Jesus Example In Ministry

Okay, as we come to this last session, in the few sessions we've had, we can't cover everything about proclaiming the full purpose of God, but I think we have touched on a number of important things. And when we see that in Jesus, God gave us an example, a perfect example of how he wanted man to live. When God made Adam, we don't have a single example of how he lived even for a single day. And no man in the history of humanity ever lived the way God wanted man to live. But finally, Jesus lived that way. And if you believe that Jesus came not only to die for the sins of the world, I mean, that was just for six hours of thirty-three and a half years. But what he did in thirty-three and a half years was he lived a life and demonstrated to us how God wanted man to live. When he said, I am the light of the world, that's what he meant. And when the Bible says, if you say you're a Christian, you must walk as Jesus walked, live as Jesus lived. Very few people are gripped by that. Have you ever heard a message on, you must live as Jesus lived? I think outside of this church, I don't know if anybody in this country even preaches it. And even when we preach it also, people begin to question us. I say it's in the Bible, 1 John 2, 6, you have to walk as Jesus walked. So we find that we are living in the midst of a Christendom that does not preach a lot of important things in the Bible. And one of the ministries of Old Testament prophets was to proclaim to the Israelites what they were not doing, not the things they were already doing. So to apply that to today, if a prophet were to preach in a Pentecostal church, he will not preach about speaking in tongues because they're doing far too much of that. He'd preach to them about being free from the love of money. If a prophet were to go to a brethren assembly, he'd probably tell them about speaking in tongues. And that's why he'd be kicked out of the Pentecostal assembly and be kicked out of the brethren assembly too. Because people don't like to hear things which are in the Bible, which they're not practicing. This is the trouble with all of Christendom. They're not bold enough to say, hey, show us something in the New Testament we are not practicing. And if you show them something, they'll have some crooked interpretation to say that doesn't apply to us today. Well, if it doesn't apply to us today, then why in the world is it in your Bible? I say, why don't you scratch it out and say it doesn't apply to us, don't read it. Be honest. There's a lot of dishonesty among God's people. That's what I'm disgusted with. I don't mind disagreement, but dishonesty. And I believe that's the reason why God does not allow them to see the truth. Anybody who is dishonest with scripture, you see something, you see that it's contrary to what you have believed and taught, and you don't study that carefully, and you just sort of go around it, I guarantee you God himself will deceive you, because you don't love the truth. If you want to know the full purpose of God, there's one fundamental requirement, you must love the truth. That means when God shows you some selfishness in yourself, love it and say, yes, it's true. I want to be free from it. When God shows you love of money or lust in your heart, acknowledge it and say, Lord, I want to be free. God will help you. It may take years to be free, but he'll help you. But if you beat around the bush and give some other excuse for it, he'll never help you. In the same way, if you see something in scripture and you don't, it's contrary to what you believe and you don't love the truth, say, Lord, this seems to be against what I have always believed. Show me. Let me study it more. And you're not serious about finding out what God actually says, because you're afraid it may be, you may have to change your ways or change your doctrine and get up and publicly say, hey, I was wrong all these years. Now I know the truth. God sees you're more concerned about your name than about the truth. He will allow you to be deceived. I've often spoken about 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10 and 11, the scariest words in the New Testament, that if you don't love the truth, God will allow you to be deceived. Never forget those verses, 2 Thessalonians 2, 10 and 11. If you don't love the truth about yourself or what you see in the world, God himself will allow you to be deceived. I don't want to be deceived. That's why I've decided to love the truth. And Jesus also spoke about, you know, in Jesus' life, when we think of Jesus' life, there was not only life, but ministry. God has given to us an example in Jesus, how we must live our life and how we have to carry on the ministry in the body of Christ. Because there's the first body of Christ, the perfect example of what the church is supposed to do. As you have often heard me say, Acts 1, verse 1, there are two things I learned from that. One, Jesus only taught what he did. Acts 1, 1, Jesus began to do and teach. It's a fundamental principle of the Christian life that you must never teach what you have not done. We are not to practice what we preach. We must preach what we have already practiced. You can't teach people how to bring up children if you haven't brought up children yourself properly. You can't teach anything that you haven't done. I mean, bachelors may have all types of theories on bringing up children, but what do they know? And I have found, let me tell you something, the people who have criticized me concerning the way we run churches, every single one of them have never planted one church themselves. But they are critical. It's exactly like a bachelor trying to criticize a married man the way he brings up children. I say, instead of criticizing, why don't you go and do something yourself and produce something. Let me see if God bears witness to you, I'll respect you. Take a verse like, it says in Hebrews 13, there are some difficult verses in scripture. I'll show you a difficult verse for many Christians in the New Testament. Hebrews 13 and verse 17, I'm just taking one example among many, obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy, not with grief, for that will be unprofitable for you. I remember asking somebody, I say, who are your leaders whom you submit to? Do you obey this verse, by the way? Is this verse in your Bible? Whichever translation you use, it says the same thing. Who is this leader you obey? He says, I obey Christ. I say, fine, that's great. But who is the other leader? Because it says here, leaders, plural. Christ is not plural, and he's stuck. What does he do with that verse? He's dishonest. I can guarantee that such a person will be deceived. I'm just giving you an example. I want to ask all of you sitting here, do you obey your leaders? You submit to them? See, I'm not telling you that you must have confidence in somebody who, just because a guy sits in your church and calls himself your elder. Confidence cannot come by being forced. Confidence has to come automatically. And if you cannot respect the one who calls himself an elder in your church, you can't have confidence in him. In my younger days, I've been in many, many different churches. And I have to tell you honestly, I did not have confidence in many of those elders as godly men. But when I sat in that church, as long as I attended that church, I obeyed all the rules of that church. I didn't allow the elder to run my private life. That was my own business. But if I sat in that church, I would obey the rules. If they said the meeting's at 9.30, I'd go at 9.30. And they said this is the way we do it in this church, we do it in this church. I wouldn't question that. In the various forms they've practiced in that church, if I want to be a part of that church, I must follow those forms. So obeying your leaders doesn't mean you have somebody who's trying to tell you whom you should marry, where you should live, what type of shirt you should wear, and this, that, and the other. No, they have no control over your private life. Only god can run that. But in church matters, they are your leaders. You submit to them. Or if there's a spirit of rebellion in you against church elders, well, you're not obeying a scripture. But then, in the New Testament, we read that those elders also had God put an apostle over them. And Paul had such authority that he could, he was not an elder in Corinth, but he could tell the elders in Corinth, remove that fellow from your midst. With the authority God has given me, I commit that person to Satan, that Satan should give him some sickness in his flesh so that he will repent. The apostles have some authority. And you know those Corinthian elders submitted to Paul and did it. They did exactly what he told them. The problem today in Christendom is, there are a lot of elders or pastors in churches who have no authority over them. They want to have authority over everybody in their church. They say, you must listen to me, I am the elder here. But, do you believe in having any authority over you? No. That's the problem. And that's why they create so much confusion. They become like little dictators. They call themselves elders, and they're like little dictators. So you can never have confidence in a dictator. I mean, as long as you sit in that church, you may listen to him, but you can't have confidence in him. Jesus demonstrated to us life and ministry. And there's so many things in his ministry. You know, for example, he never forced anybody to stick with him. Never. One young ruler came, and he said, this is the price you've got to pay. You've got to give up all your money to the poor and come. He said, no, I can't. Okay, goodbye. Some of his disciples got offended when he spoke about eating his flesh and blood, and they left. He said, okay, fine, go. He never once went after somebody and said, oh, please hang on, come back. I've never done that. In 37 years, I've never done it. And people wanted to go, I say, go. Go where you like. Because all that the father has given me will come to me. But if you are an insecure elder, like these political leaders, you'll always want, hey, I hope you don't leave my party. And I'm sorry to say we have some insecure elders in our CFC churches. It's pretty obvious, by the way, they try to control people and try to get gang up by having supporters in the church who will support them through thick and thin, even if they do something wrong. Those are ungodly men. Even if they call themselves senior elders, I say they're ungodly men, and I would have zero confidence in them, and you should have no confidence in such people. A godly elder is one who behaves like Jesus Christ, who gives you complete freedom. The Apostle Paul once told Apollos, Apollos was a junior person who got light on spiritual things through the Apostle Paul. And once the Apostle Paul told Apollos, I want you to go to Corinth. Now, remember, this is an apostle telling Apollos, I want you to go to Corinth, 1 Corinthians 16, in verse 12. He says, I encouraged him greatly, come on, Apollos, I want you to go. I want you to go there. Apollos says, sorry, Brother Paul, I don't feel like. And look at the greatness, the largeness of heart of the Apostle Paul. He says, that's fine, Apollos, go when you feel like. And he writes to the Corinthians, I encouraged him greatly to come, but he didn't feel he should come right now, but he will come later on when he has opportunity. We want elders like that who are not dictators, who don't pretend that they are the voice of God. I've often said, all these people who get up and say, thus said the Lord, the Lord's told me to tell you this, I have no respect for them, zero. You read Jeremiah 23, the Lord says, these people who get up and say, thus said the Lord, they never heard me. I have respect for a man like the Apostle Paul who wrote scripture and who says at the end of 1 Corinthians 7, I think I have the spirit of God. Oh brother, Lord, give us a hundred men like that who can speak prophetically the very voice of God and at the end of it say, I'm not so sure, but I think I have the spirit of God and God Almighty backs it up and says, that is my voice, puts it in scripture. Those are the people I respect, not the ones who get up and say, thus said the Lord. All this humbug prophecy that goes on in charismatic Pentecostal service, trash can, that's where they should go. We don't despise prophesying, but it says examine everything and hold fast to what is good. Jesus gave us a demonstration of how to live and how to minister. I told you that he was not the type of person who was shouting and yelling and screaming. Those are all the marks of people who are not too sure, they don't know how to get people to be stirred up and so they shout and yell and scream in order to get people worked up. There are some people who are masters at that. I mean if you have to raise your voice and do all types of gymnastics in order to impress people, I don't believe Jesus was like that. Jesus was so sure of the mighty anointing and power of the Holy Spirit that he didn't have to scream, he didn't have to jump, he didn't have to go here and there and move people with emotion. Because when you move people with emotion, you're trying to substitute the work of the Holy Spirit with your human soul power. And I want to say to you, the greatest deception going on in Christendom today, in charismatic and non-charismatic circles, is human soul power being confused for the power of the Holy Spirit. And I urge you brothers and sisters, when you listen to anybody, listen carefully. Is this human soul power, it may be one of your elders in your church, using human soul power to manipulate you or to convince you that he's speaking with the voice of God or some such thing, you need to recognize if it's the voice of the Holy Spirit, it'll be gentle, it'll be very convicting, and he won't have to shout and yell and scream at you. That's how it is. Because I believe that's how Jesus was. He's demonstrated to us how to minister. And he's also demonstrated to us the type of subjects to speak about. He wasn't interested in presenting truth in a very pleasant way, or sometimes he was not even systematic, but he was always speaking to the heart. So Jesus has demonstrated to us the perfect example of how to serve God. You know, these verses in the Old Testament that says, Behold my servant, meaning look carefully at my servant and learn from him, this is the way you should be serving me. And all those who minister God's word, I want to encourage you, there's an article on our website which I have written called My Style of Preaching, which is following Jesus' style of preaching. You read it and see the principles by which Jesus preached. I mean, there's no better style of preaching than Jesus' style, and that's the best style to follow. And let me repeat again, Jesus' attitude to money and giving reports to other people about his work. I never hear Jesus saying, you know, when I was over there I raised the dead, and when I was over there I healed a blind man. These are all today's humbugs who call themselves television healers who talk about what happened there and what happened there. It doesn't seem to happen here. Jesus never spoke about that. He didn't need to speak about that because he'd raise a dead person right there. He would heal a blind person right there. Why did he have to talk about what happened five years ago in some strange place that nobody knows about? These are all people who are humbugs and hoaxes. Don't believe them. If they've got the gift, you'll see it right there in front of you. That's how Jesus did it. Jesus demonstrated. And of course, if you don't have the gift, you can't do it. You can't do anything without a supernatural gift from God. And we should not assume that we have a gift when we don't have it, you know. For example, if a person wants to know whether he's got the gift of healing, I've had different people come and tell me that they have that, and I say, fine, just pray for a hundred people who are sick, and you'll find out pretty quickly whether you've got the gift of healing or not. And those other hundred people will find out also whether you've got the gift of healing or not. And if none of them are healed or only one of them are healed, you just go back home and say, Lord, I don't have this gift. If you want to know whether you're an evangelist, just go around preaching the gospel to here and there and everywhere. Wherever you get a chance, you find you have a burden to preach and nobody gets converted, you discover you don't have the gift of evangelism. Pretty clear. Or you say somebody accepted the Lord, where is he? And you say, like a lot of today's evangelists, I don't know, he must be somewhere. That's not evangelism. That's just seeking honor, counting up statistics. I converted 3,454 believers. Where are they? I don't know. That's not evangelism. You've got to bring them to a church. And in the same way with teaching, if you find that when you start teaching people and nobody seems to get any light from what you're saying, people are bored and they start looking at their watches, you know that you don't have the gift of teaching. Don't try that. Limit yourself to two minutes because you don't have a gift to speak more than that. I have for years and years and years and years told people, dear brothers, most of you have the gift to speak for about 20 minutes. But you go beyond that, you're going to spoil it. I've seen so many cases in my life of people who have been wonderful if they had stopped at 20 minutes. But I take the example of a carpenter who's working in a shop where he's got a nine to five job and he's finished the table perfectly at four o'clock. What to do? The table is perfectly finished. But I've got till five o'clock, so let me plane some more. It spoils the whole thing. He should have left it at four o'clock. It's done. A lot of sermons I've heard were done at 20 minutes and the remaining 40 minutes they bored people because they heard Brother Zach speak for one hour. They say, I can do it too. Well, I hope so. I hope you can speak for two hours. I'm not jealous of anybody, but just make sure that people are not bored. You know, I listened to my own sermons many times because I want to know, I want to judge myself. Every one of you, if your messages are taped, please listen to it. Take a little time. It'll really, this is the way to improve. Even women who cook seek to find out if they can do it better. But I find a lot of preachers don't do it. And that's why year after year after year, the level of ministry is exactly the same. I never preach without judging myself. I've been preaching for 50 years. I judge myself today. I would say, Lord, was there something I said, which I could do it better? I've been doing that for years. I listened to myself. Oh, I shouldn't have said that. I could not have said that part or this thing was left out. I need to think a little more. I need to have a little more compassion there. I need to be a little more firm and making that clear. Or that a particular thing that was so important and I just send it in one sentence and went off. I should have taken a little more time explaining it. Or I had three points and I spent 50 minutes on point number one and rushed through point number two and three. All these things you'll discover if you listen to yourself. And your next time you preach, it'll be better. And you keep on doing that a hundred times, boy, people will want to sit and listen to you all the time. The secret is judge yourself. Just like your life improves if you judge yourself. Your ministry improves if you judge yourself. We must seek God earnestly for supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit to build the church. Jesus has given us a demonstration how to serve God. How is that? He had lived a perfect life for 30 years. And during those 30 years, he knew the scriptures when he was 12. And if knowledge of the scripture was enough to preach, he could have started preaching at 12. But he didn't. He didn't preach when he was 18. He didn't preach when he was 25. He went out into full-time ministry when the father told him to do that. And when he stepped out into full-time ministry, there was something he prayed for. Do you know that Jesus prayed for something specifically before he stepped out into his ministry? He was tempted. And then we read in Luke, sorry, before he was tempted, in Luke chapter 3, when he was being baptized, it says in Luke 3.21, that while he was being baptized, now he had just come out of his home for the very first time, preparing for his ministry. The first thing was baptism. And as he was being baptized, it says in Luke 3.21, he was praying. It doesn't tell us there what he was praying for, but I know what he was praying for. You say, how do you know? Because every prayer that Jesus prayed was answered instantaneously. So if you read the next sentence, you know what he was praying for, because that's the answer to what he was praying. So he was praying and heaven was open. Then I know what he was praying for. And the Holy Spirit descended upon him. He was praying that he would be anointed with the Holy Spirit, because he knew he dare not, dare not step out into the ministry based on, I have lived a holy life for 30 years. I'm qualified to teach and preach. You are not. That's the thing that challenged me, I tell you, to seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. If the one who lived a perfect life for 30 years did not dare to go out into the ministry without a genuine supernatural anointing of the Holy Spirit, I said, Lord, who in the world am I? I haven't lived a perfect life for 30 years, and even if I did, I couldn't dare to go into the ministry without a supernatural anointing. And that's why his ministry was so blessed. The secret of his ministry was the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And I have no hesitation in saying about myself, if anything at all has ever been accomplished in that God's ever been able to do through me, it is only because he baptized me in the Holy Spirit and fire one day. That's it. Don't devalue it. And I refuse to go for cheap counterfeits that I found in, I went to Pentecostal churches and I found it as a cheap counterfeit. I didn't want it. I heard them making a lot of noise and I didn't want that noise. I heard them imitating tongues and saying, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, and I said, Lord, I don't want that. And that's like little children who are trying to learn how to talk. I don't want that. Let me tell you something about speaking in tongues in passing. The word tongues is unfortunately a bad translation. It is language. The word is a language. They spoke in unknown languages. Now, when you hear a man speaking in Spanish or Chinese or Russian or Mongolian or Portuguese, I don't know any of these languages, but when I hear a man speaking, I can make out this is a language. This is not a bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. This is a language this man is speaking. That's the way to find out whether tongues is genuine or not. You don't need to know the language, but you can know whether there's some baby babbling or whether it's somebody speaking a language. I've had in the early days, sometimes some enthusiastic young brother would get up in the church, in our church, and do some bah, bah, bah, bah, and I had to go to him afterward and say, Brother, you don't have the gift. If you want to do that, go alone before God and keep doing it, but don't get up and cause confusion in the church. Speaking in a language, even if you don't know the language, you'll recognize it's a language. If it's not a language, just recognize that God doesn't give the gift of tongues to everybody. He doesn't. Forget it then. If he wants to give it to you, he'll give it to you. I know when I speak in tongues in an unknown language to God, so I do it almost entirely only to God, I know it's a language. I don't understand it, but it's a language. It edifies me, but it's not bah, bah, bah, bah, no, definitely not. I don't stand before God and say bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, no. What I mean is have some reverence. I find these people don't have any reverence for God. They just want to say, I belong to the club, hey, I belong to the club too. There's so much of counterfeit, 95% of the tongues I've heard in these churches is counterfeit. It's not a language at all. Any sensible person can say that. You don't need to be discernment. Any unbeliever will say that. That's not a language. What's this guy saying? People will say you're mad, and that's exactly what a lot of people say. The Bible says that. So Jesus was seeking for a genuine anointing of the Holy Spirit, and you, I want to tell you in Jesus' name, I believe the reason why so much of our ministry is so dry and we have so much complications and our sermons are so boring and we don't have accomplished more is because we have not sought for a genuine anointing of the Holy Spirit, what Jesus sought for. You say I prayed for a little while and gave up, but Jesus didn't, and I didn't. I said, Lord, I'm not going to be happy with a counterfeit, and what I said to the Lord was if it takes 10 years to get the real thing, I'll wait 10 years, but I don't want any cheap counterfeit, and after God met with me, I continued to seek God. I said, Lord, I want more. I don't want to be satisfied with what I have, and I still pray the same thing today, because in Jesus, I see the full purpose of God, and I want to say something else. How did Jesus receive so much from the Father? I look at Jesus as the example of the perfect accomplishment of the full purpose of God. John 17, in John 17, Jesus said, verse 10, is a very, very important verse. This is the way we can get everything that God has for us. Do you want to get everything God has for you? Here is the secret. I look at Jesus' life, and I say that he said to the Father, read slowly, Father, all things that are mine are yours, slowly, all things that are mine are yours, and therefore, all things that are yours are mine. Do you want all that God has for you? God hasn't got the same thing for everybody. He gives one person one gift, and gives another person another gift, but you must get all the gifts God has for you. I don't want the gifts God wants to give to somebody else, but I certainly want all the gifts God has for me, definitely. I don't want your gift. I don't covet it, but I certainly want all the gifts God has for me, but in order to get that, the first part of that sentence, I have to say, Lord, everything that I have on this earth is yours, not 10%, like people say. You want 10% from God, give 10% to God. But Jesus didn't pay tithe, he said, all that is mine is yours. All that is mine is yours, Father. Not only my time, my money, my bank account, but also my ambitions, and my plans for the future, my body, every part of this, everything I have and everything that I am, it's yours. And therefore, my Father in heaven, since you love me like you love Jesus, my elder brother, if I fulfill the same condition, and I honestly, to the best of my knowledge and the best of my ability, say, Father, everything I have is yours, I believe you will give me all that you gave Jesus. All that you gave means what he needed, you gave him, what I need, you'll give me. That means every gift you have meant for me to have, you will give me with a mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit. And that's the reason some people don't have it, because they make, they do bargaining with God. Do I have to give everything? How much does this pearl cost? Boy, this pearl of great price is going to cost everything I have. Can I bargain, can I give you 50% of what I have? No. The merchant says, can I give you 75%? No, he says, it will cost everything you have. And that wise man gave everything he had to get the pearl of great price. That's how you get the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I'm not surprised that a lot of believers don't get it. And they wonder why they don't. I say, you won't get it for a hundred years. Here's the secret. All things that are yours, mine are yours, and all things that are yours are mine. It's a very simple exchange. See, this is what a marriage is like. A marriage, a man commits himself 100% to a woman, says, all that I have is yours. And he expects the woman to say, all that I have is yours. What type of marriage is this where a woman says, I'll give you my tithe, 10%? Out of 365 days, 36.5 days, I'll stay with you. What about the rest of the time? Oh, I've got a lot of boyfriends, I've got to spend time with them too. Which husband is going to marry that, which man is going to marry such a woman? And you expect Christ to marry a person who says, I'll give you my tithe? So much of wrong teaching in Christendom, which is found nowhere in the New Testament. All these false preachers flourish because of one reason. Because they know that 95% of people sitting there don't know the Bible. I remember reading an advertisement leaflet of an Indian preacher. You know, a leaflet where he was asking for money for his ministry, for himself. His name was there with the title and all that. And underneath was the verse, Matthew 10, so and so. He who gives to a prophet will get the reward of a prophet. You read that verse, right? In Matthew chapter 10? Yes or no? It's not in Matthew 10. But he knows that nobody will look it up. And so he puts a reference. And he fools 99% of Christians. And that's why these people can't fool me. Because as soon as I saw it, I said, that's not in the Bible. There's no verse in the Bible that says, if you give to a prophet, you'll get the reward of a prophet. Go and check out the last verse of Matthew 10. It's completely different. He who receives a prophet into his house, welcomes him into his house, gives him a meal, will get the reward of a prophet. That's what the Bible says. Nothing to do with money. This is how deceivers flourish. And that's why most of these people are angry with me. Because I know the Bible. They can't fool me. Dear brothers and sisters, we want a generation growing up in our churches who know the scriptures. Who can't be fooled by these quacks and deceivers. Who want to stand up and hold up. Jesus is our example in ministry. Take the matter of money, which I've often repeated. Jesus never sent out a report to anybody about his work. He never asked anybody for money. He never said, I'm doing a great ministry. Can you support me? Wasn't he doing a great ministry? Supposing Judas Iscariot got up somewhere once when Jesus was in a crowd and said, Hey fellas, I know Jesus won't talk about it. But don't you think we should get by a chariot for Jesus so he doesn't have to walk all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem. He's going up and down so many times. Jesus would have pulled him down and said, Shut up Judas, just sit down here. That's what he would have said. Where are the preachers today who would say that? That's the problem today. People don't know the scriptures. Jesus is our example in life and ministry. And everything, for example, why did Jesus raise, as far as we know, only three people from the dead? Weren't there more people dead there in those days, in three years? You mean only three people died whom Jesus knew? There were hundreds of people who died in three years in Israel. And I'm sure Jesus knew some of them. Why didn't he go and raise them up from the dead? He had the power. He had the power to do the father's will, not to do his own will. So he could only do what the father told him to do. The father told him that guy's dead, just attend his funeral and go home. He'd do that. In some other case, he'd say, Stop that funeral procession and raise that young man from the dead. He did it. See, Jesus wasn't just exercising his gift as he liked. He did according to the father's will. Even if God gives you a gift, we have to exercise it as the father leads us. I remember years ago when I began my ministry, the Lord showed me something from the first temptation. And it was a great lesson for me. What the devil told Jesus in Matthew 4, verse 3 was, Listen, you are the son of God. You've just been anointed a couple of days ago. You have power. Now you have a need. Food. Use your power to meet your need. Use the anointing you receive to meet your need. Jesus said no. I live by every word of God. If my father tells me to do it, I'll do it. Otherwise, I won't do it. I will not use my power to meet my need, even for bread. Even for food. I will use it to help others. Because he used that power to produce bread for 5,000 from five loaves. He did it there, but he wouldn't do it for himself. And what the Lord told me through that was, Now that I have anointed you and you're going out into the ministry, Never, never use your anointing to get some benefit for yourself. Never use your anointing and your gift to make money for yourself. To get fame for yourself. You must not use the anointing I give you to get anything for yourself. It must be for others. That's the difference between the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. If I have joy, who is blessed? Not you, me. If I have peace in my life, the fruit of the spirit, who is blessed? Me. If I have all that fruit of the spirit in my life, I become a better person. But the gifts of the spirit are different. The gifts, every gift is for others. When Jesus spoke about how he was anointed in Luke chapter 4. I'm going to show you this passage. In Luke chapter 4, he stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth. And he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me and he's anointed me. Luke 4.18 Why did he anoint me? Now read these words very slowly, very carefully. And you'll notice one thing. Every single one of those gifts was for other people. He anointed me to preach the gospel to whom? To the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to whom? To other people who are captives. He sent me to proclaim recovery of sight for whom? To the blind, to other people. To set free those other people who are oppressed. To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. What about something for yourself? Zero. What he had was the fruit of the spirit. The gifts of the spirit were all for others. That's why he never used that supernatural ability he had to turn the stones into bread for himself. You understood now why he didn't turn the stones into bread? Do you use some gift God has given you for your own benefit? You haven't understood how to say no to Satan's first temptation. Most preachers have fallen for that first temptation. You've got a gift now. Use it to make a name for yourself. Use it to collect money from people. You're a very well-known preacher now. You can demand so much money whenever you go to any place. There are people doing that. There are people in the United States, preachers and all, who charge so much. If you want me to come to preach there for three days, you've got to pay me so much and you've got to pay me first class airfare and you've got to put me up in a five-star hotel, etc. These are how preachers work today. And the other ones who've got all the money to preach on television, and a lot of dumb Christians sit with their mouth open watching this and say, Oh, this man of God. Oh, this woman of God. Even some CFC people. That's how blind you can be. You can hear and hear and hear and hear like the Lord said once to the Pharisees. You hear and hear and hear and you never understand. Even in those days. They heard and heard Jesus and they wouldn't understand. So I'm not surprised if they don't understand when I say it. But we proclaim the full counsel of God. The church. Jesus not only spoke about new wine. He said new wine must be put in new wineskins. Luke chapter 5, verse 38. New wine must, there's a must, be put into new wineskins. That means the new wine is the life of Jesus. And that's what we proclaim. A life of victory, of overcoming, walking as Jesus walked. This life, when it comes together with a number of people, is called a wineskin. Where all these people with the life of Jesus come together, which is called the church, the new covenant church. And there is an old wineskin. Which is the old covenant system with laws and rules and so many things. And the new covenant is different. There are two pictures of the church in the Old Testament. One is the tabernacle and the other is the temple. And if you read about the tabernacle and the temple, God gave exact details. Small little things, he gave details. To whom did God give the pattern of the tabernacle in the Old Testament? Can you tell me? Nobody? Who? Moses. To whom did God give the pattern of the temple in the Old Testament? Who? Who? David. Solomon built it. Solomon was the contractor. The architect was David. Let me show you that in one chronicles in chapter 29. Sorry, 28. It says David gave to his Solomon. One chronicles 28 verse 11. David gave to his son Solomon the plan for the porch and the buildings. And the storehouses and upper rooms and inner rooms. And the room for the mercy seat. And the plan for all that he had mined for the courts. And the surrounding rooms and the storehouses. And the divisions of the priests and Levites. And the utensils. And the utensils. Imagine giving the wisest man on earth the plan for the size of a vessel. Utensils means the vessels you use in the temple. David said, hey listen, I'll tell you what size of vessels you must make in the temple. Why did God give it to David, not to Solomon? Solomon was the wisest man that lived. But David was a man after God's own heart. Teaching us that God reveals his plan not to the fellow with the clever head. But to the fellow with the good heart. That's what he got to learn. Moses had a clever head when he was 40. He could not get the plan. God broke him, broke him, broke him, broke him over 40 years. Then when he was broken in his heart, God gave him his plan. You know why to whom God gives his plan today? Not to clever people. A lot of people are clever. And they think they are clever, they can preach clever sermons. And I've seen, God doesn't back up their work. I've seen some of our churches that are linked to CFC. I can see pretty clearly, God is not backing them up. I mean they try to live on the name of Zakpoon and try to do something. But God doesn't back them up at all. And I say, I'm not going to back you up if God doesn't back you up. No, I'm not interested. I'm interested in a church where I see God backing up the man who's leading that church. If God doesn't back you up, brother, I pull out. I'll have nothing to do with it. And don't think that every one of the churches which are listed in the list of churches that are connected with CFC are all backed by God. I don't believe that at all. I've got my eyes wide open. And I can see churches where God is obviously backing that brother in his ministry. And others which just drift along, saying they're connected to Brother Zak. But God doesn't care two hoots for that. I'll tell you that. And you're hearing it from me. If it's wrong, it's wrong. Whether it's in a Pentecostal church or a Baptist church or CFC. If it's wrong, it's wrong. It's God's standards that we follow. I don't have any sense of loyalty to some particular group. Not even to CFC. We need to recognize, brothers. Don't glory in the fact that you're connected to some group. Is God backing up your ministry? And don't tell me God backed it up years ago. Is there a fresh anointing on your life today? It's very, very important to see this. And maybe he isn't because you're not broken. Maybe you're living too much in your head and cleverness. And seeking to rule people with your cleverness. That's not the way. God gives his plan to the man who's got a good heart. A broken and a contrite spirit like we saw the first day. Heaven is my throne, Isaiah 66, and the earth is my footstool. But I will look to this man who has got a broken spirit and who trembles at my word. That means when he sees something in God's word, he says, I'm going to do it exactly like that. When you read Exodus chapter 39 and chapter 40. I've often said this. 18 times. 1-8. 18 times it says Moses did exactly as the Lord commanded. Why is it written 18 times by the Holy Spirit? Why didn't he just say at the end of it all, and all of this, he did exactly as the Lord commanded. Why does he say at the end of each verse, as the Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded, as the Lord commanded. To emphasize something to dumb people like us. Saying, listen, God's very particular. When he's given a plan, you better follow it. And the end result of that was, it says in the last verses there, that the glory of the Lord filled the house. Exodus 40-34. Why is the glory of the Lord not filling some of our churches? Why do people come away from a Sunday meeting feeling, oh, I didn't get anything from there today. That guy got up and bored us. I get letters from brothers in churches saying, Brother Zach, will you please tell our elder not to bore us. And if he does bore us, to bore us for short periods and not for such a long period. I do get letters like that. I tell them. I tell the elders, but hardly anybody listens to me. They say, okay, do what you like. Dear brothers and sisters, we need the glory of God in our churches. We need the presence of Jesus Christ in our churches. Where two or three are gathered, I am in the midst. There's no use just quoting that verse. Quoting the verse does not bring the presence of Jesus into the midst. Every single church in the world quotes that verse. Oh, where two or three are gathered, I am in the midst. But is he there? Do people sense him? Can you imagine Jesus Christ physically coming here and nobody being aware of him being there? Even some corrupt cabinet minister comes here, everybody would be aware he's here. If Jesus Christ walks into this building right now, you think you won't be aware of it? How can we be in a meeting where we say Jesus is here, where two or three are gathered, he's in the midst and nobody senses his presence? He's not there. Like in the church in Laodicea. The church in Laodicea also quoted that verse where he says, I stand at the door and knock. If somebody's standing at the door and knocking, where is he? He's outside. He was outside the church. They were singing praises to Jesus inside the church and he himself was outside. We really need to take these things to heart. Lord, we want to proclaim the full purpose of God and it's not just a pattern. The new wineskin is we've got to follow exactly like Jesus taught in the New Testament. We must have the same attitude towards money that the early apostles and Jesus had. And a lot of people don't take that seriously. In fact, 99% of Christian missions and churches don't take it seriously. They go around collecting money from people. Jesus never passed a bag around. Who gave you the authority to do that? We read that Jesus sat next to the treasury box. Have you read that? In Mark's gospel, he saw a widow coming and putting money. That's what he appreciated, a box there where people came and put money. But he didn't encourage people passing a bag around. And all these methods people adopt to collect money from people. Sending letters and reports to rich people and photographs and all that. It's absolutely shameful what people in our country is doing. And that's why it's so important that God has a testimony. Particularly in the area of money. Look at this dowry system. This corrupt, wretched, heathen system of giving money to get my daughter married. I would never want, if I had a daughter, I'd never give her to somebody who wanted money. I said, do you want money or do you want my daughter? I'll never give my daughter to you if you want money. I'd rather let her be single all her life. But there are people in CFC who give dowry. They don't have faith. But we're against it. I refuse to conduct a wedding if I hear that they have given dowry. I say, go get married somewhere else. I'm not against you getting married, but I will not conduct it. Because you're disobeying God's word. This is so important for us to stand up for little things like this. I once suggested to somebody, you know, you want to give dowry for your daughter. Why don't you ask Jesus to go and give this money to the boy's father? You think he'll take it and say to the boy's father, here's some money, please let your boy marry this girl. Can you imagine Jesus doing that? You can't get Jesus involved in it, then you know it's wrong. If you can't do something in fellowship with Jesus, it's wrong. It's better to suffer. Are you willing to suffer for the sake of standing up for the truth? That's the new wineskin, exact obedience to scripture. Little things, you know, there's a big dispute in Western countries about whether women should cover their heads. They take, for example, they take 1 Corinthians 11 and say, the second half of 1 Corinthians 11, breaking of bread is for everybody. But the first half of 1 Corinthians 11, that's not for everybody. That is for church and Corinth in the first century. Who gave them the authority to divide scripture like that and say this half is for them and this half is for me? I said, then you can tell somebody, somebody can say, there's no such thing as getting married with a marriage certificate and all, we just live together. You say, how can you do that? In the scriptures, they got married. Yeah, that was for that time, but now it's different. If you modify scripture in one area, you've got to give permission to the other people to modify scripture in another area. But Moses did exactly as the Lord commanded in every little thing, big or small. And you look at those little, little things in the tabernacle, they were so teeny weeny. I said, Moses, surely God can't be serious about the small little thing. Yes, he is. And that's where he tests our obedience. The new wineskin and every little thing to seek to glorify God by obeying everything that he has written in scripture. This is our calling. And as a result, some people will get offended. Some people go away. God bless them. We don't wish them evil. I said, brother, go away, go where you like, but we're not going to change God's standards to please you or anybody else. We want to proclaim. And I believe this is if we are poor in spirit. You know, it says in Matthew 5, verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. That means I see the kingdom of heaven as the church. The whole of New Testament church blessing and anointing is for those who are poor in spirit, those who recognize, Lord, I'm a needy person. The mark of a poor in spirit person is that he judges himself every single day. I would not dare to stand in this pulpit. If I am not judging myself in unchristlikeness every single day of my life, I stand before God and I say, that's what I do. I seek to see where there's selfishness in me, where there's any pride in me, where there's any love of money in me, where there's some carelessness. Whether I'm righteous in money matters, but not faithful in money matters, where I unnecessarily spend money on myself. I say, Lord, Jesus never did it. I want to be careful. I want to proclaim. I want to live according to the principles of Christ. I want to judge myself. That is the mark of anyone who's poor in spirit. And it's very easy to fellowship with a person who's poor in spirit. Very, very easy. I tell you, after 37 years of experience, it's very easy to fellowship with people who are poor in spirit. But very difficult to fellowship with people who are rich in spirit, who think they can give advice to everybody. Yeah, we have some elders like that, who think they're ready to give advice to everybody. Rich in spirit. No wonder God never backs them up. Or backs up their ministry. Their churches are as dead as anything. Poor in spirit. To recognize our need. And to judge ourselves. That's how we should be living all the time. If a husband and wife are poor in spirit, they'll never quarrel or fight. Because each is judging themselves. If a tension comes up between a husband and wife, and each person says, Lord, what's wrong with me? You think they'll have a fight? You think they'll have a misunderstanding? But how is it with most husbands and wives? When a tension comes up, they immediately think, what's wrong with the other person? That's Adam. That's not the spirit of Christ. In the household of God, we judge ourselves. If I have a tension with another person, I say, Lord, show me what's wrong with me. You try following that. And you'll see your home will be like heaven. Your church will be like heaven if you teach everybody to do that. But in order to do that, teach others to do that, you've got to do that yourself first. It's so simple. Is it so difficult to judge yourself? It's very difficult to judge others because I don't know everything about the other person. I don't know with what motive he did that. I don't know what his thoughts are. I don't know what his attitudes are. I can't judge him at all. But myself, I know everything about myself. I know things about myself my wife doesn't know. I can judge myself. Dear brothers and sisters, let me tell you what I grieve my heart when I see some good brothers and sisters in some of our churches. Even some elders. Good elders. I see them year after year without spiritual progress. They're getting 100%. Are they getting 100% in the same standard? They're in first standard. If they keep on getting 100% for 10 years in first standard, that's not a great thing. The question is, you know it's better to get 80% in second standard than to keep on getting 100% in the first standard. And then to move on and get 65% in the third standard. Many people are good brothers, but they're just in that same level. I don't see a spiritual development. I don't see light coming in there. When I hear them, I don't find any revelation. I mean even if you preach the same thing, I'm not saying we shouldn't preach the same thing. I believe we should preach the same thing, but the manna must be fresh. You say the same thing tomorrow, it must be fresh. The manna fell for 40 years, but every single day the same taste, same manna, but every time it was fresh. I don't believe we should ever preach a message which is not fresh. Even if it is the same old message that you preached a hundred times. If it's manna from heaven, it can taste the same. It is the same size, it is the same shape, but it is fresh. That's how it must be when we are anointed with the Holy Spirit. And I'm not talking about always preaching some new messages. God didn't send new new types of tastes from heaven. He sent the same old thing every day, but it was fresh. And that's how our ministry must be. That's how it was with Jesus. So many things are repeated in the Gospels, which means Jesus preached those things again and again. But it was fresh, it was anointed. Yeah, there's a lot more concerning that. I believe the Holy Spirit will lead you. You judge yourself. He'll show you the way of the cross, the way of death to self. And I believe God will lead you and me into a glorious life. We really want to hold up the standards that God showed us at the beginning. A pure offering for Christ in India. That's what the Lord showed us at the beginning from Malachi chapter 1. In every nation, a pure offering. And that's what we all want to offer up in every village and town where we have a church. Lord, here is an offering like Paul said, the offering of the Gentiles must be acceptable to God. Not what people think about us, but God says, I accept that. And the priest said to make sure that there was nothing wrong with that sacrifice. May God help us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father. There's so much more. And I believe the Holy Spirit will teach each of us. We really want to proclaim the full purpose of God. We don't want to come short in anything. We want to do everything according to your heart. Not according to the letter of the law which kills. But according to the spirit of the law, which is more important. Help us to live in a constant self-judgment every single day of our life. Give us discernment in these days of deception. Help us, Lord, we pray. We commit ourselves to you in Jesus' name. Amen.