This sermon emphasizes the importance of identifying and addressing the root causes of sin in our lives rather than just dealing with the surface issues. It highlights the need to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand, acknowledging our sins and seeking His exaltation over sin in our lives. The message stresses the significance of faith in God's love and power to help us overcome sin and challenges, encouraging believers to trust in His promises and believe in His unfailing love even in times of failure.

We were trying to see what is the root of sin, which will enable us to depart from it. See, if you got a bad tree in your compound and you want to prevent it from bringing forth all the bad fruit, it is no use cutting off the branches. You have to cut the root out, then there will be no problem at all. If you don't cut the root, it will keep on producing the things which you don't like. Now many of us, I know, you don't like sin in your life. Maybe you got a few bad habits and you say, I want to get rid of this habit. But it's no use getting rid of that habit because another branch will come out somewhere else. You must go to the root. You pull out the root and all these things are taken care of. So it's not a question of departing from one sin. You got to get the root and pull that out. For example, we first looked at pride. We looked at pride. It says in 1 Peter 5, verse 6. In the previous verse 5, it says, God gives grace to the humble. If God gives grace only to the humble, what should you do? Therefore, humble yourself, verse 6, under the mighty hand of God at all times. And He will exalt you at the right time. Exalt you over what? He is not going to make you the prime minister or chief minister. He is not going to make you a big businessman. He is not even going to make you an elder in the church. He is going to exalt you over sin in your life. When you read this verse, what do you understand by it? Many people think, oh God will exalt me. That means I will be a big man in the world or a big man in the church. Is that what you want? I don't want that. I am not interested in being a big man in the world or in the church. I want to be exalted so that sin is under my feet and Satan is under my feet. So, when it says God will exalt you, He is exalting you over sin in the devil. See, when you get angry, the devil is sitting on your head. Whenever you see a person angry, if you look carefully, you will see the devil sitting on his head. You can't see him because he is a spirit. You can see the devil is moving that person. Now that devil must come under your feet. How to do it? You humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. How do you humble yourself? When somebody shouts at you, Humble yourself means keep your mouth shut. Be nice and good to that person. Then you are humbling yourself under God. God will exalt you. I will show you one example in the Old Testament. Turn to 2 Samuel 16. See, David was the king for a number of years. But he had a son called Absalom who wanted to push his father out and become the king. He had a son called Absalom who wanted to push his father out and become the king. One day he gathered a lot of people and pushed David out and started ruling as the king. David with a few friends had to run for his life. Because his son wanted to kill him. So while David was running away, there was an old relative of the old king Saul who was very angry with David for having replaced Saul as the king. So that relative's name was Shimei. He was very happy. Now David is being kicked out. So he went and met David. We read in 2 Samuel 16 verse 5 that when David came out, this man from the house of Saul called Shimei continually cursed him. that when David came out, this man from the house of Saul called Shimei continually cursed him. And in verse 6 he threw stones at David. And she said to him in verse 7, get out, get out you man of bloodshed, worthless fellow. And she said to him in verse 7, get out, get out you man of bloodshed, worthless fellow. See, because you killed Saul, now God is punishing you for that. So one of David's soldiers, verse 9, Abishai said, let me go and cut off his head. So one of David's soldiers, verse 9, Abishai said, let me go and cut off his head. The king said no. Verse 10, middle. If the Lord has told him, curse David, why should I say, why have you done it? If the Lord has told him, curse David, why should I say, why have you done it? See, somebody was cursing him. But what does David say? This man cannot open his mouth unless God has given him permission to do that. My God has given him permission to curse me. Then why should I fight against him? Because if I fight against him, I am fighting against God who has given him permission to shout at me. What a wonderful way to look at it. Next time, somebody gets angry with you. You say the same thing. God has given him permission to get angry with me. Why should I, if I fight with him, I will be fighting against God. So what shall I do? When God has told him to get angry with me, why has God allowed him to be angry with me? So that I can overcome the spirit of revenge. So that I can overcome anger in my heart. And I can become a better person. Then God will exalt me over anger in my life. Because I humbled myself when somebody shouted at me. We can learn some wisdom from David who was a man after God's own heart. The only sad thing we read is that later on in his life, David did not endure in that spirit. Because later on he tried to take revenge on Shimea. But that is because he did not have the Holy Spirit inside him like we have. These Old Testament people like Job and David and all, sometimes they could come up to a great spiritual height. But then they would sink down again. You know why? Because they did not have the Holy Spirit permanently living in their heart. This is one of the great blessings of being born again. And if you walk with a good conscience always, What does that mean? As soon as you commit a sin, confess it. Don't wait five seconds. Supposing you get a thorn in your foot. How long will you wait to pull it out? Five minutes? One minute? No. As soon as the thorn gets into your foot, you will stop and pull it out. Now from today onwards, you confess your sin like that. Anything you did. Maybe you lusted with your eyes. Maybe you got angry. Maybe you got bitter. Maybe you did something wrong. As soon as you know it, pull it out. Lord, I am sorry. I hate this. I don't want to do it again. Please help me. Cleanse me in the blood of Jesus. And the thorn has gone out. If you leave that thorn in your foot, Even for one day, Your foot will get infected. And it will be a big problem for you. And we know that. That's why we pull it out. But sin, if you don't confess it, Immediately, It will remain like a thorn inside. And it will destroy you. So, keep a good conscience. And you can have the Holy Spirit filling you all the time. And we don't have to go up and down like these old testament people. We will keep on going slowly up, up, up all the time. Do you know that's God's will for you? If you are born again, The Bible says, you are righteous in Christ. And if you are righteous in Christ, Then, see this is the way God wants you to walk. Proverbs 4, verse 18. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn. Proverbs 4, verse 18. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn. That is like the sunrise. It's all dark. That is how when we were in our sinful life. One day we are born again. Here it says, that is like the sun has risen in our life. Like 6 o'clock or 7 o'clock in the morning. The sun has risen. And the darkness is gone. But then it says here, This keeps on shining brighter and brighter and brighter, Until it comes to the noon day position. That is the path of the righteous. So how does God want you to live after you are born again? You see the sun? Goes up and that is how God wants you to live. Brighter, brighter, brighter, brighter. The sun never goes back and forth. That is backsliding. God never wants you to backslide. You want to remain in the same position. You should not be in the same position you are, Even if you were born again one year ago. Just like you don't want your child to sit in the same class he was last year. Like you want your child to grow one class, second standard, third standard, fourth standard, like that. Like the sun goes up. God wants you to go up and up and up every year. God will exalt you. What do you have to do? Humble yourself. So I always tell people, You have to do only two things. Keep a good conscience, that means immediately confessing. And secondly, humble yourself. See this wonderful word in Proverbs 22. This is a great word. Proverbs 22. There are two things mentioned here in verse 4. One is humility. The other is the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord means, I hate sin. As soon as sin comes, I want to get rid of it. That is the mark of the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is to hate sin. I told you yesterday about Job. God said he fears God and turns away from sin. I told you yesterday about Job. God said he fears God and turns away from sin. So there are two things. If you humble yourself, And you always keep a good conscience free from sin. Here it says you will get a reward. Spiritual riches. Spiritual honor. Spiritual life. That is a reward for those who humble themselves and keep their conscience clear. So I say those are the only two things you must keep in mind. As soon as you are aware of some sin, Immediately go to God, confess it. If you have hurt somebody, go and ask forgiveness. Keep your conscience clear. Just like you wash your hands as soon as it gets dirty. How many times we wash our hands? Because it gets dirty so many times in a day. We always keep soap in the bathroom. Because we have to wash our hands. So many times a day. And that is how we must keep our conscience always clean. You never like to have your hands dirty. If your hands are dirty 10 times a day, you wash it 10 times a day. If it is dirty 2 times a day, you wash it 2 times a day. But you always keep your hands clean. Look at anybody's hands here. You will never find anybody's hands dirty. Because they always like to keep it clean. That is how we must keep our conscience. And we must humble ourselves. Then we don't have to have this up and down experience. We will be like the sun going up and up and up. Then I was speaking about faith. I told you that pride is one of the root causes of lot of sins. And then the other root cause of all sins is that I want myself to sit on the throne of my life. I must remove self and put Jesus in the center. And I have to do that everyday. That is what it means to take up the cross everyday. And then I was speaking last session a little bit about faith. And this is another root cause of many sins. Unbelief. So, one is pride. The other is the self-centeredness. And the third is unbelief. We have to get rid of these things from the root of our life. Now, let me show you a verse. In Hebrews in chapter 3. I don't know whether you have noticed this verse. Verse 12. He is talking to believers. He is not talking to unbelievers. He is saying, brethren. Brothers. Take care lest there should be in you an evil unbelieving heart to fall away from the living God. Take care lest there should be in you an evil unbelieving heart to fall away from the living God. What is an evil heart in this verse? If I ask you, do you have an evil heart? You say, no, no, no. I don't have an evil heart. I don't hate anybody. I don't have any dirty thoughts in my heart. And I try to love everybody. You can do all those things. And you can still have an evil heart. Here it says, an evil heart comes not by hatred. Or by adulterous thoughts. Those things will also give you an evil heart. Pride can give you an evil heart. But here it says, your heart can become evil with unbelief. No, I don't think many Christians think unbelief is a sin. Supposing I ask you to write down what are the five worst sins that Jesus thinks of. The worst sins. What will you write down now? Five sins that are really bad. No, in the old testament if you ask that question. They would have said, idol worship. Murder. Adultery. And telling lies. Stealing. That's what they say in the old testament. In the new testament, what is the list of five sins you will make? You look at the sins that Jesus hated. Shall I tell you? Pride. That is not even one of the ten commandments, saying thou shall not be proud. But Jesus hated it. Number two. Hypocrisy. Pretending to be spiritual. When you are not spiritual. That's what Jesus hates. Unbelief. That is not even considered a sin in the old testament. But here it says, it is an evil heart. That is it. Jesus so many seven times, he rebuked his disciples saying, people of unbelief, how long will I be with you? He rebuked people for pride. He rebuked people for hypocrisy. And he rebuked his disciples frequently for unbelief. You must recognize unbelief as a sin. Another thing we would say is selfishness. It is another thing Jesus always rebuked. Like you know I said about the Levite and priest who selfishly walked leaving that poor man on the road. And the fifth thing that Jesus spoke of was dirty thoughts. That was not in the old testament. There is no commandment saying you shall not have dirty thoughts. So the five sins that Jesus hated are not even mentioned in the old testament. Pride, hypocrisy, unbelief, selfishness and dirty thoughts. You never find it mentioned in the old testament. Why? Because they were children in the kindergarten. No, God has brought us to a new covenant. Our standard is higher. And God shows us the things that he hates. I mean murder, adultery, stealing, even worldly people know it is wrong. Even the government knows those things are wrong, they will catch people who do that. It is a very serious thing to tell a lie in a court, they will put you in jail. Those even worldly people know. But worldly people don't think pride is a sin. Is any worldly person who thinks hypocrisy is a sin? Is any worldly person who thinks unbelief is a sin? Have you met any worldly person or even nominal Christian who thinks that selfishness is a sin? Or that having dirty thoughts is a sin? These five things, no worldly person even thinks it is a sin. But these are the five things Jesus spoke about the most. Nominal Christians don't think any of these things are sin. Now let me tell you the sad thing. Even many believers don't think these five things are sin. Let me ask you all sitting here. If you hurt somebody, you will go and confess it. When did you go to God and confess, Lord, I am sorry, I am so proud. Have you ever confessed that sin? Have you ever gone to God and said, God, I am such a hypocrite, I am pretending to be holy when I am not really holy. Have you ever gone to God and confessed, Lord, I am unbelieving, I am sorry, I didn't trust you there, I felt it so much. I got so anxious and worried because I was unbelieving. Have you ever gone to God and said, Lord, I am sorry, I acted so selfishly in that situation. Do you go to God and say, God, I am so sorry, I had a bad thought about that brother. These are sins even believers don't confess. Why is that? Because we are living so far away from God. And even after 20 years of being a believer, we are living so far away from God. We are not obeying that verse which says, depart from sin. We say we name the name of Jesus. But it says, if you name the name of Jesus, you must run away from sin. You must confess these sins. So unbelief is called an evil heart in this verse. Why is unbelief such a serious sin? When God says something and you doubt it, that is like telling God, you are a liar. Is that a serious sin or not? Let me use an example. Like I said earlier today. My son in college asks me to put 3000 rupees in the account so that he can pay his fees tomorrow. And I phoned my son. Son, I have transferred 3000 rupees to your bank account. Son, I have verified with your bank, it is credited to your account. And supposing he tells me, I don't believe you. How will I feel as a father? It's like slapping me on the face. That is unbelief. For example, when God says, I have forgiven your sin, I will not remember it anymore. And you say, oh, I am not sure. Maybe God still remembers what I confessed 20 years ago. That is like telling God, you are a liar. I don't believe you. That is like slapping God on the face. Or supposing God says, 1 Corinthians 10.13 It's a wonderful promise. 1 Corinthians 10.13 He will never allow you to be tested more than you are able to bear. Impossible. It's a promise. I will never allow you to be tested more than you are able to bear. And it says in that verse, God is faithful to do that. He is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested beyond your ability. So, supposing you come to some trial, And you say, like many believers say, Oh God, this is becoming too much for me. Oh God, this is becoming too much for me. That means 1 Corinthians 10.13 is a lie. Have you ever said that? Oh God, this is becoming too much for me. You know what you are saying at that time? 1 Corinthians 10.13 is a lie. You said it will not become too much for me, but it has become too much for me. But it says there, That in that trial, he will make a way of escape. What is that way of escape? Humble yourself. You become small. You can escape. Supposing you are trapped in a room by some enemy. And the door is all closed and he is coming to kill you. And the door is all closed and he is coming to kill you. There is a small well to drain the water. You cannot escape. But if in that time, by some miracle, you could become the size of an ant. You can go through that. The way of escape. That is an illustration. In every situation, Humble yourself. Become small in your own eyes. God will make a way of escape for you. This trial will not become too much for you. I have found that in so many situations in my life. You say, why does God allow these trials in my life? To make you strong. Isn't it good to have some experiences of some storm that came into your life and Jesus stilled the storm? It's good to have such experiences. We should not pray, Oh God, don't let any storms come into my life. Some people pray like that. Then you have no experience of God. Supposing Peter came home from the boat one day. And his little boy asks him. Daddy, how was your trip today with Jesus? It was very pleasant. We had a calm. We came across. We came across. Nothing happened? No, nothing happened. But supposing he says. Oh my son, I will tell you what happened today. We were in the boat. There was a storm and waves. We thought we were drowning. And then suddenly we saw Jesus walking on the water. And we were scared. We thought it was a ghost. And he said, it is I. Don't be afraid. And son, you know what I said? I said, Lord, if it is you, let me also come out. And Jesus told me to walk. And I got out of the boat. And I walked on the water. His mouth will be open. Daddy, you walked on the water. His mouth will be open. Daddy, how was it really? Yes, Jesus power is so great. If you don't face any storms in your life, you have no testimony. See, I believe when we go to heaven, we will be talking to so many believers, listening to their testimony. See, I believe when we go to heaven, we will be talking to so many believers, listening to their testimony. Somebody will tell us how the lions came to eat them and they believed in Jesus and they were faithful till the end. And they overcame. Another person will say, I had a very difficult mother-in-law, but I kept on loving her, loving her, and she finally got converted. What all testimonies we will hear? And then they will ask you, what is your testimony? I had a mother-in-law, I just hated her like anything. We just fought till the end of our life and then she died. Any other testimony? Most of the time I fought with my husband, he was such a bad man. And finally he also died. But I got saved. What sort of testimony you are going to give to people in heaven? You will feel ashamed. You say, Lord, I don't want to give that kind of testimony in heaven. I want to tell people how I went through trials, but I believed. He would never let me be tested beyond my ability. With a difficult wife, or a difficult husband, or a difficult mother-in-law, God will never allow me to be tested more than I can bear. I am going to have a testimony when I go to heaven that I overcame. That I loved people. That even though my daughter-in-law troubled me so much, I loved her. You will have a great testimony in heaven. And you will become a saint on this earth. And God will make you a blessing to hundreds of people. You know, one day the Bible says, you and I are going to reign in heaven. And we are going to reign on this earth for a thousand years. And God is teaching us how to rule in love. See, in this world, everything is ruled by dictatorship and hatred and selfishness. But, in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, all ruling will be in love. So, He is preparing you for that kingdom by teaching you to love people today. You know, some unlikable people come into your life and God says, now you must love them. And you learn to love them, you are being prepared to reign one day with Jesus Christ. So, I have decided long ago in my life, I am going to love everybody. I am going to love my enemies. I am going to love those who hate me. I am going to love those who speak evil about me. Because, I belong to another kingdom. I don't belong to this kingdom where they are fighting and quarreling for all earthly things. I have faith that my God will not allow me to be tested beyond my ability. See, some of us have a doubt whether God is very eager to bless us or not. For example, when you pray, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. That is a very important prayer to pray. I have prayed it hundreds of times in the last 50 years. Thousands of times. Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Because it says in Ephesians 5, 18, be filled with the Holy Spirit. You are born again, you have the Spirit in you. But you must be filled with the Holy Spirit. That is like saying, if your heart is like a house with 100 rooms, and if you got light in one room, you can say the house has got light. But it is not filled with light. Because one room has got light, 99 rooms are dark. But if all the 100 rooms are filled with light, then you can say it is filled with light. In the same way, you can have the Holy Spirit or be filled with the Holy Spirit. When you are born again, you have the Holy Spirit. But that does not mean you are filled with the Holy Spirit. Because there may be some areas in your life that you have not yielded to Jesus Christ. For example, you may not allow him to tell you which television programs to watch. So, the television room in your heart is locked. So, that is dark. You won't allow Jesus to tell you what books to read. You want to read whatever you like, look at whatever magazines you like. So, that book room in your heart is also locked. So, that is dark. Or your money. You don't want Jesus to tell you how to handle your money. So, his finances room is also locked. So, so many rooms in your heart are locked from Jesus Christ. You have allowed him to come only into one room. Forgive my sins. That room is open. And he has come in. One light in one room. But your heart is not filled with light. Do you have the Holy Spirit? Yes. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? No. Whose fault is that? Yours. You have not opened every door of your life to Jesus Christ. I know that well-known verse. Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I'll come in. That is not only once. Once I open to one door, one room in my heart. Lord, come in. Forgive my sins. But he is still knocking at another door. I want to come into this television room also. Will you let me in? Will you let me control your remote? Who, you want to control it or you want Jesus to control it? He says, no, no, let me control that. That room remains dark. Will you allow me to decide what type of music you listen to? Lord, there is some cinema music and all. I really like to hear that. Okay, the Lord says, I will not come to that room. One more room is dark. And you fast and pray, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit, fill me with the Holy Spirit. In a hundred years, you will not be filled with the Holy Spirit. You lock all the doors and you say, fill me with the Holy Spirit. Why? Because you don't have faith. You don't believe that Jesus is coming to bless you. He is coming to bless you. I remember a story of an old lady who was living in a house. She was very poor and she didn't have money to pay the rent on the first of the month. On the first of the month, somebody knocked at the door. She kept quiet. I will pretend that I am not here. This must be the landlord who has come to collect the rent. And she lived locked inside in fear the whole day. Next day was Sunday, she went to the church. And one brother said, Sister, the Lord told me to come and give you some money yesterday. I came to your house and knocked a long time to give you the money, but nobody opened the door. Oh, it was you. You came with some money for me. I thought it was the landlord who came to collect the rent. That is how many believers are. The Lord says, I have come to bless you. You think he has come to take away something from you. Don't be like that foolish woman. Jesus has come to bless you. Every area of your life. Lord, I only want to listen to the music you tell me to listen. If I see all these filthy television things, I will have bad dreams at night. It is because I spend all my time that I don't have time to read the Bible. You are wasting your life. Don't let the devil fool you. What is faith? Faith is to believe that God has come to rob me of anything. Any area of your life, God will not take away anything. I will tell you what he will take away. He will take away the rubbish and the useless things in your life. Isn't that a good thing? When the garbage truck comes to collect all the garbage from your house. What do you say? No, no, no. Don't take this. I like this. Please keep this. Oh, you said take it away. It is all stinking. Take it away quickly. That is what the Lord says. You have got some stinking sins in your life. I will take it all away. Your life is stinking because you don't let Jesus clean it up. You can become such a sweet, glorious saint. But you let Jesus do that. Faith is to believe. Bless me. And he is more eager to bless me than I am desiring to be blessed. Do you desire to have victory over sin? Faith means you believe that God is 100 times more desirous to give you victory over sin. Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Faith means you believe that God is more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit. No, that is money for me. Fast. Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. But I never believed. I am very eager to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God is not so eager. God is not so eager to fill me. That is unbelief. Here is faith. Believe that God is more eager to fill you with the Holy Spirit than you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. God is more eager to give you victory over sin than you are to get victory over sin. God is more eager to make you a glorious Christian than you are to be one. Do you believe that God is more eager to make you a glorious Christian than you are to be one? Take a simple promise like this. This promise is for those who have faith. I told you, if you don't have faith, it is an evil heart. We miss many things in our life because we don't believe. I am talking about faith for the things God has promised. Like sin shall not rule over you. Here is another promise. Jesus said, From your innermost being, rivers of living water will flow. This is speaking of the Holy Spirit. If you believe, the Holy Spirit will flow from your innermost being. He will flow from your innermost being and bless many many people. You think of this big river Godavari that flows through Andhra. How many hundreds of thousands of people are blessed by the water of that river? Drinking water and so many things they can do with that. And all those by the side of that river, everything will be green. You will never find a desert beside the river. Always green. And Jesus says, Your life can be like that. Not like one river. Many rivers. It's like 9 or 10 Godavaris flowing out of my life. How many hundreds of thousands of people can be blessed in so many places? For whom is this? Is this for some apostle or prophet or somebody? No. He who believes in me. Why has it not happened in your life? You don't believe. Just about 22 years old, I read this verse. And I said, Lord, I'm a young boy. I don't know much about the Bible. But I read it and I study it. But I will believe in you. I will believe that from my innermost being, Rivers will flow to bless people. Because, Lord, you never said, He who believes in me and is 50 years old, Then only the rivers will flow. Even if you are 15 years old. You believe in him. God can make you a blessing. You know how much we are missing by not believing. What a wonderful thing it is, If all of us become like rivers of living water flowing out from our mouth. In the past, So many evil words have come out of our mouth. Everywhere we go, We have hurt people. We have gossiped and spoken evil of people. That is like spreading filth wherever you go. Now this year, Finish with that. Say, Lord, I want pure rivers of life to flow through my mouth. Who's going to do it? God will do it. What is my duty? I believe. Lord, I believe your word is true. I will not have an evil heart of unbelief. It's a wonderful thing to believe that God is more eager to bless you than you are to be blessed. I want to say one more thing about faith. You know, in Luke chapter 22, Jesus told his disciple Simon, Verse 31, Simon, Satan has desired permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you. What for? Not that you will not fall into sin, But that your faith may not fail. Then verse 34, he says, Tonight, three times you will deny me before the cock crows in the morning. He knew that Peter is going to fall. Not once. Three times. But you say, Lord, don't you want to pray that Peter should not fall? No, I am not praying for that. He has to fall. Why does he have to fall? Because he is such a proud man. See how he speaks. Even if everybody denies you, Verse 33, I am ready to go to prison with you. Such a proud man, I am better than all these others. Then God had to humble him by making him fall. Sometimes God allows us to fall into sin to humble us. And God will not stop it. He will allow you to fall. Because you are such a proud person. He tried ten other ways to humble you. He did not succeed. Then God says, what to do? I tried to humble him in ten ways. He does not listen. Okay, let him fall into sin. Then he falls. Then you humble yourself. But the Lord told Peter, When you have fallen, When you reach the bottom of the pit, Do not lie down there and get buried. Do not lie down there and get buried. Okay, I am such a big sinner. I do not love God at all. Do you think anybody is like you? Maybe you have fallen very badly in your life. Maybe you have gone away from God so much. Maybe you have made a mess of your life. Maybe once upon a time you were a good believer. Now you have fallen back and gone back into the world. You have ruined your whole life. You have developed all types of bad habits. And you say, God will not accept me again. I am such a bad person. Jesus Christ will pray for you. How will he pray for you? Even when you have fallen, Your faith will not fail. What is faith? Faith is that even when you have reached the bottom, You will believe, God still loves me. That is faith. No matter how much I have fallen, God still loves me. He wants me to come back to Him. That is the story of the prodigal son. He was there in the far country. He had ruined his life, Wasted his father's money. But one thing he was sure, My father still loves me. He will at least accept me as a servant And put me in the servant's court. He did not know how much his father loved him. When he came back, He discovered his father said, Come, you are not going to the servant's court. You are going to sit with me at the right hand. The father took off his ring And put it on his hand. And put a new dress and said, Let's have a feast. Jesus was saying, Your father in heaven loves you like that When you have made a mess of your life. No, if there is anybody like that, I pray that your faith will not fail today. I pray that you will not have an evil heart Of unbelief that says, God will not accept me now. That is why the last person That Jesus saved Was this wicked thief on the cross. He will probably kill 10 or 15 people. He probably stole so much money. Are you worse than him? Is there anybody here Who has killed 10 or 15 people? No, you are not worse than him. Jesus told him, Today you will be with me in paradise. Why? All that he said was this. Lord, I deserve this punishment. I am a sinner. I did wrong. I don't blame my parents Or bad company or anything. It's 100% my fault. Please remember me When you come in your kingdom. He did not know That the kingdom will come Only after 2000 years. So Jesus said, Not after 2000 years. Today Today you will walk With me in paradise. How could he get Such a wonderful blessing? Because he humbled himself And acknowledged his sin. Acknowledge your sin. Say, Lord, I am a sinner. It's not my husband's fault Or wife's fault. It's not my mother-in-law's fault Or daughter-in-law's fault. It's my fault. I am the troublemaker. I am the cause of All the problems in my house. Please forgive me, Lord. The Lord will say, Today Your house will become Like a paradise. You will walk with me In paradise inside your own house. Faith is to believe That no matter How much you have fallen God loves you. So you understood Certain things about faith. The opposite of that Is an evil heart of unbelief. You can overcome Many sins in your life If you believe That God loves you. If you believe That God will bless you Even though you don't deserve it. I remember one young man Who used to come to our church. He was not a believer. He used to fall. Drink. Smoke. But he always used to Come to me and say Brother Zack I'll be honest with you. I drank again today. I fell into sin again. I said okay. You are honest. One day When you come to the end of your life And you made a mess of your life Remember two things. One, God loves you. And I love you. You can always come to my house. You can knock at my door At two o'clock in the morning. My door will be open. Because I love you. To show you that God loves you. That is faith. So about one year ago This happened many years ago. One year ago I met him again. Born again. His life has changed. Because he believed That God loves him. So don't ever doubt that. When you believe God loves you You have the power to overcome many sins. Let's pray. Heavenly Father Help us to be overcomers. This is the victory That overcomes the world Our faith. Help us to have that faith That overcomes everything in the world. The faith that you can Solve every problem. You can give us strength To overcome every trial. That you love us Even when we have failed. Help us to be overcomers. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. We were trying to see What is the root of sin Which will enable us To depart from sin.