Integrity, Trust, and Stewardship in Christ

"to you think Jesus tempted to cheat when he worked as a carpenter if he was not then he was not tempted like us all human beings are tempted in the same way as Jesus was to tell lies to cheat to be tempted doesn't mean you're bad when Adam was tempted he was not sinning and he was tempted they were not sinning it's when they yielded to that Temptation they sinned so when you're tempted by something it doesn't mean anything so Jesus was tempted and he never yielded he never cheated anybody in his carpentry work teaching me that I must never cheat anybody in my life if I'm in business" [00:33:07]

"he never asked for it but see how God arranged Ed for some very rich people you need a lot of money to take care of 12 people in their families here was a rich man herod's palace manager I don't know what his salary was it must have mean a tremendous amount of money he earned if he was the palace manager of Herod and his wife was a follower of Jesus and his wife said hey can I give some money to Jesus for support he said sure see how God can move people to provide the need if the way he provided the need of Jesus he can provide anybody's need today that's what we learned today and that is what every preacher and full-time worker should be able to demonstrate in their life that if I trust God I never need to ask anybody on Earth for money" [00:34:24]

"does the end justify the means that means if your ultimate goal is good to plant churches to win people to Christ to take care of Orphans does it say it doesn't matter how you get there you can do all types of wrong things which Jesus did not do in that case you might you might as well cheat and tell lies and give false reports give false reports that thousands are getting converted when nobody's getting converted you'll get more money that is the end justifying the means and a lot of people are doing that they say our ultimate goal is good so it doesn't matter how we get there and that is how Christendom has sunk to the low level it is today" [00:36:00]

"so if we want to if we believe that is more important to maintain a pure testimony for Christ that quality is more important than quantity numbers is not what God looks for the Bible says in the final day God will put everything into the fire all our work will be put into the fire and we read in one Corinthians in chapter three you see this is very important for us whether you're in Christian work or not 1 Corinthians 3 verse 12 a man can build I'm paraphrasing it with gold silver precious stones or with wood hair and straw but but whatever he does every man's work will become evident because in that day it'll be tested by fire and the fire will test not the quantity of your work but the quality of your work" [00:36:41]

"are they disciples are they ,000 people who are overcoming sin in their daily life are there 20,000 people who don't watch pornography and have overcome sexual lust and overcome anger and overcome bitterness what is God looking for huge quantity of wood hair and straw or a little bit of Gold Silver and precious stones the fire in the final day will test the quality of every preacher's work and all the churches you belong to and all the churches you're a part of and whatever Ministry you're engaged in or partaking in or whatever Ministry you support financially believe it or not the fire of God will test the quality of that work not how many people came to that church that but rather what type of people were they not the quantity but the quality" [00:37:58]

"so when it comes to handling money properly one of the first things we need to do is what zakus did in Luke 19 zakus said you know Luke 19 Jesus said to zakus I'm going to come to your house today I'm going to come and eat with you and we read in Luke 19 that as they were going to his house it's a very interesting verse have you noticed it as they were going to zaki's house Luke 19:8 zakus stopped he stopped outside his house and said to the Lord I could paraphrase his words there he was saying Lord this house that you see which you're going to walk into now it's built with unrighteous money I cheated a lot of people and made money and I'm building this house I built this house you're a holy man you can't walk into this h house built with unrighteous money so before you enter the house that's the meaning of Zach you stopped outside the house Lord before you enter the house I want to say something I'm going to make a list of all the people I cheated with which I made this money and I got a lot of money in my bank account and I'm going to give it back four times because I'm going to make up for all the interest they lost Through The Years in which I cheated them I'm going to give it back four times" [00:42:18]

"and then he said Lord now you can come to my house and Jesus said is the only time that Jesus ever spoke like this salvation has come to this house what a word to say for Jesus to say salvation has come to this house he first ones to see whether you are righteous with money if you're not righteous with money he's not going to say salvation has come to this house you read through the gospels it's the only time that Jesus ever said salvation has come to this house he's been righteous with money because he's the son of Abraham you remember when the king of Sodom came to Abraham and said you won the battle for me Abraham you defeated my enemies and brought all my wealth back and in Genesis chter 14 you can take this Abraham said no I won't even take a shoelace from you lest it be said that you made me Rich I don't want your money king of Sodom he says here is the son of Abraham who be behaves like that" [00:45:24]

"what is the point of saying that here zakus was lost in the Love of Money that's why he cheated and Jesus came to save people who are lost in the Love of Money many years ago I said the same thing to the Lord I said Lord I'll tell you honestly I'm lost in the Love of Money I want you to seek me and save me just like you sought me and save me from sin I want you to seek me and save me from the Love of Money and he did it like he saved me from sin I want to ask you are you lost in the love of money without even knowing it there are a lot of people lost in sin without knowing it have you ever prayed that Jesus would save you from the Love of Money let me tell you something I have never met a person on Earth who doesn't love money there are many beggars on Earth who live on the streets homeless people you think they don't love money of course they do you go to the billionaires in this country you think they don't love money they do from homeless people to billionaires everybody loves money we have to be saved from it" [00:47:11]

"and how can we be saved from it it doesn't mean giving it all away that doesn't save us there are people in India who renown their wealth and go and live in the jungles it doesn't save them there not salvation it is the wise use of it so in what way can we use our money wisely you know there are words like this for example Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 verse 20 don't lay up treasure uh sorry verse 19 don't lay up treasure for yourself on Earth because where your treasure is there will your heart be also we have to face up to this verse not bypass it it's part of The Sermon on the Mount what does it mean to lay up treasure for myself it doesn't mean I have to live in poverty and it doesn't we have to be very realistic here it doesn't mean that I have to give away all my money to the poor or put it all in the offering box we want to think on practical terms is it right for example for us to save some money to build a house is that laying up treasure for myself personally I don't think so I think God wants us to have houses to live in and financially I think it's wiser to own a house than to keep renting one for 20 years so I I can't believe that that is a wise use of money to just God doesn't want us to live on the street he wants us to be wise in the use of our money" [00:49:12]

"so I replied to him I said can you repay 10 Rupees a month you owe 30,000 rupees right can you repay 10 Rupees a month you know how long it'll take you to repay 30,000 rupees only 250 years that's all you're not going to live that long you'll probably die in 20 years but God will see that you Faithful try to repay what you could and he will count it as if you had paid it all and I'll show you a verse for it in scripture I like to point people to scripture 2 Corinthians in chapter 8 2 Corinthians chapter 8 you know there's an answer to everything in the Bible everything we face in life I found there's an answer in the Bible that's why I study it 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 12 if the Readiness is present if you're ready to pay 10 Rupees a month even though you owe 30,000 God accepts you according to what you have and not according to what you don't have what a liberating verse that is God is not torturing us saying you got to repay that otherwise you go to hell no what can you afford to do true God is a loving father he doesn't torture us with commands which is impossible to obey some people get that idea it's not true what can you do do that how much can you give each month" [00:55:44]

"and the Lord also told me this always give people the impression that you have plenty so that nobody will give you money out of Charity like a beggar you're not a beggar you're a servant of mine you don't need charity trust me so I I had some shirts with frayed collars but I'd never wear them when I went to preach because L somebody feels sorry for me I said Lord I'll keep some really good shirts to go to preach and uh make sure that everybody thinks I'm very well off because I don't want to give people the impression that I have any need and 2 3 years you know it was a testing period now when I look back it was such a blessing we came to know God in that poverty and struggle in such a way that I tell newly married couples I wish God will give you three years of financial struggle as a wedding gift to teach you something about him he will learn lessons and I tell you we learned lessons in those days that have helped us till today and what is the result in 50 years of our married life serving the lord we have never made our needs known to anybody we have never sent a report of our work anywhere we planted churches 75 of them not one of them sends a report anywhere not one of them we take an offering we just keep a box and we have never borrowed one rupee in our whole life I said Lord I want to prove at the end of my life one thing that if you seek God's kingdom first and his righteousness everything you need will be added to you that God's promise is true in the 21st century in a poor country like India where there's no social security where you're to pay for everything from children's education to medical treatment everything God is faithful my brothers and sisters you have a calling to prove to an unbelieving generation that you have a faithful God and it's particularly in the area of money that you can prove it some of you who are poor and struggling what an opportunity you have to prove to an unbelieving generation around you that God is faithful and we have proved this first I proved it in my own life and then we proved it in a little church that we started we say we're going to trust God for our needs here we will never ever ask anybody for money we'll keep a box there those who want to put it can put it and over the years the Lord told us to put some warning signs on that box and it's on our website by the if you go to CFC India you'll see our financial statement" [01:05:18]