In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of counting the cost before making a decision to serve God. He uses the example of Abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his only son to show his devotion to God. The preacher highlights that true worship is not just about singing songs, but about surrendering our lives completely to God. He encourages the listeners to recognize their calling to be kings and rulers in life, overcoming sin and worldly desires. The sermon also emphasizes the need to rule over earthly things, such as money, and to let them serve us rather than controlling our lives.

Created Adam. He told him, Adam, before he created Adam, he said in verse 26 of Genesis 1, I want to make now something new, different from the stars and the suns and the planets and animals and fish and all that. I want to make some different even from the angels. I want to make man. First time that word comes in the Bible. Man in our image. Someone like us. And like us and let them rule. You know that's the first thing that God said about Adam and Eve, Genesis 1, 26. Let them be kings. Let them rule over the earth. Over everything on the earth. Let them have everything on earth under their feet. That was God's purpose for man. To be a king. To rule over earthly things. Not to be overwhelmed by earthly things that the earth swallows them up. That they are swallowed up in the love of money and in lusting after pretty women. No, you're supposed to rule over them, brother, sister. You're supposed to rule over everything of earth. All the things of earth must be your servants. If you got plenty of gold, that's fine. It must be your servant. Not something that occupies your head or mind all the time. It's your servant. Everything on earth is servant. You rule over it. That was God's will. Sin. We're supposed to rule over sin. We're to be kings. Let me read you Romans 5, verse 17. By the transgression of one person, death reigned through Adam. We all know that death has come down to us because Adam sinned. Much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will do what? Will reign as kings in life. You know you're supposed to reign? You know that you're supposed to be a king, brothers and sisters? You're supposed to be kings. Ruling. That's our calling. Many times when I've stood up to speak in different places, the Lord has told me that people sitting in front of you are meant to be kings. But the devil has made them slaves. Open their eyes that they will see their calling to be kings. Slaves who should be kings. People who should be flying like the eagle in the sky. Chained by their lusts to the earth. Like eagles trapped. Release them from their chains so that once again they can fly like the eagles in the sky like I created them to be. They shall reign in life through Jesus Christ. We're supposed to be kings. We're supposed to have every sin under our feet. If you let a bitterness sit in your mind against somebody, think bitterly, bitterly, bitterly against some person who did you harm, you are a slave. You can't even enjoy your vacations. Because that person is on your mind when you go to bed at night. You see how slavery occupies your mind? Can you sleep peacefully at night? Or does some bitterness against somebody keep you awake, thinking, thinking, thinking? Somebody is treating you badly, you feel sorry for yourself. Maybe it's your husband who is treating you badly. Don't feel sorry for yourself. Say, Lord, I'm not going to have any bitterness. I'm going to be a king. I'm going to be a queen. I believe that you control everything that happens in my life. And if you have permitted this, it's for my salvation. I remember years ago, reading the biography of a very godly woman who lived in the 17th century in France. Her name was Jeanne Guion, Madame Guion, more commonly known as. I was so challenged by reading the life of that woman, living in the early days of the Protestant Reformation, in a Catholic country. How she got light on the way of the cross, in a way that I almost haven't found others who've seen it that way. She had a husband who ill-treated her, a mother-in-law who harassed her, and a maidservant in the house whom her husband leagued up with to harass her. She had three people in the house against her, mother-in-law, husband, and maidservant. Anybody got that problem here? And she was a conqueror. She loved them, blessed them, and she became one of the greatest saints of that century. Not by studying the Bible, but being faithful to Jesus and taking up her cross in the midst of suffering. She came into a resurrection life. She walked in newness of life. And she served her husband, and that maidservant, and her mother-in-law, in newness of spirit. She didn't have the opportunity to attend hundreds of meetings and conferences like we have. How did she become spiritual? Because she took up the cross. With the little light she had, she decided, if I want to follow Jesus, I have to die to myself every day. She allowed God to break her. You know when the Bible says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Do you know what the mighty hand of God is? Those circumstances that He has allowed in your life. Those difficult circumstances that He has allowed in your life are the mighty hand of God crushing you, breaking you, so that, like the perfume in the Old Testament when it is crushed, it sent out an aroma. Like when the alabaster vial bottle was broken, it sent out a perfume. The whole room was filled with a perfume, we read in Jesus' time. God has to break us. That's how we can serve, in newness of spirit. And she went through that, and I remember one statement of hers, couple of statements of Madame Bion's, I'll never forget. I can think of a number of statements, I'll just mention one or two. She said, I'm more disturbed by one reproof of my conscience than by the criticisms of all the people in the world. I said, Lord, all the people in the world criticizing me wouldn't disturb me as much as one reproof in my conscience. I said, Lord, I want to live like that. Because this reproof of conscience is the voice of God. Seven billion people in the world criticizing me is the voice of men. Counts for nothing. Another thing she said, was I was so much in love with taking up the cross of Jesus every day, dying to myself so that I can come to this resurrection life. That, listen to this, you got to understand this. The greatest cross of all would have been if the Lord had told me, I won't give you a cross in your life. Do you understand that? That for her the greatest suffering would have been if the Lord had said, no more cross for you to carry. I said, Lord, I want to rise to that height. You know that Jesus carried a cross every day of his life. Otherwise he couldn't say to us, take up your cross every day and follow me. To walk in newness of life is not just that once for all death. The old man is crucified, true. But I have to reckon that old man to be dead every day and that is taking up the cross every day. Lord, I die to my will every day. I choose to walk in the way of Jesus and I walk in newness of life. Remember what Jesus said when trial came across him just before he went to the cross and he was disturbed in his spirit. He was so human. He was disturbed in his soul and he said, John 12 verse 27. John 12 verse 27. Now my soul has become troubled. I love the honesty of Jesus. Have you ever said to somebody, my soul is troubled? It's not sin. Jesus never sinned. But there were times in human pressure because he was a man like us. His soul was troubled. Now he's in heaven, he never has to say it. But when he was on earth like us, like our soul is troubled under pressure sometimes, his soul was troubled. And he admitted it. And he even asked three very weak, immature people like Peter, John, James and John to come and pray with him. Have you ever gone to some immature young brothers or sisters and say, will you please pray with me? My soul is troubled. Or you're too proud. The great man of God, the great woman of God who never has any problems. You aren't fooling anybody. Jesus was humble. He asked Peter, James and John who were so much inferior to him. I tell you, the youngest believer in the world is not lower than that compared to you. Compared to Peter, James and John and Jesus. He said, please pray with me. That really humbles me, you know. Do you ever go to your wife and say, will you please pray with me? I need some help now. Or you say, I'm the man of the house. I don't need anybody to pray. Well, no wonder you're so defeated. No wonder you're so defeated. Humble yourself, brother. You'll get victory more often. If Jesus could ask Peter, James and John who are his bride, why can't you ask your bride? Follow his example. You say, I want to follow Jesus. Follow him here. And he said, my soul has become troubled. What shall I say? Shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? No. I will never say that. In the hour of trial, what shall I say? Lord, get me out of this. No, I will not say, get me out of this. I will say, Father, glorify thy name. Whatever happens to me, glorify thy name. This is the indestructible life of Jesus. I will not ask for my own to be saved from a trial or a difficult situation. I will say, Father, I'm not asking you to deliver me from this. I'm asking you to glorify your name. I'm not asking you to save me from this trial. Let the trial continue. I know one thing, that the trial will never be more than I can bear. 1 Corinthians 10.13 is a wonderful promise. God is faithful. He will never, never, never, never, I could repeat that a million times, never, never, never, never, allow you to be tested beyond your ability to bear. So if ever you say, Oh Lord, this is becoming too much for me. What are you saying? God, you're a liar. You're unfaithful. You're not true to your promise. This is becoming too much for me. The way somebody's treating me is becoming too much for me. God, you're a liar. That's what you're saying. You are. You may not have known it. At least you know it now. Don't ever say that again. Don't ever say, this is becoming too much for me. If you're an unbeliever, you haven't surrendered to the lordship of Christ, then a million things will become too much for you. Sure. Because you don't have the Holy Spirit. You don't have Christ. But if you have surrendered to the lordship of Christ, I can guarantee on the basis of God's word, God is faithful. He will never, never, never, never, million times, never, allow you to be tested or tried beyond your ability to bear. But will, with, this is all 1 Corinthians 10, 13, with the trial, make a way of escape. I'll tell you a little secret. The way of escape is, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Say, Lord, thank you. This is my cross. I'll accept it. I'll die to myself. And you'll come out in resurrection power. That's the way. So we must never complain that something is becoming too much for us. We must never complain that people are, have succeeded in harming us. Yes, people have tried to harm us. And externally they did. But, Romans 8, 28 says, we know, and don't say we know if you don't know it. Romans 8, 28 does not say God makes all things work together for good. He says, we know. That's how it begins. We know. And you can't say it if you don't know it. Paul could say it. Because he knew it. We know that God causes all things, not to work by themselves, but to work together for our good, to those who love Him. And the good is not a comfortable life for me. No. The good is described in the next verse, that He will make us like Jesus. That is the good. The good is not that if something happened that disappointed you, you applied for a job and you didn't get it. The good is not that you'll get a job with a higher salary. You may get a job with a lower salary. But you'll become a little more like Jesus. If you wanted to marry some pretty girl and she married somebody else, how will it work for good? You'll get a prettier girl? No, you may get an uglier girl. But she'll be more spiritual. And your life will be more heavenly. Which do you want? God will make you more like Jesus. That's the point. Now, if your passion in life, this is important, the condition is, your passion in life must be to become like Jesus Christ. Then, everything will work for your good. But if your passion in life is to marry some girl or to get this job or go here or travel here, brother, I don't know whether everything will work for your good. It may not. But for every single person sitting here whose passion in life is to become more like Jesus Christ, I can give you a written guarantee that God will make everything work for your good. He'll make you more like Jesus. Nobody will succeed in harming you. I've been a believer for 50 years. I'm nearly 70 years old. But nobody, I say this before God and the devil, nobody has ever succeeded in harming me till today. There are Christians who have taken me to court. There are people who have harassed me, written all types of articles against me in India, called me the devil, called me the serpent and called me all types of things. Not one of them has harmed me. I believe I'm the happiest man in India. If you find one better, the happier than me, let me know. I really believe that because I live every day happily. Nobody can make me unhappy or glue me or get me into a bad mood because I believe Romans 8, 28 because I say before God and men and the devil, I have one passion in life to become like Jesus Christ more and more every day. If I weep at night on my pillow, and I do sometimes, it's because I got some light that in some area of my life, I did not behave like Jesus Christ. I did not speak like Jesus to somebody. Some thought that went through my mind was not a thought that Jesus would have. Those are the only things I weep for at night. I never weep for the way people treat me because it's working for my good. I mean, if somebody if I was working in an office and the boss told me that, hey, I'm tripling your salary today, would I weep? Oh, no. That's exactly Romans 8, 28. Everything works for your good. But you got to have this desire. Now, if you take this position, then you can always walk in newness of life. You can always walk, serve in newness of spirit. Where to serve, as I said, as kings. Ruling over sin, ruling over bitterness, ruling over unloving attitudes, ruling over money has no grip on me. It comes and goes and it doesn't dirty my hands. You know, it's very easy for money to dirty your hands. It's very easy for money to grip you. I remember hearing this expression that you can take a little a coin the size of a quarter and if you keep that quarter close enough to your eye, you can even shut out the light of the sun. That's what money can do. It depends on how close you keep it. You keep it close enough to your eye, you can't even see the sun. It's there bright, but you can't see it. That's what money can do to hinder you from seeing the glory of Jesus. Keep it as a servant. Keep it under your feet. You ought to be a king. That's number one. We got to serve as priests. That's the second thing. In the Old Testament, the priests were the ones who offered incense to God and worshipped. You know, you're supposed to be a worshipper. And I want to tell you something. Worship is not singing songs on Sunday morning. That is thanksgiving and praise. It's not worship. I know you've called it praise and worship for many, many years, but it's good to get scriptural before we die. It's actually not praise and worship at all. It's thanksgiving and praise. If you don't believe me, read the words that you sing. Thanksgiving is thanking God for what He's done. Praise is praising God for who He is. And all the songs, they're either prayer or thanksgiving or praise. All three are necessary. Very important. Prayer, very important. Many of our songs are prayers. Good. Many of our songs are thanksgiving. Good. Many of our songs are praise. Now the reason why I'm emphasizing this, I'm not just being arguing about words. But if you call that worship, you think you're worshipped and you're not worshipped at all. That's the point. And that's how the devil fools a lot of people when they say they think they worship God. They haven't worshipped God at all. And I took many years to discover this. And I'll tell you how I discovered it. You want to know? I read through the Bible slowly. I got a concordance. And I looked up the word. You can do this. And I took the word worship. And I said, Lord, I want to eliminate from my mind all the ideas of worship I've got from charismatic circles. And I want to get what your Holy Spirit calls it in Scripture. Isn't that a good habit to have? I took a concordance, looked at all the places where worship is mentioned in the New Testament, and I discovered what I was doing on Sunday morning was not worship at all. That's how I discovered it. I wanted to be scripturally accurate. Because I didn't want to miss out on something. As I said, I'm not worried about words. You can call it praise and worship if you like for the rest of your life. That's okay. But don't miss out on real worship. That's my point. Do you know what real worship is? The first human being we read of who worshipped God was Job. He lived before Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all. It says when he lost everything, he fell on his face and worshipped God. He said, Lord, you gave. You have taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. That's worship. It's not singing songs. It's falling on your face and saying, Lord, you have every right to give me anything. You have every right to take away anything. That's worship. Another person who worshipped was Abraham. You read in Genesis 20. I don't have time to point out these, but you can look it up yourself. Genesis 22. He took Isaac to that mountaintop but before he went up, he told his servants, you stay here. This is a secret transaction going on between me and God. And he didn't tell them that he was going to kill Isaac. Sacrifices must always be kept secret from others. He didn't even tell Sarah. He didn't tell the servants. It was just between him and God. And he told his servants, I'm going up to this mountain to worship God. That's what he called it. What was he going to do up there? Take that which was most precious in his life, the darling of his heart, and lay it on the altar. You know, when God told Abraham, take Isaac, he didn't tell him, just take Isaac. He said, take Isaac, the son whom you love. He loved Isaac more than he loved Sarah. He loved Isaac more than anyone in the world. He'd have gladly offered 10,000 sheep instead. Take the one you love the most, who's the darling of your heart. Take everything, put it on the altar, and kill him. Because Abraham, I fear that you're worshipping Isaac more than you're worshipping me. Isaac has become your God. Kill him! I will have no rivals in your heart. And I'm not going to ask you to do it tomorrow morning. I'm going to ask you to walk three days to Mount Moriah. Why? Because I want you to think about this. Sit down and count the cost. Don't just take an emotional decision, tomorrow morning you go and do it. No. Think about it. Three days. Is it worth serving a God who asks you for your only son? And Abraham walked three days and said, yes, it is worth serving such a God. I will give him my son. And he took his knife on top of that mountain and said, God, see this. I prove to you that you are more precious to me than this. And God said, don't kill him. I was only testing you. And I want to tell you, Abraham, because you did this, there's no limit to how much I'll bless you. There's no limit to how much I'll bless your children, your grandchildren. Today, the Bible says, Galatians 3.14, the blessing of Abraham is to come to us. But don't think you can get it unless you're a worshipper like Abraham. Abraham wasn't singing jumpy tunes on top of that mountain. No. His worship was something completely different. He was giving the darling of his heart. He was laying everything on the altar and saying, God, I worship you. I find it's very difficult to worship God in public. My worship is in secret, alone, flat on my face before God, saying, Lord, your word says that the Father seeks for those who will worship him in spirit and truth. I want to be a worshipper. The Father is seeking all over the world today for those who will worship him. Be a priest. And when you are a king and a priest, you can also prophesy. The Bible says there's one gift of the Holy Spirit that 1 Corinthians 14 says everybody must seek for is the gift of prophecy. Every single person here, young child, God wants you to prophesy. And prophesying is not predicting the future like it was in the Old Testament. 1 Corinthians 14.3 says mostly it's encouraging people. Do you know it doesn't take much to encourage somebody? Can I urge all of you to start encouraging people from tomorrow? Or from this evening? Or this afternoon? And start encouraging your husband? Start encouraging your wife? It doesn't cost much. Just a few sentences. Even if you say words like, You're a great husband! Boy, that'll make his day. Because he never heard it from you for the last 20 years. You're a great wife! That'll make her day. It doesn't cost much to encourage somebody. Jesus was a great encourager. He told a Roman military man who knew nothing about the Bible, I've never seen faith like this in all of Israel. Boy, he must have framed it up and put it on his wall. Jesus said, I have the greatest faith in Israel. Jesus was a great encourager. Nathaniel, who was not even converted, never seen him before. Oh, a man without any guile. Boy, if I'd heard that, I'd have framed it up and hung it on my wall. Jesus said, I'm a man without guile. You know, we are so afraid of encouraging people. He may get puffed up. He may get swollen head. I've heard people come to me like this, Brother Zach, I don't want you to get puffed up, but I just want to say I was blessed by your message. You know, Jesus never spoke like that. Jesus never told the Roman centurion, I don't want you to get puffed up, I think your faith is the greatest. You know why we do that? Because we think other people are like us. We get puffed up, so we think everybody also must be getting puffed up. No, they don't. They walk before God and they know how to walk in humility, unlike you. So you don't have to add that introduction every time you appreciate somebody. Brothers and sisters, let's be kings, priests, and let's prophesy. Let us serve a newness of spirit. This wonderful life that God gives us through the Holy Spirit. The secret of it all, be filled with the Holy Spirit. There's no other way. You can hear what I said and learn it as a technique. The psychologist will say nice things to other people. I'm not teaching that. I'm not teaching psychology here. I'm telling you, be filled with the Holy Spirit. That's the answer. Come under the waterfall, the spirit of God. Let's pray. If there's a yearning in your heart for this indestructible life of Jesus, say to him in your heart, Lord, I want this at any cost. Send me the bill. I'm willing to pay the price. Send me the bill. I'll pay it. I want it, Lord, at any cost. I believe you love me. You delight in me. And I know that you will do for me even more than I ask. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.