Sermon

Christlikeness is God's purpose for us

Omega Church NZ

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  1. You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

  2. encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

  3. the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

  4. you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way

  5. today. And if you need prayer for

  6. healing or breakthrough? Want to find out more about

  7. Omega? Head to our website or Facebook

  8. page through the links below. Hallelujah, we will make that

  9. proclamation for after a long time.

  10. The Kingdom of God is within me, let's do it again.

  11. Kingdom of God is within me. Amen, Amen.

  12. There was a Hindu professor in India who once identified one of

  13. his students as a Christian and said to him, we can have we have

  14. a slide for it. Actually, I think, Yep,

  15. Christian. And said to him, if you

  16. Christians live like Jesus Christ, India would be at your

  17. feet tomorrow. I think India would be at their

  18. feet today if we Christians live like Christ.

  19. Can I hear something? Amen.

  20. From the Islamic world, the Reverend Iskandar Jadil, he must

  21. be former Muslim, now a Christian.

  22. And he says a former Arab Muslim has said if all Christians were

  23. Christians, that is Christ like, there would be no more Islam

  24. today. I am telling you, not just

  25. Hinduism, not just Islam, there won't be Buddhism, there won't

  26. be atheism, there will be no naturalism, there will be

  27. nothing. It is Christ fulfill the whole

  28. world. So what does it mean?

  29. What does it say? What does it communicate to us?

  30. The church is failing to represent Jesus Christ, who is

  31. their Lord to the world. We are not showing Christ to the

  32. world. That's why world is not saved.

  33. If we show Christ to the world, the world will be saved.

  34. We have to show Christ to the world through our life, through

  35. our obedience, through our character.

  36. One of the things, you know, I was just looking at an article

  37. by John Stott. John Stott is a very big guy in

  38. the Anglican world. He's like a Pope, basically.

  39. He died in the year 2011 at the age of 90.

  40. But before four years before that in 2007 he spoke at a Kazik

  41. convention. Some of you may know what is

  42. Kazik convention that happens in UK.

  43. And in that convention now he says I have thought long and

  44. hard what is the main purpose of God for Christians?

  45. I have come to the end of my life and now I want to share

  46. that Peace of Mind that I have about it.

  47. And he says it is to basically says Christlikeness is a will of

  48. God for the people of God. What did he say?

  49. Christlikeness is a will of God for the people of God.

  50. Shall we say it again? So we have to look like who?

  51. Christ Basically one of the scriptures says we are actually

  52. mirroring like a mirror. We are reflecting the glory of

  53. God, reflecting the glory of Christ.

  54. You know, how does a how is a mirror made?

  55. You you take glass and coat it on the back with silver.

  56. In the olden days they used to call it Quicksilver.

  57. It is one of the silver coming silver or even mercury compound.

  58. And then they coat it on the back of it.

  59. So light falls on, it reflects, and that's how you see the

  60. image. Sometimes aluminum is also used

  61. to do the same job, but aluminum is not the great reflector

  62. compared to silver. Anyway, If you don't have that

  63. back, if you take out the glass and scratch off something that's

  64. there on it, the coating, what is going to happen?

  65. You can't see. The mirror will lose its

  66. quality. So there has to be that

  67. substance in Christians that will make them like mirror.

  68. If the substance is, that substance is the character.

  69. If you don't have the character, you are a glass, but you have

  70. the character, you become a mirror.

  71. Sorry, I was saying people will see through you.

  72. Yeah, they will see through you. And there's nothing there to

  73. stop. It's just glass.

  74. It goes through. So we need character to support

  75. our life. Everybody say character.

  76. We need character to support our Christian faith.

  77. And you tell I am a Christian, I'm a Christian, I'm a

  78. Christian. They look at you and see the

  79. fruit. It is not there.

  80. A tree is known by its fruit. Jesus said a tree is known by

  81. its fruit. And when they look at your life

  82. and look at a life and there's no, they don't find any fruit.

  83. They know that you are not telling the truth, you're not

  84. telling the truth, you don't reflect Christ.

  85. So if this is the measure and I'm telling you more than 90% of

  86. the Christians will have nothing to boast about in their life and

  87. becoming a believer, let's say somebody becomes say, ah, I am

  88. born again, praise the Lord. That's what we need, the

  89. transformation, change in the attitude towards Christ, towards

  90. sin, towards self, towards the world.

  91. It happens when you are born again, then afterwards what you

  92. are born again, then what somebody may say, oh, we have

  93. the Westminster Minister Catechism where it says what is

  94. the chief end of man? That's the question they ask.

  95. And the chief end of man is to know God and to enjoy him

  96. forever. And some people summarize it

  97. into 5 words. Love God, love your neighbor.

  98. This week covered last week we, we talked about it in the

  99. message. So you, you can say all these

  100. different, different ways of trying to capturing what is to

  101. be a Christian, but ultimately it boils down to one thing.

  102. Either either you show Christ or you show a devil in your life.

  103. They see it, you may not like it.

  104. They see it when somebody comes and rubs you in the wrong way

  105. and you show that anger and you show that kind of anger that

  106. they know who you're showing, not Christ.

  107. When the child drops something and breaks that precious thing

  108. that is there are the walls or something like that in the

  109. precious thing on the table and pulls it and push it on the

  110. ground, it broke. What is the father going to do?

  111. What's the mother going to do you brat?

  112. And you show who you are and you say its OK son, its OK daughter

  113. we will buy one more don't worry.

  114. You show Christ. It is every small thing is every

  115. small thing. We show either Christ or we show

  116. the devil who is controlling our life.

  117. There are no two ways. There is no neutral ground.

  118. There is no neutral ground. So that is how it is so to so

  119. all these things don't satisfy. So he says at the end of my

  120. life, I would like to say I want to share with you where my mind

  121. has come to rest as I approach the end of my pilgrimage on

  122. earth. And it is God wants his people

  123. to become like Christ. Christ likeness is the will of

  124. God for the people of God. So how does it reflect?

  125. It shows in three different ways.

  126. Number one, if you are a disciple of Christ, if you are a

  127. believer in Christ, then your own goal of discipleship towards

  128. self is to become like Christ. That's your goal.

  129. Can you achieve it in a day? We can't.

  130. But can we achieve it in a lifetime?

  131. Possible. The more you pray, the more you

  132. pray, the more you obey God, the more you show Christ in your

  133. life, people will keep looking at you and say, yes, this man is

  134. like Christ. You know so many, some of the

  135. missionaries, we have a missionary by name, Adori Ram

  136. Jetson, who went as a missionary to Burma or Rangoon in those

  137. days. Myanmar is the new name now for

  138. the country, Myanmar. And when he was walking on the

  139. street, some children would say Jesus is going, Jesus is walking

  140. there. Can people look at us and say

  141. Jesus is walking? I heard some similar thing about

  142. a man called Sadhu Sundar Singh, a Punjabi who radically was

  143. converted by vision with Christ. He left everything, family,

  144. everything. He broke of every tie and he

  145. followed Christ and he was carrying just a New Testament in

  146. his hand, not the full Bible, only the New Testament.

  147. You know, there are some things, some great people make some

  148. great mistakes. So that's one of those.

  149. Don't worry about it, but he 100% followed the New Testament

  150. and he would carry that, cherish it, read it all the time.

  151. And he went to so many parts of the world.

  152. He went to UK, he went to America, he went to Europe and

  153. all all over the world he travelled and in one meeting and

  154. I think in in America, I mean I think in New York when he stood

  155. up to preach, little girl said Jesus.

  156. That is what we are aiming for in this world to look like

  157. Jesus. Give a high 5 to somebody

  158. sitting next to and say our aim is to look like Jesus.

  159. So the goal of discipleship towards self is become like

  160. Christ. So now we have 3 scriptures to

  161. talk about it. Number one is Romans 829, Romans

  162. 829, for those who foreknew, for those God foreknew, he also

  163. predestined to be confirmed to the image of his Son, that he

  164. might be the first born among many brothers and sisters.

  165. So Jesus is the first one who rose again from the dead, and

  166. all those who believe are going to be brothers and sisters for

  167. with him. And what is it for God?

  168. For those God foreknew? Everybody say 4 new, What is 4

  169. new, you know in advance. Does knowing in advance

  170. determine what is going to happen?

  171. Not necessary sometimes, but not with God like that God, you

  172. know. The best example that comes from

  173. my mind is a game of chess. How many of you like playing

  174. chess? It will be very, very few

  175. people. I know it's not so when you have

  176. two players A&B playing against each other.

  177. Let's say the A makes 10 moves and B makes 10 moves, and after

  178. some time both of them are just looking at the word for half an

  179. hour or one hour, nothing is happening.

  180. And then they agree. Let us draw.

  181. Nothing is moved at all. They say let us draw.

  182. Why they are agreeing to draw? Because this guy can imagine 40

  183. steps. I put this, I move the Rook, he

  184. will move this one and I move this one and he'll move this

  185. one. After 40 steps, the board is

  186. going to look like this. I will be left with one king and

  187. one pawn, and he'll be left with one king and one pawn and we are

  188. not going to win the game. So they draw.

  189. That is what they are able to for know, for noise is a mental

  190. process by which you are able to know it.

  191. And God can know the 8 billion people on the on the planet of

  192. Earth. He knows everybody.

  193. He knows you're sitting now, He knows you're getting up.

  194. He knows intimately, He knows what you're thinking, He knows

  195. what you're feeling, and he can know what you're going to do

  196. after five years or 10 years. We cannot make a judgment today.

  197. Somebody is refusing Christ today.

  198. We cannot say he is doomed to hell because tomorrow God can

  199. confront him and he will become a believer.

  200. Who knows? Look at Saul, who was

  201. threatening and fuming and persecuting the church.

  202. No one knew that he is going to become a martyr for Christ.

  203. But God knew God. Those whom he foreknew also

  204. predestined. Now predestined is it will make

  205. it happen. Foreknowledge and predestined

  206. people think that contradictory to each other.

  207. No, Hebrew mind does not see it as contradiction.

  208. It's a Greek mind that thinks it is a contradiction.

  209. And we inherit the Greek mind. The Western world is all

  210. patterned after Aristotle and all those kind of guys who have

  211. made our thinking process, they are not in contradiction.

  212. They work together and for a believer it can be a great

  213. source of comfort. It can be a great source of

  214. encouragement. It can be a grow great sense of

  215. power because you know your God knows and he predestined you to

  216. be saved. He put his hand up on you.

  217. He put his finger in your life and make you believe in Jesus is

  218. a great miracle is a great miracle.

  219. And what is the purpose of perdition nation?

  220. What is the purpose of foreknowledge that we should be

  221. conformed to the image of his Son.

  222. That's the purpose. When did you do it?

  223. When did God foreknew? When did God be destined that

  224. you must be conformed to the image of his Son Jesus Christ

  225. before laying the foundation of the world.

  226. He has done it for you already. You are not sitting yet by

  227. accident. So what I am pleading with you

  228. this morning. This plan is from the ages, is

  229. implemented now, and we are experiencing His grace.

  230. It is decided before laying the foundation of the world in the

  231. past, not in the present. It is decided in the past.

  232. It is known in the past, decided in the past, acted upon by God

  233. in time now so that you may believe in Jesus.

  234. The second was Second Corinthians 318 and we all with

  235. unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being

  236. transformed into the same image from 1° of glory to another, but

  237. this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

  238. Now in this I have highlighted the word transformed.

  239. Everybody said transformed. So what is happening here is

  240. this is an example. Is is falling back on the story

  241. of Moses when he went to meet with the Lord, he used to go

  242. outside the camp. The 2 million people are

  243. scattered all over. There are thousands and

  244. thousands of millions of tents all over.

  245. Everybody standing in front of the fire is before the tent.

  246. When Moses is walking all alone towards one tent that's outside

  247. the camp, and the glory of God comes up on it, He goes inside

  248. and has a conversation with the Father.

  249. He has a conversation with Yahweh.

  250. And after he had talked to him, have received that laws and

  251. commandments, what should be done, what should not be done,

  252. He comes out. And when he came out his face

  253. was glowing. And when they looked at his

  254. face, they said we cannot look on his face.

  255. It is so glorious. And when Moses learnt about it,

  256. he covered his face with a veil. He put a cloth on his face.

  257. Why? Because this glory is going to

  258. fade, is not going to remain forever until after some time,

  259. after a week or so it will go away.

  260. And the same Israelite looks at his face, he will say, oh, where

  261. is that glory? He is gone.

  262. So he may look down on Moses. So Moses, what he did was he

  263. covered his face with a veil with a cloth until he went

  264. inside the tent again and again his face glows.

  265. But what what is the what is the sorry?

  266. What is the Paul is trying to say?

  267. Here is we all with unveiled face.

  268. When you are seeing Christ without the wail, without the

  269. cloth, without the covering, when you look at him beholding

  270. the glory of the Lord, or being transformed into the same image

  271. from 1° of glory to another, you are being transformed into the

  272. image you are looking at. How often do you look into the

  273. face of Christ? How often do you look into the

  274. face of Christ? You have your Bible reading in

  275. the morning, quiet time, you have some prayer, tell all the

  276. list of things and you are done and dusted and you walk away.

  277. I tell you that should be the time you look into the face of

  278. Jesus Christ, the glory of Jesus, the one whose hair and

  279. head better than wool, better than snow, whose eyes are like

  280. blazing fire, whose face is better than midday sun.

  281. This is the double sword coming out of his mouth, who holds the

  282. seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden

  283. lamp stands, and who has a robe at the golden Sachs around his

  284. chest. And he is the one whose feet are

  285. like bunnies branch. You focus upon him, you look at

  286. him, you worship him, you love him, you kiss his feet.

  287. Then that glory gets transferred to you as you look at his face.

  288. You are being transformed into his likeness.

  289. That's the reason why I think it is Isaiah who says those who

  290. worship idols are dumb like they're idols.

  291. Because they are worshipping idols, they become like idols.

  292. Because they have eyes, they cannot see, they have ears, they

  293. cannot hear their hands, they cannot move, they are feet, they

  294. cannot walk, and they have become like the dumb idols they

  295. follow. And we who worship the living

  296. God, we have to become like Him. If there is no transformation

  297. happening, then you are not looking at His face.

  298. If there is no change happening because you are not looking at

  299. His glory, so the time of praying and prayer should be a

  300. time of looking, gazing on His face, gazing on His glory, and

  301. allowing the glory to wash over you.

  302. Stand in His presence like a piece of iron that goes into the

  303. strong magnet, the field of a magnet.

  304. Slowly it becomes a magnet. We need to be magnetized by His

  305. glory. We need to be magnetized by His

  306. power. We need to be magnetized by His

  307. compassion, by His mercy, by His love.

  308. The longer you fix your eye on this God, you should become like

  309. that God who you are looking at. That's what Paul is saying here.

  310. We are being transformed into the same image from 1° of glory

  311. to another, 1° of glory to another.

  312. I think it is some other translation from King James,

  313. translated from glory to glory, from glory to glory.

  314. You're being transformed from glory to glory.

  315. Today you gaze on Him, you receive that glory, and tomorrow

  316. you look on him. That glory will top be topped up

  317. again, and the day after you look on His glory, there will be

  318. topped up again. So from glory to glory you are

  319. growing in the glory of God because you're taking time to

  320. look on his glory. You will not be the same.

  321. So we need to look on who Jesus, how long, how often?

  322. If the church is letting down the world, you know why?

  323. Because we are not looking at Him, because we are not

  324. representing Him, we are not showing Christ to the world.

  325. That's why people have got all kinds of people we have in the

  326. world, people, agnostics, atheists, Muslims, Buddhists.

  327. Why? As I told you in the beginning,

  328. if Christians are Christians, there will not be any Muslims.

  329. If Christians will represent Christ, show Christ, there will

  330. not be any Hindus anymore. The whole country will be

  331. changed, whole country will be changed, whole world will be

  332. changed. So the challenge is for us, we

  333. bunch of people to become like Christ.

  334. It is not impossible. It is not impossible, but may

  335. not be 100%. We achieve that.

  336. It will be gradually as we gaze on His glory, we will become

  337. like Christ. Every day must take time to

  338. pray. Prayer is not just giving a list

  339. of things. Gazing on His glory, worshipping

  340. Him and surrendering your spirit, soul and body, telling

  341. Him this my spirit is yours, Lord, this my soul is yours.

  342. This my body is yours. Any contrary spirit cannot be in

  343. this body anymore, because I belong to You.

  344. I kicked that thing out of my body in the name of Jesus.

  345. It has to go, it has to go it has to go it doesn't have any

  346. option so you need to say I trample it down your sickness in

  347. the name of Jesus and I come and leave me now I'm too early to

  348. there's one more point I want to say actually 3rd scripture is 1

  349. John 32. Beloved, we are Gods children

  350. now, when? Now, and what we will has not

  351. yet been, has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears

  352. we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

  353. So the first thing is decided before the foundation of the

  354. world. He has foreknown you, He has

  355. predestined you to be confirmed to the image.

  356. The second verse says we are as we behold His face.

  357. We have been transformed glory to glory in the present.

  358. You have to do it every day in the present.

  359. You as you look on the glory of Christ, you are being

  360. transformed from glory to glory. That's the present and the

  361. future is 1 John 32. Beloved, we are God's children

  362. now, and what we will has not yet been appeared, But we know

  363. that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see

  364. Him as He is in the future. We are going to look like Him

  365. when He appears. If we are going to look like Him

  366. when He appears. That is, will you have defect in

  367. your hand or your leg or your head or any part of your body?

  368. Will any part of your body be defective?

  369. Will there be any sickness when you see Him?

  370. Will there be any kind of a pain in your body when you see Him?

  371. No. Everybody say resounding strong.

  372. So in the future, if your body is going to look like Christ and

  373. that body is going to look like rash, without pain, without

  374. problem, without suffering, without any kind of sickness,

  375. why should it not happen now? Why should you tolerate the

  376. sickness? Why should you tolerate the

  377. pain? If you tolerate it, it will be

  378. there. And when you trample down that

  379. pain and you come on the Spirit that causing that pain, come on

  380. the sickness that's causing the Spirit that's causing the

  381. sickness to leave you because they have been defeated by

  382. Jesus. I kick you now in from my life.

  383. I kick you out of my life, you devil, you are going now in the

  384. name of Jesus. How is that prayer going to look

  385. like? How is that prayer going to look

  386. like? If you are -30° and you pray

  387. that prayer, you will buy 30° plus your body will become warm

  388. and the power of God will invade you.

  389. You don't need a coat if you were you were standing in the

  390. wintry core of Canada or someplace Siberia -60 there if

  391. you are praying that prayer, I command you devil, in the name

  392. of Jesus I crush your head. You Satan, I crush your head.

  393. You sail snakes, Clarkman, all the power enemy, nothing by any

  394. means will harm me is written there.

  395. So now how dare you touch me out in the name of Jesus, because

  396. this body is going to look like him when he appears.

  397. So now I command his body to function normal Indiana Jesus

  398. name, Function normal Indiana Jesus name, function normal

  399. Indiana Jesus name. So this is again we are to be

  400. like Russian incarnation. One of the things is Jesus left

  401. heaven and came into the world. He incarnated as a human being

  402. leaving the guard head, leaving that God Ness or whatever makes

  403. him God. He left everything, emptied

  404. himself, became a man, even a man like a slave and died a

  405. cruel death of on the cross. That is incarnation.

  406. Now we need to Incarnate in this world.

  407. How do we Incarnate in this world?

  408. It is like one Christ came once for all, so he can make

  409. everybody a Christ. He wants to make you like

  410. himself. What does cross mean to Jesus in

  411. his time? Cross meant humiliation.

  412. Cross bent. Cross meant putting him down,

  413. treating him like a slave. Cross meant dehumanization.

  414. Cross meant making him less than a human and like an animal,

  415. treating him like an animal and beating him with a whip until he

  416. was bleeding everywhere, head to toe.

  417. He was bleeding all over. There's not any soundness.

  418. If Job says there was not a sound spot on his body where he

  419. would scratch, I'm sure Jesus did more than that.

  420. His body was bruised for our healing.

  421. So this Jesus, when he's incarnated in us, we are going

  422. to represent him. We are going to be like him.

  423. And what did he do? One of the things he did was in

  424. the book of John he says on that night when they had the last

  425. night, he say he took a cloth like a servant at night towel

  426. and he tied around his waist and he took a base in the water.

  427. And then he went and washed the feet of every disciple.

  428. And he said if I your master, have done this, you should do to

  429. one another service. Everybody says service.

  430. So where does the idea of service come from?

  431. That comes from Christ act of washing the feet of disciples.

  432. That is service. So many churches have a Mondi

  433. Thursday and some kind of a Thursday and they demonstrated

  434. they bring people forward and wash their feet in some

  435. churches. Is that what we should be doing?

  436. Is it going to make us like Christ in everyday life?

  437. We should take that position of a slave.

  438. Jesus took the position of a slave.

  439. When he left, that goddess became a man.

  440. And then he tied the towel around his waist and went and

  441. washed the feet of the disciples.

  442. He was saying to everybody all over the world, every, every

  443. person who wants to be disciple. He's telling them you need to be

  444. like a slave. Do what people don't want to do,

  445. do what people don't want to do. When you see a need arise and

  446. meet that need, that is mind of service, the service, mind of

  447. service. So he took off his robes, tied a

  448. towel, towel on his waist, took water in a basin, washed the

  449. feet of the disciples. If then I, your Lord and

  450. Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one

  451. another's feet, for I have given you an example.

  452. Notice the word that you should do as I have done to you.

  453. He has forgiven our sin. He washes in His blood.

  454. He is covering us with mercy. He is covering with His

  455. compassion, He is covering with His love.

  456. And we ought to do the same to one another in the church.

  457. And then the Devourer will come, People will see your love and be

  458. drawn to you, and you will be able to lead them into Christ.

  459. So that's the reason where Ephesians says 5 two, walk in

  460. love as Christ loved us and gave himself up as a fragrant

  461. offering and sacrifice to God. And we should be having a

  462. patient endurance in the present day persecutions.

  463. When you live for Christ, persecution is going to come and

  464. already has begun. It has begun in many, many parts

  465. of the world, has begun. And yesterday I was looking at

  466. Google, how many countries are there where Islam dominates?

  467. Out of the 200 countries, 49 countries and 49 countries,

  468. homosexuality is banned because it doesn't go well with Islam.

  469. I said what? What is the Bible doing?

  470. Are we making an impact? So the part of incarnation is as

  471. as God sent Jesus into the world, Jesus sends us into the

  472. world. He prayed the prayer in John 17

  473. as you sent me into the world, I sent them into the world.

  474. And then it says John 1718 as you sent me into the world, I

  475. have sent them into the world. We are to be like Christ in his

  476. mission. We have to be like Christ in his

  477. mission. And you want to know what is

  478. this disciple shape, this Christ likeness, this imitating Christ

  479. all going to look like when you go home.

  480. Read Ephesians chapter 4, I think from 17 or 18 to 32 and

    Ephesians 4 chapter mention

  481. chapter 5 verses 1 to 8. Read the book of Colossians 3-1

  482. to 11, even chapter 2 end of chapter 2.

  483. It talks about things that we shouldn't be doing as disables

  484. of Christ. It talks about telling the

  485. truth. If you are a disabled you cannot

  486. tell lies, you have to speak the truth.

  487. If you are disabled, you cannot steal.

  488. You have to be honestly working with your hands.

  489. If you are a disciple, you cannot be indulging in

  490. fornication and all kinds of sexual scenes because that is

  491. not to be like a Christ, like a Christ like this at all.

  492. So there's the list goes on and on and on.

  493. No kind of taking advantage of people.

  494. You cannot take advantage of people.

  495. If you are a Christian and look at those commands and you will

  496. be blown away by your mind. Your mind will be blown away

  497. because there's so many things we may be doing there.

  498. We may look down on people. No, you can't do it.

  499. We have to honor everybody because they are made in the

  500. image of Christ. The goal of discipleship toward

  501. the world is a Great Commission. So the goal of discipleship is

  502. towards yourself to look like Christ.

  503. And the goal of discipleship towards others is to be like a

  504. servant. And the goal of recipleship

  505. towards the world is to follow the Great Commission.

  506. Go into all the world and preach the gospel.

  507. Cast out demons, heal the sick, preach the gospel, raise the

  508. dead. That is the that is the

  509. Commission. That is the Commission.

  510. So we need to implement the Commission of Christ.

  511. You want to be like Christ. Those are the three things to

  512. keep in mind. And having said all these

  513. things, I tell you one more thing.

  514. Suffering. You cannot avoid it.

  515. If we are going to represent Christ to the world, the world

  516. doesn't like it, doesn't like it.

  517. You can try hard. You can say I love you so much.

  518. I'm doing so many good things for you, why you want to hate

  519. me? They'll say we don't want you.

  520. We don't want you at all. You know, sometimes as a pastor

  521. its my responsibility to look at people and see how we can help

  522. anybody. So we say, OK, please come, I

  523. want to pray for you. They say no, no, no, I don't

  524. want prayer. They leave the church and go,

  525. what am I going to do? That's the response.

  526. Sometimes we come across that's not the right response, but

  527. that's the response we see. We have a heart of service.

  528. We we want to encourage everybody to be free from

  529. sickness, free from sin, free from all kinds of things.

  530. Whatever is your struggle, confide with us because we are

  531. here to help. We are here to help, not to

  532. condemn. No, that's not our business.

  533. We want to go along with you, put a hand on your shoulder and

  534. say it will be fine. We will pray with you.

  535. God is going to change the situation.

  536. It is going to you will overcome.

  537. Now this is what we have to do to each other.

  538. We have to do to each other same thing.

  539. You see, somebody has a struggle with something, go along, visit

  540. them, invite them for a meal or a coffee and sit down and talk

  541. to them and pray with them because prayer can change

  542. things. What you cannot do by offering

  543. A5 meal course 2 minutes prayer will do 2 minutes prayer.

  544. Sometimes you don't even know that prayer has been answered.

  545. You know I just got a text last week from a lady from India and

  546. she talked about her daughter not having a child.

  547. And actually I didn't even speak to the lady and her husband is

  548. the one and he said please pray that our daughter may have a

  549. child. So I when I was visiting India

  550. where to their place and then I prayed 2 minutes in the name of

  551. Jesus. I command the room to open in

  552. the name of Jesus that person to be blessed with a child.

  553. So after two weeks you conceive they have a child.

  554. The child is about four or five years now, but the child is born

  555. with some kind of a defect in the leg.

  556. So they are asking me please pray that this will be healed.

  557. After so many years they are coming back.

  558. So praise God still. So I am now, I am saying God,

  559. you started a miracle, finish it now.

  560. You started a miracle, finish it now.

  561. You started a miracle, finish it now.

  562. And do you think the God who started America is not going to

  563. finish it? He will finish it.

  564. He will finish it for His glory. So this is how it is that 2

  565. minutes five years ago did I know that that is going to be

  566. answered? I didn't know, but I am coming

  567. to know. That's answered now after five

  568. years. It happened so many times, as I

  569. must have told you before also, I went to Punjab and I was

  570. standing there watching them making some chapatis in the mass

  571. cooking. It will be 1015 ladies rolling

  572. out chapatis, throw it on a big iron plate and then it's cooked

  573. and then with a stick they'll throw like this and goes and

  574. falls on a I was watching this whole process and one lady came

  575. and said, Jay Masiki, that means praise a lot kind of a thing.

  576. I turned around, there was a lady.

  577. I said, what can I do for you? So you already have done.

  578. I said what? What did I do the last day when

  579. you came? I asked that I want to have a

  580. son and he prayed for me. I have a son already born in

  581. January. It was March or April.

  582. I was visiting again, so it was already answered.

  583. The prayer was answered. She had a son.

  584. What am I trying to say is any need you see, pray, have faith,

  585. have faith, have faith that God will answer your prayer and he

  586. will answer your prayer. It is faith.

  587. This is nothing can come to your rescue apart from believing God.

  588. Cool. So now when it comes to

  589. sufferings, it doesn't make sense to other quickly conclude

  590. now suffering doesn't make sense.

  591. Sometimes I'll read out very quickly code it and boom.

  592. Anybody heard that name? Yeah.

  593. Finding purpose in suffering. You can go on YouTube and search

  594. for Co written Boom. You'll see Finding purpose in

  595. suffering, faith, undefeated hiding place.

  596. There's another man called Dietrich Bon Heffer.

  597. He's a German pastor. How he was persecuted?

  598. He was killed. Basically, he was hanged.

  599. Kori Tenboom, a Dutch Christian, was imprisoned in a Nazi

  600. concentration camp during World War 2 for helping Jews escape

  601. persecution. Despite the horror she faced,

  602. she later realized that even in suffering, God was working for

  603. good. She and her sister Betsy found

  604. ways to share the Gospel with fellow prisoners, and after the

  605. war, Kori became a global speaker, spreading a message of

  606. forgiveness and faith. Everything works for good to

  607. them those who love God. We talked about Romans 820-9828.

  608. If you go everything works for good to them those who love God,

  609. all the bad things will also work for you where God is

  610. sovereign, He can change that bad experience it a good

  611. experience. He can make it a blessing to

  612. yourself and to many other people.

  613. And the story of Jim Elliot when they landed there with when Jim

  614. Elliot landed, there was four other missionaries.

  615. They were holding hands and singing a song.

  616. And the native people came and shot arrows and killed them.

  617. All five were dead. And you think there is no hope

  618. for those tribal people in Ecuador to be reached with the

  619. gospel? But after a few years, his wife

  620. went back to the same place, same tribe.

  621. So Jim Millard was a missionary who, along with four of us, was

  622. killed by the indigenous horror Horani people in Ecuador in

  623. 1956. While his death seemed tragic,

  624. his wife, Elizabeth Elliot, later returned to the same tribe

  625. and helped them to come to faith in Christ.

  626. His sacrifice led to a transformation in the community,

  627. showing how even loss can be used for a greater purpose.

  628. Loss can be used for a greater purpose.

  629. So what am I trying to advocate in all these things?

  630. I am saying only one thing. Life may not make sense for you

  631. as you are going through it now, but after few years when you

  632. look back it will make sense. So the English word for that is

  633. you understand life retrospectively.

  634. When you look back it makes sense not when you are going

  635. through it. But it is good to surrender to

  636. Jesus and say, have your way. You're sovereign.

  637. You made the whole big world and you made me, and you knew me

  638. before the world was created. Please have mercy on me.

  639. Touch me. I want to live like you.

  640. I want to show you to the world. Can we pray that kind of a

  641. prayer? Thanks for joining us at Omega.

  642. If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to

  643. find out more, please head to our website or Facebook page in

  644. the links below.