Following Christ - Part 1

When I was a small boy, my mother used to tell me to go and fetch water from the well. And sometimes she told me to go and climb the coconut tree and get a coconut. So I carried a bucket to go to the well. And put the bucket down and pull the rope. When it comes up, I take it and put it in the bucket. I used to put it in the other bucket. Have you ever done this? Do you know this? I know Hindi. He is a bad speaker. I will say that he is a bad speaker. Imagine if the bucket the bottom has a hole. What happens? I can put the bucket a thousand times. And I pull it up and do it. What happens? Nothing will happen. No water, no water. And I go to my mother. I said, mother, I did what you told but I couldn't get any water. And she will say, son, what happened? And she will say, son, what happened? Mother, I put this bucket in the well and I was pulling like you said. And not a drop of water I got. And then she says, let me look at the bucket. So she says, look at the bucket. He says, there is no water in this bucket. There is a big hole. And you are putting it in the well and pulling it up and all the water you got is all gone down. You know that happens. You got a pocket. In my pocket I have something like this. This I put in my ear when I talk to people on the phone. But suppose my pocket got a big hole I will be looking for this it is lost. The same thing is true about our being here. Your mind your heart is like a bucket. If there is a hole in it all what we are saying and your Metropolitan and Vicar General we can tell you everything but in the end there is nothing in your brain. It is all gone. Therefore you must make a decision that you are going to listen what we are saying with your ears with your heart and with your mind. Don't think about your girlfriend. Don't think about boyfriends. Don't worry about your parents. Don't worry about food. You will get first class food. So don't worry. You may be sleepy and if you are sleepy what you need to do you take your fingers and do this or tell your friend sitting next to you you poke him and he will wake up. Why? We are a family. I am so happy today. You know why? I am meeting my children. In the Gospel of Luke it talks about a father. His son went far away and the father is waiting and waiting and waiting for years for him to come back. Finally he came home and he ran and he hugged him such a joy. That is how I feel. I think about you from distance. You are thousands of miles away from where I am but I think about you your parents and your brothers and sisters and I pray three times a day My God bless my children Being the Metropolitan the father of the Believers Eastern Church the designation Bible gave me the father of my children so I am happy this is your home this entire campus there are 180 acres the medical college is there the best hospital there school there our holy synod is here it is all yours I do not own one thing as a matter of fact when I go to the mess hall to eat my food every month I buy a coupon for my food I pay because that is not mine just like you it is all yours 50 years from now you can come here and you can say to your children to your grandchildren Baba this is our Vatican this is our synod and the son will ask Papa you mean this belongs to us he can say yes this is our church Believers Eastern Church we are a family and so you are being here we are a family and I pray that you will come back many other times and one of my prayers is this out of the 6000 young people God will raise up maybe 100 brilliant young people who can serve our beloved country as IAS officers my prayer is God will raise up hundreds of medical doctors to serve the poor people and some of you will be millionaires for what so you can help the poor people and we are people called to serve our country that is the theme of our conference I thank God for our Prime Minister I thank God for our Prime Minister not too long ago I met with him he talked about the poverty of India the struggles of our people he really cares for the people but no one can do all the job God is our answer God is our answer and we as a church we must pray for our nation daily do all we can to serve and build our country and all the respected Episcopal pray the prayer for God's blessings now you have Bibles you have notebook you cannot write everything we say but you can write some words some sentence because you can think about it later because usually the things we hear we forget within 48 hours so it is good you make notes and the most important thing for months this has been my prayer dear God when all these my children come here oh God have them meet you your call is to have an encounter with God and your call is to meet God and this should be the desire of your heart when I was growing up my father used to say it could be a myth not a real story there is supposed to be a medicine in Kerala it is called Otamuli Otamuli you know what that means one medicine that heal all diseases and they say this medicine is a leaf of a plant in the river I used to think someday if I can find that leaf that plant I can make a lot of money one little leaf heal all diseases I think it is a story but if it is real what do you think but actually something is real no matter what you are where you come from what problems you have there is one medicine there is one medicine that heals all your diseases soul, spirit and body that medicine is the Lord Jesus Christ Hallelujah and Jesus is the answer for all things we face in our life for example I don't know which way to go Jesus says I am the way I don't know how to deal with problems He says I am the truth and I don't know how to live He says I am the life and I say I don't know how to get to heaven He says I am coming back to take you back to heaven I am sick and helpless and Jesus says can you believe I can do this for you He can use a doctor a nurse a medicine whatever Jesus you are able to do it and God is able I tell you a story a real story there was a meeting taking place in a big stadium some 50,000 people in the meeting and I was speaking because I do the radio broadcast and I am not Pentecostal or charismatic and I don't bring people to the stage to say testimony this and that I don't think we should collect money from people for ministering God's word and healing people if somebody collects money from people they are praying for, he is a false prophet because Jesus never collected money from the people now a lot of Indians imitating Americans and doing the same thing that's the reason I tell our church do not go to these western people's conferences they teach false doctrine and you can get deceived it's a dangerous thing why I am telling you this because you are the future of our church some of you will be the bishops of the church some of you will be the metropolitan of the church some of you will go to other many countries of the world but you must know the truth there is no other truth Jesus is the truth once you understand that you will not be going to 10,000 places just to find answers you come to Jesus psychology discovered that nothing in the world can heal the guilt that people feel in their mind and many of you I know by simple normal life examples you are living in the guilt some of you girls the thousands of you here and many of you things happened in your life you will never tell anyone you will never reveal it but something happened and you are hurt somebody hurt you molested you sexually it will be somebody you trusted but you still feel the pain the agony you feel then you say to yourself it is my fault and so you live with this guilt this pain and you say God forgive me forgive me, forgive me, forgive me a thousand times but still the memory comes back no psychology can heal it no medicine can take that away but I tell you the blood of Jesus can wipe and wash all that away and Jesus is the answer and our church we follow the Lord Jesus Christ and that's all you need to think about so I told you about the bucket you will hear lot of things but if your mind is alert if your focus is correct the bucket will be for example we don't have meetings all the time it's a very big campus a lot of trees night it's very silent sometime I saw during meeting times middle of the night under some tree some young man sitting and crying and praying saying to the girls everybody is sleeping what happened that young man wants to know God you know what God said you will seek me and you will find me when you do that with all your heart God never lies He never lies I was barely 19 years old I was in Jammu Kashmir I was desperate I said God I want to know you I have no strength left in me no way to overcome my problems I was alone in a tiny room I said Jesus you said you will give me power and the father said all you need is my son but I didn't know what to do I am desperate please touch my life please do something for me and I was desperate and God came into the room and touched my heart filled with love I could not contain it in the end I cried out God stop it I can't take it anymore and this is what Jesus does but if you don't seek him you may have a lot of fun here a lot of friends a lot of singing we have the best arrangement for meetings but in the end you will go just as you came but that's not what your father wanted I want you to go back as a changed individual you will become a revolutionary wherever you go demons will flee when they see you and you will bring peace to your home you will be the saviour of your family you will be the doctor for your village you will be the godliest mother they will ever see some of you will be Mother Teresa think about what you will do God can do anything one little problem if you are willing and believe it will happen this is the way God works so during this conference all I ask you and I beg of you that do not give attention to anything else use your cell phone very sparingly don't spend your time calling people you don't need to call call your mother and father your priest or somebody important but otherwise put it on silence why? because now demons are working extra time to make people call you to distract you with the problems and all kind of questions to take away your attention from being here with your heart with your mind, with your soul and take your mind, heart and soul away from here so that they can distract you I told you about this 50,000 people gathering just like here there is a bigger crowd there was a man sitting there he was blind stone blind by birth he was blind and he walked the walking cane and he was in the bus and people asked him where are you going man? you blind man where are you going? and he said tonight I will see the radio speaker he told my name and they laughed at him you are a blind man you are a blind man you are blind how can you see him? you can't see him they talked in Malayalam they don't know Hindi but that man came I don't know who he was but he was sitting in the crowd and I preached about Jesus Jesus died on the cross and he was buried he rose again to forgive and heal our sins and kill the death that we may live forever and then I said Isaiah 53 says Jesus death also means we can be healed in our body all people are not getting born again and saved because Jesus died on the cross all people don't get healed because of that God has times when he does things in the end I told the people after telling them to acknowledge Jesus as Lord I said put your hand where you are sick and you pray to Jesus and I will be praying for you I didn't know that man was sitting there a blind man but I simply prayed a prayer Lord Jesus Jesus you are here with us you can save us you can set us free you can heal us please Lord answer their prayers and the story is that man put the stick on the ground and he put both hands on his eyes and he was praying when the prayer was over he got two brand new eyes hallelujah and I did not know that happened because I have no practice of making a parade out of it and it is not my habit that when people get healed I tell them about it some weeks later a secular magazine wrote about this story that is how I came to know what I am telling you God sent his word and bring changes in our life God sent his word and bring changes in our life one day some friends brought a man to Jesus and that man was paralyzed completely he could not say a word he was lying there and they opened the roof of the house and put him down and Jesus was sitting there and he is laying there and what did Jesus say son your sins are forgiven he is a paralyzed man what he needs is healing in his body but Jesus said your sins are forgiven then some people were standing there and they said this man is sick he must heal him if he can Jesus knew their thoughts Jesus knew their thoughts Jesus knew what they were thinking and Jesus said is it easier for me to say your sins forgiven or be healed completely and be normal they did not understand it physical body is sick but a billion times crore times problem is the problem of sin and the number one is our sin and Jesus knew that man got sick and paralyzed because of sin that caused it and if that is settled everything will be settled why even if he did not get healed in his body in a few years he will die ask your question where is your great great grandfather where is your great great grandmother where is your grandfather where is your grandmother answer is very simple most of them are dead most of them are dead and you think you will not die you will die all of you will die in a hundred years none of us will be here but Jesus came to defeat death and give us life eternal eternal life with him that is what Jesus promised but the time to prepare for that is when you are young great thinker mighty king Solomon said this it is good for a young man in his young age to know God to take upon him the yoke I thank God when I was eight years old my mother was taking me to our church the church with orthodox faith and there one afternoon I stood up and said Jesus I am giving my life to you please lead me when I was sixteen years old and he spoke to my heart to give my life to go to north India eight years I lived in north India ninety percent of my nights I slept on the road side many times I had only one pant and one shirt sometimes we were hungry we were in the villages helping the poor people eight, nine of us and this was my life one time I was sick it was hepatitis I was in Ajmer, Rajasthan my team members left me in the government hospital and they left they thought I will die before they come back but thank God some Kerala nurses were there in the hospital they gave me good food and took care of me thank God for that those were my journeys those were the stories of my life I went and lived in the slums the slums of Bombay I saw the pain the agony not one or two people three people millions of people you should go to the slums of Bombay you must go to the slums in Delhi you cannot imagine the starvation and the poverty what is the answer it's the devil doing all that Jesus is the answer but where is Jesus he is sitting in heaven and he said as the father sent me I send you you are the Jesus you are the Jesus you must go your hands your eyes your legs your tears your heart all belong to Christ and through your life he will bless our nation he will bless your church young people you are our only hope and I encourage you to think like that but here is the thing you must not have a hole in the bottom of the bucket for this one week put away all distractions if you are able to don't use the telephone one week turn it off and pray find every opportunity then during this time we have a hundred priests that you can go to very private you and the priest or there may be some older sisters also and it is also possible that the older sisters you alone can go to them and share your problem things are bothering you sins you are battling with guilt that you are trying to overcome very softly you can talk it is like this you will be sitting here I will be sitting here and he is the father he is not the father I am the metropolitan I am talking to him not like I want to talk to you about all my problems the father it is bothering me I told a girl I will marry her I dumped her I stole money from my parents and I am copying in examination and I skip school I don't tell my parents I have a lot of problems a lot of sins what can I do? the father says son do you believe these are wrong? father I know it is wrong but I don't know what to do the father says if you simply pray and ask Jesus even forgive all your sins do you know how to pray? I don't know then the father says you are just talking to me Jesus is right here and he just talked to him so then I talked to him Jesus I don't know what to do I got all these problems and I did all these bad things I lied about things and I feel so guilty please forgive me you died for me Jesus and I believe you please Jesus then I said father is that a good enough prayer? then the father says did you really mean that? yes father somebody else says father I don't know how to pray then the father says these are things you said to me you did wrong and you repeat this prayer after me he will lead me in a short prayer after the prayer this is what he will do he will say my child because you have asked the lord to forgive you all the known and unknown sins he has promised to forgive you he has forgiven you so now I declare in the name of the father, son and the holy spirit your sins are forgiven forever and you are whole and you are free from now on you live for Jesus and whenever you fail go to the priest and share your heart our priest believers eastern church even if he will be killed he will live for Jesus he will cut his head off he will not reveal the secret he will not tell anyone that is a pledge he made so you never need to be afraid what you tell our priest he is going to tell someone I have thousands of secrets no one on earth knows I only know this some of them turned against me my bitter enemies I know their secret to destroy them overnight but I will never say anything because it is a pledge I made someday they will come to know the lord and they will be godly and holy people but this confession and the assurance of forgiveness that we have in the bible the sins of those you are forgiven it is forgiven that words Jesus said to the leaders of the church the priests and the bishops those are very serious it is like going to a medical doctor they do things and tell you do things and you are healed so during this week you have the opportunity as an individual to talk to someone and have prayed for you but it all means you need to have one thing on your mind I want to meet god you have been sitting so long I am jealous of you I only sat little time so please stand see stretch your hand see how much exercise you need sit down yesterday was so wonderful day I enjoyed all the selfie I still be available to make selfie one rupee for every selfie wherever possible I will be with you and our father Sijo and doctor achan and few others will help me because I don't want to disappoint you from taking a selfie they will help me so that I can come to more people to take a selfie and what I am saying personally you pray lord give me a hunger to see you to understand you you know the electricity but you don't see it see we are speaking you can hear it how? because the electricity you don't see it you know people die by grabbing on our electric wires there is nothing you see on the cable and by accident you touch on that and within second you will be burnt the invisible power is there god is a spirit we are made of material how he made us with invisible things so the invisible reality is more real than your body, my body this podium and this mic that's the greatest mystery of the holy communion and jesus said unless you eat my flesh, drink my blood you have no part in me this is how in the first century the church started some people ask how old is believers eastern church I tell them 2000 years old why? it is 2000 years old it is an Indian flag how old is the flag and the real answer is when our country got independence this flag talks about that so the church that follow the apostles doctrines and traditions are the same church that was the first century and I am so happy that god brought us to be part of the best church there can be in our generation I got 10-12 minutes left I will tell you a few thoughts in the light of everything I talked to you about one please remember you are not alone you are part of a large holy church it is scattered throughout the world and you are part of it why? because you are part of the body never feel you are alone your church cares about you don't despise your church be respectful never join anyone to criticize your priest because your church is your life it is in the church you learn about how our sins are forgiven how we follow Jesus how we obey God's word see one person can do so much I can carry maybe 50 kilograms but if I have 10 people we can carry hundreds of kilograms the same way when you are part of the church and proud of it your life produces hundreds of times fruit it is a mystery so always remember you are a proud individual to be part of the Believer's Eastern Church why? because we follow the Apostles doctrines and Apostles traditions and we live for the things God called us to live the second thing I want to tell you all of you young people look at your hair all black hair what does it mean? you young people 18 years old 20 years old and 22 years old think about how old you are I am standing here 68 years old I wish I was your age what a possibility you have you hear this everywhere people are criticizing our Prime Minister, President and Nation, State, everyone and why we do that? no, we must be the answer to the problem the future of our Nation rests upon your shoulders that's what God wants think about Joseph in the Old Testament God used him to save the country of Egypt from going to death God used Joseph to save the country of Egypt from going to death you read in the book of Daniel he was used as a powerful politician to help the Nation you think about David he was a mighty king a ruler doing justice and right you must think bigger than your little home I tell you about my life I was born 14 km from here in a tiny village in a tiny house by a river bank I never wore shoes on my feet until I was 16 and you cannot imagine that I was the least individual in my family I never played sports I never travelled outside of my village but God had a plan in my life I will tell you about some other time so don't miss any meetings I will tell you the whole story why I am telling you this? God chose the nobodies to make them great while the great people he put aside and he uses small people smart people God doesn't want that's what Paul said we are the treasure in earthen vessels he said this life is not made of silver, gold, copper and iron our life is worthless because it is made out of mud but inside is God and God works through us you must believe about yourself like that never think you are going to be the second you are going to be the first why? this world belongs to God he loves all people he loves Hindus and Muslims and Christians and Jains and every religion Jesus is not Christian's God he is a loving saviour of all people Bible is not Christian's book it is of all people but how do we tell them that? you must love them do everything you can think about Mother Teresa think about so many people like that you must make up your mind I am going to change my world for this I am member of the Believer's Eastern Church and that's what you need to understand you are part of the whole and the future of our nation is in your hands and number three what is the reason for living? the purpose of your life one time I met a medical doctor he is a young man I asked him about his life and this is what he said my vocation is being a medical doctor but my call is to tell the world about Jesus love think about that if you become a medical doctor a teacher a politician or a prime minister that position is a great job but your call from God is to tell them about God's love never forget that number four I told this to you already you are here to meet God this week is a unique opportunity and be silent be quiet don't make much noise don't run around trying to make noise this is a week of silence for your life why? you are praying praying and asking God and seeking His face and listening carefully and God will meet with you and number five you are going to hear a lot of information from here about your church about lot of other matters we want you to listen carefully and write those things down and then when you get back you will share that with your family your neighbors and your church not to criticize them but to make their life better because your life becomes the means for them to find new hope number six this is the most great opportunity the greatest privilege I know in my life is to partake from the Eucharist and the Eucharist is never in context of one individual it is the body of Christ and Jesus in me and I in Him you will learn about the meaning of the Eucharist in these days already some of you know it I know some of your life has been changed already it is the greatest mystery of the Bible and the New Testament the Holy Communion or the Eucharist I say it is more important than the Bible itself why? because Bible talks about that the whole thing is about Jesus and about Jesus what? His death on the cross and here we are meeting Christ so when you come for the Eucharist when you have the opportunity you do it with great reverence you don't take it lightly you are partaking the body and the blood of Christ if you don't understand it it will have no effect on you you read in the Bible thousands of people were touching Jesus now I want Him to be Jesus before that He was Father and thousands of people were touching Him and then one lady I think she was crawling she didn't want anybody to see her and all she wanted was a touch His garment and then she said to herself if I can touch His garment my 12 year old sickness I am going to die with it I will be healed and that happened and Jesus said somebody touch me and the disciples said have you gone mad thousands of people are pressing you Jesus said no there is someone touch me with understanding power left me and the woman came Jesus this is me I am the one spiritual effect so when you take the holy communion just like the lady you think my Jesus died for me this is His body and I am taking it and then drink the wine that is when faith meets with God that is when the invisible meets with the visible and you have the opportunity to understand about that and the last thing I want to say which is the seventh thing only one minute that is Bible has lot of doctrines thousands of doctrines but there is one doctrine bigger, better, important than all doctrines same for