Honouring God As Noah Did

We were looking yesterday at 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 30. Where God says to Eli, the high priest, Those who honor me, I will honor. These warnings in the Bible are for us. These warnings in the Bible are for us. If you honor any human being, your son, more than God, The same thing that happened to Eli can happen to us. There are many things God will share with us and give to us. He gives us his love. He gives us his power. He gives us his wisdom. So many gifts. Material gifts, spiritual gifts. Can you tell me one thing God will not give us? He will never give us one thing. The Bible says in Isaiah 42, Verse 8. Isaiah 42 verse 8. Isaiah 42 verse 8. I am the Lord, this is my name. I will never give glory to anyone else. There is one thing God will never give us. Glory. Because it is not good for us. Only when all glory is given to God, The church will function properly when all glory is given to God. Any preacher or elder who tries to get glory to himself will destroy the church. Any father or mother who takes glory to themselves for bringing up their children properly will destroy their home. If you got a good job and done well financially in your life and you take credit for it, you will destroy yourself. That is why even if we have health, we must not take glory that we are healthy because we did so many good things. It is a very important principle. You can ask God for anything. But make sure that you give him the glory. Jesus himself taught us that in Matthew chapter 6. He taught us a prayer to pray. Matthew chapter 6. He told us to pray like this. Matthew 6 verse 9. Pray like this our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. My name is not important. Can you say that? Can you say Lord, it doesn't matter what people think about me or say about me. They call Jesus prince of devils. They are not going to call us by better names. People have called me all types of bad names, Christians. But to me that is an honor. Because they called my lord prince of devils. So don't look for a good name from worldly people. Don't look for a good name from worldly Christians. They will call you false teacher. And followers of Satan, all types of things. But how do we shut their mouths? Not by arguing with them. By our life. Our life will shut their mouth. The way we have brought up our children will shut their mouth. When they compare it with their own life and their own family. And that's what I have decided to do for nearly 40 years. I never reply to people who call me all types of bad names. God will answer them, I don't have to answer them. My duty is only to shine as a light by my life, by my family and my church. So don't be disturbed when other people call you by bad names. Our only prayer is our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then he said in verse 13, the last part. Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Thine is the glory forever. That is how Jesus taught us to conclude our prayer. Give us this day our daily bread, verse 11. And when we get money to get our daily food, we say Lord, the glory is yours, not mine. Forgive us our sins. And he forgives us Lord, that is your glory. And deliver us from sin. And when God gives us victory over sin. Lord, thine is the glory forever. The moment you start boasting about something in your life. You immediately are in danger of getting in fellowship with Satan. We must testify what God has done for us. Paul said, my conscience does not convict me of anything. That was a wonderful testimony. But he gave the glory to God. And we must also give a testimony. The Lord has kept me from falling. But the glory is his. Dear brothers and sisters. Please be very very careful. When you touch the glory of God. And you take little bit of yourself. That is like taking some money from somebody else's purse when he is not looking. Supposing you see somebody's purse lying there. Will you go and take out 10 rupees from it? No, I don't think any of you will do it. But that is the same thing when we take some glory to ourself for something good that has happened in our life. That is why we must never compare ourselves with other believers also. When you compare yourself with other believers. You will tend to boast. I am better than that person. My children are better than that person's children. Or they get better marks in school. It is all stupidity. Or they are more spiritual than somebody else. Or my church is better than other churches. Let God decide that. I often tell people when I go to other churches. We are not saying CFC is the best church. We do not compare ourselves with others. We only compare ourselves with Jesus Christ. And we find we have come far short of that standard. So there is zero room for pride. Have you become like Jesus Christ? Has your church become like Jesus Christ? No. Then let us fall on our face and ask God to have mercy on us. I do not want to spend even one minute comparing my church with any other church. What I say is we disagree with the wrong teachings in other churches. We disagree with the money loving attitude of pastors. But I never decide whether I am a better person than that man. No. That is for God who is the judge. There is only one judge. And I am not that judge. And you are not that judge. See we are all like students in a class. After you write the examination. Can you give marks to your own paper? Then we will all give 100%. No. The teacher has to give the marks. So it is no use comparing your paper with that person's paper. When we come to the end of our life. The examination will be over. When we hand over our paper to Jesus. He will give the marks. Please remember that. Do not try to give yourself marks now. The examination is not even over yet. We have finished about 5 out of 10 questions. Many of us are already giving ourselves marks. No. Foolish. Please wait till the examination is over. That is when you come to the end of your life. Or when Christ comes again. And even then do not give yourself marks. Please hand over your answer paper to Jesus. Let him decide. How many marks you get than somebody else gets. And I will tell you. Even if you made many mistakes. If you are humble. Till the end. You will get 100%. It is only pride. That will take away your marks. I have learnt that. If I remain humble. And I fight the battle to humble myself. And that is not difficult. If you look to Jesus. It is impossible to be proud. If you keep looking at Jesus. Let me tell you. That all pride comes into your life. Because you compare yourself with some other brother. Or some other sister. So I want to urge all of you. Make a decision in your life. I will never compare myself with anybody else. See what it says in 2 Corinthians 10. This is a very important verse. 2 Corinthians 10. This is what Paul the great apostle is saying. Paul could have compared himself with all the other apostles. And he was undoubtedly the greatest. But he said. I am the least of all the apostles. He said. I am the least of all the saints. He said. I am the chiefest of all the sinners. Why does he say that? Because he compared himself only with Jesus. He didn't compare himself with the other apostles and the other believers. When he looked at Jesus. He said. I am not a great apostle. I am the least. When he compared himself with Jesus. He said. I am not even such a good believer. I am worse than the worst believer. When he compared himself with Jesus. He said. I am the greatest sinner in the world. And here he gives us the reason. 2 Corinthians 10. Verse 12. We are not bold to compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But when they measure themselves with each other. And compare themselves with each other. They are without understanding. There are a lot of people who compare themselves with each other. When you say they are without understanding. That means they are like these mentally retarded people. Who don't understand ABC or 2 plus 2 or anything. You know there are children who are born with a mental defect. They cannot even add 2 plus 2. We can say they are without understanding. Spiritually there are some people like that. They are the most foolish believers in the world. They may know so much of the bible. They may be great preachers. But they have one big problem. They compare themselves with others. And they boast. He says we are not bold to boast like that. Because we have got understanding. And what is the mark of a man who has got understanding? He compares himself only with Jesus. All of you sitting here. I will tell you whether you have got understanding or not. If you only compare yourself with Jesus everyday. You are a person with spiritual understanding. If you compare yourself with other believers. You are like a spiritual idiot without understanding. The world is full of spiritual idiots. In the world everybody compares themselves with each other. They are jealous of others who are better. And they are proud of others they think are less than them. Not only don't compare yourself with others. Don't try to become like others. If for example the finger tries to become like the tongue. You know we are Christ body. Each of us is like a member in Christ body. You may be a finger. But don't try to become a tongue. Don't compare yourself. Don't try to be like somebody else. For many years I have told people. Please don't try to preach like me. You be yourself. God has given me a gift. God has given you another gift. I am not better than you. We all have different gifts. Can you say which is more important? Your tongue or your eyes? Suppose you are given an option to cut out one of them. Which will you cut out? I say I don't want either to be cut out. I want both. In the same way. We are different but we need each other. Nobody can say I am better or I am not so important. Even the small ten toes on our feet are also very important. You may think those ten toes are very unimportant. But any doctor will tell you that if you remove those ten toes you will not be able to stand properly. You cannot stand with only your feet. You need ten toes also to stand properly. God has made it like that so that you realize even those small believers in your church are very very important. So never touch the glory of God. Because if we try to take what belongs to God God will punish us. You know the people came to offer sacrifices in Eli's time and the children of Eli took something which belonged to God. And God punished them and killed them. These are all warnings. What belongs to God don't touch it. Just like you will not take money from the offering box and keep it for yourself. In the same way give glory to God. Lord if things are going well in my life I give you the glory. If I am healthy I give you the glory. If I have money to live and educate my children I give you the credit. If I have not lost my job when many people are losing their jobs I give you the credit. When there is so much sickness I give you the glory. Everything learn to give the glory to God. That is one mark of a humble person. He never takes the credit to himself or anything. I remember when my children were small and one day in a year they have prize giving in the school for the last year's exams. So when they get a prize and come home after we come home I say a few words to them. I said let me tell you that when you stand before Jesus he is not going to ask you how much you got in mathematics or science. He is not going to ask you what prizes you got in school. There are hundred students there in that school today at the prize giving day who got no prizes. But they may be better than you. They may be kinder and more helpful than you are. That's what I used to tell my children every year. Don't be proud that you got some prize. And if you got a prize don't tell anybody about it. Don't show anybody. Give the glory to God. We must teach our children that from childhood. Don't take credit. God has given you some ability give the glory to God for that. That's one of the best things we can teach our children. So, otherwise in school they have a tendency to compare with each other. They can run faster or come first in the class. They will go astray unless their parents correct them. Eli's parents did not correct his children. And they died. Now the sad thing is you read there that Samuel was also after the first man of God spoke to Eli the Lord told Samuel also to speak to Eli. The Lord told something to Samuel in 1 Samuel 3 verse 11 The Lord said to Samuel I will do great things in Israel and I will bring verse 12 and 13 the house of Eli I am going to judge forever. So Samuel just kept quiet. In the morning Eli called him verse 16 and said what did the Lord tell you? Don't hide it from me. See the small boy was able to hear God this great leader was not able to hear God. So Samuel told him Samuel said because you have not brought up your children properly God is going to judge you. When Samuel became an old man we read in 1 Samuel chapter 8 1 Samuel chapter 8 Samuel was old he appointed his two sons to be judges over Israel 1 Samuel 8 verse 1 and it says here in verse 3 but his sons did not walk in Samuel's ways but turned aside for dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice. This is the same Samuel who warned Eli look how your sons are behaving and he did not bring up his own sons properly. You know why? Read the previous verses chapter 3 sorry chapter 7 verse 15 verse 15 Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life and he used to go in a circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and he judged all those places and then he would return to Rama where his house was he was constantly travelling preaching ministering and he had no time to teach his own children that is a warning to all fathers don't just leave it to your wife to bring up the children don't be so busy with your work and so many things that you don't have time to teach your children God's ways you may be serving the Lord but when your children grow up you cannot say daddy was so busy serving the Lord he had no time to talk to us no we must take time to teach our children God's ways our children must know the scriptures just like we know the scriptures that is the responsibility of a father and it's a great warning from Samuel's life he warned Eli about his children but his own children went astray I want to show you another example a good one Jesus said that the last days will be like the days of Noah and that is a warning to us because we are living in those days in the days of Noah there was a lot of sexual sin and a lot of terrorism and murder and violence all the type of filthy things we see in the movies is like the days of Noah and all the violence and terrorism you read in the newspapers is like the days of Noah we are living in those days and Jesus said it will be like that just before I come he didn't say like some preachers say the world is going to become better and better the church is going to make the world better no the world is going to get worse and worse the bible says that very clearly the days of Noah are characteristic of the last days let me show you a verse in 2nd Timothy and chapter 3 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 12 all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted everybody you will have difficulty in your place of work because you are a Christian because you stand up for Christ all it doesn't say some it says all maybe they won't give you an increment they won't give you a promotion unless you keep quiet and say I don't know Jesus Christ like Peter but if you are bold witness for Christ you will be persecuted what about the rest of the world here is a description of the world in the last days verse 13 evil men and deceivers will become worse bad to worse and they will deceive and being deceived themselves it doesn't say the world is going to get better if it is bad now it says it will get worse if people are being deceived now they will be more deceived in the days to come all over Christianity people are being deceived by a false gospel you have so many preachers in Tamil Nadu so many people preaching about how you can make money and live a better house and all that how many people are teaching how to be holy in a practical way how many people will say I am not interested in your money I want you there was a rich young ruler who came to Jesus with a lot of money and he was a very upright man and he asked Jesus how can I have eternal life he read that in Mark 10 Jesus said keep the commandments he said I have kept them and he said one thing you lack you love your money too much what did he say what did Jesus say come put your money in the offering box and give it to me and follow me no that is what today's pastors say you know what Jesus said go and give your money to the poor and you come to me without your money how many people have you heard saying that who say I don't want your money I want you we had some people from another church coming to CFC Bangalore they were not members of our church they were very eager to hear the word of God so when I visited their home this is what I told them please give all your money in that other church and you keep your membership also there come to us to hear the word of God so that your life can be changed we are not interested in people's money or their membership we are only interested that they become disciples of Jesus and sometimes people get offended with CFC and leave and go after one year I may meet them on the road and I am very happy to meet them I smile and go to them I ask them only one question I don't ask why did you leave our no you go anywhere I hope you are a better disciple of Jesus now than one year ago when you left our church that's the only thing I am interested I will never ask them to come back to our church see we have all types of false preachers today be careful about them evil men will become worse and deceive others but Paul tells Timothy see the next verse you don't be like them verse 14 you continue in the things you have learnt and become convinced of not only that he says know from whom you learnt it that means Timothy you know my life verse 10 you not only followed my teaching you saw my conduct you saw my purpose you saw my faith you saw my patience you saw my love you saw my perseverance you saw my life don't just follow teaching see what type of man is giving that teaching is he a godly man is he a humble man that's what Paul tells Timothy so many people now they say oh there is some good teaching here in this group oh there is a good teaching there all types of people they are distributing books saying listen to this read this read this you know what we should say show me a man who is living like this don't give me books and teachings Paul said to Timothy remember from whom you learnt from not just my teaching my conduct my purpose my faith my patience my love my perseverance in verse 10 seven things out of that teaching is only one teaching is only one of those seven things that is what we need to look for today so many Christians are going after this teaching that teaching Paul did not say follow my teaching he said follow me look at what the teaching has produced in my life look for a person whose life has been transformed by the teaching then follow that so many people can teach so many things and like Ecclesiastes says there is no shortage of books nowadays and all this heavy reading can become a weariness to your flesh see that verse in Ecclesiastes verse 12 my son be warned the writing of many books is endless Ecclesiastes 12.12 be warned the writing of many books is endless and excessive devotion to the study of books can be a weariness to the body don't just keep on reading books read the bible and read books that will help you to go back to the bible and which will lead you verse 13 to fear god and to keep his commandments because that is what applies to everybody it says so don't be deceived by people this teaching that teaching this book that book is for godly people you find one godly man follow his example a man who does not want your money and does not want to control your life but who wants to wash your feet and serve you that is the only type of man worth following and if you have elders like that you are a very lucky person so in the days of Noah it was so bad in the world and it became worse and worse and worse and god finally put a time limit saying after 120 years i am going to destroy the world see that we read in genesis 6 verse 3 the lord said my spirit will not strive with man because his flesh nevertheless his days shall be 120 years but god never told Noah it is going to be 120 years this is what god said in heaven his father, son and holy spirit Noah never knew anything all god told Noah is the end of all flesh verse 13 has come verse 13 i am going to destroy the earth he did not say after 120 years i am going to destroy the earth Noah did not know when he said you build an ark and get your family and animals into it and noah immediately began to do that so when the lord says the last days will be like the days of noah its not only that the world will become like noah it also means that there will be a few men like noah very few here and there all over the world thats the challenge that comes to me if the last days are like noah in the world then i must be like a noah in this world do you see that challenge and you sisters you must say i must be like noah's wife in this world what was the significant thing about noah and his wife they had only three sons and they brought them up to fear god and not only to fear god they brought them up to marry god fearing women who also feared god they didn't allow their sons to go and marry anybody they liked they would check up is that a god fearing woman otherwise noah would say no my son you are not to marry that woman you don't have discernment i have discernment that woman is not god fearing and noah had even though his children were grown up he was such a godly man that children respected their father you know and noah said now we are going to build the ark everybody in the world called noah a mad man you know in those days there was no rain on the earth see the bible says in genesis chapter 2 that in those days there was no rain genesis 2 verse 5 and 6 in the bible it says the lord had not sent rain on the earth but a mist would rise up verse 6 and water the earth so in those days there was no rain some mist would come from the ground and water the earth so when one man gets up and says rain is going to come and flood the earth he is like a mad man talking something that never happened in 2000 years that is what people say about us jesus is going to come to judge the world and send lot of people to hell they say what is this this has never happened till now these fellows are talking about this exactly the same when noah preached they call you a mad man they call noah a mad man but you know who believed noah his wife his three sons and the wives of his three sons that's a tremendous example of a godly man who had a godly wife who brought up his three children to be godly and got them married to godly wives and became like one family for god in the evil days your family must be like that noah's family in this wicked world that is how we honor god and if we honor god god will honor us that must be your priority in your life you must say even if i don't have money to give so many things to my children i'm going to give them the word of god yeah when my wife and i were married in the early days we had very little it was a struggle for us even to educate our children we could never buy new clothes for them we would never buy new clothes for their birthdays like other people do we would buy clothes for them when the old clothes wore out and the younger boy has to wear the older boy's clothes that's how we grew up but one thing i said my children must know the word of god even in those days noah was my hero what a man he was you know the bible says in peter 2nd peter he describes noah like this verse 5 2nd peter 2.5 noah was a preacher of righteousness if you want to be like noah in the last days you must be a preacher of righteousness yes we need to preach comfort and encouragement to people but our main message must be righteousness in the last days there will be people like noah who preach righteousness there is one more thing said about noah in hebrews 11 verse hebrews 11 and verse 7 by faith noah in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his family it says here in english with reverence he made it that means he not only had faith he had reverence and he thought primarily of his family must be saved even if the world is not saved at least i must save my family read that for the salvation of his family are you interested in the salvation of your family my wife and i used to pray for our children regularly we will not allow the devil to touch our children you must do that you must not allow the devil to come into your house this is very very important and by that it says he condemned the world that means he said i don't care for this world i want to save my family that is more important than having things in the world you turn back to genesis 6 the lord told noah to build a big ship and there is one thing we don't see here god did not tell noah where to get the money to build a ship where to get you think it is easy to build a ship it is not a small boat it is a ship to accommodate animals and if noah had asked god lord where is the money going to come from god would have said from your own pocket where else noah knew that so he didn't ask god that question in the last days there will be people like noah who serve god at their own expense they don't preach for money they support their own family like noah and are preaching righteousness you tell me how many people you see like that in india today how many pastors do you see in tamil nadu like that like noah who preach righteousness and don't take money for their preaching support their own family and even use their money to build the church you will find that in cfc churches not in other places why because we want to be like noah in the last days so many pastors their children are all wayward we praise god for god fearing children growing up in our churches and these god fearing children are marrying god fearing women these god fearing children are marrying god fearing women that's why you young girls must be god fearing because the next generation god needs god fearing wives for god fearing young men do you think it was easy for noah to build a ship did noah know how to build a ship he had to get up little earlier in the morning and go with his sons and chop down some trees from his own fields sell some of his land to get money to build the yard why did it take him 120 years to build the yard because he didn't have so many people to help him it doesn't take 120 years to build a ship but noah did not have many people to help him i have felt like this if i were living in those days in noah's time i would have joined with noah and said i'm going to spend my days with you brother noah to build the yard when the whole world was making fun of him i would have joined him we are not living in noah's time but we are living in days like the days of noah and here and there in tamil nad there are a few people like noah i know them who are god fearing who are not interested in anybody's money who are preaching righteousness who are bringing up their children in godly ways who are getting their children married to god fearing women and who are devoting their time to build the church don't say if i were in noah's day i would join him and build the yard say now in the last days like noah i'm going to join with those people like noah to build the church are you afraid of people making fun of you just think how many thousands of people would have said noah has got a screw loose and he's a madman he's a false teacher heretic they called paul a heretic he knew that once when the apostle paul was standing before a king he was being judged by king felix see what he told him in acts 24 acts 24 he stood before the king and he said verse 14 i at meet you that i belong to the way which other people call a sect i belong to a group which other people call a cult yeah i admit it let them call me what they like i am not ashamed i follow jesus but i'll say i'll tell you what i do this group which other people call a cult here is what we believe first of all verse 14 we believe everything written in the bible everything written in the bible we believe that is our number one thing we believe in the new covenant we believe in the new the old covenant has been abolished secondly we believe that there will definitely be two resurrections verse 15 a resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked and i want to be in the resurrection of the righteous so what do i do i don't just sit back and say oh i accepted jesus i'll be in the resurrection of the righteous no verse 16 i do my best to keep my conscience always clear before god and men what a wonderful cult to belong to they call us a false teaching this is the best false teaching to belong to believing everything in the bible keeping my conscience always clean before god and before men that is the best church in the world to belong to that is what god is doing in these days be whole hearted take an example from noah and spend your life building the church bring up your children in godly ways and when the days become dark it was very dark for one year inside the ark when noah was there but there's a beautiful word in genesis 8 verse 1 it says in 7 24 the waters prevailed on the earth for a period of 150 days 150 days of darkness imagine sitting inside a ship not knowing what is going to happen sometimes when you read these verses you must imagine how is it if i was sitting inside the ark for 150 days of darkness you know the ark was the safest place on the earth in those days and today the real church of jesus christ is the safest place to be in today now let us use our imagination and see how is it living inside the ark you think the ark was full of nice smells and all that it was like a zoo animals and elephants nobody has had a wash or a bath or anything i think most of those times they had to close their nose and walk around inside the ark but if they had said i am tired of this i am going to get out this is a smelly place where will you go you will go out into the waters and die so it is not a very comfortable place inside the but it was the safest place in the world the church also is like that there are some smelly people in the church spiritually smelly they are not perfect some behave like tigers and some behave like elephants some gentle people like lambs but some are like tigers and leopards and i say lord i want to be in the church till jesus comes it may be inconvenient but it is the safest place on earth so don't sit inside the ark and complain it's much worse outside don't sit inside the church and complain it's much worse outside honor god and say lord thank you that you have saved me you have saved my family you have brought me and my family into the church i'll always be grateful i'm very grateful my children were small when we started cfc they didn't grow up in some dead denomination they grew up in a family where people loved one another nobody was perfect we were not perfect we loved one another praise the lord that you have found a place in the church never never be unthankful let's pray thank you father for giving us a place in the church help us never to take it for granted we pray in jesus name amen