Having a Solid Grip in the Christian Life

Close your eyes and let your spirit be conscious that wherever you are, Christ is there with you. Though we may be separated by distance, because we are one in spirit, the Lord is in our midst. Heavenly Father, we thank you that it is your good pleasure to bless us, to speak to us, to give us your Holy Spirit to revive us and to lead us from one degree of glory to another.

And we believe that it is your will even today to show us something more or make something clearer that will help us in our walk on this earth in the footsteps of Jesus. Let everyone have a heart to hear. We pray that you protect us from distractions and to be conscious, Lord Jesus, of your presence in our midst to speak to our hearts and lead us higher.

We trust you. We want to offer this prayer in faith that you will answer. In Jesus' name we ask, Father.

Amen. Okay, so one of the things I've discovered in my study of the Bible is that God, I mean, this is the inspired, I believe this is the inspired word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is not ashamed or afraid to repeat something that he's already said more than once.

And Jesus himself repeated many of his sermons. I find among many preachers a reluctance to repeat a sermon in the same church. And I have never followed that principle.

I believe a lot of that is because they're afraid of, I mean, because they are seeking honor. If you're seeking the good of people, you'll be willing to repeat if people need to hear it again. It's like a teacher in a school.

Say a teacher is teaching in a kindergarten class addition. They're not going to learn it in one lesson. They repeat and repeat and repeat until everyone in the class learns how to add.

They go on to multiplication and they keep on repeating until everyone in the class learns to multiply. That's how a good teacher is. We don't care just for the clever ones.

We want everyone in the class to understand. And if the clever ones get impatient with that, they just have to learn patience. So the same thing with some of us may know these truths very well.

I want to share something which you have already heard many times. But the reason is twofold as far as the church is concerned. One is there are children growing up in our midst who could not understand it when this truth was taught maybe three years ago.

But now they have grown up to the place where they can understand. And the other is new people have come into the church who were not there two or three years ago, maybe the last time we shared this. And so they need to hear it too.

So any of you who are called to preach God's word, I want to encourage you when you see God, if you find that God lays on your heart something that you've already preached before, don't hesitate to preach it. That'd be a very good reason. So the early apostles were like that.

In fact, if you read the Old Testament, I don't know whether you know there are some passages which are completely repeated. There's a whole chapter in 2 Samuel which is repeated totally in another part of the Old Testament. And many things written in the book of Kings are repeated in the book of Chronicles.

And the same thing in the Gospels. Four times we have a record of the feeding of the 5,000. I would have thought once is enough.

But the Holy Spirit is repeated four times in each of the four Gospels. And when you come to the letters, a lot of things written in Ephesians is repeated in Colossians concerning parents and children and many other things. Now the Holy Spirit I see there is not afraid to repeat.

So even though we have a Bible, and of course we can go back to Ephesians, but no, we need to have it repeated in Colossians. Or take a wonderful verse like, God gives grace to the humble. Now one would have thought it's repeated once, mentioned once in James chapter four.

And the Holy Spirit says, no, some people won't take it seriously so that when they go to the next book, which is 1 Peter, God repeats it to him in 1 Peter five. I love that. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

So, and Peter says in 2 Peter chapter one, look at this. 2 Peter one and verse 12. Look how he preached and how he wrote his letters.

He says concerning his letters, I will always be ready to remind you of these things. 2 Peter one verse 12. I'm always ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them.

In other words, if these guys have learned multiplication, I'm still going to teach it again just to make sure you're going to learn it properly. Even though you already know them, Peter says, I'm always ready to remind you. And even though you've been established in the truth.

And as long as I'm in this earthly dwelling, I have to remind you of these things. Verse 13, he says, that's my calling. And then he says something more.

I'm going to be diligent, verse 15, that after I leave this world, you will still remember what I told you by writing it in a book, in a letter, which you will read. So that's why we read the Bible again and again and again. We don't read the Bible just once and say I've read it.

Yeah, I read the New Testament particularly again and again and again and again. I mean, I've been reading it for 65 years. And I'll tell you, honestly, I'm discovering new things.

Even this morning, when I read John 17, I got something out of it, which I've not got before. It's amazing when you come with a hungry heart to God. And sometimes I read one chapter again and again and again, for many, many days before I'm gripped by it.

I don't read the scripture to ease my conscience to say I read it today. No, it doesn't say man shall live by reading the Bible. What did Jesus say in his first spoken words in his ministry? Matthew 4, for man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds.

Proceeds means present continuous tense, not that proceeded 2000 years ago in the scriptures that proceeds from the mouth of God. Read Matthew 4, for there's a word that is proceeding from the mouth of God every day and many times a day. If you want, you can listen to it.

If your conscience is clear, you will hear it clearly. In Revelation 1, John says he heard God's voice like a trumpet. Many people say I can't hear God.

Well, that's because you're deaf. You're careless with sin in your life. You allow dirty thoughts to come into your mind and you don't get rid of them.

You're not quick to turn away your eyes from something that provokes lust. You're not quick to control your tongue when you're tempted to get angry. Well, if you're careless in those areas, then your conscience is dull.

Then you don't hear God. But as someone who keeps his conscience very sensitive, like John, he said in Revelation 1, I heard God's voice like a trumpet. That's challenged me.

I want to hear God's voice like a trumpet in my heart, especially if I'm going accidentally going down. I won't deliberately choose the wrong path, but accidentally choosing a path which is dangerous, I want to hear God's voice like a trumpet saying, don't go that way. Turn left or turn this way.

Come back, pull back, stop. I want to hear that because not just to avoid evil and also to hear God's voice like a trumpet that tells me to go in some direction or to go somewhere. Maybe God wants to make me a blessing to somebody somewhere.

I want to hear God's voice constantly. My dear brothers, sisters, please remember the first spoken words of Jesus' ministry in Matthew 4, verse 4 is, man shall live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth all the time. And we must be willing to hear that.

So let me turn you again to another favorite verse of mine in Isaiah. Please turn in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 50. This is a very important verse that I quote many, many times.

Isaiah chapter 50. If you've got a Bible, please turn in there and look at it. Don't take for granted that you know it.

Isaiah 50 and verse 4. Isaiah 50, verse 4. The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples that I may know how to sustain the weary one with the word. God wants to use us to sustain weary people around us in the world with a word from heaven, which we have heard. And in order to give us that tongue of a disciple and the word that will sustain others, you have to do something.

And that's written in the second part of that verse. God wakes me up every morning. And once he has woken me up physically, he wakes up my inner ear in my heart.

Because sometimes we wake up in the morning, our inner ear in the heart is not awake. In other words, we're not awake to listen to God. We're just woken up physically.

He wakens me up morning by morning, and then he wakens my inner ear to listen like a disciple. And here is a verse that I've encouraged every brother and sister to please practice every morning. Before you get out of bed, as soon as you're awake, say, Lord, I want my heart to hear.

And if you're a busy mother, you can have your heart open to listen to God even when you're feeding your newborn baby. Sure. So there's no one who has to say, I've got to stop doing something else.

Before I hear God, you're going to be cooking in the kitchen and listening to God. There are godly people who say that, I remember one godly brother who said that when he was washing, he was a servant in a Christian institution. And his job was to wash the plates and work in the kitchen, washing plates and dishes.

And he said, there, when I'm washing the plates and dishes, I feel the presence of God just as much as when I'm on my knees, taking part in breaking a bread. Boy, what a knowledge of God that he experienced the presence of God when he's washing the dishes in the sink in the kitchen. That's a wonderful way to live.

I read that many years ago. It's always challenged me that I can experience the presence of God wherever I am and hear God speaking to me. I want to encourage all of you to be like that.

So the thing I want to share with you today is how to have a solid grip in the Christian life. Many people, they're Christians, but their grip on the Christian life is very loose. It's not strong.

And if you don't hold something strongly, the devil can pluck it out of your hand. Here is a pen. I can hold it with two fingers, but then it's easy for somebody to pull it out of my hand.

I can hold it with three, I can hold it with four, but I can hold it with five. Then it's really tough. It's difficult for someone to take it out of my hand.

So the Christian life also is like that. You know, you can hold it with one or two things or with a solid grip. And through the years, I've come to see certain things that are very important to hold the Christian life tight in our hands.

So let me mention five things. This is, of course, after you've accepted Christ as your Savior and God has become your Father, you know Him, you're born again. And I assume that that's the foundation, that you've repented and received Christ as your Savior and being born again, and you know that you know God is your Father.

From there, the number first thing that we need to be absolutely sure of in our life is, it's like the thumb, what the blood of Christ has done for us. Now, most of us, we know, most Christians know only that the blood of Christ has cleansed us from sin. 1 John 1.9 is a very, 1.7, rather, is a very favorite verse.

We walk in the light as He is in the light. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. That is one of the first things the blood of Christ does.

But there's another thing the blood of Christ does, which is not so well known. I want you to turn to Romans in chapter 5, Romans 5 verse 9. How many of you have seen this verse, what the blood of Christ does for us when we are born again? It doesn't only cleanse our sin. You confess 1 John 1.9, we confess our sins, that blood that Jesus shed on the cross cleanses us completely, our heart is clean.

But Romans 5.9 says we are justified by His blood. There's something else that the blood of Christ does for you, declares us righteous as if we had been righteous from day one of our lives. Now, we all know that we've been sinners from day one, but the blood not only cleanses our sin, which things I do wrong, which I confess, but declares me righteous from the time I was born.

That's an amazing truth. I mean, I wouldn't believe it if it were not written here. That's the meaning of justified.

The word just is righteous, same as righteous, just. Justified means declared righteous from the very beginning of my life as if not only is it as if I've never sinned, that itself would be great, but as if I've been righteous all my life. The blood of Christ does that.

Another thing the blood of Christ does is mentioned in Revelation and chapter 12, which many people do not know. It says here that Satan is a great accuser. And we all know how much Satan has accused us at different times, even when we are not guilty.

He accuses us things, you did this, you did this, you did this. It makes us oversensitive to things which are not even sinful. Some stupid thing, he'll accuse you of some legalistic rule that some people, some Pharisee taught us makes us feel guilty.

There are Christian Pharisees who make all types of rules for other Christians and make them feel guilty about something they should not feel guilty about. You must feel guilty about sin, but not the rules and regulations that today's Pharisees make for Christians. Ignore them, read God's word.

And it says here in Revelation 12 how Satan is the accuser of the brethren, verse 10. There's one thing I learned from Revelation 12 10, and that is Satan is the accuser of the brethren. And any believer, you or me, if any of us accuse any of God's children, if you accuse God's children, you are at that moment holding hands with Satan and Satan says, let's do this together.

I'm already accusing them, you hold hands with me and we'll accuse that brother, we'll accuse that sister. Have you done it? Now, sometimes it is necessary to point out to a person something that he does wrong, particularly if you're an elder or a father or mother. That's not accusing.

Accusing is referring to a certain spirit. You know, in a court, an accuser is one who wants to tear down that person, bring him down, punish him. That's not the way the Holy Spirit does not accuse.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. There's a difference between being convicted by the Holy Spirit and accused by the devil. Conviction is the Holy Spirit speaks very gently.

That was wrong. Repent of it or what you're planning to do is wrong. Don't go that way.

Don't do it. But the accusation of the devil is you're a terrible sinner. You're good for nothing.

Nothing good will come out of your life. You see what you did just now and keeps on harassing. That's a spirit.

Don't listen to it. And don't get involved with that spirit when you speak to some other believer that you're like this and you're like this. Sometimes husbands and wives speak like that to each other.

I'm sorry to say, you've always been like this and things like that. That is the spirit of Satan. Now, how do we overcome it? Not by arguing back.

No. It says here, verse 11, Revelation 12, 10 speaks of the accusation. Revelation 12, 11 says we overcome that accusation by the blood of Christ and by our testimony.

Verse 11, that means I testify to the devil. I'm sure many of you have given testimony to your fellow believers and in a church. How many of you have given your testimony to the devil? You're not speaking about giving your testimony to the devil.

They overcame whom? They overcame Satan by the blood of the lamb and by giving that testimony to Satan. So I need to tell Satan, you can't accuse me, Satan. The blood of Christ has declared me righteous from the time I was born.

You can't harass me anymore. How many of you knew that about the blood of Christ? It's amazing. Okay.

There are many other things I want, but meditate on that. The second finger I want to say is, you thought about the thumb, the blood of Christ. The second finger is the word of God.

The word of God has a power, just like the blood of Christ, we speak the word. That's also in the same verse. They overcame him by the word of their testimony.

And what we quote to the devil is the word of God. An example for that, of course, is in Matthew chapter four, when Jesus was tempted by Satan. And remember that Jesus was tempted in order to be an example for us.

He was, the Bible says he was tempted in every point as we are. And in Matthew chapter four, we are given an example of how he overcame temptation. All of us are tempted every single day, but how are we to overcome it? Primarily by God's word, because that's how Jesus did it.

When Satan came to Jesus and said, aren't you hungry? Turn those rocks into bread. Jesus did not argue with him. Never argue with Satan, a waste of time.

He's cleverer than you. He'll win every argument. Just quote God's word.

It is written. I don't live by eating bread alone. I need it.

But more important than that, he says, is the word that comes out of God's mouth. And the word proceeds in Matthew four, four is what is called in English grammar, the present continuous tense. That means it's something ongoing, not that proceeded, which is in the Bible, but proceeds from God's mouth means God is speaking all the time.

God's been speaking the whole of today. And I want to hear whenever, whatever is applying to me, I need to hear. He's always speaking.

And I want to be sensitive to that voice, whatever it applies to me. So man shall live by every word. Supposing God has spoken 10 words today meant for me, and I got only five of them.

I missed something. Is there something God wanted to say to me today that in some situation that I did not hear because my ear was not attuned? No, we don't have to have the Bible in front of us. We don't even have to be concentrating on the best example I use is these police officers who drive their cruisers, police cruisers down the street and their radio or walkie talkie, whatever they have in the car, their radios on connected to the headquarters.

And the headquarters is speaking to probably a hundred officers in different parts of the city. And so whenever a message comes there, sometimes it's not for this man who's driving the car, maybe it was somebody else, but he's got to keep that radio on all the time because sometimes it may be for him. Hey, there's a criminal down the street, officer number so-and-so going on.

He says, oh, that's for me. I got to go down that street because there's somebody robbing somebody there. So that's the way, that's the example I use to see of being alert.

I must be alert all the time. And there's something God has to say to me. I must be willing to listen here immediately.

There's a word that's proceeding from God's mouth all the time. And of course it begins with reading the Bible because everything God says is based on scripture and all the temptations that Jesus overcame here. He overcame by quoting a verse from the old Testament.

All these three verses that Jesus quoted are all from the old Testament, all from the book of Deuteronomy. And Jesus had meditated on that from childhood. And at this time of need, it came back to him.

So if you meditate on God's word regularly, that's a condition. In your time of need, the Holy Spirit will bring that back to your mind. But if you are not familiar with God's word, if you don't memorize it, you don't meditate on it, then there's no basis on which the Holy Spirit is going to bring back to your mind.

God's not going to help lazy people. Jesus did not have a word from heaven which is not written in the Bible. Now there are times when God leads us with things which are not written in the Bible in specific situations.

But when all these temptations, I find that Jesus quoted from the old Testament. And he studied the old Testament when he was a child. He knew the scriptures well enough to be able to argue with the priests of his time, which means he must have spent time going to the rabbi in the synagogue, because they didn't have printed Bibles those days, remember.

And I believe from the age of five to the age of 12, every day Jesus went to the synagogue, to the rabbi, and said, Rabbi, could you read something from the scrolls of scripture? And he would read something. And Jesus would go to him the next day and say, can we go to the next verse? And like that for seven years, he went every day to the rabbi. How many young people would do that? And that was the reason why by the age of 12, he knew the scriptures so well that he could even teach the priests.

So we can also know that. I remember when I got converted at the age of 19, that was the thing that challenged me. If Jesus could know the scriptures in seven years without a Bible in his home, I who have a Bible in my room can definitely know it in seven years.

And I spent seven years, I was in the Navy then, early morning, I would read it and get familiar with it. And it was deeply imprinted in my heart and in my mind. So that all these nearly 60 years subsequent to that, I can always find something God brings to my mind whenever I'm facing a situation.

And sometimes when people come to me for advice or counsel, I have a word that comes to me in my mind which would not have come if I had not meditated on it every day in those early years. I want to encourage all of you to develop the habit of meditating on scripture. The Holy Spirit will bring it back to your mind exactly the correct scripture, exactly like the Holy Spirit brought to Jesus' mind, the correct scripture for each temptation.

That's a great encouragement to know that. And also the Bible says, God's word is like a sword to fight against Satan. You know, there's an armor mentioned in Ephesians chapter 6. The Bible uses picture language in our fighting with the devil.

It says our wrestling is with our struggle. Ephesians 6, 12 is against the evil forces of darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness, which is all the demons. And if you read the list of the armor mentioned there, all the things mentioned about, you know, from verse 15 onwards, sorry, from verse 14 onwards, your loins burnt with truth and the breastplate of righteousness and beat short of the gospel of peace, etc.

And the shield of faith in verse 16 and the helmet of salvation verse 17. And all of those, notice one thing, all those pieces of armor are defensive. The breastplate and the shoes and the shield, all defensive.

But then finally it mentions one offensive weapon, helmet and all defensive, the sword of the spirit. In the entire armor of God, there's only one weapon with which we attack. You can't attack with a helmet or a breastplate, but you attack with a sword.

The only part of the armor with which we attack is the sword of the spirit. And that's, we use that against the devil. And I found it from men, just like Jesus, he used the sword of the spirit each time he was tempted.

It is written, it is written. And when the devil tried to quote, it is written, Jesus said, it is also written. He balanced it up with another scripture.

This is why many Christians don't overcome. There's nothing in their mind that the Holy Spirit can remind them of because they are so lazy in studying the scriptures. I want to encourage all of you, if you have never seriously studied the Bible, start today.

In seven years after you're born again, you should have read the whole Bible. I did it. And I was a working person.

I used to get up in the morning and read it. And then I was busy the whole day in my work. But in seven years, I could read the whole Bible and not only read it, but have a lot of it in my memory that had come back to me, not only to overcome Satan, but to share with somebody when they came to me for any counsel or even for preaching God's word.

So I want to encourage you to be familiar with God's word. And the third thing I want to mention is very, very important is the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit primarily come for? Let me show you in John chapter 14, what Jesus himself said.

This is the first time that he's speaking to disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit. Please turn with me to John 14. He had told them that he's going away.

And they didn't know what was going to happen because this is the last few hours before he went to the cross. And he says here, verse 16, John 14 and verse 16. I will ask the father and he will give you another helper.

Another? Who was the first helper? Jesus. How did he help them? If there was ever a problem, they could immediately say, Lord, what shall we do? Is there a storm? What shall we do? Are there 5,000 people to be fed? Lord, what shall we do? Here is a blind man who's crying out, Lord, what shall we do? The Lord was always there to tell them what they are to do. He was a helper.

The storm was still and every time, whatever that problem was, they would go to him and he would always have an answer. And he said, now I will give you another helper. Who is the Holy Spirit? And he'd be exactly the same as having Jesus with you.

Think of it that the Holy Spirit is like having Jesus with us. Jesus is physically, Jesus got a body and he's in heaven at the right hand of the father. But having the Holy Spirit with us, filling us is exactly like having Jesus with us all the time.

That's why he said, I'm going to pray that you have another helper who will be with you forever. I have to go away. He said, I can't be with you forever, but the Holy Spirit coming will be just like me being with you forever.

Otherwise, if Jesus was on earth, he would only be in one place. But when the Holy Spirit has come, Jesus can be in every part of the world with millions of believers, exactly as if he was the only one with them. That's the blessing of being filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's like having Jesus just with me all the time that I can ask him something, what should I do? And then he went on to say in verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. See, orphans are people who are helpless. They don't have a father and mother.

They don't know what to do. But when Jesus was with them, they would never felt they were orphans. And when Jesus went away, they would become orphans again.

But then he was away from them for six weeks when he was crucified. And then for six weeks they were alone. I mean, Jesus would occasionally come to them after the resurrection.

But then most of the time they were alone. Then one day the Holy Spirit came in Acts chapter two, and then Jesus was with them all the time. That's what he says.

I will not leave you, verse 18, as orphans. You will not be like helpless orphans. Orphans are those who don't have a father and mother.

And I find many believers really behave like orphans. They're in a tough situation. They don't know what to do.

And they're in a panic. It's like orphans. They don't know what to do.

They don't know where to turn, what to do. No father, no mother to guide them. Are you like that? Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now the thing about the Holy Spirit, just like everything else, you know, if you don't labor, you won't know the word of God. You got to work hard to read the scripture to know God's word. In the same way, you got to thirst to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The main reason many people are not filled with the Holy Spirit, many Christians, is because they don't have enough of a thirst in their heart. That's the condition. John chapter seven, verse 37.

People ask me, how can I have the Holy Spirit? I say, oh, if you don't thirst, you'll never have the fullness of the Holy Spirit in your life. You can be born in the Holy Spirit, born again. But John 7, 37 says you must thirst.

And if you thirst, then rivers of living water will flow from you. And verse 39, John 7, 39, this he spoke about the Holy Spirit. So that is the one passage of scripture that tells us how we can have the Holy Spirit with us all the time.

I want to ask you, do you have a thirst? God filled me with the Holy Spirit many times. But 50 years ago, in a special way, baptized me in the Holy Spirit. But I have a tremendous thirst even today.

Lord, I want to have more of the power of your Holy Spirit in my life. And you say, Zach, haven't you experienced it enough? I say, I'm not satisfied. No, I will not be satisfied until I become completely like Jesus, 100%.

I'm not yet 100%. It's better than it was 50 years ago, sure. But I'm not 100% like Christ.

I see I need to be more like him. And the Lord reveals to me areas of my life that I never even knew were on Christ like even last year. There's a constant growth.

It's like going from when you go from the eighth grade to the ninth grade, a student learns something they never learned in the eighth grade. There are always new things. And I want to ask you, my brother, sister, very lovingly, I don't want anybody to feel condemned by what I say.

But do you find the Holy Spirit showing you new areas in your life where you're on Christ like, where you need to become Christ like and where he says, I can help you to be Christ like there. Maybe your attitude towards somebody, maybe in a certain way of thinking, maybe in your finances to be more upright and righteous. I'm very eager in my life, thirst is the right word, to say, Lord, please show me where in my life I am not like Jesus Christ yet.

Who is the only person who can say I don't need that thirst? The one who believes he's already like Christ. So if you don't have a thirst, and you say you're born again, you must be imagining that you already become like Christ. Otherwise, you're a lazy Christian.

I don't want to insult you. But I want to speak the truth. If you're born again, you all admit that you have not become like Christ.

Now, is your desire to become like Christ a weak desire or a passion? A burning passion, I want to be like Christ, then the Holy Spirit will fill you. That is a thirst, Lord. I find myself in areas where I'm not behaving like Jesus Christ would behave.

I get anxious, I complain. I get angry. Oh, brother, you got a long way to go.

Why don't you seek earnestly for the power of the Holy Spirit? You will never overcome without the power of the Holy Spirit. Attending all these meetings like this is good. But the purpose of even a meeting like this is to challenge you to seek God for the power of His Spirit.

That's what you need more than anything else. That's what I need. And I say every day I seek God, Lord, I want to be like you.

I repent every day. You say, Brother Zach, are you sinning every day? Well, if I'm not Christ-like, then I must be sinning according to God's standard of sin. According to the world's standard of sinning, I may be living a very good life.

According to the Christians also, maybe thinking I'm very pure. Yes, I am to the best of my knowledge. But the Lord shows me new areas that I did not know before.

New, new areas, which if I mentioned it to you, you won't understand. It's like if a student in the 10th grade tries to explain something to someone in the second grade, he'll say, hey, listen, buddy, I can't explain that to you. You're in the second grade.

I'm in the 10th grade. I won't be able to explain to you. In another eight years, you'll understand it.

But you won't understand it now. Christian growth is like that. There are certain things which godly people know, which they cannot explain to you, because you're not that godly.

But you will understand it when you reach this level. And there are things that people who are more godly than me can't explain to me. Little by little, year by year by year, when I reach that grade, I'll understand it.

But if you're not making progress, you know how you can sit in the second grade for 10 years, if you like, and somebody reaches the 12th grade in those 10 years. So that depends entirely on how zealous the student is. I know a lot of students in India, I mean, from poor, from the slums and poor people's children, they don't study beyond the third or fourth grade.

Yeah, we have an elder brother in one of our religious churches who only studied up to the fourth grade. But boy, he's filled with the spirit and he preaches God's word more powerfully than anybody else. So I see that in the same way in our Christian life, you can progress as much as you want to.

And you can get stuck somewhere as well. So if you thirst, Jesus come to me. If you don't thirst, what about John 7, 37? I read it like this.

If you're not thirsty, forget it. But if you're thirsty, that means you're not satisfied with your Christ-likeness. Let me put it like that.

You feel there are areas of your life, maybe your thoughts, maybe your attitudes, maybe your motives. I often say that, you know, the five areas where we sin are deeds, words, thoughts, attitudes, motives. Those are the five areas where we sin.

Deeds, words, thoughts, attitudes, motives. And if I have a passion, that every deed of mine must be Christ-like, every word of mine must be Christ-like, every thought of mine must be Christ-like, every attitude of mine towards people must be Christ-like, every motive with which I do anything in life must be Christ-like. We've all got a long way to go.

And that's where the Holy Spirit will show us in some area. One of these things I mentioned is not Christ-like. And if you have a thirst, if you want to be Christ-like in every area, I assure you, my brother, sister, you may be ignorant, foolish, stupid, anything, God will fill you with the Holy Spirit.

And He will make rivers of living water flow out from you that will bless people in many places. Seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can make you holy.

We can't make ourselves holy. I often use the example of the branch in the tree. How does a branch produce fruit? Because there's a thing called sap, S-A-P, that flows from the liquid, that flows from the tree into the branch.

And that sap is a picture of the Holy Spirit. The tree is, of course, Christ. We are the branches.

But just being stuck to the tree is not enough. The sap must flow from the tree into the branch, and the sap comes in and produces apples or mangoes or whatever type of tree it is. So in the same way, in the Christian life, as I am in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes and fills me and produces fruit.

Now, if you were to ask that branch, you have to struggle to produce that lovely apple. The branch will say, I don't struggle at all. I just stay.

My life is a life of rest. I'm resting in the tree, and the sap keeps flowing, and the fruit keeps coming. I tell you, that has been my experience since being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Whether it's sharing a message or praying for someone or solving a problem in a church, I say, Lord, I don't have wisdom. You let the sap flow. I'll tell them what you tell me.

It's a simple life. Jesus said, abide in me, and the fruit will come. Not by struggling.

There's no branch that's struggling, struggling to produce fruit. And one branch is not in competition with the other branch to see whether I can produce more fruit. No, no, no.

I'm not in competition with anybody in the world to try and show that I'm more fruitful than that person. Please don't get into that competition. Let the tree decide how much fruit should come out of you as a branch and how much fruit should come out of that person as a branch.

That's the tree's business, not mine. So I say, Lord, you decide how much fruit should come out of my life. I'm not in any competition with any other branch in the tree.

I'm happy to be in the tree content. Be content to be in the tree. Make sure there's no sin in thought or word or deed or attitude or motive that's blocking the sap.

That's the only way that fruit will not come. That you have some sin, hidden sin in your life, which blocks the sap from flowing. Thirst, thirst, thirst.

So the Holy Spirit, number three. And number four is another thing which is very unknown among Christians. What I call the way of the cross.

Luke 9, 23. Jesus said in Luke chapter nine in verse 23, if anyone wants to come after me, anyone, anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime in 2000 years, anytime, he must deny himself. He must say no to himself.

Or let me paraphrase, he must say no to his self-life. There is a thing within us called our self-life. You see that even in a two-year-old child when he stubbornly says, I won't do that.

He says to his daddy and mommy. That's a stubborn self inside. And if you don't kill it, it's going to destroy you and you hurt a lot of other people in the process as well.

If you've got to say no to that self and die to it, take up the cross means die every day. Do you know that this is the only thing that Jesus said you got to do every day? We ask people, have you read your Bible daily? I say to people, have you taken up your cross daily? Well, if you don't read your Bible, at least you can remember something you read every day. Of course, we must remember scripture every day.

You're locked up in a prison. You can't read the Bible, but you can still remember from there. But taking up the cross is a decision that you make every day.

I am going to die to myself today. Do you seek to walk that way, my brother or sister? That is the number four thing. Number four, one, two, three, four, take up the cross every day.

And that means, Lord, I want to walk in your footsteps. And when he said, take up your cross and follow me, what does that mean? That means that Jesus also took up the cross every day. Otherwise, how can he ask you to follow him? He didn't say, okay, you take up your cross and go that way.

No, he said, follow me, which means I have been in the 33 and a half years I lived on earth. Jesus says, I took up the cross every single day. You follow my example.

That's how we live that wonderful life. And you can live a wonderful life too. See Hebrews chapter 12, same thing.

Here in Hebrews 12, verse one and two, we are told that we can run the Christian life is like a race. And we have to run this race, looking unto Jesus, fixing our eyes on Jesus. It says in the NASB, Hebrews 12, verse two, run the race, Hebrews 12, verse one, fixing our eyes on Jesus, verse two, who is the author and perfecter of our faith.

The one who's gone, he's called a forerunner in the book of Hebrews, meaning that he's gone ahead of us in this race. And how did he run this race? Taking up the cross every day. So there are two ways in which we must look at Jesus in verse two, if you read it carefully.

One, how he lived on earth, enduring the cross, despising the shame every day. Lord, I wanna take up the cross and I want to despise the shame that comes to me when people laugh at me because I'm a Christian or make fun of me because of my faith in Jesus Christ. I've experienced that many times, people making fun of me.

I remember when I used to preach out in the streets in India, people would say I was the devil, all types of names and all that. That's fine. Despising the shame because I stand up for Christ.

Have you ever been put to shame because you stood up for Christ in your office or with your unconverted relatives? They made fun of you. Don't bother about it. Despise that shame.

You're following in Jesus' footsteps. That's part of taking up the cross. Endure the cross, despising the shame.

There is a shame in the cross. If you saw 2,000 years ago, if you saw people carrying a cross down the streets of Jerusalem, many people did it before Jesus. You know that guy was a criminal.

He was a good for nothing criminal who was gonna be crucified. Jesus was not the only one crucified. So there was a shame in that.

And I say, Lord, I'm willing to take the shame of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not popular in the world today. Let me tell you that.

He's not popular in your office. He's not popular with your friends. He's not popular with your unconverted relatives.

And if you stand up for Christ, you will be put to shame. But if you compromise and keep quiet and don't let anybody know that you're a disciple and never talk about Jesus, then you will never get any shame. But if you stand up for Christ, boy, there's a lot of shame that people will put upon you, and you don't care for it.

It despises part of the cross. That is how we look at Jesus. He was made fun of.

He was despised and mocked. And Lord, I want to share in that. I'm in fellowship with your sufferings.

That's the first way to look at Jesus. And secondly, in the same verse, it says, we see him today at the right hand of the throne of God. So I've got to look at Jesus in his earthly life, how he took up the cross, and look at him today at the right hand of the Father, ready to answer my prayer, saying, all authority in heaven and earth is given to me.

Go in my name and make disciples of all people. That's the commission I've got. It's your commission, too, in Matthew 28 and verse 19 and 20.

So, and just by the way, that is in Hebrews 11.40. This taking up the cross and following Jesus is called a better thing than all the miracles did in verse 11, in chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 has an amazing list of fantastic miracles, like raising the dead, splitting the Red Sea, and all types of miracles. And at the end of it, the last verse says, God has got something better for us than splitting the Red Sea, and God has something better for us than stopping the sun and all that, which they did in the Old Testament.

What is that better thing? Taking up the cross, bearing the shame, and despising it, and looking at Jesus at the right hand of the Father. You really believe that's better than stopping the sun and raising the dead? I believe it. It is the better thing.

Hebrews 11.40 says that is a better thing. Read Hebrews 11 completely, come to verse 40, and then see what is that better thing in the So taking up the cross is the next, the fourth thing, the fourth finger. Every day I say, Lord, I'm going to die to myself today.

There will be all types of situations that will come up today with my relatives, friends, people in the office, and maybe, I don't know where, but the people I encounter, and not only people, but different temptations that come, I'm going to take up the cross and die. And I'm ready, every day. This is the way of the cross that I choose.

And then, finally, fifth, if I've done all this, it's just me, personally, me and Jesus, me and Jesus, you know, the blood of Jesus and me cleansing me, justifying me, the blood of Jesus, the word of God for me, and the Holy Spirit for me, taking up the cross for me. Now, I come to the last, which is the body of Jesus Christ, the church. Now, others get involved.

So, as I said, the first is the blood of Christ. The second is the word of God. The third is the Holy Spirit.

The fourth is the way of the cross. And fifth, the body of Jesus Christ, into which I must be integrated, a fellowship with others in the body. Now, some of you may be in lonely places where you don't have people of like mind.

I'm sure there'd be many people like that throughout these 20 centuries who lived in some town, and there was no other wholehearted disciple. Are you one like that? Well, you can fellowship with believers in other places. Today, we have the privilege of fellowshipping with people like this over Zoom.

Or there are people with whom you can be in touch with over the telephone, if there's not no one in your locality, or by email, or by WhatsApp messages. There are so many facilities we have today for fellowship with people who are far away from us. A hundred years ago, it was not possible.

What tremendous opportunities we have today. Don't miss those opportunities. I'm very thankful for all the means by which I can be in touch with other believers, and I am in touch with other believers every single day, from people the other side of the world.

And I praise the Lord for that. I value the body of Christ immensely. I would not be what I am if it were not for Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the body of Christ that has helped me.

There is no part of his body that is independent, even though every part of his body is connected to the head. Yet, every one of these parts need each other. Even the strong parts, like the heart, is a very strong part.

We say that's the most important part of our body. But do you know the heart is helpless without the hand? If the hand doesn't take food from the plate and put it in the mouth, how in the world is that heart going to survive? The heart will die. The heart won't live if you don't eat food.

But food can't go in unless your hand is willing to take food from the plate, and the mouth is willing to chew it, and the stomach is going to digest it. Even the heart, the most important part, is dependent on these other weak members. So there's no part of the body which does not need the other parts.

Please remember that in the body of Christ, you are a member of the body of Christ. Don't try to live a lonely Christian life. If the circumstances of your location and job and all have brought you to a place where there's no proper good church nearby and not even one believer in your locality who wants to follow the Lord, there are other ways by which you can, like you're doing right now.

This is far more than what people had in the first century and through the many centuries. We are tremendously privileged in our day to have fellowship with members of the body of Christ like this. Are we making use of that? Are we availing of that opportunity? Think of WhatsApp where you don't have to pay a cent to have fellowship with other people.

You know well, I'm not talking about your preaching, sending long messages to them, but to be in touch with people, to encourage them. Encouragement is one of the easiest things to do. It sometimes only requires one sentence.

I'll never forget when I was a young man of 30, not very discouraged, still starting my ministry and so many things I did not know and I did not have many people to encourage me. I was in a conference in one place and one person who did not even speak my language, knew very little English, came up to me and much older person, double my age, godly man. He put his hand on my shoulder and he said, brother, God has a plan for your life.

I haven't forgotten that after 50 years. Just one sentence, one sentence from a fellow member of the body of Christ that set me off like a rocket. You don't know what one sentence can do that you can give to another person to encourage you.

You don't need to preach a great sermon. He didn't, he couldn't preach a great sermon. He didn't even know my language.

He knew very little English. Don't devalue the one sentence that you can use to encourage somebody you know. The world is full of discouraged Christians.

You can encourage some of them. So now we've seen the five things by which we can get a solid grip on the Christian life. You can't pull it out.

It won't fall off. Maybe when some of you got two fingers holding the Christian life or three and four, get all five and hold, your hold on the Christian life will be very strong. Now meditate on this.

If you've written it down, you can read it again. Otherwise, thank God for YouTube that you can go back and listen to it again. And more important than that, ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of these truths.

Don't just think of it as five points that you go and preach somewhere. Please, that's not the number one reason with which we should hear God's word. Another sermon for me to preach? No.

Think of it as something for you to do. Acts 1 verse 1. Do you know the first verse in Acts of the Apostles? It says Jesus did and then he taught. He did and then he taught.

That's a great lesson for me. I must do, then I must teach. I should not teach what I haven't done.

So what you've heard today is not for you to teach somebody else, but for you to do. Lord, I want to value the blood of Christ and I want to hear your word speaking to me every day. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day.

I want to take up the cross every day and I want to value and fellowship with the body of Christ every day. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's bow our heads in prayer just for a few moments.

Say, Lord, please imprint on my mind what I heard today and bring it back to me when I need it. Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, Amen.