This sermon emphasizes the importance of hallowing God's name, seeking His kingdom, and doing His will on earth as it is in heaven. It addresses the need for godly leaders, the dangers of lies and flattery in preaching, and the importance of preserving the glory of the Lord in the church. The speaker urges the congregation to have a burning passion to honor God's name, follow Jesus on earth, and be faithful in all aspects of life.

Okay, you may be wondering why I'm sitting. I've been preaching for 53 years and 53 years gets a bit hard on the legs. After a while the outer man decays. That's the physical reason. And there is a spiritual reason as well. When I began to sit and speak, I began to study the scriptures. How did Jesus teach? And I want to show you four verses. Please have a look at them. And you will be quite surprised to see what we read in the Gospels about how Jesus taught. The first one is in Matthew chapter 5. When the Sermon on the Mount, it says here that Jesus went up to the mountain and sat down. Matthew 5 verse 1. And he opened his mouth and began to teach. That's the first verse. Jesus went up to the mountain. He sat down. He began to teach. Another verse, Luke chapter 5 verse 3. Jesus got into one of the boats. He sat down and began teaching the people. The next verse is in John's Gospel in chapter 8. Where we read that when he was... John chapter 8 verse 2, when the morning came, he sat down and began to teach them. That's John chapter 8 verse 2. And the next verse is in Matthew and chapter 26. It says in verse 55, the last part, every day I used to sit in the temple and teach. When I studied this, I was quite surprised. I said, every single time Jesus taught the disciples, he sat down. Why was that? Every prophet in the Old Testament stood and preached. It's the mark of Old Covenant preaching. You stand and you preach. It's a proclamation to the people. In the New Covenant, Jesus wanted to teach them like a family. And he did stand in the synagogue when he was preaching to the Jews. He did stand once in the temple proclaiming to the Jews. But when he taught his disciples, he was always sitting down. And that was the spiritual aspect of it which I began to meditate on after I began to study this. And that's the important thing for us to understand. It's not whether we stand or sit. It's perfectly alright if we stand. One reason why we stand is so that people at the back can see you. So it's perfectly okay. We are not legalists. But the principle here that you need to see why the Old Testament prophets stood and why Jesus sat is important for us to understand. Not the physical position. Have you ever had a school teacher sit down and teach you in a classroom? Never. All school teachers stand. When your father sat with you around the dining table and shared God's Word with you, did he stand or sit? He always sat. Fathers sit at the dining table. Teachers stand up and teach. The spirit of the Old Covenant is the spirit of the school, the classroom. Teach. The spirit of the New Covenant Church is the spirit of the family where the head of the family sits at the head of the table and teaches his children. So it was quite a revelation to me because I never seriously studied this subject until I began to sit myself, particularly when I had to speak many times a day. So we in the Church have emphasized the New Covenant from the beginning and we discover more and more aspects of it. And one of the important aspects of the New Covenant Church is that we are a family. I mean, this is not a congregation that we are building. We are building a family. The family grows larger. We may not know everybody's names but the sense of family is still there. And we never want to lose that. I hope all of us will be gripped by it. A lot of people say, we'd like to have a CFC Church in our town, a church just like this. And they think it's the songs we sing or our teachings. You can take the teachings. There are a lot of people who listen to my messages on YouTube and take down notes and preach the same sermon in their churches. But they do not build a New Covenant Church. You can get points for your sermons by listening to all those sermons on YouTube but you will not build a New Covenant Church with sermons. You'll just get a lot of honor for presenting truths. We're not interested in that. We're interested in building a family that God can dwell in. You know, right from the beginning God had this desire when he pulled Israel out of Egypt. We read in Exodus. I want you to turn with me to Exodus chapter 25. I mean, if you want to be gripped by what God is doing in our time in India, and I believe around the world, then try to pay attention in these days. Because I believe you'll hear a word from heaven. You know, we have this theme up here, preserving the glory of the Lord in our church. That's not easy. So many movements start so well with great mighty power and men of God whom God has raised up to reveal new truths. But once that man of God dies, decay sets in. Whether it's Martin Luther in the 16th century or John Wesley in the 18th century or William Booth in the 19th century or throughout the years people have been raised up by God to bring forth something from scripture or even the early Pentecostal movement. It's not the same today because it's not even the same after one generation. Everything begins to decay. And so our concern is the glory which we have seen for so many years in our church, how shall we preserve it? How shall we get the younger generation to be gripped by the same passion? It's not a pattern. It's not as a question, as I said, of sitting or standing. It's not a question of whether we wear jewelry or not to wear jewelry. It's not even a question of whether we teach sisters to wail their heads or not. All that is there, but that's not the main thing. You can have all these external things and the glory can be missing. So I want you to turn to Exodus chapter 25. You know, this is the instruction that God gave Moses about building the tabernacle. And here we read in verse 8, Let them construct a sanctuary for me, a holy place for me, that I may dwell among them. I wish we could look into the heart of God. Whenever I read the Bible, I don't want to get information. In my younger days, I studied it for head knowledge. But now, more and more, I want to see the heart of God when I read the Bible. And I tell you honestly, I've seen very little of it. I want to see a lot more. That's why I keep meditating on the Bible even after 55 years of studying it. I feel sorry for those of you who don't seriously study the Scriptures. Don't study the Scriptures to prepare sermons. Don't study the Scriptures to get knowledge. My dear brothers and sisters, younger brothers and sisters, study the Scriptures to see and feel the heart of God. Make that your passion. Lord, I want to know you. Jesus said, Eternal life is to know God. It's not to live forever. John 17, 3. This is eternal life, that they might know you. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The only definition of eternal life in Scripture is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ. That means to see His heart. So study the Scriptures to see the heart of God. And when you read a verse like this, do you see the heart of God there? I want to dwell in your midst. That means, you know, it's like having the father at home. Think if your daddy was away from home for many years and one day he came back home. How the children, the wife would gather around and he is the center of attraction. Is it like that in our church meetings? That Jesus is the center of attraction. That we go away from a church meeting saying, I met with the Lord. That's my longing. And a big responsibility falls on those who preach the word of God. That when we preach, people get a sense that Christ is here. Not that the preacher is a great preacher. But they go away saying, what a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Father. Not what a wonderful preacher. That should be our longing because God says, I want to dwell in your midst. See something of the heart of God here. If we see the heart of God, we'll preserve the glory of the Lord in our church. If we don't see the glory of the Lord, we'll just end up with a pattern. And I tell you, the same thing can happen to CFC churches. That happened to the Lutheran church, the Methodist church, and the Pentecostal church, and the Brethren Assemblies, and the Salvation Army, and everything that started off with such tremendous power. Such tremendous power. I've often said that if I were living in England in the 19th century, I would have joined the Salvation Army with William Booth. That man had a passion for God. He's the one who wrote that song which we sing often. Send the fire, send the fire, send the fire. And he had a passion in his life. And to the end of his life, his desire was to fight. He said, as long as there's one poor lost sinner anywhere in the world, I'm going to fight till the very end. And he said that when he was over 80 years old. And he started off when he was in his 20s. Imagine being like that. I wish that some of you will have a passion to be like that. To end your days in glory. And a passion and a fire that burns more and more and more and more for the glory of God. Not just to stir people up with some emotional stirring that doesn't last. But a concern for the glory of God. I want to dwell among them and build a holy sanctuary means a holy house for me. Every place where there is a CFC church. Think of this verse. God says, I want you to build a holy house for me. And the house is not the physical building. It's people that I may dwell among them. And God will not dwell in a place where there is strife or competition. Or where somebody is trying to show off. No. God dwells in a house where there is peace. You remember when Jesus sent his disciples out in Luke chapter 10. He said whenever you go to some place he didn't ask them to stay in a hotel. There were inns those days which were like hotels. He didn't ask them to stay there. He sent them out two by two laborers. There were 35 groups. 70 of them. Luke 10 verse 1. But he said whenever you go find a place where there is a house. Verse 5. First say peace be to this house. And if there is a man of peace there. Your peace will rest upon him. And verse 7. Stay in that house. Verse 7. Don't keep moving from house to house because you won't find many houses like that where there is peace. If you find one house like that among a hundred houses in the villages, you are lucky. Because Jesus knew the amount of strife and quarreling and fighting that goes on in every home. So Jesus said look for a house where there is peace. And stay there. That is the type of house God looks for in every church. And that's why Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. The sons and daughters of God are those who make peace where there is strife. The children of God are those who said Lord Jesus come into my heart forgive my sins. But the sons of God. Matthew chapter 5. The sons of God are the peacemakers. Because it's only in a house of peace that God dwells. Very very important. And I believe that is the concern that all of us should have. Mostly all of us are Indians. Some of you from other countries. What should be our concern? Jesus taught us to pray. Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. That should be the number one request from our mouth which means the number one burden in our heart. There is a song that says prayer is the soul's sincere desire whether it is spoken or not spoken. The heart's sincere desire. That's the prayer. What we say with our mouth is usually for material things. Lord give me this. Heal me from that. Give me this thing and that. Give me a promotion and help me in my examinations. But the deepest longing of our heart. It's good to pray for all those things. God blesses us materially too. But the deepest longing of our heart should be hallowed be your name. And then we need to ask ourselves in India where we live. Is the name of Jesus hallowed, honored, respected? No. It's dishonored. It's not dishonored because of the way non-christians live. A non-christian can never dishonor the name of Christ because he doesn't take the name of Christ. Before my wife married me, her name was something else. She could not dishonor Zak Poonen because she didn't have that name. When could she dishonor my name? If at all she ever could because only after taking my name. When can you dishonor the name of Christ? Only after you take the name of Christ. That's why I say a non-christian in India can never dishonor the name of Christ. He hasn't taken the name. But any one of you and all the people in India, but only 2% Christians. But that 2% is also many, many millions. They dishonor the name of Christ. The name of Christ has been dishonored by the pastors and preachers who beg for money and who are guilty of immorality and many, many things. There's such dishonor to the name of Christ. And that should be our primary concern. Father, your name is not hallowed. I want your fathers and mothers to think. Think of it like this. Supposing all over town or all over your village the name of your daughter was being scandalized. Even though your daughter was pure, her name is being reproached and scandalized. How would you feel? How would you feel every day if her name is being reproached and scandalized with false stories? Would you have a concern or would you say I'm not bothered? You would be concerned. Be concerned. To be concerned about the glory of God's name. I wish all of us here will take that as a challenge. Lord Jesus, your name is dishonored in the land or the city or the village in which I'm living. That's true. I wanted to be honored. I wanted to be honored, first of all, in my life. I wanted to be honored in the home that I have that my neighbors don't hear me yelling and screaming and fighting. I wanted to be honored in the church that I belong to. Personal life, family, church. Three areas. That's where God dwells. God dwells in our heart, God dwells in our family, in our home, and in the church. I want to build a home. I want you to build a home for me, the Lord says. So let's make that our primary prayer. If we want to preserve the glory that God has manifested in these past 40 years in amazing ways, if we want to preserve it to another generation, it must mean that there must be people here who have a burden that the name of Jesus will be honored in our land. Please keep that in mind. It's very, very, very important. And the second prayer is thy kingdom come. You know, John the Baptist preached, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For 1,500 years the people of Israel had been occupied with earthly things. Do you know that every promise in the Old Testament is earthly? You search through the Old Testament. God never promised Israel anything in heaven. No spiritual blessings. Every blessing he promised them was material. A land, plenty of crops, because that's the way they got money those days, or herds of cattle. That's the way they got their money. In today's terms it means a lot of money, a lot of gold and silver, and all your earthly enemies will be defeated. Those are the promises in the Old Testament. And John the Baptist says repent. Turn around from that, because now the kingdom of heaven is coming. Now we've got to focus on heaven. Somebody's coming who's going to establish the kingdom of heaven. And John the Baptist was imprisoned. Jesus continued the same message. Repent, the kingdom of heaven is coming. That is our second prayer. Thy kingdom come. This is not referring to the future day when Christ will come back. He'll come back, whether you pray that prayer or not. I believe it refers to his kingdom first coming in the church. One day it'll come all over the world, whether the world likes it or not. But right now there must be a demonstration to the world around, this is the kingdom of heaven that we have in our church, which one day is going to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Thy kingdom come. Do you have a burden that the principles of the kingdom of heaven must be seen in your home? In your life? In the way you work in your office? In your church? Is that a burden in your heart? And you feel concerned when the principles of the kingdom of heaven are not being manifested in your life? In your home? In your church? Do we just sit back and say, oh well, people are like that. And if you're an elder brother, why are people in your church like that? I mean, if your children misbehaved in school and the teacher called you as a parent, what do you say? Oh, that's not me. Sir, that's my children. Go and talk to them. You wouldn't say that. If your children misbehaved in school, you as a parent are responsible for that. You don't tell the teacher, well, that's my children. Don't tell me about it. Go and talk to the children. No. You know that the Lord, that the Apostle Paul took that responsibly very seriously. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians in chapter 12. Paul was a real spiritual father. And I believe one of the secrets of preserving the glory of the Lord in our church is godly elder brothers. If we don't have godly elder brothers, we are doomed. We have sought through the years to have godly elder brothers. And if someone is not godly, we remove him. If someone has not brought up his children properly, we remove him. Because the Bible says that. That if a man can't bring up his children properly, how in the world will he bring up a church properly? Paul was a real elder brother and there are many, many things we can learn from the Apostle Paul. Paul says here to the Corinthians, because there was a lot of strife among the Corinthians. God's name was not being honored there. It was a church Paul had established and the glory of the Lord had departed in Paul's lifetime. Not from all the churches he planted, but from Corinth. And that was just within 20 years. We've been going 40 years. But Paul had a burden. He doesn't say, you fellas are like that. See what he says in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 20. I am afraid that when I come I may find you to be not what I wish. I want you all to be godly, but I think when I come into the midst of you Corinthians, I will find that you're not godly. And when I find you're not godly, you will find that I will not be what you want me to be. I will not be the gentle, quiet Paul. I'm gonna be pretty hard and strict as a father when I see the way you guys are behaving. That's a good father. Paul always said, listen to this, if I find you not what I want you to be, you will find I am not what you want me to be. You see that? And because I find a strife, there may be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, people sitting backbiting, arrogance, disturbances all in your midst. And before you find me to be a strict father, he says in verse 21, God will humble me. That means Paul had dealings with God first. He was God's representative as an apostle who had planted that church. God had appointed him to nurture and bring up that church as a family. And like the school teacher calls you as a parent and says, why are your children behaving like this? God would call Paul and say, Paul, why is the church in Corinth like this? And like you can't say to the teacher, oh well, that's my children. I'm not responsible. Paul could not say, oh, that's those people. They're like that. No. He was a father. That's what I'm saying. A true elder will have this feeling. God will humble me and I will mourn. Won't you mourn if your teacher tells some terrible thing about the way your children are behaving in school, fighting with each other and kicking the others? I hope you'll go and mourn as a father. Do you elders mourn and are concerned when things in your church are not the way they should be? Paul mourned over many people who have sinned. Paul did not sin. It's these other people, his children, who were sinning and they have not repented of their impurity, immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced. Thy kingdom come. It was Paul's burden that the principles of the kingdom of heaven will be seen in the church in Corinth and it was not seen. I want to ask you, elder brothers. Are those principles seen in the members of your church? If we don't have godly elder brothers who humble themselves before God and who feel humiliated because people in that church are not what they should be, we will not be able to preserve the glory of the Lord in our church. Some of you elders may be sitting back and saying, well, I've got good children. My children are following the Lord. Why in the world are you an elder if you're only concerned about your children? You should resign your eldership and say, I don't care for anybody else in the church. I only care for my children. You're a father. You're not an elder. Would you be concerned if your children were going astray from the Lord? A true elder is a father and he must be concerned if people in his flock are going away from the Lord. That's the only fellow who's fit to be an elder and it's very difficult to find them. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom, the kingdom of heaven come in my life, in my family, in my church. And thirdly, thy will be done on earth, first of all, in my life, in my home, in my church as it is done in heaven. The way those angels respond to God's call immediately. Lord, we see it in you. You've said it. We do it. Lord, we want to build a church where people read something in your word and they do it. We don't have it like that today. People read something in the word and they say no, it doesn't mean that. It was for those days and even a simple thing like women wailing their heads. Do you know the amount of controversy it has raked up all over the world? It is written so plainly in 2 Corinthians 11. 16 verses. And the remaining 16 verses are about breaking your bread. But Christendom has split that chapter into two and is saying the second part we'll keep. The first part we couldn't care less. That is for the Corinthians. The moment you say that such people are guilty of discarding something in scripture because it is not popular with women. And you have elders who are seeking popularity. In a hundred years you will not build a church. You'll build a congregation who will pay you your salary and keep you happy. That's not a church. We don't want to have anything like that in any CFC church. And the moment you remove something from scripture saying it was for that time. People can say marriage. That was for that time. Man and woman. Now it can be men and men. It can be women and women. And why should it be only two? You can have three. Who opened the door for that? But when you say it's written like this in scripture one man one woman they'll say yeah but it's also written here in scripture that women must wail their heads and we don't see that in your church. If you can change that in your church, well we can also change one man one woman in our church. Who started that ball rolling? People who take little bits of scripture and say that doesn't apply for us today. You cannot accuse that man of having a same sex marriage. Never open your mouth against him because you yourself have violated scripture in some area. This is why in CFC churches we seek to obey scripture 100%. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. The angels don't say Lord let me think about that or let me study the Greek original meaning of that. They don't talk all that rubbish to God. When God says something, they do it. They don't argue with him. The cleverness of men which has brought argument and all that in the church, we don't want that in any of our churches. We're simple people who obey God's word and it has gone well with us for 40 years because we have obeyed God's word. We want to continue doing that till Jesus comes. And we want to raise up a generation of people as some of us older people are getting older and older and moving on. We're not going to be here forever. I hope I live till Jesus comes. That's my longing. But even the apostle Paul did not live till Jesus comes. John did not live even though Jesus said about John if I want him to live till I come I can do it. He said in John 21. But he did not allow him to live till his return. So none of us is so great that we can say oh I will live. We can have a desire. So then there must be another generation that comes up. There must be people in their 50s and their 40s who are gripped by these truths. Who are training people in their 30s and 20s already. The third generation. See what Paul's burden was in 2nd Timothy. What he tells Timothy. It's the last letter that Paul wrote in 2nd Timothy in chapter 2. The things 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 2 The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Do you see how many generations there is there? Paul is the first generation. He's telling Timothy 2nd generation entrust these not to clever men not to intelligent men, not to rich men, not to smart men, not to good speakers, but to faithful men. That is the 3rd generation. Paul, Timothy, Timothy must entrust it to faithful men. Not just any faithful men, but faithful men who will be able to teach the 4th generation. You see Paul's burden was right up to the 4th generation. That's why I said we need people now who are in their 40s and 50s who are gripped with the desire to train people in their 20s and 30s because it takes so many years to make a man of God, to make a leader. You can't produce someone just like that overnight. They have to be gripped and shepherded and guided and trained and encouraged and corrected and when they say something and they preach, they must be corrected and encouraged so that another generation is prepared to preserve the glory of the Lord in our church. Do you have that burden? It is after these first 3 requests hallowed be your name, forget about my name Lord, I don't care what people think about me. I don't care what people think about my family. We've adopted that attitude in CFC. We were scandalized, reproached, even today we are called heretics, false teachers and all that. Paul said we are called all types of bad names. We are called the scum of the earth. That's okay. The apostles were first in God's eyes and last in the eyes of men. That shows how upside down the world is. Yeah, that's how it was in the early days. The apostles were first in the eyes of God, last in the eyes of men. But it didn't matter. Hallowed be your name Lord. Your kingdom come. The principles of the kingdom of heaven. Your will be done on earth and in my life especially as it is done in heaven and then we can move on to give us our daily bread. We need physical help also. We need a house. We need shelter. We need a job in order to earn our bread. We need to educate our children so that they can earn their bread and they don't become beggars in their generation. That all comes there, but it doesn't begin there. For many of us our prayer is, our father who art in heaven, give me my daily bread. Educate my children. Give me a good house. Give me a good job. Nothing wrong with those requests. Put them at number 4. We put them in the wrong place. And if you as an elder brother also puts it as number 4, you will never build a church. The church is built by people who have a passion and you don't have to be an elder brother. You can be an ordinary brother in the church. You know, if you are so filled with the Holy Spirit that the glory of God fills your heart. The Bible speaks about the aroma of Christ. Have you heard? That's a beautiful expression. I want you to see it in 2 Corinthians 2. I believe that's what should be found in our church. It should be found in our home. It should be found in our life. 2 Corinthians 2. The fragrance of Christ. Verse 15. The fragrance of Christ. Like the fragrance of flowers and the fragrance of perfumes. You know how many thousands of rupees people pay for a little bottle of perfume. Because it's got such power. And it's so powerful that if a person sprays himself with it, you can sense it. You can get that scent many feet away. The scent of a fragrance. And here it speaks about the fragrance of Christ. This is what people must see. The fragrance of Christ in our life. The love, the mercy, the compassion and the uprightness and the boldness and the fearlessness. All together. It's not just love, gentleness and goodness. Also uprightness and boldness and uncompromising stand for the truth. The fragrance of Christ is well rounded that contains grace and truth. The fragrance of Christ we first of all show it to God. That means God smells the fragrance. Verse 15. And among those who are saved and among those who are perishing. That's our calling. It's a beautiful verse. 2 Corinthians 2 15. Lord I want the fragrance of Christ first of all to come to you and then to go forth from me to every believer I meet and every unbeliever. If you're a real saint, I'll tell you something. The unbelievers may hate you, the compromising believers may hate you and speak all evil things about you but they'll never forget you. All their life they will remember that sometime in their life they met an uncompromising man of God. Sometime in their life they met an uncompromising woman of God who was not arrogant but humble. There are people who stand up for the truth in an arrogant way. We don't want to be in that category. The fragrance of Christ is total lack of compromise but total humility. It's something we must pursue. That can only come if we pray. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. And then come to all our earthly requests. Faithful men. I was reminded the last few days as I was praying about this conference of Psalm 12. I want you to turn with me to Psalm 12. There are a few Old Testament passages that have great relevance. It's a Psalm of David. See David was a man who had a burden to build a house for God, a temple. And once he said, Lord I'm living in such a grand palace. I don't have time to show it to you. Read it sometime in 2 Samuel chapter 7. He said, Lord I'm living in such a grand palace but look at your house. It's in a little tent. A tabernacle. I want to build a grand house for you. Better than my own house. What a burden he had. Do you have a burden? Some of you have built your own houses according to the resources you had. And I'm sure you took great care to make sure that the house is built in the best possible way with the resources you had. What about the house of God? What about the house of God in which you are a part of? Which you are involved in? Are you concerned as much for it as you are for your house? All of our elders you know are working people. Or do you say, well I'm here for a short while. I'll finish my job and I'll go away. Particularly people in the Gulf are like that. They all know they're there only temporarily. Nobody's there permanently. I'm here for a short while. I'm going away. Okay, even if you're there for one year, are you concerned that a real godly house should be built in your church? That burden can be yours. This fragrance. If you have the fragrance of Christ, you don't have to speak in a meeting. Think if some lady with a powerful perfume sprayed all over her was sitting somewhere in the middle of this hall. You think she could hide it? People all around her will say, who is this? That's a beautiful fragrance I get from there. That means she can influence people just by sitting there. She doesn't have to open her mouth. The fragrance speaks. And I believe it's been my conviction and if you have faith for it, it can be yours. That if you're filled with the Holy Spirit and really radical and living before God with this attitude, Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done as uppermost all the time in your life, you can go and sit in a church and even if you don't speak, you can influence that church. You can influence a meeting. There'll be a sense of God in that meeting without your opening your mouth. I've had a passion for that. I hope you young people will have a passion. Lord, I want to have such a fragrance of Christ in me that without my opening my mouth, just my presence sitting in a hall where nobody even knows me, there'll be something. Have a passion for it. You'll never have something from God if you don't desire it. If you don't desire it, oh well, these things won't happen. It won't happen for you. I want it to happen for me and I believe it will happen for me. Why not all of us have this passion? Lord, I want to be so pure. I want to be so humble. I want to be so loving. I want to be so upright before you, so anointed by the Holy Spirit that even if I never open my mouth in a meeting, just my presence in the meeting lifts the spirit of the meeting. You believe it's possible. I believe it's possible. Because so many people say, oh, they're not giving me a chance to speak in the meeting. You have such a covetous desire to speak in a meeting? Why not bring the fragrance of Christ into that meeting? Instead of having this lust. I want to speak in the meeting. When are they going to ask me to speak in the meeting? You'll never get there. Your passion is to get your own name honored. Hallowed be thy name, Lord. We need more people who have reoriented, changed their way of thinking. The Bible says, by the renewal of our mind, that means to look at things from a different point of view, God's point of view. So, Psalm 12, David says, this man who had a burden for God's house, help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be. Godly people are disappearing. That's what it says in another translation. Godly people are disappearing. Oh, Lord, help us. I really believe that is a prayer that godly people should be praying today. Help, Lord. Godly people are disappearing. Faithful people are disappearing from among men. It's really happening in the church. It is really happening. Godly leaders, faithful leaders, who have no interest in making money, who are absolutely pure in relation to women, the opposite sex, who have no desire for honor, godly people are disappearing. They were there once. They're not there today. Faithful people who are faithful in secret, faithful in their thought life, faithful in the way they handle money in their homes, faithful in their speech, in their conversation, to keep their conversation pure with grace. Faithful people are disappearing. Lord, help us. You find a cry like that? And Lord, around us in the church, we see people who tell lies. One of the biggest lies is give your tithes to my ministry and God will bless you. Absolute rubbish. Do you know that in the New Testament, let me tell you something, there's not a single verse in the New Testament that tells you to give money for God's work. Not a single verse. It's always give money to the poor. Two full chapters on it, 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. There are preachers who misuse it, but you read the context of it. Give to the poor saints in Jerusalem, you Corinthians. But preachers have taken those two chapters and say, give it to me. And people who don't know the Bible are deceived. If you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully. It's referring to helping the poor. Read it in the context and see. Where are the people? They tell lies. That if you will give me money, God will bless your ministry. We don't tell such lies in this church. We say you honor God and God will honor you. And if you are poor and you can't take care of your own family, you don't have to give one cent to the Lord. God knows your need. Don't worry about it. God will take care of His work. God's not a beggar. He owns the silver and gold in the whole world and He's not dependent on you. That's the principle we have followed for 40 years and we'll never go back on it. And I hope we'll never go back on it in any of our churches. God's always provided enough for us. Personally, I've proved it myself for 50 years as I've served the Lord and we've proved it in our ministry for 40 years in the poorest villages in India, not just in the rich cities. It's always true. God is the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And the God who lived in the time of those apostles is the same today. But people tell lies and then the other thing today's preachers have is flattery. With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. I wish, I wish all of us would have discernment when you listen to all these preachers on the internet and on television, that you see the lies and the flattery and the deceiving heart the double heart with which they speak. They don't lead you to godliness, they entertain you. A lot of today's preaching is entertainment just like the cinema theater, the movies. One form of preaching, another form of entertainment. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips. I pray that. If I speak strongly against these things, it's because of the prayer of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord cut off all these flattering lips, the tongue that speaks great things and who have said that with our tongue we'll prevail. And the Lord says, because of the devastation of the afflicted, many of God's people are being exploited by preachers today in many, many churches. They're pushing them down on the platform and making them show their feet to God. All of us in India know that if you show your feet to somebody, it's an insult. You don't show your feet to people. And yet it's happening all over on these platforms, Christian platforms. The preacher pushes a man down and the man lies down and shows his feet to God. Every man in the Bible fell down and showed his head to God, bowed his head before God. But they're doing the opposite of that today. They're not bowing their head before him. They're lying down and showing their feet to Almighty God. It's a shame. And the thing that surprises me is there are millions of Christians who sit there with their mouth open and think, ah, Holy Spirit. What Holy Spirit? Anything that's against what Jesus did is anti-Christ. Jesus never pushed people down. He always lifted people up. I'll show you so many places where he lifted people up. He never pushed anybody down. How do you believe all this nonsense? Thank God that most of us in CFC churches are not deceived by all this. But we have a responsibility to share the truth with a whole lot of others who don't know these truths. Very, very important. Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy. The groaning of the needy is a whole lot of people who are defeated by sin year after year after year after year after year. All that happens when they go to their church is entertainment, good music, collect the money, and they're defeated by sin. The most important problem in their life is not solved. They still watch pornography, they still fight with their wives, they still run after money. All these things. But they come and sing on Sunday, and they pay their tithes. They're being exploited. And some of them are groaning. Lord, help us. God says, I pray this will be true in our days. The Lord says, now I will arise. And I say, Lord, arise. I will set him in safety for which he longs. Here and there in the midst of all this, there are people who are longing to live a godly life. And that has been my prayer for more than 40 years. I said, Lord, I don't want to look for people in India who want to go to heaven. Everybody in India wants to go to heaven. 1,200 million people in India who want to go to heaven. Am I excited about that? Not at all. Have you ever found a man in India who wants to go to hell? I've never found anybody. They want to go to heaven. I say, Lord, I want to meet people who want to follow Jesus Christ on earth all their life, before going to heaven. Those are the only people I want to find, and those are the only people I want to gather. The rest can go and fill all the other churches. We don't want a single person in CFC church anywhere who wants to go to heaven only. But who wants to follow Jesus on earth before going to heaven. I hope you elders have a burden only to gather such people. Otherwise you will corrupt your church. It says about the Israelites when they left Egypt, have you read that verse? A mixed multitude went out. Some of those Egyptians came along with them. A mixed multitude. And those are the guys who said, yeah, we worshipped a cow in Egypt, let's have a cow, and they made a golden calf. Who taught them to do that? The mixed multitude. And make sure that your church doesn't become a mixed multitude. You'll have all types of problems there. The words of the Lord are pure words, a silver trident, a furnace. We want them in our church all the time, refined seven times. Thou, O Lord, will keep them. Thou will preserve him from this generation to the next generation, to the next generation forever. Let the wicked strut about on every side. It doesn't make a difference. There will be a testimony for the Lord in India. That is our burden. God raised up CFC churches in India to be a testimony for the Lord in India. To be a pure testimony like a light burning, like a city set on a hill that cannot be hidden, like a lamp burning brightly. This is God's desire. And if you have a passion and a burden, then the glory of the Lord will be preserved. I think of it like having a baby. You know, before a baby is born, a woman, a mother, has to carry that with a lot of pain and suffering in her womb. And he wants it. Think of the motherless, I mean childless wives, wives who don't have any children. What a longing they have to have children. Even though they know it's so painful, they want children. I wish some of us would have a burden like that. Lord, I know, I had a burden for ten years, from 1965 to 1975, to see a church that symbolized, that expressed the truth of the body of Christ. You cannot have a baby without a burden, without a carrying that in your womb. And so this is the burden that I trust many of us will have. Younger people, older people, don't be so occupied with the world. I find some people, they've already earned enough money, and they still want to keep on earning more and more and more. It's endless. Even in their retirement, they don't want to do anything for the Lord. Some more money, some more money. When will it end? Why not say, Lord, give me a passion in these last days to go somewhere and to encourage others and to build a church. I mean, if I could do it, I would travel 365 days a year, going here and there to preach the Word of God. I wish we have a burden. Lord, I want your name to be hallowed. I mean, if you're not called to be a wider sphere, at least in your local village or in your state, Lord, I want your name to be honored and I have a burden for it. If you carry that burden, burden, burden in your heart, one day it will come forth. Those are the people who will preserve the glory of the Lord in our church in the days to come. And my prayer is that many of you brothers and sisters, especially you younger ones who are in your 40s and 50s and 20s and 30s, you can begin. I began to have that burden in my 20s. I saw it coming more to fruition in my 30s. God is no respecter of persons. He has got no partiality. What He did for Jesus, He'll do for you. What He did for one brother, He'll do for you. What He did for one sister, He'll do for you. Let's pray. One of the things you have to be really careful about, as our heads about in prayer, the devil would like it very much to remove all these stirrings from your heart, so that it all disappears by the time you go home next week. Pray that it won't happen. That if God put a burden in your heart today or challenged you in some way, that you will never let it disappear for the rest of your life till Jesus comes. But that it'll grow stronger and stronger. If He's ignited a fire in your heart, the fire will burn brighter and brighter till He comes. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. He's the oil. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit every day. I do it. I say, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit every day. I don't believe in once saved, always saved. I don't believe in once filled, always filled. I want to be continuously saved, continuously filled. Pray that God will do that and that the fire will burn. Paul told Timothy, stir up that fire in you. Keep stirring it up every day, my dear brothers and sisters. And you young people, be gripped by it from a young age. Heavenly Father, we pray that your name will be glorified in this conference. We want your presence here, Lord. We want to hear you speak to our hearts. And we want to go away from here at the end of these three to four days, knowing we have met with you in a life-changing way. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.