This sermon emphasizes the importance of unity and lack of competition or jealousy within the church body. It highlights the need for self-reflection, judging oneself instead of others, and striving for a spirit of humility and love. The speaker encourages constant self-assessment, acknowledging that God knows our hearts and motives, and urges believers to focus on personal growth and obedience to God's word.

I told you the importance of the family for building a church. The other thing about the church is that in the body there is a unity and that unity also must be found in the church. There is no competition in this body. No part of this body is trying to show I am better than you. There is no jealousy in this body. So, if you really become a part of the body of Christ, there won't be any jealousy in you of somebody else. That's how I know I am a part of the body of Christ. Not Isava, body of Christ. No, body of Christ. I know I am a part of the body of Christ because I have no jealousy of any person. See, look at your body. Is any part of your body jealous of some other part of the body? Most of us are right handed. We write letters and sign cheques with the right hand. All important jobs we do with our right hand. Is your left hand jealous of your right hand because of that? Supposing your right hand is one day fractured in a sling, is the left hand very happy, now I can write all the cheques and write the letters. No, it will do everything to heal the right hand quickly so that the hand can do the job. Do you have that attitude to another brother who is injured or fallen in some way? And the other thing, there is no jealousy, there is no competition also in the body. No part is trying to show, I am better than you, I can do things better than you. If you are in competition with some other believer, I don't think you are part of the body of Christ. Tell me which part of your body is in competition with another part? That's the other thing I can say honestly, I am not in competition with anybody in the body of Christ. No jealousy, no competition. I am not trying to show that I am better than anybody else. That is how I know I am part of the body of Christ. What about you? Are you a member of this body? Where you are not jealous of anybody? You are not competing with anybody? And you are not even trying to show that I can do things better than you? I can preach better than you, I can sing better than you, I can play some instrument better than you? No such thing in the body of Christ. You know what a wonderful thing if the body in Hubli becomes like that. Or in Goa. Brothers and sisters, maybe small. Like a small baby, it's a very small body. But even in that small baby, there is no competition in the members, no jealousy in the members. There is no one hand fighting with the other hand, even in a baby. So many churches you find fighting and quarreling and division and all that. That's not a body of Christ. There are bunch of religious people who come together, that's all. That's why I told you earlier, that in the midst of all, there is a small real church. That is the body. And you must seek to be a part of the body. And for that, you must be a disciple of Jesus Christ. And you must judge yourself and not other people. That is another mark of the body of Christ. We judge ourselves. See 1 Peter 4, verse 17. Here it says, what is the mark of the family of God? The time has come for the judgment to begin with the household of God. The house of God is the family of God. And it says, judgment must begin there. And it must begin with us first. So that is the mark of the house of God. Of the family of God. It consists of people who judge themselves first. The mark of the devil's house is, they judge other people first. There are a lot of people sitting in a church, who are actually members of Satan's church. Of Satan's house. Because they don't judge themselves, they judge other people. But here it says, in the house of God, we judge ourselves first. That is one of the marks of God's church. That if there are ten people there, they are always judging themselves. See there were many weaknesses in the disciples. When Jesus was on the earth. And even at the last supper, there was an argument, who is the greatest. Many many weaknesses. Even Peter was denying the Lord. But there was one good, also another thing, nobody was willing to wash the other people's feet. So all these were weaknesses. So many weaknesses you can see at that last supper. But there was one good quality that we can see there. I like that. When Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me. They didn't start looking at each other, who is going to betray him. You know what they said? You remember? What? Each of them said, Lord is it me? I love that. What a wonderful quality. Lord is it me? One person is going to betray me, Jesus said. Everybody says, may be me. Not it may be him, I think it is him only. I think it is that guy there. That is what we hear today. What a wonderful attitude to say, Lord it may be me. What a wonderful attitude to say, Lord it may be me. Supposing the Lord comes here now. And says, one of you is going to commit a terrible sin tomorrow. You start looking around, who is that? Say, Lord, may be me. Please protect me, that I don't dishonor your name. You are speaking about one person here, who is going to commit some terrible thing tomorrow? Don't say, it will never be me. That is what Peter said. You know what happened to him, that night itself he fell. You know what happened to him, that night itself he fell. There is a verse in 1 Corinthians 10. Which says, it is a very important verse. Verse 12. Let the one who thinks he will stand, be careful lest he fall. You think you will stand? You be careful, you are the first one who is going to fall. There is a great safety in judging ourselves first. Why do we spend so much time judging other people? Why are you so worried about what other people think about you? When we all stand at the judgment seat of Christ one day, The Lord is not going to ask anybody, what do you think of this person? He is not going to ask me, what I think about you. He is not going to ask you, what you think about me. The Lord says, I don't need to ask anybody, I know everything about you. And He is not going to ask you, your opinion about somebody else also. Because He knows that you only saw a little bit of His life, the outside. One of the most foolish things we can do is to judge other people. Because all of us know so little about other people. You see a person 2-3 hours on a Sunday. How do you know how he behaves in the office? How do you know how he behaves if he is travelling in a bus or a train? How do you know how he behaves when he drives a scooter? And some other scooter comes and hits him. How does he behave? You don't know. You only see him looking like a holy man or a holy woman on Sunday. So we are very foolish when we judge people by the little bit we see. I tell you, you don't even know 5% about all the people in your church. Even if you have been married 50 years, your wife does not know what all thoughts are going in your mind. And you don't know what all thoughts are going in your wife's mind. She doesn't know whether you love money. On the outside and all, you can pretend a lot. But how does she know whether your mind is always thinking about money? How does she know whether you got some bitterness in your mind against somebody? We don't know about each other. We know less than 5%. Can you imagine a judge in a court just hearing 5% of the facts and passing a judgment? No. When they pass a judgment in a case, they hear all the witnesses and sometimes it goes on for so many years before they pass a judgment. But we see 5% and we pass a judgment. I think we are so stupid. All human beings are like that, but we Christians must be different. We must not be like all the others. We must be different. That we don't judge others, we judge ourselves. Because there is one person about whom I know everything. Who is that? That's me. I know everything about myself. Nobody else knows me except God and me. Even the devil doesn't know everything about me. He knows what all I do in private. But the devil cannot read my thoughts. Only God and I know my thoughts. He has no ability to read a person's thoughts. If I get angry with my wife, that he can hear. If I am bitter with my wife in my mind, he cannot see that. So, it's only God who knows me thoroughly. So there is one person I can judge perfectly and that is myself. I can't even judge my wife because I don't know what is going on in her mind. I can't even judge my wife because I don't know what is going on in her mind. It's foolish to judge your wife. It's foolish to judge your husband because you know only 5%. Suppose there are 20 questions in an exam. And the teacher is correcting the papers. And the teacher does not check all answers to all the 20 questions. Just first question. Right? 100%. The first question is wrong? Zero. What type of teacher is that? Didn't check all the other 19 questions? You think any teacher will evaluate a paper like that? Only checking the first out of 20 questions. Such a teacher will be sacked from a school. But we are doing it all the time. All the time. We know only 1 out of 20 of a person's life. 5%. But we pass a judgment. Zero or 100. We are absolutely foolish. That's why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4 Those of you who have a great lust to judge other people. It's a very interesting thing he says here. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5 Don't go on passing judgment on others before the time. You want to judge others? The Lord says, I will give you a chance to do it. There is a time for you to judge others. Just wait. Don't be in a hurry. You have a great lust to judge others. I will give you a chance to do that. When is that time? Wait till the Lord comes. Why? Because when the Lord comes There are 2 things he is going to reveal which you don't know now. 1. He will reveal all the things hidden in the darkness. That means that person whom you are judging, you don't know anything about what he is doing in his private life. What are the things hidden in darkness? How he keeps his financial accounts, you don't know. Whether he is cheating in his office, you don't know. What he does in secret in the darkness in the rooms, you don't know. You don't know. So many things in his thoughts, that's completely dark, you don't know. All those things God will reveal. He will show on a screen. These are the things this man was thinking all his life. This is how he handled his money and this is how he kept his accounts. These are all the secret things he did in the darkness in the rooms. Then one more thing he is going to show. The second thing he is going to show is, he is going to show the motives of men's hearts. That means you don't know the real motive. You may thought he is a great preacher. But God will show on the screen that day he was preaching in order to make money. He was preaching to get honor for himself. You gave that preacher hundred marks, God gives him zero. A lot of these television preachers, Christian TV preachers. You look at them and you give them a hundred. I believe God will give them zero. Because they take money from poor people and buy expensive planes to travel around. I don't care how they preach. They don't have the spirit of Christ towards money. Jesus never took money from poor people to buy a big chariot for him to drive around. Jesus never took money from poor people to buy a big chariot for him to drive around. So there are motives. For example one person sings well or plays some instrument well. And you say oh wonderful he is glorifying God. One day God will show the motive of his heart. He was just trying to show everybody how well I can sing, how well I can play some instrument. If he was doing it in the cinemas it is ok, but he is sitting in the house of God and doing that. Imagine sitting in the house of God and trying to show what a great person you are. Imagine sitting in the house of God and trying to show what a great person you are. That is a hundred times worse than doing it in the cinemas. That day you will discover who comes first and who comes last. The Bible says don't judge people because you don't know these hidden things. But you know your hidden things. Judge yourself. And there is a promise for those who judge themselves. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 31 If we judge ourselves rightly we will not be judged in the final day. If we judge ourselves rightly we will not be judged in the final day. That is in the final day. We will not be judged. Because we judged ourselves now. If you don't judge yourself now, according to this verse, you will be judged in the final day. I will tell you something. I don't want to be judged by the Lord in the final day. Can you please show me how I can escape judgment in the final day? The Lord says judge yourself now. Judge yourself rightly. And don't judge other people. I say yes Lord. I will never judge other people. Whatever they may do. But I will judge myself every day. Why? Because I don't want to be judged by God in the final day. I am telling you the truth. Every single day of my life I judge myself. Don't you like to take a bath every day? Particularly if you are stinking. If you expire a lot. Isn't it good to take a bath? And you feel so fresh. That is how I feel when I have judged myself. It's like taking a bath every day. You feel so fresh. You get rid of all the smells in your body and you don't get rid of all the smells in your soul. God says you are stinking. Judge yourself. Judging yourself is like taking a bath. No. Putting the soap and getting rid of everything. Lord show me. I always judge myself. I preach. I go home and judge myself. I say Lord did I say anything for my own? I know I am not doing it for money but did I do it for my honor? Did I say something to get some honor? Did I keep quiet on something afraid that I might offend somebody? Did I speak the truth? And Lord did I waste people's time by boring them? Forgive me. Help me to do it better. If all preachers judge themselves every day, there won't be any more boring preachers in the world. I know that most preachers do not judge themselves after they preach. Even in CFC churches. That is why so many of them just keep on preaching boring useless sermons week after week after week. Because they don't go home and judge themselves. And there are sisters who keep on gossiping. They are just the same after 15 years. And some become worse. Why? They don't judge themselves. The husband and wife are fighting, after 10 years they are still fighting. They don't judge themselves. That is why same level of life in the home. But they glory in the fact that we left that dead church and we came to CFC. What is your glory in that? If the way you are living at home is just like all those godless people. You have brothers and sisters, judge yourself. Take a bath every day spiritually. And rub yourself nicely with soap and get rid of all the dirt. And ask God to show you what is wrong. Very very important. And where you did something wrong, go and set it right. I can give you my word, that if you judge yourself every day, not only there will be no judgment for you when Christ comes back, but you will become a much better husband, much better wife, much better father, much better mother. I used to punish my children and go and judge myself after that. That's how I became a better father. Only by judging myself. Whatever you do, judge yourself. And you will become a much better brother and sister in the church. And many habits that you find very difficult to give up, it will go. If you only stop judging others. For about 25 years I had a little paper stuck in front of my table that I looked at regularly. And I wrote on that paper. It was in front of my table. The happiest people in the world are those who judge themselves always and never judge others. I looked at it and looked at it and looked at it for 25 years. Now I don't need it. Because it's written inside my head. I want to be the happiest person in the world. And I know I can be the happiest person in the world if I never judge anybody else. I only judge myself. I disagree with a lot of people. I disagree with all these television evangelists. But I'm not here to judge whether they go to heaven or hell. What is there to judge? I only say that Jesus Christ would not behave like that. That is what I say. And I will not behave like that. That's not the spirit of Christ. That we must have discernment. If you don't have discernment, you'll join the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Roman Catholics. You'll start praying to Mary. No, you must have discernment. Is that Christ-like? Is that church following the word of God? Why do you think we started CFC 37 years ago? Because those few, three, four families who came together, we were fed up with all the deadness in other churches. And so we want to obey the Bible. So we must have discernment. Say, that is wrong. Why do we leave Hinduism? Because idol worship is wrong. We don't hate Hindus. We love them. We love all people. In fact, Christians also worship idols. Because they love money. That is an idol. Anything that you love more than God is your idol. So you find so many people are idol worshippers. Even in the church there are idol worshippers. We don't hate them. We say, that's not the way for a true disciple of Jesus. So we have to judge ourselves. I'm not here to judge the Hindus or Muslims or atheists. Or people in other churches. I disagree with them. God is the judge of all men. I'm not here to judge anybody. I'm here to say, this is my conviction, brother, sister, I love you, but I disagree with you. No, we love all people. People of all religions. But we don't have to agree with them. But we stand for the truth, and we judge only ourselves. See, in James chapter 4 it says, Verse 11 Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother, judges his brother. Or his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, then you are not a doer of the law, you are a judge. Verse 12 There is only one law giver and only one judge. And then it says, who are you to judge your neighbor? So judge yourself. I believe there will be tremendous unity in this church if you all judge yourself. And the older members must judge themselves more to be an example to the younger ones. How can I tell my children to judge themselves if I as a father don't judge myself? The elder brother must judge himself more than all the others. Why? Because Jesus said to whom more is given, more is required. God has given me more knowledge of him than he has given you. That is why I am standing up here to teach. So therefore God will judge me by a much higher standard than he will judge you. Can you understand that? Let me use an example from a school. Do you know 10th standard examination is much more difficult than 1st standard examination? Exactly like that. If God has given you lot of knowledge of him like that 10th standard student, your examination is going to be very strict. But that other brother's sister has just come recently to Christ, they are in 1st standard. God will not judge them with such a high standard. Some people say God will judge all of us equally. In examination day, do all the students in all the standards get the same question paper? No. Different class, different question paper. And all of us are in different levels spiritually. The more you know, the higher the standard of judgment. So it is very dangerous to know more if you don't obey it. I tell people in CFC that, in Bangalore, I said it is a very dangerous thing to come to this church. It can be a very blessed thing or a very dangerous thing. If you come here to obey God's word, this is the most blessed place you can come to. But if you are not going to obey God's word, this is the most dangerous place in Bangalore to come and sit. Because every message you hear, your judgment is increased. It was quite dangerous that you attended this conference, by the way. It could be the most blessed thing that happened to you. It can change your life completely and lift you to a much higher level than you ever experienced in your life. But if you don't care for what you heard here, and you don't take it seriously, then let me tell you, it would have been much better if you never came for this conference. Because your responsibility before God has increased. You heard certain things which you never knew before. Now you have gone to a higher class. In knowledge, your question paper is going to be tougher. Don't be afraid of that. Do you want your children to go to a higher class? Every year or not? What do you tell your children? Oh, don't go to the higher class. The examination is tougher and fifth standard. It's fourth standard. You stay here itself for five years. Do you tell your children like that? You want your children to go even to college. It's going to be much tougher in college. But you know that they can get information and they can get a better job if they get a better qualification. So you tell them, study more, study more. Even if the exam is tough, don't worry, study. So same thing I say in the Christian life. It's good that we know more and more and face tougher situations. God can lead you much higher in the Christian life. Let's pray. Now we have heard a lot in these past two days. It's almost been like attending a ten day conference. God loves you. That is why he has given you so much wealth. God's word is the greatest wealth he can give you. Thank him. Thank him for what he gave you. And say, Lord please help me. To live according to the light I have received. I want you to fill me with the Holy Spirit. Otherwise I can never live this life. Fill my heart with the Holy Spirit. And make me another person, change me Lord. In Jesus name. Amen.