The Hardest Command of Jesus

Christ can work with anyone and everyone, whether you are weak, strong, small, big, poor, or rich. Why? Because Christ wants both quantity and quality, because he came for all. And so God, for so God loved the whole world, he gave his only begotten son.

His begotten son was given for the whole world, to accept him and lest it all perishes. So when you are strong, come to Christ. And when you're weak, come to Christ.

When you're rich, come to him. And when you're poor, come to him. When you are smart, come to him.

And when you are not so smart, come to him. He came for all, the rich and the poor, the intelligent and not so intelligent, the strong and the weak. Because the moment you give him your heart, he will change it in a way that he rules over your life.

Therefore he's able to work through every single human being, no matter who you are or what you are. All it takes, give him your heart and let him reign over your life, so that you end up being with him, not him only being with you. Just give him your heart, my beloved.

Now third, the right environment. What is the right environment? The leave-in is buried in the bread, and the mustard seed is buried in the ground. This is the right environment for both of them to be expanding and growing, to be successful and profitable.

There has to be the right environment for both of them. If I was going to bury the leave-in in the ground, will it work? And if I were to bury the mustard seed in the dough, will it work? You start complaining. And you go back to God, you start whinging and saying, why God? I'm trying my best.

I'm doing what I can. Why are you not there? How come you've left me? Sorry, you're in the wrong environment. You're still mixing with the wrong crowd and you expect God to make you succeed and be profitable.

You cannot mix with the wrong so-called friends and expect God to make you successful. You cannot put yourself in the wrong environment and expect God to be with you and make you prosper in your life. You need to be placed in the right environment.

And the only right environment for you and me, me and you, in order to be with God, is we must be buried like the leave-in in the dough and the mustard seed in the ground. And we must be buried in whom? In Christ. This is the right environment of God's kingdom.

Jesus Christ is the right environment. I was crucified with him, I was buried with him, but I rose in him in glory. You want to rise from the dead? You want to live forever? You want to be successful and prosperous in life and profitable? You want to receive God's glory? You better bury yourself with Christ to be risen in Christ and receive the glory of God.

Now what is being buried with Christ? Denying yourself. What is denying yourself? Meaning, whatever I loved to do, I stopped doing. It's not easy.

It's extremely painful. Man, I used to have fun sitting with me mates and sniffing the white powder. Man, it was fun when I went to the club and I gambled my money.

It was fun when I drank and I lost myself. It was fun when I mixed with people and I enjoyed it to the fullest. Plenty of gazelles, plenty of lights, colorful lights in my life.

It was fun when I watched the wrong things. It was fun when I said the wrong things. It was fun when I did the wrong things.

It was fun. You expect me to give up on all these pleasures to be with God? But you know, to be with God, I need to go through the cross. The cross is pain.

The cross is being rejected like Jesus was. The cross is being denied. The cross is being dragged in the streets.

The cross is being persecuted. The cross is being shredded. The cross is being told off, swore at, spat at, kicked, punched, ridiculed.

The cross is being nailed on it. The cross is death. That is an extremely excruciating process.

I can't give up on the pleasures, having fun to go and kill myself. For what? To be with God? I don't see God. I see the world.

Which one is easier? Which one makes more sense to be in? To be in a place that I can see or to be with someone I don't see? To be somewhere where it's tangible, I can see the results. When I punched someone in the face, I saw the results of that. When I went and chopped someone's head, I got the result of that.

But when I prayed, it got worse. You know, I went, I prayed, I said, Lord, heal my illness. The illness became worse.

I prayed to God and all those who were my friends, now they are my enemies. They walked away from me. They left me behind.

Why? Because it takes self-denial to be with Christ. And self-denial is you need to be in the right environment. You need to be buried in order to be fruitful.

The master's seed can never be a big tree unless it's buried, unless it dies. And the leave-in cannot give you bread unless it's buried in that door. Without leave-in, there is no bread.

Without death, there is no life, bread. Christ is the living bread. You want to receive the living bread? You need to die for him the way he died for you.

This is the principles of the kingdom of God. One, expansion and growth. You need to be profitable and successful.

Two, you need to live in self-denial. Three, you need to be in the right environment. And the right environment of the kingdom of God is you need to die with Christ.

For the only way to be in God's kingdom is through the cross. And the cross is death, burial, and then glory, resurrection. I always say this, Sunday resurrection will never come before Good Friday.

Sunday resurrection will never come before Good Friday. You want to be with the Lord Jesus, you better embrace Good Friday before Sunday resurrection. Good Friday is being profitable, it's being successful, it's growth, it's expansion.

Good Friday is self-denial remaining small. Good Friday is death being buried in order to get to Sunday resurrection being glorified. You can't expect God's glory without paying for it.

You can't. You need to continue otherwise I'm going to dwell on it, it's very dangerous. Now, the conclusion of this parable, the right environment is being in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

That is the right environment. Is being what? In the presence of the Lord Jesus. The only way to achieve this is by denying ourselves, i.e. remaining small, in order to achieve life which is the essence of growth and expansion.

In order to grow and expand, in order to be successful and profitable, you need to live because life is growth and expansion. And the only way to live is you need to remain small, i.e. you need to deny yourself. Where is self-denial? Death.

I live but not I anymore, it is Christ who lives in me. I am living for the Lord Jesus, I'm not living for myself anymore. That is self-denial, that is death.

When I live for the Lord, no longer for myself. As a Christian, you are not free to do what you wish to do. Since the Lord has purchased you with his precious blood, you belong to him.

He paid the price for all of us. It's like going to a furniture shop and you pick a set of furniture and then they'll say it's ten thousand dollars. The moment you pay the ten thousand, the furniture is yours.

The furniture cannot say thereafter to you, I don't want to come with you. You know what, I don't like you, I'm not coming to your place and I will never let you sit on me. You're not going to enjoy me anymore.

The moment the price is paid, the furniture is mine. I am in total possession of it. I can smash it, I can change it, I can break it, I take it home, I sit on it, I jump on it, I sleep on it, it's mine, I paid for it.

The Lord paid for all of us with his own life, with his own blood. Therefore I am no longer belonging to me, I belong to the one who purchased me, who is Christ the King. So now the Lord has full right to do whatever he wishes to do with all of us.

We don't have the right to say, why are you doing this to me? Or I say to the Lord, I'm going to live, I'm going to follow you my way, not your way Lord. I don't have a say anymore, I'm his furniture now. He is totally free in what he wants to do, yet the Lord is so merciful, yet he has full right to do as he wishes without asking us, but he still is asking for our will to be given to him.

After he bought us, he still comes and asks, please my child, please just let me be with you. What a merciful, loving, tender father he is. He doesn't need to ask Bishop Murray, I want to take your eye.

He doesn't need to ask. When he bought me, the eye, the nose, the whole body, the soul, the spirit, it's all his. It's all his, it's not mine.