This sermon emphasizes the importance of living a life of rest and contentment in God. It highlights the need to focus on obeying all of God's commandments and claiming His promises, rather than being disturbed by circumstances or people. The goal is to be like a sea of glass, calm and at peace, unaffected by external disturbances, and to contribute to creating a church environment of rest and peace.

It's the way I feel when I realize that Jesus is here, the way, how shall I preach when Jesus is here. It's an awesome thing to recognize the presence of the Lord and I believe that one mark of our spiritual growth is that we become more and more aware of, you know, the truth of that word, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age. And if you really want Him to be with you, it's His presence that delivers us from fear. I'm often, I've been thinking recently rather, that when God created man, He didn't make him go to work. The first day was a day of rest, the Sabbath day, as soon as He created him at the end of the sixth day, He told him, okay, now you're not going to go work for me, that can wait. You're going to spend one whole day with me. And that's how Adam began his life. And the devil never came anywhere near him that day. It's when he went out into the garden to work that the devil came because the devil knew, I don't have a chance if he's hanging around with God all the time. And the presence of Jesus, if we seek to live in His presence constantly and develop the habit of recognizing that He's there all the time, the power of temptation decreases considerably. Temptation is still there, but it's not so strong. I see that Jesus was tempted and so will we be tempted. But as soon as the devil tempted Jesus, Jesus immediately had an answer because He was living in God's presence, the Father's presence. As soon as the devil tempted Him, anytime, there was an answer immediately and the devil would go away. Come back with another temptation, He'd have another word from the Father and He'd go away. This is our goal, you know, to become like Jesus. We say we all want to be like Jesus, but here's one area where we can seek to be like Him, that as soon as the temptation comes, I have a word to reply to that. Something from the scripture, you know, even Jesus never attempted to drive the devil away by just saying, get away Satan, get away Satan. He always quoted a scripture. And we think that we can just say, Satan, I resist you. But if you don't have a scripture to, you know, strengthen your mind against that temptation, you'll still fall. You may go away, but you'll come back. But if you have a scripture, you know, for example, in one place it says, you know this verse, Hebrews 13, verse 5 and 6, let your character be free from the love of money. Being content with what you have because He Himself has said, I will never leave you, desert you or forsake you. The reason why we can be perfectly content with what we have. And I know, I worked with people in the villages in India who have 10% or less of what you have. But they are far more content. They are content with what they have. And when you're content with what you have, because you know that the Lord will never leave you, nor forsake you, you have tremendous boldness to say, verse 6, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Discontent with our circumstances or always wanting something more, desiring what we don't have, is the way to a miserable, unhappy life. Or wishing that you were like somebody else, wishing you had somebody else's gifts, not content with what God has decided to give you. You know, when we find fault with somebody, we can find fault with the church, you can go to the best church in the world and find fault with it. The devil's a master at finding fault. But Jesus was so different. He would see something wrong in a church. If you read the way the Lord spoke to the churches in Revelation, He, even to churches that had left their first love, He doesn't straight away say, you left your first love. He says, there are so many good things in you. I don't know whether you noticed that. In Revelation, chapter 2. This is a church which has fallen so badly that God is about to remove His recognition of them as a church, de-recognize them as a church. It's fallen so badly, He's going to de-recognize them. Imagine a church is going to de-recognize them. How does He speak to them? I know your deeds, verse 2. Revelation 2. Your toil and your perseverance. You cannot endure evil men. You put to the test false apostles. You have perseverance. You have endured for my name's sake. And I have this against you. Imagine if we began to have eyes like Jesus. That when we see somebody, we don't just see the one thing wrong there. But we see so many other things that are good. I remember hearing a story of a teacher who stood in front of a classroom and held up a white board like this with one black spot in the corner. And he told all the students to write down, what can you see? All the students with their sharp eyes wrote, I see one black dot in the corner. And he said, the teacher said, after collecting all the sheets, he said, all of you have noticed the black dot in the corner, and none of you said, I see a white board. It was just a black dot. And he said, that's how our nature is. You look at people and you see the one wrong thing. And usually the one wrong thing is maybe one of your strong points. If you're a very talkative person, you won't criticize another person for being talkative. Because that's your own fault. And you don't see that in others. But maybe some area you're a little strong, and that's where you see the fault in the other person. And you're discontent. And you can sit in a church and be discontent. This thing is wrong. That thing is wrong. The other thing is wrong. I tell such people, why do you sit in this church then? Go and find another church. And I can assure you, you'll find so many more wrong things there that you'll come back. That's the thing, you know, this discontentment is a tremendous weapon of Satan. It accomplishes nothing except making us miserable and unhappy. But discontent with our situation, our circumstances, or the money we have. I always want to live at a higher standard of living. I know people in Bangalore, Christians, who wanted to live at a higher standard of living and even neglected their children so that father and mother could go to work, to raise their standard of living. The end result is I see where those children are. Those children are all wayward, gone astray from God. Because the parents wanted to raise the standard of living. They were not caring for their children. We have to be very careful that we don't have this covetousness. It says, be content with what you have. Don't think you're such an important person that God has to do this, that, and the other for you. If I recognize that what I base, if I say, Lord, give me what I deserve, it's hell. If I recognize that what I deserve is hell, I think a lot of believers don't recognize that. They think they deserve a lot from God. And that's why their lives are terribly unhappy. My life became supremely happy and has remained happy because one day in my life, many years after I was converted, God showed me clearly the depth of my sin in my heart and how I deserved hell. And anything better than hell was God's goodness. After that, I never had a complaint. I mean, if God didn't heal me of some sickness, I had no complaint. If God didn't answer my prayer, that's fine. I don't deserve it. I deserve hell. I find so many believers who will have a complaint against God. Why didn't you answer this prayer? I prayed to you for so long and you haven't given me this. And I've done this for you and you haven't given me this or done that for me. See, it's like the story of the elder son in the story of the prodigal son. The elder son says to the father, I have been so long with you and I have been so faithful and why haven't you killed a fatted cow for me? Each of us need to ask ourselves whether we have anything of that spirit because what I see in that story is a story of two sons. And in the beginning, the elder son is in the house and the younger son, the bad one, is outside the house. The end of the story, the younger son is inside the house and the elder son is outside the house. The younger son was very bad. He wasted the father's everything. But his attitude was, I don't deserve anything. I've learnt my lesson. If I get a corner in the servant's quarters in my father's house, that's enough for me. Whereas the elder son, he felt, I'm not a servant here. I'm an important person. I'm the elder son. And my dear brothers and sisters, if you look into your heart, you will discover whether you feel God owes you something or God owes you nothing, except hell. And the day you discover that you deserve hell and nothing better than hell, you'll be a very useful member of this church and you will really begin to grow spiritually. I'm telling you from my own experience. When we've given our life to Christ and we've understood so much truth and we are very zealous, we can suddenly begin to think that, oh, now God owes me something. I'll tell you this. He doesn't owe you a thing till the end of your life. Everything is grace. Everything I receive from God is pure mercy. We can think that because now I know so much of the scriptures. I know people who go to churches and say, why don't they let me preach? Brother, you deserve hell and you want to preach? Why don't you shut your mouth and go and say, Lord, I deserve hell. I don't deserve to open my mouth. You know, the spirit of complaining is because we really have a pretty high opinion about ourselves. We think we deserve something, we are so smart, we are clever, we are capable, we are spiritual. And God is the enemy of such people. And that's the reason and the proof of it is, see this is the proof, that God is not giving us grace. You are defeated in your thought life. You are not getting grace to keep your mind pure. You are not getting grace to keep your mind free from complaining attitudes. These are all sins, you know that. And Bible says, if you are under grace, sin will never have power over you. But sin does have power over you in those secret areas which nobody knows. And that is God trying to tell you, listen, my son, my daughter, I am not able to give you grace. That's why you are defeated in your inner life, though you have a good testimony before others. And the reason you are defeated is because there is pride in you. Learn to humble yourself. There were two things that Jesus kept on trying to teach his disciples. One was humility and the other was faith. You know, he always tried to emphasize, trust your father, trust your father, don't keep worrying about how am I going to feed myself and how am I going to feed my family. You got a father in heaven, trust him, trust him. And he used to rebuke his disciples for unbelief. Why are you so worried if there is a storm in the lake? Don't you have a father in heaven? And do you ever hear a rebuke like that from Jesus? I have heard it many times. The Lord rebuking me, why can't you trust me here? I said, Lord, I am ashamed. And as I have acknowledged that, I have come to have more faith for different situations. You know, if you acknowledge, Lord, there, I am sorry, I really didn't trust you. And the other thing was he was always emphasizing humility. He said, when they wanted to say, who is the greatest? This desire to be the greatest has been there in all Christians for two thousand years. We want to be prominent. We want to be known. We want to be seen. We want to be recognized. And there are people who will be in a church as long as they are recognized. And if they are not recognized, then they get offended and go away. What are these people? They are not disciples of Jesus. I think they are followers of the devil. It's the devil who always wants recognition. Jesus was always trying to disappear. He would do a miracle and then disappear. He would heal somebody and say, don't tell anyone that I healed you. And when they wanted to make him a king, he just ran away. And he taught his disciples that. He said, you guys are always trying to find out who is the greatest. You should not be like that. That's for the heathen. So, this discontent with our lot is something that we really have to eliminate from our lives. This desire for something more than God has decided to give us. It's a very simple thing. You know, this attitude of comparing ourselves with others can lead to a lot of complaining. I remember a couple, a young couple once came to me in Bangalore. You know, complaining about something. They were quite well off. I mean, they were not the richest people in town, but they were okay. And I said, before I answer you, I want you to, you know, about a kilometer from here, there's a slum. I want you to walk through that slum for half an hour and come back. And then tell me what your complaints are. They thought that was a pretty strange type of advice for a serious problem they were having. But anyway, they did it. They walked through that slum and came back and saw me. I said, do you have any complaints? He said, no, we are okay. I think God is good to us. So often, you know, the devil is always showing us somebody who has a little more than us, who is a little better than us and making us unhappy. He will never show you or remind you of people who are much less than you or who are worse off than you or who have more problems than you because you may be happy and he doesn't want you to be happy. It's such a simple thing. I mean, psychology will tell you that. Leave alone God. Be content with what you have because the Lord has said, I will never leave you. It is only such people who can boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. I'll never be afraid. I'll never be anxious. The Lord is my helper. I've seen in the United States, Indians who go there, who are so desperate to get a visa that they leave and tell lies. It's almost like America is heaven. Or somehow if I can live here, even if it's telling lies and doing some wrong things, if I can be here, it's alright. And the surprising thing to me is they call themselves believers. I say, how can it be? I remember when my boys were applying for a visa, I said, listen, if you tell one lie, one small lie in that application, you may get your visa but you'll be out of the will of God for the rest of your life. And I don't want that for any of my children. I want you to be in the will of God all your life because when you get into eternity, I want you to have lived your life on earth exactly in the center of God's will. Not in some place where God never wanted you to go, but where you manipulated and managed to get into some place. I see you regret it. I mean, you may make a lot of money, but money is not everything. You'll miss the will of God. You'll miss accomplishing what God has planned to do with your earthly life. I remember as a young Christian, I was so afraid that I would miss God's will. I said, Lord, I don't want to marry someone whom I feel like marrying. If that's not your will. I don't want to marry because of looks or language or intelligence or any such thing. Even a thing like that, I want to do your will. I don't want to be a single day of my life outside your will for me. Because I know that my whole life on earth is just a very brief, the Bible says it's like a handbreadth, nine inches. So, compared to eternity. And I know that I'm going to spend thousands and thousands and thousands of years in eternity, looking back over the way I lived my short life on earth. And I don't want to have a regret about how I lived. I don't know whether you all think of that. We all say we are eternal creatures and we're going to live eternity in heaven. But you know what you're going to think about in eternity in heaven? I believe we're all going to look back in eternity over the way we lived on this earth. And what our goals and ambitions were. And it won't matter one bit in eternity. What type of house you lived in. What type of car you had. How much money you had in your bank account. What honor you got on the earth. Or what honor you got in the church. Or what you think was important you find in that day was totally unimportant. And I want to encourage you to think of that. It will bring a lot of rest into your life. A lot of unrest in the lives of many believers. It's because they don't think of eternity. They're thinking of this life as if this life is everything. And they're getting so much unrest. It's so important. I believe that if you can be a brother or sister who's always living at rest, you'll be a tremendous blessing in your home and in the church. I have taught people in our local church, I say whenever your heart is in unrest about anything, you must keep your mouth shut. It's very dangerous to open your mouth when your heart is in unrest. Whether at home or in the church. If you open your mouth at home towards your children or towards your husband or wife, when there's some agitation in your heart, you're bound to sin. Without a doubt you'll sin. To a greater or lesser extent. But if you follow a simple rule, there's a little agitation in my heart right now and I will not speak. Even in a meeting, you know when you have meetings where everybody can share. If you're agitated in your heart about anything, it proves you're discontent with something. Agitation means I'm discontent with something. Maybe you're discontent with God or you're discontent with the elders or you're discontent with somebody else in the church and that's bothering you. Or you're upset about what somebody else shared in the meeting and that disturbs you. Maybe you falsely think that he was talking to you. He wasn't. And you get agitated and then you can bless the meeting by keeping your mouth shut. You know how much we can bless the meeting by keeping our mouth shut? We can disrupt the whole spirit of a meeting by being agitated. And that can happen to anybody. It may not be because of sin. It may be because of circumstances. I tell you myself, I've been sometimes, not so much now, but in the earlier days when I didn't know how to come to this life of rest, I would come sometimes to a Wednesday meeting. You know the whole day, maybe something went wrong. And I'm disturbed. Or I come to the church service and somebody who was supposed to do something to make the place ready for the meeting didn't do it. Or didn't do it in time and the meeting got delayed. It can disturb me. You know, people are very particular about punctuality and all. It can disturb me. I used to get disturbed if people came late for a meeting. It really disturbed me for many years. I said, Lord, we start our meeting at 9.30. Why isn't everybody here? And the Lord said to me, these people were not in the military for 11 years like you. That's why they haven't understood the importance of punctuality. So, you learned it. Just be merciful to them. I said, OK. And the other thing the Lord said to me was, remember, you're a servant. And if you're a servant in a palace and the king says, breakfast must be at 8 o'clock. OK. You're a servant, you make breakfast ready at 8 o'clock. And the king strolls in at 8.45. You don't say, hey, why are you late? You can't say that. The king can walk in at 10 o'clock if he likes. And so the Lord said, these people in your church have not yet become servants. They're all kings and queens. Let them walk in whenever they like when you're a servant. And maybe in a few years some of these kings and queens will become servants. And then they'll come on time. So, be at rest on that. I came to rest. It was wonderful. I remember once in a Wednesday meeting, I was, you know, I knew I had to speak, but we always have a time of prayer of 10-15 minutes before I speak. But I was, I don't know, don't even remember what it was. There was something disturbing my spirit while I was kneeling there in prayer. And I said, Lord, I can't speak. I will not speak till my heart is at rest. So the prayer meeting went on for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and people were wondering why this great burden of prayer today. It wasn't any burden of prayer. I was just trying to come to rest. And finally, when I came to rest in my spirit, I said, OK, I'm in. Then I caught up and I could speak. But I made it a rule in my life. I will never open my mouth at home when my spirit is agitated. I will cause confusion. I will never open my mouth in the church when my spirit is agitated. Maybe I'm not supposed to say a word. Maybe I'll keep quiet and come back next Sunday and share something. But it is so important. In the Old Testament, the Sabbath was such an important day for Israel. The Lord said, if you don't keep the Sabbath, I'll cut you off from my people. And it was, God taught them such strictness that a man went out just to pick up sticks on the Sabbath day and Moses said, what shall I do with this man? And the Lord said, kill him. What? Kill him because he went out and picked up sticks on the Sabbath day? Why was the Lord doing that? To teach them something very, very important. And the spiritual meaning of that Sabbath, the Bible says in Colossians 2 that the Sabbath was only a shadow of what is fulfilled in Christ. What is that very important thing which the Lord was trying to teach His disciples? You must come to a life of rest. In Hebrews in chapter 4, you know, we have spoken much about the land of Canaan as a land of victory where the giants are killed. And how Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who had faith to go into that land of victory. But do you know that that land of victory in Hebrews chapter 3 and chapter 4 is also called a land of rest. Victory is equal to rest. See, who provoked Him? Hebrews 3.16, when they heard, not all those who came out of Egypt, and with whom was He angry for 40 years? Those whose bodies fell in the wilderness. And listen to this verse 18. To whom did God swear that they will not enter Canaan? What is Canaan called here? It's rest. The life of victory is called a life of rest. I learnt something from that. I say, Lord, I know I have victory when my conscience is at perfect rest convicting me of nothing. If there is some disturbance in my conscience about something, even if I convince myself, no, no, I am not wrong, I am not wrong, I am right, he was wrong, he was wrong, my conscience says, just shut up, you are wrong. Listen to that. You can convince other people with an argument, he is wrong and she is wrong, but your conscience tells you. That's the first thing. And the other is, if I am agitated in my mind about anything, anything, if I am anxious about anything, it's like a troubled sea. I do not have victory, no matter how much I say, I don't watch pornography, I don't tell lies. Brother, that unrest in your mind proves that in some area you still don't have victory. The land of victory is called the land of rest. He did not enter into his rest. And then it says, chapter 4, verse 1, let us fear, lest we are given a promise of entering into his rest and you don't enter into it. He says you must fear, lest you don't enter into this life of rest. And he says in verse 9, 4, 9, there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There is a lot of similarity between rest and contentment. You know, David says, I want to be like a weaned child in the psalms. It's not always crying out, I want some milk, I want some milk, I want some milk. It's at rest. And they couldn't experience it in the Old Testament. If the giants are still ruling, there is no rest in the land. When the giants are killed, there is rest. So, the Sabbath rest, which is so important, is also linked to the land of Canaan in Hebrews 3 and 4. And you know how important it was for the children of Israel to occupy Canaan. How important it was for the children of Israel to keep the Sabbath rest. All these things have an implication for us. In the Ten Commandments, I don't know whether you know, I think if you have heard me, you know it, that nobody could keep the Ten Commandments. Nobody. Let me read them to you. Exodus 20. All the nine commandments, a lot of people can keep. Even today, unconverted Hindus keep a lot of, or Muslims and others can keep many of these commandments. You know, I am the Lord your God, you will have no other gods but me. Don't make any idols. There are many non-Christians who don't have idols. And don't take the Lord's name in vain. Verse 7. Exodus 27. Number 4. Keep the Sabbath day holy. Rest one day out of seven. Honor your father and mother. Verse 12. Number 6. You shall not murder. Number 7. Verse 14. You shall not commit adultery. Number 8. Verse 15. You shall not steal. Number 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Number 10. You shall not tell lies. That was too high a standard. Because God knew that most people tell lies. But in a court, don't bear false witness against neighbor. That's a commandment. There was no commandment saying you shall not tell lies. Nobody could have kept it. But the 10th one is the one which is really difficult to keep. You shall not desire. See, nine commandments were external. The 10th commandment was about contentment. Your neighbor's house. In other words, it's what I said earlier about you're not content with your house. You want what your neighbor has. You know, you can see something with your neighbor and say, I want that. Always this desire and the devil feeds that discontent. Or it could be your neighbor's wife. You know, you wish that your wife was as pretty as her Imagine. All types of things. I say that is just a minor form of adultery to compare your wife's cooking with some other woman. Or anything. Discontent is such a very subtle thing. You compare your wife with your neighbor's wife or those days they had servants or your business with your neighbor's business. Discontent, the devil just tries to make you discontent. Satan himself was discontent with his position. He was the most beautiful of God's creation. He was the highest position, the most intelligent, when he was still not content. That reminds me of so many believers who have so much in life but they are still not content. It's amazing. I mean, one would think they are beggars on the streets. They are not. We must not be discontent with anything. We are committed to the Lord's hand. If you don't have children, for example, you say, well that's fine Lord, I'm not going to be in unrest over it. You know my need and I want to have but if you don't give me, that's fine. A lot of people are discontent about something God has not given them. They look at somebody else and say, I wish I had what they had. But what about if God says, no, you are not supposed to have that. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or servant or anything that belongs to your neighbor. I know believers who say, boy, I wish I had children like that, those children. It's a form of discontent with your own. And the devil feeds on that. Even in the Garden of Eden you can say that what the devil tempted Eve with was covetousness. Let's say you eat and there were 10,000 trees and God says, you can eat from any of those 10,000 trees except this one. It's like a huge circle containing 10,000 trees and only one tree outside. One would think that's very easy to avoid that one tree because you got 10,000 here. I mean, if God had said there's only one tree inside the circle and 10,000 outside, you must only be happy with this one tree. That may have been a little more difficult. But Eden was full of 10,000 trees and the Lord said, you can have all of it, just leave that one out and the devil says, you should get that one. I know you got 10,000 but you need more than that. You see, it's discontent. If you don't eliminate that completely from your life, I want to tell you, you'll never enter into a life of rest or a life of victory. A lot of discontent comes because we compare ourselves with others. It says in 2nd Corinthians 10, 2nd Corinthians chapter 10, it says, those who, verse 12, last part, those who, let me paraphrase it, those who measure themselves with each other and compare themselves with others are spiritual idiots. You want to be a spiritual idiot? You only got to do one thing, compare yourself with other believers. Compare yourself with other people and be a little discontent you don't have what they have. I wish I had that. If God has allowed your circumstances to be different, he can make you a wonderful blessing in the body of Christ with your difficult circumstances. Sometimes we think it's those who have very easy circumstances who are the most blessed. It's not true. I've seen people come to Bangalore to CFC, children of very rich parents who come there with everything that their parents, fathers can give them and they never develop to become spiritual people. And I've seen other people come to CFC who have very little, who come from poverty and struggle and who mature so much. It's not because of poverty or riches, it's because of contentment. A lot of those rich young people, they are never content, they always want something more, they always want something more and they disobey the 10th commandment which says you shall not desire what somebody else has, meaning you must be content with what you have. It's not just us, even the great apostle Paul, you know Paul says in Philippians 3 verse 6 According to the righteousness which is in the law, Philippians 3, 6 the last part, according to the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. And you would think that he says and you say, Paul, you mean you managed to keep the 10th commandment? And he would say, no, what I meant is I kept 9 commandments. That's what I mean by that verse. Because in Romans 7, he says in verse 7, Romans 7, verse 7 He says, what shall we say then? Is the law same? May never be. And listen to what he says, I would not have known covetousness unless the 10th commandment had said you shall not covet. And the margin says you shall not lust. Lust is a form of covetousness. Having a strong desire. There is nothing wrong in having a strong desire. For example, you have a strong desire for food. Perfectly legitimate. But if you steal to get food, then you are allowing that strong desire to lead you to sin. You may have a strong desire sometimes to sleep because you are so tired. That's fine, but you shouldn't be sleeping but if you try to fulfill it in some illegal wrong way then it is a sin. But those desires themselves are okay. So, when you have a strong desire and the Lord says, but don't desire what you don't have. To covet what somebody else has which you don't have. To admire what belongs to somebody else and not what God has been pleased to give you. It's a very dangerous thing. We must learn to be content and Paul admits that. He says, when I have heard that tenth commandment you shall not desire what you don't have. Look at his honesty. This is fantastic honesty. Verse 8 Sin, taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me every type of lust I had. You say, Paul, did you have all these lusts in your mind? He says, yes. What type of lust? You name it. Every type of lust I had and I just could not overcome. So, when he says in Philippians 3.6 I was blameless according to the law everybody in Israel knew nobody can keep the tenth commandment. You can only keep nine and the law is how you were punished. But how could you ever find out if somebody was violating the tenth commandment? There was no punishment for the tenth commandment. Did you know that? There was punishment for the other commandments. If you worshipped idols you would be punished. If you murdered you would be punished. If you bore false witness you would be punished. If you committed adultery you would be punished. But if you coveted no punishment because nobody could find out whether you coveted. Nobody could prove it. Nobody could keep that tenth commandment when he knew that nobody could keep it. See, Mark chapter 10 Mark gospel chapter 10 We read of the rich young ruler here who came running to Jesus. There are so many good things you see in this man. A man ran up to Jesus. I don't think you see anywhere else you don't see. People running up to Jesus and people strolled up to him and all that. But he was a zealous young man who ran to Jesus and knelt down before him. That's another thing you hardly ever see. You don't see people coming and kneeling down before Jesus. He ran and knelt before him and his most important question he is not asking questions like somebody else please tell my brother to divide the property with me he is not arguing. He is sincerely saying how can I inherit eternal life. That's what he is running to find out. How many people run to Jesus and kneel down and say God I want eternal life. What a zealous man he is. I mean a lot of believers even today run to Jesus for so many other things. But this man is running, kneeling down to find out how to get eternal life. He is a great example for us. And then Jesus told him to keep the commandments. And notice the commandments. He did not mention the first four because everybody in Israel kept it. There was nobody in Israel who worshipped idols. Everybody kept the Sabbath. People did not take the Lord's name in vain. In fact they never even used the word Jehovah. And the Jews never used it because they said accidentally I may take the Lord's name in vain. They had no other God. The first four commandments there was no need to ask any Jew whether they kept it. They kept the Sabbath. You know the commandments. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. Don't bear false witness. And the fifth one he mentioned last honor your father and mother. Notice what all he said. Number five, honor your father and mother. Number six, don't murder. Number seven, don't commit adultery. Number eight, don't steal. Number nine, false witness. Hey, what about the tenth one? Why didn't Jesus mention the tenth commandment there? He knew he kept the first four and he mentioned the five so he only wanted to know whether Jack kept nine commandments. It was no point mentioning the tenth commandment because Jesus knew nobody could keep it. That's why he didn't mention the tenth commandment. And so that he said, oh I kept all these things. Just like Paul. Paul was another rich young ruler who could say I kept all these commandments from my youth. And Jesus says there's still one thing you lack. You love your money too much. You have a covetousness for money. So you can't be my disciple. And this covetousness, this desire is so strong in you that the only way you can get rid of it is if you sell all that you have. Now he never said that to everybody but you know sometimes if a cancer is so widespread you have to do much more radical treatment than if it's not spread so much. In his case the cancer of love of money was so big he said you got to get rid of everything. And he turned away and went. Jesus said how can such people enter the kingdom of God? But the point I wanted to say is Jesus didn't mention the 10th commandment. Then why did God put it there? If he knew nobody could keep it. And he knew that he wouldn't even ask this man whether he kept the 10th commandment. The reason is God, I noticed this in scripture many times. God says so many things and then he put one small commandment there. At the end to see who will keep it. And a lot of people say yeah yeah I've kept all this. And what about this last one? Oh that's not so important Lord. Aha. He's assessed you already. I have met numerous believers like this. But Paul he was honest. He said yeah that's 10th commandment I know it's kept there and I admit Lord that I'm not keeping it. I'm disobeying it. In so many areas I'm disobeying it. And God led Paul to a life of victory because he was honest. Let me show you Romans. Romans chapter 7 verse 8. Remember what he said in Philippians 3 I keep all the commandments. There was only one he couldn't keep. Only one. And he was honest about it. When it came to the 10th commandment I tried and I found all types of lusting coveting longing comparing myself with others wishing what I had what that person had coveting that neighbor's wife coveting my other neighbor's daughter. He was a young man tempted like all of us and coveting this coveting that coveting the other thing maybe coveting some position in the Jewish council and coveting eldership. He says I found every single type of coveting in my heart. It was his absolute honesty that led him to a life of victory. And I have discovered through my life that God says if you are honest absolutely honest if you when you lust after a woman if you say Lord I committed adultery and if you say Lord I committed adultery three times today I'm sorry and if you wanted what somebody else had and you say Lord I'm a covetous greedy person call you call sin by the worst possible name you'll get victory over it but call it by some decent name and you live defeated by it for the rest of your life. Call it by the dirtiest possible name call anger murder Lord I murdered my wife you'll get victory over it but you say yeah that was just a slip up you know I got a little upset. Paul didn't say that. He says I found disobedience to the every type of disobedience to the tenth commandment in my heart and he was so disturbed by it that he says in verse 24 of Romans 7 what a wretched man I am. Why is he so wretched if his brothers are not keeping even the nine commandments. A man keeping nine commandments calls himself a wretched man because he couldn't keep one. There you see a man who was desperate for victory desperate to love God with all his heart and the mark of love as you heard is to keep his commandments if you love me you'll keep my I love him more and more I love him more and more and everybody is singing that I would sing I'll obey him more and more I'll obey him more and more just so that I don't fool myself. I say Lord am I meaning that? I love him more and more can be very sentimental but when you say I'll obey him more and more aha then I know whether I'm really singing the truth to God or not. So Paul said I know I'm missing out only on one commandment but that makes me feel like a wretched man. You know I don't find many believers like that to tell you honestly even in good churches who kept ninety percent of what God says and just missed out in one small thing or one small little commandment they say oh that's not so serious. You know they are created beings deciding whether God has written in his word is important or not. Can you imagine the arrogance of such people? Created human beings specks of dust looking at the word written by almighty God determining this is not, there are people who say that was for the first century not for 21st century. Almighty God's word and I've seen such arrogant people it never goes well with them. It never goes well with such churches in the long run. That's why we decided from the beginning in our church we're going to obey every little thing. Do more than less. How much are you supposed to do? There's no harm in doing a little more. There's a harm in doing a little less. So when I'm in doubt about a commandment I don't want to find the perfect line. I say Lord I'm a bit doubt where this line is. To be on the safe side let me do a little more. What do I lose by that? You know if you do a little more than that it is always protected. I remember I'll give you one example. One of the things the Lord showed me when I was converted about soon after I took baptism 51 years ago, 52 years ago the Lord showed me that I had cheated the government in certain taxes and all that repay that. So it was a bit difficult to sit down and calculate and I arrived at a certain figure and I was a bit unsure. It was about three times my monthly salary, the amount. Quite a lot of money and it takes quite a bit of time to earn three times, to save three times your monthly salary. So I calculated this, this is the amount I feel I have to pay back to the government. I mean, nobody knows I've cheated, it's just God and me, but I want to clear my conscience before God. But there was a bit of a doubt and it does let me take a figure. Was it 1000 rupees or 1200 rupees? Now 1000 rupees was a lot of money 50 years ago, not so much today. But it was a lot of money that time and I was in doubt. Lord, I'm not very sure whether the amount I owe is 1000 or 1200. So I said, I think I'll settle for 1000. You know how we always settle for the lower amount whenever we have to pay back something. And very interesting, how good God is. The next day, my Bible reading, I was reading Numbers chapter 5. That is just my Bible reading. And I read there in Numbers chapter 5, verse 6, Numbers 5 verse 6, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the sons of Israel. When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind and he is guilty, he shall confess his sin which he has committed and make restitution in full for his wrong and add 20% to the amount he's supposed to give. Wow! I said, Lord, how much more direct can the word of God be? It was a direct answer to my prayer. Just to be on the safe side, add 20%. No, there was a law like this in the Old Testament. Why did he say add one-fifth, you owe only a hundred, why should you make it one-twenty? Because you could be mistaken. Do a little more. If you're unsure whether you should apologize or not, go and apologize. It's a principle. A godly man does not say, what is the minimum I have to do to keep God's commandments? He's always saying, let me err on the side of doing a little more. Let me do more than not argue. No, no, no, the straight line is here. No, I'm not sure. Let me do a little more. So, Paul, because of that attitude, he said, I feel like such a wretched man. There's so much sin in me. What are these sins in you, Paul? There's all types of desires and lust. But externally, outside of your cup is so clean. Perfectly clean, better than anybody in this world. He said, that makes no difference to me. I don't live before men. I live before God. And he sees so many desire for this and my comparison with that person and my wanting what this person has and my competing spirit of competition with this person. These are all coming out of lust and covetousness. I'm a wretched man. And he says, how will I ever be delivered? And now listen to this. Romans 8.3. What the law could not do, God did. What is it the law could not do? The law could help me to keep nine commandments. Could not help me to keep the tenth commandment. That's the meaning of that verse. The law could help me to keep nine commandments. It could not help me to keep the tenth commandment. I was discontent, covetous. God did it. He sent his own son, the likeness of sinful flesh, who was tempted like me and lived a pure life. And how did he overcome with a flesh like mine? There I saw the answer. Jesus kept all ten commandments. And he was tempted like me. And he had only the power of the Holy Spirit that he offers me. And so, with that power of the Spirit, verse 4, the requirement of the law, what is the requirement of the law? You shall not lust. All the others are kept. He's now only talking about that one requirement which he mentioned in Romans 7. This is the thing that was bothering him. The other commandments I'm keeping. He wasn't congratulating himself, saying, oh, I'm a very good man. I'm keeping all the commandments. He was constantly bothered by the one commandment he's not keeping. How is it with your life, my brother, sister? Are you always congratulating yourself that you're such a good brother, such a good sister, keeping all the commandments? You're in such a good church that's keeping so many commandments? Or are you in a church that's not keeping one commandment? Or are you bothered by what you're not keeping? Or are you always congratulating yourself for the things you are keeping? Paul was bothered by the thing he was not keeping. Most believers congratulate themselves by the things they are keeping. That's the difference between Paul and most believers. And that's why Paul came to a much higher life than most believers do. And I would recommend to you, follow Paul. Look at the areas in your life that you're not keeping. It's like sitting in Canaan's land. The Israelites congratulated themselves on the portions of Canaan they had occupied. The Lord says, what about all these other lands you're not occupied? Think more about that than sitting comfortably and say, yeah, but we've got 10% of Canaan already. We're okay. There's a whole lot of Canaan still to be possessed, the Lord told Joshua. So, we must not, you know, if you sit back congratulating yourself that I've done this and I've done that and I'm pretty good here and I've overcome this and I've overcome that and this, that and the other and our church is not like other churches in this area, this area, this area. You will completely miss out on what God has. Paul said, I have not yet attained Philippians three. He said that when he was 60 years old, I have not yet attained, but I'm pressing on. There's a one thing I do, he says, in Philippians three, I press towards the mark because there's so much more I have to conquer to become totally Christ-like. I say, give me 10 brothers and sisters like that, we'll have a wonderful church instead of a hundred compromisers who sit congratulating themselves that they're so good in so many areas. Oh, wretched man that I am. We want more people like that. And such people, the Lord shows them what the law could not do. I did it in Christ and I can do it in your life too. So that this requirement of the law, which is commandment number 10, can now be fulfilled inside us. See the word in, in verse four, it was fulfilled outside of me, all the nine commandments, all these years, but now this one thing that could never be fulfilled, which made me feel I'm a wretched man, is now being fulfilled inside of us, not automatically, as long as I walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit. The day I stop obeying the Holy Spirit, because I sit back and say, I'm okay now, he'll fall again. So you see how much Paul took this one commandment seriously. That is the reason why God put that little 10th commandment at the bottom, just to test people. And it really was a test. How many people will go through the list of the 10 commandments and be satisfied nine and say, well, I'm pretty good. I mean, if you, if you got 90% in your class, don't you think you're a pretty good student? I don't think many people would complain if they got 90% in mathematics and 90% in science and 90% overall in your subjects. I think even your parents would be happy if you got 90%, but not Paul. He said, that 10% bothered me and bothered me and bothered me. There are some students who are happy with pass marks and some students who are unhappy until they get a hundred percent. In the Christian life, if your whole attitude is, what is the minimum I have to do to get into God's presence that I accepted by him, you'll never come to that wonderful life of rest close to the heart of God that Paul came to and other Christians have come to. You'll always live in the low levels of the Christian life and not at the mountain peaks that Paul lived in. It's a question of whether you desire to live there. That song we sing, I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day, still praying as I onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. My heart has no desire to stay where doubts arise and fears dismay, for faith has heard the joyful sound, the song of saints who are living on higher ground. I want to live there. Lord, lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's stable land, a higher plane than I have found, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. So that should be our passion all the time. Lord, for example, in your family life, is your family life good? Praise the Lord. If you're satisfied, it will remain there forever. But if you say, no, I'm not satisfied. I want to have a perfect family life. I want never to raise my voice at my husband or wife even one single time in a whole year. Never to be upset. Never to be in a bad mood. I don't want to wake up one day in a bad mood and make everybody in the house grumpy. I'm not happy with just 90% of the time I'm okay. I got 90%. Paul was constantly bothered about that one thing that was left out. One of the prayers I have prayed for myself is, Lord, before I leave this earth, I want to obey every commandment in scripture. New Testament commandment. I don't want to obey killing lambs and keeping the Sabbath and paying tithe and all this is for Old Testament people. But everything commanded in the New Testament for a new covenant Christian, I want to obey all of it before leaving this earth. Do you have a passion for that? Supposing God said, every commandment of mine you obey, I'll give you $10,000. Will you be more eager to find out the commandments and keep them? Is it, is it you're not eager because there's no reward for it? The reward is that you'll make God's heart happy. Is that better than $10,000? It's better than a million dollars. To make my father's heart happy is the greatest reward I can ever get. That I could do something as a human being to make my heavenly father happy. To show my love for Jesus, you love me, keep my commandments. And that's been a prayer I prayed, Lord, before I leave this earth, I don't know how much longer I have, but I want to obey every commandment in scripture. And that's why the Lord gives me enemies. How can you love your enemies? How can you obey that command if you don't have enemies? Thank God for enemies. How can you bless those who curse you if nobody curses you? Thank God for those who curse you. Pray for those who persecute you. If somebody's about to persecute you, for you to obey that commandment. So everything in life you find that, boy, God's given me an opportunity to keep his commandments. Praise the Lord. And I don't want to leave this earth before keeping all the commandments. Do you have that desire? I never had it when I was first converted because nobody urged me in these things. There was no forerunner whom I could follow. And I hadn't seen Jesus clearly in those days. There was no spiritual father who would say to me, follow me as I follow Christ. When you guys are young, you're lucky you can start right now. I started pretty late, but I'm running a little faster so that I can finish my race. But I want to keep all the commandments. And the second thing I want to do is, Lord, I want to claim all the promises in the scripture before I leave this earth. New Testament promises. Not the health and wealth promises of the old covenant, but the New Testament promises. Every promise in the new covenant, I want to, commands like rejoice in the Lord always, 24 seven, I want to obey. Be anxious for nothing. I don't want to be content with, I'm not anxious for 99% of things. I want to aim for a hundred percent. I don't know whether you're passionate about these things. There is no use saying we love Jesus if you're not interested in obeying his commandments. There's only one proof of love for Jesus. You want to obey every single thing. And what about some commandments about which believers are not sure? Well, I do a little more than less so that I make sure I've obeyed it. Because I don't want to discover when I stand before the Lord that all those believers interpretations I heard were wrong. I say, Lord, they were wrong. I thought they were right. They were wrong. I'm not going to have that problem because I always want to do a little more than less. And if you take that attitude, and I'll tell you something else. You'll never know what those commandments are. If you spend a lot of time watching television instead of reading the Bible, because the commandments are not in television, the commandments are in the Bible. And if you spend a lot of time just gossiping and backbiting and talking all kinds of useless stuff when you could have read the scriptures. And you want to sleep a little more. And you won't even cut out 15 minutes of that sleep to read the Bible. You're not serious about obeying the commandments. The Lord will see that. You say, I'm tired. I know, we're all tired. 15 minutes? You don't have 15 minutes to cut out of your sleep to study the scriptures. I have suggested to people in Bangalore, I said, do you know that in our CFC website, there is a thing called verse by verse through every verse in the New Testament. It's like, you know, the mother grinding up all the food so the children can eat without even chewing. Verse by verse from Matthew chapter one, all the way to Revelation 22, every single verse. And you need to spend only 15 minutes a day. Most of the messages are just 15 minutes a day or 12 minutes. I say, can you spend 15 minutes a day just to listen to that or download it into an iPod or DVD or something and just spend 15 minutes saying, I want to go through the New Testament with a goal to find out what are the commandments I have not obeyed. What are the promises I've not claimed? It's like saying so many checks came in the mail. I have not cashed all of them. They're lying somewhere in my drawer. Would you search through your drawer? There could be a check for a million dollars there. I'm sure people search through it. Why not search through scripture to see there's some promise worth more than a million dollars that God has given me and I haven't cashed the check in the bank of heaven. Those are the things I should long for, not covet what somebody else has on earth. Let me long, replace that covetousness with the covetousness to keep the commandments and claim the promises. It's a much better thing to redirect our, you know, our energies and our thoughts towards. And especially you guys who are young, what a privilege you have to start when you're young to run this race wholeheartedly and not waste a single year of your life on things which are unnecessary, that will not bring you any profit in the day of judgment. Don't be like little child. Be mature in your thinking. 2000 years from now, these things that you're worried so much about and upset you so much, you think you're going to be bothered about it 2000 years from now? Things that disturb you so much, that upset you so much that somebody did something wrong to you, or something broke in the house or somebody, something got lost and that way you waste so much time thinking about it. Ask yourself whether 2000 years from now you're going to think about it at all. No, then forget it. I mean if you broke something, be more careful next time. If you lost something, be more careful next time. But don't spend hours and days and somebody did some harm to you, forgive him, forget it. Think of what it's going to be 2000 years from now. You're not going to think 2000 years from now about the harm somebody did to you or what some evil somebody spoke to you. It'll all be gone. The grudges you have against people and you're disturbed with somebody in the church. Are you disturbed? Let me ask you honestly, those of you who are part of this church. Is there something in this church that disturbs you? Are you disturbed by somebody in this church who doesn't fit into your opinion of what a holy Christian should be? Who in the world do you think you are that you make the standard for what a Christian should be? What a conceited opinion you have of yourself. Why should they all fit into your standard? You're a nobody. Does it disturb you? It's the devil working in your life to make sure you waste your whole life. It's possible some of you have sat here for years and all these years you've been just disturbed, disturbed, disturbed. The devil's making an outright fool of you. You may be very clever in so many earthly things, but the devil's made a fool of you. Just make sure he doesn't make a fool of you anymore. Say, Lord, I've finished. Today I have finished. I'm not going to be disturbed by events or people or circumstances. I'm going to watch my life to see that I obey all the commandments. I'm not in here to check up whether my husband is obeying all the commandments or my wife is obeying all the commandments. I want to make sure I obey it. And I claim the promises. And I'm not here to check up whether other people are doing it in the church or not. That's God's business. God will take care of it. And the Bible says don't judge anybody. Help people. If you find someone is lacking something, pray for them. But don't go around speaking evil and judging them because you'll only ruin yourself. I'm saying this as a stupid fool who did all these things in my younger days when nobody advised me better. I'm not saying, I'm not talking this as if I never did these things in my life. I was a stupid idiot in the earlier years of my life. I did such stupid things and I suffered for it. And just like we fathers warn our children, don't do the stupid things I did in my younger days, I tell you, don't waste your time. I thank God I learned a lesson and I repented radically. And I said, Lord, I'm really going to run the race and I'm not going to let the devil make a fool of me anymore. I really believe that the devil is making a fool of lots of believers and possibly some of you sitting here because you haven't got your focus on Jesus. You're not running the race looking unto Jesus who was perfectly content. If people called him prince of devils, he would smile at them and say, you're forgiven. What a way he lived. When they killed him, he said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. They don't realize what a terrible crime they're committing. Forgive them. They don't know it. If they knew the seriousness of it, they wouldn't do it. I believe that. I've seen in my life so many Christians, even Christian leaders, speak evil of me. I say, fine, Lord. They don't know what they're doing. One day when they stand before the Lord and they see a lot of things they said about me were totally wrong and they discover what liars they were and how they criticized without knowing the facts, they'll feel so ashamed. But Lord, I've forgiven them right now. I have nothing against them. Bless them. Prosper them. I have nothing against them. My life is at rest. They are at unrest. What can I do? But my life is at rest. Is your life at rest today? God wants you to be at rest. The church is to be a place where there's rest. Let me show you one last verse and then I'll close. Revelation 15. This is a picture of how the church is standing in heaven. It's a beautiful picture. It's a picture of the church singing. And I wish we could all sing like this. And the important thing is not the tune. And they had only one instrument, harps. Just one instrument. Says they're singing in Revelation 15 verse 2, holding the harps of God. And they sang, verse 3, the song of the Lamb. But the point I want you to notice is where they are standing. They were standing on a sea of glass mixed with fire. Have you ever seen a sea of glass? I've seen sometimes when I was in the Navy. Sometimes I've seen the sea like full of turmoil. And the ship would go up and down and up. And at other times I've seen the sea exactly like glass. You look across to the horizon, there's not one ripple. It's like glass. And I've seen that often. And I see, Lord, that is a picture of a life of rest. Very easy for that. You know, water is an unstable thing. Very easy for a ripple to come. But it's at rest. I mean, actual glass not having a ripple doesn't mean a great thing. But for a sea not to have a ripple to be like glass is really a miracle. And Lord, my heart is like sea. It's not solid like glass. It's like sea. Very easy for one, somebody throws a little stone in and all the ripples start, so many. I don't want it to be like that. I don't care who throws stones or rocks into my sea, it will not affect it. It will be like glass, completely unaffected by what people say to me or about me or do to me or don't do, which I think they should do, or they didn't come to help me there. So what? God is there to help me. Why should I depend on anybody, any human being? To be always at rest, never a complaint against anybody, no grumbling, no complaining. That's the sea of glass. In Isaiah 57, the last verse, it says, the wicked are like the troubled sea, always throwing up the dust and muck and dirt, you know, all the rotten tires and tin cans that were dropped into that sea years ago, it just tosses up whenever there's a storm. Have you noticed that happen whenever you have a fight with somebody? You remind them of what they did 20 years ago or on the 18th of January 1995, what you said and husbands and wives are sometimes like that. They remember all the terrible things they did in the past. I remember a couple going for marriage counseling and the man telling his counselor, sir, my wife gets historical whenever we have a fight. He says, you mean hysterical? No, not hysterical, historical. That means she goes back into history and digs up all those things that happened 15 years ago and 20 years ago. Are you like that? Are you historical? Get rid of it. God's forgiven you all your history, why can't you forgive another person all that history? Why do you want to dig it all up? The wicked are like the troubled sea, tossing up muck and dirt. You know, those things come up, that rotten tire which was thrown in 20 years ago into the lake, comes up. When it comes up, throw it away. Then next time when there's a storm, nothing will come up. And one by one when these things come up to the surface, you throw them all away, your lake will be clean. And when there's a storm, there's nothing to be tossed up. What a wonderful life to live. It's a wonderful life, Jesus calls it to be in a sea of glass. When you sing songs, for example, the important thing is not the tune. The important thing is not how well we shout or clap. It's all good. Are you on a sea of glass when you sing? Are you at rest? This is the church. May God help us. Let's bow our heads for a moment. You're going to make your life, by the grace of God, a life of rest. You're going to make your home a home of peace and rest, as far as you're concerned. You can't do anything about the other members of your home, but as far as you're concerned. And you're going to contribute your part to make the church a place of rest. Always picture the sea of glass. Say, Lord, that's where I want to stand. That's where I want to string my harp and sing your praise. Forgive, release, let people go. Be content with such things as you have. For the Lord has said, I will never leave you. I will never let you down. I'll never forsake you. So you don't have to be worried and anxious what man will do to you. I will not fear what man or demons can do to me. I don't know the future, but the Lord has said he'll never leave me or forsake me. That's enough. Heavenly Father, help us each one to build a church here that will satisfy your heart. Not just satisfy our hearts, but that you can look down and approve of the quality of our fellowship with each other. Yes, Lord. And if there are disruptive elements, help them either to repent or to go away. One of the two. Bring them to repentance or take them away, Lord. The best is you bring them to repentance. But don't let one person spoil your work. Preserve your work. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Bring prodigal children back to the fold. And if they refuse to repent like Judas Iscariot, let them fall away. One of the two. But build your church. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. For more information visit www.fema.org