Beginning a New Year the Right Way

Praise the Lord, all of you. It's really good to see so many people from different parts of the world. So many skin colors, so many names, which some we can't pronounce easily, and it's very wonderful how God has chosen all of you, brothers and sisters. I'll tell you, I've been born again for 63 years. I was born again in July, 1959. It's going to be 64 now, this year. But I'm amazed, even today, at how God's choice of me. I sing that song, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. My dear brothers and sisters, I hope you will always sing that song and always recognize what you were once upon a time when God found you. Never forget it. One of the things I pray, I say, Lord, let me never forget the pit from which you pulled me out. When I was on my way to hell, you know, after we make progress so much in our life, it's easy to forget what we once were. The devil wants you to forget, because then you become proud. You begin to think that you deserve something. You go to God expecting that he has to answer you because you're such a good person. Really? I'll tell you something, you know, we don't know even one percent, and I'm not exaggerating, we don't know one percent of the corruption which is within our flesh. There is a thing that the New Testament calls the flesh, which is not spoken of in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, flesh is just meat. In the New Testament, flesh is our self-will, which has fought against God right from the time that we became conscious as little babies or children. It has been in rebellion against God. That's the poison that Adam put into you and me, that the devil put into Adam. What was it basically? You don't have to do God's will. See, sin is not telling lies and stealing and adultery and murder. No, those are all the results of it. Basically at the root of it, you know, if you want to chop down a tree, you don't cut off its branches. You don't cut off its leaves. It'll grow again. If you want to chop down a tree, what do you do? You hit the root. That's the only way to pull out the tree. And in the same way in our life, so many people, when they think of giving up sin, repentance, they're dealing with the branches, the leaves, cut a leaf here, I've trimmed this tree a little bit. It looks a little more decent before other people. Other people think I'm a better person. So what? If you have not hit at the root, there will always be that sin coming up, maybe not externally, but constantly troubling you in your thoughts, making your thoughts filthy and making you behave in ungodly ways, not in public, no, even worldly people try to behave themselves in public. It's not only Christians who behave properly in public. Most worldly people behave properly in public because they want a good reputation. It's the way you behave in your home, where nobody's watching except your wife or your husband and your children. Evaluate your life by that. Number one, how do you behave with your wife throughout the year? How was it last year? Is it going to be better this year? Well, not if you don't deal with the root. It'll be the same. People make new year resolutions on the 1st of January, it'll usually last about one or two weeks, that's all. I mean, if you're really got determination, two weeks, otherwise just a few days and it's gone. By the second week of the year, you're back to the old life, but it doesn't have to be like that. It doesn't have to be like God did not send his son to earth to leave us like that. God did not send his Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to leave his children helpless, defeated in their home life, acting holy in church, acting holy on the outside. No, God did not send his Holy Spirit to make us better hypocrites. He sent the Holy Spirit to deal with the root of sin. I want to show you a verse, first of all, if you have your Bible, turn with me to Matthew chapter three. You know that John the Baptist was sent to be the forerunner of Jesus Christ. And there were a number of things that he said, which prepared the way for Christ and which we can remember because the ministry of John the Baptist sort of prepares our heart to receive Christ. And what was his main message? You know, John the Baptist's main message was repent, repent, repent. He came preaching the baptism of repentance. That's what he called it, the baptism of repentance. And he said in Matthew three verse eight, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. There must be fruit in your life that is in line with your saying you're repentant. For many, many years, I've been preaching. God called me to serve him in 1964. That is nearly 60 years ago. God called me one day when I was working in the Indian Navy to leave my job and to serve him. And I obeyed immediately. Even though the Navy did not let me go for two years, finally in 1966, they let me go more than 56 years ago. And it's been the greatest joy of my life to try and serve God and to proclaim the pure gospel. I didn't know that in the beginning. I myself for many years, for 16 years of my born again life, I was a defeated Christian. I understand fully what you feel like. I was a defeated Christian for years. I was sincere. I was born again, but it was a circle, endless circle, never getting out of it. Sin, say I'm sorry, be cleansed in the blood of Christ. Sin, say I'm sorry, be cleansed in the blood of Christ. Sin again, say I'm sorry, be cleansed in the blood of Christ. Get angry with your wife. Sometimes not even say I'm sorry, say sorry to God, but not to your wife and repent. It was this endless circle, but I thank God a day came in my life when God put an end to that. I'm not in that endless circle anymore. I've been set free. One day when God filled me with his Holy Spirit, and I saw that I not only need to be cleansed from my sin, that's just cleaning the inside of the cup. Here's a glass. Before we put water into it, we clean the inside, not just the outside, the inside. And then, don't leave it empty. Don't just ask Jesus to cleanse you. Then the heart is empty. Good. It's clean. Inside of the cup is clean. Why do you clean a cup? Whether you want to drink a cup of tea or a glass of water. You pour the water inside. And why did God clean our hearts? Not to leave it empty. I fear, I really fear that many of you, my dear brothers and sisters, your heart is clean. Praise the Lord for that. You know, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from sin, but is it being filled? Or are you an empty glass and you're struggling, struggling, you're thirsty, thirsty, thirsty because there's no water? We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, I tell you, if the fullness of the Holy Spirit is the most important thing in the Christian life, I believe it is more than study of the Bible. You know, if the Bible was the most important thing, the printed Bible was the most important thing that we needed, God would have allowed printing to be discovered at least 100 years before Christ. So that everything that the apostles spoke and that Jesus spoke could be printed. And from the day of Pentecost, everybody would have a copy of the Bible. And wherever Paul went, he could distribute copies of the Bible. But why is it that for nearly 1,500 years after Christ, printing was not discovered? Why did God not allow that? You know how valuable it is to have a printed Bible? I thought, supposing I were living in the first century, no printed Bibles, and even the few copies of the Old Testament handwritten on parchments are so expensive that you could only have one copy in the synagogue. And if Paul wrote a letter somewhere, which we call the epistles, which we have copies in so many translations of the Bible, there'd be one copy somewhere. Somebody would have copied it in the whole world. There may have been about 10 copies of Paul's letters. And we may not be in the place where we have a copy of that. Can you imagine how Christians lived in those days? Why didn't God allow printing to be discovered a couple of hundred years before Christ? I thought about that. It's not that the Bible is not important. I'll tell you, there's something more important, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That began on the day of Pentecost. The Christians could not live without being filled with the Holy Spirit. We tell people, read the Bible every day. I read the Bible every day. I, to the best of my knowledge, I've read it every day for the last 64 years, nearly, since I was born again. Even today, the first thing I do when I get up in the morning is to talk to my Heavenly Father and to read at least a few verses of Scripture, sometimes much more, sometimes whole chapters. I still do it. And even now, I get so much out of it. It's such a valuable book that I cannot go anywhere without it. But I tell you this, so many people have been in prison. Their Bibles have been taken away. Christians, how did they survive without a Bible? It's the Holy Spirit. So I want to say to you, I'm not asking you to devalue the Bible, because we don't know about the truth unless we read the Bible. But I fear that many of you value the written word more than the power of the Holy Spirit. We need both. We need both. It's like we need, for example, a train. What does a train need? A train needs rails. If you don't have rails, the train cannot move. And the rails are the word of God, and the rails must be absolutely straight. If there's a slight break in the rails, the train derails. So the rails are God's word, and I value it. But that train will be stationary if you've only got rails. It needs some power through diesel or steam or electricity or something. There are different ways in which they make trains run. That's most important. That's what we needed in our life, too. We need the rails. Oh, be careful. I'm very particular about God's word. I've studied God's word intensely, carefully. I've written huge notes on it in my Bible and outside, because I want to be accurate about God's word. I mean, if lawyers study some legal document to be exact when they go to court, I say, Lord, I want to be 10 times more careful in reading God's word, because I see so much of deception in the world today, because I see that the first temptation, the very first temptation that came to Eve, you know what it was? Let me tell you. Genesis chapter 3, the very first words that the devil spoke to Eve to lead her astray and to lead Adam astray. It's good to read the Bible slowly, carefully. Do you remember what are the first words that the devil said to Eve? I think most of you will say the devil said, eat of that tree, forbidden tree. No, that is not what he said. Read carefully. The very first verse of Genesis 3 verse 1, Satan's first words that were, has God really said this? Got it? What is the first temptation? To doubt the word of God, not to eat of the tree. Has God really said this? Read that in Genesis 3 verse 1, and that put doubt into God's mind. And that's how he puts doubt in your mind. Is this really God's word? Are you sure? And once we begin to doubt and how many millions of people are being confused by that, is this really God's word? You know, when I was a young Christian, if someone were to ask me, how do you know the Bible is the word of God? This is the answer. I hadn't read the Bible at that time. I took about six, seven months to read through the whole Bible after I was converted. And then also I just read through it quickly just to know what is in it. And then I began to study it, study it, study it, and been doing that for 64 years. But if you had asked me in those days, how do you know the Bible is God's word? I say, well, I'll tell you, I would say there are two things I've noticed about every really godly man whom I have respected. In those days, I didn't know much of the Bible, but now and then I would meet a truly godly man, a truly godly man who was really humble. You see, I've always seen that truly godly men, that primary characteristic is humility. A truly godly man is a humble man, number one. How holy is, I don't know his thoughts. But his humility in the way he talks to me, in the way he behaves with me, in the way he relates to me is something I can see. Jesus was very humble. See how in the last day of his life, he was washing the disciples' feet. He never had high thoughts that I am the Lord, how can I wash people's feet? It's foolish men, foolish Christians who think like that. It's foolish pastors and preachers who take titles like reverend and right reverend and all that rubbish. Jesus, when they tried to make him a king, he ran away. Even John in Revelation, he doesn't say I'm the right reverend John or I'm pastor John. No, he says, I John your brother. These apostles were humble. They had learned humility from Christ. So I've noticed, and whenever I've respected a man for his humility, and I've met, I'll tell you in my young days, I met just a few, but I can think of two or three people I met in those days way back. And I saw two things almost consistently in all of them when I spoke to them. One, all of them believe the Bible to be the word of God from cover to cover. And secondly, they all spoke about an experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Every one of them. Then I saw that is the secret as a young Christian. So people ask me, why do you believe the Bible is God's word? Because the godliest men I have met, the humblest men, Christians I have met, they believe the Bible is God's word and they are filled with the Holy Spirit. And so that's why I accept it. But today, if you ask me, why do you believe in God's word? I say, well, it's changed my life. I've experienced his promises. I've seen God keeps his word. I've claimed the promises in God's word. It's like the promises in God's word are like checks. Checks signed by Jesus Christ. I've taken those checks to the bank of heaven and every one of them is cashed. I don't mean in terms of money, but in terms of promises being fulfilled in my life or prayers being answered for other people. That's how I know the Bible is God's word. Do you know it like that? I mean, in the beginning of your Christian life, OK, you accept the Bible is God's word because you have met some truly humble, godly men who say they believe the Bible is God's word. So you accept it. But we've got nothing here because we haven't studied the Bible. But after some time, I believe if you've been at least four or five years of Christian, you should really have thought to know the Bible and read it a little more thoroughly and read all of it. So because we believe Bible is God's word, we come to it and say, Lord, I want to go by everything it's written here. And the devil will say, has God really said that? You come to some promise in the Bible that says God really said that. And you come to a command in the Bible and the devil says, has God really said that? You see, that is in contrast. Genesis chapter three, verse one, has God really said, is in contrast to Genesis chapter one. Turn for a moment to Genesis chapter one. What do we read there? That chapter is full of one phrase, two words. Two words repeated again and again and again and again and again in chapter one. You know what those two words are? God said, God said, God said, God said. See verse three. See verse six. See verse nine. And see verse 14. See verse 20. See verse 24. See verse 26. How many? There's no chapter in the Bible. There's no chapter in the whole Bible where you read these two words repeated again and again and again and again. God said, God said, God said, God said, God said. Why is that written in the very first page of the Bible? And that is on the first day and the second day and the third day, the fourth day, the sixth day. And then God rested. So what is the message that comes to us from the whole week? One message. The first page of your Bible. God speaks every day. I want to ask you to say you're a Christian. You hear God speak every day to you in your heart? In the olden days, he spoke from outside. Abraham, Abraham, Samuel, Samuel, Elijah. But those are the days when the Holy Spirit was outside man. The first person who walked on Earth with the Holy Spirit inside was Jesus Christ when he came to Earth as a man. And from the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit wants to dwell inside and speak from inside. I used to, as a young Christian, say, oh, I wish I could hear you, Lord, speak to me from the outside like you called Abraham. But I realized that Jesus was with the disciples for three and a half years, speaking to them, God speaking to them from the outside all the time. And yet, at the end of those three and a half years, Peter denied Jesus Christ. Judas Iscariot ran off with the money and betrayed Jesus Christ. And all the disciples were scared, locked up in rooms and did not preach the gospel to others as the Lord told them to do before he went to heaven. No, they couldn't do it. But the moment they were filled with the Holy Spirit, everything changed. Then they began to hear God and tell other people what God has spoken to them. That's what happens when you're filled with the Holy Spirit. I can tell you this from the time I really understood the value of being genuinely filled with the Holy Spirit. My greatest longing has been to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day and to hear God speaking to me every day. I wanted to be said about my life every day of the week, seven days of the week. God said, God said, God said, God said. And we read in Genesis 1, when God said something, something happened. If it is really God's word, something will happen. You never read in Genesis 1, then God said something on this day and nothing happened. You read anything like that? He is meditating on Genesis chapter 1. Every day when God said something, something happened. And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the same. When God says something, something happens. If nothing happens, then God has not spoken. And when God speaks, he expects us to do something about it. See, God's word, when it comes forth, it cannot return to him empty. I want to show you a verse in Isaiah 55 and verse 11. Please remember this. If you don't know it, it's a good verse to remember. Isaiah 55 and verse 11. God says about his own word, my word which goes forth from my mouth. What do we read in Genesis chapter 1? God's word that went forth from his mouth. If my word goes forth from my mouth, God says, it will never return empty. That means it will never return without accomplishing something. You think of Isaiah 55 and 11 when you read Genesis 1. God's word never returned empty in Genesis 1. First day, second day, third day, fourth day, any day. When God speaks, it cannot return empty. It has to accomplish something. It will not return without accomplishing what God wants. That's what it says here. And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. What a wonderful verse. Let me repeat it. God says, my word which goes forth from my mouth will never return to me without accomplishing anything. But it will accomplish what I desire, what God desires. And it will succeed in the matter for which I sent it. In other words, when God gives a word, he sends it with a particular purpose. And then it will accomplish something. We read in Psalm 106 that God sent his word and healed him. Accomplish something. Whenever Jesus spoke a word, something happened. Always. Yes. And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And that's why I don't want to read the Bible like I read other storybooks. I'll tell you, if you've been a Christian for even two or three years and you haven't read the whole Bible, I believe you don't really respect God. Now, I'm not trying to insult you. But I want to tell you, if you have been a Christian for three years and you haven't read through the whole Bible cover to cover, I'm not asking whether you understood it, but you haven't read through it even once, don't tell me you fear God. I'll tell you to your face humbly, my dear brother, sister, you do not respect God. You're just a Christian trying to impress people in your church or others that you're a Christian. Before God, you're not. And I'll tell you why. Let me use an example. Supposing you're a young boy or girl and your father is working, he didn't have a job in your hometown, had to go a thousand miles away to work somewhere to earn money for your family. And one day he sends you a letter, my dear son, my dear daughter, and sends you a long letter. He takes about hours and hours, maybe days to write a 20 page letter to you. And that's the father who's supporting you financially and doing many things like that for you. And you don't bother to read it. You don't bother to read that letter from first page to last page. How in the world can you say that you respect your father or that you care for your father or that you're grateful for your father supporting you, caring for you? You've never seen him. Of course, he's a thousand miles away, but he's working hard to support you. You cannot say that you love and respect your father if you don't read every single sentence in that 20 page letter he sends you. I'm sure you'll agree with me there. How can you say you respect your heavenly father who sent you something and you don't read it cover to cover? You don't believe it's God's word. That's the thing. You believe it's written by 40 different people who wrote it, their own ideas. But I'll tell you, from my reading it for 64 years, it is the word of God. I've claimed promises in it which have changed my life. When God called me to leave my job on the 6th of May, 1964, I wrote it down on Isaiah 49 was the chapter through which God called me. You are my servant. I called you from your mother's womb. I said, wow, Lord, you called me from my mother's womb to be your servant. Now I know it's there in the Bible for everyone to read, but that day God spoke to me directly to my heart. And some amazing things in that chapter that God spoke to me and that I've seen fulfilled in the last year, since 1964 till now, in all these years, 58 years, I've seen it sort of fulfilled in different ways. But I accepted it. God spoke to me. Sometimes God speaks in a special way and it's fulfilled. I want you to read the Bible as God speaking to you. God wants to speak every day. And for that, you need to really ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit. Then he'll speak to you from within. And one of the first things that the Holy Spirit does, what is the first thing the Holy Spirit does when he comes in? Turn with me to Romans chapter 8. If this has not happened, something is missing. The first thing that the Holy... Some people would say that the first thing the Holy Spirit does when he comes into your life is to make you speak in tongues. I do not agree with that. Speaking in tongues, let me tell you, from 1 Corinthians chapter 12, is very clearly one of the gifts of the Spirit and very clearly mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that all, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 30, all do not speak with tongues. I'm reading scripture, 1 Corinthians 12, 30. All do not speak with tongues. Those are the exact words in my Bible, 1 Corinthians 12, 30. In spite of the Holy Spirit having written that all Christians do not speak with tongues, there are some people today who go around saying all do speak with tongues. When God says all do not speak with tongues and you say all do speak with tongues, that reminds me of what the devil told Eve. Has God really said? Yes, God has really said all do not speak with tongues. I'm not against speaking in tongues. God gave me the gift of tongues and I use it. I've used it for the last 48 years. But I also believe that all do not speak with tongues. And I also believe what the Bible says that speaking in tongues is not to be used publicly because it says one who speaks in a tongue speaks to God. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 2. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 2. They don't speak to men. They speak to God. That's what it says here. And if you go to a church where everybody is speaking in tongues, that's also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14, where we read in 1 Corinthians 14, verse 23. You go to a church and everybody's speaking in tongues, you like to call it a mad church. Those are not my words. I'm not angry with anybody. I'm just telling you what God's word says, 1 Corinthians 14, 23. If everybody is speaking in tongues in a church, you call it a mad church. Some people say it's a Pentecostal church. I say it's a mad church according to God's word. But if some people say you should not speak in tongues, that is another thing because it says in 1 Corinthians 14, 39, do not forbid to speak in tongues. The problem in Christianity is we don't know the balance. We go to one extreme, everybody must speak in tongues or nobody must speak in tongues. That's just one area. Find the balance in Scripture. Read Scripture carefully. I read these verses to you. Read Scripture carefully. But what is the first thing the Holy Spirit does? Romans chapter 8, when he comes into our heart. As soon as he comes into our heart, it says here in Romans 8, 15, we have not received the spirit of slavery, but we have received the spirit of adoption. Adoption means we've been made children of God. Not the way we think of adoption today, where you adopt somebody who's not really your child and make him, bring him into your home. No. Here the word adoption means completely different from what we understand adoption today. It means being established as a child of God, recognized as a child of God. And the Holy Spirit comes in and the first thing he says from us is to cry out, Father, Daddy, the word Abba. I'm sorry to say that word Abba has not been translated. Abba is not English. That's a Greek word. It's very similar to our Indian words, Appa, Appa, Appa. What is Appa? Very similar to Abba. It means father. So, or more accurately, Daddy. So let me read to you. The spirit, when we receive the Holy Spirit, Romans 8, 15, the first thing he does is he cries out, Daddy, Father. Has that happened in your life? I'm not telling you somebody teaching you, look at this person and say, call him Daddy, call him Daddy. There's some child that is not your child and he's become an orphan. You welcome him into your home and you teach him, hey, this is your Daddy. Call him Daddy, Daddy. Not like that. A baby born into your home. What a delight it is when your first child was born into your home and one day looked up to you and said, Appa or Amma, Daddy, Mommy. What delight it brought to your heart. I know I have four sons and God brings such delight to my heart when they call me Daddy. And I want to say to you, it's a father who's more delighted than the child, isn't it? Isn't that true? All of you who have children, when your child first called you Daddy, who was more excited? You are the child. You are excited. Call me Daddy. Wonderful. Do you believe, do you believe this? That your father in heaven is excited when you call him Daddy? Do you call him Daddy? Or do you call him, oh God, oh God. He is God and I will call him God. I'll call him Lord. Apostles also prayed Lord and I call him Lord many times, but my favorite word is Daddy. Is that your favorite word when you talk to your heavenly father? You know, there are some songs in the English hymn book, which, where I don't agree with some of the words. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah. See, a song is something we're supposed to pray. It's a prayer. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah. But I say, I never sing it like that because I never call God Jehovah. That is an Old Testament expression. You never find the word Jehovah in the New Testament. It's Father. Father. So I told people, I don't call God Jehovah. I don't sing that like that. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah. When everybody else in the congregation is singing, guide me, O thou great Jehovah. I sing, guide me, O my heavenly father. I sing it softly. I don't want to disrupt the singing. I say, that's what I say. And people ask me, isn't he Jehovah? Why don't you call him? I say, if my children come to me and say one day, Mr. Poonen, I would like to talk to you. I say, you're my child and you're calling me Mr. Poonen? Are you angry with me or something? You call me Daddy. Other people call me Mr. Poonen, but you call me Daddy. How do you go to God and what do you call him? You only call him, O God, O God, O God. He is God. Definitely call him God. But I want to ask you, how many of you call him Daddy? I wake up in the morning and I say, Dad, it's so good to talk to you this morning. That's how I begin my day. I'm a very happy person. My life has become more heavenly every day. My home has become a fortress of heaven on earth. Part of it is because I had known God as a daddy because the Holy Spirit filled me. That's what changed my life. I'm not a better Christian than other people. I'm not here to compare myself with anybody. That is for God to decide. But I know that the Holy Spirit has come into me and cried out, Daddy. Yeah, he's given me many other gifts. He's given me the gift of tongues. He's given me especially the gift of teaching God's word. That's not something I produced myself. You can't just decide I'm going to be a teacher of God's word. I'm going to be a preacher of God's word. No, you can't. God has to give you a gift. And when God gives you a gift, godly people will recognize it. So unfortunately, there are so many people who stand up in pulpits today whom God has not gifted. And you listen to them for five minutes and you discover pretty soon God has not gifted them. This guy is just expressing his own thoughts. Yeah, God gives gifts to every one of his members. It may not be gifts that put you into the pulpit, but he's a loving father. And he gives different gifts to each of his children, like different members of the body, different fulfilling different functions. But the most important thing is to know him as father. I'm absolutely convinced that this is one of the most important things that Christians all over the world need to know. Turn with me to John's gospel chapter 14. John's gospel chapter 14. One of the most difficult statements that Jesus said is to keep all his commandments. Don't you agree? He told us never to get angry. He told us, and men have a problem with this, never lust, never have sexual lust in your mind towards any woman in the world. Sexual desire must be only to your wife, after you're married, and to nobody else. You ask any honest man, he'll tell you that's a big struggle. And yet, Jesus said, you lust in your mind. It's one of the first steps towards hell. Many people don't even know that. If you don't overcome anger in your home, it's one of the first steps to hell. You think Jesus' commandments are easy? Love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who are evil towards you. Forgive everyone, no matter what they've done. You think they're easy commands? There were no such commands in the Old Testament. No. These are commandments that can be obeyed only, only, only if you're filled with the Holy Spirit. And if you can't obey them, it's because you're not filled with the Holy Spirit. And because you don't want to obey them, God doesn't fill you with the Holy Spirit. Why do you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, if you don't want to obey the commandments? For example, if you're working in a company, and two of you are working in a company, and both of you are sent to the market to buy something for the company, and the owner of the company gives one person 100,000 rupees or $100,000, go and buy something for this company with the detailed list. And he gives you 10 rupees or $10, go and buy something for the company. And you say, hey, why this difference? Why are you giving him more and giving me less? The owner will say, well, I've given you a smaller list of things to buy. You've got only 10 rupees worth of stuff to buy. That's why I give you 10 rupees. He gives us according to our need. My God shall supply all your need. That's the promise in Philippians 4.19, not all that you want, but according to our need, he will always give us. And I've seen that in my life. When my need increased, he gives me more. When I have to serve more people, he gives me more ability. When I have to serve more churches, he gives me more ability. When I have to oversee more elders in churches, he gives me more ability. Before that, he didn't give me. He gives me according to my need. When my need is only 10 rupees, he gives me 10 rupees. When my need is 100 rupees, he gives me more. When my need is 100,000 rupees, he gives me 100,000 rupees, spiritually speaking, according to the need. So here is a statement of Jesus in John 14 and verse 15. How do you prove your love for Jesus? You ask the average Christian, how do you prove your love for Jesus Christ? He'll say, well, I go to church. I sing the songs. I pay my tithes. Rubbish. Jesus said in John 14, 15, if you love me, you will keep all my commandments. There is no proof of love for Christ. Except keeping the commandments. Not singing, oh, I love you so much. Those are all like the love songs that boys and girls sing to each other. Worthless. If Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And you say, boy, if you think that, if you stop there, don't just read on to the next verse. Just stop there. Meditate. Keep all his commandments. Never lust with my mind. Never get angry even once. Never lose my temper. Love all my enemies. Forgive all those who have harmed me. Live by faith. Trusting God all the time. Never be anxious. Philippians 4, 6, be anxious for nothing. Rejoice always. Philippians 4, 4. Have you taken these commands seriously? Those are also commands of Christ. Written in Philippians, but given through the Holy Spirit. Who gave it? Jesus gave it to Paul through the Holy Spirit. It is the command of Jesus. Keep my commandments. He said, Lord, I'll tell you the honest person when he stops at John 14, 15, he'd say, Lord, that is impossible. And the Old Testament we could keep. Don't make idols. I never make idols. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Possible. Honor your father and mother. Possible. Don't kill people. Oh, possible. I've never killed anybody. Don't commit adultery. Don't bear Paul's witness in court. Okay. All these things are possible. The commandments like that in the Old Testament are possible. But New Testament commandments, you go through the Sermon on the Mount, you'll get stuck in chapter 5 of Matthew 5. You get stuck there. You can't go. If you're honest, you'll say, Lord, it's impossible. Right. So therefore, he gives the answer to that in the next verse. Okay. You can't keep my commandments. John 14, 16, I will ask the father and he'll give you the Holy Spirit. You see the context in which Jesus first told his disciples about the Holy Spirit. It's got nothing to do with speaking in tongues. It's got nothing to do with evangelism. It's got nothing to do with any gifts. It's got to do with keeping his commandments. Many of you have probably been seeking for the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you how to seek for the power of the Holy Spirit from today onwards. Say, Lord Jesus, I can't keep your commandments. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit for that. That's what I pray. I never asked God to speak in the gift of tongues. He gave it to me without my asking. I never asked God to make me a teacher of the word of God. He gave me that ability. All I did when I first came to Christ was give out tracts and tell people Jesus died for my sins, our sins. That's all I preached. I tried to be a witness wherever I was in my place of work and on the roads and the buses and trains, give out tracts to people. That's all I did. But God said, I've got something more for you. I want you to have a ministry in my church. I said, okay, I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But more than that, before that, I said, Lord, I want to be able to keep your commandments. It's my inability to keep God's commandments that drove me to God that I fasted and I prayed. Oh, the number of times I saw God weeping and praying and I'd weep on my pillow at night. Have you ever done that? Lord, help me to overcome sin. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. I've done that numerous times. I cannot count the number of times I wept on my pillow at night. Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not for any, I don't want to be famous. Even today, I say, I have zero. I can stand before God and say, I have zero desire to be famous in the world or to be known. I have a passionate desire to keep all of God's commandments. That's all. I don't care what people think of me. I do care what God thinks about me. Dear brothers and sisters, I'll tell you, many of you, some of you have been seeking for being filled with the Holy Spirit. Nothing has happened. Or you had some emotional experience and you fooled yourself, but you're still defeated by sin. What type of fullness is that? That's a counterfeit. Do you know that being filled with the Holy Spirit is the most valuable gift that God gives to man? And do you think the devil will not counterfeit that? What do people counterfeit in the world? Tell me. Do they counterfeit brown paper? Do they counterfeit toilet paper? No. They counterfeit $100 notes, 2,000 rupee notes. That's what they counterfeit. The most valuable currency note in your country. That's what the counterfeiters counterfeit. What do you think the devil will counterfeit? Not tongues. He counterfeits that to fool people who think that's the important thing. The fullness of the Holy Spirit. He says, that is it. That's not it. John 14, 15, and 16, the fullness of the Holy Spirit will help you to keep Jesus' commandments. That's what I believe. You say, where do you get that from? John 14, 15, and 16. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. I say, Lord, I love you. Then the Lord says, keep my commandments. Lord, you're so difficult. I will pray the Father. Next verse. And he'll give you a helper to help you to do what? Not help you to speak in tongues. Not help you to be a teacher or a preacher. Help you to keep my commandments. My dear brothers and sisters, some of you have been seeking for the Holy Spirit for so long. His power and nothing has happened. Seek him on the basis of John 14, 15, 16. Oh, Lord Jesus, give me a helper to keep all your commandments. And see how quickly God answers your prayer. And it's not once for all. That's the other thing I want to say. I pray to God every day, believe it or not. Every day, there's an unspoken cry in my heart for one thing. Fill me with the Holy Spirit. I've said to God very clearly, I don't care about money. I've served you from 1966 when I quit my job. That was the last time I got a salary. In May 1966, I never got a salary after that. I quit my job and I've never sent a prayer letter once asking anybody for money. Never hinted about my needs. Because I have a trillionaire father up in heaven who cares for me. That's why I didn't have to go to man for my needs. That's why I never had to send prayer letters. That's why I've never taken a salary from any church. And that's what we have taught in all our CFC churches. We have taught our leaders, never take a salary for your work. Trust your heavenly father. But I'll tell you what we do seek our heavenly father for, the fullness of the Holy Spirit. To be able to keep his commandments. God is a loving father. That's the most important thing. Further on, Jesus said in John 14 verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. Most Christians I have met, when I say most, much more than 50%. I would say almost 90% of Christians I have met. I've got the spirit of an orphan. An orphan is one who is helpless, insecure. He's got nobody to care for him, no mother to hug him, no father to provide for him. Insecure, don't know what will happen. Many Christians are like that. When they have a problem, they don't know where to turn. They don't know where to go. When they have a need, they go to some man. They don't have a father in heaven. They are orphans. And any one of you who goes to man for help first, and not to your heavenly father, you're an orphan. If you've never heard it before, hear it now. I'm saying it to you lovingly. You go to men for help first. I'm not saying you shouldn't ask man for help. I'm saying whom do you go to first? God or man. Do you have a father in heaven or not? Or is it some imaginary unknown person up there like a lot of people think? Many Christians are actually atheists in their actual practice. They act as if there is no God. You're orphans. I was an orphan. I'm not criticizing you. I was an orphan for years till the Holy Spirit filled me and showed me you have a father in heaven, a real father who cares for you. A father who will discipline you. You know, I was very strict with my children as a father. I was determined to bring up my children in the fear of God. And I prayed that all my four sons would grow up to be my brothers in Christ one day. And they have become my brothers in Christ. They are serving God with me today, all four of them. I disciplined them. As God says, a father disciplines his children and I discipline them. But now I have grandchildren. And I'll tell you something. I've never disciplined any of them, even when they do so many things wrong. You say, no, I say, okay, son, I just love them and bless them. And the discipline is for the father. Somebody asked me this, you know, when I was visiting some of my grandchildren and I came back to Bangalore, somebody in the church asked me, Brother Zach, you were very strict with your children. How is it now with your grandchildren? What do you do when one of your sons is going to discipline your children and punish them for something wrong they did? Will you sit there and watch it? I said, no, I go for a walk. I don't want to see them being punished. I hate to see my grandchildren being punished. I will go for a walk and come back. And when I come back, this little grandchild will be crying. And I'll put him on my lap and say, he'll say, Daddy hit me. I say, yeah, that's good for you. I won't do it. So as a grandfather, I have never punished my grandchildren. Grandfathers do not punish grandchildren. And that teaches me one thing, that God is not a grandfather. God is a father. He disciplines his children. If you have never been disciplined, my dear brother, you have not known God as a father. If you have never been rebuked when you read the Bible, you have not known God as a father. I have corrected my children with strong words because I'm a father. I don't correct my grandchildren like that. God is not a grandfather. He's a father. He corrects. He disciplines. And when you read the Bible, expect God to rebuke you, correct you, and comfort you. Otherwise, you're an orphan. So the Holy Spirit comes to take away the spirit of being an orphan. I'm not an orphan. I'm so secure in my Heavenly Father. Now turn with me to Matthew chapter 6. You know the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. When we started the first CFC Church in 1975, August in Bangalore, it was in my home. Just a few. Started with two people and then a few others and slowly grew to the many, many churches today. But when we started the church, there were two passages of the New Testament we studied intensely to lay a good foundation for the first one year almost. The first was Luke 14, 25 onwards, discipleship. What does it mean to be a disciple? The second was the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, because Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. We studied these passages intensely. Luke 14, 25 to the end of the chapter and Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And why Matthew 5, 6, and 7? Because we want to build an unshakable church. We saw a lot of churches around the shaky. They stand for something and then they give up that stand after some time. They compromise. That is a shaky church. And I read in Matthew chapter 7. Turn with me to Matthew 7. And I read there in verse 26 and 27, Matthew 7, verse 26 and 7. If you hear these words of mine and you don't do them, you're like a man who built his house on sand, built his church on sand. There are many preachers who build their church on sand. What is that? You don't teach them to obey everything that Jesus taught in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. That's a church built on the sand. You preach it, but they don't obey it. It's not that these people don't hear it. It says they hear, but they don't obey. This is not talking about the non-Christian who never hears. No, no, no, no. This is talking about the Christian who goes regularly to church, hears God's word every Sunday, but never obeys because his pastor does not teach him obedience. His pastor only gives him instruction. And he says, if you're like that, who hears, but does not obey, you read the Bible, but you don't obey. You go to church and listen, but you don't obey. Then you're like a man who built your house, your family, your house on sand, your church on sand. And one day, the whole thing comes crumbling down. Verse 27. I did not want to build my house on sand. I have four sons, and I wanted all of them to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Not one of them, all four. And I said, if they don't become disciples of Jesus Christ, I am the failure. I won't blame them. I won't say, oh, why are you like this? I'll say, my boys, I did not bring you up properly. I'll tell you why, because the Bible says in Psalm, in Proverbs, train up a child in the way he should go, Proverbs 22. And when he's old, he will not depart from it. It's a promise. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old, he will not depart from it. So I read that promise in Psalm 22, verse 6. And I said, Lord, it's your word. My part is to train up a child in the way he should go. And your part is when he's old, he will not depart from it. There are two parts. Always God's promises are like that. Man's part, God's part. Man's part is train up a child in the way he should go. Proverbs 22, verse 6. God's part is, I'll make sure he does not depart from it. I say, Lord, I'll do my part to the best of my ability. Fill me with the Holy Spirit to bring up my children in the way they should go, in a godly way. Not to live for money, not to live for the world, to fight the battles of sin. They won't be perfect from day one. Maybe they won't be perfect in their whole life. I'm not perfect still, but they will fight the battle, fight the battle to follow Jesus. And I, you know, the Bible says that if a man cannot bring up his children properly, 1 Timothy 3 says he's not fit to be an elder in a church. And I said, Lord, if my children go astray, I'll stop preaching. I mean, if I can't bring up four sons at home, where am I going to bring up 40 people in a church? There are people who are leading 400 people in a church, 4,000 people in some mega churches, and the pastor himself, his children are all wayward. I said, he can't bring up two, three children in his own home, and he's trying to bring up 400 people in a church. Crazy. 1 Timothy 3 is clear. If a man cannot bring up his own children properly, he's not fit to lead. How many of you, my dear brothers and sisters, are keen about that? Are you concerned that your children are not following the Lord wholeheartedly? Don't say, oh, they go to church. Is that enough? The devil goes to church. If there's a good church anyway, the devil will attend it every Sunday because he wants to confuse people. That doesn't mean anything. The point is, are they following Jesus? Not going to church. Are they following in Jesus' footsteps? At least trying to. That's how we must bring up our children. Otherwise, your house will collapse. And I'll tell you why your house collapses. Maybe because you, yourself, as a father and mother, you don't obey God's commandments. You're not upright with money. Maybe you cheated in money matters somewhere and you never set it right. I remember in my unconverted days, I also cheated the government in money matters. But when I got converted, I repented and I had to save about three, four months of my navel salary in order to give that money back. And I remember the day way back in 1961 when I saved up that money and I returned it to the government, my bank account was empty and my heart was full. And the Lord told me, if you had not done that at that time and set that financial matter right way back in 1961, you'd have been dragging a chain on your feet for all these 62 years. You'd have made no progress in your life. There are people like that. There's something in their past life, financial matter. Somebody, they're wrong. They have never apologized. And it's just lying there. It's just hanging there. They never settled it. And it's like a chain on your feet. That's why you're not progressed all these years. That's why you're so stagnant. That's why your spiritual life does not go forward. You should, instead of running, you're crawling and you're going backwards, perhaps. My dear brothers and sisters, I'm not trying to rebuke you. I'm trying to challenge you to set your wrong that you've done in your life right. Zacchaeus, when he met the Lord, he was convicted. He said, Lord, I've cheated people, but I will pay it back. And I'll pay back with interest more than I took from them. And Jesus said in Luke 19, verse 6, salvation has come to this house. That's what he told him in Luke 19. You read the first 10 verses of Luke 19, the story of Zacchaeus. Salvation came to that house because he set matters right. Very, very important. You must have a clear conscience. I have a clear conscience before God and men. Now, if you hear God's word and you don't obey it, you're building your family house on sand. And if you're some type of leader in a church, your church will be built on sand. It'll collapse. It hasn't already collapsed. I prophesy it'll collapse one day because of Jesus' words. Because you don't teach people obedience. You give people instruction. That is Matthew 7, 26. But the other is Matthew 7, 24. If you hear my words and obey them, then your family will be built on a solid rock. My wife and I decided, I thank God that God gave me a wife who was equally interested in obedience and in following Jesus. I thank God that I made the right choice in marriage. I urge you young people, don't go by looks and education and money and all in marriage. Crazy, stupid. That is to be like the worldly people. Choose on the basis of godliness. That's what I did. And we've been able to have a home that's built on the rock. It's wonderful to have a wife or a husband of the same mind. Two people agreed. You know, Jesus once said that two of you agree concerning anything. You read that verse? Two people agree concerning anything. Because I'm in their midst. Matthew 18 and verse 19 and 20. They agree concerning anything because I'm in the midst. It will be granted. You know, the number of things that have been granted in my home because my wife and I have agreed on our spirit. We are in agreement. Our conscience is clear. Jesus is in our midst and we pray. We pray something for our children. It's answered. We pray something for some situation in the home. It's answered. We've had financial struggles. We don't go to man. We've never been in debt for one single day of our life. How can you be in debt when your father is the richest person in the universe? Isn't that crazy? That if your father is the richest person in the universe, you go begging for man? I've never done it. Even when my wife and I had very little in the home. Very, very little. We've learned what it is to struggle because we decided from the beginning that we would trust the Lord and never let our needs be known to man. And it's been a wonderful experience living by faith. We've proved that our heavenly father never, never lets us down. What an experience. That's what we've been able to communicate to our sons. You have a heavenly father who will never let you down. That's what I'm trying to communicate now to all my grandchildren. In every generation, we want people to be witnesses for the Lord. Dear brothers and sisters, teach your children obedience. If you're in a church, teach them obedience, not just to understand. Okay, let me conclude. This is learned from Matthew chapter 6. When you pray, praying is communicating with the father. I told you in Genesis 1, God said, God said, God said, God said, God said. And now, at that time, it was unresponsive creation. God said to the earth, God said to the heaven, God said to the waters, and God said to the earth that the trees and plants come up and let the waters be filled with fish. It is all unresponsive creation. Finally, on the sixth day, at the end of the sixth day, He made human beings who could respond to Him. That was His greatest longing, and that's where you and I have come in, human beings that will respond to Him. And so He says, when you pray, when you speak to me, prayer is to speak to our father. That means, read this in Matthew 6, 5, don't pray like the hypocrites, number one. Don't speak if you don't mean what you say. Many of the hymns that we sing, they're actually prayers. Have you ever sung the hymn that says, all to Jesus I surrender? Oh, really? Do you mean it or just the tune was a nice tune? Think of the words in the tunes that you sing on Sunday morning, and you'll see how many lies you tell God on Sunday morning. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. So what all fantastic words we say to God, did you really mean it? That you will not even withhold a mite from God? How many lies on Sunday morning when they sing? You are everything to me, Father, really? Next time you sing a song, whether at home or in a church meeting, concentrate on the words, not just the tune. Many people clap and jump and all that, but they don't worry about the words. I'll tell you, God's not so much interested in your clapping and jumping. He's seeing whether you mean the words in your heart. I've often said this, Christians tell more lies to God on Sunday morning than on any other day of the week. Christians tell more lies to God on Sunday morning than any other day of the week because they sing so many hymns that they don't even think about what they're singing. You ask yourself, take a hymn book if you have one and go through the hymns that you're singing. Go through the words little by little. I've done it and see whether you meant it or not. I also did not mean it for years. I did not mean what I sang on Sunday morning. I don't lie to God, but I stopped myself now. Now I try to mean what I say. Don't be like the hypocrites when you pray. Singing is praying. And Jesus, first thing he said about prayer is, don't be a liar when you pray. Don't be like a hypocrite. Don't be a liar and don't think that and don't pray in order to show people. Verse five. In other words, don't sing to say, oh, how well you can sing people with a tremor in their voice just to impress people. Who are you trying to impress when you sing? God or man? Don't try to impress people when you sing. That's a hypocrite who stand in the corners and really impress how well they pray or how well they sing. How much of this nonsense there is in the church today? Don't be like a hypocrite. The church is full of hypocrites. When you pray, pray to your father in secret. Shut the door, which means even in a church, I can shut the door. In other words, I shut out all the people around me and I say, father, I'm talking to you now. Jesus is here. And don't use verse seven, Matthew six, seven. Don't use meaningless repetition. One of the most meaningless repetitions I've heard in my life. You know what it is? The most meaningless repetition I've heard Christians say in my life, praise the Lord. How many times people say, are you really praising the Lord all the time in your life? Are you really encouraging others to praise the Lord in all their life? Empty repetition. No fear of God. Simple things. I'm just reading scripture. Don't use meaningless repetition. Mean what you say. And then I won't go into the whole prayer. The first thing he said is when you pray, verse nine, pray like this. Our father, who art in heaven. Dad, you run this universe from heaven. There's no problem you cannot solve. And you're my daddy. Start like that. That's all I need to say. Your life will be changed. If you take seriously some of the things I've shared with you this morning. Your new year will be completely different from all the years gone by. How shall we live this new year? This is the way to live it. Begin, listen to God speaking to you. Say, father, you run this universe. You can solve every problem. First of all, fill me with the Holy Spirit. That's more important to me than healing from my sickness. That's more important for me than getting a job. That's more important for me than having my financial needs met. That's more important to me than getting a better house or a better job. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. I want to walk with you this year as your child. I want to be a good testimony for you. You're my father in heaven. I will not live in anxiety when you're running the universe. And you're my dad. And if you don't know him as that, pray, oh, father, oh, God, please fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I can know you as my father. And please help me, father, to bring up my children in the fear of God. So they will know you as father. Will you pray that prayer? Seriously, not just once right now, but every day. How long should you pray for your children? I'll tell you. Please listen until they become disciples of Jesus Christ. And then pray that they will continue faithfully. Yeah, my wife and I pray for my children all our life, regularly. We don't believe in just our discipline will bring them up. We believe in God working in their lives. It's so important. We are living in a day when children are going astray in the world. There's so many temptations in the world. God has put you as parents to protect them. Have you protected them? Would you protect them if some person was coming to attack them? Would you see your little child being attacked by somebody and you stand there as a father doing nothing or a mother? Of course, you'll go and defend them. What about the devil attacking them? What do you do to protect your children? You pray for them. You exhort them. You warn them. You challenge them. If they get offended, you still continue to pray for them until they stop getting offended with your advice. My brothers and sisters, I plead with you. Don't lose your children to the devil. Don't spend eternity in heaven with your children in hell for all eternity. Don't let that happen. Seek God with all your heart and say, Lord, I want to bring up a godly home. I want to serve you with all my life. I want to stand one day before you with no regret over my life, the way I've lived at least from 2023 onwards, even though I've messed up many, many years so far. From this year, 2023 onwards, I want to live without regret because I've lived totally for Jesus Christ and for his glory. Let's pray. Let's bow our heads. Please bow your head with me and forget about everybody else. Forget about me. Just concentrate on Jesus Christ there, listening to you wherever you are. First of all, remember he loves you more than your parents, loves you more than anybody in the world. If you feel that nobody loves you, I'll tell you one person loves you. Jesus does love you. Jesus loves you. Like the children say, Jesus loves me, this I know, or the Bible tells me so. Come to him with that confidence. He loves you. Some of you may feel unloved by people, but Jesus loves you. Your heavenly father loves you. Pray to him and say, Lord, I'm a needy person. I don't understand everything, but I want to be a secure child in you. I failed in many areas. I failed in bringing up my children right, but help me now at least to set matters right, Lord. Past years of my life have been a failure in many ways, but I want to change. Lord, I really want to change. You see my heart. I'm crying out to you. Please help me that things will be really different in 2023 compared to all the years gone by. Different for me and different for my children, different for my family, better and better. Help me, Lord. Thank you, Father. I believe you'll do this. Come to your father like that and you'd be surprised what God will do for you this year. Believe him. Make it a point to read the Bible every day and ask God to speak to you from it. Even if it's a few verses, begin your early morning. As soon as you get up, wake up in the morning, before you get out of bed, before you get out of bed, look up to heaven and say, Daddy, thank you for another day. I want to live and stay in your presence. Start at least with that sentence and then get up. Talk to your dad first. Lord, help me to obey you this day. Heavenly Father, I thank you for these dear brothers and sisters. I know you love every one of them. There's not a single one listening to me whom you don't love. I pray, Heavenly Father, that I pray that every one of them would be encouraged today. Be gripped by the truths they have heard. I pray the devil will never take it out of their minds and remain and work in their eyes. Till they see the change in their lives and their children. And this year will be better than every year gone by in their lives. Thank you, Father. Restore family relationships that are spoiled. Bring husbands and wives closer to each other this year. Parents and children closer to each other and closer to you. Thank you, Father. And build your church and help us all to be ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ. To be ready with a clear conscience. Thank you for this time. Thank you for all these who have patiently listened. Please bless them mightily. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.