What It Means to Be a Disciple of Jesus

In the Christian world, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. But if you read the Gospels, very rarely Jesus spoke about believe in me. The word he used most often was follow me, follow me, follow me, follow me.

And if anyone will follow me, this is what he'll receive and the conditions for following. So why is it that through the centuries the Christian world has switched from follow me to believe in me. You never hear a gospel message saying follow Jesus.

The gospel message is always believe in Jesus. And that's one reason for the shallow third-rate good-for-nothing Christianity that we see in more than 90% of churches, even churches that preach the true gospel. Now I'm not saying that lightly.

I have lived 65 years as a Christian. I've traveled many countries, seen churches of all denominations from Roman Catholic to Salon Pentecostal and everything in between. And I've seen it.

I've seen the hollowness, the emptiness. It's all because it's believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And follow me, follow the Lord as not being emphasized because believe is just saying, what is it? I believe the earth goes around the Sun.

How does it affect me? It doesn't affect me at one bit. I believe in the stars and the planets. So what? I believe God created the heaven and the earth.

But following is quite another thing. And I want to ask all of you sitting here, please listen carefully. In your life, are you following Jesus every day? You don't have to answer that to me, but answer that to yourself.

If I were to ask you, do you believe in Jesus every day? Every one of you will raise your hand. Was there a day in your life in the last one year that you did not believe in Jesus Christ? No. You believe in Jesus Christ, of course.

But if I were to ask you, just in the last five months of this year, was there a day when you did not follow Jesus in the way you spoke, in the way you behaved, in the way you conducted yourself in your home, in your office? Then you begin to think. So that's why it is very important for you to change this idea of belief. Belief, as far as Christ is concerned, means follow.

It means a commitment. Why is the church called the bride of Jesus Christ? Throughout the New Testament, or especially in Revelation, it's exactly like those of you who are married, you've got a wife. You expect your wife to be faithful to you, not just every day, but every second of every day.

You don't want her to be interested in some other man, even for one second. There are many other interests other than Christ that are attracting us. And to follow Jesus means, to be his bride means, I'm not interested in any other thing, even for one second.

How would you feel if your wife said, well, once in a while, one minute a day, I sometimes think of another man? Only one minute a day. It wouldn't disturb you, I suppose, is it? What type of a marriage do you have if you allow your wife to think one minute a day about somebody else? I wonder, I want to ask you, do you have this type of relationship with Christ? I'm very thankful that very early in my Christian life, I understood that I'm supposed to be the bride of Christ. That's not something I discovered after many, many years.

And I'm very thankful because that taught me simple devotion to Christ is very, very important. And I'm very thankful that that started with me almost from the beginning. And that's established my life very strongly.

So that's what I want to share with you. What does it mean to follow? It means to be a disciple. There are two places where Jesus said about going and preaching the gospel, and I want to show them to you.

One is in Mark 16, where Jesus said, Mark 16 and verse 15 and 16, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and is baptized will be saved. He who does not believe will be condemned.

There the emphasis is on believing. Now, we must always compare scripture. Remember, when the devil tempted Jesus and Jesus quoted a scripture, Man shall not live by bread alone.

The devil quoted a scripture back to Jesus. Jump off the roof because it is written. His angels will guide you.

And you remember what Jesus said? Satan, it is also written. You shall not tempt the Lord your God. That is scripture.

It is written and it is also written. If you take only one part of scripture, it's like a bird with one wing. You'll go round and round and round and round and that's what happened to a lot of Christians.

So this one scripture, go into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone who believes, and the other side of scripture, if you want to get the full truth, it is also written. To me, it's like the two sides of a body. What do you think of a man cut into half with just one half of body? That is one half of the body, but it's not complete.

And so scripture is not complete with one scripture. And Jesus made that very clear in the temptation in the wilderness. It is written.

It is also written. It is scripture. But if you don't want to understand it fully, you must also see what is also written.

So we read what is written in Mark 16. Believe and be baptized. It is also written in Matthew 28, verse 19.

Go. Now it says, not just make people to believe, but make disciples of every nation. There it was going to all the world and preach the gospel.

It is written. It is also written, go into all the world and make disciples. Is this a contradiction? No.

There's no contradiction in the whole Bible. It is the other half of truth. This is the other wing of the bird.

If you want to get the full truth, take both of it. And make disciples of all nations and baptize them. Baptism is there.

Baptism is here also. But there it is, believe and be baptized. Here it is, make disciples and be baptized.

No contradiction. It is an explanation of what that word believe means. You know the difference between explanation and contradiction? Believe, make disciples.

It's not a contradiction. It's an explanation. If you believe, you'll become a disciple.

If you believe without becoming a disciple, it's only a head knowledge. Every truth in the Bible, the devil has got in his head. Is there a single verse in the Bible that the devil doesn't know, doesn't believe? He knows everything.

It still sends him to hell for eternity. And it can send a lot of other people to hell for eternity if they just believe what's written. So believe, make disciples, baptize them, and then listen to this.

Matthew 28, 20, it is also written, teach them to do every single thing I commanded you, and then I will be with you always. I've seen that word in many houses, lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. And I say that's a half a verse.

How can you believe that to be true in your home or in your life? If you don't fulfill the condition. There's a condition for I'll be with you always till the end of the world. And teach them to every single thing I commanded you, and then I will be with you.

That's the question you need to ask yourself. Don't just go and say, Lord, you said you'll always be with me. Hang on, hang on.

To whom did he say it? To those who become disciples and who are seeking to do every single thing, all, you know the meaning of the word, all, ALL, Matthew 28, 20. Obey everything I commanded you, and I promise you I'll be with you always till the end of the age. I'm very thankful that I tried to follow that.

I mean, every scripture, we can only say we tried to follow it. And if you're trying your best to follow it, that's all that God expects of you. I want to ask you, are you seeking to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple and to obey everything he commanded you? That's why we built CFC churches.

I found 50 years ago when I was 35 years old, I'd seen Christendom for about 16 years before that, and I was pretty fed up, defeated in my own life. And I never saw a church that was preaching everything that I saw in scripture. And finally threw me out for preaching about the baptism.

And so, you know, 50 years ago, two of us families in Bangalore decided to meet in my house. He said, at least two of us will start trying to teach everything that Jesus did. First of all, practice everything ourselves and teach it to others and see who all will come.

And we had a big turnover. Some will come, go, come and go. And so many people came and went.

And at the end of five, six years, there were about 60 people. And out of those 60 people, I think there were only seven or eight finally left today. All fell away.

That happens when you teach everything that Jesus commanded. Some along the way, people will fall away. And that can happen even in this church.

You preach everything that Jesus commanded, some will fall away. And it never disturbed me 50 years ago when people started falling away. And throughout the years, I've seen in all the many, many churches in different countries that the Lord has raised up.

I've seen people falling away. It doesn't disturb me. I see that in Jesus' case, also people fell away.

Sometimes he preached to a whole crowd. And by the time the message is all over, a lot of people have left. Very few people are left.

That can happen if you preach, follow me. One of the great examples is John chapter six. In John chapter six, we see the chapter begins with a miracle.

Miracles are always exciting. He fed the 5,000. That's the first thing we see in John chapter six.

And in those first verses from verse eight to 14, the 5,000 multitude were fed with loaves and fishes as we read in verse 11. And then Jesus began to preach to the people. And he said some very strong things like you have to eat of me.

Verse 53. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you don't have an eternal life. If you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you'll have eternal life.

Because my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Now put yourself in that place and you're listening. And you haven't heard the explanations that we've heard about that verse in these years that you've been in the church.

You're listening it for the first time. To a man getting up and saying you better eat my flesh and drink my blood. If you want to have eternal life.

And these are Jews who were taught in the Old Testament never touch blood. Blood of an animal or no blood must never drink blood. It's a crime.

And here's this man telling us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. What will you call him a heretic? And then it says here many people when they heard this verse 60. He said this is a. In today's language.

This is a crazy statement. Who can listen to all this? And then we read. Many of them left verse 66.

Many of his disciples not visitors. Many of his disciples withdrew. And they didn't want to walk with him anymore.

Who's going to eat his flesh and drink his blood? This is crazy. I don't want to follow this man. This.

I told you this chapter started with 5,000 being fed. Plus women and children probably 10,000. At the end of the chapter.

The 10,000 is whittled down. To 11. This is how Jesus preached.

That's been my challenge. If I can take a crowd of 10,000 and whittle them down to 11 disciples. I followed Jesus.

That's what I decided when we started our church 50 years ago in Bangalore. These great multitude of people who come to listen because they like a good message. And when we whittle them down to a small number.

Who really want to follow you. Not just to want to listen to a good sermon. A lot of people would come to my church to listen to a good sermon.

I think a lot of people may come here to listen to a good sermon. A lot of people go to YouTube to listen to a good sermon. I'm not interested.

In such people. I want to know those who want to follow. 10,000 people may be interested in listening to a good sermon.

11 will follow. Those are the 11 I'm looking for. Because those are the ones Jesus is looking for.

And in every church. I say praise the Lord. Now we can make disciples.

It never never disturbs me. When 10,000 becomes 11. I say we're going in Jesus' footsteps.

And that's happened in other churches. It's happened here. Maybe there are still some more to leave.

Okay. We're not going to compromise the message. We're not here to gather.

We're here to whittle down. To be left with people who are serious about their Christian life. Serious about the way they speak.

That they will never gossip. They'll never backbite. They'll take up the cross every day.

They'll take their married life seriously. They'll seek to bring up their children properly in the fear of God. They'll stop backbiting.

It will come down to a small number. And it says. We had to go into all the world and make disciples.

Nearly a whole year. In the first year of our gathering together. Preaching two things.

One is the conditions of discipleship. And the other is the Sermon on the Mount. We spent one year.

We spent many many many weeks. On what it means to be a disciple. And then many many months.

Going through Matthew 5, 6 and 7. That's how we started. CFC Bangalore. 50 years ago.

And God has raised up godly elders. Throughout the years. I went back there recently a few months ago.

And I see those four elders. Just as good as the original elders. Godly people who.

Fellowship with one another. No strife or conflict. Completely one with each other.

And leading the church forward. It started with two families. We have 600 people there.

But we don't rejoice in numbers. There are many there who want to follow the Lord. The important thing is to make disciples.

And that's what I preached everywhere. And that's what we preach in this church too. So.

First of all. We preach the condition of discipleship. And I want to point out that to you again.

In Luke 14. We must never get tired of. This passage.

Because. It's because this passage is not taught. That Christianity is so shallow.

People believe. Okay. Now I'll explain to you.

Discipleship Luke chapter 14. And verse. 25.

To 33. Again. It starts with great crowds.

Following. And he turns and tells them. Listen to this.

Today if a preacher sees a great crowd. What is the first thing he'll do? He'll get his followers say. Pass up.

Offering background. Quickly. Before they go away.

Afterwards we'll tell them the hard things. We did the. We did it the other way.

We never pass an offering background. Do you know my brothers and sisters. That we have more than 100 churches today.

In 17 countries. And. In all those churches.

Not once in 50 years. Have you passed an offering background. Never.

We have 300 elders. Not one of them. Receives a salary.

Including me. I've never received a salary in 50 years. And we have 300 like that.

Where do you. Where do you find God raised up people. Because we preach discipleship.

We're not boasting. We're simply. Talking about what Jesus did.

I don't hesitate to tell people what Jesus did. Jesus said. Let your light.

Shine before men. That they may see. Your good works.

What God has done in us. And glorify your father. Great crowds came.

And he told them some of the hardest words. That he ever said. Listen to this.

Is this the way any preacher. Great crowd. If any of you.

Come to me. Jesus says. And you don't hate your father.

And go slowly. Hate. I'm not misreading.

Read your Bible. Hate your father. Hate your mother.

Hate your wife. Hate your children. Hate your brothers.

Hate your sisters. Hate your own life. Then you can be my disciple.

A lot of those people would have left immediately. Saying this guy is crazy. Why didn't Jesus.

Use simpler words. He knew that most of these people are serious. Every church I've been to.

Even in our own church. When we start. I know that all these people come to listen to a good sermon.

They're not serious about discipleship. So you have to preach some strong words. To drive them away.

And those who are called by God. Will not be driven away. They'll never get offended with anything.

That a man of God says. If they recognize. That man is a prophet of God.

Whom God has called up. They will never get offended. The ones who get offended are those.

Who are looking for an easy way of life. To be a good father. Mother, brother, sister, wife, children.

I struggled with this for years myself. To understand what does it mean Lord. I don't want to compromise it.

I don't want to lower it. And yet. I know that I have to take scripture with scripture.

It is written. It is also written. Honor your father and mother.

It's also written. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. And here I'm told to hate my wife.

Scripture with scripture. I will understand it is written. It is also written.

So I took it what is written and it is also written and this is how I understood it. That my love for Christ must be like the light of the sun. The brightest thing that we can see on this earth is the light of the sun.

An example. Should there be any love for my wife and children and father and mother? Yes. That's also got to be a light.

A very bright light. Like the light of the stars. You know the stars are so bright.

Some of the stars are extremely bright but when we look at a star at night there is a light there. Definitely. Some stars are very bright.

But the moment the sun comes up what happened to the it's not that the stars have disappeared they're there but you can't see them. They're all there. That's how I understood this verse.

Yes love your father, love your wife, love your brother, love your sister but when the light of the love for Christ comes it just sort of fades away. It's almost like nothing because love for Jesus takes over. What did Jesus say? What is the first commandment? You shall love the Lord your God with 50% of your heart and leave the other 50% for your wife and your brother, family, children.

Is that what he said? No. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Okay all your heart.

Then what place is there in your heart for other people? Take God's word seriously. Jesus did not make a mistake. Then how in the world am I supposed to love my wife and my children and honor my father and mother? It must be from a heart that is filled with love for Christ.

Filled with love for God. From that love I love other people. That is how scripture.

I don't know whether some of you Christians you've heard all these things. I don't know whether you've taken it seriously. I took it seriously.

That's why my Christian life changed radically from the beginning. I didn't just set it aside and say oh what does it mean hate. I wanted to understand what does it mean to hate.

I compared it to the light of the stars and the sun. The light of the sun is like the love for Christ which makes the others almost disappear and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. So from that love I must love Christ.

That's why when I was considering marrying Annie and the proposal came, I told her right at the beginning you will always be number two in my life. You'll never be number one and number one will never be another girl. No.

It'll be Jesus and I always want to be number two in my life. We are married 57 years now and I say the same thing. You will always be number two in my life and I want to be number two in my life.

That's the secret of a happy marriage. You determine that Christ is always first and I say that to every brother in the church. You're not going to be so close to me that I will please you and dishonor Christ.

I say that to my children. If you dishonor the Lord, I will be against you. Christ will be between me and you.

You will be second. You'll never be first in my life. No son of mine will ever be first in my life.

Christ will be first and if you dishonor Christ, I will tell him that. If you honor Christ, I'll appreciate that. Christ will be first.

Father, Mother, my dear brothers and sisters, if you want to be a disciple, please listen to what I'm saying. I'll tell you honestly, you will never in your life be a disciple if you don't take this seriously. Whoever it is and I'll tell you this, you'll love your wife much better if you love Jesus with all your heart.

Much better. You'll never get offended with her. You'll never get angry with her.

You'll never get upset with her. You know why you get upset with your wife and get angry? It's because you don't love Jesus with all your heart. Put Christ first and you will never in your life get angry and shout at your wife, not even once.

It's the message of the gospel. Then you'll be able to love her and ask Christ to love the church. That's the first condition.

And even love for brothers. Why is it so many brothers sometimes have conflicts? I'll tell you why. Because they don't love Christ with all their heart.

They love somebody because, oh, that guy is like me. We are sort of similar in many ways and so become friendly. I'm not bothered with somebody similar.

I want to be fellowship with people who are completely opposite of me, dissimilar to me. Most of our work in India is in the poorest villages. Annie and I have gone to the poorest villages in India where people don't know one word of English.

There's no pharmacy, no doctor, nothing. And there we have seen people who can't even speak properly, not educated, extremely poor, who live from hand to mouth. And I've had wonderful fellowship with them because Christ has been through education.

Our people have come to our church in Bangalore, wealthy people, thinking that they would get a place of importance. Always I've told them to go and sit at the back. I remember one guy came from Dubai.

You know, that's the place where Christians make a lot of, Indians make a lot of money. And he retired and came and came to our church. I made him sit in the back row.

Every Sunday, I said, you sit there. Till he got offended and left the church. And I said, praise the Lord.

Such people are not fit to be here who want an honor in the church. There's no place for honor here. Be a servant.

You just came yesterday to the church and you think we care for your money. I don't care two hoots for your money. Go and throw it.

That's what we have preached in our church. That's the way we have preserved the standard through the years. And that's why so many churches don't preserve the standard.

They give honor to people. They don't love Jesus with all their heart. And in this church, we want to love Jesus with all our heart first.

I want to encourage every one of you. I'll tell you this, you'll enter into a real Christian life when you love Jesus with all your heart. Every one of you, young people, everyone, I say the same thing to you.

That's number one. And don't let any human being take the place of Christ in your life. Every single day, wake up in the morning and the first person you talk to must not be your wife or your husband.

It must be Jesus Christ. I'm not preaching what I'm not practiced. I wake up in the morning and the first person I speak to is my Savior, who's more important to me than my wife.

Then I talk to my wife. And it'll be like that. It has been like that for years.

And it'll be like that till Jesus comes. And that is why I know I'm ready to meet him, because I can say to him, Lord, to the best of my ability, I try to love you with all my heart. And I never allowed any person to come between me and you.

The second condition of discipleship, verse 27, take up your cross every day and follow me. That is a subject which many Christians have not understood. You know what it means? It means to die.

Take up the cross is to be crucified with him. Take up your cross and follow me is what Jesus said when he was on earth, because he was not yet crucified. So until he was crucified, he could only say, take up your cross and follow me.

Today, you'd say, be crucified with me. Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ. Paul did not say I'm for taking up the cross and following Christ.

No. That's when Christ was on earth. Paul said, that day part is over.

I'm already crucified. Now I walk the crucified path every single day. Every day, I live as one who is dead to self and alive to Christ.

That is the condition of discipleship. In other words, not my interests, not what I think, not how I should respond here. How will he respond to criticism? You're a good for nothing fellow, useless fellow.

What's his response? It doesn't make any difference to him. On the other hand, you say, oh, you're a great guy. You're so smart.

You're so clever. No response. When you can come to the place where somebody calls you an idiot or a good for nothing person, and your reaction to him is exactly the same as somebody who comes and says to you, oh, brother, you're a great man.

You're such a wonderful man. You're such a kind man. And your reaction is exactly, not the word exactly, exactly the same as to the other fellow who called you an idiot and a good for nothing fellow.

Then you have been crucified with Christ. And until you come there, say to yourself, I have yet. I'm not preaching what I'm not practiced.

I've heard numerous people have called me the devil. And numerous people have called me a great prophet. It is exactly the same to me because I've been crucified with Christ.

I'm not joking. I can love the person who calls me a devil. I've had numerous, particularly in the days when I used to stand in the streets of, in India and preach the gospel, people would call me the devil.

And I say, fine, I love you, brother. And after that, when we preached about Jesus was tempted like us and overcame sin, they called me the devil again. Christians began to call me the devil.

I said, God, I love you. And some of them got converted. So when you're really dead with Christ, your reaction to criticism and praise is exactly the same, like a dead man.

You don't get hurt by what somebody said. Do you get hurt by what somebody said? I'll tell you, brother, sister, die. Die.

Fall into the ground and die. You know why there's so little fruit in the lives of many Christians? I remember when I was a young man and I was in Bangalore, 35 years old, when we started the church. The word that came to me was fall into the ground and die.

And there'll be much fruit from your work. I raised my hand to the Lord and said, Lord, I'll do that. I give you my word to the best of my knowledge and best of my ability.

I will fall into the ground here in Bangalore and die. I will never ask for anything for myself. I'll never get offended with what you do or you don't do.

I'll never have a complaint about how you treat me. Dead men don't complain. Do you have a complaint against God? Brother, die.

Do you have a complaint against God, sister? Die. Dead men don't have complaints. I meditate a lot on what it means to die, to be dead.

And it's changed my life. It'll change yours also if you take it seriously. Most Christians are just playing games in Christianity.

They come to the church to listen to a nice message, to get a little stirred up, to meet a few friends and gossip a little and go home. I'm not interested in that type of Christianity. That's good for nothing, third-rate, useless Christianity.

And I hope none of us will be like that. And I hope people who are like that, the sooner you leave this church, the better. Have you ever heard a pastor saying, leave this church, please? Well, you hear it here.

If you're not interested in being a disciple of Jesus, my brother, sister, don't confuse everybody else and don't spoil everybody else. Don't bring corruption into the system. You will not corrupt the system.

You'll only corrupt people who can be corrupted. Those who are serious here will not be corrupted, no matter how much you try to corrupt them. But it'll be easier for you to find another church where you feel comfortable and happy, because this is not the place for those who don't want to be disciples.

I'll tell you honestly, from the beginning, I said, Lord, I'm not interested in building a large church. L-A-R-G, no. I'm interested in building a P-U-R-E church, a pure church.

Great multitude, whittled down to 11. That's what I want. Great multitude, come to hear the gospel.

Tell them you've got to hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children. That is what it means to follow Jesus. Take up your cross every day and follow me.

Die to yourself and follow Jesus. We are to be crucified with Christ. And then there's a third condition, only three.

One is your attitude to your relatives and loved ones, yourself, your proud self-life, which must be clean. And verse 7, if he does not give up all his own possessions, I cannot give up all my own possessions. Read that carefully.

Possession is what I hold tight. This is mine. He didn't say you can't have anything.

He says, I can't have anything. Then I can't even have a shirt or a pant or anything. He said, you can have many things, but don't possess.

In other words, all the things you're holding on tight, what are you holding on to tight? Your job? That's very important for you. That's why you're so insecure. Open your palm.

Say, Lord, you give me a job. I have it, but I'm not going to hold on tight to it. I'll lose it any day.

You hold it for me and you'll always provide my need. I say this, you know, when the Lord called me in May 1964, which is 62 years ago, to leave my job in the Navy and to come out and serve him. The Navy let me go after two years.

So it's nearly 60 years now since I've been serving the Lord full time. I'd served in the Navy for eight years by then. As a naval officer, you get a very high salary.

All that money which I saved, the day I left, I took it and gave it all away for God's work. I left my job with zero in my bank account. I said, Lord, I'm going to trust you.

I'll never join a society. I'll never join a church. I'll never get a salary.

I'll never do anything. I want to live like Jesus and Paul did. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ.

That is primarily a call for those who are in full-time Christian work. I was called to full-time Christian work. I don't say that to other people, but for myself, it would be like that.

You know, out of all the people Jesus met, only one person he said, sell all that you have. He never told Martha and Mary, sell all that you have. He never told even Zacchaeus.

He only gave half of what he had. Jesus said, that's fine. But to one person, Jesus said, sell all that you have.

I was one of those. Jesus said, all that you have. The difference was that guy didn't agree.

I said, yes, I'll give it all up. The Lord said, you got to trust me. I remember a man of God said to me when I was a young Christian, more than 60 years ago, and I followed his advice all these years.

He said, one, never in your life make your earthly financial needs known to anybody. Live with what little you have. Never borrow.

Never ask for anything from anyone because you've got a father in heaven who cares for you. I said, yes. Secondly, don't buy anything unnecessary and expensive.

Live very simply with whatever is necessary for your life. Essentials. I tried to follow that throughout my life.

If I have some good clothes, they were all usually given to me by somebody else. I would never waste my life even on good clothes. Ordinary clothes were enough for me.

Thirdly, he said, when people accuse you, keep your mouth shut. I'm very thankful for those three bits of advice I got 60 years ago, and I followed it all these 60 years. When I'm accused falsely, I keep my mouth shut.

I never asked anybody for a single cent in my life. I tried my best to give me a wife who wants to live more simply than me, so I'm very thankful for that. Don't say, brother, my wife is extravagant and wastes a lot of money.

I'll tell you, perhaps God saw that you were not wholehearted yourself, and that's why he gave you a wife like that. At least now you can change and say, Lord, change me and my wife and make us more simple in our habits so that we don't get into debt. Debt.

To me, debt is like committing murder. I've never been in debt for 60 years, not even for one rupee, one cent to anybody in the world. When my wife and I had little, we lived with little.

I could not afford to ride a car, so I rode a scooter for 42 years in India. I don't regret it, but I decided I will not get into debt. Romans 13 and verse 8. It's an absolute statement.

It's not a suggestion. By the way, there are no suggestions in this book. I hope you know that.

No, there are only commands, no suggestions. O nothing, OWE, Romans 13, 8. O nothing. Do you know the meaning of nothing? Nothing is not $5 or $100 or $1,000.

In case you did not know, nothing means zero cents. O nothing to anyone in the world. I can stand before the Lord and raise my hand and say, Lord, by your grace, I have followed that for 85 years of my life.

I've never owed anything to anyone. When my wife and I had very little in the house, we lived with little. We cut down.

We told our children, we can't buy you new clothes. Sorry, you use your older brother's clothes. Sorry, we can't get you that thing you want.

We go to a store and they want to buy something and say, sorry, we can't afford it. They'll cry a little. Okay, they're little children.

They'll cry. Okay, they'll get over it. But I will not, to please my children, I would not disobey God.

Never. And all my four children know that. O nothing to anyone.

We live simply because we could not afford anything more. Now, I'm not saying you have to live at my standard. God has allowed you to earn much more.

You can live at a higher standard by all means. Use your money in a good way. But all I say is don't owe anybody.

I'm not saying that cut down your expenditure. No, no, no, no. I'm saying don't owe anybody anything.

That's all. Please don't misunderstand me. I've never in my life even in Bangalore, I've never asked anybody to live at my level.

I say if you're earning more, you can live at a higher level. I don't earn that much. I can't live at that level.

Just like among all of you, all of you don't earn the same amount. So all of you cannot afford the things that somebody else in this church can afford. Somebody else can afford it.

Somebody else can afford a better house. But you can't afford that type of house because you don't earn so much. So there's no, this is not, we're not a communist society where we try to make equalize everybody.

No, God's made these five fingers all different size. Communism says cut it all and make it all the same size. No, that's not what we teach.

They're all different sizes. And God has given us different levels of income. But we must not love money.

We must not possess it. We must not owe anybody anything, not even one cent for not even for one day. And I would not be able to preach that if I hadn't practiced it for 85 years.

If God has blessed me, it's because I've tried to obey scripture. If God's given me a gift to speak God's word, it's because I've tried to obey scripture. And if God's planted churches, he can do that through you.

I wish God would use many of you to plant churches and make disciples. But you've got to be a disciple first. How many of you will take it seriously? Some of you have become so old, it's probably too late, at least the younger generation here.

Teach your children at least to be disciples. Dear brothers and sisters, if you failed as a father and mother, at least teach your children to be disciples so that you can produce somebody else who will follow in Jesus' footsteps, even if you failed miserably in your younger days. Take this seriously.

We want a church of disciples. And then this church will be strong. Owe nothing to anyone.

Don't take advantage of anybody financially. I've sometimes been invited to stay in rich people's homes when I've traveled to foreign countries. And I have left a gift behind.

Some of them were surprised. This poor man from India, leaving a gift for us here. Well, they were kind to us.

They allowed us to stay two or three days in their house. I left a little gift for them. I wanted to be a testimony.

I didn't want to be one who sponges of other people. You know what a sponge is? You put it in and it absorbs everything, all that liquid. There are people like that who are sponges.

Whenever they want to get something out of other people, like a sponge. I said, I never wanted. Jesus was not a sponge.

He never took advantage of anybody. He'd always give rather than receive. It is more blessed to give than to receive.

I really believe that. And I've experienced it in my life. Dear brothers, don't be in debt.

I remember once in Bangalore, when I felt that some people there sitting there, you know, then the church becomes bigger. Some people sort of take it lightly. And I found that some people were getting into debt.

So one day I got up on Sunday morning. I was a very strict father towards the church I went. And I said, there were maybe what 500 people there.

I said, if anybody in this church has borrowed more than 1000 rupees from anyone and not made any, please come and see me after this meeting. Some people cleared that debt that day itself. Some people, they went out and used their phone and clicked and transferred the money online to somebody.

They could have done it earlier. Why didn't they do it? I said, oh, I can get a little more interest in the bank if I keep it in my name. Can you imagine that? Taking God's word lightly, owe nothing to anyone.

I want to ask all of you straight. Can you honestly say that you owe nothing to anyone? If not, go home and lift up your hand to the Lord and say, Lord, I am a disobedient child of yours. I have disobeyed Romans 13 verse 8 for years.

Have mercy on me. And please help me to start obeying you at least from today. It's serious, my brother.

And I'll tell you another thing, which I proved in my life. Seek the kingdom of God first and His righteousness and everything that you need on earth will be added to you. Are some of you finding difficult to get a job? I'll tell you why.

You're not seeing God's kingdom first. I'll tell you that straight to your face. Don't get hurt with me.

I'm telling you the truth. How is it possible that a man can see God's kingdom first and His righteousness to be absolutely righteous and Matthew 6, 33 is not fulfilled in his life and God does not add everything else to him. That is impossible.

You have to call God a liar and God is not a liar. You go before God and say, Lord, all things are not being added to me because somewhere in my life I'm not seeking your kingdom first. Other things are more important to me.

Well, then God have mercy on you. The promise is if you seek God's kingdom and His righteousness, Matthew 6, 33 first, everything that you need on earth will be added to you. Even health.

What is it that has preserved Annie and me for 57 years of marriage that we have never once had to go to a hospital with sickness? I'm not boasting. I'm just saying God is so good. He gives us health.

I'll tell you why. I'll say this in closing. I read in 1 Corinthians 6. This is for you also.

It's in your Bible. I'll never tell you anything which is not in your Bible. 1 Corinthians 6, the last part of verse 13.

1 Corinthians 6, 13. The body is not for immorality. That's the first thing.

Be perfectly pure sexually in your thoughts. You should go and hang your head in shame if you watch pornography, even if you're a young man. Destroying yourself, polluting your mind, swallowing poison, poison, poison, watching this filth called pornography.

The body is not for immorality. The body is not for watching pornography. It is for the Lord.

Every part of my body, my eyes, my tongue. And if my body is for the Lord, the Lord will be for my body. That's what it says here.

That's the word I claimed many years ago. I said, Lord, I will not use this body for immorality. It is for you.

And you've got to do your part of the promise that you are for my body, not just for my soul. You're for my body. Now, I'm not saying we can never get sick.

Even Jesus was sick. We read in Isaiah 53. Sometimes God allows us to be sick to teach us to be compassionate towards others.

I'm not saying we'll never go to hospital. There's no crime in being admitted in a hospital. All I'm saying is make sure your body is for the Lord, and then you can claim that promise.

The Lord is for my body. And further down, it says there the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You've seen that further down in verse 19.

The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That means if you can take care of this building, which we say is God gathering for a church, you think God won't take care of his temple? He will. There are wonderful promises in scripture which we are missing by not fulfilling the conditions.

Let's pray. Dear brothers and sisters, you don't realize how much God loves you. I wish you'd know that.

I wish you'd know that every command of God's is because he loves you so much that he wants you to have the very best in life. Yield your all to him and say, Lord, I'm sorry for the way I've gossiped in last life. I want to really be your disciple.

I want to follow you, obey you, and follow you. Help us each one that we can be a living testimony for you in this godless world, even in a Christian, so-called Christian world, which does not honor Christ. Help us to honor you in this church.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.