8. God Gives Us The Desire And Ability To Do His Will - Zac Poonen

okay we all know the beautiful passage in Matthew 11 let's look at it where Jesus explained the Sabbath you probably didn't notice it but in chapter 12 by the way of Matthew you see a number of places in chapter 12 of Matthew where Jesus is explaining the false keeping of the Sabbath for example chapter 12 verse 1 they were picking grains and the Pharisees said in chapter 12 verse to see your disciples are not done what's lawful to do on the Sabbath and then again another instance when he went into the synagogue verse 10 is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath and people complained against him because he heals somebody on the Sabbath day and so on but before that you see the place where the holy spirit has put this beautiful verse explaining what the Sabbath really is Matthew 11:28 come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden I will give you the real sabbath and take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am humble and it got gently and humble in heart and you will find the real sabbath in your soul he explained the sabbath there and then he went into in the next chapter to destroy this false sabbath it's very important to understand it but the pharisees were the most brilliant people at that time couldn't understand it and some of the things i said in the previous session you probably didn't understand either if you try to understand it with your cleverness you can be as blind as the pharisees and that's why immediately before he spoke about this rest he said something very enlightening and that's in chapter 11 and verse 25 I praise you Father you have hidden these things from the wise and the clever and the intelligent on earth but you have revealed them to babes that is a great truth you try to understand spiritual truth with your cleverness and your intelligence you cannot get it God is hidden some of the greatest truths in scripture from the clever and the intelligent I've seen this I mean I preached these fruits in CFC churches in India for many many years and I've discovered people never enter into it many people they've understood it in their head so well they can explain it to somebody but they don't it doesn't come into their life they don't come to a life of rest in their place of work or in their home even after many years because God has hidden these things from the wise and the clever and the intelligent then I asked the Lord I said what shall I do then Lord I'm not a stupid person I am a little clever and intelligent but the Lord said it's not your cleverness and intelligence that will endure you from knowing the truth it is your pride in your cleverness and intelligence it's pride that hinders God from revealing himself to us and if I'm willing to give up that pride it doesn't matter whether you're dumb or clever makes no difference what is it that babes have it says they reveal them to infants what is it that babes have which clever people don't have Jesus himself explained it he took a babe and said if you humble yourself like this child you will enter God's kingdom or I could say this if you humble yourself like this little child that means you acknowledge that you know nothing and you're willing to learn everything and you know that you're not a sharp clever intelligent person when it comes to spiritual things you can under enter into the new covenant the kingdom of heaven is a new covenant so there's something that babes have which clever intelligent people don't have and that's what we can have if I come to the Lord with humility and say Lord when I come to scripture and dump as anything out in the world I use my cleverness and intelligence for so many things like easy to make money I can use it to accomplish things in the world good but when I come to scripture I have to say Lord I'm like a child I don't know teach me there's a veil over me which has to be taken away and if I come with that humility then I will understand the meaning of these words take my yoke upon us 29 and learn from me for I am humble in heart not clever and intelligent I believe Jesus was probably the cleverest and most intelligent person that ever walked on this earth without a doubt because there was no sin to pollute his mind but he never went from giving people the impression that I'm so clever I am so smart and I can teach you a few things that's not how he I mean lepers and adulterous women could come freely to him because he is not trying to impress people with his cleverness I love that I I see so many preachers today trying to impress people with their cleverness they are not at all like Christ I'm not impressed by them at all jesus said learned from me he never told told us to learn from him how to be how to preach or how to sing he told us to learn from him humility and gentleness so my dear brothers and sisters you want to enter the New Covenant come to Jesus and I'm talking about the Sabbath now and try to learn from him gentleness and humility take his yoke upon you know what is a yoke mean we don't see it much here but in India we see it all the time a yoke is a wooden bar kept on the shoulders of two Bullock's and they plow the field together and if the one Bullock is a junior Bullock trying to learn from the senior Bullock this yoke makes sure that the junior Bullock doesn't wander off in some other direction and it doesn't go too fast or too slow but says it where the senior Bullock is saying listen if you want to learn from me you have to move at my pace don't rush your head don't lag behind what that means in practical terms is but the Lord says what I tell you to do something do it immediately without question when I tell you in your conscience don't look there don't say that do it immediately that's taking the yoke and don't lag behind and don't rush your head don't go off somewhere where I don't permit you to go don't rush your head and don't lag behind learn from me learn humility from me and you will find verse 29 what the Sabbath is all about this is the New Covenant Sabbath and I want to tell you just like a lot of other things in the New Covenant most people have not destroyed or sometimes think they've understood because they've understood it in their mind they have not entered into rest the test of whether I'm understood the Sabbath is have I entered into rest turn back to Hebrews in Chapter four in Hebrews four it says there remains verse nine a Sabbath rest for the people of God and the one who has entered into rest has rested from his own works he's not struggling to become holy he's responding to the promptings of God within he's not a he's not a robot that God has programmed him and he does nothing and God does everything no that could make man a robot it'd be like the planets the planets don't do anything because God just makes them go round and round it out man was not made like that this his delicate balance or I don't do anything myself on my own but I listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit that's why Jesus said man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God that proceeds I mean God is always speaking and if I'm listening I'm know exactly what to do it every time and gradually I'll get used to responding to God's promptings and that's what it means to rest from my own works my own bright ideas there's so many Christians over many bright ideas of how to serve God this y'all gon do this here now go out and flatter church here it's chaos our Lord God's work today is wood hay and straw which is going to be burnt up because God never initiated it do you know that the word which God did not initiate however good it may be will be destroyed how many of you believe that that a work that God did not initiate however good it may be however Christian it may be however wonderful it may be called Christian work it will be destroyed turn with me to Matias gospel and chapter 15 yeah chapter 15 listen to this verse and try and understand it verse 13 every plant which my heavenly father did not plant will be uprooted Lord what about if it is a good plant it'll be uprooted because it came from the bright brilliant brain of some clever man the Lord do you know what it means to live by faith the best definition of faith that I've ever understood that I've ever seen in Scripture is what Jesus said in John chapter 15 and verse 5 without me you can do nothing but like the branch remains in the tree and produces fruit so you can also bear fruit but apart from me you can do nothing so my picture of faith is this it's not claiming a promise God will make me prosperous God will heal me those are all people have not understood faith faith is Lord I'm as helpless as a branch by itself cannot produce a single fruit but it can produce abundance of fruit if it just too remains attached to the tree and allows the tree to let the SAP flow into it it's almost effortless you will go and ask a branch how do you produce all these wonderful apples or mangoes I don't do anything I just remain in the tree and the SAP keeps flowing in as a picture of the holy spirit just coming in and produce the fruit and any person who's really served the Lord in this way will tell you that that my service for the Lord is effortless it's not a strain it's not something I get exhausted with afterwards no it's effortless because select the branch this is the life of faith food produced for the glory of God so that is how God wants us to live and so God has to initiate it that's why it says we got to wait on the Lord God does not want man to initiate something he wants us to depend on him and let him prompt me you know how Jesus would never do anything on his own see John chapter 5 here also it's related to the Sabbath ask God to give you revelation on this not understanding but revelation you know it says here that they john 5:18 the jews tried to kill him one because he was breaking the sabbath and second because he was calling god his father making himself equal to God so why did the Jews want to kill Jesus number one because he broke the Sabbath understand this and secondly because he said God is my father making himself equal with God I mean today people have a question whether Jesus is equal to God the Jews understood it very clearly when he said God is my father that I'm equal with God and then Jesus said I can do nothing of myself unless it is something I see the father doing that means the father tells me something and then I do it all see verse 30 I can do this beautiful expression I can do nothing on my own initiative even as Jesus did something on his own initiative as a man it would be uprooted every plant which my Heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted the man who has come to rest in Christ like the branch rests in the tree has understood the Sabbath and say I'm not count here to have bright ideas to do this that and the other for God no those are all for businessmen who want to start new projects and start new businesses they all have bright ideas these venture capitalists are all that I'm not one of those I'm like Jesus I say I'm not going to do anything on my own initiative I can't do nothing on my own initiative I wouldn't encourage you my brothers and sisters ask God to give you a revelation on John chapter 5 verse 30 if you want to know how Jesus lived we think of Jesus lived he lived appeal I favor the holy life he didn't fool around with women he was faithful with money no no no no those are all the external things but deep within the principle of his life was he never did anything on his own initiative he waited on the father what do you want me to do for example when a world around him was dying of sin he you know what he was doing he was making stools and benches in a carpenter's shop why Lord what are you wasting your time making stools and benches here there's a world dying of sin don't you go and go out as a missionary like people have today challenged to go out as a missionary because there are people dying over there are people dying over there what are you doing you couldn't move Jesus like that he would not step out of their top and his shop until the father told him to go and he would not leave Israel Lord there are people dying in Africa China Rome don't you want to go there no no no no the father has told me to say in Israel only once or twice he went outside to tyre and sidon what a wonderful way he lived you meditate on the life of Jesus you learn so many things and at the end of three and a half years without travelling to China or Africa or India or Rome he said I finished the work the father gave me to do Lord but there are so many needy people in the world that's fine the father gave me a certain work to do and I did it and ninety percent of that work was making stools and benches and taking care of my younger brothers and sisters at home really we have no understanding of what God's work is because we are so clever and so intelligent and we think we can do the work of God the greatest requirement in Christians today is humility to say Lord I am a dumb stupid person when it comes to spiritual things I say that to God many many times and therefore I want to learn Jesus said learn from me for I am humble here is his humility I will do nothing on my own initiative because I do it i bungle up God's work I've traveled enough around the world to know that a lot of so-called Christian work has messed up what God wants to do on this earth absolute confusion because people are doing whatever they come to they haven't come to rest they're not even come to that Sabbath rest where they live before God like Adam the first day before I go out to serve God I must come to rest in God and learn to do nothing on my own initiative then I can go out but Adam did not learn it the very first day he went out he did something on his own initiative and ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and that's how chaos and confusion came into the world so there's a lot more to say in this as I said I'm only giving you starters here but let me show you one more verse before I finish and that's in Hebrews in Chapter eight where it specifically speaks about the New Covenant and it says here in Hebrews chapter eight this is hebrews 8:10 this is the covenant the new covenant that i'm gonna make with the house of israel and that applies to us today they will not try to keep my laws I will put my laws into their mind I will write it in their hearts what does that mean let me explain it to you when God says I will put my law into your mind he's saying I will give you a desire to do my will and when he says I will put my law write it in your heart he's saying I'll give you the ability to do my will there are two things God wants to do for us give us the desire to do his will and give us the ability to do his will desire is in our mind ability is in the heart Hebrews 13 in verse 9 it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace grace is God's power to do his will so there are two things God wants to give us in our mind he wants to give us the desire to do his will and in the heart the ability to do his will so I want to say to you brothers and sisters if you have a desire to do the will of God don't think you got it yourself don't be so proud to say that I got a desire to do God's will and not like these carnal Christians who have no such desire brother be humble and say it is God who gave me that is I your not one bit better than the worst sinner on the earth I often say that to God I say Lord there's no difference between me and the greatest terrorist on this earth absolutely no difference I don't believe that there are people who despise other Christians all those people who have false teaching job as witnesses Roman Catholic they're all wrong teaching I say Lord I would be worse than all of there might be the worst terrorists on earth if you didn't put a desire in my mind to do your will there's a fundamental lack of humility in most Christians born-again Christians even among CFC believers they are proud of their knowledge they're proud they understand the New Covenant and that's why in their personal life they never seem to come to rest in their home life or in their mind I'm trying to urge you to really ask God to give you revelation on the Sabbath it'll change your life completely believe me learn from me the Lord says for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find a Sabbath in your souls which all those Pharisees could not understand and what is the message in the sand of Sabbath that I am the lord who will make you holy you cannot make yourself holy I will put my law into your mind right in your heart and give you the ability so that finally in conclusion 1 verse 1 Corinthians in chapter 1 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 onwards consider your calling brethren not many wise among the flesh according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble see I've traveled a lot around the world seen believers of all types a night I find this to be absolutely true some of the most noble mighty richest people in the world are not Christians God is not chosen then because of pride but God has chosen the foolish to shame the wise God has chosen the weak to shame the things just strong verse 28 God has chosen the game-based things means a really low cost despised lowest level of humanity type of Christians people who people he has chosen to nullify the things that are people who think they are somebody why here's the purpose of everything verse 29 so that no one will ever boast before God saying I have done this or I did this for God or you know who could Nezzer boasted about what he had done and God humbled him and made him like an animal for seven years but by God's doing it's a very important verse 1 Corinthians 1:30 by God's doing not your doing you are in Christ Jesus if you're in Christ Jesus today it was God's work and he has become to us wisdom and he has become to us righteousness not I'm flawed to the righteousness of Christ no Christ Himself is my righteousness now understand that distinction not I'm clothed with Christ righteousness Christ is my righteousness that's how I come before God Christ is my holiness Christ is my Redemption why so that as it is written if anyone boasts let him boast in the Lord that is why the Apostle Paul could say he was the least of all the saints of the chief of sinners because he knew there was anything good in him God had done it all and if you understood that and if you can live in that not occasionally come there and then forget all about it and go back to boasting but lived there then you entered into the Sabbath rest of God may God help us to get revelation on this amen

Channel: NCCF Church

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Keywords: NCCF, CHRISTIAN, ZAC POONEN

Id: SUGPQJaRUVo

Length: 22min 45sec (1365 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 03 2019