5. Zac Poonen - Security In God As Our Loving Father

as I've observed believers through many years I've seen a lot of problems than there are in relationships between people which prevents us from living like a happy family either at home or in the church it is because in that vertical relationship with God there is an insecurity and where there is insecurity it leads to a lot of problems on the horizontal level jealousy strife competition the problem is not there the problem is an insecure relationship with God that means I'm not so sure that God really loves me I'm not so sure that God is a loving father not so sure that God is forgiving me all the blunders and mistakes I made in my life if you feel like that you may think that's only a vertical problem not so sure that God's forgiving me everything but it leads to a lot of problems in the horizontal relationship with other people so to build a good relationship at home and in the church it's very important that we make sure the vertical relationship with God our fellowship with God is clear for example how many times do I have to confess a sin to God before he forgives me clothing I told a small lie okay confess it once what if you committed adultery you have to confess it 500 times before he forgives you more important than how many times you confess it is whether you have repented of it repentance is more important than confession if you have really repented we're really truly broken over your sin you have to confess your sin to God only once he's got good hearing he hears you but you know this is a feeling we have that the more we confess it serious sins once we confess numerous times smaller sins just once is do we have so many ideas from false religions these are the teaching of false religions and there's a lot of teaching of false religions and Christianity among Christians because we have our own ideas of what God is like and the other thing you know in the olden days I've heard of Roman Catholic monks who used to do a thing called flagellation self-flagellation that means they would take a whip and hit themselves you know yeah I spoke yesterday about judging oneself that's not judging yourself you know to hit yourself will make your body suffer because you did something wrong or to show God you're sorry I say no Jesus suffered enough there's no need for you to go over all over that again and it's a it's a false teaching it's a wrong concept then I can take a little bit of the punishment for my sin you know it's not enough that Jesus died on the cross I got away with myself and we may not take a a rope or a leather whip to with ourselves we can whip ourselves in our mind you know keep on saying you're good for nothing you're good for nothing you're good for nothing you know I've heard of parents and fathers who tell that children you're good for nothing good for nothing good what I think they dictor not good for nothing you must never tell your children that I mean you yourself may be good for nothing but don't tell your children that they may turn out better than you we're not here to condemn others and we must not condemn ourselves there's a great verse in John 3:17 which says God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved that has many applications if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and I don't have to keep condemning myself if I recognize that in my place there is nothing good and I slipped up and I asked God to forgive me and if I've repented properly I need to confess only once like I said of course you if you haven't repented then even a thousand confessions won't do the job the important thing is not whether I have spoken a word saying Lord I did something wrong but have I turned around from don't around doesn't mean I have overcome sin there's a difference between repenting of a sin and overcoming sin overcoming sin may take time but repentance is an act of a moment repentance is just like in the military there's a command called about-turn you're facing one way and you turn around that's repentance a change of mind towards sin and God accepts that but if I haven't repented then any amount of confession doesn't solve the problem but if I have repented I confess once and I shouldn't keep on condemning myself and there is a lot of that because of insecurity that I'm not so sure whether God really heard me when I said that if he was sincere he did hear you God is a loving father he there's no you know this it's a heathen idea that God loves to torture us and make us suffer and you know weep and cry and whole types of thing no amount of tears will cleanse my sin you've got to remember that I mean tears may come because I'm sorry for what I did but any number of tears won't cleanse one sin of mine it's only the blood of Jesus that cleanses sin don't ever forget that and any amount of sorrow who doesn't confer doesn't claim the sin sorrow is natural if it comes naturally because I did something wrong it's okay but I it's very very important to have a secure relationship with our Heavenly Father it makes a lot of difference in our horizontal relationship with other people a lot of hitting out at other people with words and all is because of an insecure relationship with our Heavenly Father there's a verse in the Psalms which says those who worship idols become like them you become like the God you worship I've discovered that through the years if you think God is a policeman who is just waiting to catch you having violated some law and you always picture God is coming behind you with his light shining to make you stop and pull you over you're going to treat other people like that you're gonna treat your children like that you're gonna treat other believers like that who who you have any authority over because the authority you are working under you think he's like that he's not you know in the Old Covenant we read there was a veil that blocked off the most holy place of the tabernacle the tabernacle had three parts of the most holy place was blocked off with a veil or a curtain and that by God was saying you can't come into my presence nobody could come into God's presence because sins were not cleansed until Jesus shed his blood all the blood of bulls and goats are only symbolic the actual cleansing of humanity's sins took place on Calvary till that happened no everything was really a picture of what would happen and until Jesus shed his blood and rose again our sins were not forgiven and so man could not enter into God's presence that was the meaning of that blood trail and when Jesus died he says that veil was torn when he said it is finished then the door was open but because there was that veil people didn't know what God was like was it a strict policeman sitting inside that veil was it a very severe judge and Jesus came he rent that veil and showed people that it was a loving father and even though he did so much to try and convince his disciples you know he used examples like if your son asks you for bread will you give him a stone if he asks you for an egg will you give him a scorpion and if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children and what he meant by that was the best of you fathers is evil compared to God now we're not evil father than many of us are very good fathers but it's been a great night ring.i I have tried to be a very good father to my sons but I read that verse and I say Lord I who have tried to be good I'm evil compared to you that means God's goodness is so much more than the best father on the earth I don't know whether you believe that some of you have had good fathers who cared for you provided for you did so much for you sacrifice for you multiply that billion or trillion and you can understand what God is like and never never lose that concept God is a loving father and if I lose that I should never lose that understanding Jesus tried so much to convince people your heavenly Father cares for you your heavenly Father wants to give you the kingdom and I found in my own life that even victory over sin came only after I realized that I'll tell you a verse that I discovered after sixteen years of reading the Bible do you think it's not somewhere hidden somewhere which is not in the most translation no it's not hidden anywhere but I never noticed it it's John's Gospel chapter 17 for myself and may not be the worst that transformed your life worked for my life it transformed my life completely for 16 years I lived as an up and down defeated Christian you know like a child learning to walk wanting to walk definitely but always stumbling and falling stumbling and falling and getting up I never lay down permanently I would fall out confess it get up and walk get up and walk and I'd get discouraged so often because of those frequent failures but when I understood and then I realized it was because this truth I hadn't been gripped by John 17 23 one of the things that Jesus prayed was he this is a prayer of Jesus to the Father father I want these people whom I want them to be I am them and you and me and in the middle of that verses is I want the world to know one that you sent me and that you love them even as you have loved me now there are many verses in the entire Bible that tell us God loves us many verses but this is the only verse that I have discovered in the whole Bible and there are more than 31,000 verses in the Bible and this is the only verse I discovered which tells us how much God loves us if you find another one like that let me know I haven't found it that God loves me as much as he loved Jesus and that's a fantastic statement when you look at the love the father had for Jesus there was never a moment when he didn't love him and he didn't care for him he didn't provide for him he protected him when he was a helpless baby from Herod's soldiers he protected him any the people in the synagogue got furious with him and Nazareth and wanted to throw him over the cliff and so many times when soldiers came to capture and they couldn't capture him and the only reason given the Bible was his hour had not yet come it's amazing they couldn't touch him just because God's time for him to die had not come and having soldiers couldn't kill him nobody could throw him over a cliff he couldn't die of cancer you think there was cancer in those days in the first century sure I believe all diseases were there Jesus couldn't he never got any infection that killed him he lived as on earth as a man because his are had not come always the answer is his are it not come and when I understand when I understood then God loves me as he loved Jesus I said well that applies to me as well that means he cares for me as he cared for Jesus it's very difficult for us to believe that because you know it we think that we have to come to a certain level before God loves us when are you ever going to reach a level where you feel worthy for God to love you I don't think I'll ever reach that at any time on this earth he loves me his I love Jesus and when you think of those about whom he was talking about here he wasn't talking about you and me it applies to you and me but at that time he was referring to those disciples those eleven disciples he had father I the whole prayer is related to those eleven disciples father I want the world to know that you love these eleven disciples of mine just like you love me and ask yourself this question are you better than at least those eleven disciples have you denied the Lord some time are you fighting with others to see who's the leader these are the things they fought about in the father love them it's not because they were perfect it's because the father is a God of love for example that verse which says it's challenge me many times in Matthew 5 it says you must be like your father and what does he say there about him look at that verse if you're not familiar with it Matthew chapter 5 verse 44 I'll say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that why should you do that so that you can be sons of your father in heaven he makes the Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous you know those days people were farmers and you know farmlands needs Sun and rain so here are the two people who have got farms one's a god-fearing farmer who prays every day with his family in the morning and prays concerning his crops and prays when he saw the scene and he's regular in the synagogue and god-fearing man next door to him is an atheist who says I don't believe there's a god and you know the rain falls equally on both farms isn't that amazing would you do that if you were gone what do you think you should teach that fellow a lesson by not sending any rain on his farm don't send anything don't let the Sun Shine on his God's not like that do you believe in a God like this who's good to evil people he makes this Sun to rise on the evil and the good person equally and he makes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous equally and the Lord says be like that it's quite a challenge and he says in verse 46 if you only love those who love you what reward do you have it's not a great thing because even the sinners love those who love them the Communists love those who love them you're not better than them if you love only those who love you and if you greet only your brothers you're not better than others but even the heathen people greet those who greet them or try greeting someone who doesn't want to greet you there you see whether you really want to be like Jesus or not see in our in our human nature one of the things that's found very deeply in us which can cause a lot of problems is the desire for revenge and I want you see Romans 12 which tells us something about what our attitude should be towards somebody who's really harmed us Romans chapter 12 says in verse 19 never take your own revenge but leave room for the wrath of God for it's written vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord see vengeance is the act of a judge and we are not the judge God is the judge of the whole universe I have no right to judge people I have no right to pass judgment on people I can discern discernment is different we must discern the world is full I mean Christendom is full of a lot of crooked people and if you don't have to some and they'll fool you out right so we need discernment but we don't judge God is a judge and therefore it says here I must never take revenge I must not wish evil on someone who's done evil to me in fact it says here in verse 20 if your enemy is hungry feed him live if he is thirsty give him a drink so not only I don't take revenge you know someone can read this verse like this but God is said verse 19 it is written their vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord and our attitude can be see y'all Lord repay him really let him have it but that's not you know that's the spirit of vengeance too even you may not want to do it yourself I said God just let him have him teach him a lesson for the way he treated me that attitude will destroy you and to correct that he says if your enemy is hungry don't wish that God God take care of what he has to do he will judge but our attitude is to forgive you know for example let me give you an example when Jesus hung on the cross is the worst possible thing that the worst crime that any human being did it to another human being on the face of this earth what is it the crucifixion of Jesus Christ I remember once a brother came and told me about all the evil things people are doing them I said had the crucified you yet they said no I said then you got a long way to go don't complain about people doing things to you they haven't crucified you here man you've got a long way to go before you become like Jesus they crucified Him and he said Father forgive them now those people who were who crucified Him did Jesus forgive them or not absolutely 100% but in the day of judgment those fellows are going to be judged by God for killing Jesus they're not going to skip that because their sin is in two directions see there are certain sins which are only in the vertical direction of example if I have a dirty thought I'm not harming you I'm only Hara it's only between me and God that's only one direction sin but if I hurt you in any way for example not just crucified you if i gossiped against you behind your back I think a lot of believers don't think that is a sin it is it's sinning against somebody it's not killing him it's killing his reputation it's killing a person's reputation isn't it some type of murder it is you're murdering his reputation by speaking evil about him and that horizontal sin it's a sin that I have to confess to God and if I've hurt you I have to confess it to you now if you don't know about it then it's better I don't confess to you because that'll cause more problems you know that but if I if you know that I have hurt you I have to confess it to you as well otherwise I can't be forgiven so when Jesus said Father forgive them he was forgiving that horizontal aspect of sin forgiven but the vertical aspect they were still guilty they were still guilty before God for killing Jesus Christ and that could never be forgiven till they repented and they did not repent and the Lord gave the Jews 40 years after that because you know they cried out they're saying his blood be on us and on our children they said and it happened like that 40 years later and God give them 40 years to repent they didn't and he scattered them for 2,000 years he scattered them all over the world so God does judge it's not my business but I'm not here waiting for God to judge my duty as long as I live on the earth is to be good to the people who are evil to me to wish the best never to wish that some calamity will come on them or that children or they lose their job or they get some sickness now that's unbecoming of a Christian and why do we have those attitudes because we think that we're so good you know if God had dealt with us like that we'd have been dead long ago think of all the wretched we had in our life and the wretched things we've committed and gods means so merciful to us and forgiven us that's why Jesus said you must forgive others exactly like God forgave you forgive us our sins as we forgive them that trespass against us because God's forgiven us so much the Bible says be imitators of God forgive us God is forgiving you so that's why the we want to forgive others we have to meditate on how much God is forgiving us I don't know whether we ever take any time I take time frequently in my life don't think bank and to think of how much God has forgiven me too results come from that Jesus said he who's forgiven much loves much he was forgiven little loves little I don't believe there's a human being on earth who's been forgiven little but there are people who think they've been forgiven little and so they love little but people who recognize that they love my said what I would translate those words of Jesus like this he who recognizes that he's been forgiven much will love much but he who thinks he's been forgiven literally will love little so whenever you say Lord you forgive me so much you're obligated to love the Lord more than others if you think you've been forgiven more than others you love the Lord more than ours is when Paul said I believe I'm the chief of sinners he said that towards the end of his life he said I'm the chief of all the sinners in the world I think there's no sinner greater than me in the world really Paul well you better love the Lord better than everybody else and he did he showed by his love of life of sacrifice how much he loved the Lord how much he is willing to give up for the Lord because he felt he God's forgiven me so much he felt I don't think as a man on the earth who's been forgiven as much as me so I see there that the more we realize how much God is forgiving us the more we respond in love saying Lord I want to live a life of sacrifice for you and it will translate into our relationship with others as well that be very very merciful towards others so in our security in our relationship with God is the secret of being free from jealousy strife and this spirit of a revenge we got to be very careful and if you find something of that in your in your heart you need to cleanse yourself think of somebody who harmed you you can think of him right now him or somebody who really did something back to you I'm sure all of us anybody who was more than four years old somebody other than the world is hurting us I'm sure a lot of people in your life have hurt you what is your attitude towards them people who hurt you or hurt your children or spread stories about your spread stories about your daughter or son or something and what do you think of them today I mean serving the Lord for many years and we serve the Lord you are the target of the devil all along many people and have harmed me and I've always checked myself Lord what is my attitude towards them do I wish even the slightest evil towards any of them do I wish calamity or sickness or judgment or death on them or their children or any such thing I want to be free from that because of I have that I am evil then I don't have the attitude towards them that God has towards me and that can happen even at church so it's very important to always remember how much God has forgiven me I must never feel condemned about my past because I've been cleansed completely the blood of Jesus is cleanse me and it's very important to remember you know to have a secure relationship with God is very important to remember what it says in Hebrews 8 and verse 12 that the Lord says their sins and iniquities I will remember no more I didn't know that the day I was converted and I used to condemn myself a lot because the early years after my conversion because I was aware of my sins I was aware of my failures and I had asked Allah to forgive me and I believed it forgiven me but I always felt that when I came before God he'd be looking at me and say yeah I know what you did 10 years ago and I mean in my relationship with God insecure he always felt he was looking at me like that and I remember once it's so vivid to me I was standing on the deck of my ship I was in the Navy those days and I remember that day when I was standing in the deck on the ship and I suddenly this verse came to my heart which I had read in Scripture I will not remember your sins anymore and my life was different from that day as far as assurance that God it would not hold my past against me do you have that assurance in you are you absolutely sure hiding I mean 100% sure then God says I will not remember your past against you if you are sure on that I tell you it will change your horizontal relationship with people as well because when God is so good to you you will learn to be good to others I believe that's the secret whenever I see people hitting out at others I know this guy's not secure in his relationship in God that's the problem so it's very very important that this like I was saying yesterday the horizontal relationship is very dependent on the vertical you must be 100% sure and never forget tired of emphasizing this then God says I will not remember your sins anymore that means I look back over the past in this not one sin in the God remembers and I'll tell you something it's not only he doesn't say we must read it carefully I read it exactly has God forgotten my sins no that's not what he said this he says I will not remember I mean how can God forgive my sins and I myself don't forget it is his memory worse than mine and I'll tell you another reason there's a story Jesus said about a man who was forgiven something like 10 billion dollars if I could convert it to his currency a king forgive somebody a debt of 10 billion dollars in COK forgiven you don't have to go to jail and that fellow went out and caught somebody by the throat who offered him some 10 20 dollars or something and said pay up and got him in prison for not being is dead and when the King heard it he said get that server back here he said how much that forgive me or ten trillion or whatever it is and you couldn't forgive that guy 10 $20 okay I've put all this debt back upon your head you got to pay up go to jail until you can pick up where would it be impossible from the pierre-yves in jail for the rest of his life you read that in Matthew chapter 18 at the end of that parable Jesus said these words and at the end of that parama he said the last verse of Matthew 18 he said so will my heavenly father do to you if you don't forgive others from your heart got it so will my heavenly father do to you if you don't forgive people from your heart for that trivial thing and everything a human being does to use trivial compared to the trillions of sins God's forgiven you that's the meaning of that Barrowman that whole parable is there from verse 21 onwards and what is it that how did the Lord the Lord did the king did not just put him in jail I want you to see here I mean initially he was just going to jail for the crime but when he didn't forgive someone he was not only going to be put in jail it says in the jail the Lord appointed verse 34 the King appointed torturers torturers to torture him in the jail and it's in that connection the Lord says verse next verse so will my heavenly father do to you that means God will allow the demons to harass you to trouble you at night in your dreams and to trouble you during the day with all types of fears and threats and the demons will a heresy in your mind and why because you wouldn't forgive somebody so in our horizontal relationships it's very very very important to forgive even if you're only interested in yourself and say forgive is the best thing you can do for yourself so the Jesus spokes such strong warnings against an unforgiving attitude let me show you Matthew 6 in verse 14 and 15 if you forgive others for their transgressions your heavenly Father will forgive you but if you don't forgive others Matthew 6:15 your father will not forgive your sins your transgressions now he's not talking about God he doesn't say God will not forgive your father your father so what are you a child of God is not talking about unbelievers here Jesus would never refer to an unbeliever and say your father then you would say God will not forgive me but here he's talking about I told you earlier than the Sermon on the Mount was spoken to the disciples and he looks at his disciples those 12 of them and said your father will not forgive you if you don't forgive somebody else now my question is can you go to heaven if your sins not forgiven supposing you do die without your sins being forgiven is there a second chance somewhere after death like the Roman Catholic saying purgatory or someplace where before you go to hell that gives you one more chance to repent and ask forgiveness there isn't Hebrews 9:27 says it's appointed unto men once to die and after that judgment that's all there's nothing in between so let me take an example now supposing you lived a very good life say for 40 years as a believer good life and then in the last year of your life you come so bitter against somebody who treated you really badly and you don't forgive him and you die tell me where will you go most believers will say well you live 40 years a good life so gotta take in Bremen ah that is the religion of the healin then in the final day God will take imbalance and put all your good deeds on one side you know your bad deeds on the other side and the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds you all haven't the bad deeds outweigh the good deeds you go to hell we teaching is that you find that anywhere in the Bible that's hedonism and yet you may be believing that unconsciously that have lived a good life for 40 years and just happen to die without having forgiven somebody somehow the other God will take me to heaven because I live from good life for 40 years and you don't realize how he then your concept is I believe with all my heart and I've taught this to people that if you don't forgive others brother it doesn't matter how long you lived a good life you will not be forgiven it's absolute and clear and I had a living example of that with the man who came to India as a missionary he was an Indian man who came from another country a Hindu convert who was a missionary in India for 20 years serving the Lord he was very famous in India and we were a small group it began unknown despised group as a church in our home and one day lo and behold this famous man came to our church no we wondering why in the world he came he says no brother Zak I heard some of your messages and I felt God wanted me to come here and he came regularly off and on off and on for all our meetings and for two years and then he became seriously sick and he was about to die and he called me over and I went to his hospital bed where he was dying and he said brother Zak I want to tell you something I served the Lord for 20 years in India sincerely but so many pastors in this country told lies about me and spread all types of false stories about me and I had such bitterness against them for 20 years and it's only when I came to your church two years ago but I heard for the first time for the first time that if I don't forgive those people God will not forgive me and he says I took it seriously and he said to me I'm on my deathbed now but I wanted to call you to tell you thank you for teaching me that I have forgiven everybody I'm ready to meet my Savior and he died I'll never forget that then I knew why God brought him to our church it was to hear one message which he had never heard in any other Church he went through for twenty years and yet is written plainly in Scripture and he went into the kingdom of God and he took it seriously he knew that all his fame and all his service for God wouldn't count for anything if you haven't forgiven someone it's a very serious thing dear brothers and sisters I find that a lot of preachers don't tell you the truth because they don't want to hurt you I'd rather hurt you and send you to heaven then keep you happy and send you to hell any day so our security in our heavenly in our relationship with our Heavenly Father is very very important if you want to build good relationships with each other at home and if you have tension with your wife don't think the problem is there and the problem is in your insecure relationship with your heavenly father if you have tension with your husband the problem is an insecure relationship with your heavenly father the more secure you are in your relationship with your heavenly father it will not disturb you if people think less about you are you disturbed if people think you're nobody you're good for nothing don't disturb you because no security is in your Heavenly Father do you go to a church expecting people to esteem you and respect you what if nobody esteems your respect in your church what do people treat you like dirt he doesn't make a difference to me because I'm securing my heavenly father so that verse John 17 23 minute tremendous difference in my life then God loves me as he loved Jesus Jesus was so secure in his life because he knew his father loved him it didn't matter if nobody else in the world loved him and I can honestly say I've come to that place I don't care one bit if nobody in the world loves me I can say that before God because through the years the security in the love of God has become so real to me that is the only thing that matters is that God loves me that's all so I don't have any demands on others do you have a demand that other people should love you then other people should be considerate towards you and you know not act in an inconsiderate way towards you I have no such demand everybody is welcome to treat me without any consideration they ignore me despise me or push me down and put me last in the list it's perfectly okay it will not change my attitude towards you one minute I'll tell you honestly because I am secure in my heavenly Father and therefore I can have a very good relationship with good people bad people everybody then people in the church who are different different types it makes absolutely no difference it is the answer in the psychology you won't teach you this it's not by techniques that we build up relationships its security in our Heavenly Father's love for us so remember what I taught yesterday as well that vertical arm of the Cross is always bigger than the horizontal arm in our relationship with one another fellowship with one another is very dependent on our clear relationship with God that means I keep my conscience always clear I rejoice in God's complete forgiveness I never condemn myself condemn my because I feel I said Lord you're forgiving me and I'm not going to hit him I hit my cell and hit myself that because I did something wrong Jesus took enough for me on the cross I don't have to judge and punish myself anymore now the reason I repeat this is because I'm absolutely convinced even though I preached on this for so many years that people somehow don't get it they still remain insecure in their relationship with their father and that is a cause of a lot of problems in their family life then children a lot of problems in their relationships with others in the church they find it difficult to forgive somebody which he will for someone everything is because that particular relationship is faulty so I'll never get tired about rebuff repeating and I'll keep repeating it till the end of my life because it liner will help somebody to come into a right relationships with people because they have a right relationship with God so total forgiveness the way God forgive us we are told to forgive others the way God forgave us I told you yesterday that in the relationship that Jesus had with me there was a cross on which he died so that he could have fellowship with me and that applies the other way too I cannot love Jesus really if there is no cross on which I die to myself in my relationship with him and the same way horizontally I cannot have fellowship with another person I can't have fellowship with my wife I can have friendship without paying any price but if I want fellowship with my wife with what the Bible calls fellowship there has to be a cross on which I die and it's not a once for all thing it's every day and vice versa she's got a cross on which she dies and the same with me with every person in the church if I want to have a right relationship with anybody there has to be a cross between me on him which I'm dying and I don't have a demand that he should also die on that you know the moment you have a demand you know you haven't died I don't let persons have any demands on anyone no you may have had demands as long as you're alive but the moment he dies demands are done and if you have demands on others that other people should behave like this towards you or treat you like this or treat you with the respect you know particularly as I find a lot of preachers particularly after they get a little famous and little big in their own eyes they begin to expect that others should treat them in a certain way and care for them in a certain way provide for them in various ways and so many neat ideas that many many preachers most preachers in the world alike act and the moment you get any crazy idea like that you will never be able to be a servant of God Jesus never had any such demand on others that you must care for me and provide for me and it's wonderful to see examples in the Bible where he didn't expect that that's why he was so much addressed I love to show this one example in John chapter 7 we read about Jesus preaching in the temple he had traveled all the way from Galilee to Jerusalem which is about 70 miles which means he must have walked about three days sometimes you read in the Bible Jesus went from Galilee to Jerusalem but remember it was 70 miles it took three days for him to walk there and he went there and he preached in the temple the whole of John chapter 7 he speaks about it says in verse 37 he stood and cried out if any man is thirsty let him come to me and drink now at the end of that preaching we read here in the last words of John chapter 7 verse 53 everybody went to their own house and nobody invited Jesus home there was a visiting preacher will come from 70 miles away whose home was in Capernaum 70 miles away and nobody said Lord Jesus where are you staying tonight come and stay with me no one and you know what Jesus did well he went to the Mount of Olives it says in the next verse he said well thank you Father it's not raining I can go and sleep under the trees no demands no expectation I'm sure in his mind he was not thinking look at these ungrateful people do you ever feel like that about some people whom you have served and served and served and served and served and they don't care for you do you ever think what ungrateful people they are how it's not such a part in Jesus mine at all you want to be like Jesus here's where you can follow him it's a wonderful life we have funny demands on anyone you don't have any expectations all misery and unhappiness is because you have expectations you expect people to treat you like this and respect you like this even husband then while see must respect miss him he must respect me garbage you be a disciple of Jesus you won't have any expectations you may be a very happy person and this he was quite happy and he didn't lie down there and under the tree of one two or three trees in the Mount of Olives and wonder why people didn't care for him he was just rejoicing in his heavenly father's love and he came back next morning it says in verse two John into that he sat down and again started teaching and you know he didn't throw any hints saying you know last night when I was sleeping under the Mount of Olives all these subtle things that sometimes preachers say to make people feel bad none of all that he just continued to teach them I say Lord Jesus you're my example I want to be like you all my life every day of my life never to make another person feel bad because they didn't do something they were supposed to do for me so what I will not complain I remember once when I was this as many many years ago I think 40 years ago or so I was to travel to another place in India for a weekend conference and we traveled by train and you know in India those days anyway and even now it's like that if you want to get a seat in a train or a berth to sleep in them third class compartment you have to Boca sixty days earlier and now it is even more and if you don't book well in advance you you don't get a seat so I had written to these people much earlier sixty days earlier please booked a berth for me so it on my way back I can sleep on the train and then I went to the conference and I said I hope you guys have booked my seat oh god we forgot and I have to travel day after tomorrow I said well that's okay just go to the station and see if you can at least get a seat for me I may not be able to get a berth to sleep so the the trains in those days were like this way you had four seats underneath where your four people sat in one berth on top of one of them to sleep and somebody would sleep on the floor tries to find the meetings or we had a wonderful conference and I got back into the train and I found I had only a seat and I said after such a wonderful conference I'm not going to sit here and complain about these people that they were so thoughtless even though I've written to them 60 days earlier to get my seat hey I'm gonna praise God the Bible says give thanks and everything's I I'm sorry happy there and there was a an old lady a nun who was sitting next to me and she was quite a big build and she said can you do me a favor she said I've got a berth upstairs but I can't climb it's too difficult for me can you sleep there so that I can use this part of your seal I said sure and I lay there in that bed that night I said what would I have gained by complaining God takes care of his servants now I'm not saying I always got that there are times when God tells me to go the rough way also where I have to sit in a seat all night you know God decides that but my point is whether you're sitting at Cedars sleep I said I decided my life I will never complain the Bible says be finished with murmuring and complaining how can you do that you know there's a command like that in Philippians in chapter 2 we're talking about the type of things that prevent us from being a happy family in your home or in the cherish murmuring and complaining can you think what will happen in your home if nobody moments or complaints if husband and wife never mama or complain with each other your children will learn that and grow up that way I remember a brother one of our brothers in one of our churches saying once then he saw one of his children speaking in a very crude rude way to his younger sibling and he asked this child where did you learn to speak like that he said that I learned it from you that's the way you speak of distress and he says you really got convicted and I said lord help me to change condition and are learning from me how I speak so Philippians do it says here do everything was 14 do everything in life without ever grumbling our complaint that's the way you prove that you're a child of God next word says how do you prove you're a child of God you say well I have a testimony that so many years ago I asked Jesus to come into my heart on so and so date sign how you prove you're a child of God the Bible says you prove you're a child of God by never complaining or grumbling about anything the court needs that's good but the man can be dying in a hospital in court a date that is what was used to that are you healthy are you healthy Christian everything in life without murmuring your complaint if you believe that God is sovereign and he loves you as he loved Jesus he cares for you and I tell you I mean amazed to see the care that Jesus has for me and for you he has for you as well if you can believe that and it's different different circumstances I often think oh when when Jesus a helpless baby and some of us may find ourselves situations in a with difficult bosses or difficult work situations and all and you feel yourself helpless what can I do Lord I'm dependent on the rules in this country I need to get a visa to stay and I'm helpless here Jesus was more helpless than you as a baby and God took care of him then the Harrop could not kill him he moved him away from Bethlehem before the soldiers came I remember when some religious people got some policemen to raid my house God took me away from there before they came they couldn't enter my house you can experience everything that Jesus went through if you're really eager to walk the way he walked it's one of the prayers I pray to the Lord many times I said lord I want to experience many other things you experienced in your earthly life I want to overcome sin and not just overcomes in this external circumstances I want to be at rest and you no matter what happens and that must that'll be a testimony to others I remember you know and when I was in the Navy and I was an outspoken witness for Christ all my colleague my fellow officers knew that I was a Christian and I stood for the Lord and I believed in a God in heaven who loves me and they knew that I quit my job as well to serve the Lord about 30-40 years later one of my colleagues was a senior Commodore in the Navy and retired we were traveling in a plane together and he had been serving the Lord for many years and he recognized me as colleague of his and we sat next to each other and on art of the way this plane went through some really rough weather such I've never experienced in any flight in my life it was just going up and down and up and down and we didn't know what is happening and everybody was scared and he held me a hand and said he's exact I know as long as you're here nothing will happen to this book how amazed this guy remembered my witness from 40 years earlier people don't forget you know when you stood for the Lord you may think that they did not respond to you but they'll remember in times of trouble they'll remember I remember meeting a man 30 years ago who trusted God he believed in Jesus Christ and that can be your witness to a person who you haven't met for 30 years live for the Lord we secure in God's love for you and you want you don't want to realize the effect your life has on other people they may not always tell you immediately in your place of work if you are upright and they see that you don't cheat and you don't tell lies in your considerate tremendous things can happen I'll give you one example of that in the Old Testament in Genesis we read about Joseph being locked up in jail and you know the story he was falsely accused by party for his wife he had already been treated badly by his ten brothers sold into slavery and then falsely accused he had enough to complain about if at all he wanted to complain against his brothers and for his wife all false accusations and here he is in jail and he you read about in Genesis and chapter 14 Joseph Joseph is in jail and there he finds Pharaoh verse 2 was furious with his two officials the cupbearer and the cheap Baker and put them in the jail as well and they were sitting there discouraged and dejected verse 6 Joseph came to them in the morning and observed them Genesis 40 verse 6 they were dejected and you know he could have ignored them he's I got enough problems of my own I don't I don't know what problem these have people had I can't worry about that I've got enough problems of my own and I tell you he had many more problems his parents were far away hundreds of miles away here he was in a strange land falsely accused not knowing what's going to happen he sees those people sitting sadly there he says I don't have time to worry about their problems I got enough for him but he didn't do that you know that whole future of Jacob of Joseph depended on this one kind action he went to them and said why for seven why are your faces so sad today the whole story the rest of Joseph's life hinges on that one question it turned around because when he asked that question they explained that dream and he then interpreted that dream and two years later when the Pharaoh had a dream this cabarrus is hey I remember that was a guy in prison who interpreted my dream he would never have got that interpretation of that dream and Joseph had not gone to him and said why are you guys looking so sad today have you ever thought of showing that type of consideration to somebody in your office or some friend of yours or someone who you see looking sad or discouraged or some problem your life could go in a different direction these are the examples I see in Scripture then challenge me and I tell you Joseph didn't have the Holy Spirit he didn't have a Bible he didn't have any church to encourage him he had no conference where he went to hear these things he he but he had God he even when he was tempted by party for his wife and party for his wife looks around sees nobody in the room oh yes there is God is here that's what he said he was so aware of God's presence and that's what kept him from adultery and that attitude is what made him considerate towards these people and I ask and I say if you're like that I believe that you will also be considerate towards people and you know I think that so much can come out of one little kind action or kind word never hesitate to save brothers and sisters even if you have not been like that you say my you say my personality's not like that I'm I'm an introvert I mean what looking but I was in word looking when I grew up as a little boy and I grew up and I I was like that is a young man I was like that when I first became a Christian when I said I can I cannot be an effective witness for Christ if I allow my temperament to sort of run my life I'm not going to let my temperament control me I'm gonna overcome it by the power of the Holy Spirit there's nothing the Holy Spirit cannot overcome so don't blame your temperament and see I'm not the outgoing type like that person okay the Holy Spirit will help you to overcome that weakness in your temperament the only spirit has come to help us overcome all things that hinder us from being effective witnesses for Christ so here's a little thing that can make a lot of difference in life I'm secure in my relationship with God I believe Joseph is amazing he must have even though he didn't have the Holy Spirit or the Bible or any such thing he was secure in his relationship with God and where did he get that from here's something for fathers to learn Jacob knew less about God than you and I but he taught Joseph about the God of Abraham and Isaac and a little bit he knew he thought Joseph and made such a difference in Joseph's life so for parents take time to teach your children about God is a loving father it'll make a world of difference one day when they are away from you like Joseph in some difficult situation they'll stand up for the Lord because they learned something from you very very important and as I said everything depends on my knowing God is my father who cares for me you know I for many years in my only Christian life when I prayed to God I'd say Lord or God but I realized that Jesus said when you praying don't say God don't say Lord say our Father who art in heaven even though Jesus clearly said that I found I was always praying oh god oh god I was playing back with Old Testament people the Old Testament people they prayed like that but you know in the New Covenant you're not supposed to call him God it's not that he isn't God I mean it's like if one of my sons came to me and said mr. foon and I like to talk to you today so what happened are you angry with me or something you see isn't his name god yes but he's my father my children call me dad and I go to God saying dad I often think of myself as a little child sitting in my heavenly father's lap looking up and saying dad I have a little problem or I need this I'm little insecure here please help me so I want to encourage you dear brothers and sisters learn to talk to your heavenly Father isn't that call him dad Romans chapter 8 it says here when the Holy Spirit comes in and just by the way when you're born again as soon as you if you really received Christ into your heart the Holy Spirit come into your heart there's a lot of confusion concerning the teaching about the Holy Spirit I want to remove some of that confusion with one little thing here it says here that in Romans 8 and verse 9 last part first of all if you don't have the Spirit of Christ you don't belong to him in other words if you belong to Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit is in iam to be filled with the Holy Spirit is another thing do you know when the disciples receive the Holy Spirit I don't know whether you know John chapter 20 when Jesus breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit did it happen or not what do you think was there anything that Jesus said that didn't happen when he said Lazarus come out he came out when he told the wind to be still it became still what happened when he looked breathed on his I think there were 10 disciples there Judas wasn't there Thomas was awesome and I said receive the Holy Spirit didn't happened I believe it did but they were not filled with the Holy Spirit they received all this but they will not filter the Holy Spirit so I see that there's a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit and so here it says about receiving the Holy Spirit if you're born again you know when you say Lord Jesus come into my heart like I said 59 years ago and like many of you have said sometime in your life who actually comes in Jesus is in heaven he doesn't come into your heart he's in heaven still you know who is on earth the third person of the Trinity the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ was on earth for thirty three and a half years in Israel he went up to heaven and the third person of the Trinity s just as much on earth here the Holy Spirit is here just like Jesus was in Israel and when I say Lord Jesus come to my heart the Holy Spirit comes in he's a spirit of Christ that comes into my heart and but he may not have filmed me see there's a difference between receiving and being filled for example if you think of your heart like a house with ten rooms and there may be light in one room the other nine rooms may be dark so you look at that house on a hill and say is there light in that house yeah there is is it filled with light--not is the holy spirit in that person yes but is he filled with the Holy Spirit now and what is the reason do we have to sort of convince God that I deserve the Holy Spirit your number deserve him it depends on whether you open the other rooms of your heart to him or not that's the only reason why do you have to wait to be filled with all Israel you got to wait to find out who do you want to open up the other rooms are not God God's already sent the Holy Spirit and I believe the Holy Spirit's like sunlight waiting to come in wherever there's a window open but if you put blinds on the window and lock the doors he won't come in he says I stand at the door and nod and this is the main reason why many Christians will receive the Holy Spirit of mourning and are not filled with the Holy Spirit and no matter how much they pray they will not be filled with the spirit because they don't allow the Holy Spirit to come into certain rooms of their life for example he knocks at the one door and says can I come into this television room you control what you are what you watch on television can I get rid of some of your DVDs which you shouldn't be watching and you say Lord just please leave me alone in that room please come into the Gilbert room and cleanse away my sin that I want okay Holy Spirit says I won't come into your television room sit there and watch whatever you like he comes to another room can I come into your library and see the type of books you read the magazine's you look at and the pictures you look at in different pictures so you know Lord there are certain things you may not like okay I won't come in can I come into your finances room and see how you're earning your money is it all up right and righteous way and how are you are you generous with your money are you giving your money also to God and his work and all Lord don't come I'll be a bit ashamed if I you see all those things don't come in their door by door you have close to the Holy Spirit there could be many other doors like that and you keep pray O God fill me with the Holy Spirit and you cry and you weep I tell you in a hundred years nothing will happen don't waste your time go to sleep I really believe a lot of all-night prayer meetings are an absolute waste of time much more will happen if you spend just five minutes before God examining your heart and see what are the doors that are locked and just open it and without your knowledge they always will just come and fill you and then you'll be another person okay so much for that but when the Holy Spirit comes it says in Romans eight he comes within us in verse 15 cries out Abba Father Abba is a Hebrew word which unfortunately they did not translate it's very sad that some words are not being translated like baptism baptism means immersion there would have been no child baptism in the history of Christianity if they just translated that one word immersed be immersed in the name of Jesus Christ how in the world can you sprinkle a child it's amazing you know and above if they translated it dad that's what it means dad that's what the Holy Spirit comes in as the Holy Spirit come to you and made you look at God and say dad it took a long time for me to realize that but it made such brought such security into my life when I started calling God dad and it brought such a difference in my relationship with everybody around me I became secure I could finish with murmuring and grumbling and complaining and expecting and no desire for revenge anymore and easy to forgive everything had changed when I started calling God dad like Jesus taught us look up and say our Father dad who is in heaven well I hope you understood something which will help you in your horizontal relationships with one another working it heartily let's pray Heavenly Father remind us of the things that we need to be reminded of constantly write them deeply in our heart so that we'll never forget them help each one of us we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: NCCF Church

Views: 5,523

Rating: 4.8076925 out of 5

Keywords: NCCF, CHRISTIAN, ZAC POONEN

Id: lf3cMVG4Qu0

Length: 70min 20sec (4220 seconds)

Published: Sun May 13 2018