Thankfulness - Another Mark Of Growth by Zac Poonen

in heaven they're always singing about Jesus death on the cross and we're gonna sing it for all eternity but the interesting thing is it says in Revelation 5 one of the purposes of the book of Revelation is to tell us what heaven is like see a lot of Christians study the book of Revelation to understand what's gonna happen in the future what's gonna happen in the world and the tribulation and the Antichrist and all that well that's also mentioned there but I don't believe that's the primary purpose of the book of Revelation the primary purpose of the book of Revelation is to show us what heaven is like and as I'm studying it it gives us seven glimpses of heaven and every single time and every one of those glimpses they're just praising the Lord all the time there is no grumbling in heaven there's no murmuring there's no complaining there's no unbelief it's only pure praise and worship and you know we're on a journey from not just physically geographically earth to heaven but more from the life of Earth or the life of this world to a heavenly life as a growth and one way we can discover whether we are making progress along that path is by asking ourselves whether there's a little more spirit of Thanksgiving and praise in our life as each year goes by because you know the world is full of murmuring and complaining the whole world is full of murmuring and complaining and in the midst of that God places us let me show you that verse first in Philippians in chapter 2 we've been thinking since last Sunday about you know the shirts been going for five years and what is the evidence of growth and last Sunday we thought about humility and those of you who were not here you could go to the website of this church and hear that message but here in Philippians 2 it says in verse 14 do everything all things is no exception without grumbling or disputing or complaining it's a wonderful way to live imagine what your home will be like if nobody grumbles or complaints in the home we can't now we can't expect that from children my children haven't come to that place where they are free from grumbling so we'll permit them to grumble and complain but the adults in the home should try to get over it and it's a sad thing that Christians who've been Christians for many years there's still a lot of grumbling and complaining disputing in their life and to me that's not the sad thing the sad thing is they're not disturbed by it I say the important thing is not whether you fall into sin the important thing is what is your attitude when you fall that determines whether you're gonna be free from it we may all fall into sin but there are folks who when they fall have such a I mean revulsion and sorrow then they slipped up and fell the other ones will make progress the others take it casually and say well we're human it happens well you'll never make progress you'll be like that all your life so when I see a word like do all things without grumbling and come and he goes on to saying so that I mean this is the way he says that you prove that you're a child of God and blameless innocent child of God so nowadays you know most evangelical Christians they say you prove you're a child of God by saying yeah I accepted Jesus Christ so many years ago into my heart and I got baptized good what came out of it did something good come out of it I mean to go through a ritual of saying Lord Jesus come into my heart a lot of people say that but if there's if there was a it roof it was genuine there would be some growth from there I know in my own life you know I grew up in a very god-fearing home where I heard the gospel from childhood and I must have asked Jesus to come into my heart about a hundred times from the age of 13 or something onwards many times I really don't know even today which of those times was the right one but I know one of those times was the right one because when I was 19 God gave me an assurance that I was saved from one verse in Scripture John 6:37 him that comes to me I'll never cast out and I said lord I come to you a hundred times I never cast you off you got to believe me so that was fifty-seven years ago I just dropped an anchor and I believed my simple faith he had accepted me but I know one thing in all those years of five six years of tossing about am I am I has he coming to my heart I'm not sure I'm not sure there was no growth as long as you're not sure that Jesus has accepted you there will be no growth in your life you will oscillate so that's very important to be sure Christ is coming is important but one mark of growth as I see here is that we get increasingly free from grumbling and complaining in our life because that's a mark of Fame that means I believe that God's working things for my good may not be very pleasant for me but it's my good so it says when you do everything without grumbling and complaining thereby you prove yourself to be blameless and innocent children of God without reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation so in the context what is it that makes this world a crooked perverse generation is full of grumbling and complaining that's what I understand from the context of it that this world is a crooked and a perverse generation because everybody is grumbling and complaining about something or the other and you can see that all around you you can hear it in your offices you can hear it when you mingle with your relatives and friends they're always grumbling and complaining if it's not something in their life it's something in the government or something which other people are doing your new laws and government rules and everything else there's never it never ceases and in the midst of such a grumbling and perverse generation it says here you shine as lights in the world worse fifteen I want to encourage you you know it's what I want you to go quickly through these two verses but take time when you go home to meditate on these these are not popular verses for people to memorize well you you go to churches that memorize verses these are not the verses they usually memorize do all things without grumbling and complaining and that you may be lights in the world but that is what makes me a light in the world and I remember are you now tribe is born again I used to grumble and complain lots of things and once you get married you got more things to grumble and complain apart because you find a lot of things in your partner which is not like you both ways and sometimes it's inward grumbling and complaining its outward rumbling and complaining but I type time came in my life and I got fed up with that and I said Lord this is not the way to live this is not the way for a Christian deliver I don't want to be a Christian who just goes to church and sings songs of praise out there and it's quite a different life at home the week then I'm inconsistent I'm a hypocrite so I want to urge you to take this seriously if you sing and praise the Lord in Sunday morning and go home and live like everybody else in the world you have to say to yourself Lord I am a hypocrite and when I said that about myself I began to get deliverance but as long as I said no no I'm okay I had to save myself so here is the way in which I can be a light in the world I some picture it sometimes like this that God from heaven looks down on this small planet called Earth and he looks at it from heaven and he sees the whole earth is full of darkness grumbling complaining from every corner of the earth from the slums to the billionaires homes something or the other to grumble and complain about and in the midst of this dark world here and there there's some spots of light one home where they don't grumble or complaint here's another one a few thousand miles away another one can imagine the delight it brings to God's heart or here's a person here's one brother here's that sister and if you really want to bring delight to God's heart and you're grateful to all for all that Jesus did for you here's one way you can show your gratitude say Lord I want to be a light in this world for you I want to be one from whose mouth and from whose spirit will never come anything of grumbling you're complaining because I believe in a loving father who may not have done things as I think best but who has done things perfectly according to his wisdom which is superior to mine and who makes everything work together for good now we would think that if this is such an important habit to acquire why didn't God list it as one of the Ten Commandments ever there's no rule in heaven that should be leave Ten Commandments there could be 11 God could have made 11th commandment thou shalt not grumble or complain why didn't he do that in the Old Testament why didn't he add that which is so important because it was impossible under the Old Covenant for anyone to live that life we can compare the Old Covenant to the time to saw the Stone Age in human history where they didn't have electricity they didn't you know electricity makes us run so many things in on earth our home a lot of things run because of electricity almost everything runs because you have electric power can you imagine the things that would stop in your home and not exist if you did just didn't have electricity just take our electric from the home and many things disappear it was like that in the Old Covenant to use an illustration they could they couldn't have washers and dryers and things like that and there's no electricity and therefore they could not live a life in the Old Testament when they didn't have the Holy Spirit filling their heart the Holy Spirit could not live in a human heart that had that was dirty impossible that's why the Holy Spirit could not come into anybody's heart in the Old Covenant and human hearts got cleansed only after Jesus died and shed his blood on the cross I don't know whether you've noticed this that in the Old Testament it always speaks about sin being covered forgiven but covered not cleansed psalm 32 says blessed is the man whose sin is covered it's like the sin is there but God doesn't look at it it's covered with temporarily because it could not be cleansed - Jesus came when Jesus died and shed his blood then there was a full atonement made for my sin see God's a righteous God and even though he loves me as a father he cannot violate his laws of justice like a judge cannot let his son go who's coming to the crime saying oh well I love you my son however much you love you you're a judge and God couldn't let me go just because he loves me he's a judge and she's unless a full atonement is paid for your sin I'm sorry I can't forgive you my chest my son that's why Jesus had to die and pay that price so that now my heart can be cleansed and there's only one condition for my heart to be cleansed and that's to be honest about my sin the only sin in your life that will not be cleansed is the one you're not honestly willing to acknowledge you know if you keep saying I'm okay you'll never be cleansed the thief on the cross said I'm guilty he was cleansed immediately and taken to paradise the guy on the other side felt he wasn't so bad he said take me down from the cross he went to hell what is the difference between the two it was just absolute honesty it's the first thing God requires from us be honest about your sin and don't keep blaming the other person Adam when God came to Adam and asked him did he eat that tree there was only two answers for it yes or no but he didn't use either of those two answers he said my wife is a problem and as long as we are like that we're just following Adam the thief on the cross was the opposite of Adam he said I'm guilty so to say Lord in me I find a lot of this darkness in the world the darkness of grumbling and complaining and we may have thought we are better than people in the world because we go to church on Sunday we read the Bible we sing songs of praise we are better than some of these people in other churches who haven't understood the New Covenant you know we can glory in our understanding I find a lot of Christians really as I've observed them over years they glory in the fact that their understanding of truth is superior to some other group it's a total deception absolute deception if I can sing better or understand better it doesn't mean I'm a better person in fact my responsibility is more to who more is given more is required it's if my life has changed if I grumble and complain then I'm no better than somebody else even if my doctrine is well in fact I'm worse because I have a superior doctrine and I still grumble and complain that guy's a non-christian if he grumbles and complains okay he doesn't know God I claim to know God and only I claim to know God I say I'm not like some of these dead denominations I'm in a good church we call us a new covenant church Wow and I grumble and complain well then the crime is more serious so I need to see that that's why in the New Covenant once our heart is cleansed the Holy Spirit can come in and when the Holy Spirit comes in he helps us to free notice that before you know if you I always say read scripture in his context so before he says do all things without grumbling and complaining which is an impossible command for a worldly person in fact most Christians also don't live by that very way can you expect a worldly person to live by that there's a verse that says before that verse twelve and thirteen and apply verse in twelve and thirteen to this command okay so then my beloved just as you've always obeyed me verse twelve not as in my presence only but in much more map sense work out your salvation okay and I want to take it in this context work out your salvation from grumbling and complaining and disputing try and get saved from it with fear and trembling I want to be saved from grumbling complaining disputing this way of life that characterizes the rest of the world I want to be free from it because that's how I'm going to be a child of God blameless innocent as a light in the world so I want to work out my salvation I have to do it with fear and trembling lest I fall into it it's like walking along a narrow path or the deep ditches on either side there's grumbling one side and complaining the other side I want to avoid both these ditches so I walk with fear and trembling and then it says I'm not alone in this God is at work in you that's the Holy Spirit whenever the Bible speaks about God working outside us outside of us working everything for our good that's a father in heaven working for a good whenever it speaks about God working inside us it's always the holy s--t God is at work inside you to do what to make you will and do his good pleasure so his good pleasure is that I should do everything without grumbling and complaining that's his will and he's working in me to desire that and I want to say to all of you who hear this word now if you find in your heart right now a desire for this life Lord I'd like to have this life not because life will be more pleasant at home but because it will glorify you I've been dishonouring you all these years with the way I live so it's not that I want this life because life will be more peaceful and pleasant at all no but if I see that I've been dishonouring God by the way I have lived and Lord I want to honor you and if you find that desire coming in your heart to live this life free from grumbling and complaining and disputing and arguing et cetera let me tell you this that is not from you don't take the credit for it because a lots of millions of people in the world who have no desire to be free from it and if you've got the slightest desire to be free from it it says your God is at work in you to will means to give you that desire be thankful it's one of the proofs that God is working in your heart and your conscience that he's giving your desire to respond to what you're hearing right now don't don't take the credit for it it's not from you God is at work in you to will that means to desire it and it's not only desire I need I need ability so that's the second thing God promises the same guard who created that desire in you will give you the ability to do this but it's not automatic if it were automatic we'd all be like Christ right now totally like Christ we'd be all be perfectly obedient 24 hours a day seven days a week I mean think of the planets 24 hours a day seven days a week they're obedient to God they don't disobey God for one split second but they've been programmed God's programmed all the planets and stars that's why they move in their orbits but he hasn't programmed us he hasn't made us robots if he made us robots we would never grumble or complain do you know that if he took away it just if he took away one thing from you your free will that's all God's not to take away from you leave you exactly as you are in every way except take away your free will you have no more choice you become a robot I guarantee none of us will ever grumble or complain for the rest of our lives we'll give thanks in all situations we'll never sinned but you'll never be holy either you'll never be a sinner but you'll never be a child of God you can't be a sinner without free will you can't be holy without free will it requires a choice programmed robotic obedience is not holiness that's why god you know it's tremendous risk that god took to give Adam of free will if all that God wanted was millions of obedient robots floating around in heaven all you had to do was create man without a free will but the very first thing you see in the Bible is that soon as he created man he gave him a free will choose do you wanna obey me or disobey me there's a big risk and Adam chose to disobey and all of Adam's race all the millions and billions of people born since chosen to disobey God but God would rather have listened to this it's an amazing statement Rock God would rather have billions of billions of people disobey Him and go to hell if he can out of that get a few people maybe a few thousands who will voluntarily choose to live a pure holy life and bow and obey Him deny their own will every day and seek to please him and never grumble or complain but only give thanks in the most difficult circumstances that brings such tremendous glory to God that he was willing to let billions of people go to hell to get these few thousands it's like you know when people dig for gold they go down thousands of feet into the ground and bring up a whole lot of whatever looks like muck and from that muck they pick out the metal and even that metal is not gold it's mixed up with so many alloys and they put it and they wash it off with water and then they put it in the fire finally you get a little bit of gold out of all that tons of muck and they feel it's worth it that's how all the gold in the world is mined everywhere that's how they mined diamonds from all that muck they they pull up from deep thousands of feet below the earth in South Africa and other places they get a little bit of diamonds and they feel it's worth it that to me is a picture of how God is willing to let most of humanity disobey Him and go to hell and destroy themselves if he can get a few who will voluntarily not as robots not because they are programmed voluntarily who have the choice who have the opportunity to disobey but do not disobey who have the opportunity plenty of opportunity every day to grumble and complain about our circumstances and about people around us but choose not to do it the delight it brings to God's heart God works in us cooperating with us but it says here we got to work it out what God works in verse 13 we have to work out verse 12 that's how we become holy if it was only God's work as I said we'd all be holy and if it was only our work none of us would be holy impossible none of us can ever attain even one millionth of God's standards so God has to work in us verse 13 and we work it out that's called a full salvation it's calling what's called working out our salvation with fear and trembling I mean if only we knew that the damage that sin causes us even one sin I tell you we detested and hurt I hate it if only we knew that one single time I grumble or complain he does some damage to me it's not visible so often it's like people who smoke cigarettes if they could see every time they smoke a cigarette what's happening to their lungs I mean they may die of lung cancer forty years later okay but if they could see every single time they smoke maybe the smoke is 10 cigarettes a day and every time they could see a picture of what's happening in their lungs getting a little darker a little more polluted destroying a little bit of their lungs I tell you that all stop smoking in Notah or people who drink alcohol kleavon what's called decent the types of alcohol they could only see what is doing to their liver every time I mean they may die 40 years later much before that they should die but if they could see what's happening to a liver when they drink one little bit of alcohol then a little bit they would all stop drinking it at least to live long enough to take care of their children if not for any other reason at least to live long enough without getting sick and being hospitalized and if only we could see the damage that one sin like that one little peg of alcohol or that one cigarette if only we could see the damage it does to our soul in our heart we'd stop sinning quickly but just like those foolish people most Christians are foolish too they don't realize that these everything God God has said is for my good his commandments of a my good he loves me and that's why he's given me Commandments that's why he tells me these things and so that's why I'm saying that when you go to the book of Revelation you see seven pictures of praise in heaven they're always thanking God there's not an atom of murmuring your grumbling or complaining so as I said at the beginning I know I'm getting closer to heaven in my life if I'm becoming free from grumbling and complaining and if I'm having a spirit of Thanksgiving and even more wonderful if I can give thanks for things I cannot understand that's even more wonderful you know to give thanks because you got a raise or a promotion in your job well any foolish person in the world can do that you don't need the Holy Spirit for that or you got a healing or you got a miracle anyone in the world can give thanks for that you don't need to be special but if you can give thanks when things are not going the way you want it to go not buy someone a Spartan way gritting your teeth and saying okay I'm gonna give thanks not like that but saying Lord I'm giving things because I believe in a Father in Heaven who's making all these things work together in some wonderful way for my good which I don't see right now but which will work out for my good many things God allows in our life which look like even failures God has got a plan to work it out for our good if he could see into the future he'd see this thing that looks so bad right now is the very means by which he's going to work out something for my good later on I love to tell the story of something that happened to my wife if she had permit me you know she studied in probably the finest Medical College in India and well or and her favorite subject in which she always got the best marks was obstetrics and gynaecology his absolutely tops so when it came for a final exam in that she did very well in the written paper and then they have to go for a five-minute interview where they are tested with something practical so they had to go to another town for that and because her name began with a she was top of the list to go for the interview and the person who interviewed her was a very strong Hindu I mean the marks on her forehead and all indicated that as soon as she looked at Annie without any jewelry and a simple dress she knew this is a Christian and she hated her and she spent the five minutes of the interview not asking anything about this patient or the sickness just lambasted her for you Christians think you're great and this that and the other and she was waiting for tests and there was no test this is just this and then the bell rang five minutes and she hadn't even asked the first question she you can go she got zero she knew the answer she knew that what was wrong with that patient and everything much he got zero because he was a Christian and she was so disappointed can you imagine failing in the subject which are absolutely tops in and so because of that she had to do that again and she had to lost three months so she had to stay on envelope for three months and guess what happened in those three months I arrived there she wouldn't have been there if if she had passed of course it was a little later because she's that three-month extended and then she had to go little later so she had to stay three more months and then I arrived when I heard how she had to stay on these three months I said I wish I could go and meet that Hindu examiner I'd go and thank her with all my heart okay failing anything I'm just telling you how what she must've been so disappointed but think if she could look forward in the future what's gonna happen because of this failure I'm gonna stay on three months here and complete my course and I'm gonna meet the most wonderful man in the world I just say that for your encouragement God is a good God things that look so wrong there's a song we sing all is right that seems most most wrong if it be his sweet will he always wins whose sides is one of Frederic Faber's songs you know you guys should learn to sing so read some of Frederic Faber's poetry and songs there was a mystic a great man he's a man who wrote prostrate before your throne I lie and gaze and gaze upon thee so he always wins who sides with God to him no chance is lost ill that he blesses is our good and unblessed good is ill and all is right that seems most wrong if it be his sweet will all is right that seems most wrong if it be his sweet will so that's what I mean by giving thanks for something which I can't see yet it's a it's Thanksgiving in faith that is another difference in the Old Covenant in Psalm 106 we read like this that when the Israelites left Egypt Psalm 106 verse 10 he saved them from the hand of the one who hated them that is the Egyptians and the waters you know the Red Sea verse 11 covered their enemies the whole Egyptian army was buried under the Red Sea not one of them was left then the important work there is then after they saw their enemies buried under the sea then they sang his praise so what is the difference in the New Covenant in the New Covenant it is before the enemies are buried under the sea we sing his praise I mean if you are going to give thanks after your enemies have been buried all your problems are being solved well anybody can do that that's an Old Covenant level of life then they sang believed his words and sang his praise but in the New Covenant it says he set a table before me in the presence of my enemies my enemies are not buried Psalm 23 says he's anointed my head with oil and my cup runs over even though my enemies are still there and he sets a table before me in the presence of my enemies saying forget the enemies I'll take care of them let's have breakfast he sets a table before me in the presence of my enemies and my cup runs over and he says it doesn't matter if the enemies are there I'm not bothered goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life now dwell in the house of the Lord forever read Psalm 23 like that that the enemies are right there they have not been buried under the sea they are there in the presence of my enemies I say goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and these enemies are not going to stop me that is new covenant life Psalm 23 is a new covenant thing so one of the things I saw in Revelation is you know so I was trying to tell you here they believed his words they sang is praise that's what we read in Psalm 106 so Thanksgiving is one of the evidences of faith they believed his words and they sang is praise some hundred six in the Old Covenant they did it after the enemies were buried after the problem was solved after they got what they wanted in the New Covenant it happens before the enemies are buried before our problems are solved and when the enemies are still there we sing his praise but the principle is the same they believed his words and sang his praise if you believe his words you'll sing his praise it's when you don't believe his words that you don't sing his praise so every time I'm unable to give thanks there's something God has said which I don't believe now I want to say to you this Thanksgiving is a very very important mark of spiritual growth and it's an important evidence of faith you know we say we believe in Jesus well if you do believe in Jesus you should be growing in faith and it says in Romans chapter 1 that our salvation is by faith but not only by faith it's not just that we are saved by faith it says in Romans 1 and verse 17 the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the righteous man will live by faith not just be saved by faith saved by faith is the first step we are born again by faith then it says we live all the way up to the time we enter into God's presence we're gonna live by faith and it's called here faith - faith faith - faith means kindergarten to first grade first grade to second grade second grade to 3rd grade third grade to 4th grade all the way to PhD and postdoctoral and everything else this is the Christian life faith - faith - faith - faith - faith with its endless till we see him face to face so that's what it says here from faith to faith because we live by faith and as we saw in Psalm 106 they believed his words they sang is praise one mark of faith is we thanked him at kindergarten we thank him for forgiving our sins so we thank him for giving us His Holy Spirit but then as we progress in faith we come to the place where we thank him when we believe that God's going to take care of that problem which I don't see the solution yet the enemies are still there but God set a table before me he hadn't set me up with guns to fight my enemies he set a table before me he said forget about the enemies I'll take care of them and I sit down with God and thank him so let's use that as a sort of a gauge to find out whether we are really progressing or stagnating in our Christian life I get the feeling that so many Christians are stagnating because they're not judging themselves by scriptural standards very often they are judging themselves by comparing themselves with other believers who are a much lower level they're happy that they're better than them I never in my life want to be happy comparing myself with somebody else if I do compare myself with someone it's with Jesus Christ the Bible says we have to look under Jesus and run this race which means my life I'm constantly comparing myself with Christ I'll tell you this after being a Christian for 57 years I discover I'm painfully short of many things come in Christ's likeness hey I get light it's not the same areas but you know it's like a student studying mathematics and in kindergarten they may learn 2+2 and then they go onto subtraction and multiplication and division and but mathematics has got a lot more than just addition and subtraction you go onto algebra and geometry and calculus and so many things so there is a there is a something wonderful in the Christian life which I'll never attain to unless I'm willing to make progress and judge myself continuously Lord I want to go on or to use the picture of the Israelites entering the promised land when they entered the you know they cross the river Jordan after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and entered in and when they entered in they could say at last we got into the Promised Land and there is a time when we can say now I've begun to take my Christian life seriously it's not just God has forgiven my sins and I'm baptized and I'm on my way to heaven I'm gone beyond all that I'm coming to a serious life of overcoming sin and I've taken that seriously and I have entered into this life but after they entered Canaan they had all these giants to conquer we can think of Canaan as little pockets controlled by different Giants the whole land and they had to conquer it little by little by little you read the book of Joshua how they would kill some Giants and occupy his territory and they'd kill another giant and occupy his every giant they killed that proud territory became theirs so the life of victory is like that it's not just suddenly you got it and it's all over it's not all over you entered the land of victory good now you got a thousand Giants to kill the rest of your life and you know the Bible speaks about entering into rest in Hebrews chapter three in Chapter four that's the land of Canaan is called a land of arrest but the rest doesn't come until you kill that giant in one particular area if I've killed a giant his property becomes mine I've come into rest but only in that area then I move into another area and kill another giant and enter into rest in that area see there are some areas of our life which are very very difficult to conquer like anger sexually dirty ways of thinking and for some people pornography they're difficult to conquer I get so many emails from people who tell me honestly about their struggles because emails are anonymous you don't know from which part of the world they're writing they are very honest in what they say they're struggling the number of born-again believers young men who are struggling with pornography is amazing I'd say 70 to 80 percent of born-again believers are struggling with pornography but it looks so holy when they sit in the church they don't know what to do it is not God's will that you should be a slave to any of these things some of these things are difficult to conquer sexually dirty habits and anger but there are some other things which are easier to conquer so if you don't deal with the easy Giants you're not going to be able to conquer the difficult ones and one of the easy Giants that you should be able to conquer I call it a kindergarten giant is getting offended that's not so difficult to conquer it's not like anger and sexually dirty ways of thinking getting your friend it is only because I'm proud why should that guy treat me like that or why should that guy and not do this which he promised to do no Diane I'm not bothered so I want to encourage you to conquer this kindergarten giant to be know if you're really serious about conquering the tough ones like anger and sexually dirty habits begin with the kindergarten Giants like seeing Laura I'm gonna finish with this I'm gonna really finish with getting offended by the grace of God I'll never get offended no matter what somebody does or does not do which he promised to do or says to me or does not say to me which I expect him to say to me maybe I expect him to come and say thank you and he didn't say thank you forget it it's okay the world is full of ungrateful people so why should that affect me I'm determined to get over this matter of getting offended and begin at home but you'll never get offended with what your wife did or didn't do or the breakfast was not ready on time you had to go to work give thanks say Lord maybe you want me to fast today ah you see I love food too much thank you the food is not breakfast is not ready today praise the Lord find something good to thank God for and finish with this habit of grumbling and complaining I'll tell you you will see a tremendous difference in your life start with the kindergarten lessons don't write a jump to calculus when you haven't learned addition and subtraction that can wait so another giant kindergarten giant is expecting respect from others you know how much a lot of people want that I find in India particularly parents and grandparents you always expect your respect to me it's a lot of garbage absolutely garbage why should I expect respect for anybody I see on one hand I'm a rotten sinner saved by grace and then I expect people to respect me it's a contradiction and I don't deserve anything but hell that's one of the many years ago that the only thing I deserve was hell because I was a sinner okay anything better than that I got to be thankful for and everything I have on earth is better than that much better and I don't want to add to that that somebody must respect me oh well I'm 76 years old people should respect me rubbish it's rubbish absolute rubbish it's a giant you've got to finish with you don't expect people to give you thanks or to respect you or anything I tell you your life would be so much more peaceful I'm telling you from my own experience you won't be disturbed you won't be disturbed with what people do or say or think and you know what will happen if you progress like this as you get older and older and older and older you'll be such a sweet gracious person as people would love to be with you I remember listening to a message by a man called aw Tozer aw Tozer was great man of God who lived in the United States and died in 1962 or something more than 50 years ago he was like a modern-day prophet and he says how when he was a young Christian he belonged to a church called a Christian mission Christian and Missionary Alliance Church and that was started by a very godly man in the nineteenth century called a B Simpson a fantastically godly man he's the one who wrote once it was the blessing now it is the Lord and songs like that so hey B Simpson preach salvation and the baptism the Holy Spirit and holy life and all that and the Christian mission Alliance started out as a wonderful Church but like every Church over a period of time declined sets in even among the leaders aw Tozer came years later it's all generation after the founder and when he grew up as a young pastor he was so disappointed with the doctrine that was being preached in the church which is such a high standard and the quality of life of not the ordinary people but of the leaders and the pastors and the senior older pastors so he as a young pastor he went to a really godly man one whom he respected in that church and he said he asked him a question he said why is it with this truth that we preach which is the most wonderful truth that we have monk compared to all the other churches that are preaching and this truth should produce some of the sweetest and the most godly Saints why is it some of the leaders in our church are so grumpy and sour and hard to get along with and he says that wise old man just kept quiet he didn't know what to say but that's a question I have also asked why is it people who have heard some of the most wonderful truths for so many years I so grumpy and sour and bitter and complaining and backbiting and criticizing and they should be some of the sweetest Saints on the face of the earth I'll tell you why because you have not spent their life judging themselves the Bible speaks about walking in the light we can have fellowship with God if we walk in the light not standstill in the light there's no such thing as standing still in the light they always compare it to an aeroplane an airplane is either moving forward if it switches off its engine it goes down it can't stay up there there's no such thing as a airplane standing still in the sky light so we either are moving forward or we're going down and if I'm not moving forward I'm going down and this is the condition of many many people I've met as they grown older people have been believers for 30 40 years you look at their lives as so much of the Spirit which is sour it's not sweet you want to avoid them because they've got something to complain about every time you meet them something wrong with somebody or the other I say I don't want to be with such people and I want to say to you you're not 60 or 70 but I'll tell you one day you will be if the Lord tarries and what you're going to be when you're 60 or 70 determinant is determined by how you want to live today you can't suddenly become spiritual no it's a slow progress a person who's determining I like a five-year-old who's goes to school and you ask him what do you want to do is I want to get a PhD wow that's great stick to it my son don't give up that he's only 5 years old think of a Christian who says I want to be christ-like and every year I'm gonna make progress and don't worry about the others around you don't complain about them don't be disturbed that other people in the church are not making progress it makes no difference you'll never find a church where every one in the church is serious about following the Lord I'll tell you that after seeing hundreds and hundreds of churches you'll never find a church where everybody's interested in following the Lord almost all the churches I've been to more than 50% are carnal the people I never found a church where more than 50% are spiritual I hope your church will be with greater potential and greater opportunity and greater truth that we hear if everybody is judging themselves Lord there's a little more area I have to become christ-like and I want to get light on it and see there are two cleansing zs-- one is where God cleanses us and the others where we cleanse ourselves let me show you that 1 John 1 is where we read about God cleansing us that's mostly relating to our past I can never cleanse from my life the guilt of my past I've got a million things wrong in my past and I can never do one thing to cleanse it away nothing and in the coming days also I'm probably going to do a few the wrong things still not as much as in the past days and I can never do anything to cleanse it away holy God can do it and 1 John 1:7 says if he walk in the light the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us that's what God cleanses me from the guilt of my past life as I said I can never do a single thing - I can repent and say I won't do it again that's fine but I cannot remove the blot on my past life with anything somebody else has to pay the price for that and jesus prayed it on the cross and because he paid it on the cross thank God my past can be blotted out whether I committed one sin only in my life or a billion sins is the same the blood of Jesus we shed on the cross his death atones for my sin before a just God who cannot overlook my sin just because he loves me because of he would undermine the foundations of justice in this universe if he just forgave me because I was sorry for sin is serious I mean I often tell non-christians when I'm witnessing to them sin is not like breaking a cup or a saucer at home you go to your mom and say I'm sorry mom I broke this saucer once it forget it it's okay if sin were like that you go to God and say I'm sorry for what I did and God say okay forget it it's not serious it's not like that every sin is like you committed 100 murders you committed 100 murders and your father is the judge in the court what's it going to do 100 murders son it's okay forget it no sin is very serious and that's why nothing can atone for it I can never do anything so I don't even for once in God had to do it all and that's why it's so important to understand that the love of God in sending Jesus to die for me so the blood of Jesus is death on the cross cleanses my all my past life thank God but now the Bible speaks about this nature I have where I have to cleanse myself that's repeated many times description 1 John chapter 3 he says if you have the hope of Christ's coming again verse 2 and you're becoming like him when he appears verse 2 will become like him 1 John 3:2 hmm and if you have this hope of becoming like him he will purify yourself until you reach his standard of purity keep that as your goal it's like that five-year-old on your PhD until I reach the goal I'm gonna purify myself that's what I mean by judging yourself and cleansing yourself until you reach the goal and the Bible speaks about cleansing ourselves also in 2nd Corinthians in chapter seven the reason I show you these scriptures is so that you remember them and you see it in your Bible and you know it's not just some theory I'm preaching but this is what the Holy Spirit has written in his word 2nd Corinthians 7 well 1 since we have these wonderful promises promises are in the previous verses that got to be a father to me let us cleanse ourselves we saw about God cleansing us that's one part of cleansing this is me cleansing myself from what not from the guilt of my past sin that I can never do I told you that but I can cleanse myself from present filthiness in my flesh and in my spirit flesh and spirit means to make it more simple external sin and internal sin I can cleanse myself from these bad habits that are external and the filthy things that are internal that nobody sees sins of the flesh and sins of a spirit I can cleanse myself and one of those sins of the flesh is this grumbling and complaining and murmuring and why do why does a child of God do it and unbeliever doing it I can understand but why does a child of God do it if a child of God believes that God is making everything work together for my good if I really believe it like it says in Romans 8:28 how can I grumble and complain like you know something that happens right now like at the illustration I used earlier about my wife if you could see what the end result is gonna be you would give thanks is when you don't see the end result and you see only this present thing this looks terrible what has happened to me unrighteous etc etc then I complain but if I could see the end I'd say oh praise the Lord God brought something good out of it I've often ask people this question what is the worst thing that ever happened on this earth the worst sin that anybody ever committed it's the crucifixion of Jesus Christ there was never a sin committed on this earth worse than the killing of the Son of God okay we got that right now the next question is what is the best thing that ever happened on this earth the crucifixion of Jesus Christ wasn't that the best thing that ever happened I mean where would we be if that didn't happen so see the worst thing that happened is also the best thing that happened God turned the worst that the devil and men could do into the very best for us so there are many lessons we can learn from the cross of Calvary most Christians have only learned one thing my sins are forgiven I tell you that's just the ABC if you meditate on the cross of Calvary there are many many more things there the devil was defeated and here's another really good thing the worst thing that man could do got converted into the best possible thing that's what I learned from the cross and that means everything else that happens now is not as bad as the crucifixion of Christ think of the worst thing that somebody did to you can you think of that the worst thing that somebody in the world did to you at some time it's not as bad as the crucifixion of Christ I remember once one brother complained to me sitting complaining oh brother these people are treating me like this in treating me like this I say they crucified you yet no oh well you got a long way to go I said forget about all there there's no nothing that people have done to us as bad as the crucifixion of Christ and if that the worst ever could be converted into the best ever have faith that the same God who's your father will convert that which looks so bad right now into something wonderful that's why we give thanks it's not a blind gritting your teeth and saying I'm gonna give thanks it's a meaningful giving thanks because this is the best for me even though it doesn't look like it right now that is giving thanks in faith from faith to faith progression is always in faith so let me conclude with Revelation chapter 5 which I mentioned briefly at the beginning when we get to heaven we'll see this happening there I mean John saw it already in it some believe it's happening all the time revelation 5 it says in verse 9 they sang a new song a new means something they never heard before like if you if you learn a new song here it's a song you never heard before a new song they sang a new song in heaven and what is that new song thou art worthy to break the seals because you purchase you were slain and you purchased trust for God with thy blood from every tribe and tongue and nation Lord Jesus you died on the cross and you saved us from us in see that's not a new song I've heard it for 50 years how is it a new song and how can it be perpetually a new song I sought God for revelation on this and I saw this that there's something that happens when we go to heaven we can begin it even now where every time I hear that Jesus died for my sins it's going to be as if I heard it for the first time that's how heaven is gonna be and I said when I understood that this is that how is going to be a new song that means they sing it a hundred years later and it's as if they've heard it for the first time I mean Jesus died for me Wow and I said Lord can you begin that life in me or now itself that I get a taste of it I can't have it fullness as I have in heaven but can you give me a foretaste you know I believe that God gives us a little four tastes of heaven in many areas when we think of healing healing is actually a a foretaste of the wonderful new body will have when we get to heaven that's why I believe in praying for healing and if he doesn't give it okay that's his wisdom but sometimes he does and here's what I prayed for I said Lord I've known for years that Jesus died for me even before I was really born again I knew Jesus died for my sins but I want you to do such a work in my heart that whenever I sing that you died for me it really that's something in my heart like even when you sing when I sang this morning I stand amazed in the presence of jesus the nazarene and wonder wonder how he could love me a sinner condemned unclean I've sung that song for 45 years but it grips me even today when I sang that line I said lord I wonder how you could love a sinner condemned unclean I'm beginning to taste an answer to prayer Lord helped me to sing that new song know that Jesus died for me because you know I'll tell you this I've seen a lot of Christians who lost the wonder of it it's an old tale I I know and that you see that in the result in their lives it's so casual about sin see what one of the results of this seeing trying to see the cross as it were the first time every time is that I begin to take sin seriously because I say Lord this is what crucified you is this habit of mine that killed you that nailed you to the cross I wanna hate it I'll tell you something if you walk this way of judging yourself judging yourself as you grow older you will not be one of those grumpy sour hard to get along old people that people don't want to be anywhere near you'll be such a sweet Saint when you're 90 years old and I hope all of you will live to that ripe old age if Jesus doesn't come earlier where you'll be such a blessing with no demands on anybody no complaints against anyone no expectations that you've got to treat me like this or treat me like zero because you're so taken up with Jesus and you're so taken out that's with the wonder that he loved a sinner condemned and unclean like me that your life will be just constantly Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Thanksgiving in some things you can't understand Lord I know I know from the cross the worst was turned into the rest so this is not as bad as the cross and you're gonna turn something wonderful which I don't understand now so I'm not gonna be sour and grumpy I'm gonna be thankful this is how God wants every single child of his to be this is one of the marks of spiritual growth god bless you all

Channel: SermonIndex.net

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

Id: xxPKEqGMR6Q

Length: 68min 48sec (4128 seconds)

Published: Wed May 18 2016