God Breaks Our Pride to Bless Us

We were thinking in our last session that we must end our life with, spiritually speaking, gold, silver, and precious stones as a result of our life and our labors. Our life must be on this principle of Romans 11, 36, from God, through God, to God, meaning that from God means everything is according to His will, for which we must know the Scriptures. God has given us the Scriptures so that we know His will.

Jesus said, Jesus summed up His whole life in one sentence. If you don't know that, John 6, 38, one sentence, His entire life. I've come from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

If you were to ask Jesus, why did you come to earth? Most people say He came to die on the cross. No, that was one small part of what He came for. John 6, 38 says, I came from heaven to do my Father's will.

You know, if God's plan for Jesus was only that He should die for our sins, He could have made Jesus just like He made Adam. You know, from the dust of the ground, make another man. Jesus comes into that clay figure and He wouldn't have to waste His time living for 30 years on earth, making stools and benches and all that, and go and die on the cross.

But what would I be missing? There would have been no connection between Him and the race of Adam. It was just another pile of clay, but He had to be connected to the human race. And that is why He had to have Mary's, a part of Mary in Him.

That's why He had to be born in, and the little part of Mary from which, you know, from the part of a woman where the baby's born, He had to have that. Otherwise, He'd have no connection with the human race. Otherwise, He couldn't die for us.

So that's why He had to come into a mother's womb and grow up. And the other second reason is because He had to be an example. You know, He didn't come to earth just to die for our sins.

He came to be an example. So He could say, follow me, how I took up my cross every day of my life, you take up your cross every day. And He took up His cross as a child.

And you can imagine how He must have been. He had four brothers and two sisters. It says in John 7, they did not believe in Him.

And you read about four brothers and two sisters in Mark 6. And I can imagine, I used to picture in my mind, how is it living with four brothers and two sisters? They don't believe in you. They don't believe. Mary says to them, listen, fellas, this older brother of yours is not born like the rest of you.

It's God Almighty who has come in human form. You think they'd believe that? They say, oh, rubbish, mom. Don't fool us.

We're not kids now. You could have fooled us when we were children. It says when they were grown up, and they must have been 27, 25 years old, they did not believe in Jesus.

Even though they saw Him live for at least 20 years in their home. Perfect. Imagine seeing a boy growing up is one of your own brothers, older brothers, growing up in your home.

Think of that. Never getting angry. Never getting upset.

No matter how much you irritate him, he does not react in the way you do. Never speaks a bad word. Never tells bad stories.

And always utterly obedient to his mother. Say when he's playing games outside, and it's his turn to bat, whatever is the equivalent of baseball in those days. And Mary says, Jesus, come here.

It's his turn to bat. He drops it and goes, mom's calling me. And all those people in the team says, hey, you're going to lose.

You're mama's boy. And all those bad words they call him. He's not bothered.

He has to obey his mother. His mother says, Jesus, I want some water from the well. He goes, draws the water from the well, comes back.

By the time he's come back, his turn for batting is over. He's not bothered. He has obeyed his father.

This is how he lived. Imagine Jesus' life for 30 years. Why did he live like that? So that he can say to even children, follow me.

He can say to a 15 year old, follow me. He can say to a 25 year old, follow me. He can say to a person who's working as a carpenter, earning his own living, follow me.

I'm sure there were crooks in Nazareth who cheated Jesus in his carpentry shop. He forgave them. And if some poor widow had to get something done, make a stool or something, he'd make it.

And when she asked, what's the price? He'd say, forget it. It's my gift to you. That's how he lived.

So he didn't become a millionaire. But he pleased the father. He came to do the father's will.

That's why he had to be born as a child. His entire life was the principle of I'll do my father's will from him. And he sought the power of the Holy Spirit every day through him.

And the result of his life was to glorify God. Do you know that the Bible says that even your eating and drinking must be for the glory of God? Turn to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 whatever you do, whatever you do, includes every activity of your life, whether you eat or drink, which is the most normal thing everybody does, the poorest person does it to the richest person.

Eat or drink, whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God from God through God to God. That's the ultimate thing. In other words, I must see God's will for my life from God, read the word of God, do everything in my life according to God's word.

And then through God means seek God for the power of the Holy Spirit to live this life. So that I don't sin, I don't get angry, I don't get upset, I don't get lost with my eyes. I cannot do it without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some of you are still struggling because you're not seeking for the power of the Holy Spirit every day. Maybe you're glorying in one experience you had in the ancient past that will not suffice. The tree, the branches in the tree perpetually and yesterday's sap will not produce fruit today.

It needs to get sap not only every day, but every moment. That is a spirit-filled life. There is no once for all experience.

You go and ask any branch in a tree, have you had a once for all experience by which you produce fruit? No, I'm in constant dependence through God and to God. Jesus gave all the glory to him. Imagine eating and drinking for the glory of God.

What does that mean in practical terms? We eat and drink every day. You have to be disciplined, my brothers and sisters, my brothers, brother, in eating and drinking. Do you know that why do we give thanks when we eat? Why do we pray before we eat? You recognize this is a gift of God that our food is.

That's why we give thanks. Even Jesus, he always prayed before he ate. It's not to be a ritual, but it's an expression of gratitude, number one.

And there's a prayer in it. Father, the strength I get from this is to keep my body fit and healthy so that I can use it for you. It's not just to satisfy my lust for eating.

Jesus was not like John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey. You know, he was not a, what they call a Spartan, you know, eating very simple food. And I think, you know, they called him a wine-bibber.

That means if you gave him something, he didn't get drunk ever in his life. But if you gave him something, if you gave him ice cream, he would take it. And he would enjoy the meal, but he wouldn't be, he wouldn't overeat.

He could enjoy a good meal. But remember, he was a person who could also fast for 40 days. He was completely disciplined, even in his eating and drinking.

And you cannot be a disciple of Jesus, let me tell you this. If you don't discipline yourself, what does it say here? In eating and drinking. Do it for the glory of God.

In other words, Lord, the reason I'm eating and drinking in this is not because just I enjoy it. God has made it such that we can enjoy a good meal. There are many things he's given us to enjoy.

He could have made food in a tasteless way and said, just eat it. It's to keep you healthy. But he's made food tasty.

So many fruits and all. Why did he put so much tasty food in this world? Because even in a sinful world, God has not forsaken man. He wants man to enjoy eating.

Take sex, for example. There's so much pleasure in sex. And God has allowed it.

He didn't take away that pleasure of sex when sin came into the world. He could have. He could have said as a punishment, there'll be no more pleasure in food, there'll be no more pleasure in sex.

God is a good God. But don't be taken up with the pleasure of sex. That's how prostitutes live.

And that's how all these immoral men live. For them, the pleasure of sex is the main thing. That's how pornography and masturbation and all that comes in.

Because the pleasure of sex, it says whatever you do, you must do for the glory of God. From him, through him and to him. So never forget that.

You take these things seriously, you say life will be a bondage. Far from it. My brother, I'll tell you this, your life will be liberated.

For example, you know the Bible says give thanks in everything. You know why you can't give thanks in everything? Because you don't seek the glory of God in everything. In everything we can glorify God.

You say, Lord, I want to give you thanks. I don't want to. I'm not called here to just do what I feel like, eat what I like, whatever I enjoy.

It says eat for the glory of God. Everything must be under the discipline of God. That doesn't mean a bondage.

In fact, it brings liberty. It brings liberty. You go and ask a doctor.

He'll tell you that if you eat in a disciplined way, you'll live much longer. A lot of people die early because they eat very unwisely. Now you think this, you talk about eating and drinking in a church? Sure.

It says here, whether you eat and drink for the glory of God, that's in the Bible. So how do I eat and drink for the glory of God? I must find out if this type of food is what is good for me to eat. And if I discover this type of food is just going to make me fat and sloppy and useless for God and shorten my life, I shouldn't eat it.

Or I should be disciplined in my eating. It's not just exercise. As I heard, someone said the best push-ups you can do are the push-ups from the dining table to be healthy.

So we must be disciplined in our eating and drinking as well. Everything to all for the glory of God is a great promise. And for that, you know, we have to take the place of nothingness before God.

Jesus taught us in John 15, a very great truth concerning what we can do and what we cannot do. John 15. I'll show you two sides of this coin.

One side of the coin says, you know, every coin has got two sides. So one, here's a coin. Now, one side of the coin says, John 15, verse five, the last part, without Christ, I can do nothing.

You must have a coin on one side, it says without Christ, I can do nothing. But that's not all that won't help you. Turn around to the other side of the coin.

And that is Philippians, in chapter four, Philippians four, and verse 13. With Christ, I can do everything. He strengthens me.

These are the two sides of the coin. Never forget it. John 15, five, and Philippians 413.

Without Christ, I can do zero. With Christ, I can do 100%, not 90%, 100% of what God wants me to do in my life. I won't have another man's ministry.

For years and years, I've told people in Bangalore, please don't try to copy Zach Boonin's ministry. That's not your calling. I won't be able to do your job, you won't be able to do mine.

I've been equipped to do my task. And I say, for example, if the hand says, boy, it's wonderful how the tongue can speak and the tongue can sing and the tongue can speak. I'd like to be like a tongue, Lord.

Lord says no, you've got to be a hand. The hand does so many things the tongue cannot do. The tongue will not have strength to speak if the hand does not pick up food and put it in the mouth.

God has made this body so interdependent on each other, even the heart, the heart, that is the most important thing. You know, the heart also needs the eyes to look at the food, the hand to take it up, the mouth to chew it, the stomach and everything else that is to digest it to give strength to the heart. So even the heart, which is most important part, is dependent on all the other members of the body.

There's no member that is independent of itself. And there's no member in the body which is useless or too small, unimportant. I talk of the nails very often.

The nails are perhaps one of the smallest parts of our body. But when you feel itchy, there's no part of your body that can help you except the nails. So you can be like a nail, you know, scratching the back spiritually, encouraging your brother or sister.

You know how long it takes to encourage a brother one sentence. I often tell people when you write an email to somebody, why not add one sentence at the bottom to encourage him? You've written a wrong email answering so many things and encouraged saying so many things, one sentence to encourage him. Or when you speak to a brother over a phone, do you ever think of encouraging? It's a great ministry, encourage one another daily.

That's in the Bible, by the way, Hebrews and chapter three, verse 13. In the NASB, it says, encourage one another day after day. Here is a command, which I think almost all believers disobey.

It's almost as though it's not in the Bible. Encourage one another daily. You know how long it takes to encourage a person one sentence.

I never forget what happened. I often said this more than 50 years ago, I was in a conference in one place where another country where the guy doesn't even know how to speak English, but a godly man. And he wanted to just encourage me and he knew one sentence in English that he said to me.

He says, Brother Zach, God has got a great plan for your life. I was 30 years old. He hardly knew me.

I'd just gone there for a conference. Somehow the Lord led him to say that he was a godly man. I've never forgotten it for nearly 55 years.

Did he encourage me? Yes, he encouraged me because as a young person, I was so uncertain about the future. And I was facing so many difficulties and problems. One sentence encouraged me that it lasted forever and ever.

God's got a plan for my life. It doesn't take much to encourage somebody. Encourage one another daily.

Let me ask you another very simple question. All you married people. Who do you see daily? Your wife.

When was the last time you encouraged her with some word? I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. I'm just trying to point you to Hebrews 3.13. You see, there are scriptures that we read, and we disobey and we don't even know it. Encourage one another daily.

You can start today, or whenever you see your wife next. And say Lord, you know how long it takes? Not even one minute to appreciate something that she's done. Maybe she cooks for you.

You're quick to point out when something is missing in that food. What about being quick to when it's good and she's worked hard? Oh, it's so important. Our children especially.

I've seen that children need encouragement. Sure, they need correction. But they need encouragement.

Brothers around you need encouragement. So let's take this more seriously. Say Lord, I want my life to be like that a blessing to other people.

But if I want to be like that, I have to see this coin without me you can do zero. With me, you can do everything. That's what the Lord says.

So it's very difficult for us to be a zero. Moses was a great man in Egypt, ready to be the next Pharaoh. So gifted.

And God said, I cannot use you until I make you a zero. And you know what he did? He sent him into the wilderness for 40 years, got him married to some non-Israeli woman, and had to live in his father-in-law's house for 40 years. If you ever any of you have lived in your father-in-law's house, even for a few days, you know, humiliating it is.

Here's the great man who was to be the Pharaoh is the greatest ruler in the world. God had a great plan for him is I cannot fulfill that plan in your life, Moses, till you become a zero. And that man who thought one day I can deliver the Israelites from Egypt and tried to hit a person and kill him.

And if he had gone like that, killing the Egyptians, how long would he have taken? God said, I'll wipe them out in a moment. But he could not use him until he had become a zero. I'll tell you why he became a zero, that he did become a zero.

Because when God called him at the burning bush and said, I'm calling you, you speak for me. He said, no, no, no, I can't speak. I can't speak.

How did he say that? Turn with me to Acts chapter 7. How was it when he was in Egypt, preparing to be the next Pharaoh? It says about Moses in Acts chapter 7, we find that verse getting old. It says here, he was a man mighty in word and deed. Anyway, it's somewhere there.

How much? Yeah, 22. Acts 7.22, educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, a man of power in words. And yet when God meets him at the burning bush, he says, Oh, Lord, I cannot.

He's God says, you have to speak. No, I cannot. No, I cannot.

I cannot speak. I'm not. I'm not able to speak.

You know how that happened? How did he become a zero? 40 years in the wilderness, live with your father-in-law for 40 years. You really become a zero. You great man was ready to be a Pharaoh of Egypt.

I made you a zero. Now, I will use you. I will use you to do the greatest work almost that has ever done at that time to deliver 600,000 men and women and children, 2 million people.

I'm going to deliver them through your hand from the greatest power in the world from the power of Egypt. Because you become a zero. I could not use you till now.

You were too full of yourself. You are mighty in words and deeds. And dear brothers, that is the problem with many of us.

We are mighty in words and deeds. And God cannot use you till he is. I hope he doesn't have to put you in your father-in-law's house for many years.

But in some other way, he has to reduce you to zero. It's always been God's way. Jacob, who was the smart man who could fool his brother Esau and steal the birthright.

He got deceived by his father-in-law, Laban. He was in love with Rachel, the younger sister. The smart, clever man who could dupe his elder brother.

And he found Rachel and Laban did not want to give Rachel till the elder sister was married. So you know what he did? I don't have time to show you that. At the wedding reception, he said, let's have the celebration before the wedding.

Have you ever been to a wedding where the celebration is before the wedding itself? I've never been to one in my life. It's always after the wedding, you have the celebration. Jacob, Laban was a smart guy.

He said, let's have a celebration before the wedding. You know, his aim was to get the older girl married. So he gets Jacob drunk.

And then this fellow is half asleep, drunk and tottering around. And he gives his hand and puts the ring into the hand. He doesn't know who it is.

He thinks it's Rachel because he's so drunk. It's Leah. And he doesn't know till he wakes up next morning.

They're asleep together, husband and wife. Next morning, he wakes up and says, hey, did I marry you? The man who outsmarted his brother got outsmarted by somebody. That's how God reduced Jacob to a zero.

And he had to work for 20 years that he became a zero. And then God said, now I will change your name to Israel. I'll break your thigh.

You let wear walk with a stick. Even though you're a young man, you let walk with a stick for the rest of your life. But you will become a prince of God.

Now, please watch this video for just 10 minutes, and then we'll continue. Can you put that on? Now, I'm going to demonstrate something here. What are the things we glory in? Can you come here and stand facing left? Most of us glory in wealth.

Where's that mic? Okay. Wealth, the wealthiest man in the world. Seen him? He's number one in Forbes list of the wealthiest people.

Zero in God's eyes. Okay. What are the other things we glory in? We got another brother.

Here's a good looking brother. Come here. Beauty.

You see how handsome he is? I mean it. Zero. Okay.

What's the other thing people glory in? Position. Okay, come brother. He's got a very high position in the world.

You don't recognize it. He looks humble, but he's got a very high position. Zero in God's eyes.

Okay, the next one. He looks very clever. PhD.

Education. Zero. Okay, one more.

Here's the athlete. He wins every medal in the Olympics. Sports.

Zero. This guy is the one who's really popular. The young people, old people, girls, everyone is really popular.

Popularity. Zero. Okay, this is me.

Preacher. Zero. He'll represent me.

Preachers, you know, people can be proud of preaching. Zero. And there are 101 other things or a million other things that represents all the other things you can be proud of.

Okay, and the last root cause of it all is self. Now study it carefully. See what they are, what Nebuchadnezzar understood.

All the inhabitants of the earth are nothing. You know what gives value to them? Jesus. Now you see the value of all these people.

You take it away, all the zeros, you can have all those qualities, and you're still a zero. But the moment Jesus comes in, even if it's just one person, he's got value more than all these other people. Just because Jesus is with him.

You children remember that. Never forget it. One person.

And when you get fellowship, one person, ten becomes a hundred. That's the wonder of fellowship. You get one more brother in fellowship.

See what happens. And one more. And one more.

And one more. Fellowship. Fellowship.

Fellowship. Where everybody recognizes their zeros. This is the church.

This is the body of Christ. And you can be a member of the body of Christ, a functioning member, if you recognize like King Nebuchadnezzar and like Paul, that you're a zero and that God is everything. I hope this will be imprinted in your mind forever.

And the moment you suddenly begin to think highly of yourself again, you know what happens? You're a zero all over again. That's why you always need to keep Jesus number one in your life, in every area of your life throughout the new year. Thank you brother, all you zeros, thank you very much.

And on YouTube, you just put Zach Poonen being a zero. And you can find it on YouTube. Just less than 10 minutes.

But it's more than what you see there. It's something you need to recognize in your life every day. It's the thing that's helped me the most in my life.

I'll tell you honestly. You may think it's easy to preach. It's not.

And especially when you go to different audiences here and there in different parts of the world, different churches, some very clever ones and some very simple, illiterate ones to know the need there. Lord, how in the world can I do it? I don't know the need of these people. And the Lord says, you be a zero and I'll give you words to tell them.

You see, secret of the Christian life is to be a zero. And God had to reduce people to that. Like Moses, the mightiest man was built.

Pharaoh was the greatest ruler in the world in those days. And Moses would have been the next Pharaoh. And he had to reduce to zero.

And the way God used to reduce him to zero, I told you about him and Jacob. Put them in difficult situations and make them live with their father-in-law or some humiliating thing like that. Reduce them to zero and Jacob becomes an Israel and Moses becomes the greatest prophet of his time.

And you can be like that. And the reason you're not today is because you're not willing to be a zero. There's something in you that still makes you feel.

I'm a somebody. I'm gifted. I can do this.

I can look what all I've done in my life. I can do this. I can be tempted to feel like that, but I keep living before the Lord and I say, Lord, I'm nothing.

The secret of being a zero today, you don't have to live with your father-in-law. You get down before the Lord's face every day. When you wake up in the morning, say, Lord, I want to live before you today.

You'll be a zero in no time. You may have very high thoughts of yours. It'll be reduced to zero.

Let me show you Daniel and chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest ruler of his time. And God had to reduce him to zero because he wanted to use him.

And you know how God reduced God has different ways of reducing people to zero. In Moses case, it was 40 years with your father-in-law. In Jacob's case, it was 20 years with your father-in-law.

In Nebuchadnezzar's case was reducing to the level of an animal. And it says he started in Daniel chapter four, the middle of verse 32. For seven years, he had to eat grass like the cattle.

And verse 33, his body was drenched and his nails began to grow like birds' claws and his hair like eagle's feathers. Imagine the great ruler of the world being reduced to that state. At the end of that period, verse 34, how God has wonderful ways.

Let this man be reduced to the level of an animal eating grass and not cutting his nails and hair growing like eagle's feathers. And at the end of it, God humbled him. He had learned his lesson.

He says at the end of this period, Daniel 4.34, I raised my voice to heaven and he recognized the most high. This heathen man recognized the true God and he honored him and he said God's dominion is an everlasting dominion from this kingdom and yours from generation to generation. And the next verse 35 is something which he understood which most believers have not understood.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as zero. He understood it. Moses understood it.

Jacob understood it. And they became men of God. Paul understood it.

He said I'm the chief of sinners. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as zero. God does according to his will on earth and in heaven and no one can question him saying what have you done? If you come to the place that Nebuchadnezzar without a Bible, without the Holy Spirit came to, I mean you don't have to go eating grass and all but if you can allow God the Holy Spirit to humble yourself to learn this, I believe it's one of the greatest lessons which most Christians have not learned.

I've taught this for years but I find even in CFC churches very few people have understood. Everybody thinks I'm somebody. Especially if God uses them a little bit.

Maybe God uses you one day to bring one soul to Christ. You brought one soul to Christ. Boy, you're talking about it for the next few months and your head is so puffed up.

God says I can't use this person anymore. He'll destroy himself. Already his head has become so big because he brought one person to Christ.

What will happen if he brings another person to Christ? He'll gradually get so puffed up that he'll go to hell because God resists the proud. So to prevent a person from going to hell, God has to stop using him. Isn't that unfortunate? God has to stop using a brother whom he wanted to use mightily because he got puffed up.

I remember asking the Lord this question many years ago. I said, Lord, India has got a population of so many billion people. Where are the prophets? Israel was such a small country.

It had prophets. Where are the prophets in India? And the Lord said, there were a number of men I called to be prophets in this country. But some of them fell in love with some girl and married the wrong girl.

Some of them got a good job somewhere and went after money. Some of them, I began to use them and they got so puffed up that I could not use them anymore. And some of them, I called them to sing, but they got distracted to some other ministry which paid them a higher salary.

And so many reasons. And so they failed, failed, failed, failed, failed. And so the prophets are rare.

Why should a country with two billion people have no prophets? Don't you think America needs prophets? Prophets who will never imagine that they are somebody who will be nobodies, who will be zeros, who will all have Christ one. He's the number one in front of them that gives value to them. You take away that one, he's a zero again.

He can have that one in front of him for 20 years and many, many zeros get added to him and the church is being built and one day he becomes proud, the one goes away, he becomes a zero again. That's exactly what has happened to numerous people in the history of Christendom. It's very difficult for God to use a man without the man getting puffed up.

Dear brothers, will you be one of those who will challenge, take up the challenge and say, Lord, I want you to use me and please keep me humble. I cannot keep myself humble. Acknowledge that also.

When I say I can do nothing, I cannot also keep myself humble. I acknowledge that. I say, Lord, I see how you're using me here and there and it's very difficult.

I can get puffed up, but only you can keep me humble and do whatever you want to keep me humble. Anything. God will do that for you, my brother.

I believe God wants to use every single one of you if you have given your life to Christ. If you really got repented of your sins and got fed up with yourself, that's an important requirement. You have to be fed up with yourself and that can sometimes take some time.

You can begin to think, God uses you a little bit here, a little bit there, and you can begin to think you're somebody. And on top of that, if some brother praises you, oh boy, you're in danger then. And if some man of God whom you respect praises you, then you'll find it difficult to recover for the next one week.

You have to, whenever anybody appreciates you, get down before God and say, Lord, he has appreciated me with a good spirit to encourage me, but I know what I am. He doesn't know what I am. I'm a sinner, saved by grace.

Moment by moment, I'm dependent on you. Get down before God constantly, especially if you have some gift. Those who have gift of music, I think they are the most in danger.

Some musicians have lost their salvation because they were so gifted, Christian musicians, because they got so, you know, people are more attracted to musicians than to preachers. You know that. You have a music, Christian music celebration, a lot of people go to that.

So, musicians standing up on the platform, they perform exactly like these secular musicians. I've seen that, you know, how the secular musicians, the guitar man will stand in one place, the drummer will stand in another place, the singer will stand in another place. That's how Christian musicians, why can't they all stand together? Because in the world, they stand like that.

He limited that garbage. Where are the Christians who stand against all this nonsense of imitating the world? Very rare to find, very rare to find men of God who stand against all the nonsense going on in the Christian world. That's why the church has suffered.

God's work has suffered. But I pray that some of you, God will give you the grace wherever you are in your locality. You come from many different parts of this country.

You have a tremendous responsibility, I want to say to you, and I'll tell you something else. Your responsibility has increased in the last one and a half days. And by the end of this conference tomorrow, it will increase much more.

And that's not something to be afraid of, something to be thankful for. Lord, I now recognize that you've given me responsibility. Supposing you're working in a company, and they want to transport a huge amount of money from, say, here in Denver to New York to headquarters.

And they send one man saying, here's $1,000, you've got to go and give it there. And they select you. They give you a million dollars in cash.

You want to go there. And both of you have to take the overnight flight to go to New York. Are you going to sleep? Are you going to get involved in a conversation with somebody who knows that you've got a million dollars and want to somehow swindle you of it? You'll be so careful, because you have more to lose.

That guy's only carrying $1,000. You're carrying $1,000, to whom more is given, more is required. When you reach the other end, you cannot hand over $1,000 like he can.

You've got to hand over $1,000,000. And when you reach the end of your life, God's not going to expect from you the same little amount that he gave to somebody else. He's going to expect more.

And more because you came for this conference. You received something. You got more than those other guys who never came for the conference.

Those other guys who go to some dead church where they never hear the truth of God clearly. You got more. It's a privilege.

And you're very thankful for the wonderful things that challenge your heart. But dear brother, that's a tremendous blessing to have received more from God than your responsibilities more. Would I rather be, I say, Lord, just give me $10 so that I don't have to answer for more.

You want to be like that? No. I say, Lord, give me a billion. I want to use my one life for the maximum possible effect, because there's no way I can show my gratitude to Jesus Christ for dying for me, other than by giving up everything for him.

I hope you're challenged like that. Meditate on the cross of Calvary. That's what the Lord taught me from the beginning of my Christian life, to meditate on the life of Jesus and how he suffered.

And so many things God opened my eyes to see of how much how he suffered in Gethsemane. There's a great verse in John's Gospel, in chapter 16, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Different people have different understandings of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

The brethren, I was with the brethren for many years, they say, when you were born again, you got the Holy Spirit. Okay. God bless you, brothers.

I believe that also. But like I said the other day, it's like light coming into a 10 room house. The Holy Spirit came in.

When I was born again, the Holy Spirit came in. One room was lit up. Is there light in that house? Yes.

Is it filled with light? No. Does he have the Holy Spirit? Yes. Is he filled with the Holy Spirit? No.

As simple as that. There are nine other rooms which he has not opened up, locked. He won't allow the Holy Spirit to go in.

That's why you're not filled with the Holy Spirit. He comes knocking. Just like Jesus, I stand at the door and knock.

Jesus will never get into a person's life if he doesn't choose him. He says, can I come into your finances room and oversee all the way you make money to make sure that I want to check your account books? The Holy Spirit says, will you let me into that room? I'll check everything there ruthlessly, carefully. I want to see if you've written exactly what you got and how you spent.

Are you careless in your spending? Are you lavish and wasteful? Are you disciplined in your spending? And I want to see if you've paid all your taxes properly. I'm stricter than the IRS, the Holy Spirit says. They may miss something, but I won't miss anything.

You've got to pay your taxes. I want you to be upright. I want you never to be in debt, even for one dollar.

If you're in some emergency, you have to borrow, you repay as soon as possible. You'll deny yourself something to repay that as soon as possible. Are you like that? He's saying it's better to keep the Holy Spirit out of that room.

It's too much of a nuisance to be controlled like that. That room will remain dark. That's why you're not filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then the Holy Spirit comes to another room. He says, this room where you've got your reading material. I want to see what all you read, what you read on the Internet.

I want to see that. And there are certain things I don't want you to read on the Internet. There are certain sites I never want you to go to.

And there are certain, what are these books and papers you're reading? And there are certain books I want you to read. You say, Lord, this type of control, you're going to control everything I watch on the Internet? Keep him out of that room. That room will remain dark.

Watch whatever you like. Like that, there's room after room. The Lord checks how you behave with your wife.

It's nothing to do with how your wife behaves towards you. That's unimportant. That's another house.

Your wife is another house. The Holy Spirit takes care of the rooms in that house. Whether she yields or not is her business.

But you, how you treat your wife is a room the Holy Spirit wants to check. And it's got nothing to do with how your wife behaves. She may be the most evil.

She may be a witch. But you've got to behave like Christ. You say, that's too much.

If she behaves like a witch, I've got to teach her, treat her a lesson. Okay. The Holy Spirit says, I won't come into that room.

This is how so many believers, their rooms remain dark, dark, dark, dark, dark. They go to meetings and they cry out, oh, fill me with the Holy Spirit. He'll never fill you.

We're locked all the doors and asking him to come into those rooms. How will he come? He knocks at the door and you don't let him in. And I could name room after room after room after room where you want him to come, but you don't.

You yourself are locking him out. I'm not trying to condemn anybody. I don't believe my message will ever be a message of condemnation.

It's just encouragement. Brother, you don't know what you're missing by not bringing the light into that room. Be so rigid with, say in the matter of money, that you say, Lord, if accidentally I've not paid my taxes somewhere, please make me do it.

I did that once. I've tried my best all my life. I've never earned much.

I used to have a very little, but even the little I got, I said, Lord, I want to pay my taxes properly. And I'd be very, very exact, extremely careful going through it again and again and again. See, is it correct? Have I said everything? Make sure.

Yeah, if there are lawful deductions, by all means deduct them. But then I once said to the Lord, Lord, I've tried my best to pay all my taxes, but it's possible that there's some law I did not know. And if by ignorance I have missed out on some payment to the government, please make me pay it in some way.

And you know what happened? It's very interesting what happened to me, the answer to that prayer. In India, many services are not private services, like you have railways and many things here, telephone services are private. In India, in those days, everything was run by the government.

Telephones were run by the government. Railways were run by the government. And everything was in the government.

It was a socialist society. So, once I was making a long-distance phone call, and you know, phone services in India were very poor in those days. It's much better now.

The old phones, not cell phones, the old phones where you pick it off the receiver and dial the number and it's way back. And after I finished this long-distance phone call, which is very expensive, long-distance phone call, and I put it down, I always pick it up again to see if it is disconnected. It was not disconnected for some reason.

And that's part of the defective phone services in India. I said, wow, then for every second I'm paying now. What to do? Still not disconnected.

What to do? You know what I had to do? Put my phone down, go somewhere else, call up the telephone exchange from somebody else's phone. Hey, please, sir, my phone has not been disconnected. I finished my call long ago.

And after some time, it got disconnected. By the time, I paid, paid, paid, paid, paid for that which I didn't use. And I said, Lord, I think this is the answer to my prayer.

Somewhere I have deprived the government of taxes and you have taken it from me through the phone. Praise the Lord. That is the one time I praised the Lord that I paid extra for what I did not even use.

I'm telling you, if you are so rigid with God and exact with God, He will do mighty things for you because He is exact with you. Be exact with God. Say, Lord, I will never love money to the extent that I cheat anybody.

And by that, even though I've been serving the Lord full time and lived with great struggle sometimes in the early days, and I had a wife who was willing to come along with me in those days, we're not like that now. God has provided us much, but in those days, it was very, very little, particularly the early years of our marriage. But I can say this, in all my life, I'm 85 now, I've never been in debt for a single day, even for one cent to anybody in the world.

If I had little, I lived with little. If I bought something, I paid for it. If I'm in a store and I want to buy something and I don't have the money and I ask a brother, can I loan something, the same day, I would give it back to him.

So, if you're exact like that in money matters, I tell you, God will be exact with you in many other things. I mention this because I find even in Bangalore, I found that many people in Suharaj in CFC for many, many years, they were careless. And sometimes an elder brother has to be strict.

I'm sorry to say some elders are not strict. One day I got up in CFC Bangalore, because I have a responsibility, these are my children, and I don't want them to go astray. I said, if anybody in this church has borrowed more than 1,000 rupees from you, and more than one month has gone by and he's not made any effort to pay any of it back, please come and see me after the meeting.

That puts a fear on people. That afternoon, some people paid back their debt. One person did it online immediately as soon as the service was over.

In other words, he had the money. Why didn't he do it? If I keep it in the bank, I can get a little more interest. Is that a Christian? Somebody else's money, you're trying to get interest off of his money? My dear brothers, I'll tell you from my experience.

Be exact with money, and God will be exact with you through the power of His Holy Spirit. I have tried my best when I had little. We lived with little, my wife and I. Many things, we just sacrificed.

I'm not telling other people to live like I live. I was called to serve the Lord full time, not everybody's called to that. But according to your calling, I don't want to say all the things I did because I don't want to be an example.

God called me with a special calling, and you're not called that way. But I had to be very careful about certain things in financial expenditure, which other people perhaps don't have to be, but because of my calling, I had to be. I had to be very careful, not only never to be in debt, but never to waste any money in unnecessary purchases.

Always I would ask myself, do I need that? Do I need another set of clothes when I already have all this? Why do I need just for style or just for variety? No, I don't buy clothes for variety or for style. It's a necessity. I mean, clothing is for covering ourselves, and it doesn't have to be the latest style, and it doesn't have to be that I always have to wear some new clothes.

No. So many things in the world has all these things, and unfortunately, many believers go by that, and what do they lose? They lose the power of the Holy Spirit. Is it worth it? Look back over your life, my brother, and see what all you have lost in your life because you were careless in these matters.

God wants to reduce us to zero, where I become zero, and then He will add a one in front, and then He'll add a few more zeros after you, and you'll become a billion. You'll build a church. You who thought you were such a useless person, God can use you to build a church.

I remember when I was 15 years old when I joined the military academy. Fifteen years, five feet, two inches short and very weak and thin, and I was the youngest in my class, and when they heard that I got selected to join the military academy, which is the equivalent of West Point here, they laughed at me and said, Zach, you're going to defend our country. Wow.

We better be careful. That's how they despised me. I said, okay, and that's how I joined the military, and I never took part in public speaking or any such thing.

God kept me weak and helpless, and He kept me like that so that when I began to preach, I would have to depend on His Holy Spirit and not on my own natural ability or any such thing. So if you're weak, brother, if you're not gifted, praise the Lord, because then you'll depend on the Holy Spirit. See, a poor man, for example, let me give an example.

Supposing somebody's son or daughter is hospitalized and there's a large hospital expense and no insurance. A rich man says, what's the bill? Is it $40,000? He takes out his checkbook. Here it is.

Thank you very much. What about the poor man? The bill is $500. He doesn't even have that.

He says, oh, God, please help me. And he trusts him. He's a believer.

He trusts him. He gets a gift out of the blue from someone he probably didn't even know, $500. Isn't it wonderful? I tell you, that man has exciting experiences which that rich man never has.

That guy only takes out his checkbook and writes something. This chap had nothing and he got an exciting experience. I've had exciting experiences like that, even financially.

I'll give you one example. I won't waste your time with more examples. We, when we started the CFC, the first CFC, started meeting in our house with two families 50 years ago.

And little by little, people would come and go, come and go, come and go. Some people would come just to listen to my message, not to the church. And gradually, people would come and go.

And finally, after some time, the number grew to 60. Wow, that's a big number. And we had to get another building.

And we said we have so little and we never took a collection bag going around. We had a box there. Anybody wants to put something? And there was a property nearby that was available.

And it cost so much money. And in, that was about six years of our keeping that offering box, we had only about half that money. And we had to pay that in three months, otherwise we'd lose the property.

Where were we going to get half that amount in three months, which we had collected over six years, and we got an equal amount in three months? Impossible. And we wouldn't, you know, make an announcement, we need so much money. We never believed in making such announcements.

Because I knew that the poor people would give, the rich people would be stingy. I always found rich people are usually very stingy, except rare ones who are generous. But the poor people would sacrifice and give.

And I said I'm not going to put that pressure on anybody in our church like that. So we never announced it. Only two or three of us, our elders, knew we have to get this much money because we are not able to fit in my, we are meeting in my house.

We can't fit in there anymore, we have to find a better place. And you know what happened? Just about a couple of months before the deadline, or I don't know, a few days before the deadline, I don't even remember. I got a check for the church from somebody I did not ever know till then, and I've never met till today.

Never met him. Somehow he had heard about our work, a believer, but whom I've never met in my entire life, not till today. And how much did he send in this check? The exact amount which was needed to complete this transaction.

Who told him that? Do you believe in a God in heaven who communicates with people? Now you think that's a, it sounds so fake, right? This is unbelievable, Zach's telling stories. It's not a fairy tale. It actually happened.

I still have that letter with me, which that guy wrote with me. And I've never met him till today. He's dead and gone now.

I knew about him, but I never met him. Of course, I wrote a letter to say thank you very much, but I never met him. I never knew him before.

He heard about our work and sent us this money. That's one experience. And I can tell you others.

In our family life and in our ministry, it's a wonderful thing to live by faith, to trust God. And I want to say to all of you, particularly those who are finding financial need, difficult to meet your needs every month, to the expenses in your home, trust God, he'll never let you down. I'm telling you from 60 years of experience.

But we were willing to sacrifice anything. When I didn't have, when I got married, I could not afford even rent for a home because I'd given away all my savings for the God's work. Two years before I got married.

And when I got married, I told her, I told my wife, I have nothing. I have no income. I have no bank account.

My dad is a poor pensioner, but he has one spare room in his house. And he's allowed us to stay there. So we stayed in one room in my dad's house, not for one or two days, for four years, because we could not afford anything.

Okay, that was difficult for me and my wife. I didn't enjoy staying in my father's house after I got married. And certainly it was more difficult for my wife.

But my parents were exceptionally good. They were believers. And so in that sense, it was easy for both of us.

But I never took a cent from them. I lived there, but our son was born there. And it was very difficult.

We trusted the Lord. But I'll tell you something at the end of this. Those are the best years of our life.

Now we have more and we don't have to trust God for so much. But those days we really had to trust God day by day. Literally day by day.

And those were exciting days. Today, I have enough. I can just go to the bank and use my debit card and draw some money.

It's not so exciting today. Like those days I didn't have any debit card. I didn't have anything in the bank.

I had to trust God. So what I'm saying is, if God puts you in that type of situation where you lost your job perhaps. You don't know when you're going to get another one.

You are, of all people sitting here, you're blessed. That's not the type of word anybody will tell you, right? But you are. Because you're only cast on God now.

It's a wonderful thing. I'll tell you from my experience. It's wonderful in those situations where I'm cast on God.

There are situations where I have to go and preach and I'm cast on God. Even this situation when I came here. And Santosh told me, Dad, you got to speak on, what is it? Ten sessions in three days.

I said, wow. I got to turn on God then. I mean if it's just one meeting in this week, okay.

Maybe I could manage it. But ten sessions. I got to speak.

Okay, I'll be cast on the Lord. And I've experienced that before. In the early days I remember we used to have conferences in the villages.

And I had to speak one, two, three, four, five sessions every day for three days. But I'm older now. But I find that, I'm not saying anything special.

If God calls you to do it, you do it. And I did tell Santosh, I say if I get stuck somewhere, I hope you'll fill in for me. But I haven't got stuck so far.

But what I say is, God is a good God. I'm just saying this for your encouragement. I'm not talking about myself.

I'm telling you, I have always, even before I came to this place for this conference, the Lord said, remember what I've always taught you. Be the branch in the tree. It has to produce nothing.

But it must stay stuck in the tree. All the channels must be open for the sap to flow in. That's all.

Dear brothers, this is the Christian life. I'm the vine, you're the branches. The branch has to produce nothing.

Okay, I wanted to show you this verse in John 16. John 16. It's a wonderful verse here with the Holy Spirit when He fills you.

It says here, it's one of the beautiful verses. John 16. He's speaking about the spirit of truth in verse 13.

When He has come, when the spirit of truth has come. Verse 14 is what I want you to look at. John 16, 14.

He will glorify me because He will take of mine and reveal or disclose or show it to you. He will take something of mine and show it to you. This has been a very precious verse to me of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

More than speaking in tongues, more than the ability to preach. More than any other gift of the Holy Spirit. I've not sought for the gift of healing or miracles or any such thing.

But this, John 16, 14, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He'll take of the things of Jesus and reveal it to me. What is He going to reveal to me? That He raised the dead? I don't need the Holy Spirit.

Even a non-Christian reads the Bible, he knows Jesus raised the dead. That Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount? I don't need the Holy Spirit for that. A non-Christian can read Matthew 5, 6 and 7 and read it.

What is the Holy Spirit going to reveal to me? Shall I tell you? The things that are not written in the Bible about Jesus. Have you read the last verses of John? After the end of four Gospels. At the end of four Gospels describing the life of Jesus.

This is how it concludes. The last verse of the four Gospels. This is the conclusion of the Gospels.

And there are also many other things which Jesus did. Which, if they were written in detail. The whole world, I suppose, will not be able to contain the books that would be written.

Is that an exaggeration? I don't think the Holy Spirit exaggerates in the Bible. Don't accuse the Holy Spirit of exaggeration. Anyway, John only says, I suppose.

He doesn't say it's true, but he says, I think. That means, he says, there's such a lot about Jesus. It won't fit in four Gospels.

Would you like to know that? I'm very keen. When I read that, I say, boy, where can I find that? I'll tell you. John 16, verse 14.

That's why John 16, verse 14 is a precious word to me. He will take, disclose means reveal, the things of mine which are not written in the four Gospels. Which all the books in the world cannot contain.

And the Lord has begun to show me how Jesus behaved when he was a little child. I told you how he'd go to the well to draw water when he was about to turn to bat in a game. Little things like that.

How he would react when all his brothers would gang up to irritate him. You know, have you seen this in a school or among children? That when one boy is very, very good, always behaves well and never gets angry, never gets upset. Some others who get so angry with that and want to tease him and irritate him, make him get angry and get happy when they've succeeded in making him angry.

Have you seen that type of thing in school? I've seen it. Sometimes children are like, they get a delight in getting this good boy to become bad. I can imagine these four brothers and sisters, two sisters of Jesus, doing that to Jesus.

Day after day. We tried the last whole week. He never got angry.

We're going to work on him in some way. Irritate him, poke him and do all types of things. Day after day after day after day.

He never loses temper. Never get angry. They tell all types of lies about him.

You know how children are. Tell Mary and Mary was just like any other mother. I think she gradually discovered that Jesus would never tell a lie.

But what all he must have faced in that house, the Holy Spirit, I won't tell you everything the Holy Spirit showed me because you'll miss the joy of his telling you that. But I'll tell you this. Go to John 16, 14 and tell him, Spirit of God, those things which are written in John 21, 25, the last verse of the Gospels, that it says there are other things Jesus did.

Please, can you show them to me? It said, Jesus said in John 16, 14, you will show it to me. I want to learn them. And the Lord will ask you, why do you want to learn them? I'll tell you what I said.

Because I want to walk like that. I want to do that. I want to never get irritated.

A lot of people irritate me, irritate me, irritate me. I never want to get irritated. That's why I want to learn.

I want to learn because I want to live like that. Is that why you want to learn? Or you want a message for a sermon? Please don't go to the Scripture to get a message for a sermon. That is seeking honor.

Say, Lord, I want to live like that. And I tell you, you will learn things which nobody can teach you. I could tell you many, many, many things.

The Lord has taught me which has come into my life. That this is how I have to live. And it's changed my life.

It's made my experience in my home a little foretaste of heaven on earth. The kingdom of God coming into your life. You know, I've been challenged by this.

Turn with me to Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 24. Jesus said in the last days. Verse 14.

This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world before the end comes. Question. All of you brothers who study the Bible so much.

What is the gospel of the kingdom? The gospel of the grace of God is another thing. The gospel of the grace of God is Christ died for your sins. Repent and you can receive him.

And you can be forgiven. What is the gospel of the kingdom? I never heard a single person preach that in the 64 years I've been a Christian. 65 years.

Never heard anybody tell me what the gospel of the kingdom is. So when nobody tells me, I find it must be in the Bible. So I searched in the Bible.

I thank God I find things in the Bible so I don't get it from men. Gospel of the kingdom. I said, where does it say about kingdom? Okay, I search, search and you can use a concordance if you like.

Nowadays you get it on your phone. And it's very easy to find it. Search for kingdom in the New Testament.

And you'll come to Romans 14 and verse 17. Where it says the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. It is three things.

Righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit. Not righteousness, peace and joy. No.

Righteousness in the Holy Spirit. Righteousness produced by the Holy Spirit. Not by your determination.

Peace produced by the Holy Spirit. Joy produced by the Holy Spirit. That is the kingdom of God.

When Jesus said seek the kingdom of God first. Some people think it is going out and preaching the gospel. Spread the kingdom of God.

No, seek the kingdom of God first and all these things will be added to you. What should you seek? Seek for righteousness from the Holy Spirit. Righteousness, joy from the Holy Spirit.

All the other things will be added to you. Have you been doing that? Once I understood that, I began to seek it. And then it says here, what did we read in Matthew 24? This gospel of the kingdom will be preached around the world.

Then the end will come. And one reason God raised up CFC is to preach the kingdom of God. Which hardly anybody else is preaching.

I'm sure there are people preaching it. But there are not many. There are a few.

CFC is one of them. Preaching what? Not the gospel of forgiveness of sins. We preach that.

Not even the gospel of victory over sin. But gospel of 24 hours a day righteousness. Never doing anything unrighteous in our actions.

Never speaking anything unrighteous. Never thinking anything unrighteous. Righteousness.

Absolute 100% uprightness. No cheating in taxes. No deceiving in our conversation.

Second, peace. Perfect peace in the heart. No anxiety.

No fear. Perfect peace with everyone. As from my side, if they want to fight with me, I can't do anything.

But from my side, I will not fight. I often use the example of, if somebody wants to fight with me, the noise comes if I'm also there. But if I pull out of the way, there's no fight.

There's no noise. Try as much as you like. You cannot produce a fight because I pulled out.

And if he also pulls out, we'll have fellowships. So I tell a husband and wife, it needs only one person to avoid a conflict in a home. If one person refuses to cooperate, there's no sound.

Your home will be a home of peace. One person must cooperate. If both cooperate, it'll become fellowship.

Peace. Very important. Peace of mind.

I always test my peace of mind whether I can sleep peacefully at night. Can you sleep peacefully at night? Instead of thinking, what did that guy do to me? And what am I going to tell him tomorrow? And what am I going to write to him next week? You'll never get to sleep. I'll tell you that.

Peace, peace, peace. Seek for it. Pursue after it.

Seek peace with all men. Peace with your wife. Don't lie down.

I once made that mistake lying down in bed thinking, what should I do here? Sometimes it may not be a dispute. Sometimes it may be some plans we have to make for this. Joy.

That's another important thing. Joy in the Holy Spirit. All the time.

Rejoice in the Lord most of the time. Sometimes. No, most of the time.

No. You know what always means? 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It doesn't mean I'm jumping and shouting like the charismatics.

It means an inner joy. I don't believe Jesus is going around jumping around and shouting. I can't picture Jesus like that.

But he has such an inner joy that he could communicate to the world. But it's not the type of joy you see with these charismatics on a platform. No, it was a joy that all the time overflowed.

That's the life he wanted. Righteousness, peace and joy produced by the Holy Spirit. That is the kingdom of God.

And that is what we have sought to preach. And it says in the last days, God will raise up such ministries that will proclaim that gospel. And then the end will come.

I say, Lord, I want to hasten the coming of the Lord. Do you know the last prayer in the gospel? In the Bible is come, Lord Jesus. Come soon, Lord Jesus.

How shall I hasten the coming of the Lord? By proclaiming this gospel of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He who has ears to hear. Let him hear.

And you know how to do it? You have to be a zero. And seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, please help us, every one of us here, including me. We are all needy. And we can understand so much.

And we have understood quite a lot in these two days. Lord, help us to live it. And that's not possible without the power of your Holy Spirit.

Help us to recognize that without you, we can do zero. And with you, we can do everything you want us to do on this earth. Help everyone here, Lord, to be gripped by that.

Thank you for what you have taught us already. In Jesus name. Amen.