This sermon emphasizes the importance of having a true identity in Christ, showcasing the power and recognition that comes from being a son or daughter of God. It delves into the consequences of living with a false identity, urging for a genuine transformation and manifestation of God's power in one's life and community.

Now, you know, I wonder how many of you wear these tags, you know, these identity tags, which you need to have when you enter some of those areas in airports and places of work. Ah, you know, we had been through a very bad accident on a good Friday of last year and soon after that our car was totaled. By that expression, it means that was the end of that car. We were hit and hit ships as we were on our way to the retreat and that being the good Friday. We were saved from injury. My wife was driving. In fact, if that car that hit us on midships had just been a little slower and our car a little faster, Lily would have sustained very serious injuries. So, God spared us. Then we had to find another car. And Joseph, being an engineer of Nissan, design engineer, he took us to the Nissan dealer because we would get the dealer's price. And they asked him for identification. He said, oh, I didn't bring my identification, but I have this thing, which, you know, and he produced what he would normally have at his work. Of course, that put him in a very acceptable and honorable position in the company there in Detroit. So, we were immediately given the dealer's discount, you know, just the dealer's price plus $100. What did it? His identity card. The Lord gives us an identity. We can't wear a bogus identity badge or card or whatever you call it, but to as many as received him, to them gave he power to be the sons of God. My goodness, hard to imagine if somebody says the heir to the throne is here, what would you all do? Would you pay attention to the platform? No, you would bring your necks, where is he? But we little realize that there is a head, a kingdom, which is over all and how humbling it must be to anybody to be ushered into that kingdom as a son and daughter of God, who is well aware that all through life they had only given half-hearted service to the king. Oh, that would be very humbling, wouldn't it? Now I am identified here as a son of the king, but what can I show for it? Where is my record? To as many as received him, to them gave he power to be the sons of God. Now let us turn to John 10 chapter. How many here know John 10 by heart? Anyone? What? Not one hand? John 10 is a chapter which you must know by heart. John 1, John 3, John 6, John 8, John 10, 14, 15, 16, 17. Oh, these are words that are unparalleled in beauty, truth, and power. John 10 and verse 14, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. As the father knoweth me, even so I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. So, recognition comes from Jesus himself. So, while we are seated here, the Lord recognizes immediately, this is my son, this is my daughter. And if you have for adventure treated, securing that identity, that recognition lightly, my dear friends on that day, you will scream in hellfire, how did I miss my opportunity? How did I value it so poorly? I know my sheep, I know my sheep. You know, to be recognized as someone by the president of your company or organization as a valuable member of the team, of course, it is a very coveted thing. Oh, my services here are recognized as being invaluable, as an integral part of this company's progress and standing. Yes, everyone, you know, any place is recognized. Recently, at the security in the airport, I did not have any identification, or at least I had the passport tucked away, and I was too lazy to take it out. That was the oddest fact. And here was the security officer, armed from the armed forces, I presume. Oh, I said, everybody knows me. He said, I don't. Well, I never made such a tall claim as that. Never in my life. But the fact of the matter was that in that airport, sometime I'm greeted because they've heard me or seen me. And, you know, but it didn't work with this man. You see, folks? But next time he'll know me, won't he? Yes. So, to have the good Lord say, I know my sheep, and am known of mine. How wonderful. And the 27th verse says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I know them. Isn't that wonderful? To be known by the King of Heaven. Now, the Lord also speaks of those, the other sort, the 12th verse, but he that is a higher laying, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. So, he was also talking about the one who is not the authentic good shepherd. The higher, you see, the good shepherd, and the just the man who fills in because of the money. What does the higher laying do? The higher laying runs away when the wolf comes. Now, my dear friends, let me tell you, when Ziegenburg, you know, you saw the presentation the other night, 300 years ago, when he arrived, the southeastern coast of India. First, the captain of the vessel, the Danish captain, was on very bad terms with him. That is, he just seemed to resent him. He was taking this first missionary, and did not realize what an honor he had. So, he refused to put him on the shore, give him a boat to go to the shore. However, that difficulty was eventually overcome, and when he went to the shore, there was nobody to receive him. Nobody would. And then, how was he to learn the language? They said, we mustn't teach the foreigner our secrets. So, nobody would come forward to teach him the alphabet. But, finally, you know, actually, the governor, the Danish governor, put him in prison. And once he was out of prison, he decided to sit down with the children, who sat around a teacher with their slates, you know, those old contraptions, and he learned the alphabet, mastered the language. You know, today's achievements of those who say, we are blood-bought, and shout hallelujah, that's about it. Nothing more comes out of those hallelujahs. And he had such a short life, such a short life. And in that time, he did such a monumental work. You see, he was no hireling. He didn't come there to make some money, or engage in the spice trade. The others, the Danish, the French, the British, were there because of the trade. But this man was not a hireling. The hireling fleeth when the wolf cometh. See, we have gotten into the habit of complaining, complaining, complaining. Over every little thing, we must complain. But, you know, the most crucial battles that turned the tides of history were fought in the Sahara. Do you know that? With the swirling sandstorms and the high temperatures, how many of those soldiers that fell never were buried? I wouldn't be surprised if there were a considerable number. Because many died. What the history of Europe would have been, had not those decisive battles been fought at such great price. But when it comes to reaching people today, look, information, age. Yet, there are so many people who do not even know the name of Jesus. You know, folks, I have to go to dangerous places. But the Lord has supplied enough power to be able to tackle the hardest places. So, I'm not at all afraid. You would have heard of Bhutan yesterday. Bhutan is a country still close to the gospel. But our people are going into Bhutan and preaching. They are taking in Bible. And Bhutanese come to our meetings. And the Lord touches them. So, we are going into territories which were considered to be tough places. Very close to China's borders up in the Himalayas. Just imagine. In fact, I don't know if my heart condition would permit my being able to cross that pass, which has lately been opened. Not the war pass, which is 14,600, I think, feet above sea level, where it's very rarefied atmosphere, very little oxygen content. But traders are passing. And I am praying that we should use. It has just opened less than a fortnight ago. You know, folks, there are so many opportunities for those who are sons, for those who are daughters to take the word of God to needy places. And many people are attempting to do so. You know. Now, let us turn to the 19th chapter of Acts. Here in Ephesus, there is a very pertinent question asked. 15th verse. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. But who are you? Now, my dear friends, what would you do if you were in that situation? You're pretending to be a Christian, you know, or whatever. And a person out of whom demons begin to speak suddenly recognizes that you are totally bogus and says, Paul, I know. Jesus, I know. But who are you? Who are you to command me to do anything? I wonder if you are put on the spot like that, what you would do? Probably you would take to your heels and show a clean pair of heels. And I can only wish that you're a rapid runner because you will be overtaken by these demon powers very quickly. You know, they run very fast. They run like the wind. Simple. And they have tremendous strength when the demons are in there. So, what happened to these sons of these priests? There were seven sons, mark you. They were not just one fellow. 14th verse. There were seven sons of one Siva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know. But who are you? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. You see, demonstrations of God's power must be witnessed. You know, not questionable things. They should be so clear that the most suspicious or unbelieving person will not be able to dismiss it as fraud, some kind of freak or magic. Now, this proliferation of witches in England, what a trade to run. You know, some of these black magicians and witches, people who practice black magic, are making a great effort today to intimidate people, to attack people. They receive money and with their incantations, put such a condition upon people that they get breathless, they can't breathe, and in some cases, die. We need spiritual power, naked power, to command these forces of evil to desist. You know, recently when I heard of a mother of two children, young children, who was killed in this fashion by black magicians, by a concerted effort of several black magicians, I was deeply grieved. In my 62 years of service, I have never witnessed such an evil. And of course, it was far from some distance, some 60 kilometers away, and I did not know that this matter, this thing had happened, and I was deeply grieved. You know, my dear friends, worldliness can sap you of God's power. God's power cannot be bought with money. We have got a situation in Britain, where the power of God has to be manifested. It's not talk, it is not argument, it's not philosophy. Of course, you know, I used to have quite a problem with the philosophical type. You know, always, I was a very practical person, and I preached a very practical gospel. So normally, I never wasted any time in discussion or debate. People could see the power of the Lord, and they just shut their mouths. Communists, atheists, people of other religions, who had come in order to debate, to discuss, contradict, but they went away convinced. They said, we saw the power of God. One man who brought his young wife, who was mad, he had been an active communist, and a drunkard besides, or he was a great opposer of the gospel in his area. And so he actually compelled some of those people there, who were nominal Christians. You know, like you see everywhere. People say, yes, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian. How are you Christian? Oh, from the cradle, I was a Christian. Oh, well. You know, my dear friends, such people, he turned them back to idolatry and Hindus. He tore down that structure where they used to worship, and he sold the timber. Here was a very humble beginning, and we were advancing into a new region, a very turbulent region, and great miracles were taking place. But we didn't have any proper meeting place. It was under mango trees with a few, what, palm leaves and bamboos filling the vacant places to give enough shade for the people. However, I was living in a very tiny tent, just as big as this. A little, that's it. That was the tent. And here was a man who came to me, a total stranger. I did not know his background or his activities or his beliefs, but I prayed with him. And he went away. I said to him, go and God will speak to you. And he went alone, and the power of God came down upon him where he was praying, and he was stricken with conviction. And he found that he rolled in distress. I don't know if demons went out of him or what, but he came back a transformed person. His wife, who was mad, and whom he had brought along, she was healed. And this man immediately became a witness for the Lord Jesus. And so those areas began to see the works of God, and many began to turn to the Lord. There is a continually growing work in those regions. But there were certain difficulties and rough accommodations, which my dad and myself and mother had to face. That didn't matter. We never bothered about those things. But you know, today, people want to be lollipop babies, cry for everything. This is not nice. That's not nice. They're cuddled with comforts. And how will they make disciples? You know, we are moving farther and farther away from sacrifice and discipleship. Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you? What was the result? These demon powers fell on these men and tore their clothes. They fled naked and wounded. But all those that saw these things, 17th verse, Acts 19, 17th verse. And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many that believed came and confessed and showed thee their deeds. My dear friends, if and when there is a real movement of God's spirit, you know, the scene in London and in England is very different from the scene of those earlier days when I started preaching in England. The very composition of many congregations has changed. You know, even our retreats, you know, computer people and others have just come into this country and having been converted in other places, they come to our retreats now. But those that did come in the beginning were those that had been blessed in my early service. Real, authentic English men and women. You know, people to whom I would speak straight, call a spade a spade. No, that was the old English psyche. That was the old English character. Now, we have a preponderance of people from this continent, that continent, and all continents. Okay. But the very nature of the congregations and the response has changed. The gospel can't change. And I don't agree to this. Just come and sing and dance and shout and just go away saying, oh, wonderful. No, no, no, no. I don't, I won't be taken in by all that stuff. If God is at work, do you know what will happen? There is so much hidden sin which will come out. People will go to the places where they have cheated. I remember preaching in a place in America where my host's son came downstairs weeping one day. What was his trouble? He said, oh, I cheated. Well, how did you cheat? Well, the boys around told me that the coke machine was out of order and it was just supplying cokes. So, I went and got myself a supplier. So, I said, you go and return the money. You know, my dear friends, oh, I tell you how much money will be returned to the rightful owners. There will be a sensation if there is real Christianity demonstrated. But if we are still at this level of the sons of Siva, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? I refuse to accept your bogus identity card. You know, my dear friends, people will go straight to the immigration, the naturalization service. I don't know, home office, whatever it is that you call it out here. But they will go and say, I cheated in this fashion. I falsified my application. I did this. I did that. I'm leaving because I cheated and got in with false pretenses. Yes. Everybody, including the home office and the home secretary and the parliament will have to recognize that Jesus Christ is at work. And all these other fellows who talk about this religion and that religion and this festival and that festival, they will have to put their heads down in shame and say, all our religion does is make a big hell of a loop and nothing comes out of it. No righteousness, no truth. You see, my dear friends, this was an idolatrous city, Ephesus. But there they were seeing a demonstration of Jesus. Jesus, we know. Paul, we know. But who are you? And what did the people do? Fear fell on all of them. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. You see, friends, magnifying the name of the Lord Jesus is in this manner. Not just shouting and, you know, big advertisement, greatest healer, greatest demon driver, greatest this, greatest that. No, no, no, no. You don't need any. Did they have any advertisement placards and and huge holdings? Nothing of the sort. Well, did they have a budget of fifty thousand dollars? I'm saying, well, pounds. Fifty thousand goes nowhere these days, of course. What kind of budget did they have? And what kind of money did they talk about raising? Nothing at all. The name of the Lord was magnified and many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds and many of them also which used curious arts. My goodness. It's amazing that in Brixton market you can see all kinds of occult stuff. I don't know what those things are, what powders and concoctions and what else do you have there? I don't know. And for say, that shows what a gullible nation this has become. A superstitious, demon ridden, gullible nation. What a sight. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ was magnified and all these curious arts, all these potions, all this stuff that was purchased at great price. That is why, you know, my dear friends, one of the fads today, I was in Kashmir recently, hardly a month ago, and in Kashmir, they said, the doctors there said to me, you know, here there were talismans, you know, this black thread, red thread, this thread, that thread, something up here, something here. And they say, we cannot do our cesarean. We say, get this out. It will infect it. All kinds of bands and stuff, magical stuff. Yes. Whether it is Islam or whether it is Hinduism, whether it is Buddhism, I see how heavily they rely upon all these things. And so, I suppose people are sporting all kinds of stuff here, beads and stuff. I say, when did you become a girlie? Huh? The only people that I saw before wearing these stuff were girls. And of course, those were authentic bracelets and ornaments, you see. But today, men are specializing in these things, sickening, just sickening. When men want to be girls and girls want to be men. Oh, my dear people. Then they brought out all their curious and burned them before all men. This was not done secretly, mark you. And they counted the price of them and founded 50,000 pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Authentic. They had the real identity. They were the sons of God. They had power from above. My dear friends, listen, we cannot be sitting idle. We cannot be theorists. We can be armchair philosophers talking about big things. When people are becoming a bunch of liars and cheats today, they trust in lies. You know, being an Indian, you get become a suspect in some places. And over when I did disembark in Detroit. Generally, they route me through the customs. So the customs officer there. You know, they know me now. And they say, oh, the computer has put you up. We must get you off the computer. But one of those officials said, we had some nuns here. And they said they had nothing. You know, Indians turn up with twigs and herbs and all kinds of stuff. Those fellows are mystified. They don't know what to make of these things, you know. And so they said, oh, my, come on, you are passed. You go. They want to see me off. And I said, look, people return stolen things. When they come to my meetings, they go back to the customs and put things right with the customs. Of course, they heard me with great respect. But they said, listen, we had nuns here, said we had nothing. But when we opened, oh, they said, we don't know how these things got into our suitcase. My dear people, we are living at a time when nobody wants to trust anyone else. How sad. How sad. I heard a phrase in America for the first time, oh, cheating on your wife. What? Cheating on your wife? How do you cheat on your wife? Well, that was an expression which I never knew. And I'm supposed to be a priest. This is the kind of perversion that even language has suffered. Because we need such a clean up too. If there is a move of God's spirit like this, and if we really had our spiritual identity badges in proper order, then let me tell you, Britain would shift. Bankers will thank you. Bad loans will be returned. So much stuff will be returned to our hospitals. And the work ethic, manufacturing will resume in Britain. Yes. That is God at work. Let us pray. Let us tell God, Lord, we don't want to talk about what happened here or there. But we want it now. We want it here. We want it in our community. We want it. This kind of lying and cheating and false pretenses, religious talk and philosophy, we are tired of. We want reality. In the family. In the workplace. Lord, dear Lord, you have your own way of evidencing yourself. We want you to work. We want you to move. Oh, Lord, we pray and ask you, we don't want to just talk of the dead bones of history. We want to see the works of God manifest. Please help us. We pray. Even in strange places, isolated places, come to some, some of the godly men who preach your word. Lord, our God, let those who will not believe see for themselves that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, or ever. Please, Lord, we want you to move in our families. Move in the hearts of our children. Move amidst us, oh precious master. We want your hands to reach them and we need godly fear to come upon people who are full of blasphemy and spiritual squalor. Oh, Father, have mercy on us. We pray. We need a cleaning up, Lord. Our newspapers, our magazines, our colleges, our halls and hostels, where anything goes. Lord, we pray, come to us and let there be a cleansing. Lord, we plead, not only in the British eyes, we need it in every corner of this world. Hear our humble prayer in Jesus' holy name. Amen.