This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding and experiencing the love of the Father, as demonstrated through the story of the prodigal son. It highlights the need to maintain a blameless conscience before God and men, to be prepared for the resurrection of the righteous, and to live a life of readiness for the return of Christ.

One of the most important things that Jesus tried to convince his disciples about was the love of the Father for them. Many times he used illustrations and examples to show the tremendous love that God as a Father has for his people. For example, instead of just saying the Father loves backsliders who come back to him, which would be just sentence, one sentence, Jesus told a whole story about a prodigal son who went and wasted everything that his father gave him and when he came back the father ran to welcome him. And you know, the son didn't send any text message or anything to the father saying, I'm coming. How did the father know? I mean, remember, there are a lot of things you can learn from that Luke 15 story. The son says in the far country, my father has many servants and they get enough to eat. From that one sentence, he's many servants teaches me one thing that the father was a very rich man. The little, little things you must learn from the story. Now, if the father was a very rich man, probably a multi-millionaire in today's terms, how much would half his wealth have been? Because he got half the wealth. It wasn't just a couple of hundred dollars. It was a few million dollars that he got from his father. And how long do you think it would take for a person to spend a few million dollars, even if he's a spendthrift? That doesn't happen in one month. He probably was away from his father for a few years to spend all those millions. So the point I want to make is that you put all these things together and you discover that he's coming back home after many years. And yet the father sees him at a distance and runs to meet him. And now my question is, how in the world did the father know he was coming that day? There is only one way. And that is every day his father looked out of the window to see if his son is coming back. Those are the little hidden things that are not mentioned in that story. It's one of the results of meditating on Scripture. You know, you get a lot more if you meditate on Scripture than if you just read it. You know what it says in Psalm 1, blessed is the man not who reads, but who meditates on the Scripture day and night. It's one of the habits I've developed to meditate on the Scripture day and night. It's to me more important than reading Scripture is meditating on the Scripture. More important than reading Scripture is obeying the Scripture. To meditate on the Scriptures and to obey the Scriptures is a thousand times more important than just reading. Because I say that because some people ease their conscience saying, I read the Bible this morning. Did you meditate on it? No. Are you obeying it during the day? No. But I read half an hour in the morning. Worthless. The purpose of reading the Scripture is to meditate on it and obey it. Otherwise you're easing your conscience. But many people ease their conscience saying, I read the Bible in the morning. I'll tell you honestly, I would rather not read the Bible in the morning and obey it throughout the day and meditate on something I have already read sometime than just read and not bother about meditating or obeying. I know this because I myself live by this law that I must read the Bible a little bit in the morning. I ease my conscience. So you must not read the Bible to ease your conscience. You must meditate on it. How do you meditate on it day and night? It doesn't mean you got the Bible in front of you, but in the maybe what you read last month or what you heard in a meeting. But what I see there is the tremendous love of the Father that keeps looking out for him and not only for him. What I see in that story is the great love of the Father for that stubborn, legalistic, older son whom you don't feel like loving. You know, when I see the attitude of that older son who tells his father, he doesn't say, this my brother. What does he say? This son of yours who's come back and who's lived with prostitutes. How did he know he was living with prostitutes? He imagines all types of, you know, you imagine the worst possible things of other people. Now you'd say you can't love a person like that, but the Father loves him too. I'm amazed to tell you honestly, I find it very difficult to love the elder son when I see his attitude. But what I see there is the tremendous love for the Father. The Father says to him, son, all that I have is yours. Imagine talking like that to a Pharisee because that's what that elder son represents. And I see there the tremendous love of God which is way beyond we can even imagine. Not only to sinful, repentant, prodigal sons, but to stubborn, religious Pharisees who look down on other believers, who think they are so righteous. I detest such people who look down on others, but the Father loves them. And I know that my heart has to melt that I have to love them too. The love of God is way beyond what we can imagine. And that's what Jesus was always trying to teach. If you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. You know that verse. How much more shall you have any father give good things of the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? What did he say? If you being evil. What I learned from that is the best father in the world is evil compared to God. That means God's goodness is so great that take the best father in the world and he's evil. Take all the best fathers in the world, put them all together, and they are evil compared to God's goodness. I feel that even many believers have not seen God like this. They have not seen God as such a loving father who cares for a stubborn, religious, legalistic Pharisee, and who is a million times better than the best fathers on the earth, and who is eager to give. It says in one verse, let me read Luke chapter 12 and verse 32. Don't be afraid, little flock, for your father has gladly chosen to give you the kingdom. He's eager to give us his kingdom, the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14, 17. Some people have asked me, what is the kingdom of God? I said that is defined in Romans 14, 17 as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit is the kingdom of God. And it says here, your father is eager to give it to you. I say, Lord, I believe you are eager to give me righteousness. You're eager to give me peace in my heart at all times. You're eager to give me joy in the Holy Spirit, things which nobody could in the Old Testament could have because they did not know God as a father. The wonder of knowing God as a father is something that we must never lose the wonder of that because if you had gone to any Old Testament saint, like Abraham, who always called God, Almighty God, and God Almighty, et cetera, and even Elijah, Elisha, John the Baptist, and told them, do you know that you can call God, Dad? I said, no, impossible. He can never be our dad. That's what every Old Testament saint would have said. And I feel that many of us, we lose the wonder of it that we can look up into heaven and call him dad. In my private prayer, I always call him dad. In public, I say, like Jesus said, Heavenly Father. But many people, I notice when they pray, they call him God, Lord. I'm not against it. He is God. He is Lord. Even Paul sometimes called him Lord. But do you ever pray to the Father when you normally pray? What do you call God? Father? Do you know Him like that? This means so much to me that I resist even songs that don't address Him as Father. You know, there are some songs like, Guide Me, O Thou Great. You know that song? Guide me, O thou great Jehovah. I never sing it that way. I say, Guide me, O my Heavenly Father. You say, why not? Isn't His name Jehovah? There are songs like that. Jehovah, Jehovah. I'll tell you why I don't call Him Jehovah. That is His name. If my son came to me and said, Mr. Poonen, I'd like to talk to you. I'd say, what are you calling me? Isn't that your name? I say, that is my name. But you don't call me Mr. Poonen. You call me that if you're angry with me. Why do you sing songs to Jehovah? I'll tell you. Why is it so many Christians? What about that songwriter? He didn't know the Father. Again, impossible for a man who knows the Father to call Him Jehovah. But why is it so many people sing it and never think there's anything wrong in it? I'll tell you why. You don't know Him as Father. I sang it for years in my life. The years when I was insecure, I did not know Him as Father. And so many problems because of that, defeated by sin, discouragement. Power is so important. The reason I did not know Him as Father, so I was so insecure. And I believe that insecurity is the reason for many of our sins and many of our problems. It's because we are insecure that we are jealous of others. We're not happy when it goes well with somebody else. So many sins. We grumble, complain because of insecurity. And that insecurity is because we don't know Him as a Father. So I want to encourage all of you to know God as your Father. The Holy Spirit has come. One of His primary purposes, we read in Romans chapter 8. Let me read it to you. Romans chapter 8. The Holy Spirit, verse 15, comes within us and cries out, Abba, Father. Abba is another Hebrew word like Amen. Amen means shall be so. Abba means not Father. Abba means Dad, Daddy. Father comes after that. Abba, Father. It's not Father, Father. It means Daddy, Father. It means a very intimate name by which we call our dad. To me, it's a great thing to know that intimacy with God as my heavenly dad. I tell you, if you ask the Holy Spirit to make that real in your life, that it says the Holy Spirit from within us cries out, Dad. Wow. It's not that somebody teaches you, you know, like you get an adopted son. He's grown up somewhere else. And then you come to him and say, no, you must call him Dad. Call him Dad. Call him Dad. That's not like that. Whereas a little kid born into your home just grows up calling you Dad. So we must allow the Holy Spirit to make this real to us that the one who rules the universe is my dad. And he loves me so much that he'd do anything for me. Even when I sin, he doesn't hate me. He hates my sin because he's ruining me. It's like, you know, the way a mother will look at a child that is sick. The mother doesn't hate the child, but it hates that sickness because the mother knows that sickness is destroying my child. I hate it. A father, a dad will hate the sickness. Why does a father rush with his little child from this hospital to that hospital and spend so many thousands of dollars to get his son treated of some sickness because he hates that sickness. That is how God hates sin in our life. He doesn't hate us, but he hates that sin. He hates those habits that are ruining us. Why does he tell us not to watch R-rated movies? Is it because he doesn't love us? No, he knows it'll destroy you. You're drinking poison. He hates it because he wants you to be strong. He doesn't want you to get sick. So it's a wonderful thing when we see in the new covenant how through the resurrection of Christ, united with him, we know God is our father. See Ephesians chapter 2 and see what it says there, what God has done for us in Christ. In Ephesians chapter 2, you were once dead in your trespasses and sins. That's our condition when we were unconverted. And in those, you walked in those ways according to the course of this world, according to the prince of darkness, and indulging in your lusts. But now God, verse 4, who's rich in mercy, when we were dead, made us alive together in Christ. And this is an amazing verse. It's the only verse in the Bible which teaches this. Raised us up. Here's the resurrection. Raised us up with Christ and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places in Christ. This is an amazing truth. You know that when Jesus died, all of us have accepted the fact that he took our sins upon him, the punishment for our sins when he died. But you hadn't committed those sins yet. Two thousand years ago, you had not committed any sin. How could he take your sins? You're committing your sin now, in your present lifetime. How did Jesus take the punishment and those sins upon him two thousand years ago? For one reason. God, with God, there is no past, present, future. He told Moses, my name is, I am. You would understand the meaning of that. Not I was, or I will be. I am. Means that God lives eternally in the present tense. Always. There's no past, present, future with God, just like for you and me. Everything is present before him all the time. That's why millions of years ago, he knew whether you would accept Christ or not. Millions of years ago. He knew who would respond to him and who wouldn't respond to him, and he just chose us. Did God elect us? Yes. But 1 Peter 1 verse 1 and 2 says, he elected us according to his foreknowledge. That means he knew beforehand who would respond and who would not, and that's how he chose us. It's not that arbitrarily he shut his eyes and picked a few names. No. It's according to his foreknowledge. He realized some people respond to his call and some don't. So because of that, he knew all the sins you're going to commit and they've put on Christ long before we were even born. Not only that, he took us, this old man, and put us also on the cross 2000 years ago and killed it. And so that we can be new. And so when Christ was buried, we were buried with him. When Christ was raised from the dead, it says here we were raised up with him. Now don't worry if you can't understand this. We don't have to understand. We believe. It's true. Lord, I believe that when you raised from the dead, in some amazing way, I was raised up with you. And not only that, verse 6, when you ascended to heaven, which happened 2000 years ago, in some wonderful way, in God's mind, I was there in Christ, ascended to heaven with him. And I'm spiritually, because of this, I'm seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ. Now, this is such an amazing truth. I don't even try to understand it with my mind. But I believe it in my heart, that spiritually, in some amazing way, I'm right now seated in Christ in the heavenly places, even though my feet are on the earth, I'm living on the earth. My spirit is there in heaven with Christ. And the true Christian life is living that heavenly life on this earth, because I am there. And when I am there, I look at everything on earth from that perspective. Just think of this one verse, seated with him or in him in heavenly places in Christ. If I understand that position and take it by faith, don't you take forgiveness of sins by faith? Did you actually see Christ dying for you on the cross? No. How do you know your sins are forgiven? How do you know Christ took the punishment for your sin? By faith. The same faith, I believe that I died with him and I rose again with him. And the same faith teaches me I'm seated with him in the heavenly places in Christ. And from there, when I take that position, I see earth and the things of earth in a completely different perspective. A lot of things that look very attractive on the earth are no longer so attractive when I'm seated in the heavenly places in Christ. When I realize that along with Christ's resurrection, I also rose up. The power of Christ's resurrection, not only he rose up, but I rose up with him. And I ascended with him. And then it's like, you know, when you travel in an airplane, those big skyscrapers look like little toy buildings, like Lego toys. And that fancy, expensive Cadillac car, like a little toy car. Imagine looking at all these things of earth, which other people are chasing after and running after and thinking that that's what makes them wealthy and big. And you see them as little Lego toys. It'll completely change your perspective to life on this earth. That's how Jesus lived. And that's how you can live. If you recognize the fact that God in his wonderful way raised you up with Christ, made you share his resurrection, and lifted you up into the heavenly places. And just like, imagine the higher you up, you go in a plane, the smaller these things look. Imagine if you went all the way up to heaven. What's the difference between your house, your little hut, and that guy's skyscraper? From heaven, almost no difference at all. Or your little Jeep and that guy's Cadillac, what's the difference? These things that mean so much to earthly people, the things that make people jealous if somebody else has got a better house than mine, or a better car than mine, or a better job than mine, or better whatever it is. You look at it from an earthly perspective, it is much bigger and better. But if you are raised up with Christ and you're seated in the heavenly places, it will not cause the slightest jealousy in your heart. I see so many Christian preachers who are jealous of somebody else's ministry, and are trying to show that they are doing a greater job for the Lord. I tell you before God, I stand before God and say, I have been delivered from that 100% completely. When I was a young Christian, I was not free from it, and I wanted to impress people. Finished. I'm finished with it, because I'm seated with Christ in the heavenly places now. The only person I want to impress now is God. And I'm satisfied 100% with everything God has given me. I don't question anything that He gives or He doesn't give. Like Job said, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Can you say that? If you really allowed the Holy Spirit to transport you into the heavenly places in your spirit, and you allow the Holy Spirit to show you everything on earth from heaven's perspective, you'll be completely at rest concerning many things that happen. So many things on earth that cause panic to other people doesn't even disturb you, because you're watching it all from heaven. Even around the earth, some disturbance in the air. If you go above the clouds, you don't even feel it. There's no disturbance there. Imagine if you get up to heaven and look at things down there. So many things look so different. We're not in a panic concerning the future. There's so many things happening nowadays in every country. Once upon a time, people thought the United States was a Christian country. It's no longer. It has lost that sense of Christian values long ago. It's like, and if there is some blessing on this country, it's because of Christian values that it inherited long ago. You know, the 1600s, fleeing persecution from others in Europe, they came here, and for a number of centuries, it was like a train led by an engine that was leading it along the lines of scripture. But somewhere, I think sometime maybe after the Second World War, that engine got detached. But you know how when a train is moving full speed and the engine gets detached, the rest of the train has got a thing called momentum. Because it is going for so long at such speed, it goes on for quite some time, slowing down, and it'll finally come to a stop, because the engine's been disconnected. But the momentum keeps it going, and people think, hey, we're still going on the right. Yeah, you are, but you can see the momentum slowing down of Christian influence on this country. It's slowing down, slowing down, and it's going to grind to a halt. I tell you what's going to happen. You must be ready for that day. But if you are seated in the heavenly places, you're okay. You see, God's in control of everything. There's never anything that will disturb you. I sometimes compare it to watching a sporting event. You know, in India, it's cricket. So let's convert it to here. I think here the great game is football. I can't understand it. Everybody climbing on top of others. I can't understand how people enjoy it. Anyway, whatever it is, let's take a game like basketball. Okay, that's a good game. And supposing you're crazy about basketball, and you watch this intense game between two teams, and you're very eager for your team to win, and it won. A sort of photo finish, and it won. Now say there's somebody else who's a colleague of yours who was at work and could not see that match live, and he wants to see the replay of it along with you later in the evening. And you're both on the same side. You're hoping this team will win. And it's those tense moments when the other team has gone ahead, and he's all tense, but you are relaxed. He said, how are you so relaxed? Aren't you on our side? Aren't you disturbed that you're losing? No. And you don't want to spoil the thing by telling him I've seen the end. But why are you undisturbed? Because you've seen the final score. But he's still tense, tense, tense, tense. He relaxes only when the end comes. But you're relaxed from the beginning. I have seen the end of this game. I've read Revelation chapter 20 to 22, and I know how this whole thing ends. So I'm relaxed. I know where the devil is going. I know what's going to be his end. So I'm relaxed. I know God is in control. He's got everything in control. That's if you look at it from the heavenly places. But if you look at it from an earthly standpoint, you're going to be in panic in the days to come, and it's going to be much worse. So I'm trying to prepare you for it. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit every day. I pray that Lord will fill me with the Holy Spirit every day. I want to look at everything that happens in my country, in your country, in every part of the world. Do you know what Jesus said? Let me show you a verse. This is Jesus, who knows the entire future, said this in Matthew 24. It's an amazing word. Matthew 24, verse 9, the last part. You will be hated, Christians, disciples, you'll be hated by every nation because of my name. Because you stand for the name of Jesus and the word of God, and you stand for the principles of the word of God, you will be hated by every nation. It's going to be fulfilled because I believe the word of Jesus. He said that heaven and earth will pass away. My word will not pass away. But that doesn't bring us into a panic because we've seen the end of the game. We've seen the final result. We are living, in a sense, in the future already. So we may go through trouble. It says they may kill you. It says in verse 9. Okay. Many will fall away. They will hate one another. They'll betray one another. All these things will happen. But we've seen the end of the game, and we're going to be faithful. And Jesus said, be faithful unto death, and I'll give you a crown of life. See, that's in Revelation, in chapter 3. The Lord said in Revelation, in chapter 3, he says here, make sure that no one takes your crown. Revelation chapter 3, verse 11. Hold fast what you have so that no one takes your crown. Many of these warnings to the churches are warnings about the future. Okay, you may be persecuted. There'll be testing time coming. Hold fast what you have. Otherwise, somebody can take your crown. That means he's already going to get his crown, but he's going to get yours as well. I believe that when Jesus chose his 12 disciples, Judas Iscariot was a wholehearted, radical disciple. And I'll tell you why I believe that. Jesus did not choose him saying, oh, I've got to get somebody to betray me. I mean, you've got to accuse Jesus of evil motives if you say he chose like that. No. Turn with me to Luke chapter 6 and verse 12. Jesus went into the mountain and prayed all night. It's the only place in the Bible where we read that he prayed all night. And the reason he prayed all night was because he wanted to know who the father wanted him to choose as his disciples. And when the day came, verse 13, he called his disciples and he chose 12. He had got those names from his father that night in prayer. And here was this Simon, James, John, et cetera. And verse 16, the last name mentioned is Judas Iscariot. It doesn't say who was a traitor, who became a traitor. Now, if you say somebody became a leper, was he a leper always? No. So when he says he became a traitor, he was not a traitor always. He became. Sometime along the way, his attitude changed. So Jesus chose him, and I personally believe this is my conviction. Judas Iscariot was the cleverest of all the 12. He was very smart. And I'll tell you why I believe he was smart. Because he lived for three and a half years in such close connection with the other 11, and they still didn't believe he was a crook. You got to be really smart if you live with 11 others and they don't know you're a crook. You know, I'll tell you why. Because in the Last Supper, Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me. And they didn't all look at Judas, ah, he's the one. No. You know what they said? Lord, is it I? And Judas also with the false, hypocritical ways, Lord, is it I? But that's why I believe he was the cleverest. And so my theory is, you don't have to believe it. My theory is that Judas was the one who was God's original plan to write the epistles that Paul wrote, because he was the cleverest and smartest. But he lost his crown. Paul got it. It's possible for you that God has got a ministry for you. But somewhere along the way, you slip up. You're not faithful. And you miss the purpose God had for you. But God's work will still be done. Somebody else will do it. Paul will replace Judas Iscariot. And somebody will replace you and do the job you were supposed to do. That's the meaning of what we read in Revelation 3. Be careful that no one takes your crown. It says, hold fast what you have. Otherwise, somebody will take your crown. That means somebody else will fulfill the ministry you were supposed to do. Now, that would be tragic. I'd say, Lord, you called me and you planned from the time I was born that I should fulfill a certain ministry. And somewhere along the line, I ran after money or married the wrong person or went after something for myself. And I missed out on the most important thing I'm supposed to do on this earth. However much money I made or however famous I became, worthless if I didn't fulfill the ministry God had chosen for me. I hope you take this seriously. It is really going—there are many other people who followed in the footsteps of Judas Iscariot. The crown which was meant for them, somebody else got it. So I want to say to all of you, hold fast what you have so that no one takes your crown. So be faithful in the little things. Always keep your conscience clear. Forgive everybody. If you hurt somebody, go and ask forgiveness immediately. Don't delay it. You spoke a rude word to your husband or wife, ask forgiveness immediately. Because I'll tell you what will happen. You know, once you become a little insensitive in your conscience, you delay something like that, the Lord tells you to do something immediately, and you say, no, I'll wait till tomorrow or do something later. You will feel less like doing it tomorrow. Gradually you'll forget it. And then something else will add on to that. And after a while, your conscience becomes completely insensitive. It's a danger that I've seen happen to many people. So be careful about the first drifting of your conscience to insensitivity. And you don't feel anything. Something's wrong. Very dangerous. So keep that conscience clear, because that is what prepares you for the resurrection. Okay, we'll look at this last verse today and continue tomorrow. Acts chapter 24. In Acts 24, Paul speaks about the resurrection, the final resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. He says in verse 15, Acts 24, 15, he's standing before Felix, the governor. And he says, I have a hope in God, just like these Jews have. There will certainly be two resurrections. He was convinced. There is going to be a resurrection of the righteous, and there's going to be a resurrection of the wicked. And I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous, which is going to come before the resurrection of the wicked. In order to be in the resurrection of the righteous, what do I have to do? I can't just sit back and say, well, 25 years ago, I accepted Christ as my savior, so I'm going to be in the resurrection of the righteous. That's not what he says. That's what a lot of Christians say today. I don't know where they got that theology from, but that's not what Paul believed. And I'll show it to you from here. How are you going to ensure that you are going to be in the resurrection of the righteous? Listen to Paul. In view of this, what is that? In view of what? That there'll be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, and I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. What do I do? I do my best to maintain 24-7 a blameless conscience before God and before men. And you might say, Paul, why do you want to maintain a blameless conscience before God and men? You know, didn't you accept Christ about 30 years ago? Yeah, yeah. But that's not enough. I have to keep my conscience blameless before God and men. Why, Paul? Because I want to be in the resurrection of the righteous. If you can get any other interpretation of this verse, tell me how it is. There will be a resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. In view of this, I do my best to keep my conscience clear always with God and with men. That's why I say, if you hurt somebody, ask forgiveness immediately. The Bible says, if you're angry with someone, don't let your anger stay till sunset. You know, Ephesians 4? Very clear. Get rid of that anger before sunset. Sunset in those days was the time people went to sleep. Don't go to sleep with anger still in your heart against your wife or husband or anybody. That is the outer limit. A wholehearted person will get rid of it immediately. You know, my wife worked among people with leprosy, and I learned some things about people with leprosy. There used to be many more in India. And people with leprosy who are called lepers in those days lose sensation. That's one of the results of leprosy. They lose sensation somewhere. There'll be a patch there, and you poke them. They don't feel anything. They get a thorn in the foot. They don't feel anything. You get a thorn in the foot, you'll feel it immediately. You'll stop everything and pull it out. But this leper, the person with leprosy gets 10 thorns in his feet, and he doesn't feel a thing because he's got leprosy. So they had to be taught before you go to bed, look at your feet, see if there are any thorns there. Now, you don't need that advice because you don't have leprosy. You'll know it as soon as one thorn gets into your foot, and you'll pull it out. But a person with leprosy can have 10 thorns in his feet, and he doesn't even know it. So he must check his feet at night. So that's why the Bible says for such people, don't let the sun set on your anger. In Ephesians in chapter 4 and verse 26. That means before you go to bed, just make sure there are no thorns in your feet. But that's the extreme case. What about if you're a healthy person? You don't need that advice. You're going to set it right as soon as you see anger in your heart. You don't wait till sunset. You get rid of it immediately. You ask forgiveness immediately. Get rid of it immediately. That is the person who's got zero leprosy. He pulls out the thorn immediately. So Paul says, I don't have any leprosy. I keep my conscience always 24 seven blameless before God and before men. If you owe somebody money, don't postpone returning it. I tell people in our, uh, uh, churches, and when I preach, I say, they say, brother, I don't have money to return it. I say, have you got some gold in your house? Sell it. I'm waiting for the price of gold to increase. Ah, you want to wait for the price of gold to increase before you sell it and clear your debt. The gold price will keep on increasing. When are you going to sell? You'll never clear your debt. Sell that gold. Clear your debt. Christ is coming. Be ready. Don't live here with your gold and miss out on the rapture. Do you know that when Jesus comes, they're going to be two groups of believers and show you that in one John chapter two, little children, verse 28, abide in him, abide in him. Keep your conscience clear always because when he appears one John two 28, there'll be two groups of believers. Here it is. One who have boldness to say, Lord, I'm ready for you. And the others who shrink away from him in shame when he comes. Lord, I'm not ready to meet you. There's something I haven't settled. That's why Jesus said, make sure you don't have to go inside your house to settle something with your wife. If you're on the terrace of your roof of your house, you should be ready to go from there. If you're out in the field today, we'd say out in the office and you haven't settled matters with your wife and the Lord comes in, you're in office. You shouldn't have to go back home. You shouldn't even have to make a phone call. You're ready to go from right from there. This is what Jesus was saying. Always being ready because you do not know at what hour your bridegroom will come. It's a wonderful life. It's not a burden. Is it a burden to take thorns out of your feet? Ridiculous to call that a burden. It's healthy. And I need to clear my conscience is the healthiest thing I can ever do for my spiritual life. So that no human being can say I owe him anything. For example, Jesus said, give to Caesar what is Caesar's before you give to God what is God's. And if I owe money to people and Jesus comes, that man will say, Lord, you can't take him. He owes me some money. Let him return that money before you take him to heaven. You can take him to heaven, but let him return my money first. He wants anyone to say that to the Lord? No. I don't want a single human being to say that I owe him anything, not even an apology. I want to be ready at all times. This is the Christian life I live. And if you seek to live like that, I tell you, your life will be abundantly fruitful. You won't waste your life on earth. I want every one of you to have a very fruitful life. God bless you all. Let's pray.