In this sermon, the speaker uses the analogy of a hotel with many rooms to illustrate the Christian life. He emphasizes the importance of having nothing to hide and having a good and loving attitude towards others. The speaker also highlights the significance of speech, comparing it to salt that adds flavor to food. He encourages believers to let their speech always be with grace. Additionally, the speaker discusses the connection between the heart and the face, stating that one's face mirrors their heart. He emphasizes the importance of having a joyful and radiant countenance as a reflection of a heart that is aligned with God.

The book of Ecclesiastes is a book that contains a mixture of divine wisdom and human wisdom. God has allowed it to be put in the Bible to show us how the wisest man, humanly speaking, that ever lived, Solomon, could get corrupted when he went astray from God. He still had, you know, he started his life with all that divine wisdom but as he went along he drifted and he still had bits of that divine wisdom but mixed up with human wisdom and God in his great wisdom has allowed it to be there to show us that human wisdom is not divine wisdom. Divine wisdom is in Proverbs, but in Ecclesiastes there are certain things which are true. There are some amazing statements there which are really true, but you've got to be careful, you've got to sift your way, find your way through it. Anyway, here is something that's really true, which you need to think of. It's in Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Some may say, why has God put it in scripture? Is it inspired scripture? It isn't inspired scripture, but, you know, just like it says right in the first verse, these are the words of the preacher, it's like it says in Psalm 14, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Is there a verse in the Bible which says there is no God? There is, but it's prefaced by saying the fool has said that. So here is what a wise human being said and that's what's written in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter 8, and the last part of the first verse, a man's wisdom illumines him, lights up his face and causes his stern face to beam, to beam with brightness, and the Good News Bible, it says, it makes him smile and removes all the frowns. Here in the Message Bible it says, the wisdom puts light in his eyes and gives gentleness to his words and his manners. Now, naturally speaking, as the children of Adam, we are not gentle and we don't have wisdom and our faces are mostly stern and rarely beam with light. But as we move out of Adam into Christ, again, things don't change overnight. But the intention is that we shall grow in wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And as we walk in the fear of the Lord, we'll get more and more wisdom and that wisdom will first of all come in our heart, but what's in our heart will be seen in our face and in our eyes and in our total personality. You know how, I mean, all human beings also know you can see anger in a person's eyes and his face, you can see anxiety in a person's frown and his face and gloom you can see in a person's face. I mean, everybody in the world knows that. And if the light of the world is living in our hearts and we are growing in wisdom, it should put a light and a sparkle in our eyes, removing the evil, the effects of evil that have been upon our eyes and our face because of foolishness. When it says foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him, we read in Proverbs. All of us are children, were children and foolishness is bound up in our heart. That's how we are born. And as we grow up, if we allow the Lord to apply his rod of correction to us, the promises in Proverbs, the rod of correction will drive it far from him. Foolishness can be driven far from our life if we accept the Lord's disciplines and his rebukes. As many as I love, the Lord says in Revelation 3.19, I rebuke and I discipline because he wants us to be wise. And when that wisdom comes in, the foolishness goes away, and then it begins to be reflected in our eyes, it begins to be reflected in our face, it begins to be reflected in our speech, it begins to be reflected in our whole personality, so that we don't fool ourselves. Very often, we can deceive ourselves by thinking, well, I've got a lot of spirituality in my heart. If it's there in your heart, it will be seen outwardly. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and wisdom illumines a person's face, and changes the appearance on his face, and lights up his eyes, and gives gentleness to his words and his manners. A spiritual person will always be a well-mannered person. His manners will be better than anyone in the world. If he's really allowing the Holy Spirit to lead him, I mean, if you walk into somebody, if you're sitting in somebody's house, and nobody's around, and you see a postcard lying there, which is addressed to somebody else, you won't read it. You won't even read one sentence in it, because it's not yours. That's good manners. The Holy Spirit will tell you that. When you're talking to somebody, you will not try to dig out information from him, to satisfy your curiosity. That's bad manners. But the Holy Spirit will prompt you, and say, don't do that, that's none of your business. How will that help you? Spiritually, to find out that information. You know, a lot of Christians want to find out so many things about other people, that's how they become gossip listeners, and this is one of the main reasons they don't grow spiritually, because they're putting all this garbage into their mind, and the garbage is reflected in their face, in their eyes. You must remember that your inner life has got only a certain amount of space, and if you fill that space with garbage, there won't be space for the good things God wants to put there. And just like if you have half your house filled with garbage, people will smell it on the road. And it's something like that. If you don't get rid of garbage from our life, spiritually speaking, people will be able to smell it. Of course, if other people are also full of garbage, they don't smell it, because they are used to that smell. But a spiritual man, who's got rid of garbage from his life, he'll smell your stink miles away. You may not notice it, you know, people who live in the slums don't smell anything, because they are used to garbage, spiritually speaking. People are used to gossip, and curiosity, and hurting words, and stinging words. They don't smell the garbage in their life, because they are living in a slum. But a person who's cleansed himself, think of a person who once upon a time lived in a slum, but gradually refined himself, refined himself till he's so cultured, and so clean, his house is so neat, and tidy, and he never smells, there's no bad odor coming from his body. That person will be able to detect this smell that there is, spiritually speaking, in people whose private life is full of curiosity, gossip, listening, speaking, talking all types of rude things, and stinging remarks, and all that. Do you know that it affects you? Do you know that your words affect you? The more you speak certain type of words, I mean, you can be very careful in the meeting, but when you speak certain type of words in private, it gradually begins to affect your personality. We can conceal so many things from other people, but you can't conceal something from God, and you can't conceal anything from a spiritually minded man, because there's a certain odor, spiritual odor, we don't smell it, but this knows, but we've got a sense of smell in our heart. In our heart, the Bible speaks about, in Isaiah chapter 11, about the Holy Spirit making Jesus very sensitive in his scent of the fear of God. Very sensitive. That's the scent of the soul, of the spirit, which picks up something which is not Christ-like. Immediately. You know, just like a person with a good smell, hey, there's a bad smell here. He may not say it, but he smells it okay, and it's like that. And you don't realize sometimes the odor that's coming out of your spirit, just like a person who's dirty doesn't realize the odor coming out of his body. But I'm sure those of you who are, got a little bit of refinement, are careful to get rid of that odor with a bath and deodorant and perfume, etc., to avoid that odor coming forth. And I wish some of you who are so careful to be refined, to make sure you smell nice in your body, especially you sisters, I wish you would have at least 10% of that desire to smell nice in your spirit. Boy, what a difference it would make. We can't hide it. It comes forth. It comes forth in different situations, when we are under pressure. The solution? Wisdom. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It's very interesting. Right in the beginning of scripture, in Genesis chapter 4, we read that the Lord asked Cain in Genesis 4, 5, Why is your face fallen? Why is your face fallen? See, God looked at his face. The Bible says man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. But here we read that God looked at the man's face. Because the face was a reflection of his heart. And so he said, you've got anger in your heart, Cain. And the result is your face is fallen. Acknowledge it. Acknowledge that your face being like this indicates something is wrong in your heart. It's clear. When a person's heart is absolutely clear, that towards you, that person can look straight into your eyes with a clear brightness in his face. And if you cannot look like that at somebody, I hope you hear what the Holy Spirit is saying. Something is wrong. Why are you angry? Why is your face falling? It's true. It's absolutely true. But Cain wouldn't listen to what God was saying. And a lot of Christians don't listen. When God is saying, why is your face like this? Why is your face drawn? Why is your face gloomy? Something is wrong in your heart. And even if you listen to a message like this and show a weak smile to somebody, it doesn't really fool anything. It makes it worse actually. Don't try that weak smile. You know what a weak smile is? It doesn't come from the heart. It's so obvious a person can see it miles away. You can't change, because the heart is reflecting something and you are trying to change it. You can't change it. You got to change your heart. So that's the first question that God asked Cain. Why is your face like this? You contrast that with what we read in Ecclesiastes. Wisdom makes a person's face to be. In wisdom, there is no jealousy. When you are jealous of someone, your face can't be. The Bible says the wisdom that is from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, without hypocrisy, without partiality. That's the wisdom from above. There is a purity and there is a peaceableness. That means you got an attitude of peace towards people. You are not the quarrelsome type. I mean, if you are the type of person who says, just wait till I meet that person. I just want to pick up a quarrel with him. Brother, sister, you don't have wisdom. Wisdom is peaceable. Let the other fellow pick up a quarrel with me. If he wants, I'm not interested. I'm not interested in picking up a quarrel with anyone. It's pure. There is a purity in our eyes when we have been gazing on the Lord rather than gazing at human beings. The wisdom that is from above is pure and peaceable. See what it says in James. And you know that I'm just quoting from James all these things that I just quoted right now. If you are not familiar with it, it's a very beautiful passage in James chapter 3. Yes, James chapter 3. And it speaks about things which are not the opposite of wisdom and that is verse 16 jealousy and selfish ambition. What is it that makes a man's face dark, gloomy? The opposite of what we read in Ecclesiastes 8. What is the opposite of wisdom? Foolishness. So if wisdom makes a man's face being, foolishness makes a man's face dark. And foolishness is summed up in verse 16 essentially through jealousy and selfish ambition. That's what Cain had. Jealousy and selfish ambition. Please remember this, where there is jealousy and there is selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil thing, every evil thing, wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, that's what makes our face fallen and dark. Think about it my dear brothers and sisters. That's why I tell you, the moment a seed of jealousy comes in, throw it out. Don't let it destroy you. You heard me tell the story of this happening in the First World War when the British ship, the man on the British ship got a award for something that he did. The German ship came so close and threw a grenade onto his ship and you know a grenade has got a little pin and before you throw it, you take out the pin and then the wire connects up and it takes about 10 or 15 seconds before the fuse blows and so that's how they throw a grenade. They take out the pin and throw it and then you know that in about 15 seconds it reaches the other place and blows it up and this person on the ship was so alert. This British ship, this sailor, that as soon as the grenade landed, now our reaction would be to run. But he didn't run. He knew this takes so many seconds, he took it and threw it back onto the German ship and it blew up there. I've often thought about that. He deserves a medal. And I tell you, I've thought about that when the devil throws some thought into my mind concerning somebody or concerning something and I know it's going to blow up in my mind and I don't run. No. I take it and throw it right back. I say, I don't want that. Right. You do that, you'll deserve a medal from God. You throw it right back and say, I don't want that. I don't want that thought about that person because it'll destroy me. It'll blow up in my mind and that's what makes a lot of people's faces gloomy. Dark. Because they've allowed one after the other grenades that the devil's thrown into their mind. Blow up and blow up and blow up. Can you imagine a person whose house is getting one grenade after the other and he accepts it and he sits there. Can you imagine what his condition will be after a few years? Why don't we have some sense? Throw it right back. Every thought of jealousy, every thought of selfish ambition to promote yourself, to promote your children, to promote yourself. My brother, sister, forget it. Throw it away. And say, Lord, I want to think good thoughts. Whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are good report, it says in Philippians 4.8. Think about these things. Everything else, throw it right back at the devil and say you can have it. I don't want it. Let it blow up in your face, not mine. Be careful. And if you keep doing that, you won't change overnight. If your face is gloomy and dark because you've lived for so many years with selfish ambition and you start today, tomorrow your face will not be. It'll take time. It'll take time. Because if you've lived so long in the pit and all that stink and smell, it's like trying to get a bath and sometimes you're so saturated with the stink that even one bath won't get rid of it. You take another one, you put some more soap and maybe in a couple of years your face will start beaming. Or sooner, if you're wholehearted, but don't get any more of that rubbish thrown into your heart that destroys you. Jealousy and selfish ambition creates a stink. Every evil thing comes out of that. Can you honestly say before God today that you don't have any jealousy about any human being? I'm not just talking about the brothers and sisters. About any human being. It's possible. It's possible. I believe I can say that before God. I'm not jealous of a single human being in the world as far as I know. God bless them all. If somebody can do it better than me, I say praise the Lord and glory to God. I'm quite happy with the way God made me. I hope you are. Zero jealousy. That must be our goal. Zero defects. Just like we encourage our children to do better in their school examinations. We tell them you can do better than that. I say you can do better than that. I'm sure we can live a life where we are totally free from jealousy. And we are totally free from selfish ambition. We say Lord I want to live for the glory of God, not for myself and my own selfish desires. So that's so much for foolishness and then it describes wisdom. Now as I said, where there's jealousy and selfish ambition, there'll be confusion and every evil thing. Let me read it to you like this. In the Message Bible. Boasting that you're wise isn't wisdom. Whenever you're trying to look better than others. Did you get that? Whenever you're trying to look better than others. I don't mean by your face, I mean you say something to show that I'm smarter than you. Did you get the message? I'm smarter than you. Do you know lots of brothers and sisters do that? In their conversation with another brother or sister they say something just to show hey, I'm smart. Got it? I'm a little smarter than you. That's evil. That's like saying I'm a foolish man, I'm a foolish woman. Did you hear it? You didn't hear it? Let me say it louder. I am a foolish woman. That is when you try to look smarter than somebody else. How loud do you want to shout it? I mean say it softly if you want to say it. But it's so loud. And then you meet the person next day. Again, did you hear it last time? I am a foolish man, I'm a foolish woman. You don't say it like that but that's how it comes across. When you try to show that you're better than others. You try to say something to say I'm a little better than you, I'm a little smarter than you. Oh dear me. My kids are a little better than yours. When you are trying to look better than others or get the better of others. That's another thing. Your world is full of people who are trying to get the better of others. Jesus never tried to get the better of anybody. Never. When you're trying to get the better of other people things fall apart. Things fall apart. That's a beautiful expression. That's confusion. Things fall apart. And a lot of Christians living like that with things falling apart. There's no wholeness in their life. And everyone ends up at the other's throats. Every evil thing. But the wisdom from above is pure. It's peaceable. It's characterized by being able to get along with other people. If you can't get along with other people because of your nasty behavior and your stinging words. I want to tell you, I don't care how long you've been in CFC, you don't have wisdom. Your seniority counts for nothing. You don't have wisdom. Can you get along with other people? Are you peaceable? And it says you're gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and it's good fruits. Blessing others. Unwavering. That means not hot one day and cold the next day. Without hypocrisy. Not two-faced. So this is what wisdom is. And if we pursue this through the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, gradually our faith will begin to be. That is God's will for us. Now I want to show you another verse in Proverbs. I think it's chapter 27. Yes. Proverbs 27 and verse 19. Proverbs 27 and verse 19 says here, and paraphrasing the message Bible is, just as water mirrors your face. You know when you look into a pool of water, you can see your face there in that pool. Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart. Do you get it? You look into a pool of still water, you see your face there. Your face mirrors your heart. So if somebody wants to know what's in your heart, all he's got to do is look at your face. And Jesus gave us one more help. He said, out of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if a man can look at your face and listen to you speaking, the way you speak and the way you do things, the way you say things to people, they got a crystal clear picture of your heart. It's like an x-ray. Your face and your speech give you away. So what shall we do? Start smiling? Start saying nice things? Fooling people? No. Don't worry about smiling and don't worry about saying nice things. Just cleanse your heart. Get rid of all the stink from there. Get rid of all the jealousy from there. Get rid of all the selfish ambition there. Get rid of all the filth there. Throw away the garbage bin. I mean, it's like this. Supposing you got your kitchen garbage. I mean, that's the thing that really stinks. And you stack it up in each room. You don't throw it away. You stack it up in each room. And every toilet in your house you don't pull the flush ever. And somebody comes to your house and say, hey, there's a funny smell here. You don't blame them if they don't come again. And you say, hey, it's true. It's a funny smell. You got a lot of perfume. Spray the sitting room so that... But these smells penetrate through the perfume. You know what's the solution? Pull the flush in every toilet. Use some odor nil in the toilets. And throw away the garbage. Don't accumulate them. And sometimes you won't even need the perfume. It just clears up the air. Open the windows that there be some cross ventilation. You know these things. You know these things. Why don't you do it for your soul? Which is a million times more important than your home. Why don't you pull the flush in your soul? Why stack up all that rot? It really is rubbish that comes out of us. Isn't it? Flush it out. Did somebody else come and use your toilet? And you didn't flush it? Please go and flush it. Somebody else came to you and gossiped something to you and you stacked it up? Please flush it out. Don't say somebody else did it. So what if somebody else did it? It's your house that's being corrupted. It's your toilet that's stinking. Don't say that brother, that sister came and said it. It's like saying that brother, that sister used the toilet. I didn't flush it. He didn't flush it either. Would you do that? It's stinking brother, sister. Some of you don't realize it. And if you don't realize it, it's probably because you've lived so long with that stink. You know there are people who say words to hurt others and don't even realize it. It's like people who don't even smell that the toilet has not been flushed for days. It is like that. And someone brought up in more refined circumstances, hey look at the way that person speaks. Look at the smell in that toilet. They need to go and use the flush a little bit. That's exactly how you sound. Do you realize it? And you go on and on and on and on and on, hurting people, saying things to sting people, to hurt people. Dear brothers and sisters, let's flush our toilets. Let's throw the garbage out to the garbage bin far away. Find the furthest garbage in the way and throw it away there. And if somebody comes and brings garbage again, say, please, not in my house. I know I allowed you to dump all your garbage in my house, but take it somewhere else. Would you do that to people who come to you with gossip? Say, have you heard this? And they lower their voice and you know something is coming which was garbage last time and it's going to be garbage this time too. Don't allow it. Don't allow it. People stopped gossiping in my house ages ago. Because every time they came and told me something else, I said, I'm going to ask that person. Even before you leave, I call up that person and say, oh brother, brother, this is only for prayer. What prayer? Rubbish prayer. I'm not fooled by all that. They stopped coming to my house. You try that method. They'll stop coming to your house too. Keep the air clean in the house. I want to keep the air clean in my house. I'm much more interested in the spiritual atmosphere of my house than the physical. I'll tell you that. At least a million times more. We can't keep our house totally free from dust and all that, but we keep our heart. You know, I'll tell you this. Some of you who are so particular about keeping your house spick and span, I appreciate you. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Good. All I say is I wish you would have one percent of that desire for your soul. Boy, what a difference it would have made in your life if you had said, I've got to keep my soul spick and span. I want to flush out the toilet. I want to cleanse the garbage. We can't do anything about the past, but we can start do a little house cleaning so that wisdom begins to fill you know, that limited space in our inner man which has been filled with garbage. We cleanse all the garbage and there's empty space there now. We're going to fill it with good things. We can say words of appreciation to other people. I remember writing to somebody who left our church. I once said to him, you know, I said, I have seen you, I've heard you speak words of appreciation about your family members. But all the years you were in CFC, all I heard was criticism. Finding fault with this, and finding fault with that, and finding fault with the other thing, and the other thing, and the other thing. I said, I'm not here to judge your past, but I give you a little bit of advice for the future. If only you had treated CFC people like your own family members, perhaps you didn't. But if you had only treated CFC people like your own family members and spoken a few words of appreciation, boy, what a different story it might have been. But then I said, perhaps CFC was not your family, that's all. You spoke about it being family, but it was never your family. Your family was your flesh and blood family. You never really understood God's family. I'm convinced about that. That many people who come to CFC do not consider CFC as their own family. And that's why they accumulate so much garbage about other people. But you never accumulate about your own children. No, never. You'd rise to the defense of your children. But that's somebody else. See, this is how we haven't got wisdom. The wisdom that's from above is first pure, then peaceable, full of mercy. Mercy means being good, forgiving other people, because if they did something wrong, it's okay. You say, well, we've made mistakes too. We can forgive them. You know, it says about those who are leaders, and in a sense, all of us are leaders. You may not be an elder in a church, but you're an elder to somebody younger than you in your home. If you've got even one younger brother or sister in your home, you're an elder. And even if you don't have anybody in your home, if you come to this church, there are lots of people younger than you in this church. You're an elder. Elder is a relative term. You can be ten years old, and you're an elder to someone who's five years old, and you've got to be an example to the five-year-old. You've got to show that five-year-old how a ten-year-old should behave. See, that's it. So, when it speaks about elders, the way an elder should conduct himself, an elder has to be an example. Let me show you one verse in 1 Peter, in chapter 5. It says here, I exhort you elders, in verse 5, prove to be examples to the flock. Not lording it over others, but to be examples to the flock. And the paraphrase says, not bossily telling others what to do, but tenderly showing them the right way by the way you live. Are you one of those who bossily tells your younger brothers and sisters what to do? It's tragic when sometimes, even in a family, a person who's just two years older than somebody acts like a boss. I have been very careful about that from the time I became a Christian. I'm the eldest in my home. I have a younger brother and I have a younger sister. And I decided I would never, never be a boss to them. Never! It's evil. It's not Christ-like. Jesus was the eldest in his home and he wasn't bossy to his four brothers and two sisters. Now, I've seen in CFC older brothers and sisters, some of them speaking, their face is almost like the devil's when they speak to some little child or someone else who does something wrong. I see a face like the devil coming to CFC? Dear me! What have we been hearing all this time? Huh! What do you like? Bossily telling other people what to do. This bossy attitude. Dear brother, sister, see if it is in you. You don't have wisdom then. Doesn't make your face to be. And you are not drawing people to Jesus Christ. I'm telling you what I have seen in this church for the last 25 years. I haven't always spoken about what I see. Because most of the time when I see a brother or sister do something wrong, I don't tell them. Because I don't want them to be dependent on me. I want them to get light themselves from God, the Holy Spirit. And only after a long time when they keep on doing the wrong thing again and again and again and again and again and I see this guy just is not listening to the Holy Spirit, then I tell them, Hey, since you are not getting light from the Holy Spirit, I better tell you. I remember once a brother got up here and spoke in a very bad spirit. Sunday, so Sunday afternoon I called him. I said, Brother, did the Lord tell you something about the way you spoke this morning in the meeting? This is some years ago. Somebody has left the church. And he said, No. I said, Okay then I've got to tell you. I mean the best is if the Holy Spirit tells you, but if he doesn't tell you, second best is me. I'm not the best. I'm second best. If the Holy Spirit cannot tell you something about your selfishness, then I've got to tell you that. But that's second best. But then you've got to go to God and say, Lord, why in the world didn't I get light on this? Why does Brother Zach have to come and tell me this? I should have got light on it ages ago. You know a lot of us think we are wholehearted. I don't believe you are if you're not getting light on yourself. If you're getting light on your selfishness, then you're wholehearted. If you're not getting light on your selfishness, if you're not getting light on your speech and the lack of graciousness in your speech, if you're not getting light on your bossy ways, I'd say you're not wholehearted. You can come and sit here in the meeting every day, but you're not wholehearted. A wholehearted person is one whom God gives light to continuously. He gets light on his selfishness, on the way he's speaking. He cleanses himself. It's not that he never makes a mistake. When he makes a mistake, he realizes it immediately. He doesn't keep on doing the same mistake day after day after day, week after week after week, month after month after month. And yet that is what I have seen. I'm sorry to say I've seen in CFC among brothers and sisters who imagine that they are wholehearted, who delude themselves that they are wholehearted. I want to say, wake up. Wake up! I mean, before you stand at the judgment seat of Christ and discover a whole lot of things there, I say it's better to discover it now. Sure. That's why the psalmist said, let the righteous smite me. It's like oil upon my head. Can you imagine a slap becoming like oil on the head? Because that guy was really interested in becoming Christ-like. God-like. I'm interested in being God-like. I hope you are. We want our faces to radiate the beauty of Christ. You know, it's like the moon reflects the glory of the sun. The sun shines on the moon and it shines back that glory onto the earth. That's the picture of Christ. The son of righteousness and the bride of Christ is like the moon. And you know how beautiful it is when there's a full moon and there's nothing coming between the sun and the moon. When does the moon become half or quarter? It's when something has come between the sun and the moon. I mean, you study geography, you know that. When something comes in between the sun and the moon it could be money, it could be a job, it could be a pride, it could be jealousy of somebody, it could be selfish ambition. Ah! Then this wonderful round moon becomes half and after some time it becomes a thin line and you can hardly see it. And sometimes you see these new moons you can still see the outline but it's all dark and the light is only in a small part. A lot of Christians are like that. And when they're like that you know something has come between them and Jesus. But the moon gets over and you give it 2-3 weeks it's smiling again but some believers are always like this. New moon. Sad. You know how we should be? We should be like a full moon all the time. A face beaming because the Lord has never to say to us why is your face fallen? Why is your face drooping? Why can't you look up? We're looking down, gloomy. Something's wrong. Something is wrong. Acknowledge it. Look up into the face of the son of righteousness. This that beautiful verse, where is it? They looked unto him and their faces were lightened. Psalm 34, isn't it? Psalm 34. It's a very beautiful verse. Psalm 34 has got some lovely verses in it. I will bless the Lord at all times. Verse 5. They looked unto him and they were radiant. And their faces will never be ashamed. See, our looking at Jesus finally affects our face. They looked unto him and they were radiant. They didn't try to put on a weak smile. You know all these stickers you see, smile, God loves you. I never put that. I mean, I've got nothing against it. There are enough people frowning in the world that it's good to encourage people to smile. But I don't preach on that so much because the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible speaks much more about joy than about smiling. And if I were to put a word I'd say, repent, God loves you. Most people in the world have got no reason to smile because they're living in sin. There's about 1% of the people in the world who are not living in sin. 99% of the world's people are living in sin. They've got no right to smile. They should be repenting. Because God loves them they need to repent, not smile. But a person whose sins are forgiven, blotted out, cleansed and everything is set right between God and man, there's every reason why the joy of the Lord should be radiating through his face and through his personality and through his life. That there's nothing between him and God, nothing between him and another human being. They looked unto him and their faces were radiant and they were not ashamed. It says about Moses when he spent 40 days in the presence of God, he never met another human being for 40 days. Boy what a wonderful thing. He never saw man. He had no time to think about what this other person was thinking about him and what the other person was saying about him. He never had time for 40 days to listen to gossip and backbiting and all that. He was just with God. And he came back and it says his face was shining. People couldn't look at him. It was almost like looking at the sun. Imagine his face was so bright that he had to put a veil over his face. A purdah. Because his face was so bright people couldn't look at it. But there was another reason why he put a veil on his face. Do you know that? It says that in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. Paul has got some wisdom there. There was another reason by the way that Paul gets his spiritual truth out of it. And that's great to see it. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 3 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verse 13 They are not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face and here the paraphrase says so that here is the reason so that the children of Israel would not notice that the glory was fading away. Why did he put a veil on his face? He says because hey, everybody saw my face was shining but he looked in the mirror once and he found it was a little less than yesterday. Paul says that's it. They want to cover up something because there's a glory inside underneath that cover that's fading away. And he says we're not like that. Verse 13. We are not like that. Because our glory is not fading away. It says in verse 18. Our glory is getting greater and greater and greater by the Holy Spirit from one degree of glory to another. And if you want in a nutshell what is old covenant life and what is new covenant life, here it is. When Jesus' face began to shine on the mount of transfiguration he didn't put a veil over it because there was nothing to fade away there. It wasn't fading away. It was just getting brighter and brighter and brighter. Whereas Moses is fading away. You know, and when there's something in your life that's fading away maybe once upon a time my brother sister, and I want to say this gently and graciously. Once upon a time you loved the Lord. Once upon a time you didn't get into church politics. Once upon a time you didn't have time to listen to all the gossip and garbage people are talking about. You loved Jesus and Jesus came into your heart and you didn't know all these wretched things about other brothers and sisters and you were not in competition with anybody. You didn't have any children. You were not in competition with anybody else's children to show that your children were so great. You just loved Jesus and you were so happy. Your sins are forgiven and there was a spring in your step and a twinkle in your eye and a song in your heart and good words on your lips. But the glory has been fading away and you cover it up with words and try to clap on Sunday and try to cover up with singing. It's all a veil. It's all a veil. When you speak spiritual language, when you see each other after Sunday, oh praise the Lord brother and sister how are you and all that. It's all spiritual language. It's a veil to cover up a glory that's fading away. It's not like it was in the old days. When you go to the Lord and say Lord I'm following Moses. I didn't even know that Lord. I thought I was following Jesus. But I discovered I'm following Moses. I've got something to hide. I'm under the old covenant. I'm under the old covenant. Lord will you please fill me with the Holy Spirit. Like it says in 2nd Corinthians 3.18 we look nothing between us and God nothing between us and God. Verse 18 2nd Corinthians 3.18 Nothing between us and God that old constricting legalism is obsolete. I don't live by any of those rules and regulations that other people try to put upon me. No. There's nothing between us and God. Our faces are shining with the brightness of His face and so we are transfigured just like Jesus was. Our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him. Our lives becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters different areas of our personality and we become like Him. Paul told Timothy give yourself totally to these things that your progress can become evident to everybody. Timothy was already way above all the others in Ephesus spiritually. He was the most wholehearted. But Paul says even though you're up there and all the other believers in Ephesus are over here, people over there must still see that you're growing that you're becoming more Christ like you're becoming more gracious because God is filling now different areas in your life. It's like a big hotel building with thousand rooms and little by little the lights are coming on in different rooms. Once upon a time there was light in only 4 or 5 rooms and now the lights are coming on and one by one more and more of those thousand rooms are filling up and the hotel is looking brighter and brighter and brighter. That's the picture of the Christian life. That's how it should be in all of our life because we have nothing to hide. My brothers and sisters I hope that's true of your life. That you have nothing to hide. That your attitude towards every person here is absolutely good and loving right out into the open. You have nothing to hide. It will really reflect on your face. The lights will come on one by one by one by one and people will see it. That's how we're supposed to draw people to Christ. That's how we're supposed to draw people to Christ. Jesus said I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me. He's doing it through us. It's the sun shining upon the moon and the moon reflecting onto the earth. You know have you seen sometimes in a bright moonlit sky at night you don't even need the street lights. So many thousands of miles away hundreds of thousands of miles away such a powerful light you don't need the street light. You can see the road. Imagine that this is our calling. Wisdom lights up a man's face taking away the sternness, taking away the harshness brings gentleness into our words and our manners. Let me turn you to another verse. Colossians in chapter 4. Colossians in chapter 4. Verse 6 Let your speech always be with grace as though seasoned with salt. You know here it uses the example of salt. And we who are in India in our food we always want salt. I mean I don't understand how a lot of people in western countries can eat bland food without salt. Salt is so important and makes such a difference in the taste that as soon as you put it in your mouth immediately you know whether the salt is there or not. Let it be seasoned with salt. Let your speech always be with grace. How many of you have difficulty finding out when you taste the curry whether there's salt in it or not? Anybody? I don't think even one of us. Immediately you know, hey give me the salt. There's not enough salt here. Whether it's a chapati or a curry. Okay. How many of you can sense when you hear somebody talking to you, there wasn't any grace there. You can sense it immediately. Just like salt. Ah! I know why he said that. Look at the way he says it. Look at the way she says it. Do you know that that's the way you're coming across? You think the other person doesn't get it? They get it and they remember you like that for years. Well that's the person who's always going to say something stingy. Always say something negative. That's the way they are. Because they've spent years thinking about the negative things of other people and that's what comes out of their mouth. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. They can never say anything good or gracious or appreciative. Think about this my dear brothers and sisters. When was the last time you said something appreciative to some brother or sister? I don't mean your own family. You should be saying it to your children too. But sometimes we can be very selfish when we think, oh I've got to say appreciative things to my children. Start saying some appreciative things to some brothers and sisters in CFC. Especially some of the ones whom in your whole life you've never appreciated. Even though there may be 10,000 things that God appreciates in that person which you don't. Imagine almighty God can appreciate something and you don't. That shows you're millions of miles away from God. Yeah, yeah. It says here, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you can know how to speak to every person. Let me read the paraphrase. Five and six. Use your head as you live and work among people. Use your heads as you live and work among people. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal, listen to this, the goal is to bring out the best in other people in a conversation. Not to put them down or to cut them out. Don't say something to put somebody down. That's the work of the devil. Don't do the work of the devil for him. The devil can do his job very well without your help. How many of you know that? How many of you know that the devil can do his job very well without your help? Now, if you don't know that, go and ask God to give you a little light on it. Lord, please show me that the devil can do his work without my help. Lord, I've helped him so much in these past years, but I don't want to help him anymore. Don't put people down. Don't cut them out. Dear brother and sister, let's ask God to fill us with wisdom. Wisdom. Amen. Amen.