Plant the Victory Flag of Jesus in Every Crisis

Let's begin with prayer. Father, we want to listen. We want to have hearts that are obediently listening to you, to what you say through your word. Help us Lord Jesus, you said to pray without ceasing, which means to listen always. So no matter who is speaking, no matter how we're speaking, help us to be listening to what you are trying to say through us. Lord Jesus, I want to listen too. Through the words that come out of my mouth, help me to listen Lord, so that I might also hear what you're trying to tell me through this. In Jesus name, Amen. Isn't that a wonderful thing? I look forward sometimes to speaking because I'm interested to hear what the Lord is trying to tell me. As I'm speaking, it's a beautiful way in which to minister, that you're cooking the food and you're also enjoying the food at the same time. And this is the wonderful, pleasurable, easy burden, if there is, of serving God, because he feeds us. Sometimes the best meal comes to us. I can tell you that from experience. As we serve, we feel the most filled up. So it's a tremendous privilege to serve God. And it's not a sacrifice. Not if you're getting the best portion. If I get the best chunk of meat or whatever it is, the best dish in the room, what kind of sacrifice is that? And so if I'm speaking and the Lord speaks most mightily to me through my own words that are coming to him, as the Lord is using it to affect me, isn't that a beautiful thing? Has you seek to serve the Lord? May that always be the principle on which you serve. That is burden is light, is yoke is easy. You know, I spoke, I can't remember when it was, Monday or wherever it was, I spoke about being chosen by God. You have no idea how amazing that truth is. I have no idea how amazing that truth is. I remember the Lord laying this thought on my heart that the biggest problem the Lord always has with me, the biggest issue that the Lord has with me is that I have no idea how much he loves me. It's not my lust. It's not my anger. It's not my insecurities. It is that I do not know how much he loves me. This is God's number one issue with every one of you. Consider that, that you do not accept that you do not know how much God loves you. This is the theology, the teaching of being chosen. Despite all the crazy, stupid, idiotic, foolish things you've done and are going to do, God says I have chosen you. You have no idea how much he loves you. So, Matthew chapter 12 verse 18. That's where I was and I, we stopped, we just basically considered the first couple of sentences there. Behold my servant in whom I am well pleased and who I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. This is the starting point. Dear brothers and sisters, if you ever find yourself lost, go back to the starting point. If you ever find yourself confused or not sure what to make of the Christian life, what to do, what your purpose in life is, go back to the starting point. You have been chosen to be part of God's team, to be on the team of Jesus, to be in the beloved in where you find that God smiles at you and is well pleased with you. That is the starting point. And then he goes on to say that I will put my spirit in Christ. And that's the next thing I feel and believe that the Lord wants to do in us. As he puts us in Christ and says I'm always smiling at you, I'm always well pleased with you in Christ, because when I'm in Christ, he doesn't see me, he sees Christ. And so just as he was always well pleased with Christ, he always is well pleased with me in Christ. And that is the only way I can access the Father, period. Jesus is the only way to the Father. We know that verse. So if you're going and looking at the Father, if you're standing before the Father, there's only one way you got there. It is in Christ. And if you're standing there in Christ, he's well pleased with you because he sees Christ. You're coming in Christ's righteousness. He doesn't look at your track record. But that doesn't mean he's not interested in addressing the track record. As I said in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, he's chosen you before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. So he's given you an incredible motivation saying, I'm calling you up all the way, creator of the universe saying, I want you to be on my team. And despite all my failures, you still want me on your team? Despite all the things I'm going to do, you still want me on your team? Yes, I want you on my team. I knew then from the beginning. I want you on my team. And that becomes a great motivation of love with which now to say, Lord, I want to be pleasing to you. In my daily actions too. So I consider, I look at it this way. This is how I've lived my life for many years. I consider myself like a little child who God says, come, come, come closer, come closer. Don't marvel at all the sun and the moon and the stars. Stop marveling at all the angels and the golden throne. Come all the way and sit on my lap. And now when you sit on my lap, let me show you something that's written on my palm. You know what's written on my palm? On the palm of God? What is written on the palm of God? My name. Isaiah 49 verse 15. So he makes me come and sit on his lap. And he says, you know what's on the palm of almighty God? Sandeep. Your name. You can see your name there. Because that's what he said in his word. And he makes me sit on his lap and he asks me to be at rest. And he asks me to be like a child who wants nothing from the father and the mother. Like a weaned child says, I don't need the mother for milk anymore. I just want the mother for its company and its security and its love. And like a child that has been weaned and doesn't need anything from the mother, doesn't need milk from the mother, but just wants to be loved. I sit on the father's lap of love. And I allow myself to be loved by God. And I recognize the great promises of God that he tells me about his love. That he can go and fall asleep in my lap. When you wake up, I'm still with you. That's Psalm 139 verse 18 or 17. I've loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31 verse 3. There's so many promises like that, that we have to know and remember that he's telling this all when he's saying, I don't want you to do anything for me. I've chosen you. In the beloved you, you are well pleasing to me. Be affirmed. Be so settled about that. Be at rest. Don't try to impress me with all your antics and all your little prayers. Just be at rest with me. Mary found the one thing to do. Just sit with me. Martha, you're trying to do so many things to impress me. Stop. Just come and sit on my lap. And enjoy my love. Like a child enjoys the father's love. And then we'll start to find that our insecurities slowly melt away. Our worries slowly melt away. Our desires to impress others melt away. Because God Almighty through his word is telling us that he accepts us and he's chosen us. And then he says, go and become holy and blameless. So now run along boy. You're going to run and be in this world after you sat on my lap. Now as Jeremy was saying, this could happen many times a day. It could happen at every bathroom break. Look, smokers go every 90 minutes to smoke. To get their fix. Why can't we go? Get you a little two minute fix of the love of God. But then he says, go back and be holy and blameless. So there's a calling to be holy and blameless. In the world, but all fueled by the great love of God. And for that he doesn't say, now go perform on your own. He says, I will give you my Holy Spirit. Now I want to ask you a question. How easy is it for you to receive the Holy Spirit? Just ask. Do you have a Bible verse to prove that? Okay. This is a very important verse. So let's try to remember all. That's exactly what I think the answer is. You just need to ask. Luke chapter 11. We make it so complicated. Luke chapter 11 verses 11 through 13. I'm just going to read that. When he says, I'll give you my Holy Spirit and my Holy Spirit will be in him. Look, when we ask, let's say you were to ask your 10 year old brother or your 10 year old son or your 10 year old sister. Would ask you, how can I be born again? I hope you know how to tell them. Think about it. If your 10 year old sister or brother would ask you, can I be born again? Would you be like, well go ask daddy or mommy. Go read a book. Or can you tell them? It's a very important thing. This is the first. This is what takes you from darkness into life. It's a big, big step. For the 10 year old then, you should know how to do it. Hopefully you've done it. And the two words that you can remember is repentance and faith. And so, you don't need to use those words to a 10 year old, but those are the two things that help me remember. Repentance, faith. Repentance, faith. Repentance is to turn around and to say, change your way of thinking. So you'll tell your 10 year old, you want to do whatever you want to do. You want to play whenever you want to play. You want to eat whenever you want to eat. You want to sleep whenever you want to sleep. You want to watch whatever you want to watch on the phone. That's not how Jesus wants us to be. So if you want to be born again, you have to change your way of thinking. You can't do whatever you want. You can't think whatever you want. You can't watch whatever you want. When mommy tells you to come inside, you've got to come inside. You've got to obey your parents. If you don't do whatever you want, obey your parents. And then ask Jesus to come into your heart. That's what we tend to generally say. That's what at least I would tell a 10 year old. I'd say, Jesus, please be with me. And then I would show the 10 year old scriptures to say that when we ask Jesus into our heart, He will not turn away. That He'll accept us. And then we have to give those scriptures to them and then we have to say, now we pray. And that doesn't make them born again, but they have to believe it. Then they have to have the confidence that the Lord is true, what we have shown them. And we'll see a change in their lives. Maybe even as a 10 year old. Maybe some of you can speak about that. That's what it means to be born again. But when we were born again, who came into our heart? Did Jesus come into our heart? No, because Jesus is in heaven. Who came into our heart? The Holy Spirit came into my heart. We say the word Jesus because a 10 year old, it's for you, for the Holy Spirit to come and live in you when you were first born again. You just had to change your way of thinking. But the moment you change your way of thinking, saying, I don't want to do whatever I want. I want to do what Jesus wants me to do. And you asked God in simple faith. You may have said, Jesus, please come into my heart. Jesus knew what you were talking about. The Father knew who you were talking about. The Holy Spirit knew who you were talking about. And the Holy Spirit came into your life. And then you have the assurance. You have the confidence based on some verse. That God had accepted you. The process is the same for the rest of your life. And how you continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's no different. What if the 10 year old says, I didn't feel anything. When I was born. I believe it but I don't feel anything. Would you tell such a person, well then you're not born again? Come on, would you? No, we wouldn't. So why do we feel that we want the Holy Spirit to fill us that we need a feeling? We believe all kinds of lies, of stories. Because Acts chapter 2, there was a fire and there was a wind. I must hear some noise. Something must happen, at least a tingle down my spine. And we believe lies about this thing called baptism in the Holy Spirit. Filling in the Holy Spirit. When we become adults. But we won't do that to our children. We won't tell that to our younger sisters. Hey, this is how you receive the Holy Spirit into your life. Don't make it more complicated for yourself. So Luke chapter 11, 11 through 13. He makes a very simple point. That if a child, if your 10-year-old child asks for food, for bread, you won't give him a stone. And if your 10-year-old brother or 4-year-old sister asks for fish, you're not going to give him a scorpion. Very simple. And you know you're messed up. But you wouldn't do that to a 4-year-old. We know we're all messed up, we wouldn't do that to a 4-year-old. And then Jesus says these words in verse 13, Luke chapter 11. You guys are at least nice enough to do that. But you're evil compared to God. When you ask God for the Holy Spirit, what's He going to do? But He's altogether good. And that's the one thing you need to be holy and blameless. Like Jesus was holy and blameless. That's the one thing you need is the Holy Spirit. He'll give them to you. So, should we have a 30-minute prayer meeting right now for you to receive the Holy Spirit? Can you ask the Holy Spirit right now in 10 seconds? Lord, I want to change my way of thinking about how I want to live my life. I want to be radical, as we heard in the morning. I want to be radical for you. I want to be wholehearted for you. I'm changing my way of thinking to be wholehearted for you. Lord, the only way for me to do that is if you give me a Holy Spirit. Please fill my life with the Holy Spirit. What was that? 15 seconds? 30 seconds? Did He come in or not? How are you going to know whether He came in? On the authority of God's Word. You know that your sins are forgiven. You know that the Holy Spirit has come in. How do you know your sins are forgiven? The authority of God's Word. This book, just turn a few pages, you'll find that truth that you all seem to very easily believe. How about the power of the Holy Spirit to live holy and blameless for you? Here's the qualifications. Seek to be wholehearted. Seek to be hungry for the Lord. And then ask Him, please Lord, impossible for me to live holy and blameless for you. If you don't give me your Holy Spirit. And you know what God says? You can have Him. You can have Him in all of His measure and as much as you can handle. And He comes to make you holy in your actions. As you listen to Him. He'll never take control of your life. He'll never possess you and start moving your tongue without you knowing or moving your hand away from the mouth. So that you don't click on that link. Never happened to me. I at times wished that would happen to me but never did. I've never seen that. But He's a helper. He helps me. As I give control of my hand to Him. He helps pick it up, put it somewhere else. He helps me control my tongue. He's a helper. So the Holy Spirit has come to help you be holy and blameless. And when the burden of being holy and blameless gets too difficult for you, what should you do? Run back to the lap of love. And refuel. And then go out and maybe venture out for 10 minutes. And then Facebook starts to bombard you with all the wonderful things your friends did. While you were sitting at home. And then you got to run back to the Father's lap. To refuel on the love of God. That God loves me. Venture out into the world again and seek to be holy and blameless before Him. It's all based, founded on the fact that God says I want you on my team. I want you to be an elite athlete. I want you to be an elite Christian. I want you to be a wholehearted Christian. Just like Jesus was. And as we make Jesus our hero. And as we sit on the lap of love and we say Jesus how did you do it? We see that He sat on the lap of love first too. And then He came knowing that He always had a Father with Him. He then sought to be holy and blameless on this earth. And He lived it out perfectly. And Jesus says you can do it too. I did it by the power of the Holy Spirit. And you have the Holy Spirit. Ask Him to help you. You may, the feelings may be there but disregard the feelings. I will put my spirit upon Him. Then it goes on to say, let's turn back to Matthew chapter 12. And then He says He will declare Jesus. Matthew chapter 12 verse 18, that last sentence in there. It says He will declare justice to the Gentiles. Now that word justice is an interesting word. The first thing to declare to the Gentiles. And this is what Jesus and the Holy Spirit wants to proclaim to my life. One who is loved, I've chosen you. I'm well pleasing with you. I've given you the Holy Spirit. This is all done already. When you're at the starting line of the race. I gave you a jet pack. I told you you're my team. I gave you the jersey of Jesus. And I told you you're eternally loved. Every time you need to refuel, I'm right here. You can always come and refuel with me. I'm with you all the way. It's going to be a marathon. It's going to be difficult. It's going to be long times. It's going to be painful at times. But I'm always with you. You can always see me right there to the left. You can always take a break. Sit on my lap and refuel. And I've given you the Holy Spirit. I've given you my jersey. And now, I'm going to tell you what you need to do. He's going to proclaim justice. And the word for that was an interesting word that I thought was helpful for me. In understanding what this justice was. I'm not a scholar of the Greek or anything. And I'm not trying to get anybody of you to be a scholar of the Greek or the Hebrew. But that word justice is a word in Greek which is crisis. Interestingly enough. Crisis. He's going to proclaim crisis to the Gentiles. He's going to bring you to a crisis point in your life. Where you have to make a decision. That's what happens at this crisis point. And so the Holy Spirit is going to come to you. And through the situations of life. Sometimes small. Sometimes big. Sometimes I can't find my keys. Through sometimes big. I just found out I have cancer. Crisis points in my life. Where you have to make a decision. Whether to be holy and blameless. Or whether to do your own will. That's where the Holy Spirit comes. Giving you the jersey. Giving you the fullness of love. Giving you the Holy Spirit. And he says I'm going to come bring you to crisis points in your life. Where you have to make a decision. And this is what we call trials. That we seem to hate. This is what we seem to call temptations and all those things. The Holy Spirit is not giving us these temptations. But he's using all of those things. He's allowing it to bring us to a crisis point in our lives. Where we have to make a decision. We have to make a choice. Jeremy I think at some point talked about living in the most holy place. Where there's a will that has to be torn. That's what I'm talking about. This crisis point is saying will you tear your own will and live with me? Or are you going to go with your feelings? How many times have you told to somebody. Or you've told yourself. I just don't feel like I'm close to God. How many times have you told yourself. I don't know I just feel like I'm in a weird season. Where I just feel distant from God. This is normal in the Christian world. It is absolutely abnormal for the true Christian. What do you mean you feel far from God? Who cares what you feel? Is God far from you or not? That's what matters. And on the basis of God's word. I can tell you whether God is far from you or not. If you repent. If you change your way of thinking. And you accept God's word. You are on God's lap. I don't feel like I'm on God's lap. Who cares? Show me a young man. Show me a young woman who can say who cares to his feelings. Show me a young woman who can say who cares to every one of her feelings. And I'll show you a man or woman of God who is going to be a woman of God. And a man of God. Show me one who is listening to their feelings. And I'll show you one who will never become a man or woman of God. This is such a huge problem. Maybe one of the number one problems. We have heard about discouragement too. Listening to your feelings. Show me somebody who is listening to their feelings. And I'll show you somebody who is not a man or woman of God. Show me a man or a woman. I don't care how old are you. Who are starting to say I don't care about whatever feeling I'm feeling. It doesn't change the truth of who I am in God. Or what God says about me. And I'll show you a man or a boy or a young boy or a young girl. Who is going to become an amazing witness for Jesus in this generation. The reason I'm saying that is because I know how much of a huge problem it is for every one of you. I know how much the devil is deceiving you. Into living a substandard life just because all of Christendom says it's okay. Try to do one day. Where you don't pay attention to any of your feelings. Like today. And then tomorrow just rinse and repeat. One day at a time. My life changed from ordinary up and down to like a rocket ship. When I made that decision. And it wasn't a decision made on a day. It was a decision made through my lifestyle. Where I started telling my feelings. I don't care what you are telling me right now. It is absolutely immaterial. I'm going to go with God's word. He's going to give you these crisis points in your life. Where it feels like solving the problem through chocolate. Or potato chips. Or a pint of ice cream. Or video games. Or getting a fancy red car. Or trying to run after that pretty girl. Or getting married. Any kind of things. Let's solve the crisis point that way. And the Lord says come to me. Come back to the lap of love. Be holy and blameless before me. Deny your will. You know the message of the cross. Take up your cross. Sounds so gory. Deny yourself. Sounds so depressing. It is depressing. But that's not the command of Jesus in a vacuum. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Period. Is that the end of the statement? No. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. And be with me. That's not depressing. That's the whole sentence there. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Boring. Really hard. Yeah, you didn't read the whole sentence. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. And be with me. Who's me? Jesus. In whose presence is fullness of joy. Who's full of joy and love and peace and rest. That's the only cross you're gonna have to bear. Is the cross to where you say no to your feelings. And yes to fullness of joy. Where Jesus is at. Then it's not so much of a cross. If I see that what's on the other side of the cross is Jesus. If I see what's on the other side of the veil is the very presence of God. Then I tear the veil. So I welcome every cross in my life. Because these are the crisis points in my life. That God says. Hey, I'm on the other side of this. If you deny yourself, I'm right there with you. Find your satisfaction. Find your comfort in me. I'll tell you this is my true testimony for the last several years. My name is Sandeep Poonen. I'm 43 years old and I'm a very happy man. Can you say that? Well, Sandeep, it's because you're married. No. It's because you have four children. No. I'll show you plenty of people who are married. Four children is one number of children. It's because you've got enough money to pay your bills. No. Because I know what's been on the other side of that. Denying myself and taking up the cross in this pursuit of holiness. Is I'm being with Jesus. And it's not my testimony alone. It's the testimony of the elders who we served together with me. And I know this to be the testimony of several brothers in our church. Ancestors. Such a pleasant life. If you ever come to California, you can come and meet some of us. We are not preaching theories. And we're not preaching something that we discovered five minutes ago. Or five days ago. Or five months ago. This is a life we have been enjoying in increasing measure for years. So how does Jesus now deal with us as we come to these crisis points? This is a beautiful thing about Jesus that we need to see. In verse 19 and 20. It's a beautiful thing about Jesus as we said, Take my yoke upon me for I am humble and gentle at heart. The Jesus I live with is an extremely gentle Jesus. That doesn't mean he has not very strong things to say to me. He can rebuke me very strongly but he also does that in a very gentle way. He will not quarrel nor cry out. Nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised wreath he will not break. And a smoking flax, smoldering wick. That means a candle that's already almost burnt out. It's just a few seconds left before the candle burnt out. He's not going to blow it and be like, oh it's useless. No, he seeks to preserve that little flame that's left in that candle that's almost done. He says, let's get some more wax to it. Let's bolster up this little smoldering wick and bring more wax to it. So the Holy Spirit comes to help us. You wonder about the statement, right? Where he says that Jesus stands at the door and knocks. Knocks, knocking, knocking, knocking. Almighty God standing at the door of Christians. This is written in Revelation chapter 3. That is to a Christian church. But he's out there knocking. You think Almighty God can't force his way in? He's not going to force his way with you. But he wants you to slowly recognize the kind of person I am is a gentle person. I'm here to help you. And he's not going to extinguish you. He wants to build you up. This is the Jesus and this is the Holy Spirit who's trying to make me holy. That is constantly encouraging, affirming. Correcting me and then affirming me. Showing me my sin, proclaiming justice, bringing me to crisis points in my life in a very gentle way. My son, you're 25 years old and you still don't know what 2 plus 2 is for. I work with you. As opposed to, man you're 25 years old and you still don't know what 2 plus 2 is? What's wrong with you? What voice do we hear? Which 25-year-old should know? How many 25-year-olds should not know that 2 plus 2 is 4? Everyone who should know it. So in many ways, in the same way, there are many things we ought to know by now as Christians. But the way the Holy Spirit deals with us, the way God deals with us is quietly. He's a gentle Jesus who's trying to deal with us. So in the crisis points of our lives where we have to make our decision, we have to see this Jesus who's rooting for us. Who's so much on our side. I'm not trying to give you a feel-good gospel. I want you to think about this. I want you to think about the crisis points that are in your life right now. You gotta think about this very practically. Think about the sin that's got a grip over you. Think about the circumstance that is right now in your life that seems like such a yoke. Or seems like such a horrible thing to be in. Think about that crisis point. And the Holy Spirit's trying to tell you, you have to make a decision here. You have to carry a cross, you have to deny yourself, stop listening to your feelings, start listening to God's word. I still love you, I'm still on the throne, I defeated the devil. Nothing shall separate me from the love of Jesus. With Christ I can do all things. He's made me an overwhelming conqueror with Him and in Him. I've learned the secret of being content in every situation because Jesus is with me. But He's saying it in a gentle way. And Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit are never coming at you because they're angry at you. They discipline you harshly to reprove you. But they're quick with the salve, with the ointment to affirm you. Anybody who's had a loving parent, who even got disciplined physically. How would you discipline your daughter if you had a daughter now? You'd better discipline her. But how would you do it? Wouldn't you be stern and strong but with a heart full of love? And then wouldn't you want to eagerly welcome them back with an outpouring of love? Is God no different? This is how He is. He's a very kind and a gentle Jesus. He's a kind and a gentle Holy Spirit. He's a comforter seeking to get us till He sends forth, that's verse 20. Until that conviction and that crisis point leads to victory. Till those crisis points become a fortress of victory. A mountain top where the flag of Jesus is planted. He's going to deal with you gently. He's going to say, come with me, come with me, come with me, stay with me, stay with me, I'll help you. Take my yoke, you're weary and heavy laden again today, come with me. Take my yoke upon you. It's easy and light. And I'll bring you to victory. And in His name, the Gentiles will hope. That we will have hope in the name of Jesus. We will not have hope in any other, in our name being validated. In our name being, He's the most holy person or He's the smartest person or He's the most athletic person. Or He's the most handsome or She's the most beautiful person. She's the best cook. She's got the best handwriting. She's got the best hair. I don't know what you have want associated with your name. She's the one who's got the good well-being of children. She's the one with the happening boyfriend and the happening wife. She's the one who lives in the biggest house. She's the one with the best three-point shot. He's the one with the best spike in volleyball. He's got the best topspin in ping-pong. I don't know what's associated with my name. Look, He's the one who has been associated with our conversations on the playground out there. He's got the best shot, this, that. What's associated with our names? And look, we can all have friendly competition. I did that. I do a lot of that myself. Those who are living with me know how I play with you. But does it get attached to my name? Then I have to be careful. And look, it's not easy. I hate it when I lose and I love it when I win. Because I love the association of that with my name. And I have to fight to flush it out. To get rid of it. That it's about my name. Man, you talk to Sandeep, he knows the Bible really well. You talk to Sandeep, he's always got such a great encouraging word. I'm like, really, they said that about me? Oh, no, no, that's not, you know, I'm just an ordinary guy. But I'm loving it. Because that's my name. And I have to treat it like dirt. It's on my shirt. Then I have to make sure that it falls off, flicks off. I can't stop the dirt sometimes. And sometimes the attack of pride to come and get onto my shirt. So I have to quickly seek to brush it off. It's beyond the words, it's a spirit. Because that's, if I don't deal with that spirit, that's where jealousy comes in. The spirit of competition. That's where bitterness comes in. I don't like the fact that my mom complimented her cooking more than mine. That's where resentment begins. With that friend or that sister. I don't like the fact that he's always getting the attention. Resentment, bitterness comes in. Among the people you say you love. Among the friends, among your different loved ones. This is how sin begins. Often times among the ones we love the most. It attacks all of us. People are always going to compliment different things about different people. You're going to think that you've got the best hair until you meet some other girl who's got better hair. And then you're going to start to be worried about it. You're going to think you're the best cook in the neighborhood until you go to another state. And you find you're just an ordinary cook. Because you go to visit this family and all of them are just making incredible meals. And you're like, man, I'm useless. And you don't know what to do with yourself. Because it's in your name that you've been hoping. Sandeep, the great computer guy. Sandeep, the great sports guy. Dot, dot, dot. Sandeep, the great bible guy. Whose name do you hope in? In his name such people will trust. That means we've got to stop worrying about our name as much as we've thought about it. We've got to stop thinking about ourselves so much like we tend to think about all day. Our father who art in heaven please help Sandeep's name prosper today. Our father who art in heaven. Second line of the prayer. It's about you. It's about your name. It's about your name. And look, I'm talking about an addiction that is with us all day long. My name, my name, my name, my name, my validation, my this, my that. It's so seductively deep within us. I guarantee you that if you've got a nice big bonus if you're one of the guys you're kind of feeling a little better today. You just got a text from your boss saying, hey, I kind of like you. Give me another $50,000. Oh. Okay. It's a good day. If the guy you like looked in your direction and smiled at you sounds like it's a good day for some of you women. My name. I'm not telling you these things are bad things. Trust me. If my boss tells me I got $50,000, it's a wonderful thing. He's never told me that. I'll send him this message. It's not a bad thing. It was a wonderful thing when my wife looked at me and smiled at me the first time. Trust me. It's not a bad thing, but the question is now is that what makes me, gives me validation? Or I have to say, no Lord, the $50,000 doesn't give me validation. It's your name. I want to be about your name. That's where it comes all the way back to why it is all about his name because I was pointless. I was worthless. I was a wretch. I was a sinner. And he's the only one who had a hope in me. He saw the end from the beginning. Everybody else gave up on me. The devil was saying, just go kill yourself. And Jesus was saying, no. Are you kidding me? I've got such great hope for you. Come on. Be on my team. Take my jersey. I'll give you the Holy Spirit. I've chosen you. Because he did that at the very beginning. Because he gave me his very Holy Spirit to help me every day. Because he always gives me the lap of love in which to sit and be reaffirmed. Lord, it's all about you. What am I without you? What's the point of my name without you being around in his name? We call ourselves Christians. It's really the only thing we need to know which means it's about Christ. Christian. I want to be about the name of Jesus Christ. I want to wear a shirt that doesn't distract from the fact that I'm a Christian. That may make me not buy certain shirts when I'm buying shirts. Even as men. Look. Men or women. And I'm not making any rule here. But your rule may be different from mine. It'll affect the way women choose what they want to wear. Because I'm reflecting Jesus Christ because it's his name. Not my beautiful hair and my beautiful shoulders that need to be doing this and my beautiful forearms and my beautiful biceps or whatever it is. It's all my name. Stuff related to this. Then the concept of modesty changes. Because fundamentally I want to be about the name of Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean I can't seem to be attractive. It doesn't mean I can't seem to be presentable. It doesn't mean I can't buy blue because I like the color blue. No, but through all of that it is about the name of Jesus. It affects the way I talk. What jokes I laugh at. It affects my conversations. Because I'm a Christian. And so I have an opinion about when I see that boy who's sitting in the back who nobody seems to think is cool or relevant. And the Lord may say look maybe you got to go talk to them. I'll tell you look I enjoy all of you guys. I want to tell you honestly. I enjoy talking to all of you guys and having fun with all of you guys. But I'll tell you what I'm searching for in every conversation I have with Christians. I'm searching always for people who can inspire me with their devotion for Jesus. And their fear of God. I value every one of you. I can, trust me, Jeremy will tell you but we have a lot of conversations we have which is nothing about Jesus. I'm not this you got to talk to me about all about Jesus. Believe me I'm not. Don't take this the wrong way. We have plenty of conversations about the Golden State Warriors and why are they going to win again next year and Lionel Messi versus Ronaldo and all kinds of other things. We do. Not saying there's no place for it. But when I meet a Christian and there's a time and there's a place for things and when we're talking about different things and the subject changes I'm looking to be inspired by a heart that loves Jesus. Even among all of you. Now look please please please when I come and talk to you now just start saying okay now I need to show him I love Jesus too. Please don't. But as the conversation changes naturally I have noticed times when I've had a two minute conversation with a woman. A much older woman than me. A godly woman with a white hair, 60 years old, 70 years old. I remember talking to her maybe 2-3 minutes. This is in India. And I remember walking away saying wow I tasted of Jesus just there. Two minute conversation. I remember that so vividly. I remember the position in which we were both standing. As I was looking at her and I remember her face. I remember walking away thinking I just tasted of Jesus. We're talking about life. I tasted something. And this was a woman who gloried in the name of Jesus. For decades. She was 60 years old or something. So in a two minute conversation because I was also hungry for it, I tasted it. We were talking about our children. We were talking about Matthew 14, 16 and what it means. We were talking about a very practical subject about her children and I tasted Jesus. And so we can be playing in the volleyball field and we can be playing in sports and it could be an off comment. It could be a little action and somebody could say I tasted of Jesus through that girl. And I'm looking for that. I'm looking for those little indications and I have tasted it in this conference this week by many of you. And I appreciate that. And I don't think I'm some big superstar who can't taste it among every one of you. You have the Holy Spirit living in you. God himself. If you call yourself a Christian, there's something I can learn from you. Just because you're 15 years old, if you have the Holy Spirit, you've got God himself in you. And if you let it work through you, through the crisis points in your life, through those choices, you don't have to try. You don't have to speak for 25 minutes. It could be a one or two sentence conversation. But those who are hungry will taste something, will smell of a fragrance that is of Jesus. And I'll take it with me. I'll take it with me for the rest of the life, some of the conversations I had with you this week. Because I've tasted of Jesus through your confidence in him, through your reverence for God, through your desire to please him, through your earnestness to get back to him. He's a gentle Jesus. He will take you through a crisis. He'll give you the Holy Spirit. He takes you to these crisis points in your life where he wants you to make a decision. When you take up your cross and follow him, follow him, follow him. And he'll be gentle with you. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. But you're going to have to take up a cross. And we'll be suffering in the ways. But he's on the other side. He says, I'll be with you. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and be with me. Follow me. Just be with me. Just be right behind me. I'm right there with you. And he'll bring victory into your life. Until those crisis points of over and over and over again where that annoying sister of yours who keeps bothering you and that annoying co-worker of yours doesn't suddenly get cancer and die. That crisis point becomes a place of victory for you. So the co-worker's still there. He got a promotion. But you got victory. And he doesn't bother you anymore. He's still the same annoying guy. But you've got victory. The crisis points have become a place of victory. There's a flag of Jesus Christ planted over there. Every time I see Mr. Annoying coming down the road, I'm like, Jesus' flag is planted over him. Because those crisis points have become a justice to victory. Crisis points to flags of victory. And usually the more annoying the person is, the bigger the flag that Jesus wants to plant in that situation. I discovered this in my own life after a time when I was praying for my boss to do something. I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed of a time when my boss one day, it was really tough on me, and one day I found out that my boss' daughter had to go to the hospital. And the thought dwelled in my mind too long. It may have been just for a minute or two. But the thought dwelled in my mind for a couple of minutes. That's what you get for messing with a Christian. I'm ashamed. And I repented of it. I said, Lord, please forgive me. How could I have such a horrible thing? You sent this crisis point called Johnny. His name was not Johnny. I'm used to changing his name. But this is my boss, Johnny. He brought a crisis point in my life. This is where you wanted to plant your flag and instead I'm wishing evil on him? And I had to change my perspective about Johnny, my boss. And I had to realize that God wanted to plant in all of his toughness on me, he wanted to plant victory, the victory of Jesus in it. And so, I don't pray for the trial to just be over like that. I pray for me to have victory. So, I'll pray for my kid to be healed from sicknesses and my children may have some sicknesses, but I pray for them with all faith to be healed. But I don't think that God heals everybody. I know he doesn't. It's such a lie of the devil that God heals everybody of physical sickness. He doesn't. God can heal, doesn't mean God will heal. I will believe till my dying day and I'll pray to God as one who can heal. But God does not heal. That's bad thought theology that God will heal everybody physically. My glasses is proof. You know what's a sickness? It's called myopia. I had to go to a doctor to fix it and give me some glasses. I find a lot of healers who believe that God will heal everybody wearing glasses. Like, you're a walking contradiction. God will heal, God will heal. Well, don't preach that when you're wearing glasses. You're not even praying for God to heal your myopia. But you'll lay hands on the people who've got the lame legs and the broken backs. I'm not going to claim God's healing for that but he will give me victory in my life. And I'll pray, Lord, don't take this crisis from me. Lord, don't take this sickness from me until you plan victory in my life. Because sickness will never take me to hell but sin will. So this sickness is causing me to sin. Let me deal with the sin. And Lord, of course, I don't have any desire to be sick. I appreciate God tremendously for the tremendous health he's given me. And in God's name I will hope. Dear brothers and sisters, this is a long journey because we are addicted to our names. We are addicted to self. Our whole world revolves around self. And we have to begin this long journey of stopping to be revolving around self or revolving around the name of Jesus Christ. It's a long marathon. That is why it's so important to know that you were chosen. That's why it's so important to know that you've been loved with an everlasting love and that the creator of the universe, the most amazing being in the whole universe is saying, you get to wear my jersey. And I'm not going to ever leave you nor forsake you. And I'm going to be with you till the end. And any time you're getting a little tired, come and sit on my lap. I love you. Because it's going to be a long journey and because the addiction to self is so deep within us. This is the balance of the Christian life that I find that some people say it's an easy Christian life. It's all lovey-dovey. Come sit on my lap. Enjoy gentle Jesus. They don't talk about the great marathon that it is. And it's a great drawing away from the gravity of rotation around self to now pulling you revolving around God himself. It's a long journey. I'm still in it. And I appreciate those who are willing to join me in that journey. I hope you will. And your friends who are Christians or seeking are looking for such as these. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, we thank you Lord that your yoke is easy. That you want us to be holy and blameless. And that can sound impossible. But you give us your Holy Spirit. And you give us the lap of love on which to sit on. And you give us your comfort every step of the way. And all of our denying of self and taking up our cross is to be with you. And that you're with us every step of the way. Help us Lord, dear Lord Jesus, to plant flags of victory in each of our crisis points. And to have hope only in your name. That no other name Lord Jesus on heaven or earth or under the earth will ever get glory except your name. Lord Jesus, we want to repent of the ways we have lived our whole lives and we continue to live around our own self and our own names. We want our names to be glorified. Lord Jesus, please open our eyes to the great filth of such a life. After all that you did for us, after the great love which you gave to us and continue to give to us Lord Jesus, we want to be genuinely, deeply sorry over and over again for the ways in which self seeks to be on the throne. And we seek to be about our own names. Teach us dear Lord Jesus, through your own Holy Spirit and through one another, this life of hoping in your name alone. You will do this in us Lord Jesus. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you.