I want to speak this morning about faith.
In my own life, this is something that
I couldn't understand for many years, in the
earlier part of my life, and even in
the earlier part of my Christian life.
I wanted to get an answer from the
Word of God, because I saw this verse
in Hebrews 11 and verse 6, which said,
without faith it is impossible to please God,
for he who comes to God must believe
that He exists and that He is a
rewarder of those who seek Him.
So that verse taught me that whatever else
I may do, however holy I may be,
however loving, everything else, if I didn't have
faith, I couldn't please God.
That's something we need to think about seriously.
Many of us perhaps secretly congratulate ourselves that
we are not living in sin, we are
good, we are kind and loving, but without
faith it is impossible to please God, whatever
else you may have.
I think I must have first asked Jesus
to come into my heart when I was
about thirteen.
I don't know.
I don't know the date I was born
again.
It's not important.
It's good if you know it.
Some people know it.
But it's not a test of whether we
are spiritually alive or not.
I say that for the encouragement of those
who are not sure of the date of
their new birth.
I say, it's not by remembering your birthday
that you determine whether you are alive or
not.
Well, if you remember your birthday, that's good.
But if you don't, that still doesn't prove
you are dead.
We have lots and lots of people in
our country who don't even know the year
they were born, even physically.
But I was not sure.
I asked Jesus to come into my heart.
Did he come?
I don't know.
At the next meeting I would say again,
Lord, come into my heart.
And it wasn't just once or twice.
Over the period of six years, I must
have asked Jesus to come into my heart
more than a hundred times.
And I was never sure.
And I was like a plant tossed about
in the wind.
God had mercy on me.
One day when I was around nineteen, I
read this verse in John 6, 37.
Him that cometh to me I will never
cast out.
I saw there were two parts in that
verse.
One, what I had to do, which is
very simple, come to him.
The other was his part to receive me,
not to cast me out.
And in that moment I saw what a
terrible sin unbelief was.
I was saying, I have done my part,
but Lord, you have not done your part.
That is unbelief.
The Bible speaks of an evil heart of
unbelief.
Now we would think of an evil heart
of adultery, or an evil heart of murder,
or hatred, or wickedness.
That's why I said in the beginning, we
can congratulate ourselves if we don't commit these
sins.
But there are many, many Christians who don't
commit these sins, who have an evil heart
of unbelief.
They don't believe that God keeps his word.
When we confess our sins, 1 John 1,
9 says, if we confess our sins, he
is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
There again, there is my part, there is
God's part.
My part is to confess my sins.
His part is to forgive me, cleanse me
from all unrighteousness.
And when I go and confess that sin
again to God and say, well Lord, I
did that.
And then I go a third time, and
a fourth time, confessing the same sin.
I have an evil heart of unbelief.
I don't believe that God did his part.
I am doing my part.
I am faithful.
God is not faithful.
That's why it's evil.
Unbelief is insulting God, telling him to his
face that he's a liar.
I confessed my sin and you didn't forgive
me.
I came to you and you didn't accept
me.
It's not true.
That's why it's such an evil thing.
When I murder somebody, I'm not saying God
is a liar.
If you commit adultery, you're not saying God
is a liar.
You tell a lie, you steal, you're not
saying God is a liar.
But when you don't believe God's promises, you
are saying God is a liar.
And that's the greatest sin of all.
And that's why Jesus rebuked his disciples seven
times for unbelief.
I counted it once in the scriptures.
I never see him rebuking them for anything,
even when they were arguing at the Last
Supper, who was to be the greatest.
I mean, if I was there and I
was in Jesus' place, I'd say, oh no,
after three and a half years of teaching
you, still you fellows are seeking who's to
be the greatest.
He was gentle.
He said, well, you know, in the Gentiles,
they seek to be lorded over others, but
it should not be so among you.
He was so gentle for something which I
would have reacted so strongly against.
But when they did not believe him, when
there was a storm, or when he had
given them authority to cast out demons in
Jesus' name and they encountered a man with
a child demon-possessed and they could not
deliver him.
And times like that, he said, how long
shall I be with you, you people of
unbelief?
Why is it you couldn't trust me?
Do you know when Jesus reacted strongly?
Whenever he saw unbelief, whenever he saw people
calling God a liar, whenever he saw people
who appeared to be so holy, so good,
but they wouldn't trust God.
And there are lots of people sitting in
Christian churches like that, congratulating themselves, they're so
holy, they're so good, they don't steal, they
don't do any harm to anyone, they're always
very kind when they speak, but they don't
trust God.
Can you believe that Jesus is rebuking you
for unbelief perhaps this morning?
Well, I thank God that day, when I
read John 6.37, I was around nineteen
and a half, and I said, Lord, I
have come to you so many times.
Today I'm going to believe you've accepted me.
And I dropped an anchor that day, and
my ship has never drifted for forty-one
years.
And if any of you are sitting here
confused, particularly children growing up in godly homes,
many of you have probably asked Jesus to
come into your heart many times.
I want you to drop an anchor today.
If you've come to Jesus, he has not
cast you out.
There are no conditions.
You are to come just as you are.
That's the only way we can come.
He doesn't ask us to improve ourselves before
we come.
Just as you are.
And the worse you are, the quicker you
need to come.
It's like if a man has an accident
on the road, say, let's take you to
the hospital.
He doesn't say, no, let me change my
dress, let me clean myself up a bit,
and then go.
No.
Just as he is.
And the worse he is, the sooner he
needs to go to the hospital.
Just as he is.
That's how hospitals receive people.
They don't wait there until they are dressed
up and had a bath and things like
that.
No.
Just as they are.
And that's how we come to Jesus.
And it's his job to clean us up,
to give us a new heart.
But he can't do it if you won't
trust him.
If you won't believe what he says, him
that cometh to me, I'll never cast out.
And then years later, after I was born
again, and I started serving God, I felt
the need for power.
And I began to seek God for power.
Now the Bible says, whatever things you pray,
if it is according to the will of
God, we have the assurance that he hears
us.
And whatever things you pray, Jesus said, believe
that you receive them, and you shall have
them.
Now there are many, many things concerning which
we don't know the will of God.
We cannot ask for them with certainty.
You're interested in marrying someone, you don't know
whether that's God's will.
You can't ask for certainty saying, God give
me that boy or that girl.
You don't know whether it's God's will for
you to buy something for your home or
buy a house itself.
Many, many things we don't know God's will.
But there are certain things we know God's
will definitely.
It is God's will that we should have
our sins forgiven.
There's no doubt about that.
It is God's will that we should all
be filled with the Holy Spirit.
That is God's will for every single child
of God.
It's not for some spiritual elite class of
believers.
It's for everyone.
And one of the ways in which the
devil prevents people from seeking to be filled
with the Holy Spirit and saying, you're not
yet ready for that.
When will we be ready?
We'll never be ready, or you're not yet
worthy.
Do you think a day will come when
you'll be worthy to receive the Holy Spirit?
Impossible.
You'll never be worthy to receive the Holy
Spirit anymore than you'll ever be worthy to
receive the forgiveness of sins.
So I thought God to be filled with
the Holy Spirit, and I couldn't believe that
God had answered my prayer.
And I would pray again.
And that went for a number of years
like that.
There are two conditions to have rivers of
living water flowing from us.
Only two.
John chapter 7, verse 37 and 38.
Jesus, on the last day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried out saying, if any
man is thirsty, that's condition number one.
Let him come to me and drink.
I can't come to Jesus if I'm not
thirsty.
And there's a, there are different types of
thirst.
For example, I may say, well, I'd like
to have a glass of water right now.
Yeah.
But if a glass of water costs $10
,000, well, well, I don't think I'm that
thirsty.
But supposing I've been traveling in a desert
for a number of days without water, and
my body's drained out, and I'm about to
drop dead.
And somebody offers me a glass of water
for $10,000.
I'll say, please give it to me.
I'm ready.
Any price, all that I have.
That's the type of thirst.
Not the first type of thirst.
The second type of thirst is what Jesus
is speaking of here.
That's the reason why many people are not
filled with the Holy Spirit.
They are not willing to pay any price,
do anything.
They pray, yeah, Lord, that's a good thing.
I'd like to have, I'd like to be
filled with the Holy Spirit.
It's like saying, well, yeah, I wouldn't mind
having that ice cream.
But if it's not given to me, never
mind.
I'm not going to die if I don't
have it.
And that's the way a lot of people
pray.
Well, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Nothing happened.
Okay.
I've got to get on with life.
It's not everything.
God never answers prayers of such people because
he sees they're not thirsty.
They're not desperate.
This is not the most important thing for
them in life.
Yeah, it's one of the extra things like
the ice cream at the end of the
meal.
You won't die if you don't have it.
And when we treat the Holy Spirit like
that, we never experience His fullness.
Because God sees whether you value Him.
Whether we value.
So that's now condition number one.
We've got to thirst.
And the second thing Jesus said here was
we must believe.
Again, faith.
He who believes in me.
Verse 38.
As the scripture has said, from his innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water.
In the Old Testament, they couldn't experience this
from the innermost being.
It says the Spirit of God judges.
634.
Clothes, Gideon.
It was like a dress.
You could take it off and put it
on.
It wasn't part of a person's being.
David was anointed, but he said, take not
thy Holy Spirit from me.
It was a dress that could be taken
off.
It was on the outside, clothed with the
Spirit.
But now something new was going to happen
in the New Covenant.
This Spirit that clothed people for years in
the Old Covenant would now come inside.
And from the innermost being would flow rivers
of living water.
And this he spoke of the Spirit, which
those who believed in him were to receive.
For the Spirit was not yet given in
this way.
Because Jesus was not yet glorified.
And then some years later, just like in
my experience with being born again, a time
came when I came to the point where
I could believe.
And I said, Lord, I believe.
You've heard my prayer all these years.
I want to believe that you've granted my
request.
You've filled my heart with the Holy Spirit.
And faith was born in my heart.
And my life would never mean the same
thereafter.
And it's continuous.
There is no once-for-all experience that
guarantees that we're going to walk with God
forever.
That's a big mistake a lot of Christians
have made.
We need to take up the cross daily.
Luke 9, 23.
In Proverbs chapter 8, it says, Blessed is
the man who watches daily at my gates.
We need to listen to the word of
God.
God, every word that God speaks to our
heart every day.
We need to be filled with the Spirit
daily, continuously.
So, therefore, we need to have faith continuously.
We are to live by faith.
Just like we breathe continuously.
One deep breath is not going to take
care of me for the rest of my
life.
Well, it's good once in a while to
have deep breathing exercises, but we still need
to breathe regularly if we are to live.
Faith is like that.
We live by faith just like we live
by breathing.
Moment by moment.
And when I understood a little more about
this, about 20 years ago, I began to
see what faith really was.
It was a confidence in God and a
dependence on Him.
Two things.
A confidence.
I can trust Him.
I can trust Him with my whole life.
It's like putting money in a bank.
There are banks that are not very secure.
And if you know that a bank is
going to crash, you wouldn't put your money
there.
But if you have to put your money
somewhere, you may put a little bit because
you're not very sure whether that bank will
survive.
And you keep the rest with you.
Lots of Christians give themselves to Jesus like
that.
They're not sure whether this bank will crash.
Do you see the insult there is there?
Why is it that so many Christians do
not give everything they have, they are, their
time, their energy, their money, their ambitions, their
plans, everything to God and say, Lord, you
tell me how to live.
Tell me how to spend my money.
Tell me what I must do with my
life.
Totally everything is yours.
Why is it the rich young ruler was
not willing to give everything?
He thought Jesus was a bank that might
crash.
Now, if I were to put it like
that to you, you may say, well, I
don't believe Jesus is like a bank that
crashes.
Do you really believe He's a bank that
will last for eternity?
Then why haven't you given everything to Him?
Why haven't you put all your money at
His feet?
Have you done it?
No one can be my disciple, Jesus said,
who does not forsake all his possessions.
I cannot possess anything if I want to
be a disciple.
Now, I'm not just giving a pep talk,
my brothers and sisters.
I believe this is the central thing in
the Christian life.
If you've missed this, you've missed everything.
It's not a pep talk to just whip
us up this morning to get us all
stirred up and go home and say that
was a good message.
I hope it will change the whole direction
of your life.
And if it's done that with some people,
if it does that with some people this
morning, I'd say, well, God's been able to
accomplish what He wanted to say this morning.
And that is to get you to surrender
every single thing in your life to Him.
That's the way you prove that you've got
faith.
I can trust this bank.
I can put every last penny into it,
and I know they will take care of
it better than I can do it myself.
You know why we have so many fears,
anxieties, worries?
If I had five hundred thousand dollars in
cash with me and I had the option
to put it in a bank or keep
it at home in a town which is
riddled with crime, and I'm not very sure
of this bank, so maybe I keep fifty
thousand there.
I give my type to the bank.
And you understand the application.
And I keep four hundred and fifty thousand
by myself under my pillow at night.
Do you think I'll be able to sleep
properly that night?
Or any night?
There's crime, there are robbers, thieves.
I won't be able to leave my home.
I'll be worried.
I'll be anxious because I couldn't trust the
bank.
But if I put everything there, I can
sleep peacefully, let the thieves come.
Let them come when I'm not at home.
That is the secret.
That is the secret of a life of
rest in God.
We who believe enter into rest, we read
in Hebrews 4.
We who have put all our money into
the bank, we are at rest.
We who have given all our children to
God, we are at rest concerning even our
children.
God will take care of them.
God will determine everything concerning them when they
are sick, when they're healthy, when things go
wrong, when things go right.
It doesn't matter.
We are in the bank.
That's what faith means.
In fact, what a wonderful offer it is
when the secure bank of heaven says, give
everything to me, I'll take care of it.
Why do you want to try and safeguard
it yourself?
When we think we can plan our life
better than God can plan it, what does
it mean?
That means I don't have confidence in God.
I don't believe that he can plan my
life better than I can plan it myself.
What fools we are.
The unbelieving Christian is like that.
He thinks he can make a better deal
with his life than what God can.
He thinks he can find a better wife
than God can for himself.
He thinks she can find a better husband,
she thinks, than God can.
What a fool such a person is.
Is it really true?
Do you know everything about the future?
You don't even know what's going to happen
this evening.
Leave alone the future.
And here is someone who knows the whole
future.
Every little trap the devil has laid out
for you, every little problem that can arise,
everything that's going to happen from now till
all eternity, and he says, let me plan
your life for you.
And we hold it back.
What fools we are.
What fools the vast majority of Christians are.
You know, there are people who, nowadays, who
invest people's money, investment experts.
And there are people who've got a lot
of money who don't know how to invest
it in a way that'll get good returns.
They give it to these investment experts.
And usually, if they're not very sure, they'll
just give a little bit and see how
much he makes out of that.
But if they're confident, this man's done a
good job for so many people, he's trustworthy,
he'll give everything.
Now, can you give your whole future into
God's hands like that?
Can you put all your money in God's
hands and say, Lord, you are the greatest
investment expert I've ever known.
And all the money I have, all my
property and all my savings and all my
money, I want to lay it all at
your feet.
Not 10%.
That was old covenant.
All that I have, and I want you
to tell me how to spend it.
How much should I spend for my home?
How much should I spend for my family?
How much should I spend on so many
things I need?
He's not going to make us starve.
He's not going to make us live in
a slum.
He knows.
He's given us, the Bible says in 1
Timothy 6, 6, 17, he has given us
richly all things to enjoy.
God is not a spoilsport.
God's given us many things to enjoy, but
he will tell us to invest it in
a wise way, in a way that'll bring
returns for all eternity.
The best way we can use the money
God has given us on earth.
I want to say a word here.
You know, the Bible says in 1 Timothy
6, we brought nothing into this world and
we can take nothing out.
Therefore, that's why everything belongs to God.
There is a verse in 1 Corinthians 10,
26, which says, the earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof.
And the fullness thereof means everything that the
earth contains.
Sometimes we don't understand that clearly.
The earth is the Lord's and everything in
it.
That means all the gold and silver in
the world is the Lord's.
All the money is the Lord's.
It's not mine.
When I came to the world, I brought
nothing.
When I would go out, I can't take
anything out.
You know, that's why the Lord doesn't allow
us to take anything out when we leave
this world, because we brought nothing in when
we came in.
It's like if we, if we go with
our little children to somebody's house, and those
people in that house are kind enough to
let my little boy play with all their
toy cars and other toys over there.
And if one of my boys, as they're
going out, puts a few of those toys
in his pocket, well, if I'm a good
father, we go out of the door, we
check up the pockets before we leave.
And I say, well, son, when we came
to this house, we didn't bring anything in
our pockets.
And when we leave, we've got to leave
with empty pockets.
These folks allowed us to play with these
things while we were here, but now we
got to leave them behind.
That's exactly what God says when every man
dies.
When you came into this earth, your pockets
were empty.
You didn't have a thing.
You didn't have a stitch of clothing on
you.
And now you're leaving.
You've got to leave everything behind.
What you can take with you, though, is
your character.
What you have allowed the Holy Spirit to
work in you during your lifetime, the goodness,
the forgiving nature, the unselfishness, the mercy, the
purity, that's yours.
You can take it with you to eternity.
But all the other things were only a
loan.
I hope you remember that.
That every single thing, you may think that's
your property.
No, it isn't.
It's God's.
He's loaned it to you.
And he says, give it to me and
I will make maximum use of it.
And if you trust him, he will give
everything to him.
Everything.
Lord, my time, my energy, my money, even
my body, everything is yours.
You can do what you like with it.
That is faith.
I remember hearing the story of a doctor
here in the United States many years ago.
I think it was the early part of
the century, perhaps, Dr. Walter Wilson.
He was once in a meeting where he
heard someone speaking about being filled with the
Holy Spirit from Romans 12, verse 1.
Now, that's not the usual verse people take
when they talk about being filled with the
Holy Spirit.
Because Romans 12, verse 1 speaks about, present
your bodies a living sacrifice to God, which
is your reasonable service or spiritual service of
worship.
And the preacher said in that meeting that,
who is it who wants your body?
Not God the Father, he's in heaven.
Not God the Son, he already has a
body.
It's the Holy Spirit who wants your body.
Every part of your body.
The Holy Spirit's in the world and he's
looking for people's bodies.
So give your body to him.
So this man went home, Dr. Wilson, and
he laid on the floor.
And I don't remember his exact words, but
he said something like this.
He said, Lord, I'm going to take you
seriously.
He was already a born-again Christian.
And he lay on the floor and said,
from the crown of my head to the
sole of my feet, I give myself to
you.
Every part of this body in a sacred
transaction, I hand it over to you.
Eyes, ears, hands, legs, everything.
Now, Lord, you can do what you like
with this.
You can take this body and send it
as a missionary to Tibet or lay it
on a bed with cancer.
It's not my body anymore.
You can send it to Greenland or blind
the eyes.
It's not my body.
It's yours.
I have no more right over this body.
And he meant it.
Now, we can repeat the same words.
It may not mean it, but he meant
it.
And God filled him with the Holy Spirit
and power.
He never spoke in tongues or anything, but
he was filled with the Holy Spirit and
power.
And his life was transformed from that day.
He's written a book.
I think the title of it is The
Romance of a Doctor's Visit.
He was a medical practitioner.
And God used him to lead many, many
people to Christ.
But that was how he received the Holy
Spirit.
But that was how he received the Holy
Spirit.
You know, the Holy Spirit, one of the
things the Lord showed me about the Holy
Spirit is there's a difference between spirit-filling
and demon-possession.
The Spirit never possesses people.
He fills people.
You never read about spirit-possessed people in
the New Testament, spirit-filled people.
And you never read about demon-filled people.
You always read about demon-possessed people.
And there's a difference between being filled with
the Spirit and being possessed with a demon.
When a man's possessed with a demon, he
has no control over himself.
He does things which the demon's got total
control of his body.
And in a sense, the man's not even
responsible for what he's doing.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
He's saying things and doing things which are
under the control of a demon.
But not when the Holy Spirit fills a
person.
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
And you have more control over yourself when
you're filled with the Spirit than you had
before you were filled with the Spirit.
And that's a test I give to people.
I say, well, whatever experience you had, if
you found you couldn't control yourself, that probably
wasn't the Holy Spirit.
There are people who say, well, I began
to blabber something, I couldn't stop.
Well, that was certainly not the Holy Spirit.
Because if it was the Spirit, you could
stop.
You see, every gift of the Spirit is
something over which we have control.
The Spirit of God fills me and I
begin to teach the Word of God.
I don't say, well, I don't know when
I'm going to stop.
I don't know, maybe 3 o'clock this
afternoon or 6 o'clock tomorrow morning, I
can't stop.
It's not like that.
The Spirit of the Prophets is subject to
the Prophets.
And I can stop when it's time to
stop.
It's not beyond my control.
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
And a spiritual person will be the person
who has maximum control over his tongue, control
over his temper, control over his eyes, control
over what he does with his hands and
every part of his body.
But provided you've given your body to him.
If you haven't given it, he won't control
you.
He's a, Holy Spirit's a gentleman.
He's gracious.
He says, I stand at the door and
knock.
If you open that area of your life
to me, I'll take it.
And a lot of Christians are like people
who have allowed Jesus to come into one
part of their life.
Our home is like a, our heart is
like a 1,000-room house.
Have you seen these hotels at night, these
huge hotels?
Many, many.
And you know the rooms that are occupied
at night?
They've got lights.
And a lot of other rooms are empty.
When we can look at our home, our
heart like that, with 1,000 rooms, and
you ask Jesus to come into your heart,
and he's come into one room, that's all
you allowed him to come into.
Has he come in?
Yes, he has.
But has he got control over every room
in your house?
No, he hasn't.
That's the fullness of the Spirit, to let
him into every room.
Lord, every room.
Can I come into your library and throw
out some books?
You may, you may not want it.
Can I come into your finances room and
look over your accounts and your income and
expenditure and your tax papers?
And can I look through all that?
Well, he won't come in if you won't
let him.
You just want him to come and give
you forgiveness of sins?
You've got one little room lighted up in
your house?
Fine.
Can I come and control your eating habits?
Can I come and control your sleeping habits?
Can I come and control the clothes you're
wearing?
Can I look through your wardrobe and see
what type of clothes you have?
How many you have?
And why you have these type of clothes?
Can I control you a little bit there?
And you say, no, Lord, just we'll treat
you like an honored guest.
Just stay in the guest room and we'll
give you a good meal.
And don't come poking your nose into all
these other things.
Oh, do we respect him?
Of course, we respect him like an honored
guest to whom we'll give the best room
in the house and the best food.
But we don't want him poking his nose
into these other areas of our life.
And we pray, Oh God, fill me with
the spirit.
You won't be filled with the spirit in
a hundred years.
Yes, you can go.
You can go to some church where they'll
give you a little experience and you think
you've got something.
You've got nothing.
Don't be fooled by all that.
There's a lot of that type of deception
going on in Christendom today.
This is the way to get it.
Confidence in God.
I can trust it.
I can put all my money into that
bank.
I can trust him with every part of
my body.
Here is a verse which the Lord showed
me.
1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 13.
The last part, it says, the body is
not for immorality, but for the Lord.
And the Lord is for the body.
Did you get that statement?
The body is for the Lord and the
Lord is for the body.
If your body is totally for the Lord,
the Lord will be totally for your body.
That includes even healing and health.
I'm not saying we'll never get sick and
die.
I'm saying that as long as God wants
me to live on earth, if my body
is totally the Lord's, the Lord will take
care of my body.
From sickness, accidents, cancers, everything.
If the body is for the Lord, the
Lord is for the body.
Otherwise scripture is not true.
Problem is that a lot of people have
not given their body completely to God.
They want to use their eyes to look
at and read what they want and they
say, Lord, please be for my body.
No.
If the body is for the Lord, the
Lord is for the body.
They want God to use their tongue when
they get up to speak in the meeting,
but they don't allow him to use the
tongue the rest of the time.
It's not possible.
If you want God to use your tongue
in the pulpit, it's got to be his
24 hours a day, 365 days of the
year.
Then he'll be with you in the pulpit
as well.
The body is for the Lord and then
the Lord is for the body.
Every part of us, he can take care
of it.
This body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit, it says in verse 19.
So that's what we need to do.
You know, in the Old Testament, when they
offered a burnt offering to God, there were
many types of offerings, five of them, but
the burnt offering was a picture of total
sacrifice.
That was Romans 12.1, what you read
in Leviticus chapter one, the burnt offering.
And you couldn't take a bullock and put
it on the altar like that.
The Lord said, cut it up, cut it
into pieces and make sure every piece is
on the altar and then the fire will
fall.
That's how it was.
I can't go to God and say, Lord,
here's my body.
Cut it up.
Then you understand it.
Say, Lord, here are my eyes.
I never want again to read anything that
you don't want me to read.
I don't want to look at anything.
I don't ever want to look at a
picture for the rest of my life, which
you will not want me to look at.
Here are my ears, Lord.
I don't want to listen to anything that
you will not listen to.
Here's my tongue.
I never want to say anything in future
that you and I can't say together.
Piece by piece, here are my hands, laid
on the altar.
When the last piece is on the altar,
the fire will fall.
Sure.
Sometimes we say, there are people who say,
we are tearing.
Well, it's not you who is tearing.
God is tearing for you to put that
last piece on the altar, that's all.
Because the moment the last piece is there,
the fire falls.
He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit
and fire.
It's confidence.
It's based on confidence in God.
I trust God.
I can trust this bank 100%.
That'll take better care of my body than
I can take care of it myself.
That'll get better care of my finances than
any investment banker or any investment expert in
the world.
That can take better care of my future
than even my own dad trying to plan
my future.
God can plan everything.
I believe God's got a plan for our
life.
He's got a blueprint up there in heaven,
but He doesn't show it to those who
are not hungry and who've not given everything
to Him.
And even when they do that, He shows
it to them day by day, page by
page.
He doesn't give them the whole book.
But that's the best way to live.
Moses prayed in Psalm 90, the one Psalm
of Moses that is in the Bible.
He said in Psalm 90 verse 12, Lord,
teach us to number our days, that we
may apply our hearts to wisdom.
Teach us, Lord, that we've got so few
days on earth, it's like having very little
money.
You know, people who've got plenty of money
can throw it around.
But people who've very little money, and I've
seen lots of people in India like that,
and we have to, in the church, we
have to teach them how to live within
that income.
And then we teach them, cut out this,
cut out this, cut out this, and you
can live without debt.
So teach us to number our days means
the man recognizes, Lord, I'm not a rich
man.
I've got maybe 70 years, 80 years.
That's it.
Very little.
I'm a poor man.
I've just got few days on this earth.
And I want to be very careful.
I can't afford to waste money like people
think they're going to live for a thousand
years or 10,000 years.
I don't have a thousand years.
I've only got 70 or 80.
I've already wasted so many of them.
I've got so few left.
Now, Lord, the few little bit that's left,
I, teach me to apply my heart to
wisdom.
There are many things I can do with
these few days.
But there are only few things that will
count for eternity.
Help me to invest my life in a
good way.
And I don't know, Lord, there are a
lot of things I may do, which I
may think are good.
I may discover 10 years later, it was
an absolute waste of time.
And I can't afford this trial and error
method.
It's too late in life to try this
trial and error method, to go for some
new experience somebody's talking about there.
Some other church is talking about some other
experience there.
I don't have time to waste with these
trial and error methods.
Lord, I want you to plan my life.
Every detail, I give you my word.
You tell me to do it and I'll
do it.
Tell me to stay, I'll stay.
Tell me to go, I'll go.
I have no choice.
In any part of the world, I'm ready
to go at any time.
My life is yours.
My future is yours.
My time is yours.
My energy is yours.
My money is yours.
My family is yours.
And even if there are tears in my
eyes, there's blood on that plow, I'm not
going to look back.
That's what God's looking for.
When we give ourselves to God like that,
there's a beautiful verse the Lord showed me
once in John chapter 17, the secret of
Jesus' life.
I believe this is the reason why Jesus
lived such a fulfilled life on earth.
The most wonderful life that anyone could ever
live.
He wasn't rich.
He didn't have a big house to live
in.
He was one of the poorest people in
Palestine.
But no one ever lived on this earth
a more fulfilled, fulfilling, satisfying life than Jesus
did.
It was a life of faith.
That means a life of total confidence in
His Father.
Total.
Without any hesitation or reservation.
John 17 verse 10.
There's a little sentence here which sometimes we
read through John 17, you may have missed
it.
John 17 and verse 10, it says, All
things that are mine are thine, and all
that are thine are mine.
That's wonderful.
What an exchange.
All that is mine is thine, Father, and
all that is thine is mine.
Don't go the way of 10% and
say, Lord, 10% of mine is thine
and 10% of yours is mine.
I don't want that.
All that is mine is thine.
What do I have?
I have a certain amount of money.
I have a certain number of years ahead
of me on this earth.
I have health.
I have strength.
I have a house.
I have children.
I have so many things.
All of that.
Make a list of your possessions.
Forsake them all.
You'll be a disciple.
All that is mine is thine, and then
all that is thine is mine.
It's an exchange.
And you see the folly of so many
Christians in not making that exchange.
I think of myself like a beggar woman,
a beggar woman, sitting on the roadside, and
we see many of them in our country
with a little tin can, and I've got
maybe two or three cents in it.
That's all I have.
Even the man who's got millions in heaven's
eyes, it's nothing.
Two or three cents.
And here is this wealthy, handsome prince who
comes by my way, Jesus Christ, and says
to me, I want to marry you.
I want to give you everything I have.
If you'll give me everything you have in
that tin can.
And I say, well, Lord, let me think
about it.
Three cents.
You mean you want all three cents?
Yes, I want all three cents.
Can you imagine this foolish beggar woman?
And the interesting thing, the wonderful thing is
he still waits.
He doesn't say, okay, if you don't want
to forget it, I'm giving you such a
good offer.
No, he waits.
And he waits year after year, patiently.
When will we have wisdom?
When will we say, Lord, teach me to
number my day?
And say, Lord, it's unbelievable.
The gospel is unbelievable.
That he'd give me everything he has for
my two cents.
And what fools we are to say, I
want to pray about it.
I want to think about it.
Do you have confidence?
You don't have faith.
You can be a very good person, a
very kind person, a very helpful person, and
not pleasing to God, because without faith, it
is impossible to please God.
If you don't have confidence in Him.
If you have confidence, you'll say, all that
is mine is dying.
And he will say, he'll always do his
part.
All that is his will be mine.
Every blessing in the heavenly places will be
mine.
The Lord's asking me to give the little
things that he gave me in any case,
back to him.
He's just testing me.
That's all.
He doesn't want it.
He owns the heaven and earth.
What does he want with my petty millions?
My body, he's got hundreds of bodies, but
he still asks for me, because he wants
to make my life so rich, and so
useful, and so fruitful, so that when I
stand in eternity at the judgment seat of
Christ, I'll have no regret, because I have
total confidence in God.
There's a little poem I read many, many
years ago, which says something like this, when
I stand at the judgment seat of Christ,
and he shows me his plan for me,
the plan of my life, as it might
have been, and I see how I checked
him here, how I stopped him there, and
I would not yield my will, will there
be grief in my Savior's eyes.
Grief, though he loves me still.
And it goes on to say in that
poem, I quote it in that book of
mine, Finding God's Will, I stand there, stripped
of everything but his grace, and I bow
my uncrowned head, and I look back over
the paths I cannot retrace now, sit down
forever.
He would have me rich, but I stand
there poor, stripped of all but his grace,
while memory runs like a hunted thing, down
the paths I cannot retrace.
Think of it.
We're going to stand there one day, and
our memory will run over the years we
lived, the places we would not yield our
will.
When he told us to humble ourselves and
go and apologize to someone, we stood on
our pride, and that day we will see
the years of our life which were wasted,
that restitution we would not make, that self
-justification where we stood on our rights, and
what we missed for eternity, and we'll never
be able to live our life again.
And it goes on in that poem in
the last verse to say, Lord of the
years that are left to me, I give
them to thy hands.
Take me, break me, use me to fulfill
the pattern you have planned.
And that's why I say it's wonderful if
you young people can be gripped by that
now, before you waste all your life, to
have confidence in God, to put everything into
that bank of heaven, and say, Lord, it's
worth it.
I'm so thankful as I look back over
40 years of my life, as far as
I can remember, from the time I gave
my life totally to Jesus, I never sought
for money.
I said, Lord, I want your will, because
I know your will is the best.
I want to do your will.
Many times I've made mistakes, I've blundered, I've
slipped up, but when I knew something was
God's will, I'd say, I don't care how
many people misunderstand me, I don't care how
many churches throw me out, I'm going to
stand for your will, and I've never regretted
it till today.
I want to say to you, I want
to recommend that part to you.
I'm not saying that after one or two
years, I'm saying that after 41 years.
That's the best way to live.
The Apostle John, the age of 95, after
having walked with God for 65 years, writes
these words in 1 John chapter 5 and
verse 3, his commandments are not a burden.
Think of that testimony from a man who's
walked with God for 65 years, saying, none
of God's commands are a burden.
I was so happy to keep all of
them.
The devil's always been going around saying to
people, well, it's a burden, to obey God,
it's a burden to obey God, it's a
burden.
Oh, you can't keep all the commandments, that's
a burden.
And then Jesus lived on earth and proved
that the devil was a liar, that it
was not a burden to obey God.
It was a burden, it was a burden
not to obey God.
Come to me all you who are burdened
and heavy laden.
That my yoke is easy, my burden is
light.
And throughout these 2000 years, God has wanted
living testimonies in all parts of the world
who will prove to the world and to
the principalities that God's commands are not a
burden, that his commands are the best for
us, that God can find people on earth
who will give everything to him so that
he can give everything of his to them.
Total confidence in God, that is faith.
But it's more than that.
Faith, I also said, is dependence upon God.
See, I have confidence in God, this is
the thing God showed me about 20 years
ago, and I've written it in a book
called Secrets of Victory.
Faith is the leaning of the whole human
personality upon God in absolute confidence.
Just what I said just now, his perfect
wisdom, he can plan my life better than
anyone on earth can.
His perfect love, he loves me so completely,
totally, I don't have to doubt him, I
can leave everything in his bank, and his
almighty power.
God's power is so sovereign, it controls all
the events of my life, all the people
who've got to deal with me, they're all
controlled by God.
You know, I could never think of living
a life of victory if it were not
that God's almighty power promises me that he
will never allow me to be tempted beyond
my ability.
There's a wonderful promise like that in 1
Corinthians 10, 13.
So if the devil is planning a massive
temptation for me, God tests it out first.
Is he able to bear it?
Not yet, so he filters it.
It won't come to me.
And the temptations I faced last year, if
they had come to me 25 years earlier,
I may have fallen.
It was too much for me.
It's like you wouldn't allow a little child
to carry a heavy suitcase.
If we are traveling and we've got many
pieces of luggage, we distribute the luggage according
to the ability of each child.
Well, that little child can carry a little,
small little bag perhaps, and the older one
can carry something heavier, the older one still
heavier, and the strongest one can carry the
heaviest suitcase.
That's how God is.
He will never allow us to be tempted
beyond our ability.
That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 10,
13.
But in every temptation, he will make a
way of escape for me.
Either that is true or it's not true.
If those of you are not familiar with
that verse, I encourage you to turn to
1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.
It says in the middle of that verse,
God is faithful, and there it specifically says,
God is faithful to ensure this, that you
will never be tempted beyond your ability.
But with every temptation, he will provide a
way of escape.
That means every temptation can be overcome.
I don't have to be trapped there.
Temptation is like a mouse trap, which the
devil's got for me.
There's a bait there, and like a foolish
mouse, I go in and I bite the
bait and I get trapped.
But there's a way of escape.
I don't have to fall in that temptation.
I don't have to be trapped.
The Holy Spirit will warn me.
When I have to turn to the left
or the right, they turn away from there.
There's a temptation there.
If you're sensitive to the listen to the
voice of the Spirit, there's a way of
escape in every single temptation.
Otherwise, God is not faithful.
It says your God is faithful.
And that's why we can boldly proclaim that
sin will not have dominion over us.
Because we're under grace.
Because God's almighty power will ensure that it
doesn't go beyond my ability to bear.
Sometimes people say, well, if we follow these
Christian principles and we always turn the other
cheek and never retaliate and never take revenge
and never sue the fellow who's trying to
sue me, people will take advantage of you,
they say.
People will just treat you like a doorman.
That's true, if God is not almighty.
I agree fully.
I'd be scared to obey those commandments if
my God were so small that he couldn't
control those people.
But if my God is almighty, what do
I have to worry?
I faced some tremendous pressures from people who
hated me and wanted to harm me in
many ways.
And I'll give you my testimony.
In 60 years, nobody's ever succeeded in harming
me.
All things work together for my good.
For my very best.
Because I have a big God.
Sometimes I sit outside and look at the
stars and I think, boy, what a huge
universe.
Massive stars.
I read in a science book once that
there's one star, which is so big, listen
carefully, which is so big that the entire
solar system, that means the sun, moon and
star, earth and the planets, can all rotate
inside it if it were hollow at the
correct distance.
You know how big the solar system is.
Millions of miles.
And that's the diameter of this one star,
which is so far away that it looks
like a little speck.
This massive universe that God runs and has
run for millenniums and thousands of years.
And in the midst of this massive universe
is a small little speck called the earth.
A little speck of dust.
And on that little speck of dust are
still smaller specks of dust like you and
me.
And this small little person has got a
problem.
Another speck of dust is trying to harm
it.
Or 25 specks of dust are trying to
harm it.
And this person's God cannot help him.
It must be some other God.
I sit back there and say, oh God,
what a fool I am to think that
any of these is a problem big for
this huge almighty God who is running this
universe.
I would encourage you sometimes to sit outside
and meditate and say, what is man?
How great my God is.
What is there that he cannot handle?
That difficult person, a thousand difficult people, a
million difficult people.
Sometimes my faith is so strong, I say,
Lord, I can handle the whole world.
Let all six billion people stand against me.
I can handle all of them if you
are on my side.
And the Lord says to me, all you
got to do is keep your conscience clear.
Never have anything on your conscience between you
and me and between you and your fellow
being.
Always do more if you are in doubt.
I remember once when I had to return
a certain amount of money when I was
converted and I was baptized, the Lord told
me to make restitution to the government of
taxes that I cheated the government on.
And I was calculating at that time, it
was about three or four months of my
salary that I had to return at that
time.
And I was thinking now, how much is
it, Lord?
I'm trying to calculate all the taxes I
owe back and not sure whether it's one
thousand rupees or one thousand two hundred rupees.
I wasn't sure.
Is it a thousand rupees I have to
pay back or a thousand two hundred rupees?
And you know how human nature is.
When we are in doubt, we take the
lower amount and say, OK, let me pay
back a thousand rupees.
And that day I was reading Numbers chapter
five and I read in Numbers chapter five
that if a man commits a sin and
is guilty, verse seven, he must confess his
sin that he has committed and he must
make restitution in full and add twenty percent
and give it to him he is wrong.
It was so exact.
The Lord said not one thousand, add twenty
percent and make it one thousand two hundred
and give it back.
I gave it back.
It was a large amount of money for
me then.
It was about four times what I was
earning and I was earning a good salary.
It was about four months salary.
But if I hadn't done it then, I
would have not had God with me.
I'd have been dragging a chain for thirty
eight years and wasted my life.
Always err on the side of doing more
rather than less.
Of giving more rather than less when you're
in doubt.
Zacchaeus didn't want to make any mistake.
He said, I'll give back four times what
I took interest in everything calculated so that
nobody ever feels that I cheated him.
And Jesus said, salvation is coming.
And the second thing the Lord said to
me was, keep a good conscience.
That's one.
And second, always humble yourself.
Always humble yourself.
Because I give grace only to the humble.
And that's what I've sought to keep before
me always.
Never to compare myself with other people because
that's easy to get puffed up that way.
To compare myself with Jesus and then we
have no problem being humble.
You know that the reason why God can't
support some people is because they're proud.
And you know how pride comes here.
You don't go to school.
Children go to mostly home school, but in
India there's no home schooling.
Everybody goes to school.
And I use this illustration from school.
I said suppose a child studying in a
school gets 15% in mathematics.
Can he come home rejoicing and happy saying,
mommy I came first in the class?
I said, yes he can.
If all the others in the class got
5% and 2% and 3%, the
one who got 15% came first.
How does pride come?
I mean 15% is very poor mark,
but he's still proud.
Because pride comes by comparison.
Lord I thank you I'm not like other
men.
They got 3%, I got 5%.
Okay, now you take that same child and
put him in another school where everybody's getting
90%, 95%, 98%, 100% and suddenly he
becomes humble.
How is that?
Humility comes by comparison also.
So that's the answer.
All the pride there is in any human
being whether pride of good looks or pride
of intelligence or pride of spirituality or pride
of the way he prays or the way
he preaches or Bible knowledge or anything, always
comes by comparison with other people who are
inferior to him in looks or intelligence or
preaching ability or Bible knowledge or everything.
Always by comparison.
How shall we be humble then?
Very simple.
Looking unto Jesus.
Lord I want to keep my eyes on
you.
I want to compare my Bible knowledge with
yours.
I want to compare my preaching ability with
yours.
I want to compare my healing ability with
yours.
I want to compare my anointing with yours
and I want to compare my looks with
yours and I want to compare everything with
you.
You'll never have a problem with pride for
the rest of your life.
But when you turn your eyes away from
Jesus like Peter when he turned his eyes
away from the Lord and he's walking on
the water you know what happened.
He sank immediately.
Didn't even take a second.
That's when we begin to sink.
When our eyes are off the Lord.
Dependence upon Him.
That's the way of faith.
Looking unto Jesus.
I see that looking unto Jesus is just
another way of saying have faith.
That's what faith is.
Looking unto Jesus.
Dependence upon Him.
In absolute confidence in His wisdoms.
Perfect wisdoms.
Perfect love.
His almighty power that controls the people who
come into my life.
That controls the circumstances of my life and
makes everything work together for my good.
That is God's will for that's the way
He wants us to live.
I think of two miracles.
In fact all the miracles that Jesus did
teach this principle but I just want to
point out two in John's gospel.
The first and the last.
In John chapter two it says there was
no wine at this feast.
I mean they ran out of wine and
then we read here that Jesus was there
in the midst of the servants.
He's usually found among the servants and He
told them to fill those six water pots
with water and then He told them to
carry it out and give it to the
servant.
Now Jesus could have filled those water pots
with wine.
He could have converted the air into wine.
Don't you think so?
Would that have been more difficult?
Those empty water pots He could have just
filled them with wine but then He would
have done the miracle all by Himself and
that's just not His way.
He always wants to use man and so
He gives them a part to do.
You fill the water pots with water I'll
turn it into wine.
You do the easy part and I'll do
the difficult part.
That's God's way and they do the easy
part and He turns it into wine and
they go out serving and those people don't
know that Jesus did this miracle over here.
It was only water.
By the time it came to them it
was wine.
That's the way to serve.
It's not difficult to serve the Lord.
He never asks us to do more than
we can.
He tells us to do the easy part.
Many times I cannot think the number of
times in my life when I've got up
to speak and I said Lord it's only
water but by the time people get it
it's wine.
It's wine and they don't know that I
didn't produce it.
They don't know that I just went with
a little water to Jesus and He turned
it into wine and gave it to people.
It says here they did not know where
it came from.
Verse 9 But the servants knew and I
know even if you don't.
It's so easy to serve the Lord if
you have faith.
But if you don't have faith.
If the servants say well what's the use
of filling it with water.
What the folks need here is not water
they need wine.
If they had gone under that argument nothing
would have happened.
When we don't have faith.
When we can't say Lord I trust you.
It was the same in the feeding of
the 5,000.
Don't you think Jesus could have produced loaves
from nothing.
Don't you think He could have produced fish
from nothing.
But no.
He takes that little boy's lunch packet and
says give it to me son.
And lets you and I do a miracle
here.
And He multiplies the loaves.
That's all we got to do.
We have only so little and we give
it to Jesus and He can feed multitudes.
Rivers of living water.
And I can imagine that little boy went
home that day and said mommy I and
Jesus fed 5,000 people today.
Notice the order.
I and Jesus fed 5,000 people today.
That's the way human beings are.
I've often thought what is it to serve
the Lord.
It's like if I'm carrying a big table
from one room to another and my little
3 year old boy comes and says Daddy
can I help you.
I'll never say no.
I say sure son.
Come and hold that little corner.
And he holds that little corner and I'm
carrying the table across to the other side.
And he's so happy.
And he goes home and says mommy I
and Daddy carried that table to the other
room.
When people boast about what they've done for
the Lord and how many souls they brought
to the Lord.
Well they've gone here and they've done this
and that and the other.
It's never forgotten.
But it's so easy really.
When all that little that we have, our
two cents we give to Him.
All that is His is ours.
Now coming to the last miracle.
John chapter 21.
That was the last miracle Jesus ever did
on earth and He was teaching them a
lesson there.
He was telling them.
He was teaching them.
It was a picture of life under the
law.
New covenant and old covenant.
It's old covenant and new covenant there in
that last miracle.
There we read the disciples saying you know
Simon Peter says verse 3 I'm going fishing.
He's the one who's just denied the Lord
and he says well I tried being an
apostle.
I'm a failure there.
I denied the Lord.
But there's one thing I can do.
I've been a fisherman so many years that
the field I can if I'm no good
as an apostle I'm pretty good as a
fisherman.
I'm going to go fishing.
You know all of us have got certain
strong points and that's the point at which
God wants to break you.
In Peter's case it was his fishing.
I don't know what it is in your
case.
But that was Peter's attitude.
Well even if I'm no good as an
apostle I'm pretty good as a fisherman.
And the Lord from heaven says okay go
ahead and try.
And they tried.
Eight o'clock no fish.
Ten o'clock no fish.
Twelve o'clock no fish.
He's never had a night like this.
He's learning about the new covenant here.
He didn't know that.
Two o'clock no fish.
Four o'clock no fish.
Four thirty.
We better give up.
And they turned their ship to go home
and there they see Jesus standing on the
beach.
He always comes at that point when we
have come to the end of ourselves.
That's what the law teaches.
It says in the Old Testament when the
men of war who came out of Egypt
in the wilderness, the men of war had
all died to the last man.
Six hundred thousand of them.
Then he took them into Canaan.
You understand the principle there?
The men of war, every last one has
to die.
And that took, it took two years for
them to go from Egypt to Kadesh Barnea
where they were in the borders of the
promised land and then it says they wandered
for 38 years.
Till every last man of those men of
war died.
God said, now you're ready.
Now all the men of war have died.
All the strong fellows are dead.
All the experienced warriors are all dead.
Ok, now you're ready to go in.
Kill these giants and occupy Canaan.
It's the lame who take the prey.
That's what the scripture said.
Let the weak say, I'm strong.
Let the poor say, I'm rich.
Because of what the Lord has done for
me.
That's God's way.
And so he waits till they come to
an end of themselves.
It's like that other man.
You know, in the pool of Bethesda we
read, there was another man lying there.
You know for how long?
Anyone knows?
38 years.
Exactly the period they wandered from Kadesh Barnea.
It's the picture of life under the law.
He lay there for 38 years in the
pool of Bethesda.
He tried every time to jump in when
the angels stirred the water, but he always
missed it.
Somebody else got in before him.
Maybe after the 10th year he said, boy,
I'm going to try harder next year.
Till somebody else got in.
By the time it came to 38 years,
he stopped trying.
He said, I'll never make it.
And then Jesus comes to him and says,
do you want to be made whole?
He says, Lord, I've got no man.
You don't need any man.
You just need me.
And he healed him.
What is the message in all these things?
You have to come to that zero point,
to the end of yourself, where your confidence
in your own ability is gone.
Where your dependence on your own strength is
gone.
Abraham.
Sarah probably couldn't produce a son, but Abraham
could.
So he did.
Ishmael caused problems for God's people for 4000
years.
Right up until today.
And then a day came, I think, when
even Abraham's ability was gone.
Then God said, okay, now I'll give you
a son.
When Abraham was 86, Ishmael was born.
At that time it was difficult for him
to get a son through Sarah.
By the time he was 100, it was
impossible.
And then it was done.
There are three stages in God's work.
Difficult, impossible, done.
So if you're in the difficult stage, you've
got to wait a little longer, till you
realize this is impossible.
Then it'll be done.
Till you realize you cannot get into the
pool, even if you try for another 10
years.
And then the Lord says, do you want
to be made whole?
Do you want to live a life of
victory?
And that's what the Lord says here too.
Who said Jesus didn't have a sense of
humor?
He said, well boys, you got any fish?
He knows the answer.
No.
He said, okay.
Cast your net on the right side.
He doesn't say, just wait, I'll do a
miracle, I'll make the fish all jump into
the boat.
You've got to do your part.
Who said man doesn't have any part?
If sanctification was all God's part, you know
all of us would be perfect.
Why are we not perfect?
If it was all God's part, it certainly
can't be all God's part.
Then we've got to blame God for all
our unsanctified life and behavior.
It's not all God's part.
We have to do a little part.
We have to give our five loaves and
two fish.
We have to fill the empty water pots
with water.
We have to cast the net on the
right side.
We've got to do something.
It's very little.
The miracle is His, but we've got to
do something.
We've got to take up the cross.
He's not going to put it on our
shoulders like the Roman soldiers do, put it
on Simon of Cyrene's shoulder.
He never forces a cross on anyone.
Roman soldiers do that.
He says, if any man will, let him
take up the cross.
That's God's will.
We've got to do our little part.
It's so little.
It's like that little child of mine holding
the corner of the table.
We're co-workers with Jesus.
What an honor.
I just held the little corner of the
table and he calls me a co-worker,
a partner.
It's unbelievable.
I give my little two cents and he
says, you and I are partners from now
on.
He with his millions and I with my
two cents.
I can't understand how anybody won't be a
wholehearted Christian.
I can't understand how foolish believers are.
I mean, I can understand why the unbelievers
are foolish.
Their eyes are blinded.
But what about believers who say their eyes
are open to see Jesus?
You haven't seen Him.
You haven't seen how wonderful He is.
You haven't seen how loving He is.
You haven't seen how wise He is.
You haven't seen how almighty He is.
I want to say this, my brothers and
sisters.
Have you come to the end of yourself?
Have you come to the place where you
say, Lord, I tried, tried for victory and
I failed?
Don't think that was a waste of time.
That was also part of your education to
teach you that you cannot make it.
That human strength cannot make it.
You know, if God gave me victory over,
let's say, anger, very quickly, what would happen?
I would be proud.
It would be like God pulling me out
of a ten foot pit called anger and
my falling into a hundred foot pit called
spiritual pride.
Is that victory?
That's not victory at all.
The most difficult thing for God is to
give a man victory and keep him humble
at the end of it.
And in order to accomplish that, God allows
us to be like these people who went
catching fish.
We try and we try and we fail.
Why didn't Jesus come at 6.30 the
previous evening?
Why did He wait till 4.30 the
next morning?
Was it because He thought they may make
it?
No, He knew right in the beginning they
wouldn't make it.
But they had to learn a lesson and
you have to learn a lesson too and
I have to learn it too.
We have to try and fail and try
and fail.
That's what the Lord taught the Israelites for
1500 years.
They tried and they failed and they tried
and they failed.
He said, OK, in the fullness of time
God sent His Son.
In the fullness of time God sent His
Son there to the seashore to fill their
boats with fish and in the fullness of
time He will come to you as well.
When?
What is that fullness of time?
When you come to the end of yourself.
This is not a pep talk.
This is not theory.
It really works.
It's true.
But I have to come to the end
of myself.
That's when I experience the power of His
Holy Spirit.
When I'm weak, then I'm strong.
But I have to become weak first.
My strong point, you may say, well, I
can't do this, but I can do this.
God says, OK, go and try.
I can't be an apostle, but I can
fish.
OK, go ahead and try.
He'll make us fail.
If He loves you, He'll make you fail
and fail and fail and fail till you
come to the end of yourself and then
He'll fill your boat with fish.
That's God's way, brothers and sisters.
He's on your side.
I want to say one last thing.
God is always on your side against Satan.
Please remember that.
No matter how deep you have sunk into
sin, no matter how much you have backslidden
as a believer, God is on your side
against Satan.
Even if you have sinned, you have been
disobedient, you have been rebellious, if there's somebody
here like that, I want to say to
you, God is still on your side against
Satan.
He wants to help you through.
Think of this.
Supposing your 12-year-old boy is a
very, very naughty, rebellious, stubborn, naughty boy who's
been disobedient all his life and one day
he's been especially disobedient and he won't listen
to you and he bangs the door and
goes out of the house.
And then a little later in the yard,
you hear him screaming and you go out
and you see him standing there with his
back against a tree and a cobra, one
of the most poisonous snakes, standing with his
hood up ready to sting him.
What will you as a mother say?
Go and sting him.
Sting him.
He deserves it.
He's been rebellious, he's been stubborn.
Sting him to death.
Which mother will say that?
Anybody here?
Which father will say that?
Do you think God is worse than you?
You've been stubborn, you've been rebellious, you've disobeyed
Him all your life.
You've banged the door on God and gone
out and now you're in trouble.
God's better than your father or mother.
That mother will take a stick and kill
that snake and bring you back in and
that's what God wants to do.
He's always on your side against Satan and
He'll try till the day you die to
bring you to this glorious life of faith
but you have to do your little part.
You have to say, Lord, I trust you.
You're the best bank I can give, put
everything I have in and I want to
do it this morning.
Will you say it?
Let's pray.
It's time for you to take a decision
but I don't want to pressurize you into
it.
Jesus said, sit down, count the cost and
if you still value your two cents, keep
it.
But if you think this is the most
fantastic exchange program you've ever heard in your
whole life, say, Lord, what a fool I
have been.
So many years of my life wasted when
they could have been years of rich, fruitful
service to other people which I could have
spent building the church, glorifying God.
Dear Lord, take every part of me from
head to foot, my eyes, my ears, my
tongue, my hands, my feet, my passions, my
future ambitions, my money, my property.
It's all for your kingdom.
Nothing for me.
It wasn't mine to begin with.
You gave it to me as a loan.
I thought it was mine like a fool.
I realized it's all a loan.
My body is a loan from you.
I give it back to you, Lord.
All that I have and all that I
am, this moment in a sacred transaction, I
lay it on the altar.
Send the fire, Lord.
Consume it.
Burn it up.
Send the fire of heaven upon my life.
Fill me with the Holy Spirit.
Baptize me in fire and keep me glowing
till the end of my days.
Keep my vision on the things that are
unseen, that are eternal, that I might live
for that all my days.
Lord, in this simple act of surrender, I
give myself to you and I believe the
transaction is done.
As I have sincerely offered myself to you,
I believe you have done your part.
I have confidence in you.
I want to live the rest of my
life leaning upon you, looking at you, not
looking at others, looking at you, walking in
your footsteps.
Help me, Lord.
Lord, answer the prayer of those who are
sincerely crying out to you this morning.
You see hearts, you see longing hearts, thirsty
hearts, who would be willing to pay anything
for the living water.
Please fill with your Holy Spirit.
Answer by fire from heaven, without emotion perhaps,
but with a deep work inside the heart.
With or without emotion, we leave it to
you, Lord.
But do a deep work of setting people
on fire today.
We ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.