The Most Important Commandment of God -- Zac Poonen -- September 12, 2021

[Music] i'd like you to turn with me please to matthew's gospel and chapter 22 [Music] the way to live the most profitable and blessed christian life is by having our priorities right in other words first things must be first and all other things must be secondary now in worldly matters we do that in our home we know what is most important to be done with our children we know what is most important to be done for example if they go to school we know what is most important in many areas if we are sensible we recognize the importance of priorities there may be 101 things to be done but we know what is first now the question is whether we recognize the same in our christian life and being a part of this church [Music] we can ask ourselves why do you want to be a part of this church why do you come to the sunday meeting at all for many many christians it is just to hear a good message i tell them you don't have to come to church to listen to me you can sit at home save on traveling time and save on the cost of gas and all that just turn on to youtube and you can listen to whichever message you choose and one advantage of listening to me at home is you can turn me off whenever you don't want to listen here it will be awkward to walk out so if it's only to listen to a message and i tell you there are many many people if they are honest they go to a church because there's a particular preacher there they have zero interest in fellowship with everybody they have zero interest in building that local church as a strong body of christ zero i mean zero the 100 their only desire is to listen to a good preacher i recommend to all such people from next sunday onwards don't come here sit at home there are 2 000 sums of mine on youtube you can even select the message if you put a topic you get all the messages on that listen at your leisure if that's all you're interested in but that is not what jesus came to do he didn't come here to get us to listen to good sermons he did not come here to listen to good preachers there are very very few messages that are really worth listening to and if preaching was the most important thing god would have made every member of his church a preacher everybody in the body of christ but he didn't do that he's given that gift i've seen through very very few people very very few and you know that as well as i do and that shows that that is not the most important thing and we may say well i don't have any gifts to serve in some other way i just come here to listen and what can i do maybe i give a little money in the offering box but i tell you even that's not what god wants missions missionary work that's not the most important thing if we get our priorities right everything else will fall into place and that's what i want to tell you about in matthew 22 this is a question that the people ask jesus the same way he put it in they put it in other words but it's really the same thing what is the most important thing in life they asked him a lawyer a lawyer means not as we understand an attorney today but one who was deeply educated and instructed in the law and god's law in the law of moses the old covenant matthew 22 verse 35. one of these people who was deeply instructed in the mosaic law an expert in the mosaic law came to him and asked him a question teacher what is the most important thing in life what is the greatest commandment in the law now those days they considered going to the feasts and taking part in the passover and paying your tithes these are all very important things but jesus said all that is secondary the greatest commandment is you shall love the lord your god with all your heart that means with a devotion to him and with all your soul and his soul is your emotions and your personality and with your mind that means with my mind i must love god with completely i must not allow anything into my mind which is contrary to the love of god and i must love him with all my emotion my emotion you know we have emotions is a very good thing it must be directed towards god with all of it and in three times he says with all with all means there's nothing left out for anything else if i give all my heart to the lord there is no place in my heart for anybody else or anything else that is the way every husband is supposed to love his wife by loving god with all his heart i'll tell you if a husband loves his wife loves god sorry if her husband loves god with all his heart listen to me he will never raise his voice that his wife once in the whole year never he will never complain and murmur against his wife the whole year it's because they try to love their wife that they keep on doing that human love can never accomplish it it's the same way with fellowship in the church [Music] if you love god with all your heart from your side there will never be a tension with anyone in the church from their side then maybe i can't do anything about that but from my side i will never have a problem with another person if he wants to have a problem with me and wants to avoid me that's up to him the answer to everything is to love god with all our heart and i'll tell you this all the tensions and strains we have in our life are because we do not love the lord our god with all our heart and with all our mind we have not put first things first in the christian life christendom has taught us the importance of going to church singing songs and some churches worship and praise with all type of strobe lights and all is most important no wonder that church is full of backsliders of people who sit there in divorce even the pastor is divorced what is why is christendom come to such a state because there's hardly anybody preaching you've got to love god with all your heart with all your mind with all your strength if that had been preached consistently we would have had a different type of christianity where nothing takes precedence in my mind or my heart above jesus christ and if we live like that the lord's promises in i mean we all seek our own and if you do seek your own and you want the best for your life and you want the best for your family that's right i mean when we are married and we have children we want the best for our wife and children sure i want the best for my wife and children i wanted the best for my wife and children from right from the time we got married and right from the time we had children that's right a father who does not want the best for his children is not a good father you must desire the best for your children and if you desire the best for your children you know what you should do from the beginning teach them to love god first to love god with all their heart financial needs we all have financial needs and it's perfectly all right to want money to take care of our needs there's nothing wrong in that and if needs increase and the cost of living goes up there's nothing wrong in desiring to earn more money or to have money in the bank so that if suddenly an unexpected urgent need comes we have enough to fall back on we don't have to go begging we don't have to go borrowing there's nothing wrong in saving money but if you want such a life where you're completely free from tension the solution is to love god with all your heart you know god has made the world in such a way that all those who follow his laws it works wonderfully whether you know it or not you're following certain laws in your life i mean we obey the traffic laws to avoid to get into problems but in our life i mean science has discovered that there are certain types of food that are good for the body and we've heard so much nowadays about junk food food that is not good for the body that just makes you obese and fat and unhealthy we avoid it why do you avoid it because there are laws for the body we follow it when people were told to wear masks to prevent contamination of a particular sickness we obey because we are protected by those laws and so many many other things like this we obey the laws of the body it goes well with our body so if we want all our needs to be met here is the solution maybe be 100 free from anxiety is that possible to be 100 free from anxiety in this world well let me say this if you believe the bible if you believe what jesus said then it is possible concern is different from anxiety concern is the right thing you must have a concern for example if your child is sick you'll be concerned that the child should be healthy if your child does not come back from school in time should be concerned anxiety is some another level where you're tense and worried if you're not concerned about your children and about their needs something's wrong with you the father or mother but if you're anxious something's wrong in your relationship with god let me turn to matthew 6 33. he's speaking here about anxiety anxiety is one of those things which all human beings face their concern becomes anxiety and they try to solve that anxiety with so many human ways but jesus said here in matthew 6 verse 25 to 34 three times he says verse 12 don't be worried don't be worried don't be worried now in in a passage that takes only less than two minutes to read when somebody's speaking to you if jesus is speaking to you for two minutes and in those two minutes three times he says don't be worried don't be worried don't be worried there must be very good reason for that you read verse 25 to 34 it doesn't even take two minutes but in those two minutes he says in verse 25 don't be worried he says in verse 31 don't be worried he says in verse 34 don't be worried and then he says it's all these heathen people who worry and you're not supposed to be like those heathen well you say well how in the world am i going to be free from worry he mentions it a number of times why are you worried verse 28 by being worried verse 27 how can you add anything to your life is worry worry worry worry five times he mentioned it in this short passage and what is the solution verse 33 but seek first his kingdom if you want to be anxious about something be anxious about god being king in your life and be worried that he's not king in your life that's the thing you should be worried about not about food and clothing and shelter he says why is it because god is not interested in our food clothing and housing or in our having a job of course he's concerned he one of the first things he told adam was you know i provided all these things in this fields work hard and by the sweat of your brow you'll earn your food work hard and you can earn your food but you don't have to be worried at least and what does it mean in verse 33 to seek god's kingdom first today we don't have kingdoms in the days when jesus lived every country was ruled by a king the king here and the king there and all those con they were not called countries they were called kingdoms the kingdom of israel the kingdom of moab and the kingdom of egypt today we have countries the united states is not a kingdom but the word we use today is government those days it was a kingdom these days it's a government each country has a government so what the lord is saying is seek the government of god first in your life that means let's god govern your life it's the same as what we read in matthew 22 to let the lord be king and ruler of your life you love god with all your heart soul strength and mind now my dear brothers and sisters how many of you know that that should be the number one priority in your life according to this this passage it will free you from anxiety for many years in my christian life after i was born again anxiety was a big part of my life for at least 16 years after i was born again i was frequently anxious frequently angry frequently discouraged these were some very common sins in my life hardly a day went by without one of these things being there and if you're honest you'll find that that is pretty true in your life as well but i as i read the scriptures i said lord you're not telling lies you're not teasing us trying to give us something promise something and don't give it i've seen some evil people who not evil in the worldly sense but who tease little children it's like say here here's a chocolate for you come and take it and as the child reaches out for it he pulls it back and the child reaches out for it he pulls it back pulls it back that's called teasing he never intended to give that boy the chocolate but he just make that boy come aim for a team for it and he finds some joy in seeing the frustration of that little child and not being able to get that piece of chocolate do you think god is like that here is a life free from anxiety you want it and every time you come near it he pulls it away it's an insult to say that god is like that evil man teasing us offering us something which he knows we'll never get he's not like that we need to believe what jesus said i believe many people don't believe what jesus said is it possible when he says five times in this verse to be free from worry is it possible or not the reason is we've not fulfilled the condition you know the bible says in 1 john in chapter 2. and verse 6 it's not a verse that you hear much in many churches but i preached it for many years not only preached it i've tried to walk in it i can't say i'm perfect i don't won't be perfect till christ comes but i can certainly say that i seek to walk like this every day the one who says he abides in christ i say i abide in christ do you say you abide in christ well here's a word for you then if you're not abiding in christ this word is not for you but if you are abiding in christ here is a word for you you must walk in the same manner that jesus walked on this earth because he came as a man exactly like you and me it's one of the preeminent things we teach in cfc that jesus christ did not walk on earth as god even though he was god he did not use his heavenly credit card to use anything for himself because i don't have a heavenly credit card i'm a man bound to earth he walked as a man he set aside his powers and abilities as god and said i can't be an example to these people if i don't live like them and he did not sin that's the thing that challenged me i mean my defeated life i saw that jesus did not sin and i say well lord what does it mean to follow you it means to take up this challenge of seeking to live an overcoming life where i'll seek to love god with all my heart and not love anything else that do not have place in my heart for anything else many christians they don't believe they can love satan and love god at the same time that's impossible but many christians believe they can love money and love god at the same time like i said the other sunday they really believe that and if you look at their life they have more time pursuing money than seeking after god and so what does it mean to walk as jesus walked he walked with complete freedom from anxiety and worry all his life and he asks us to walk like that and the reason was for him the father was number one always in every situation i mean if there was a close disciple of his that did not go the way the father commanded you know for example jesus said if you want to follow me you got to take up the cross every day and follow me which means he himself took up the cross and followed and that was not a burden jesus life was the happiest freest life that anybody lived on earth and it is love for his father that made him do it and when peter his closest disciple tried to turn him away from the cross you know what he turned around and called peter you know what he said to peter in matthew 16 get behind me satan can you imagine jesus calling somebody satan i mean he didn't even say peter you here peter hang on let me tell this to you nicely i think you are being influenced by satan i mean that's the way we think we should say it but this was such a serious problem that he said in matthew 16 23 it says here he turned and said to peter get behind me satan you are a stumbling block to me your mind is not set on god's interest your mind is set on man's interest my question is this do you believe god jesus loved peter sure peter had sacrificed everything he was a man with a family he had a wife and children and he gave up his job because jesus said give it up and follow me this is the man to whom jesus said get behind me satan you don't want to take up the cross i tell you verse next verse 24 if you you cannot follow me unless you take up the cross every day now my question is this my brothers and sisters do you believe jesus loves you i'm sure you do do you think jesus will ever turn around to you and say get behind me satan you're only interested in earthly things you're a stumbling block to my church [Music] do you think jesus would ever say that to you i'll tell you something if you have never heard a word of rebuke from jesus in your life i don't believe you have ever heard jesus speaking to you at all you're imagining that jesus speaks today i've heard people say jesus said this to me jesus said this to me i asked them did jesus ever rebuke you no he never rebukes me he's a loving person well i'll tell you what jesus said himself in revelation 3 19 he said those whom i love i rebuke my dear brothers and sisters don't imagine that jesus is speaking to you i know jesus speaks to me because there are a number of times he's rebuked me personally sometimes when i read the bible sometimes when i'm just meditating sometimes through another brother and i have determined in my life i will not get offended and that has been my salvation revelation 3 19 those whom jesus loves he rebukes and if you have not heard a word of rebuke from jesus i would say to you in jesus name you have never heard jesus speak to you at all never you're imagining you say jesus helped you to make money aha you know what the muslims say allah helped them to make money what's the difference between your jesus and his allah and that muslim king has made more money than you if that is the case his allah is more powerful than your jesus don't you see the ridiculousness of that when you say jesus helped you to make money and he says allah helped to make money you know what they say in india lakshmi the goddess of wealth helps us to make money and they are multi-millionaires and you're not they're lakshmi and they're allah more powerful than your jesus it's a wrong understanding jesus helps us to love god with all our heart those are the gods don't do that they love the world and they live for the world but we know jesus is the true god because he's the only true god because he makes us love the father with all our heart he makes us put first things first and if you believe my dear brothers and sisters that the most wonderful life that anybody lived on this earth the most blessed the happiest most powerful and most effective life that anybody lived was the life jesus lived you'll all agree he wasn't the richest man he was not a millionaire he suffered a lot in fact they killed him they called him the devil but that is the most blessed life anybody ever lived on this earth we all agreed to that i said do you want to live like that the most blessed life on this earth well the secret of his life was he loved the father first nothing was more important to him and if somebody came in the way like peter he would rebuke him and say you're a devil imagine calling person satan that's how strongly jesus loved the father he would not allow anyone to come in the way and if you love god with all your heart you will not allow your wife to hinder you from following jesus you will not allow your husband to hinder you from following jesus you will not allow your job or the pursuit of anything on this earth not your children your love for your children will not hinder you from following the lord and the result will be that your children will follow the lord too one day but if you love your children more than you love jesus christ i can prophesy today your children will go astray believe me i don't want it but it will happen if you love your children more than you love jesus christ your children will go astray one day and if you've seen some of your children go straight that's the reason because you love them more oh you love money more i did not put christ first don't make the mistake that so many people have made i'm telling you after observing christians for 62 years i was born again 62 years ago and i've observed christians in all denominations various types with various doctrines and i have seen that the most effective and useful christians who have brought up their children properly are the ones who loved god with all their heart who would rebuke their children when if the children don't do something which is do so all children do something that's dishonoring to god they don't love their children so much they say oh darling don't worry it's okay it's it is something to be worried about when they do something wrong a strict father is the one who brings up his children properly it teaches them not just to be educated and to get a good job but to love jesus with all their heart see so much as dependent on our as we as parents loving the lord with all our heart you know it's possible for us to have a lot of regret in our life about many things we have done in the past all of us have it i told you i have a lot of regret about 16 years of my life that i wasted well i didn't waste it i learned a lot of lessons how not to do god's work if you 16 years you bungle up something you learn something how not to do it so [Music] i want to show you a little poem that i read can you put that up on the screen that poem i gave you please listen to these words when i was a very young christian i read this poem and i would sing it often to myself when i stand at the judgment seat of christ i want to read it slowly we are all going to stand there everyone sitting here if you're a child of god one day you will stand at the judgment seat of christ and me no respect of persons the youngest believer the most mature when when i stand at the judgment seat of christ and he shows me like a video the plan his plan that he made for me before i was born the plan i planned that you should be born in such and such a town such as such to certain such parents such and such a day i planned that your parents should take you here and there and you should be here and there and i planned for your life the plan [Music] that might have been if he had had his way if i had allowed the lord to have his way with me from the beginning that's from the day i was born again said lord i want to love you with all my heart i know you've got a plan for my life please show me that plan every single thing whom i should marry where i should live what i should do what should be my job how i should live every day every day god's plan is not general well sort of i'd like you to live a good life it's not like that it's specific like the pillar of cloud led the israelites through the wilderness day by day god's plan for you and me from the day we were born again was every single day to live according to a plan and he made a plan he's more loving than any earthly father and then i see how i blocked him here he wanted to do something and i blocked him and i checked him there when he tried to lead me in a certain way i said no i'll make more money here or he tried to lead me in a certain way say no no i want to go here [Music] and i would not yield my will i'd go to church sure i'd sing all the songs louder than anybody else i'd give money in the offering but i would not yield my will oh no daily i would not heal my will i say lord i want my way want to love you but i want my way what's he going to do will there be anger no that'll be grief you know when your child does not take your advice concerning what is good for him plead with him tell him tell him tell him year after year and he does not listen to you and he messes up his life he ruins his life and when you see him poverty-stricken and perhaps a [Music] drunkard with a broken marriage wayward children will you be angry with your child no there'll be grief oh my son my daughter i wish you had listened to me 25 years ago [Music] it's like that that will there be grief in my savior's eyes in the day i stand before him grief not anger grief though he loves me still and the next verse it says he wanted me to be rich spiritually rich i mean he wanted me to stand there at the genuine seed of christ spiritually rich having partaken of god's nature so much in the one life i lived on earth having been so useful to god in the days i lived on earth to be a blessing to other people to every family that i met he wanted me to be rich that way not to make money which will all be disappear at the judgment seat of christ our bank accounts will disappear our gold and silver will disappear but spiritually he wanted me to be rich but i stand there poverty stricken spiritually a spiritually a beggar a homeless beggar spiritually stripped of everything because all the things i holded on to what i held on to i have to drop when i leave this earth and only his mercy and his grace is there to forgive me and then my memory runs like something hunted down the paths i lived from the time i was born again the gentleman this is talking about the judgment seat of christ i'm standing there and my memory is going back to the time i was born again and i remember all the ways in which i i heard powerful messages and i ignored them i sought my own sought my own pretended to be very holy by going to church and acting very spiritual and talking religious language and fooling everybody but inwardly seeking my own and my memory goes down and say oh the opportunities i had the times god challenged me through different messages the times he spoke to me when i read the bible the time he spoke to me when i listened to some youtube message or i went to some church meeting and i look at those parts i walked and i realized i cannot walk that way again we live on this earth only once we don't get a second chance to live parts that i cannot retrace i cannot go back there i cannot go back a single day it's finished i'm thinking of this is you know when i stand at the judgment seat of christ i look back the thoughts i cannot retrace the next verse it says then my desolate heart desolation means loneliness forsaken all by myself my heart is desperate it'll almost break in grief and sorrow with tears they're not here say i cannot share any tears i'll cover my face with my empty hands and the crown that god wanted to give me which i never cared for i looked for earthly crowns and so i have nothing in heaven even though people on earth taught me to be a wonderful believer or whatever it is i'll bow my uncrowned head and then it goes on to say in the next verse lord i can do nothing about the past thank god none of us are dead yet we all have some years left in our life starting from today the years that are left for you i don't know how there are how many there are i don't know how many there are for me i don't know how many there are for you you can't do anything about the past that's finished you can't walk those paths but of the years that are left to me i don't want to run my life anymore the way i want to i give them completely to you all of my life take me break all the plans i made for my life every one of them break them shatter them all the plans i've made for my future and mold me lord i cannot make myself like you but fill me with the holy spirit so that i can be molded into your likeness and not just into your likeness in my daily life but that i can live my family life the way you wanted me to live it i made many blunders till today i'll tell you something wonderful even if you married the wrong person it doesn't matter god can restore everything in your life if you will start today god doesn't torture you over decisions taken in the past that'd be terrible if he keeps on torturing me all my life about decisions i made in the past he does not he says in the book of joel i will restore to you the years that have been eaten and wasted you know that promise it's a very beautiful promise in the book of job you know where joel is it's in the after the major prophets after jeremiah lamentations ezekiel josiah then joel in joel and chapter 2 it says here verse 25 i will make up to you or i will restore to you the years that the locust various types of locusts have eaten up i will restore that to you what foolishness those are the locusts eight up of your life different type of locus the swarming locus the creeping locus the stripping locus and the knowing logos all types of fool follies that wasted your life the years i will restore to you i will make up to you god cannot give us time itself back he cannot make you 15 years old again if you've already gone past that age but he can do miracles he can restore to you the make up for the blunders you made in your life i tell you i have taken that promise so many times in my own life i said lord i remember when i was converted in 1959 i never had a spiritual father to tell me these challenging things that i'm telling you now i wish somebody had challenged me like this when i was 19 and a half and i was converted i never found that every church i went to was only interested in theory and doctrine and things like that and there was no there was not a one person in those churches was passionately devoted to christ and would lead me to a passionate devotion to christ i had to sort of work my way through that and find it's like a person who did not have a teacher to educate him and yet to himself find out what is a b c and what the english language is and how his cat is spelled and bat is spelled and what two plus two isn't no teacher to teach him but find out all himself imagine if you had no teacher to teach you english or mathematics think of your children and nobody to teach them english or mathematics and they had a real desire to learn they struggle go here there and pick up this book and that book and try to learn by themselves what a struggle it would be it was like that for me i would pick up this book of some godly man and that book of some godly man i say lord i want to live a useful life for you i i want to give all of my life to you because you gave all of your life for me and in spite of that i wasted a number of years and did a lot of foolish things because i was struggling trying to learn it's like a child saying two plus two is six or five or five and a half learning learning one day he learns two plus two is four thank god i did learn one as time went on but you brothers are so fortunate but really those of you who are young you have the opportunity from a very young age i say it's really blessed young people who can grow up our children growing up in cfc if you can teach them from the beginning to take seriously what they hear i tell you they are the most blessed people on the face of the earth they don't have to make the blunders that you and i made they can love jesus with all their heart from day one they can learn to take up the cross deny themselves at home in relation to their siblings in relation to work that they need to do at home we don't allow them to grow up lazy doing nothing but to work hard like god told adam to work hard and to love jesus with all their heart but the lord says in our case where we made mistakes i will restore to you so i want to say to you my dear brothers and sisters this is not a message of condemnation like i always say the word of the lord is let me repeat that verse what the lord is saying to you today is from revelation 4 and verse 1. john was standing on the earth and the lord was trying to speak to him he was in the isle of patmos now see this take this to yourself spiritually revelation 4 1 a door standing open in heaven that's what you're hearing today a door opening into heaven where everybody loves god with all their heart soul strength and mind a door is open for you to get up there spiritually and a voice like the sound of a trumpet why like a trumpet is so loud that he wants you to hear it it's not a whisper it's a trumpet you're hearing today and what is it saying come up here come up higher don't live at that low earthly level anymore come up here and i will show you some amazing things from here when you look at earth from heaven's standpoint it looks very different do you have regret over the blunders you made in the past some of you may have regret about money that you could have made a little more if you had not taken that decision but took this decision and even though that happened years ago you're still thinking about it you see how much you love money even though you say you love jesus that thing that happened years ago because of which you lost some money still comes to your mind oh i wish i hadn't done that i wish i had taken this decision what a lot of more money i would have made money money money like they say in the world money makes the world go round we say god makes the world go round regret over some blunders you've made in the past which could have made your life more comfortable or easier or but not a regret that you did not love or live more for jesus christ in the past have you got your priorities right or are you like all those heathen you also have regrets over money that is lost i remember when from a very young time i was a christian i wanted to be wholehearted christian and i quit my job when i was 26 years old to serve the lord and one of the things i said was lord i don't want to love anything on this earth more than you everything will be subject to you money job position everything in fact i said that to the day i was converted and one of the things i prayed was i prayed that many times i read in the story of zacchaeus he was a great lover of money and jesus said at the end of that story the son of man has come to seek and to save those who are lost luke 19 lost in the love of money and i remember i said lord jesus i'm lost in the love of money you came to seek and to save the lost not just lost in sin i'm lost in sin but i'm also lost in the love of money will you save me from it i can't save myself i can't save myself from sin i can't save myself from the love of money but you can save me and i want to believe that you'll do it and he began to do it in my life a little by little and he changed my life and i remember in those days through some transaction i was involved in i lost a huge amount of money it was in indian rupees it was 80 000 rupees many years ago that's i don't know how many thousands of dollars it was those and then and oh well i needed it i wasn't a millionaire or something to just lose that and i said lord why did you allow me to lose it you could have protected me from loss and the lord said to me so clearly i'm answering your prayer you wanted me to save you from the love of money that's why i allowed you to lose it i discovered that day that one way the lord saves us from the love of money is by allowing us to lose a huge amount so don't pray that prayer unless you're willing to pay the price for it i warn you and it did not happen only once many years later in some decision i made i lost a much larger sum i won't tell you how much and i said lord why and the lord said i'm taking you to a deeper level where you love me with all your heart i bowed my head and wept and i said thank you lord for your faithfulness you don't leave me alone you want to root out this cancer completely the speck of cancer there of the love of money you're going to pull it out thank god for such a surgeon do you want it oh do you love that little cancer which is destroying you perhaps you could have been a more effective servant of god by today even if you're a woman you know half of the world's population is women and a woman can reach a woman much better than a man can however much i may know i cannot talk to a woman intimately about her needs you know i keep a little distance but you sisters you can talk to a woman intimately and half the world is full of women [Music] do you want to be effective for the lord sisters do you want to be servant of the lord [Music] or do you want to preach to men forget it seek to reach the sisters to make them love jesus with all their heart don't have a lust to preach in the church to love the honor and position to get up here and say some profound thing then everybody will clap what a wonderful thing that brother said i've seen a lot of people like that they come to the church within one week they want to get up and preach they don't love jesus with all their heart but they want to preach [Music] it's amazing what a lust for honor as much as there's a love for money there's a tremendous love for honor it'll all disappear when we love jesus with all our heart then we will share even more wonderful truths from scripture and desire no money and no honor we will humble ourselves and say lord i can't touch your glory it's you it's you not me it's all of you it's a wonderful life i'll tell you i haven't tasted the fullness of how much jesus experienced it but that's been the passion of my heart but i'll tell you as year by year goes god dwells by it's better and better and better [Music] and i want to stand before the lord one day and have no regret about the choices i made in my life not from the beginning because i made some foolish choices but at least from a certain point in my life and maybe for you that point in life is today from a certain point in my life i don't want to have any regret about the decisions i made and the choices i made even though i have a lot of regret about the years before that and one of my favorite verses is acts 17 and verse 30 acts chapter 17 and verse 30. before i get to verse 30 in verse 26 this is what paul preached in athens god made every human being from one man that's from adam that we understand but god is the one who determined the time in which you should be born that you should be born in the 20th century or some of you children in the 21st century he determined the time you should be born onto this earth even though the earth's been going on for six thousand years you could have been born 5000 years ago you would never have heard about jesus you could have been born 1500 years ago you may not have heard of jesus in the country you were born in but he determined the year in which you should be born so that you would know about jesus some of you came from non-christian religions and you heard about jesus god determined the time you should be born and the boundary in which you should be born which country you should be born in that was not a mistake he allowed you to be born in a particular place at a particular time so that you would hear of the gospel that you would hear the word of god which says you must love him with all your heart he decided that you did not it was not an accident your birth was not an accident and why did he allow you to be born at a particular time in a particular place so that in that time and in that place you would seek after god verse 27 and if you can't find him you will grope and find him oh god i want to find you even though he's not far and if you have blundered in the past and wasted years then you never knew that till today what the lord is saying to you today is verse 30 i will overlook all the years till today that you lived in ignorance of this truth this wonderful truth you heard only today never mind the lord says i will overlook it but now now that important word is n-o-w now acts 17 30. he is declaring to men and women everywhere turn around repentance means turn around it's not talking about for that first repentance when you accepted christ turn around from the wrong priorities you have in your life turn around and love god with all your heart make get your priorities right lord with my mind i want to love you first i'll tell you this whatever job you're doing you'll be able to do it a hundred times better if you love god with all your heart i found that you know when i was in the navy when i was a christian when i had to work in the naval base and on ships and all types of things i had to do i felt that if i either loved the lord with all my heart i'd be able to do my earthly job better i would not you know all the others in the ship because alcohol was cheap they'd be drinking and playing cards and there'd be dancing and all types of things worldly things and here i was i i didn't go around preaching to people unless a door opened up i wouldn't go and say hey you need to hear about jesus but sometimes doors would open up in an amazing way everybody's dancing over there drinking alcohol and i'd be standing there with my glass of orange juice and they say zack why are you drinking orange juice i say okay you asked for it i'll tell you now i'll tell you don't tell me i introduced the subject you have introduced it then i give them the whole gospel [Music] that's why i don't drink alcohol it had happened to me even to once a commanding officer once a non-christian senior officer of mine was so upset that i did something upright which disturbed him which put him in a bad spot that he took me before the senior commanding officer complained about me and the senior commanding officer was a roman catholic and i've been waiting for an opportunity to witness to him you know you can't go up to a commanding officer who's got four stripes on his shoulder and i say i want to preach the gospel to you you can't do that on a ship in the military the rules are very different so this man took me before the commanding officer complaining that made some silly excuse about me and complained about me rather and the commanding officer was a catholic said why can't you do that the thing is this senior also wanted me to there was a job in the manda officers that we take in rotation one job was called wine secretary the one who orders all the alcohol for all the all the people officers to drink everybody takes a turn when it came to my turn i said sir i can't do that i'm a christian so he marched me in that means took me before the commanding officer sir this officer does not take up the assignment that i've given him the job of wine secretary and the commanding officer says why can't you do it lieutenant poonen why can't you do it i said sir i'm a christian he laughed and said i am also a christian i say you asked for it now i said sir i also was born in a christian family and i thought i was a christian but i realized that i had to be born again and receive christ as my savior what a wonderful opportunity it's the thing i was longing for to at least once give the gospel to the captain i don't think he forgot it for the rest of his life that's one of the things you know i found that a lot of people in the navy never forgot me they were upset with me but they would never forget that once in my life i came across a crazy man i remember i used to have verses written on my lambreta scooter you know with the lambretta scooters got panels on either side the two-wheeler and i could write on one side prepare to meet your god and the other side christ died for our sins and i would write it all over the place and the people in the navy saw me and it became quite a matter of complaint and joke and everything else but 40 years later long after that when i was living in bangalore a man who was in the navy older to me i met him in the bank one day and i said hello sir i remember you from the old days in the navy my name is poonen oh he said you're the one who had those verses on your scooter right 40 years ago i said thank you lord they'll never forget it they'll never forget prepare to meet your god and christ died for our sins i'll tell you this if you are not ashamed of jesus christ that is one thing i decided i'll never be ashamed of jesus christ and the picture i had was lord you are not ashamed to hang there half naked for me hang half naked for me i will never be ashamed to acknowledge you in the midst of people who despise you in the midst of people make fun of you i will never be ashamed to acknowledge jesus christ as my savior and i taught my children that don't ever be ashamed to acknowledge jesus christ as your savior it doesn't matter what you lose what popularity you lose in school or college or anything don't worry i faced it all they called me all types of names that i was a religious nut and a crazy person and people on the street called me the devil i said fine it's a wonderful thing to belong to jesus christ and i tell you how the lord has stood by me through all types of situations he will stand by you today is the day of salvation now is the day of salvation i believe god is speaking personally to a number of people you hear saying my son my daughter in love i have spoken to you today says the lord because i don't want you to waste any more of your life pursuing empty things which will all evaporate one day we shall all burst like balloons that you're pumping up today all burst live for the things that are eternal love god with all your heart and all your mind it will not make you suffer in your business i told you how in i'll tell you this i mean for the glory of god every ship i was in every commanding officer when they had to write an annual report about me what they wrote was they had to read it out to me his work is excellent we have no complaint about his work but he's unsocial he does not sit with the other officers and drink and smoke and gamble and all that that was my crime because that's what all the other officers did i mean that didn't disturb or affect my promotion but that i was so glad that my testimony was that he wrote it there he doesn't socialize with others socialize means i don't play cards and dance and drink with all the others but as far as the work on the ship was no complaints and it can be like that with you it doesn't matter if the whole world around makes fun of you they made fun of jesus first remember that don't be ashamed of him there's a song i don't know whether you've ever sung here i'm not ashamed to own my lord or to defend his cause maintain the honor of his word the glory of his cross i would sing that many times our lord i'm not ashamed to own my lord or to defend his cause maintain the honor of his word and the glory of his cross my dear brothers and sisters i really wish you the best in the rest of your life you can't do a single thing about the days gone by you can't even do anything about yesterday it's gone you can't get it back but you can do something about today onwards say lord i really want to love you with all my heart and never want to be ashamed of you i don't want to be rude and put the gospel on people who don't listen to it but i want my life to be such that there's a light shining you don't have to make a lot of noise look at these lights they don't make any noise but you come into a room and you know there's light that's how you're supposed to be may god help you let's pray heavenly father i tried my best lord to convey what you laid on my heart but i can never do it enough i wish i could do it better but your holy spirit can make up for what i like i pray i love everybody sitting here i want the best for them i pray that one day when they stand before you they'll be thankful that they heard this word today and took some decisions that brought that will bring them great joy in that day they stand before you thank you father i pray for every single head bowed here every single person even a little child they'll be gripped to love you lord with all their heart soul strength and mind to put you first in everything to know your word to study your word to obey your word and to be like a burning shining light wherever you have placed each of us we pray in jesus name amen [Music]

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 9,202

Rating: 4.931818 out of 5

Keywords: rlcf, river, life, christian, fellowship, church, god, jesus, bible, scripture, most, important, commandment, love, heart, soul, mind, strength, sermon, zac, poonen

Id: fmucdCRVWQU

Length: 63min 30sec (3810 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021