In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of following in Jesus' footsteps and living by the same principles he did. The speaker quotes 1 John 4:17, which states that as Jesus is, so can believers be in this world. The speaker encourages listeners to consider their testimony at the end of their lives and challenges them to go beyond just avoiding gross sins and attending church services. The speaker distinguishes between "minimum Christians" who do the bare minimum for God and "maximum Christians" who give their best and go above and beyond in their devotion to God.

That's an awesome responsibility. It's easier to be a pediatric consultant who gives advice to mothers and fathers how to bring up their children and never see them take no responsibility. The world of difference being a father, I'll tell you that. One of the reasons I'm constantly on email day and night is because there are people who write to me from 50 churches asking for some advice on this or that every day and it's a great privilege I see it to serve God who has been so good to me. When we see that one of the unique things that Jesus came to do, we have spoken much about victory over sin is one of the differences between Old Covenant and New Covenant, but that is individual. I can seek for a pure inner life and say my life is better than the life of the Pharisees which is only external goodness, but my holiness is not tested until I'm willing to become a part of a local fellowship and be committed completely, because then that fellowship with others who are as much rough stones as I am tests my holiness and tests your holiness too. And that's why people shrink away from commitment to a church. They like to be individually holy people. I think they're fooling themselves. I'm not saying they won't go to heaven, but I tell you my aim in life is not to go to heaven. I gave up that long long ago. That is a, when I was a child I spoke like a child. Paul says when I grew up I gave up childish things. Some people never give up childish things. For 50 years after they are born again their only aim is to go to heaven. I'm least interested in that. I told the Lord I'd be ready to go to hell if he is there. My interest is to be with Jesus, not to go to heaven. And that starts right now. And right now my calling is to see what Jesus came on earth to do. He came to build a church that would be a testimony to Satan, primarily, and to the world. When the Lord said you shall be my witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth, I see that not only as being a witness to people, but also a witness to the devil. You know the first book written in the Bible is not Genesis. It was Job. Job lived long before Moses who wrote Genesis. So when God decided to write a book for man, the Bible, the first book he started with was not Genesis, not about the creation of the world or of Adam. It was about Job. And it's very important for me to understand that. I mean God could have revealed to Job who wrote that book all about creation and Job could have written Genesis chapter 1. Why didn't he do that? Because that's not the most important thing for us to know. I mean it doesn't really bother me whether God created the earth or made the earth in six days or three days or 25 days. Job chapter 1 tells me something much more important for me to know now than whether the earth was made in six days and that is that in the heavenlies God and Satan are having a discussion about the condition of people who call themselves his witnesses on earth. That's the first chapter of Job and there are very religious people on earth. If you read the book of Job there are people like Eliphaz and Bildad. Now if you're not familiar just turn with me to Job chapter 1. You know there were three friends of Job who came to see him in Job chapter 2 verse 11 called Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. And if you read about their lectures and there was another younger guy called Elihu. All four of them were extremely religious people who knew so much of the truth about God. I don't know anything about how they brought up their children. I know they were great preachers who knew all and if you read all that they spoke you never find anything inaccurate theologically about what they spoke. In fact one of their quotations is quoted in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 by Paul. He catches the wise in their own craftiness. He's one of these preachers who said that. So there's nothing wrong in what they said theologically but yet at the end of the book of Job the Lord tells him you have not spoken about me what is right. Take some time if you're serious about a Bible study to read through all that they spoke. Find out what is it about God which they said was wrong. You will find it was their spirit that God was criticizing. You know we can be theologically accurate and have the spirit of the devil in the way we speak. The Pharisees were theologically accurate. So but in the book of Job chapter 1 is this as it were let me expand it and Satan is telling Job I mean Satan is telling God look at these guys who know so much about you Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar. What are they? Hypocrites don't you know that God? God says right but have you seen Job? That meant so much to God that in the midst of all these hypocrites there was one man who could be a witness for him. The hypocrites were numerous. The witnesses for God were limited. That is what brought delight to the heart of God. Satan challenges that. Yeah yeah he's serving you because you blessed him in so many ways. Take away the blessing let me see if he serves you still. God says okay I take up that challenge. He's going to be true to me and though he had a few ups and downs and that's because he didn't have the Holy Spirit. We don't have to go through the ups and downs Job went through. He finally came through and according to his Old Testament standard of life he was a pretty good witness. To whom? To the devil. At the end of it and God blessed him double. So what I see from the first book of the Bible in the first chapter is that the primary thing God's interested in me is. Are we as a church a testimony to Satan? Am I as a Christian a testimony to Satan? It's not a question of what others think about me. I couldn't care less what people think about me because it's so unimportant. If I am a good testimony to Satan I will automatically be a good testimony to the rest of the world because Satan can see a whole lot of things. Satan can't read my thoughts or my inner life but he sees a lot of things about my private life which the rest of the world never sees. Satan sees a lot of things about your private life, your home life, the way you do your financial transactions, how you behave on the road when other people are angry which the rest of the fellow believers don't see. So what I learned from the book of Job chapter 1 is that my testimony to Satan is much more important than what you think about me. Dear brothers and sisters, if each of you will take that attitude and be gripped by it, what God said in the first chapter of the first book that he wrote for man, your spiritual life will change radically. I assure you that. Your family life will change radically and you'll be such a tremendous blessing in the church. And that's why when we read Matthew 16 and Jesus spoke about, he said I came on earth, what he came on earth to do was to build the church. It was a new word never used in the Bible before. Jesus said I've built my church Matthew 16 18 and all the powers of hell will not overpower. You see there? Immediately he talks about Satan. He's not talking about the witness of the church to the world and the world is going to be impressed by all the social work that the church does and all the leprosy hospitals and all the education institutions and all the good work we do for the homeless and all that. He's not talking about that. That's all good. I know multitudes of Hindus and heathen who do a lot of good work in India. There are Hindus who built hospitals in India where they give free treatment to the poor. It's not only Christians but they're not a testimony to the devil. I'm not against all that but we need to keep what is primary primary and what is secondary secondary and the sad thing is Christendom has put secondary things primary. They put love your neighbor as yourself is more important than love God with all your heart first. In the cross the vertical bar or your vertical relationship with God is more important than the horizontal one. We need both. We need to know which is priority and if I am to love God with all my heart soul and strength which is the first commandment then I'll be a witness to the devil but if I only love my neighbor as myself I'll be a very good testimony on earth. People say how kind these Christians are how helpful they are when people are in trouble how they care for the poor and the homeless and the sick boy the devil will just laugh at us. You see these are things which are all through Scripture or somehow the devil's blinded Christians to see these things and that's why I say God has hidden the greatest truths in Scripture from the clever and intelligent but he's revealed them. It's a New Testament word revelation the Holy Spirit showing us things which are in the Bible which we don't seem to see. So I see that our testimony to Satan as a church is very important and the Lord has established the church to establish the victory of Christ in the territory of the devil. I've seen it like that. My calling is to be a part of a church that establishes the victory of Christ in the territory of the devil and that territory of the devil is all over the earth. He's the prince of the world and called he's a prince of darkness the world is covered of darkness and I have to be such a light for God in every area of my life my thoughts my attitudes no darkness in my thoughts no darkness my attitudes to people. This is why it's so important to have a loving attitude to every human being. I'm not to get involved in political disputes with people. I'm interested in concentrating on attacks against the devil. I'm not interested in so many other things that the worldly people are interested in because they're not fundamental to the reason why Christ has placed me on the earth. If I give importance to it it must be just secondary. I'm not going to get into big battles with people about all these secondary things that are not going to matter 2,000 years from now. If I keep first things first and say Lord my primary calling on earth is to be a witness for you in the heavenly that you can boast about me to Satan. That you can boast about my home to Satan and Satan says look at all these other look at all these Christian homes Lord God he doesn't call him Lord God look at all these Christian homes these your children look at the way they bring up their children look at the way they behave the Lord should be able to say yes but have you considered this one that one and when devil says look at all these churches they're huge in number 30,000 people but do they have an interest in each other most of them don't have any power over me Satan says God says yes but look at this church. I remember when we started God I mean I didn't start it God started it in Bangalore when church CFC started 38 years ago the word the Lord gave us was from Malachi chapter 1. Malachi chapter 1 it's the last prophet speaking to a Israel at a time when Israel had thoroughly disappointed God it was 1,200 years after Moses that took them out of Egypt and God said this is the last prophet I'm going to send you I've got finished with you fellas I've sent you prophet after prophet after prophet I taught you a lesson by taking you to Babylon and making you slaves there you came back after 70 years and now a hundred years later you're still the same they didn't go into idolatry but then one thing Babylon cured the Israelites off is idolatry they never went into idolatry after that for the last 2,000 years you read Kings and Chronicles they're full of idolatry but Babylon cured them of that permanently but a lot of other things it didn't cure them of. Selfishness and pride. These are the two most deeply rooted things in our human nature and which even Christians don't seem to get light on and if there are two things that hinder the building of the church it's selfishness and pride there's two things that destroy a home it's selfishness and pride if there's two things that hinder spiritual growth it's selfishness and pride those are inner things you can have a lot of it and have you can be oozing with theological knowledge and be saturated with selfishness and pride within and nobody knows a lot of people have such a saintly humble appearance though look at that way they live their life and the things they think about and the way they behave when people are not watching it's selfishness and pride that runs their life so in Malachi chapter 1 the Lord says to them a son honors his father verse 6 and a servant is master if I'm a servant my father where's my honor if I'm a master where's my respect Oh priests who despise my name you say however you despise my name you see this is a thing these were priests who knew the scriptures well but they didn't know they were despising God's name we can know the scripture so well and yet not realize we are dishonoring the Lord somewhere God has to give us revelation and he says I'll tell you how you're dishonoring my name you're presenting defiled food on my altar how is it defiled well you know you have to make a sacrifice for me so you pick up that blind lamb verse 8 and sacrifice you say this blind lamb is a nuisance to me in any case let me give it to the Lord and then you you've got a lame ox or a sick one and you present that what was the problem with Israel they weren't worshiping idols they were giving to the Lord that which cost them nothing I have often spoken on an Old Testament verse which the Lord gave me 54 years ago 2nd Samuel 24 24 where David said I will never offer to God that which cost me nothing the Lord spoke that to my heart more than 50 years 54 years ago and said this is the way you must live all your life to give something to me it must cost you something otherwise it's not worth I said Lord I'll keep that to the best of my ability we all know that we must sacrifice something for the Lord when you think of the great sacrifice Jesus made for us all Christians admire the sacrifice of Jesus but to partake in it of that same spirit is another thing I've said in our church back in Bangalore I say if you only admire Jesus then when the broken bread comes to you just look at it and admire it and say Lord how wonderful and don't touch it pass the bread on to the next person and the Lord stated if you partake of it and eat that bread then you're saying Lord I want to partake of the same spirit you see how blind we are even in the breaking of bread most Christians I believe 99% of Christians break bread without even understanding what it means I know because I was like that for many years everything in the Christian life is by revelation however clever we are to the Spirit of God does not give revelation we can be blind as a bat on fundamental errors in our life and keep imagining we are growing spiritually growing spiritually just because maybe we have more Bible knowledge we can share things well and we're doing a work for God and people are being impressed all these things count for nothing revelation revelation so that's why the Lord was fed up with the Israelites and one mark of his being fed up with his people is that he stopped sending them prophets they'll only get people thereafter who explain the scriptures and feel theologians you know there's an Old Testament verse which says oh God we don't see any prophets have you forsaken us in the Psalms it's a mark of God having forsaken a people and when Malachi was the last prophet God had finished with Israel and what is the reason they were not putting him first they were sacrificing for a lot of things concerning themselves look at the amount of sacrifice we make when our own interests are at stake and God is not primary that's what it proves and he says when you do you think you'll give your governor Malachi 1 8 something second rate or third rate like you give me will you treat your governor the same way as you treat me take a simple matter which I've taken seriously very simple thing how would I speak to my wife at home if a believer from the church is sitting there how would I speak my wife at home when the believer is gone and only Jesus is there you can know whether you fear God or fear man by that simple test I'm telling you what I've applied to myself I didn't start my married life victorious I started my married life thoroughly defeated as a Christian I didn't know about victory I never had a spiritual father to guidance one of the things I lacked when he started a church I never had a spiritual father to him I could relate every day and say hey brother what shall I do here and so I struggled through years to come to a life of victory personally on my family life but one of the things the Lord showed me was you must be more conscious of my presence in the presence of man and I discovered so many things in myself like that for example even as a young Christian if I prayed in public I would pray to impress man not the Lord if I kept quiet during the time of prayer that's also the I'm afraid what people will think of me if I open my mouth they may suddenly discover I'm not so spiritual that's why I keep quiet in the time of prayer also if I keep quiet or I speak all is it because I'm seeking honor and I got light on there I said Lord I'm willing to make a fool of myself I'm gonna open my mouth and pray even if it's one minute I didn't encourage all of you to pray publicly you'll discover a lot about yourself that you don't discover when you keep quiet it's true you'll never learn to ride a bicycle or a car by studying it on the blackboard you gotta get into it make a few mistakes maybe fall off or have a couple of accidents you learn so it's the same way I found this seeking of honors so much there I said Lord give me light on it and you know you wouldn't do that you would honor your governor more than me the Lord says and then the Lord says oh verse 10 Malachi 110 I wish there'd be some priest who would have the courage to shut the gates of the temple and say no more of these sacrifices we don't want any of this we'd rather have no sacrifices here than all these useless sacrifices you call it right I don't have to be a prophet who shuts the gate you know because people being all these guys too radical well every prophet was radical that's why most of them got killed and that's why most people don't want to be prophets today they'd rather be a nice teacher of the word a nice expositor of Ephesians or Galatians who is there will shut the gates to this type of thing and don't uselessly kindle fire on my altar and now this is the verse the Lord gave us when we started our church from the rising of the Sun verse 11 that's from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations and not only among you Israel you guys think you're the only ones on earth that I'm interested in God says no from the east to the west in every nation whether it's the United States or India or Congo or Cambodia or Russia or Leos or Australia or Kenya or South Africa or Egypt or any country my name will be great among all the nations a new age is coming this is predicting the new covenant age and in every place throughout the earth is going to be incense offered to me this is spiritual language an offering that's going to be offered to me to my name and offering that is pure that's the point that it is pure not large but pure that's the word that came home to us that God is looking in every nation now for a offering that is pure why was it impure because there was no sacrifice I give that lame sheep which is a bit of a nuisance to me in any case I get rid of that sick bullock which is gonna die in a couple of weeks in any case might as well give it to the Lord this is the difference between religious people and spiritual from the beginning of time there's been these two streams the religious symbolized by Cain the spiritual symbolized by Abel you all know that God accepted Abel's offering did not accept Cain's and let me show you in Genesis chapter 4 how these two streams started Genesis 4 we read this is the first incident mentioned after the man came out of Eden and was put out the first incident mentioned in Genesis chapter 4 we read that they came and brought an offering to the Lord now some people think that this is a sin offering it's not a sin offering it was a Thanksgiving offering there are many types of offerings in the book of Leviticus some were sin offerings which always had to have blood but there were other offerings called Thanksgiving offerings you don't have didn't have to have blood in it at all it was an expression of gratitude for the type for example was a Thanksgiving offering where people brought their grain or their plot you know gratitude expressing thanks for God's blessing on their labor so here Cain and Abel were expressing their gratitude to God for his goodness to them in their labor they didn't have to be blood so I find that so many folks don't see this and if you read carefully you'll see that most of evangelical Christendom says Abel's offering was accepted because he brought blood Cain's offering was not accepted because he didn't bring blood let's read scripture carefully Genesis chapter 4 verse 3 Cain brought an offering to the Lord verse 4 Abel brought the first things of his flock and the way evangelical Christians read the last letter part of verse 4 would be like this the Lord had regard for Abel's offering and therefore for Abel but that's not what it says and for Cain's offering he did not have regard therefore he did not have regard for Cain is that what the Bible says no you just got to read the Bible slowly it's all there the Lord had regard for Abel and therefore for his offering the Lord had no regard for Cain and therefore for his offering it's something like Jesus said Matthew 5 when you bring your offering to the Lord and you hurt somebody with your anger he will not accept you therefore he won't accept your offer you can't settle that matter with that person ask forgiveness then come back you know that the person means a lot more to God than the offering do you know that in this is the same thing in the first chapter of the Old Testament in the last chapter of the Old Testament when a person brought the sick and the weak it was an indication of their own spiritual condition their attitude to God was revealed the problem was not with their offering the problem was with them and when you give to God that which costs you nothing it's not what you give God doesn't care for that it shows your inner condition and there you see why did God accept Abel and Cain this is so important because here's not a question of salvation I mean my blood sins are cleansed by the blood of Christ but after that among believers why is it God accepts and bears witness to some and does not bear witness to others he's not partial there must be something that he sees in some believers which he does not see in others both of them are sins are cleansed maybe they're both got the Holy Spirit but still he sees something in some which he does not see in the others and that's what we need to see here sweet carefully Cable brought an offering a.m. Abel brought the best of his flock you see the difference we can divide Christians into these two categories what is the minimum I have to give to God and what is the maximum I can possibly give to God I call the minimum Christians and maximum Christian and the Lord who draws that line and I believe he draws that line even in our midst maybe few in number but there is a line being drawn in our midst today forever it's there all the time what is the minimum I need to do to go to heaven what's the minimum I have to give to God what is the minimum number of meetings I should attend to be considered a good member of a local church it's always this minimum minimum what's the minimum I have to do to keep my marriage happy to keep my wife happy you think that's going to be a good marriage what's the minimum I have to do to keep my husband happy that's prescription for destruction in the marriage what's the maximum I can do for God and the one life he's given me what's the maximum I can do to show my gratitude to the Lord for all that he's done for me that's the way every Christian should start their Christian life where all other things fade into insignificance compared to Jesus Christ and his sacrifice looms large you know whenever if ever if ever you think that you have made some sacrifice for the Lord I believe you haven't seen Calvary correctly I'm sure all of us Christians have made some type of sacrifice for the Lord which we remember I have disciplined myself to see that in my entire life I have made no sacrifice for the Lord I'm not trying to be humble it's a fact I'll tell you what in the light of the Sun stars disappear why do you see the stars solely in the darkness that you can see the stars so even you're in darkness that you can see those little sacrifices you made the little star here another one little brighter than that you're conscious of that you remember how in the last day people stand before the Lord and said Lord you know what all we did for you we preached for you we did miracles for you we passed out demons for you and the Lord says get away and there's another group who stands before the Lord in the final day and they say Lord when did we do that I don't even remember giving you a drink or you know you need to see these two groups as one is very conscious of the little little things they did for the Lord and the other don't even remember which group are you in you see the stars in bright daylight you won't see a single star and when the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary looms like the light of the Sun I assure you you will not think anything you did in your life was even a sacrifice at all they'll disappear maybe at dusk you still see one or two stars come into the bright daylight they'll all disappear Cain brought an offering Abel brought the best that's the difference between a religious Christian and a spiritual Christian these are two streams that started out in Genesis flowed throughout history in Jesus times of the Pharisees and Jesus brought an offering Jesus brought the best and he called disciples who wanted to bring the best and then finally in the last book of the Bible you read that it ends up in Babylon and Jerusalem that's where it ends up in Malachi it ended up with this people who offered the lame and the sick were all the religious group there were a few in the other group like Malachi for example he was not in that crowd he was a prophet so the Lord said in every place Malachi 111 let's get back there I'm going to get an offering that's pure pure means like Abel's like Jesus that's going to be not size but purity you read in Revelation I told you it ends in Babylon and Jerusalem Babylon is called the great the great mega church Babylon 11 times Jerusalem the true church is called the whole city the world of difference between greatness and I don't know whether you noticed it in Revelation that's the main difference between Babylon and Jerusalem that's why one called a harlot the others called a bride the harlot seeks for greatness the bride seeks for holiness and if ever we have any desire in our heart for greatness in the world I mean greatness may be thrust on us that's another thing but if you desire it there's some serious problem the church decides to be great they're doomed they're headed for disaster church should decide to be holy Jerusalem the holy city you see that sometimes that is the pure offering and then it says in Malachi 111 my name will be great among the nations see in the Old Testament the testimony of the people to Satan is almost never mentioned only in the book of Job really the Lord never tells Israel hey Satan's accusing you that life was not there but in the New Testament it's everything you know as soon as Jesus begins his ministries in conflict with Satan when Israel began their ministry to the conflict with the Philistines or the Moabites or the Ammonites and that's the difference between Old Testament and New Testament the Old Testament conflict is with people and Paul says in Ephesians 6 12 we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with these evil principalities and powers and I remember years ago God said to me in my heart that if you want to fight against the devil stop fighting with human beings and I vowed before God that day that I would never fight again human beings about anything you want to you want to really overcome the devil in your life in every area that he's not only that he leaves you alone but he's scared of you what does it mean when it says resist the devil and he flee from you why do you free from a lion you're scared of a lion fleeing is different from walking away I can have an argument with I don't flee you flee from someone who's really you're really scared off and when it says the devil will flee from you I get it that he's going to be scared of me there's no other meaning to that resist the devil and he will flee from you if you want that life I would give you one bit of advice don't wrestle with flesh and blood don't get into arguments and fights and quarrels and disputes verbally or by email just leave them alone let them accuse you of anything let them do that evil of two years accusing me of anything that's my lot as a servant of God I just accept it sometimes I felt in my heart the Lord saying to me do you want me to deal with him or will you handle them yourself because if I handle them I may not do it in love the Lord does it I know he does everything he may be firm but he's okay but I don't know exactly how to be firm always in love sometimes it was better to leave it at all do not wrestle with flesh and blood don't get into arguments discuss things they all need to discuss many things you may disagree don't get into a fight don't get into conflict don't let the Sun set on your anger with anyone in the world pursue peace with men all men as much as it lies in you the other person doesn't want it what they can't do anything about it but I want to pursue peace with all men Hebrews 12 says pursue peace with all men otherwise you won't see the Lord first you peace with all men without which no man will see the Lord holiness and peace with all men otherwise you will not see the Lord Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14 very important and it's also important to overcome sin pursue peace with all men and we don't want to fight them say what they like about me but I'm not going to say anything in return to them so this pure offering Jesus spoke in Matthew 16 that's the church if it was holy individuals I don't know how many holy individuals the last 20 centuries have produced that can beat John the Baptist do you think there are many have you met many Christians who are more on fire for God than John the Baptist holy individuals have been many people in the Old Testament I walked with him says God was pleased with him imagine a man got pleased with him for 300 years it's Old Testament Elijah who was God was so delighted with him he didn't even let him die just took him straight up to heaven I mean a lot of holy individuals in the Old Testament but there was no church no two prophets in the Old Testament could work together you know that there were many prophets who lived around the same time Jeremiah Abba who pulled other properties they came together you try to work together they'd fight I'll prove that here were 11 wonderful disciples who had given up their jobs wholeheartedly to follow Jesus leave their families spend so much time with the Lord and who listened to the greatest preacher that ever walked on the earth for three and a half years and at the end of three and a half years what are they doing fighting as to who's to be believer who's to be the greatest this is the result of life without the Holy Spirit this is life under the Old Covenants the best of them will not be able to get along with others they can be holy individuals like John the Baptist like Enoch and like many wandering holy Christians today who will never commit themselves to a local church if they do sooner or later they get offended with the leadership and leave because they've been hurt somewhere and they go off into the lonely individual so-called holy life it's a deception holiness without fellowship is an absolute deception the number of Christians are living in living in it is numerous Jesus said I will build my church which later on Paul explains it's like a body Jesus would have explained it also but he told the disciples in John 16 there are many things I have to tell you but you can't understand them now you can't bear them now because you don't have the Holy Spirit how will you understand what I'm trying to say I have many more things to say to you but you can't bear them now but when the spirit of truth has come he'll reveal you reveal all the truth to you and so that is why I say what the truth that is revealed in the epistles is actually Jesus speaking is Jesus speaking the same thing which he could not reveal to the disciples when they were on earth yeah John 16 12 I have many more things to say to you but you cannot understand them now but when the spirit of truth has come he will guide you into all the truth and I were to carry on from that I will the spirit of truth will write some epistles through some of my servants and then you will understand I would have told you all that right now but if I talked to you about the body of Christ and the old man you wouldn't have a clue about what it means you think Jesus didn't know about the old man why didn't he tell them they wouldn't be able to understand it's like teaching calculus to a third grade student calculus is right but what is the third grade student won't understand it's like you can't bear them now and that's why it's so important my brothers and sisters to be filled with the Holy Spirit do you think you can understand the Bible without being filled with spirit you don't understand it like you study chemistry or some other book but if you want revelation which is hidden from the clever and intelligent then you see Jesus speaking about the church as a body see Jesus spoke about the body the things which he could not speak to the and which he cannot speak to many of his disciples today because they don't they're not open to the Holy Spirit either and they can't understand when we do certain things in the church in a certain way I'll tell you my own experience in nearly 40 years of building many churches in many parts the people who have criticized me the most are the ones who've never planted one single church themselves that's like a bachelor talking to a married couple saying you're not bringing up your children right and I'll tell you where you're not bringing up this you know who have the maximum knowledge on how to bring up children nowadays they can point out all types of things that parents are doing wrong they're not spending enough time with their children or they're giving them too many things they're spoiling them or they're not disciplining them enough all types of things let's get married and have a future and then let's see what you then let's see how much you have to speak it's like that it's very easy to criticize the leadership of a church ask yourself have you planted a chair somewhere do you know the problems of you know the dangers why parents deal with good parents deal with children in a certain way bachelor won't understand so there are many things which a proud person will never the pride in a bachelor that make you feel that he can even teach parents how to bring up their children and so I say parents with little young children should not try to teach parents with teenage children how to deal with them you don't know your children are not teenagers yet how do you know the problems that parents with teenage children keep your mouth shut you say I don't know yet it's the same with building the church there are I'll tell you from my experience there are many many problems that only a person who's treats the church like children I keep telling I work with about 70 elders many men about 40 50 churches and I keep telling them you're a good after you're a father every person in that church must be like your son and daughter what do you do with your sons and daughters you sacrifice for them you discipline them you've got to do both you're not willing to sacrifice then you're not fit to be an elder you're not willing to discipline them you're afraid some child will get offended you'll be a useless so and that's where you find people don't have light on that they don't want that they're glad to have a father who gives them gives them gives them gives them but not one who I remember when you know my people in our church our children were all very small when we started church our oldest son was only about seven or six so our children grew up in the church and all the people in church saw how I brought up my children they knew I was a strict father a loving father but a strict father who believed in discipline etc. very strict and then years later when I became a grandfather and I went back to Bangalore they asked me how does it feel like being a grandfather now and I said when I see this sweet little child I hope the world can hear what he's I say that's the transition that takes place move from father to grandfather you know it's needed but you don't feel like doing yourself and I say I've learned from that that God is not a grandfather he'll never be a grandfather he's a father who loves us enough to discipline us and I say that is a spiritual father in a church is one who's willing to love sacrifice and discipline correct you know that's it's not easy but that's in order to keep that church as a pure offering that the Lord can point out to Satan and say have you seen that church and those who are offended there will always be a people are offended they're offended I say well we love you we're not going to change our standards you're you're offended God in his great mercy has raised up hundreds of churches for you to go and choose I've actually said that with me you don't think that you can come here and change the vision God has given us of presenting to him a pure offering and that's what we want to have and I've seen even among our own churches elders have been more interested in their popularity than in their testimony before the devil and the so we must think of our responsibility to build the Church of Jesus Christ every single one of us is a body under the headship of Jesus Christ and that is why it was so necessary for Jesus to be a man 100% man as much as he was 100% God you know how that was possible I don't try to figure out beyond my understanding and I know it is true he was 100% God that's why I can worship him pray to him even today even when he was on earth I also know he was a hundred percent man and that's why I can actually follow in his footsteps and walk by the same principles by which he walked all through his life and like it says in 1 John 4 17 as Jesus is so I can be in this world it's an amazing verse 1 John 4 17 as Jesus is so am I in this world in fact that gripped me so much that we made a big plaque and put it up in our church hall as Jesus is so are we realize our calling as Jesus is so are we in this world that means as Jesus was such a testimony so let me close with that John chapter 14 what was Jesus testimony at the end of 33 and a half years on earth not just that he preached so many sermons what's going to be your testimony when you come to the end of your life on earth that you kept away from gross sins that you attended Sunday services regularly that he gave a little bit of money for God's work must be much more than that Jesus testimony John 14 verse 30 the last part of that verse the ruler of this world Satan is coming and he finds nothing in me that should be our best individuals in our home and in our church nothing of Satan's characteristics of pride and selfishness and accusing spirit of acquisition Jesus says 33 and a half years he tried to find it in me selfishness and pride he found zero I said Lord I wanted to be like that in my life I won't get there overnight but I know I can press towards that goal to become like Jesus to be totally free from all pride totally free from all selfishness all self-centeredness all spiritual pride to be like Jesus Paul says I've not attained but I press towards a goal in fact the one thing I do that more and more as Satan comes he finds less and less of me unfortunately there's still something of us in our flesh seeking our own somewhere some self-centeredness here some little bit of spiritual right here but as we get light on it that's why we need to judge ourselves constantly he who has this hope that he will be like him when he comes one John 3 3 would purify himself every day as he is pure that's our goal imagine if every part of the body is cleansing themselves what a wonderful body it would be under the headship of Jesus Christ he finds nothing in me when Satan comes to examine your home he must find nothing in your home agrees with him no DVDs that he'll be happy with no conversation Satan will be happy you know the Israelites had to search under the beds and the corners in their homes to see that there was no leavened bread anywhere in the house when they ate the fossil there are some pictures of them lighting a lamp and seeing underneath here and there do that you can pull some leaven somewhere here and get rid of it before they're having to pass over the scene and it says Mark 25 let's keep the feast of unleavened bread of sincerity true so it's a wonderful privilege we have to be a church that Jesus can point out to Satan say have you seen that he a part of it you won't regret in return many Christians don't have many much regret in return even though they try to live holy lives their examples were you know family father as we bow before you there's so many things that we've heard today we believe from you and even though we may not be able to remember it all immediately I know that the Holy Spirit will bring these things to mind when the time comes will remind us of something we heard today help us in that moment to respond to your spirit that our lives will be a testimony to you personal walk with you our own and in our church pray in Jesus name