This sermon emphasizes the importance of knowing God as our Father and Jesus Christ, defining eternal life as a deep relationship with them. It highlights the need for believers to grow spiritually by living closely with God, just like a wife grows to know her husband over time. The message challenges believers to move from being spiritual babies to mature sons and daughters by encouraging and supporting one another in love, reflecting God's character of mercy, compassion, and encouragement.

Yesterday we were looking at Acts of the, sorry, John 17 and verse 3. John 17 verse 3, Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God and Jesus Christ who was sent. And yesterday we mentioned how it's important for us to lay hold of eternal life. It's something we have to partake of more and more. Just like when a woman gets married, she doesn't know anything about her husband. But after they are married 10 years, she knows so many things about him. So much more than when she first got married. That is normal. That is normal. But why is it that many believers who are born again for 10 years, they don't seem to know Jesus any better than when they were first converted. That's because they are not living together. Supposing a woman gets married, she stays just one or two days with her husband. Then he goes off to work in some foreign country. He is very faithful, he sends her money regularly. After 10 years, he is a faithful husband, she is a faithful wife, but she doesn't know anything about him. I think a lot of believers are like that. They don't live with Jesus. They don't live with the father. You know, there are children like that, whose fathers are not living with them. They don't know what the father is like. A child has got to live with his father to know what his father is like. And this is eternal life. And if we want to know more of it, we must learn what it is to live with the father and with Jesus Christ every day. When Jesus talked about prayer, prayer is talking to God. In Christianity, they have made prayer into some religious ritual. In some churches, they have got a prayer book. And they say the prayer book is better because this is written by somebody 500 years ago and he knew the Lord very well. And so they read out this thing, this wonderful prayer written by somebody 500 years ago. Supposing your little boy came to you one day and said, Daddy, I want to read out to you what my elder brother wrote many years ago. You would say, why are you reading it out to me? No, he says, I want to read it out to you. This is what my elder brother wrote 10 years ago. And he says, Oh Daddy, you are a great daddy. You have loved me so much. I would say, stop it. I don't want to listen to all that. And that's what God also says. I'll tell my son, listen, I don't want you to read what your elder brother wrote 10 years ago. You tell me something from your heart. Half a broken sentence is enough for me. You know, Christianity has degenerated into become such a ritualistic religion. We think of prayer as such a formality. And if you live like that, even after 20 years, you won't know God the Father. It was like that in the Old Testament. Old Testament they did all that. But not in the New Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus said, When you pray, say our Father who art in heaven. And then he said, pray like this. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Hallowed be thy name. So, we find that, even that, people just repeat it. When I was a child, I didn't know how to pray. I think now we teach our children in Sunday school to pray when they are very small. But nobody taught me to pray when I was small. So, I used to get up and the first thing in the morning, kneel down and say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name and went through that whole prayer. And I had no contact with God. I just repeated a prayer. Not a good prayer written by somebody 500 years ago. But the best prayer which Jesus himself taught us to pray. Is there a better prayer than that? But I repeated it for 10 years and I never knew God. You don't get to know God by repeating prayers. Now, if somebody had told me when I was a little boy, If I had said, listen son, just talk to God like you talk to your father. I would have known God better in one year than I knew him in 10 years. Do you parents tell your children to talk to God like they talk to a father? You say, oh, they are not old enough. How old do they have to be to call you daddy or mummy? You wait till they are 10 years old before they call you daddy or mummy? No. If they are one year old, they can talk to you. They can talk to God. We must get our little children to know God as a father. And we ourselves don't know God as a father. That's why we don't teach our children to know God as a father. I'll tell you, it changed my life completely when I began to talk to God, just like Jesus said to my father. Many times we are not experiencing what God wants us to experience. Even in the first century, there were Christians like that. Even in the first century, there were Christians like that. I'll show you a verse from 1 Corinthians 3. It says here, brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, It says here, brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ. See, they were born again at least 5 or 6 years ago. And Paul had lived with them for one and a half years. And Paul was the type of person who had meetings every day. Usually two meetings. One early in the morning, one in the evening. For one and a half years, he must have had about a thousand meetings. For one and a half years, he must have had about a thousand meetings. And can you imagine listening to one thousand sermons from the Apostle Paul? That's the foundation they built for their life. They could have built on that foundation in five years, they could have become wonderful men and women of God. But they didn't do that. It says they were babes. And in chapter 6, and verse 5, he says, I say this to your shame, isn't there one wise man among you who can decide something between the brothers? Imagine, in such a huge church, there was not even one wise man. They were all babies. So he says in 1 Corinthians 3.1, I speak to you like I speak to babies. And babies, because you are babies, I can only give you milk to drink. I can't even give you a piece of bread because you'll choke in your throat. There are believers like that, who have been believers for many years. You know what the milk is? Milk is, Christ died for our sins. See that in chapter 2, verse 2. I am determined to know nothing among you except Christ and Him crucified. But verse 6, among those who are more mature, I can speak other wiser things than that. So he says, if you were more mature, I could have told you more than that Christ died for our sins. I could have told you how we also are crucified with Christ, but I couldn't tell you all that. It's like telling a child, listen, you are not even able to add 5 plus 5, how can I teach you subtraction and division and all that. You've been sitting so many years in the kindergarten, you're still learning how to add 5 plus 5. There are a lot of believers like that. Even they have been believers so many years. All that they know, is Jesus died for my sins. Do you keep on sinning today? Yes brother, what to do? I'm a sinner, I keep on sinning. But I thank God, Jesus died for me and I'll go to heaven. Twenty years later, they are still in the kindergarten. You're still sinning every day? Yes brother, I'm a sinner, but Jesus died for me. You think there are no believers like that today? India is full of them. Every church. He says, you're all babies. And that's why I find that, he says in verse 3, you are fighting and jealousy. You're just behaving like other human beings. You're jealous of other people? How do you know whether you're a baby or not? There are two things he mentions in verse 3. You're jealous of somebody else? And you have strife? Are you jealous of anybody? You're jealous that somebody has got something more than you in this world? Better house, better job? Better vehicle? And you're jealous? Because you're jealous, you criticize that person. Or you can be jealous that he's more spiritual than you. Or his children are better than your children. You're jealous. Yeah, that can happen. Sometimes it is terrible. A husband can be jealous of his wife and wife can be jealous of the husband. A husband can be jealous of his wife and wife can be jealous of the husband. When you quarrel? Some people are like that. Always ready to start a quarrel. Any small thing. Quarrel with their neighbors, quarrel with brothers in the church, sisters in the church. See, that's the other mark of being a baby. Strife. Anyone who is jealous of others is still a baby. Anyone who still fights with his wife or neighbors or brothers, sisters is a baby. Anyone who still fights with his wife or neighbors or brothers or sisters is still a baby. If you see two-year-old children fighting here, that's not serious. But if you see two twenty-year-olds fighting here, that's pretty serious. You know that. Babies fighting, it's normal. Babies fight. Grown-up people fighting, it's very serious. So Paul says to these Corinthians, you are still babies because you fight with each other. And sometimes in a husband-wife, one person may be the fighting type. Maybe the husband is always the fighting type. And his wife is not the fighting type. So nobody in the church will like the husband because he is the fighting type. And everybody likes his wife and he is jealous that everybody likes his wife. But why? Because she is not the fighting type. She is not a baby. Or it can be the other way around. Where the wife is the fighting type. So everybody in the church likes her husband but doesn't like her. And she is jealous that everybody likes my husband but doesn't like me. Why they don't like you? Because you are the fighting type. Why are you the fighting type? Because you are a baby. And we haven't overcome this fighting attitude. Fighting with our husband, wife and sometimes even fighting with our children. There are babies and babies and babies in the church. We have to overcome all this. We have to grow up. I don't care who you fight with. You fight in the office or you fight with your neighbor or you fight with your wife or your husband or you fight with your children you fight with the brothers and sisters you are a baby. And you cannot expect anybody to respect you. My children will have no respect for me if I am the fighting type. They will say he is my daddy but he is a baby. He fights with mummy, he fights with people. How can I expect my children to respect me? This is what Paul says. You are just walking like other human beings. All the human beings in the world they are also jealous and fight with each other. So my brothers and sisters grow up. How to grow up? We have to fellowship more with our heavenly father. Then we will be like him. Then we will be like him. We have to know him as a father. We say what to do brother people are so evil around me that's why I have to fight with them. But do you know that God doesn't fight with evil people? We think God is always fighting with evil people. You think if God is fighting with all the evil people all the dacoits and crooks and thieves and smugglers will be surviving in India? If God was always fighting with the evil people, every country will be a peaceful country. There will be no terrorists, nothing. Why all these things are there? Because God is not the fighting type of person. He is a loving God. You know Jesus described him in Matthew 5 verse 45. He was telling his disciples in the old testament law verse 43 it says you must love your neighbour as yourself. You must hate your enemy. Yeah, even some good heathen people understand that. They may be good people so they love their neighbours but they hate their enemies. But he says I am telling you love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Why? Because then you will be sons of your heavenly father. Do you know the difference between being a son and a baby? That is a big difference in the bible. A small baby is a grown up son. And he is talking here not to how to be born again but to be a mature son. To be born again I told you last night you repent and ask Jesus to forgive your sins. But if you remain in that condition you are a baby. See, all married people are very happy when they have a baby. God is also happy when he has a newly born child. But these married people, will they be happy if this baby remains a baby for 10 years? Then they would wish this baby was never born if it is going to be a baby for 10 years. If your baby was the same size today as when it was born you also may wish it was never born. Who wants a baby that is going to remain the same size for 10 years? And I want to tell you God also is not happy with babies who remain like that for 10 years. He wants them to grow up. See, when they are small babies they wet their bed. That's ok. You are not disturbed. But if they are 15 years old, 20 years old and they are still wetting their bed that's pretty serious. There is something wrong. You don't expect your 20 year old son to be wetting his bed. You can put napkins and all in a small baby, but if you have to put napkins around a 15 year old son or daughter there is something seriously wrong. That means he doesn't know how to keep himself clean. A one year old child doesn't know how to keep himself clean. You take him out somewhere and you have to put a napkin around him. But you expect him after a while to know how to keep himself clean. And God also expects us to know how to keep ourselves clean. What are the things that make us unclean? Jealousy. Strife. Anger. This is just like a little baby dirtying his napkin. No different. All the dirty things come out into the napkin. Because he doesn't know how to control himself. He doesn't know how to go to the toilet. And here is a person who has got all his anger. He doesn't know how to keep it inside and go and prostrate before the Lord. He just puts it out just like a little baby putting it into the napkin. All the jealousy and strife and backbiting and anger. Exactly the same like a child dirtying his napkin. Ok. You are one year old. Permitted. Ok. Some children two years also they need napkin. Ok. Permitted. But ten years old and you still need it? You have been a believer for ten years and you are still going around all this stuff coming out of your mouth. And you are not a son. You are not a daughter. You are a baby. He says if you want to be the son of your heavenly father He says he is a God who makes the son to rise on the evil and good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Now if you were God you wouldn't send any rain on unrighteous people. You won't make the son to rise on the evil people. You say let them suffer for being evil. I am amazed sometimes that the goodness of God to people who are totally evil You know why he is good to them? Why do you think God is good to evil people? I'll answer that. Why was he good to you when you were evil for so many years? Why is God good to evil people? Romans chapter 2 It says here in verse 4 Romans 2 and verse 4 If you think lightly of the riches of his kindness not knowing the kindness of God leads you to repentance. So God is good because he wants people to come to repentance. God was good to you and me because he wanted us to repent. Even when we were evil he was good to us because he wanted us to come to repentance. And we came to repentance. Now God says Just like I was good to you when you were evil How evil you were to your wife and your husband but I was good to you Now you have become my child Now you be like me towards other people In the same way you be good to other people Just like I was good to you you be good to other people Just like I brought you to repentance you can bring other people to repentance Then Jesus said You can be a son not a baby The great problem in many churches is we have too many babies Which mother do you think has more difficulty a mother with two children or a mother with ten children Actually the mother with two children Because when a mother has ten children I have been in homes where mothers have fifteen children also I have seen them See a mother doesn't have time to look after all the fifteen children So by the time the first child is three or four years old it has already started taking responsibility for the younger ones If you have only one or two children you will never give any responsibility to the three year old If you have only one three year old even when he is thirty years old you will say this is my dear little child and you keep on spoiling it Totally spoiled child But when you have fifteen children you have no time to spoil one child like that So the first child at three years old started doing things Next child maybe one and a half years old started doing some little thing By the time you have ten children most of your work is over because all the children are doing so many things And the mother can sleep because the fifteen year old is doing something and the thirteen year old is doing something even the cooking they are taking over she can sleep and relax But I have seen homes where there are one or two children and the children do absolutely nothing for the parents Poor mother, fifty years old is still struggling, struggling, struggling And what's the sixteen year old daughter doing? She is dressing up in front of the mirror all the time But in a family of ten children she has no time to dress up in the mirror because there are six other small children she has to take care of So, what am I saying? I am not saying all of you should have fifteen children that's not my message I am talking about the church That in the church the three year olds must start taking a responsibility And quickly people must take responsibility that there are ten people in a church the elder brother doesn't have much work to do because these ten brothers and sisters are doing so many things That is the way a church must grow If it doesn't grow like that Imagine a mother with ten or twelve children Or a church with thirty, forty brothers and sisters All are children And the poor elder brother is like having forty children on your hands Somebody has to do this and somebody is doing that And the father and mother have to run around doing everything That was the church in Corinth All babies Nobody growing up Sometimes it is the fault of the elder brother also He wants to sit there like a Maharaja If a father and mother never allow the children to do anything on their own They will never learn You know one of the things we in Bangalore we decided from the beginning we just let people do things In all of our churches we said brothers you become elders and lead the church I am only three years old That's ok but all the others in your church are only one year old So you can lead them Supposing there is a nursery class with all two year old children Supposing there are thirty children all two years old And the teacher has to go away for one hour She tells all the thirty children Now this three year old He is your teacher now for next one year For next one hour So the three year old is there He is not very mature He is only three years old He may do many stupid things But at least he is wiser than those two year old sitting there Sometimes I get complaints Some elder brother is doing this or that Some elder brother is doing this or that I know they are doing some foolish things I know they are only three years old But the person who is complaining is only one year old So what to do I say he continues to be your elder because even though he is only three years old you are only one year old Because you are only one year old He is only three years old I have been a believer for twenty five years You may be a believer for twenty five years But your spiritual age is one year Because you are jealous and you fight with your wife and brothers and sisters and children and neighbors You are not even one year old You are probably six months old So Many churches are like that Where we have one father and mother Sometimes the mother has died and only the father is there And there are about forty children all six months, one year Now you picture this in your mind A house Where mother has died Only father is there And he has got about forty children all six months, nine months, one year, one and a half years Can you imagine the headache he has Somebody is sitting in the toilet and says Daddy please come and wash me Somebody says Daddy I am wet, my bed is wet Please change my napkin And whole day he is running around This is exactly what is happening in many of our churches Sometimes it is the fault of the father He has never allowed them to grow up I remember when my children were small I used to teach them how to ride a cycle when they were four or five years old You take a small cycle and hold it and teach them to ride it And then what I used to do like anybody does I used to leave it after a while And they will fall And they will say Daddy why you left me So what should I do Keep on holding for the next twenty five years hold the cycle and go back No I am glad I left it and he fell few times Then he learnt In the beginning he doesn't understand why I am leaving him I don't want to keep on holding that because I need more than two hands to hold all the cycles for the next few years Learn to get up and walk Get up and cycle by yourself So we have to encourage other people when they get up and testify Supposing we give them ten points you made wrong in your testimony today He will never get up again for the rest of his life Don't do such stupid things They will make mistake like people falling down when they are cycling Encourage them That was good You drove for five yards Excellent Five yards you drove without falling down Great Ok you fell down Tomorrow you can cycle for about ten yards Great You know what is the greatest need in our churches Yes Encouragement Please remember that If ever you share something in the meeting Let it be a word of encouragement But you say who is going to correct all the sins Once in a while God will send some prophet Once in six months or something They will take care of that part But the rest of the time We don't need so many prophets in the church And God doesn't give that gift also to people to be prophets To many people Very few people are called to correct and rebuke Maybe one in a hundred So if there are a hundred people in a church God may give that gift to one person to correct and rebuke Ninety nine must encourage I don't mean just in the meeting What about when we meet one another Many young people meet each other sometimes Or you visit somebody's home What should you do Encourage them I believe that's the great need So many of our brothers and sisters are being discouraged everywhere They face so many problems In their work In their financial difficulties Sicknesses So many things They come to the church to be encouraged And when they meet you somewhere in a home They want to be encouraged So that's a great gift you can have Encourage them And then you'll stop being a baby That is a great need It is knowing God as our father See it says in Romans chapter 15 Romans 15 And verse 5 Verse 5 Romans 15 Verse 5 And it says here in verse 13 God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing So God is a God who gives hope and encouragement And the more we live with this God We ourselves will become people who Begin to give encouragement and hope to other people And that is the mark of a person who is growing up He knows how to encourage others See most of our Indian fathers I have seen They are not Christian fathers 99% of Indian fathers are more like Hindu fathers than Christian fathers They don't become friends with their children They are like Saddam Hussein You do what I say Otherwise I'll chop off your head This is a heathen It is 100% demonic Jesus was not like that God is not like that God is not like Saddam Hussein But 99% of our Indian fathers are like that There is a rule with a fist of iron And because many of us had fathers like that We think God is also like that When we say our father Then we think of our earthly father I want to tell you the good news That your heavenly father is not like your earthly father For the last 30 years I have been preaching all over India That your heavenly father is not like your earthly father That your heavenly father is not like your earthly father Your earthly father never wanted to be your friend He only wanted to be your dictator Why? Because he didn't know God I am not a dictator to my children Because I have come to know God In the early years when my children were small Yes I did not know God very well those days And I did not have an elder brother Who taught me about God You don't realize how lucky you people are I never heard messages like this When I was a young believer I understood these things when I was 35 years old You people are understanding it when you are 20 If I understood these things when I was 20 I would not have made all the mistakes I made Till the age of 35 You are lucky But once I understood these things I decided I want to be like my heavenly father And then I began to become friends with my sons They are all grown up today But they are my friends today And they will be my friends forever They are not my sons today They are my brothers in Christ I always wanted that I used to tell them You are my children up to a certain age After that you become my brothers in Christ That's why even in Bangalore I tell the children Up to the age of 14 you can call me uncle Uncle Zack After that You are going to call me brother Zack Even though I am 65 and you are 15 I want to be your brother I don't want to be your uncle I am not interested in that I want to be your brother Even to my children I want to be their brother in Christ And you know the result They respect me a lot more Than if I ask them Call me uncle Because I have learned what God is like My brothers and sisters When you know God Your whole life will change God is a loving father He is so kind He is so merciful When Jesus came to earth He said If you have seen me You have seen the father And that should be Our testimony also People see how we behave They know how God is God is so merciful To people who make mistakes God is so merciful To somebody who has fallen into sin God is so merciful Some church Some girl Falls in love with a boy And the church elders Will kick them out It's because they don't know God What will God do If he sees some young boy and girl Fall in love with each other What will God do If he sees some young boy and girl fall in love God will make it clear These two are my children God's nature Is different from ours In South India In India Somebody fell in love with somebody They kicked them out of the church I don't believe that I know what God is like God is the one Who puts love in people's hearts Towards one another We have this Indian culture Where you are not supposed to love anybody You just get married to produce children That's all That's evil That's not Christian In God's way Husband and wife are to love each other deeply Even if they have no children They don't live for children They love God and they love one another But God must be first Then you say what is the difference Between that and the cinema type of love affair One very big difference That cinema love affair They don't have any love for God They don't love Jesus They just love each other That's why it becomes demonic But if they love the Lord first Then God wants husband and wife to love each other In the same way God wants husband and wife to love each other I got married to my wife 36 years ago That's why I love her very deeply today That's why we have a very happy marriage We didn't get married to have children We got married because we love Jesus We wanted to live for him and serve him And we also loved one another We have to get rid of so many Indian, heathen Ideas we have in our head And become more like God Our heavenly father Otherwise we will be just like these Corinthians Babies, babies, babies always Just with our head full of doctrine Even if we are old Our head will be full of knowledge I have seen some kids Their head is big But their body is small If you don't know what is wrong with them You will think This must be a very clever child So much brains in the head You will think He will be the most intelligent child in the world Head is same size as the body Body is this much, head is also this much But it's not brains It's all water Those such children don't live long And we have lot of people like that in the church The knowledge they have is so much They have so much knowledge in their head The knowledge they have is so much It's not spirituality It's all water They die All that knowledge is useless It's to know God is eternal life Not to know the Bible Or the doctrines we preach in CFC My brother What should be the greatest passion of your life God I want to know what you are like I want to walk with you my heavenly father To see how you are good to evil people How you are compassionate to those people who make mistakes How you encourage people How you want to be friends with people How you want to be friends with people Maybe some young person has made a mistake Maybe they have fallen into adultery God doesn't kick them out You may kick them out But Jesus encouraged that woman caught in adultery It's not because he loved adultery Don't do it again Dear brothers and sisters God is a good God And when you know him You will be more interested to talk to him Than to talk to anybody in the whole world The one I like to talk to most in the world is my wife She is my best friend But I like to talk to Jesus more than I like to talk to my wife That's true Because Jesus is my greatest friend God is my father and I walk with him everyday And little by little He is making me like him If you do that You will have eternal life You will be a wonderful husband A wonderful father A wonderful brother in the church A wonderful wife A wonderful mother And a wonderful sister in the church So seek to know God Lord I want to walk with you Everyday Talk to you Listen to you This must be the greatest desire Let's pray Say Lord I want this to be the desire of my life To walk with you everyday Help me Lord In Jesus name Amen