This sermon emphasizes the true meaning of eternal life as knowing God and Jesus Christ, not just living forever. It highlights the importance of continually laying hold of eternal life, as seen in the exhortation to Timothy to 'take hold of eternal life.' The message stresses the need to choose to pursue eternal life over worldly pursuits and the significance of knowing God deeply to experience spiritual growth and transformation.

Let's turn to a verse in John's Gospel chapter 17. Verse 3, it says, This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. All Christians speak about eternal life. But many people think eternal life means, I live forever. But people who go to hell also live forever. So eternal life cannot mean living forever, because as I said, it doesn't make a difference whether you go to heaven or hell, everybody has eternal life. But there is a hum now. But Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. So eternal life is something we must lay hold of more and more. It's not something you just get in the beginning of your Christian life and then you can forget about it. Many people, they say, okay, I've accepted Christ, I've got eternal life. But this is something we have to lay hold of more and more. I want to give you the example of a Christian who was a much better Christian than you or me. And that was Timothy. Timothy was one of the most wholehearted brothers in the first century. And the Holy Spirit gave an exhortation to Timothy through the Apostle Paul. And that exhortation we find in 1 Timothy 6 and verse 12. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 12. Here it says, take hold of eternal life. 1 Timothy 6, verse 12. 1 Timothy 6, verse 12. Take hold of eternal life. Now, wasn't Timothy born again? Not only he was born again, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul said, I don't have anybody like Timothy who is so wholehearted. He was one of the best brothers in the early church. And to one of the best brothers in the early church, the exhortation is, take hold of eternal life. And again, he tells the same exhortation to a lot of rich people in verse 18. 17, 18, and 19. He tells those who are rich in this world, that means who have got a lot of money, there are a number of things he tells them to do. Don't be proud. Don't depend on your riches. Trust in God who gives us all things. Do good to others. Do good works. Be generous. Share what you have with others. Then you'll have something to treasure up for the future. So that you can take hold of that eternal life. So again he says about taking hold of eternal life. And he's telling the rich people, if you take hold of these worldly things, you won't be able to take hold of eternal life. You have to decide, like I said earlier, you've got to choose which husband you want. See these rich people in the church were taking hold of so much of the earthly things for themselves. And he said you've got to take hold of eternal life. I believe that all of you dear brothers and sisters have a very big responsibility. Because generally speaking, Karnataka is a very difficult state for strong churches to be established. I don't know why it is. But through many years we've found it a great struggle in Karnataka. And most of the leaders we have had, we find always so shallow. So difficult to find good leaders, good shepherds. So here is a great responsibility that you have in this state. And the greatest thing you can do is to lay hold of eternal life. And that is to know God and to know Jesus Christ. See we can never grow in the Christian life if you don't know God. We cannot grow in the Christian life by just attending a lot of meetings. Even if you understand the Bible very well, it doesn't mean you are growing spiritually. We grow spiritually when we know God. And when we know our father better and better and better. You can be a Christian for many years and not know God. You know how a man and a woman can be married for 20-30 years and they are still not good friends. I know people who are married for 30-40 years and they are still fighting with each other. They live in the same house. They are always fighting and arguing with each other. And what is the reason for all this? In the same way, we can say I have been a Christian for so many years. But that doesn't mean you know God. Most Christians that I have met, they don't know God. Because their heart is not filled with love. And then they don't know God. Anyone who knows God, one proof of it is his heart is filled with love for Jesus Christ. He can love his enemies. He can love everybody. And he loves purity. And he hates sin. God loves people and he hates sin. God loves people and he hates sin. Did you hear that? What does God love? People. What does he hate? Sin. So if you know God, what will happen? You will begin to love people. And you will begin to hate sin. The more you know God, the more you will love people. God loves sinners. He loves the worst sinners. He is always waiting to save a sinner. Even a murderer hanging on the cross. Or a woman caught in adultery. Or a crooked tax collector who has made millions of rupees. No, normally we don't love such people. We don't love murderers. We don't love women who are living in adultery. We don't love crooked tax collectors who have made millions of rupees. But God loves them. And if we know God, we love them also. And in the same way, we don't hate sin like God hates it. That's why we play the fool with sin so much. Because we don't know God. And you can hear 10,000 sermons about sin, but it won't make any difference. Why can't I get victory over sin? You got to know God. The more you fellowship with God, the more you will hate sin. You know, it's like, supposing a person has lived in a slum for so many years. He is used to living a filthy life. No proper toilets, no proper drainage, nothing. And if you take him to America or something like that, and transport him to another country where he has a very high standard of living. And you go and see that man's house after 10 years. You can hardly believe how clean he is living now. How did that happen? Because he found everybody else around him was living that way. Why was he living in filth before? Because everybody around him was living in filth. You know, there's a verse in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 is a chapter where we read about the resurrection of Christ. And there are many good things written here. And one of the things it says is, verse 33. Don't be deceived. How can we be deceived? Here's one thing he says. Bad company will corrupt good morals. You may be a very good person. But you mix with bad people. And you'll become bad. And somebody says, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to be bad. That's wrong. Don't be deceived, it says. You know, there's a saying in the world. You tell me what type of friends you have and I'll tell you what type of person you are. Who are your best friends and I'll tell you what type of person you are. That's what this verse says. However good a person you may be, if you keep friends with people who are not interested in godliness, you will also become evil. You keep fellowship with proud people. Whether you like it or not, you'll become proud. If your best friends are people who use bad language, after some time your language will also become bad. But if you keep company with godly people, you'll become good. Gradually, you'll become a little more like them. Not automatically. But, if you desire it, it can be. See, the opposite of this is not automatically true. It says your bad company corrupts good morals. It says your bad company corrupts good morals. If you keep fellowship with bad people, your life will become bad. Definitely. If you keep fellowship with good people, you'll automatically become good in your life. In Haggai, the word of God is mentioned. If you go to the end of the Old Testament, you'll see the third book from the end of the Old Testament. If you go back, you'll see Malachi, Zechariah and then Haggai. Ok. Now, Haggai chapter 2. The Lord is asking the priests for a rule on this. Verse 11. The Lord says, ask the priests for a ruling. Now, read carefully what's written in the next two verses. If a man carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches bread with his food, cooked meat, wine, will it become holy? And the priest said, no. Then Haggai said, if somebody is unclean from a corpse, touches any of these things, will that become unclean? It will become unclean. Ok, maybe you don't understand that. I'll use a better illustration. Supposing your hand is clean. You washed it. And you shake hands with a man whose hand is very dirty. Full of mud. Will your hand become dirty? Yes or no? Yes. You shake hands with a man with a dirty hand, your hand becomes dirty. So, dirt passes very easily. Your hand was clean. Ok, now reverse it. Your hand is dirty. And you shake hands with a clean hand. Will your hand become clean? No. So, what do we learn? Cleanliness cannot be passed from one to another. But uncleanness can be passed very easily. You understood that? You know in the hospitals, how the doctors wash their hands for a number of minutes and then they have these sterilized gloves which have been boiled so that it's all sterile when they do the operation. So, with that sterile glove, if they touch something dirty, what will happen to the gloves? Dirty. But, can he make something holy by touching it? Or clean? No. That is what he is saying here in these two verses. Bad company can make you bad. Like the dirty hand can make your hand dirty. But, can good company make you good? Not automatically. Like a clean hand cannot make another dirty hand clean. You have to clean it yourself. Another person can transmit uncleanness to me, but not cleanness. Is that very difficult to understand? No, it's very easy. So, what do we learn from that? Don't be deceived. You can be a very good brother or sister and you mingle with a few people who are not wholehearted. People who gossip. People who don't have high standards of holiness. What's going to happen to that? Very quickly, you will be unclean. I have seen this with certain people who left our church in Bangalore. We are not the only believers in Bangalore or in India. We don't even say we are the best believers. We don't even say we are the best church. But we do say one thing that we have got fairly high standards of holiness. And we preach that every week. And because people come there and hear it and hear it and hear it, they are kept in a certain standard. And then one day somebody gets offended or something happens and they leave the church. I have seen this in 20 years. With every single person. You see them one month later and you talk to them. You can hardly believe how much they have sunk. And you say, how does this happen? They are going to some other church. But they are mingling with people who are not so interested in holiness. And they are not listening to strong words against sin every week. They are clapping hands better now. They are singing better now. They raise their hands better now. They are smiling better now. But they tell lies also. And they become proud and they don't even know it. So it's true. That the type of company you keep will determine where you go. Bad company corrupts good morals. But if you want to live a holy life, the opposite is not true. Good company will not make you holy. That means a clean hand cannot make a dirty hand clean. If my hand is clean, if his hand is dirty, I can't make it clean by rubbing my clean hand on his. Mine will get dirty, that's all. So if he wants his hand to be clean, what should he do? He's got to wash it himself. I can't even transmit holiness to my wife or to my children. If my hand is clean, I want my wife's hand to be clean, I can do nothing about it. You've got to wash your own hands. I desperately want my children's hand to be clean. However much I rub my hand, it won't be clean. I have to tell them, son, you better wash your hand yourself. It's a very important lesson that you can contract sin very easily, but not holiness. Let me use another example. Somebody's got tuberculosis. Tuberculosis can come even by, if a person sneezes, and that breath you breathe, that TB, or coughs, that air can come into you, you can get TB. See how quickly you can get it. You can get AIDS like that. Even leprosy in an infectious state, you can get it. So we are very careful. Okay, now what about the opposite? Supposing you're sick, and you're going, you're a very healthy man. Say, breathe on me. Will I get healthy? Yes or no? Yes or no? I wish it were that easy to become healthy. Get healthy people to breathe on you. And I wish it were so easy to become holy. Just go and sit in a church where everybody's holy, and you think you'll become holy. That's like sitting with a lot of healthy people and saying, I'm going to be healthy. What absolute foolishness. But the opposite is true. Go and sit with a lot of people with tuberculosis, within one or two weeks, you'll get it. And go and mix with people who don't have any strong standards against sin. Go and sit in a church where they don't strongly preach against sin. Where they say, oh, that's not important. You'll get something. You'll get some sin then. Haven't you heard of some government hospitals? Why don't you go to government hospital when you're sick? Even poor people are afraid to go there. Why? It's free. But it's not only the treatment. You get certain other things also free there. You get some sicknesses also free. Because there's no proper hygiene there. The needles, they don't sterilize properly. Throw away needles, they pick it up and use it again. And you get a lot of things free in government hospitals. Sicknesses especially. It's so easy to get it. But you go to the best hospital in the world, you can't get health so easily. So the same principle in holiness and sin. Very easy to get sin. Any person can give you sin. Like sickness. That's why be very careful with sickness. So we must be careful with sin. But holiness, it's like I have to clean my own hands. I have to cleanse myself. Nobody else can cleanse me. The whole world can give me sin, but nobody can give me holiness. It's very important to remember that. Because if you remember that, you can be protected from destroying yourself. But there's one person, only one person, with whom, if you live close, you can get holiness. That is Jesus. Because when we come close to Jesus, it's like being part of his body. And you know what happens in our body when sickness comes? Something happens. Supposing you get an injury here, I don't know whether you know this, but as soon as you get an injury, all the germs in your body, on your hand, begin to go in there. See, your hand is full of germs all the time. Nobody's hand is absolutely clean. Look through a microscope, you can see these small, small germs there. And when you get a cut, they all go into the blood stream. And they can infect you. That's why we say, wash it off immediately. Or put some medicine, which will kill those germs. That's what medicine does. But, even if you don't do that, your body suddenly realizes, some enemies have come inside my blood. And it produces all types of things to fight against these enemies that have come in. In your blood, the body produces certain cells to fight this. And fights it and kills it. And sometimes in that battle, some of your own cells die there. You know, when something gets infected and you see those white pus there, that's because your body is fighting that. And that's why a healthy person, even if somebody breathes tuberculosis germs into him, if his body is strong, it can kill those germs and he can overcome. And he doesn't get it. But another person, he's a little weak, but he gets it. So, another person cannot make me healthy. That we already saw. My own body can make one part of my body healthy. That's how healing comes. And so, if Jesus is outside me, he cannot make me holy. That is impossible. But if I become a part of his body, then his life can flow into me and attack every sin and help me to overcome. See, in the Old Testament, nobody could become a part of the body of Jesus Christ. No, God was outside. He wanted to bless them and bless them and bless them. But he could not make them holy from the outside. Okay, see what Jesus said in John chapter 16. See, this is just the day before he was crucified. And after that, they did not see him much. They saw him just one or two times after his resurrection and then he went off to heaven. So, we can say this is almost the last time that he was going to be with his disciples continuously. After that, after his resurrection, he saw them now and then for 40 days. But he was not with them all the time. So, he was telling them, John 16, verse 7, I tell you the truth, it is good for you that I go away. How can it be good for Jesus to go away? Supposing Jesus was living in your house and solving all your problems, any sickness in the house he solves it. Any problem, any financial difficulty he solves it. And then one day he tells you, it is good if I go away. He said, Lord, how can it be good if you go away? Every problem we had you are solving here. We have never had any financial difficulty when you are in the home. We never had any sickness in our house when you are in the home. How can you say it is good that you go away? You should not go away. You should be here. Lord Jesus says, it is good for me to go away. He says, because if I do not go away the Holy Spirit, the helper will not come. If I go away, the Holy Spirit will come and then what will happen? You will not be outside of me. You will become part of my body and then you will be connected to me. See, now I can only solve your outside problems. If you are sick, okay, I can heal you. If I have financial difficulty, I can solve that. If there is no wine at the marriage, I can make some wine. Or there is not enough food for the 5000 people, I can feed them. Yeah, I can do all that. But do you know that there is 10,000 times bigger problem inside you. For example, even though I have been with you for three and a half years, he tells his disciples, you fellows are still fighting about who is going to be the leader. You are still wanting to call down fire on those people who do not accept me and you are still doubting me in so many things. You are full of unbelief, pride, spirit of revenge, all these things. So what is the use of all your external problems being solved if the bigger problem inside is not solved. I did not come here to give people health and wealth. I came to save you from your sin which is going to send you to hell. And I can never save you from that until you become a part of my body. So what did we learn? A person outside you can easily transmit a sickness or a sin to you. A dirty hand can touch you and make you dirty. But if you are dirty and somebody touches you with a clean hand, you don't become clean. And a sick person can make you sick. But even a healthiest person like Jesus cannot make you healthy. Spiritually. He can't do it. He says, you have to become a part of my body. Then, my life will flow and fight that German sickness. So that is why Jesus had to go away. So that the Holy Spirit could come. And the most wonderful thing that the Holy Spirit does is not make us speak in tongues. That's not the biggest thing. He baptizes us into the body of Christ. See 1 Corinthians 12 1 Corinthians 12 Verse 13 By one spirit we are baptized into one body. See, baptized means put into. Like, when you are baptized in water, you are put into the water. You are baptized in the Holy Spirit means you are dipped into the Holy Spirit. here it says baptized into one body means the Holy Spirit puts you into the body of Christ. Like when you are baptized in water, somebody put you into the water. Here it says the Holy Spirit puts you into the body of Christ. So suddenly, I become a part of the body of Christ. Before that, Christ was outside me. Before the day of Pentecost, even after the resurrection, Jesus was outside. How do we know? These disciples were afraid even after they saw Jesus. It says they still locked the doors because they were afraid of the Jews. We better not tell anybody that Jesus has risen. They lived inside those locked doors for forty days. They would go out at night, see that nobody knew them and like that they had to walk. Because the disciples of Jesus would also be killed. They were afraid but on the day of Pentecost, suddenly the Holy Spirit came and took these disciples and put them into the body of Christ. And that did not take, it was not a gradual process that took about one year or something. It didn't even take 24 hours. Suddenly, one moment, they became the body of Christ and suddenly the life of Christ started flowing into them and all their fear disappeared and they opened the doors and they came outside and they started preaching the gospel. They were not afraid anymore. They were locked up in jail. don't ever preach about Jesus. They came out, they preached about Jesus again. See how suddenly they changed and they had power to overcome sin. They were not interested in money anymore. You know, so many people were putting money at Peter's feet. He didn't touch any of that. How do we know? How do we know he didn't touch that money? Because when one beggar asked him for money, he said, no, I don't have any money with me. You ask him, what happened to all the money people put at your feet? That's not for me. That's for the poor people. But Peter, aren't you also a poor man? Yeah, yeah, but there are people poorer than me also. I give it to them. See, how did he change? we are all lovers of money. How did he suddenly change? It was not that over 20-30 years he grew gradually and decided not to love money. Does Jesus love money? No. No. And Peter got baptized into the body of Christ. That's what happened. This is the secret of a holy life. a lot of us were not living in union with Christ. We are trying to imitate Jesus. Jesus is there and say, Lord, can I be like you? Can I be like you? Can I be like you? No. You can't be like him. The disciples tried for three and a half years. He was outside. They couldn't be like him. There is one answer to all that. When we are put into his body and we allow his life to flow through us, we allow his power to come into us. We can do many things which we could not do otherwise. We become like the hands of Jesus and the tongue of Jesus. It's amazing what the father wants. This is eternal life, what the father wants to give us. The same life that was in Jesus can flow into me. And that will automatically make me holy. This is a different type of holiness than me trying and determining that from tomorrow onwards I won't do this. My brothers and sisters, how many years we have made resolutions from next, tomorrow onwards I'm not going to do this. We have made such rules for years. What happened? In a few weeks it's all gone. Now there's a better way. Let the Holy Spirit pour the life of Jesus through us. And many of your problems that you cannot overcome in your inner life, he can solve. You know, we try so hard to say, Lord, I don't want to fall into sin. I really don't want to fall, Lord. I want to live a holy life. Lord, I'm falling again and falling again. And Lord, I'm really now, today you have stirred me through this message. And I really want to live a holy life. I'll tell you right now, it will be the same next year. But there's a better way. See the book of Jude. You know, that's the second last book of the Bible. Just before Revelation. Jude. There's a lovely verse here in verse 24. Where it says, Jesus, he is able to keep you from falling. Even from stumbling over a stone. Who is able to keep you from falling? Not you yourself. He is able to keep you from falling. See, we're like this Bible. It's a very holy book. But can it keep itself from falling? How easy to fall. But can I keep this book from falling? Yes or no? But can it keep itself from falling? It can't keep itself from falling. Same with you. You're like this. Oh, you're a good brother, good sister. It's a good book. Just like you, good brother, good sister. And maybe all the knowledge in this book you've got in your head. But what happens with all that knowledge? You still fall. And you say, Lord, what's the difference between me and the other fellow who's got no knowledge? Both are falling. He is able to keep you from falling. Very important to understand. John 15 and verse 5. John 15, verse 5. Verse 5, the last part. Without me, you can do nothing. You can do nothing without me. Have you understood that? You can try, but you won't succeed. This is the whole secret of the Christian life. You know, this hand is controlled by the brain. Now, you may not know that, but if you study a little medicine and you understand, every part of our body is controlled by the brain. The brain says, left hand, lift yourself up. Put yourself down. Little finger, put yourself up. Okay, little finger up. the brain. But by itself, the brain says nothing. It can do nothing. You think you're doing something, because the brain is telling you, do it. And the Bible says, Jesus Christ is the brain. That means the head, the head means the brain. We are the body. So if I submit to this hand, he's able to keep me from falling. That's why we say, you must heal yourself completely to Jesus Christ. All of my life is yours. My whole life, my plans for the future, everything I have, all my money, my time, my house, everything, my children, my health, my money, nothing is mine. It's all yours. I want you to control everything. Then he's able to keep you from falling. You know, many Christians haven't given themselves to God like that. Because they're afraid, oh, if I give myself to the Lord, he'll make me do some very difficult thing. Isn't God a good God? Supposing you go to your earthly father, losing one of your children, many of you are, some of you anyway are fathers and mothers, and the others, I hope some of you have had good fathers and mothers. Supposing you went, your father is a good father, supposing you go one day to him, or your child comes to you, and says, Daddy, or Mummy, I want to obey you completely from today. It's very difficult to find children like that today, but supposing you have one of those wonderful children who says something like that, I know it has to be a miracle, but supposing it happens, your child comes to you and says, Daddy, I'll do anything you say. I want to obey you 100%. What you tell me to do, I do. You tell me don't do, I don't do. You tell me don't do, I don't do. What do you think? Would you ask that child to do something that's bad? No. He won't say, Ah, now I got you under my control. Now I can make you twirl you around my finger and do whatever I want with you. Some fathers are like that. That's because Jesus said, we are all evil fathers. But our heavenly father is not like that. He just will never ask us to do anything that harms us. Earthly parents, they've got a little bit of wisdom, but not as much as our heavenly father. So to submit to God is the best thing we can ever do. Many things we can't completely submit to our earthly parents. For example, when I took baptism, my father was born again. He was born again before I was even born. But he never took baptism. And he never taught me about baptism. He used to take me to meetings where I could learn to be born again. But when I wanted to go on in my Christian life, I could not look to my father for guidance because God was leading me further. So I decided to take baptism because God led me that way. You know, just like our children may get more educated than we are, I have four sons. They are all more educated than me. And I'm happy they are more educated than me. I'll be even more happy if spiritually they are ahead of me. That's possible. When I look at people in CFC, I really hope those young brothers will go ahead of me spiritually. So, with our earthly fathers or even earthly spiritual fathers, they may make mistakes. And God may lead us beyond them. But when it comes to our heavenly father, he knows exactly what is best for us. And if we give ourselves completely to him, he will only tell us what is good for us. That's where the devil says, no, no, no, you better be careful. See, if this hand does not submit fully to my head, you know that happens sometimes. When a person gets a stroke or polio, that disease, the hand is hanging like this. And the head says to this left hand, come on left hand, lift up. Nothing. Lift up. Lift up. Nothing. There are some believers like that. They are in the body but useless. But the right hand is so different. You know what this left hand needs? It needs power. That's what the Holy Spirit comes to do. That's why the Bible says we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Can you be a member of the body without being filled with the Holy Spirit? Yes. Is this paralyzed member, man, still a member of my body? It is a member of my body. It is useless. Wherever I go, I have to carry it around with me. And this poor right hand has to do the work of two hands because this lazy fellow. And there are some believers like that. They come along for all, everywhere. Especially picnics and all, they definitely come. They are useless. They are not useful members in the body. They need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So I want to encourage all of you You have given your life to Christ. Surrender everything to Jesus today. And say, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus is my head. When I was a little child, Paul says, I behaved like a little child, I spoke like a little child. But now I'm a man, I put away childish things. When I was a child, I listened to my parents. Now I'm a child of God. I listen to Jesus, who's my head. He's my head. I'm a member of His body. He's Lord of my life now. And all of my life, my plan, my future is all yielded to Him. My father and mother are not my head now. Brother Zach is not my head now. Jesus Christ is my head. Brother Zach cannot keep me from falling. Jesus can keep me from falling. And I give all my life to Him, and He will keep me from falling. Let's pray. While our heads are bowed in prayer, don't be afraid to yield everything in your life to Jesus Christ. Totally, completely. All your future plans, ambitions, desires. All your stubborn resistance to God's will in your life. Confess all your failures, sins, mistakes you made. Never mind if you made some mistakes in the past weeks or months. Say, Lord, I'm sorry. You allowed me to come to these meetings so that I can turn around once again. Before I destroy my life, Lord, save me. I want to follow you. Lord Jesus, come and fill my life. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.