The Church: A Light in the Darkness by Zac Poonen

one of the problems I've seen through many years his believers who start well but don't finish the race or end badly and I wanted to just show you a couple of verses in that connection Luke 14 Jesus was talking about a man who wanted to build a house and he laid a foundation verse 29 he burst 28 he wanted to build a tower but he didn't count the cost of the building at the beginning or all of us who feel building a house or something you certainly sit down and say well how much is gonna cost and he didn't count the cost and without counting the cost he laid a foundation and so he was not able to finish now he's talking about believers who start well and the foundation we know in Hebrews 6 is repentance and faith and belief from the final judgment of God etc and baptism etc so that's the foundation where we accepted the Lord and we were born again and we've taken baptism and we believe in the coming of the Lord in their final judgment but having laid that foundation it says here he is not able to finish and then it is said about him verse 30 this man began to build and was not able to finish I believe that word is going to be spoken about many many believers they began to build and they were not able to finish they started the race but they didn't finish it and there are a number of verses in the Bible that speak about that but if you turn to 1 Corinthians in chapter 9 and verse 24 1 Corinthians 9:24 don't you know that those who run in a race all run to come to the starting line of the race is being born again but the race is a marathon race and but only one receives the prize now the interesting thing about the Christian race is it's not just gonna be one who receives the prize he sends to the Corinthian Christians to all those Christians who run in such a way that you will win that first prize so the meaning there is is the one who runs and wins who get surprised but all of you can win all of you can come first but in order to complete the race like that you have to be a disciplined person as it says everyone who competes in the games you know think of the people who win the gold medal in the Olympic Games they've discipline themselves in so many ways they don't eat what they like they practice every day and they do that in order to win this gold medal and so he says I also seek Paul says to seek to do like that one more verse in Hebrews in chapter 3 verse 12 to 14 take care brethren lest there should be in any one of you I was talking to believers know a lot there are some people who feel that if you accepted the Lord once you'll never fall away but you know you can't find that taught in Scripture very often it's people who take half a verse from somewhere who believe that but here it says take care brethren born-again believers lest there be in one of you an evil unbelieving heart that makes you fall away from the Living God so I mean that's so plain that anyone can understand that a believer can come to the place he's running the race he started in the starting line and somewhere along the way he developed an unbelief and the Bible calls an unbelieving heart an evil heart that made him fall away completely from the Living God so in order to prevent that this is what another reason why we come together as a church here is the reason why we come together as a church and not just on Sundays here's the reason why we seek to fellowship with one another in between as well in was 13 encourage one another every single day as long as it is called today because let me paraphrase it in 24 hours you can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin so encourage one another every day as long as it is called today lest any of you especially those who think I'll never fall I'm wholehearted lest any of you be hardened not by obvious sins by the deceitfulness of sin some of the deceitful sins are hypocrisy you know giving an impression to people it's not really true of our private life personal life or pride very deceitful selfishness it's amazing how a believer can be utterly selfish and have no clue about their selfishness it's a deceitful thing these are murder and adultery are not deceitful they are very obvious sense telling lies it's a very obvious sin in fact idol worship all the things listed in the Ten Commandments there are obvious sins but here it speaks about the deceitfulness of sin sins that are very deceitful those the ones you got to be more careful about obvious since you don't have to be so concerned about because you'll immediately be alert to it and stay away from it or if you fall you'll immediately get up but you can be a hypocrite for years and not know it you can be proud of so many areas and be completely unaware of it you can be selfish in a hundred ways and be unaware of it those are more deceitful ones so if you're asking God for light on your life ask God for light on hypocrisy pride consult fishness and where someone is more mature than you who was walked with the Lord judging himself in all these areas he'll be able to see your hypocrisy and see your pride and see your selfishness where you don't see it yourself see that's one of the advantages of fellowship in a church and if we seek fellowship in a church that is emphasizing godliness and there are very few churches like that there'll be a ministry in such a church that exposes deceitful sins if you want to get light on yourself you know it's like cancer for example I've heard of people who got fourth stage of cancer and they never went to the doctor before that because they felt perfectly okay that's an amazing thing about cancer a person can feel perfectly okay for a long time and by the time he goes to the doctor this is pretty late now I can't do much about it now there's certain other things like you got a headache you're aware of it immediately you get an injury you feel it immediately even a mosquito bite you feel immediately but imagine a thing like cancer it can progress in progress and you discover it much later and it's a very often it's too late to cure and so many cancers in the early stage you'll be detected it can be cured so these deceitful sins are the things you're going to be very careful about hidden sins and the sins in the inner life so I see therefore that I would want to be a part of a church it says you're encourage one another daily where people believe in this and this also you know applies to husband and wife the person you see daily is your marriage partner really and what a responsibility it is to be an encouragement because encouragement can save people from falling into sin it's not criticism that delivers people very often we think if you criticize a person and show him his error he'll be delivered know he may be discouraged but to encourage a person that means ensuring the possibility of what he can be in Christ and then it says verse 14 we become partakers of Christ only when you finish the race did you read that we become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end until the end of the race so there's no price for those who start the race there's a price for those who come first and all of us can come first so in the days in which we live where there are so many temptations around us to following it's wonderful to belong to a fellowship which values godliness you won't fall away if you lose your job or run short of money or have to move from a bigger house to a smaller one or all these trials that we can have on this earth falling away comes only when we are deceived by the deceitfulness of sin and nothing else really so when we look at the history of the Christian Church through the years the devil has always tried to corrupt the church in these hidden areas I've heard of buildings that were built on the olden days and wooden pillars and they painted regularly and it looks very nice when one day the whole roof collapses because this pillar was all eaten away by termites inside you not at all visible on the outside as happens often in India where wooden structures are eaten by what are called white hands termites that eat up the inside but on the outside is all painted to look nice I think a lot of Christians are just like that a lot of churches are like that eaten up on the inside and suddenly one day the whole thing collapses and you wonder what happened it's like the stories you hear of a pastor who suddenly fell into adultery you think that happened in a moment no it was years of termites eating up inside his heart you know first a lustful look and then another and there's no repentance in that and maybe a little bit of going into pornography or a little bit occasionally gradually it leads to adultery finally I try to cover it up and find you here he's caught and he falls away nothing happens suddenly or one who's unfaithful financially so it starts very small sometimes it starts when a person is a child and the parents don't teach that child that stealing is wrong telling a lie is wrong deceitfulness enters in if if they don't you're not strict without children about deception so over a period of time they develop so it's good to be in a church where we are challenged to the highest think of a verse like this in 1 John 2:6 in my entire Christian life I never heard a single message on this can you believe it I was born again 58 years ago and we started CFC in our home 42 years ago in those 16 years before that I never a single message even not live alone a message I never heard anyone even referring to this verse 1 John 2:6 says the one who says he abides in Christ must walk in the same way as Jesus won't just listen to that I say I am abiding in Christ I'm in Christ and I'm supposed to walk as Jesus walked now it's it's terrible to think that God would ask us to do something which is impossible jesus said all of us are evil fathers compared to a loving father in heaven and is it possible that you would ever ask your child to carry a one-ton 10,000 pounds of something of weight on his head and then punish him if he doesn't do it even an evil father wouldn't do that how much more a good father you'd never ask his child to do something he knows that child can never do it's beyond its capacity or ability and that is what we are indirectly accusing God off when we look at verses in the Bible and say that's impossible 1 John 2:6 to walk as Jesus walked Philippians 4:4 to rejoice 24/7 Philippians 4:6 to be anxious for nothing 2nd Corinthians 2:14 to be always led in triumph or Romans 8:37 to be more than a conqueror in every situation or visions for 31:32 to put away all anger 100% and Colossians 4:6 - your speech should always be with grace so that people can taste it you look at these verses like this and say with many Christians almost such verses are not in their Bible they don't even know such verses are in the Bible but they read it there are people who say I read the Bible once through every year or they seem to have skipped over these verses its we read it and indirect I mean unconsciously we see that's not possible forget it it just moved to the next verse and that's the reason why after so many years of being born-again hot Christian life is so shallow it's like a kinder student was in the kindergarten year after year after year of year 20 years in the kindergarten I mean any parent would be disturbed a lot of Christians are not disturbed they don't seem to be progress to higher levels the Bible says let us press on to perfection there are so many verses like this which are not in there in the Old Testament now if you're living in the Old Testament if you were an Israelite living under the leadership of Moses under the Old Covenant then all these commands are impossible you never find all these commands I just mentioned you never find them in the Old Testament no because God treated them like little babies not they can't do these things mmm you know one of the differences between Old Covenant and New Covenant is that God treated the Old Covenant people like little children and the New Covenant people had adult sons it's very important to see this difference I'll show you that in Galatians in chapter 3 and 4 you often spoken about the difference within Old Covenant and New Covenant and this is one of the differences Galatians chapter 3 and was 23 before faith came and that's referring to this New Covenant faith that came through Christ we were kept in custody under the law being shut up to the faith that was later to be revealed so the law is like a tutor or the margin says like a child conductor or a governess or a maid who was who we hired to look after a little child this is very common in India where families who can afford it will hire a maid to take the child to school because it's too young to go by itself it's six years old that maid has to hold the child's hand and take the child to school and go back when the school closes and hold the child's hand and help the child to cross the road and come back this is the picture here the law was like a governess to take care of the child until it's grown up and able to take care of himself you can go to school on his own you can ride a bicycle and go to school but till then it needs a governess in there here it says the law is like a a child conductor or a tutor a governess to look after the law was like a protection if the law is not there it could be like the child just see a five-year-old child okay walk to school on your own and get run over by a bus the very first day so to protect the child from being run over a house maid is appointed to take care of that child and so the law was like that and all those other countries where people didn't have a law they were all got run over by sin so that's why Israel was protected but God's will is not that we should always have this house made and you don't want your child to always you know his 20 years old being led by a housemaid to the school no it is until the faith came where's 25 now that the faith has come you don't need that governess you don't need that tutor because now you're not a child verse 26 you're a son you see the difference before that you were children and now you're a son and that's what's happened and so he goes on to say in Chapter four a child is under guardians verse two and managers even if the child is a billionaires child he cannot do anything with that money he doesn't know how to handle it he doesn't know to write a check he doesn't know how to go to a bank he's another picture used here he's an heir to a billionaire but he's a child and it's no better than a slave the slave in the house can't do anything with that bank account and the child can't do anything but child is no better than a slave but when he grows up and therefore the child billionaires child is kept under guardians and managers until the day when he's able to handle his wealth and so also while we were children that means we lived under rules and regulations don't do this and don't touch that and don't do the other thing that's just like we treat our children and there's a phase in our Christian life in the early part of our Christian life after we are born again we tend to live by rules there's a sense in which even though the age of the law is passed on the day of Pentecost we tend to live under that for a little while because that's the only way we can keep our testimony in the church and I think most Christians live for a period under the law I avoid certain things I'm not supposed to go to movies I'm not supposed to do this and not supposed to do that I'm not supposed to smoke or drink or I'm not supposed to do all these things therefore I don't do it it's not from within its rules that I have imposed upon myself and that I'm very careful to do and especially when other people are watching me to keep a good testimony before this it's a clear proof that you're a child anyone who's always trying to create a good impression and live by certain rules which they don't follow when they're all alone but they follow when anybody is watching them that's a child and it says that we were on those days when we were like little children we were under bondage to all these things but now verse 4 Galatians 4:4 in the fullness of time God sent His Son Jesus born of a woman born under the law in order that he might redeem or deliver us from this living under rules and don't do this and avoid this and avoid this just to get a good testimony that we can become sons that we can now inherit the wealth of our Heavenly Father and that's why God sent His Holy Spirit into your heart that looks up and cries out dad and makes us rich in Christ and then we can take these New Testament commands and live according to them and just like you wouldn't put a three-year-old child driving a car but an ad out you would because a adult knows how to handle it is that this you gotta try and there are many many pictures you can use of the difference between a small three-year-old and an adult and you need to ask yourself whether we've become like that in our Christian life whether we have grown or we are still under these rules trying to protect our testimony that we don't get a bad reputation before others and the reason why many Christians are children is because their teachers our children the ones they call their pastors their leaders the preachers they listen to are also children who live by rules to protect themselves from external sin and they never have any light on hypocrisy pride or selfishness and there are thousands and thousands of churches they never speak about these three because it's all in Word you can cover it up and it's possible to spend many many years is born-again christian looking for churches that a little better you know people leave a church because they say they don't practice believers baptism good so you go to a church that preaches believers baptism but you can have the same hypocrisy and pride and business there I've seen it and then you say with this this church doesn't preach the baptism in the Holy Spirit it doesn't believe in the supernatural gifts of the Spirit they don't believe in speaking in tongues they don't believe in healing they don't believe in casting out demons good ok so you leave all that and you go to church that believes in the Baptist of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and prophecy and healing and gassing out demons but the same hypocrisy and selfishness and pride are in that church what is the difference this is just a little the color wash the whitewash of the building is a little different this one is white that one is blue and that one is green that's all it's only external and then in the midst of these churches there are people who are sick and tired of their defeated life and say Lord I'm not happy with this I'm not happy with this I'm not happy with this well I do I want to find a place where I can be challenged to walk as Jesus walked where I can be challenged to obey the commandments where I can put away all anger and all bitterness from my life and gradually put away all selfishness and get a little more and more light on my pride and selfishness in hypocrisy so that I grow in grace for that I need to be challenged all the time we read that no encourage one another daily lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin that is how you know some of us in India 42 years ago sought for something more than we found in the different churches I myself had made the round of so many churches and they were all good as far as evangelism goes those churches were excellent reaching out to the lost telling them Jesus died for their sins but producing little children just like themselves who are not delivered from these sins you know and I used to think you know in a country like where I live in ninety eight percent are non Christian and even the two percent Christian are mostly hypocritical I say if a non-christian came to me and I had to give him the gospel and if I told him listen the trouble with all of us is we have sinned and no religion tells me that somebody had taken the punishment for my sin except Christianity Jesus Christ came to earth to die and take entire punishment for our sin another thing he did was nobody else did was rise from the dead that proves that he's the truth so I tell him this what I did and I my sins are forgiven and you can do that I'm not introducing it to Christianity I'm introducing it to Jesus Christ receive him into your life and you'll be forgiven and he says really I say yes you can be forgiven completely all your sins he says that's great news but I've got one more problem I can angry with my wife and yell at her regularly can Jesus deliver me from that and you haven't been delivered to yourself so you say well not you're sure about that you know Jesus is not that powerful to deliver you from anger but he can forgive you you can say you keep your Jesus I don't want it I look for somebody else who can maybe Buddha maybe he can deliver me from anger what has been the effect of your witness for Christ is it just forgiveness or is it more than that now if the New Testament said Christ can we forgive you but sin will have dominion over you even when you're under grace that will not change til Christ returns but you'll be forgiven but you'll have the assurance which the Old Testament people didn't have that they have a children of God you can call God Father and all that but sin will still don't have to win in over you whether you're under law or under grace sin will rule over you I mean Romans 6:14 will be written slightly differently think if it was like that then I can understand let me speaking the truth I mean if that non-christian gets offended and goes away I can't do anything about it because I say that's what the Bible says that sin will have dominion over me so we have to ask ourselves whether the Christianity we are presenting and picturing before others is the Christianity of the New Covenant or some third-rate washed out useless Christianity that we've seen in the different churches now not many people are fed up with this they may then just accept it oh this is how it is I mean I went to this church it was like this and these other people who were baptized in water they were also like this and these other people who say they are filled with the spirit they are also like this and they give up but there are a few who say no if I believe the Bible is the Word of God either the Bible is not the Word of God then let me throw it away well if I see on one hand the Bible is the Word of God and I don't take seriously what's written there I don't think what Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away I don't think those words seriously what is the Jesus I'm believing in the only Jesus I know off is the one the Bible describes I don't know of any other Jesus so if I take the Jesus the Bible describes who died for my sin and rose again was born of a virgin then I must accept some other things the Bible says heaven and earth will pass away but my word will not pass away and think of a statement like this I've often thought about this verse which I'll tell you 99.9999% Christians don't even think seriously I don't know whether some of you belong to the point zero zero zero one percent let me show you the verse now ask yourself this question have you taken this verse seriously Matthew chapter 12 just one verse I could show you many others but I'll just show you one for the time being Matthew chapter 12 and verse 36 Matthew 12 verse 36 Jesus says I say to you now whenever he said something like that it means like it's like underlining you got a letter and some lines are underlined so whenever Jesus said verily verily I say unto your eye see on TV is underlining something every careless word idle world that you speak you will give an account in the day of judgment everywhere is it really true that verse 37 by your words you will be justified in that final day by your words you will be condemned is it really true that the words I speak at home when nobody's listening except my wife for my husband those words are important that they'll come up in the day of judgment I tell you I have seen Christians all over the world 99.999% do not believe it I'm telling you the truth you ask yourself whether you believe it well if you believe in whether you live by that you read on the internet that certain type of food is junk food you believe it and you avoid it that's why you stopped eating some of the junk food which has been known to just make you obese and unhealthy not you believe but not this I'm absolutely convinced I could make if I had the time I could make a list of the number of things we believe which we read in the news and then contrast that with a number of things in the Bible which we just don't believe most people in believe more what the media says and what the Bible says in the media's a lot of it believe it or not is fake news that's trying to present something to make you think in a certain way the Bible is not like that there's no fake news in the Bible it's 100% true and I believe that if God tells me that my words are going to be very very important and I say Laura I'm absolutely helpless when it comes to speaking my tongue is my biggest problem in fact the Bible itself says in James chapter 3 that no one can tame the tongue the Bible says they've tamed lions and elephants and wild animals but no one has been able to tame the tongue did you know that verse James chapter three verse seven and eight now this is way back in the first century itself they had already learned to control animals james 3:7 every species of beasts and birds and reptiles and creatures of the sea has been tamed whales have been tamed Lions have been tamed Tigers have been tamed many of us have seen them by man but the tongue no one can tame because it's a restless evil full of deadly poison now people can read all that and read that every careless word mentions speak and say Lord what's a solution and when a man longs to find that solution God shows it to him not just if he wants an answer from me we'll go to brother zag and ask him what is the solution no no no you'll get a theoretical answer is the answer is needed to be filled with the holy spirit okay you got the answer now in a question answer paper you'll answer what's the solution be filled with the holy spirit do you think that's all there is to it no there is a law in Scripture and the law is let me show you a few verses Matthew chapter 5 and verse 6 blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness they shall be satisfied not those who want to find the answer but those who hunger and thirst to really live a godly life and they read something like you must walk as Jesus walk they say oh god that's why I want to walk they read every careless word they shall give an account Oh God I'm not afraid of judgment but I see my careless what dishonor you so I want to avoid it I don't want the devil to accuse me before you and see this fellow calls himself your child God look at how he's talking to his husband or wife or to that personally officer look at his road rage in his car when he's driving the car just because everybody else is frustrated he's frustrated too how is he your child God that's what the devil says he's called the accuser of the Brethren and when I think of that I say Lord I don't want the devil ever to open his mouth about me to you in any situation do you have a burden like that Revelation 12:10 says he accuses us be and night to God what's he accusing he can tell a lie he can't go and say his acts a murderer because that's a lie he won't tell God things like that but if he sees me do something not something according to his standard something the Bible has said I must do and I don't do or something that Bible says I must not do and I do it that's the thing you like use me off look at him remember how he pointed out joke and according to the job standard was Old Testament so that's all the standard by which he was judged you know in the first grade you only get 1st grade question papers so job is down there so he was not just by this New Testament standard but according to that standard God could say there's a perfect and an upright man he was certainly not perfect and upright according to New Covenant standards you've read that as you've read the book of Joel because he had a lot of complaints against God and questions but according to that level where he was according to that first grade level he had got a hundred percent he got a plus and God could say have you seen it perfect an upright man one who fears God it turns away from evil and I believe that the devil's coming before God and God's looking for people in the Bay Area whom he can point out to God that point out at the devil and say have you seen that have you seen that home the devil says look at all these hypocrites in all these churches look at all these fellows running after money and say they are following Jesus and then God says yes but have you seen that one I mean have you seen that brother have you seen that sister oh and the devil points out for families that are a pathetic testimony to the Lord and then the Lord says yes but have you seen that family that's different I believe that should be our goal and that's that was those who hunger and thirst for righteousness they shall be satisfied Lord what about those who don't hunger and thirst for righteousness but who wanted yeah well they want to get it because it's a principle with God which we must understand and it was there in the Old Testament - Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 13 it's a very important principle that's universally true whether under Old Covenant or New Covenant Jeremiah 29:13 when you seek me you will find me only when you search for me with all your heart what about the guy who doesn't search for me with all his heart he won't find me or Hebrews 11:6 the King James is more accurate their God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied he will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him not those who casually seek him who are desperate you know who like I use the illustration if you lose a 10 cent coin at night in the grass how long will you look for it not even one minute perhaps but if you misplaced $100,000 a bunch of currency notes somewhere as you were moving around how long would you look for that you take leave from your work to look for it and many people are searching for God like a 10 cent coin they seek for something they want to be filled with the Holy Spirit Howard is seeking for it I like a 10 cent coin I prayed for it I didn't get it okay nevermind I've got other things to do you'll pray again tomorrow if I'm passing by that way I'll look for that 10 cent coin again you think's person like that is ever gonna find God not in a hundred years you shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart when you treat God as something cheap you won't find them well that's the thing that makes the difference between one believer and another even in the same church why do you find someone radical wholehearted overcoming gracious and anointed one other person dry as a bone yeah they believe in Jesus Christ they both claim to be born again they're all baptized in water maybe they even speak in tongues but there's a difference why because God sees that in the inner life that persons seeking me with all his heart and he rewards him accordingly not all are rewarded in the same way those who seek God with all their heart find him this Jesus said that also let me show you a couple of passages in the New Testament in John chapter 7 in relation to being filled with the Holy Spirit John 7 and verse 37 he's speaking about the fullness of the Spirit and verse 38 about from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water if he believes but the beginning is if he's thirsty john 7:37 if Fran is thirsty desperately thirsty that means he wants this more than anything else on earth not rather I'd like a drink of water right now not like that but imagine if he wandering in the day if you've been wandering in the desert for six or seven days you pay anything for a glass of water you'd be willing to be ten thousand dollars per glass of water because you're dying that is the type of thirst spoken of here when God means more to you than anything there was a very godly man in India called sadhus under singh he died in 1929 he was born in 1888 or something died when he was born 43 when he was around 14 years old you see he was a man who hated Christians in those days a tear Bibles and despise old Christian missionaries etc in the north of India and a place called Punjab he lived grew up there he was his father was part of the Sikh as I cared Sikh religion and but he was desperate to find God his mother would take him to various Hindu holy men and all that and I think his mother died and he was seeking God on his own he's just about 14 years old 14 or 15 young boy thinking for 14 15 year-old boy seeking God and one day he was so desperate early in the morning around for a cloud or something he got up and he said oh god I don't know who you are so many religions say you are the bear the truth to know that I want to know you and I've been seeking you for so many years so many years means what he's only about 15 years old he's already been seeking God and he says if I don't if you don't reveal yourself to me by five o'clock or so that train that's coming by my house I'll go and put my head on the rails and commit suicide because I cannot live any more without you and before the train came he saw a vision of Jesus he expected to see some other non-christian God he saw Jesus and Jesus spoke to him you know just like Paul and Steven that happens today it happened to him he's away only to him well I say show me a 15 year-old who is so desperate to find God that he commits suicide if he doesn't find God hardly anybody like that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him he was so desperate then God revealed himself to him and he immediately knew the truth and surrendered his life to Christ and woke up his non-christian father and said he'd become a Christian his father thought he went off his head and and the parents poisoned him because they felt it was a disgrace that somebody in their family would become a Christian and it threw him out of the house he didn't know he was poised food he ate threw him out of the house and he got a train or something and reached the house of some missionary for vomiting vomiting along the way recovered and he went on for the next more than 25 years to be an outstanding witness for Christ I've heard of people who say they have seen him he died long before I was born and they say that they saw such purity in his eyes is rare to see purity in the eyes of a man they saw such purities it stood out the purity in his eyes because he had looked at the face of Jesus for so long he was not interested money he go around preaching is going to the most difficult places to preach the gospel I read that story as a young believer and I said boy really Lord you're a reward I mean this guy knew nothing of the Bible when he was converted but he wholeheartedly sought after God and I see that God is even today that a water of all who diligently seek Him here was a non-christian who was seeking God a million times more seriously than so-called Christians without a Bible with them this chapter I had a Bible he tore the Bible tell it was a false teaching and he became the most outstanding creature that hosts outstanding Christian I don't believe India's seen a finer Christian than him in all this hundred years those who thirst will be satisfied so in other words is Matthew 11 if anyone thirsts come to me Jesus said not all can come to him only those who thirst in other words Matthew 11:28 come to me those who are weary and heavy-laden and I paraphrase that like this come to me those of you who are sick and tired of your feeted life are you sick and tired not of other people the world is full of people are sick and tired of others the numerous homes where wives are sick and tired of their husband and husband sick and tired of their wives gods Jesus is not inviting any of them and I want to say to any of you sitting here if you're sick and tired of some other human being my brother's sister the Lord is not inviting you no come to me those who was sick and tired of yourself I remember a brother who came to me at a conference once and said to me brother Zak I'm sick and tired of this church I go to their alt all this corruption and all can I join your church I said no you can't come to our church you come to us you'll be sick and tired of us because we are not perfect when you get sick and tired of yourself and you're defeated like then come to us because we are a bunch of people a second ahead of ourselves and we're seeking to press on to perfection and becoming more like Christ we haven't got there yet but we're pressing on so that's I said that's the one Jesus Jesus did not invite everybody he said come to me those who if anyone is thirsty let him come to me if anyone wants to seek me with all his heart come to me come to me those who are sick and tired of that defeated life I will give you rest and rest by the way that phrase that were dressed in the New Testament is always a picture of a life of overcoming sin and if you want clarification on that read Hebrews chapter three and for some time where the land of Canaan where the Giants are defeated as a picture is called a life of rest the Lord gave them rest and it says there when God has given us a promise of rest be a fearful lest you come short of it read Hebrews three and for some time you'll see that the rest is a picture of that life of victory and that's the meaning of the Sabbath when it says six days you shall work and the seventh day you shall rest the meaning is that you come to an end of all your struggling and you'll overcome sin that's the life of rest that Jesus has promised the life of overcoming that's what the Sabbath referred to in Hebrews chapter 4 says that there is a Sabbath rest for God's people a life of overcoming a life of victory so Jesus was saying if you come to me you're sick and tired I'll give you this rest so this is what happened - just to give you a little history of how it happened with us I was sick and tired of my defeated life 1974 I was I was born again he's baptized and I was even preaching when I had a gift but I was defeated inwardly my life externally my life is okay nobody could point out a single thing wrong with my external life but my inner life my thoughts the words I spoke at home defeated defeated defeated but in the church a holy man and I remember the day in my life in January the 12th 1975 the Lord asked me will you stand up in that church where you've been preaching all this time and tell them openly that you're a hypocrite I said yes Lord I'll do anything if you will meet with me that is a condition the Lord asked me he doesn't ask everyone to do that theost Abraham to offer up his son for me it was like that that he asked me to stand up in the churches I was a hypocrite the church for everybody respected me where I had been preaching for more than six months every single Sunday and I was preaching internationally to different different countries and the ANU they knew that and that day I went to the church ready to say that there was another preacher that day and I said as soon as he gives an invitation I'm gonna get up I did somehow for one reason or the other he never gave an invitation that day I never got the opportunity when the Lord met with me I'd laid my Isaac on the altar me a reputation with men meant nothing to me that's why the Lord was testing do you care for what these people think I said no lower I want reality so once that was laid on the altar the Lord met with me that day filled me of the Holy Spirit and changed my life complete it was like a turnaround that happened in my life now I hit rock bottom and then I started going up I didn't reach where I am today overnight but little by little that climb started but it started with the desperate longing for reality and then once I experience the baptism fullness the Holy Spirit I began to share it and people didn't like that in that church and so I had to leave and one other brother also left and that's how we started a church in our home the first day me father was just met for prayer we were sick and tired of ourselves that was the only thing common between us he was of a different culture for me but we were sickened out of ourselves and we decided to pray and see God and that's how our church started we were sincere because of one reason both he and I at some time in our life earlier had quit our earthly jobs to serve the Lord full-time and that's a sacrifice to quit your job because you want to serve the Lord I know when I did it my income dropped 85% when I did it and he had quit his job there is the only common thing about is that there was something in our life and we really was seeking God even earlier but we didn't know how and here we are we're now seeing God we didn't know where to go and God met with us and filled us both with the Holy Spirit and we started meeting together and from there it was God who gradually drew to others those who wanted this life those who wanted more than what they were getting in other churches those who wanted this life described in the New Testament not just individually but together as a as a family as a body and that's what God began to build that's another thing we hardly ever seen where church is like a family where I mean you can be like a family even the Freemasons are very care of their care for one another so I'm not just talking about caring for one another but more than that we're we care for one another too even rebuked a person if he is sinning that's real love the Freemasons won't have that they care for one another you know helping one another financially or medically and things like that but to love a person enough to rebuke that person that you find only in true Christianity jesus said in revelation 3:19 those whom I love I rebuke and the more we become like Christ we will we will detest sin in someone you know just like you see a sickness in your child and you love that child but you hate that sickness and you want to get rid of that sickness and you'll take that child to this doctor that doctor the other in this hospital because you hate that sickness if you love a person enough and you see my god of bad habit you will tell him even if it makes you unpopular because you love him so much it's rare to find that type of church I said Lord that's the only type of church we want to build not when we just comfort one another and say praise the Lord we're all happy to see each other no but they will rebuke and correct and seek to proceed people to godliness and that's how God built us together in those days and we've been going now 42 years and during these 42 years our prayer was Lord if there's anybody else in this area we were just in one corner of the city of Bangalore in India and Lord if there's anybody in this area and we were just thinking of a few miles around my house because you know transport was very expensive and difficult those days none of us had a car almost everybody came traveling by bus or by bicycles or walking everyone and so we couldn't think of people traveling from long distances for Lord if there's anybody in this area who is seeking for a godly life here we are a small despised Church we're not very rich we are poor people but if they're seeking a godly life please bring them in touch with us somehow because your sovereign you can arrange circumstances that we meet or bring us in touch with them maybe we'll meet them in a grocery store or in a bank or somewhere and somehow heat up a conversation and discover they're also seeking Gardena so we can invite them and like that little by little people came some came on their own some came out of curiosity to see what is this new thing and they're the ones who've easily got offended and left so we had a high turnover those days people would come and go and come and go but through this all as God removed the chaff a few grains of wheat came together and we were able to make a bread and that's how we started and then we began to pray Lord if there are perhaps now that we have a little fellowship here we were meeting together 6 7 years and at the end of 7 years we were about 15 perhaps we would count the children also so that we were a respectable number instead of I mean we didn't boast about that it just for ourselves when we said Lord perhaps there may be other people in India who are seeking for this life bring them in touch with us so bring us in touch with them and we'd say if you don't do that show us what's wrong with us why can't you bring people in touch now I would say things like this Lord if there's a man like Joe but god-fearing man or like Stephen in the New Testament wholehearted who's living somewhere in this area why should he walk past my house and go to some other place to find a church why can't you pray him here that's me something wrong with us show us we'll set it right we'd pay any price but we want to be the church you want us to be you don't want to be large in number but we want to have quality we don't want to be a big pile of wood hay and straw because the Bible says you're gonna churches like that 1 Corinthians 3 we want to be a small Church of quality gold silver and precious stones and so the Lord would over a period of time suddenly he began to open up doors in different parts of India and planted churches the Lord planted them I never planned it any other used to go and then there would be something and God would bring together people and he planted Church I was there just like a midwife that's all the Lord would plant a church here and a planet church there little by little he began to draw together and our aim was exactly what we read in acts 1:8 when you're filled with the Holy Spirit can renew we were you will become my witnesses not bear witness you will be my witnesses that's what we am possessed not just with words that's bearing witness but be a witness by my life in other words we should be able to say to people come home and see how we live come home and see what we teach our children come and see not just coming here the message we preach on Sunday the Old Testament that's another difference we saw between Old Testament and New Testament Old Testaments come in here the prophet Moses has come down from the Mount with a message from God coming hear what he has to say this is the Word of God I mean he fights with his wife at home well you read about that in Exodus for how Exodus Moses fought with his wife and don't worry about that that's not important come and hear the message or Samuel has come from with a message from God I mean don't look at his children who are taking bribes and deceiving these relights don't look at Samuel children but Samuel and it's right they were only told to come in here come in here come in here come in here but in the New Testament it changes when the disciples of John the Baptist we read in John chapter 1 once came to Jesus and said master rabbi John 138 where do you stay jesus said come and see that's a difference it's not coming here the Old Testament prophets had come in here the word of the Lord new testament is come and see where jesus is living in a home in a church where Jesus is in the midst come and see so that was our emphasis if people are not able to come and see we have nothing to offer them if it's just another Church saying come in here some new truth which other churches are not preaching and where it's very easy for a church to descend to that level even though it starts well brothers here in this church we preach certain new truths which are not preached by others that is again the old come in here come and see is come and see how these new truths have changed our lives how it changed my attitude to money how it changed my attitude to my family life how it changed me the way I brought up my children how I changed my attitude to anger to lusting after women and change my attitude to telling lies and change my attitude to many many things like that change my attitude to getting honor for praying or anything like that and little by little the Lord said Nina Lance Lord says in acts 1:8 you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem that's your home first hometown Judea the surrounding area and Samaria maybe like a country and then a continent and then to the uttermost parts of the earth so that was our goal when we started but for many years it was just Jerusalem in our home in the small area and then the Lord began to reach out and then little by little you know we we decided to use every possible means of spreading the gospel that we could the full gospel DVDs and then the Lord opened up the internet and at last we were able to reach the uttermost parts of the earth and it's amazing what God has done not that we reach every individual but the Lord didn't say every individual what he said if the uttermost parts of the earth and you know when you get a email from somebody in Greenland saying they've been listening to the message and mean Charlie I said wow and from there to the other extreme in the Fiji Islands and someplace I've never even heard of Lord it's amazing what you can do but we don't glory in that we want to see them come to a godly life we want to see them planting fellowships and God can do that anywhere he picked up unlearned fishermen and the only qualification that was they love Jesus supremely they made mistakes and you read in the Acts of the Apostles also they made mistakes but they love Jesus fervently he meant more to them than anything else and one of the things the Lord spoke to us very clearly in those days was from Luke 16 and verse 13 I mentioned about how we have to pursue wholeheartedly for to find God here in Luke 16:13 he says about no servant can serve two masters and I've discovered through the years this is a message which Christendom truly needs to hear most Christian churches today are serving two masters and the two masters are not God and said no Christian believes they can serve God and Satan but many Christians believe they can serve God and money in other words you can have a passion for wealth and a passion for God it's a lie it's one of the biggest lies that the devil has fooled Christians with in the last 50 years perhaps you can have a passion for God and a passion for money Jesus said no you have to choose so we decided to make a choice one of the things started using me lived in a country India where almost every single Church and Christian organization that I knew money was a major thing for them they would urge people to give money they would even among the and they would say that we want you to give we want you to give and we don't want any silent offerings that means we don't want any coins we want silent offerings that sort said we don't want any noisy offerings meaning it must be currency notes not coins you see that doesn't mean anything in a country like this but in a poor country in the villages in India they are poor they bring coins it's so many subtle ways to urge people to give and cave and cave and then of course the other organizations that have to write reports about stick work being and reports that are sent to Europe and America particularly and money is pours in from these countries and these preachers and the directors of these organizations they fill their pockets with that and Christian name of Christ is Dishonored there was a place recently in India where a number of non-christians came and burnt up the Christian houses of many Christians in a particular part of the eastern coast of India suddenly a couple of years ago in the village and I was so grieved to hear it but when I wrote to a brother of mine another brother in the church who was there and asked him can you tell me what actually happened sometimes what you hear in the media is not really the news that's in its fake news but tell me he was living in that area and said tell me what how why did these guys go and suddenly burn up so many houses and make so many Christians homeless he said I'll tell you the truth there were so many Christian organizations here who were spreading false reports on the internet and everywhere that thousands are being converted they were saying that in order to get money from America and Europe houses are getting converted and we need to build churches we do that and then thousands of non-christians are getting converted and there were people who are non-christians reading this on the internet in different countries and saying what's happening a lot of our people are leaving their religion it was not true hardly anybody was getting converted it was just published sized for the sake of getting money and so these people believed all that and they said well we not to destroy these Christians schools to blame for that a lot of reports that you get I tell you 90% of it is lies and so what happens is the average non-christian in India says hey we know why you guys are Christians you want money right we don't want money so why should we have your Christianity that's what they would say this guy didn't get a job so he became a pastor that's true believe it or not of 90% of the Christians I have met in India who are Christian workers if they were doing a secular job they wouldn't get earned 10% of what they're earning as pastors and preachers so you see a country like that where money is such a big thing you do Christian work in order to make money we decided we have to be different how do you make sure that the light the light must be as different from the darkness as day is different from night so we took some decisions in our churches first of all we won't have any pastors we'll have working people who will be elders every one of them will support themselves financially one way or the other we will not have one paid worker in any church that we plant and secondly we will never take an offering in any of our churches we'll just keep a box there those want to put can put those who don't want to not put because jesus said you must give secretly you can't give secretly if somebody puts a plate in front of you you're disobeying scripture right there so we decided we're not going to do that we're going to never take an offering he'll never pay any real have no paid workers we never send any reports anywhere and we haven't done it in 42 years nobody's ever got a report from us about what we have done and we will be so upright and financially we will never make a plea for money in any of our churches at any time we will not even suggest that you must give and okay we struggled we struggled many of us my wife and I struggled in our home and the others struggled fine there's nothing wrong in struggling one thing Jesus will never make any any of us homeless that's impossible if you seek the kingdom of God first and his righteousness you'll have enough for your needs you may not become a millionaire but you'll have enough for your needs sure and so we now we prove that with over 42 years but I don't keep count the number of churches but must be around 70 75 or more I don't know but I know that I work with about a hundred elders every single one of them supporting themselves and that's just to be a light in the midst of darkness you cannot serve God and money so that we can turn to the non-christian and say listen we're not doing this for money we're doing this because you love the Lord now that may not be so true here I think it is true everywhere because I find that a lot of preachers are urging people to give money here you I mean if you turn on television I thought of this you know I saw one of your American well-known telly evangelists is there program in India I saw it in India on a Christian TV program in India where this man Believe It or Not showed this picture of a huge of a jet plane that he had to buy in order to travel the world to preach the gospel Here I am showing that in a country like India on Christian television and he said if you give me $1,000 in those days it was 49 rupees two dollars or 49 thousand rupees 49 thousand rupees boy people in the villages in India live a whole year with that amount of money if you give me $1,000 I will write your name in the front of the plane and a big list and I act there watching this furious you know Jesus was furious with the money changers I got furious when I saw this - I was just being a little more like Jesus there and I thought if some non-christian there are many non-christians will respect Jesus in India some non-christians sees this hell yeah that just convinces me that Christian is just a money-making religion it is if you could see what happens in the orphanages in India where the directors pocket the money that comes there collected in the name of orphans and they send pictures and reports from orphans to different countries then and the people who support this one orphan don't know that ten other people are supporting the same orphan everythings I am supporting this orphan it's all a hoax how to solve this problem you've got to separate God and money it's like separating oil and water if you mix oil and water you can't pour it in your car it's useless you can't drink it keep it separate is good for both purposes it's like that money is okay in the business world Jesus never went to the marketplace in Jerusalem and turned out the people from this they don't make money no you can make money sure honestly in the business place but don't bring it into the church he chased him out from the temple we God has preserved us all these 42 years and have never compromised on our standard we don't want it to be said of us that we began to build and we didn't finish so I want to encourage all of you don't give up be careful about yeah I have to show you that verse Jude it says about people who creep into the church who don't have your values Jude verse 3 I was making an effort to write to you about our common salvation I felt the necessity right you're appealing that you contend earnestly fight for the faith which was once for all delivered to the Saints the values in the New Testament because certain people have crept into our churches unnoticed ungodly persons what have they done they've turned the grace of God into a license to commit sin as a meaning you know how you can drive when you have a driving license so the grace of God has become license to commit sins which you couldn't do under the law under the Lord says you shall not commit adultery there's a law you can't do it's like you don't have a driving license you can't drive a car but now you've got a license you can drive a car grace is become a license now it doesn't matter if you commit adultery because you'll be forgiven now it doesn't matter what you do because you'll be forgiven but that's not what Romans 6:14 says Romans 6:14 says when you move out under the law sin does not rule over you that's real grace this is the false grace and it's being preached everywhere you except it tries 10 years ago okay you're all right people have crept into the church crept means what it reminds me of a snake crawling under the gap at the bottom of the door and the door keepers not alert and he comes and sits there we have been very alert at least remember I was an elder I was very alert to all this and I say I don't care how many people of get offended but we're gonna be alert about people who come here and play the fool with sin or who are seeking after their own was main interest in life is to make money but I also want to be a part of a good church they're not radical they're not wholehearted they don't want to deny themselves and build fellowship with others or they won't want to be with people at that same community it's another thing when my sons came here to study in the United States I said never never join an Indian Church don't even go there because there's no such thing as an Indian Church it's only the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ which is a local church and I example I used to them was think of a bunch of Americans came to Bangalore and decided to build a church only for Americans it never happened by the way the Americans had more sense they didn't I've never seen heard of a single Church like that and they wouldn't allow any Indians to come there it's Indian Americans I see that is as a ridiculous as a bunch of Indians going to America and saying we're gonna have Indian church we think those Americans feel their superior to come to India start an American church what is the Americans think of an Indians who come to America and start an Indian Church I said don't ever join them thankfully they never never did because a church must be a local church where people Jews Gentiles the Bible says Jews Gentiles barbarians Greeks and educated non-educated whatever it is must all be one in Christ that is the only church that Jesus is the Lord of that's that you're Jesus building so these are things you know which when we stress everything written in the Bible you find very few people want everything they want this that yeah this is good this thing in this church is good but these other thing I don't like this it'll never go well with you you'll never you'll discover when you stand before the Lord that you've missed out so much of what God wanted you to have on the earth because you pursued some honor with men some pleasure with sin or some money somewhere the three things that Moses rejected so my god help us let's pray Heavenly Father we pray that in this church everyone who comes will always be challenged to the highest even if many get offended and leave that there'll be a testimony here this bright like the light of the Sun that drives the darkness away we pray raise up godly men and women in this church will be a testimony here and in their homes for what the amazing grace of God can do for the part of the Holy Spirit can do we pray in Jesus name Amen

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 4,616

Rating: 4.8461537 out of 5

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

Id: Z9lY2m09HGY

Length: 79min 52sec (4792 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 27 2017