2) Knowing The Love Of God by Zac Poonen

let's turn to 1 John in Chapter four this is one of the most important truths that we need to be gripped by the truth that's written here in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 16 onwards down to 19 1 John 4 I want to read in the Living Bible we know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that He loves us dearly god is love and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him and as we live with Christ our love grows more perfect and complete so we will not be ashamed and embarrassed at the day of judgment but can face him with confidence and joy because he loves us and we love him too we need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly His perfect love for us eliminates all dread or fear of what he might do to us hmm if we are afraid it is for fear of what he might do to us and that shows that we're not fully convinced that he really loves us so you see our love for him comes as a result of his loving us first most Christians particularly when we are young have a problem with not loving the world not loving money not being not loving anything other than God we find it many people find it a tremendous battle if they are honest that there are other things in the world that seem to draw us and we are drawn it could be our job it could be a person it could be an ambition it could be a profession it could be anything something that competes with God for our affection and what is the reason for that the Bible says the reason is that we are not convinced of God's love for us I'm more and more I have come to see that that is the real reason we are not convinced that God loves us perfectly because it says in the last verse we read in verse 19 our love for God comes as a result of his loving us first we love Him because He first loved us and if ever in your life you meet a Christian who is fervently and passionately in love with Jesus Christ and willing to do anything for him and sacrifice anything for him and who has no interest in anything in the world or in money or honor or pleasure or anything you can be absolutely sure that that Christian was first of all convey about God's tremendous love for him that's why he came to such a passionate devotion to Jesus Christ why is it that the Lord had to tell one church you are neither hot nor cold you love me a little bit you don't love me fervently at the same time you're not like those were you know unbelievers who don't love me at all you love me a little bit and we think that's a good thing a lot of Christians think that yeah I love Jesus a little bit and that's okay and I want to say to you it's not okay in fact the Lord said to that Church in Laodicea because you're lukewarm I'll spit you out of my mouth means I have hey I don't want a person who is not fervently in love with me because God's love is Fermin passionate wholehearted there are no half measures in God's love for us and he expects that type of love from us so you see our love for him comes as a result of his loving us first in all heathen religions the God they worship is a God whom they are afraid of in fact that is the way to identify a heathen religion one of the primary marks of a heathen religion is that it has a God who is a God to be afraid of and the people who worship this God also become like that they're not loving gracious people they are people who like to terrify others there are Christian leaders like that you can't get very close to them because they put you in all and fear of them because they worship a God who is like that there's a verse in the Old Testament where God said I think it's in the Psalms or Isaiah somewhere where God says about the people who worship idols that they become like them they worship idols and they become like them they become like the God they worship and that's a principle which is true that if you worship a God whom you can't get very close to you will also be a person whom people can't get very close to people have to keep a little distance from you because you've become like the god you worship whom you can't get close to your God and nobody can get close to you so this is very important for us that we get all these wrong concepts ideas of God out of our head in every heathen religion as I said they worship a God who is to be feared whom you have to appease by going on sacrifices or pilgrimages or doing things to please him somehow make him happy now the reason I emphasize that is because there is a Christianity also which is like that there is a version of Christianity that is being preached and presented which has got a God like that who you have to somehow try to please otherwise you know he'll be very angry with you and you know there are I'm not talking about unbelievers I'm talking about believers preachers who tell people unless you give God some money he's not going to be very happy with you you give you some sickness there are pretty pastors who actually say that that if you don't give money to the God you'll have to give it to the doctor because you'll get sick see God's pretty covetous person he's he wants your money let me tell you what what would you think what do you think if in your in supposing you are a Christian for 40 years and you never get one rupee to God do you think God will think of you in your whole life you never gave him one rupee for his work or anything you know it's a good question to answer I don't think it'd make any difference at all not the god I worship I mean supposing my wife never gave me one rupee in 40 years of a married life would it change my attitude to her is God better than me or worse than me that's all my question we worship a God of our imagination it's not the God of the Bible we worship a God whom we have manufactured in our imagination and no wonder many of us in our lives are not very happy God is the most wonderful person to live with the Bible says in his presence there is fullness of joy you'll be a very joyful person if you live with God I'll tell you this you will not be a grumbling sour grumpy long faced person if you live with God it's impossible if you live with a heathen God sure you'll be grumpy and long faced now I really believe a lot of Christians are living with some other God because they're so grumpy and long-faced and sour and hard to get along with and so mean and God's not mean God so generous he's not calculating and how much he gives us he's so generous because he loved love is like that and we have to see that if there's any element of fear in our thought if I don't do this and God will do this to me see what it says here in the middle of verse 18 it says if he had a frame and we are afraid of what he might do to us that shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us if you're afraid of something that God may do to you it could be due to any reason you know I've had people come to us and ask me this question you know as some difficulties some suffering is coming to their life some sickness or something brother am i reaping for all the sins I committed in the past yeah they're afraid God's doing something to them they're not absolutely sure that God loves them if you're afraid what he might do to you that shows that you're not fully convinced that he really loves you everything that I have to reap I'll tell you my faith I don't know what's yours but my faith is this I have to reap a lot of terrible terrible things for the sins I committed in my life but Jesus reaped it all on the cross so I don't have anything to read that's why I'm so happy then why are you so miserable you know the reason now I don't believe a Christian was understood that can ever be unhappy and a Christian was tasted the generosity and the goodness and the lavishness with which God blesses us I cannot imagine how such a Christian who can be stingy and calculating in his attitude to other people I want to say to you my dear brothers and sisters I don't know your private life when I fear that some of you are stingy and calculating even though you're very religious in your activity in CFC and the reason is because the God you worship is a pretty stingy God it's not the God of the Bible the God of the Bible is a loving generous father he never makes anyone miserable he makes us happy so happy that even when he doesn't give us something he doesn't take away our happiness isn't it amazing you know such confidence in a loving father that if I ask him for 25 things in all 25 he says no that makes no difference we're still happy we are absolutely convinced he loves us do you know God like that do you have a complaint in your heart today like Mary and Martha had they told Jesus when he came after Lazarus died Lord if you had been here this would not have happened I wonder if in your life there is something like that about something but you have to say to God Lord if only you had answered that prayer or if only you had done this or done that you know things would have been different you know you're not really convinced that he loves you because you feel he's punishing you in some way you're afraid that he might hurt you in some way and the sad thing is that this affects our relationship with other people in the church and in our home it makes us very insecure I I was like this my younger days very insecure because the god I worshiped was a very strict God he was a very stingy God he was a miserly God it wasn't the God of the Bible - the god of my imagination he was a cold calculating god that I worshipped and he made me cold and calculating he was a God who with whom I had to do business I did things to please him now you know there's a good way to please God you can God please God because you love him but there's another way of pleasing him because hmm you know like the heathen do things to please God because they're afraid if you don't please him he may be a bit unhappy Jesus spoke so much about doing things in secret without knowing about it he said when you give money for example your left hand must not know what your right hand does how can you do that without your left hand knowing what your right hand if I have given some money to someone or done some good to someone how is it possible for me myself other people okay they don't know about it is okay if Jesus had said when you give some money make sure other people don't know about it okay that I can understand but he that also he said don't blow your trumpet when you give your gifts but he said more than that he said when you give your gifts don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing it means you yourself must not know how is that possible I've thought about that and I felt that you know some of these difficult verses we mustn't skip through we must try to understand it and I have discovered that difficult verses can be understood not by study not by meditation but by practicing what that verse says then you understand it so if you sit down and try to study and get some books on Greek and all that you won't understand but if you do what that verse says and seek to do it the way the Lord told you to do it you'll understand I believe what it means is that when you give something or do something to someone it should be done in such a way that you're pretty quickly forgotten about it that means a few months later you don't even remember that you did good to somebody you don't even remember that you give some money somewhere so that when somebody comes in tells you you know I'm so thankful for what you did you really don't remember that you did that your left hand has forgotten what's your right hand but many people who give to God are not like that I mean years later they can tell you exactly how much they gave and where they gave and whom they gave to that's like the heathen they've got a pretty good an account of what they've done and such people also keep an account of all the wrong things that other people have done to them to keep an account of all the good they've done and keep an account of all the bad that other people have done to them because their God is like that they worship a God who keeps a very accurate account of all the even things they've done and they keep a very accurate account about all the evil things other people have done to them but imagine if you start worshiping the true God of the Bible the true God of the Bible is one who when he looks at me I'm repented of my sins and I cleansed me justified in the blood of Christ he looks at me and he doesn't remember any of the bad things I've done but he doesn't remember all the few good things I did in my life now if I keep on worshiping this God and they delight myself in his presence you know what will happen gradually when I look at other people I won't remember any of the bad things they have done but I will remember all the good things they did I'll remember the cup of cold water they gave me somewhere or some little thing they did for me here or there and I'll be very thankful and grateful I want to ask you my brothers and sisters do you remember the little things and other people have done for you let's forget the whole wide world let's say within the church can you honestly say that from the day you came to this church you remember the things that people have done for you and that you try your best to forget all the bad things that people did then you have seen the God of the Bible I you know we all want to be like Jesus we say that but one characteristic of Jesus Christ is he said that if somebody gives even a cup of cold water to one of my disciples I will never forget it and I say Lord I want to be like you that means if somebody somewhere twenty years ago gave me just one cup of cold water I never want to forget it leave alone things which are much more than a cup of cold water you know why we are generally speaking a bunch of ungrateful people because we worship the wrong God you may call him Jesus but it's not that Jesus of the Bible you may call him father it's not the father of the Bible that's why Jesus said that eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he sent that's why the Bible says no one has seen God at any time but Jesus Christ came and explained him to us and for me the greatest longing in my life is to know my father better and to know Jesus Christ better because the more I know Jesus Christ the more I can know my father I want to encourage you my brothers and sisters take seriously this thing of being like Christ in this area that he remembers even a cup of cold water given if someone Jesus said if somebody gave a cup of cold water to one of my disciples do you remember the good things that some people have done for your children maybe somebody somewhere gave a cup of cold water to one of your boys or girls don't forget it be like Christ we forget so easily because the poison of selfishness is deep-rooted in us the thing that Jesus came to save us from when the Bible says that thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins I see that almost the greatest sin I need to be saved from his selfishness the tremendous amount of selfishness in all of us if you haven't seen it ask God to show it to you and the wonderful good news is that Jesus came to save us from all of it it's like you know if a serpent has bitten me and the poison has gone into my system I'd be very happy if there's some type of suction machine that could get into my veins or arteries and suck out all the poison I'd be very happy if there's some machine like that I don't want one drop of that cobras poison in my system is it that doesn't do me any good and the old serpent bit our forefather Adam and that poison flowed into his veins and it's the poison of selfishness and it has come down to all of us and Jesus has come to save us from it completely make it your goal in life how is this connected with love because love and selfishness are opposites the more selfish you are the less loving you are there is absolutely no selfishness in God because he's totally loved and it says your God is love and it says we read this verse 16 the middle god is love and anyone who lives in love he is living with God that means anyone who is free from selfishness he doesn't it's particularly in our decisions that we find selfishness coming forth it's not feelings we must get rid of a religion of feelings I'll tell you the type of religion we must get rid of we must get a religion get rid of a religion which is only in doctrines we must get rid of a religion which is only in feelings we must get rid of a religion which is only in words and we must have Christianity which is reality and that is where I'm actually being freed from my selfish way of life actually the most of us who are married if you're honest all of us who are married will acknowledge that we discovered how selfish we were when we got married because in our single days we don't usually discover how selfish we are how self-centered we are how we want a certain way of life that's part of our selfishness nobody must disturb and that's how we live as single people and if somebody disturbs that I mean if you try to disturb my selfish way of life I just keep little distance from you I won't because you are disturbing my selfish way of life and I'll fellowship with those who don't disturb my selfish way of life and all those people who disturbed my selfish way of life I keep away from them and then as a single person I can always retreat to my room at night but it's trouble when you get married is that when you retreat to your room at night there's somebody else there whom you can't escape from who's also in that room who's an equally selfish person as you are who is also interested in preserving her selfish way of life or his selfish way of life and what wonderful opportunities when these two people decide to follow Jesus tremendous opportunities to develop character like iron sharpens iron I feel sorry for you if you got a weak wife who is like clay will say yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir yes sir do you she can't sharpen you have you ever tried sharpening iron with clay try it sometime you can't do it but if you've got a wife for it strong what hopes tremendous hope what will sharpen each other if you are determined to follow Jesus if you're determined to I remember when I wanted to get married I wanted to get married to a strong wife because I'll tell you why because I felt I'm going to be away from home so often preaching the gospel I don't want a weak wife with some little problem comes in the home says oh please come back please come back there's a problem here and then I'll be always running back home from wherever I am I don't want a wife like that do you want one what do you want a strong wife but a strong wife is certain other you know if you really know how to live together they can sharpen you the same thing with a brother you know God gives us brothers who are different from us and I've never chant tried to change my wife to be like me and I've never tried to change any brother in the church to be like me I see that God gives us people like that and and in this wonderful process of living together at within the church also I'm yet to using the example of the home you can apply to the church as well but in the whole in the church we meet with brothers who are so strong and so different and if you can learn to fellowship with them you will discover your selfishness being scraped and smoothing down and that's the reason why some people have after even after years and years and years and years they are unhappy in their marriage and they are unhappy in almost every Church they go to because they never want to get rid of their selfishness they don't live in God the Bible says he who lives in love lives with God that's what it says in this verse that means you got to be really if you want to live with God you got to live in love that as I said love is the opposite of selfishness so if you want to live with God you had to be determined to be totally unselfish we may not reach that height before Jesus comes but that must be your goal I want to ask you my brothers and sisters many of you have been Christians for so many years how many of you can honestly say your goal in life is to become totally unselfish in your life like Jesus Christ that totally you want to live for other people and not like Jesus crying and like Jesus Christ lived never seeking your home that's the really happy life that's the way God wants us to live totally for him and for others so that self is out of the center altogether that we never think of what we can get from God for ourselves God gives fine why is it so many people have complaints about prayers not answered God's done one-millionth good things for us but five or six things he didn't do when those are the things we remember it's the same thing with our relationship with human beings people may do so many good things to us but if they do one or two bad things that's what we remember you know why because we are so saturated with selfishness that's the reason we're not living in God if we live in God we live in love so that's what we should make our goal in the coming days not to use people for our benefit a lot of people in the world they're always thinking of using people for their benefit they like to make friends with influential people why for their own benefit they like to mingle with big people and famous people for their benefit to get some gain and they despise people who are poor or who cannot do anything for them I'll give you my testimony in the last 25 years as we have traveled my wife and I to all these poor poor poor poor poor poor people in the villages in Tamilnadu they have blessed me more than any rich man could ever have blessed me the this simplicity and the joy that has come being able to do something for them and not expect anything I want to say to you my brothers and sisters time goes by and by the time you come to the end of your life and you look back over your life make sure that you've lived a worthwhile life make sure that you didn't live seeking your own you'll have a lot of regrets on earth and even more regrets in heaven in eternity determine that you're going to be totally free from selfishness that you're determined you're going to live for God and for others Jesus lived on earth for God and for others he never sought his own what does it mean when it says let's look at this verse again verse 16 in the middle God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God that means somebody was permanently rooted in love dwells in God and I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians 13 in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 it says which to me is the most one of the most important characteristics of love mentioned here is what I've been saying so far one of the most important characteristics of love is the middle of verse 5 love does not seek its own you got it love does not seek its own I know I have love if I don't seek my own you know we have to get out of our head this falling in-love concept that we have read in romantic novels and maybe you've seen in the movies that's all false in fact that is the false idea of love which the devil tries to put upon the world where they are seeking their own in the world when a boy says oh I'm in madly in love with that girl tell me is he seeking his own or is he seeking the good of that girl you know the answer he's he's seeking something for himself from her definitely and when a girl says oh I'm madly in love with that man I want to marry him what she's seeking is she's seeking his good or her good she's seeking her good all this love in the world is like that seeking their own and that's why they're so unhappy that's why it's so difficult to find a happy marriage in the world even among Christians most Christian marriages are terribly unhappy even though they had some wonderful hopes on the day of the wedding you know why because they don't understand love does not seek its own and even after hearing it so much Jesus came to save us from seeking our own how much has he saved you I remember when I got married to my wife I said to her I said I'm a preacher you're a doctor we both love Jesus Christ and we want to serve other people we can never use our professions to make money for ourselves never not if we do it in the name of Jesus Christ if you do it in our own name oh I can make a lot of money as a preacher and you can make a lot of money as a doctor if you do it in the name of Jesus Christ no because we live in a poor country you know eighty-five percent of India's villages I remember years ago I said to the Lord I said Lord all the great preachers go to the cities send me to the villages where these great preachers don't go I want to go there there are people in this land who need to hear and nobody goes to them I'll go and what has been the result my life has been so tremendously blessed and enriched I have become a very rich man spiritually you never lose out I want to say to you live for other people it'll be a very happy person when you come to the end of our end of your life if you live for yourself you'll be miserable and unhappy if you live for money you'll be unhappy my wife has helped other people for 30 years as a doctor she's never owned one rupee we don't regret it I believe that's the spirit of Jesus Christ he never sought his own he always sought to bless people and never wanted anything he didn't even want them to tell his name to other people you know so often when we think of being like Christ we don't realize this is the fundamental root of it that's why in our churches we have always said we're never gonna have paid pastors or paid preachers because we won't know whether these fellows are coming for the money or for Jesus Christ and that's what's preserved us through 28 years we shave if you come come because you love the Lord and serve him and serve the people and don't take anything from them serve them bless them God will take care of you serve them and bless them and learn something of the way Jesus lived on this earth learn something of God's nature dwell in love a love that does not seek its own but always seeks the good of the other person unless the mark of spiritual growth if you want to know whether you have grown spiritually having been in this church for so many years ask yourself how much does your mind think of how you can bless other people of the needs of other people how you can encourage somebody how you can build a little more fellowship with somebody with whom you don't have fellowship we're gonna have to think of the white world this local church you know many clever people think that the mark of discipleship if you are a Christian people must see that you love them I'm sorry that's not what Jesus said that's what clever worldly people say and clever worldly people are a million miles off as to Jesus Christ do you know what Jesus said something which will surprise you people will know you're my disciples not when you love them but when you love one another isn't that a crazy thing to say what is the right thing to say those worldly people will know you're my disciples when you love them show them love and then they'll know that you are my disciples but Jesus never said that that's what clever people think and those clever people other people who don't know God Jesus said people will know you're my disciples and you'll love one another I believe Jesus I don't believe these clever people that means my mark of my discipleship is not the love I showed to the worldly person it's the love I show to my fellow believers in the church and I understand that very well you examine your own life and you'll see that sometimes it's easier to love that worldly person than to love somebody in the church it's true many husbands speak more courteously to a stranger who comes to their house than to their own wives many wives speak more courteously to a stranger who comes to the door than to their own husbands it's easy to love that stranger who comes to the door that's why Jesus said it's not your love for that person that's going to prove you're my disciple you're gonna prove you're my disciple when you love one another it's not the way you speak to the stranger who comes to your door that shows you're a Christian is the way you speak to your wife whom you live with every day and the husband you live with every day and the brother whom you see every day and if you can't love the brother whom you see you can't love God it's not possible we need to get a lot of these clever ideas out of our head and believe what come back to what Jesus said but God says my ways are not your ways my thoughts are not your thoughts the reason we don't grow spiritually is we are far too clever we got all these ideas in our cleverness instead of coming as simple children to the Bible and say Lord Jesus I believe what you say I'm not a disciple because I don't love my fellow believers I show a lot of love to strangers imagine if a wife has to say to her husband will you please treat me just like you treat the strangers who come to the house that's enough for me please treat me like you treat the strangers who come to my house imagine if a wife has to say that isn't that pathetic and yet that's how it is he who dwells in love dwells in God because God is love God is a good God I'm thankful that for that lovely word you know it says in James 1 it's a beautiful verse which I'm very thankful for it and I want to be more and more like that I know in my younger days I didn't know God like this it says in James 1 and verse 5 if any of you lack wisdom let him ask God who gives to all men generously and without reproach and in one translation it says and God will not scold him for asking do you know the meaning of scolding scolding teachers do it to children foolish fathers and mothers do it to their children scolding how many times I told you not to do that 1,000 times I told you not to do it maybe you said it two three times but it has become 1,000 times Guil I'm sick and tired of you you nothing good will come out of you that's scolding imagine if God said that to you sometime nothing good will come out of you God I think it will come out of me I'm finished thank God he doesn't say that he doesn't say such things he never scores no matter how many times you've failed no matter how big a mess you've made of your life he doesn't scold you come to God after years and years and years and years and years and years of laziness years and years and years and years and years of doing nothing for him years and years and years of living for yourself and said okay Lord I am 70 years old now I like to live for you a few years now God said come you know there's a verse in the Bible that teaches that there's a parable that teaches that you know which one it is at the eleventh hour the master went looking for servants it says eleventh hour means the day finishes at six o'clock in the evening and these fellows for eleven hours they were just lazily doing nothing and the master went out and saw these fellows hanging around you reading Matthew chapter 20 doing nothing and they said what are you doing the whole day over nobody told us to do anything come and he called them and they worked only for one hour and you know what happened when the hay was being given for the day he called these fellas first he says come I'll give you your pay first I really like that I worship a God like that and I want to be like that myself you know you and I will be able to hit it off much better with each other if we all begin to worship this God I tell you we're so demanding on each other because we don't worship this God who is so large hearted and so generous who's not calculating how much did they work one hour and okay one Denarius per day okay so what's this fellow should get 1/12 he didn't calculate ah counting it's okay Lord make me like that it'll be so much easier to fellowship I met a lot of good believers who are very stingy and that's why they never grow they're good 20 years later they are still good they haven't developed they never did any gross evil but they never grew because they never got to know God they keep grudges against somebody are you one of those who keep grudges against someone somebody did something to you or said something and you've got a grudge against that person I'll tell you you must be worshipping a God who keeps grudges against you otherwise how did you be like that how can you be like that unless you worship a God who's got a grudge against you I don't want that God you can keep him I don't want that God - God who keeps no grudges against me his mercies are new every morning you know the meaning of that verse that means in the morning God says okay you you haven't sinned at all right so far that's right Lord I've never seen so far and new every morning and if I sin that day the Lord says well that's the first time you sinned right why because the past was all plotted out I was justified by the blood of Jesus when we are young I know from my own life we tend to be very legalistic we worship a God who's got rules thick I worship the God who had a huge book of rules I studied those rules and I made sure everybody else lived according to those rules but as I you know Paul said as I grew when I was a child I behaved like a child when I became a man I put away childish things he says in the same chapter on love when I was a child I did childish things I grew up I put away those childish things and this legalism is it's all childish stuff rules and books and you didn't do this you didn't do that and it's gone from my life many of you known me 20 years ago would probably see that and I haven't changed because somebody taught me something I changed because I came a little closer to God and saw what the God of the Bible was like and I'm very very thankful that he opened my eyes to see who he really was a loving father who never skulls who doesn't hold grudges who overlooks the past who who is so saturated was dripping with love and it's gripped my heart so much that I say Lord I want to be like that this is the ultimate goal of the Christian life it doesn't matter if I don't travel the world it doesn't matter if I don't preach wonderful sermons it doesn't matter you know if I don't bring people to Christ if I can become like this god of mine full of love to others all no grudges against people forget whatever they did or didn't do forgive them Lord they don't know what they're doing if I can have that attitude toward all the people and you know smile at everyone in the church can you can you smile at everybody in the church today forget the outsider in this church do you have a warm heart towards every single person in the small church God gave you if you don't start working on it today say god I've missed something I missed the central thing in the Christian life may God help

Channel: CFC India

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Keywords: God's Love, Poonen, Sermon

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Length: 55min 48sec (3348 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2012