Value Everyone in the Body of Christ

I want to read a verse in Colossians. There are many areas in our life where we need to cleanse ourselves to become like Christ. The Christian life is you start with ABC and get educated all the way to, spiritually speaking, postgraduate degrees.

And that is really growing into the likeness of Christ. And the likeness of Christ has got many, many areas. We spoke often about our thought life, our tongue, what we look at, lusting with the eyes, speaking words with the tongue that hurt people.

But here is another area that also we need to think of. In Colossians in chapter 3, he speaks of a number of things in verse 8. Put these all aside, he says. Colossians chapter 3. Put these all aside.

Verse 8. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech. Don't lie. Don't tell lies to one another.

Verse 9. Because you put on the old self and you put on the new. Now these are things we all recognize as evil. None of us would want to be indulged in verse 8. Anger or wrath or malice or slander or abusive speech.

I don't think anybody here would want to indulge in these. I mean, accidentally something may slip out of our mouth, but we'd hate it immediately and we'd repent. So these are things that are very obvious.

Telling lies. That also, I think almost all of us would hesitate ever to do it. And then it says here further something, another area where we have to become Christ-like.

You put on the new self which is renewed according to the image of one who created him. We are made in the image of Jesus Christ little by little. And it says in this renewed image, one distinctive feature of this renewed image is not just freedom from anger and malice and wrath and slander and all that.

That's all there. That's all there. But also that we will not make a distinction between people in the church.

That there'll be no distinction. That as I look at people and fellowship with people, it'll make absolutely no difference to me whether the person is a Greek, eleven, or a Jew. Greek means a Gentile.

The Jewish people divided the world into two categories, Jews and Greeks, or Jews and Gentiles. And I've heard it said, I don't know how true it is, that a lot of Jewish men would get up in the morning and say, Lord I thank you that I'm not a Gentile. That was the way they despised the Gentiles.

And you know one of the things that they accused Jesus of, that he was friendly with Gentiles. And so when they became Christians, it was a tremendous problem for them to become one with these people whom they had spent their lives saying, I thank God I'm not like them. From childhood, their parents taught them, you're a Jew, you're not a Gentile.

And now all of a sudden they become Christians and they have to not just bear with them or love them, but welcome them as, you're my brother, I'm one with you. It was really tough. Circumcised and uncircumcised, that's how they were distinguished.

And barbarian. See these are, when they were cultured, Jewish people were cultured, and the Greeks also were very cultured in those days. When they became Christians, they wouldn't have the bad habits that barbarians have, who would probably hold their hands and blow their noses in public and do all types of uncouth things according to the cultured people.

It's not a sin, but it's not decent. And there were a lot of other decent things, indecent things they would do in public, because they were barbarians, like people who grew up in the jungle. And they, imagine such a person coming and sitting in the church and is born again.

He really loves the Lord, he hasn't, he hasn't become cultured. He doesn't know how to say please and thank you, and all these things which sometimes we say meaninglessly. And he's not taught that.

And then you have to fellowship with him and love him. Not, there's a difference between bearing with somebody and loving somebody. Jesus did not say all men will know you're my disciples when you can bear with each other.

Bearing with each other is the attitude of a one who knows I'm superior. But this guy's inferior, so I have to bear with him. I want to ask you my brothers and sisters, if you're born again, do you have that inner attitude towards somebody? Forget the whole world, but this church, do you have that inner attitude? You feel you're a bit superior, maybe because of your culture or your race.

You know how in this country in the past, there's been a tremendous difference between those, the African Americans who were brought here as slaves and their descendants. And the, and the other Americans who came here from Europe. I mean, none of them grew up here.

None of them were original to this country. The people original to this country were what we used to call in India, the red Indians. But both came from some, some the Ameri, the white Americans came from Europe and the black Americans came from Africa.

What's the difference? Two different parts of the world they came from, but somehow one felt superior to the other because they're more educated and they were cultured and they had money and all that. And the others came as slaves and they grew up with the tremendous limitations. And that continues even to today, where you go to some churches and it's all black.

Everybody. Or they go to some other church, it's all white. Because they can't get along with each other.

And then we, we had, you know, people, people don't think that in India you don't have that problem. You're all Indians. I'll tell you, if you live in India, you realize they're exactly the same problem in India too.

There's a group in India called the Scheduled Castes. It's come down from Hinduism from 3,000 years. The upper class and the lower class.

The lower class are the people who clean the toilets and do the dirty jobs and sweepers. And, and now these people become Christians. And then you have the cultured upper class of, among the Hindus who are called Brahmins, who were upper class priests.

And they, there's a clear distinction in, in that Hindu culture. They don't look, they look down, in fact, I've heard that in some cases, they would look down on these lower class people so much that if that person walked by them and a shadow fell on them, these upper class people would say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have a shower now. Because this guy's shadow fell on me.

And then such people become Christians. And they come into the church. And we've had people in our churches in India from all these different communities.

And I remember my wife and I, God specially called us to go and work among these really poor people. The poor, lower class people. And I've spent 40 years traveling by bus every year to these places to speak to these people and tell them about Jesus.

And so many thousands of them came to Christ. And we have churches, 30, 40 churches in their midst now. And, and they come to our conferences and we're exactly, we're one with each other.

Highly educated, cultured computer scientists and whatnot. And these totally uncultured people who can't even speak English properly, they can't speak one sentence properly in English. And God made us one.

And that's been one of the tremendous blessings we've experienced in India. People of different cultures who come together and love one another. I remember when my, you know, sometimes the, the Hindu culture society, they wouldn't, they wouldn't allow their children to mingle with these other people in any, in any place in public.

And even if they went to school, they'd tell them to be careful about the lower class people. And many, there are Christian communities also in India who have that type of looking down on certain groups of people, that they make separate churches for them. This church is for the upper class Christians.

I'm talking about India. And this church is for the lower class Christians. And the one despises the other.

And you go to some of these upper class Christian churches and you'll never find a lower class Christian there. No, they're all upper class. It's really true.

And they're happy to mingle with each other because they're all of the same level. And I decided when we started, when we started CFC 51 years ago, I said that's never going to happen in a CFC church. We're going to have people from the highest to the lowest class, highly educated people.

And we'll, we'll have people there from the lowest classes. The people who clean the toilets. And they'll be welcomed just as well.

And I taught my children, don't go mingling with only the upper class children. Mingle with the lowest class children in this church and fellowship with them. And that is what saved my children from becoming Pharisees and proud, arrogant Christians.

Dear brothers and sisters, this is an area sometimes we don't think about. We think about avoiding anger and telling lies and sexual sin and immorality and stealing money and all that. But in this area, I find many Christians are blind.

There is, it says here, in, in this renewal, in the body of Christ, Colossians 3.11, there is no distinction. No distinction, zero. And do you think when Christ comes back, it says here, someone will sit at the right hand and left hand.

You think they're all going to be upper class people sitting there? Hey, don't be crazy. Don't, don't be so foolish. We'd be really surprised at the type of people who are going to mingle in heaven.

And I, if you're going to avoid them on earth, what are you going to do when you get to heaven? And Jesus deliberately did this. You know, in the days of Jesus, the, there was a group called the Samaritans. They were the people whom the Jews also despised.

The Jews despised the Samaritans. I'm not a, thank God, I'm not a Samaritan, and thank God, I'm not a Gentile. Because, you see, in, if you read in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel got split into two.

And the lower part of Israel, of the land of Israel, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin was one tribe. And the other ten tribes occupied the only top part, and that was called Israel. And the lower part of Israel was called Judah.

And the ten tribes had pretty ungodly kings. And so they went astray a lot after idols and they were captured by the Assyrians. Many years before the Babylonians captured the lower part of Israel.

And the Assyrians, they brought some of their Assyrian people into Samaria, which was the capital of, Samaria was the capital of the northern Israel. And the Samaritans came and lived there and mingled with the Jews. And there were mixed communities and children out of those mixed races.

And they were called the Samaritans. And the Jews despised them. They said, these are not pure Jews.

They are mixed with the Assyrians that have come down and mingled with our Jewish people. And they despised them. And I've heard, if it's true, that in Jesus' time, the Jews would, when they go from southern, in Jesus' time, the whole thing was one country.

And when they went from southern to Israel, I've heard that they would always bypass Samaria. They didn't want to go through Samaria. They felt polluted just to go through that city.

And they'd even take a longer route to avoid having anything to do with the Samaritans. And it's amazing to see how Jesus deliberately broke down that barrier. Let me show you one example in John chapter four.

We all say we want to be like Jesus. And here is one area where we need to be like him. John chapter four, verse three.

He left Judea and went away to Galilee. And if you see a map, you'll see Galilee is in the north, Judea is in the south. And the straight route is through Samaria.

You see that in a map. But the Jews would always avoid Samaria. They'd go around, even though it's a longer route, they'd go that way to Galilee.

But it says here he had to pass through Samaria, verse four. That means he's saying Jesus forced himself to pass through Samaria. And he got his disciples with him.

He wanted to break down this barrier in the minds of his disciples who had been brought up with this prejudice against another race or another group. Just like today, a lot of people have been brought up in this country also with the prejudice against some people of another community or another race. And they don't even see that as a sin, but they call themselves Christians.

And they mingle only with people of their own community. And Jesus came to deliberately break that down. And then we read here that, you see, they'd walked quite a distance from Judea to Samaria, and they were all weary and tired.

It says even Jesus, verse six, was weary. And he, it says in verse eight, his disciples had gone away to a city by foot. Why didn't Jesus go with the disciples to eat with them? They probably went there to eat.

Jesus was just as tired and weary, but he told his disciples, you go, I'm not coming. Why was that? Jesus was so sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit said, don't go with them for lunch today.

Sit here, there's a well here, sit down here. He lived moment by moment. He did, Jesus did not know the future except as the Holy Spirit revealed to him.

Remember, he came as a man just like us. It's tremendous challenge to me that Jesus became a man like us. But that's helped me know that I can follow him.

I can be, I can hear the Holy Spirit also. And be led by the Holy Spirit. And sure enough, there was a reason why the Holy Spirit made Jesus stand there.

And this Samaritan woman comes along. And this, remember, this is noon time. And a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.

Now, if you live in India, like I've done for years in the villages we've gone there. People come to draw water at five o'clock in the morning, not at 12 o'clock at noon. They need water, they don't have running water or taps in their house.

Every day, they have to go to the well and draw water for the day's need. Everybody, they need water to use in their toilets, they need water to cook food, and they have to get it early in the morning. Why did the Samaritan woman come at 12 o'clock in the afternoon to collect water? And I'll tell you why.

Because she was a despised woman who had divorced four times and was now sleeping around with a man who was not even her husband. And everybody knew that, and they despised her. First of all, because of all these things, even the other Samaritans despised her.

And so she would probably, if she came at five o'clock in the morning, all the other women would tease her so much and harass her so much. She got tired of that, she said, I'll go at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. So she was not just a Samaritan, she was a despised Samaritan.

And Jesus waited just to help that one woman. I tell you, when we say we want to follow Jesus, follow, follow, I will follow anywhere, everywhere, you better follow him here. To be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit tells you to go and mingle and fellowship with someone who's one of the most despised people in society, that's a person who's really wanting to follow Jesus and want to become like him.

And see, Jesus knew all about her. He said, you've had, verse 18, you've had five husbands. And the one you're now living with is not your husband.

And the woman tried to, she got embarrassed by that, and she tried to change the subject and said, let's change subject. You know, I want to know about worship, Lord. Can you tell me something about worship? Our fathers worshipped, verse 20, and we have told you to worship here.

Now most Christians say, hang on, hang on, we are talking about your divorce and your spiritual condition. That is how foolish Christians are. Look at Jesus.

When he saw that she was embarrassed, and they changed the subject, he went along with her. This is Christianity. When you see somebody embarrassed by something, you come down to their level, and you don't want to embarrass them anymore.

Boy, I learn so much when I see the way Jesus treated people. These are the little things, my brothers and sisters, you must see in the Bible. Never make another person feel embarrassed by anything you say or do.

And they feel awkward. Come down to their level. He says, okay, you want to talk about worship? I'll talk about worship.

I won't talk anymore about your divorce or when you're living with. And then I see here the most fantastic statement that Jesus ever spoke about worship. If I were to ask you, what is the most fantastic statement that Jesus ever spoke about worshiping God? It was not spoken to his disciples.

It was spoken to a despised Samaritan, almost a harlot. Here it is, verse 23, the middle of that verse. The true worshippers must worship the Father in spirit and truth.

For the Father seeks for such people to be worshippers. God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth.

This is the most profound statement on worship found anywhere in the Bible. And it was spoken by Jesus, not to his disciples. It was spoken by Jesus to a despised Samaritan woman who was a sinful woman.

I really love the way Jesus chose to whom he would speak some of his most profound statements, and I say, Lord, make me like that. Let me share God's wonderful truths with the illiterate and the uneducated. And it says here, those who worship God once, it says here that those who worship God, verse 24, must worship him in spirit and truth.

And this phrase is what challenged me, the last part of verse 23. The Father seeks for such worshippers. Have you read it? Has it gripped your heart? Heavenly Father, you are seeking not for people who will go to church, not for people who will read the Bible every day, all that is good.

He's seeking for worshippers who will worship in spirit and in truth. And when I read that some years ago, I said, Lord, please teach me what it is to worship in spirit and in truth. Have you ever prayed that prayer? The Father in heaven is longing, as he looked at this earth, for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

Where are the people who say, Lord, teach me that? If you are longing for that, many times the thought that comes to me is this. I don't know whether you know this Old Testament story. David was once running away from Saul.

Saul was trying to kill him. And Saul was in Bethlehem, which was David's hometown. And David was running away from place to place, protected from Saul and his army trying to kill him.

And David and his group of followers were all together. And once somewhere, he sat and he said, I grew up in, David says, I grew up. This is long before he became king.

I grew up in Bethlehem, and the water in that well was so good. I wish I got a taste of that water. And you know what some of his soldiers did? They took the risk of going into the midst of that army of Saul that were there, around that well.

Some were sleeping around there. They quietly went at night and took water from their well. Just because their leader, David, said, I want some water.

And they took the risk. They risked their lives. They could have been killed.

They took that water from the well and brought it to David. And David was so moved that his soldiers were willing to risk their life just because he made one statement. I wish I had some water from the well in Bethlehem.

Just that one sentence. And these people were so loyal, they went and brought it. And David said, I can't drink this water.

These people have risked their lives. It is their blood. And he poured it out.

You know, I compare that to my father in heaven saying, I wish somebody would worship me in spirit and in truth. He looks at the world just like David saying, I wish I could have some water from the well of Jerusalem. The father is saying, I wish somebody would worship me in spirit and in truth.

And I say, Lord, please, like those soldiers, show me what it means. And I have prayed that for so many, many times. When I get up in the morning, I say silently to the Lord, I want to worship you in spirit and in truth.

Because that's what you're looking, the father is seeking. The father is seeking, what does God lack? God lacks nothing. He's completely self-sufficient.

And yet he's seeking for something from me, from a wretched sinner who's been saved like me, he wants something. I say, Lord, I don't care if I don't do anything else for you. I want to worship you in spirit and truth.

To me, that's going to be the primary thing in my life. Preaching is going to be secondary. Traveling to different churches is secondary.

Preaching is secondary. I want to worship you in spirit and truth. That's going to be my goal in life.

Even if I don't do anything else, let me end my days as a worshiper. You know, this is so important. What is it that made the highest angel into a devil? God created all the angels and he made one.

We don't know his name. People call him Lucifer. Lucifer is just a Latin word for the morning star.

But the original name of Satan is not given anywhere in the Bible, and we don't need to know it. Anyway, let's call him Lucifer. And he wanted to, he was ahead of the angels already.

And he was not satisfied with it. Everybody was worshiping God, all the angels, and this man had a covetous desire. I want some of them to worship me.

And he said, I want to be like God. And imagine the stupidity. If you want to know something of the stupidity of the devil, it is his trying to be like God.

That's what made him the devil. And this is the stupid person that multitudes of people are following. And this is the stupid person, sometimes believers do what he prompts them to do.

When the devil prompts you to tell a little lie, just to get out of a situation. He prompts you to be just slightly unfaithful with money. He prompts you not to forgive that other person who hurt you.

That's the devil. He's trying to make a fool of you as well. Mingle only with people in your own community.

That person's a little uncultured and uncouth. Avoid that person. And there are believers who listen to the devil.

Even though they read in God's word what it says. That in Christ we are all one. That there's no difference, the color of a person's skin makes zero difference to me.

I want to ask you, my dear brothers and sisters, a straight question. You don't have to answer it to me. I want you to answer it to Jesus Christ, who's in our midst today.

You answer it silently to him. Does the color of the skin of a brother make even the slightest difference to you in wanting to have fellowship with him or her? Even the slightest. It could be either way.

White or black or brown or yellow or whatever it is. If it makes the slightest difference, I have one bit of advice for you. It says in Philippians chapter two, work out your salvation with fear and trembling because you are totally unlike Christ.

You are totally unlike Jesus Christ. Work out your salvation, not just work out your salvation, but work out your salvation, fear and trembling, because you will end up in the wrong place when Christ comes back. Jesus deliberately did this.

You know, when he told a story of Luke chapter 10, how to treat some needy person. There was a man going down Luke chapter 10 verse 30, and he fell among robbers. You know the story.

And he was beaten and left half dead, and a priest went by. A priest is a guy who's supposed to be the most holy person. Went by, ignored him, because he was rushing for the meeting.

The Levite, the great scholar, the Levites are the scholars. He saw him and he also missed the meeting. Sorry, I've got to go to the meeting.

Can't help you, brother. But a Samaritan, see how Jesus takes the story in Luke 10, 33. It's a Samaritan he uses in the story.

The despised group of people, he takes one of those despised people and says that's the one who came and felt compassion on him. And came to him and bandaged up his wounds and poured in oil and wine. And put him on his, you know, what is this a picture of? Who is this person lying battered on the road? It's you and me.

We're the ones lying on the roadside battered by the devil. And the religious people come along and they bypass us. All the big religious people, the priests and the archbishops and the popes bypass us.

And Jesus compares himself to a Samaritan. See that. This Samaritan is Jesus.

He sees me down by the wayside and he picks me up and pays the price. He goes to the, takes me to the church and pays the price and says I'll take care of him, I'll pay for it. I'll pay for it completely.

He paid for it on the cross and he said if there's more payment I'll pay for it. See how Jesus uses a Samaritan as a picture of himself. That despised person.

I delight in that. This is the savior I follow. Well, I could go you, I show you many examples like this in the Gospels which you, you don't see it because you don't look for it.

Matthew 15, let me give you one more example and I'll finish. Jesus was hanging around Galilee in the, you know, the, if you look at a map, the Sea of Galilee near Capernaum. And it says here, from there, verse, this is Matthew 15 and verse 21.

He went towards the district of Tyre and Sidon. Now when I read that, I turn to the back of my Bible and look at the map. And I got some spiritual help by looking at a map.

And I see from the Sea of Galilee to Tyre and Sidon is about 50 to 80 miles. Okay, let's assume that it's, say, 60 miles. And he walks there.

He didn't have a chariot, he didn't have horses. How long does it take to walk 60 miles? None of us have ever walked 60 miles. Even if you walk at a very fast pace, it'll take you a whole day.

And if you walk at a leisurely place with so many disciples, probably take you one or two days to get there. And he walks all the way, one or two days, walking, walking, walking, walking, walking. And these are not even Jews.

These are non-Jews. These are the despised people whom the Jews despise. And there he meets a Canaanite woman.

A Canaanite, those are the people whom Jews despised. Those are the people who, when the times of Joshua were supposed to be killed and slaughtered, some of them survived because they were not all killed. This is one of that group who the Jews knew that God said, kill them all and occupy this land.

And this is one of those leftovers, Canaanites whom the Jews despised. And this Canaanite woman comes to Jesus and says in Matthew 15, 22. Son of David, please have mercy on me because my daughter is cruelly demon possessed.

Jesus walked the 60 miles just to help that one woman. Can you believe that? And he protests her humility first and says, I can't give the children's bread to dogs, verse 26. And he said that because I believe every word that Jesus spoke was prompted by the Holy Spirit.

He was not treating her like a dog, you've got to understand here. He wanted his disciples to hear the response that this woman gave when Jesus apparently called her a dog. You see, because the Jews would call all of the Canaanites are dogs, we are the people sitting at the head of the table, these are dogs.

And Jesus wanted his disciples to hear the response of this woman. And she says, Lord, okay, even the dogs, verse 27, eat the crumbs. So I don't want the bread on the table, no.

At least give me a little crumb that falls from the table. And Jesus said to her, listen to this, something which he never said to any of his 12 disciples. Woman, great is your faith.

I would have given anything to hear Jesus say that to me. This woman heard something which the disciples never got to hear from Jesus. Not to a single one of the disciples did Jesus say, great is your faith.

He wanted to teach his disciples a lesson. This Canaanites whom you despise, and not only despise, and that also not a Canaanite man, but a woman. The Jews despised women more than men.

They were proud they were men, they despised the women. That's why you find in the genealogies, they don't mention any women's names. It's always men.

You read that Luke chapter three, the genealogy of Mary, even Mary's name is not mentioned there. It's amazing how they despised women to such an extent. And here's a Canaanite and a woman.

And Jesus says, woman, great is your faith. I love the way Jesus used to exalt these people. It's done for you, and a daughter was healed at once by her faith.

What did Jesus do then? Verse 29, departing from there, Jesus went to the Sea of Galilee. Don't just read that sentence. Meditate on it.

He walked another 60 miles back to Galilee. So what do you learn from this passage? I see what I get. He walked two days to help one woman.

He was led by the Holy Spirit. He didn't know what was happening there, because he's led day by day. And the Holy Spirit said, go to Tyre and Sidon.

He doesn't know what's coming there. But he listens to the Holy Spirit and goes there, and he sees there's a needy person. Remember, he was a man just like us, prompted by the Holy Spirit day by day.

And he gets there and he sees this woman and heals the child, and the Holy Spirit says, go back. Walks 62 days up, two days back, just to heal one Samaritan woman's demon-possessed child. I see that, and I say, Lord Jesus, make me like you.

I read these passages in scripture, and I say, Lord, make me like you. Have you ever read this passage and said, Lord, make me like you? Maybe make me willing to go any distance to help somebody in need. Maybe one person, maybe one despised, low-class person.

I'll tell you how the Lord prompted me when I left my job in the Navy. Showed me that to whom did Jesus go to preach. Luke chapter four, the first message that Jesus preached in Nazareth.

He said in Luke 418, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor. Why to the poor, Lord? Aren't all people the same to you? He came to preach the gospel to the poor. Luke 418, it's the first sermon he preached in Nazareth.

Okay, another example, just to find out to whom did Jesus preach. Matthew's gospel in chapter 11, John the Baptist had been imprisoned and he was wondering why he was not released. If Jesus is the Messiah, why am I in prison? He should open the prison doors.

And so he's, you read here, John, Matthew 11, verse 2, John is imprisoned. And he sends word by his disciples to Christ saying, listen to this. Are you really the Messiah? This is the man who saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descending saying, this is my beloved son, he heard it.

He heard what nobody else in Israel heard. And he comes and says, are you really the one? He lost faith just because the Lord did not deliver him from prison. Do you ever get like that where you expect the Lord to deliver you from very difficult situation and he doesn't do it and you begin to lose faith in him? Maybe some sickness, he doesn't heal you.

You prayed and prayed and prayed, you didn't get healed. Or some difficult situation, you knew the Lord could easily deliver you from that and you don't get healed and you lose your faith. That's what happened to John the Baptist.

But do you know what Jesus said about John the Baptist? Verse 11, even though John the Baptist spoke like this about him, he knew that it was because of a time of pressure. He said in Matthew 11, among all the human beings born in the world till that time, from the time of Adam, Matthew 11, 11, there's no one greater than John the Baptist. What a commendation to someone who said, I've lost faith in this.

Are you really the Messiah? Jesus knew that that person said that in a moment of weakness. And I'm encouraged by that because sometimes in a moment of weakness, you may also say something. You and I may say something in unbelief.

Lord, how is this? Why did this happen? And he doesn't give up on us. He knows that it is in a moment of pressure and weakness that he said that. He overlooks it, and he appreciates you still.

Remember that. He doesn't give up on you just because you said that stupid thing in that moment of weakness. But the thing I want you to notice is, what does he tell his disciples, John's disciples, he says, go back to John's disciples.

He tells John's disciples, go back to John, Matthew 11, 4, and tell him. Tell him what you see here. The blinds receive sight, the lame walk, Matthew 11, 5, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

What about the rich? The poor have the gospel preached. The reason I mention that is, when I left the Navy to serve the Lord, I looked around to see what my ministry was going to be. And I saw that all the great evangelists who came from the United States, and Europe, and all to India, always preached it to the rich people in the cities.

Every single campaign of the great world famous evangelists was in the big cities of Delhi, Bombay, Madras, big, big cities. They were always there, where the richest people in India lived. And the Lord said, I came to preach the gospel to the poor.

So I don't want you to go there. And so, that's how the Lord called me to go to the poorest villages in India. For 40 years, I used to sit in those buses for 16 hours through bumpy roads, and it was a blessing of my life.

And later on, my wife would join me as well, because the children were at home. She wouldn't come in the early years, couldn't come. But once the children went to college, she could travel with me.

For 25 years, she would conduct clinics for these poor people. They came from villages where there was not even a pharmacy, leave alone a doctor, no doctor, no hospital, no pharmacy. And they looked forward to the opportunities to get treated.

And my wife would have to go and not only treat them, but take medicines as well. Because they were too poor to buy medicine, and first of all, there was no pharmacy in their village to buy a medicine. And we had such a tremendous joy to serve these people and treat them exactly like the cultured, educated believers we had in Bangalore.

They were just the same, and we loved them. And sometimes you'd say we loved them more than the cultured, educated people. There's such a tremendous blessing that we were blessed.

I was blessed, and I know Annie was blessed as well. This is how we built the body of Christ in many parts of India. And my life is supremely happy as I look back over these years, 50 years that the Lord gave us the opportunity to serve.

I want to encourage you, I'm an extremely happy Christian today, supremely happy Christian. And I want to encourage you, my brothers, if you want to be a happy Christian as you come to the end of your life with no complaint against anybody but rejoicing and happy, ready to meet the Lord wholeheartedly, treat everybody the same. Don't make a distinction between one believer or another because of language, culture, color of skin, education, or whatever there be.

Barbarians, you know the Scythians, there's a reason about Scythians. I studied about the Scythians. The barbarians are the absolutely uncultured, uncouth people.

The Scythians were the ones whom the barbarians considered barbarian and uncouth. Wow, that's really the lowest rung of the ladder. And God says, these are the ones I've chosen.

We're going to meet them in heaven. And I tell you, I'm going to look forward to meet them in heaven. And when I meet them, the ones I've met in India, I rejoice that I never despised any one of them at any time.

Everybody in the church was exactly the same to me. And their upbringing or culture or language or anything didn't make any difference. That is an important part of your Christianity.

That's what I wanted to say. God bless you.