Joseph Prince - God Wants a Real Relationship With You
This is an excerpt from: Unveiling Jesus' Heart To Serve You
Praise the Lord. God is working in the house, amen? And I always want you to come expecting, come prepared, come ready to receive, amen? And sometimes, you know, people, they are so religious and our natural inclination is to be religious. When Adam sinned against God, Adam actually covered himself with fig clothes so no one need to teach him to be religious. He knew. He knew instinctively. But religion is not relationship with God. Can I have a good amen? So religion is part of your flesh. The flesh tends to be religious. Do you know Satan is religious, amen? He will try to get you an idea about God that is not true, like God demands from you, God is out to get you, God is finding fault with you, God is not pleased with you.
So you always see an angry God, and sometimes that image, you know, is also helped along because we have a father who may be always grumpy, always finding fault, never really happy, or a mother who is like that. I mean, matriarchal control is very strong, especially in our country, amen? You know, like they say, even in America, "If mama ain't happy, nobody's happy," you know? So the idea that we come ready to receive, people will say, "Well, you are very selfish. All you can think of is come to church to receive, to receive, to receive. What about serving the Lord? What about giving God His due? What about..." You know, actually, the only good thing for a man to do before God, I used the word "to do" is to receive, because what do you have? How can you think of yourself anything more than spiritually bankrupt, actually? And even after we are saved, born again, we keep on receiving, amen? Even after we are no longer a sinner, but a new creation, we still receive from the Lord.
So there was a family very dear to Jesus. Jesus raised the brother from the dead, Lazarus, and the two sisters, Martha and Mary. And when Jesus came to the house, Martha, her first thought is religious, amen? I say "religious" in a sense of, like, "I need to please God. I need to", you know? And that sounds so good, that sounds so great, but that comes after, my friend. He is not after your hands, He's after your heart. He's not after your energy and effort, He's after your devotion. And yet we miss the point. Like in the Book of Proverbs, it says, "My son, give me your heart," amen? And the Lord knows it's the heart. The heart is the thing when you come to church it's to be occupied with Christ. And when this is right, it will affect your hands. It will affect your walk, amen. I will affect your service. And you will not just serve Him, you know, in a natural way, but your service will be with excellence, will be in the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.
So Jesus came to the house, and the natural thing to do, especially for us Asians, someone come to your house, the natural thing to do is to go to the kitchen, find something good, especially when that person turns up suddenly, amen? The first thing, you know, we meet one another, what do we say here? All right, in Asia especially, "Jiak ba buay? Sudah makan? Have you eaten"? right? We don't say, "Have you spent time with Jesus before you came to my house? It's more important to spend time with Him than me, amen"? But eating first, right? Now, the sister went into the... the older sister actually, her name is Martha. She went to prepare food in the kitchen. Now, that's fine. You can serve, it's okay, but you know what happened, right? She came... what was the other sister doing, Mary? She was at Jesus' feet.
Now, when you think about it, Jesus used the word later on, "One thing is needful". One thing is needful. Actually in the Greek, it is very emphatic, the one thing. Of this one thing it is necessary. It is needful of this one thing. So what is the one thing? The sister sat at Jesus' feet and she just received. The Bible says she listened to His Word and she just received. You see, when the one who flung the stars in place, the heavens showeth His handiwork, we are all made by Him. When we were in our mother's womb, the Bible says, the psalmist says, "We were carefully wrought, fearfully and wonderfully made. And my soul knows right well," amen. He is the one that put all the diamonds, and the gold, and the sapphires in the crusty rocks for man to dig and to find. He is the one who made everything, amen. He's so full. He's so full, and most of all, he's so overflowing with love, if I can say that. His love is not just enough. His love is extravagant.
So that's why He made man, so that man can be a recipient of His love. He did not make man, listen, for man to love Him. Now, later on the law commands man to love Him, but actually even that, the best of men failed. David failed, amen. We cannot love unless we know we are first loved. The way he... and God knew that, so God gave the law not to justify man by, but to show man his shortcoming, that he cannot do the very thing that God wants him to do. So God created man to receive all His love, to receive all that He has done for man, so that man can enjoy it. You see, your children, you know when you build another house, let's say, okay, just imagine, okay? Imagine in Singapore you can build a house very easily, okay? All right, use your imagination.
I talk about this, "Aye, don't you know nowadays", okay, okay, sister. So sorry, brother. Hold on, just imagine with me, okay? You build another house from the house you are living in. You build your house for your children or other people's children? It's for your own children. You have a good savings, it's for you and for your children, amen? If you're older, your children's children even, amen. You look forward to bestow all, everything good, you think of your children. And for those of us who are more loving husbands and responsible fathers, you plan for holidays, who do you think of? Your loved ones, amen?
Many times, you sit even during holidays and all that, you make sure that they are sitting well. You make sure they have the best seat there. You make sure when the chicken comes in, all right, the chicken is the extra official of this restaurant and the biggest piece goes to the boy or the girl that you love, your children, your wife. Your wife gets a bigger piece. And all the guys said? I'm talking about loving husbands, loving fathers, amen? And when you go on holiday, I've had guys tell me this, they serve. In a form, in a way, it's a holiday for the children and for the wife, but for them, they are busy looking out. They are busy making sure everything is fine.
Now, I know that many times it's the wife that does that. Now, the wife said? Oh, this time your amen is louder than the guys. Okay, but it is so, amen? And we do it for our children so that they enjoy. Do they say, "Thank you," in commensurate with all the good things we have done for them? No, children have to be taught to say thank you, amen? They have to be taught to say thank you. It's not natural with their flesh, amen.