This sermon emphasizes the importance of Jesus' example in spending the majority of his life at home and in his place of work before starting his ministry, highlighting the significance of faithfulness in everyday life. It encourages individuals to prioritize overcoming sin and submitting to authority as key aspects of growing in wisdom, drawing parallels between Jesus' experiences and the challenges faced by young people today.

God sent his son to come as a baby so that he could be an example to people of all ages. It's very important to understand that. If Jesus came only to die for the sins of the world, then God could have sent him as a grown up man. He would come, come here for one day or so, die for the sins of the world and go. Why did he have to live 33 years? Why did he have to come as a baby? Why did he have to work as a carpenter? Why did he have to spend 30 years at home? Out of 33 years, he spent 30 years at home and in his place of work, the carpentry shop. So we can say that 90% of his time on earth, he spent in the home and in his place of work. So we can say that 90% of his time on earth, he spent in the home and in his place of work. And only 10% of his life, he did any ministry. And only 10% of his life, he did any ministry. Why is that? Because all of us spend 90% of our time at home and in our place of work. Because all of us spend 90% of our time at home and in our place of work. You look at your life, 90% of your time you spend at home. You look at your life, 90% of your time you spend at home. Maybe you meet at least one day a week, few hours for a meeting. Maybe you meet at least one day a week, few hours for a meeting. Even those who are in full time Christian work, it's very little of their time that they are actually doing some ministry. Even those who are in full time Christian work, it's very little of their time that they are actually doing some ministry. So Jesus had to be an example for us, how to live in our home and in our place of work. So Jesus had to be an example for us, how to live in our home and in our place of work. And it is only after he was prepared and trained in those two places that God gave him a ministry. And it is only after he was prepared and trained in those two places that God gave him a ministry. When did God say about Jesus, this is my son, I am well pleased with him? When did God say about Jesus, this is my son, I am well pleased with him? In Matthew chapter 3, that was when he was baptized. In Matthew chapter 3, that was when he was baptized. So God said that about him, when he had never preached a sermon. So God said that about him, when he had never preached a sermon. Never healed a sick person. Never cast out a demon. Never did anything which we call ministry. Never did anything which we call ministry. But God was pleased with him. Can God be pleased with you if you never preach a sermon? Can God be pleased with you if you never preach a sermon? Can God be pleased with you if you never heal a sick person? Or never do any ministry? That is what we need to understand. Because in today's Christian world, so much emphasis is placed on ministry. You must do this for the Lord, you must do that for the Lord. You must do this for the Lord, you must do that for the Lord. What is the result? These preachers and pastors and all who do so much ministry, their life at home is a mess. These preachers and pastors and all who do so much ministry, their life at home is a mess. They never do any secular job. They never do any secular job. Jesus did a secular job and then went out for ministry. He didn't go to Bible school. And he had 12 apostles. All of them were in a secular job. They left it and went for the ministry. They never went to a Bible school. That is the New Testament pattern of Christian ministry. But you don't find that today. Because Christianity has drifted far away from the New Testament. And so we think our life at home and our place of work is all boring, that's not important. And so we think our life at home and our place of work is all boring, that's not important. But what we do on Sunday, that is most important. So somebody asked me once, Brother Zak, what is the difference between your church and other churches? I said, we are not saying we are better than other churches. We are not saying there are no hypocrites in our churches because we have hypocrites in our churches also. We are not saying we are perfect because we are not perfect. But there is one difference. In all other churches, Sunday is the most important day. For us, Monday is the most important day. And Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday afternoon, after the meeting. In other words, not the meeting, but how you live at home, and how you live in your place of work. It doesn't matter for us if the Sunday morning music was not good. Oh, it was raining so badly, a lot of people couldn't come for the meeting. Or even the preaching was not too good. It doesn't matter. If you live Monday to Saturday a good holy life, that's a good life. That is not the understanding of Christianity that most people have. And if you young people don't understand that when you are young, you will never become servants of God. How can you grow in wisdom? It says about Jesus he grew in wisdom. We don't read like that about anybody else. When did Jesus grow in wisdom? Not when he was 30 years old. But from childhood. So I want to show you two places where it is written that Jesus grew in wisdom. And both of them are before his baptism, before he was 30 years old. So this is before he preached and all that. So that is an example for all of us who may never preach and never do any healing or any such thing. See, how many of us here sitting here are going to stand in a pulpit and preach? Maybe five or six people. And the rest? We are going to be at home. Here is your example. Jesus. So that you who never in your life stand in a pulpit, God can say about you, I am well pleased with you, my son, my daughter. Even though you may never preach. And how did Jesus grow in wisdom? First of all, Luke 2 verse 40. Luke 2 verse 40. It is talking about Jesus. The child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. So that is the first place it says about Jesus. He grew, increased in wisdom. And he grew in wisdom because the grace of God was upon him. That grace is a new covenant word. There was no grace in the old testament. There was mercy. Mercy. See Hebrews 4.16. We read about mercy and grace. Hebrews 4.16. It says, let us come with boldness to the throne of grace. And when you come to the throne of grace, there are two things you get. One, mercy. Second, grace. What are the two things you have to get? Mercy and grace. They are not the same thing. Mercy relates to your past life. Forgiveness for your sins, that is mercy. Jesus did not need that because he never sinned. You and I need that because till the end of our life, we, at least unconsciously, we will sin. See, even if we consciously get victory over sin, unconsciously there is so much sin in our life. We need mercy for that. But in Jesus, there was no sin, conscious or unconscious. So he never needed mercy. But he needed grace. And we also need grace. And here it tells us, grace comes to help us in our time of need. And what is the time of need? What is your biggest time of need? And immediately we may think of some financial need. Yeah, you say, I need money. I want to tell you, that is not your biggest need. When you have less money, just live little more simply. Live with whatever you have. Don't buy unnecessary things. I am telling you from my experience. When you have little, live with little. That is not our biggest need. And we may say, our need is physical need, some sickness or something like that. That is also not our biggest need because even with so many sicknesses, we can still do God's work. That is also not our biggest need. Our biggest need is to overcome sin. Sin is worse than sickness. If you have a cut in your hand and you got cancer inside your body, which is worse? It is like that. This is like sickness and inside cancer is like sin. There is a lot of difference between a cut in your hand and cancer. Because this cut in your hand won't kill you. That will heal. But cancer will kill you. Sickness won't take you to hell. Sin can take you to hell. So which is more serious? Sin or sickness? Sin can take you to hell. But if you look into your mind, most of you may think, sickness is worse than sin. Even in Jesus' time, people thought like that. Thousands of people came to Him to be healed from sickness. They brought so many people with all types of sicknesses. Do you find in the Gospels, even one person coming to Jesus and saying, Lord, please help me to overcome my anger. Anger. Or help me to overcome my dirty thoughts. You think people had no dirty thoughts those days? You think they had no anger among the Jewish people? You think they had no unforgiving spirit among them? Did you find any of them coming and saying, Lord, please help me to overcome this? I don't find even one case of anybody coming to Jesus like that. But thousands came to Him saying, heal me of this, heal me of that. Because they believed that sickness is serious, sin is not serious. One man even came to Jesus and said, Lord, tell my brother to divide the property with me. He wanted money. So they came to Jesus for money, they came to Jesus for healing, they came to Jesus for overcoming sin. Now compare that with your life. Look back over your life from the time you were born again. What are most of your prayers concerning? What have you prayed for? You prayed for healing. You prayed for money. You prayed for a house. You prayed for a job. You prayed for admission for your children. It's all good. But isn't it true that very rarely you have prayed, Lord, give me victory over this sin? What does that prove? It proves that in spite of all that you have heard in the church, you believe that earthly needs are more important than overcoming sin. That is our problem. Because we think our time of need is physical need, financial need, earthly need. But you don't need to pray to God for that. Because the Bible says that God makes the sun to rise on good people and evil people. He makes the rain to fall on the righteous and unrighteous. And you go to the hospital. You go to the hospital. You go to the hospitals. Do you think only believers are being healed there? There are a lot of atheists who go for treatment and get healed. What does that prove? That earthly things God gives freely to everybody. People pray for, Lord, give us children. What about all these terrorists who kill people? Do they get children? Does God give them children? They get more children than you. They have 10-12 children. It's not from the devil. What does that prove? Do they get victory over sin? So if you only get the blessings which terrorists get, the terrorists don't die when they are 10 or 12. They live long lives. They have money. They have a house. They have land. All religions. All earthly blessings people in all religions have. You think of any earthly blessing you have. Do you think Hindus don't have it? Muslims don't have it? Atheists don't have it? They all have it. What is it that they don't have? Victory over sin. That is the thing that can distinguish you from them. Otherwise you are just like them. So today now in many churches they say Jesus will make you prosperous and healthy. You go to the Muslim mosque, they'll say that Allah will make you prosperous and healthy too. Or you go to a temple, they'll say Lakshmi will make you wealthy. You don't have to go to Christ. So what a foolish gospel we are preaching that Jesus cannot give us anything more than all the others can give. And you, as I said, you think of the prayers you have prayed yourself. You say I don't believe in all this health and wealth gospel. But that is what you have been praying for all your life. That is where we need to understand that our need is spiritual first. And when it says grace to help us in our time of need, that is not financial need. It's not physical need. It is spiritual need. Why do I say that? Because whenever you read a verse in the Bible, see the context, the verse immediately before and after that. What is he talking about in the previous verse? He's not talking about money or health. He's saying, Jesus was tempted in all things like us, but he did not sin. But he did not sin. So what? So therefore, let us also go and get the same grace ourselves. So that we also don't sin. That is the meaning of that verse. Because Romans 6.14 says that when you get grace, or when grace is upon you, you won't sin. See Romans 6.14 Sin cannot rule over you. Why? Because you are under grace. Under grace means grace of God is upon you. And when the grace of God is upon you, what does it say? You will not sin. Why do you sin? Because the grace of God is not upon you. At the time when you sin, grace of God is not upon you. That is why you sin. Because it is so clear here. When grace of God is, when you are under grace, means grace of God is upon you, you cannot sin. So, whenever I commit a sin, with my tongue, or my eyes, or my hands, these are usually the parts of our body with which we sin the most. Eyes, tongue, hands. That is why Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount of Anger, that's the tongue, lusting with the eyes, and sinning with the hands. Those are the things he said, cut off your hand or pull out the eye. whenever you sin with any of these parts of your body, you have to say to yourself at that moment, Lord, I know grace of God was not upon me at this time. Otherwise, I could not have sinned, impossible. See, if the lights go off now, or this fan stops, I mean, you don't have to think, you know electricity is not there. As soon as electricity comes, it all comes on. Grace is like that. Grace is there, we overcome. If grace is not there, we are defeated. You must be honest with yourself. When the grace of God is upon you, you cannot sin. That's why it says, let us go to the throne of grace and ask for that grace. Now you can understand Luke chapter 2. Verse 40. What does it say? The grace of God was upon him. That means Jesus was under grace. Grace means God's help. Jesus is living with the Father's help all the time. So, no sin could overcome him. Temptation came to him. He would kill it as easily as Samson killed a lion. Or as easily as we could kill a mosquito. Or kill an ant on the ground. Or kill a worm on the ground. Jesus could overcome temptation as easily because the grace of God was upon him. And that's what it says here. So what it's saying here is, that all through those years in Nazareth, grace of God was upon him. Not to preach or do miracles. But to overcome sin. For 30 years. This is the mystery that has been hidden from the eyes of most Christians. They are only taken up with Jesus healing the sick and preaching and all that. And so they don't grow in wisdom. Jesus grew in wisdom before he started preaching and doing miracles. So when did he grow in wisdom? When he was 7 years old, 10 years old, 15, 18, 20, 25. Same age as you young people. So what should you be growing in now? Wisdom. How can you grow in wisdom? Make sure the grace of God is upon you. Ask God for it. It says let us come to the throne of grace and find grace to help us in our time of need. And as a first step to that, say Lord from today onwards, I am going to make sin as more serious than any sickness in my life. How we rush to a hospital or a doctor when there is a sickness. How many thousands of rupees we spend just to get some scan or test and all that just to overcome a sickness. How much effort do you make to overcome sin? Probably not so much. Because we believe sickness is more serious than sin. And now let me tell you something. As long as you believe that sickness is more serious than sin, I can tell you you will never overcome sin in your life. You can come to hundreds of meetings and listen to all types of things. But if you believe that sickness is more serious than sin, you will never overcome it. Or if you believe that some debt you have is more serious than sin, then you won't overcome sin. Let me use an example. Supposing you got a debt of one lakh. And you also got a bad temper. You get angry very quickly. And God appears in a dream to you tonight. And says, Ask one request. I will give you any request you want. What do you want? You want to clear your debt or you want to overcome anger? You want me to give you one lakh rupees to clear your debt? Or you want to overcome anger in your life? What will you say to God? Or supposing you got some serious sickness in your body. And the Lord says, what do you want? You want healing from that sickness or you want overcoming anger in your life? What will you answer to God if he gives you one request that he says, I will grant it to you tomorrow itself? I know what I will say. I will say, Lord, I want to be free from all sin in my life. I don't care how poor I am. I don't care how many sickness I have in my body. But I want to be free from all sin in my life. I don't care how poor I am. I don't care how many sickness I have in my body. But I want to be free from all sin in my life. You start saying that to God. From the time you are young. You will be the happiest Christian in India. Because sin is what makes us unhappy. The first thing that will help you to grow in wisdom is to fight against sin and ask God for grace to overcome it. That is the first step to grow in wisdom. Then I want to show you a second thing. Verse 52. It says, Jesus kept on increasing in wisdom and in favor with God and men. Jesus kept on increasing in wisdom and in favor with God and men. This is the second time it says. How did he grow in wisdom here? Because it says in verse 51, he went down with Joseph and Mary and came to Nazareth and he continued in subjecting to them. So, that is the second thing you need to learn as a young person. To be subject to authority that is over you. At home it is your parents. The Bible says, honor your father and mother and it will go well with you. The Bible says, honor your father and mother and it will go well with you. Children obey your parents. It will go well with you. In one thing, you can disobey your parents. Which one? Only one. That is where your parents tell you to disobey God. That is where your parents tell you to disobey God. Your father tells you to bow down to an idol. You can disobey. Or do some pooja to some idol. Say no. Or if your parents tell you to cheat in an examination. Then you say no. So, where your parents tell you to do something against the word of God, there you can disobey them. Why? Because above your parents there is another authority that is God. Your parents are not the final authority. God is the final authority. But in all other areas, you must honor your parents. And sometimes it can be difficult. All of you will tell me, it is not easy to obey your parents year after year after year after year. In that small sentence, he continued in subjection to them. Verse 51 It is a very small sentence, but it means a lot. You can use your imagination to picture situations where Jesus was obeying his mother. See, I sometimes picture like this. I am sure Jesus, when he was a young boy, would play out in the field, just like all of you play with other children. Suppose he was playing something like cricket, whatever they were playing in Israel those days. Now in cricket, the most important time is when it comes to your turn to bat. When you are fielding, it is not so important. Bowling is a little more important. But when your turn comes to bat, you have to be there. That is what you like to be in. Okay, supposing Jesus is playing with other 12 year old children there. And he is waiting for his turn to bat. The other fellow is out, now it is Jesus' turn to bat. And at that time, his mother says, Jesus, come here, I want you to do some work. What do you think he did? What will you do? Or you girls, when you are playing something very important and your very important turn comes for you. And at a very important time, your mother says, Jesus, come here, I want you to do some work. And at a very important time, your mother says, Jesus, come here, I want you to do some work. I know what all children will say. Mummy, wait, just five minutes, I'll come. And five minutes usually means about 55 minutes. What do you think Jesus did? He dropped his bat. He said, okay, friends, mummy is calling me, I have to go. And they would have made fun of him. Ah, you are mama's boy and all that, you are running away like this. He didn't care. He knew the Bible says children honor your parents. He did it. His mother says, go to the well and get some water. So they must have had some wooden bucket those days. And goes to the well to draw the water. There is a great temptation to just fill half the bucket and come quickly back and join the game. He didn't do that. Poured, poured, filled the bucket, brought it back. And by the time he comes back, his team is out, his turn has come for fielding now. He was not unhappy. You may be unhappy. But he was not unhappy. Because he had obeyed his father in heaven. That's just one example. You can take 1000 examples like that in different situations. And the father said, this is my son, I am very happy with him. He didn't score a century in cricket, but he obeyed his father and mother. And the father gave him the most fantastic ministry that anybody has ever had. You know, all of us would like to have a great ministry that blesses hundreds of people. But before that, God has to test you in different situations whether you will submit to authority. Whoever you are. Maybe authority at home or authority in the church. And if he sees that you are not interested in that, no wonder, God doesn't give you a ministry. Even when you are 70 years old, God won't give you a ministry. How did he grow in wisdom? Because he submitted to authority. But you may say, my parents are not perfect. Or my elders are not perfect. You think Joseph and Mary were perfect? You think they were a perfect husband and wife? You think they never made a mistake? They were under the old covenant. Even new covenant people have such difficulty overcoming sin. Can you imagine how an old covenant couple must have lived? They were totally imperfect. And the father told Jesus, submit to this imperfect authority. And that is where I will test you. I know God has tested me like that in my younger days. For many years, I had to submit in the Navy to imperfect bosses. And in many churches, right up to the age of 35, to imperfect elders. And the Lord said, submit. Keep your mouth shut and submit. I did it. And those are the years God broke me and humbled me. And then suddenly, when I was 35 years old, God suddenly opened up a ministry that I never even dreamed I would have. What I want to say is this. These are the two things that made Jesus grow in wisdom. One, he was faithful in temptation to fight against sin. With the grace of God upon him. And secondly, he was willing to obey the father and submit to imperfect authority. So those are the two most important things for young people. Faithfulness at home and in his place of work. Think of the temptations he faced at home. How his brothers and sisters, he had four brothers and two sisters younger to him, must have irritated him. You know, seven children living in a small home. Joseph was a poor carpenter. It was a small home. Some of you complain that your home is too small. It's not smaller than the home of Jesus. Poor carpenter's home with nine people living in that home. How many of you have got nine people living in one house? Jesus lived like that. Father, mother and six, seven children. You think they all had separate seven bedrooms? They had one room where everybody slept on the floor. And all these brothers and sisters irritating Jesus every day. But he never got angry, he never got bitter. He overcame sin. That is the example for you young people. And then maybe when he was 18 years old, he went into the carpentry shop to do some work. And for 12 years he worked as a carpenter. And how many temptations he would have faced there? People would have cheated him just like people cheat people today. Somebody may not have paid him properly. Or you know how customers will come and shout and get angry at you for the work you did. They will say, take this table back and do it properly and come. This is not right, that is not right. Jesus had to face all that. He never cheated anybody. And supposing some child came into the shop and broke something that Jesus had made. He wouldn't have got upset with that child. He would have picked up that child and said, don't worry, I can make another one. You are more important my dear child than this little thing. It is that attitude by which he grew in wisdom. We would get upset with that child because that earthly thing is more precious than a human being. And that is why we don't grow in wisdom. We remain foolish till the end of our life. Do you know that God gave us people to love? And things to use. But we love things and we use people. For our own benefit. That is the mark of the children of Adam. Jesus loved people. He never loved things. Those are the type of lessons we learn when we work. You know, I have always told people who work with me. Listen, if you make a mistake. Or you did something wrong. Or you broke something. Don't worry. The only serious thing in life is sin. Don't sin. Other things are not important. That is how Jesus grew in wisdom. All of us have that opportunity. Because like Jesus we also grow up in a home. With an imperfect father and mother. And with difficult brothers and sisters. We go to work and it is not easy to work all day. So many temptations in our place of work. Everybody around us is cheating and telling lies. In the school, all the other students are cheating. I say, if you are a CFC young brother or sister, you must never cheat. It is better to fail than to cheat. I taught that to all four of my sons. I don't care if you fail. But don't cheat. Never mind if everybody in your class cheats. Don't do it. Nowadays people pay money to get the question paper before the examination. You give so many thousand rupees, you get the question paper. I used to tell my children. That happened in Bangalore also 30 years ago. I used to tell my children. Even if somebody gives me the question paper, free, I will not show it to you. Because that is cheating. It is better you fail. Lose one year. But learn honesty. Losing one year in school is not such a big thing. But losing honesty, that is a very serious thing. That is like a cancer. Do you have the same values? These are the lessons you can learn as a child. As a young person. Those who are parents here, these are the lessons you must teach your children. It is no use telling them the stories of David and Goliath if you don't teach them to be honest in their school. We must teach values to our children. So if we do that, and if you young people are faithful in these two areas that Jesus was, one day God will say about you, this is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter, I am very happy with them. Do you want to hear those words from God? You never know, God may give you some fantastic ministry after that when you grow up. I really believe He will do that. I never knew when I was a young man that God had any ministry for me. I wasn't even thinking of any ministry. I said, Lord Jesus, you died for my sins, I want to take sin seriously in my life and I want to avoid sin as much as possible. I am not interested in ministry, I want to avoid sin. God decided to give me a ministry, that's another thing. And God will give you a ministry too. But He has to test you first and He will test you one hundred times in different situations in your life as a young person. What shall I say to you? Even if other people are against you, even if other people in your church are unfaithful, you don't be like that. Once one brother in CFC Bangalore came to me and said, Brother Zach, what shall I tell my young girl who is growing up? She is telling me Daddy, so many CFC's young sisters are also stylish like the models and the film stars. Why can't I be like that? What shall I tell her? So I said, you tell your daughter this. There are two types of sisters in CFC. One is the stylish film star type and the other is the more modest properly dressed type. So, look at both of them and you choose as a young girl which one do you want to follow? God allows those two choices to be even in the church. In Eden, in the perfect Eden there was a good tree and a bad tree and Adam had to make a choice. So if Adam had to make a choice in paradise, in CFC also you have to make a choice. So there are two. Which one do you want to follow? You may find some young brothers in CFC who are always talking about movies and worldly things. Then there are other young brothers who are wholehearted talking about the things of God. That's because God wants you to choose which one do you want to follow. So I personally thank God that there is such a choice. Otherwise you will all be forced to follow something. God tests your heart to see which one you want to follow. There are sisters in CFC who gossip and backbite. And there are other sisters who don't do that at all. You have a choice which one you want to follow. God always puts a choice before us. So don't say it is like this or some people are like this. Jesus was surrounded by people who were good and bad when he was a child. He made a choice. You have to make a choice too. Let's pray. Heavenly Father I pray that all these young people will make the right choice in their young age Give them wisdom Help them to grow in wisdom In Jesus name Amen