The Meaning of Repentance

My brothers and sisters, I want to tell you the truth. You come here, you'll hear the truth. You'll get a scan as to why you are not growing spiritually much faster than you could have.

I'm not saying you all haven't grown spiritually. Many of you have grown spiritually tremendously from the time I first knew you, without a doubt. But let me also say that a number of you could have been miles further ahead than you are today.

Your growth could have been much more if you had been a little more sensitive to sin and allowed the Lord to rebuke you, reprove you, discipline you. You know that Old Testament Psalm that says, Let the righteous smite me. It's like oil on my head.

It's like, I think it's Psalm 141. You let the righteous smite me. It's like anointing me with oil.

Anointing with oil is the way people were blessed and anointed for service. So that's a great verse. In case you don't know it, I think you should know it.

Turn with me to the Psalms. Psalm 141 and verse 5. If you don't know this verse, you must remember it all your life. Let the righteous slap me on my face in kindness and let him reprove me.

It's like he's anointing me with oil. Don't let my head refuse it. I mean, if we said, brother, we want to appoint you as an elder now and we want to lay our hands on you and come here, we want to anoint you and oh, how many of us would rush forward for that? But this is the same thing.

The same thing. Let the righteous smite me. Let not my head refuse it.

Don't let me pull back. Let me submit to that. He's saying, do it brother.

I want to be an anointed person. I have tried to follow that all my life. I remember when I was a young man and I was misunderstood in a church I used to attend.

And some people falsely accused me to the older brothers and the result was I was not allowed to speak in that church. Not for one or two Sundays. I used to speak every Sunday in that church.

This is when I was about 30 years old. And because of that misunderstanding and the elders never sought to clarify it, for the next three years or two and a half years at least, I was not allowed to preach in that church. Not a single Sunday.

And the Lord said to me, keep quiet. Accept it. Don't question it.

Submit to the elders. Nobody taught me about submission in all those days, but the Lord spoke directly to me. And I kept quiet and my wife and I would sit at the back of the hall and people would come up to me and say, oh brother Zak, what happened? I wouldn't say anything.

I would not open my mouth in one word of self-defense. I would not say they misunderstood me. I can speak about it today because you don't even know who they are.

But if I had spoken about it then, people would have known who I was referring to. They're dead and gone now. But I knew much later.

And after those three years I left that place and I moved to Bangalore. I wasn't here. Otherwise I would have still been sitting there.

And after we came here, two and a half years or three years after we came here, the Lord established CFC. Then I knew why God had taken me through those three years of reproof and rebuke and misunderstanding. He was testing me to see whether I would obey him and keep my mouth shut.

And I believe that if I had, listen to me, in those years if I had not kept my mouth shut and I had risen up in defiance against those elders and said these guys have misunderstood me and tried to speak against them to all the others, I tell you I would not be sitting here today. I would not be involved in raising CFC. CFC would have been built by somebody else, not me.

God's work is not going to depend on one man. If one man fails, another man takes over. Judas Iscariot, my belief is that Judas Iscariot was supposed to write the epistles because he was the cleverest of the apostles.

He missed out on it, so what? God found Paul. If I had failed, God would have found somebody else, definitely. That I don't have any doubt, but I wouldn't be here.

And it's possible that God has a plan for you and he's taking you through a period of discipline and reproof. I'm talking to young people here. You don't accept it.

You're disturbed that somebody smote you. Not physically, but in words that humiliated you. You don't accept it.

You're missing out on a ministry God has for you in the future. I'm not saying that you should accept it for the sake of a ministry. That's pretty selfish.

But because God is knocking at the door of your heart. As many as I love, I rebuke, I discipline. That is the way I'm knocking at the door of your heart.

Did you ever connect those two verses together, Revelation 3, 19 and 20? That is the meaning. How do you know that Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart? Read the previous verse. Don't read a verse by itself.

You'll misunderstand it. The previous verse explains it. I rebuke and I discipline.

That's the knock. I'm knocking loud and clear. Will you open it? Will you submit to it? Will you accept it? Or will you reject it? Then you wonder, why is the Lord not near to me? Why doesn't He come and sup with me? Because you don't accept His correction.

Those of you who have come here regularly through the years, I'm sure many a time you have heard the Lord knocking at the door of your heart. On a Sunday morning. Somebody wrote an email to me last week, saying to CFC, why doesn't Brother Zach give us more milk? It's always meat, meat, meat, meat.

We need some milk. So, some other brother was replying. I told him, please reply to him saying, there are hundreds of thousands of milkmen distributing milk all over.

You don't have to go to Brother Zach for that. But if you want to go, please read Good Foundation and Purpose of Failure. There's some milk also in our literature.

But the great need is what Paul said to Timothy, the time will come, 2 Timothy 4, when they will not want to hear hygienic words that leads to godliness. They will heap to themselves these hundreds of thousands of milkmen, teachers who will just tickle their ears. And Paul told Timothy, reprove, rebuke.

When you feel like it, don't feel like it. You read it for yourself in 2 Timothy 4. Because the time will come when people will not want to listen to it. We are living in those times.

Our natural tendency is to listen to a message of comfort. And that's good. We need it to balance.

All ministry needs to be balanced. But if we don't receive a word of correction and rebuke frequently, we're likely to go astray. And if you read the epistles, for example, what Paul wrote, there are words of comfort there.

But if you take the average, you'll find 75% is correction, exhortation, how you must live, and some very high standard. It's an amazing high standard and I find most Christians have never taken that seriously. So, I want to share a few words about repentance today.

And the reason is, repentance and faith are joined together. That's what Jesus, John the Baptist came preparing the way for Jesus and he was a prophet who preached repentance. He was very unpopular.

They killed him because he preached repentance. And when Peter got up on the day of Pentecost, the three people said, what must I do? He said, repent. That's the first word he preached, repent and believe.

And before Jesus went up to heaven, he said, whoever repents and believes will be saved. Those were almost his last words in Mark 16. And he said, go into all the world and preach, teach people everything that I taught you.

I mentioned this once before, that when I began serious ministry of my word and teaching the word, one of the things the Lord told me was, listen to what all the other preachers are preaching. So, I listened to as many preachers as I could, you know, in those days they were only available on tape. And then the Lord said, now see in the New Testament, study the New Testament and see the things they are not preaching.

So, I studied what the New Testament taught or Jesus taught and what most preachers were preaching. And the Lord said, now the things they are not preaching, I want you to preach that. Yours will not be a balanced ministry.

It will balance out what they are teaching. And that I found through the years and that's what the Lord needed at that time. And that's how CFC started.

We don't claim to preach a balanced message. We are trying to balance the imbalance there is in Christianity. If something is heavily loaded over one side, we want to press a little more down on this side to balance it.

And repentance is the message that is mostly missing. The average preaching of the gospel is believe, believe. Even the songs.

You know that song the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Is it true? The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Wrong.

Who repents and believes. So, I remember when we used to sing that in CFC in Bangalore, we changed it. The vilest offender who repents and believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

I'm just showing you how even in our songs, repentance is eliminated. If you don't believe me, take any Christian song book. Any.

Do a little homework. And try and find out how many songs speak about repentance from sin. Very few.

Because that's not a primary message. What is the primary message of the apostles? Let me ask you a question. What was the last message of Jesus that he gave us in the Bible? And it's not in Matthew.

Mark, Luke or John. It is in Revelation. His last message is to the seven churches.

And to five of those churches his message was repent. Repent. Repent.

Repent. Five times. In the book of Revelation.

To the churches. Those are not to unbelievers. Peter preached to the unbelievers.

But to churches, elders, he said these are the elders whom I hold in my hand. But they were not leading those churches to repentance. Five of those elders were a total failure because they did not preach repentance.

And to one of them the Lord said I'm going to spit you out of my mouth. To another one he said I'm going to take away the candlestick, the lamp stand. That means you will no longer be a church as far as I'm concerned.

So you read Revelation chapter 2 and 3. I remember in CFC I told all our fellow elders in India you must frequently read Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. That is the Lord's message to elders. And a lot of it is repent. You have a name that you're alive but you're dead.

A lot of churches are like that. So that's why we need to come. You know that verse what they say what God has joined together let no man put asunder in marriage.

God has joined repentance and faith together. But people have put it asunder. And our calling in this church and in all CFC churches is to bring it back together.

Never to preach. Never to separate repentance and faith. So what does repentance actually mean? To understand repentance you must understand sin.

Because repentance is turning away from sin. One of the best definitions I felt coming from the military is the command about turn. You've seen on the parade ground when they say about turn all the people turn right around and face 180 degrees the other way.

That is in my mind the best definition of repentance. About turn. You're no longer looking in this direction.

You're looking in exactly the opposite direction. Many people when they receive Christ as their Savior and say I've accepted Christ. They have not done an about turn.

They've only done a right turn. A right turn is good. But it's only half the job.

Your one eye is here and your one eye is here. That's not repentance. Or a left turn where they've given up some things.

They haven't given up some other things. Their eye is still on some of the things they were always living for. About turn means I've lived all my life facing sin and the world and God has been behind me.

It's not been important in my life. And a day comes in my life and God says repent. And I turn right around.

And my attitude to God becomes exactly the same as my attitude was to sin before. I was facing sin. I enjoyed sin.

I loved sin. And I lived like that and I had a sort of a nominal interest in God. If you're a Christian.

Turning around means I'm now passionate about God like I was passionate about sin. And by sin I don't mean wild sin. It could be just yelling at your wife or getting angry.

Getting upset on the road with somebody who cuts you when you're driving or anything or small little lies that you say or little wrong attitudes that you have towards somebody whom you don't like. Those things which we don't even consider as sin. It's all facing in the wrong direction and the Lord says turn right around from that.

That is repentance. And when we do that then we are ready to believe and receive Christ as our savior. So when we see that the churches in Revelation five of them needed to hear repentance.

What does it mean? It means the elders of those churches were not preaching repentance in that church. But two of those churches the Lord never told them to repent. The church in Smyrna and the church in Philadelphia.

Why did they not need to hear the message of repentance? Because their elders were faithfully preaching repentance regularly. It's like you know when people say you must have a balanced diet and food. And a lot of people get sick because they don't have a balanced diet.

Something is missing in their diet. If an important thing is missing in their diet they can get sick. It's exactly like that.

Teaching God's word is a very very sacred and important task. It's not something you can just get up and say something and prepare a message and come up here. A true elder is a shepherd.

He cares for what the flock needs and he must see that they must get a balanced diet. And I tell you in most churches the one part of the diet that's completely missing is repentance. Turning away from sin.

So to understand repentance I said we must understand a little bit of what sin is. So let's go back to the origin of sin. Then we'll understand repentance better.

Sin originated in this universe not by telling lies or cheating or adultery or even murder. Adultery and murder are considered the great sins. Sin originated in this universe when a created being the highest of the angels, they call him Lucifer we don't actually know his name, said I'm not going to submit to authority.

God is above me but I don't want to submit to him. I will be like God. I can come up there.

When a created being wanted to resist authority and in his pride he lifted himself up and God says you can read about it in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. God said I'm going to push you down. So remember this sin originated with pride.

Never forget it. And so salvation originated by the opposite of pride. Jesus humbled himself.

So here's something you must remember. Here was a created angel wanting to say I want to go up and be like God. That's how sin came.

And to save us from sin Jesus who was God and is God decided I'll come down. So these are two directions in which there are movements on the earth. Those who are seeking to go up and those who are willing to go down.

You've heard me say the three secrets of the Christian life are humility, humility, humility. Because Jesus was God and he became a man. That's the first step of humility.

And as a man he became a slave. That's the second step. Washing people's feet.

And then he went further down and was killed like a criminal even though he wasn't one. Humility, humility, humility. And the opposite of that is what the devil had.

And I want to say every human being has been infected by the sin of pride. If you haven't seen it in yourself ask God to show it to you. In the beginning it's just pride about so many other things.

Maybe you can be proud of the way you look or how smart you are or how clever you are or how intelligent you are, how good your job is or how pretty and good looking you are. So many things you can be proud of. And whenever you admire yourself for anything, my brother, sister, please remember that's a little bit of Satan in you.

Don't call it by any other name. It originated with Satan. When you sisters look at the mirror and admire your beauty, be careful where that comes from.

Be thankful to God, sure, for health. And be thankful. If beauty was so important God would have made every woman in the world beautiful.

Why hasn't he done that? Think about that. So these are subtle ways in which we can think it's a very light thing. It's not a light thing.

It's the origin of sin. That's what made the highest angel into a devil in a moment. And we've got to be scared of it, pride of anything.

Maybe you've done very well in children. You've got to be very careful. You do very well in school perhaps.

And you beat all the others. You come first in the class and you get good results. Or you're smarter than others when you're even when you answer questions in a Sunday school class.

It can come from anywhere. And you begin to think I'm better than that guy there. That guy's a bit dumb.

Be careful of that attitude. That's Satanic. That's the thing that will lead you away from God.

Small little thing. Now how much is this being preached in Christendom today? That's my question. That's why we have so many Christians who are defeated by sin.

And who think that is normal. They think the normal Christian life is an endless merry-go-round. I sin, I ask the Lord to forgive me, cleanse me, and I sin again.

And I ask the Lord to forgive me and 60 years later I'm sinning and asking the Lord to forgive me. There's not a merry-go-round. It's a terrible going round and round and round.

And 60 years later you're spiritually in the same place you were before. Maybe with a lot of knowledge of the Bible. Oh that increases like anything.

That you can increase even in one or two years. But I'll tell you about Bible knowledge. You can't beat Satan.

Satan's got a lot more Bible knowledge than you and me. He could even quote a verse to Jesus. He knows the Bible better than anybody other than God.

So knowledge of the Bible does not mean anything. It is obedience that Satan lacks. And so that's the thing we need to remember.

So the other thing about sin as I said is rebellion against authority. Satan rebelled against authority. I don't want God up there.

I want to be the authority. And you see that even in children. Where do children get this rebellious attitude to disobey their parents from childhood? To say no.

Daddy or mommy says something and they say no. I won't do it. Where did it come from? What was Eve's sin let's say? We all know Eve's sin.

Everybody knows it as she disobeyed God. When the devil told her to take eat. God had said don't eat it.

But hang on. Before she ate it let me tell you about something else that was there. God had placed a man as her husband who was an authority over her.

Created before her and she was created for him. Taken out from him and he was her head. So when the devil tempted Eve what is the first thing she should have done? Turned around to Adam and said Adam you're my head.

What should I do? Her first sin was not disobedience. Her first sin was rebellion against the authority of her husband. Just like Satan.

He rebelled against the authority of God and Eve said why should I listen to my husband? Just like a lot of wives say today who cares for my husband? He's got his opinion. I've got my opinion. I'm just as clever as him.

Why should I consult him? I think this is a good fruit to eat and I eat it. See the result. See the result in the world today.

The result of one woman not willing to listen to her husband whom God had appointed over her. Rebellion against authority. Why are we afraid to rebel against authority on the roads? Why don't you drive on the other side of the road? Because you'll be caught.

You'll be put in prison. We are scared of punishment. That type of obedience to authority means nothing.

If it's a situation where you be caught by the police or arrested or something like that we submit to authority means nothing. It's in situations where there is no such danger of imprisonment. For example in a church.

If you rebel against the elders or you speak against the elders and you don't listen to them. You're not going to be arrested. You know that.

You can do what you like. You wouldn't do that on the road. You wouldn't do that in your office because your boss will fire you and you'll be without a job next week.

There you'll submit. But in the church I found a lot of rebellion in the churches because nobody's going to arrest you. There's no police.

You can do what you like. That's where God tests you. I told you in testimony you just heard how God tested me.

I believe God tests us many times. I went through five years of wondering what in the world am I supposed to do because I was falsely accused misunderstood and God told me to keep my mouth shut. And I did that.

I never defended myself till one day God baptized me in the Holy Spirit five or six years later and said I'll give you a ministry now myself. And he gave me a ministry which I didn't get from any man. And that's how CFC started and all the many CFC churches that have come since then in many many lands.

So what I'm trying to say is if you listen to God when he tells you to keep your mouth shut and don't defend yourself you'll find God has some purpose in it. When Jesus sent out his disciples, I'm going to show you that verse that I quoted in Mark 16 He said go into all the world Mark 16 15 and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and is baptized shall be saved and he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

And they knew exactly what that meant when Peter obeyed that. Now listen to see how Peter obeyed that command of God. When that command of Jesus in Acts chapter 2 when he obeyed that command and he preached the gospel in Acts chapter 2 about salvation through Christ.

And people came to him at the end of the sermon and said what shall we do? Acts 2 37 he said repent. Acts 2 38 repent and be baptized. So this is the message that John the Baptist came preaching.

This is the message that the apostles preached. And I want to show you one more verse in Matthew 4. John the Baptist had come preaching repent, repent, repent, repent. One day Jesus heard we read here in verse Matthew 4 12.

Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, imprisoned. The man who had been preaching repent, repent, repent, repent had been imprisoned. And Jesus heard that.

From that time, listen to this, from that time, verse 17, Jesus began to preach repent, repent, repent. It's like a relay race. John the Baptist had run the first leg of that race and he handed over the baton.

His race was over, he was imprisoned. Jesus took that baton and began to preach the same thing, repent. And then Jesus ran the second leg of that race and handed it over to Peter.

And what did Peter preach? Repent. And then the apostles, let's turn to Acts chapter 20. It's important for us to see this.

Acts chapter 20. Paul was in Ephesus for three years preaching day and night. And what did he preach? Let me show you first of all where he says he's preached for three years.

Acts 20 verse 31. Day and night for three years I did not cease to admonish you, correct you. Admonish is a strong word.

I never stopped correcting you for three years. Imagine a man getting up morning and night for three years and correcting you. This is wrong, that is wrong, the other thing is wrong.

That's the meaning of admonishing. And now he's going, he's saying goodbye to the elders. He says, I've been with you for three years and I want to give you some passing advice.

I want you to remember Acts 20 verse 18. From the first day I set foot in Asia, I served the Lord with all humility, verse 19. And I did not shrink from declaring, verse 20, what was profitable for you.

From the first day I was telling you what is profitable for you. And what was the thing I preached to you from the very first day which is profitable for you? Verse 21, repentance toward God about turn from your sin for three years, day and night. Paul had taken over the baton and he was running that race.

So I find that this is what the Lord emphasizes and I believe the reason why, one reason why God raised up CFC churches among other churches I hope is to proclaim this message of repentance and I pray that message will never be lost in this church or any other church. Turn around from sin. So we saw sin is rebellion against authority, sin is pride.

Let me give you another definition of sin. If you understand what sin is, then we can understand what turning around from sin is. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 All have sinned and that is called coming short of the glory of God.

God's standard is here, it's not just getting pass marks. You know in India if you get 40 percent, it's called pass marks. You got promoted to the next class.

But a good student will aim for 100 percent not 40 percent. I've often asked this question sometimes in India. Supposing the result of the final examinations are declared and one student got 40 percent passed, he got promoted.

Another student got 98 percent. Who will be happier when they go home? We'll say both of them will be happy. I say no.

The one who got 40 percent will come home Mom, I passed. You thought I'd fail. I passed.

I'm promoted to the next class. The one who got 98 percent says oh mom I missed by two marks. I missed 100 percent.

I feel so sad. He's the one who's sad because he doesn't aim for 40 percent. He aims for 100 percent.

Now I want to tell you among Christians also in churches there are to these two types of people. Those who do the bare minimum. Let me aim for 40 percent.

I passed. I've done the bare minimum. I'm accepted as a good brother in the church.

There are others who grieve because they came two marks short of 100 percent. And I believe all of you, if you ask yourself, you'll see yourself which category you're in. I'm not here to judge that.

And when we repent, we have to also set right the things we did wrong in the past. See Luke chapter 19. Luke's gospel chapter 19.

If you do a thorough repentance, it's like cleaning out all the poison from your system. It's like when a doctor removes a cancer. He wants to remove as much of the cancer as possible so it doesn't spread.

When an incomplete removal of cancer is done in a surgery, the cancer spreads to other places. And it's like that. If you do an incomplete repentance in your life, like a cancer, it'll spread to other parts of your body.

Luke 19. I mention this because this is the only place in all the gospels that Jesus ever said about someone, salvation has come to this person. He never said that anywhere else.

Zacchaeus, who was a tax collector, doing a lot of wrong things, a crooked tax collector who made a lot of money. Jesus was prompted to go to his house. He told him in verse 5, Zacchaeus, hurry up.

I've got to come down to your house. I'm going to stay in your house. Verse 6, he hurried, came down from the tree gladly.

And the people grumbled saying he's gone. Jesus has gone to be the house of a man who's a sinner. Now listen to this.

Have you ever meditated on verse 8? They were going to Zacchaeus' house. Picture this in your mind. When you read the Bible, use your imagination and picture it in your mind.

Jesus and Zacchaeus walking towards Zacchaeus' house. And then Oliver suddenly really stopped. He stopped outside the gate of his house.

And said, Lord, let me expand his words. You know, he says half my goods I give to the poor and if I've cheated anybody I'll give back four times. Why did he say that? I want to expand what he said.

Lord, this house has been built with money that I got by cheating other people. You see this grand house? I cheated a lot of people and made this house with their money. It's not mine.

It's not righteously mine. So before you enter into my house, I want to set that right. You're a holy man.

I don't want you to come to this house, a house which is created by sin. I want to set things right before you come into my house. So I promise you, Lord, I'm going to check up on the names and addresses of all the people I've cheated in my life.

And I'm a tax collector. I know that if I cheated from them ten years ago, they've lost interest for ten years. They could have doubled or tripled their money in ten years.

So I'm not going to just give them back their money. I'm going to be righteous. I'm going to count the interest and compound interest.

And I'm going to give them back four times what I took from them. And then there are a whole lot of other people I cheated. I don't even know what their address are.

I don't know where they are living. But I can't keep that money in my bank account. It's unrighteous.

I will give it to the poor so that I don't have one cent in my bank account which is not righteously mine. You see what Zakir said? I don't want one cent in my bank account which is not righteously earned which I have earned by my own hard work. All the rest I'm going to give away.

Then Jesus said, wow, salvation has come to this house. It's the only time Jesus ever said that about any man. And he said this is a true son of Abraham.

It's the only time Jesus ever said about anyone this is a son of Abraham. Why a son of Abraham? Because when Abraham went and fought the battle against the people who had robbed Sodom and got back all the goods and the law in war was that if you defeat somebody all the goods are yours. Mephibosheth said, listen, God is the possessor of heaven and earth.

Don't worry about these earthly things. And when the king of Sodom said, okay, according to the law of battle you can take all the goods. You know what Abraham told Sodom's king? I will not even take a shoelace from you.

I don't want any of your money. What I have earned honestly, Abraham says, that's enough for me. I don't even want a shoelace.

Can you imagine? I don't even want a shoelace. Leave alone all the other things. Zacchaeus had the same attitude.

That's why Jesus said he's a true son of Abraham. What about you, my brothers and sisters? Whenever you did repent, did you set right all the things of the past? That's one of the things the Lord spoke to me. When I got converted I had already cheated the government of customs duty.

Customs duty, you know, when you go through come from another country to the country you bring things which you have bought there. You have to pay a certain customs duty before you enter the country. Now I was on a ship with all the other naval officers.

We used to go different countries and we'd buy things that are cheaper outside than in India. And the thing is we don't have to go ashore because we're living on the ship. We don't go through any customs because we're living on the ship the whole time.

And so every naval officer would get all these things. There's nothing to declare. Nobody's going to come check anything because you're living in the house.

But you're supposed to declare it. You're supposed to tell the government that you're an Indian citizen and you brought this much thing and you must pay the duty. So nobody paid it and I never paid it either.

But when I got converted the Lord reminded me, you have cheated the government one or two years ago of that customs duty and sit down and calculate it and return it. So I sat down I was 20 years old. I sat down and calculated it and came to four months salary.

I was getting a pretty good salary as a naval officer and a four month salary and I was a bit unsure in calculating I got two figures. One was this much and the other was about 20% more. Which should I choose? So I chose naturally you know as human nature is to choose the 20% less.

I'll give that much back and you won't believe it. The next day my Bible reading was from Leviticus chapter 6 and I was reading Leviticus chapter 6 and I read there that if any verse 3, if anybody has sworn falsely or verse 2 if a person has sinned, Leviticus 6 2 and taken something through robbery or extorted his companion when he restores it, listen to this, when he restores verse 4, he must make restitution, verse 5 and add 20% to it to the direct answer to my question add 20% which is exactly what I was thinking there. So what I did was I totaled up the amount.

It took me a number of months to accumulate that money and I went to the government and I gave it back and when I found the department where I stole it from, the customs department I went there. There was no window for honest people coming to return cheated money. There was no such window.

So I couldn't give it there. So I had to find some other way in which to give back to that government to make sure that like Zacchaeus, not one cent would remain in my money, in my bank account. The second thing the Lord reminded me of was when I was a young boy 10-12 years old and we used to collect foreign stamps and I was, you know, exchange stamps with others and one day, this is 10 years earlier I cheated and I took a person's stamp when he was not looking and the Lord said, apologize to him.

He had stopped collecting stamps, I had stopped collecting. It's worthless, these stamps are all worthless. I said, Lord, he's going to think I'm a fool and I tell you it was more difficult for me to write that letter than to repay this huge amount of money but I sat down and wrote that letter to that person saying, I'm sorry 10 years ago when we were collecting stamps I stole a stamp from you you don't collect stamps, I don't collect stamps today but I'm really sorry about it.

The Lord was testing me are you willing to humble yourself and set it right? Years later the Lord told me this if you had not set that right that time when you were 20 years old, you would have been dragging a chain on your leg all these years there are many Christians who are dragging a chain on their leg all their life because something not set right. I want to ask you my brother, sister, have you got anything in your home which you have borrowed and not returned? A book perhaps? Completely forgot to return it? Money that you borrowed, the Bible says in Romans 13.8, don't owe anybody anything. I thank God that in my entire life I've never been in debt to anybody for one cent my wife and I lived with what little I had when we had little, we lived with little when we could not afford a washing machine, we washed with our hands for many years and when we could afford one, then only we bought anything we never believed in this buy now pay later, that's getting into debt and the Bible says owe no man anything.

I had to repent of anything that I did which was wrong and I see the result in my life, my life has been a supremely happy life and I found the anointing of the Holy Spirit fresh and God's given me a ministry to other people, it's all dependent on God seeing that you set things right. I believe there are people here, you could have had a ministry not necessarily preaching in the pulpit of blessing others and bringing people to Christ if you had set certain things right in your life when I bring a person to Christ, I put him in a church I put them together in a church, that's what Paul did today's evangelists say I brought thousands of people there to Christ, thousands of people here to Christ, you ask them where are they I don't know, I hope they went to some church, but if you ask Paul, hey Paul I heard you brought people to Christ to Christ in Philippi, where are they, he said come with me I'll take you to Philippi, I'll take you to Thessalonica, I'll take you to Corinth, I'll show you all the people I brought to Christ, they are in this church that is how the early Christians brought people to Christ, it was not just bringing them to Christ, okay go where you like see we have drifted so much from true Christianity this is what we are seeking to restore in CFC dear brothers and sisters, I want to say that God wants what did he say, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth I want to say to you, every one of you, God wants to fill you with the Holy Spirit and make you a witness, it's not just the preachers who are to bring people to Christ you are to bring people to Christ and lead them into the church make sure that your hands are clean I used to say in my younger days don't beg, don't borrow, don't steal begging, borrowing, stealing are forbidden for Christians if you steal, return it, set it right if you borrow, return it and of course don't beg, this is a registry business of begging people to give money for my baby, give money for my wedding, get rid of it everything in your house you should have honestly earned with your own money not with somebody else's money, be ashamed if you've got things in your house that you did not earn with your own money I don't have anything in my house which I didn't earn with my own money, I don't want it this is how Jesus lived and this is a calling for all of us dear brothers, if you take these things, if you take repentance in these areas seriously I believe you will see a tremendous difference in your life even in the next few months may God bless you all, Amen