(2018 Atlanta) Q&A Session - Zac Poonen

so we have a number of questions and I'll try and give more importance to the important ones and less importance to these so nobody should be offended you want to try and cover all of them so here's a question which is what do I do if my church is falling asleep and there's no fear of God in the pastoral leadership should I leave the church see there's no church that's perfect and I believe you must look in your surrounding area you know reasonable distance that you can travel to find the church that is closest to your understanding of the Word of God and one that will lead you to holiness of life the Bible says in Romans 8:29 that we are predestined to become like Jesus Christ so that he can be the first among many brothers and predestined means the destination is written on your ticket like you get a flight it will be written on your ticket Atlanta to New York or Atlanta to some small airport what is your destination there's a destination written on your life which is to become like Jesus Christ predestined means destined to become like Jesus Christ so a church should be like a to use an illustration like a plane that's taking you to that destination so when you go to the airport you don't look for the biggest plane you don't say well I like that jumbo jet that may be going some other direction that mega church you don't look for a blue colored plane that's my favorite color or red colored plane no you look maybe it's a small twin-engine plane that's taking you to your destination that's when you get into you got that much sense when you go to the airport why don't you find a church that's going to take you to your destination that is which church will help me to get to my destination quickly not by a roundabout route getting here and then finally you don't know where you end up the shortest route to become more and more like Christ so you have to look around in the beginning and go to different churches and see how it is and decide and and maybe you need to leave your church I mean in my pursuit of holiness I left many churches I went from one to the other to the other someone once told me brother Zack you are a very unstable person always leaving one Church and going to another Church I said I've been unstable all my life I left first grade and went to second grade and then I left second grade I went to third grade I was not like these Rocksteady people who stayed in first grade all their life 2,500 something better I'd move on because I wanted to become like Christ and the church that would help me to be most like Christ I wanted to go there and I'm not ashamed of that and I don't regret it today so if there's no fear of God and there's no change in your leadership you need to look around but if you don't find one see I see today we have the wonderful opportunity to listen to the Internet there are about 1,000 sermons of mine on YouTube and the wonderful thing about YouTube and Google in the day in which we live is that if you on that top column if you put my name Zack Coonan and a subject you can get all the messages on that subject whether it's grace or love or faith or sex or marriage or anything church leadership anything so so I'm not saying is a substitute for church there's one thing you can't get on the internet that's fellowship you need fellowship with godly people if you can't fight it in your church pray that God will bring you in touch with people at small church is always much better than a big one a big one you get lost there make sure it's a church that leads you to your destination okay a question about as a follower of Jesus how do I live out my convictions without judging others who don't agree with me how do I along fellowship those who are judging those who are judging you harshly forgive them but we don't have the judge others because God is the only judge but we have to discern discernment is different from judgment discernment is well I don't feel I feel uneasy about this particular preacher whom I preaches on television or this particular preacher in this church there's something that doesn't seem to go feel right in my heart if you're sensitive the Holy Spirit he will warn you this is not a good person to listen to particularly if he is interested in your money you know I always want people that those who the Christian preacher can either serve God or money and if you find a man's more interested in your money I wouldn't I wouldn't waste time listening to such a person however eloquent he or she may be there are many when and women preachers on television today they're very eager to get your money and if you read a little bit about them in google search their name you'll find that many of them are living in fantastic mansions and there are many expensive homes and aeroplanes and they've got their family members on the board of their organizations so nobody can question them and they're not really interested in you they are interested in themselves but they may be very eloquent preachers but you got to discern they're not going to help you to be spiritual we need to find a fellowship even if it's a small one and if you pray with all your heart God will lead you to that and edify yourself by listening to the messages on the internet as a mother of two children is it okay to be dedicating time therefore to work and earn for the family see whether a mother can work or not there's no law in Scripture on it the Bible says in Titus chapter 2 I'm just giving you these references look it up yourself that Oh sister must be a worker at home and older sisters might teach the younger sisters to be workers at home to love their husbands and bring up their children in the fear of God my wife is a doctor she studied in the finest Medical College in India but when she became a doctor we were married and now the day our first son was born she resigned her job that's nearly 50 years ago 49 years ago and she's she's worked helping the poor people but she's never worked for money she never took a job after that and she's helped lots of people with a medical knowledge but the reason she stayed at home was to bring up our children in the fear of God she could have earned a lot of money as a doctor probably hundreds of thousands of dollars on the other hand if you put it in a balance hundreds of thousand dollars here one side and for sons were following the Lord and serving him today I see I know which is heavier without a doubt and we wouldn't have any other choice we would not have made any other choice 49 years ago then we did now I realized that but we were extremely poor in all these in our entire married life we never got into debt we believe the Bible says you don't owe any man anything if he had little we lived with little we lived in a small 10 foot by 10 foot room you know early days of marriage and we never bought new clothes we never spent it we bought things when we had money for it but we decided our children are more important than money or job or anything now if you can manage a job say working at home or something like that and also bring up your children that's fine the Bible doesn't say a woman should not work and earn her living in fact in proverbs 31 you read of a woman who's earning your living by working at home in some way so there's nothing wrong in that but if that becomes a priority over your children that the job is more important than your children I can almost certainly say that you will lose your children you'll make your money but you lose your children so you must decide for yourself how you're going to do it be very very careful that you don't have a regret 30 years from now about the choices you've made because we reap what we sow that's very important I cannot decide for another one because the bible does not say a woman should not work for example if a husband is paralyzed woman has to go to work or she becomes a widow she has to work and earn for a living so the Bible doesn't make unreasonable statements which is impossible to follow so there's nothing wrong in a woman working provided the family is number one now here's the case of a person who's divorced and remarried should i and I've divorced already is it alright to marry again or my sinning if I'm called to be single you know this is a personal question rich I always tell people if you are divorced if you have the grace to stay single that is the best if you're already divorced but if it is impossible it's better to marry than to burn then I would never conduct I remember my person came to a young brother who was divorced came to me and I said see I will never conduct your marriage in a church completely out of the question you're born again and if you feel that you can't live alone without falling into sin well you can be married to a believer but go and get married in some cordwood I'll never do it in our church because it's a and always remember it's God's it's not God's best but it's maybe God's permissive will and if you join a church you can never have any spiritual responsibility in that church because everyone who's a leader must be the husband of Olli one wife so I don't think I can tell another person what they should do because it depends on their circumstances but the ideal thing would be to ask God to give you grace to remain single if possible and if not consult a godly person as to how it should be done satan's activity can be bound if there are at least two believers Matthew 18 verse 18 to 20 where two or three are gathered together they're armed in the midst and if they bind Satan's activity it can be bound and if I'm in a place where there's no one else walking with the Lord in a household how do I pray about satanic activity see God understands our circumstances and if there's no one else to pray with you in your home and no one else around your home whom you know well enough to be able to prayer you know some things in the home are more confidential you can't share with others you can pray alone you know many times I've told a husband or wife if you find your marriage partner sort of crazy one day and furious possible that he or she could be oppressed by Satan at that moment just go to some quiet corner and bind that satanic activity in the name of Jesus but don't let your wife hear it just do it quietly and you'll find or don't let your husband hear it and you'll find something happening because very often it's Satan who's provoking such an action you can do it on your own okay what is the godly way to interact with someone who's been who is living in unrepentant sin well if it's a marriage partner you just got to live with that person if they are physically abusive you may need to separate and live separately but not divorce I can never recommend that the only situation where God has permitted divorces where a partner has broken that marriage vow of becoming one flesh and become one flesh with somebody else then marriages you doesn't say you have to divorce but it's a permission God is given there as the only permission God is given but not if someone is living in some other unrepentant sin we had to pray very often you know I mean so many married lives are married people are so unhappy these days I know that because I get hundreds of emails in response to our internet messages and because the email is anonymous many people are free to express their problems and it's amazing to see the number of so-called believers who's married lives are miserable and unhappy the number of young men apparently born-again youth leaders and all sitting in churches who are practicing watching pornography and slaved to it it's amazing people who look so holy in the church it's amazing and seek for counsel they want to be free and they and the leaders of the church think everything is wonderful in that church they don't know what's you know it's like a wooden pillar it's all eaten up by termites inside but it looks so nice polished on the outside that's how a lot of churches are so there's tremendous need everywhere and I would say you have to live in the fear of God in these days and don't be deceived by what's on the surface and if we had to ask God to give us wisdom in such situations and fight the battle and say Lord I want to be free if you are living where there are no new covenant churches anywhere besides praying and seeking the Lord is any other biblical advice you can give to someone who desires to start a new covenant church if it's alot we'll see you can't just start a new covenant church in fact if God doesn't grace give grace you can't build anything you can't just I don't believe I can do that myself personally trillion I'm not trying to be humble I'm telling you honestly I never planted one Church every one of them were planted by the Lord the Lord took me to some place and I was just happened to share the word and the Lord started a church I don't ever imagine I can look at the different churches that are planted in many parts of India and other places of the world I just happen to be there just the Lord plant is the church is a lot bring brought people together so that I could never get any glory out of it or credit out of it so don't think you can go somewhere I'm going to start a new covenant Church you go with that attitude I've seen people go with that attitude they make a mess of it so it's better to have a humble attitude and say Lord I'm not capable I'm just available that's what I've always said to the Lord I'm available I'm not capable but I'm available and I'm ready I'm ready to wash people's feet and sit there for the rest of my life washing people's fees that's good enough for me but if you go with an attitude yeah I'm going to start a new culture ch you'll never do it take the low place God has to make us a week before he empowers us the trouble with many believers as they're too strong they think they can do this they think they can do that they think they can preach this they can preach that they read a few books listen to them there are many people who listen to my sermons and then preach it you can't do that unless you're living the life I've got nothing against people preaching my sermons but I say somebody asked me this and I said first live the life when you live the life and it comes out of your life instead of just out of your head so you can't just go and start a new common Church you must pray I carry the burden in my heart believe it or not for 10 years before the first new covenant church was born and then we waited for seven years before a second one came fourth it's like having a baby you got to carry something in your heart with a burden and a sincere burden for the glory of God not for you to have a nice place of fellowship Lord your name is not being glorified here I want you to do so that is my concern I said Lord I'm in India your name is sword is dishonored my first prayer is our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your name is not being hallowed because all these churches disobedient to your word they're all running after money we want to church this different so if you have that burden that's the way to you you have a baby you have to carry the baby in your womb with Allah pain and struggle for many months it's like that giving birth to a church is exactly like that it's a little more difficult I will hurt a lot of your sermons and get a lot of head knowledge but I seem to be not growing see you don't grow by listening to sermons you need to listen to sermons you're challenged encouraged blessed but if you don't take up the cross every day you're not going to grow there's only one way to grow to use an illustration let's take about being filled with the Holy Spirit when we are born again our capacities like a little cup you know the psalmist said I will lift up the cup of salvation and I'm saved and I'm filled with the spirit up to that level and if I I can live like that for the next thirty years good testimony but never growing but if I take up the cross every day that means deny myself every opportunity I get say no to myself and say yes to Jesus and you know when provoked to sin did I myself when provoked to anger did I myself keep my mouth shut what had happened and after while this cup will become a bucket and you pour the cup of water into a bucket that's hardly on the inside you need to be filled again and that bucket the Lord fills us again and if I keep walking the way of the Cross the bucket will become like a tub you pour that water of the bucket into a tub there's hardly anything there Lord fill me again and the Lord fills the tub and you keep walking the wave across the tub will become a pond and he has to fill us again and you walk with the Lord again the pond will become a river and you all keep walking with the Lord the way of the cross it'll become many rivers this is spiritual development and the only way to grow to expand spiritually is by denying myself every single day Jesus said that if you want to follow me deny yourself say no to yourself every single day I can't do it once for all every single day Luke 9:23 is very clear daily so that means in practical terms somebody gets angry with me in order myself my reaction is to let him also have a piece of my mind I said I know I'm going to die I'm not going to respond and if I'm provoked I just go away from there so that I'm not tempted further for example it says flee from immorality that means if I am tempted with some particular woman or tempted run I'm sitting alone with a computer it says flee flee is a stronger word than run away and enough examples in the Bible you resist the devil and he will flee but if an immoral woman comes to you you must flee imagine that the devil comes you fight against him an immoral woman comes you run away you see are you scared now I'm not scared I'm just aware that I'm I'm weak and I can be tempted the devil's been defeated on the cross who do you think David could face Goliath or Bathsheba tell me he could go and kill Goliath in a moment but Bathsheba knocked him out with one look see the difference who is stronger Goliath or Bathsheba I'll tell you what about the Lions that kill Samson and one Delilah who was stronger the Bible has got enough examples that's why the Bible says resist the devil that's Goliath that's a lion but if it's Delilah or Bathsheba you run there's no way you're going to escape otherwise and that's the example flee from immorality 1 Corinthians 6 and towards the end of that chapter it's a warning one can 6:19 I think it is but resist the devil James 4:7 he will flee so it's very clear who you should free from and who you should resist so it's by taking up the cross Lord I'm weak here let me deny myself and go if you're sitting in front of a computer alone and you're tempted get up and run go somewhere else go for a walk or go for a drive or something and come back but don't sit there and try and conquer it you cannot you'll be defeated so if we take steps like this the Lord will help you okay another question is how is your church different from other churches but one of the first things I say we never compare our church with other churches we never imagine that we are the most spiritual and we don't even claim that we are the most spiritual but we do say that the doctrine we preach is as far as we can see the closest to the Word of God that I have heard there may be some other churches somewhere I don't see maybe 100 churches that are better than ours I haven't seen them but in terms of doctrine but whether do we have hypocrites in our church of course we do with churches in the world is there without hypocrites do we have carnal people in our church yes we have babies in our church Nuala newborn converts you have children born to a wholehearted parents who are not yet born again there's no church which is perfect and our church is certainly not perfect we have got Pharisees we've got imperfect people we are not the best church we are not in that competition to preview at the best yet what we say is the doctrine we preach is the closest that we can find to the Word of God I can say that honestly I've been in many churches in 59 years I've hardly heard a church preaching on deny yourself every single day I've hardly heard a church preaching on anger can lead you to hell Matthew chapter 5 verse 22 23 I've hardly heard a church saying overcome dirty thoughts otherwise that can lead you to hell Matthew 5:28 29 I've hardly heard a preach saying preacher I mean a church preaching don't be anxious for anything but make your requests known to God who will keep your heart at peace philippians 4:6 i've hardly heard a preach teacher i mean a church preaching i can do all things through christ who strengthens me hardly heard a church saying no temptation has ever taken you that's you cannot overcome I've hardly heard a church preaching if you say you're a Christian you must walk as Jesus walked you will become like Jesus only later on but you can walk like these in your conscious area now I've hardly heard any church saying preaching if you love money you hate God you read that Luke 16:13 if you love money you hate God have you heard that priest anywhere I preached in many times based on Luke 16:13 I've hardly heard any church preaching learned from little children because the kingdom of God belongs to little like his like little children think of a two month old baby in a cradle not proud doesn't have high thoughts about itself it doesn't have any sense of revenge to anybody who hurt it or poked it yesterday will smile at you and say what an example these are some of the things I've missed they're all new Testament stuff be faithful in the little things follow the example of Jesus who submitted to imperfect parents for thirty years if you want the father to say I'm well pleased with you these are the things I've missed hearing for many years and for example Colossians 4:6 let your speech always be with grace so that you can bless those who hear you or Ephesians 4:32 put away all anger from you so many things in the New Testament I never hear preached and so I say we try to preach the entire Word of God and if you find the church like that join it and the other thing is I found in India anyway that most of the pastors were covetous greedy wanted money they're always asking people for money and I read the Bible I never read Jesus asking people for money not even once he did accept money when people gave it in Luke chapter 8 verse 2 and 3 it says some rich a Herod's palace manager he must have been a millionaire his name was Cuza Luke eight was three he supported Jesus can you believe that Herod's palace manager his wife was a follower of Jesus and he gave money to her to give to Jesus and Jesus took it because he had to feed twelve other disciples and some of them like Peter had home family is back home they have given up their fishing and he accepted it but he never once asked people for money and when he saw a big crowd of people today if a preacher sees a big crowd he says let's get the offering bags out but when Jesus saw a big crowd he said if you don't hate your father mother brother sister and children and you don't forsake all your possessions you cannot be my disciple you don't find the average preacher preaching that to a big crowd today when Jesus saw people making money in the name of religion he took a whip he didn't wash their feet he took a whip the same hand that washed feet also took a whip don't forget that that's the balance Jesus Christ and so wherever Paul saw people making money in the name of religion and a lot of them in his day he calls them in 2nd Corinthians 2 peddlers of the word of God peddlers are in the olden days these people used to go house to have selling stuff and he said we are not like those who peddle the Word of God and so because there were so many people like that in his time Paul said I'm going to support myself and us we found a very similar situation in India how question is how are you different from others I'll tell you as I told you we have about 70 budgets I never counted exactly then about 150 elders who work with me every single one of them including me we support ourselves financially we don't get any salary from our churches we I've worked in my church for 43 years never taken one cent from them we don't the offering box is for helping the poor people like Jesus said give money to the poor Paul said give money to the poor or we have conferences we feed everybody 2,000 people come and we feed them all freely like here and we India we give free accommodation as well but the accommodation is the floor of the church you just bring your mattress and sleep there that's how we do it in India it's not a cold climate so we offer everything freely and the offerings in the church go for something like that but not to support anybody so I see that is where we are different and we don't take an offering for 43 years in 75 churches no church have you taken an offering because I never find Jesus passing an offering bag around all I see is in Jesus once sitting next text to an offering box where he saw the widow put in some money so we keep an offering box near the door because it says you must give cheerfully and you give secretly you can't give secretly if a man puts a bag in front of you and you don't know whether the person is giving cheerfully because he may be just pretending to give because he doesn't want to lose his testimony so we try to follow the Word of God exactly these are some areas in which we are different we never permit divorce in our church we never permit remarriage in our church these are some ways in which we are different we never asked for money we never send a report of our work to any place in 43 years we never send a report of our work and because Jesus never sent a report of his work paul shared with his own coworkers what the Lord is doing but he never sent a report of his work so these are some ways in which we are different we don't claim to be better we are saying we're trying to follow remember the word trying we are trying to follow jesus and paul in the way they did god's work that's why we are different and if there are a hundred other churches doing it like that praise the Lord I'm delighted I'd like to see some of them visit some of them people ask me what type of preachers do you invite to speak in your church I say the type of preachers the Bible recommends one they must be humble approachable people not people who can't talk to or who disappear as soon as they finish preaching like some preachers humble approachable people they must be people who have no interest in money zero interest in money that they don't even expect any money from you and third they must be people who have got a reputation for godliness were very wise and careful in their relationships with women who are merciful to those who have failed and who don't boast about how much they pray or fast or anything we have a reputation for godliness number four who brought up their children properly they have a good testimony of their children who preach the whole counsel of God that is they preach every commandment in the New Testament and preach every promise in the New Testament and those who have built at least one local church like a body functioning like a body not just you know people like a congregation but people who have functioned together and finally someone who is raised up at least two or three younger people for the next generation to do for him I say show me a preacher like that I'll call him to our church to preach but if I don't find these are all qualities found in the Apostles and Paul otherwise or the early apostles so we try to follow the New Testament standard as much as possible and that is the only way but we would never compare ourselves with others we never stand and say lord I thank you we are not like other churches then we are Pharisees we never do that okay what's the best way to deal with the son who's showing signs of feminine characteristics you know I personally believe that a lot of this is because of what the media publishes today normal people are getting strange ideas in their head because of what they hear from others and I personally am convinced that nobody is born different from the way they are the way the gender is and if there is someone like that and you know I have had people tell me I'm attracted to somebody in my of my own sex I said do you know that he doesn't make a difference whether you are attracted to somebody with the opposite sex or your sex you had to fight it what about a person who says I'm constantly attracted to somebody of the opposite sex I'm married but I'm attracted to somebody who's over 6x you don't yield to that you fight it every young man is tempted to the opposite sex he's got to fight it he's got to fight it he's gotta fight it exactly the same way I'd say if you attempted to you your own sex fight it fight it fight it that's contrary to God's Word here's a married man who's attracted by another when what should he do he can't say I'm attracted so I go to that rubbish he's got to fight it we are attracted to so many things I'm tempted to steal little money from the office fight it anything that's contrary to the Word of God don't say I was born that way to be tempted to steal money you are not born that way I mean there's we are all born with a sinful nature and there are many different manifestations of that sinful nature one is attracted to the opposite sex one is attracted to the same sex one is attracted to money or anything it's all sin and I had to hate all of it and fight all of it so it's not special some type of sin is not special different from the others I'm greatly blessed by your sermons do I need to join your church to grow no you don't have to join my church to grow you can grow anywhere if you love Jesus and want to follow the Lord first of all I don't have a church in every place can I continue to be in my current church and listen to your sermon sure but as I said earlier find the best church in your locality sometimes it may not be ideal but God can help you and you never know if your listening is there there's one place in here in the US where somebody told me brother Zack I have I took my teenage children to 11 churches in this city not Atlanta another place and I did not feel I could allow them to join any one of them there was so much of worldliness and all in that church imagine eleven evangelical churches and they didn't feel the doctrine was right but the spirit among the young people are so bad they didn't want to bring that chin let that children join those churches so I say what do you do so he this family said we sit at home we open a hymn book and sing a few songs and we turn on the internet and watch your message and that's how Sunday service so I said you can do one more thing now pray that God will bring one more family you know maybe distribute some books these booklets are so cheap one good way of evangelism is to take one of these she three dollar books and give it to somebody as a gift I mean if you can spend five dollars on a birthday card why not add another three dollars and buy a book and give it along with the birthday card and on a birthday they won't be offended if you give them a book I'll tell you that especially if you say this book is been a help to me I'd like to give you a birthday gift and it's become a form of evangelism I encourage everybody in our church to spend a little money I said don't put it in the offering box buy a book if you're so calculating about your money don't put it in the offering box buy a few books with it and make that a form of evangelism to different people if you are too shy to speak the word yourself and like that you can reach out to people there are many ways in which we can reach out to people and witness to others and you may find that somebody's interested ask them to come and meet with you in your house to maybe another one three after some time you have a little house church of three families we started in our house like that 43 years ago with two or three families and it grew slowly so you never know but God doesn't give that grace to everyone I don't know why God sees that how can we grow to hear God speak to us well the first way is to read the Bible if you don't read the Bible regularly don't keep on praying then God will speak to you God's already given us his word and I remember when I was born again I spent the first seven years studying the Bible in all my spare time you know that word where Jesus said after feeding the 5,000 there was a lot of extra food that he had made loaves and fishes leftover and Jesus had gather up the fragments so that nothing is wasted that's a good word gather up the fragments of time that you have during the day which you can use a little bit here a little bit there fragments of time which you can use to read the Word of God I remember in my younger days with in their smartphones those days but I had a pocket new Testament I'd always carry in my pocket and if I'm standing at a bus stand waiting for a bus or traveling in a bus while everybody's just gaping around I would read the New Testament and sitting in a train traveling one place to another I'd read the New Testament and that's how I got to know the Scriptures gathering up the fragments of time even in my place of work if I had to add some free time I would just take the New Testament and read it when not on official work so we can gather up the fragments of time that way and read God's Word read God's Word we got to be careful with money also in the same way don't lavishly spend money be careful with money to gather up the little bit here you can save a little bit here a little bit there that you can save for the future for your children or save for the future for some time when you get unemployed or something I always encourage people to save gather up the little fragments so you can study the Word of God like that and you hear God speaking to you and you'll be a glitter on as time goes on you'll be able to hear God speaking to you even without the Word of God but that takes some years and you'll be able to discern the voice of God from other voices if you have read the Word of God regularly how do i how can I keep sincere of my life if I have friends at school that give me bad thoughts well we should be careful to stay away from people who are leading us in draw along directions unfortunately there's a lot of dangers in school today with our children may go to school there pornography is being distributed more widely at a much younger age now and with smartphones the things that people are listening to and preaching it'll be very careful I would advise all parents to check up with their children when they come from school what did you learn today what did your friends tell you check up and it's very very here to be very very careful in protecting them from evil so if and tell them to avoid company that's bad this is related to Bible study you know why what to do if it feels like a burden somebody yeah what I remember I was with children once awesome question and they said small children they asked me uncle Zach you find the Bible boring sometimes I say yes it is boring sometimes what I still read it you know it's like some food I know it's good for my health it doesn't taste so nice so some medicine it doesn't taste so nice but the doctor says it's good for me or I need to take an injection which is painful but it's good for my health I take it so sometimes the Bible doesn't taste like ice cream it can taste like a painful injection but if it's good for my health I take it and I've always found you know there are times when I was reading something because I see that's my discipline I'm just going to read it even if it's just the genealogies long list of names I go through it and say what can I get out of it I'll tell you what I got out of it that God is so interested in individuals that he puts all the names I say wonderful that means my name is also listed in God's mind he's not just interested in 500 people know all their names are there I see I learned something from everything I remember once I was in the church where a man was just boring like anything speaking away speaking away and I said Lord I got I sitting I got to get something from this so he was quoting some words and he's absolutely boring so while I turned to that chapter he quoted I read something on the opposite page that really blessed me he was not talking about that and I said wow I got something even from that I mean I wouldn't have seen that on the opposite pages this fellow had not quoted the chapter on the other page so you know it's amazing how God will surprise you if you seek seek to get something good out of every situation you're in as a part of a local church should i express my differences of doctrine I'll just keep it to myself if I'm not in the leadership I would suggest you keep it to yourself and don't unnecessarily stir up controversy because you're not called to be a teacher what advice would you give to someone who belongs to a church which is dominated by tradition and all come theology and you no place to go pray let God lead you to some other place where you can find the best church in your locality and it is the best you can find your locality as I said try and build fellowship in your home if possible with pray that you know one of the things we prayed I'll tell you when we start a meeting and resist just two families when we started just two 43 years ago and then one or two whether some would come some would go but one prayer we prayed so the threefold prayer Lord if there's anybody in this area around my house close by you see because none of us who had cars we people came by cycles and bus we were all poor people if there's someone in this locality who is seeking for a godly life please bring him in touch with us some way and/or secondly bring us in touch with him maybe I'll meet him in a store or in a bank or somewhere I meet him and invite him home and that second way and if you don't do both of these thirdly show us what's wrong with us so it will set it right so that you can recommend our little fellowship to somebody and then once we got a few people around our locality then we said Lord is there anybody in this town because circle who's interested in a godly life bring him to us and once we got a little town it's like a church in the town then we said Lord is there anybody in this state or in this country so it could became bigger and god we got in touch with people in our country and once we got that we said now Lord anybody in the world who's interested in a godly life and then God gave us the internet and I believe the internet was made for us to preach the Word of God and so we use it so pray that prayer and I believe that God can build a church is it possible to walk perfectly as Christ did even though we are still man no it's not perfect I told you we become like him only when he comes but consciously like we walk you know we take each step at a time we can walk as Jesus did I remember when some religious people in India took me to court for exposing their wrong doctrines I had never been to a court in all my life that was about 20 years ago and when I went there the first day I'll tell you honestly I was scared because many judges are bribed the lower-level courts and I didn't know what these fella would do so I said Lord I'm a lot of misgivings in my heart as I enter the court and the Lord spoke to me immediately don't be afraid you know just like he used to say to the disciples fear not that's what I heard him say to me I was also taken the Lord said to me by religious people to court so don't be afraid look for my footsteps hear my footsteps our footsteps of faith and love just like you say left-right left-right faith and love faith and a Heavenly Father who knows every detail of what's happening to you whose numbered the hairs on your head who cares for you more than for the sparrows and who will provide for you whose sovereign controlling the whole universe secondly love love for all your accusers and all the people who hate you and I was at peace I was the happiest man in the court that day because I was walking in Jesus footsteps so God is sovereign you know and we can walk as he walked in in different situations and ask the Holy Spirit to help you in your battle against the flesh I belong to a small church and I'm not married it's and if my church we if it's aligned with I feel it's aligned to the Word of God but people are telling me to go to a bigger church to meet more people so that I can find a marriage partner well it depends what you want to go to church for I mean the primary purpose of any church is not to find a marriage partner but I'm not saying that you shouldn't go but don't go for that reason say I believe in a there's a promise in 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 30 if you honor me I will honor you but we have to be practical and you should find a opportunity to find a better church which is following God's Word by all means go there and pray that God will lead you to the right person whom he has planned but remember this principle that if you honor God Ilana you and you see how wonderfully God found a wife for Isaac from a far country and how God found a husband for Ruth in Boaz read those stories and it's amazing how God does it and he does that even today so if you trust the Lord I believe we must look around but we must trust God to lead us to the right person I mean I've known the Lord for 10 or 12 years and I have been transformed what if I have some sickness even though I happy in the Lord and that sickness makes me weary is it possible for a Christian like was we redeemed to go through suffering am i doing anything wrong no I don't believe if you have sickness that you're doing anything wrong sickness is one of the unfortunate results of the curse that is on the earth it's got nothing to do with you the Apostle Paul was sick and he prayed he called it a thorn in his flesh and he prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and God said no I'm not going to remove it you're going to have it but I will give you grace to overcome that so I'll tell you when I'm sick this is what I pray I say Lord you either heal me or give me grace whichever you think is better for me if you think healing is better give me healing but if you think grace is better for me at this time give me grace to concrete but I want to do your will I want to finish your plan for my life I'm not asking for perfect health I'm past 78 now I'm not expecting to be like a 30 year old but I shall Lord give me enough health to serve you I don't help to live a comfortable life I won't help to just live for you and serve you so if you say Lord I want to live for you and serve you God will give you enough health or grace I don't dictate to God which of the two in Paul's case God said no healing 2nd Corinthians 12 but my grace is sufficient for you sometimes he heals I've experienced healing also but I want to say one thing about healing make sure you have forgiven everybody very often people are not healing because they haven't forgiven someone make sure that you have forgiven everybody and ask God freely we got a right to ask God for healing if you read 1 Corinthians 6 it says verse 12 to 20 there's a very important passage verses 12 to 20 or 1 Corinthians 6 where it says the body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body I think that's verse 13 so when you Lord here's my body it's for you I'm not using this body just to make money I earn money to support my family but it's for you basically I want to keep this body pure for you and if my body is for you you're for my body I want to accept that and secondly further down it says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit so lord please take care of your temple so I can ask God for health it's a it's a rite we have and as I said if the Lord prefers to give you grace be willing to accept that there are many godly people have gone through sickness and glorified God in it what can you do for a man who doesn't take the role of a man but they are brothers in Christ in marriage how can we help them it's very unfortunate that there are some men who are like women and the Bible speaks about effeminate men it's unfortunate a man should be a leader in the home he should not be soft and loud children to do what they like is the man who should discipline children at home not the woman father's discipline your children and but there are some weak men what to do do you know in the Old Testament there was a prophetess called Deborah in the book of Judges you read chapter 5 I think chapter five four five and she was a strong woman of God and when God wanted to send an army he she God said call Barak who was a man who was to lead the army it's a very interesting story you read their God Deborah told Barak you must lead the army God has said and he says sister if you come with me then I'll go I can't go alone without you that's the type of leaders they had can you imagine whatever man Barack was that he wanted Deborah to come and help her so what do you do with such men rather I said okay I'll come with you so we can't do much about the fact is I've sometimes told such men be strong in the Lord but some just don't take it seriously I believe that God is called men to leadership in the church and to be good examples in leadership we just got a pray that's all what do you mean by the blood of Jesus cleanses our past sins and the Holy Spirit of clans future sin no that's not what I meant what I meant was that blood of Jesus deals with our past the Holy Spirit will he future sins also had to be cleansed by the blood of Christ by confessing them but the Holy Spirit will give us power to overcome sin in the future that's what I meant but and the Holy Spirit gives us grace and grace is given to the humble this must be from a kid is it okay to play gun shooting video games well it depends what you are shooting if you are shooting animals or something fine but if you're shooting other men and I would not buy such with your games for my children it's my personal conviction I don't want them to grow up violent there are maybe I don't know nowadays what get your games are but the type of games I would select my children are more peaceful ones how is your wife partnered you in the ministry while raising kids well as I told you she gave up her job to look after the children and she prays for me regularly that's why she travels with me all the time and I think a great thing that women can do is to pray and support their husband she's called to be a helper in every way pray and protect him from evil women who try to you know her wife must be a support to her husband emotionally and physically sexually in every way so that he's safe from other women that's a very important thing and pray for the ministry and you know they should share with one another anything that God reveals to you please share with your husband or wife how does fellowship with other believers help us in our walk with Christ what is fellowship mean see true fellowship with another person can only come if you are in fellowship with our Father how do these two hands I always use this example think of a person who is playing a piano with pressing the legs also pressing the pedals at the right time and all the 10 fingers and the eyes watching the music sheet how are all these functioning together and you see how fast some people pay the PMI is watching the music and the feet pressing the pedal and all 10 fingers all it's amazing to see a person piano working and think of these are different members of the body this is fellowship these two hands are working together the legs are working with the hands the eyes are working with the hands it's not because they're always hanging around together and having fellowship how often do you hang around with each other two hands like this very rarely the only reason they work together is because all ten fingers are connected to the head the feet are connected to the head the eyes are connected to head and they function perfectly together so fellowship is based on our connection to Christ you know I've seen people in the same churches me for years and I can't have fellowship with them and then I meet somebody else whom I met after six months I immediately Apella ship with them because they are walking with the Lord they are in connection with Christ and I'm in connection with Christ and as soon as we meet we have fellowship so it's not by spending time together but when we are walking with the Lord that's what 1 John says we have fellowship with the father and we have fellowship with one another that means we work together we love one another we have something in our heart with suspicious we throw it away or we go and clarify it if you feel there's something in your brother you open to fellowship means you can openly talk to one another like a husband and wife we are open with one another because we are in touch with the head and not that we go around saying rude things to one another I believe one of the great ways of building fellowship is by encouragement Bible says in Hebrews 3:13 encourage one another how often how often once a week no daily who do you meet daily which brother or sister your husband your wife your children encourage one another daily many parents never encourage their children they from some parents are like this don't do this don't do that don't do that they heard of the little boy who went to school and they asked him what's your name he said my my name is Johnny don't because that's how he's always hearing John Johnny don't do this Johnny don't do that Johnny he thought that was his name Johnny don't so don't make your children like that encourage them very important to encourage them encourage your wife encourage your husband that's one way to build fellowship and you meet a brother you know if you're an encourage our people will long to have fellowship with you I tell you that and if you don't have any other gift just learn to encourage somebody and you can encourage somebody by saying god bless you today brother I hope you have a wonderful day with Jesus today and that the Lord will lead you in your life and give you a very happy marriage and greet them on their birthdays and things like that I'm not talking about psychology I'm talking about a genuine desire and if they are close to you to say you know I'd like to pray for you these are ways in which somebody is so encouraged to know that somebody's praying for them what do you think of listening to God's Word which can be done continuously with our smartphones is the same as reading but I'll tell you the thing that helped me to know the Bible was when I could underline it highlight it connect up to verses you know my first Bible was full of Criss crosses connecting this verse with this verse and colored and underlined so that I really studied at night it's very difficult to do that with a smartphone everything like that I haven't found people who can the advantage of a smartphone is you can have a concordance right there you can pick up a verse immediately but for Bible study I don't know whether you can do that better than with the physical Bible that's my opinion but I really got to know the Bible that when I believe it's possible to know the Bible like that but I've rarely found people who just use smartphones knowing the Bible well okay should I if I'm divorced should I stop listening to my messages on marriage and family yeah well if it doesn't apply to you maybe you should avoid it how do you fund your churches do you pay elders no I've already answered that we don't pay our elders anything but I'll tell you we believe that if we honor God God will honor us and in a poor country like India with 98% non-christian and 95% of the Christians not born again we found that God has provided all our need without ever meeting asking anybody we've never been in debt we built many meeting halls but never borrowed any money from anywhere okay here's the question most churches in America invest in the stock market to pay off their buildings and salaries and retirement funds well the wonderful thing about Jesus and the Apostles they didn't have retirement funds or salaries for their workers and so the pastor's are always asking people to give more money to invest in the stock market now that's crazy this is conflict with what Jesus said about discipleship yes Jesus could draw people out of the temple twice and so I see I said I'll tell you why it's dangerous because the stock market goes up and down here some people giving money for the Lord's work and you take it invested in the stock market and if it goes down you're losing money which has been given for the Lord's work now personally if you as an individual field your own money you feel that you can make it's perfectly all right to earn money whether it's through interest in a bank or through investment in a stock market but it's your personal money you feel that yeah I can earn a little more in the stock market by all means do it but be wise don't go into this day trading where people try and make money every day most of them run run at great losses at the end day but long-term investments in the stock market are okay but I would never do it in a church because the church is not dealing with your money personal money it's people's money and you have a responsibility to them and I don't believe you should ever invest other people's money in a stock market you can invest your own because if you lose it it's fine you're answerable to God for your own money but very dangerous and completely wrong to invest other people's money on their behalf now people do it and they I mean fortunately if it goes up they make money and say see we made more money for the Lord but what about if it goes down so and in any case I don't think any of the Apostles would have done it because it's a sake that money given for the Lord's work is the most sacred money on the face of the earth and even if I don't make a lot of profit from it I must be very careful in using it so I would never encourage investing it in a stock market how can I build a new covenant Church my locality if you're agreeing what preach I've already answered that question yeah if the wife is not cooperating with the husband to take up the cross what should what is the role of the husband wife separately well I would say I'll tell you a little parable there was a family who would every day the neighbor's house 6:30 in the morning the husband and wife would be fighting yelling so loud at each other it was almost like an alarm clock they wake up 6:30 in the morning the fight has started next-door every single day and one day after many years of this no sound at 6:30 no sound at 7:00 o'clock what happened they go visit the house and they find the husband is dead how did the piece can come in that house one partner died how shall you have peace in your house one person must die to himself the wonderful message of the gospel is you can die when you're still alive and I used this example it makes takes two hands to make a noise this is clash clash clash clash if one partner refuses to cooperate in that no clash either one husband or wife no clash that is a secret avoiding clash one must be willing to die to self and if both are willing to die to self then they have what's called fellowship that's even better seeking God together so that is the answer so one day your wife doesn't feel like dying to herself then you die to yourself and one day the husband doesn't feel like dying himself that you die as a wife when they both are willing to one day graduate to the place where they can now both die to self it'll be heaven on earth and you know who doesn't want that the devil there is no way to become one with each other except on the cross crucified with Christ you will become one with each other not being crucified with Christ you can try every technique of psychology it won't work this being crucified with Christ is the way to fellowship seen it's like design now the question is for example supposing husband and wife have a disagreement and attention something happened at this tension between husband and wife who should take the first step to restore fellowship is a very important question because each person feels the other person should take the first step ok I'll give you an example and then you can give me the answer God and man had a relationship problem who took the first step who God why did he take the first step because he was most spiritual his mother reason okay he got the answer now in the husband and wife have attention who should take the first step the one who is more spiritual and since both think they are more spiritual they should be just running into each others arms why isn't it like that but each person is thinking the other person is wrong you see how foolish it is to think I'm more spiritual so let the other person if your most frigid you should be apologizing first you should be humbling yourself you should be seeking to restore that relationship at any cost so is the carnal person who sits back so humble yourself I believe God wants to build wonderful homes in all of our homes and pray let's pray Heavenly Father please help us to honor you in our personal life and in our homes that we can build homes for the glory of God and the questions that are not answered which were not asked or not answered please give each one an answer from the Holy Spirit we pray in Jesus name comment you

Channel: AtlantaCFC

Views: 3,196

Rating: 4.7288136 out of 5

Keywords: zac poonen, Jesus, Christ, God, Bible, Church, Salvation, Quesitons, Answers, Sin, Light, Darkness, CFC, atlanta

Id: XuIuUr3yIc0

Length: 67min 4sec (4024 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 16 2018