Coming To God Like A Sheep by Zac Poonen

I always like to speak to young people because you have not yet made some of the major decisions in life which you can make in a right way in the future if you understand God's plan and his ways when you're young I don't know whether you realize the value of that there are a lot of older people who have messed up their life and have so many regrets because they did not listen to God when they were young and if you were to go to some of them what they tell you is don't make the mistake I made but in spite of all the warnings we get I found everywhere that young people are very slow in believing that they will mess up their life because always we think it may happen to others but it won't happen to me lots of people think like that but so churches think like that yeah that may have happened in other churches it won't happen here let me have happened to other young people but it won't happen to me you know the people who feel like that are the ones who fall first the people who are sometimes very bold to testify about how well it has gone with them are very often the ones who fall first because I find with a lot of young people particularly those who grow up in CFC we have so much Bible knowledge we have such a lot of fine teaching that you probably know more than all other young people in other churches and therefore you can think you are more spiritual actually or not because if Bible knowledge makes a person spiritual then the devil should be the most spiritual of all created beings because he knows the Bible so well if you can quote scripture well the devil could quote scripture even to Jesus so it's not the ability to quote scripture or the fact that you know so much of God's ways which you hear that only shows that you're intelligent and it shows that you've got a good memory or maybe if you can also speak well that shows you've got some ability to speak but none of these things prove that your spiritual and so if we don't get a good foundation right at the beginning of our Christian life we're never going to become the type of young man or young woman that God wants us to be what makes a person spiritual is a proper sense of values [Music] see when we grow up in the world from childhood we acquire certain values those values are what we have got from our parents whatever upbringing we got and from the particular church we grew up in or if you were originally a Hindu or something and whatever values you got from that religious system and then as you go to school and college the values you get from the people around you they influence us a lot a lot more than we think for example I've observed many Indian believers even after many years of being born-again they're a value system is very Indian more than Christian I've seen that in America too a lot of believers in America are more American than Christian and a lot of Indians who go to America who think America is better than India acquire American values even though they are not Christian so if you don't understand a Christian value system you'll be influenced by your surroundings wherever you go and this happens to all young people but it does not it doesn't have to happen to you if you say I'm going to be guided by a Christian value system see I've also been your age at one time I was converted just before I was 20 years old I was baptized when I was 21 and I was also surrounded by I was in the Navy surrounded by us a lot of people my age on the ships and in the naval base none of whom were converted and they had their own value system there were the people I worked with there were my friends and I had to choose whether I would let their value system become mine or whether I was willing to be art it's very important if you want to follow Jesus that you must not be afraid of looking odd and feeling as if you're an odd person in the midst of so many others who think they are normal if you are afraid of that and you want to be accepted I can tell you right now no matter how many youth camps you go to you will always be a worldly good-for-nothing Christian and a hypocrite and you'll grow up like that you may sit in a church which has got a good reputation and testimony but it won't change you it's one of the first things you have to decide as a young person is I am willing to be different from others around me because Jesus said the way to life is narrow and very few find it and the way to destruction is broad and a lot of people go that way so we are surrounded everywhere we go even among Christians by people have chosen a broad way and in the midst of that you decide to walk a narrow way you're going to look odd and if you're afraid of people making fun of you then you will compromise so it's not just a question of avoiding pornography and avoiding the bad habits we talked about in the church for young people one of the most important things is to say Lord for your sake I am willing to look odd and different and to be made fun of laughs Tad's I pasted all that and it just made me a stronger Christian so the theme for our camp is restored relationships so I want you to look at Luke chapter 15 Luke's Gospel chapter 15 we read of [Music] two broken relationships one is verse four to seven of a sheath that was once in the fold that went astray and the other is the first son verse 11 to 24 who was in the house but chose to leave there's a difference between the two the Sheep did not choose to leave it accidentally went astray the Sheep did not walk up to the Shepherd and say I've had enough of being with you all I'm going off on my own it was going along with the other sheep but for a few moments they decided to look somewhere else and go somewhere else on its own you know it's very dangerous when you move out of fellowship and went astray maybe the Sheep thought yeah I can handle it I don't need much fellowship I'm pretty strong like a lot of young believers thing I've learned through the years that has a great value in fellowship it protects us from a lot of sins and I'm very thankful in my young days I sought fellowship and I had fellowship and was not just on Sundays I sought for fellowship whenever I could during the week you won't be able to do that much once you get married and have children but when you're single and you have more freedom I would encourage you to seek fellowship remember this one sheep he was safe as long as he was with the other 99 but when he decided to investigate something on his own that's when he went astray but then the Shepherd went after it and brought him back and the relationship was restored the second example is different and that is of a young man or could be a young woman principle is the same he did not accidentally go astray he rebelled against his father even though it was so good for him in the church he refused to submit to Authority he said I want to be my own authority [Music] now that's okay if you come to a place of maturity where you know how to take care of yourself for example the father in this house he was not under anybody's authority he didn't have a grandfather looking out for him the father was an authority by himself and a believer can come to the place where he is so mature that he can be imported by himself like the Apostle Paul the Apostle Paul did not have any authority over him except God but Timothy young Timothy did need Paul to be an authority over him even Jesus when he came to earth the father kept him in a home when he had Joseph and Mary as an authority over him for 30 years and then he moved out and only God was his authority after that so remember this you may come to a place much later in life after many many years where if you're faithful God may allow you to come to the place where only God is your authority above you but that would be a pretty high place of maturity but until then your safety is to be under Authority and the problem with this young man you know the story of the prodigal son is that he didn't want that Authority he said I can take care of myself so those are warnings there the advantage of seeking fellowship in this case of the Sheep and the advantage of being under Authority in the case of the prodigal son so let's look at these first of all verses 4 to 7 here was one of the hundred lost and the shepherd went after the one which was lost until he found it in the case of the prodigal son the father did not go after the son till he found him that's the big difference between the two parables the father allowed the son to suffer and even if he heard your son is now so poor he doesn't have any money he has wasted all the money he took from home the father said let him suffer then he hears the news your son is now so poor he's trying to eat what the pigs are eaten let him eat what the pigs are eating can you understand a love like that a lot of people can't that is the love of God which goes after a lost sheep carries him on his shoulder and brings him back but does not go after a lost son or daughter allows that son or daughter to reach the level of the pigs and lets him suffer and then learn his lesson and come back on his own so there are two types of backsliders those who accidentally slip away we must go after them those who rebel against Authority and go away we must never go after them and when you hear that it is going badly with them if you don't know God if you're an elder brother who doesn't know God he will go after that person try to bring him back I never do it because I know God does not do it when he reaches the level of the pigs he will come back on his own if he bring him back earlier when he's not properly repented it's like bringing a child out of the mother's womb when it's been there only six months you know a child must be in a mother's womb for nine months to be healthy when it's born fit to live there are babies born at six months but it's so difficult for them to live they had to put them in an incubator give them oxygen sometimes all their life they struggle to live normally because they were not born properly it's very important that you're born properly it's very easy to come to a church like CFC and sort of ooze into the crowd particularly if your parents were in CFC you were born into the church and you don't repent you just ooze into the young people and you've never really repented never really seen what sin is and you'll have problems all your life because you were not properly born again that is the problem with many people and they don't grow spiritually and you wonder why some people who sit in CFC for so many years don't grow spiritually while others who come in a very short time grows so much you've probably seen that that some brothers who sat in CLC for twenty five years are still what I call fence sitters they don't know which side of the fence to belong to here or there Jerusalem or Babylon they still see so many attractive things in Babylon and they sit on the fence for many years and then one day they drop into Babylon I'm not surprised that's because sometimes they were never really born again them now really repented and may be unwise people made much of them and they thought there were wonderful brothers or sisters they were not that's also possible sometimes unwise brothers and sisters may say nice things to you and you think you're a pretty wholehearted person or maybe you get up on Wednesdays and share something and you share regularly and some of those things are good and you begin to think that you're very spiritual no you're not you're just clever there's a lot of difference between being clever and being spiritual world of difference you need to understand that so first of all why did the Lord call a sheep you know sheep are among the dumbest and stupidest of animals sometimes you see on the roads in Bangalore sheep and goats being taken to a slaughterhouse it's very easy to keep them together they all follow the leader if the leader is falling over the pit they also follow her into a pit whichever way the leader goes that's how sheep are well you can't get a pack of dogs like that dogs just wander off gravel they like but sheep are dumb creatures they're not so sharp they just follow and when the Lord said that men are like sheep what he was saying is no matter how intelligent you are in worldly matters and no matter how much education you got and how clever you think you are when it comes to spiritual matters you are absolutely dumb by that I mean stupid that's one of the first things you need to know as young people if you want to have a proper relationship with God I'm ashy why did Jesus say in Matthew 11 and verse 25 I thank your father that you have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent and you have revealed them to babes why is it so many highly educated PhDs in our churches don't have a spiritual ministry have you ever thought of that we have had many PhDs in CFC through the years most of them have gone astray I'll tell you that I know them most of them have gone astray but they are the humanly speaking the cleverest people that we've had in CFC I'm not saying if you're clever it's a handicap but if you're clever it's a greater battle to be humble if you fight that battle and remain humble it can go well with you Paul was a clever person I think he too got a PhD anywhere he was absolutely brilliant but he was the greatest apostle as well so you can be that but yet it's Jesus said in Matthew 11:25 I praise You Father you have hidden these things from the wise the clever and intelligent and revealed them to babes [Music] so that teaches us that when you come to scripture when you come to the things of God you must recognize that your cleverness and intelligence is not a help but a handicap you're not neutral it's a handicap have you you know what a handicap is like if you have a handicap race for example where everybody's runs on two feet and they tie up one of your legs up like that and you have to run on one foot that's handicapped what's your chance of winning if one of your feet is tied up and you're to run on one foot against people who got two feet that's what I mean by handicap so if you happen to be clever or intelligent like most of you are do you realize that you have a handicap when it comes to spiritual things but not when it comes to worldly things in your profession and in your job you run with both feet good but you must recognize that that which is a great help to you in the world is a handicap when it comes to spiritual things in other words you have to take the place of a she that's why we sometimes see in our conferences people who can't speak a word of English or don't know much English get up and speak in the conference in Tamil and in a very edifying way how is that they're not as clever and intelligent as some of the people sitting listening to them but they've come to know God you remember once Jesus said how difficult it is for the rich to enter God's kingdom now that doesn't mean that if you get a good salary you can't enter God's kingdom that doesn't mean that if you're a beggar you will enter God's kingdom we've got a lot of beggars in Bangalore I don't know any of them that's entered God's kingdom so obviously Jesus was not saying if you're a beggar you'll enter God's kingdom and if you are rich you will not enter because you didn't seem to be true in life and the most spiritual people we know are not beggars in fact I've never met a spiritual beggar so what does it mean when he says it's impossible for a rich man to enter God's kingdom it's very hard it's like a camel wanting to go through the eye of a needle the thing is you you get an understanding from what Jesus said about a camel going through the eye of a needle it's so difficult and the only reason is not because the eye of the needle is so small where's the camel is so big that's the problem I remember in my younger days when I was in my 30s and I used to travel by train to different parts of India and sometimes very often unreserved compartment said get into the compartment and I would have to sit on the floor in some corner somewhere near the toilet or something in the crowded unreserved third-class compartments those days and then every station people would be piling in with their luggage and I'd be crowded more and more to a corner and I would sit there and think my problem is that I'm so big that's why I'm finding is so crowded and if I look down I can see little ants quite happily crawling around there they have no complaints that so many people are piling into the compartment they're quite happy they can even run around there because they're so small it's all got to do with sighs there's a creature called the amoeba anybody supposed to be a small teeny-weeny creature which you can only see under a microscope probably not even a microscope but that amoeba is so small that if you ask the amoeba to go through the eye of a needle amoebas there's no problem I have a needle is like a huge ten feet wide gate to that amoeba I can run up and down not just go through it imagine someone who can run through an ax I have a needle up and down easily it's like you can run through a ten foot gate up and down easily that amoeba can go through because it's small a camel cannot because it's big but if God if that camel allows God to shrink it down to the size of an amoeba it'll always be able to go through the eye of a needle you know when Jesus spoke about the narrow gate that leads to life people say how wide is the narrow gate I shall tell you Jesus himself said it it's as wide as the eye of a needle that's the width of the narrow gate it's not a sort of six inches six inches is pretty huge no no that's not the size of the narrow gate the narrow gate is as wide as the eye of a needle that's why he said rich people can't go in through it because they're so big they're so proud of their wealth and that wealth could be money it could be intelligence it could be the wonderful family that you are born in you know a lot of people I don't know if it's as much in Tamil not as it is in Kerala people are very proud of the family they are born in not even in Tamil Nadu people are proud of the cost they were born in in Kerala they say we Assyrian Christians we're not low-level type coming out they say we are not our so we are Brahmins uh-huh you guys will never get through the narrow gate not in a million years you may think you've got through because you got all the knowledge in your head but that's why you don't grow spiritually because there's some pride in you about something not which God has done but which you were born with maybe your intelligence maybe your family name maybe your caste maybe your well maybe your job maybe anything when Jesus said babes he was talking about humility he once took a babe and said here is humility so it's not that rich people can't go into God's kingdom poor people come to go into God's kingdom either if they are rich and pride it's not money it's not intelligence it's pride that makes a person big and it's humility that makes a person small and so when we come to God we must acknowledge that we are she you know there's a great lust in us to show others that we are clever and smart especially when we are young we don't like to be known as all that dumb person that person is so dumb so stupid can't even understand a joke it takes time for that person to understand a joke it's like a tube light - takes a little time to come on are you afraid of being called those names and you want to prove that you're not like that what for to impress people that you're not so dumb been stupid like aliens you find that it affects your spiritual life I'm not surprised jesus said we're like sheep he said I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves wolves are clever smart sharp sheep are dumb their safety is in always being with the shepherd even if they are being sheep for fifty years or however long as sheep lips the safety is in being with the shepherd so it's one of the main things I find that educated young people need humility and those who particularly in CFC those we are not only educated in worldly things but spiritually think of all the knowledge you have coming to CFC great truths doctrinal truths that you can explain to others that you can lose the feeling that you're a sheep and when you lose that feeling you feel you can move out independently you feel you can question the elders they don't know exactly I mean they're a bit dumb themselves I've seen that happen in CFC I haven't seen it happen so much among the uneducated villagers I've seen it happen among educated clever people who feel that yeah I mean I think some of the restrictions the elders make are a bit too stringent they're not broad-minded like we should be either too legalistic okay maybe you're right but let's see the result that comes in your life after a few years and I've seen through many many years in CFC clever young people finally fall away because they don't recognize that they are sheep but they can easily go astray they need the Shepherd to find them humble themselves to let the shepherd put them on their shoulders and come back we must always be like that I'll tell you why see what it says here in Luke 15 about this 99 who are this 99 to me the 99 is a picture of the church and the one person is the one who left the church left the church because he thought he was very smart or went away from God this 99 is a church and see how Jesus describes a true a New Covenant Church in Luke 15 and verse seven ninety-nine the last part ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance that is the definition of a New Covenant Church ninety-nine righteous people who do not need to repent how is that you say what does repentance mean repentance just means that turning around but in the Bible it's always a turning around from sin self and the world it's not just giving up some bad habits turning around from living for myself many people haven't repented from that turning around from the worlds value-system many people haven't repented from that what many people have repented from is smoking and drinking and gambling and seeing dirty movies and some haven't even repented from that but it's always you see the very superficial things you know it's good to give up these bad external things but when I try to turn around only from external sin I will only be an external Christian a very good hypocrite when I turn around from the inward sins then I will be an inward Christian so you need to ask yourself first of all whether you have turned around you know before Jesus came God sent John the Baptist and John the Baptist was called a forerunner who prepared the way his message was prepare the way of the Lord Christ is coming but before you can receive Christ into Israel listen to what I have to say so today I feel that in the same way when we receive Christ into our heart like Israel had to receive Christ John the Baptist the message of John the Baptist has to come to us first prepare the way and what was the message of John the Baptist repentance repent from seeking the kingdom of Earth because now the kingdom of heaven is near so righteous persons who need no repentance what does that mean righteous persons who don't have a single thing in their life to repent about are there people like that on the earth he doesn't mean that they've become completely like Christ because nobody has become like Christ but it means that where they are aware of something on Christ like in their life they have repented they have turned around acknowledge their sin and said Lord I want to give that up which is on Christ like in my life and one week later they may discover something else in their life that is on Christ like I mean spiritually they may already be way ahead of everybody else in their church where head it's like all the others in the church maybe in second standard and these guys are already in college but still they're repenting like the college student who is pursuing master's degree and PhD always seeking to go on even though the others in this church may be in second third standard and happy with that this college students not happy he want to press on so he's discovering things in his life that are UNCHR Iced like and he's turning from them all the time as soon as he discovers that was very selfish of me to behave like that or to talk like that or to do that or that was very proud and arrogant of me to speak like that or to behave like that it's something on Christ like and immediately without any delay that person repents so present who's doing this all the time we can say does not need repentance because he's repenting all the time it's like people who say you know like a a hospital where everything is kept so hygienic ly clean that you can say it's a perfectly hygienic hospital he doesn't mean that it's always hygienic it is always hygienic because every day you know they are using disinfectants and mopping the floor and sterilizing the instruments it's not that they did it once I mean if you go to a surgical operating theater in a good Hospital they'll be so careful to make sure everything there is absolutely sterilized and clean because you're opening up the human body and it's very easy for people to get an infection and we can say there is an operating theatre that does not need to be sterilized because it's always sterilized that means they're always doing it it's not that if they did it once and that's good enough for today no the gloves and the instruments that were cleansed yesterday are not good enough for today yeah that was good enough for yesterday but not good enough for today a constant sterilization that's the mark of 99 sheep who are called righteous why are they called righteous because they need no repentance now I want to tell you myself I want to belong to a church like that I want to belong to a church of people who need no repentance if I'm not there I'm a wandering sheep a lot of people sitting in many churches today we're actually wandering in the wilderness the church may have 2,000 3,000 people there but it's the wilderness because the people there are not repenting so what if there are 5000 there so what if there are 20,000 there either all people who are not repenting that's not the church that Jesus spoke about ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance do you want to belong to such a church you begin your Christian life like that it's not 99 people who have all the gifts of the Holy Spirit maybe some of these people don't have many gifts of the Holy Spirit but they repent you remember jesus said that many people were the gifts of the holy sprit cast out demons and prophesy and do miracles Jesus say I never knew you because because you live in sin you did not repent turn to Matthew chapter 7 what is going to be important in the Day of Judgment who will enter the kingdom of heaven Matthew 7:21 2:23 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father and many will say to me in that day of judgment Lord we prophesied in your name we did miracles in your name we cast out demons in your name many not one or two many miracles these are people who exercise the gifts of the Holy Spirit what we would call charismatic people and I will say to those charismatic people I never knew you go away from me that means go to hell because you practice sin you practice sin means you did not repent we have all sinned what is the difference between us in them we've all practiced sin why does he say only to them you practice sin they did not repent from their sin that is the thing that's going to be important in the day of judgment remember not how many gifts of the Holy Spirit you have high value the gifts to the holy spirit and I believe we should all seek for the gifts of the Holy Spirit no doubt about it but don't think that the exercise of the gifts of this spirit or any gift natural gift you maybe I'm an ability to speak or sing there's no value the important thing is what is your attitude to sin so this sheep which was lost was willing to come back and be a part of this ninety-nine righteous people who need don't need no repentance and that is what I want to ask all a few young people do you want to be a part of such a fellowship of people who are always repenting then you have a good foundation god bless you let's pray our heads before God Heavenly Father I pray that all of these young people here will have a good foundation in their life so that they can build on it the massive skyscraper in the days to come one that will glorify you pray in Jesus name Amen

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Zac Poonen

Id: qVnU9WtMu7c

Length: 45min 55sec (2755 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 09 2016