God's Ways are Higher than Ours - Zac Poonen - April 7, 2019

[Music] one of the things that we see in the Gospels is the clear contrast between the Pharisees and Jesus and it's not between the Greeks and the Romans and Jesus snow you know the Greeks and the Romans never wanted to kill Jesus Christ just before he went to the cross in John chapter 12 it says the Greeks traveled a long distance and came to Philip and said we want to see Jesus you read that in John chapter 12 and the Romans Pontius Pilate wanted to let him go but the Pharisees said no they stirred up the crowd to crucify him apply that to today where does the maximum opposition come from I live in a country with 98% non-christians and I'll tell you in the 43 years that we've sought to build a new covenant Church our opposition has not come from non-christians it has come from Christians from so-called believers whose shallow lives are exposed by the light of God's Word shining clearly by leaders and pastors whose financial empires are threatened by the preaching of the truth whose Thrones are being shaken when they are brought down to the level of the ordinary people following the teaching of Jesus who said don't any of you be called father or rabbi for you are all brothers so we find even today that the main opposition that Jesus faced is the opposition we face as well so we are walking in his footsteps I thought of that when the children were singing here I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and though I'm nearly 80 years old I love to jump and sing with them I wanted you to look at Matthew chapter 21 Matthew 21 what Jesus did when he entered into the temple first of all he drove out Matthew 21:12 he came into the temple and drove out all those men who were making money in the name of God what a need there is for that today preachers are making money exploiting the poor in the name of God today Jesus is not here physically he does his work through his body and his body are members you and I not everybody is called to use the whip some are called to fulfill the other Ministry of Jesus like putting their hand around the lepers there are people who do that ministry also caring for the poor in the weak comforting there are many who do that in the name of Jesus but the Lord also needs those who will use the whip it says in verse 12 we draw out of them those who were making money selling doves selling things in the temple to make money for themselves make profit out of the poor people who came who were god-fearing people and there's a lot of that in Christendom today why another church because we need to drive out the money changers and those are making profit in the name of Christ today for themselves he doesn't matter how it is you can sell books today there are people Christian authors will make millions of dollars through royalties Paul brought so much he never made one cent as royalty he gave it out freely without making any money himself that's the example the greatest sermons preached by Jesus how much money did he make out of all of that why another Church a church that does not believe in making royalties through his writings that does not believe in exploiting the poor to get money from them read rather helping the poor and the needy that's why we need another church standing true to God's Word in the area of money and not only that it says here further in verse 15 the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things he had done and then they saw the children shouting and jumping like you saw today and they were angry did any of you get upset that the holiness of the church was defiled by children jumping and shouting well you're in the company of the Pharisees they were disturbed too when they saw the children shouting and jumping and saying was I out of the son of David they say hey is all undignified to behave like that in the temple and Jesus came to the defense of those children as he does today he said do you hear these children saying all this he said in verse 16 and Jesus said to them you need to learn what the scripture says out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have prepared praise for yourself when the educated people will not praise you they are too dignified to praise God well the children will praise God then and Jesus says I will listen to their praise dear brothers and sisters we need to get rid of so much of wrong concept of what holiness is Jesus is so different from the Jesus portrayed by the average Church today he is very very different and we need to understand that why another Church he established a church because he did something on the cross and I want to show you what he did on the cross everybody knows that he died for the sins of the world on the cross there are many other things as well he defeated Satan on the cross Satan's power was taken away on the cross but there's another thing he did on the cross and if and that's not proclaimed sufficiently Ephesians chapter 2 he's talking to the people in Ephesus were not Jews and some of them were but in that church there were people of many nations and you know the Jews looked down on the Gentiles and said they are not God's people like we saw in Malachi they thought they were the only people of God and Jesus came to show that you're not the only ones you know in this first do you know the first sermon that Jesus preached in Nazareth you read in Luke chapter 4 you know what his subject was basically if I were to paraphrase his words is you Jews think you're the only people whom God loves well when Elijah the Prophet was hungry and needed food he did not send him to any Jewish house he sent him to a non-jewish Gentile in Zarephath one Widow who fed God's servant and the Jews are upset you mean God sent a sermon to somebody outside and then he said not only that in the days of Elijah another great prophet you admire there were many lepers in Israel not one of them are healed but a non Jew from Syria named an Assyrian he was healed and they got even more upset and they did not let Jesus complete a sermon they grabbed him out of the pulpit and took him outside to throw him down a cliff why What did he say that upset them so much that God loves the non-jews just as much as he loves you that his arms are wide to welcome the whole world to himself don't think you're the only people of God and very often sometimes people can sit in a church and think we are the only ones whom God cares for no he's got a lot of others whom he loves who are very different from us and the Jews couldn't accept that so here we read to the Gentiles he says in Ephesians 2:11 remember you Gentiles who the Jewish people called uncircumcised despise them and remember at that time he was separate from Christ excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers to the covenants a promise but now verse thirteen in Christ Jesus you who were far off have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ that's another thing Jesus did in the cross he brought together people of diverse races and he abolished all the enmity there was it says in verse 14 every dividing wall there was between people he broke down there was a very big dividing wall between the Jews and the Gentiles if you went into a any Jewish synagogue in those 1500 years then Canaan you'd always see only Jewish people every look around everywhere solely Jewish people nobody else because they were the only people of God and they lived like that for years and years and years and then Jesus came and said God loves other people too and he's going to bring other people into his kingdom and when he died on the cross he broke down this is another thing that happened across this dividing wall between this race and that race and between this community and that community was completely broken down and the Jew and the Gentile the Gentile means non Jews were the greatest opposites in the history of the world many Jews would get up in the morning and say I thank you I'm not a slave and I thank you I'm not a Gentile that's how they hated others and then Jesus died on the cross as it were to bring both groups together that's why he stretched out his arms on the cross saying I've come to bring both of you together now you who are so different I'll show you that if you take up the cross and you take up the cross you can become one in me and the above there is an enmity in our flesh it says that in verse 15 as an enmity in our flesh against people who are different from us people who don't have the same culture or race or value or the same intellectual level there's an enmity it's not only there even where people are different from us in their upbringing that is why there's so much conflict even between husband and wife even though they are the same race same culture same intellectual level still does clash between husband and wife because she's different she doesn't do things the way I do it that's the reason for all conflict or he doesn't do the way I want it to be done listen it says in verse 15 there's an enmity in the flesh even between people of the same race and culture and intellectual level every enmity in the flesh is destroyed on the cross so that's why Jesus said if you want to follow me you have to take up your cross every day why another Church you're on a church that preaches the cross the daily cross and that's hardly preached and there's hardly explained what does this cross mean it means death to yourself which claims its rights which claims that other people should behave like me in order to fellowship with me why should they behave like you why not you behave like them in on the cross all these things are broken down in it's because I'll tell you this it's because man doesn't want the cross that we have so many problems and if I refuse to accept the cross in this area where God's trying to bring me in fellowship with people are completely different from me I'll find that I don't even have victory over sin in my life I'll tell you in my own life there were five things that changed my Christian life I call it the five things that gave me a a solid grip on the Christian life I can hold this with two fingers with the thumb in the first finger but you can easily pull it out of my hand and the devil can pull out my Christianity from me if I have only those two but when I have thought fire it's a solid grip first was justified by the blood of Christ not only forgiving forgiveness is one thing all my past sins forgiven and not only forgiven Hebrews 8:12 says he will not remember my past sins anymore because he took the punishment completely on the cross a debt does not have to be paid twice if it's paid once it's paid and there's no memory of that debt anymore and that's why the Lord says I will not remember your sins anymore because it was paid fully on the cross I don't care how great your crime was and the proof of that is that wicked thief who died on the cross I don't know how many people he murdered I don't know how many homes he burgled and stole from but he repented at the last moment he didn't have opportunity to apologise to the widows whose husbands he had killed he didn't have opportunity to give back the money he stole from the houses he burgled because his hands were crucified and the Lord understood that the Lord understands when we are not able to set certain things right of our past life learned that from the thief on the cross and he went to paradise because he repented that's the power of the blood of Christ the past blotted out but not only blotted out I said justified justified means it's as if I've got Christ's righteousness with me not just the negative part of spots blotted out but the positive side Christ's righteousness is in me I've got Christ's righteousness Christ is my righteousness now see that's the positive side many of us think of sins being forgiven sins being blotted out past is not remembered that's great but there's another side to it the blood of Christ is justified me which means just as if I'd been righteous all my life not just as if I had not sinned all my life that it's always great but just as if I had been righteous all my life as if I had lived like Jesus Christ day I was born imagine that have you understood the power of the blood in that way Romans 5:9 says we are justified by his blood it is one of the words which is not understood by Christians who know that their sins are forgiven who know that their past God says I will not remember them it is more than that let me repeat it again and again and again it's as if I have lived like Jesus Christ from the day I was born that is what it means to be justified and think if I could come before our Heavenly Father before God and saying Lord I believed like Jesus from the day I was born I haven't but the blood of Christ puts me there that's why I say Lord I will never live for myself I cannot live for myself after all that you did for me shame on me after all that you did for me you suffered hell for me on the cross for three hours how can I live for myself it's because we haven't understood what Jesus did on the cross do you know what happened when the father first took him my God my God why have you forsaken me there are so many people who try to explain that away by saying how Jesus was just quoting Psalm 22 he never told any lies you're accusing him of telling a lie if you believe that that the father actually did not forsake him Jesus just told a lie he did not tell a lie what's written in Psalm 22 was a prophecy of what would happen on the cross he was actually forsaken why do I say that because I believe Jesus His Word is the truth he always spoke the truth my God my God I've been forsaken I can't understand why and I'll tell you in a moment why he couldn't understand it at that time that was the only prayer of Jesus that never got an answer all his life every prayer of God his was answered from heaven except that one a question why no answer and I'll tell you in a moment why no answer the punishment for our sin is not death physical death Jesus only physically died and he's not taking the punishment for my sin because if think of it logically in a court of law if death physical death is the punishment for sin then when you die you have paid the punishment you don't have to pay the second time if the punishment for a crime is you have to pay a million dollars and he paid the million dollars you're done they can't ask you for payment again he's the punishment for your sin is physical death and you die physically you paid the price you can go to heaven and everybody dies physically and everybody will go to heaven and if Jesus only died physically for my sin he hasn't paid the price for my sin because that is not the punishment for my sin my the punishment for my sin is being forsaken by God for eternity what people what is called hell and if you want to know what hell is it's not just the worms and the fire there's a picture language God uses because that's the only way we can understand being forsaken by God is worse than fire and worms eating us it's much worse totally cut off from God for eternity that is the punishment for my sin and if Jesus did not face that my sin is not forgiving the debt is not fully paid physical death is point zero zero one percent of the debt I owe a billion dollars and somebody pays one dollar that's physical death that doesn't clear my debt No right that is a trillion dollars and somebody pays $1 physical death it's not cleared my debt my death is to be forsaken by God for all eternity and he was forsaken actually in other words he experienced Hell on the cross and because he was infinite God he can understand it mathematically in three hours an infinite God could experience what billions of human beings experience in eternity he could experience it in a moment because he was in finite they only in finite being that's why no human being could die for our sins it if a human being died on the cross or an angel died it would be one person he's not in finite he would have to suffer for eternity and if he suffered for eternity he could clear the debt of one human being how could someone die and clear the debt of all human beings only the infinite God and that's what our dear friends the Java's witnesses can't understand who said Jesus was created I say brother then your sins are not forgiven I'm sorry if Jesus was a created being your sins are not forgiven you're still in your sins it's only God if he came down in human form could suffer eternal hell in three hours on the cross and in finite being and in finite being in two three hours is equal to eternity into billions of human beings so what he suffered there I remember the first day when I understood this I was seeking earnestly further to the Lord many years after I was saved Lord what was the cup which you agonized and agonized and Gethsemane I don't want to drink it I don't want to drink it I don't want to drink it what was it it was not physical death he was willing to suffer a million deaths for us physically he was never afraid of physical death think of the martyrs who gone singing to the cross I think Jesus is afraid of physical death never there was only one thing Jesus dreaded break of fellowship with the father which he had enjoyed for all eternity and if an angel came down and said Lord it's only going to be for three hours you'll come back into fellowship no I don't want to break fellowship with the father even for one second see we are fellowship with the father's broken so often by our sin that we don't value it enough we don't think of the importance of that we sin so lightly and we don't realize every time we sin whether you know it or not your fellowship with the father is broken and we've done that so often we like people who live in the slums who got used to dirt and filth and cockroaches and rats and all that we learn to live with it that we have an understood perfect hygiene is constant unbroken fellowship with the father that's what Jesus had for all eternity and just like a person as slum cannot understand hygiene hygienic conditions we can't understand that value of that perfect fellowship with the father without a single break for a single moment because we sin so lightly just something upsets us and we get angry where do we value a fellowship with the father a person who values a fellowship with will more and say Lord and I never want to do that again because it's broken my fellowship with you we haven't enjoyed real fellowship with the father we don't hear God speaking to us he's so far away from us because we sin so lightly that's why but it was not like that with Jesus he couldn't bear to be even with one moment with not being in touch with the father and he knew it would happen on the cross and even if an angel came and said is going to be only for three hours and it'll come back again he says no I mean think would you like to go and live for three hours in a slum no I don't want to live there it's filthy I'll get sick in three hours I'll get sick and Jesus said no I shrink from it just like he would shrink you know people are brought up in very hygienic conditions can go to some filthy area of the world missionaries faced it some time and they shrink back initially when they see that boy do I have to live here well Jesus faced something much worse than that he shrank so father take this cup away from me and the way the Lord spoke to me at that time I'll never forget it was years ago and I was asking God give me revelation what was the cup you didn't want to drink and the Lord showed me it was this break of fellowship with the father and I thought of it like this that is the father said to Jesus okay you don't have to go to the cross you'll never sinned come straight up to heaven from Gethsemane but Zack will go to hell oh he says ACK we'll go to hell okay father then I'll go to the cross I'll never forget that day in my life and God gave me a revelation on that I wrapped and I wept and I wept he said Lord I will never live for myself for the rest of my life never again I don't care what price I have to pay if I have to be poor all my life I have to be persecuted all my life I don't care what ridicule opposition persecution anything I will never live for myself because I've seen the price you paid for me I don't serve the Lord for any reward I throw the Lord I don't want any crown in heaven I don't want any mansion I don't want any reward I even said Lord I'm willing to go to hell if you are there I only want you I don't want a single reward or crown I don't want to be placed at the head of the line as the most faithful brother I am willing to be the last in the line if I can be with you Lord because I have seen the price Jesus paid for me and it's gratitude and gratitude that makes me serve Him and I want to serve him I pray I'll tell you honestly I pray that I'll live up to a hundred years old not because I love this rotten old world I don't love it at all I don't know whether the Lord will grant my desire but you know I'm like a little child who sits on the father's lap and asks for an elephant give me a real elephant father or a real aeroplane I can ask for anything I'm a little child so I can ask to live for 100 years old it's something like that I don't know whether God around it but if I if he does I only want to live for him I have no other interests have no interest in this rotten world I'm not interested in making money or honor or anything but I have to pay my debt I have to say thank you to the Lord my entire ministry and life is saying thank you lord I remember in 1993 that's about 26 years ago I was driving my two wheeler moped in India crossing a railway track a railway line and the these long wooden bars that closed the track for traffic when the train is coming are operated manually in those days anyway one at a time you open one and they opened the other they closed one and the closure and it takes a little time so this man had opened both and I I was front right in front and I shot across with my moped and before I reached the other end that guy lowered that side because he saw the traffic the train coming and I got hit on my chest and thrown off my bike and fell on the railway line and cracked my skull and I was unconscious I don't know for how long that memory is blotted out from my mind I don't remember it all I know is I and the thing I remember is my writing that moped going across I don't even remember hitting it the next thing I remember is somebody had parked mice moped on the other side of the moped is a small motorbike on the other side of the track and somebody had pulled me up and I was standing and I was wondering what happened and I saw the traffic light up here and the gate closed but I was not so unconscious or something that I couldn't ride my moped so I got onto my moped and kicked the pedal and started it again and the cop the policeman who was standing there say hey don't be careful I was wondering why he was telling me that I felt okay and I was just about a half a mile away from my home and I rode home and I told my wife see I don't know what happened I seemed to be some blood here and it's red across my chest I didn't know at that time my skull was crying I had to go to hospital to discover that then I discovered what happened and I said Lord this is the spontaneously what I said I said lord I have not finished saying thank you to you for dying for me on the cross give me some more time I felt I had written th more to write to get to thank you give me time Lord to finish the whole sentence and he's given me 26 more years I still haven't got to why I've just got th and I think I've got now I want to finish the sentence before Jesus comes I'm not joking this is exactly how I feel what I want to ask you my brothers and sisters some of you think you're wonderful Christians you think you've sacrificed a lot for the Lord really have you seen the depth of his sacrifice on the cross has that stirred your heart to say Lord nothing I ever do will make up for what you did for me nothing he doesn't want money what a crime it is to go and preach to people that God wants your money as if you can repay this sacrifice on the cross with dollars even if you're a trillionaire and you give all of it it will not cover the cost of what he prayed paid for us it's a shame when you talk about that he wants your life he wants your body he wants us to build a church for him a believers who love one another he broke down this dividing wall on the cross by paying such a from men this price and he made these two into verse 15 says visions 2:15 that he might make the two into one new man these two complete opposites who couldn't get along with each other he brought them together and made them one new man reconciled them both in one body through the cross putting to death verse 16 all the enmity there is in our flesh there is as I said an enmity in the flesh even within people of the same culture same intellectual level they clash with each other even when they're Christians because there's an enmity in the flesh all disunity between Christians it's because of this enmity in the flesh we're either one or both do not want to die on the cross solely on the cross that a husband and wife can be perfectly won solely on the cross the two brothers who are completely different from each other can become one or two sisters solely on the cross that older people and children can become one it's solely on the cross that fathers and their sons and daughters can become one why is there such a big gap between children and parents these days parents don't understand children and children don't understand parents do you know the last verse in the Old Testament the last verse of the Old Testament let me read it to you speaking about the last days Malachi 4 verse 5 and 6 I'm going to send Elijah the Prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord and that Elijah is the church the prophetic voice in the church is the Elijah of the last days it's not one person many people who hold that prophetic voice like Elijah who can bring fire down from heaven the fire of holiness the fire of love who can bring that fire down from heaven by their life and their words and unite God's people like the people fell down and worshiped God I will send such prophets in the last days and what do they do they will restore the hearts of the father's to the children and the children to the father's lest i smite the land with a curse do you know that in the last days the particular ministry God wants us to unite the hearts of fathers to children and children to fathers those of you who are fathers are you seeking to have your heart to your children or do you act like a big boss towards your son or daughter that's how it is in unconverted humanity I am the boss you listen to me and the son as they grows up will they listen to you until they are ten fifteen sixteen years old once they get teenagers they'll say goodbye dad you can't run my life anymore go your way I'll go my way and that's what's happened to so many parents and children today that must not happen in the church in the church every father must be united to his sons and daughters it's a shame when in a Christian home children are brought up and they have no interest in the faith of their fathers and they go their own way who is to blame don't say children are different the world is so bad no the fathers are a failure and the fathers need to humble themselves before God and say Lord I've failed that's why my children have gone away from the Lord and that's why my children are not drawn to me that's why the children don't look at me as their hero they look at all these worldly football stars and Hollywood actors as their heroes forgive me Lord I failed as a father ask God to fill you with a spirit and be a spiritual father the hearts of the fathers must be drawn to the children first then the children to the father's as a distance just like Jew and Gentile fathers and children and the Lord has stretched out his hand to bring it together in the cross in the church there's a unity the enmity in the flesh I heard of a 18 year old girl I know the mother went to her and said my girl I want to talk to you and says mom I have no time to talk to you when I was a five-year-old I remember coming up to you you were a working mom and you said get away I've got something to do you had no time for me then I'm sorry I have no time for you now I've got other things to do why did that girl go away from our mother because the mother had no time for her when she was 5 years old don't blame children the fault is with the parents 100% we need to repent come before God and put down all our pride and say lord I fail and those of you who are young parents start now to build fellowship with your children God gave me 4 sons and I said Lord I'm going to have them for 18 years in my house and they are 18 they'll go off to college they may not stay at home but if any of them drift away from you [Music] I'm not saying their lives have to be perfect I'm not asking them to be preachers not perfect but if they've forsake the Lord I will stop preaching because the Bible says in 1 Timothy 3 if a man cannot take care of his few children at home how will he take care of the church so the Bible says that's a New Covenant standard in the Old Covenant it didn't matter Moses children were disobedient Samuels children were wayward and taking bribes they could still be prophets but not in the New Covenant in the New Covenant to whom more is given more is required all of you fathers who think you're wholehearted and think you're wonderful Christians tell me how much fellowship do you have with your children before you decide whether your wholehearted can God approve of you can God look at you and say I'm well pleased with the way you brought up your children there our fathers were tyrants I've seen that type of fathers in many countries there are dictators in I've seen that in parents from certain countries well you got to obey me I'm the head of this home there's no fellowship there there's a fear that's not the type of obedience that's not the type of medians God gives this God frightened me and make me obey Him no my example as a father is God Almighty he humbles himself to wash my feet I want to be a father who washes the feet of my children are you a father who washes the feet of your children that's how God the Father is that's how Jesus is it's not by fear that he dominates his children God brings people together on the cross in love and not only fathers and children husbands and wives separated nowadays so often ending in divorce divorce doesn't happen in a day he's a result of many many days of distance coming between and I know in many cultures divorce is frowned upon so there's no divorces you can glory in the fact you know I found that in India divorce is sort of frowned upon it's very very this hardly any divorce even among non-christians among the Hindus you rarely hear of divorce but that's because the culture is such where the husband is such a tyrant when visitors come to the house the woman doesn't even come to the sitting-room she's be in the back that's not the type of unity God wants between husband and wife the Bible says we are joint heirs of the grace of life in 1 Peter 3 a wife is equal to the husband the husband is to be the head he's the first among equals that's the best way to put it her husband is the first among equals a wife is equal to the husband who can help him to become more spiritual and if you don't treat your wife as a joint heir the Bible says joint heir that means the throne is at the same level I've often told people do you want your wife to treat you like a king I'll tell you the secret treat her like a queen you'll automatically be the king joint heirs the same that throne is not one level lower 1 Peter 3 says joint heirs of the grace of life she is the Queen you're the king but the Thrones are the same level God wants to bring together completely different from the heathen concept of husband and wife the cross brings people together not only parents and children not only husband and wife but let me show you something further in Colossians chapter 3 in Colossians chapter 3 it says here about people of different races and different intellectual levels coming together Colossians 3 in this renewal which says in verse 11 there is no distinction between Greek and Jew no you're one no distinction between circumcised and uncircumcised you follow this ritual that ritual makes no difference no distinction in barbarian Scythian slave free man no difference between a slave and his master Philemon was the master an SMS was his slave but he was a brother in Christ imagine that if you know the undignified way in which slaves were treated in those days for a slave to become a brother in Christ with his master we treated exactly the same it's amazing and barbarian imagine a cultured Greek sitting in church next to a barbarian who's uncouth and who's got all types of bad habits that disturb you the way he conducts himself and the way he speaks so crude they are one in Christ the cultured Greek in the uncultured barbarian why another church he won a church rather cultured Greek in the uncultured barbarian can love each other and sit next to each other and accept each other and the Scythian the city and by the way is the one whom the barbarians considered as barbarians or the barbarians would say the Scythian are uncouth they'd be there to imagine putting a Greek in a city and together and then there were the different intellectual levels the barbarian was completely uneducated and the Greek was a PhD and accepting people of different levels and one that's the church I want to be a part of people of different races of different skin colors like we sang black brown yellow red white doesn't make a difference and different languages different social levels different educational levels and yet not one person looking down on another because of race or culture or education or language or anything all one in Christ because it says in verse 11 Christ is everything and I have seen and heard and learnt of Christ from people who are much less educated than me and if you are not open to such people you are missed out on something let me show you a very interesting verse something you need to learn before you leave this earth Ephesians chapter 3 Ephesians in chapter 3 it says here how we can know the love of Christ I'm sure we all want to know the love of Christ and it says here how we can know verse 18 the last part the breadth length and height and depth the four dimensions here not just three four dimensions of the love of Christ the breadth and the length and the height and the depth to know the love of Christ which is beyond our human knowledge and thus be filled up to the fullness of God how can I be filled up to the fullness of God I've got to know this four dimensional love of Christ and how can I know that it says here in verse 18 along with all the saints a ll and the sum of those saints are barbarians some of those Saints Saints are a completely different culture completely different nation completely different backgrounds so completely opposite from me in every possible way I want to know the love of Christ I got a fellowship with that brother and that other brother and that other brother in the same church so I don't want to go into a church where everybody looks alike know you can go there if you like I don't want to be there I don't want to be in a church where everybody is at one intellectual either already pitted or all barbarians know there are churches like that in the world today you go in there every single person is of the same culture same community or you go to some of the places graduates fellowship so everybody is a graduate or you can be a part of that and there are churches in India and over everybody is a barbarian there are churches like that too they sort of feel happy among themselves it's not the Church of Christ that barbarian must humble himself and fellowship with the Greek culture Greek otherwise the cross of Christ is none effect what did Jesus do he broke down the dividing walls he destroyed this enmity in the flesh and I tell you our Christianity is tested here this is part of the New Covenant an Old Covenant if you went to an Old Covenant Church everybody was a Jew every single person and they all because they were all descended from Abraham they're the same level of same DNA in the same IQ and everything else pretty clever people all of them it's comfortable to live in that type of thing and Jesus broke down that and said you got to mingle with others everything is broken down that's the Church of Jesus Christ why another church you saw some of the reasons now why God has to have a pure testimony for his name which is exactly what he wanted from all eternity may God help us let's pray our Heavenly Father help us to be what you want us to be on this earth we only have one life we don't want to waste it we don't want to live it for ourselves we want to spend our entire life saying thank you Lord Jesus for dying for me on the cross for dying for us on the cross and for being forsaken by the father so that we might live eternally we never want to forget that Lord we want to live in the light of that all our days and glorify you we want nothing for ourselves you want everything that we have for you build churches like that Lord across the earth we pray in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 35,830

Rating: 4.8064518 out of 5

Keywords: gods, ways, higher, zac, poonen, sermon, rlcf, river, life, christian, fellowship

Id: 4sSsWJRDneQ

Length: 49min 22sec (2962 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2019