RLCF Discipleship Conference 2022 Q&A

You know, in times like this, I wonder how Jesus spoke to 10,000 people. He was no weakling. He had a powerful voice that he would sometimes sit in a boat and speak across to a huge crowd. We are all weaklings compared to him. He lived a tough life and he was strong. So, question-answer time. Jesus had many question-answer times. He not only preached, very often after he preached, people would ask questions. And many times he would answer them. If his disciples asked, he always answered. When the Pharisees asked, he did not always answer because he knew that their hearts were not right. So then he would sometimes ask them a question and return and not answer them. But I believe these questions have been asked by sincere brothers and sisters. But our time is limited. There are about 60 questions here. And so, if you have 60 minutes, it's going to take one minute to answer each question. And you're not going to get a full answer, which is a good thing. So that you will seek the Lord and go to him and say, Lord, what Brother Zach said doesn't answer me fully. Please answer me fully, which is a good thing if you go to the Lord. So some things are very easy to answer like, should foot-washing be observed? Or is it a symbol of serving others? You know, Jesus spoke about that in John chapter 13. Jesus always acted on the basis of necessity. In those days, like in India, I, most of the time in India, when I go to the villages, I'm always wearing slippers. I never wear shoes in the villages. Nobody wears it. They don't even own them. And there are no tarred roads there. There's all dusty roads. Exactly like Nazareth and Jerusalem. So, feet get dirty very easily. And it's a very comforting thing when somebody washes your feet. In those days, rich people had slaves who would wash the feet of guests as soon as they came in. And Jesus wanted a place where to have the last supper. But he told the owner of the house, we don't want anybody else there. So he didn't put any slaves. He kept the bucket of water there. But there were no slaves. So, their feet were all dirty. He was not going through a ritual. Today when people wash feet, it's a ritual. But that was not a ritual. It was a necessity. So, there was no slaves. Everybody looked around, who's going to wash our feet? And then Jesus said, well, I'm the only slave here. So, he picked up the bucket and washed. And he said, you must do exactly like I did. That's what he said in John 13. And how do we apply it today? There's a dirty job to be done. The job that slaves do, the lowest people in society do that job. And in India, I would say today, it is cleaning the toilets, cleaning the restrooms. So, I've said in our church, you want to be a part of our church, you must be willing to clean the restrooms. I said, I've done it myself. In our church building, I've cleaned the restrooms and I would still do it today. That to me is the equivalent of washing the feet. Washing the feet is a ritual. You get those people clean feet, they take off their shoes and socks and you wash it and put it back. What's that? Meaningless. Do the dirty jobs for one another. That's the meaning of it. Another question. RLCF, this church, has been an answer to the prayer of my husband and I. Since last year, we've had deep desire to fellowship physically with the like-minded church. But there isn't one in our area. Is there anything we can do? Yeah, be faithful in the little things. And is it okay to join just a broadcast on Sunday? That is second best. You see, this is the first in-person conference that I've attended for two and a half years. And I think even here, they've not had one over the last many years. We thank God for in-person. I mean, we could have met on Zoom and seen each other's faces. But you can see in the last two days what a tremendous difference it is just to be able to talk to one another. And meet with one another and just see all the happy faces of people from different parts of the country. I've been encouraged meeting different people from different places. I never even thought there was a church over there or people interested in that. And the thing that excites me most is people meeting in house churches. Amazing. That's how we started 47 years ago. All the churches, all our CFC churches, almost every single one of them, and we have over a hundred of them, started in a house. And poor people. And very often just three or four people meeting, five, six meeting, and gradually it becomes more and more. And then they have to rent a place because the houses are small, they can't fit. But it always started in a home because it's the atmosphere of home. The early church always met in a home. So, don't be discouraged if there are only two or three. We started with two. Two is the minimum. And if you don't even have two, you pray that God will bring you one more person, one more family perhaps, of like mind. And God can do that and then pray that God will, if it is His will, plant a church there or somewhere nearby where you can fellowship together. That is the best always. Second best is to join online. And many churches announced times of fasting and prayer. Is that a good thing? Or is it a violation of Matthew 6 which says we should not let other people know when we are fasting. You know the words Jesus spoke there in Matthew 6 of don't tell other people when you are praying or fasting is seeking honor. When you let people know that you are praying or you are fasting or you are giving money. Jesus was against their seeking honor. But otherwise, we have to announce a prayer meeting. Otherwise, how will people come for the prayer meeting if we don't announce it. And time of fasting, if the church decides the time of fasting is necessary in the early church. They did have times of fasting. In the early days of our first church in Bangalore, we had many times. Whenever there was a holiday, we would have a time of fasting from 9 to 3. And we saw some amazing things in those days. Demons cast out and people delivered and baptized in the Holy Spirit. So we had wonderful times of fasting and prayer. Very, very blessed. But we had to announce it. Otherwise, how will people know that we are meeting at such and such a time. It's perfectly okay. It's the motive. Always remember. When you read Matthew 6, it's the motive that God sees. What is your motive in telling people that please come for a time of prayer. Are women allowed to preach? This is an important question. We want to go by scripture. You know, in scripture, the word used for preaching is not preaching. It is prophesying. And we think prophecy as predicting the future. Predicting the future is the Old Testament prophecy. The Old Testament prophets said this is going to happen. But not that also. John the Baptist never predicted the future. Many Old Testament prophets pronounce judgment on God's people. But they never predicted the future. Some did. So prophecy is not always predicting the future, even in the Old Testament. Elijah, one of the greatest prophets, he predicted nothing about the future. Likewise, Elijah. But they were great prophets. What is prophesying, first of all. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 3. One who prophesies, this is New Testament prophecy. Don't ever get confused by a lot of false teaching in some churches as to what prophecy is. Because prophecy, predicting the future, is not the meaning of prophecy mentioned in the New Testament. The only person who predicted the future mentioned in the New Testament was Agabus. And he is only one person mentioned. And he did something very limited and only mentioned twice. All the other prophesying in the New Testament is what is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 3. One who prophesies, it could be anyone, speaks to people for edification, which is building up, exhortation, which is challenging, and consolation, which is comfort. So anyone who preaches, whether it's for one minute, two minutes, or one hour, if it is to encourage people, challenge people, and build them up spiritually, that is New Testament prophesying, or what we would call today preaching. It's the same thing. Anything that is spoken to encourage, and challenge, and build up. Okay. Who can preach in that way? 1 Corinthians 11 verse 4. Every man, whenever he prays or preaches, should not have anything on his head. The Jews, if you see the Jews, even picture of Jews today, praying, they always have something on their head. Every single Jew has that. And I'm sorry to say some Christians who work among the Jews imitate that and put that in their heads. Disobeying scripture. It says every man who has something on his head when he prays, or preaches, is disgracing his head. And his head, it says in verse 3, is Christ. Christ is the head of every man. Read verses together. Christ is the head of every man. So when a man covers his head when he prays, he is covering Christ. He is disgracing Christ. So I'm surprised all these Christians who work among Jews covering their head and disgracing Christ. They don't seem to read scripture. They don't obey scripture. That's why we are very strict that a man should not cover his head when he prays, because this verse 3, Christ is the head of man, and when a man does not cover his head, he is symbolizing Christ must not be covered in the church. But a woman, it says in verse 3 also, man is the head of the woman. Did you see that? Man is the head of the woman. That's not my idea. That's the Holy Spirit says. And so if a woman uncovers her head, she's saying thereby, man must be glorified in the church. Rubbish. Man must not be glorified in the church, but every woman who keeps her head uncovered, and her head is symbolizing her head is the man, symbolizing man's glory must be proclaimed in the church. We are against that. That's why we teach what the Bible says here. A woman, if she prays with her head uncovered, when she preaches or prays, is disgracing her head, because that's the same as having her head shaved. So here it says that if a woman does not cover her head, she should shave her head. She has two options. Either cover her head with a veil or shave it. It's up to her which she wants to do. But if a woman does not cover her head, then she should have her hair cut off. It's amazing how chapter 11 has got two parts. One is about the women veiling their head, and the other is about breaking of bread from verse 23 onwards. And it's amazing how so many people are so strict about the second part, and say that's for everybody, but they come to the first part and say, no, no, no, that is only for that part. How in the world can we divide up scripture like saying something is for some people, not for us, or some other period of time? I don't understand it. So what I wanted to point out to answer this question is, here a man can preach, verse 4. And verse 5, a woman can also preach. Read it carefully. A woman can pray or prophesy, but she must veil her head when she preaches. So, we don't teach that a woman cannot share God's word. But we do teach what the Bible says also in 1 Timothy 2. In 1 Timothy 2, and that is verse 12. I do not allow a woman to teach. Teaching is a position of authority. There is a lot of difference between preaching, what is preaching, saying something to encourage people, saying something to challenge people. A sister can get up and give a testimony of what the Lord has done in her life, of what she got from some verse of scripture, which really blessed her, which challenges people. I encourage sisters to do that. In a big meeting, it's not possible perhaps, but in small weekly meetings that we have in our different homes, in our church, brothers and sisters can share what God's on their heart. But they cannot teach. Teaching is a position of authority, saying this is what scripture says. It's a spirit in which a woman speaks that is important. Let me give you an example. For example, a man gets up and says, if a woman gets up and says, brothers and sisters, it says in Philippians 4, 6, we must not be anxious. Why in the world are you anxious? Imagine a woman sitting here and saying that. Doesn't the Bible say you should not be anxious? Don't be anxious, it says. Let's trust the Lord, commit our cause to the Lord. Now here's another sister speaking on the same verse, and says, brothers and sisters, I was reading Philippians 4, 6 the other day, and I saw how I should not be anxious, and the Lord really spoke to my heart. How anxiety is not a good thing to have, and I have so many things to be worried about, and I realize I must not be anxious, must commit to the Lord. Isn't that a good thing, that we all seek to do that? You see the different spirit in these women speaking, the same verse, but one is the authority of a teacher, and the other is sharing. That is the type of prophesying, encouraging, challenging. I believe every sister should do that. There may not be opportunity in a large gathering for all sisters to do that. So distinguish between preaching and teaching. I do not allow a woman to teach 1 Timothy 2.12, or to exercise authority over a man, but to be quiet. That is a position we have taken in our church. And then, is it okay to rejoin a church after having been put out and then repentance? That depends on the leaders of the church, whether you have set matters right. You see, in a church, elders focus on shepherding the brothers and their families, but many young sisters don't have a sense of belonging in the church. Well, that's sad, if there's no provision made for young sisters in your church. That's a failure on part of the elders. See, in many societies in India, it's not easy for a woman, or sorry, for a man, to counsel a young sister. So, I never do it myself, unless I sit with a brother, another elder, or along with my wife. So, it's good if older sisters, or an elder speaks along with his wife, if his wife is spiritually minded, or some older sisters take that responsibility, but we must not leave young sisters feeling that they don't belong to the church. Even the little children must be made to feel they belong to the church. That's one thing I really have loved about our LCF. Every time I've come here and seen, even watched online many times, they get the children to stand up here once in a while, and feel they are 100% a part of the church. Every Sunday, I watch this online, and I see the young children coming up here, and repeating the verses they have memorized. I don't care if they stumble and take one minute to say five words. It's okay. But the very fact that these small children, four, five, six years old, come up here and say something in the presence of the whole church, it's a real testimony. It's showing them that you are a very important part of our church. And I believe every church should seek to make children and young brothers and sisters feel you may not be called to prophesy and teach and all that, but you're a part of the church. You belong here. What's your opinion on a church having a written statement of practice? I think it's very important to have it, so that everybody knows what does this church believe. Because today, you know, in the first century, right at the beginning, there was only one church on the day of Pentecost. But through the years, as things have developed and backsliding took place, when a church backslid, some people came out of it and started a new church, then that backslid, some others came out of it, and like that, there are thousands of churches today with various beliefs. So when a person calls, when a building or a group calls itself a church, we want to know, what do you believe? There's even a church called the Church of Satan. So, what do you believe? So, it's good to have that statement written down like we have in our website, so that people know what we stand for, so you know what you're coming to hear. I mean, this is what we stand for. If you don't agree with us, find some other church that agrees with you. But don't try to come here and try to change what we believe. We're not going to change. And it's good to have a statement written down. Another question is concerning family life. Is it a Christian's responsibility to protect his family from harm at all costs, even if he has to resort to killing an attacker? It's a very difficult question. I believe that we need to pray to protect ourselves. You know, you read in the news now, the number of people being killed in this country, little children and all that in schools and all over, just because there's access for anybody, any Tom, Dick and Harry can have a gun, and some of them are very irresponsible. Youngs, even 17-18 year old is very often irresponsible. Or they get very angry and then they decide to go and kill somebody. It's a very sad thing. So we have to be very careful as Christians that we don't encourage that type of, I'm not here to pass laws for this country, that's not, I'm not a politician. But as a Christian, what is the position? We can defend ourselves, but we must not attack. Is it right to defend ourselves? Luke's Gospel, chapter 22. They were just about to go, they were, yeah. You know, Jesus is about to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where they were going to be taken. And so Jesus was telling them, I'll just get you this verse one minute, where he says, if you don't have a sword, sell your garment and buy one. Yeah, here it is, Luke 22. It's a long chapter, it comes in the middle. They had just finished eating the Lord's Supper and then the Lord said, imagine Jesus telling his disciples, we are going to the Garden of Gethsemane. It's the very next thing that happens. And they knew the enemy is going to come with swords and weapons and all that, and the disciples are there. So Jesus said, listen, verse 36, the last part, if you don't have a sword, sell your garment and buy a sword. What for? To attack? No. And then somebody said, Lord, we don't have to sell our garment, verse 38, we already have two swords. He said, that's enough. He didn't say, throw them away. But then, in the Garden, when Peter took out that sword and chopped off somebody's ear, he said, Peter, put it back. He could say, Lord, but you told us to take the sword. I didn't tell you to bring the sword to attack people. I told you to bring the sword, so that when somebody uses the sword against you, you don't lift up your hand and get hit in your hand. Lift up your sword and defend yourself, so that your hand doesn't get hit and broken. So that is the purpose. So I see very clearly, when you see scripture with scripture, buy a sword, and they said, we got two swords, that's enough. And Peter saying, using the sword, he said, don't use that sword. Putting two into both these verses together, I learned I can defend myself, but I must not attack. So, now how we defend ourselves is just, you know, when you have a sword, it's a temptation to attack. So, we have to be very restrained. If you have a gun, there's a temptation to use it. And Peter, if Peter had a gun, he'd have used it that day. But Jesus immediately healed the ear of that Malchus, whose ear Peter had cut off, showing that Jesus is against this type of fighting with people and taking, attacking. So, I believe we must pray for God's protection in an evil society. That is the best way. And, I personally would not keep a gun in my house. I would believe that the Lord will take care of that. I'm not here to judge other people, but I believe we should defend ourselves. But weapons that can be, you know, a sword is not as dangerous as a gun. A sword, you may cut off a person's ear, but you don't kill a person with that. It's not that easy. So, therefore, I would, I'd say you've got to be very careful. We must defend ourselves, but we must ask the Lord how you can do it in your situation. And, whether you should kill, I would pray that the Lord will protect me from even killing a person accidentally on a road in a, driving a car. I never want to send a person into eternity. I don't even know whether the guy is saved or not. Imagine if I hit a man on the road, and the guy is unconverted. I send him to hell. I say, Lord, protect me. It's never happened to me, and I pray it'll never happen in my life. We should pray that we never are agents to kill anyone even accidentally. But, so we must see each situation as it arises. How important is baptism? Baptism is very important because Jesus commanded it. Anything that Jesus commanded, wailing the head, very important. The question in all these things is not is it an important command or an unimportant command. The question is who said it. If God said it, the smallest little thing is important. Jesus said, not even a jot or a tittle will pass from the law till everything is fulfilled. So that's how we take God's word. I don't pick and choose in God's word what I should obey and what I should not obey. When the government passes a law, for example, the rules of the road, what rules you should follow when driving on the road, I don't pick and choose which one I should follow, which I should not follow. I follow all the rules of the road which the traffic police have laid down for a time. If they say there is some festival going on here, some bike race going on here, don't take these roads. What do I do? I don't say I don't care for you, I've got to use these roads. No. I respect those laws given by the police at that time and I say I won't use those roads. So why can't we obey God's word in these simple little things also, small little things. So, Jesus said, you must be born again and you must be baptized. Very important. What is the proper time to be baptized when a person, you are absolutely convinced when a person really knows the Lord. I believe a person can be born again even when they are 3 or 4 years old. A little child, sure, Christ can come into their heart. But they are not mature enough to understand the meaning of baptism. They are not mature enough to take that decision for themselves. Baptism is a decision which a person must choose for himself and not because of pressure, because all his friends got baptized. I've seen that happen in some churches. All their friends got baptized. Oh, I also, let me get baptized. And I've seen how they develop. They never develop. They are not even converted sometimes. So the parents must stop them. They say, listen, don't get baptized because your friends are getting baptized. You must have a personal conviction. That is when a person is ready for baptism. And a child may not be ready. We got to wait till generally speaking it's old enough to understand. There is no age limit given in scripture so I cannot make one. How should we end the time of, after disciplining a child, how should you end it? Hugging or kissing may seem a bit forced at that time. I'll tell you how I have ended my times of discipline of the children. After I discipline a child, I say, okay, let's kneel down and pray. There is no embarrassment there. A child may not feel like praying. I don't ask him to pray. I pray. I say, Lord, I thank you for this child. I make that child feel loved. It's my child. And I put my arm around that child as I pray. And that child must feel loved. And then, whether he says Amen or not, he may be very upset at that time. But at least he knows that I love him. That's important at the end of a time of discipline. Okay. How can you submit to a husband who is abusive or adulterous and when I have children, how do I show Christ-likeness in my relationship? It's very difficult when you have a difficult husband. I agree. But 1 Peter chapter 3 in verse 1 says that even if you have a husband who does not obey the word of God, you must submit to him. It's a pretty tough command, I must say. If your husband is disobedient to God's word, win him without a word by your chaste behavior. It doesn't say here that you must submit. But be submissive, it says. Even if they are disobedient, in what way? In the way you behave so that you can win him to Christ. The ultimate goal is to win him to Christ. And so, but if a husband is physically hurting you, then I tell you, I will never encourage divorce. I'm 100% against divorce and divorce people getting remarried. We've never permitted that in our church in all these 47 years and we've never had a divorce either. Because we're 100% against it. See, if you want a divorce, go to some other church. If you want a divorce person who wants to get married, go to some other church. There are other churches that allow that. We don't allow it. And so, because I say I didn't make these rules. Jesus said he's building his church. And when God told Noah to build the ark, he told build it like this. And Noah didn't say, well, I think I better modify it a little bit here. A lot of Christians have modified the laws as if they are building the church. Jesus said, I will build my church and he has told us how to build it. So very often, sometimes I'm very compassionate to some people who have suffered a lot in divorce. And I say, Lord, I really like to help them. But you made some laws. You told me how to build the ark. I'm going to build it like you said it. And if people think I'm too strict in making the ark like this and this shape and this size, let them think. I will do it like you said it. And I will have no, the Lord will not be able to charge me with anything. In the final day, I have to answer for how I built my church. So, but in where there is a danger of harm, I would tell them without divorce to live separately if necessary, seek help from your parents. And each situation is different. That's why I do not make a law in all cases of abusive husbands or difficult wives. I'd say, I cannot make a law or a rule. I would say what Jesus said about divorce and remarriage, but beyond that, I'd say each case has to be divided, I mean decided individually. So you don't make a standard rule because otherwise they'll take that and say, Brother Zach said this and they quote it. And they cannot quote me because I say, in every one of these cases of divorce and separation, we deal with each case individually because very often somebody comes with a complaint, I'm hearing only one side. Especially people who send us emails. I tell them we will not answer an email on divorce because we haven't got the opportunity to meet the other side. You must go to a person and both persons talk to each other so you hear both sides of the story just like any righteous judge would do. So we do not teach anything more than what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 19, Luke chapter 16. Read those chapters and you will know what Jesus said about divorce and remarriage. But to avoid abusive husbands who are trying to kill you perhaps or hurt you, it's perfectly alright to protect yourself from danger. But how to do it? Seek wisdom from some godly man. What should I do if I have relatives who are unequally yoked but they are convinced that it is God's will? Well, there are a lot of people who disobey God and think it is God's will. You can only pray for them. Can I give my daughter in marriage to a man who claims God has revealed to him that my daughter is to be his wife. Garbage. Whenever anybody says somebody told him in the scriptures that your daughter is to be my wife. Absolute garbage. Fit for the trash can. I don't listen to such people who come and say God told me from the Bible. I say a father must give his daughter in marriage. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And if God wants that girl to be, the father will agree to it. Not just submit to some man who says God told me from the Bible. I have no respect for these people who come and say God told me this and God told me that. Actually God will tell me as well. And I am the one who is responsible here. I am not going to listen to you. I am not afraid of people who say God told me this. Quote this verse. So many people have come to me and say quote this verse and that verse. So don't be fooled by such people. How do we train our children to have spiritual goals more than academic goals? There is nothing wrong with doing well academically. Let me tell you that. Don't think that Christians teach people just to study the Bible. No. I wanted my children to study the Bible and to do well in school or college because they got to earn their living. I mean if we were living in a farming community like in the early days, I would say no need college. We just farm and land and there is plenty of land. A farmer a father can divide his property between his children and they will divide it to their children. They have got acres and acres of land in the olden days. It is not like that today. Today most people don't even own their own house. So what are the children going to do? There is no farms around. They are not farming. They have got to find some means to support themselves. Otherwise they will be homeless or a burden on society. And God does not want us to be homeless or a burden on society. So then they must learn some trade. Either they must in a community where they work with their hands and that's the type of job they are qualified to see. Not every child has ability to work with their hands. For example, I never had much ability to work with my hands because I grew up in a different type of atmosphere. Which is more related to education and schools and colleges. That's how I joined the military. So, if you find yourself living in a situation like that, you must allow your children to get an education so they can get a job. And if school education is not enough to get a job in your society, they probably need to go to college. So, but at the same time, it does not affect their spiritual education or spiritual values. We must say, you must be a testimony for Christ in your school, in your college, in your place of work. Because God needs witnesses in every place. In the highest levels of society, God needs a light shining for Him. So we must train our children. That's how I've sought to train my children to be rooted and grounded in God's word and the principles of God's word. That's how I was in the Navy. I said, God wants a witness in the Navy and I want to be there. Until God called me out. So, we must train them to read the scriptures, teach them. More important than studying the scriptures, we must teach them God's values in our home. What are the values of Christianity? And if you don't have a church that teaches it, teach them in your home. Parents have that responsibility. That's primary. And I believe that if we put that first, they will see that as important. And that it does not cancel out. They're studying hard in their school to do well. How can I share the gospel with stubborn unbelieving relatives? I'll tell you, by your life. They must see something in your life that they observe and they see something different. I have many, many unconverted relatives. And I worked in the midst of a Navy, in the Navy where they're all unconverted people. But they all knew that I was a Christian. I was not ashamed of that. I'd go out of the ship with a Bible in my hand. And people would see, this guy's carrying a Bible. What does that mean? I'd have a Bible on my table. When I was working in a Naval office, I'd have a Bible on my table there. Nobody can stop me from having a Bible. I put a calendar with a Bible verse. People knew what I stood for. I was not ashamed. So that if somebody had an interest, they would contact me. I was not preaching anything. Nobody could stop me from having a calendar with a Bible verse or a Bible on my table. But I made my testimony clear, though I'm not allowed to preach. So, we can proclaim the gospel even without trying to force the message on them. If people see something different, they can come to you. And then when the door is open, you tell them. Or pass a little tract or a booklet to them. Say, here, read something. That's the way to pass the gospel on. What does it mean practically to be the head of the family as a husband? Okay, that's very important. There are many types of heads. Head of government, head of a company, head of a family. There's a lot of difference. Head of government, president, or a head of a company, a CEO, or a head of a family. A head of the family, a Christian family, is completely different. So, you cannot act in your home as a husband, like, as if you're the CEO of a company. No. There's another definition of head, and that is this physical head. This head functions in two ways. This brain, I mean. The husband is the head of the wife. First of all, every part of this body is in submission to the brain, to the head. Wives, submit yourself to the husbands. But, it goes on to say, the husband must care for his wife just like the head cares for the body. So, you know, if an ant comes on my hand and bites it, it doesn't even take one second for the head to immediately know, an ant is biting my hand, and immediately I do something to flick it off, or if I accidentally hurt myself and an injury takes place there, it doesn't take time for my head to know immediately there's an injury and I want to stop the blood flow and do something about it. That's how you must be sensitive to your wife. That's a head. Your wife is hurt in some way and you know it immediately. That's a first class husband. A good head, who knows immediately that something has happened. My wife got disturbed. She's sick, maybe. She's hurt. Not CEO. A CEO is not aware of some employee in his company being hurt. So, the type of head the Bible says the husband is to be is like the physical head, the brain that's sensitive, the parts of the body submit to the head, but the head is very sensitive and immediately acts to relieve the problem that has happened. Okay. I live in a home where the family are all Hindus and I was told that they are fasting and praying to their Hindu gods to hurt me. Can they do black magic on me? Impossible. Unless you live in sin, then they can do all types of black magic on you. I agree. But if you're walking with God in the light, God is a wall of fire around about you. Do you know this verse in Zechariah chapter 2? Take it and claim it for yourself. Zechariah chapter 2 and verse 5. I says the Lord will be a wall of fire around her and the glory in the midst. Zechariah chapter 2 verse 5. It's a wonderful thing to study the Bible. So, claim promises like this. I will be a wall of fire around about her. No, no demon or black magic can come through that. In the name of Jesus, you're protected. There's no curse on God's people. Christ took every curse for us. Okay. So, you don't have to be afraid. You can live in the midst of that home and it won't touch you. You know how the Israelites lived in the midst of Egypt and all the plagues and everything came, it didn't touch them. It's a picture of how God protects His people today. Okay. What to do when, if someone has mental problems? I believe their mental problems are very often like physical problems. Very often inherited. Father has diabetes. Usually children have that. The father, parents have blood pressure problem. Children have that. Some relative has a mental problem. It goes down to some relative there. Nebunis, children like that. Well, this unfortunately, because we live in a sin affected earth, which is under the curse, sicknesses come, which are transmitted through. We can't avoid it. And good things also come, you know. Intelligence comes from the parents also. You have an intelligence come because your dad was intelligent or your mom was intelligent. These are laws in the way of children are born and develop. But thank God that God has provided treatment. Like, there's treatment for blood pressure. There's treatment for diabetes. There's treatment for mental affects things also. Because many of these things are caused by systems inside our brain for which man has discovered medicines. And if a person is too stubborn to take a medicine, then they suffer the consequences of it. God has created medicines. Even Timothy, Paul had told Timothy, Timothy, you know that Timothy was a great saint of God. He was Paul's finest co-worker. Paul says about Timothy, there's nobody like him. He's my finest co-worker. But he had a sickness, which never got cured. His sickness was he had stomach problems. 1 Timothy 5, 23. He had frequent stomach problems. 1 Timothy 5, 23. Frequently. I can't imagine the number of times Paul must have laid hands on Timothy and prayed for him and Timothy never got healed. Imagine Paul praying for Timothy never got healed. Paul had a thorn in the flesh himself. He never got healed. God said, you keep it. It keeps you humble. Sometimes God allows sickness to keep a person humble. So Timothy was probably that was his thorn in the flesh. And so Paul told him, take some medicine. In those days, it was some type of wine they told him to take. And he says, take a little wine because it's good for your stomach. So, take treatment, whether it's treatment for blood pressure or sickness or stomach ailments or mental ailments. There is treatment. There are medicines. If you neglect those medicines, you suffer the consequences. But when God has provided medicines, we must not neglect them saying, I'm trusting in the Lord. That would be like the devil told Jesus to jump off the temple and claim the promise of God. And Jesus said, don't tempt God like that. So when a person is sick and he says, I'll trust God. I say, don't tempt God like that. When he's provided medicines, use them. In the temple there were stairs going down. So why should he jump off the roof when there are stairs? Jesus said, I'll take the stairs. I'm not going to jump off the roof. So when the medicines are available, why should he be praying? Take the medicines and then pray. Pray that God will use those medicines to heal you. We all have some type of little sickness and all as you grow older. And we believe in prayer. I believe in prayer. I've asked people to pray for me to keep us, my wife and I healthy. But we take medicines as well. And that's how we remain in health. I think if I didn't take medicines, I'd probably be sick today. But I don't trust in the medicines. I trust in the Lord. But I use just like we are wise in the food we eat. We read about don't eat junk food. Yeah, there is food which is harmful, which may be very tasty but it's not good for your body. So, we must be wise and we must use medicines. What does it mean to receive the help of the Holy Spirit in overcoming something in our life? Well, you pray to God and ask Him to help you and ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. And do I need to combine discipline with the Holy Spirit? Definitely. In 1 Corinthians, I don't intend to turn to it. You don't read 1 Corinthians in chapter 9. Paul said a runner has to discipline himself to win the race. And the Christian life is also like a race. If you don't discipline yourself, you won't overcome. And he says about himself, I discipline my body. I keep it in subjection. Or as I think the Living Bible says, I tell my body what to do. The body doesn't tell me what to do. That's a disciplined man. An indisciplined man, his body says, come on, eat this, eat that, drink this, drink that. And he just obeys. But a disciplined man, he tells his body, no, I'm not going to eat that. I'm not going to satisfy your lust there. He controls his body. Just like the man who wants to win the marathon race in the Olympics. He doesn't feel like getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning, but he does. And he does that for a whole 3-4 years and then wins the race. But nobody knows that before he won that race, he had trained disciplining himself for years. That's the example Paul takes in 1 Corinthians 9. He says, they do it just to get an empty gold medal or something. We do it for an eternal reward. Discipline your body. And the Holy Spirit cooperates with you. And that's how, it's not just by being filled with the Spirit, plus discipline. Is wearing, is it wrong for a lady to wear pants? In the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 22.5, it says, women should not wear man's clothing. See, it doesn't use the word pants. It uses about a man's clothing. So what is recognized as man's clothing? I'll tell you something. If you go to North India, every woman there, wears what you would call pants. You go to Malaysia, almost all the women there wear what you call pants. It's what is recognized as man's clothing and women's clothing is different in different places. If you go to South India, place of Kerala, men wear what you would call a woman's clothing. You'd be surprised. I'll tell you. When I go there, sometimes I wear it myself. Just to be like one with the people. I want to identify with the people. Sure. That's not a woman's clothing there. I wouldn't wear it in Bangalore. So, the point is, in different societies, the main thing is, we should not be immodestly dressed. A woman should not be immodestly dressed. Tight fitting clothes, whether a pant or a shirt or anything, is wrong for a woman. And in some cases, wrong for a man too. It's trying to show off his figure or something like that. Okay. Is it acceptable for a Christian to join the military? Well, I'll tell you, it's very difficult. I know, as I found it, the military made me a strong person. Taught me discipline. Taught me good manners. Taught me 101 good things. But it also made me strong as a Christian. But it wasn't easy. I wouldn't get promotions. I would definitely not get a promotion to higher ranks if I was a whole-hearted Christian. And I didn't get. I got bad reports because I would not do what the senior officers told me when it was unrighteous. I would do whatever was righteous. But, I would say, I always prayed that I'd never in my life have to kill anybody. so, in some situations, you see, India basically has had a history of 3,000 years of never attacking another country. But it has had defense. India has always defended itself. I mean, that's been Indian history. India's history has been like that. So, when I was joining the military, I was joining the military in a country which is basically defensive, protecting itself from other countries attacking India. If other countries, if India did not have a military, communists would have taken over India many decades ago. In fact, they did take over some states in India. They'd have taken over the whole country. Probably Russia or China would have taken over. But because, even today, because we have a military, China is unable to occupy India and make India communist. So, is it good to have a military and to save a country from communism? If America didn't have a military, America would have been a communist country long ago. I have no doubt about it. It's the military that protects, but then you can use the military for all types of other things and get, become a busybody in other countries matters which, as each country has to decide how much to do that. But I'm not in politics. But, so, the question is, which country is it and what is the military doing? So, you have to pray and ask in each situation what it is like. In some countries, in some situations, the answer is no. Don't join it. And, in India also, things have changed. So, I'd say, preferably, don't join the military, but join, find your occupation in some other job. How can I witness to unconverted roommates? Should I always talk about the Bible or just be friends? They'll get fed up with you if you always talk about the Bible. Be friends. Remember this one thing. Jesus was the friend of sinners before he became the savior of sinners. Right or wrong? What do you say? Yes. He was the friend of sinners. He showed himself as the friend of sinners before he became the savior of sinners on the cross. So, before you talk about salvation, become their friend. Be the friend of sinners and you'll be following in Jesus' footsteps. Even when a woman in Samaria divorced five times, sleeping with a man who's not even her husband, sitting there, and Jesus knew all about her life, Jesus spoke to her. Spoke to her in such a way that she went and brought the whole town of Samaria to come and listen to the gospel. And it's amazing how Jesus didn't sort of embarrass her and ask all types of awkward questions. Jesus' love for sinners was so great. Since people have messed up their life, they're divorced five times, what would you do if you met a woman who was divorced five times? If that actually happened to you, you met a woman somewhere in town, divorced five times, and now you know that she's sleeping with someone who's not even her husband. Would you avoid her? Or would you say, that's a lost sinner. Jesus died for her. Lord, I'm available if you want me to bring her to Christ. We must always seek to bring the worst sinners to Christ. So, that's a way to be a light, first of all, before you start preaching to them. How do I know? That's what I sought to do in the Navy. I told you, I wanted to be a light by my way I live. And a lot of naval officers, 40 years later, they would remember me as a Christian. I know, some of them told me when I met them years later, that they'd never forget me. You know, you must live such a life that people have heard so much of preaching, but they must remember once in my life, I met a true Christian. They must remember it all their life. I remember one of my commanding officers in one of the ships I worked in, on his deathbed. Somebody went to see him in his deathbed, not me. Somebody went to see him. And he had been my commanding officer in a ship I worked in. And that man who went to visit told me, he said, Zach, that commanding officer is remembering you. On his deathbed, he was nearing eternity. And he was thinking of me. Because I was the only one he ever met who reminded him of eternity. I didn't preach to him, but he saw something in my life. So we must be a light. Light doesn't make a lot of noise. Light that doesn't make noise, but you know it's there. You know when you come into a room, if there's a light there or not. You must be like that wherever you live, wherever you work. People must know, this man is different. This woman is different. There's something about, and they wonder why. And they discover, it follows Jesus Christ. And then they are hungry, they will want to know more about it. If I deny myself in every type of situation and people treat me like a doormat, don't you think they're taking advantage of me? No, we don't have to be doormats. Look at Jesus' life. Was he a doormat? Did he allow everybody to tread over him? No, he rebuked the Pharisees like anything. And so, you hear me preach strongly against so many sins and various things. But I try to deny myself in situations where people are taking advantage of me. But I still stand for the principles of God's word. So there's a difference between people hurting me where I, okay, I'm willing for you to take advantage of me. Not that I allow them to treat me like a doormat. I'm not going to become a slave of everyone. I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. And I'm not going to run around and be a slave of every Potomac and Harry who wants me to be their slave. No. People have tried to do that with me and I say, sorry. I have to serve Christ and I'll serve him. But if you call me names or hurt me or steal from me, I'm not going to fight back with you. Those are the areas where I deny myself. Can I have friendship and regular conversation with sinners without being too legalistic? Jesus was a friend of sinners. So by all means be friends but ask yourself. It's like a tug of war. You know what a tug of war is? A big rope where, do you have those things here? I don't know. Yeah. Group of men here or men or women pulling on each side. So when I'm in the midst of unconverted people, it's like a tug of war. If you find the rope going the other direction, drop it. But if you are able to pull and the guy is coming towards you, hang on. You can bring him to Christ. It's a question of who's winning the tug of war. That's the way to decide whether to keep a friendship or not. Okay. How do I deal with people asking for bribes in a place of work? Now, there are societies in which bribes are forbidden and impossible. I mean, against the law. But in many corrupt societies, particularly in many countries in Africa and Asia, they ask you to give some money to, very often because that guy who works there probably is not paid well. You have to distinguish between a bribe and a tip. When you go to a restaurant to have a meal, the bill is so much. Why do you put some extra money on the plate for the waiter who served you, whoever served you? You don't have to. You can get up from there and say, thanks very much, goodbye. But almost everybody puts some extra money in. That's called a tip. You don't have to give it. But I'll tell you what happened in one place in India. It's a true story. In Bombay, in the offices, they'd have sort of 45 minutes of lunch break. And they'd all go out to a close-by restaurant to have a quick meal and come back. And they'd go there and the waiter would serve them. And they could finish quickly and come back. Now if you did not tip that waiter, next time you came tomorrow, you will not get your food on time. And you'll be late to go back to work. So you tip. Is that a bribe or a tip? It's very difficult to know in such situations. He's not giving you any extra food. That's the only way you'll get your food on time tomorrow. So some of these situations are so tricky. I'm not here to judge anybody else. So I'd say, provided you're not doing anything unrighteous, I'd say if you feel like giving a tip to somebody, give it. I remember one brother once came to me in India and said, Brother, I'm trying to get a permit for my house. But the chap in the office says, you've got to give me 500 rupees and then I'll give you the permit. I asked him, are you doing anything unrighteous? No, no, no. Everything righteous. So he said, what should I do? If I don't give it to him, I'll have to wait six, seven months and then get the permit. But by the time the cost of material goes up so much, it'll be much more than 500 rupees that I'll pay for building the house. So the wise thing is to give him 500 rupees rather than spend a thousand rupees six months from now when I get the permit. So I said, give it. Get your work done. It's a wise use of the Lord's money that you don't spend a thousand rupees six months later. And I said, he said, how shall I treat you? I said, treat it like you're walking down a dark street and somebody sticks a gun to your back and says, give me your wallet, give me your smart phone, give me your watch. You don't argue with him about righteousness at that time. You say, okay, take it. Is he righteous? Absolutely unrighteous. Now this guy in the office is taking a pen, not a gun. He says, I won't sign this. Treat it like a fellow is taking a gun at you. So long as you're not cheating anybody, so long as you're not getting anything unrighteous done, I say, treat it like a tip. I'm not going to be a legalist there. But pray about it. Some situations you may say, no, I remember when we were constructing our building, church building in Bangalore, and they would not give cement. Cement was very limited in India and we had to go and get a permit for 50 bags of cement and then again when that finishes, ask for it because it was a great shortage of cement to build the building. So I would go to the office to get the permit. That man would say, come next week. I'd go next week, he'd say, come next week. And I went along till someone who was wiser to the government office affairs said, Zak, what he wants from you is a bribe. I said, well, he's not going to get it from me. And if our building is not complete, we just have the pillars there, we'll have that as a monument to righteousness on the street. CFC's monument to righteousness. We would not give a bribe saying we could not complete this building. But you know what happened? See what God did. I mean, some situations is like that. And a few weeks later, the government changed the rules. There was plenty of cement available. Maybe because God saw that I wouldn't pay a bribe and he wanted our building to be built. In a few weeks, believe it or not, we got the cement. I didn't have to go there at all. We got plenty of cement and we completed the building on time. You honor God, he honors you. I've experienced that type of thing in numerous situations. Numerous situations. I'll give you one more example. You know, when we wanted to build our first building in Bangalore, we met in our house for six years and then it was growing out of the house and we needed a building and my dad had a plot of land which he gave it to us for the church. He had paid the initial deposit. He said, you pay the rest and take it. It was a very good piece of land. So, we needed about six, I think seventy thousand rupees or something at that time to pay, to buy the land. And in six years we had collected only thirty thousand. Not even half that amount. And we never believed in begging for money or sending reports or asking or telling people or hinting that the Lord's work needs. We never sent, in all our 47 years, we never sent a report of our work anywhere. I never believed in asking people for money. I never took a salary. We all trusted the Lord and that's how we moved. All of us. So, we said, now what to do? We're not going to send reports and hint that we are building a building. We pray. We trust the Lord. Is God interested in our having a building here? If so, we'll build. If not, we're buying this plot first of all. If not, we won't have it. And it's amazing. We had a deadline. If we didn't buy it before a certain time, the owner would take it, would not sell it to us anymore. And just a few, I don't know, couple of weeks or a very short time before the deadline, we needed forty thousand rupees. We had only thirty collected in six years. And we got a check for forty thousand rupees from somebody whom I've never seen in my life. And who never sent any check to our church before or after. And whom I've not seen till today. He was a Christian who knew something about our work. I'll meet him at the Lord's, when the Lord returns and I'll thank him when he comes. But it was an absolute miracle for us. And we saw there that God honors faith. And we put up our building. In that building, so many people have been converted, demons have been cast out and people have been healed and God wanted that building. It was on a main road and many people walking down the road would walk in and get converted. So, when God wants something, it's amazing what he can do. We don't, but we, my principle was, did Jesus ever go around asking for money? Did Jesus send a prayer letter, we are putting up a building, can you please send some money? I've often thought if Judas Iscariot once got up in one of the public meetings with Jesus speaking to 10,000 people and if Judas said, you know our master has walks from Judas from Galilee to Jerusalem so often, let's take an offering to buy him a chariot. Don't you think our master deserves a chariot? Like the way sometimes preachers today ask to buy a plane or something for themselves. Jesus would have got up and told Judas, shut up and sit down here. You're not supposed to speak anymore in these meetings. Everybody would know what Jesus stood for. He never permitted his needs to be known by anyone and we have lived for 47 years like that. In all our churches, if God doesn't give us the money, he knows we are not supposed to have it. We are not supposed to have that project. We are not supposed to complete that project. We are not supposed to have that building. We have seen it again and again and again. You know the end result of it? The end result of it is so many families have begun to have faith for the needs in their own family because they saw it happened, worked in a church. Why can't it work in our family? That's how people got faith. So we just preach, we want to practice it. So another question is in my professional pursuit, how do I be careful that my profession does not take precedence over my walk with God? Make sure you don't do anything unrighteous. Make sure you have time to read the Bible everyday. Some people say, I am so busy, I don't read the Bible. I say, are you so busy that you don't get time to eat? Well, you think your earthly food is more important than reading the Bible? You can put spiritual values above your profession if you say, my whole life is determined by my relationship with God. Okay. Is it better to be baptized soon after conversion? Definitely don't get baptized in a nominal church. Who's baptizing you? Probably some unconverted man. Go to a church that preaches the gospel. Okay, if God overlooks the times of ignorance, what about the times when we felt, when we knew it was wrong beforehand? Most of our sins we know beforehand it is wrong. Which are the sins you commit? There are unconscious sins we have done but most of the sins that you are aware of, you knew it was wrong before you did it. But still God forgives. I mean if God forgives only the sins which I did not know were wrong, there will be a lot of sins that will remain unforgiven. All of us have committed sins which we knew were wrong before we did it. But we were weak enough and we were weak and we could not conquer it. God gave us the strength. God rather forgave us. So it covers all types of sins. How can you leave a church that you have been attending for so long but now you pray then you feel you should leave because it is not right. Well, you got to graciously speak the truth to them and tell them don't insult them, be thankful for the years that you spent there. But Christ must be supreme, you have to tell them graciously. What advice do you give to children who are aged 10 to 13 about growing in Christ? Get them to read the Bible. The Bible they can understand. Storybook Bible with pictures and ask them questions. It's what we did. Keep on asking and make sure that they understand what is written there. How can I keep my mind set always on eternity and the things above? Well, you have to realize that first of all is most important. See, for example, if you are physically sick, seriously, how is it your mind is always on that sickness and how to be healed, how to heal? I got a cancer, I got a cancer, I got to be healed, I got to take some treatment. The doctor says take this medicine two times a day, every day for the next two months. How do you remember to do that? Because you love your health so much. You want to be healthy. When you love Jesus like that and say my spiritual life is more important, you will remember. But when you don't remember, when you don't think of those eternal things, it shows it's not really a priority in your life. Your physical health is a priority and so you take care of it. So you got to make it a priority and the only way to do that is to meditate on how much Jesus did for you. Okay. Why is it many people keep on praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit and it doesn't get answered and they feel depressed? Well, I'll tell you. I remember a man telling me I prayed for 40 years to be filled with the Holy Spirit and I've not been filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, I don't know the reason. But I'll discover, I'll tell you one thing. God works to bring us to a zero point. He brought me to a zero point before he filled me with the Holy Spirit. At a point in my life when I thought I deserve to go to hell, God filled me with the Holy Spirit. And that God prepares people by failure. How was Peter prepared for the filling of the Holy Spirit? By denying the Lord. Can you imagine? Denying the Lord, being filled with the Holy Spirit. That's what brought Peter down to zero. Because until then he thought he was a great man of God. And I tell you that is the reason why many people are not filled with the Spirit. They have pretty high opinion about themselves. You have to have some type of experience like denying Jesus Christ publicly and doing some terrible thing. I'm not saying you go and do it. But a failure, despite your high opinion about yourself, which will bring you to such desperation and say, Lord, I cannot live this Christian life. I told you the other day of the man of God who said, the greatest lesson I learnt in Christianity is that I cannot live the Christian life. Have you learnt it? Most important lesson I learnt in my Christian life is, I cannot live it. I think there are many, many people, probably sitting here, you don't believe that. I believe it. I cannot live the Christian life and that's why the Lord brought me to victory. That's how the Lord helped me to overcome anger, dirty thoughts, bitterness. That's how the Lord taught me to love my enemies and to do good to those who hate, etc. You have to first recognize you cannot live this Christian life. What does that homeless man do? He's got nothing. I don't mean the crooks. I mean the really homeless people who stand waiting for money. Would you do that? You would do it if your children are starving and you've got nothing in the home. That man is desperate. And when we are desperate like that for the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord I cannot live without this. I need it, I need it. How you desperately go hospital after hospital to get some treatment for your dying child. When you seek for the power of the Spirit like that, God will meet with you. But God has to bring us to a zero point. Okay. Should we never take revenge? Is it right to legally go to court for justice? God is a God of justice. To seek for justice is perfectly right. The only thing the Bible forbids is if it's a brother in your church, go to the elders first. And let them deal with it. But if it's not a brother in your church outside, then you have to go to the courts. God doesn't say you must keep on suffering injustice. No. We can perfectly write if somebody occupies your home while you are on a vacation. You come back and see somebody's occupied it. What should you do? Just deny yourself and let him take over? No. That's foolishness. I said report it to the police and take it to court. Because God is not a God of unrighteousness. That is righteousness. Okay. I'm tempted with the stresses I have to sometimes think of suicidal thoughts. That's evil. Ask God to help you. Seek fellowship with other believers. Sometimes we need fellowship with other believers to see us through a trial. Even Jesus asked for three of his disciples to come and pray with him and get semen in him. How can you determine whether some Old Testament commands are to be obeyed by us in the new covenant? You know like we read about the woman wearing men's clothes. Yeah. I believe there are many commands in the Old Testament which are ritualistic. But commands which deal with our conscience like don't kill, don't steal, don't tell lies. That's for us today also but at a deeper level. But those which are related to the Jewish laws, we don't have to follow all that about washing the hands and all that type of stuff which they had in the Old Testament. So you need to, the Holy Spirit will tell you what is is it something related to Christ and purity? For example there's an Old Testament they were not allowed to eat pork. I don't teach in the church that we shouldn't eat pork because that's not a New Testament law. 1 Timothy 4 says everything God has created is good to eat. So unless it's poisonous. So we have to be wise and God will show you. So we don't have to follow all those Old Testament Jewish laws. How can I restore my first love? I find the best way to restore our first love is to meditate on how much Jesus died for us. How suffered for us. Like I shared yesterday, the more you meditate on the cross, the cross has been my number one meditation I'll tell you before God for more than 60 years. And that has led me to see deeper and deeper and deeper into it and understand how much Jesus loved me. Because the cross is the greatest proof of God's love for me. That's why I have meditated on it and seen depths of it, depths of it. Sometimes I can't explain it in words. But it always deepens my understanding of how much Jesus suffered for me. And the automatic result of that is that we love the Lord. I would encourage you to do that. And it has blessed me immensely meditating asking the Lord to show me what actually did you suffer on the cross? And why did you do it? And Lord give me that spirit. What do I do with parents or in-laws and siblings who try to control me or my wife or spouse after marriage? Tell them respectfully that what the Bible says I've got to leave my father and mother and leave you my wife. Genesis 2 24. And if you're a wife Psalm 45 verse 10 forget your father's house and be submitted to your husband as your Lord. It's a command to husband and wife and tell them God tells me to run my own life. So please excuse me. We'd be happy to fellowship with you but we don't want you to try and run our life. You have to be firm with them. If you're not firm with them, they'll keep on trying to run your life. Lovingly, firmly. I had to tell my wife, my parents, my wife had to tell her parents, even though our parents cared for us, we loved them, we had a good relationship with them till the end but we firmly said thus far and no further. Okay. What if I'm well off and my relatives keep on asking me for money? Well, that is a personal matter and I cannot tell you how much responsibility you should take for your siblings to help them in their financial needs. Each case is different. Seek for advice from some godly person. What would you do with free teenage children who show rebellion? First of all, repent for not bringing them up properly. Secondly, many teenagers go through a phase of rebellion but they'll come out of it. Pray for them. Love them. Be good to them but don't permit them to misbehave in your home. They must respect the authority of parents. And pray for them especially. Husband and wife together. Very often husband and wife are not united. That's very often why no prayers get answered. Is it wrong to continue to have contact with relatives who have no interest in living a godly life? Keep them at a distance and be a witness to them but don't allow their life to influence you. If somebody tries to administer poison to you, can it kill you? Well, if your relatives try to harm you that way. I don't believe anybody could poison Jesus Christ before the age of 33 too. If god had planned for him to die at 33, like John Wesley used to say, I am immortal until my life's work is done. But that is only if you are walking in the will of god. I mean, if you have lived on earth to make money, that promise is not for you. Then you better protect yourself. But if you have lived for god, if your only aim in life is to glorify god, even in a secular job. We do a secular job and our aim is to glorify god, you are like a Christian worker. You cannot die before god's time. Nobody can kill you in any way. Nobody can come and shoot you or anything. I believe that firmly with all my heart. No sickness, no weapon formed against me will prosper. If you want a promise for that, it's in Isaiah chapter 54 and verse 17. No weapon formed against you will prosper. Okay. And Is it okay if I marry someone from a Seventh-day Adventist church? The Seventh-day Adventist church is a very legalistic church. There are some very good people in it. And I think some people may be born again, a rare person. But they have got some good habits, earthly good habits, food habits and things like that. But they emphasize that you have to keep the Sabbath in order to be saved. That is a gospel of works. Salvation is not by keeping the Sabbath. So I disagree with that. So if you marry someone like that, you are going to have a constant conflict. Because you will have to go to that church and then I would avoid it. Or if the person is not a strong Seventh-day Adventist, have agreement with them that we don't go to the SDA church. Then it's okay. Okay. Another thing is what translation of the gospel do you use? I use the New American Standard Bible. And I find it I have used it for nearly 50 years. I found it to be the most accurate as far as I can see and compared from what I have read. I don't know Greek or Hebrew from what I have read about it. I have been comparing it with many other scriptures. And what I have read from many people who have studied Greek and Hebrew is more accurate than I found it to be. It's not perfect. There are one or two places where it's not exactly accurate. But much less than other translations. NIV for example. I never use it. New International Version. Because I found one verse in it which is a complete mistranslation. 1 Peter 4.1 It says there that if you suffer in your body you will stop cease sinning. That's not true. They have changed flesh into body. Flesh means self-will. They put that interpretation there in 1 Peter 4.1. And so I say that means they may have put the interpretation somewhere else as well. I don't know. It's when I suffer in the flesh that I stop sinning. Not when I suffer in my body. When a person gets cancer, he doesn't stop sinning. He sins more sometimes. But if he suffers in the flesh, he puts the self-will to death, he stops sinning. That's the meaning there. And the original word is flesh. Almost every other translation says flesh. But NIV says body. Gives a wrong teaching. And if one verse is such a completely wrong teaching, that if you suffer in your body you stop sinning. You know it's not true. How can you believe that? How can you point that verse to somebody saying you suffer in your body and you will not sin. So I want wide such translations. But then I also use paraphrases. Not to quote a promise but sometimes a paraphrase helps me to see the deeper meaning. Paraphrases like the Living Bible particularly. It's written by a very I met Kenneth Taylor, the translator of that Bible. Very godly man. And he's done a very good translation. I read it often to get an expanded meaning of some verses. I don't find a church to be baptized. I'm sure you can ask God to lead you to some church that will baptize you even if it's not your own church. Is it alright as a born again Christian to attend the marriages of unbelievers or other religious ceremonies? Well I say we follow this frequently, face this frequently in India where Hindus come and ask me to come to their wedding. Maybe a good friend from a place of work or something like that. I say I'm sorry my friend but I can't come to your temple because I don't believe in that God you worship. But I'll come to your reception after the whole ceremony is over. See they'll have a wedding ceremony and then a reception for it somewhere else. So I said I'll come and greet you at the reception. But I'm sorry I cannot come to attend the religious ceremony. I cannot come there. I would not even attend a Roman Catholic Church where they pray to Mary and things like that. For a religious ceremony I would not go there. I would not go there for a marriage or a funeral or anything. To me it is, they worship idols, they pray to Mary and I wouldn't be a part of it. I don't say there are no Christians there. I think there are some very fine Christians like Mother Teresa and all the very godly women. But I would not go to their church if they're not preaching, if they're worship idols or pray to Mary, things like that. So I would not go to the marriage or the ceremony itself. But I would greet them outside of that later on. How can young people be faithful in handling finances? Well, teach them that it is God's money. Teach them not to waste on unnecessary purchases. And be an example yourself as a parent that you don't make unnecessary purchases in your home. And don't give young people too much money to handle as pocket money or anything like that. And ask them to tell you how they're using it. Why do I fail when I'm tested? It's because you're not strong enough. You're not disciplining your body. You're not seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit. How can I be a witness to my unconverted relatives if I'm still struggling with sins like anger and bitterness? Well, be honest and say, I'm not perfect but I know Jesus has forgiven me and I'm pressing on to perfection. And then seek to battle. You don't have to be perfect before you become a witness for Christ. If you're battling and you're on the right path, you can still be a witness for Christ. Okay, here's a very personal question. Some of my relatives say that Zak Poonen has become an idol to me. Because I listen to so many of your messages. But I'll tell you this. If I were living in the first century, I'd listen to the preaching and writings of Paul plenty. In fact, Paul is one of my favorites even now. But he's not my idol. I read a lot of John and Peter. They're not my idols. But I say, their words bless me. They help me. Help me to come to a better life. Why can't I listen to it? Why do you, you know, certain foods you eat. They ask you, why do you eat this food? Just because it's advertised? No, I find this food is good. This food is good for me. So much of it hurts me. When you go to a store, why do you buy a particular product? Why do you buy any type of thing made by a particular company? They ask you, why do you always have this company's stuff? Why can't you buy this material made by all these different companies? No, I find this particular company makes first class product. Why do people go for organic food? And why don't you buy all the other stuff? I say, because you found it's good for you. That's exactly the reason why I have chosen certain, even in my younger days, I'd read people like Watchman Ney, Tozer, very few people. People who really lived a godly life. I'd see if there's life backs up what they say. They brought up their children well, they've lived a godly life, and their words challenged me to come closer to Christ. I would, I listened to very, very few preachers as I grew up. And I'm very thankful. And almost all of them, not almost, but almost all of them never went to a Bible school. My favorite preachers were those who never went to a Bible school. I never recommend that people go to Bible school. It leads people astray. The best way to go astray is to go to Bible school. Certain people were my favorite preachers, and I didn't bother what people said. Their writings helped me tremendously. It helped me come closer to God. I don't care what people said about me. That's it. Okay, how to overcome the fear of getting old? The Bible, well, we're all going to get old. I mean, everybody's getting old, but if you say, Lord, I only want to do your will in my life. I don't care how long I live. I want to do your will. And I want to keep healthy till I do your will. I want to complete the work you gave me to do. You'll need have no fear at all. I'll tell you honestly, I have no fear at all. And how to overcome gluttony? Have you heard these people who tell people to do push-ups? The push-ups from the table are the best way to overcome gluttony. Practice it. If you don't do push-ups from the table, you'll become fat and overweight and you'll die early as well. So, a little discipline is like that. It's good to eat sweets occasionally, but not too often. How to overcome the memory of past experiences? Let me tell you one thing about forgiving others. You can never forget what people did to you. Because it sticks in your mind even after 50 years. But forgiveness is an act of the will. I say, Lord, I've forgiven them. And every time it comes back to memory, I've forgiven them. Gradually, it'll fade away. And the fact that it comes to your memory does not mean you've not forgiven them. I have no control over my memory. I've got a control over my will. I live in my will. I don't live in my memory. I don't live in my feelings. I live in my will. I've chosen to forgive them. And one thing that helps is, when that person who hurt you, if you pray for blessing them, Lord, bless them. I prayed for people who hurt me. I say, Lord, I want to see them in heaven. I don't want any of them to go to hell. People who hurt me very badly, you know I pray for them. Lord, please save their soul. Don't let them go to hell. I want them in heaven. I want you to bless them even on earth with prosperity and good things. When you pray like that for people who've done evil to you, you know that you've got nothing against them. That's all you can do. One last thing I would say, dear brothers and sisters, remember the promise of John the Baptist. He shall, Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire. I've always wanted a fire in my life. I wanted a fire in my preaching. My favorite example in the New Testament is in Luke 24 where Jesus was walking to Emmaus with two disciples and he opened the scriptures and he preached for three hours. You say, where does it say that? It says there that they walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus and I looked up a map and I found that it's about seven miles. So walk seven miles. It takes about two, three hours if you're having a leisurely walk. And so that I got three hours he opened the scriptures to them. All he preached was from Genesis to Malachi about Christ. And it says at the end of it they said our hearts were burning within us. And I read that. I said, Lord make me a preacher like that. That when I preach, whether I preach for three hours or three minutes, people's hearts will burn. Burn in a good way. Challenge them to be devoted to Christ, to live for Christ, to love their enemies, to bless those who curse them, and to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. For that you need the power of the Holy Spirit. It's the only way. You can't produce it. What you produce will be a false, fake fire. Ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and may the fire of God burn in your hearts. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to live by the things we heard and whatever questions were not answered. Please help those who ask them to seek you and to get an answer from your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.