Good morning, church! It was a great joy to worship the Lord and express our gratitude to Him. Happy to see you all praising God. Greetings from Kerala, especially from the Malabar region, Calicut. God is indeed great. I never thought I would come to Yelahanka Church, but praise God for this opportunity. Most of the time, I used to watch the online service. Sometimes, as more than just an ordinary child of God, I faced life issues and ministry challenges, which would sometimes lead to discouragement. But during those times, our pastor's WhatsApp status messages would give me encouragement. It's not about who is ministering but whose word we are ministering. God is good all the time. Whether we experience healing or anything else, God is good.

Let me share my experience rather than just a message. I've been in the Lord for almost 27 years by the grace of God. I can boldly say that it is not me standing here, but God enabling us to stand in His presence. I was born into an ordinary Christian family with a CSA background in Calicut. My father passed away three years ago, but my mother, a retired teacher, is still alive at almost 89 years old. I have one elder brother and an elder sister, and I'm the fourth child. From my childhood, I used to hear from my mother that they didn't want a third or fourth child, but God never allowed them to do anything about it. I used to feel like an unwanted child, especially when I faced rejection and other challenges growing up.

After coming to the Lord on September 13, 1997, everything changed. I had a visitation from the Lord in my home, and I realized I needed Jesus Christ as my Savior. As the scripture says, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. Almost 99% of my secret sins and behaviors changed, and I became a new person. I developed a hunger for reading the Word of God, which I didn't have before. Despite facing insults and discouragement from my friends, I couldn't go back to my old life because the love of Christ kept me passionate about Him.

I prayed for God to teach me to pray, but initially, I didn't understand much when I read the Bible. However, when a new fellowship pastor came to Calicut and preached the Gospel, I understood the importance of accepting Jesus Christ into my heart. I stopped attending music programs and quit smoking and drinking. My father's prayers for me changed too. Instead of praying for my worldly success, he prayed for my spiritual well-being.

There was a time when my father wanted me to join a seminary for security, but I felt a calling to serve the Lord. Despite his objections, I held onto my faith and refused to compromise. Eventually, I got a job in a travel company, even though my father warned me against praising God, saying it would lead to ruin. But I continued to praise the Lord, knowing that true power is experienced in personal moments of worship, especially during difficult times.

God has been faithful throughout my journey, and I am grateful for His love and grace in my life.I was praying, "Lord, somehow bless me with 25,000. I want to give it to my father and tell him, 'My God blessed me through prayers and fasting.'" One day, God blessed me with 50,000 Rupees. I thanked God and requested leave from work, citing an emergency in K. That night, I was elated. However, the next morning, God spoke to me, saying, "Thank your father." I resisted, feeling bitter towards him. God reminded me of the constant prayers my father had made for me under pressure. Some pressures lead us to praise the Lord and draw closer to Him.

Though hesitant, I eventually thanked my father in my heart. Instead of confronting him, I gave the money to my wife to pass on. Two weeks later, I hugged my father and expressed my gratitude. He didn't understand but asserted his reluctance to accept Jesus. Yet, when he turned 70 in 2008, he called me to express his desire for salvation. I had the privilege to baptize and later bury him. Even my wife's father, who I shared the gospel with, embraced Christianity before his passing. Now, my 89-year-old mother also follows the Lord. Our entire family serves Him, and I'm grateful for His grace.

God blessed me with two daughters. The elder one leads worship in Bangalore's City Church, while the younger one serves in Chennai's NLF Church alongside her studies. I encouraged them to learn from me and now, they receive further guidance from great pastors. The elder one's marriage is tentatively scheduled for November 2024, by God's grace. Despite not planning for it yet, we trust in God's greatness.

I want to share Ephesians 3:20: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." We all believe in the power of God working within us, capable of accomplishing more than we can conceive. So, let's trust in His ability to surpass our expectations. Amen.

Imagine, only a few "amens." We all believe, but what we believe, only we can practice. Praise God, hallelujah! If you believe, we can practice it. If you can understand with your mind, you will not practice it. But something always will come into our heart, into our spirit, or we will not get rest because something is bothering in our heart. So that thing we are believing. So whatever you believe in your heart, we will simply go for it. God will manifest His presence.

Why am I sharing this nowadays? I'm in Calicut, both English and Malayalam church. Also, in Ward church, I'm encouraging people more than preaching the gospel, more than preaching the word. If you can share experience, it will encourage others. Praise God, hallelujah! So when we look at Nehemiah's life, Nehemiah had a burden, and he went to Israel. He was talking to them, "God's favorable hand was with me, and the king also did favor." When they heard, everybody said, "Yeah, let's arise and we will build the wall." Nehemiah didn't share all his burden. Nehemiah shared that he was having a big responsibility and all. So he was telling, "God's hand was favorable with me." Praise God! So because of that, the others said, "Let us arise and build."

So now, why encouraging you? We all, someone or in another way, we may forget the day we were born again. Praise God! So from this scripture, keeping this, let us turn our Bibles to Psalms 51. We know the background of Psalms 51. I just want to encourage you to read verse 12 and 13. Psalms 51:12 and 13, it says, "Restore me to the joy of Your." Let everybody pray that, "Lord, restore me the joy of praise God." See, when we were born again in Canada church, I was telling, I'm almost 27 years serving. I'm not really serving the Lord, living as a child of God. Still, still I am in a honeymoon with the Lord. I'm so happy. Every day, I try many things. "Lord, I want to do this. I want to do this." Not everything is a success, but as a child of God, I'm enjoying one or another way, sharing and praying for others. Praise God! So let us check that. Do we have the joy of Salvation still in our heart? Very silent. Praise God! So when we were born again, after the church, one or another way, we'll go to some relatives' house or some of the friends' house, and we'll be talking. What happened in the church? After some time, what happened to me? After service, tired because 3 to 6 months, I was just sitting as a believer. Pastor, me, and wife, you are the three members in that church. So after some people came, pastor asked me to lead the worship. Even though I was a musician, I was a drummer. I never knew to play guitar and to sing according to the melody. And I, you know how I played guitar. I don't know how to tune the guitar and all. There was one verse struck me. "I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me." Without the tuned guitar, I will say, "I can do all things through Jesus who strengthens me." Praise God! Now not in a very beautiful way, but somehow God blessed me to play guitar and lead the worship, singing songs in English and Malayalam. Some in Tamil, they were in Kannada. Only one song I know, sir, our theme song. Yeah, that song. Praise God! Because that was the first song God blessed me with. Another gifting is translating songs. That was the first song I translated. Pastor Sund was singing. Within half an hour, God gave me. God asked me to translate, and I was, I didn't write, somebody was making me write, and that song came into Malayalam also. And more than 500, more than thousand English songs, God blessed me to translate into Malayalam. Praise God! So I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. So whatever we need to experience, we need to practice it. This is the way I grown up in the Lord. I never went to Bible College. I don't know what is theology, and many people ask me, "Pastor, can you teach Revelation?" I said, "I don't know anything about Revelation. One thing I know, Jesus will come back. That is my knowledge of the Book of Revelation, Second Coming of Jesus." I said, "Let me experience what He's coming." Hallelujah! But definitely, we need to learn all these things. Praise God! So God is able to. So here in my life, after that six months, I got some response. I started worshiping the Lord. So after worship, slowly, slowly, I stopped going and visiting my relatives who are not in the Lord, my friends and all. Tired. Let's have. In C, we will get good Biryani. We have Biryani. Go and sleep. Evening we'll go. Evening, when you become tired, slowly, slowly, little by little, the joy of the Lord is losing from us. Hallelujah! Praise God! When we come to the Lord, joy. There was no hunger, no thirst. Only one thing. Somehow, we want our beloveds to come experience the joy. Praise God! So here, David was praying, "Restore me back to the." Shall we all pray like this? "Lord, restore me to the joy of Salvation." And David says in the next verse, it says, "And uphold me in your generous spirit or what is in willingness spirit. Something is there." Yeah, verse 12. "Restore me to the joy of Salvation and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach or share something to the trans to the people who are living in sin. They will return to you." Praise God! Last one month, this scripture was ministering to me. I was checking. When I lead the worship, I'll make everybody to jump and laugh. But I may not be doing all these things before that. Even the congregation, we're jumping. Whenever I go to any convention, I'll be sitting in front, and I will dance and sing. And once, once I remember, my elder daughter, she was six one year old. Was that big convention meeting was happening? I was sitting in the front. I was throwing my baby. HS and joy, rejoicing. So after the meeting, the preacher called me. "What is your name, brother?" I said, "Harrison." "Which church you?" "New Life Fellowship." "I'm so happy to see youngsters worshiping like now." "No throwing up, no throwing. Anything happened, we see something is losing in our heart." "Are you with me?" "Praise God." So let us come back to the joy of the Lord, the joy of our Salvation. Something. Nowadays, I encountered many, many people, including me also. Something Miracle

happens. We say, "God is good all the time." Something is losing or missing or something is not happening in our own way. We say, "Why, God?" Many times, in my struggles, my financial crisis and all, I came to the Lord and without consulting. I stopped going for orchestra and all. So there is no income and all. And when financial struggle something came, I said, "Lord, I don't want to see tomorrow. Let me die." I thank the Lord God didn't hear that prayer because I experienced God's favor in many ways. Praise God!

God is faithful, truly faithful. Just two to three months ago, I was sharing with some people about the word of God. Sometimes, God encourages me to share my testimony with them, and as I was sharing how I was born again and came through, I started crying because of the faithfulness and greatness of God, which has followed me from very little things in my life. I practice praying differently depending on whether I have money or not. When I have money, I go to the doctor if my kids have any problems. But when there's no money, I pray, "Lord, in the name of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus, my child has to be healed." One day, God asked me, "When you have money, you go to the doctor. When you don't have money, you pray. So practically, God taught me many things." I was sharing this experience in Canada. One day, my mother-in-law accepted Christ, and that day, my wife was suddenly affected by severe stomach pain. Immediately, our prayer was to forgive any sins we may have committed. We applied a painkiller, but nothing worked. Then my wife's pain subsided after a painkiller injection at the hospital. However, the bill was only 10 Rupees, a miracle. My brother was amazed, thinking it might be a mistake, but it wasn't. God is truly faithful.

Later, my wife had her first pregnancy, and I was struggling financially. She was admitted to the hospital, and I was told to pay between 2,500 to 3,000 Rupees before evening. I only had 10 Rupees. I prayed, questioning God why He chose me when I'm nothing. Then, unexpectedly, a missionary friend visited and gave me an envelope, saying it was his tithe for me. Inside was exactly 3,000 Rupees. Another time, I needed a guitar for leading worship, but I couldn't afford it. I prayed earnestly, and the next day, someone put exactly 2,500 Rupees in my pocket for the guitar. Then, Pastor J's wife handed me an envelope with 2,500 Rupees to buy the guitar. Later, when I went to buy the guitar, the one I dreamed of was priced at 2,250 Rupees, and the guitar cover and belt were given to me for free. It may seem like a movie, but with Jesus, we can experience more than any drama or cinema. God is faithful, indeed.

Praise God! God is truly great, and there are so many experiences I want to share. Let me emphasize one thing: if you desire to glorify the Lord with both little and greater things, then take action for the Lord, and God will perform miracles. Hallelujah! As Ephesians 3:20 says, this is about more than just material things. When God sent me to Palar four years ago, we experienced Acts of Apostles in action every day. Wherever we went in Palar, we witnessed manifestations, healings, and every Sunday, someone new would get touched by the Lord. This is how God did great things in Palar.

When I was ministering in Palar, there was a fellow evangelist named DJ AIT Kumar, who knew me from before. He recognized me in Palar and publicly acknowledged my journey from associating with KJ Yesudas to following Jesus Christ. This introduction by God in one day was more impactful than working for 10 to 20 years in Palar. From then on, people started coming to the church.

It's important to recognize that God's power isn't limited to theology or knowledge. God looks at the heart. If you want to glorify God, then God will work through you. Remember to always get back to the joy of Salvation. I once heard a friend ask, "How many of you are 'chairman' Christians?" In other words, are you only coming to church to fill a seat? Let's be more than just passive observers. Let's have a moving power of the Lord.

Reading the word and praying to experience it in our lives is crucial. For example, Acts of Apostles 3:11-26 shows us that it's not our power but the power of Jesus Christ that performs miracles. We should pray to glorify God in everything we do, and then let God do the rest.

I want to share some experiences to encourage you further. One time, I prayed for a girl who couldn't hear, and after my prayer, she was able to hear. Another instance involved a cat that I accidentally harmed. I prayed for the cat to come back to life, and it did! These experiences show that when we do something for the Lord, God performs miracles through us.

I also want to emphasize that ministry isn't about knowledge; it's about carrying the burden for others. If you see someone in need, pray for them. God will work miracles through your prayers. Let's pray together now, asking God to release His power in our lives to experience Ephesians 3:20. Amen.