(Church Leadership) 6. God Is With Us

Let's continue. If you remember, yesterday I mentioned that our calling as individuals in a church, what that is. It is to show the world and Christendom what God is really like.

And all the wrong understanding of God, we have got to get rid of. That's our calling. By our personal life and in our church.

And secondly, by our personal life, family life, church life, to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is alive. We thought of that when we put a cross outside this church. A lot of people think that's a sign of backsliding.

But if you read what's written on it, all non-Christians have seen so many Roman Catholic churches with Jesus hanging on the cross. We want to be a testimony that there's no one hanging on the cross today. That he's alive.

That's our testimony. And that's why we have that verse written on the cross, he's not here, he's alive. I mean, it's easy to write it there, but to demonstrate in our daily life.

That Jesus Christ is alive. That is so important. To know God as a father and to know in our personal life that Jesus Christ is living.

That's the only basis on which we can go out and live for him in this world. And that is the reason why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into the world. In the old covenant, nobody knew God as a father.

There was no such thing as resurrection life. People were raised from the dead. That's different from resurrection life.

Lazarus did not have resurrection life. If he had resurrection life, he would never have died again. They were temporarily raised from the dead and they died again.

You must know the difference between that and resurrection life. Jesus had resurrection life. Never to die again.

Nobody knew that before Christ came. And the apostles went around saying, we are witnesses of his resurrection. They did not say we are witnesses of anything else.

They did witness many things. They witnessed his crucifixion, witnessed his holy life, but they always said the witnesses of his resurrection. There are some amazing truths about Jesus in the Bible.

His virgin birth, his miracles, all amazing things. But his resurrection, that's the thing the apostles always emphasized. And unfortunately, that is not sufficiently emphasized in most of Christendom.

See all the pictures that are most commonly found in Christian churches and homes. The three most common pictures of Christ that I have seen around the world. And I think you will agree with me.

One is as a baby in a manger. What is it a picture? It's a picture of helplessness. What can a baby do? Another picture of him hanging on the cross.

What can he do? Hands are nailed, legs are nailed, he can't do anything. Again a picture of helplessness. And the third picture is this woman like Jesus saying, I will bless every home where he puts a picture of this holy heart or whatever it is in the house.

Like a woman. He doesn't look as if he can do anything. He doesn't even look as if he can bless the house.

This is the image that the devil wants all human beings to see of Jesus. And you think it doesn't affect you even though you don't have these pictures in your house? You have seen it so many times that most Christians have got a Jesus who is helpless and weak and can't do much for them. It's true.

If they are sick, some godless doctor can do a hundred times more for them than Jesus can do. If they lack money, some rich person in the church can do more for them than Jesus. It's true.

If they need some problem in the world, some godless police officer can do more for them than Jesus. And even these television evangelists, they say God can do anything. He can heal your sickness.

He can get rid of cancer. He can heal AIDS. He can raise the dead.

The only thing he can't do is give us money. You give us the money. You see the stupidity of that? Almighty God can do everything except give money.

That you have to beg human beings for. Who is there to expose this humbug? Deception. Do you hear one voice in India speaking against it? Everybody says, oh, we better not speak against the Holy Spirit.

This is not Holy Spirit. This is deception. Because of this helpless Jesus, we must demonstrate a Jesus who's got all authority in heaven and earth.

I've served the Lord for 40 years full time. I've never asked anybody for money. I've never been in debt for one single day to anyone.

I can say to people in any church I've gone to, have I taken advantage of you in any way? If any brother does anything for me, he gets paid more than any worldly person will pay him. That is the dignity of us, child of God. We don't take advantage of people.

We're not like worldly pastors who make people run around and do all types of jobs for them and never pay them. That is the authority and dignity of a servant of God. Because Jesus is alive.

Because we have a Father in heaven. Is that what people say when they see your life? We have brought the dignity of Jesus Christ right down to the dust. This country needs to see men who can demonstrate that Jesus Christ is alive.

I'm not saying we don't use doctors. If my scooter has got to be fixed, I don't just pray. I don't ask Jesus to do the servicing of my scooter.

I take it to a scooter repair shop. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not one of these fanatics who say you can't take medicine, can't go to a doctor.

These fellows who don't take medicine and don't go to doctors, I ask them a question. Okay, your body has a problem, you go to Jesus. Your scooter has a problem, you go to Jesus.

Or Jesus can heal bodies, but he can't repair scooters. What type of deception are you fellows living in? Do we ask people such questions? There are groups of people in Christendom who say, we are Levites, you got to bring the tithes to us. Lot of pastors are claiming on that basis.

If you study the Old Testament, you know God made a law for Levites, you must own no property. So, I'll ask this pastor, are you a Levite? Do you have any property in your name? Then you're not a Levite, you're a Humbug. You're of the 13th tribe called Humbugs.

You know, this is the sad thing. I remember once one man came to my house, reverend somebody badge over here, with a tin can saying, I'm running some orphanage. I said, you're a disgrace to the name of Jesus Christ.

I said, because Jesus Christ never went around with this tin can to house after house. This is the sad thing, there's nobody to tell them anything. Jesus would tell them straight.

Look at what Paul called people in 2 Corinthians 11. He said, they're all deceivers. Those people, those false preachers.

False apostles, deceitful workers, he called them. They're servants of Satan, who's an angel of light, coming as an angel of light. We have to expose error like that.

That's part of our ministry. That's how Jesus and Paul lived. I know it's not popular in this day and age where everybody says, let's be positive, let's be positive, let's not offend anybody.

Well, let other people do that. That's not our calling. We have to follow Jesus.

Jesus didn't go around with the message saying, let's always say something positive, positive, positive. I'll give you, you know, I'll encourage you to read the Bible and see how Paul and Jesus spoke. And see the deception that's going on in Christendom today.

Jesus said, all authority in heaven and earth is given to me. We don't hate anybody. I don't have a single enemy in the world.

I will never fight with flesh and blood. If anybody comes to fight with me, I will not fight with him. If somebody cheats me of money, I'm not going to take him to court.

No, I'm not interested in these earthly battles. And I'm not running after anybody's property or even what I think is rightfully mine. But when it comes to the principles of God's word and the purity of God's house, we have to speak the truth in love.

Not only speak in love and not only speak the truth, but speak the truth in love. I agree that if you can't love that person, then don't speak the truth to him. That's the trouble.

A lot of people are speaking the truth, but they don't love that person. I'd say start with love and then speak the truth. If you cannot love a person, don't speak the truth to him.

You're not called. Somebody else will speak the truth to him. I've told many people, don't just go and preach like me.

God may not back you up. God may not back you up because he may not have called you to say that. Not everybody is called to have the same ministry.

But what I'm saying is, don't be a compromiser. Don't at the back of your mind say what will tickle these people's ears. Be one who listens to God.

And if God says, listen, your ministry in the body of Christ is just to put butter on everybody every day, go ahead and do it. Do it. But do it because God tells you to do it, not because that will make you popular.

And don't do it because other people in the world are doing it. See, Paul and Barnabas were different. Barnabas didn't speak like Paul.

And Paul never told him to speak like him. When people called, you know, Barnabas' name was not Barnabas initially. He had some other name.

But he kept on preaching in a particular way and said, we better change his name, everybody said. We call him the son of encouragement. When they heard Paul, they never thought of giving him that name.

Their ministries were different. So I say, if God calls you to be like Barnabas, be a Barnabas. Don't try to be a Paul.

But don't do be that because that's the popular thing. And at the same time, don't try to act like Paul when God hasn't called you to be that. You know, there also you can get some honour.

I am the sort of local prophet here. No man can take this honour unto himself. Don't ever imitate anybody else.

But one thing all of us must know is that we are servants of one who has got all authority in heaven and earth. And Jesus is alive. Whatever you may preach, whatever you may do, if people are not recognizing that Jesus is alive, we have failed.

And that is why we are being so careful in this area of money. Is God able to do everything except give us money? What sort of a God is this? Who can do all types of miracles except give us our need? For that we have to go begging from people. You know, the Bible says we are ambassadors of Christ.

And that's a great word. Because ambassador is a well known word in every country in the world. I mean, India will have at least 100 or 200 ambassadors in Delhi.

And there is a dignity about an ambassador. Supposing you saw on television one day, a man with a suit and tie, he says, I am the ambassador of the United States in India. Of course, you have never seen the American ambassador.

Possibly true. And then he says, we are doing a great work in this world. But to do this great work, we need money.

So all of you send money to me to do this work. If you have got even this much sense, you will say, that is not the ambassador of America, definitely. That is not even the ambassador of some small country called Ivory Coast in Africa or any such thing.

I cannot imagine any ambassador begging for money on television. You won't believe. Have you ever seen that on any television program? Any ambassador of even some poor African country saying, please give us some money, our country is poor.

But then one day, one man comes with another suit and tie and says, I am an ambassador of Jesus Christ. I represent the kingdom of God. We need money.

Everybody, oh yeah, that's right, we need to give money. Why? Because their kingdom of Jesus Christ is beneath even the lowest poorest country in the world. Whereas my Jesus Christ, his kingdom is higher than all the kingdoms of the earth.

And he is able to move, it's not that his kingdom doesn't need money, but it's not by begging that we get it. From heaven he moves people in answer to prayer. Hudson Taylor experienced it in China.

CT Stud experienced it in Africa. We have experienced it in India. And not only we, there are some other men of God also.

But that type of men of God is drying up and dying out in the world. There are very few left like that. Most people have become beggars, dignified beggars with suit and tie.

Two types of beggars, the one in dirty clothes come to your gate in the morning, the one with suit and tie comes on the television. And about beggars, Jesus would never do it. Recognize that.

Paul asked people to give money to others, he never asked money to himself. And Jesus told the rich man to give money to the poor, he never asked it for himself. See, these are just examples of the dignity of a servant of God.

And I tell you, in my lifetime I have probably seen on my finger the number of people like this. But we need to increase that number. The dignity, the authority of a servant of God.

We use facilities the corporation city has provided. We pay tax for it. We go to a shop, if we want to buy something, we pay for it.

If I buy vegetables from the vegetable vendor, that doesn't mean I am dependent on the vegetable vendor. No, I don't have to grow rice in my compound to eat rice, I can buy it from the shop. No, in the same, that's how I go to a doctor or a scooter repair shop or anything.

But I have a dignity about me that I pay for the services. And if he out of graciousness decides to do something free for me, I accept it. But I am not going to lose my dignity.

Jesus was invited to many homes where they offered him grand meals and he could never return a meal to anybody because he never had a home. But he didn't lose his dignity. He would go to those homes and rebuke those fellows after the meal was over.

He never lost his dignity because somebody gave him a gift or somebody gave him a meal. I believe our great calling is to demonstrate to this world we have a loving father in heaven. Your life must be a living demonstration of that fact.

That God provides for you, cares for you, solves your problems, takes care of your needs, blesses you. Blesses your family. That God is with you.

People must see that. That Jesus Christ is alive. Let me show you this example in the Old Testament.

I mean, we look at Old Testament examples to see how much better we can have it in the New Testament. I want you to see this man Abraham. We read about a king called Abimelech in Genesis 21.

Abimelech was a king, a very powerful king. Verse 22. He had a general in his army called Ficol.

And they come to this poor farmer called Abraham. He was not poor, but he was certainly much poorer compared to them. And he comes to Abraham and says, Abraham, I've got a lot of money, much more than you.

I've got an army. You don't even have one soldier. But one thing I've seen, I've watched your life, Abraham.

You have something I don't have. God is with you in everything that you do. Did he say that just by looking at his face? No, he had watched him for a long time.

I said, there's something about this man. I see the blessing of God upon his life. I mean, at that time, he just had a son born.

That was a supernatural miracle, chapter 21. This 100-year-old man suddenly gets a son. There's a blessing of God on his family.

You know, people must say that when they look at your family. There's no human way to explain this. There's a blessing of God on this man and on his family and on his children and on his work.

You can't explain it humanly speaking. Can they say that about you? They should be able to say that. God is with you.

You may not have a bigger house than them. You may not have as much of a salary as them. All those people may be much richer than you, like Abimelek was richer than Abraham.

But people must recognize you have something they don't have. You have God. God is with you.

That has been my desire wherever I have gone. I remember when these people took me to court. I said, that's okay.

Jesus said to me as I entered the court, I've been here before you. Don't worry. No, no, no.

I've been here before you. He's been to court. But when Jesus went to court, he was there.

God the Father was with him. And I said, that's all I want. God must be with me.

That's all. Even my lawyers must recognize that God is with me. People who accuse me, their lawyers must recognize, God is with me.

They can say whatever lies they want, but if God is with me, that's enough. That's just an example. If one day they take you to be killed for Jesus' sake.

Okay. Many people were killed. Almost all the apostles were killed.

But God was with them. Even when Jesus was being crucified, this Godless idol worshipping Roman centurion said, this is really the Son of God. I've never seen anything like this.

What did they see? What did they see that made him amazed? What is it that when they came to capture Jesus, they fell back? There was something about Jesus' presence and his face. He was not like other people. These Roman soldiers had gone and captured so many criminals, but this one was different.

There was a dignity about him. That must be found in you and me. People must recognize, God is with this home.

We may not agree with his theology, we may not agree with his religion, but we have to say, God is with him. Everybody may criticize you, doesn't matter. Everybody shouted, crucify him, crucify him against Jesus.

Somewhat. People recognize God is with them. See Genesis and chapter 26.

We read about Isaac. We read that the Philistines came to fight with him in verse 18 onwards about the wells of water he was digging. They were his wells.

His father had dug them, it says in verse 18. And it was all stopped up. The Philistines didn't want anybody to use it.

See, this is like the dog in the manger story, where you don't do it, use it yourself, you don't want anybody else to use it. And here, but Isaac's servants dug it up and got some water. Then verse 20, the herdsman of Gerar said, no, no, no, this is our water.

He said, okay, take it. We'll go somewhere else. They dug another well.

Verse 21, they quarreled over that also. He said, okay, take it, take it. They have moved to a third place.

They dug another well. And those fellows are ashamed of themselves by now. He said, the Lord, verse 22, has made room for us.

The Lord makes room for those who don't fight over earthly things. I have a feeling, this is not in the Bible, but I'll tell you what I feel. I have a feeling that those other two wells dried up after some time.

The Lord said, those are not the ones. These will dry up after some time. We have got to get somebody to fight with you, move from here, get to that third place.

Because of Romans 8, 28. Don't fight with people who fight with you. God can give you something better.

And the Lord made room for them. And the Lord appeared to him, verse 24. He said, don't worry, people fight with you.

I am with you. And Abimelech came now to Isaac, in verse 26, with the commander of the army. These are the guys who were fighting with him.

He said, what have you come for? One more fight? He said, no, no, no. We have seen one thing, verse 28, God is with you. And now, listen to this.

Please make an oath that you will not harm us and that you will never have a fight with us. See, you have got to picture this. This king with a huge army of thousands of people, coming to this poor farmer Isaac, please don't fight with us.

Can you think of this? Please don't fight with me. Who has got the army? Please make an agreement that you won't fight with us. Because we can't fight with God.

What a testimony! Old covenant. What are we supposed to be? The dignity those apostles had. We need men like that in our churches.

And God is with you. Not even that you preach fine messages. I don't want somebody to come to CFC and say, the music here is great, man.

I like this place. I'll tell you a true story that happened here. You know, we have visitors coming into our church now and then.

One day, a very musically talented couple came here. I knew them. Some years ago.

And that particular day, the music was bad. They never came again. I said, great.

This is wonderful. I don't want to attract anybody here with music. So Lord, when some person is coming here for the music, please make the music bad that day.

You see, this is the trouble with Christendom today. People are attracting people with music, attracting people with promises of prosperity and money. We have no such message to offer anybody.

And we don't have any feathers to tickle people's ears in our sermons. We want people to be drawn to our church because they say, well, that's the one place I can overcome sin and live a godly life. We don't want anybody to come for any other reason.

I tell you, people can come for other reasons. Like, on this church, there is no dowry. So, I've got four daughters, so this is the best church to join.

Well, I didn't join this church for that reason. I have no daughters. You have to ask yourself, on what basis are you attracting people to your church? Are you feeling sad? Oh, I wish we had some good music here.

Get some keyboard people and attract people. Is that how they drew people to Christ on the day of Pentecost? All these things are substitutes for the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm not against music.

I believe we must have the best music possible. But you know, in our poor village churches, they are not so rich for their parents to send their children for music lessons. They are not so rich to even buy a musical instrument.

The richest one of them can beat a drum. That's it. And those who are not even have that, they've got their hands.

What shall we say to such people? Make sure God is with you. That's enough. Many of those poor village churches, they don't have any money to offer even the poor brothers who come there to help them.

No, those who need help. So, they cannot give music, they cannot give money. What can they give? God.

That should be the thing that attracts people to our church. God is with them. Turn to another example, Genesis chapter 39.

This poor 17-year-old boy Joseph was sold off as a slave. See, God had a plan for Joseph. When I look at my life, in my early days, when I left the Navy, I thought I'd spend all my life with one particular group of churches.

And I went and joined that group. But lot of those workers were so jealous of my gifts that they made life so difficult for me and pushed me out. Exactly like Joseph's brothers got jealous of Joseph and pushed him out.

Because I was younger than all those workers and Joseph was younger than all his brothers. But God was with Joseph. It says here, Joseph was taken to Egypt and sold as a slave, chapter 39, verse 1. So what? The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man.

Everything went well with him. See, what God was doing is, God had given Joseph a vision. I've got a purpose for you, Joseph.

You're a young little boy, but you don't realize what a wonderful purpose I have for you. I praise God. I wish there were 17-year-olds in our churches who have a vision of God and His plan for their life.

We want young people like that, to have a vision that God's got a plan for their life. And God had to do something. He had to remove Joseph from being in the midst of people who would constantly be jealous of him and harass him.

See God, Joseph, I can't fulfill that plan in the midst of all these wretched brothers of yours. Joseph didn't understand that. Oh Lord, I thought I would live with these brothers all my life.

No, what am I going to do? That's exactly how I felt about 36 years ago. I just got married and we had a little son. And here I was out of the ministry I thought I was going to do for the rest of my life.

But now when I look back, I see that God had a different plan for my life. His plan for me was not to work there. Initially, yes.

But not later. I mean, I would never have met you wonderful brothers if I was in that other group of assembly. I would never have met some of the finest brothers in India.

How good God has been to me. And Joseph would never have accomplished the wonderful plan God had for his life if he had remained comfortably with his brothers at home. So he went through 13 years of struggle, slavery, court case, jail.

But in all those places it says God was with him. And not only God was with him, verse 3, his master saw that God was with him. See, when God is with you, people will recognize it.

Sure. Heathen people like Abimelech. Potiphar.

But Potiphar wasn't jealous like those godless brothers of Joseph. I tell you, some of the heathen sometimes treat us better than some of our jealous brothers. A jealous brother is closer to the devil than even the heathen.

Sure. The agents of the devil here were Joseph's brothers, not Potiphar. Descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, those were the servants of the devil.

Not this idling worshipping Potiphar. He could recognize that God was with Joseph, his own brothers couldn't recognize it. You know, people can recognize if God is with you.

Your neighbors will recognize it. People in your office will recognize it. Because they see you are upright.

I had a retired naval officer come to my house the other day. He was my classmate 45 years ago. He had never seen me for 45 years.

He retired as a very senior naval officer. He was a Hindu. He said, I've got cancer.

He said, I want you to pray for me. And he brought his nephew with him. He said, my nephew is going for an examination.

I want you to lay your hands on his head and pray for him. He said, I remember what you said to me about Christ 45 years ago. And he called me two days ago.

He said, I feel so peaceful after you prayed for me. He hasn't become a Christian. My prayer is that he'll become a Christian.

But people recognize when God is with you. I remember another senior officer in the Navy was a colleague of mine, classmate. He was an admiral and secretary to the President of India.

And he said to me, I think you made a better choice than I did years ago. And you have done so much for people. I've just become a big officer here.

See, I believe that if you live, you don't have to preach so much. A few days, a few years ago, I was with another and met another naval officer at the airport. He was also a very senior officer.

He was my classmate 40 years ago. And we were traveling in the planes of Delhi. And somehow that plane was going up and down like anything.

He was sitting next to me. He said, Zach, I know nothing will happen to this plane as long as you're here. I'm quite at rest.

He hasn't seen me for 40 years. But he remembers. You know, people will not forget.

They may forget your sermons, but they won't forget your life. They won't forget that you made choices which are different from theirs. At a meeting of retired officers, I met another naval officer who was much senior to me.

He was also an admiral. He said to me at that function, he also hasn't seen me for 40 years. He said, Zach, I'll never forget how you gave up everything 40 years ago.

See, they won't forget that you made choices which are not according to the way they make choices. That they see by your life that this world doesn't count anything for you. That when you talk about eternity and heaven, it's real.

Do people say that when they see your life? Oh, they say, oh, it's just a religion. This fellow's religion is like this. My religion is like that.

No. Potiphar recognized. He didn't worship Joseph's God.

He knew that Joseph doesn't come and bow down to the idols like we do here. They had a lot of idol worship in Egypt. And Joseph lived there and never went to that idol worship where his master may have invited him.

It may have made the master angry, but he recognized God is with this man. And it says here, the Lord blessed middle of verse 5, this house of Potiphar because of Joseph. Amazing.

But God blesses other people because we are there. And then, you know, he was falsely accused and put into jail. What happens then? Then God moves out of Potiphar's house and goes to the jail.

That's it. And Potiphar's business, everything goes down. All types of problems come in the house.

But the jail is getting blessed. It's amazing. How did that happen? How does a jail get blessed? Because Joseph is there.

It doesn't matter where you are. They can put you in jail, the jail will get blessed. It says here in verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph in the jail.

And in verse 23 again, it says the Lord was with him and whatever he did in the jail began to prosper. You know, some people say, brother, my circumstances are so difficult. More difficult than this jail? And I tell you, nowadays jails are like five-star hotels compared to this jail in Egypt in those days.

This is just some hole in the ground or something they dug in some cave and say, that's your jail. Go and sit there. With the cockroaches and rats and all types of things.

But the Lord was there. Boy, that's a tremendous thing. And that's our calling.

I want you to turn now to Acts 3 Apostles. Yeah, before that, let me show you in Genesis 41, I think it is, where Pharaoh recognizes what a blessing Joseph can bring upon him. And he appoints Joseph.

Here we read in the last part of verse 41. After Pharaoh pulls him out of jail in verse 14. And he explains the dream to him and Pharaoh.

And then Pharaoh gives him his position of the second ruler in the whole country. We read in verse 43. And he says, I give you authority that no one can ever, verse 44, raise hand or foot in Egypt without your permission.

So the reason why he did that is in verse 38. Pharaoh said to his servants, I've seen a lot of people in Egypt, but I've never seen anybody like this fellow who's got the spirit of God with him. This guy was not even Egyptian.

We pulled him out of jail, but God's with him, man. This is Pharaoh. The world's top ruler.

That is our calling. How much more in the new covenant? We don't have testimonies of the richest people in the world or more handsome people in the world or the most intelligent people in the world. Some of you may listen.

I know there are different people who listen to me preach and say, Oh, I wish I could preach like Brother Zach. Don't covet that. That's a gift God's given.

You know what you need? Lord, let it be seen that God is with me. That's more important. Preaching is a calling and a gift.

But God being with you, that's for every one of God's children. And that's the most important thing. And these examples challenge us to that.

Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10. And Peter was speaking to Cornelius. There's a beautiful verse about the power of the Holy Spirit in verse 38.

It says here about Jesus being anointed with the Holy Spirit. And what's the mark of being anointed with the Holy Spirit? See verse 38. God was with him.

Like Joseph, like Isaac, like Abraham and much more than that. God was with him. He is the author and finisher of our faith.

We have to demonstrate to the world that we have a father in heaven. That Jesus is alive. That I am the apple of his eye.

That no one can touch a hair on my head without his permission. That it is my father who feeds the birds of the air. And he feeds me.

My father is the one who clothes the grass of the field and he clothes me. And he takes care of his children better than any earthly father takes care of his children. Whatever your need, your heavenly father will provide.

We have to demonstrate that God is with me. You know a lot of people say, what is the mark of being baptized in the Holy Spirit? Speaking in tongues. I don't believe that.

I thank God for the gift. But God is with me. That is the most important thing.

That's what it says about Jesus. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. God was with him.

And that's in a much greater way than he was with those Old Testament people. Let's seek for that. Let's seek for that.

If God is with us, he will always give us a word for people to whom we have to give a word. That's how it was with Jesus. It says in Isaiah 50 verse 4, that he had a word in season for every weary person who came across his spot.

A word for the weary people who came across him. See, that's the mark, one mark that God is with you. It's not talking about preachers.

It's talking about having a word for that weary person who has come to you. God is with you. It will always be there.

So let's take up this challenge. Lord, people who look at my life must know that I have a father in heaven. And people who watch me and my family live on this earth must recognize these folks have something we don't have.

Why has God allowed his children to face the same type of pressures that other people face? To show that we are like them, but we overcome. Because of one reason. Jesus is alive.

Let's spend a few moments in prayer.