God Supports the Humble by Zac Poonen

[Music] one advantage of singing is everybody wakes up so we do want to sing also so as I was saying the most important thing in a church in the New Testament church is that people can say at the end of a meeting God was certainly there God spoke to my heart he was there but two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst of them you know it's really tragic that we can go to so many church services and meet with everybody except Jesus Christ we heard a message we heard a good sermon me the sang good song but we did not meet with Jesus that's the tragedy because the glory of the Lord has departed [Music] it happens in throughout you know Christian history when the glory of God was manifested through Jesus Christ it was manifested in a human form we read in John chapter 1 the world became flesh John 1:14 John 1:14 the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth so the glory of God was seen in a human being Jesus Christ and wherever he went there was a glory the presence of the Lord was were there and I don't know whether you understand this but we can understand that that Jesus was like that but we read in 1 John chapter 4 it's an amazing word it's such a blessed word that in our church in Bangalore we made a big wooden flat with these words written on it 1 John 4:17 it's a very important word for me anyway the last part of 1 John 4:17 as Jesus is so are we in this world how many of you believe that I'm not saying it's true I'm saying it should be true when John says it was true in his life you know like Paul says I am crucified with Christ that was true in Paul's life you can quote the verse but it may not be true in your life you see I know Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live but Christ lives in me for you it is the worst Paul was giving his testimony Paul was not quoting a verse Paul was giving his testimony I have been crucified with Christ it's no longer I who lived in the same way John was writing this testimony as Jesus is so are we in the world we're not just to quote that as a verse it must be real in our life and when we think of the glory of God that Jesus wherever he went there was a sense of God's presence I want to say to you my brothers and sisters long for that that there's a sense of God's presence when people meet with you when people meet with you in your office in your home that there's a sense of God's presence they'll be a little careful about what they talk about when you're around all of them are cracking their filthy jokes and then you come there and they suddenly stop because presence of the Lord has come there this is how we are supposed to live more important than giving our tracks to bring with us the presence of the Lord wherever we go that's how we should live and if you live like that they will never forget you they may hate you they may fight with you but they will never forget that once in their life they came across a saint a man of God or a woman of God don't you want to be like that that's what it means to be a witness for Christ witness for Christ doesn't mean just talking about Jesus anybody can talk about Jesus but to be such a manifestation of the presence of God wherever you go and he must long for that I've set the Lord always before me seek for that life my dear brothers and sisters so that the meetings of the church come to a higher level that is the most important thing that we should have as Jesus is so are we in the world and when we are like that God will give us his word also in the meeting do you know that God wants to use each of you may not be to preach in a pulpit but to share his word but somebody you meet the presence of God is with you that's how it will be so in the beginning when the apostles were there they brought the presence of the Lord with them that was the most important thing I want to show you an accident chapter 20 Paul was in a place called Ephesus for three years and as long as he was there he brought in the presence of God through his ministry listen to this in Acts chapter 20 Paul verse 17 called all the elders of the church in Ephesus I don't know how many there were maybe four or five elders he called those five elders and said hey brothers I want to talk to you something because he was never going to see them again he had told them that you'll never see them again see in fact they wept verse 37 they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul and repeatedly kissed him grieving especially over the word that he had spoken that they would never see his face anymore he said brought folks this is the last time I'm gonna see you and they wept because he had sacrificially served them for three years day and night he never took any money from them he never wanted any clothing or any gifts he just served and served and served and served and but he told him something even though he loved them very much he told him the truth and that's what I want you to hear he says in acts 20 verse 28 be on guard you elders for the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers why am I saying that because first of all I have been with you verse 31 for three years verse 31 for three years night and day I kept on admonishing you with tears you know Paul preached night in there for three years that's about 2,000 sermons and very often he wept when he preached because he was concerned that these people are not taking their Christian life seriously but he says now I'm going away and he says I'm gonna tell you what is gonna happen to this church when I go away verse 29 after my departure savage wolves will come inside this church why couldn't those wolves come in when Paul was there they were scared those wolves are the agents of Satan they could not come and spoil the Sheep of God as long as there was a man of God called Paul who brought the presence of God there the wolves were scared they were outside the door but they stood outside the door and said we'll wait we wait this guy Paul goes away once he goes away we can go right in all these other fellows they don't have any ability to keep us out Paul's knew that also Paul said I know you find elders once I go away the wolves will come in and you will not be able to stop them because you don't live the Christian life seriously like I did Paul says and not only that those wolves will come in not spare the flock they'll tear the church to pieces and all of you five people you're going to gather your little groups after you verse 30 from among your own cells some of you will start speaking perverse things and draw disciples after them then it happened in church history's always happened that people try to draw disciples after them admire me admire me I want a little group around myself of my admirers you know that happens in many churches my people want to gather some people around them and the church becomes dead and the glory of God departs like you read in Ezekiel then God has to raise up somebody who will bring the glory of God back you know if you read Christian history the church became so dead in the 1400s 15 hundredths there was only one church around the world basically or two maybe the Orthodox Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church both were absolutely dead nobody was preaching about being born again or salvation by faith they were more interested in collecting money and if you give money to the Pope your sins will be forgiven and it was going on like that for hundreds of years till God raised up one man Martin Luther he was a Roman Catholic priest he saw all this nice read the Word of God and says this is not Scripture and it was one man who stood against the entire Roman Catholic Church and said what you're teaching is wrong they wanted to kill him because he was standing against the whole system but God was with him and that's how the whole Protestant movement started the churches that are not part of the Catholic Church came because one man stood for the Lord this is in the early 1500s which is 500 years ago and then what happened Martin Luther died and the Wolves came in the same wolves that went into the Catholic Church now came into the Protestant church because the man who could keep them out at God and the Protestant Church became like the Catholic Church dead in England it was like that till in the seventeen hundreds two hundred years later God raised up a man called John Wesley he stood against this corruption in the Anglican Church Church of England which came from Martin Luther and they put him out they say you can't preach him so he would preach in the open fields and he started another group to honor God which later on became known as the Methodist Church he was a very strict man preaching holiness but then he died and again the wolves came into the Methodist Church so in history God raises up someone there's a new movement that brings purity and after some time when the man is not there like Paul said I'm gone the world's come in and it's all split into different groups the glory goes away and then God has to raise up somebody else to bring the glory back him this is happened I'm just giving you two examples but it's happened again and again and again in church history because that's the only way God can preserve the glory in the midst of the church and it's very easy for glory to depart I believe that what you're seeing in CFC charger now is far far better than what it was many years ago it was really bad in this church many years ago because I watched it for 25 years and I know and God has done a work it always depends on the leadership if the leadership seeks their own God is not there if the leadership is humble godly people God is there and that is why God has brought so many people now to hear the word and I'm I'm concerned that you will now go from glory glory to glory and you will not come to the place where God has to take away his presence from here because I remember the days when in this church the presence of the Lord was not there not at all a lot depends on the humility of all the brothers and sisters see God can never support a proud person remember this he can never support a proud person whether he's an elder or not an elder the moment a person becomes proud and you can't see it it's in the mind it's in the heart a person thinks I am somebody that happens to many elders immediately God withdraws elder is there but God is not there that is what takes away the presence of the Lord from any Church it's very very important not just the elders but anybody who brings in pride is bringing in the devil with him into the church he can call himself Christian New Covenant Christian whatever name he uses if there is pride in him about anything maybe he's proud of his education maybe he's proud of his spirituality maybe he's proud of his Bible knowledge maybe he's proud of his children ah my children are so god-fearing unlike other people's children that is enough God will depart from that man pride is so easy to come and you ask yourself ask yourself whether you're proud of something maybe you're proud of the music maybe you can play some instrument maybe you can sing well pride I don't care how well you sing how well you play your instruments how well you brought up your children how much you know the Bible the pride comes in I tell you in Jesus name God will resist not only he leave you he will resist you he will stand against you and the way I pictured it is like this you know that well-known words we quoted often in CFC one Peter it's one of the most important verses in the New Testament then you must know it first of all look at James James chapter 4 verse 6 you must all know this verse even the little children James 4:6 God is opposed to the proud but he gives grace to the humble God supports the humble but he's against the proud and he repeats it a second time there are very few verses that are repeated exactly the same he's repeated in 1 Peter 5 exactly the same verse 5 God is opposed to the proud but he gives grace to the humble now why in the world has got repeated verse twice they're not many verses repeated so clearly exactly the same twice because this is so important God is against the P pushes the proud people back and he gets behind the humble people and pushes them forward I want God to always push me forward I'll tell you why because the devil is too strong for me because temptation is too strong for me my lusts are too strong for me I want God to get behind me and push me forward nor devil no demon can stand before me then no temptation no lust can stand before me then I will just keep moving forward forward forward because God is pushing me forward he's supporting me with His grace and I need only one qualification and not Bible knowledge humility humility I must consider other people more important than myself but the moment I become proud ah I know the Bible better than others I can sing better than others I can preach better than others or what is more stupid I can pray better than others you imagine anything more stupid than that I can pray better than others as if prayer is some performance like a drama so many things I got a better job than others more stupid thing my car is better than others believers can imagine believers thinking on that or my children are so good compared to other people children ah you should see those children see my children God is opposed to such people he pushes them back and that children will also suffer believe it or not but if you are humble humble does not mean or my children or wayward that's not humility that is stupidity to say if there's anything good in my children it is God who did it not me that is humility if I know the Bible it is because God gave me that grace if I have a gift it is because God gave it to me it's got nothing to do with me that is humility humility is not to have nothing it is to have everything Jesus had everything but he was the humblest man that walked on the earth no man did miracles like Jesus did and he said learn humility from me the humblest man who walked on the earth was the greatest preacher the greatest miracle worker the holiest man that ever lived he was the humblest so the father supports humble people and he opposes proud people and the moment I become proud God opposes me remember that so if you want the presence of the Lord always with you you have to remain in humility all the time and I'll tell you it's not easy because if you do one thing better than others you immediately tempted to be proud something you did and God bless you and you become proud you prayed for somebody and accidentally he got healed and I mean he was recovering in any case it was just a cold or something but you prayed for him and the cold went over after five days you could have gone in any case I pray that's enough he only got a cold but God has become your enemy this is the type of stupidity we are so tempted to take glory to ourselves for something or the other God is opposed to the proud so then what is the secret of remaining humble all the time there is only one secret now I'll tell you this because this is a battle I fought I said Lord I want you to support me all the time I don't want you to oppose me even for one second any day how can I be humble all the time and the solution is look under Jesus all the time compare yourself with Jesus all the time and one of the illustrations the Lord gave me was this and if you have heard me speak on it you heard it before but I'll say for the benefit of those have not heard it if in a class a student gets 10 out of hundred 10 percent in mathematics can he be proud what do you think yes or no he got 10 out of 100 in mathematics can he be proud if you heard me you know the answer yes if all the others in the class got four and three and two and one and zero this boy who got tense comes home and says mommy I came first in the class son how much you get 10 out of 100 how do you come first everybody else got 4 3 2 1 you can get 10 out of 100 and be proud you can just know this much of the Bible more than somebody else and you're proud it is so easy how did he become proud he compared himself with others the secret of pride is compare yourself with others who are not as good as you who don't know the Bible like you do who can't sing like you who can't play the instruments like you whose children Anna is not as good as yours whose job is not as good as yours try comparison comparison comparison that's the only way to be proud okay now you take the same boy and put him in another school where everybody in the class gets ninety-eight ninety-nine hundred what happens to this brown boy he suddenly becomes very humble how did the same boy suddenly become humble by comparison he compared himself now with that fellow got 98 that fella how much did you get brother Thank You 99 not only 10 he suddenly becomes humble so how did his pride come by comparison how did this humility come by comparison so here is the secret if you compare yourself with all the other believers you will always end up being proud but if you refuse to compare yourself with other believers and say I will always compare myself with somebody who got a hundred percent Jesus Christ I'm going to look at him and compare my life with his every single day of my life I give you a guarantee you cannot be proud even for one minute and God will support you every day don't you want such a life I know I never heard this message when I was a young Christian I used to go to churches where they preached all types of things they never told me to take up the cross they never told me the way of humility but I thank God I discovered it from the Bible let us run the race fixing our eyes on Jesus I saw the apart the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 5 he was saying woe unto these people who want to those people want to it was right what he said he was condemning those people for that sin and the next chapter Isaiah chapter 6 he says I saw the glory of the Lord and he said woe unto me how did this man suddenly say woe is me because he saw the glory of the Lord he saw it once you and I can see it all the time the glory that was seen in Jesus Christ when he lived on this earth and that is why for so many years now I've been preaching one message dear brothers and sisters fix your eyes on Jesus Christ read the Gospels see how he lived and let the light of that glory show you your need [Music] that you are not living like he did that you're not walking as he did you're not serving the father as he did your attitude to money is not the attitude Jesus had you're not looking at women the way Jesus looked at women a lot of impurity in you and so if you keep your eyes on Jesus your attitude will change in so many things they called him Bill's evil Prince of devils you know what he told them he's spoken against her word ordinary man you're forgiven was he an ordinary man have you heard this expression son of man son of man son of man many times in the Gospels Jesus used to call himself son of man and I asked the Lord once I said Lord what is this son of man he just means the son of an ordinary man I'm an ordinary man Jesus lived on earth as an ordinary man he who was Almighty God lived as an ordinary man so when they called him devil Matthew chapter 12 he said it's okay he have called an ordinary man the devil you're forgiven I said Lord let me never in my life think that I'm anything more than an ordinary man whether people called me a devil or a false prophet or a thief or a crook let them call me what they like they have only spoken against an ordinary man okay they are forgiven let them not speak against the Holy Spirit that's what Jesus so when you see yourself as an ordinary man you have no problem you know I often tell people in our church in Bangalore do you remember the first day that you came to CFC Bangalore you heard of this church that is preaching all innocent you were fed up with all the dead churches and you decided to come to this church and you were so happy that day to get a last seat in the church but now I said some of you brothers have been here for 15 20 years and you consider yourself senior brothers now you are not sitting in the last seat now you are not small in your own earnings now you're not an ordinary man now you're a senior brother a senior sister that is why the grace of God has departed from your life I've seen it happen and when I see it happen I don't judge them I say Lord don't let it happen to me please don't let it have you can take away do you know I've actually prayed this prayer Lord you can take away my money empty my bank account you can take away my health you can take away my ability to speak you can take everything away my reputation before people take it all away but don't take away your presence and your anointing from my life that's all I want you pray that prayer Lord that's all I want and the Lord says you humble yourself all the time my presence will be with you all the time I have set the Lord always before me and then he'll be at my right hand I will not be shaken Psalm 16 we read that that's the way all of you should live problems can come in your home children are sick financial difficulties visa problems fired from your job I have set the Lord before me I will not be shaken he's at my right hand I will not look to man for help this is the way how God wants us to always live as Jesus is remember that verse 1 John 4:17 as Jesus is so are we in this world I find for example so many believers they don't think much about borrowing money some people bought of money and they never returned it they conveniently forget it but I used to think like this you know I'm 76 years old now I have never borrowed money once in my life from anybody because the Bible says or no man anything when my wife and I had very little when we even wondered whether we have enough money to buy milk powder for our first baby son I said fine God will take care of us but I will not borrow I will never borrow money because as Jesus is so are we in this world nice to think can you imagine Jesus going to some neighbor's house in Nazareth saying can you please give me some money my Heavenly Father let me down today it's pretty bad so what to do since my Heavenly Father has let me down can you at least give me some money can you imagine Jesus saying no I said as Jesus is so am I in this world my heavenly father is not gonna let me down Jesus was poor but his father didn't let him down and so I said Lord if some time you make me poor it's fine I'm not going to go and ask other people I'm not gonna give him people the impression Oh God let me down you have heard me quote this example also well let me repeat it for the benefit of those who didn't haven't heard it from me John 7 after Jesus had preached in the temple we read that Jesus stood in the temple and cried out John 7:37 the great day of the feast if any man is thirsty and his message in the temple was so powerful that the people said John 746 we have never heard a man speak like this man preached powerful message in the temple in Jerusalem now Jerusalem was not his home he lived about 80 kilometres away 100 kilometres away that town called Capernaum far away it's like abu dhabi in Sharjah jesus lived over there far away and there were no cars we'd had taken a couple of days to walk up there when you read in the Bible he came from Capernaum to Jerusalem remember it took in two days so he was in Jerusalem and he preached and at the end of the sermon it says in John 753 everyone went to his home but next verse John 8:1 Jesus went to the Mount of Olives why did Jesus go to the Mount of Olives because nobody invited him home can you imagine after listening to this powerful messages everybody is blessed nobody went up to him and say Lord where are you sleeping tonight your home is in Capernaum where are you nobody asked him this is the inning gratitude of man that you can be blessed by the greatest preacher that walked on the earth and not even care to think where is he going to sleep tonight this is how ungrateful a lot of religious people are so Jesus said fine it's not raining I can go and sleep under the trees in the Mount of Olives no complaint no thinking or fellows don't care for me this is what it means to walk as Jesus walked that you have no complaint when people are not considerate about your needs you know you don't feel sorry for yourself no you put that self to death say okay my father cares for me I don't mean in the invitation to anybody's house I've got to sleep under the trees and the next morning John 8 verse 2 early in the morning he came and again began to sift and teach the temple in the temple all the people and no think of this is even worse next morning nobody says hey by the way Lord where did you sleep last night if sorry we completely forgot about asking you last night where do you sleep nobody asks and Jesus also did not try to hint you know how some people hint you know last night when I was sleeping under the trees in the Mount of Olives man is very clever to introduce a little hint to make other people feel awkward that you guys never invited me to your home not a sentence about that this is what it means to walk as Jesus walked never never to think of yourself can I bless these people it doesn't matter they don't have to think about me my Heavenly Father cares for me the one who runs this universe cares for me why should I care for these human beings these are the little things that you can learn about Jesus if you read the Bible slowly carefully and say Holy Spirit of God show me the glory of Jesus and help me to be like that you may be such a big man but the more you see Jesus you'll become smaller smaller smaller and smaller until you become nothing in your own eyes and God will support you 100% everywhere in support in your office his support in your home in support in your church he'll back you up 100% I have proved it for 40 years in CFC you humble yourself before God and keep looking under Jesus you will bring the presence of the Lord with you wherever you go be a man of God like that be a woman of God like that and your children you can be like that too and don't judge other people don't check whether he's living like that it's none of my business you worry about yourself okay brothers let's think about these things and let's pray thank you for listening I pray there will be some eternal result from what you heard today now the glory of God will be greater and greater and greater in this church in the days to come because those of you who are part of the church decided to take this message seriously let's pray [Music] how many father has we involved before you help us to honor you and everything bless this church with the blessing of the Lord that makes rich we pray that the glory of God will be seen here the presence of the Lord will be there in the meetings and people will come drawn to you that we shall truly be a New Testament church of people who lived seek to live with all our hearts as Jesus lived seven days a week we humbly ask 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, god, humility, being humble, humbling yourself

Id: xuhg4kX3TLA

Length: 40min 51sec (2451 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 20 2016