In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that Jesus was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and power, and that he went about doing good and healing those oppressed by the devil. The speaker highlights that Jesus' life was a constant battle against Satan to deliver people from his grasp. He encourages listeners to follow Jesus' example by diligently working to meet their own needs and the needs of others, and to live a life of abundance and goodness. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of being zealous to do good to others, just as Jesus gave himself to redeem and purify a people for his own possession.

I have been thinking of this statement that is mentioned about Jesus. You know, when the Apostle Peter was in the house of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, Acts of the Apostles chapter 10, in the house of Cornelius, he was speaking to a man who knew nothing about the Old Testament, nothing about the Messiah, nothing about the true God, but he was a God-fearing man. And I'll tell you something that may surprise you. God listens to the prayers of non-Christians which are not prayed in the name of Jesus. And God does not listen to a lot of prayers of Christians who pray in the name of Jesus. That may surprise you, because God looks at the heart. And just because a man uses the name Jesus and says, Oh Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, if he sees that the man's heart has got sin, he's got a wrong attitude towards other human beings, he's got a grudge, he's not forgiven somebody, that person can belong to the best church in the world. God will not listen to his prayer. He said that. Jesus said that when you come to the altar with your offering, and you know that you've hurt somebody, and you haven't gone and asked his forgiveness, don't waste your time praying. Go to that person first and settle that matter. Otherwise, you can pray for a hundred years, God will not listen to a single prayer. That's a lot of prayers that go from earth, which just bounce off the roof. People think it's gone to heaven, but it hasn't gone to heaven at all. Because the man's life is not right. But in the case of Cornelius, we read a man who was a total heathen, who didn't know anything about Jesus Christ. He says in verse two, he was a devout man who feared God. Can a non-Christian be a devout man who fears God with his whole family? I've seen some like that myself. Cornelius was one like that. And he gave money to poor people. Because God had given him much, he used that money to help the poor. And he prayed to God continually. Imagine a heathen man. There are Christians who don't pray to God continually. Here's a heathen man who prayed to God continually. And he was an army captain. Can you imagine a military man, rough and tough life, praying to God. You believe there are God-fearing people in the military, in the Romans army? It's amazing. And an angel came to him and said, listen to this. He was alarmed. And the angel said to him in the middle of verse four, your prayers and the money you gave to the poor people have all ascended as a memorial before God. Here is the proof that God took note of the fact that this heathen man, this non-Christian man, gave money to the poor out of the abundance God gave him. And listen to the prayers, which are not prayed in the name of Jesus, from a heathen man who was praying to some unknown God and said, Oh God, I know you created me. I don't know who you are, but please bless me and my family. Show me the way to you. He was not saved, but God loved him because God loves all his creation. And I believe that's why when we stand before the Lord in the final day, we'll get a lot of surprises. Some people you never thought would be there will be there. And some people you definitely expected to be there won't be there. We'll get many surprises when Christ comes again because man looks in the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. So please remember that. To such a man God sent his servant. We have in our churches many wonderful Christians who come from non-Christian backgrounds. And because they were seeking God, God brought them to the gospel. And when Peter comes to this man and tries to explain the life of Jesus, imagine explaining the life of Jesus in very brief sentences to a total non-Christian. You know what he says? He doesn't say, Well, you know that Jesus raised the dead and all that. No. He says, I want to tell you something about Jesus. In Acts chapter 10 and verse 38, he says, You know of Jesus of Nazareth. I mean Cornelius probably heard the name. He said, I want to tell you, I want to sum up his life in one sentence. Here is Jesus life summed up in one sentence. God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. And he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. For God was with him. I thought about that. The summing up of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ was God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good, healing or delivering people who were oppressed by the devil. His life was a lifelong battle against Satan to catch, to deliver people whom Satan had caught. He was delivering those lambs that the devil, who's like a lion, had caught. And he did that because it says God was with him. Now we know that the Bible tells us to follow Jesus. Jesus said, follow me, follow me many times. And we sing that to follow him. If you want to follow him, this is the way the challenges come to me. I want to be anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. Power is the mark of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We see that here in John, Acts 10, 38. And we also see that in Acts 1, 8, that Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit's come upon you, you shall receive power. There's no doubt about it. Jesus received power when he was anointed with the Holy Spirit. The apostles received power when they were anointed with the Holy Spirit. And I want to receive power. For that, I must be anointed with the Holy Spirit. If you don't have power in your life, I want to encourage you to seek for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's more than the forgiveness of sins. Your sins may be forgiven and you may be on your way to heaven, but you may not be anointed with the Holy Spirit. If you want to follow Jesus, you better seek God to be anointed with the Holy Spirit. And don't be satisfied until you have a genuine anointing. And don't be satisfied with experiencing that once. It has to be a continuous, continuous experience. And what was it power for? It wasn't power to show off. No. God gives us power to bless other people. Not power to make money for ourselves, like a lot of preachers are doing today. God gave them a gift and what did they use it for? They use it to get money from others, so that they can live at a higher standard and, you know, enjoy a lot of earthly things. That's not what God gave. Jesus didn't do that. He didn't use power, his power, even to turn stones into bread for himself. Leave alone, bread is so necessary. He wouldn't even use that power for bread. Leave alone other things. What a difference between Jesus and today's preachers. But he received power to do good to other people. How many of you want power to do good to others? You know, that's really what true, a true servant of God is like. Even when he preaches, you can preach for fame, you can preach for money, or you can preach because you want to help other people. I remember when I was a young Christian and I started preaching. And you know how it is when we are young and we start something new. We always want to impress people. And that's how it was with me. And the Lord spoke to me very early in my life and said, Do you want to impress people or do you want to help them? I said, Lord, I want to help them. Then he said, Stop trying to impress them. And from that day, it was a battle. I didn't overcome it in one day, but I decided I'm going to fight this battle of trying to impress people. I only want to help them, whether it's by encouragement or correction or consolation or rebuke, doesn't matter which. I want to help them. And it doesn't matter if they think I'm hard or they think otherwise, if I've helped them, that's enough. It's enough if the judgment seat of Christ, they recognize the help. But the aim must be to help. Your gift may not be preaching, whatever your gift is. Your aim must be to do good to others. Now, when you listen to a man preaching, we often don't know his motive. It's not only preaching. Any ministry in the service of Christ must always follow the example of Jesus. He went about doing good and delivering people who were oppressed by the devil. Do you know that we are surrounded in this world by people who are oppressed by Satan? All over, there are people oppressed by Satan. Everywhere in your office, you go and sit in your office, there are people oppressed by Satan sitting all around you. Your neighborhood, your relatives, they're oppressed by Satan. They're discouraged, they gossip, they backbite. There are Christians who are oppressed by Satan. That's why they are gloomy, depressed. That's why they backbite. That's why they gossip. These are people oppressed by the devil. The devil's got a hold of them. They accuse others just like the devil accuses others. Can't you see such people gripped all around you? There are people in the church like that. And in our churches, gripped by the devil, who imagine that they are children of God and wholehearted and all that type of rubbish, which they fool themselves with. The devil wants them to fool themselves until one day they land in his lap in eternity and discover that they were fooled all their life by the devil. You know, if you really have become a child of God and the Holy Spirit has come and filled you, you won't be oppressed by the devil. You will go around doing good to others. You'll be so free from the devil's oppression. You can't help others if you're oppressed by the devil yourself. The devil couldn't touch him because every area of his life was under the control of his father. And I want to ask you, you know the devil won't be able to touch you if every area of your life is surrendered to our Heavenly Father. You say, Lord, there's no part of my life that I want to keep for myself. There's no time, no money, no energy that I want to use for myself. I want to live totally for God. I have to do an earthly job to earn my living so that I don't become a beggar. And so I need to concentrate on my work and study. For if you're a student, you need to study to get a job. Otherwise, you'll become a beggar. And so you may have to spend 12 hours a day studying. But that's good. It's for the glory of God because you don't want to be a beggar and dependent on others. You work hard. Some people have to work 12, 15 hours a day. Think of a mother who's got to concentrate so much on children, on her babies and other children, 12, 15 hours a day. She's not thinking of God all the time, but she's doing good to others. She's seeking to be free. A person who's working is seeking to be free from being a parasite on others, seeking to be free from needing other people to come and help him constantly with gifts. He's working hard so that he's not financially dependent on anybody. Now, I want to say to those of you who keep on receiving gifts from others, don't be happy about it. Feel sad that you're such a parasite, dependent on others all the time. OK, for a period, sometimes it can be like that. But God should help you to be able to work and earn your own living. Now, if God has called you to full-time Christian work, then like Jesus received from others, that's OK. But otherwise, if you're not called to full-time Christian work and not called to preach the gospel, I believe it's God's will that all of us should earn enough and be satisfied with what we earn instead of waiting for handouts from other people. Oh, that fellow will give me this, that fellow will give me that. Then I can increase my standard of living. That's the way of an ungodly, selfish child of Adam. But a godly disciple of Jesus will seek to live within what he earns and seek to do good to others. You don't have to earn much to do good to others. I've been to the homes of very, very poor believers and seen their heart of goodness for the very little they have, to seek to bless others who are poorer than them. Because they've got the spirit of Christ. The spirit of Christ is this, always seeking, is there somebody I can do some good to? Is there somebody I can help? Somebody I can bless in some way? The Bible says in Galatians 3 in verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham is to come upon us through the power of the Holy Spirit. And you know what the blessing of Abraham was? We read that in Genesis 12 verse 2 and 3. I will bless you and you will be a blessing. How do you know God has really blessed you the way he wants to? I'll tell you why. I discovered for myself, see whether God makes me a blessing to other people. Is God making you a blessing to other people? Or are you a nuisance to other people? I mean all the devil's children are in some way or the other a nuisance to other people. They're always taking advantage of others. They're always looking for something they can get out of others. They're always seeking to make friends with the rich and the mighty so that they can get something for themselves. These are the marks of the children of the devil. Even if they call themselves believers. Because that's the devil's attitude. His attitude is always to grab and get and get as much as he can from others. Jesus never had that attitude. He never had that attitude even as a full-time worker. He was always seeking to give. Imagine this poor Jesus when people gave money to him. He told Judas, give some of it to the poor. We just live simply and give it to the poor and help others. Buy whatever you need and give to the poor. That's how he lived. And so that he could do good to others. He was filled with the Holy Spirit with power to do good to others. And when he saw people oppressed and gripped by Satan, he knew that he had to deliver them. And he had such authority. And I want to say to you my brothers and sisters, you can have that authority. In the Old Testament it was not possible. Even Elijah never cast out demons. They only dealt with human beings. The first time that we read in the Bible of servants of God casting out demons and delivering people from the devil was when Jesus gave authority to his disciples. And they went out. That is the first time there was a confrontation of the devil. And now after the day of Pentecost, that which is only for those twelve apostles is now for everybody. You a young brother, a young sister, you can live your life in this world delivering people from the oppression of the devil. Not just demon possessed people. There are some very, not some, many decent upright people living all around you who are not demon possessed. Who are gripped by the devil. Proof, they are selfish. They only think of themselves. They only think of themselves and their family. That's the mark of a person who's got the poison of the devil in him. I mean, if you call yourself a Christian and all you think of is yourself and your family, I'd say the poison is pretty widespread in your life. Jesus came to deliver us from that. Of course we need to care for ourselves and our family. But we don't care only for ourselves and our family. We serve others and seek to do good. You have examples in this church of brothers and sisters who, if you could see their life, they have sought to serve others. Because they eliminated, little by little by little, eliminated this poison. They could have lived like the rest of you, just seeking their own. But they didn't. They got filled with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ to seek to do good to others as much as possible. Seeking nothing in return. You can do good to a rich person because you know you'll get something in return. Jesus specifically said once, when you seek to do good to others, seek for the poor who cannot repay you. I want to ask you, my brothers, have you obeyed that command? Have you sought to do good to those who cannot do anything in return to you? Otherwise you're just like the worldly people. The worldly people also would do good to rich people so they can get something in return. But Jesus wasn't like that. He did good to people who could do nothing for him in return. He looked out for people who could do nothing for him in return. And he blessed them. That's the Spirit of Christ. If you really want to know whether you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Now if not, if you're not like that, will you pray to God today and say, Lord, I find this poison of the devil pretty deep seated in me. I find myself gravitating towards people who can help me. Lord, deliver me from this. I mean people who already have enough. Why do I need to go around to them? Let me help those people who are needy, Lord. Let me go to those who need my help, whom I can bless. Otherwise we'll just grow up more and more selfish. Another mark of a person who is oppressed by the devil is pride. Selfishness and pride. If you can keep these two things in your mind till the end of your life. Selfishness and pride are the primary characteristics of those who are under the grip of the devil. And I don't care whether you call yourself a believer or spirit filled or whatever it is. If you're selfish and you're proud, you are under the grip of Satan. And you need to be delivered. It's not a demon you got. It's this satanic poison which came into Adam and Eve and we all inherited it. You saw that in Cain, his selfishness and his proud attitude towards Abel, his brother, which made him kill his brother. We may not kill our brother. We may just speak evil about him or be jealous of him or do some harm to him in some other way. But Christ was not like that. He was filled with the Holy Spirit and power to do good to others. In the book of, in Paul's letters of Titus, you know, Titus is one of those Christian leaders and Paul was teaching him how to teach others. And he says in Titus chapter 2, that one reason why Jesus gave himself for us. It says in verse 11, Titus 2.11, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. Instructing us, first of all, here is what the grace of God does. And if you receive the grace of God, it will instruct you to deny ungodliness in your life, worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age, looking for the return of Christ. And it says here in verse 14, that Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from every sin, from every single sin in our life. And to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous to do good to others. Just like the businessman is zealous to make money, is always looking for opportunities to make money. I think of all these big multinational companies. They start off, you know, we have companies in Bangalore that started off making tobacco. And they found there is not enough profit there, they moved in to make hotels and call centers and all types of things. I mean, it's still called a tobacco company, but then they diversified, because there is an opportunity to make money here, there, everywhere. And other companies that started out making oil, they are in software now, because that's the place to make money. And you see that all over, people diversifying, because they say, hey, this field we've been in for years, it's not making much money. Here is an opportunity to make money. And then another one, that's called diversifying. They look around, they do market research. An opportunity to make money here, money here, money here. You know, that's how a Christian lives. The only thing is, he is not seeking to make money. He is looking around, saying, where can I do some good? Where can I deliver somebody from the devil? If you are looking like that, you are a spirit-filled Christian. If you are not, I would urge you to be spirit-filled. Something is wrong, don't just fool yourself. Oh, I spoke in tongues 10 years ago, so what? Balaam's donkey spoke in tongues, language it had never learned. It didn't make him do good to anybody. Jesus never spoke in tongues, but he did good to a lot of people. Seek for power. The businessman challenges me always. Many times I think of businessmen, say, Lord, I see their passionate devotion to their God, mammon, money. I want to be more devoted than that to the true God, to Jesus Christ and follow his example. To be always alert for an opportunity to do good to others anywhere I can. Now, some of us may be limited in how much we can do, but that doesn't matter. God doesn't expect you to do more than you can. You may not be able to travel the world like me, but God doesn't want you to travel the world. Jesus himself never traveled the world. He traveled in such a small area, less than most of us have traveled. Very small area. It's not a question of how much you travel. You're a mother with children, you can't travel much at all. But you can't say you can't do good. Don't people come to your house? Don't people come to gossip and can't you do some good to them and deliver them from that habit they've got? Instead of encouraging them in that habit? There's so many options. Don't you have relatives who are unconverted? Can't you seek to do them the greatest good of all by blessing them and loving them and leading them into God's kingdom? Seek for this, dear brothers and sisters, and then you will not have wasted your life on earth. Paul once said that on the road to Damascus, God laid hold of him. And this is in Philippians 3. And he says, God laid hold of me so that I can lay hold of his purpose for my life. And if God has really laid hold of you, the purpose is that you may now lay hold of the purpose with which he laid hold of you. And I'll tell you what that purpose is. That you might spend your life being zealous to do good to others. It says here, before Paul closes the letter, he again writes in Titus 3 in verse 14. Our people must learn. There's something we have to learn. Because we don't know it. Like a child doesn't know ABC. We have to learn to engage in doing good works. To meet pressing needs. So that they will not be unfruitful. Let me read that in the message translation. Our people have to learn to be diligent in their work. So that all their own necessities are met. And especially meeting the necessities of other needy people. And they don't end up with nothing to show for their lives. That they bless nobody. Imagine if all that could be said about you at the end of your life, when you're put into the grave. The honest truth will be, this man took care of his family. I mean you could say that about the pigs. And you could say that about the dogs and the cats. Is that all that could be said about you? That you took care of your family and brought them up and got them all married and settled down to a comfortable life. Boy, then you can't even say that you lived. You can say that you existed on earth for 75 years. You didn't live. Jesus came to give us life. An abundant life. And if I've got life. The life of God. God's always seeking to do good to others. He does good to people who don't even care for him. He makes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. He makes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. Do you really want to be like God? I want to be like him. I want to follow Jesus who went around doing good. And the other thing it says here is. Let me turn back to Acts 10. I like the summing up of the life of Jesus in these statements. He went around doing good. And delivering those who were oppressed by the devil. They were physically oppressed. And if God gives you the ability to heal them. Well, heal them. But God doesn't give that gift to many people. But much more than the physical oppression. The spiritual oppression. The devil has put upon people. I mean all around us in the world. We see people are oppressed by the devil. There's hardly a home. In the world. Even among Christians. That can testify. Husband and wife say we have peace in our home. We don't fight and quarrel. I'll tell you honestly. I've traveled the world. It's difficult to find one home like that. Here and there you see a home. Where they really live in peace. Otherwise homes are oppressed by the devil. The home is the number one target of Satan. Children. Under the grip of the devil. Oppressed by all types of filthy habits. To lead them astray from God. Seek them to live for the things that will finally destroy them. This is the condition of a lot of homes. Christian homes. And it gets worse and worse and worse and worse. And there's so much of divorce now in western countries. And not only people are divorced. The leaders are divorced. The pastors are divorced. The preachers are divorced. And remarried. I say what in the world can such people get in a pulpit and preach to others? I'll tell you what they can preach. They can preach. I'll teach you how to divorce your wife and marry somebody else. I'm an expert at that. That's what such a preacher can preach about. What else? He can't preach about anything else. He may have a lot of head knowledge. But look at his life. But this goes on in Christendom. And some of them speak in tongues. And they say they are spirit filled and what not. But I'm not here to judge them. I say no thank you. I don't want to follow that man as an example. That man can't say follow me as I follow Christ. God hates divorce. He's not following Christ at all. So, I'm just telling you how things have gone so bad in Christendom that almost anything is accepted now. They have, even some Christian groups have homosexuals. Men living with men who are leaders in Christian churches. Can you believe how far Christendom has sunk that people are following the devil and there are still leaders in Christendom? We think of those extreme cases. But I'd say a man who still hasn't overcome his temper. What sort of a leader can he be in Christendom? No, he's got to repent. And say Lord, I've got a long way to go. He can be a brother in the church struggling and battling. But he can't be a leader in Christendom because what can he teach others? This is the great lack in Christendom. We have no lack of knowledge today. We have no lack of great ideas to spread the gospel. Those great ideas are like, you know, I've heard of the Coca-Cola company. The Coca-Cola company had a goal that every human being on earth must get a taste of Coca-Cola at least once. It's something like preaching the gospel to all creatures. They may have got the idea from Mark 16. Preach the gospel to every creature. And somebody read it and said, that's a great idea. Make every creature taste Coca-Cola once. And I tell you, they've pursued it with a passionate goal. All over. There's hardly a country you go to where there's no Coca-Cola. And people are using those methods now in Christendom. You've got to spread the gospel that way. That's not how Jesus spread it. Jesus didn't give the gospel to some advertising agency and say, boy, you've got to spread this. No, he gave it to disciples who were wholehearted, filled with the Holy Spirit. And he said, you're going to accomplish this not with money. Because if money was what was needed to accomplish this, he would have given them lots of money. He gave lots of money to Job. He gave lots of money to Abraham. He gave lots of money to David. Why couldn't he give lots of money to Peter? Why did he make Peter so poor that when Peter sees a beggar, he says to that beggar, well, fellow, I'm expanding what he said. But he says to him, you know, the days I was a fisherman, I had some money to give you. But now I'm a servant of the Lord, I've got nothing. Is it like that today? Today's preachers? No. It's the opposite. Do you know that most of today's preachers, even in India especially, if they were doing a secular job, they wouldn't be earning 10% of what they are earning in Christian work. This is the tragedy. The way Christendom has gone. That's not the way Jesus went. He wasn't seeking his own in anything. He sought only to do good to others. And if it meant personal sacrifice, personal sacrifice. In terms of time, convenience, money. How much Jesus must have sacrificed in secret, we don't even know. Now, I'll tell you this. If you want to do good to others, you'll have to be sacrificial. Because that's the spirit of Christ. Deliver them from the oppression of the devil. God's purpose in anointing us with the Holy Spirit is to get those lambs out of the lion's mouth. You know, God's often spoken to me from that example in the Old Testament about David in 1 Samuel, chapter 17. When David wanted to fight against Goliath, and Saul said, you're too young, you can't fight with him. In 1 Samuel, chapter 17, David said to Saul in reply. He says in verse 34. I've been a shepherd looking after sheep for my father. 1 Samuel 17, 34. Whenever a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from my flock, I'd go after the lion. Knock it down. Rescue the lamb. And if it turned round on me, I'd grab the lion by the throat, wring its neck, kill it. Lion or bear, it made no difference, I just killed it. He talks as if he's just killing a little ant on the ground or something. You know, chased a little rat and killed it. A lion and a bear, it made no difference. That's where God taught him to trust Him. Did you know it was not only Samson who killed a lion? David killed a lion with his bare hands? Because God gave him power to do it. Now the picture there is, here's the devil like a lion and come and grab some lamb. It may be one of your children. Now, imagine if David went up to this lion who's got the lamb in his mouth and he gives a lecture to the lamb. See, I told you lamb, you should not have left the flock. I gave you so many warnings, be with the flock. And by the time he's finished the lecture, the lioness swallowed the lamb completely. That's the foolishness we do. We're giving a big lecture and the lioness, we don't do anything about the lion. If your wife has got a terrible temper, what's she's giving a lecture to your wife? Deal with the lion who's gripped her and made her like that. We are so foolish. We fight with the lamb. We give lectures to the lamb. It's the lion we got to deal with. That's the person who's oppressing the lamb. Deliver, of course it's easier to give a lecture to the lamb than to fight the devil, right? But that's what it means. We fill with the Holy Spirit. We see the devil there behind. We give words of correction. I'm not saying we shouldn't correct our children. But if you correct your children and you don't deal with the devil who's gripped your children, I say you're a failure. How much do you fight against the devil in your home when your children have got influenced by the devil in some way? The people around you oppressed by the devil, we need to, this is what it means to be in a spiritual battle. Lord, I want you to fill me with the Holy Spirit because I cannot permanently help people if I don't oppress, if I don't deliver them from the devil's oppression. I can do good. For example, somebody is poor, I give him some money. Somebody needs food, I give him some food. Or give somebody some clothes or help them with finances. That's good. But what's the use of that if you finally send him to hell? You got to go beyond that and say, this guy is oppressed by the devil. I got to deliver him from that. Then I want to say this final thing. It says here about Jesus in Acts 10. And that's the part where I want you to notice. It says here that the reason he could do all this was he was anointed with the Holy Spirit. And one mark of his being anointed with the Holy Spirit was Acts 10.38, that last part. God was with him. That's increasingly become the longing of my own heart. I say, Lord, I want it to be known that you are with me. Imagine if you have God with you. You wouldn't be afraid of anybody. I've pictured this in my mind. I've used this illustration before. How if a dog, say a fierce Alsatian, came running at me, barking, and, you know, showing his teeth, I'd get scared. I'd turn the other way and run for my life. But if I have a lion walking with me, and I have ten of these Alsatians coming, gnawing and barking at me, I can smile at them. I say, lion, you go and take care of them. I don't tackle them myself. I wouldn't be able to. But the lion gives one roar, and I look around for them. Where have these Alsatians gone? They've all disappeared. Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Lion of Judah? He's called the Lion of Judah in Revelation 5. If you have him with you, can you ask for anything else? That's the secret. You've got to have God with you. It doesn't matter if your boss is the most evil man in Bangalore. He won't be able to touch you if God is with you. And even if he does sack you from your job, it'll be so that you can get a better one. God's got something better for you. And I want to say to you, dear brothers and sisters, this should be the passion of your life, that God must be with you. Wherever you go, whatever you do, God, I want you to be with me. I want you to stand with me and be with me all the time. In all situations. Is that the longing of your heart? And I'll tell you something, if there's sin in your life that has not been confessed, God will not be with you. That is why for years and years and years, I've said to people, as soon as you're aware of sin, confess it. Forsake it. Give it out. Say, Lord, I'm sorry I slipped up again. Please cleanse me. Please forgive me. Please cleanse me, Lord. Cleanse me in the blood. I don't want to do that again. Keep your conscience clear. Jesus said once, when you're praying to God for something, He said, when you stand, forgive others. Think of all the people who hurt you. Say, Lord, I've forgiven them. I've forgiven them. I don't wish any evil for them. I wish good for them. I wish good for every one of them. Lord, forgive them. That's how it should be. God will be with us. I've sought to live like that. I mean, when you serve the Lord like I do, lot more people do evil to you because the devil is mad at you. I know the devil is mad at me, and to me that's an honor. The devil is mad at me. I don't want him to be happy with me. I hope you want the devil to be mad at you because you're doing so much for the Lord. And when the devil is mad at you, he'll get a whole lot of other people mad at you as well, accuse you falsely, tell all types of stories about you, and all that. But you've got to forgive them. Otherwise, you'll be gripped by the devil yourself. He kills two birds with one stone. Say, Lord, I want to make sure I've forgiven everybody. I've got no grudge against anyone. Make sure there's no sin that's not confessed. Every thought, every word, every deed is confessed and forsaken. And I pray to you, Lord, that you will give me grace to be sensitive to any little thing in my life that's making you sad. Anything in my life that's making you sad. Lord, please let me be sensitive because I want you to be with me at any cost. I want to ask you to seek God to have His presence with you at any cost. The Bible says, God gives His grace to the humble. Jesus always humbled Himself. In every situation, He humbled Himself because God is with the humble. It's easy to have God with us if... In fact, basically I tell people, if you want God with you, can you remember two things? Can you remember to be very sensitive to sin? As soon as you're aware of a sin, confess it immediately. And if you have hurt somebody, go and ask that person's forgiveness. And the second, humble yourself in every situation. Whatever the situation, humble yourself. Go down and say, Lord, I want to go down here. I don't want to open my mouth and retaliate. I want to just go down and become nothing. If somebody has spoken evil about you or written you a hard letter, just forgive. Don't reply. Just love him and bless him. God will be with you. The fear of the Lord and humility, that's the secret. Keep your conscience sensitive to sin and humble yourself always. It must be recognized by other people in your office. God is with that man. God is with that woman. They must recognize it. They may not say it. It was my longing when I was in the Navy that my senior officers, they were senior to me in rank. I had to call them sir. But my prayer was that as I was young, 23 years old, that they would recognize that God was with me. And many of them did. They couldn't forget it. God was with me. The other day, a man whom I hadn't seen for 40 years ago, he was a naval officer, he's retired as some commodore or something like that, came to see me. He's a Hindu man. He came to see me because he wanted me to pray for him because he was seriously sick. I hadn't seen him for 40 years. And he wanted me to pray for his nephew for some other need. He remembers from way back 40 years earlier. And then later on he sent me an email and says, I'm so much better. And I believe it's because you prayed to Jesus. He hasn't come to faith. He's still a Hindu. And I'm not trying to push the gospel on anybody. I just want to do good. Whether they get converted or not, I want to do good. But I want it to be known that God is with me. You don't have to be a preacher. By your life, by your goodness, you can show to others that you're different. People in your office, your relatives must see that you're different. And I'll tell you one thing, however much they may criticize you, make fun of you, one day they will come to you in their need. Because they'll know that God is with you. I've seen that. I've seen that with relatives. I've seen that with people who hated me once. They will one day recognize God is with this man. It says about Abraham that when people around him were all against him, but when they saw the way he reacted, one of those generals, you read that in Genesis 20, came and said, God is with you. Or 23 perhaps, I'm not sure. And then the same thing with Isaac. We read, he dug some wells that belonged to his father. And the local people came and fought with him and said, no, this is our well. Isaac said, take it. He dug another well which belonged to his father. Somebody else fought for that and said, no, this is our property. Isaac said, take it. Then he went to another well, moved away with his people and they didn't fight for that. He says, well, the Lord has made room for us. And those people who fought with him came to him and said, we recognize God is with you. Because they saw how much God blessed him in this other place. And God wasn't blessing those people in the place where the land they grabbed. I've had that experience in different places where we've gone and planted a church and some other people come and cause a division there and grab them and go. I say, okay, I'm not here to fight. Take it. I'm not building my church. It's God's work. And I've seen through the years, it doesn't go well with people who do that. It doesn't go well with the person who wants to divide the baby into two. Say, let him take half, I'll take half. It goes well with the mother who says, no, no, no, no, no, don't cut the baby in two. Let him take the whole thing. That's the real mother. So I want to say this, brothers and sisters, when you see, when people see in you that spirit of Christ, I'm not going to fight for property. I'm not going to fight with my relatives for property that they perhaps need to give you. I'm not going to fight for anything. One day, maybe 20 years later, they'll recognize that God is with you. And if that's your goal, if your goal is just, oh, I must get that property somehow or the other. Oh, I must teach that fellow a lesson. Then they'll never know God is with you. But if you can make this your goal, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit and the spirit of Christ so radiate from me that people will recognize that God is with me. I believe it will go very, very well with all of us in the days to come. May the Lord help us. Let's bow before God in prayer. Heavenly Father, as we bow before You, we pray that the things we have heard today will come to our heart and grip us, we pray, Lord. We pray, dear Lord, that You'll help us to be sensitive to sin, little, little things that take away the presence of God and the Holy Spirit from us. We pray You'll help us, Lord, we pray, in the days to come that the light will shine so brightly from us that people who are in darkness will be delivered. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.