Transforming Ambitions: Pleasing God from Within

And here, I would presume that more than 90 % of you know Jesus as your Savior, or probably 95%. Or 98%. And so those, in some areas, we may have a few different convictions. We are one family in Christ. Don't ever forget that. And when we sit together, it's as a family. Like in our own home, our children are different. So in Christ's family also, there are differences. But we are one family. So our subject is living a life that pleases God. [00:03:33]

We have as our ambition, whether at home, and if you see the context of it, he's talking about heaven as our home, or on earth absent from home. So he's saying, whether I'm at home in heaven, which will happen one day. Or right now, absent from home, I have one ambition. I want to please God. And Paul once said, follow me as I follow Christ. He was following Jesus, who also had one ambition, to please his Father. [00:04:51]

In heaven, everybody's got one ambition. That's to please God. Christ is the center. And they want to please him. And we'll fall in line. So what Paul is saying is, that's going to be the direction I'm going to live all eternity. That's going to be the direction I'm going to be moving in all eternity to please God, to please Jesus Christ. And what he's saying is, I'm aligning myself with that now on earth. [00:07:00]

And you live with a regret about that for all eternity. We tell unbelievers, there's no second chance to be saved. It's here on earth or never. And I say to believers, there's no second chance to take up the cross and deny yourself and follow Jesus. It's either now or never. And I say to you. And as much as that unbeliever will regret that he didn't accept Christ here on earth, the believer is going to regret that he didn't take up the cross here on earth. [00:12:55]

And he finds fault with that first covenant and says, I'm going to make a new covenant now. And now, see this. It will not be laws written outside on tablets of stone or in a book. Verse 10. I will put my law into their mind. The middle of verse 10. I will write it in their hearts. That was not possible under the old covenant. So the first step was that God's laws will be written on tablets of stone. [00:18:58]

In the new covenant, you come to an inward good life. That is the essential difference. That is the absolute difference between the old covenant and new covenant. And in the old covenant, no one could please God fully. There was a limit. The external life was less than 10 % of man's life. What we could call it. they are conscious and are unconscious. And this is what Jesus tried to point out in the Sermon on the Mount when he said in Matthew 5. [00:22:07]

Matthew 5, he said in verse 20, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Do you believe that? Today when somebody says, how can I enter heaven? We tell him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll enter heaven. Supposing I tell him, your righteousness must be more than the righteousness of the Pharisees if you want to enter heaven. [00:24:47]

And God is not pleased with just that external life. He's not pleased with just correctness of doctrine. There's so much of argument. There's so much of doctrine today. Are you a Calvinist? Are you an Armenian? Do you believe in the fundamental truths? Do you believe in the rapture before the tribulation or after the tribulation? I say, brother, whatever you may believe in, if you don't deny yourself and take up the cross, you can never follow Jesus. That's for sure. [00:29:26]

And you think these are the greatest men of God whom the Lord is going to commend. I mean, today, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, when you see people preaching in Jesus' name, casting out demons in Jesus' name, doing miracles, or at least pretending to do miracles in Jesus' name, look at all the multitudes who sit and say, wow, what a man of God. And there'll be so many dumb people who will say that in that day also. But Jesus turns around and says to them, get away from me. I never knew you. Matthew 7, 23, you live in sin. [00:40:53]

But they did not please God. Is that possible? Today, when you hear of some man who's preaching to thousands and doing so -called miracles and casting out demons, you'd say, what a man of God. I don't. I don't. I've read the Bible. I say, I don't know. Whether he's genuine, I don't know. I'm not saying anything against ministry. I've preached thousands of sermons. I've cast out demons. I've prayed for the sick and they've been healed. [00:42:01]

Tell me honestly, all of you who are sitting here, please be honest and answer this to yourself before God. Do you admire? Do you look at a man for his gifts or for his fruit? When you look at a man and you hear his ministry and you're impressed, do you try to find out how he's living? Somebody asked me once, Brother Zach, who are the type of preachers you'll invite to preach in your church in CFC in Bangalore? [00:44:05]

I want to see if he's a humble person number one secondly I want to see what's his attitude to money is he interested in anybody's money will he come and preach if he gets zero as a gift third I want to know if he's married something about his children what his children like I'm not asking that they should be preachers no preaching is a gift by their fruits I want to see if they're godly children because your children know you much better than anybody else you know that you can fool everybody in your church but you can't fool your children they see how you talk to your wife how you talk to your husband how you talk to people who come to the house they see everything you they see you all the time they know what type of Christian you are and they'll follow that if you're a hypocrite this is what I should be so I want to know what type of children you're brought up I say that's the third thing and fourth I said I want to know what type of co -workers he has because a man's not distant co -workers with the closest co -workers of a person are a pretty good indication of what he himself is like when I look at Timothy and the way he lived I know what Paul is like because Paul trained Timothy and then fall tells about Timothy I have got nobody like him who doesn't seek his own who lives for Christ and seeks the good of others I say hey he got that from Paul he never saw Jesus but he saw Paul we learn a lot lot by observing the way people live, not just the way people preach. [00:45:06]