The Simple Gospel Message - Part 3

True Christian life is one where we receive Jesus Christ as not just someone who is going to forgive my sins and take me to heaven when I die, like a lot of churches preach, which is true, but more than that, one who is going to walk with me all through life in every decision I take, helping me, guiding me in everything. You see, one of the most important decisions which many of you sitting here are going to make is the decision of marriage, physical marriage I'm talking about now. You come to that age, a marriageable age, and then you have to decide you're going to get married to somebody.

And that's another advantage of yielding your life to Christ and to God when you're young, because marriage, humanly speaking, is the most important decision a man's ever going to make on this earth. It's more important than a job. Why? Because if you're not happy with your job, you can throw it away and take another one.

But if you decide six months after you got married that you married the wrong person, what are you going to do? That's why it's such an important decision. And that's another reason why it's good to find God and Christ when you're young, because you've got somebody to help you and guide you in taking that most important decision in life. I got married 35 years ago.

I'm a very happily married man today. But before I got married, I prayed to God. I was married to Christ spiritually.

And I sought His guidance in marriage. Isn't it wonderful to have someone with you who knows the whole future, who knows all the dangers that lie ahead of you for the next to the end of your life, and steers your path avoiding those dangers? That's what true Christianity is. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? To take you through life.

I mean, if you're in a strange city and you've got to travel a long distance to some place, and someone says, well, I'll take you in my car and he takes you all the way this way, that way to the right place. Isn't that good? It's something like that. Life is a strange city.

I don't know the byways and the roads. I don't know where I should turn left and where I should turn right. And you find the same thing in different situations in life.

And particularly when it comes to marriage. When I see the number of unhappy marriages there are, even among people who call themselves Christians. I tell you, boy, I feel scared.

I feel sorry for the man who's got to make that decision on his own. I mean, how do you know how this is going to turn out? How do you know how this girl is going to turn out? Isn't it good to have someone like Jesus Christ who not only knows the future, but knows everybody inside out. And if you humble yourself and say, Lord, I don't want to take a single decision in my life without consulting you.

And you come to the most important decision in life, which is marriage. You say, Lord, I want to consult you. And I want to seek your will.

And He guides you. He guided me. He's got a number of others that I know who are very happily married today.

And it's wonderful. That's all I can say, to have someone like that. And I just use the example of marriage, but in other decisions too.

You know, we have to make so many decisions in life and we don't know the consequences of going down that road. I don't know whether, for example, if I'm in a strange city and I'm driving down a road, I don't know whether this reaches to a dead end or whether it's going to take me away from my destination or not. And it's good to have a guide.

So that's the other thing Christianity is. It's like someone who's going to be your guide and leader. I mean, if I were to use the picture of marriage again spiritually, think of an orphan girl who has no parents, no money, helpless, you know, in very dangerous situations because she has no parents to protect her.

And all alone living in a hostel and trying to look for a job. And then some wonderful man, well-placed man marries her. Can you imagine the change that will come in her life? This insecure orphan girl living all by herself, wondering, anxious, and would have probably committed suicide, who could have been exploited by so many young men.

And one day, one wonderful young man marries her, sets her up in their own home, and she becomes a queen of a home. Don't you think that there'd be quite some change in her life after that? What a difference that now she's secure. Now she's got a protector.

Now she's got someone to guide her. She doesn't have to take all her decisions by herself. This is a picture of true Christianity, of giving our life to Christ and allowing Him to become Lord of our life.

And saying, Lord, I want you to guide me. I want you to lead me. I want you to pilot me through these difficult waters of life.

And that's what God wants to do for you. See, when you're young, you don't think much about the end of life. You say, well, I've got plenty of years to live.

Of course, that's not true because, you know, in every day in Bangalore, somebody dies crossing the road. There are more people who die crossing the road in Bangalore than taking the flights out of Bangalore. And every day somebody dies, somewhere or the other.

So we can't, any of us can't say we're going to live a long life. I hope it won't happen to any of us. But, you know, life is so risky.

But even if you do live a long life, you know, you must think of the time when you come to the end of life. You're going to look back and see how you lived your life. Was it in a worthwhile way? It's like, suppose you have a lot of money and you foolishly waste it.

And then you, a couple of years later, you find this big inheritance that you got from your father is all wasted. And then you'll begin to think, oh, I wish I'd been a little more careful. And that's how a lot of people are going to feel when they come to the end of their life.

Lots, I'm not talking about tens or hundreds, millions, when they come to the end of their life, they look back and say, boy, I wish I'd made certain other decisions when I was younger. Your entire future, the type of feeling you're going to have at the end of life depends on the little, little decisions that you make in life. I told you that marriage was the most important decision.

And it's wonderful to have someone to guide you to marry the right person at that time. But it's not just that. There are so many other decisions in life which we take.

For example, a young man decides one day to try one of these harmful drugs like marijuana or cocaine or something like that. And there's so many cases of people who are gradually trapped in it. They begin to take it and then they can't give up their longing for it.

They start with one and then try it a little more. They think, you know, I can control myself. And after a while, they are hooked.

And then most of them can't escape. I mean, a few do escape by God's grace, but most of them can't escape. And many of them die young.

And even those who live, if they have taken it long enough, their brains are damaged. It all started with one little decision. Sometime when he was 17 or 18, he took a little decision.

Let me experiment with this new thing that my friends are talking about, which they say will give me a kick. Okay. It could be drugs, it could be alcohol, it could be... There are so many things that ruin our body.

And there are even more things that ruin our mind. Pornographic literature and filthy magazines, which you think that they don't do as much evil as drugs. They do.

The only thing is drugs harm the body and all that type of stuff harms the mind. Now, how many of you believe that your body is more important than your mind? I hope there's nobody here like that.