How To Preach God's Word - Zac Poonen

so let's begin by looking at a verse in Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 we have to see what God's Word says and then see whether we are supposed to do it or not supposed to do it our sister's supposed to share the Word of God or not we had to be clear from Scripture there are many areas where our understanding is influenced and affected by our culture Indian culture and the particular denominational culture you came out from and that's not really you it affects much older people also I've seen people who are 70 80 years old were enslaved to the culture they got from their denomination they say they believe the Bible is God's Word but what they really believe is God's Word is what their elder or pastor taught them in the particular church they grew up in and one of the things I decided when I was a young man and I will not allow Indian culture or my denominational culture to influence my thinking that is one thing that has set me completely free so even if I sat in a church where they believed something else I wouldn't argue with them I wouldn't get up and preach something different but inwardly I would disagree with them so I believe many of us are slaves to not slaves but are influenced to a greater extent or lesser extent by our culture and that's why in most churches they feel that young people can't share anything sisters cannot share and the idea is that only older people can speak God's Word okay let's see here in acts two on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was poured out on those 120 who were waiting for it and at the end of it the Apostle Peter explains this and says this is verse this is I'm talking reading from verse 16 this is what the Prophet Joel spoke about in the last days I will pour out my spirit on all mankind and your sons and your daughters he doesn't say about speaking in tongues but will prophesy it's very interesting that the thing that amazed the people we're seven was that they were speaking in an unknown language they were surprised and Peters and they say oh they must be drunk and Peter says we're not drunk then we would think that he is going to explain about speaking in tongues but he doesn't he talks about prophecy he says this is your sons and daughters will prophesy that means another generation not just the older people your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams and then social level slaves even on slaves you know that means the lowest level of society in those days were slaves and even if you belong to the lowest level of society in India you can prophesy that's the meaning here so the distinction between man and woman is gone verse 17 middle sons and daughters the distinction between young people and old people also gone in verse 17 and the distinction between upper class and lowest class verse 18 is also gone see all the distinctions that men make between men and women older and younger upper class and lower class is all gone all can prophesy in all can see visions and what is the meaning of prophecy that you can turn to 1 Corinthians in chapter 14 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 3 the one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation see the contrast between speaking in tongues verse 2 one who speaks in a tongue speaks to God no one understands but his spirit he speaks mysteries that is a between man and God but when he speaks to men I like what the message Bible says when you proclaim God's truth in everyday speech that means not in an unknown tongue but in everyday speech it's very important to understand that in preaching preaching must be in everyday speech not in a language which others can't understand supposing you speak some tongue of some other country they can't understand it in the same way if you speak at a level which like if they say go over everybody's head that is also like an unknown language you know for example a person speaks in some high English to impress everybody that's like speaking in an unknown town you might as well keep quiet but that can be a temptation for you to speak not in everyday speech prophecy is in everyday speech that means you speak I mean you preach in the meeting just like you speak to people not in a special tone of voice I've been in some churches where they pray in a special tone of voice that means they are not familiar with God my children don't come and speak to me the special tone of voice or you know I've been in some churches where they will tremble Oh Lord it's all artificial there must be no artificiality when you speak that's the first lesson I would say to you in everyday speech just like you would talk to people in conversation no special shaking of the voice or high voice or anything just everyday speech that is the way to prophesy and the purpose of prophesying is edification means building up excitation means encouragement and correction and not correction as much as challenge correction is different exhortation is encouragement and challenge consolation is comfort for people who are disturbed those are the three things mentioned in verse three it's not teaching the gift of prophesy is different from the gift of teaching and when it comes to teaching it says very clearly in 1 Timothy 2 verse 12 a woman should not teach so what is a woman forbidden from doing teaching but 1 Corinthians 11 says a woman can prophesy verse 5 speaking about covering the head a woman who when she prophesized or prays must have her head covered that's all the only rule is she must cover her head and then share God's word that is because she's signifying thereby that I'm under a leader maybe the elder maybe her husband maybe your father so that's the first thing you need to see that on the day of Pentecost things changed that because the Holy Spirit is now poured upon people we can all of us share God's Word so going back to acts 2 before you prophesy you must be sure that your life is open to the Holy Spirit of God the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ think of it like this when you ask Jesus let me ask you this question first where is Jesus today anybody nobody knows hmm where is that in heaven okay when he went up to her when he ascended up to heaven what did the angel say he will come back and that we call his second has he come a second time yes or no sure what about when he came into your heart if you say he came into my heart he must have come the second time and a million people say that then he must have come a million times already I want to tell you he hasn't come then who came into your heart then if Jesus is in heaven who came into your heart the Spirit of Christ see if you spoke about the Spirit in a Christian meeting everybody would understand Holy Spirit but supposing you go among the non-christians and say you got to receive the spirit Yoga people say that's right that's what we are also teaching and the Animists who worship all types of you'll spirits it's exactly what we believe you must receive the spirit so you got to define the spirit when you go to non-christians and that's why we don't tell them receive the spirit we tell them receive Jesus Christ it's the same thing you read in the Acts of the Apostles he said receive the Holy Spirit but then most of them were all Jews they understood but they require he was talking about they talking about Jesus understand the Spirit of Christ so when they are telling people to receive the spirit we're saying the same thing that means I don't just believe in my head I receive the spirit and now receiving the spirit does not mean I'm filled with the Holy Spirit because our heart has many many rooms and generally speaking when a person is really born again if he is born again because he loves Jesus and not just because he wants to escape hell I believe at the moment of new birth it's possible that most people would have surrendered everything to Christ everything that they know Lord take my whole life now some people are not like that I know but many people without knowing it they say Lord you can take my whole life and then but then over a period of time it's sort of they begin to lock off certain rooms and see some of you when you were first born again you probably never watched any movies at all then after a while slowly you opened the door and it slid one or two DVDs under the door and it came to a point I'm not saying that Jesus would walk out if you watch any movie but when he sees a certain type of movie you're watching he goes out of the door and that door which was once occupied by the Spirit is no longer occupied by the spirit you didn't tell him to get out but you invited something in which he quietly left or it may be another area in the area of money where you did something wrong or unrighteous and he left that room but the day you were converted everything was the Lord's but little by little some of those doors got shut off not shut off the spirit left but you're still forgiven you love Jesus you're not filled with the Holy Spirit to be filled with the Holy Spirit means every area of my life I've sent Spirit of God it's yours even those difficult areas or areas where is seeking I'm seeking my own honor I want you to show me there's a single door that I've kept locked from inside I don't want it he says I stand at the door and knock so when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we can prophesy so when a person gets up and speaks see prophecy is called like a light 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 19 we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place the prophetic word is like a lamp that shines in a dark place and how much when you speak God's Word how much of it will be of God and how much will be of yourself that's easy to find out if you've got ten rooms in your heart and you've given one of them to God I'll tell you that if you speak for ten minutes one minute will be from God nine minutes will be yourself why because you give only one room in your heart to Christ another chap who's given all ten rooms to Christ all 10 minutes what he says will be from God so the choice is yours see we're not teaching your techniques in public speaking that's not that's alright for politicians and film actors and school competitions but here we are talking about prophecy prophecy means the Old Testament it meant predicting the future in the New Testament it means speaking forth what God has laid on your heart speaking forth the Word of God so all of us can do it because all of us read the Bible and God says something to you even a young believer I'll pour out my spirit your sons and daughters will prophesy see what it says in Romans 12 about prophecy you got to understand prophecy as just speaking forth the Word of God and there are some who can do that more and some less Romans 12 verse 6 since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us each of us must exercise them accordingly if prophesy according to the proportion of his faith that means a person who has full faith in Christ is one who has given every room is to Christ and I trust you completely Lord I trust you come so completely that you can have all my time all my money and all the DVDs I have and all the TV channels I have and you control the remote ride it's all you or yours I have faith that you will guide me to the best the person who doesn't have full faith in Christ will say yeah I know Lord that in some areas you can guide me but in certain areas I think if I choose myself it will be better so ok fine God doesn't kick you out of heaven for that but your proportion of your faith is less like I said one room in ten then prophesy according to the proportion of your faith means if another person can speak twenty minutes maybe you can speak only two minutes you don't have to be silent if you have opened your life to Spirit of Christ you can say something but according to the proportion of your faith you know the story of the talents how one man took one and make ten another man made five another man just kept one so when the master came back even though they all started with one one had ten one at five one had one so he they go to the market to buy something this chap can bite ten times more than this job who's got only one so is that some principle like that when you share the Word of God maybe three of you were converted on the same day ten years ago but one person is ten times ahead of you today and he can share ten times more than what you can share because he's opened his life more to Christ that is what determines the quality of your sharing now if we depend only on our cleverness you know then of course whoever is more intelligent and clever can find clever thoughts from the scriptures and the world is full of clever thoughts in Jesus time also there were people with clever thoughts they were called the scribes brilliant people which study the scriptures and come out with all types of ideas from it and you can also come out with all types of bright ideas when you read the scriptures or you heard somebody else and a scribe is someone who will listen to others analyze it process it and put it forth as if it is his own message but see what Jesus said in Matthew 13 verse 52 the scribe Matthew 1352 the scribe must become a disciple and when the scribe becomes a disciple in God's kingdom then he can bring out from the treasures of God's Word from the Old Covenant and the New Covenant wonderful truths if he has become a disciple if he's only a scribe he will just say clever things because he's a very intelligent person and that other person was in the church is not so clever so he doesn't get such clever ideas when he reads the Bible so prophecy is not the same as scribes preaching that's why I say you've got to start with being filled with the Holy Spirit say Lord my whole life is yours I want to live for you I and live like that all the time you know you can be filled with the Spirit one day and not filled with the Spirit the next day just one particular area where you don't keep your conscience clear and you lost the power of the Spirit immediately or some area where you don't set things right with somebody you may be saved still not saying you lose your salvation but you lost the fullness of the Holy Spirit I think a lot of young people don't value the fullness of the Holy Spirit enough they imagine oh yeah I'm filled in Holy Spirit because years ago I had an experience where I spoke in tongues it may be true but it's all gone today so that's the first thing now I'll show you another version Ecclesiastes I like the Living Bible paraphrase over that's why I read in the Living Bible please yes is in Chapter 12 and verse 9 this is a very beautiful passage so let me read it to you like this the preacher was a wise man we can there's a difference between wisdom and knowledge knowledge is information wisdom is how to apply that information in practical life a lot of people have knowledge you have no wisdom Bible knowledge without wisdom wisdom is okay this wonderful truth I'm gripped by how does it apply in my practical life the preacher was a wise man he was giving people wisdom practical application he went on teaching people all that he knew he didn't hold back anything everything that he knew he shared with people he didn't want any credit for it he just wanted to share everything he had with others that's the reason why we share everything on the Internet we're not worried if they take it and preach it as if it is their own let them do it we want to share with the whole world everything God's given us and so as you grow that'll be more you may start with a cup and finally become a river many years later and it says here he collected proverbs and classified them he pondered searched out pondered means he thought about it God has given us a wonderful mind and when you read scripture you must think about it ponder search out means you study the scriptures you compare Scripture with Scripture search out ponder then you compare this with that and if you really want to speak God's Word brother or sister you got to study God's Word in your spare time if you're a student don't neglect your college studies if you are working don't neglect your work but in the extra time you have even if it's only 15 minutes a day study the Scriptures I have many times said to people you can get a copy of what we have here through the New Testament verse by verse it's different from through the Bible so the Bible is short through the New Testament is five or six hundred hours every single verse from Matthew 1 to Revelation the last verse study you need only 15 minutes a day in three years you don't appear to be like a Bible School education so search ponder search and then it says he arranged preaching is like serving food if you go to a good housewife how she's cooked somebody invites you who wants to honor you at a lunch see how their table is arranged see how the salad is arranged how the carrots are cut up into little small pieces and put in a circle it doesn't give you more nutrition because it's put in a circle even if it's all a big hodgepodge it'll as far as your body is concerned it's same for example supposing I invite you for a meal and I but I said this is one ball and in that ball is the rice and the curry and the pickle and the populum and the vegetables and the meat and the ice cream and the coffee everything is in what I say ultimately is going down to your stomach man what does it matter take it I think what you'll say is brother I'm not feeling very hungry today and I won't blame you I know it's all going to be in the stomach mixed up but let it get mixed up in the stomach but when I see it there's something attractive about it being arranged like that and I'll tell you when you share God's Word it's good to arrange your thoughts like that it goes across much better and that's why I say don't try to speak without any notes unless you got a lot of experience otherwise it's better to plan ahead and you don't have to read the whole thing but just write down three or four points classify them it says arrange them and then the next thing it says is the preacher was not only a wise man he was a good teacher he not only taught the people correct truth but he taught it in an interesting manner we have to teach in an interesting way delightful words it says here see even if you're teaching the greatest truth from the Bible the people are bored and they're not listening to you what's the point speaking you might have speak to an empty room you have to speak in a way that is interesting to that person and that's something you can develop you know you know you think of yourself sometimes the person sitting over there listening to you who's that interesting and I feel a lot of people have turned away from scripture because they see this is a boring book and certainly one ministry our church has is to tell people it's not a boring book it's an interesting book that's one reason I did 70 hours through every book in the Bible to say every book is interesting every book has got a practical application for us today so you may not have that knowledge of Scripture doesn't mind you're not called to be a teacher like me but even the little that you share even if you speak only two minutes don't bore people with them heavy monotonous type of tone it must be and this I don't say this will come in one day but in the in the beginning when you stand up there in the pulpit you're nervous I was nervous too it's like the first day you learned to swim you're scared mm-hmm to stand in a pulpit is like being thrown into the swimming pool and you don't know how to swim and especially if you're thrown in the deep end it's something like that standing in a pulpit is being thrown into the deep end and you don't know anything and you have to wait till somebody pulls you out but after a while you've learned so don't be disturbed because oh I'm so nervous I'm so scared children are scared when they first take them to the pool but they learn much quicker than adults and the younger you are the sooner you can get over that nervousness and little by little by little you get over it and you say now I have to concentrate more on really sharing and something that'll be interesting for people to hear and where the Word of God is coupled with practical application it really be like that then it goes on to say hmm the wise man's words verse 11 are gods that spur to action like something that Spurs somebody to action you know when we were riding horses in the military you could they were the horses are trained so that you give a little push near their belly and they gallop or you pull it bridle and they slow down you've got that horse to gallop now don't just caught a little trot so God's Word must be something that Spurs a person to action that's what it says here the wise man's words are like gods that spur to action and they nail down important truths that means here's a truth a piece of wood kept on top of this and you take a nail and hammer it down it's fixed truth must be like that nails nails down that important truth and then finally it says students are wise who master what that teachers tell them a student is wise if he masters for his teacher tells him but my son verse 12 be warned there is no end of opinions ready to be expressed and I've seen that in many sharing meetings I don't mean here but in many house meetings I find that people just get up and share their opinions there's no end of it this is what I think I say nobody wants to hear what you think let's hear the word of God no end of opinions to be expressed and studying those opinions can go on forever verse 12 living Bible and become very exhausting and I've been in meetings like that where people give their opinion it's really exhausting you feel exhausted at the end of ten minutes so here is my final conclusion fear God and obey His commandments it's a beautiful passage on sharing God's Word so I want to encourage all of you to seek whenever you get time to go before God and say Lord I want to open my whole life whole life to you I won't be filled to the Holy Spirit and I want to study God's Word you remember this preachers studied God's Word studied it searched meditated and compared and arranged it I remember in the early days I used to keep a notebook and write down so many pages and pages of notes sites to write as I studied the scriptures and I still have some of them today my first Bible I used to write a lot in the Bible itself so that I could use it when ice preached and it's a good habit to write down something like for example when you're taking I've told people and you take a Bible when you're studying the Bible with one of these through the Bible or through the New Testament keep a little notebook and don't write every word you don't need to write every word but the main points that strike you and later on when you want to study that book you just got to look up the notebook what you heard for one hour you can finish in five minutes by looking through your one-page that's yet one is you're writing down because we tend to forget oh even two three years later you forgot what you heard that's why we need to hear again and again again so if you write it down you can refer to it easily so to be a good good sharer of God's Word you need a little discipline in your life to do these things but it'll help you a lot do you think you would pass in your examinations at school or college if you didn't have a little discipline to study and do your homework so you do that five six days a week spend a little time studying God's Word one last thing most important of all next to being filled with the Holy Spirit is to love people if you love the persons who are sitting in front of you say Lord I really love these people I want to share something maybe many of them are more mature than you that's okay but I love them and I want to share something that'll help them even a young person can sometimes share something that blesses an older person I've seen that many times you all know that there was a court case against our church some years ago it started about 1112 years 11 years ago I think and I remember when we were surprised when the court case came I got a small email from my youngest son Sunil he was what 22 then he said dad you have to leave this court case with God let him deal with it and you carry on doing what God called you to do which is preach the word don't let this distract you in any way if you allow this to distract you maybe the court case will finish after some time 10 years or so but you would not have accomplished what God wanted you to do and then even if you win the case the devil would have won because he distracted you for 10 years so I said thank you my son I'll obey that exhortation I'll tell you I'm trying to do that so therefore in all these 10 years I never canceled one meeting I went every place where I went I was supposed to go I went and there are other brothers sometimes who I remember one young brother in Tamil Nadu once in one meeting at the end of a conference he said I heard in this meeting brother Zack saying that all of you have a few people whom only you know nobody else in this room knows the few whom only you know and that's your little world he said I got a light on that that God so loved that little world of the few people I know that he sent his all his son which is me into that little world so that none of those people should perish but have eternal life I never heard a light on John 3:16 like that so you see how he got light had blessed me I haven't forgotten it for years I remember another brother who can't even speak English sharing in one meeting how it is important to be crushed for God to make us what he wants us to be he says think of the wheat that goes into the grinder and gets crushed and we make a chapati out of it and we enjoy it and eat it but supposing in the middle of that there was one grain of wheat that refused to be crushed and came out in the midst of this wheat flour as a grain of wheat and even when it is kneaded into the dough it still remained the Korowai a grain of wheat and it was cooked still remains a grain of wheat and you eat it and you feel it what do you do spit it out this is that's what will happen if you're not broken in the final day boy I never forgotten that that is a brother who can't speak English so there are people who are simple people who are gripped I remember another brother saying I was a bust I'm a bus driver and this matter of don't take revenge on anybody I'll tell you how it comes to me his I Drive the bus down the road and that guy comes at me at night with bright headlights not doesn't dim it I feel like shining my bright bus headlights on his face to teach him a lesson anybody was driven a car knows that temptation but he says I'm a Christian so I won't do it I won't take a revenge see he got light on vengeance is mine says the Lord we don't think in terms of headlights in terms of vengeance but there are many ways what I'm saying is that there are little things he spoken only for one minute I haven't forgotten it for years and I'm sure after that I was careful with my headlights do you know how we can help one another so don't think that what you say is unimportant don't hesitate if you love people say Lord I don't want to show these people I'm a great preacher I just want to bless them with what you're given me hmm the sharing time is like a potluck dinner you know what a potluck dinner is everybody brings something and we enjoy it all together okay let's pray Heavenly Father I pray that all these young people will be helped by the little they heard today and never to feel that they can reach the mountain peak in one day or one year or even ten years but to start climbing so that they will be effective witnesses of Christ by their words encourage them we pray in Jesus name Amen

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Length: 41min 36sec (2496 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 17 2014