The Choice Between God and Money -- Zac Poonen -- September 5, 2021

[Music] we keep speaking about the new covenant in this church in fact every sunday one or the other aspects of it so we looked once before at deuteronomy 28. i'd just like to turn there briefly before we move on this is old covenant which was abolished on the day of pentecost those of you who live in the united states up till the year 1776 you were under the rule of the king of england then america broke free i don't think anybody here wants to go back under the queen of england today but lots of christians live in the old covenant that was abolished on the day of pentecost i wonder why usually ignorance you know over a hundred years ago when abraham lincoln proclaimed slave freedom for all the slaves in america the slave masters never wanted the slaves to know about that there were no newspapers or television that they could or radio that those slaves could hear so they kept them in ignorance and the result was for many many decades they remained slaves why freedom had been proclaimed but they were not aware of it it's a perfect example of christians today who are defeated by anger sexual lust and many other sins freedom was proclaimed on calvary and in the day of pentecost but they have not heard about it the devil makes sure that they never hear about it just like those slave masters the devil's the greatest slave master of all did not want the slaves to know the good news because they wanted the slaves to keep on serving them and the devil wants just slaves to keep on serving him keep on grumbling keep on complaining keep on losing your temper at your wife or your husband and keep on loving money and keep on keeping bitterness in your heart keep on with an unforgiving spirit the devil wants them to be slaves for the rest of their lives dear brothers and sisters in this church we proclaim freedom not a freedom we got in any of our cleverness jesus died think of the price he paid to set people free abraham lincoln didn't have to pay a price to set people free but jesus paid a tremendous price to set people free and when you despise that freedom you're despising jesus christ so let me show you deuteronomy 28 he said if you diligently obey the lord the lord will bless you with all these blessings all these blessings verse 2 will come upon you and overtake you what are those blessings you'll be blessed with many children that's the one that many people don't want verse four you'll be blessed in your business and you'll be blessed when you come in and go out and your enemies will be defeated verse 7 your business will prosper your bonds with those days it was fields and out in the fields and barns will the lord will bless your whatever you put your hand to the middle of verse eight imagine that you put your hand to something the lord blesses it financially and he'll make you a holy people for himself a set apart people and the people of the earth will see how the lord has blessed you and they'll be afraid of you the lord will make you abound in prosperity that they want and the offspring of your body and the elf no they don't want that and the lord will give you from heaven [Music] a storehouse to reign upon your land because that's how they became prosperous those days they were all farmers and you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow the lord will make you the head and not the tale and then but if you don't listen you will be sick and the lord will make verse 21 pestilence to cling to you he'll smite you with consumption and fever verse 22. and you'll be defeated before your enemies verse 25 the boils of egypt verse 27 will come upon you basically god will give you wealth and health and your enemies will be defeated in the new testament jesus tells us to be free from the love of money exact exact opposite and some people think not really interested in it because they would like to be jesus to free from diseases but not from the love of money how many believers do you think there are who are praying lord heal me from all my sicknesses everyone how many are praying lord deliver me from the love of money rarely hardly anybody so i want to turn to the gospel of luke there's a section in the middle of the gospel of luke inspired by the holy spirit from chapter 16 to 21. it's those six chapters right in the middle of luke which are like a we can say a section on money that's the subject and not the every verse in that chapter but a number of things that jesus spoke in those six chapters i'm not going to go into detail but i would encourage you if you want to experience a freedom in your life that you have not experienced before read those chapters and meditate on it and be honest with yourself before god as an introduction let me read to you verse 13 of luke 16. luke 16 13 no servant can serve two masters do you know the two masters jesus spoke about not god and satan but god and [Music] wealth god and wealth those are the two masters jesus spoke about verse the last part of verse 13 you cannot serve god and wealth or god and money this mammon is an aramaic word which they use for wealth it he's symbolized like an idol he what jesus is saying here is there is god and there is an idol now if it is a physical idol none of us ever bow down before it but here the idol is sort of invisible it's money and you know the number of believers who bow down before it oh god please give me more of yourself number of believers and who get excited when their idol blesses them in some way you cannot serve god in that idol of wealth can you have money sure jesus had money he worked as a carpenter to earn money and he must have earned quite a bit to support other members in his family there were eight members in his family joseph had died and jesus for jesus was the eldest son up to the age of 30. he had four younger brothers two sisters at least perhaps more we don't know and his widowed mother and he had to work and earn money for them something quite a lot he had to earn but he didn't worship money he didn't live for money yeah there are not many believers who have eight members in their family to support but jesus did and he did a faithful job of it but he did not love money he did not worship money and he also said something more here when you think of these two masters as god and money you can't serve them verse 13. and this is amazing you will hate one in order to love the other have you thought of that that if you love money you hate god now if i were to tell you you hate god you hate jesus christ you say no i love jesus christ hang on let's have a test there are people who think they don't have blood a problem with high blood pressure take a test you'll find you probably have it or they think they don't have diabetes take a test no harm there's no harm in taking a test isn't that what they do with our children in school take a test and see if you know the subject take a test whether you hate money and love god whether you devote it to god and despise money or whether you will be devoted to money and despise god there's a lot of difference between having money earning money even a lot of money and loving it and being devoted to it and speaking here about being loving it and being devoted to it we are to love god and be devoted to him and to do that we have to sort of cut off this natural attachment to money that is in every human being and like i've often said it's not only the rich people don't think someone who's rich loves money i've used this example every homeless man loves money you see these homeless people standing on the streets do you think they don't love money they're waiting to get more and more of it the beggars in india and there are thousands of them every one of them loves money there are rich people who love money and there are many rich people who don't love money it's got nothing to do with your bank account it's got nothing to do with the amount of your income and i'll tell you another thing only you know whether you love money or not i tell you you may have been married for 50 years your wife does not know whether you love money or not she may know many other things about your habits but love of money is such an inward thing you can fool even your wife but you can't fool god i'll tell you one thing this is the number one reason why many believers do not get more revelation on the word of god do not get more devoted to the lord and are not more useful in god's hands because there's something that's sapping their energy there's a hole in the vessel that's making them leak so if you really want to hold on to god and be devoted to him and love him as it says in verse 13 just listen to a little bit and when you get your own time read we read in the first parable jesus spoke here in luke 16. by the way before that it says in verse 14 the pharisees were lovers of money listen to all these in this scuffed at him they said ah it's all rubbish there are people who listen to me when i say this and they inwardly scoff at it and say it's all nonsense it's all extreme teaching well that's exactly by the way what the pharisees said so you got some company there if you feel that way and jesus said to them oh you fellas can justify yourself with your love of money verse 15 in the sight of men but god knows your heart and whatever honor you get before men it is detestable in the sight of god in other words don't try to prove to men that you don't love money it's worth nothing if you want to prove it to anybody prove it to god in secret lord i want to prove to you in secret that i don't love money and i don't care what anybody in the world thinks about about it i want to prove to you in secret that i don't love money because i feel that is hindering me from following you and i didn't even know it isn't it good to discover some sickness in your body that some doctor takes a check takes a test and reveals to you i believe a lot of my major part of my calling to preach is to give a scan to people and help them to see what they don't see themselves then jesus spoke about a parable of a rich man and lazarus and you know the story i don't have to say it you know it very well this rich man dressed in purple verse 19 and living in splendor every day but the poor man lazarus by the way lazarus was his brother how do you say that [Music] every jew was a brother of another jew because they all descended from abraham isaac and jacob they were one family they were physically related they were brothers and sisters just like we'd say in the church we are brothers and sisters through the holy spirit having come into our hearts and made us god's children they were even physical brothers and sisters lazarus was a descendant of abraham isaac and jacob just like the rich man was a descendant of abraham licensing it's not just some beggar on the street lazarus was not like that we don't have an obligation to every single beggar we meet or every homeless man because if you try to do that you'd get bankrupt pretty soon but you do have an obligation to your brothers i mean those who are immediate near fellowship not every brother in the whole world here was a person who was in immediate vicinity a brother in we say a brother in christ here was a brother in abraham that is the point of it the point of the story it was not a just an unknown beggar lazarus was laid at his gate covered with sores and he had longing he was longing to at least get the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table and the dogs were coming and licking his sores there were hospitals those days doctors the rich man never bothered about at least sending him to a doctor and the poor man died and was carried away doesn't even say he was buried nobody was there to bury him no relatives to care for him in india where there's no one to bury they just in some public corporation or city property they just go and throw the body in a grave there and put some mud over it that's probably what they did to him nobody attended his funeral but the angels carried him straight into abraham's bosom which is another word for paradise and the rich man died and he had a grand burial of course because he was a rich man it says he was buried and i'm sure the big shots in the city came along and the rabbis and the chief rabbi and everybody said wonderful things about this man who gave so much money to the synagogue but while they were saying all that the man himself was burning in hell and if he could listen to that it must have been a joke to hear all that the people were saying about him in hell in hades he lifted up his eyes see he doesn't have physical eyes we know his body was on the on earth he didn't have a tongue or a physical eyes there were no physical eyes or tongue when we die it's our spirit that goes up to heaven and goes up goes to hell we don't have physical eyes and until the resurrection comes and the resurrection everybody will be raised up with the body those who are born again first when christ comes and years later the other unbelievers but everybody's going to end up having a body when they are finally thrown into the lake of fire or live in heaven forever they'll have a body but now when we die we only go in our spirit but in our spirit we can still speak [Music] and see and hear and apparently feel so he lifted up his eyes that means he could see something and he was in torment and he could see abraham and he could see lazarus this is not a parable by the way and the proof that it is not a parable is that jesus used names of people you look at all the parables jesus spoke there was never name no names it was a certain rich man or a certain widow it's like that never a name but here there are names of real people abraham was not a fictional character he was a real person and the angels were real and hades is real and lazarus was real the rich man was real yeah i think the only reason jesus didn't mention the rich man's name was his relatives took out of consideration for his relatives you know he didn't want to hurt them and he cried out it's possible for a person in hell to cry out father abraham he knew this is the father of the hebrew race have mercy on me isn't it interesting that's the first cry that comes out from hell have mercy on me send lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue he doesn't have a tongue but he feels the burning fire and because when he you know when you're in intense heat you on earth you feel dry in your tongue it's it's those sensations that are there i've heard of people for example whose arm was amputated but one day they suddenly feel scratchy in their arm they go to scratch there's no arm there so it's amazing how the human inner system works the brain and the inner parts so this man though he didn't have a body but he felt a sensation of being burning and that was the burning of hell and he wants lazarus to come in you know this guy is so jealous of lazarus in heaven that he want to somehow get him out of lazarus out of there and says send him away from there and bring it let him come here to hell it's amazing how evil you become even after you go to hell and abraham said child he was his child physically remember that in your lifetime you receive many good things and this brother of yours lazarus a lot of bad things but you never did anything for him so he's comforted the thing was not that he got good things there's nothing wrong in receiving good things god gives you he gives good gifts to those who god gives good gifts to all his children jesus said that but it's a question of what do you do with them and so he's comforted you're in agony and i want to tell you he says there's a great gulf here between you and us those who are here cannot go there those who are there cannot come here it's permanent and he said i beg you father okay i can't come fine but he remembers what's on earth that's interesting they remember the things happening on earth in my father's house i've got five brothers and he loves them obviously and he says please warn them they don't come to this place of torment and that's just one man in hell saying think of all the millions of people who are in hell today because they rejected god reject lived in sin and rejected christ you know what the cry is coming out from there from all those people in hell if you could hear that cry please go and warn all the people on earth lest they come to this place of torment that's what is the cry coming out of hell [Music] and abraham said they got the bible why can't they read that the word moses and the prophets is an expression for the old testament 39 books moses wrote the first five books and then the other books are called the prophets history and prophets it's summed up the we would say old testament or that is the only bible those days abraham says they've got the bible let them read it in those days they didn't have it printed they had to hear it in the synagogue today they say let them read it they got a bible at home i've often said this if you know how to read and you've got a bible at home and you don't read it you deserve to be deceived by the devil and by fake preachers you deserve to be deceived because you have a bible and you know how to read and you don't read it that's what abraham says why should a lazarus go down there they're gonna bible let them read it if they don't have time to read it they're too busy making money or too busy doing other things or watching movies or something else then they've got only themselves to blame the cry from heaven he's heard the cry from hell the cry from heaven is read the bible here's another cry from hell verse 30 no father abraham they are not taking the bible seriously but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent you see that word repent why do we preach so much against sin in cfc why do we preach so much against so much for repentance and turning from sin because that is the cry from hell we are here because we did not repent we are here because we did not turn from sin please tell my five brothers to turn from sin that's the thing not go to the synagogue or go to church turn from sin i'm sure those guys were going to the synagogue regularly every sabbath but they did not turn from sin he's not saying go and tell them to go to the synagogue regularly no they're doing that go to church regularly no turn from sin is the cry that comes from hell he who has years to hear let him hear and look at abraham's answer if they don't read the bible everything's written there if they don't read it and they don't take that seriously even if somebody is rises from the dead somebody you knows think of a relative of yours who died years ago and one day you see him come back from the dead and tell you it's real what the bible says there is a real heaven i'm there i just came to tell you or somebody who's gone to hell one of your relatives in hell comes back and tells you hey hell is real i'm coming from there i was given permission to just come and tell you i have to go back now beware that what the bible says is true that's what abraham says if they don't believe the bible they don't read the bible they don't believe it even if somebody rises from the dead in other words a dead person one of your relatives dead person comes and tells you who's in heaven or else it's real will not believe it you'll think you'll believe it oh somebody comes from the dead and tells me heaven is real or somebody comes from hell and tells me heaven is real i'll believe it no you won't if you don't read if you don't believe the bible you will not believe it we think we will believe our reason says of course i believe if somebody comes back from heaven or hell no you won't if you don't believe the bible you will not believe i am very thankful that i started studying the bible when i was 19 years old and by the time i was 26 and seven years i got a really good grasp of it i didn't have all the revelation on victory over sin or anything but the basic truths about god and christ and forgiveness of sins and eternity and heaven and hell and the need of repentance a little i'd understood by then and i'm very thankful jesus understood by the age of 12 enough of the scriptures if you if you're serious you can know i believe that if you use all your spare time not to keep on browsing the internet but spending a little more time with the bible you really know it but if there are other things that are more interesting for you and entertainment and well you are going to be the loser and you may realize that only when christ comes again it was this attitude to money this rich man who had so much money and far more than he needed for him and his five brothers how he had a rich father who gave him all that and he never thought of helping that poor brother of his not a stranger but his own brother okay let's go to something else jesus said in chapter 17 there again there's a little bit about money this coming of the son of man will be he's talking about the coming of the son of man in verse 22 onwards the days will come on you and one of the days of son of man for the coming of the son of man verse 24 will be the like the lightning that flashes from one part of the sky to another so will the son of man so there's not going to be any secret rapture like some people teach no the lightning is not secret there are people who teach that there'll be a secret rapture and then for seven years there'll be tribulation and then christ will come back there's one coming of christ not a second and a third coming he comes it'll be like the lightning [Music] there will be a period of tribulation before that but it will be the lightning everybody sees jesus said in matthew 24 don't be deceived when somebody says oh he's come there or he's come there no no no we like the lightning it'll be like the lightning is coming but he says it'll be like the days of lot verse 28. in the days of lord they were eating and drinking because they had plenty of money and they were buying and selling and they had all that money but they didn't take care of sin in their lives and this fire and brimston verse 29 like hell reigned upon sodom and destroyed them all it will be like that in the day when the son of man is revealed it will be sudden on that day if you're on the housetop [Music] if your goods are in the house don't go down to take it they don't say oh i got my property there don't be attached the point there is don't be attached to anything earthly if you're on the rooftop and christ come say i'm ready to go i don't have any attachment to any of my goods or property or money or my bank account here that's the meaning of that if you want to read it and if you're out in the field you shouldn't have to say hey i've got to go back and ask forgiveness from my wife i yelled at her this morning and i came to work in the field i did not apologize and the lord is coming oh lord hang on let me go back home and apologize to my wife no you should have apologized as soon as you're aware of it within one minute of you're getting angry you should apologize so that you're ready for the lord's coming even if you're on the field or in the office or anywhere in other words keep short accounts with god short accounts as soon as you're aware of something settle it then he said remember lord's wife here's where the money part comes in the lord had told lot and his wife when you go don't ever look back to this place where you came to make money why did lot go to sodom abraham said go where you like and it says that a lot what a generous man abraham was uh you do you choose i i'm the one who god called you just followed along with me but i'll give you first choice and you read there he looked at the fields of sodom and said boy that's the place to make money and i'll go and you know the end of what he got all those people who pursue after money one day it'll end up like that he went there and he made money he got captured once and abraham had to go and release him but he still did not learn his lesson he said i'm making a lot of money here it's just multiplying leaps and bounds and i'm going to concentrate on that we had a godly uncle abraham he would not listen to him anyway god had mercy on him for abraham's sake and said one day when he went sent the angel said get out of here and don't look back don't look back forget it go and save your life and we read there that lot's wife looked back she wasn't curious to see whether the fire was burning she was thinking of all her fancy clothes that were getting burnt up she was thinking of the lovely garden that was getting burnt up she was getting thinking of all the money stored up in their house that was getting burnt up looking back and say oh i'll never see all that again and it says she became a pillar of stone of salt pillar of salt that's a warning jesus said it remember lord's wife she had the opportunity to escape but she wanted to look there and look back god and money that's the warning look in one direction okay you just got to go through quickly you can take your own time to read these wonderful chapters as we saw chapter 16 chapter 17 we go to chapter 18 now verse or chapter 18 verse 18. there was a ruler who came said good teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life see eternal life is not something spoken of in the old testament this chap had gone beyond the old testament and he was wanting eternal life what must i do to get eternal life you think what a sincere soul wanting to know the truth but very often when people want to know the truth they're not willing to pay the price for it it's quite possible that some of you sitting here may want eternal life the question is whether you're willing to pay the price for it jesus said why do you call me good there's no one good except god you know the commandments don't come adultery don't murder don't steal don't wear false witness honor your father and mother he says all these things i've kept from my youth up and he said there's one thing you still lack if you noticed in those commandments there he left out the tenth commandment in verse 20. he went all the way up to number nine the first four related to god five six seven eight nine that's what he mentioned in verse twenty and he said i've kept all this let's talk about the tenth one covetousness in colossians 3 5 it says covetousness is a form of idolatry to covet is to desire something you don't have and the tenth commandment which nobody could keep it was a test to see how many people will be honest to say lord i can't keep it please help me paul paul was that he says that in romans 7 i could keep all the commandments but when it came to the tenth one ah i just kept on failing because i found all types of covetousness lust for this and lust for that lust for women and lust for money all there in my heart and i couldn't keep myself oh wretched man that i am he says who shall deliver me read romans 7 but i thank god through jesus christ he knew there was deliverance in christ we couldn't say that in the old testament so we say god put that 10th commandment there knowing nobody could keep it just to see how many people would be honest and say lord i can't keep that there's covetousness in my heart then god could lead them like paul to something further to salvation it's the same today you cannot serve god and money nobody can save themselves god the lord sees who is going to be honest and acknowledge lord i love money too much that means i don't really love you well he said one thing you lack you love money too much verse 22. sell all that you possess 100 give it away to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven does jesus ask everybody to do that no you read in the next chapter you read about zacchaeus who gave only half his goods to the poor and jesus said that's fine lazarus and mary and martha jesus went to their house they had a house of their own and he never told them to sell their house or sell all that they have to different people he had to tell the different degrees to which they had to give up it's like cancer you know when a person has cancer and he goes to a doctor the doctor is ah you've come too late you're gone beyond the fourth stage of cancer that organ has to be completely removed from you from your body and they remove that organ 100 chemotherapy will not help you the organ has to be removed 100 percent but he says but doctor that other person had the same cancer in the same organ but his organ was not removed ah the doctor says he was in the first stage yours is beyond the fourth stage it's like that with the love of money some are in the initial stages where the lord says well it's not so bad with you so you don't have to give up everything but some have gone so far in it that the lord says there's no cure for this cancer in your case but total removal that's why the lord spoke differently to he he didn't tell lazarus and martha and all to give up everything but he did tell this man and this man was very sad imagine the doctor saying listen if you remove this completely you'll be healed of your cancer and you can live for many more years and if that chap says no i love that organ inside my body i love that part of my body well the doctor says you'll die within a few weeks but i love this part of my body what do you think that man is crazy that's how crazy this guy was he was very sad he wanted to retain that part that cancer is part of his life and he went away i've often thought about that man it was a real human bite it was not a story it was a real person i wondered where is that man today if he never repented till the end of his life he is definitely in hell i got plenty in hell you get thousands of years to think about your decisions on earth what do you think of his decision he says once in my life i had a choice to make and i made the wrong choice or let's hope he repented at least sometime later on in his life maybe when he was 85 years old or something and died a few days later and went to heaven like the dying thief and people who think ah you went to heaven that's it you know what's going to happen to such people in heaven i believe this they're going to have an eternity of they're in heaven okay but they're having an eternity of regret when they see jesus and see how much he loved them and gave himself for them and how selfishly they lived for themselves in their entire life [Music] never did a thing for him on this earth but they're happy they're in heaven i don't think they'll be supremely happy that's my conviction because i applied to myself forget about others i see if i lived for myself 100 and then just the last minute before i died i accepted christ i went to heaven i would have tremendous regret as for myself mouth speaking for others i would have such a regret and i say lord i knew about you i knew about what you did for me i knew about how you suffered for me how you gave everything for me and yet and yet i lived for myself how will i be able to face jesus seeing the print of the nails in his hands and his side and more than that seeing his tremendous love for me how he gave everything to save me from eternal hell and i lived this selfish self-centered life just living for myself when i could have been useful for him on earth do you think i'll ever get over it i won't get over it in 10 years or a thousand years i don't believe i'll get over it in an eternity how can i get over it i say lord give me another chance to go back to earth and prove my love for you and the lord says no there is no other chance there's only one life everybody has on earth i thought about that much and that's why i decided that the one life i have i'm going to live for him and i remember in the days when my wife and i were struggling with tremendous poverty in the early years of our married life i said it doesn't matter lord it doesn't matter how poor i am i will not violate your principles i will not go against your principles i will never beg or ask anybody for money i will never send any prayer letters anywhere asking for money i'll never go to rich churches for money i will not depend on man if you choose to keep me poor i'm willing to be poor all of my life and when you feel i can have a little more you'll give me when the lord doesn't he doesn't torture us no no no no no he tests us to see whether we grab and we don't grab he'll give it to us he'll say put your isaac on the altar i don't want sheep i don't want your ten thousand sheep put isaac the one you love the most and when isaac did it when god when the abraham did it what did he lose he gave him back and i've experienced that i've really experienced that there was a day in my life when i with my ambition to be the admiral of the indian navy and to make a lot of money the lord said give it all up and i obeyed him the god doesn't call everybody to do that but he did call me and i laid isaac on the altar i gave up my ambition to be great in the world and i gave up oh i emptied my bank account and i said okay i'm out that's how that's how we my wife and i were poor when we were married because i'd given it all away [Music] and the lord tested me for years to see if i would just compromise a little here or there and when he had finally tested me over a number of years we never starved or we were poor we never starved god never allows us to be without food and clothing but we had to be happy with what little clothing we had we couldn't buy new clothes for our little children no he's got to use whatever they have and hand it down to the next child and the next child had the same shoes down to the next child and that's how it was but we survived and the blessing of the lord was not in terms of money it was in terms of such spiritual wealth that descended upon us and our children that i would never exchange it for all the millions and billions of money anybody can make on this earth and that's why i won't have a regret in heaven i will have regret about those early years when i didn't take the things of god seriously but i thank god that from a certain point in my life it was different i hope it will be like that with all of you i really wish you the best not on earth but in eternity i wish you the best you know people on earth say i wish you the best in the coming years of your life i wish you the best in eternity that you'll have zero regret at least from today onwards forget the past the bible says in acts 17 verse 30 the times of ignorance god overlooks but now he commands you to change your mind so yep assume that up till now you were ignorant of some of the things you heard till today okay acts 17 30. he overlooks it but now he tells you to change your mind repentance means change your mind and so it's sad that he went that way and then peter said lord we gave up our home verse 28 followed you [Music] was there for us he says i say to you listen to this if there's anyone who's had to give up his house or wife or brothers you know for the sake of the faith many people in india had to be turned out of their homes it's real who've turned out of their house their wife has forsaken them or their brothers parents forsook them children first with them for the sake of the kingdom of god [Music] they will receive many times in this age at this time [Music] in other words even on earth god will reward you i've seen that god's rewarded me with so many homes blessed fellowship with so many families and so many countries and also more than enough for my financial needs more than enough far more than enough in this time you get it in this time it's not all in eternity and in eternity eternal life it's like the best of both worlds but that's because you foresee this world if you seek for the best in this world then you won't you may get it here but you lose it in eternity so that's chapter 18 we go to chapter 19. here's another subject is money again there was a man verse two kozakis he was very rich sometimes we think rich people have no interest in god this man had tremendous interest in god even though he was a cheat and a crook but he had a hunger for god i mean they are rare most rich people are only interested in their money and he went to see jesus and because he was small in stage imagine a rich man climbing up a tree pretty undignified but he's climbing where he's so eager to see jesus i wonder how many people are willing to do undignified things to see jesus christ they want to meet with jesus in a dignified way well no wonder they never meet with him he was a man who was willing to do anything do something so undignified as to climb a tree i want to see jesus and the lord saw that man's heart and the holy spirit prompted him see jesus was so much in touch with the holy spirit all the time every moment because he walked in such freedom from sin this is what i've coveted in my own life i say lord i want to be free from sin so that i can be sensitive to the holy spirit telling me different things and as jesus walked down the road the holy spirit said stop look up at that tree and jesus immediately responded to the holy spirit there is a man there [Music] called zacchaeus the holy spirit even revealed his name go to his house stay with him today not just visit stay with him today and he calls him zacchaeus come down [Music] he came down and he said verse 5 i must stay at your house tonight i'm not coming for a brief visit i like that and all the people grumbled him saying aha this guy supposed to be a holy man verse 7 he's gone to the house of a sinner but he came for sinners he didn't come for those who think they were holy so naturally he'd go to the house of sinners and now there was a man who was prepared for meeting the lord as he reached his house it says zacchaeus stopped have you ever had a verse like this i don't think there's any other verse like this in the bible the two walking together and suddenly one person stops zach he has stopped outside his house and said hang on lord i want to expand what he said this house has been built with money that i got by cheating others so before you enter this house i've got some to tell you something uh you know otherwise you're a holy person you can't come to this house built with other people's cheating i cheated people and built this my house looked so grand but it was all by money i got by cheating people so i want to tell you something lord all the money that i got by cheating i'm going to repay and i'm going to pay with interest you know he was a good at calculation and said i'll pay back four times as much as i got it as four times as much as i stole and then there are only so many other people i don't even know where they are so i can't just say well i don't know where they are so i don't give it back no but i can't keep that money it's taken wrongfully i'll give it to the poor today i would say i put it in the offering box that's what i advise to people if you don't know where somebody is from whom you stole money give it to the lord because he's the ultimate owner of all money put it in the offering box that's in israel it was give to the poor but in the church we say put it in the offering box if you don't know from whom you stole that money but you can't keep it you can't keep it you have to return it i remember when i was a young unconverted i cheated the government of taxes and when i got converted i had i realized i had to return it i mean i wasn't caught or anything nobody would know it because it happened years before but i sat down and calculated and i found i was a naval officer those days and it worked out to about four months salary of mine i said wow that's a lot of money how long does it take to save four months salary took quite some time but one day i saved it and i said now let me go i cheated customs duties and all that i went to the customs office to find a department where they would take back money from that honest people wanted to come back and give there was no such department honest people wanted to come back and give money because they'd be out of business the man would be out of a job so i said what to do now in india the railways are run by the government unlike here where it's run by private companies so i said i got to give this money back to the government so i went to the railway station and bought the longest distance most expensive tickets i could buy number of tickets for all for all that amount of money and tore it all up and i was happy my heart was empty my bank account was empty but my heart was sorry my bank account was empty my heart was full that's how i began my christian life if i had not done that right at the beginning of my christian life i had been carrying a chain a shackle with my leg i would have been running but with a chain on my leg and i would never never have been able to make the progress i did in my christian life there are many christians who leave something unsettled in their past life some forgiveness they have to ask somebody some money that has to be returned but they're running but they don't realize there's chain in their leg they wonder why am i not making more progress in my christian life why don't i get more revelation on scripture like some others do you know the answer get rid of that chain and so the lord blessed him and said the only place where jesus said these words verse 9 salvation has come to this house because he has behaved like a child of abraham you remember abraham when the king of sodom said take all this money he said i will not touch your money king of sodom but this child this person was a child of abraham and then this is the verse that touched my heart many years ago the son of man verse 10 has come to seek and to save that which was lost zacchaeus was lost in the love of money and jesus saved him now i remember when i read that and i saw my own heart the love of money those days when i was young and i said lord i raised my hand and i said but you just me and the lord and i said lord jesus i'm lost in the love of money will you save me like you save zacchaeus and he did you can't i couldn't save myself it's like you can't save yourself from hell you can't save yourself from any sin you cannot save yourself if you love money you have to ask jesus to save you don't be afraid he won't send you out on the streets he didn't send me out on the streets he tested me but then gave me far more than i need and for my family far more than i need he blessed my children far more than they need but god was first lazarus did not have to sell his house but he had jesus salvation came to that house because the son of man saved him who was lost and he can save you my brother sister okay then there's another parable on money where a noble man was going on a long journey verse 11 onwards and he gave one mena verse 13 to each of 10 of his slaves was 13 one meena each when he came back one person had made 10 minutes verse 16 another person that made five minas verse 18 and another man just buried what he had you know wrapped it up in a handkerchief verse 20 and kept it it's showing that when god gives you something how are you going to use it god has given us one this is not this is different from the parable in matthew 25 where to one person he gave five another person to another person one that's talking about the gifts of the spirit which are given a different measure to different people but this is something where all of us are equal you may say i can't preach like brother zach it doesn't matter that's a gift god doesn't expect you to produce the results from a gift you did not have but there's one area where you and i are the same where every human being is the same every christian is the same one mina each we all have 24 hours in a day i don't get 25 hours you don't get 23 hours but what we do with our 24 hours is different how we spend our 24 hours each person is different one person wants to make maximum use of it for the lord it doesn't mean he's reading the bible all the time i don't read my bible all the time i think about it frequently during the day and even sometimes when i wake up at night but i don't read it all the time i i meditate more than read because that's the thing the bible says will make me like a tree that is always fresh meditation so many of you know so much of the bible you don't even need to read it you to meditate that's more important if you don't know the bible of course you must read it so 24 hours how we use it is up to you they're all equal some people produce 10 minutes from one that means they accomplish such a lot in their one life of 24 hours a day and there are others with the same 24 hours a day waste it or use part of it and get five minutes another person just wraps it in a handkerchief and does nothing for god with 24 hours a day are you like that you do nothing for god with 24 hours a day i don't say you should go preaching or witnessing to everybody on the street that's a matter of calling [Music] or gift some people have a gift of i don't have that i have a gift of teaching but that's like saying different members of the body you've got different gifts i wanted to be an evangelist early but god never gave me that gift so i said okay i'll accept whatever you give me don't desire a gift god will give you whatever give but the point is use your life for god 24 hours that doesn't mean serving god all the time you're doing your work faithfully and saying lord help me to be a witness by my life so that's the other thing we see there then we go to the next we've seen towards the end of chapter 19 we see another matter of money jesus entered the temple verse 45 and drove out those who were making money in the name of god and he said don't make my house a robber's den do you know that many preachers are robbers they take money from the poor people to become rich themselves they advertise on the television saying give us so much money i've got to buy this jet plane i'm so burdened to reach the lost for christ that i don't have time to stand in those lines at the airport and get a ticket and go on those flights no no i must buy my own plane to reach the lost so and there's nobody to tell them to shut up and keep their mouth shut there's nobody unfortunately where are the preachers who tell them don't make my father's house a den of robbers you rob from these poor people they're people sitting there none of them many of them are driving old cars and you want to get money from them to buy a plane for yourself have you heard preachers like that on television yes it's the only time jesus got angry and i get angry when i see these preachers on television if you don't get angry you're not like jesus don't get angry at these people who harm you get angry at these preachers they're trying to make money from poor people in the name of christ well they made it to robert's den and it's a sad thing when people have chosen the profession of preaching in order to make money and christendom is full of them america is full of them india is full of them i've seen it in every country using money to make themselves rich that's why we decided in cfc right from the time we started 46 years ago i decided i would never receive a salary i would never receive any money from my church i will support myself with whatever little i have and i say i don't need to buy a car i rode a scooter for 42 years i used to take three children on my scooter to school yeah but i'm not going to beg and borrow and make money from other people yeah there are preachers who do that and i said lord i'm your servant i can't afford to jesus never once asked people for money people gave him gifts he accepted it luke chapter 8 but he never got a salary that's a shameful thing today preachers who get a salary did paul get a salary did peter get a salary it's pathetic that there are so few examples it's all this rubbish they teach them in bible schools that's why they end up becoming preachers to make money get a degree and then go around collecting a salary be like jesus who had no degree and didn't want money and preach the gospel he did far more than be like peter and paul that's what i tell all the preachers in this country that's what we learn from 45 to 48 45 46 then we go to chapter 20. and there again we read something about money in verse 19 you know the scribes and the priests were watching him and they sent people to test him they asked said verse 21 they first praised him and said we know you speak and teach correctly be aware of those who flatter you jesus couldn't be fooled by that you're not partial to anybody you teach the way of god at truth verse 21 is it lawful to pay taxes to caesar or not he couldn't fool jesus they wanted to catch him saying don't pay attacks to caesar but jesus did not belong to any political party anti-roman or pro-roman no he said show me a coin he looked at it and said it's interesting he didn't even have a coin in his pocket and he gets this coin says who's whose likeness is on this they said caesars okay you give to caesar what belongs to caesar and give to god what belongs to god who comes first read carefully verse 25 caesar comes first then give to god in other words pay your taxes first then give to god don't give to god before you pay your taxes that's the meaning of that verse don't give to god before you have repaid what belongs to caesar and to all the other people in the world to whom you owe money whether government or anything it's not god first it's those you owe money to who come first then you give to god this is the words of jesus he didn't say give to god towards god's and then give to caesar what's up no give to caesar what belongs to caesar then what's left with you from that you give to god otherwise you'll be giving caesar's money to god if you borrowed money from somebody and you have not repaid it well whose money are you putting in the offering box that follows money that's a crime to steal somebody else's money and put in the offering box go and give that back to that man that's why the bible says in romans 13 8 oh no man anything now a house loan is not a debt because where balance the house is here and the money is there which you borrowed equal there's no debt there if you die your wife the bank will take the bomb house and there's no debt if you bought a car on a loan and you've insured it for the same amount there's no debt so but if you borrowed money you bought a refrigerator and that loses its value within one day it's a debt if you have borrowed it i remember the days when we were growing up and my wife and wife and i as we were living we decided we'd buy something only when we can afford it if it takes some time to earn that money we waited and earned it and then never once did we follow this buy now pay later scheme no if you have a credit card sometimes it's necessary in today's world make sure that you pay that debt every month if you fail to pay your credit card debt in one month punish yourself by buying nothing with that credit card that month you say we'll starve no harm in starving you'll learn a lesson by which you won't be in debt anymore i'm telling you some practical lessons the credit card system it's a very dangerous system that's why i've never kept a credit card in my life i only use a debit card all my life i don't want to ever be in debt to anybody but they offer you the privilege of being in debt for one month and before the certain date of the month period use that but make sure that you never cross that date a single time and if you do punish yourself some way so that you won't make that mistake again [Music] so give to caesar what is caesar's and then finally the last one chapter 21 verse one jesus saw the rich people putting their gifts into the treasury that suffering box that was there that's why in our church we keep an offering box we never pass a bag around we never tell people to give money in our church never never never and we're about the only church in the world almost that never takes past as an offering bag and all are more than 150 elders we have in churches in 11 countries not one of them gets a salary not one of them lives on a gift from the church we are unique in that way because we want to follow jesus who never passed a bag around when he was healing people never passed a bag around after preaching to people we want to follow jesus exactly never sent prayer a prayer so-called prayer letters which are begging letters telling people about his need i can i used to imagine sometimes if judas iscariot once got up in one of those public meetings and started saying you know jesus has to walk all the way from jerusalem galilee to jerusalem so many times how many of you will be willing to take let's take up an offering for jesus to buy him a chariot don't you think he deserves a chariot jesus would have pulled him down and said judah shut up and don't ever never got up and said don't you listen to this man he's not representing me where are the prophets who will get up and today and tell these preachers to shut up when they ask for money yeah there was an offering box there and many people put in a lot of money and this poor widow came and put two small copper coins and jesus said this poor widow has put in more than all of them here's the principle of giving verse four out of their surplus it's like giving a tip to god oh he's done so much for me let me give him a tip i tell you many people they're giving to god i'm not saying you should put money in the offering box i see if a church has plenty of money and they're paid for the building and all there's no need to put so much in the offering box but make sure your money belongs to god every bit of it a hundred percent that is the meaning of putting isaac on the altar he will not rob you god is not a robber he'll give you back your isaac with the blessing of god upon it i can tell you from my experience 1966 55 years ago i emptied my bank account and gave it all to the lord god's preserved me and my wife my children 55 years and given me an abundance it was a wonderful experience that widow put her two small copper points and she said she has put all that she had do you think that widow stopped if there was anybody in israel who did not start would have been that widow if there was anybody when there's famine in the land that widow would have got something that's how god cares dear brothers and sisters in the area of money you need to prove the faithfulness of god in your life in your own way now i'm not asking you to go out and empty your bank account don't misunderstand me don't do that don't do something foolish like that there are only very very few people whom god calls to give up everything he told the fishermen to sell give up everything he told matthew to give up everything but lots of me marry martha and lazarus he never told them to give up everything zacchaeus gave up half his goods he was still a very wealthy man and jesus said that's fine so don't misunderstand what i say and don't imitate me you're not supposed to imitate me in anything not in the way i gave or not in the way i preach but make sure that you are detached from this tremendous attachment to money that every child of adam has and you will experience a liberation in your life believe it or not that when you lay isaac on the altar he'll give you back more than isaac you know what abraham got back from the altar not just isaac a whole nation and from that jesus himself what a fool he would have been if he had not put isaac on the altar god always gives back richly he gives back like somebody said i take my shovel and give something to god and god takes his shovel and shovels something back into my life and his shovel is bigger than mine that's how it is see we have i want to say something about how we are supposed to give this is a picture of our offering box in india now churches and on top of the offering box we have i'll read it to you there are five points written top of all our offering boxes before you give please check number one are you a born-again child of god in the third episode of john it says they took nothing from unbelievers we've had instances where an unbeliever sends us a money order and i have returned it to him and that's what we did in the early days and the person got insulted that he wouldn't take any money from him but we do it a little more wisely now [Music] we send him a pile of books costing that much money so that not one cent of his money goes into our offering whatever he sent us we send him a gift back of something that will bless him because we can't don't want to take one cent from an unbeliever who's not you've got to give your heart to god first before he takes any of your money it's a fundamental principle and that's why we tell people in the church before you when you go to the offering box are you a born again child of god if not please do not put any money we don't want it second question it's on there these are all five are on top there list do you have enough for your family's needs and i look at it like this god owns the heaven and earth he's a trillionaire trillionaire trillionaire multiple times he doesn't want his children to be starving to give to his work i thought of it like this supposing i'm a multi billionaire or trillionaire and one of my children who's struggling to earn their living wants to honor me as a father and give me some money i wouldn't take it i would take it if he has plenty to take care of his own needs yes i mean if he there are some houses where they need three cars not just one i told you about going on a scooter that's all i needed but there's nothing wrong with having a car i said there's nothing wrong in having three or four cars sometimes people have children in their home who are working they don't have a transport system here they need to have a car and i i have no problem with needs can be five cars in a home that could be a need a home with five bedrooms maybe a need six bedrooms i don't know the need is different so don't judge another person but like they say cut your coat according to your cloth don't so if you earn that much by all means build a house like that and buy as many cars as you need and as many i always tell people in our in india you must make life easier for your wife by buying as many gadgets that will make life easier for her at home that you can that you can afford the last part is very important that you can afford not that you have to borrow but anything that will make life easier for her women have such a struggle at home yeah in this pandemic time people have discovered how much work wives do at home i'll tell you that's one good thing that's come out of the pandemic with the husband sitting at home and seeing what the wife is doing and so i say make life easier for her that's what i mean by do you have enough for your family's needs you don't have to live like a pauper so according to your ability and whatever god has allowed you to earn please make it easier your children's education when jesus said give us this day our daily bread how did i get my day how do you get your daily bread but you got a job how did you get your job because you had an education so when you want your children also to earn their daily bread they must get an education you must pay for their education maybe they need to go to college pay for that and that's expensive nowadays so that's part of your needs save up for it like they say like you read proverbs chapter 6 it says go to the ant you lazy man consider her ways and be wise and in summer it lays up food for the winter that is the verse in the bible which says you must save for the future for the like they say in the world say for the rainy day save for a time and you won't have enough so that you can educate all your children so that they can earn their daily bread very very important i believe that is what jesus wants you to do and to anticipate any need that you have whether you need insurance to cover expenses that may be too much for you to handle perfectly right we need to that there's no love of money and nothing wrong in spending money in all those things we have to provide for our children there's a great you know jesus said don't lay up treasure for the last two words are important don't lay up treasure for yourself second balance it with second corinthians 12 verse 14 parents must lay up for their children take scripture with scripture if you want to understand it in a balanced way most heresies in christendom have come through one verse being taken and expanded to such a size that it blots out everything else these are people who don't know the bible god's called me to be a teacher of the word the balanced teacher of the word don't lay up treasure for yourself but lay up for your children god wants you to do that second corinthians 12 14. so that's what i mean by your family's needs the third question we there have there is are you free from debt other than a house loan or a car loan romans 13 8 don't owe anybody anything give to caesar first before you give to god you go to put something in the offering box and you realize apart from a house loan car loan you owe that bike person some money you got to give a thousand dollars to that person you borrowed from this 100 that you're putting in the offering box is not your money it's his money and he will say who in the world told you to give my money into the offering box can you put somebody else's money in the offering box no go and give it to him and when you finish that loan then put in the offering box oh but we have to give to god well you first get rid of your debt obey god before you give god's not interested in your money he's interested in your obedience to the word which says oh no man anything let me give you my testimony i'm nearly 82 years old now in a couple of months i'll be 82. i have never borrowed one cent from any human being on my life i took god's word seriously sometimes i'm not saying in an emergency somebody may have to borrow maybe god protected me from that but if you do borrow the bible the bible doesn't say don't borrow we i want to be exact sometimes you means in an emergency need to borrow but don't owe anybody anything that means if you do borrow pay it back as soon as possible if you borrowed a book return it when you're finished reading it don't just forget about it if you borrowed a tool to use in your gardening return it when you're finished using it believers are so careless in these things and that's why they never get true riches and so are you free from debt and so when you go to the offering box the next thing they read is are you free from debt they put their money back in the pocket [Music] i want them to do that i encourage them to do that go and give it to that guy and then the fourth question here is are you reconciled with all people matthew 5 jesus said when you come with your offering to god and there you remember that your brother's got something against you leave your offering there i'm just quoting jesus matthew 5 23 24 25 go and reconcile to your brother settle that matter you had a fight with him he's got a grudge against you because you hurt him then come and give your offering otherwise god will not accept your offering [Music] very important and last of all very important second corinthians 9 are you giving cheerfully or reluctantly because some preacher said come on give are you giving cheerfully in other words can you say hallelujah and put the money in the box i'm happy to give so much for god if you're not happy brother keep it keep it all keep it all and die with it god doesn't want any of your rotten money these are the principles and we insist on these things that's why we put you'll never find a notices like that in front of any offering box in any other church in the whole world we took a radical attitude towards money from day one like all our preachers don't take any money they don't get a salary not one of them not one of the elders and the reason is because christendom has drifted so far in the matter of money that we don't want to just preach victory over sin we want to preach the new covenant the area of money as well god bless you all i pray that that will bring a balance to some of the things that i said earlier let's pray heavenly father help us to be faithful wholehearted to be wise not to be foolish to walk with you in humility in jesus name amen [Music] you

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

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Length: 81min 16sec (4876 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021