This sermon emphasizes the importance of discerning God's will and passing the tests He presents, drawing parallels from Adam's choice of a wife to our own decisions. It highlights the need to prioritize seeking God's kingdom first and not settling for the first option that comes our way. The speaker shares personal experiences of testing and temptation in building a church, stressing the significance of maintaining New Testament standards and true fellowship in the body of Christ.

You remember how God showed Adam all the animals? And he looked around and said, No, I don't want any of these. Then God gave him a wife. Can you imagine what would have happened if Adam had chosen one of these other ones? Where would you be today? What would you look like? Thank God Adam said no to all those animals. It was only a test. If you don't believe me, it says there, God took all the animals past Adam and asked him to give them a name. But he says, but none of them were suitable to be a partner for Adam. It's exactly like that in Scripture. I'm not inventing something. And so it says in the next chapter, God said, OK, I'll give him a wife now. You know, many times we read, that's in Genesis 2, many times we see that God tests us with something to see whether we'll take that. And you miss the best. So don't think that the first thing that comes along your way is God's will. May not be. It may be a test to see whether your mind is set on the things above. Whether you're seeking the kingdom of heaven first. When you want to build a church. I found, we've been working in this church for more than 32 years. And I'll tell you this. Something that you don't know, maybe only one or two of us know it. We've had numerous testings and temptations through these years. To be worldly, to adopt worldly methods, to go back under the law, to be legalistic, sometimes we have failed. But quickly we've repented and come back. And I'm so thankful that God has constantly given us light. It's not easy. I'll tell you it's not easy. It's easy to start building a church, get a congregation, but to preserve it in New Testament standards is not at all easy. But the ultimate goal of the New Covenant is not the individual holy Christian. Almost everything we spoke so far in the previous nine sessions was about the individual coming into the New Covenant. I want to tell you this. Your personal growth in holiness, if it does not lead to building fellowship with others who are walking in the light, is a deception. Sanctification without fellowship is a deception. Under the Old Covenant it was okay. Elijah could be a very holy man and be all alone. He didn't even have fellowship with Elisha. Elisha only poured water for him to wash his hands. Elisha had no fellowship with Gehazi. Gehazi was just a servant. A lot of pastors are like that today. There are big shots who have no fellowship with the ordinary people. Some of you may not know that because you've lived in this church too long. I sometimes wish some people from here would go and join another church for another year or so, get a transfer or something, go to some place where they don't have any good fellowship. Oh, they'll come running back with their tails behind their legs and say, yeah, we'd like to be back here. We don't appreciate brotherhood that we've tasted here sufficiently because many of us either have never seen anything else or have forgotten what it was like in the old churches we were in. Brotherhood and fellowship is the ultimate goal of the New Covenant. That's why Jesus said, all men will know you're my disciples. Now we know the answer because we know John 13, 34, and 35, when you love one another. But supposing Jesus had asked his disciples, imagine if you were there at that time before he made that statement. He asked this question, how will all men know that you're my disciples? You ask people today. How do you try to show other people you're my disciples? In other words, put it like this, how do you seek to attract people to your church? Let's put it that way. It means the same thing. How do you seek to attract people to your church? With most people the answer is music. That's the way to get young people today. Or have a lot of worldly programs for young people. That's the way to attract them. And you see what type of church they build. I was visiting somewhere once where a family told me they visited numerous churches in that area and they couldn't allow their children to attend any of those churches because they didn't feel any of them would have a godly influence on their children. There's many, many families that have told me that. And you know what some of them do now. What do you do? They don't have good teaching. They sit at home and their Sunday services, sitting together as a family, singing a few hymns, turning on to the internet, to our cfcindia.com website and listening to a video message. That is their Sunday service. It's happening in many countries. That's why I praise the Lord for opening this avenue for a small insignificant church like ours. Small little group. I mean we're one of the smallest churches in the world I think. And that God has given us people who can work at this. I don't have the ability to do it. But God has given us people who can do that. We work as a body. Otherwise, I mean no matter how well I'm a preacher and you people get blessed, those others will not get blessed if there were not some people behind the scenes working and making sure it gets to them. That's the body of Christ. Each don't have the same function. I can't do what they can do and they can't do what I can do. And that applies to every part of the body of Christ. There are different ministries. And I'll tell you this. There may be different functions but all are equally important. What is the mark of the person who is a disciple of Christ? Some would say holiness. Some would say speaking in tongues. Some would say, you know, people have asked me this in different places. When I meet people, they ask about my church. And they say, you know, by their question you can know which church they belong to. Do you all speak in tongues? Ah, you know which church that fellow belongs to. Do you all break bread every Sunday? In case you didn't know, that's the brethren. Do your sisters cover their heads? In some churches, do they cover it 24 hours? That's people who come from the Amish and Mennonite backgrounds. So, I mean, through the years I've come to see, even when I close my eyes and I listen to somebody pray, I know, ah, that chap is from that denomination. There's a way about we acquire a culture. And different people ask me different questions about various things. Is it on Sunday that you have your meetings? You know, in the Gulf countries where they have holidays on Friday, there are some churches which still would meet on a Sunday evening because they feel that Sunday is the only day they can break bread. It's amazing. I mean, there's about 5% of churches like that. But these are the things that are important. But they don't mind that in their church they fight and quarrel with each other and backbite and gossip. Those things are not important so long as we break bread on Sunday. But Jesus said none of these things. It's that you love one another. And the moment you say one another, it's got to be more than one. When God made man, He didn't make him alone. He said, let us make man in our image. And that means if God is a Trinity, there has to be more than one. See, when you say God is love, it has to mean there has to be more than one person in the Trinity. Do you know there are some famous preachers whom you listen to on television who don't believe in the Trinity? You may be surprised to know that. But there are. They don't believe that there are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They believe Jesus is the Father, and Jesus is the Son, and Jesus is the Holy Spirit. They just take three different forms. You know, like me saying I'm a father, and I'm a husband, and I'm an elder. I'm not three persons. That's how they believe in their Trinity, but that's not how it was. I mean, when God made man, He made man and woman, two separate people. It's not that one time Adam was a man, another time he was a woman. Not like that. They were two separate persons. And God said, let's make man in our image. He made them man and woman, and they were to love one another. And that's where they failed.