The Secret Of Fellowship With God - Zac Poonen

i want to turn to one john one john is a very good letter to read first letter of john and there are many wonderful things you know there are many people who feel that you know these are the letters unlike some of the other letters written by earlier this is the last letters of the apostles 1 john 2 john 3 john and revelation and the gospel of john and i think they were all written when john was about 90 years old so he had all that wealth of 60 years of experience when he wrote this but notice what it says in one john the reason why we are writing this in the middle is verse 3 1 john 1 3 is that you may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the father and his son jesus christ so the whole purpose of this letter is that we'll have vertical fellowship with god and horizontal fellowship with one another that is the essence of building the church if you only have fellowship with one another it's not a church it's a club where everybody cares for one another loves one another and if you have a whole lot of people who don't have any relationship with each other but only have relationship with the lord then it's a congregation but to be a church you need fellowship everyone has to have personal fellowship with the lord and with one another same thing in a family it's not enough that husband and wife have fellowship with each other they must have fellowship with the lord first then their fellowship with each other will be much better so he says this is the reason why i'm writing this so that you can have fellowship with the father and son and with us and when you have that type of fellowship one thing will be true verse 4 1 john 1 4 your joy will be made full and complete the secret of overflowing joy freedom from discouragement condemnation is to fellowship with the father and with one another what is the thing that hinders fellowship number one [Music] a bad conscience if if you anything in your life if it gives you a bad conscience you have to set it right immediately it's like a speck in your eye the dust goes into your eye you don't need two pieces of two bits of dust one piece of dust goes into your eye it irritates you irritates you irritates you till you wash it off even if you're doing a very important work you'll stop it and wash off your eye because it it irritates you while you're doing that work your conscience must irritate you in exactly the same way then you're walking with the lord where it irritates you so much that you stop everything and set it right before you proceed with your work if you can continue with your work with your conscience troubling you i'd say there's something wrong with your christian life that means you're not treating your conscience like your eyes you know what will happen if you ignore the dust that goes into your eyes you'll become blind after a while you know why your eye is always watering i don't know whether you know that you blink so often because the blinking is to clean your eyes your eye what you call tears are god's method of washing your eyes the cleanest part of your body are your eyes because it's being washed so many times in a day hundreds of times every time you blink it's washing washing washing and there is a message there keep your conscience like that if no matter how careful you are in this world dust can get into your eyes and if you don't blink frequently you won't be able to wash it you know when people get leprosy one of the things that happens is they something dies here they're not able to close their eyes they're not able to blink leprosy sort of kills something here and so doctors have to do an operation to connect some other muscle to that something like you know grinding your teeth or something that muscle is connected to the eyelid so every time they want to close their eye you gotta grind their teeth and the left that's a leprosy person closes eyes and the doctors tell them do that frequently otherwise you will become blind the blindness does not come because of the leprosy the blindness comes because they're not blinking enough to wash their eyes that is the reason many christians are blind and deaf spiritually if you keep your conscience clear you will have a much clearer vision of the christian life and you'll be able to hear the voice of god more clearly in your spirit i don't know whether you realize that the most important thing for a human being is to be able to listen to god speaking because jesus said man shall not live by bread alone matthew 4 4 but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god that's not referring to the bible this proceeded from god 2000 years ago but there it says which proceeds present tense that means god is always speaking [Music] that is a message in the first page of the bible what do you read in the first page of the bible on the first day god said this on the second day god said this on the third day god said this the fourth day fifth day every day god was saying something [Music] and that is the message in the first page of your bible god is saying to you every day of your life i want to speak to you if you have seven days a week i want to speak to you seven days a week that's the message in the very first page of the bible but so many people don't hear why don't they hear your conscience is not clear you got sin in your conscience your ears are blood your eyes become blind you don't hear god and then what you call life is not life it's physical life but god jesus said man shall live capital l ibe [Music] by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god so the way to live is to have a heart that's always open to hear god speaking to me and there are many here you know i like to hear god telling me what where should i do what should i do today i'm considering a particular decision should i take it or not and we pray and pray that it doesn't seem to be a clear answer you know why because for all the days and weeks and months preceding that you did not listen to your conscience and then suddenly we are in a crisis and i want to hear god and i can't hear him because we become deaf so it's a wonderful thing if you keep your conscience clear be very sensitive even little children as soon as you do something wrong ask jesus to forgive you if you hurt your brother or sister ask them to forgive you well the wonderful blessing that will come to you from that is that in a time of need when you say lord what shall i do in some way you will sense in your heart god telling you what to do see i'm so thankful that god has directed me like that in my life it's one of the first things i sought to do when i was born again i was baptized in 1961 which is 60 years ago january 61 and i gave my whole life to the lord i was still working in the navy those days but i learned to keep a good conscience and as soon as i did something wrong and asked the lord to forgive me i didn't have victory over sin but i was trying but if i slipped up i say lord help me cleanse me forgive me and little i knew i was like a little child because i kept my conscience clear one day i heard god saying to me through the scripture to leave my job in the navy it's about just three years after my baptism now god doesn't call he calls only one person in a thousand to serve him full time like me the others are to be faithful in their own job all the other 999 people are to serve in their secular job and be faithful to jesus but one in a thousand god calls to full-time work and oh boy imagine if i had missed hearing that call i had been some big officer in the navy and wasted my life but god gave me something far more wonderful so i'm very thankful that even when i was 24 years old i could hear god saying something to me and i could respond and when i applied for my resignation the naval headquarters said no we can't let you go we spent four and a half years spending so much money training you to be a naval officer and now after three years you want to quit sorry you can't quit and i was very discouraged i said lord did i hear you right yeah i read those passages of scripture which god spoke to me and i was clear then lord why didn't they accept it you know what the lord said to me from scripture it's not by this year i hear i hear in my heart what did pharaoh say to moses when moses said let my people go that they may serve me pharaoh said no so did moses said oh maybe god didn't call me no moses didn't doubt god called me but pharaoh was saying no so the lord said to me what did moses do he went back to pharaoh and said you've got to let me go and again he said no again he went back finally got out i got my answer from scripture so i put in my resignation again again he said no and sat like that and finally one day after two years of my trying one day the admiral and the headquarters changed some new man came in and immediately i was released i believe god changed the admiral up there just to release me because the previous guy would not release me so when you listen to god it's a wonderful thing and not only that through the years i say lord what do you want me to do [Music] in different different things even when it came to my marriage i was praying in 1967. lord is this the right person for me and again my clear word from god i chose the right person what a blessing it is to be married to the right person particularly when you have a calling from god to serve him you need someone who is 100 supporting man and that's really been true all these 52 years with all the struggles we've gone through you know first four years of our married life i was really rock bottom poor i couldn't even afford house rent we were very very poor but my wife stood by me it was called of god so it's a wonderful thing to hear god in every step and then when the lord started planting churches the lord told me you must not go to everybody who invites you for a meeting i get hundreds of invitations say no if i get a peace in my heart i'll go give you one example in 1983 january i got an invitation from kerala from a huge pentecostal church that were having their annual convention with ten thousand people they wanted me to come and be the main speaker and at the same time i got an invitation from a very small church in kerala of 15 20 people were meeting together who also asked me to come and do at the same time now the average preacher will choose the 10 000 member conference but the lord said no i want you to go not to the say no to the big 10 000 member conference and go to this 15 20 member church i said okay lord i wrote to that big pentecostal group says sorry folks i can't come and to this small little church i say thank you for the invitation i'll come so i went there in january 83 and that's how the church in kotlin started i was flourishing church today and from there so many other churches came up in caravan i said boy what i would have missed if i'd accepted the other invitation the same thing happened in tamilnadu when the lord took me to teuticuran first in january 1983 around the same time and different different places i find that if you listen to god god has a plan and he knows better than me [Music] what he wants to do and i want to say to that to all of you develop the habit of listening and you say i can't hear god's voice that's how it all starts start with a good conscience forget about everything else see god may not be calling you to plant churches like me that's my calling your calling may be different so don't worry about that part but uh you need to keep a good conscience and then the little decisions god will guide you he's interested in every detail of your life i mean if he's interested in the hair in your head like jesus said why won't he be interested in other details of your life your children and your family life and i remember when my first sons wanted to get married boy very big decision of course we were praying for them but i had to advise them and guide them and say yes or no and today when i look at their married lives and i said boy each one of them you gave lord you gave the right person for each one of them and i'm very thankful so i want to encourage you from a very early part of early part of your christian life develop the habit of listening to god that is fellowship means you're listening you're hearing god and you're obeying him hearing god then fellowship deepens that is man shall not live by bread alone but by every word proceeds from the mouth of god remember that all your life i have to live by every word that proceeds from god's mouth and he primarily speaks to my conscience other things lord shall i go here shall i go there that may take time to hear god's voice there but the voice of conscience you can detect easily because you feel very very important did you say something to hurt your wife or your husband listen to that voice and go and ask god's forgiveness and ask forgiveness from your partner or if your children from your parents you believe me if you just listen to this advice of mine and you know for example your in your work you're tempted to tell a small lie to escape some problem maybe you created some problem and you nobody detected it so you can escape by telling a lie don't do it you may keep your job but you lose fellowship with god do you think if you honor god by telling the truth he will let you down impossible there are so many people i know who come to the united states telling all types of lies to get a visa and i tell them listen brother what is more important for you a visa to united states or fellowship with jesus christ what i told my children to when they were applying i said i'm not interested in your going to a place which is not god's will for you because something or the other will happen and your life will get messed up i want you to go to where god wants you to be and you don't get the place god wants you to be by telling lies there are little situations like that financial matters office matters you may escape a difficult situation by telling a lie that's where god tells you man shall live by every word that proceeds from god's mouth speak the truth do you think god will let you down because you spoke the truth you know the devil always says you're in a tight spot but a lie will save you out of this tight spot telling a lie will save you from this difficult situation and the holy spirit says almighty god will save you from this difficult situation now you have a conflict am i going to trust in almighty god to save me from the situation or am i going to trust this lie to save me from the situation you make a choice man shall live by every word that proceeds from god's mouth now unfortunately in christianity today such strong messages are not preached and that is why christianity has backslidden so much that the christian world today is full of churches are full of divorced families and they call themselves christians and then they go and divorce and break up and and unconverted people getting divorced i can understand but those who say they are born again pastors doing all that it's an indication of where christianity is drifted but where did that drift start it started with maybe a small lie something wrong you know when the lord jesus was walking down the street one day the holy spirit said to him stop look up in that tree there's a man sitting there his name is zacchaeus no jesus was so sensitive to the holy spirit's voice he could even know the name of that man sitting up there so he looked up and said hey zacchaeus come down and zacchaeus was wondering how in the world does he know my name well the holy spirit told him so he went with zacchaeus to his house and it's a very interesting verse it says in luke 19. let me show you that verse it's a very interesting verse in luke 19 it says zacchaeus and jesus went to the house and you'll never find a word like this anywhere in the in the whole bible actually luke 19 zacchaeus was short he climbed a tree verse four and jesus came to the place and looked up because the holy spirit told him to look up he says zacchaeus hurry and come down i want to stay in your house. not i want to visit you i want to stay overnight at your house and he was so happy but he was a crooked tax collector but he was wanting to repent of his bad ways and the people everybody knew he was a crooked tax collector and they said look at this jesus going to the house of his man who's a sinner and as they went to the house listen to this the word that is never found anywhere else versailles zacchaeus stopped try and find anywhere in the bible where it says somebody stopped it's not there i see jesus and zacchaeus walking towards the house and as they come to the gate of the house it's like your stops and i'll tell you the conversation i believe there was a little more than what's written here zacchaeus tells the lord i'm using my imagination a bit now lord this beautiful house that you see [Music] has been built with money that i got in wrong ways i cheated people because i was a tax collector they were scared of me i took bribes from them to reduce their accounts and with that crooked money i built this house you say you want to stay in this house i cannot allow you to come into this house it's built with filthy money how can you the holy son of god come and live here before i tell you one decision i've made all the money that i stole from people i will give back with interest and he calculated it to give back four times and there are so many other people i cheated i don't know where they are but i can't keep that money so i will give it to the poor in those days there was no church today you give it to the church the offering months those days they give it to the poor but he said i don't want a single cent in my bank account which is not righteously mine lord now you can come to my house and the lord said fine he didn't say i'll wait till you settle it all let me take years zacchaeus i believe you i believe you meant it and i know you'll do it and so these amazing words which is only found here this is the only place where jesus said these words luke 19 verse 9 today salvation has come to this house because he is also a son of abraham why son of abraham if you read in the old testament abraham and lot their servants had a fight over property and abraham said lot even though you're my nephew you take the first chances i don't love money another time abraham had the right to take the money which he had fought and won in battle but the king of sodom said take it abraham said no king of sodom i won't even take a shoelace from you read those two chapters sometimes genesis 13 and 14 his attitude to money [Music] abrahams and here was the same man he was a zacchaeus who had the same attitude to money and jesus said this is a true son of abraham and salvation came to that house and the son of man has come to seek him to save that which was lost this guy was lost in the love of money and jesus saved him you know brothers just like telling lies is a very easy thing for us to fall into love of money is also a very easy thing to fall into to have money is not is not at all wrong to love money is wrong i'll tell you whether you want fifty thousand dollars a year or five hundred thousand dollars a year well god blesses you take it but to love it is different from having it god allows some of his children to have little and some of his children to have more that's his choice i don't know why christianity is not communism where everybody has the same income now in christianity there are rich people like you know [Music] there was a man called filiman who was a very rich man he had a slave in his house who was on sms they were brothers in christ but one was a slave and one was a master so god ordains such that there are rich and poor people in the church but one who loves money cannot love god so it's very important when you earn money that you don't love it earn as much as you can don't waste it glorify god so these are little things you know which can hinder our fellowship with god people tell a little lie to make a little money they will do something wrong you're losing much more than you gain you may gain ten thousand dollars there okay whatever whatever you lost you lost such a fellowship with god which you don't know when you'll be able to recover which is greater loss so there are little things like this and all comes back to conscience your conscience will tell you when you're telling a lie your consciousness tell you when you're cheating somebody your conscience will tell you when you're signing a false statement to get a little more money or anything just be honest and you'll find amazing things god does for you when you're honest i remember when you know when you seek to honor god in a little thing [Music] when my son sunil had finished his college graduation here in the u.s he applied for jobs in his final year and he was first called by he had done well in his course so he got first called by an investment banking company called salomon smith barney it was a very big company those days i'm talking about the year 2000 and so he went for the interview and they said sure he got the job but they said in investment banking you have to work seven days a week you to sometimes bring your sleeping bag and sleep in the office itself seven days a week he said i have to go to church on sunday he said no seven days a week if you want this job [Music] so he went back and then he got another call from oracle because he had done software they worked only five days a week so but the pay was only half and he i was in india he wrote to me that i've got these two offers now i know what i wanted him to take i mean there's nothing wrong in getting double the salary but if you don't have time to meet with god's people every every sunday it's like that i mean one sunday you miss or something it's okay but year after year you i'm busy with your work but i never told him what to do because i wanted him to take the decision himself if i told him i know he'd do it because he's an obedient son but i said no i want him to take the decision himself and he told me one he wrote to me that i've checked the investment bagging job because i told him i can't work on a sunday sorry and i took the half day one in oracle i said son you're a man after my own heart that's exactly what i wanted you to decide but i didn't want to tell you that was 2000 he took that decision in 2001 the salomon smith barney office collapsed when the twin towers collapsed in new york i said sunil see what happened this is the office you're going to be working in you honor god god will honor you so i believe all of us must have some experience like that in our life where i gave up something attractive because i wanted to honor god you know i that was such an experience for me when i gave up my attractive naval job to serve the lord that i prayed for all of my four sons lord all four of them must have at least one experience in life and they have given up something very attractive in the world because they chose the lord because they spoke the truth or chose god like in a situation like this and i'm very thankful to see that god has done that for all of them pray that in difficult situations like that you will choose make the right decision your fellowship with god will become deeper other christians are not who are not wholehearted will give you all types of advice come on be sensible and you're missing a golden opportunity what golden opportunity is there any more golden opportunity than fellowship with god no we preach a high standard in cfc that's why many people don't want to join us i thank god for that i don't want to build a church of compromisers most of whom will go to hell and most of whom will regret in eternity [Music] and turn around and blame me saying brother zach you never told us the truth you knew the truth and you never warned us i've often said to people you come to cfc i'll tell you one thing [Music] you'll never turn around to me in the day of judgment and say i did not tell you the truth you may have got hurt but what you heard but it will be the truth and you will have no regret in the day of judgment you know in india we have these coaching schools and colleges which coach people for entrance into medical colleges engineering colleges iits and some people are so sure that they say if you join our college we guarantee you'll get an admission so i say our coaching classes in cfc are like that i guarantee you will have no regret in the day you stand at the judgment seat of christ if you listen to what you hear here but if you only listen and don't obey probably remain in a church you may have a good testimony in your church but you'll have a lot of regret when christ comes back be wise god bless you all let's pray heavenly father i thank you for these dear brothers and sisters and their families bless them encourage them help them to be your true disciples we pray every one of them and build a church there in jesus name [Music] amen

Channel: CFC India

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Id: DcfArLoVDY0

Length: 35min 9sec (2109 seconds)

Published: Sun May 30 2021