dear brothers and sisters,
if you're getting light only on the same
old sins that you've always committed, you have
to say there's no progress in your life.
Progress means that we're really discovering new things,
not every day, but at least every year.
We're getting some light on something which we
never got light on before.
We're getting closer to God.
And I'll tell you, this is not by
spending many hours on our knees and the
Bible doesn't tell us to do that, but
it does tell us to love Jesus.
It's by keeping our heart devoted to Jesus.
So please remember these things and don't be
satisfied with the good testimony you have in
CFC or the good times of praise and
worship we have on Sunday.
Say, Lord, I'm thankful for all these, but
these can all give me a deluded opinion
of my own spirituality.
The real test of my spirituality is in
my secret life, how much do I love
you?
How much do I long to know you
better?
Anyway, that's a good beginning, what we've thought
of.