14. Being Prepared for Christ's Return -1 By Zac Poonen

let's bow our heads in prayer and ask the Lord to speak to our hearts according to our need Heavenly Father we bow before you as knowledge you Lord Jesus is present here in our midst this evening you know the need of every one of us here I pray that you will meet us according to our need the Holy Spirit brood brood over us and speak to our hearts individually thank you Father for hearing us we believe you'll be glorified Jesus name Amen we have to think of the day we know a lot of believers think of the day when Christ will return it's a very exciting thing to think of the return of Jesus Christ to this earth to establish his kingdom but we also need to think of what will happen in that day when we see him face to face how do I know that I'm ready for his coming it's not enough just to say I'm looking forward to it I want to turn to 1 John in chapter 3 where it says that this is the proof that you are awaiting the coming of the Lord not just knowing in our mind that Jesus is returning but it says here in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 2 the last part when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him just as he is so it's a double hope that we have we will see him as he is most people have only that one hope but here it speaks of a double hope we'll see him as he is be like him and here is the way we can know whether you really have this hope of Christ's coming you know just like faith can be a dead faith or a living faith James says there's a lot of difference between dead faith and living faith in the same way the hope of our hope of seeing Christ can also be a dead hope or a Living Hope and the only way to know which is living in which his death is like this when in the case of faith James says in chapter 2 that faith without works is dead only faith produces works it's alive that's fairly well known the faith which is only intellectual in the mind is a dead faith if it produces works of repentance and obedience in our life then it is living in the same way there's a dead hope and a Living Hope and I don't think most Christians have ever thought about that here it says that if you really have this hope as a Living Hope not as a intellectual fact I mean let's compare it with faith what is dead faith dead faith is to know in my mind many things the Bible is the Word of God God is a Trinity Jesus came to earth the Son of God died for the sins of the world rose again ascended to heaven if you believe in Christ your sins can be forgiven you can be filled with the Holy Spirit all these are facts but as long as we don't experience it is dead it's only when we experience the reality of it and it produces change in our life faith with works then it is alive in fact James says that there's as much difference between dead faith and living faith as within a dead man and a living man you see a dead man can have ten fingers ten toes two eyes two years and every part of his body but the only thing he doesn't have his life he doesn't have breath so faith that does not produce works of obedience to God is a dead faith like that in the same way and speaks here of a Living Hope her dead hope is just intellectual knowledge and there are a lot of people who study about the tribulation that's coming in the seven years of tribulation about the Antichrist and they argue about what is the number 666 and many other facts about the future and they look around in the world and they talk about the mark of the beast and so many things about various nations rising up in war and that's all proof for the second coming it's all there but there is only one way that you can know your hope is not a dead hope for a living hope and that is it says here in verse 3 everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he is pure so I told you that many people there's only one side of the hope they have and that is that Christ will come again but the Bible says it's a double hole it's like and if you don't have the other part of that hope it's not the real hope that is it's like a coin if only one side of a coin is printed or one side of a currency note is printed the other side is blank it's a counterfeit so if you have a hope with one side printed Christ is coming again and the other side we will be like him not care that's a dead hope it's a counterfeit we need to see one John 3:3 very clearly two things let me repeat we he will we will see him as he is one side of the nog coin the other side we shall be like him so if this is our hole then it says we will purify ourselves just as he is pure our life's passion will be to purify ourselves now the Bible speaks about God cleansing us and we cleansing ourselves both are needed that's the correct balance God cleanses us concerning our past life I can never cleanse away my past life we know that all our righteousness is like filthy rags and any amount of good works I do cannot cleanse even one sin in my past life God has to do it completely by himself I don't touch that that is through the death of Christ that my past is taken care of but then the Bible speaks in a number of places of our cleansing ourselves and my my guess is right I would say that 90% of Christians believers in the world never understand the distinction between God cleansing us and we cleansing ourselves they think God does everything let me show you a scripture what does it say here he who has this hope purifies himself he's not asking God to purify him of course he needs God's help we need God's help for everything in the Christian life but the responsibility is his to purify himself and that is how we prove my hope is not a dead hope it's a Living Hope now if I don't do that whatever hope I say I have is a dead hole and that's as useless as a dead faith nominal Christians most of you are if not all of you are born-again though so you know the difference between a nominal Christian and a born-again Christian what is the difference is there anything you believe in the Bible which the nominal Christian doesn't believe every denomination of Christianity weathers Roman Catholic or Baptist or Methodist or you know people are not born again all of them would believe that there's a Trinity the Bible is the Word of God Jesus Christ the Son of God he came to die for the sins of the world all these denominations believe it but they are nominal Christians the time came you you and I were like that too but a time came in our life when we opened our life and let the Holy Spirit make these truths real in us then we were born again and you know the difference between a born-again Christian and one of the nominal Christian is like the difference between a dead man and the living man so that we understand in the same way there's a lot of difference between a dead hope and a living hope he has a Living Hope purifies himself those are not my words every one verse 3 anyone who claims to have this hope as a living hope the proof is this he will purify himself and when does he stop purifying himself when he reaches he says in verse 3 the standard of purity of Jesus Christ so in other words he's constantly purifying himself till he reaches that standard so if you are not doing that daily I'm sorry to say your hope is a dead hope you prevalent probably never knew that till today but it's good to know it let me show you another verse where also it speaks about cleansing ourselves in 2nd Corinthians just like we read here and 1 John 3:3 we purify ourselves I told you God cleanses us from the past and in the present we purify ourselves now 2nd corinthians 7 verse 1 having these promises what are the promises in previous verses I will be a father to you 2nd Corinthians 6:18 and you'll be my sons and daughters that's a tremendous honor if you have these promises now see what it says let us cleanse ourselves it's not God cleansing us just like we read in 1 John 3:3 he who has this yoke purifies himself let us cleanse ourselves have you ever tried to understand what does that mean to cleanse yourself and what should you cleanse yourself from from all defilement of the flesh and the spirit and thus perfecting holiness in the fear of God if your aim in life is only to go to heaven when you die and you don't need these verses but if your aim in life is to please the Lord before you see him face to face then this verse is a very important verse even the other one we read in 1 John 3 because when we see Jesus face to face let me tell you what is gonna happen and what you will feel like in that day you will understand the depth and greatness of his love for you and how much he suffered in order to save you and me from our sin I don't think we understand it fully I think God has given me a little revelation of what he suffered mm-hmm but we don't understand it fully for many years as a young Christian all I knew about Christ's suffering was the physical suffering every movie that I saw of Jesus you know there are many movies about Christ like Passion of the Christ and all and when I see it I weep because you really see the look at the way he they whipped him and hammered him and nailed him to the cross in I mean he had to die for my sins but why did he have to be whipped and beaten man God could have saved him or saved all that but God allowed all that and when I see all that I weep and I've done that from my youngest Christian age but I found that after I wept and all that it was it was passing it was finished a couple of days later I am still living for myself just like before still defeated by the same old sins I was defeated by even earlier that's how it was for many years so I found that all that temporary moving of our heart because of seeing the physical suffering of Christ doesn't produce a lasting change in our life it's only temporary and if you're honest you'll have to say the same thing that when you see that you're moved temporarily but but I as I meditated more much later in my Christian life as I grew and I said lord I want to know more about what actually you suffered you know God doesn't show us more than you are eager to know if you're satisfied with your current knowledge of the Lord that's all you'll have God wants us to grow in the knowledge of the Lord the Bible says eternal life John 17:3 is to know God and Jesus Christ and Paul told Timothy to lay hold of eternal life in 1 Timothy 6:17 and lay hold of eternal life 1 Timothy 6 13 and 17 what does that mean Timothy is about 45 years old and Paul tells him to lay hold of eternal life this is just being born again my guess is that the average Christian today does not know what it is to lay hold of eternal life if you read that verse in 1 Timothy 6 how do you understand it lay hold of it on a lie you'll say I've already got it but Timothy already had it why is Paul telling you to lay hold of it that's because we think of eternal life as living forever but Jesus defined eternal life as John 17:3 eternal life is to know God and to Jesus Christ whom he has sent so to lay hold of it is to get to know God and Jesus better and better and better just like the day a young lady is married to a man he's her husband but he does she doesn't know him as she if she really if they really live together happily every year she'll get to know him better and better and better and better that's how we are supposed to know Jesus better and better and better and better and better for example if one week after marriage somebody came to this newly married couples house and asked the lady the wife the husband is not at home and he asks her here's a particular problem concerning in your this situation what do you think your husband would do in this situation what do you think we should do your husband should take a decision can you tell me what your what do you think your husband is not here can you take a decision for him she'd say I don't know I've been married just one week I don't know what decision he'll take but if they have lived together happily and known each other their ways of life you want meat that same wife 15 years later and this man comes in asks what do you think your husband will do in this situation she said I'll tell you what he do why she has come to know him better and better than better that she doesn't have to ring up her husband to find out what to do she knows what he will do that is an indication of a wife who's come to know her husband that is eternal life to know Jesus like that John 17:3 that in the beginning when I'm converted I don't know what is God's will it's like I'm a new wife what would Jesus do here I don't know but 15 years later I should not say I don't know there are believers who you know - 15 20 years they say I don't know well you should be knowing imagine a wife who's married for 15 20 years is I don't know what my husband would do in this situation and that's not a good marriage and that's not a good marriage you have a Jesus Christ if after 15 20 years you don't know what he would do you know one of the things I discovered in my Christian life was that in my early days as an born-again believer in the early years I would get some very specific answers from God even in my Bible reading clearly what shall I do here Lord and I would get an answer and sometimes those answers were were very significant answers you see like I remember once many years as long long ago before I got married more than 50 years ago I had gone for a student camp way back we have in Gujarat from my home in Vellore and I was single those days and this campus for one week and the day I landed in Ahmedabad I got a telegram from my father saying the doctors have diagnosed me with cancer please come home immediately because they advised an immediate operation my father was old and I was the only child in the country or I was the only older mature older one who is available and I said okay but I had just arrived there for the camp in the campus for one week so I began to seek the Lord and said what shall I do and I sought the Lord and it was still about the 25th of October or something and the campus to go on for one week so that particular day my Bible reading was in Deuteronomy and I read in Deuteronomy in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 3 that on the first day of the eleventh month the 40th year Moses spoke and the Lord said in verse 6 you have stayed long enough now turn and set your journey and go Oh so I said ok on the first day at 11 bun so I said ok it's the 25th of October today I will book my ticket back not for tomorrow but for the 1st of November now I know first year the 11th one in Israel was something else but for me it was like that first of November and the camp was to finish on the second I said they can take care of it for one day so I wrote sent a telegram back those days there were no phones and all telegram I said dad I'm gonna come olya maybe third of November because I started my journey from here in the first I can't come earlier so he that was on the basis of something God specifically told me not a voice from heaven I was just my daily reading and when I reached home in Vellore my dad said since you were delayed by one week you didn't come in time I sent the x-ray to another expert radiologist and that person said that was the wrong diagnosis you don't have cancer so you don't have to have an operation and he never had an operation he never had cancer in his whole life and I said wow how thankful I am that for a small thing like that I didn't just immediately rush back but I prayed and said Lord what do you want me to do and God would speak to me specifically but as time went on as I've grown in the Christian life I find that God does not speak to me specifically like that now now when I want some guidance in something and I look in my daily reading I don't find anything in fact the next year after that in 1968 when I was seeking God whether in the same year actually in 67 when I was seeking God about marriage and there was this proposal for Annie who's now my wife God spoke to me specifically from the Word of God and showed me that Annie was to be my wife I'm not gonna show you that verse it's not important I've shown it to my wife her name was there and I said Lord this is amazing but now over the years I find many times I'm seeking the Lord about something and I read my daily portion there's nothing there and so as I grew I found that I found less and less of this spectacular guidance so I must began to think I'm now I know the answer but I began to think what does this mean does it mean that God's not speaking to me does it mean I'm backslidden or I don't hear God because I do hear God very clearly when I have a message when I asked the Lord what is the message I have to speak to your people very clearly in my heart but I don't seem to get clear guidance and then I got the answer one day from the Lord Lord said when you're young I have to tell you every little thing every little step' that's because you're like a little child oh you like you tell your children brush your teeth change your clothes take a shower go to bed do your homework but when you become 25 years old you don't tell them your son brush your teeth go to bed take a shower no you don't tell 25 year old sing like that and so the Lord says you're grown up why don't you tell your 25 year old to brush his teeth and take a shower because he's doing it he knows it himself what to do he doesn't need to consult dad and mom or be careful when you cross the street 25 year old doesn't know meat that and so I was encouraged to know that when we grow spiritually God doesn't have to speak so spectacularly when God speaks like that to you it's very often because you are still a child so I'm not impressed by all these so-called prophets who say God said this to me and God said that to me now God spoke to me like that when I was 2 years old but I'm more than 50 in the Lord now and he doesn't tell me to brush my teeth and take a shower now I I know what to do and I know so if you're experiencing something like that in your life don't get discouraged it just means you're growing up that I mean if you're still doing the wrong things for example you have to tell a child don't put that mud in your mouth it doesn't know now you say God doesn't tell me all that now but you still put mud in your mouth at the age of 25 then there's something wrong what do I mean by putting mud in your mouth watching pornography do any of you watch it you love to look at dirty pictures it's exactly the same as a little two-year-old not a little two-year-old six month old putting mud in its mouth no difference but you're not six months old you've been a believer for so long God doesn't speak to you because you're a 25 year old so as I grew in the Christian life one other thing I wanted to know more was Lord Jesus show me more of how much you really suffer not just the whipping and the thorns and then that all really moves my heart but two days later I'm behaving just the same I don't seem to take it seriously so as I meditated on it the Lord began to show me what he really suffered on the cross and that I had discovered was the cup which he prayed in Gethsemane Oh father take it away from me that was that was not the whipping no he wasn't afraid of the whipping or the thorns or the nails I'm sure Jesus would be willing to suffer that a thousand times for me he loves me or for you but there was something else which was much worse than that much worse than whipping and thorns and on his head and nails that's what I want and you know I bought I've had this passion when I find something in Scripture that I don't know and it's written there I want to know it you know in science all the great discoveries were made by people who asked questions like Isaac Newton great scientist three four hundred years ago he saw an Apple fall to the ground and he says why does he Apple fall to the ground I mean most people don't even ask that question apples were falling to the ground for five thousand years and nobody bothered about it but Isaac Newton said I gotta find out why this Apple is falling it's not and he discovered the law of gravity today we all know it and discovered the how gravity works in the universe not just apples falling into the ground with the moon pulling the tides in the sea etc so no discovery would ever have been made even in science it people didn't want to say why does that happen and so when you read the scriptures if you don't want to go in and say why is it like that not only you will remain ignorant of the Scriptures but you'll be ignorant of God you won't know Jesus Christ you won't be able to lay hold of eternal life and then you won't be you won't purify yourself either so I began to seek the Lord and I said Lord is that cup Lord which you were trying to avoid I know it's not the cross it's not the nails and then the Lord showed me there was one sentence Jesus cried out on the cross my God my God why have you forsaken me and I've heard that from childhood it's not something new but there was certain as I hungered and thirsted I began to realize the truth that I began to see God because he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him Hebrews 11:6 says God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him so the Lord showed me a couple of things just in that verse first of all that that was the only time in his life that he ever called the Father God he never spoke to his father as God he was God but when he spoke to his father he always said father father father that's how he pray every single time all through his life for thirty three and a half years he never looked up and said God he always said father but once in his life he said my God my God only for a short time and then at the end of the cross again he switched back to father father I commend my spirit into your hand that was the last word and he was gone so always it was father father father for and at the end it was father but in between there was this period where he said my God my god that's the first thing I discovered there do you know the reason I'm sure you read that you heard that for years but this tragedy with so many Christians is that they study their chemistry books with intensity they study mathematics with intensity they want to know how to solve this problem and why does this happen like this they go to the physics laboratory and the chemistry laboratory and search and find out why does this happen and they learn such a lot when they come to the Bible they just read it they don't ask themselves why I want to teach all of you to study the Bible in a different way when you see something there with you which is different from what normally happens you say why is like that why is it like that and the Lord showed me that that was the one time in his life when he was standing before his father as a judge the father was a judge at that time till then he was father father but now because he was bearing sin in his body on the cross he was standing before the judge of the universe who was punishing him for sin my sin your sin punishing him he was not standing before the Father he was standing for the judge of the universe and what was the punishment the judge of the universe gave him for my sin and your sin yah forsaken so then I began trying to understand what does it mean to be forsaken I was just meditating on one sentence that's all my God my God why have you forsaken me it never happened throughout his life he never called him God before and he was never forsaken before this is the only time he was forsaken and as I meditated on it I discovered that that is what hell is hell is not a geographical place you know a lake of fire I mean God uses all these pictures of a lake of fire but it's a picture language it's not real fire it's a picture like Jesus said there's gonna be mansions in heaven not real mansions and what do you want to do with the 10-bedroom mansion in heaven what do you do with it I don't want it here on earth the God is using pictures to show what is valuable so you see for example I'll show you I'll prove to you why there's no real firing in hell do you remember the story where Jesus said about a rich man and Lazarus his beggar sitting at his door and both of them died and Lazarus went up to Paradise to Abraham's bosom and the rich man it says went to hell and what did the rich man say do you remember I'm thirsty my tongue please send Lazarus to give me a little water do you think now when you hear that when you read that you think does this rich man have a tongue his tongue is in his body that was buried on the earth it's his soul the soul doesn't have a tongue he's rich his body was buried on the earth and his dung is there and he's saying in Hell I want some water have you thought of that it's picture language to show you that the same intensity with which a body will burn in the fire and he cry out and thirst that is what the soul faces to a much greater degree when he's in hell forsaken by God it's worse than your body being burnt in the fire and I saw that is what Jesus suffered on the cross forsaken by God and then I realized that what I had believed all my life that Jesus physical death was the punishment for my sin was not really true because physical death is not the punishment for sin I mean you know you have sinned how is God going to punish you for your sin is it physical death if you just think of it if it is physical death then the moment you die you say Lord I paid the price I can go to heaven everybody dies physical death they'll all go to heaven why shouldn't have a physical death is the punishment for sin everybody who dies has to go to heaven because he's died he's paid the price and if that is what Jesus did on the cross then I say Lord you don't heard I can die myself you don't have to die in my place at all so then I realized something you know as you meditate on Scripture the Lord begins to show you more and more of himself and I saw that the punishment for my sin is spiritual death not physical death physical death everybody has and what is spiritual death it is to be cut off from God forsaken completely something like you cut off the wire that brings electricity to this bulb it's dark immediately that's how it is to be cut off from God from the life of God you cut off permanently that is eternal hell and is a million times worse than being burnt in the fire million times worse than worms and all eating you no no that's nothing compared to being forsaken by God that's all picture language to show you how terrible it is to be forsaken by God because if you just hear the word for a second by God you don't realize how bad it is and so Jesus uses the picture of fire and worms and all types of things to show you how terrible it is so that is what Jesus suffered on the cross forsaken by God that's what he experienced so the next question that came to my mind was as I meditated on it but Lord the punishment for my sin is not being forsaken by God for three hours no because that's all he was forsaken on the cross punishment for my sin is forsaken by God for eternity not four thousand million ten million years but eternal forsaken by God is the punishment for my sin Lord were you forsaken like that and I discovered he was and I discovered that you know human beings have to have eternity to experience eternal hell but because Jesus was Infinite we are finite Jesus is infinite and in finite being can experience the eternity of Hell in one second it's a simple mathematical equation infinity into one second is equal to a finite being into eternity so I understood something there what Jesus experienced on the cross was what I would experience and not I all the billions of people together would experience for all eternity if you can try and understand that it's very difficult to understand to all eternity the equivalent of being burnt and eaten by worms and whatever picture you got it being forsaken by God and living with all the demons and forever and ever and ever and ever Jesus suffered that it really opened my eyes to what the death on the cross was and I said Lord it's amazing that you love me so much that's what you were agonizing in the garden of gethsemane father I don't want to be forsaken by you I mean I've been with you in fellowship for all eternity I don't want to be forsaken I don't mind the whipping and the cross and the nails and all that but to be first taken by God and wanted and I was meditating on in relation to myself and I felt the father would have said to Jesus well if you are not forsaken Zak will go to hell and then Jesus says that I'll go to hell okay then I'll go to the cross you know when I got that revelation I'll tell you honestly I wept and I wept and I wept because of the first time in my life I understood what it meant when it says Jesus died for my sins till then this is 16 20 years after I'm born again and all those 16 20 years all I thought of was the thorns and the cross and the nails and the spear piercing in the humiliation and all that I saw that was nothing compared to what he really experienced what is the result it moved me so tremendously I mean if you just weep it's nothing I think I wept more then than in any movie of the Cross that I saw because now I saw the reality of it it moved me so much you know it says we love him because he first loved us in 1 John 4 it brought such a spontaneous response of love in my heart to the Lord and I said Lord never again will I live for anything else but for this this is the greatest truth in the universe that Jesus loved me and loved humanity too enough to die for them and most people haven't understood even 1% of it even a lot of Christians haven't understood 1% of it that this is what he suffered for my sin this is what he suffered for my getting angry with my wife my lusting is in the mind for all the bitterness and complaining and grumbling and not forgiving others and name it every type of sin this is what he suffered I said Lord I want to finish with sin in my life he brought into me such a hatred for sin which was the first step to a life of victory and that's how God led me to a victorious life it began with his revealing his love for me in such a deep way and the fulfillment of that verse we love him because he first loved us so I was saying that when Christ comes again and we see him face to face the thing that will hit us more than anything else and I will only explain a little bit to you I believe that in that day I will see much more of what he suffered and the depth of his love not the physical suffering but the spiritual and and you will be so moved by it and you'll say Lord I never knew that you loved me so much and then you will look at your life I never knew Lord that you suffer so much because of my sin and then you look at your life on earth and you'll see how casually you took sin so many sins it was so casual they say all the blood of Jesus will cleanse me it doesn't matter if I sin the blood of Jesus will cleanse me it has become such a trivial thing to many people why is it they haven't seen what depth of suffering Jesus had to go through to get our sin forgiven I've seen what I've told you is just a little bit I have laid hold of eternal life I've come to know Jesus and once I understood that I said Lord it took me so many years after I was born again to know this how much more there must be in Scripture which you want to teach me I want to know it and that has been my passion through the years it has made my Christian life richer it's made it much easier for me to forgive other people who harm me do you find it difficult to forgive somebody who harms you and tell you why listen to me because you haven't seen the love of Jesus I can tell you to your face if you find it difficult to forgive somebody it's because you have not seen the love of Jesus Christ if you have a bitterness against somebody in your heart right now against anyone you haven't seen the love of Jesus Christ if you are still worried about material possessions and your you can you're happy when you get material possessions and unhappy when you lose some material possessions I can tell you to your face you haven't seen the love of Jesus Christ it's really true what we sing in that song turn your eyes upon Jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace and the way I picture it is you know when you show something on a screen and when it's focused it's very sharp but you change the focus and it becomes dim and fuzzy and you can't even make out what it is what if it's words the words can't be read if it's picture somebody you can't see the pictures all becomes fuzzy that's the meaning of the things of Earth will grow strangely them you know when we are not close to the Lord and we haven't seen the love of God everything in the world is clearly focused I see money clear sexual pleasure clear honor in the world clear and then I turn my eyes to Jesus and see him more clearly like I was just explaining and all these things become dim they're not so focused and when they're not so focused you don't run after them it doesn't disturb you if somebody takes it you don't get excited when you get more money and you're not depressed when you lose some of it you're not running after honor our position in the church or in the world or anywhere you're not excited if people praise you you know that it costs now it's worth nothing you're not depressed if people call you a devil nothing because it's all out of focus the things of Earth have become strangely dim because you have seen Jesus Christ this is the man a woman who's ready for the second coming of Christ are you ready this is so important dear brothers and sisters if you take what I say seriously I can guarantee one thing you will not feel you'll not have any regret when you see Jesus face to face you know how we look back over our life even now before Christ has come we look back on our life I'm sure we all have regrets about many foolish things we did maybe you have a regret about the way you brought up your children that you could have done it better and that's why your children suffered or came to some loss because you didn't take it seriously or other things like that there's certain things you did in your past life you see oh I wish I hadn't done that I wish you hadn't done that that really regrets but all those regrets are nothing compared to the regret you'll have when you see Jesus face to face and you look back over your life and see how carelessly you took sin in your life and you see what a price he paid to take away your sin it wasn't just a light thing and this is something which I don't think I can explain to you when I try to talk about this subject I'm pretty helpless I say Lord if I try my best I cannot explain it it's a mystery it's only the Holy Spirit can make clear to you you know you see something in your heart and you say ah I got it now I pray that you will have a moment like that in your life what they call a aha moment at last I saw it I've seen many people who hear this message it doesn't make any difference they haven't seen it but if they meditate on it they'll see it and I guarantee that you meditate on what you heard just now and go to God alone and ask him to show you Lord I want to see this more clearly I want to see more clearly what you went through on the cross only for this reason not so that you can get and preach it somewhere I did not ask God for this revelation to go and preach it somewhere that is selfish and honor seeking even in the most holy things we go seeking our honor I preachers like that they hear something you know one of my youtube messages they hear something and instead of it challenging their heart and convicting their heart they say oh that's a good point for me to preach somewhere in my next sermon can you imagine anything more selfish self-centered and seeking one's honor they're not seeking to apply it well to their life I'm not against people preaching my sermons not at all I say do go ahead and preach it but I always say please in your own interest live it first then go and preach it let it work in your own life first then go and preach it all over the world I want what I preach to be spread all over the world but if you don't live it you're just seeking honor and there's a lot of honor seeking among preachers to say something and to give people the impression that you were had such a great revelation from screen you didn't get it you just borrowed it from somebody else honor seeking that's why people don't grow spiritually that's why after so many years they're in the same level they're in first standard first standard first standard year after year after year because they're seeking honor so what I want to ask you to do is ask God to give you a little revelation on this and when you see it you will love him more so when the day comes when we see him face to face we will have a lot of regret if we did not cleanse ourselves like it says and he read that verse from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God so that is the second verse I showed you in 2nd Corinthians 7:1 where we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh perfecting holiness in the fear of God I showed you 1 1 John 3:3 we purify ourselves 2nd Corinthians 7 verse 1 we cleanse ourselves another verse is 2nd Timothy and chapter 2 here it is speaking about how we can become a useful vessel for God to use a useful servant of God God wants all of us to serve Him we are sons and daughters we are not paid workers we are sons and daughters working in the father's business you know we have there's a street in Bangalore called commercial street with many shops owned by businessmen and they employ workers in those stores in those shops to sell things etc but saying one of those stores the owner's son is also working there along with all the others there are stores like that where the owner's son and daughter are also working along with all the other workers in that store all the others work for a salary in that store in that shop the son and daughter get no salary but they work harder than all the others because they are partners with their dad they're not looking for a salary the other workers all go home okay it's 8:30 now time for me to go home because they work there till late but the son and daughter don't look at their watch they say after all the workers have gone home we've got to now write up the accounts and total up everything and see that there's all the stock is all here they may go home at 11 o'clock and they don't get any overtime pay because they are sons the others are workers God's house is all God's work is also like that there are sons and there are servants who are workers the son also works but he's not a servant and many so-called Christian workers are servants they're not cents they're doing God's work you look at these servants working in these workers working in this shop they're doing a good work they're selling goods and showing P customers the price of this and selling it but they're not like the sons the son sits there and he's not looking at his watch he's not thinking of will my dad give me overtime pay he wants nothing he's just delighted that he can prosper the work of his father you know that's how these big business houses in India you find in India there are some big business houses that belong to certain families and they train their sons whether it's bit Allah or Ambani or Tata they don't train their sons you take over this work those sons don't bother about pay they are partners of the work that's what Jesus said when he was twelve years old to his Joseph and Mary didn't you know that I must be about my father's business he was not a servant at the age of twelve his mind was on my father's business that is a true son and I often thought of it like this you know if a father goes on a long foreign trip and comes home as soon as he comes home the four year old and the five year old will open the suitcase and say daddy any chocolates for us any toys that's what the little children are the 25 year old son will say dad how was business did have you got something in the DA he made some expansion in our business God's children are also like that the little children were always saying Lord what is there for me now what are you gonna do for me next is there something for me some chocolate some toy and then there are those who are sons you say Lord how's your work going I want to know more about your work in the world I want to know more about your work in India how is it going are the believers getting strengthened how is it going how is it burden or even in your own church how is it going there are some people there only prayer to God is a big shopping list Lord I want this this this this this this are men those are servants one day when we see the Lord face to face we will wish that we had served God in a better way he turned with me the second Timothy in chapter 2 here it speaks about how we can be an effective servant a son this be the spirit of a son how we can serve God second Timothy in chapter 2 and he compares it to two type of vessels in a house there are vessels of goal second Timothy through 20 in a large house there are vessels of gold and silver and then there are also vessels you know packing cases of wood and earthen pots closing you have a house where there big packing cases made of wood and earthen pots and then in a cupboard you have in the behind the glass you have gold and silver vessels if you find your house on fire which vessels are you gonna grab first you're not gonna catch this packing cases in certain parts you'll go for the gold and silver vessels those are the valuable ones it says there that in God's house also there are different type of vessels some are it's not how big they are packing case is much bigger than a golden vessel but a golden vessel has got a lot more value and it says here there are these big vessels of wood and earthenware and small vessels of gold and silver if a man worse 21 if a man cleanses himself it's the same phrase he who has this hope of Christ's coming will purify himself or second Corinthians 7 let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit the same thing here if a man cleanses himself he will become a useful vessel sanctified useful to the master and prepared for every good work that means you will no longer be just like a packing case packing hairs are also useful but a golden vessel has got a lot more value and if you want to be a valuable vessel to God says you gotta cleanse yourself and therefore he says flee youthful lusts etc so what I wanted to show you and all these verses is that there is a cleansing that God gives through the blood of Jesus Christ for my past life but there is a cleansing we have to do ourselves and all these verses I showed you based on our understanding of how much Jesus loved us and what he suffered to free us from sin and the more we understand that the more we will really want to cleanse ourselves purify ourselves get rid of all the filthiness the flesh and spirit and we will be useful as it says here for every good work that our Heavenly Father has for us I hope this will challenge all of you to seek the Lord more and say lord help me to know more of your great love for me because then I will spontaneously love you in return he loved him because He first loved us there are two ways in which our love for Christ increases one the more you understand his love spontaneously you don't have to make an effort spontaneously I'll tell you honestly I do not I'm telling you the truth before God I do not have to make an effort to love Jesus Christ not at all because I meditate on his love everyday from the time I get up I want to meditate on God's love in the midst of all my other work and the more I understand that the more love comes automatically I don't have to struggle to love him so when it says that in the last days many peas the love of many will become cold he's becoming cold because they don't meditate on his love number one the second way in which our love can increase you remember what Jesus said when a woman washed his feet and Simon the Pharisee said all this how is the master allowing this woman to wash his feet and Jesus said she has been forgiven much so she loves much Simon you've been forgiven very little that's why you you think you've been forgiven little he who is forgiven much loves much he who is forgiven little loves little the meaning is not there is nobody in the world who's being forgiving little do you think you've been forgiven little everybody's been forgiven much but some people are aware that they've been forgiven much others are not aware they think oh I've been just forgiven a little bit how do you know that some person feels he's been forgiven a little bit because he loves the Lord very little if you love the Lord very little you're one of those who think I've been forgiven really very little that's why I love the Lord little and you see somebody another person who loves a lot fervently that's the person he's probably sinned less than you but he's aware of how much he's been forgiven he loves a lot much he who is forgiven much loves much and I'll tell you something dear brothers and sisters in the final day it's not how many meetings you went to but how much you love the Lord that'll matter let's pray our Father please apply these truths to our hearts we pray in Jesus name you

Channel: CFC DUBAI

Views: 6,929

Rating: 4.8205128 out of 5

Keywords: Zac Poonen, CFC Dubai, Blessing, Gods Love, Jesus Christ

Id: PZ5XrvSg1TY

Length: 61min 31sec (3691 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 23 2017