Deny Yourself

Are you willing to accept persecution for the sake of my word? Or are you just going to stop at the beginning level? At a beginner's level, you can't graduate. You cannot say, I went to year one primary school and I graduated. That is not a graduation.

You need to finish high school and then you need to go to uni and then graduate from uni. Then you can say, I've graduated. When you receive that certificate and with it, you can work, implement everything you studied in theory and put it into practice, practical.

Now that is graduation. So at the beginning, it's sweet. But the moment you start living the word, you start saying, I have to change.

I used to go clubbing before. No more. I'm going to church.

I used to swear and use all the foul languages under the sun. No more. I'll start praising the Lord and thanking God for everything he's given me.

And I'm going to start blessing people instead of before cursing them. I will not mix with the wrong crowd. No more.

I will mix with the people that belong to the family of Christ. Today, I'm beginning afresh. Today, I'm having a new family.

When you begin living the word, oh my goodness, all hell breaks loose. You will receive the biggest shock of your life and you would think by coming to the Lord, he's going to fix everything for you. But fixing it for you, it is the way you think about it, not the way God knows about it and sees.

You see, that's where we go wrong and start blaming God. Why are you allowing all this to happen to me? All I did, I said, Lord, I want to follow you. What kind of a sin is that? What kind of a crime is that? I wanted to follow Jesus.

Look what happened. Before people loved me, now they hate me. Before they befriended me, now they don't want to hear my voice nor see my face.

And now they're trying every way possible just to break me and make me fall. But they loved me before. My life was sweet before.

Now that I'm following Christ truly, my life is all bitter. The Lord says, you want to follow me? Yes, Lord. Okay.

When you start following me, the beginning is sweet, but afterwards it's going to be bitter because you're carrying my cross. Are you willing, my child? Are you willing? The Lord, the Lord calls everyone through the narrow door. He will never call you through the wider gate.

Never. The Lord will always call you through the narrow door. And the Lord said, the wider gate, the path is very wide and many people go through that door, that gate, but that path leads to destruction.

But blessed is he who finds the narrow door because there are only few. But those who find the narrow door, the path is very narrow. Narrow means you're going to suffer.

It's suffocating. It's claustrophobic. You're going to squeeze in there.

It is uncomfortable. But the wider gate, you can cruise with your Ferrari and Lamborghini and with all your loved ones and all the luggages of the past. But the narrow door only fits you.

Can't fit your money. Can't fit your fame. Can't fit your pride.

Can't fit your dignity. Can't fit nothing except you. Can't fit mom, dad, brother, sister, husband, wife, sons, none of them.

You alone. Jesus wants you. I'm not saying don't love mom and dad, but don't ever love them more than Christ.

Don't scare him because if you do, he will take it. His love is jealous and zealous. Listen, I'm going to give you a shortcut, right? Christ is the only one that you belong to.

You need to learn. At the end, when we go there with his grace, you're not going to go there and say, oh hello mom, oh hello dad, oh hello honey, husband, wife, none of that. It's going to be Jesus only.

It's not going to be mom, dad, brother, sister, none of this. It's going to be Jesus only. The Lord says you need to learn how to make me number one in your life.

You need to learn. I'm teaching you here so that you don't get a shock when you come there. You don't get a shock.

Why the Lord calls us through the naradu? Why Lord you choose a way for me to suffer? You are God. You created me on the basis of love. Why don't you give me a luxurious life? Why don't you give me a peaceful life, an easygoing life? Why the naradu? For your sake, you are being God.

Since you're God, for your sake God, why the naradu? He says, my child, I want you to learn one of the greatest lessons of life. There are so many great lessons. One of the greatest.

You need to learn. Life is a school. We come here to learn, my beloved, about the creator.

So, that was the very purpose. We need to get to know him. Why he made me.

Why he brought me to existence. We need to learn, my beloved, one of the greatest lessons we need to learn is called trust. When it comes to trust, stop asking question all the time.

Just accept it and go with it. Because the more questions you ask, the more disoriented you become. You will never be able to make a decision.

You will never be able to have peace in your life. For as long as you're using your head, there is no peace. Give it away.

Let Christ take over. Trust in him, even if you understand absolutely nothing. Trust him.

So, when he says, I want you to walk through hell, stop saying why. Explain. Tell me.

Please. I don't know. Shall I? Shall I not? Shall I do it? Shall I buy a house? Shall I apply for the job? Shall I marry Rachel or Elizabeth? Get a life.

Marry someone. Make a decision. Saint James, the apostle of Christ, in his epistle says, a person that is undecisive only burns himself.

Why are we so undecisive? Because I have lack of trust in the saving power of Christ. Trust him. Now, trust doesn't mean you have to understand in order to trust.

That is not trust. You're doing it your way, not God's. God will not accept.

He'll keep on breaking you until you surrender. He will keep on breaking you. I'm telling you, I've been there.

I've done it. Believe me. Listen to this piece of wreck.

He will continue breaking you until you wave the white flag. He will never let go of you because he has to make sure you are saved and in his kingdom because he's purchased you with his precious blood. For the sake of his holy name, he will not let go of you, even if you do.

He made a promise to his dad. Dad, I'm going to earth. Okay, son, because that's what I want, son.

He said, yes, I'll do your will. But dad, I'll promise you this, daddy. The people you give me, the pride that I received from earth, I'm telling you that I'm not going to come back home alone.

I'll bring the pride with me. I'll make sure those whom you gave me, none of them will disappear. So he will use every way possible to break you in order to make you.

You want to have it easy? Surrender. You keep being stubborn. He keeps on breaking you until you let go of your head.

Let go. Trust. You need to trust the Lord.

Now, why the Noradour, Lord? Again, you're asking me a question? Yes, Lord. I'm thick-headed. I'm stubborn.

Assyrian, what do you expect? Middle Eastern. My blood boils quickly. I'll tell you why, son.

Imagine this with me. If I invited you through the wider gate, you're expecting freedom. You're expecting comfort.

And the wider gate is all of that. But listen, my child, I wouldn't have true love for you if I invited you through the wider gate. You know why, my child? Because the wider gate fits you and fits your entire tribe, the entire Assyrian tribe.

So you will bring with you your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your cousins, your nieces, your nephews, your friends, your work colleagues. You'll bring the dogs, the animals, everything. Because it fits you all.

And guess what? It will bring with you, also you'll be able to bring all the luggages of the past, all the heavy burdens, all the dark spots in the past I'm carrying with me. And human nature is a fallen human nature. When we look back, we will always focus first on the negative things.

We never focus on the good things. This is human nature. It's fallen.

It's corrupt. When the hard drive is struck with a bug, what is it going to do? It's not going to give you colorful pictures. It's going to give you some weird, ugly things all over the place.

So when we focus on the past, we focus on the negative aspects. We are carrying the heavy luggages of the past, all the shortfalls and all the sins and all the problems we had. And I'm carrying the luggages with me.

I'm not letting go of it because it's a human nature that is corrupt. Can't know any better. Can't do any better.

So I come with the luggages. It's a wide gate. It fits me and the luggages fits all the people that are loved by me.

And when you're surrounded by your loved people, when they are talking to you and you're talking to them, you are so preoccupied with them. God is yelling, screaming, saying, child, please, I need you and I need your attention. Give me your ear.

Come back. I miss you, my daughter. I miss you, my son.

I want to share a moment with you. I want you to come and sit at my feet. I want to have an intimate moment with the love of my life, the one whom I purchased with my own precious blood.

And I'm too busy for God because I am so preoccupied with everyone under the sun except God. This is the wider door. When you are on the phone and I try to reach you and I call you, it comes up busy.

I can't talk to you because the line is engaged. The Lord is calling you. The line is engaged.

You're talking to your friend. You're talking to your cousin. You're talking to your whatever.

You're talking to everyone. God is trying to reach you. It's engaged.

You're too busy for him. What is he going to do? He's going to cut you and cut the line. He will disconnect Telstra and Optus and even the chips that are done by Elon Musk.

Yes, they can put all the chips. They can't disconnect me from Christ. You little kids wake up and grow up.

Can't disconnect me from Christ. Who do you think you are? You little kiddos. Unbelievable, man.

I'm going to teach him a lesson. The Lord will make sure the line is not connected. It is not busy.

It is available because the Lord wants to call you. Now, you haven't been listening to him. You still keep on walking through the wider gate.

Birthday parties, going out, ladies' nights, boys and girls, start the city casino. I'm too busy. This is the wider gate.

So what is the Lord going to do? Something will go wrong in your life and it will bring you to a full halt. What happened? A tragedy. Something went wrong.

I hit on the brake. I pulled back. All of a sudden, from so busy life, I'm alone.

My friends are gone. My family now is my enemy. They don't want to talk to me.

I'm alone. Now, the Lord says, now you can come through the narrow gate. When I come through the narrow gate, it's painful.

Alone is scary. It's being vulnerable. It's weak, fragile.

I'm lonely. I don't know who I am and what I am and where I am. I'm so disorientated.

I don't know what's going on. God, where are you? Not a whisper. Walk through the narrow door.

Trust me. Stop using your thick head. Just trust me.

When I walk through the narrow door, it only fits me. I have no choice but to let go of the luggages. I have to drop them.

Isn't the narrow door the best? Awesome. The wider door was happiness, but I was heavy burdened. Even though I was surrounded by thousands of people, but I was empty from within.

I was lost from within. So many Hollywood celebrities, they have the whole world at the tip of their finger, but they are so empty they kill themselves because they don't know what to do to fill this emptiness. They have no idea the emptiness inside only God can fill.

Not Illuminati, not Freemason, not money, not fame, not power, not prestigious life. God, Elohim, who created the heavens and the earth in the very beginning, is the only one that can fill that inside of you that is empty always. I traveled the world.

I came back home and I'm still miserable. I did everything under the sun. When I came back home, I was so alone.

I went with my friends and we had fun all night long till the next day, six, seven o'clock in the morning. But when I came back home, I was the worst ever in my life. I looked at myself and I hated it.

Why? Because it's empty from inside. God, Christ, is the one who can fill it. Walk through the door.

You need to drop your luggages, your worries, your problems, your issues. You must. Can't fit.

Lord, I'm walking alone. Yes, but now with God. Not alone.

What did the Lord Jesus say? He said, all of you will leave me and run away. You'll leave me alone, but I'm not alone for my father is with me. For I walked through the door for his sake.

I for say, I left everyone behind because I don't want to lose my daddy. Because at the end, he is the truth. I need to go back to him because I belong to him from the very beginning that has no beginning.

I need to go back to him. So all of you will go and leave me and you have to because the door only fits me. Can't fit you, Simon, Andrew, Philip.

And if you're going to follow the good shepherd and his footprints, then Simon, you have to walk alone. And Andrew, you have to walk alone. And Philip, you have to walk alone like Jesus.

If you want to find your heavenly father, you must come alone. Must come alone. Must come alone.

I walked through the pain and I found myself in a desert where there is no sense of direction. And I'm so weak. And in the midst of my weakness and of the heart of my disorientation, I met Jesus.