Motivated By Love by Zac Poonen

what's on my heart is from second Corinthians in Chapter three because many years after I was born again many years after I was baptized and many years after I was baptized in the spirit and many years after I came into full-time Christian work that I understood what it was to be a servant of the New Covenant now one would have thought that's almost the first thing that one should learn as soon as particularly if you're going into full-time Christian work but I never knew I never had a spiritual father to guide me so it took me more than 16 years our privates born again to really understand and to begin to understand what it is to be a servant of the New Covenant Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 3 that verse 5 we are not adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves anchors in 3 verse 5 but our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant not of the letter but of his spirit for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life so there is such a thing as being a servant of a new covenant and the opposite of that would be being a servant of the Old Covenant and I never had dawned on me in those early years of my Christian life that the Old Covenant had been abolished in Christ it had become obsolete I just want to show you a couple of verses in that connection in Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 13 when he said a new covenant he has made the first obsolete well whatever is becoming obsolete is ready to disappear and earlier on in Chapter 7 if that first covenant the old covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion thought for a second so there was something defective about the old covenant that's what it says here it was faulty can God give a covenant which is faulty it's not because it was any fault in God it's not like some new model of a car that people make after rectifying the defects in the previous model the Old Covenant and the law is given with a particular purpose man was not ready to live and serve God the way he's supposed to no one in the Old Covenant could serve God in the way God really wanted it was impossible till the Holy Spirit came to dwell within man on the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit could not dwell within man in all those Old Testament years because the heart of man could not be cleansed in Old Testament times you never read of anyone whose heart was cleansed sin was not cleansed in the Old Testament it was forgiven 3,000 years ago David could sing bless the Lord O my soul who forgives all your sins he could also write blessed is the man whose sin is covered it was covered forgiven but not cleansed the heart was never cleansed and the Spirit of God could not dwell within a heart that was not cleansed he could come upon people like Samson Gideon but he couldn't change that you know the great thing about the New Covenant is you're familiar with that verse jesus said if anyone thirsts let him come to me he who believes in me from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water now very often people speak about the rivers of living water it's a picture of service a river serves millions of people it flows and flows and flows endlessly think of the rivers that God has created in every continent and if you look at the old civilizations they all gathered round a river because they needed water and jesus said that everyone who believes in him that's you and me he who believes in me heart of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water and this he spoke about this is John 7:37 239 this he spoke about the Holy Spirit which those who believed in him would receive for the Spirit was not yet given at John 7 39 because Jesus was not yet glorified until Jesus died and shed his blood and went before the Father purchasing our Redemption nobody could have the Holy Spirit dwelling in him the first human being that walked on this earth through the Spirit of God dwelling within was Jesus Christ when he came to earth as a man and so in Christ we see the way God wanted Adam to live it's not most Christians think of Christ dying on the cross that's great that's why we begin our Christian life but God allowed him to live on earth for thirty-three years to show us how God wanted all his children to live there are Old Testament prophecies in Isaiah particularly after chapter 40 where you find this expression behold my see in Chapter 242 chapter 52 behold my servant is though the prophetic references to Christ there was the first servant of the New Covenant Jesus is called a mediator of a new covenant you are all you would all say that you're serving God are you serving as an Old Covenant servant or a new covenant servant makes all the difference let's turn to Deuteronomy 28 and you're trying to meet 28 it's a wonderful chapter it teaches us how people served under the Old Covenant the Lord told them if you obey all my Commandments 28 verse 1 I'll bring all these blessings upon you verse 2 onwards right up to verse 14 if you obey me I'll bless you and verse 15 onwards if you don't obey me then you have all those verses all the way to the end of the chapter of all the curses and the sicknesses and the poverty and all types of things that would come upon them if they did not obey God treated people in the Old Testament exactly like we treat our children and bring bringing up our children he loved them like we love our children but a dad a father and mother they don't say to that child if you love me obey me because most children won't respond to that it's the threat of punishment and the hope of reward that makes little children obey and that's what we see here the promise of reward if you obey like parents would say well if you do this I'll give you something I'll take you somewhere or buy something for you I'll get your bicycle Lord give you a chocolate or something a reward by which we get their obedience for discipline if you don't obey me well I'll now to give you a spanking that's the rest of Deuteronomy 28 that is basically the way old covenant servants obeyed if they obeyed they look forward to a reward from God and they were afraid that if they didn't obey they'd be punished whereas when you come to the New Covenant Jesus said in John 14 and verse 12 sorry verse 15 John 14 verse 15 if you love me keep my Commandments it's an altogether different basis it's not if you want a reward keep my Commandments or if you don't want to be punished keep my Commandments if you love me keep my Commandments and when the Lord wanted to recommission Peter after Peter had failed the Lord denied in three times there was only one question that he asked him Peter had caught this tremendous catch of fish the Lord shall indeed in John 21 and he never had such a big catch in all his life and the Lord looked at Peter and said do you love me more than all this more than all the fish you caught and all the money you can make from fish and etc etc do you love me more than everything else on earth if so you Shepherd my sheep and three times he asked him that question and his ministry was to be based on I mean if you stop loving me forget it yeah I don't want you to serve I wonder whether we recognize that the moment we stopped loving the Lord our service has no more value for the Lord zero now that was not true in the Old Testament in the Old Testament you could not have loved and still serve faithfully a lot of people did God accepted it for example when they gave their tights to God there was no law in the Old Testament that said you must give your ten percent cheerfully a man could come with the long face to the temple and say oh I don't feel like giving this but here it is the ten percent it kept the law because it was a letter that he had to keep this is what he had to do and he did it whereas when you come to the New Testament it's not how much we give there is no commandment in the New Testament about paying a tithe and some people say well if grace is greater than law so if they gave ten percent under the law you must give 20 percent under the New Covenant these are all human ideas in the Old Covenant it was how much you gave that determined whether you were accepted in the New Covenant it is how you give not how much 2nd Corinthians 9 verse 7 says God loves a cheerful Giver so if I don't give and serve out of love it has no value before God if there's a inner complaint in my heart about something I'm asked to do for the Lord either by the Lord Himself or by someone whom the Lord has placed over me from that moment onwards my service has no value before God I can do it and I can do it perfectly according to the letter its value before God is zero that's what it means to be a servant of the New Covenant and you see that when the Lord evaluates the church in Ephesus I always call this the second letter to the Ephesians revelation chapter 2 we know the first letter to Ephesians was written by Paul Revelation chapter 2 the second letter to the Ephesians was written by John and here it's a very brief letter Revelation chapter 2 verse 1 to 7 and think of all the good qualities this leader this messenger the eveni read angel it means messenger the messenger of the church he think of the good qualities he has you read in verse 2 I know your deeds he's working for the Lord toil toil means he's perspiring in his work for the Lord and perseverance he's gritting his teeth and holding on in tough times and he cannot endure evil men he worked solely with godly people I mean when you look at that you say hey I've got all these qualities and you put to the test those who claim to be apostles and you found them to be false you're very particular about doctrinal purity you don't allow any false teachers to come along and teach you heresy and again you have perseverance repeated a second time that means there was something outstanding about here was a servant of God who was working toiling persevering and refusing to associate with ungodly people in his work and very strict about doctrine that he would not allow any false teachers to come into that church and again persevering and enduring in the midst of all the trials for Jesus name verse three and you have not grown weary I say if you meet a servant of God like that you say boy that guy is really hold hard think what he's gone through and he's wholehearted radical and yet the Lord says to him but I've got something against you and it's not a small thing you have left your first love you don't love me as you did it first you're still doing these things but years ago you remember you did it because you love me fervently but that's gone the letter is still there the work continues what that love is gone is this a small failure no verse five it says remember from where you have fallen your fallen would you consider this person who's persevering and toiling and keeping doctrinal purity and refusing to work with ungodly people and enduring for the lord's sake would you see such a person has fallen if you see a Christian worker like that when you say he's fallen I doubt God does not see as man sees man looks on the outward appearance God looks at the heart this true in the Old Testament where it's written it's even more true today we will discover when we when the Lord comes and we stand before him there are a lot of things that we thought were wonderful were not so wonderful in God's eyes see in the Old Testament they had evil works and good works that's all only two types of works like the tree of knowledge of good and evil but in the New Covenant you have evil works good works and dead works it's a new covenant phrase something that occurs only in the New Testament and most Christians don't know what dead works are dead works are good works done without love for the Lord very good works it could be very sacrificial works but it is not originated in a heart of love you know it's like what happens in marriage with many people the first day they're married the first year of sword they really devoted each other look forward to the husband coming back from work and want to sit together and have their meals and all that and you go into that same home ten years later while the wife is still cooking the food and doing everything but it's not the same there's no delight in her face when she sees her husband come back she still does the work it's no complaint about anything she does but it's not the same and I've seen this in so many many many Christian workers missionaries in India in all these fifty-two years that I've been a believer I've looked at I've seen believers who been believers 4050 years and they're old now and I see them grumpy and sour and critical and unhappy and I said Lord don't let me ever grow to become an old man like that I never want to be like that why is that they've kept a letter you can't find anything wrong with a letter or what they're doing they've doctrinally they're totally uncompromising they refuse to work with unconverted people they will only have born-again people with whom they work everything is good but you left your first love and it's a fall it's such a great fall then the Lord tells this messenger in Ephesus this is so serious that I'm going to let me paraphrase those words in revelation 2:5 I'm going to remove the lampstand means the lampstand is the church it's a picture of the church as we read in previous chapter I'm going to dear eka guys you as a church you can still continue there in Ephesus with your 1000 members and the fundamental in doctrine and regular meetings and conferences wonderful praise and worship and everything else great speakers from the pulpit and everybody in in Ephesus thinks you're a wonderful Church of Jesus Christ but the Lord says I've D recognized you will the Lord D recognize the church and its leader just because the guy lost his love for Jesus even though he's doing everything else faithfully can't complain about anything that he does his doctrine is right its activities writings alice's perspiring his enduring we need to take that seriously I fear that many Christians do not read the Bible carefully they don't read it slowly do you know that we have no understanding of God outside the Bible outside of these sixty-six books any idea or concept we have of God is totally wrong it may sound very logical and wise but it is wrong and if you want to know what God is like you can only find it in this book if you want to know what Christ thinks about your life and your work you can find the answer only here nowhere else and I've sought to live by this I'm not I many years ago I went through a crisis in my life where I said Lauren I will this was about 35 years ago I decided that I would never never speak what was not real in my life inwardly never I had before that I was confessed that I was speaking a lot of things are not true in my inner life like a lot of preachers do when I got so tired of it about 36 37 years ago I said Lord I will not continue in the ministry I will quit I have gift I have ability I can preach and I can move people emotionally but I have one big disqualification my inner life does not correspond with what I am speaking the way I live at home with my wife losing my temper etc does not correspond with what I am preaching and therefore I do not want to continue as a hypocrite I said that to the Lord 37 years ago unless you do one thing for me unless you asked for make my inner life correspond with what I speak and with my the external impression I give to people by what I say that's all I ask for I'm not asking for any supernatural gifts or any such thing now I want to say I sought the Lord for a long time I said Lord I will not if you don't do this for me I'm not going to quit being a Christian I'll still be a Christian I'm going to sit in the back bench in some church and be a good Christian but I will not speak because I see in your word how you hated hypocrites how you denounce those who preach things which they did not do and I don't want to be in that category and I'll tell you my brothers and sisters the Christian world is full of such preachers I have moved closely with many many preachers certainly in India and I tell you it's true unfortunately and why does it happen because we care for the approval of men more than the approval of God there's only one way God can approve you and me and that is if we love Jesus and then even if a little that we do out of love of the Lord means a lot more to him then a lot that we do so wonderfully if you have lost our love for him that's what we read here in revelation 2 and that's why Jesus told Peter do you love me he didn't ask him do you know the Scriptures and however you know the Scriptures I mean have you read through Genesis to Malachi no such questions it doesn't matter if you haven't read through Genesis to Malachi which is the only Bible those days do you love me if you love me you're qualified to Shepherd my sheep 10 my lambs take care of my sheep so love for Christ is the fundamental thing if you love me keep my Commandments don't do it for any other reason God has made us servants of a new covenant out of the innermost being the rivers of living water must flow which means that the springs of that service come from within whereas the Old Testament service we could say was like water being poured over a person you know if someone were to pour something over me it would flow out from my body but it wouldn't come from inside me all Old Covenant service was like that the Spirit came upon people and a lot of Christian workers like that there's a lot of activity but it doesn't come from within whereas Jesus said in the New Covenant from your innermost being more than the phrase the rivers of living water we need to think of the previous phrase from the innermost being that's the thing that's going to distinguish the New Covenant but it's very often when I have heard people caught John 7 verse 38 the emphasis is on the rivers of living water rivers of living water will flow out from your rivers illumina but the emphases I've saw after many years was it's where's got to come from is it going to be flowing over me and flowing out or is it coming from within is it just a lot of activity or is it springing out from love is that important that's the first question well you read the second letter to the Ephesians and see if it's important its fundamental absolutely important in fact the Lord would say if you don't love me forget it I don't want your service God doesn't love a chef one who doesn't give cheerfully even when he give is not just talking about money any service is also what I give god loves one who serves cheerfully if I serve with complaints and critical attitudes in my heart it has no value before God I can impress men but there's no value before God and that's why it's so important for us to preserve that love Jesus said in the last days Matthew 24 because iniquity will abound lawlessness will increase Matthew 24:12 most people's love will grow cold now that's not talking about unbelievers because unbelievers have no love for the Lord there's no question of their love growing cold because unbelievers don't have any love at all for Christ who are these people whose love was once hot and has now become cold it must be referring to believers it must be referring to people who were fervent in love for Jesus once but a lot of other things come up in the last days it's particularly speaking about the last days in those days most people's love will grow cold now when I read a word like that how do I react to it Lord I'm living in those last days and you say most people's love will grow cold how how am I so sure that I'm not in that category of the most people am I so sure that I'm in this category the very few whose love will not grow cold let me have a sober estimate of myself so when you think when we think about loving the Lord I mean this is the area where I tried to through these years sought to preserve myself I've many times I've sought to examine my own heart in the light of what I read in Revelation - constantly I say Lord I never never want to live one single day beyond my love for thee you know that song or Sacred Heart now wounded with grief and shame break down this one line that keeps ringing in my mind Lord let me never never outlive my love for thee that means let me never live to any day beyond am i having love for you I've lost my love I don't want to live beyond that let me never never outlive my love for thee so then I have thought how can I preserve my love for Jesus Christ I think many of us if you were to look back to the first time you surrendered your life to Christ you would possibly say that you were so devoted to the Lord in those days it wasn't a burden to read the scriptures or to serve to the joy but over a period of time the work of the Lord has become routine this is what I'm scared of I say Lord it must never be like that my life I want to be fervent in love for you even more today than I was when I was converted 52 years ago doesn't matter if I don't do so many things but the little that's done out of love and what the Lord values that is gold silver and precious stones I think this is one of the things that's going to determine whether our work is going to be wood hay and straw our gold silver and precious stones you know that verse 1 Corinthians 3 where it says that every man's work will become evident in the final day 1 Corinthians 3 verse 12 if a man builds the foundation is Christ verse 11 we can't change that he's talking about born-again people who have been saved their foundation is Christ on that foundation now they are seeking to serve the Lord and the service can be with gold silver and precious stones verse 12 or with wood hay and straw what is the thing that makes a difference between these two and the day will declare it each man's work will become manifest because it will be revealed by fire and it speaks here of the possibility in verse 14 that a man's work may remain or verse 15 that a man's work will be burned up two possibilities our work the foundation is not affected you're safe you're going to spend eternity in heaven well I'll tell you honestly I don't want to just spend eternity in heaven I want to get there having expressed my love for Christ in a lifetime of service that's the best where I can put it having expressed my love for Christ not just in words on Sunday mornings but in a lifetime of service and when I get there I don't want to see my Lord burning up everything I didn't say there's all worthless I said Lord worthless you know do you know how much I sacrificed to do all that for you is it possible that a person who's gone through a lot of inconvenience is gonna find as well his work burnt up in the final day wood hay and straw I mean this is Scripture but he's saved it says very clearly in verse 15 the guy is saved he saved but his entire life's work is destroyed what is the reason I think the reason could be I didn't do it out of love he left his friend he lost his first love when you come to the last Church in Revelation that's the Church in Laodicea you're familiar with that church where the Lord says to that church in chapter 3 you're neither hot nor cold but you're lukewarm I think it's again referring to the same love that he spoke to the Ephesian elders about there was a time when you were fervently in love for me you didn't know the Bible so much those days when you were converted but you really loved me today many years later you're well versed in the scriptures you can preach you couldn't preach the day you were converted you hardly knew anything you done so much but your love is gone what's the use of all that Bible knowledge you've got a name for yourself now because you've done so much of Christian work the day you were converted nobody knew your name but you know you were better than because you loved me men may think you're very important and great today because you know the Scriptures and you're doing so many things for God but it doesn't have any value for me I wish you were hot or cold that means if you don't love me forget it go right out in the world live the way you want to it's amazing that the Lord says to that church in Revelation 3:15 I wish you were called I wish you were just a worldly person with no interest in things of the Lord if you want to live for God live wholeheartedly in love for him so thinking about that how is how can I increase in love for Jesus 1 John chapter 4 it says in verse 19 we love him because he first loved us the more I understand Christ's love for me the more I will love him and the more I meditate on that the more I think of how much he loved me I'll tell you my honest testimony before God it's a thing I started doing when I was 50 when I was first born again 52 years ago which I still do today meditate on how much Jesus loved me on the cross what he gave up for me and I find spontaneously love for him counters service for him is never a drudgery I may not be able to do as much as others it doesn't matter God has given me certain limitations that's all I can only do within those limitations I'm not in competition with anyone I want to preserve my settlement love to the end and I find thee one way is to meditate on his love for me especially his love on the cross I've spent years meditating on the love for Jesus had for me on the cross which I wonder whether everyone has understood fully I remember the time where the Lord showed me that what Jesus experienced on Calvary was the hell that I was to experience for all eternity if I had died in my sins I hadn't seen it like that for many years I mean Christ died for my sins I only thought of the physical aspect of that death you know and that's the thing that moves most Christians the whipping and the crown-of-thorns and nailing and we shed tears and we think of the blood that was shed etc but I tell you that that was nothing compared to what he really went through because the punishment for my sin is not physical death if the punishment for my sin were physical death when I died I paid the punishment for sin myself so if Jesus only physically died for me is that the punishment for sin I used to think of that you know in India when I finally I'm witnessing to a intelligent non-christian who knew the Bible and I told him that listen your sins can be forgiven because Christ died for you and if you were intelligent and he knew the Bible and he asked me this question he'd say well is physical death the punishment for my sin you say that Jesus died physically on the cross for my sin is that the punishment for my sin and if I say yes he'd say well then when I die physically I paid the price I should go to heaven what do you answer to that then I say no the punishment for your sin is eternal hell then he will ask did Jesus take my punishment did he really suffer eternally hell otherwise happening deliver me very logical sensible right question and that's what Jesus endured when he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me for those three hours he endured in three hours what I was supposed to endure for eternity in hell because he turneth all hell concentrated into three hours on the cross and he could do that because he was an infinite being he couldn't because he's in finite we are finite he was in finite and so he could endure in three hours what I would endure for eternity were billions of human beings would endure for eternity it was concentrated into three hours and he was forsaken by the father and see we don't understand what an agony it is to be forsaken by the father because so often our fellowship with the father is broken and we take it lightly you know you have a tension with the brother or attention with your husband or wife and you don't set it right immediately you wait for a few hours before you set it right during those hours your fellowship with the father is broken well you know it or not but it doesn't disturb you so much for me because we haven't valued fellowship with the father for Jesus it was the most precious thing of all and that's the cup which he said and gets M&E father I don't want to drink it I mean he would have gone to a million calories for you and me the physical aspect of it any day but when he thought of father you and I had polished for eternal ages and I'm gonna lose it for three hours isn't there any other way I remember many years ago meditating on this and it really opened my eyes to something I saw the love of Jesus and gets M&E a lot of people think of the love of Jesus in Calvary the Lord showed me his love and get cemani where he was struggling and I can imagine a conversation between the father and Jesus it's imaginary but I think something went on like this the father says you don't have to go to the cross you never sinned you can come up to heaven straight from Gethsemane but Zach will go to hell then the Lord says okay father for his sake I'll go the day I saw that it really broke me I saw how much Jesus loved me Gethsemane and what he underwent on the cross the physical agony and suffering and always a drop in the ocean compared to what he went through on the cross it was love that held him there and it produced such love in my heart we we love him because he first loved us if you think he loved you a little you love him a little if you understand the depth of his love you can never lose your love for him ministry will flow out of your love it will not be the primary thing for you I've often said that to the Lord Lord you've given me a ministry but that's not the most important thing for me you are more important you know think of Isaac Isaac was God's gift to Abraham and God told Abraham to send away Ishmael we can understand that because this mail was not God's promised seed okay but Isaac why in the world would God asked Abraham to give up Isaac good even that which God gives can become an idol and it's very easy for a ministry to become an idol a god-given ministry like I seek to become an idol and I used to sometimes say Lord I don't want any Idol in my life I don't want money to be an idol I don't want the approval of men to be an idol those things I can see there are dangers that but ministry can that mean I need yes so I would use my imagination and say supposing the Lord were to paralyze me or take away my voice and I can't speak anymore I'm paralyzed and lying in bed helpless I said Lord that's quite okay I have no lust for ministry I align that barren love you or if I'm locked up in a prison for preaching the gospel fine I can sit in that prison and love you ministry is not the most important thing though I love it and I long to serve Him it is not an idol for me Christ Himself is the one I love that must be like that for all of us brothers and sisters we love him because he first loved us I think of that expression and Song of Solomon it says who is this the bride leaning upon her beloved coming out of the wilderness this is a picture I always have in my mind of me and Jesus and all our service comes out of that the second thing I just want to say two things one is we love Him because He first loved us the second reason why we love the Lord is what Jesus said in Luke 7 you remember that sinful woman came and washed his feet I'm not washed his feet anointed his feet with an expensive bottle of perfume now it's very obvious that that woman was a prostitute when it says there was a woman in the city was a sinner I mean everybody's a sinner but when it says this moon was a sinners referring to someone who was an immoral woman and she was obviously forgiven she met the Lord somewhere in forgiving and she was so delighted and she did not express love for the Lord if she was a Israelite and she was unsure and if she had known anything about the law she would have known there's an Old Testament law Deuteronomy 23 verse 18 which says you cannot bring the earnings that you get as a prostitute into the house of the Lord it was forbidden in Deuteronomy 23 to bring the earnings of a prostitute to the house of the Lord but she said what else do I have all the money I have I've earned as a prostitute I want to show my love for Jesus and I don't know about the law but I'll take this if the Lord rejects me well I'm good but I want to show my love for him and she went and spent all that money bought a perfume and poured it at the feet of Jesus did Jesus accept her of course Jesus wasn't a legalist going by the letter of the law when he saw that woman caught in adultery the law said clearly that such women should be stoned the only condition jesus said was that let the one who is without sin throw the first stone that's all he said he didn't say don't stoner that would have been against the law and when all the pharisees left there was still one man left who was without sin who could throw a stone and that was Jesus but Jesus doesn't throw stones he's got no stones in his pockets creatures have stones when they stand in the pulpit but not Jesus he doesn't throw stones at anybody he didn't come here to throw stones and when this woman brought something in complete violation of scripture Jesus accepted it the love of God is broader than the measure of man's mind we make all types of rules which God would never accept and you look into the heart of God you'll find the heart full of compassion not one that was gonna pick faults with people for some little thing here or some little thing there that's human nature but Simon the Pharisee was not like that he knew the worst in Deuteronomy some people think they're very spiritual because in all the verses in Scripture they may be good Pharisees he said if this man were a property no this woman's a sinner how in the world is he accepting this and then jesus said there was a man who owed a certain moneylender and two people owed him money let's say one man owed him $500,000 another man owed him $50 and when they couldn't pay he forgave them both who will love him more this is the question who will love Jesus more who will love him more and the Simon said the one who's forgiven more he said that's right this woman's been forgiven so much John Luke 7 47 the one who is forgiven little loves little the one who is forgiven much loves much so that's the second thing I learned first of all to love Jesus I must know how much he loved me secondly I must always remember how much I've been forgiven it's not that we are forgiving little how did the Apostle Paul consider himself the chiefest of sinners as he said in 1 Timothy 1 when he said in another place that I've lived all my life with a good conscience Acts 23 how could you live all your life with a good conscience and still be the chiefest of sinners because the closer you get to God you discover all types of things which you never thought were sin when you lived far away from God and so where man lives close to God he really feels is the worst sinner of all because he sees things in his life which most people don't even consider is sin there's nobody who's been forgiven little we can think we've been forgiven little but we've been forgiven much it's been my own experiences I sought to come closer my walk with God many a time I've spontaneously felt lord I am the cheapest of sinners nobody as bad as me because it's not at all difficult for me to know that I've been forgiven much what about you do you feel you've been forgiven much if so you'll love much and your service for the Lord will constantly spring out of love so I do something consciously many times I try to remember every sin that I've committed in my life way back to as far back to my younger days as I can remember and try to recollect you say it's not a good thing not if it brings guilt no I'm absolutely convinced that every sin of mine has been cleansed in the blood of Jesus gone completely are no doubt about it having known that I mean if you're not sure that don't do what I'm saying but if you're absolutely sure that you've been justified redeemed by the blood of Christ every sin in your past life is in blotted out completely you're not guilty before God then would recommend that you remember your past sins because that's how we love the Lord 2nd Peter 1 and verse 9 says if you forget your past sins you will become spiritually blind for it says there say one of the easiest ways to be spiritually blind forget what God forgave you I've seen sometimes Christians are very hard on some other person for doing some small mistake actually this guy's doesn't realize what a sinner he himself is it's so easy for him to judge this other person the more I've seen my own sin in God's eyes it's very difficult for me to judge other people almost impossible I say Lord I'm the chiefest of sinners what do I got to say about him we've become extremely merciful you don't have to struggle to be merciful you don't have complaints against people who you feel are not efficient I remember once in one of our conferences in India I felt some brothers were not doing things very efficiently and the Lord said to me fellowship is more important than efficiency I said okay forget about efficiency I want fellowship with this brother maybe he's not as smart as me let me be compassionate so many wonderful things happen when we preserve our love for Jesus by recognizing how much he loved me and by remembering our own sins let's pray Heavenly Father help us each one help these dear brothers and sisters and each one of us to serve you to the end fervently in love for you we pray in Jesus name

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Length: 53min 38sec (3218 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 18 2011