The Importance of Dying to Our Own Will - Zac Poonen - March 10, 2013

the New Covenant is all about and that's the main reason why their lives are depressed discouraged defeated and they've sort of accepted that is the norm and when they look around at other born-again Christians it's not much better and instead of the reality of the New Covenant in their life they have substituted it with good music even good preaching being stirred through sermons on in church or in the internet getting understanding the mind being stimulated the emotion being stimulated whereas the thing that God is after is never taking place if you turn with me to Matthew chapter 7 you see the words of Jesus at the end of the Sermon on the Mount he says the gate is so small verse 14 chapter 7 verse 14 and the way to life is narrow and very few find it and the weight of destruction is broad and many go by it so he's talking about two ways way to destruction and a way to life and very few are going to find it so all this idea that a lot of people say today that great multitudes are going to come into God's kingdom well I wonder I wonder what they mean by God's kingdom I'll tell you great multitudes are going to go in the broad way to destruction and the way to life is very narrow very few are going to find it a lot of people are going to talk about it maybe there are many people are going to understand it but very few are going to find it that's what I've discovered even many people who in their mind understand all that they have heard about the New Covenant they don't find it I've seen that even in churches in our own churches in many places I've preached there are many who understand it they can explain it to others but in that daily life at home they don't find that way which is the way of the Cross they don't find that way of death to self they don't find it in their home they don't find it in their office they don't find it on the roads they don't find it in daily life for they understand it so clearly they understand so well they can explain it it's one of the great deceptions in our day I find is thinking that Bible knowledge is spirituality it's one of the greatest deceptions of our time if Bible knowledge could make people spiritual we should be having the holiest people that ever lived in the time of Christian in the Christian era in our day we know the Bible better than Peter James and John because we've got printed Bibles which they never had it's a great deception that knowledge makes us spiritual and the other great deception is thinking that being excited about Christianity and about the things of the Lord makes us better than those who are dried dead intellectuals that's another mistake so you find in Christendom as I've looked around there are those who major on intellectual knowledge of the world understanding it and imagining that that is and they've got it all accurately it's not defective knowledge it's correct knowledge and thinking that understanding justification means you're justified or understanding about victory means you got victory and there are people who react against that and say that's all dead knowledge and they swing to the other extreme and say the important thing is to be excited and they grow the example of people who are excited in a football game and how they yell and scream when their team has won and they don't you think we should be like that when we know about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and they yell and scream and you're excited especially in their singing and they think that spirituality both are in a deception there are three parts to our personality our intellect our emotions and our will I want to say that God is after our will being yielded and that's what he comes to you know you can understand and you can be excited and you can still be on the Broadway and that's where he speaks about the false prophets verse fifteen who come in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves and even the preachers they also haven't understood this way of where the will is denied you know man will fight everything our human nature will fight everything provided we don't have to deny our will I'm willing to accept anything that Christianity or any other religion preaches so long as I don't have to deny our my will and we see that in children the thing that they are unwilling to give up is their will their stubborn will inwardly I'm reminded of that story I often quote about the little boy who his dad said sit down and he said I want sit down then that takes a stick and the boy sits down any says that inwardly I'm still standing up the question is how do you get that inward person to sit down this is the stubbornness in a child and he doesn't go away from us when we are grown up we think that spirituality is knowledge and emotion then he speaks further down in verse 21 about mind or intellect or emotion and our will you see that in verse 21 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven when a person says Lord to Jesus you know his God his intellect right his mind is right Jesus Christ is Lord when he says Lord Lord it means he's even excited his emotions are also stirred by the fact that Jesus Lord but what does he not do he doesn't yield his will he doesn't deny his will to do the will of the Father and this is where we need to if you really want to see how spiritual you are never never evaluate yourself by how well you know the Bible the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus time knew it very well how well you can explain it it only means you've got a very good mind that can understand analyze explain and you know secretly you can be proud of it that I really know the Bible or there are others who as I said I don't just say Lord they say Lord Lord they're excited and they're the emotional type who think that that is the in fact one of the great deceptions of our day is to confuse emotion for the moving of the Holy Spirit they think that in a quiet meeting where nobody's emotional nobody's excited nobody's raising their hands the Spirit is not moving and they think on the other hand where everybody is excited and lifting their hands and shouting and praising and saying hallelujah and all this must be the Holy Spirit this is the deception in Christendom today true spirituality you can be quiet or you can be emotional if you deny your will in daily life your spiritual otherwise you're not that's why I often say when people ask me what's the difference brothers equity in your church and other churches I say the difference is that for this that in other churches Sunday is the important day for us Monday is the important day and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday in other words if I'm denying my will you see Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday I'm not studying the Bible and shouting and praising God like I do on Sunday on Monday it's my will that matters at home in the different situations that arise by denying my will it's not just what I said Lord Lord on Sunday but I want to do where's 21:00 do the will of my father in heaven see when we're sitting here on us in a Sunday service there's not much opportunity to do the will of our Father except listen to God's Word perhaps but Monday onwards we have a lot of opportunity to deny our will and to do the will of our Father on Sunday we are saying Lord Lord so not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven the one who's got his intellect right and his emotions all excited no but the one who quietly does the will of my father in heaven Christians generally are impressed by someone who can expound Scripture well explain it well preach well or someone who's you know a great master of ceremonies on a Sunday morning can stir everybody up to raise their voices and to say hallelujah and praise the Lord yeah when God's not impressed with any of them he's impressed with the person who you may not be impressed by because maybe he's a quiet type of person that's his personality got in in God's church there are people who are quiet by temperament and personality they're shy they are reserved and generally speaking people look down on them as not being spiritual and then there are others who are very exuberant and most Christians think they are the ones who are spiritual because they're very exuberant or they're very knowledgeable but it's not our temperament that makes us spiritual the shy person may be far more godly than the exuberant extrovert I'm not saying that the quiet person is spiritual no but what I'm saying is both are equal before God's eyes the only thing that matters is what do you do with your will you deny it when you are tempted when you're provoked you deny your will say I want to do the will of my father here I want to do what God wants me to do and I can never do the will of God if I don't deny my own will and he goes on to say many will come to me in the final day and say Lord Lord verse 22 we did all these other things and you know a lot of activity he says that's not the will of my father it was your attitude to sin that was important well you know he explains doing the will of my father what is that verse 22 he is it prophesying in Jesus name you know that may be part of the Father's will sure is it casting out demons from people are demon-possessed yes that's also part of the Father's will Jesus did it or is it performing miracles perhaps that could also be the Father's will Jesus did it but in spite of these people doing it the Lord says to them I don't know you I never knew you you I never came into a personal relationship with you because when it came to sin you didn't give that out so it's in the area of sin and holiness that the final judgment is going to determine whether the Lord's going to accept us or not and whether we did the will of the Father in relation to sin and holiness not in relation to miracles and preaching and singing and you know attending services we were just studying Isaiah chapter one a little while ago and if you notice there in that first chapter the external things they did we're according to Scripture you know burnt offerings and sacrifices and Sabbath's but it was all the ritual part and the really practical part of caring for the widow and defending the helpless and the orphan that they left out is the easy part is the ritual more than real righteousness that even Christians are occupied with today see for example what people call praise and worship and singing and reading the Bible and attending church it's all the external ritual and that's exactly how it was then so doing the will of God in relation to sin and holiness that is is the person who has chosen that and who seeks to do that every day who's really walking the narrow way that leads to life and very few find it a lot of people who we think are great men of God and women of God on Sunday morning the first to be lost and some of the others who we don't think much are because they're not the exuberant type they don't know they're not ever have so much ability and they don't have the ability to prophesy or cast out demons or do miracles they may be first because in daily life they have they find the way that Jesus walked that narrow of denying our own will and doing the will of God and that's what Jesus went on to speak about in the end you know this is the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount ultimately he says it's not a question of whether you understand the Sermon on the Mount it's not a question of whether you get excited over it it's a question of whether you actually do every day the will of God in your daily life and he goes on to speak about the man who built his house on the rock the wise man and the man who built his house on the sand and if you read carefully let's look at the man who built his house on the sand verse 26 he heard these words of mine so the man who built on sand was not an atheist he was not even a nominal Christian who was sitting at home watching television on Sunday morning he was a faithful church goer he heard the words of Jesus and you know in those days when they didn't have a Bible remember for 1400 years nobody had a printed Bible the only place where they could hear the Word of God was in a church meeting the words of Jesus he heard these words of Jesus so the foolish man was one who went regularly to church so he never missed a Sunday service but he was foolish he heard maybe he understood it maybe he was clever humanly speaking he was excited about what he heard but when it came to his daily life in his home and his work he did not do it that's all he heard these words of mine but he did not yield his will he understood it excited about it but he didn't do it and I want to say this my dear brothers and sisters if you want to escape deceiving yourself the Bible speaks about a number of times in the New Testament about don't deceive yourself don't deceive yourself a number of times if you want to don't want to deceive ourselves then never evaluate your spirituality by how much you know the Bible how well you can explain it how well you can preach how way you can sing how much other people think of you as one of those the scriptures or one who's a very exuberant Christian never evaluate yourself by that but evaluate yourself by how much you deny yourself in daily life at home in relation to your husband and wife and family and how much you deny your selfishness that there is in all of our nature the by when the Bible calls our speaks about our flesh in which dwells nothing good Romans 7:18 we can say that the reverse of it would be saying everything in our flesh is selfishness we're always thinking of ourselves first we're always thinking of our own convenience if I take this course of action how will it affect me and my family what is the minimum I have to deny myself and get maximum benefit from God and from my fellow believers and from the church what is the minimum I have to do to deny myself that is the corruption of the flesh and if I'm not denying that in daily life and if I'm not getting light on it more and more if I'm walking with the Lord I'll be getting more and more light on this selfishness that there is in my flesh the subtle pride that I have in my imagined spirituality I'm not getting light on it I'm not really walking in the light the Bible never speaks about standing still in the light if we walk in the light that means I'm getting closer and closer to God who is the only source of true light God is light we read in 1 John 1 God is light and if we walk in that light walk means I get closer and closer to that light that means I'm getting more and more light on myself on what on my selfishness and I'm and to walk in the light there's only one way to walk in that light and that is when I get light on my selfishness I deny it I haven't seen all of it I've got a long way to go to see all of it but that one little bit that I see in some situation in my home or in my work spot or somewhere else or I often used to find it driving a scooter down the roads of India as well I could get a light on myself I get a light on it at home I could get light on it in my in the way I handled my finances I could light get light on it I could get light on it even and I am preaching or in church and all the time light on my selfishness my lack of consideration for others or and I had light on it and I say Lord I want to put this to death there I deny myself in order to do the will of God there in that moment I have found that narrow way that leads to life and if I haven't found that in daily life whether I know it or not I walking a broad way even if I'm doing miracles preaching great sermons I remember many years ago the Lord told me never evaluate your life by all these external activity that you're doing for me preaching traveling writing books singing songs never evaluate yourself by any of these things your value before me is how much you deny yourself your will your selfishness how you get light on it and you deny it in order in order to do my will that's the wise man who hears and he's not the furnished man hears and he's excited about it you know to know the Scriptures to be able to explain the scriptures my house is still on sand and to be excited about Jesus my house is still on sand but when I go through the sand through the it's not that we despise the mind it's not that we despise the emotions God God created our mind and God created our emotions and when we hear God's Word it goes through our eyes or yours right now through the years it first comes to our mind and it's coming into your mind now and then it stirs our emotions we respond in in wordly but we still haven't become spiritual we haven't still hit rock we're still going through the sand the sand is our mind and our emotions when do you hit rock when you say I'm going to deny my will in this area where God has shown given me light see that's what it says in Luke 644 he ate the wise man is like a man who building a house Luke 648 dug deep and founded his put his foundation on the rock so why was he digging deep because it all sand all the way down here to sand sand sand sand sand intellectual understanding being able to explain the Scriptures excited about it to still sign and he said I'm not happy now a person who gets happy say hey I'm going to see the scriptures I'm excited about it boring he had a wonderful time of praise this morning in Sunday wasn't that some lovely songs we sang it's all sine brother when you hit rock is when you've gone through that and denied your will and you say I do what God tells me to do then I have laid my foundation on the rock then the flood can come and the torrent can burst the rains can come I'm rock solid and there you see the reason why so many Christians who come and listen to God's Word and understand it and sing so well some situation comes up in their life and they begin to shake they're anxious they are afraid they are worried and they lose their temper and they backslide it's because for years and years and years they've been living on sand they've been just growing in their understanding and their excitement about God's Word and thinking their spiritual because they understood so much or excited we're excited so much so this is this is why it's so important to understand exactly what Jesus meant when he said in Luke chapter 9 and verse 23 he was saying to them all Jesus was saying to everyone Luke 9:23 if anyone wants to come after me doesn't matter who it is let him say no to himself to his self well to his selfishness and take up his cross and that means to die to his own self and then follow me I mean there's so little about understanding and emotion if you want to follow Jesus it is some action of denying myself in the different situations of life when I'm provoked to say no to myself I'm not going to respond to that I'm going to be like a dead man in this situation oh it could be when I'm praised appreciated by somebody I'm going to be like a dead man that's the meaning of taking up the cross I've died to myself you see for a dead man lying here he's not going to be affected by your criticism or your praises all equally saying you call him a devil or you call him a prophet there's no change of expression on his face it's just the same he's dead if the criticism of men or the appreciation of men can inwardly make some change in us inwardly we are not dead yet and this is the thing I used to keep praying for as I began to understand seek the Lord for understanding the way of the Cross I said Lord when people insult me or get angry with me they must not even be a flicker inside my heart and if people call me a prophet or a man of God they must also not be a flicker in my heart I want to come to the place where I'm really dead like that dead man you call him whatever you like Eagle names or good names no change of expression in him are you keen on getting there that's the first question does the praise of men excite you criticism men depress you I think if a godly man I mean if a man like the Apostle Paul came up to me and said Zach I'm a bit concerned about your life I think you're a bit of a hypocrite I mean that I would take seriously because the man who is saying it is a godly man so I'm not saying that we should devalue the opinion of godly people who may be able to discern something in us which we can't discern ourselves but otherwise I mean there very few like that who love us enough to speak the truth about us and who are spiritual enough to able to discern us very few most of the time you're facing people who either are angry with us or upset with us or are jealous of us or wanna hurt us or etc etc I want to show that they are better than us or something like that and that's why in most situations I have to just die to the opinions of men I say the approval and disapproval of men is all just fit for the trash can I want to be dead I want it otherwise I can't follow Jesus this is anyone who wants to come after me you have to die you have to and that's not something I can just do today and settle it forever when I've given my life to Christ when I'm born again it's like a marriage okay I've decided I want to be your disciple all my life but when it comes to taking taking up the cross I can't do it once for all it says I've got to do it every day however faithfully I may have taken up the cross yesterday that's not good enough for today I may be in a very faithful follower of Jesus yesterday because I took up the cross and died to myself and today I may be a backslider I have to take up my cross daily and follow him and when it says take up the cross daily and follow him it must mean that he also took up a cross everyday otherwise how in the world could he ask me to take up the cross everyday if he took it only once in his life no he when he tells me to follow him daily taking up the cross and denying myself read that verse slowly carefully I must to follow Jesus I must deny myself every day say no to myself every day and die to myself every day it must mean that that's the way he went every day of his life and that's the hidden cross in the life of Jesus which most people don't see most Christians have only seen that outward cross that he took the last day of his earthly life and that's what they shed tears over or he suffered so much for me and if you see that cross and achieve God you get forgiveness of sins that's fine I believe that you don't need to see his daily cross in order to get forgiveness of sins to me that's the gate but that gate leads to away there's a narrow gate and you can enter through the narrow gate and stick be stuck at the gate all your life but then narrow gate leads to a narrow way that leads to life that's what Jesus said the gate is narrow and the way is narrow that leads to life and I get a picture in my mind of a lot of Christians just stuck at the gate and they stand at the gate and they spend their entire life increasing and understanding and increasing in activity but never actually walking the way of denying themselves and following Jesus and that's why even after so many years of being a Christian they still get depressed they still don't know how it is to rejoice always they still don't know how it is to be anxious for nothing they still when they hear words like he who says he's a Christian must walk the same way that Jesus walked 1 John 2:6 they say oh that's all impossible it is impossible if you stick if you stay around the gate it's impossible but yet there are words like this he who says he abides in Christ must walk in the same way as he walked this is the New Covenant this is what was impossible in the Old Testament intellectual understanding of God was possible in the Old Testament excitement was possible if you read the Psalms you find what tremendous excitement these people had in praising God they would bang that timbrels and instruments and shout and raise their hands and clap and say praise the Lord yeah it's all Old Testament there's nothing wrong in it we can do it but jesus said the true worshipers in the New Covenant will worship God in this spirit and not just in the soul of mind and emotions I'm all for it I believe man is spirit soul and body and we should worship God with our spirit soul and body that's why I'm alright for clapping hands and raising our hands I'm all right for you using our soul as well to worship God and with our intelligence that means I mean what I sing to God I mean the words I think seriously about the words I'm excited about the words and I can say hallelujah excited but it's the will that penetrates through and opens the door to the spirit it's the will that is that veil that hung in the Old Testament temple you know just like this you couldn't go into the most holy place nobody in the Old Testament could go to the most holy place what was this thing that blocked off the presence of God and remember in the Old Testament Tabernacle is something like this where there was a most holy place and there was a holy place and then there was the outer court you know corresponding to man's body soul and spirit and God did not dwell in the outer court he did not dwell in the holy place he dwelled in the most holy place and nobody could get there that Shekinah glory of God was there the mercy seat was there God says that's where I'll speak between the cherubims in the mercy seat and this rail nobody understood in the Old Testament what this whale meant and when Jesus died and he said it's finished that whale was torn from top to bottom saying now you can enter God's presence so if you turn to Hebrews chapter 10 you see what that whale is the way into the most holy place is called a new and living way that's part of the New Covenant Hebrews 10 brethren verse 19 we have confidence to enter the holy that is the most holy place first of all by the blood of Jesus that is what forgives our past life cleanses up us from all our sin and by a new and living way a way that living means ever fresh and young of ever fresh and new means ever fresh and a living way that means there's no debt there which Jesus inaugurated for us now what is the meaning of something inaugurated for us you know sometimes when a new road is being laid out someplace some big official comes and inaugurates it they cut a ribbon and say the door the road is open now the road is open for what yes not just for observation we can walk on it now we can use it we can drive on it it's a way that's been inaugurated not for admiration but for us to walk on for us Jesus inaugurated a way by the way he went and that way goes through the rail it was away so the rail was a not just a door but a way there's a through the rail which has been inaugurated for us have you ever considered what that way is what is the way the new and living way through the veil you need to understand what the veil is he inaugurated the veil inaugurated through the will that is he explains what the veil is his flesh there was something in Jesus that was torn it's not his body if it was his body it would have been written there the veil is his body his body was not torn his body was just pierced in a few places but there's something inside that body that was torn and that's described in John chapter 6 and verse 38 in John 6:38 Jesus says I call this the one-line autobiography of Jesus the way Jesus described his entire life in one sentence explaining why he came down from heaven he did not come to die on the cross that was one part of what he came for but he sums it all up in this sentence I came from heaven to deny my own will not to do my own will means say no to my own will and say yes to the will of my father who sent me he describes his entire thirty three and a half years with that one sentence right from the time he came to an age of understanding as a child till the last moment on the cross when he said it's finished he denied his own will and did the will of his father he's going to the cross was just one part of that you know it gets cemani he said not my will but thine father but that's not something that he said early in Gethsemane he said it all through his life as a little child at home in Nazareth not my will but dying as a carpenter as he worked he wouldn't do it things according to his will he wanted to do exactly what the father told him to do in every situation and that's why he was constantly listening Jesus whole life was a life of listening and that's why his first spoken words in his ministry the very first spoken words of his ministry were man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God Matthew 4:4 not by just food and things like that by every word if that's the way man is to live how many people have understood it that if you want life to its fullest you must hear every word that God is saying and what a work the devil is done by getting Christians in our day particularly to completely neglect the Bible we live in a day when people don't even bring the Bible to a meeting to a church service they have no time for it the ignorance of the Bible is so absolute they despise it they don't value it no doctor goes around without a stethoscope man thinks he can live without the Word of God and that's why they're so defeated they know more about the news on television than every word that proceeds from God's mouth I want to ask you a straight question brothers and sisters have you read through the scriptures have you read every word that is preceded from God's mouth first of all do you believe the Bible is God's Word if you don't believe the Bible is God's Word then it's okay if you didn't read it I don't despise them those who say well I don't believe the Bible is God's Word why should I read it oh okay I appreciate your honesty I don't agree with you but at least you're honest but I'll tell you the dishonest person the hypocrite the one who says there is only one book that God is given to man among all the millions of books in the world is only one God is written and he doesn't read it every day he doesn't study it he doesn't bring it to a meeting where they are studying God's Word he is a hypocrite fit to be with the Pharisees of old he's not consistent he's not honest and God sees that dishonesty in him and allows him to be deceived Jesus was his whole life was one of listening he would often go out into the wilderness to listen what is the father want me to do because his entire aim in life was to do the will of his father and if he had missed it at one point he would have sinned to sin for Jesus was not like what we call sin getting angry or having a dirty thought I mean those are all such low levels since kindergarten stuff and those are not the things Jesus was dealing with he had overcome all that for him sin was something where I did not do what my father wanted me to do I did my own will it was a pretty high level that Jesus lived and God calls you and me this is spiritual maturity spiritual maturity is not knowing the Bible in that case the devil is the most mature person of all you know the Bible so well if I have a Bible quiz competition with the devil he'll win definitely it's in obedience where he fails I'm sure the DA was excited about a lot of things but there's no obedience to God's will that's the thing which characterizes the life of Jesus he never did his own well see Romans chapter 15 Romans 15 we read these words verse 3 Christ did not please himself I tell you that's such a challenging verse to me just those few words five words Christ did not please himself he could have a lot of things we can do to please ourselves without committing what world the world calls sin but Christ was so intent on doing the Father's will that he would not do his own will in any area it's not just what we call sin for example if Jesus had gone to Rome he would not have sinned he wouldn't have you know lusted or God lost his temper or God anxious or afraid he could have lived a pure life in Rome just like he could have lived it in Israel why didn't he go one reason it was not in his father's will that settled the matter if the father doesn't want me to go to Rome I don't go there it's not a question of whether I can overcome sin there or not that's not the point the father does not want me to go there this end of the matter his whole life was governed by this I have I have to complete a work on earth which my father gave me to do and he has not told me the whole thing moment by moment day by day he shows me what I'm supposed to do he lived one day at a time see Isaiah 50 is a prophecy about Jesus in Isaiah 50 as I chapter 50 in verse 4 the Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples Isaiah 50 verse 4 that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a world and what was the word which he was going to give this weary person who would suddenly you know Jesus remember this Jesus lived just like us he had given up the prerogatives of God he was on earth he did not know just like we don't know which weary person is going to come across our part needing a word from God suddenly this very person comes before the Lord and I will know how to sustain that merely one with a way because I've got a tongue of a disciple the tongue of a disciple that means I don't speak unnecessary words I have allowed the Lord to control my tongue all the time therefore I will have a word on that tongue for this very person who comes my way because this morning verse 4 my father woke me up and woke my ears to hear what he had to say to me that's why he had the word for that very one because he had already heard the father and it was not just that he opened his here for half an hour quiet time like people say I've had my quiet time and then no his ear was open the whole day listening listening listening listening so he had a word for every person who came across his path his life was like that and people say boy isn't that a strain to live always wanting to listen not at all it's the most relaxed way you can ever live the strenuous life is the one where you do your own will which leads to so many complications and problems the relaxed life is the one where I keep inwardly listening to the father and then so when it says the new living way through the whale is his flesh that was his will that was torn for thirty-three years he heard the father okay I won't do what I want to do I'll do what he says I won't say what I want to say I'll say what my father says you know in one place Jesus and even the words that I speak the father has given me it's a tremendous thing I don't know whether you when you read scriptures like that whether you have a passion John 14 10 it's amazing when I read a verse like this boy challenges me to no end I don't know whether challenges you like that John 14 verse 10 don't you believe the Lord says that I'm in the father and the father in me even the words that I speak to you I don't speak it on my own initiative boy to be so much in touch with the father that I know exactly what to say at each time that's Isaiah 50 verse 4 he woke upmy year to hear dear brothers and sisters what we need more than anything else is awakened year throughout the day to listen and when the father says and the Holy Spirit speaks to us so don't say that I listen or in some other situation he says say that oh don't look at that don't pick up that magazine it's a wonderful way to live we will not only be free from sin but will be able to complete the task God is appointed for us Jesus lived like that you keep on being sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit like that and Jesus walked down the road and the Spirit of God would say stop look at the tree there's a man there that's how Jesus fulfilled his ministry and to think that we people who are such wretched sinners suddenly so cleansed in the blood of Christ and so filled with the Holy Spirit that's why I keep saying dear brothers and sisters honor the Holy Spirit there is no Christianity without being filled with the Holy Spirit don't get gotten to the theological controversies above it and doctrinal arguments don't get into argument you cannot live the Christian life without being filled with the Holy Spirit every single day if there's one exhortation I would give to Christians be filled with the Holy Spirit continuously the Spirit of God is the one who speaks to us be sensitive and you know he comes like a dove you read in the scriptures and you know how easily what is why is the picture of a double use it so easily you can scare him away any the Dove doesn't like impure things that's the difference between that the Raven and the Dove that Noah sent out the Raven is a picture of the flesh and the Dove is a picture of the Spirit and the Raven went out of the ark and saw all the carcasses of the dead bodies floating around said boy it's great for me I could have a feast now and the Dove went out and said I can't touch any of this came back that's how the man led by the spirit lives on this earth if you find delight in the things of Earth you're living like the Raven according to the flesh but we have to live on this earth we look around and say no I don't want any of this I come back to the ark I only hear what the Spirit is saying that's the most effective way that is the new and living way Jesus inaugurated through the veil never doing his own will and when he did when he lived like that for thirty three and a half years the father bore witness to that by tearing that veil and saying I've opened a way for all those who want to go this way there's no compulsion God doesn't even compel a person to go to heaven if you want to go to hell go to hell and neither does he compel a born-again Christian like all of us are to walk this way you don't have to you can live doing your own will every day and glorying in the fact that you're part of a good church listening to good messages increasing in bible knowledge and learning new songs and wonderful songs of praise and imagining that that is spirituality it is not there is a way that jesus inaugurated through his flesh and that was the way of self-denial the way of increasing discovery of our own selfishness of how we impose ourselves on other people has a lot of us shown you how you impose yourself on others and you don't even have light on it one day you get light on it and say oh boy look at the way I was imposing myself on my wife all these years as if I was Almighty God because the way I impose myself on my husband toward how I mean things difficult for that person instead of easier if God brings me into the life of somebody else even a brother or sister I must make life easier for him it's one of the prayers wishes pray lord help me to make life easier for my brothers help me to make life easier for my husband and my wife the way I live not make it more difficult help me to make life easier Lord that requires getting light on ourselves constantly it's a glorious way and one of the byproducts of it is that we never lose our joy yeah one last verse the time is up Psalm 16 Psalm 16 and verse 11 this is one of the tests I've applied for my own life in thy presence is fullness of joy and so I say to myself Lord this is how I know whether I'm in your presence or not do I have fullness of joy then I am in your presence if I don't have fullness of joy for whatever reason I am NOT in God's presence at any time in my life if I'm not full of joy in the Lord things may have gone right in the world and around me things may have gone wrong in the world around me joy of the Lord inside me is unchanging then I know I'm in God's presence and that is in the most holy place and that's what Jesus has opened a way for us to live forever in his presence and when it says that Jesus for the joy that was set before him endured the cross Hebrews 12:2 you know what that means in his presence is fullness of joy in the most holy place Jesus was saying that's the joy I want I don't want the joy that I can get on earth from so many other things I want that fullness of joy which is in the father's presence and if the only way to get there is by denying myself and going through the whale I'm ready for it he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him in the most holy place and denied himself and that's the reason why we're not able to rejoice all the time we think it's because of this factor the other factor my personality is like this and my temperament is like this got nothing to do with your personality's got nothing to do with your temperament it's got nothing to do with the number of people who irritate every day has got to do with only one thing I do not choose to walk that new and living way of denying myself and you know like everything else in life the more we do it becomes a habit like they say in the world so an act and you will reap a habit you do it little by little by little afterwards it becomes a habit like brushing your teeth you do it even without thinking about it in the morning now it started off as a habit that you were disciplined to do by your parents and for now as an act and finally became a habit so it is to walk this way let's pray Heavenly Father it's so easy to understand all this we're all clever people and I pray that we shall not deceive ourselves because you have understood thank you for the many opportunities you give us to walk this new and living way Lord Jesus that you inaugurated for us the way of continuous joy the way of rest in God help us to walk it we ask in Jesus name Amen

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 123,382

Rating: 4.8195877 out of 5

Keywords: importance, dying, own, will, zac, poonen, sermon, rlcf, mens, conference, 2013, river, life, christian, fellowship

Id: MXdRE-JAFqE

Length: 58min 38sec (3518 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2013