This sermon emphasizes the importance of proclaiming the full purpose of God, focusing on the dangers of serving both God and money. It delves into the concept of Babylon as a system driven by political and financial influences, contrasting it with the true essence of the Church as a unified body serving God. The speaker highlights the need to prioritize God over wealth, address debts, resolve conflicts, and care for one's family before giving offerings. The sermon stresses the significance of building a church that mirrors the selfless nature of Jesus Christ, free from the love of money and dedicated to serving God wholeheartedly.

When we think of proclaiming the full purpose of God, I want you to think of a see a verse in Ephesians in chapter 3 You know, there's a word used in the New Testament called mystery Mystery is a secret That can only be understood if God reveals it to you It's not something you can understand by study Or by listening to a message Reading a book These are various forms of study, you know, you go to YouTube and listen to a message And you can get a lot of information. You can get information by study listening to lectures and messages But revelation is an altogether different category Information for you to understand all you need is some intelligence and My guess is that 90% of people who sit in churches They get information from their intelligence. They use their intelligence and they understand a lot of things But when I look at their lives even many in CFC churches whom I which I have observed through many years in many places. I Don't see a development in many of them They are good brothers, even many elders. I'll tell you honestly They're good brothers. They're not falling into sin or anything And I don't see in them a development of the knowledge of God Which is eternal life Paul told Timothy lay hold of eternal life That means get to know God better and better because Jesus said eternal life is to know God It's one thing to know the Bible. It's another thing to know God. It's altogether different. It's through the Bible. We come to know God but It's one thing to know the Bible. It's quite another thing to know God when Ephesians 3 Paul says in verse 3 There was made known by revelation there was made known to me the mystery How did he get to know it by revelation if you read in the Old Testament? The word revelation is not there It's only understanding knowledge but not revelation Because revelation comes through the Holy Spirit coming into our heart and putting on the light and It's something which you can't see without the Holy Spirit giving you a revelation it's like this it was happen now I've seen many times how God does something to illustrate what I'm just saying See now I'm not a magician. I don't have any button here But you know, it's like if you try to read the Bible in the dark Can't read it Revelation is like light coming on and we Suddenly see things which we have never seen before for example The fact that the glory of the new covenant is That we can overcome sin Compared to the glory of the old covenant, which was that our sin could be forgiven Okay, that means you've committed sins forgiven. That's the glory of the old covenant That itself was a great thing because people in the world did not have even that But the Jewish people had that Psalm 103 bless the Lord Oh my soul who forgives all your iniquities David wrote that 1,000 years before Christ But the glory of the new covenant is you shall call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins And I remember so clearly I was sitting Sometime in 1976 or 77, but I remember the chair I was sitting in And suddenly Revelation hit me The glory of the new covenant was that I could overcome sin now this is 17 years or so after I'm studying the Bible. I Read that passage in 2nd Corinthians 3 So many times And the verse I remember the verse also that hit me then 2nd Corinthians 3 where it says In verse 8 shall not the ministry of the Spirit fail to be with more glory Verse 9 if the ministry of condemnation has glory 2nd Corinthians 3 9 and the ministry of righteousness is abounds in glory And I remember exactly where I was sitting in my sitting room in my house I saw it Well, that's revelation, you know It wasn't that I was particularly studying it or meditating on it. I think it was a result of years of longing I really longed to not be defeated anymore and I prayed and I fasted and I Read everything I could read I didn't get revelation a lot of people say Watchman these books help them. I Read a lot of watchman these books very interesting, very clever, very intellectual and he's a very godly man, but His book normal Christian life never led me to the normal Christian life. I'll tell you honestly It did not lead me to a life of victory and he's one of the great teachers. I read Andrew Murray On deeper life it never led led me to victory, but when I got revelation My life was changed Why do I say that Because you know, I see so many people who come to so many conferences heard so many messages that doesn't seem to be victory in their life that doesn't seem to be a twinkle in their eye and a spring in their step and a joy in their heart Something is missing So that's what I want to encourage you all Don't be satisfied with knowledge. You can hear so many things here so many interesting things that will stimulate you Ask God for revelation Because you don't have to be clever for it. You remember what Jesus told Simon Peter? Simon son of Jonah Your human cleverness has not revealed this to you flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my father in heaven You know, Jesus looked like a very ordinary man there was absolutely no way That he could be distinguished from any other man And that is why they needed even though they had seen Jesus for three years in the temple The high priest needed someone like Judas Iscariot to point him out in the darkness. They said in the darkness He looks like any other man. I can't he can't identify him So they paid Judas Iscariot to identify him Gethsemane Which is one of the clearest proofs that he looked just like anybody else And that's why the Pharisees could say such Terrible things to him saying you're the prince of devils and in the midst of all that this unlearned Simon Peter says no, you're the Christ the son of the Living God and Jesus says you got revelation See that's where he used the word revelation for a human being It's almost the first time my father in heaven has revealed this to you so Paul speaks in Ephesians 3 about By revelation this mystery was revealed to me. And what is this mystery? And you can understand my insight Ephesians 3 verse 4 the mystery of Christ and when you read it, it looks very simple Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men So here is a mystery That in so many generations Was not revealed to people But it has now been revealed to his holy Apostles and prophets In in the spirit and what is this that the Gentiles Are fellow heirs that means the non-jews are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers the promise in Christ through the gospel And you must say I know that you know it in your head But when you get revelation on it, you will become an active Participant in building the body of Christ When you get revelation till then you understand it See a lot of people have written books on the body of Christ and all that But I go to some of their churches. There's no body there It's a club of All people who are of the same community or the same Doctrine or something like that. It's not a body and He goes on to say here This mystery verse 9 was hidden in God and now This manifold the word manifold verse 10 is like many-sided or Multi-colored like I told you the rainbow has got many colors Manifold is a word like that many colored wisdom of God I told you how People can just for say there's seven sections in a Circle people's color up to some of those circles and leave some of those sections and leave the other section out and I feel that when we get revelation we say hey We have to color those others parts of the circle to to complete the full purpose of God We must proclaim the full purpose of God. We must Show the whole thing. Otherwise, it's not it doesn't look real. For example, I look at it like this I think of teaching in the New Testament. Let's use an illustration like a Big jigsaw puzzle, you know what a jigsaw puzzle is many pieces put together children play with it jigsaw puzzle of the face of Jesus Christ Supposing the face of Jesus Christ is cut into small small pieces and you make a jigsaw puzzle out of it And when I see a lot of preaching in Christianity Yeah, they put the hair they put the shoulders maybe the chin and little beard But the main part of the face is missing. You don't know who it is Yeah, it is the hair of Christ and it is the chin and all that but the main parts are missing in this jigsaw puzzle So that's how I've seen sorry my own calling. I Say hey, there are pieces here in the Bible And which I can take those pieces and put it in and get the full picture of Christ. It's changed my life to see the full picture of Jesus But I don't know whether all of you who have heard me and heard so many messages See it I doubt very much because if you do see it, it'll radically change your life because he goes on to say This many colored wisdom of God verse 10 Has to be made known to whom? we think our witnesses primarily to Jerusalem Judea Samaria the outermost parts of the earth or we can say Bangalore India Surrounding nations and to other parts of the world or wherever you are located from there in Concentric circles, we got to be a witness, but here it is not talking about that He's not talking about the outermost parts of the earth. He says this testimony through the church Must be made known to the evil rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Have you ever thought of being a witness to Satan? Here it speaks about the church being a witness to Satan. You see the rulers and authorities in heavenly places Throughout the book of Revelation refers to the evil rulers and authorities in Ephesians chapter 6. It says we wrestle against these evil rulers and authorities Now many people haven't seen that That the church is to be a witness to Satan just like Job Was a witness to Satan, you know, God could say to Satan look at my servant Job Nobody like him in the whole earth and if you've heard me before you heard me say that Job is the first book of the Bible It was written 500 years before Genesis which was written by Moses It's very interesting to recognize that Job is the first book of the Bible which God wrote There are many evidences of it. I'll just give you one In the days of Moses wealth was counted in terms of silver and gold 500 years before Moses in the days of Abraham Wealth was counted in terms of cattle and animals Abraham had so many animals Lot had so many animals that was their wealth and Job's wealth was counted in animals you read in chapter 1 not in silver and gold. That's one of the clearest proofs that Job lived in the time of Abraham around that period and And there are other proofs also people did not live as long after the time of Abraham So Job's is the first book of the Bible And think of it that when God wants to write a book for man the first thing he writes Is about a man being a witness to Satan not to the rest of the world This is in God's heart He wasn't thinking of Job being a witness to the world Job I want you to be a witness to Satan to show him That I have a man on earth Who will stand up for me no matter what happens to him Let him lose his property. Let him lose his children. Let him lose everything. Let his wife turn against him Let him get boils in his body. He will be true to me Satan. I've got a man like that I remember when I studied that I Had such a longing in my heart I said Lord, I want to be a man like that I don't know whether you feel like that. I hope you do and Then I realized to be a witness to Satan is more difficult Than to be a witness to man because men see me only 10% of the time Well, they know only 10% of my life All of you don't know how I speak to my wife at home You don't know what I lay down and think when I'm in bed. You don't know how I handle my accounts. You don't know anything You can think I'm a very holy man and you can trust me, but I don't know you I know Less than 10% of your life Even all your closest friends in your church You know less than 10% of their life. You can think they are holy You're not we hear so many cases of churches in America and even in India Of pastors Suddenly after many many years when they are 50 years old 20-30 years the pastor suddenly it is discovered not that they fell into adultery But they're living in adultery with women in that church for years How's that? all the Thousands of people in the church never knew about it But such a pastor was not a witness to Satan Satan cause looked at him all the time and was laughing at him and was pointing him out to God and saying look at that Pastor a God is that your servant there? I want to ask you is God is the devil pointing at you and saying God is that your child? He even claims to be part of CFC was supposed to be a holy church Is this guy? that girl Look at the way she behaves in college or the way she dresses. Is that yours Lord? She's your representative God look at the way she dresses just like anybody else in the world What's God going to say He's not going to support unrighteousness He will not say like your parents may say no. No, no, no, she's not worldly. That's how parents are They will always defend their daughters. Even if they go and murder somebody they'll defend them. God is not like that. He loves you too much He loves you more than your parents. That's why he will not defend you. He will show you what's wrong. I Thank God for a father like that who will not support me in my unrighteousness But tell me what's wrong with me if you've got a father like that You're lucky if you got a mother like that, you're lucky then who just blindly supports you no matter what you do Because there are parents like that who destroy their children by supporting them no matter what they do but think of this to be a testimony to Satan and Such a man is opposed by all the preachers oppose him and find fault with him and criticize him. That's the book of Job But finally you see how the man comes through and God approves of him so Think of that when you read this verse that God wants to show his wisdom to those satanic beings through the church and That was verse 11 his eternal purpose That means way back in eternity before Genesis 1 verse 1 before the world was created That's eternal purpose means what way back when there were no angels There was only God father son and Holy Spirit and he had a purpose the purpose was one day I'm gonna make man and woman and they will sin and Jesus will come Die and save them Not just take them to heaven He will make them one body on this earth and That body will be called the church and that church Will be a testimony to this devil, you know, the devil was one of the angels who fell away so once I see that eternal purpose and a lot of Christians haven't seen it Paul says I saw it by a mystery and that's why Wherever Paul went He wanted to build a church. He didn't want to save souls today. People say are you saving souls? How many souls have you been have you saved? I never asked that question to anybody I'm not interested in saving souls to tell you honestly, I don't find it in the Bible You try and look through the New Testament and see of any place where it says about saving souls that is a Religious expression like child baptism You don't accept child baptism, that's not in the Bible, but you had you do accept saving souls Which is also not in the Bible because you don't know the Bible But we accept it because it's commonly used It's like Christmas. It's not in the Bible, but people accept it. So I've come to see that God's eternal purpose was to build the church not save souls It's a lot of difference between saving souls and building the church Very very important to understand that The church is called in Ephesians here like a building Ephesians 2 verse 20 You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ Jesus being the cornerstone in whom the whole building is fitted together grows to be a holy temple in the Lord The church is called a building and you can see in a building the difference between saving souls and building the church think of the church like a building and each person is a brick and You know how even when this building was built or any other building is built first one truck will come and download Put down there say 10,000 or 20,000 bricks and Then those are individual people those bricks. They have to be put together Cemented then it becomes a church otherwise, it's the bricks are lying on the road and You know the wonderful miracle that happens in India when you have bricks lying on the road Every day it becomes a little less It's amazing You get up next morning. That's a little less Another morning. It's still less It happens only in India. It's a special miracle here Because two streets down somebody else is building his house So this is what happens to individual believers Who are not built together into a church one day the devil picks them up And they're out there somebody falls away, but think of a brick in this building it can't fall away No, nobody can take it out, you know, sometimes people say Brother Zack you stole somebody from my church. I stole somebody from first of all, is it your church? Tell me Is it the Lord's Church or your church? Somebody stole it's like my complaining to the police that somebody stole a brick from that wall They laugh at me, how did somebody steal a brick from that wall? If they've stole a brick, it must have been a pile of bricks lying on the ground outside that happens all the time So there are churches which are like piles of bricks. We call them a congregation not a church That's a congregation the biggest congregation that I can think of is the congregation Moses had Two million twenty lakh people in a church But they're all loose bricks. They were not built together The New Testament Church is not like that. It's built together. If you are not built together with other people in your locality You haven't understood the church See if you go to some of the great evangelists today and there are many great evangelists many many countries who are world-famous And who made a lot of money and got a lot of honor and very famous known around the world many many of them And I suppose who feel a sense of satisfaction that they have done something for the Lord. Okay You go to any one of these evangelists and say hey brother I heard that you brought thousands of people in different continents to Christ Where are they? Where are the ones you brought to Christ in India or in some country in Africa? You know what he'll say? Any one of these evangelists? I don't know. I Hope they're in some church Every one of them will say that But you go to Paul and say hey Paul. I heard that you brought some people to Christ in Philippi Where are they? You come with me He'll take you to Philippi take you to the church and say these are all the people I brought to Christ Every one of them. They're all here and Paul I heard that you brought some people to Christ in Thessalonica also come I'll take you I'll show you Every one of them. Here's the church in Thessalonica here. They are here. They are Paul did not believe in saving souls He had seen the eternal purpose He believed in building the church Paul says it came by revelation. I don't blame other people who have not seen it I mean these evangelists were saving souls. God bless them, but they obviously haven't seen this mystery But people speak about the worldwide church. Yeah, there is a worldwide church But most of that worldwide church is already in heaven Paul and Peter are part of that church, but they're not here What did Jesus say all men will know you're my disciples when you love one another How can I love Paul and Peter? There's no way for me to show my love. How will the world know that I love Paul or Peter? Do you love all the brothers and sisters in China tell me of course, is it a difficulty for you to love people in China? No Your difficulties to love the people in your church, right? They are the difficult ones people in China and all our wonderful brothers and sisters You love them without any problem Argentina and all beautiful brothers sisters Problem is the brother in your church who's a nuisance or that sister who's a gossip So you tell me honestly, isn't that true? Many of you have had difficulties with whom not the brothers and sisters in China and Argentina With the brothers and sisters in your church Where are we to show that we love one another by sending blankets to some Flood Hit place in some places that always show my love. I Don't even know who they are there are many people from Western countries who sent blankets and things for the Flood hit nations in Orissa. It never reached those people some other people on the way took it and started selling it in the roadside Those poor people who sent those blankets don't know that This is not the way this is all The money changes and the sellers of doves have come back into the temple into the house of God To make money in the name of God and if Jesus were here, you'd drive them out all over again but It's in your local church That people see here is a group of people who are so different from each other One is a Tamilian. The other is a Telugu and others in Anglo Indian Malayali and the others are Hindi speaking people person and there are such different cultures. One is a Old Hindus, they were upper caste lower caste and so many other and And they become one Quite amazing They love one another there are such different levels it's not communism where we all say all the rich people give you money and all the poor people take the Rich people's money that encourages laziness The lazy poor person will sit back and enjoy the hard work Hard-earned money of some rich person. That's communism. That's not Christianity Christianity is where you can have a Philemon who is a master and Onesimus is a slave and They are brothers in Christ But Onesimus remains a slave in the meeting. He's brother Onesimus and brother Philemon once the meeting is over Philemon Onesimus is called Philemon sir. He's a master. That is Christianity Where we're in different social levels different educational levels, but we love one another care for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ this is The church where we love one another and where we can manifest to the Demons in heaven our cultural and language and all different doesn't make any difference at all now This is what the Bible calls Jerusalem If you turn with me to Revelation you read Revelation and chapter 21 The Lord showed John a picture of a future where he saw a new heaven and a new earth And he saw this holy city New Jerusalem Revelation 21 verse 2 Coming down from heaven like a bride Adorned for her husband the bride is the church is the bride of Jesus Christ and this There's some interesting things mentioned about Jerusalem that I just want to show you one thing That it's got the light of God in it First of all, it's got a great high wall Verse 12 can't easily get into it and There's a it's full of the light of God. It doesn't have any need for any External light because the lamb is the light but then in this light it says here There are many different kinds of stones verse 19. It's picture language Jasper Sapphire Chalcedony Emerald Sardonyx, etc, etc. The point is All these stones have got different colors Blue some precious stones are blue red green But it's the same light shining through and what I learned from that is that in the church. There are people with different personalities and Different backgrounds was the life of Jesus shines through them one green one red one blue, but it's the same light See God hasn't made us all alike He's made us different even a husband and wife Different from each other, but it's the same life the same light shining through. That's how Jerusalem is pictured but I Want to show you the contrast to Jerusalem in Revelation and that is Babylon. See the New test the Bible begins with a tree of knowledge of good and evil and a tree of life One picturing those who live by the life of Jesus and the other picturing those who just live by What their conscience tells them is good and evil The Bible ends with Babylon and Jerusalem You got to see the connection there it begins with the knowledge tree of forbidden tree we have life ends with Babylon and Jerusalem Those who live by the life of Jesus end up in Jerusalem and those who live According to their own whims and fancies end up in Babylon, but they can call themselves a church Babylon is a picture of a church That is not following Jesus Christ, it's called a harlot Verse Revelation 17 and verse 5 Babylon the great the mother of harlots Prostitutes now Who can be a prostitute only one who is engaged To someone is the bride How does a bride become a prostitute? It's either the bride or the prostitute that means she claims to be engaged to this person But fools around with somebody else That is the harlot So here is a person claims to be devoted to Jesus Christ But is actually living for money That's one of the alternate people try to draw away the bride of Christ or pleasure or the honor of men these are the Substitute men who try to draw away this bride from being devoted to Christ That's how she becomes a harlot but if she refuses the pull of money and sinful pleasure and the honor of men, then she remains a faithful Bride of Jesus Christ. So all of you can decide whether you are faithful in your private life or You're becoming a harlot a prostitute Now I want you to see here in Revelation chapter 17 The bride is pictured like a woman Notice how this woman is dressed verse 4 Revelation 17 for the woman is clothed in purple Scarlet means red adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls and Having a golden cup in her hand. This is Babylon in contrast you have the bride in chapter 19 and verse 8 The bride is clothed in fine linen bright and clean which is the righteous acts of the Saints. It's quite a contrast Here's this very stylishly dressed woman and here's a very simply dressed bride This is from the book of Revelation But it's symbol remember. It's not you don't become the bride just by wearing a white sari. It's a symbol Talking about a simple way of life Where you don't you know, like you heard earlier on You don't spend your just because you have money. You don't just spend it on anything you want Saying God's given me money. I want to be faithful with it God has not given me money just to spend it as I like and do what I like with it I want to be faithful with it. I want to of course use it for whatever is necessary But a lot of things are not necessary. They're lawful, but not necessary That's the bride whereas The harlot is a Christian who says oh, this is all my money my hard-earned money I don't have to consult God how I spend it and that's why there's such a teaching on typing, you know in many churches They say 10% is God's don't touch it 90% do what you like with it. That is how the harlot is produced the bride says The earth is the Lord's 1 Corinthians 10 26 and everything in it That means it's not 10% of the earth that belongs to God all of it belongs to God every pie in my bank account Belongs to God But he's allowed me to use it. So I want to be faithful in the way I use it Very careful in the way they use money So that's one of the differences between the bride and the harlot Anyway Here it says about Babylon as the mother of harlots and it says here. She's riding on a beast verse 3 I saw a woman sitting on a red beast and That red beast is a you read from Daniel a political power you know the beasts in Daniel 7 are political powers and The beast is happy To let this woman ride on top of him Because he gets some benefit from Religious people, you know politicians in every country Or in most countries use religion to get votes you know, they do it in India a Lot of votes that the government would God was through their religion In America, it's the same thing people use religion There are pastors who endorse certain godless people And the godless people go and butter these pastors who get their votes of the people So politics and religion are it's here in Revelation 17. The beast is the political power The woman is the corrupt church And they go together but once the beast has got what it wanted which is power and Got the votes From that religious group then it says after that verse 16 the beast will hate the harlot and Tear her up because she they were just using that religious connection to get votes so Revelation 17 speaks about a church that is involved with the Politicians That means if you see a Christian meeting in India, there have been many Christians like that meetings like that Where some great man is some Christian preachers conducting big meeting and sitting on the platform will be some political leaders Unconverted Hindu political leaders who are sitting there and they will ask them to introduce them and that Hindu political leader is very happy to come to the meeting because there are 30,000 people in this Public meeting and he wants their votes that's all he's interested in and This religious leader is also very happy to be connected with the political leader because he can get some benefits from him He can get admission for his children somewhere and different different things, you know that you can get from the politicians And that's why in some churches they invite politicians to come and speak in their churches Because both get benefits particularly if it's a large church the politician is very happy It happens in every country it happens in Australia it happens in America it happens in India, too There are some churches that invite Hindu politicians to come in. It's it's all Babylon. It's happening in India. Believe it or not and there are Christian preachers who Invite some of these people to come and sit there can you imagine a Supposing you heard when you were in a living in Israel 2,000 years ago and you had heard of a man called Jesus you've never seen him, but you heard there's a man called Jesus who's doing miracles and having big meetings and You go to one place to hear this. It's advertised this Jesus is speaking here and you come there and there's a huge crowd and there's this platform where this person called Jesus is standing up there and sitting on the platform a Herod and Pilate and the Bishop Annas and Caiaphas all sitting there and Jesus says now I'm going to invite the Honorable Herod to come and say a few words and Herod comes forward and says is Jesus doing a great work for our community, and if you give him some money I'll give you tax deduction from if you give money to Jesus and then Jesus says now the Bishop Ananias the right reverend Annas will come and open the meeting in prayer Annas and Caiaphas pray and then Judas Iscariot comes forward and Gives the he's the treasurer, you know, he says work like this Jesus is doing a great work and It needs money so friends Herod has promised that if you give money, he will give you a tax deduction so Be sure to give your name and address and this is doing a wood bridges do Jesus doing a great work for Israel and you listen to all this and say hey, this doesn't sound like the Jesus I heard of It seems to be another Jesus So when you hear a preacher today in the 21st century Doing that in the name of Jesus. How do you swallow what he does? It shows how blind you are To think that is the ministry of Jesus. It is not. Can you imagine Jesus doing that? What is happening? It is Babylon The harlot riding on the beast If you want to understand it and then the real Jesus would never have any of those people sitting on the platform And if Judas Iscariot ever gets up, he'll tell him to shut up and sit down So we see how there's a counterfeit Jesus today This is how the harlot church is being built The second thing I want to show you about Babylon is chapter 18 See Revelation 17 is the harlot with political leadership Revelation 18 is the harlot with business and money You see here Babylon is picture of a system Which involves a lot of money it says in verse 11 the merchants of the businessmen of the earth weep Because Babylon is destroyed. Why should the businessmen weep if Babylon is destroyed? Because no one is buying their cargoes anymore There are no more Christmas cards to be sold Because Christianity is gone Without Christianity without Jesus Christ. Do you know how much businesses will suffer? in Bangalore, even the Muslims will put up Santa Claus and all in Christmas time and talk about Christmas sale and Jesus Christ is big business People who sell these t-shirts with Jesus does this and that they have lost this sale if Jesus is not there all these Ballpens with Jesus something written on it. There's a lot of money You know in the name of Jesus These are the today's money changers people who sell things in the name of Jesus to make money for themselves And they will all weep Because this whole system has been destroyed by God Because now nobody's there to buy all the stuff which they sell and Verse 15 the merchants the businessmen selling these things who became rich through her. Do you know how many businessmen? Have become rich through Christianity Selling Christmas things and gifts at Christmas time and so many people there are some countries where people buy Millions of America millions of dollars were the gifts at Christmas time. Supposing there were no Christmas no birthday of Jesus They will lose everything. I heard a story once. It's a it's a funny story of Children who came back for the New Year after celebrating Christmas and The teacher said okay They called one little boy. Can you say what you did for Christmas time? And they said I and my family we are Roman Catholics We went for the midnight mass and then came back and opened our Christmas presents And we had a happy time Another boy, I'm Protestant boy. What did you do? we don't have midnight mass, but we went for Christmas morning service and came home and opened our Christmas gifts and Enjoyed it Then here is a Jewish boy. What did you do? He said we don't celebrate Christmas but my father was has got a store selling a lot of children's toys and gifts and When we went after Christmas Day the whole store had been sold out and We held hands and said what a friend we have in Jesus That is Christianity and business See, this is what's happening. This is the merchants of the earth weep When all that business is gone, you know the amount of money that is being made in the name of Jesus by preachers That is why Jesus said In Luke 16 and verse 13, no one can serve two masters and Jesus called money a master When you proclaim the whole purpose of God as we see have we have sought to do in 41 years one of the major subjects We have to talk about is God and money What should be the attitude of the Christian Church and the Christian preacher and the Christian Shepherd Towards money and the Christian person Towards money and the answer is in Luke 16 and verse 13 No servant Can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other or hold to the one and despise the other and Only finally Jesus says which the two masters are you can think in the beginning as God and the devil. No It's God Mammon means wealth wealth means money bank account shares real estate all of that comes under mammon and The same word the same verse is found in the Sermon on the Mount learn with me to Matthew chapter 6 I'm trying to explain how Babylon can be much closer than you think it is Some people think that Babylon is a denomination. Oh I've left those denominations and I've come to CFC now. There's no Babylon Don't be so sure Babylon is a spirit and You can sit in CFC and be gripped by that spirit Even though the leadership of CFC is not gripped by the spirit. You can sit here and be a part of Babylon Even though the church itself lives by different principles So listen to this now Matthew 6 verse 24 No one can serve two masters He will hate the one and love the other or hold on to one and despise the other you cannot serve God and wealth It's not saying you cannot have God and wealth Even Jesus had money He cannot say you cannot earn money and serve God no Jesus earned money as a carpenter But he never loved money There's nothing wrong in having a savings account Judas Iscariot was the savings bank He kept kept the money in a bag. Jesus didn't spend all the money. He got the same day If he spent all the money got the same day, there would no no need for a bag He kept something as savings to be used tomorrow or next week or next month That's why he needed a treasurer and it must have been quite a lot of money because you can't imagine Jesus Judas just stealing two rupees or three rupees and It must have been such a lot of money that even when he took out money. People didn't know that it's being stolen So it's not having money it's not saving money Jesus did both it is loving money and being a servant of money as Opposed to God now we need to understand this properly Does this mean that when you're looking for a job? If you have one job that offers a lower salary and another job that offers a higher salary How to find the will of God I'll tell you take the one with the higher salary Provided you don't sacrifice your conscience provided you don't have to compromise any of your convictions and You can still seek the kingdom of God first good. It's good to have a lot of money on this earth We must work hard and earn all that we can That is why in CFC Bangalore. I have always taught Every one of the people here educate your children. I did that with my own children educate your children to the highest level that you can afford and That their intelligence will help them so that they can get good jobs Because there are many jobs on this earth, which Christians cannot take Because it involves a lot of problems in their conscience for example being in the police Very difficult to be in the police in India and be a Christian Yet it tell lies to all types of things which are contrary to your conscience is one area Oh, I remember asking an accountant once I See you have to write accounts for a company To convince the income tax people. Can you do it honestly as a Christian? He's very difficult. There are many jobs. It's difficult to do and I've heard of teachers also who when they have Doing the final examination papers with their students some politician will call them up and say hey pass my My nephew there is done badly in the exam, but gave him pass marks. What do you do as a Christian? There are many jobs is difficult for a Christian to do and he stands up for the truth. He loses his job That's why good to have a good qualification. So you have wide selection of jobs So to serve God does not mean you have to take the lowest paying job and don't get educated. No, that's not what I teach certainly not what we teach in CFC and If you have more money as a result, you've got more money to do God's work It is because we have such people who worked hard got good education good jobs And have given money that we were able to build this meeting hall Without asking anybody for a single cent What has been CFC's policy on money for? 41 years I'll tell you First of all, we never take an offering reason Jesus never took an offering after preaching Jesus never took an offering after healing the sick Peter and Paul never took an offering after preaching And Every offering mentioned in the New Testament is always to give to the poor You read it 1 Corinthians 16 2nd Corinthians 8, 2nd Corinthians 9 Take time to read it. It's always take money to give to the poor never to give Paul or give Peter You never see that. You'll never find it in Scripture. I'm just telling you the truth So we saw all this in Scripture and yet we found in India all the collection is for pastors to spend as they like and To send reports America get money for this that and the other and you never see in the New Testament to collecting a money to build a Church building. No all the things people collect money for today. You never find in the New Testament give to the poor. Yes Plenty of it in the New Testament. Jesus also taught it So we decided we will never ask anybody for money We will never send a report anywhere and I Remember in the early days when we were meeting in our house, we'd open the offering box. There were two rupees inside it That's all we needed those days We didn't need more than that And as the need increased More and more money came in and that came in because a lot of people had good education Got good jobs. We never asked them to give but they felt a tremendous sense of gratitude for what they had received and Just like you would go to a doctor and a doctor cured you of some incurable disease and Even if he told you it's all free I do it because I love you You'd still you know, they take oranges and fruit and all to the doctor. So that's how people have given to the church We talk about the church. We don't talk about an individual It's not Zak Poonen. Zak Poonen has got nothing to do with it. I am a member of a body It's not just me preaching do you know that This tongue of mine cannot speak if the heart does not pump if my heart stops pumping right now end of message And there are many people praying for me You think they're not having a part in this ministry? It's a body And I'm only speaking because people are pumping spiritually and so I don't believe that I'm Doing this as if I'm some great prophet or something. I don't think so I'm part of a body and I'm very thankful that I'm a part of the body. It's my safety There was a man who came once to my house and said who knew me. He said brother Zak I want to tell you something. There's a friend of mine Who went to a satanic church in Bangalore? I didn't this is some years ago. I Didn't know there was a satanic church. Yes, they worship Satan there There's one in the south of Bangalore and one in the north of Bangalore to attack the city and They have targeted five preachers This man this friend of mine went there and brother Zak. You're one of them the devil has targeted and they are praying against you many many years ago and He mentioned the names of one or two others who have fallen And I said to them I said I'm not scared First of all If they have a million angels Demons fighting against me. I've got two million Angels on my side and more than that Jesus himself and I'm part of a body, you know that Do you know how many of the angels were cast out of heaven? anybody knows one third you read that in Revelation chapter 12 the The dragon dragged down One-third of the angels and they became demons. Okay simple mathematics quickly If one third were cast out how many were left? So if there are one third Demons how many angels so for every demon how many angels are there? Got it. You're all good at math So That's why I said if there are 1 million angels demons against me. There are 2 million angels on my side so all of you who are you know, you children are afraid of Oh Devil devil and some believers are also like that for every demon that's attacking you There are two angels on your side, but more than that Jesus who defeated the devil is on your side So, I mean, I don't know what happened to those guys and the other guys I was not interested, but it's very interesting that That we're not scared because we are part of a body that's the other thing I said, I said I'm part of a body I'm not one person. I'm not Zakmunen. I'm part of the body of Jesus Christ. And that's what we are building Every place we're building a body where we are committed to one another we have different functions, but we're one body and That is what the Lord wants to show. So as I was saying in Luke 16 Sorry, Matthew 5 That you cannot serve God and money does not mean you can't get a good job You can get a good job, but you must not love your money And there are different degrees of love of money. It's like cancer, you know Sometimes some person has got such severe cancer. They cut out the whole stomach and Put a plastic stomach or something inside Some organ completely removed because the cancer is so spread In some cases the doctor says, oh, it's not spread so much we just got to remove a little bit In the case of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus The cancer of the love of money was so deep Then Jesus said get rid of it all cut out the whole organ He said no, there are some people who refuse to remove an organ they die I Heard of people who have the organ removed because it's cancerous and they live Then there are other people like Zacchaeus He also loved money, but it cancer was not so deep He said Lord, I will give half my money to the poor not all the money The rich man had to give all the Zacchaeus only half and Jesus said fine salvation has come How the rule was different for Zacchaeus and for the rich man exactly like a doctor says you Whole organ has to be cut out you a little bit of the organ being cut out is not it depends how deep the cancer Of the love of money is gone Or in the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus They don't have to sell their house. They don't have to give it all up. Jesus never said that so the love of money is Like a cancer that has gone to different degrees in all of you all of us here and How much has to be removed depends on how deep that cancer has gone? But I don't know whether you see it as a cancer. You cannot serve God and money. That's clear There are many examples in the Bible right from the Old Testament Lot And Abraham Lot went after money What did he lose? He lost his wife He lost his two daughters. They went astray His daughters committed adultery with the father and Their children were called Moab and Ammon the Moabites and Ammonites What a tragedy Because he loved money You read of Gehazi. Gehazi is a bad name today But you know that Elisha his master Got double the anointing of Elijah Because he was a faithful servant of Elijah Do you know what Gehazi would have got if he had been a faithful servant of Elisha? Four times Elijah's anointing instead of that, you know what he got? Leprosy What why? Because he went after money The money which Elisha told Naaman. I don't want it. You take your money and go you're on you're a heathen We follow that principle here that even if we get a money from unbelievers, we return it We say please don't get offended But we do not receive you see that five conditions on top of these offering boxes. Number one is you must be born again It's a great privilege To give money for God's work, but only his children can give it That's why I say if you're not a child of God, there are cases where we have actually returned the money Or if we feel that'll be too offensive We buy some books or something with that money and give it to him, but we cannot use that money for God's work It's leprous money. Would you take a beautiful apple given by a man whose hand is full of leprosy and Eat it you won't do it You'll return it you said but he'll get offended. So what if he gets offended? I'll say no. Thank you It's exactly like that when a man with spiritual leprosy gives money. I say no. Thank you God doesn't want your money. Keep it do what you like with it. Very important condition You know another condition there you see that list. Are you in debt? If you're in debt to a man and You give to God In the box you're actually giving his money I'll give you an example Supposing you have borrowed thousand rupees from this Mr. X And you give an offering of hundred rupees. Mr. X will say hey, why don't you pay back my hundred rupees? Before putting it in the box. That's right Yeah, he can ask God how do you God how do you accept from my money from him? He's not putting his money But some people say you got a debt to God what debt God God is not asking you to give him money. That's Old Testament. Old Testament you have paid tithe. Today He's your father. Do you know that tithe was like income tax? in the Old Testament the Levites were the government servants God was the head of the government and Just like today income tax takes care of the government servants those days They had to pay 10% of their grain and cattle so that the government servants the Levites could do their job But today God is not a head of a government. He's my father. How many of you pay income tax to your father? You can give a gift to your father joyfully. That's different But which father will say come on 10% if God is your father God is my father. I've never in my life. I've been a believer 57 years. I've never paid tithe in my life I've given my father a lot of things when I was a single man Earning plenty of money. I'd give 50% I was not under any law It was a love relationship that I've always had with Jesus Always and when I left the Navy I took my entire savings and gave it for to Jesus for his work That was not 10%. I never had that type of relationship with Jesus. I thank God. I never had it. You must Recognize that your relationship with God is a father. So if you owe money to somebody we say that give that Give to Caesar what is Caesar's then give to God what is God's that's what Jesus said Don't give God Caesar's money another thing I say if you have not for if you had a quarrel with somebody Jesus said leave your offering go and settle that Then come and give your offer. That's another condition Another thing is if your children are not having enough food or clothing or education take care of them Don't put it in the box Don't let your children grow up and say dad never take took care of us because he has he swiped his money We're not doing that Take care of your children 1 Timothy 5 it says if you don't take care of your children You're worse than an unbeliever. So we have certain conditions I remember one person saw all this and said brother Zack with all these conditions Does anybody put any money in that box at all? I? Said let me tell you our testimony In 41 years, we have never had to borrow money from a bank to build a building We've never had to send a report to anybody you've never asked anybody for money We haven't even asked this congregation. Come on give give give you to put a building. No You've trusted God. I'm not saying it came from heaven. I'm saying God moved people to give and We've done that not only here we've done it in the poorest villages in India And there are and of course none of our elders are paid one cent I worked here 41 years brother. He and we don't take one cent from this church. None of our elders We worked with about a hundred and twenty elders In over 70 churches not one of them Takes any money from the offering box. They support themselves in work and earn them living So we are very careful in money because of one reason We are so afraid We might serve money. Jesus said you cannot serve God in money and we want to serve God Babylon structured with Money tremendous emphasis on money and you go to today's Christian television channels People who say they are filled with the Holy Spirit speak in tongues I think if you feel to the Holy Spirit you can tell you should be more like Jesus But yet I find that it's the people who don't claim to be filled of the Spirit who are more free from the love of Money today than the people who claim to be filled of the Spirit of which proves to me. That's a fake Fullness of the Spirit. If a man's really filled of the Spirit. He'll be freed from the love of money. First of all So it's very very important We proclaim the whole purpose of God That we say the body of Jesus Christ today is to be like the body of Jesus Christ in Nazareth 2,000 years ago, and if that body was not interested in money and asking people to give give give Today's body of Christ will not do it either and that's been our stand in CFC. That's the whole purpose of God It's part of it Think a little more about it in the next session. Let's pray Heavenly Father as we bow before you Please help us to Be gripped by these truths That you've given us in your word that we can build a church that pleases you and not Play games with our Christianity, but to take it seriously We pray in Jesus name. Amen