6) The Most Important Thing In Life by Zac Poonen

I want to speak today on the most important thing in the Christian life there's a phrase called majoring on minors you probably heard it what it means is that among a lot of things that we have to do in life some very important some not so important if we spend a lot of time doing the things that are not so important we won't have time to do the things that are really important I mean that applies in all areas of life whether in our home or in our work and a lot of people major on minors and that's very true in the Christian life too you know when you look at all the Christian denominations there are so many of them and many of them have got something they major on and if that thing you major on they major on is not what the Bible majors on and they are majoring on minors and that can happen to us too so it's very important to find to see from Scripture not from our own understanding when we come to the Word of God we must recognize that our human understanding that we've got from Adam is corrupted by sin it's worldly in its thinking because those are the values we have acquired from childhood and we have to change our way of thinking if we want to understand what the Bible majors on hmm have you ever wondered why there are some Christians you've met in your life who never seem to lose their passion for Jesus Christ and to serve Him ever every time you meet them they are as it were on fire for God I'm always delighted to meet such Christians have you ever wondered why there are some sins that even after 20 years you never seem to get rid of there's a reason for both these things it's because you're majoring on minors and that man whom you see who has a growing passion for Christ and to serve Him has learned to major on majors and that man who's got victory over sin in areas where you're continuously defeated the difference is you're majoring on minors and he's majoring on majors so it's very simple it's just like in the rest of you know in the world why is it to students of equal intelligence go to school and one tops his class and the other that's pretty badly and one goes on to do well professionally and the other is mediocre both are equal intelligence is because one majored on majors and the other chap with equal intelligence majored on minors so what is the most important thing in the Christian life only God can tell us that I want you to turn to Romans chapter 8 and verse 29 Romans 8 verse 29 here is a word called predestined predestined predestination means you know that pre means before destination you mean you know when you get into a train and you want to go to Delhi that's your destination and when you get your ticket you have determined beforehand you're predestined where you're going to land Delhi God also it says in the word of God before we were born before Adam was created before the worlds were created God who knew the future knew each one of us by name he knew where we would live he knew what century we would be born in which year we would be born in the Jesus says he even knows the number of hairs on your head he knows every detail concerning us and knowing everything he predestined something he determined a destination for you he got a ticket for you on this train of life to reach a particular destination and I want to tell you that destination is not heaven a lot of people think it is it's not it says here he predestined us verse 29 to become like Jesus Christ to be conformed to the image of his son so that Jesus Christ in heaven might be the firstborn among many brothers who looked just like him you know heaven God was so delighted with his son that he wanted to populate heaven with a whole lot of people who look just like Jesus that was his goal is I want to be her I want heaven to be full of people who are like my son and he chose different ones in different centuries from different countries you there you and you and you and you you're chosen to be like Jesus to populate heaven that's your calling brothers and sisters now if you get sidetracked from that on to something good but which is not God's destination you can miss the goal and the sad part of it is this train runs only once if you're missed it in this life you've missed it forever and all you can do is spend the ages of eternity regretting regretting even if you're in heaven that you did not live on earth for the things that God chose you to live for it's not enough to go to heaven I'll tell you honestly I'm not interested in just going to heaven I want to accomplish what God created me for before I leave this earth many times I have prayed to the Lord and said Lord as much as it is possible for a human being a child of Adam who is born again to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ on this earth I want to do that as much as it is humanly possible by the power of the Holy Spirit I want to do that and I'm willing to pay any price I want to go as far as I can in being conformed to the likeness of Christ my character my speech in my actions in my attitudes to people in the thoughts I think when I'm by myself in my prayer life I want to preach like Jesus I want to pray like Jesus I want to live like him I want to use money like Jesus used money I want my attitude to everything I want to treat my enemies like Jesus treated as enemies because I've seen my destination a lot of exciting things along this way and along the journey but I don't want to get sidetracked I don't want to jump off at some station which is not the final goal a lot of things along this way you know and you can get excited with something which is which is good but which is not the ultimate goal for example take something very good like evangelism can you think of anything better than that reaching lost people with the gospel such a good thing and I'll tell you what I have seen through 44 years of being a Christian a lot of people have made evangelism their goal and they are not christ-like they're reaching people reaching people and they're behaving in such a none christ-like way that people are being turned off they say your life speaks louder than your words and the name of Jesus dishonored but they have a tremendous passion for evangelism to give out tracts to reach people they don't realize that the way they live their family life the way they behave at home and the way they conduct themselves their attitude to money and so many things are cancelling out the message they preach so you see the danger of even being involved in evangelism if you don't make your goal becoming like Christ it's like a station and you get excited with the vandalism and get off at that station what I want to get off at that stage and you come to another station where you find somebody laying hands on people everybody's falling down on the platform and say boy this is an exciting station to get off at to see everybody falling off like that and the train moves off and you're still falling down and getting up on the platform well I want to do that can do that but I've got a destination to reach I want to tell you that and I don't want to get sidetracked all these exciting things that I see on various platforms along the way because I see that God determine the destination for me and everything I do must be in the light of that goal must I do evangelism definitely like Jesus did it not any other way must I be filled with the Holy Spirit of course like Jesus was all the things in relation to scripture to me are like you know a jigsaw puzzle supposing you trying to make a jigsaw puzzle with 200 pieces and each of those pieces I mean he doesn't have any picture or meaning to it but when you put it all together if you can see the face of Jesus you got it right so to me evangelism give to the holy spirit are all little pieces in this big puzzle you know serving others worship praise everything even worship and praise is such a good thing I know people are so taken up with it that they don't think that that's a spirit that must continue all through their life they praise the Lord on Sunday morning and then go home and yell at their wives Sunday afternoon I say that's not Christianity that's a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that you take out all by itself and concentrate on that on Sunday morning I don't want to concentrate on that I want to put that piece of the jigsaw puzzle called praise and worship into that face of Jesus and find its proper place there that's what I mean I believe in praise and worship I believe in serving the Lord I say the whole jigsaw puzzle is the face of Jesus and if I don't see the total picture I can get taken up with one favorite piece of my jigsaw puzzle and different people have got different favorite pieces and each thinks we've got the most important thing because that's the thing they like majoring on minors and when God Himself has made a destination for me that that picture on the jigsaw puzzle must be reproduced in my character I say Lord that's what I want everything in life must fit into this overall goal like a little piece of the puzzle to make me like Christ and it says here in the previous verse verse 28 that God will help me in this because he's going to cause everything that ever happens to me to work together for this good purpose those who are called according to his purpose means this is the purpose described in the next verse so God is going to make everything around me over which I have no control to work in an amazing way to bring me to this goal this destination of becoming like Christ he's going to arrange difficult people across my path to teach me humility and patience he's going to put me along with irritable annoying people neighbors and co occurs because I have to become like Christ I have to learn patience and I have to learn long-suffering he's going to put me through difficult financial circumstances so that I learned to be frugal like Jesus wise he's going to make the meal that's cooked in your home one day not so tasty so that he can deliver you from the love of food and gluttony and make you like Jesus who was not a lover of food who used food for health but didn't worship it like a lot of people do see God is sovereign and I'm excited when I think that Almighty God who runs this universe can look down on this small speck of dust called planet Earth and on that speck of dust find an even smaller my new speck of dust called me and takes so much interest in me to plan everything so that I can become like Jesus isn't that exciting and when you see it I say father how you love me I mean you don't put me in a class with 50 students and teach me you give me personal private tuition each one of us the Holy Spirit gives you personal private tuition and that's why your experiences are different from the experiences of other believers around you because you're not in the same class he doesn't put 50 people in the same class and give them all the same homework no that's in worldly schools in God's school every student he's got private tuition only God can do that and I'm thankful that I am getting private tuition that's why I don't compare my lot with yours and you shouldn't compare your lot with mine now because I'm in private tuition and I have certain weak subjects so he gives me extra tuition in those things and you've got certain weak subjects and he give you some extra tuition in those subjects I mean if your weakness is physics and mine is math why should God give me extra tuition and physics he's got to give you extra tuition physics he's got to give me execution mathematics or English or something like that where I'm weak that's where I need to not ever compare myself or my lot with anybody else's in the whole world that's why I'm not jealous of anyone so I'm not in competition with anyone I'm having private tuition see the folly of believers who wonder why God's dealing with me like this and why other people having an easy time it's because he loves you brother sister he wants to make you like Jesus there's a verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 here's what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and about Adam now we came from Adam but we've been cut off and put into Christ we've been fixed into this tree called Christ we've been transplanted taken out of Adam and put into Christ and if so just like the characteristics of Adam were ours when we were part of that tree now is these characteristics that should now be part of ours 1 Corinthians 15 it speaks here about verse 47 the first man is from the earth earthy that's added the second man Christ is from heaven and verse 48 this applies to us as is the earthy so also are those who are earthy we know that very well that we all lived for so many years is unconverted people with the character of Adam coming forth from us gushing out like rivers of living water not living water sorry dead water you know anger and bitterness and jealousy and all the filthy things that gushed out of us and now we've been planted in Christ why are you content with trickles of goodness and trickles of patience and trickles of humility and trickles of purity why are you happy with that as is the earth see so also those who are earthy and verse 48 as is the heavenly so also are those who are heavenly and just as we have listened to this this is a promise just as we have borne the image of the earthy verse 49 we shall also bear the image of the heavenly I want to take that as a promise from God Lord just as for so many years I have borne the image of the earthy of Adam so faithfully I believe your promise is true that I shall bear the image of the heavenly then there are the things are going to change in my life as I allow the Holy Spirit to get me focused on my destination and major on that while I do all these other secondary things it's very important is the most important thing in the Christian life that in everything I never lose sight of my destination if I got to go to Nagpur I'm not going to get off at Hyderabad or if I'm going to Delhi I'm not going to get off in Hyderabad on Nagpur or eat RC or Gwalior now I want to get off in Delhi whatever interesting things there may be along the way I can enjoy them I don't lose sight of my final destination and I'm not going to get off the train and branch off into some on some tangent into some side issue which however exciting it may be is not God's final destination for me God spotted ticket for me and I know where that ticket is for it's for my final destination to be like Christ and the Bible says that if I have this hope in me 1 John 3:3 I will purify myself as he is pure and everything I do will be in relation to that total picture of Jesus so when I look at Jesus I see a heavenly man who lived on this earth and he spoke and lived bringing the values of heaven before people I am to bear that image people who meet me talk to me must see that this man is interested in something outside of this earth do people get that impression from you when in your place a word that your sense of values is different I'm not saying that we preach the gospel to everybody at our place of work that may not be appropriate there may be a time and a season for that we got to do it only when God opens a door but I'm talking about your whole value system do people see your value system is different I remember when those refugees from sri lanka some years ago came to the refugee camp in tamil nadu and some of our brothers contacted them and many other a number of them were converted really gripped and then in that refugee camp one day one of those brothers their Hut caught fire he was not there and his Hut caught fire and everything in his hut was burnt and you know these refugees had come from sri lanka with all them everything they owned there they converted into cash and brought it as currency in indian rupees and they had it in their Hut and i don't know whether how much he lost fifty thousand rupees or something in currency notes all burnt up everything gone and when he came back from where he had gone people told him you know your hut is burned and they thought he'd be so distressed that all his life's earnings were burnt up and he wasn't he said well in any case I'm only a pilgrim and if God allowed it to be burnt that's fine I can start working again and earn something he was a fisherman now he would not have said that two years earlier when he was not converted but because he was born again and his born again was a thorough new birth and he was radically gripped by the message of discipleship that he heard in our midst his life changed more in two years then other people have changed in 20 years it's not a question of time it's a question of how soon we get focused on what is most important he got focused on what is most important pretty quickly what is the most important thing so when when his mind was new to think and to place a right value on earthly things and heavenly things he didn't get so disturbed when that type of misfortune took place it says in Romans chapter 12 Romans 12 you know it says how this transformation into the likeness of Christ takes place it says in Romans 12 verse 2 don't be conformed to this world but be transformed that is into the likeness of Christ by the renewing of your mind so there it tells us that transformation begins in our mind just like conformity to the world also is first of all in the mind you know when a person dresses in a very worldly let's say a sister dresses in a very immodest worldly way the problem is not with her dress no the problem is with her mind the worldliness is not in a dress the worldliness is in her mind and if you get her to change her dress and wear a modest set of clothes you haven't changed her not at all because her mind is still the same it's the wolf in sheep's clothing and first she was the wolf in wolf's clothing now you get the wolf to wear sheep's clothing and you think she's a believer and make her sit there like a pious Saint she's not a pious Saint she's just a work in fact she's more dangerous when she's on a wolf in sheep's clothing then when she's a wolf in a wolf's clothing so changing the dress doesn't change a person now I want to say to you that you can come to the meetings in the church dressed in a particular way but has it changed has it changed in your mind worldliness is in the mind if you don't deal with it there you're just a hypocrite pretending to be holy on the outside and the same way holiness is also in the mind from there it penetrates all our life in other words to paraphrase those words it is in your value system you see in our mind we have a certain value system a value system that we have developed through many years of living in this world we went to school and developed a certain value system we learned in the world that winning is everything that's a very popular statement in leadership circles winning is everything well I say winning is not everything for me if I've got to cheat other people and trample on other people and win like that and I don't want to win I certainly want to win but not at the cost of exploiting others and depriving others of their rights and doing all that and cheating and now to be upright and christ-like is everything for me and then by all means come first in your class by all means excel in your profession but not at the cost of losing Christ's likeness and uprightness of character that's because of my value system now another person doesn't have that value system he says making money is everything and he doesn't care how he makes it well I'm not against people becoming rich or getting a good salary it's all a question of how you do it it's all a question of what you're living for if it comes as a result of your seeking God's kingdom first and other things just being added to you okay but if you spend your life pursuing that you got the wrong value system so in my mind I have a certain value system I place value on certain things and I don't place value on other things for example why are you disturbed if you heard 20 people say bad things about you does it disturb you you heard 20 people say some really nasty things about you which are not even true it disturbs you because your value system is this man's opinion is very very important it used to disturb me it doesn't disturb me so much now because I have changed my value system I have changed my thinking and convinced myself from God's Word which is true that man's opinion is fit for the garbage bin okay 20 opinions 20 pieces of garbage and I've also convinced myself that God's opinion is very important now 300 years ago in France 400 years ago there's a lady in France of 450 years ago or something like that lady in France called madam Guo Yan Li in 1600 she lived in write and she made this statement once listen to it carefully I'm more afraid of one reproach of my conscience than of the outcry and criticism of all human beings boy imagine if you can say that that I'm more disturbed by one voice from my conscience than all the evil speaking of all the men in the world if you can live like that boy I tell you you'll be christ-like pretty quickly won't take long you change your value system say the voice of my conscience is very important what people say not so important now if the man who gives me his opinion is a very very godly man who loves me then his opinion may be important because his opinion may also be God's opinion that's different but if worldly people say something about me I couldn't care less for that the voice of my conscience to be far more important that's what I mean by changing my value system if I lose something spiritually that should disturb me more than if I lose money I mean we're all disturbed if we lost money I don't mean five or ten rupees but supposing you suddenly lost twenty thousand rupees one day maybe some people who can write it off but for most of us that will be a tremendous shock to lose twenty thousand rupees but what if we lost the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon your life would that also disturb you god I don't feel the anointing today in my life I don't sense the anointing of God in my service for you I feel I've lost some of that fire that passion the devotion God it seems to have gone does that disturb you or is it only 20,000 rupees lip discharge I'm not saying money is not important I'm just saying we got to put it a little lower down in the scale than the anointing of the Holy Spirit that's all I'm saying I'm not saying money is garbage no money is very useful but put it little don't lower down the scale in the anointing of the Holy Spirit change your value system you know Jesus had a proper value system Judas Iscariot was stealing his money all the time it didn't disturb him it's okay if he steals what can I do I'm not going to kick up a row over over that and fight with him I hope you'll change but Jesus lived you know you're remembering the Gethsemane how he prayed Oh father don't let me lose that fellowship with you don't let me lose my fellowship with you on the cross can you take away this cup from me that's what disturbed in the possibility that for three hours on the cross fellowship with the father would be broken it disturbed him so much that he prayed and prayed and prayed for one hour and gets M&E and he didn't even pray for two seconds when Judas Iscariot was stealing his money that's value system as is the earth these so are the earthy as is the heavenly so are the heavenly and as we bore the image of the earthy we're to bear the image of the heavenly why haven't we pursued this because it has not been a major in our life we majored on minors coming to meetings good coming to meetings is much lower down my value scale than becoming like Christ what if I'm locked up in a jail for preaching the gospel and I'm in jail like in communist countries people were in jail for years I can't come to the meetings and I sit there for ten years am I going to lose miss out and God's plan for my life impossible because going for meetings is good but if I don't have the opportunity for it it's okay I can still be like Christ that doesn't stop the reason why some people never lose the anointing and never lose the passion is because it's a top priority in their life the reason why some people get victory over sin in their life and their home life becomes smooth and peaceful it's because it's a priority in their life this reason why some people's homes disintegrate even Christian homes is because their home life is not a priority other things are priority other things which are not a priority in Scripture making money in the world that's good provided it's lower down on the scale Jesus was a carpenter for at least 12 years he worked hard but he didn't work hard to become the richest carpenter in Nazareth he worked hard to support his family and his priority was not her getting a name in Nazareth is a great carpenter Shaw no his priority was fellowship with the father and blessing for people and helping widows and things like that and you spend your life doing that you're not going to be the richest carpenter in Hazzard No so it's all a question of priority and you get your priorities right and I guarantee my brother's sister you will find more change in the next 1 year then you have seen in your entire Christian life till now so all the question of priorities have you is your destination and God's destination for you the same or have you got some other destination what is your primary aim in life the heavenly you know I thought about that when we were praising the Lord and that verse we read from some 8 I want you to turn to Matthew 21 where that same verse is quoted it says here that Jesus on was rode on a donkey and entered Jerusalem and came into the temple in Matthew 21 and as Jesus entered the temple it says here verse 14 the blind and the lame came to him and He healed them and then the chief priests listen to this now you hear you see the contrast between religious earthly people and a spiritual heavenly man sometimes we confuse a religious earthy person with a spiritual heavenly man I mean we don't confuse worldly earthy Pete with a spiritual heavenly man that we can distinguish quite easily oh that's a worldly person this is a heavenly person but sometimes many of us can confuse being religious with being spiritual now here the religious people the chief priests and the scribes the most religious people in Israel they saw the wonderful things that he had done and then they saw that children crying out in the temple and saying Hosanna to the son of David they became angry he said children shouldn't be yelling in the temple like that nobody should be yelling in the temple like that there must be dignity and decorum in the temple like a funeral service right and Jesus Jesus had quite a different opinion about this he said - they said to him don't you hear what these fellows are doing ruining the decorum of the temple and Jesus said to them haven't you read what it says in Psalm 8 out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes that was prepared praise for thyself and he said another gospel it says if these people stop praising me the stones will start praising me now why did Jesus get so excited when he saw all those people praising God because I'll tell you why because he came from heaven and heaven is full of people yelling the praises of God with such a loud voice it says it's like thunders we're not even 1% of that he came from heaven where people are not just praised God but praise God with such joy and radiance in their faces and then he came to earth and for 33 years he saw these long faced glum sour-looking people complaining mum but would come religiously to the temple and talk about God and then he saw these children excited and praised cases that reminds me of heaven and he got so excited while these serious long-faced long-bearded I mean the face is long enough they had a beard as well looking at these children and and Jesus took the side of the children I like that Jesus took the side of the most unlikely people he took the sight of a woman caught in adultery against all the sulfur Isis Pharisees he took the side of the children against all these so-called religious leaders he took the side of a thief on the cross he was always taking the side of the underdog the person who was poor he went in put his arms around lepers and boy I want to bear the image of the heavenly in my life I'm sick and tired of this false sense of dignity and decorum that the children of adam' have taught me I want to change my value system I want to think like Jesus and if it offends people well it offends people Jesus spent his life offending people he didn't start out his life saying oh I must tread very carefully not offend anybody you know once we read in Matthew 15 that the disciples came to Jesus once and said do you know that what you just said offended the Pharisees he said leave them alone every plant which my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up why you worried about them they got offended they got offended that's it let's seek to please our Father I mean we don't go out of our way to offend people but if in the process of serving God praising him and becoming like Christ and becoming more heavenly we offend a lot of religious people so be it let them be offended until they change and become heavenly themselves then they won't be offended we're not here to argue with anybody but when we see that Jesus was this way that's the way I want to be because he is the only one who came to earth and showed us what heaven was like we've got all these crazy ideas of what a spiritual man should be like and they're all wrong Jesus is the perfect example of what it means to be spiritual as I want to be like him I want to be tender towards the leper I want to be forgiving towards a woman caught in adultery I want to be forgiving to the people who crucify me and assume that they don't know the evil of what they are doing like Jesus was at the same time I want to take a whip and chase out of the church those who make money in the name of religion that's what Jesus did I want to be like that of course that'll make you unpopular so long as you're just comforting the widows and putting your arm around the leper and washing their feet nobody to be disturbed but once you begin to shake their traditions a lot of people get disturbed but I say we're going to continue to do that and if you continue doing that they'll find they may finally crucify you like they crucified Jesus they crucified some of the Apostles - okay fine it's the best way to leave the earth can you tell me a better way to leave this earth and by being crucified try and think of that well how do you want to die in an air-conditioned hospital room with drips and all that type of stuff and every fellows coming there and saying prayers for you and then a grand funeral with a very expensive casket and all types of people saying things about you but you are never true in your life and you go I don't want to go like that I want to go as a martyr for Jesus Christ it's the best way to go from this earth I'm not saying I'll get that privilege I think is a tremendous honor to be a martyr for Christ not everybody gets that honor but I say Lord if you give it to me I'll take it I hope you'll say that - that's the best way to go like Jesus can you imagine a better way to die than the way diet you know they were going to crucify Peter saying you talk about your this crucified my stroke he will crucify you and he had he said I one request please crucify me upside down because I'm not worthy to be crucified straight like Jesus so they put him upside down crucified him upside down can you imagine the reward these people are going to have in heaven they had they had a completely different value system the things of Earth even life on Earth was not important to glorify God to accomplish God's purpose before we leave this earth not just to get a great name and belong to a good church or make a lot of money and or even get a reputation as one who has served the Lord or done so many things who cares for these things many who are first will be lost when Jesus comes again we've got to change our value system we got to learn to praise God like the angels in heaven praise God I'm trying I'm trying to praise God like the angels in heaven praise God because I want to bear the image of the heavenly I want to change my attitude to money to the heavenly attitude you know one of the clearest and differences in earth in heaven is and where they place the gold where do you find people place gold on earth usually on people's heads or on their neck or hand or something like do you know where they place gold in heaven how many of you know there's gold in heaven there's gold in heaven do you know where the gold is found on the streets under our feet and do you know a heavenly man is a man who's learned to put gold under his feet even now is gold under your feet then you're ready for heaven if it's still on top of your head brother you better hurry up and push it down put it under your feet don't let it just come halfway down to your fingers or something all the way down to your feet not even on your toes under your feet that's a place for gold I want to be ready for heaven you know what I mean that he doesn't rule me it's it's a very useful servant and a terrible master I want to have the same attitude to act that Jesus had how many of you are serious how many of you are going to really not just go away from here and say well that was a good message wasn't it it wasn't a good message brother it was a challenge to your heart from Almighty God to change your whole way of life it wasn't just a nice three-point sermon it was a word from God to your heart to change your whole way of life so that your life will change more than any three-point sermon ever did to your life and you change your whole value system look at Jesus and if you if you don't agree with something that I say go to the Bible and see how Jesus was like he's added you to praise is added you to money he's added you to sinful people how he was merciful to them he was not in competition with anybody how careful he was with his speech you know a heavenly person is very careful with his speech an earthly person is absolutely careless he doesn't care what rubbish comes out of his mouth he's spewing out garbage morning noon and night Jesus was very careful you know there were times we read when he was just quiet once when they were provoking him provoking him in the case of the woman caught in adultery he took a long time to reply and he just bent his head and wrote something on the sand and he hadn't didn't have a clear word from his father then he got a word from the father just tell them he was without sin cast the first stone so he got up and said he was without sin cast the first stone and they all went away you know one sentence from the father instead of preaching half an hour sermon mm-hmm that's how we need to be a heavenly man is like that he doesn't speak immediately he thinks and waits which most earthly people do not know how to do and waits till he's got something useful to say the Bible says in Colossians chapter 4 it's one of those words where you find the word always I'll give you a good bit of homework those who are serious about Bible study take a concordance and look up the word always rejoice always always bear in your body the dying of Jesus pray always the certain things we must do always and here's one of those things we must do always Colossians 4:6 let your speech always be with grace seasoned with salt so that you may know how you should respond to each person now supposing you're invited for a meal somewhere and as you put the first morsel of mouth of food into your mouth say hey this doesn't have enough salt and you say there's no there's no crime in saying could you please pass the salt okay you know some people like more salt and some people like less so you say please pass the salt and usually the salt is there on every table according to each man's taste and you put the salt and then you enjoy the meal you know how you can detect immediately when there's no salt our taste buds are so smart it must be like that in our speech also the same tongue that can detect no salt our salt should also be able to detect in our detecting our speech in what comes out of our tongue there is no salt in that word that means there was no grace in it do you detect it I mean if you can detect it before it comes out even better as you're about to speak something say hey I think I should add a little more salt to that sentence before I speak it to this person maybe it's your wife you know how blessed your wife will be if you have a little salt in all your speech I mean a little grace how blessed your husband will be before the words come out just add little salt makes a tremendous difference just a few grains tremendous difference why don't we do it it's not cheap it's so cheap so easy just a little grace mmm always your speech must be seasoned you know how our Indian curries terrible without seasoning if you get a curry without seasoning you'd say well no thank you I'm not particularly hungry today you know the fact is you just can't stick the taste of that food without any seasoning our speeches like that let it always be seasoned Jesus was like that he said be careful with your mouth because by your words you'll be justified we all know justification by faith jesus said in matthew 12 36 to 39 by your speech you'll be justified by your words out of the abundance of your heart the mouth speaks it's very easy to find out what's in a person's heart just listen to his speech the whole day I will tell you what's in his heart because he can't keep it inside you cannot keep I mean you can sit here with a zip on your mouth in the meetings that's only for a little while you can't keep it on for too long but if I can secretly listen to what's going on in your home and different places when you're in the bus in the train and the office I'll tell what's in your heart because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and Jesus spoke out of the abundance of his heart so I'm not saying just control your tongue watch your heart because it's from the heart the salt must be in the heart a heavenly man he's a person who is very careful I know the number of times I've had to repent I've spoken to somebody and I just gone away in two seconds the Holy Spirit says to me that's not the way Jesus would have spoken or you could have said the same thing a little more graciously and I feel like getting away somewhere by myself and having a little weeping session before the Lord and say lord have mercy on me help me when will I learn what is getting better because I want a major on Major's there are many many areas like this my brothers and sisters and you know the areas in your life we need to seek God think how Jesus prayed for the anointing of the Holy Spirit when he was baptized because he wanted to go out to serve the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit not with all the good life he had lived for thirty years many of us have lived good lives and we think we can serve the father like that Jesus did not with a good life he prayed for the anointing of the Holy Spirit so that he would have the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit to serve the father and perhaps you and I have failed depending on money depending on music depending on many other things other than the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit we need to repent of that Jesus did not depend on television broadcasting to spread his message he depended on the power of the Holy Spirit he didn't depend on the newspapers giving him a good report he depended on the power of the Holy Spirit he didn't depend on you know clever points in his sermons he didn't depend on having good musicians to prime up people before he spoke no he depended on the part of the Holy Spirit and I really believe we need to seek god and say god us to depend on the part of the Holy Spirit once again like Jesus did heavenly people are like that so that many other areas I've just touched on a few I just want to encourage you my brothers and sisters recognize the destination God has already determined for you to become like Christ to live the way he lived to serve others the way he served others to evangelize people the way he evangelized to teach people the way he taught to bless people the way he bless to bless every home that you ever enter the way he blessed every home that he entered think of every one of us sitting here are going to change our value system from today can you imagine what our church is going to be in another year can you imagine what's going to happen it'd be like the burning bush people will staff stop and say hey this is different may God help us let's bow our heads for a moment of prayer when a heads about I want you to forget about everybody else just think that you're standing before Jesus Christ today imagine that you're standing at the judgment seat of Christ right now and you're standing before him and he's asking you what did you do with that message you heard that Sunday morning this is the judgment seat of Christ you're standing before what are you going to reply to him it's going to happen one day you're going to stand before him and a lot of things that appear very important to you right now will not be important in that day and a lot of things that you think are not so important today will be very very important in that day change your value system now so that you don't have any regret in that day when you stand before Jesus Christ our Lord in our master Heavenly Father I believe you have spoken to many hearts this morning and I pray that it'll produce a change in our life I produce it I pray it will produce a change in our homes and in our church we humbly ask the merit in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord oh man

Channel: CFC India

Views: 79,836

Rating: 4.7561545 out of 5

Keywords: Important, Life, Poonen, Sermon

Id: vpUDrfsxiK0

Length: 59min 14sec (3554 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2012