Discipleship and Faith - Part 2

Jesus said in Matthew 28, Matthew 28 and verse 18, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Now we all know that verse and that has never changed. I mean, Jesus said that nearly 2,000 years ago. And that's the first thing we must remember because that's connected with discipleship. That's why I'm saying it and I'll show you in a moment. I want to ask all of you. Do you really believe at a time like this when there's so much confusion and sickness and people dying all over the world and a pandemic and we don't know when it'll end. Do you really believe that all authority right now in heaven and on earth is in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ? Our loving Savior, our elder brother. Do you really believe that our Father in heaven rules the universe even now? That's very, very important. Because if you don't get that right, we're going to get everything else wrong. It has to begin there. Because you see the next verse, therefore go and make disciples. I told you it has got reference to discipleship. Why do I go and make disciples in different places? Why have I tried to do that the last 45 years? It's not because oh, there's a great need and the people all over the world are dying without Christ. We thank God for the thousands of people who have come to the Lord in India who would have gone to hell if they hadn't heard the truth. And we thank God for the numerous people who have come to a life of victory over sin who would not have understood that if they had not heard. But that's not the reason why I go. I don't go to any place because there's a need. I don't go to make disciples because there's a need. Jesus said all authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Will you come under my authority? I say yes Lord completely. Then go and make disciples. The difference is when I come under the authority of the Lord Jesus, I can't go where I like. I can't go where people invite me. I can't do what I like. I can't speak what I like. I have to be under the authority of Jesus Christ my Lord 24 hours. Not just when I'm speaking or when I'm going somewhere to preach. 24 hours when I'm living at home with my wife and I'm eating my food and with my children or grandchildren or anything. I have to be under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you that can be true for you. It's not because I'm in full-time Christian ministry that applies to me. It applies to all of us. Every one of us must seek to make disciples. Even your children can be witnesses in your school as you get opportunity or college. But remember this, it has to begin discipleship and making disciples must begin with recognizing the total authority of Jesus Christ in heaven and on earth. There's nothing that he cannot do. There's nothing outside his control. I feel that a lot of and faith also is based on that, you know, you have to believe that our father controls this universe that Jesus Christ. Our Lord has got all authority. It's a matter of faith. So discipleship and faith are very closely connected with this verse. All authority in heaven and earth is given to the Lord Jesus. And I feel that many people do not become disciples and do not have faith because they haven't started with that verse. So let's begin there. What does it mean when it says Jesus Christ is sovereign ruler over the whole universe and everything in it? All our anxiety and fear, which is the opposite of faith disappears when we recognize the authority of the Lord. And I tell you, you don't have to know a lot of the Bible to know that. You have to be humble to know it. A lot of the truths in scripture are not revealed to the clever and intelligent. A lot of people try to understand the Bible with their cleverness and that's why they go astray. Let me show you another verse in Matthew chapter 11. In Matthew 11, he says in verse 25, not says Jesus was praying and praising the Father. You know, Jesus had times of praise to his father. He lived on Earth as a man. And he says here in Matthew 11 verse 25. Jesus said, you know, he was it says at that time he was in verse 20 Matthew 11 20 denouncing certain cities where his miracles had been done. Now you would think or we would all think like this that oh, Jesus was living right here today in our midst and we saw him with our eyes and we saw him raise a dead man or make a lame man walk or open the blind eyes of men. Our faith would increase like anything. No. The people who saw the maximum miracles in Israel. They saw with their own eyes many of them Jesus feeding 10,000 people 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish. He saw them Jesus raising the dead many people saw that Lazarus coming out of the tomb. They saw Jesus opening the minor eyes of a man born blind whom they had seen sitting on that Street for years. They saw amazing miracles at the end of it. All those people in Jerusalem did they believe in him? No, they said crucify him. It's unbelievable. You see how can anybody who saw such evident proof of the fact that he was a son of God. In fact in Acts chapter 2 when Peter preaches the gospel. He says the reason why God did these miracles through him was to attest the fact that he was a son of God. It was to attest it through those he God attested it. Acts 2 22 with signs and miracles. It was God the miracles were God's way of showing the world. This is my son. This is the son of God believe in him. And yet what do they do? They crucified him and here we read that with all these miracles in Matthew 11 20 that he did in Chorazin and Capernaum and Bethsaida. They didn't believe in him. He said the heathen in Tyre and Sidon are not Jewish people. They would have believed but you haven't believed even Sodom and Gomorrah would have believed he says in verse 23, but you haven't believed how is it that Sodom and Gomorrah didn't have a Bible and these Jewish people who had a Bible could not believe and Jesus says Sodom would have believed very often, you know, we Christians think that God's got that we have a hold on God that others don't have I tell you there are many God-fearing people among non-Christians who probably will come closer to and think of Cornelius for example in Acts chapter 10 that guy never had a Bible. But he knew God and God sent an angel to talk to him and bring him to Christ. It's an amazing thing. What is it that these people had who that other people didn't have the Jews. I'll tell you they did not have humility. Cornelius was a humble man. You remember the Roman centurion who came to Jesus and said, please come and heal my in one place. It says servant another place. It says my child is sick. Please come and heal him and Jesus said, okay, I'll come to your house and heal him. You read that in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 7. Jesus said I'll come and heal him. He had said in verse 6 my servant is sick. Please the some things I see here about this centurion. First of all, he traveled all the way to Capernaum from wherever he was living to ask Jesus to heal his slave. These Roman soldiers. They were like big Kings. They didn't care for slaves. What type of military man is this who will care so much for his sick slave that he'll walk all the way some miles to ask Jesus to heal him that shows his humility and compassion for the poor. Such people have faith and when he came and he said Lord, please heal him and Jesus said yeah, I will come to your house and heal him and look at his humility Lord verse 8, you know, what would you have said if Jesus had said I'll come to your house. It's a yellow. Please come. I think all of us would say that I see what the centurion says Lord. I'm not worthy. That a holy person like you should come to the house of a sinner like me. Do you have that sense of sin my dear brothers and sisters that you feel unworthy to come anywhere near Jesus Christ? Those are the people who have faith and I've seen so many Christians particularly when they have a little bit of Bible knowledge or they come to CFC and understand a little bit of victory over sin and they get so puffed up. They think they are better than others. They are better than all the heathen and better than people in other denominations. Well, no wonder you don't have faith because you don't have humility. You're moving closer and closer to becoming a Pharisee. Now this man did not never knew the Bible. He didn't know anything about the Trinity or about God or anything. He was a heathen but he heard about Jesus and he had some faith in him when he heard about what Jesus was doing and he had such a compassion for his slave that he went to Jesus and he says Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come to my house. No, you're too big a man, too holy a man. I'm such a sinner. But you know if you stand here Lord and just speak the word and 35 miles away my servant will be healed. You don't have to come there because he says, you know when I tell a soldier of mine go they go immediately. They don't wait or I tell him to come he comes immediately and I know you have authority over sickness like that. That sickness will hear you 35 miles away. Boy, Jesus said turned around to all the people following him including his own disciples and he said I have never seen such faith Matthew 8 10 anywhere in Israel. We're talking about discipleship and faith. How did this guy have faith? It was because he was a very humble man. He was very compassionate to others who were far beneath him in society. Yeah, God cares for such people who have compassion who don't think that they are so high that they're bigger than others and humility and who feel that they're so unworthy to have Jesus even come to their house. You know, we many Christians act so familiar with Jesus Christ as though he's somebody of theirs they can put their arm around him and hug him and say hi and oh, yeah, sure come to my house Lord. I'm sure my house is worthy for you to come. Well, no wonder you don't have any faith. And Jesus respected this man so much. It's the only case where Jesus said most of the where he said I've never seen a man with such faith with his own disciples. Most of the time you find him saying oh you have little faith little faith. Those are the people who walked with them who saw the miracles who knew the Bible more than this Roman man. They didn't have faith you think knowledge of the Bible brings faith. I've seen so many people about such a tremendous knowledge of the Bible who have zero faith. They have Bible knowledge. The Pharisees and Sadducees had a lot of Bible knowledge. They didn't have faith. That's why they didn't enter the kingdom. There's so many Christians today. There's so many believers in CFC who know so much of the Bible. They can explain it to others. But when it comes to a tough situation, they don't have faith. They're full of anxiety and fear and so many other things. They don't the reason they don't obey certain scriptures is because they don't have faith when the Bible says give up all murmuring and complaining Philippians 2 14 15. They say no, that's impossible. Yeah. Well, that's because they don't have faith. They're so proud and arrogant so we can understand all the theory of faith. You can listen to the message on faith yesterday and today and say well, I have understood something understood what enough to preach to somebody else. That's not faith. It's in the tough situations of life when others are anxious and fearful. That's where your faith is tested when there's a storm in the lake. That's where the faith is tested not when we are sitting comfortably in an easy chair at home and everything is going well. So here we read Jesus also said many will come Matthew 8 and verse 11 from east and west and they'll sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom. But those who think they are the sons of the kingdom and those days it was the Jewish people today's Christians will be cast out. I believe that so many probably 95% of people who call themselves Christians will not be in God's kingdom. That's my conviction. You can agree or disagree with me doesn't matter. But that's what I believe because they're not become disciples of Jesus Christ. They're not interested and don't think everybody who comes to CFC Church is going to be in God's kingdom. I don't think so. I know people in CFC Church is well enough to say many of them are not serious disciples. They're coming along because it's a nice church to go to they they bring their families. They say because oh, they're nice children here. I'd like my children to grow up with these children and they're nice people here. If I'm in some difficulty, they'll come and help me. That's a club. Christian Club. Believers Club. It's not a church. You're not disciples. Dear brothers, don't worry about others. Don't judge the others. Make sure you're a disciple. Make sure you have faith. That's all. I mean because I'm an elder in a church. I need to have discernment about the people around me and that's why I say what I say, but you don't have to go around saying that you just make sure about your own life. Take heed to your own life and forget about all the others, but it's very very important to recognize this. And so Jesus said to the centurion. We're starting go. It'll be done for you exactly as you have believed and the servant was healed that very moment. I'll show you something very interesting about this person's faith. It's a similar situation. I don't know whether it's the same or another situation, but I think it's the same one in John chapter 4. We read about this thing. Please turn with me to John chapter 4 and we read here about Jesus in John chapter 4 verse 46 onwards. There was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum and Jesus came to Cana. And now Cana and Capernaum. There's quite a distance of miles away and he says here in verse 46 clearly Jesus came to Cana and the royal official his home was in Capernaum. And when he heard that Jesus had come to Cana he went to him. I don't know how many miles it is so many miles. He walked there. You can look at a map and see that it wasn't very far. He could easily do it in a couple of hours perhaps or even less than that and he implored him to come and heal him. And Jesus said to him go your way your son lives and he believed and it says here in verse 50. He started off. He just believed it the man John chapter 4 verse 50. He believed it and he said thank you Lord and he went off. And now this is the interesting part when you read the scripture carefully you see that as he was going where was he going from Cana to Capernaum just a few miles away and as he was going he met his slaves coming and saying hey your son is healed and now listen to this verse 52 very interesting. He inquired him when did he get better and the servant said yesterday at the seventh hour. Seventh hour is one o'clock in the afternoon yesterday at one o'clock in the afternoon. Then the father knew verse 53 that it was yesterday at one hour one o'clock in the afternoon that Jesus said your son lives. It's not the same story as the other one but see something here. Now, my question is if your son is sick and you go to Jesus say 10-15 miles away and he says your son lives and your son is seriously sick. Won't you rush home? This man came to met these servants the next day from one o'clock on the previous day till the next day. Where was he? He probably stayed somewhere. And said in Canaan itself and say well, I don't want to go today. I'll do something else and hey, you don't want to rush home find out if your son is well. No, I'm sure he's all right. Jesus said he's okay. And he goes to sleep picks a hotel or something and stays in Canaan the next day. He goes to his home. Would you do that? Well, you went to Jesus today and asked him to heal you at one o'clock in the afternoon. You met him and your home is only 15 miles away and you say well, I can go there. I can go tomorrow. There's no need to go and see immediately whether my son is okay. I'm sure it's okay because Jesus healed him. Did you notice that? It struck me. I said Lord, do I have faith like that? My son is seriously sick and I asked you to pray for him. I can go to sleep and be sure that he's healed because I asked you and you said he's healed. And wait 24 hours. I tell you this man was a Roman. Sometimes those who are we think are Babylonian Christians or unbelievers. They may have more faith than you and me. Because they don't boast. Oh, we know the Bible. We know about victory over sin. My dear brothers and sisters. I believe one of the biggest hindrances to being a disciple is pride and arrogance. Looking down on others. If you want to lose faith and become an unbeliever, just look down on others. That's all. You despise others. You pretty soon become an unbeliever. A true servant of God, a true disciple of Jesus does not despise anyone. He recognizes that he is what he is by the grace of God. That if it were not for the grace of God upon him, he would be just like the others lost for eternity. So that's one of the very first things I want to say. That the reason a lot of people don't have faith is because of that pride. And I want to show you that from Scripture. You know, the very well-known verse. And it's quoted three times in the New Testament. I don't know whether you know that when an Old Testament verse is quoted three times in the New Testament. You better take heed to it. In Romans and chapter 1 and verse 17, we read Romans 1 17. The righteous will live by faith. That is Romans 1 17. And if you want to look it up, it's also mentioned in Galatians 3 11 and Hebrews 10 38. Three places. Galatians 3 11 Hebrews 10 38 in addition to Romans 1 17. One verse of Scripture. The righteous person will live by faith. Not just be saved by faith. That is Ephesians 2 verse 8. By grace are you saved through faith and not of works. Fine. But here it is not talking about just being saved will live. That means he begins his life by faith and he lives all his life by faith. By dependence upon God like I said yesterday, like the branch in the tree in utter dependence upon Jesus Christ lives every day. That's how we're supposed to live. That's what faith is. It's not that oh 25 years ago. I asked Jesus come to my heart. I believed those type of believers. I wonder whether they'll ever get into God's kingdom. It's like a person who's said well 25 years ago. I got married, but now I'm living with somebody else. What type of marriage is that? Not loyal to your wife. So a lot of people say at 25 years ago. I accepted Christ. But are you walking with him every day now? That's the important thing. What's your marriage with Christ like today? Very important to be up to date. The righteous person will live by faith. Now when you go and look to the Old Testament, you know, whenever I see a verse in the New Testament, which is quoted from the Old Testament. I always go back to the Old Testament. I say, let me see what it says there. And that's, you know, giving me light on so many things. And the NASB, the New American Sign of Life is very, very useful in that because every Old Testament quotation in the New Testament is written in capital letters. So it's very easy to find out. It's not like that in some other versions. So all I need to find out, you know, if I want to take a Bible study of my progester myself, of Old Testament quotations found in the New Testament. All I got to do is turn the page and look for things in capital letters. I find it immediately, very quickly. And I've always gone back to the Old Testament to see where does it come. And this verse comes in Habakkuk. I hope all of you know how to find Habakkuk quickly. We must know the books of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 4, the last part. The righteous person will live by his faith. Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 4. See Habakkuk is, by the way, towards the end of the Bible. Fourth book from the end of the Bible. Just before Zephaniah. Fourth, fifth book from the end of the Bible. Or the Old Testament rather. Habakkuk 2, 4 is the last part. The righteous will live by his faith. But it begins with the word but. But means is a contrast. So what is the, who is the person who is opposite to the righteous person who lives by faith? Who is the person who is opposite to the person who has faith? Not the person with unbelief. That's easy to say. The unbelieving person is like this and the man with faith is like this. But here it says here in verse 4, see the contrast. The person with faith is like this and the opposite of that, the first part of verse 4, the proud person, his soul is not right. So the contrast here is not between an unbelieving person and a believing person. The contrast is between a proud person and a believing person. So I get from there one thing, the opposite of faith is pride. And I get this. The reason why people don't have more faith is because they are proud. It's up to it. And we saw that in the case of the two cases of the Roman Centurions. In both cases, we see faith. He says, Lord, speak the word here. 35 miles away or wherever that is. My son will be healed. I know that. The other chap, he says, I don't have to go and see my son today. I'll sleep today and go tomorrow. He's got faith. I'm sure he's healed. What did they have? Humility. So, I don't know whether you have considered this possibility that in difficult situations where you find you don't have faith. It's not because, oh, why don't I have faith? Ask yourself, why are you so proud? Why are you such a proud person? No wonder you don't have faith. Habakkuk 2:4 is very clear on that. Proud people are not disciples. A disciple is a humble person who acknowledges someone else can lead me and guide me. You know, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. He said that twice. First in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1 and also in Philippians 3:17. Follow me. Follow me as I follow Christ. He didn't just say follow me. Follow me. I'm following Christ. Christ has gone ahead of me. I'm walking or running after him and you can look at my example and follow after me. If you can't see Christ himself, look at me. And I've always said that every true servant of God who's proclaiming the truth should be able to say follow me as I follow Christ. I've got no hesitation in saying that myself. Follow me as I follow Paul and he follows Christ. I believe if you can't say that you shouldn't preach. Keep your mouth shut because we're not to just speak what we know in our head. We're to speak what we have done in our life. You know the verse I often quote Acts 1 verse 1. Luke is writing about the Gospel of Luke which he wrote first. He says the first account that is the Gospel of Luke which I composed O Theophilus is about what Jesus first did and then taught. He did and taught. He did not teach what he had not done. There's a saying in English practice what you preach. No, Jesus preached what he had already practiced. So practice first do it and then teach it and let me never never teach what I have not done or at least what I'm not trying to do. Very important. The Christian world is full of people who are preaching what they have not done. They're talking about building churches when they never built one. I found people criticizing me about some way of building the church and I asked them have you built even one church? No, then what are you talking about? You're talking theory. The Christian world is full of people who are talking theories and you cannot understand the Christian life by theory. You have to do it and in order to do it, you've got to be a humble person and the humble person will God will give him faith. Faith is a gift of God. Do you know faith is a gift of God? Turn with me to Ephesians in chapter 2. He offers it to everybody but not everybody gets it. Ephesians chapter 2. It says verse 8 by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. The salvation is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God and even that faith think of that word faith. You're saved through faith. Ephesians 2 8 and that faith is not something you produced. It is a gift of God. God gives me faith. You say then why doesn't he give it to me? I'll tell you. How about Cook 2 4? You're proud. He doesn't give faith to people who are proud. He doesn't give grace to people who are proud. You know the well-known verse in 1 Peter 5 5 God gives grace to the humble and here God gives faith to the humble. Grace and faith are both God's gifts. You can't sort of work it out. Why did the Roman centurion get it was never at the Bible yet humility grace came only on the day of Pentecost. So nobody could get grace before that but faith could come even before and it comes to humble people. So when we talk about discipleship and faith both are very dependent on humility. I've often said the great the three secrets of the Christian life are humility humility humility. And I'll tell you where I get that from Philippians chapter 2 turn with me. Philippians chapter 2 it says in verse 5 Philippians 2 5 have this attitude in yourself which was in Christ Jesus. What particular attitude was there in Christ? There was so many things in Christ. There was patience. There was goodness. There was love. There was holiness. Oh, we could make a list of things long-suffering, but what particular attitude is he emphasizing here? He's emphasizing humility and he says that here when 3 verse 3 Philippians 2 3 with humility of mind regard others as more important than yourself not more spiritual than yourself. That's impossible, but more important than yourself. You see Jesus did not consider others more spiritual than himself, but he did consider others more important. He even washed the feet of Judas Iscariot. That's meaning of that verse. Now see have the same attitude in you which was in Christ Jesus who now listen to this his first step was six though. He was God. He did not hang on to that position, but became a man emptied himself step one as a birth as a king that itself would have been humility God becoming a king on Earth. But from there he went further down and when he came to Earth, he chose to become a bond servant a slave. So first is God becoming man and coming in second step of humility is choosing to be a slave and you say, oh, that's about the limit because there's nobody on Earth lower than a slave. No, he went even further down to the death on a cross like the only people crucified in those days were criminals. Jesus was no criminal, but he took the place of a criminal on the cross willing to be wrecked thought of as a criminal. So humility to become a man humility to be a slave of others and humility to be even willing to be considered a criminal humility humility humility have this attitude in yourself, which is in Christ Jesus. Those are the three secrets of the Christian life. It's there in the Bible. Have you seen it? And when we are like that we see amazing things in the sovereignty of God all Authority in Heaven and Earth is given to me go and make a disciples be a disciple and make a disciple. But sometimes God has to take us through some deep humbling process when we are not humbling ourselves God has to humble us and if he loves you and you don't humble yourself he will humble you if he doesn't God doesn't care for you. Then of course he won't humble you but I tell you one Mark of God's love is when he sees you don't humble yourself. He humbles you. Yes, I praise God for that God loves us so much that when he sees you don't humble yourself. He will humble you but if he sees you as such an arrogant person defying him he may leave you alone and I'll allow you to remain in pride and go to hell. So I want to give you an example of that. There was a king in the old in the time of Daniel turn with me to Daniel in chapter 4 Daniel chapter 4 verse 28 that was this King Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon who was he built this massive city of Babylon with a wall that was so broad. I've heard that the chariot could ride on top of that wall. There's a walls of Babylon and they had hanging gardens that are considered one of the wonders of the world in those days and you know, he was probably the proudest man on earth at that time and by the way, God humbled him. I think God saw in him a little desire for the truth. That's why God humbled him because there are many other proud emperors whom God never humbled. But this man, you know, he looked at Babylon and he said in verse 30 Daniel 430. This is Babylon the great which I have built by the might of my power for the glory of my Majesty from man through man's power for man's glory as the mark of Tower of Babel was like that built by man's plan or by man's power for man's glory in Babylon, which is a continuation of the Tower of Babel same thing. By my plans for my power for my glory. That's how man lives. Human beings make their own plans do things with their own energy and strength and money and power and they do it for their own glory. My plans with my money for my glory. Everybody in the world is like that. Nebuchadnezzar was an expansion of that and then as soon as he said that God spoke to him from heaven in love humbled him. I tell you if God humbles you it's one of the greatest proofs of his love. I believe that because you don't humble yourself and he wants to bless you. God wanted to bless this man. So he humbled him and he said all this that you boast about is taken away from you and you'll be driven away from mankind and you'll become like an animal in the field and you'll start eating grass verse 32 until a certain seven periods of time are over until you come to the place where you recognize that you're not the ruler but Almighty God is the ruler verse 32 and he's the one who gives authority to whomever he decides. Nebuchadnezzar you didn't decide to be this king and become it with your power. Almighty God from heaven allowed you to be the ruler in Babylon and as soon as the word was spoken immediately he had just finished boasting about great Babylon that he had built and he suddenly lost his mind and he ran away and started eating grass in his garden and he wouldn't sleep on his bed. He would sleep out in the open and be drenched and for years because it says his hair grew like the feathers of eagles. How long does it take for your hair to grow like the feathers of eagles? He must have been I don't know like that for seven years perhaps and then his nails became like birds claws. He lived like that for seven years like a madman eating grass living like an animal claws and long hair and and finally it says in verse 34 his reason returned to him. God gave him back his reason and then now see what he says this is the most complete statement of the authority of God that I found in the whole Bible made by a man. There's no statement that equals this anywhere in Scripture about the almighty power and authority of God. Listen to this the Most High God verse 34 and 35 has a dominion which is an everlasting dominion. He's going to last forever and ever and ever and ever he says and his kingdom is going to go from generation to generation to generation to generation. It'll never end and all the inhabitants of the earth every human being on this earth is like zero including himself including me the book of Nazareth says I'm a zero in God's eyes you know to know the authority of God in your life. You must first recognize you're a zero. I remember some years ago. I demonstrated this in CFC Bangalore by calling a number of brothers and asking all of them to hold a board which says zero and I wrote there great scholar a great sportsman and handsome guy and rich guy and all the qualities that people admire. They were all 0 0 0 0 0 I said whatever you are famous clever intelligent strong powerful handsome zero and I made them all stand. I said put them all together. You have all these qualities. You're still zero and then I said Jesus is one and then I took a board with one and I held it on the right side and I said see how when one is added to the zero he suddenly becomes 10 and if he has fellowship with one more brother who's a zero it becomes a hundred not 11 but hundred and if he has fellowship with one more fellow who's a zero it becomes a thousand and I demonstrated there the important thing is to be a zero because God will not put Christ in front of you until you're a zero if you are 7 8 9 or something sorry Christ doesn't come in front you're worth nothing. So this is the reason why many people do not have Christ as Lord in their life to Christ have to have Christ as Lord in your life. You must recognize Nebuchadnezzar I am a zero that's what he said in verse 35 I am a zero. I'm the greatest king on earth, but I'm a zero and my dear brother sister, no matter how clever you think you are you look at other people in the church. You think you're more spiritual than them. You think you're better than them. You think you're a leader. You think you have gifts your job is better. You're smarter. You've earned more and you started out poor in the Gulf and now you've earned so much money and all that has gone to your head and I'll tell you something. I've seen this happen to many many people in Gulf countries. It has not only ruined them. It has ruined their children. I've seen it even believers children because they give their children so much money and those children ruin themselves. They come to India to study in colleges with so much money and they destroy themselves who destroyed them their parents. They never taught their children, but their children were zeros. Teach your children humility not just mathematics and science. Zero most important lesson to learn if you want you to live by faith and you want your children to live by faith. Learn what Nebuchadnezzar learned that every human being on Earth is a zero and also Daniel 435. I haven't finished Daniel 435. Not only he counts God counts everybody on Earth as zero, but he does whatever he wants. Do you hear that? He does whatever he wants not only in the heavens among the angels and the demons and everyone else but also among all the inhabitants of the Earth. He does what he wants. He allows a pandemic to go across the Earth to humble man to teach man that this small teeny weeny virus which you can't even see under a microscope is enough to humble this whole world of people who think they are so capable and so smart and so strong. It's not because God hates us. No. He so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. How can he hate this world this wicked world today? God sent his son to die for this world. But they cannot receive that blessing if they don't have humility and God allows things to happen to humble man to humble the pride of man. You think you're so smart. You think you're so clever. You don't need a storm to humble you. You need just a teeny weeny virus to humble you. Yeah. Look at the power God has placed in a small atom. And look at the power we've seen that a small virus has. An atom could finish off a city in Japan atom bomb. But the small virus could humble the whole Earth. You see something of the power of man there? Power of God there? Man is struggling to cope with it. What's the solution in a storm like this? Faith. When the storm was there in the lake and the disciples were in the boat, they thought Jesus was asleep. Yeah, he was asleep. But inwardly he is never asleep. So he could sleep peacefully because his father in heaven was watching over him. And no storm could drown Jesus because his time had not yet come. So when he got up and stilled the storm, he told the disciples, where is your faith? You guys have been with me for so long and you can't believe that I could even still a storm? And when a situation like this is happening in the world today, the Lord says the same thing to his children. Where is your faith? You talked so much in your meetings about faith and trusting God and some of you preached on it. Where is it now? Thank God for situations that show us that what we call faith is actually unbelief. And thank God if we discover the reason for our unbelief is our pride and nothing else. Arrogance. Our looking down on other believers in our church. Looking down on other believers in other denominations and say, Oh Lord, I thank you that we are in CFC and we are not like those other people in those Babylonian denominations. You have that attitude and my brother, I tell you, you will be full of unbelief. That Roman Centurion will have more faith than you. It's good to humble ourselves. We are not called to compare ourselves with others. Pharisees compare themselves with others. We're called to compare ourselves with Jesus Christ only. And then it is impossible to be proud. All pride comes through comparison. Humility comes through comparison and I'll prove it to you. I've often used this example. Here is a boy in school. It's a poor corporation school where people don't study properly. He got 10 out of a hundred in mathematics. 10 out of a hundred. But he came first in the class. Because all the others got five and three and zero. All the other 30 students got less than him and he got 10% and he came first in the class and he got the first prize for mathematics and he came home with his head just held up. Mommy, I came first in the class proud. How much did he get? 10%. Now that same child, you take him, next year, you put him in a school where everybody's brilliant and everybody's getting 98, 99 and 100 and he still gets his 10. Suddenly, he becomes humble. How is that? In the first school, he was comparing himself with others and became proud. In the second school, he compared himself with others and became humble. So what do we learn from that? Pride comes through comparison with others and humility comes with comparison with others. Very simple. So if you're proud, it's because you compare yourself with other people who you think are not so spiritual and you buff yourself up inwardly and say, I'm proud. Husbands who think they're smarter and prouder and more spiritual than their wives and wives who think they are smarter and more spiritual than their husband. It's all comparison. How to be humble then? Compare yourself with Jesus Christ. That's the secret of humility. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. You'll never be proud even for one second. I guarantee you become proud when you stop looking at Jesus and start looking at people around you. Well, then you deserve to be proud and you deserve for God resists the proud and he will resist you. If you want God to support you all the time, to lift you up all the time, compare yourself with Christ. The humility will be there. Let me continue. Daniel 435. All the inhabitants of the earth are zero in God's eyes. He does whatever he wants in heaven and the inhabitants of the earth and no one can stop his hand and no one can say to him, what are you doing? I love that. That is the most complete statement of the total authority of Almighty God that I found in the whole Bible and it came from the mouth of a heathen King when God humbled him. Let's learn it. It's a very good verse for you to memorize and say to yourself, my father in heaven, he could not call him father. He called him as Almighty God. My father in heaven has an everlasting dominion. Verse 34, his kingdom is and yours from generation to generation in front of my father in heaven, all the inhabitants of the earth and all the worms and bacteria and viruses on earth are all as zero and my father in heaven does exactly what he wants in heaven and on all the inhabitants of the earth and no one can stop my father's hand or ask him, what are you doing? I praise God. This is my father and I'm his child and he's given me his son Jesus as an example and I'm seeking to follow in Jesus' footsteps to be a disciples to look at Jesus and when you look at Jesus, you'll be a disciple. Be humble. You cannot be proud. You can be proud only if you stop looking at Jesus. The moment you turn your eyes away from Jesus and look at something else, you drown in pride, just like Peter. He walked on the water as long as he was looking at Jesus. The moment he turned his eyes away from Jesus, he sank. That's exactly what happens. We sink in pride when we turn our eyes away from Christ. Then I'm not a disciple. Then I don't have faith. Okay, I've shown you one enemy of faith, which is pride. We saw that in the book of Nazareth and God humbled him. Let me show you another enemy of faith and another enemy of discipleship. Join with me to Proverbs and chapter 3, the Old Testament, Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3 and verse 5, just one verse. Trust in the Lord. That is faith. Have faith in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Like the branch in the tree, remain in total confidence, trust in the Lord with all your heart and the opposite of that, the enemy of faith, your own understanding. Don't lean on your own understanding. In Habakkuk 2:4, we saw one enemy of faith is pride. This is connected with that. It's pride that makes me feel I can trust myself. That's what made Adam and Eve go to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What they were choosing is, I want the knowledge of good and evil in my own mind. I don't need to go to God for that. See, the choice that Adam and Eve faced in the Garden of Eden was this. Do you want the knowledge of good and evil to be in you? You eat of this and it comes in you or do you want it to be constantly dependent on God that whenever you want to know what is good and evil, you're going to go to God to find out. And Adam and Eve said, no. We want it in ourselves. Go ahead. And that's what brought all the sin and chaos in this universe, in the world. So don't lean on your own understanding. Trust in the Lord. Some things don't look right to your understanding, but you're mistaken. Consider this for today. If I ask any of you, does, how does the sun, does the sun move in the sky and go around the Earth? You'd say, no, not at all. Then I ask you, how does it appear as if the sun is moving? You say, well, it's because the Earth rotates on its axis. The sun is steady there. The Earth rotates on its axis and you think the sun is moving. The sun is not moving at all. Every one of you have studied that in school. But if you had gone to someone, even to a clever man, 2,000 years ago, or even a thousand years ago, and asked them, does the sun go around the Earth? They'd say, of course. Can't you see it? The cleverest people in the world thought the sun goes around the Earth. Until 700, 800 years ago, somebody in Europe discovered through study, that's not true. What does that teach us? You cannot trust your eyes. Clever people were wrong. There are many things like that. You know, there's a, I don't know whether you've heard of it. There's a whistle called a dog whistle. It's such a high frequency that only dogs can hear it. It's beyond, you know, our ear has got a certain range. If it's below that frequency or above that frequency, the ear cannot pick up that sound. So this is so much above the frequency of the ear, of the human ear, that you blow that whistle and you say, I heard nothing. There was a sound, that dog picked it up. That teaches us you can't even rely on your ears. You can't rely on what you see. The sun is not moving. You can't rely on your ears. There was a sound there, you couldn't hear it. And you can't rely on your mind. There's so many things that people thought they knew. If you had looked at the books of science 200 years ago, just 200 years ago, it had taught you that the smallest thing in matter is the atom. And that can never be split. That's the smallest thing in the world. Today, nobody believes that if you're a scientist. The atom can be split and they thought, electrons, that's the smallest. Now they discovered that things smaller than electrons. Man's always discovering. Because science has got to rewrite its books all the time. They're discovering new things. The Bible has never had to be rewritten. What is written thousands of years ago by Moses is still true. I mean, even in the book of Job, you read that the earth is circular and the Lord hangs the earth on nothing. In Isaiah and Job, you read that. So there are things written in the Bible which are true and it never had to change it in all these thousands of years. But man's keeping on changing. Man's understanding is unreliable. That's what I'm trying to say. But trust in the Lord. Why is it there's so many religions in the world? Because everything has come out of man's understanding. Nobody has seen God. They try to imagine what God is like and you have hundreds of religions. It's like I use the example, supposing in a classroom somewhere in some country where they have never seen an elephant and they've never seen even a picture of an elephant and you ask all the tell all the children, you know, in India, there's an animal called an elephant. Have you all heard of it? They say, no, we've never heard of it. Have you seen a picture of it? No, we've never seen a picture. Can you try and draw what an elephant will look like? Not one of them will draw an elephant with a big trunk because they'll draw it like a lion or a cat or a dog or something and they will not even think it's a huge animal. Why? Because they haven't seen it. So if there are 20 students there, you get 20 different pictures of what an elephant looks like. This is how we have so many religions. No one has seen God. It's like in that classroom. Nobody saw an elephant and everybody's trying to imagine. Oh God must be like this. God must be like that. You have hundreds of religions through the years. But the man comes from India who's seen an elephant and touched and walked with an elephant. He says, I'll tell you it's not like this. He'll draw a much better picture of an elephant. One person came from heaven. Jesus came from heaven. He said, I'll tell you what God is like. That's why I believe Jesus Christ spoke the truth. Nobody else said I came from heaven. They even dare not say that because it's not true. They were all born through their mothers. They did not exist before they were born. Jesus said I've existed from all eternity. I've just come from heaven. That's why we believe in him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding. You know, all growth is by faith. The righteous will live by faith. And if you believe you will follow Jesus fully. If you believe that the best and the most wonderful life that anybody lived on this earth was not some rich king or some muscular he-man or some very pretty woman who became Miss Universe. It was Jesus Christ. And if you believe that is the most wonderful life that anybody lived, you'll say Lord show me the secret of that life. And what is the secret of his life? One thing. Let me show that to you. This is what discipleship means in one sentence. Lest any of you easily think you're a disciple. I want to humble your high thoughts. Turn with me to John chapter 6 verse 38. Here is what how Jesus lived the most wonderful life that any human being ever lived on this earth. John 6 38. Jesus said I came from heaven to do what? Never to do my own will. But always to do the will of him who sent me my father. That is discipleship. Never never to do my own will. But always to do the will of God. When somebody provokes me to anger. My will is to get angry with him again in return. But my father says keep your mouth shut and not only a mouth shut but love him in your heart and I die to myself. I say I won't do my own will. I'll do the will of my father. You men who are tempted to lust. You see a pretty woman and lust comes up in your heart. Your father says no. Holy Spirit says no. Turn your eyes away. Put it away. And follow Jesus. Deny your will. I'll tell you you live the most wonderful life anybody can live. Somebody did harm to you. You have a tendency to want revenge or to have bitterness and the Holy Spirit says no forgive him. Release him. Don't try and have a grudge against him. Love him. Wish the best for him. You do that. You live like Jesus and you keep on saying that like that, you know, you have an opportunity to go after money and you got to lose something spiritually for that. There are many Christians who have chosen money and lost out spiritually. Yes, and the result is eternal loss. Don't go after money, my brothers and sisters. It's good to earn your living. I'm not saying you shouldn't get a job with a good salary, but the great danger I've seen with many people who go after good salary is that becomes everything to them and they lose out spiritually. Spirituality is secondary. Making money is the most important thing. I've seen that. I've seen that with a lot of people who have gone to the Gulf who were very good believers before they went there and by the time they've been there in a few years in the Gulf and their interest is, oh, can I get money plus spirituality? I say you leave the money part to God. You concentrate on following Jesus and to be wholehearted and spiritual and leave it to God to decide how much you should earn and you don't want to do that. You want to get as much as you can, as much as you can, as much as you can and the result is you've lost out spiritually. I've seen that with so many people, not only in the Gulf, in India too. Love of money is not in the Gulf. Love of money is not in America. Love of money is in every human being, every child of Adam. Even do you think the beggar who sits on the street doesn't love money? Of course he does. Nowadays, you give a beggar in India 25 paise a coin, he'll throw it away. He'll say, what are you giving me? He's not even happy with one rupee. They love money, sure. You don't have to go to the Gulf or America to love money. Every human being loves money, but if you do, you will not be able to follow Jesus. Money is meant to be used, not loved. It must not be on your head, in your mind. It must be under your feet. You know, in heaven, they walk on gold. Streets are made of gold. In heaven, they put gold under their feet and walk on it. And on earth, they put it on their head. That's why they don't have faith. When you've learned to put gold under your feet, money under your feet, then you're ready for heaven. You're not ready for heaven if you have not learned to put gold and money under your feet, my brother, sister. Learn it. It's easy to say that if you're a beggar. It's more difficult to say that when you earned millions of rupees in the Gulf countries. That's the time to prove that gold is not my master and gold is my slave. A beggar with only two rupees inside his tin can to say gold is my servant means nothing but many of you earn so much money. When you say money means nothing to me. God is everything that means something. If you can say it to God, not to me. Put money under your feet. That's another reason people don't have faith. They trust so much in their bank account more than in God. God allows people to come into circumstances where all their money doesn't help. All the money in the world will not make help you to become a spiritual father to your children. No. The children will go astray. Because you've loaded them with money and not with humility and faith in Jesus Christ. Very important in these days. These world causes so many divorces. So let's learn some lessons from all this. Lord, I don't want to lean on my own understanding. I don't want to lean on money. I don't want to lean on my knowledge or what I've accomplished or any such thing. Let me recognize I'm a zero. Okay. I was telling you also that we don't lean on our own understanding. Let me show you one more verse before I close. And that's in Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 14. Proverbs 14 and verse 14. There's a, it says in the last part of 14, a good man will be satisfied with his life. The Living Bible paraphrase is wonderful. Some places the Living Bible is really excellent. The Living Bible paraphrase of that latter part of verse 14, Proverbs 14, 14b is the godly man's life is exciting. I've been a Christian for 60 years. I tell you honestly, I'm more excited today than I've ever been. My life's been exciting. I'm not bored with my Christianity. I'm not bored with serving the Lord. I say I've been serving the Lord for 54 years full time. And nobody's paid me a salary to serve the Lord. God's taking care of me. And times when I had very little, it was exciting. Times when I had more, it's exciting. My life's exciting. It's got nothing to do with my bank account. It's got to do with the fact that Jesus Christ is my Lord. He's my Savior. He's my sanctifier. He's my leader. He's my forerunner and I can, and he's close to me all the time. He's my bridegroom. That's why my life is exciting. I hope you can say that. I hope you can say every day of your life is exciting. I praise the Lord. I found it exciting when I was a young man of 23 years old. Studying the Word of God in my naval base in Cochin. Every morning I'd get up, kneel down and pray and read the Bible and my life was exciting then. It was so exciting to go out into the streets and preach the gospel those days. Even though people would make fun of me on the streets. What's this naval officer doing on the street preaching the gospel? And it's exciting for me today. Now that I'm 80 years old, it's just as exciting and I tell you it gets more and more exciting. I'm not bored one bit. I'm telling you honestly. I'm not trying to impress you. It's the absolute truth. That verse is true that godly man's life is exciting. Trials come. I've faced a lot of trials. People have taken me to court for 10 years all the way to the Supreme Court of India. It was exciting. Because God is in charge of everything. Isaiah 54 17, God says to me, you will have justice against every courtroom lie. Living Bible paraphrase. Yeah, it's been exciting. Every experience is exciting. I've been through sickness and asthma and all types of things and God heals me and it's exciting. Wonderful. What a wonderful life it is to be a disciple of Jesus where you say Lord. My only ambition is to be a disciple and to make other people disciples. First of all, I want to make my own children disciples. That's where you must all begin. And then I want to make other people around me disciples. That depends on whether they'll respond to them. If it's my own children, I can start when they're age one month and start working on them and working on them as long as they're in their home. Make them disciples. All my children were at home for 18 years and I tried my best to make them disciples. And other people in the church who listen to me and are willing to listen. I try to make them disciples. It's exciting life. You can have a very very useful life. If you say Lord Jesus, you're going to be my Lord. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to live by faith and dependence on you lean upon you. I'm not going to lean on my own understanding and as far as I can see, I'm going to be a servant of others. I'm going to humble myself and consider others as more important than myself always in every situation. Never compare myself with others always recognize. I am a sinner saved by grace to the end of my life. I come to the gates of heaven and I'll say I'm a sinner, but Jesus died for me. That's why I have access to into God's kingdom. Not because I did something. Dear brothers and sisters, keep that attitude and wherever you live, however much or less you earn, you'll be a disciple of Jesus. Your life will be exciting and you'll have an abundant glorious entrance into God's kingdom one day. Let's pray. Please ask the Lord to remind you in the coming days of all that you heard today and to apply it in your life according to each situation that you face. Thank you father for helping us. In Jesus name. Amen.