The Way We Must Live Every Day -- Zac Poonen -- February 3, 2021

[Music] for many christians i have found through the years and including myself in the early years being a true christian was a matter of following a lot of rules and if i followed those rules and i convinced myself i'm happy and god is happy with me but through the years i've discovered that that is actually going back to live under the law the law had many rules and if you followed those rules sorry if you followed those rules then god is happy with you and if you didn't keep one of those rules and you feel condemned and feel guilty now i believe there's value in that i believe there's value in that but we need to grow up so that we don't condemn ourselves because we didn't follow a rule or don't congratulate ourselves when we've kept the rules for example one of the good rules we can have is to read the bible every day and it's very very important for new believers and particularly those who don't know the scriptures to develop that habit because that's the thing what will give you a solid foundation in your life and i'm very thankful that in the early years of my life for for the first six seven years after i got baptized i would read my bible and study it many many times a day i carry a pocket new testament with me and anytime i had a spare moment traveling in a bus or a train i'd be reading it reading it reading it and that's going back 50 years ago and that laid such a foundation in my life that it established me and gave me answers to many many difficult situations i found myself in there was always a word in scripture so i'm not despising that and but you know you can read the bible in order to ease your conscience that yeah i read my bible today then i've done that too it never helps it's a good discipline we must discipline ourselves read the scriptures every day but i must get something from it i must meditate on it and ask god to speak to me man jesus said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from god's mouth and that's not just reading the bible it's hearing god speak to me through the bible that's the important thing so i want to encourage you to do that this isn't the first psalm one that if you meditate on the word of god day and night whatever you do will prosper and that is a word that i have tried to live by for many years if you're not familiar with it psalm 1 and is the talk about a person who's delight is in the law of the lord and in his law he meditates day and night he's not reading the bible day and night but he's thinking about it day and night and remember this is written at a time david wrote this 1000 years before christ there was no printed bible those days how could a person read the bible every day they never had a bible at home the only bible or was in the synagogue and you could hear it on saturday morning they went to the sabbath day when they went to listen to it and they had to pay attention and those who were a little more serious would go during the week during spare time to the synagogue and ask the rabbi to read some other that'd be the scroll up there and they'd read it and then they had to keep that in mind and meditate on it so think if you were living in those days and you never had a bible at home and if you're really serious about knowing the bible you had to walk up to the synagogue every day in your village ask the rabbi to open up the scripture and ask him to read a few verses and try and keep that in mind go back home and meditate on it go back the next day i think jesus did that probably from the age of five to the age of 12 and he was so serious about it that by the time he was 12 years old he knew the scriptures better than the chief the priests of his time it was not just by reading it was meditating this is a great tragedy in today's christendom is people ease their conscience saying i have read the bible today and if they didn't read it one morning they feel guilty well i need to feel guilty if i'm not meditating on it there are times when i've read just one verse and meditated on it and has done more good to me than easing my conscience that i read a whole chapter i want to encourage all of you to develop this very good habit of meditating it says here he meditates on it day and night even though he does not have a printed bible at home how much more god can expect from us when we have printed bibles at home to meditate day and night does not mean that i'm always thinking about it because we got work to do and i'm sure those people were farmers and shepherds and they had other work to do and they had a lot of their mind was occupied with a lot of things in their work just like ours but in the midst of it all the word of god was there at the back and they had a spare moment they would think about something that's a very good habit to do in the midst of all our work to develop this habit of lord i want my life to be governed by the word of god the word of god and if we do that we'll find in in different situations that god brings to our mind the right word for that occasion this is the tremendous blessedness that has come to me through many many years in many many situations and i'm in a tough spot and i say lord what shall i do here and something that i read maybe years ago the holy spirit brings it to your mind and that brings it to my mind at that time and i know the answer so many christians do not grow spiritually because they have not developed this habit it must be a habit it's like eating our food eating our foods become a habit going to sleep at night become a habit many habits here's one very good habit that is elementary and you may think there's no need to mention it but i've discovered through the years when i see even in our own churches the tremendous ignorance of scripture among people who have been with us for many years who get all their spiritual food just by listening to the sunday meetings of the weekday meetings that's good but you shouldn't be getting all your food from there you should be meditating on a day i mean reading it every day and meditating on something you don't have to read long passages what i used to do was read long sections that was one of my daily readings and then read a very short section to meditate on you can't meditate on a long section that is i would read a long section to know the bible the story of the bible the truths in the bible then that was one part of what i did in today and the second thing i did during the day was to read just a small part and meditate on that particularly in the new testament so i want to encourage you to do that because you'll find that life changes man shall live capital l ibe by every word that proceeds from god's mouth it's the answer you'll get in times of temptation you know jesus was not different from us he was exactly like us and he had to go through the same procedure to have god's word in his mind and that's why in a time of temptation how did he get the right word to speak to satan the holy spirit brought that into his mind when the devil tempted him to turn stones into bread he said no i live by the word of god not by bread and the devil tempted him quoting a scripture saying the angels will protect you if you jump out from the roof of the temple he said no there's another scripture which says you shall not tempt the lord your god how did that come the devil would like to tell you that was because he was god no jesus did not use his powers as god when he was on earth that's the one truth that revolutionized my life because always i'd say oh but he was god that's why he did that he was god that's why he knew the scriptures no he came to earth as a baby knowing nothing but he disciplined himself that by the age of 12 he really knew the scriptures and that's the thing that challenged me when i was a young man i said if jesus could know the scriptures between the age of 5 and 12 to go to a synagogue and hear the rabbi tell him tell him repeatedly and know it if i spend seven years with the bible in my hand i can know it and i want to tell you this has been the foundation of my life it's helped me in numerous situations it's helped me when people come to me for advice it's helped me in different situations in my life and i want to encourage every single one of you now this looks like an elementary lesson it's actually the kindergarten lesson in the christian life but i find that so many christians haven't gone through this kindergarten lesson properly please develop this habit at least from today of meditating on something in scripture every day and go systematically through the new testament especially and say lord speak to me speak to me and during the day try and remind yourself i mean if it helps you some verse that speaks to you write it on a slip of paper and keep it in your pocket and once in a while take it out during the day in the middle of your word one minute i'm sure you can have a one minute break or even a half a minute break in the middle of your work take out that verse and read it and put it back into your pocket and meditate on it while you're doing your work you know it's a wonderful thing about meditation scripture that while i'm doing something practical i can have my mind on scripture this is very very important and the promise here in psalm 1 is this is the thing that blessed me that psalm 1 what is the promise verse 3 whatever he does he will prosper i wanted that i said lord i want a life where whatever i do must prosper i don't mean financially i'm not talking about making money i'm not talking about prospering in the stock market or some stupid thing like that i'm talking about my life becoming spiritually rich and blessing other people that's true prosperity and that comes through meditating on god's word and turning away from sin so isn't that a good promise to take hold off as you begin a new year one month is over whatever he does will prosper i say lord i want it i want to spiritually prosper every single day of this i don't want to miss a single day of this year i want to prosper every single day god is a good god he doesn't make life difficult for us he's not asking you to sit and read the bible the whole day and he wants you to live by his principles the purpose with which god's given us his word is not for us to become bible scholars but so that we understand the principles of the christian life by which we can really live and prosper god wants us to prosper spiritually okay having said that i mentioned earlier how we can live by rules and when this can become a rule or read the bible no meditate on it and let that become part of my life so in a day when there are so many people with so many teachings and all that going on i want to turn with you to one timothy in chapter one what i said at the beginning right now was just sort of an introduction but here's something i want to share with you from one timothy chapter one he you know this is paul's writing one of his last letters to timothy and in one timothy and two timothy paul is unburdening his heart to the man who's going to take over his ministry and paul knows that he's going to not learn to live much longer so he wants to instruct him at the fundamental things that timothy could pass on that message to others in one timothy 1 verse 3 he says i urged you upon my departure from macedonia to remain at ephesus and instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines so in the church in ephesus where paul had spent three years there were people getting up and preaching strange doctrines a few years after paul had left that's how it was and of course part of the reason was people didn't have a bible those days there was not much printed matter for people to read or paul's writings but still even today there's so many strange doctrines the strange doctrines among the roman catholics the strange doctrines among the methodists episcopals charismatics pentecost has strange doctrines everywhere in every single group how to know what they are and it says here in those days teach the people was for not to pay attention to myths that means false stories and endless genealogies all kinds of study of different things genealogy means the list of names ancestors and all that and all this gives rise to mere speculation rather than the furthering the administration of god which is by faith they must occupy themselves it says here with the things that will lead to the spiritual growth and having said all these things is avoid all this now what i want you to notice especially is verse five what is the ultimate goal of all our teaching what is the ultimate goal or what's writing to timothy when you preach make this your goal teach people to make this the goal in their life number one love not just love love from a pure heart from a pure heart love so we could say there are four things here you begin with a pure heart and from that must come love and a good conscience now a pure heart is different from a good conscience you need to understand that and a sincere faith that means of faith without any hypocrisy without any pretense so let's just think about that for a few moments beginning with a pure heart from which love must come the difference between a good conscience which will come to a little later and a pure heart is this a good conscience means my heart a conscience is part of my heart or my spirit a good conscience means my heart is not convicting me at any time of anything i've not confessed as soon as i'm aware of a sin i'm confessing it immediately and it's cleansed my conscience is clear my conscience is good if i've hurt somebody i ask his forgiveness my conscience is clear if i haven't asked his forgiveness my conscience is not clear so we've got to begin uh we'll come to a good conscience that's that's important but before i come to that a pure heart is different from a good conscience in this sense a good conscience is a heart in which no sin is there a pure heart is one in which nothing is loved except god himself a pure heart is one which loves god supremely it's not just a good conscience a lot of people have a good conscience they say i'm not if i've hurt anybody i ask forgiveness if i committed a sin i confess it immediately if i have a bad thought i confess it immediately yeah that's good we come to that but begin with a pure heart which is a heart which has no place in it for anyone but god i'll tell you why i say that it says in romans 8 that the reason why god gave us the holy spirit i mean one purpose of the holy spirit romans 8 and verse 4 is so that the requirement of the law let's read from verse 3. romans 8 verse 3 what the law could not do and then we will come in a moment to what the law could not do because it was weak because of our flesh god did how did he do that by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin he condemns sin he puts in judge sin in the flesh on jesus when he died on the cross it was judged the purpose is now see that requirement of the law which could not be fulfilled till now can now be fulfilled in us who walk according to the promptings of the holy spirit now we come to what is the requirement of the law which the holy spirit seeks to fulfill in us that we can see in jesus reply to somebody you asked him in luke 2 matthew 22 36 teacher what is the great commandment in the law what does the lord lord really require from us and jesus said i'll tell you in one sentence you shall love the lord your god matthew 22 37 with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and he says that's like a coin you're going to turn the other side and see that side also you've got to love your neighbor as yourself that is the requirement of the law let's get it very clearly god created man and this is his requirement that his heart should love god supremely with all his heart it's like when you fill a vessel completely with something there's no place in it for anything else there's no place in my heart for anything or anyone else other than god that's why jesus said if you even if you love your father or mother you love your wife or your husband more than me he said you can't be my disciple it's because many people don't take these commandments seriously that all their life their christian life they are struggling they're full of climbing up falling back climbing up falling back they never seem to make much progress in the christian life they never have a revelation from god when they read the word it's a dull routine i mean even if they leave some dead church and come to a good church with this in your way we love one another and care for one another great but if you don't love god with all your heart if there's something in your heart other than god something you're interested in other than god you're always going to have a problem because the ultimate goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart that's the number one thing that paul says this is all the other things there are so many strange teachings but don't let that lead you astray from the number one thing love from a pure heart a heart that has no place in it for anyone anyone or anything other than god and people say what about loving my wife and children you love your wife and children much more faithfully and much more sacrificially if god is the one you love the most if you don't love god you the most your love for your wife i assure you will be selfish you will love in the eyes of the world but it will be a very selfish love because you are still in the center you may do so many things in the eyes of the world you may be a very loving husband but you don't really deep down you love yourself the only way to eliminate that is to love god more than you love your wife more than you love your husband more than you love your children more than you love and not only love your brothers more than you love anyone else that's the way god made us so that's where we begin the first commandment is you shall love god with all your heart there's no place for anything else with all your mind and all your soul our ability to do our work with our mind will be much better if i love god with all my mind that doesn't mean i have to think about god all the time no i don't think about god all the time no i do 101 other things during the day but my mind is god's i will not let some thought which is contrary to the love of god come into my mind as soon as i come there throw it away i don't want it but i'm not thinking about god all the time to love god with all your mind doesn't mean that it means god is a supreme important person in every area of my life and i want to ask you dear brothers and sisters is that true in your life is it true you'll do your work much better you don't have to be a full-time christian worker to do that in your secular job where you may have to spend 10 hours in your office being occupied with your work in your office you'll do every part of that work much better if god is the supreme desire and affection of your heart even as a wife or a mother looking out for your children you'll do it much better if god if you decide god is going to be the supreme desire and affection of my heart if you can say like the psalmist said in psalm 73 25 whom have i in heaven but thee and there's nothing and no one i desire on earth beside thee i believe that's one of the greatest expressions of our love for god i remember as a young christian i got gripped with that verse in psalm 73 25. if you don't know that verse you must remember it that's one verse you must keep in memory all the time psalm 73 verse 25 it's a great verse it is a it's written by a psalmist who said my foot almost slipped when i compared my life with that of others but then he discovered god is good psalm 73 1 to those who are pure in their heart but when i didn't understand that my feet almost slipped when i looked at the prosperity of the wicked and it's so easy for our feet to slip when we think of how well it's going with others and so many problems we have but he said it all disappeared when i came to this place psalm 73 25 i came to the place he says the psalmist that i'm going to desire nothing on earth but god and when i get to heaven i'm not i'm not looking for the golden streets i'm not looking for mansions or crowns or um freedom from pain and suffering and all the things people look for when they go to heaven i'm looking for god i i'll tell you honestly in the early days of my christian life i thought going to heaven was the great thing i'll tell you honestly honestly i'm speaking before god i have zero interest in going to heaven absolutely zero my desire is to be with jesus christ he's the passion of my heart and i even told the lord this once i said lord if you are in hell i'll spend eternity with you in hell with all the fires burning around me and the worms biting me if you are there that's my heaven is there my heaven is not in a geographical location where everything is comfortable and easy and nice no my heaven is jesus christ and that's fine for me heaven has begun already i'm really speaking the truth dear brothers and sisters your life will be radically changed if you decide to love god with all your heart it's not it's not a strain or a burden far from it do you think jesus life was a strain or a burden his life was the most relaxed life that anybody ever lived he had no anxiety in his mind he could sleep peacefully at night he had no bitterness against anyone nothing he because he loved the father with all his heart and he never never wanted to do anything that displeased his father he loved god with all his heart and when we say that is the first commandment it's like it's like god saying to us i want i want to make you like jesus i want to make your life like the life of jesus and the secret of his life life was that he loved me with all his heart god says come there come there determine to get there and examine your heart and see lord are you first in my life or am i living by rules yeah i must pray a few minutes i will read the bible a few minutes and i must go to church or attend some zoo meeting at least once a week if possible twice a week you're not going to be happy with following the rules and you ease your conscience i've done it no i don't live by rules i did once one time it's good to be glad by rules if you're a thoroughly indisciplined person then do make a rule to read the bible every day and if you are not if you're careless about church then do make a rule to attend a zoo meeting at least once or twice a week but that's you shouldn't be satisfied with that no lord if i if there's a moment in my life and i don't love you with all my heart i have backslidden that's the rule i've made for myself anyway anytime in my life when i don't really love god with all my heart i'm not saying i can't do other things i can do 101 things secular things earthly things you can enjoy a good meal you can do so many things but if it's not leading you if it's you're not loving god with all your heart and all of that is just i wouldn't say a waste of time but it's not christianity so let's begin with that love from a pure heart let's pursue that with all our heart because paul says holy through the holy spirit that is the ultimate goal of our instruction that's what we are aiming at i'm aiming to be to have a love from a pure and he says he's comparing that with all the other teachings that people are giving it's not worth it and then secondly let's get back to one timothy one and verse five and a good conscience see before getting that i just want to say the second part of the love from beyond is love god with all my heart and love your neighbor as yourself that's also part of love jesus said when they asked him for one commandment he said i can't give you one command i have to give you both together because they're sort of stuck together you cannot say you love god with your all your heart if you're not done the other part of it which is loving your neighbor as yourself and it's like a coin if it's only printed on one side it's counterfeit and that's why john says in his letter if you're not familiar with that verse in 1 john 4 it says if you say you love god and you don't if you love god then you must love your brother as well and if he says a man says one john 4 20 i love god but he doesn't love a brother he's a liar he's not a believer because if one who does not love a brother whom he can see how can he love god whom he has not seen this is the logic in one john 4 20. how do i know i love god with all my heart i love my brother there's so many weaknesses in him so many things wrong in him maybe he irritates me in different ways or his mannerisms bother me but that's okay my mannerisms must be bothering god but he still loves me and i i have to love him and that is the proof that i love god so i think in that connection of a word written about jesus when he was filled with the holy spirit acts chapter 10 you know i did not grow up in a pentecostal or a charismatic church and to tell you honestly i'm very thankful that i did not because if i'd grown up in a pentecostal or charismatic church i'd have been brainwashed in my mind about what the fullness of the spirit was and once you're brainwashed for years and years and years and years you grew up in that sort of church for 20 years and then to come to what is the true understanding of being filled with the holy spirit will be very difficult so i i never was in my entire life i was never a member of a pentecostal or charismatic church but i read the bible and i knew that i had to be filled with the holy spirit so i wanted to be filled with the holy spirit and i did not have this pentecostal charismatic background and i discovered so many things in scripture what it means to be filled with this holy spirit and i uh discovered that like that you don't have to speak in tongues to be filled with the holy spirit not at all and so many godly men have never spoken in tongues and jesus himself never spoke in tongues and they were filled with the holy spirit at the same time i didn't go to the other extreme because i saw god had given that gift and so i must not be against that gift it is a gift god has given paul said i thank god i speak in tongues more than all of you but i never use it in public so if paul could say he thank god for that gift so i'm not going to be against that gift i want to be open to that gift and when god gave it to me i thank thankful for it but it did not become everything for me it was like my little finger it's like saying i speak in tongues i have a little finger but you can live without a little finger you can live with four fingers in your hand but i'm not going to cut off my little finger it's very useful sometimes so that's the balance i got because i did not grow up in a pentecostal church i'm very thankful for that so i discovered many things in scripture for example romans 5 5 the love of god the holy spirit fills my heart with the love of god let me turn to that first see we talked about our heart being filled with love for god well here it is how god does it like this romans 5 5 the love of god is poured out in our hearts through the holy spirit was given to us so the love of god is poured out into our hearts through the holy spirit and i see that as meaning three things first of all the holy spirit assures me that i am a child of god who's immensely loved by god that's very very important see romans 5 and verse 5. the love of god is poured out into our hearts through the holy spirit given to us so that means first of all three things i want to say first of all that my foundation is that god loves me intensely in christ just because you love jesus the holy spirit pours that truth into my heart god loves you my child god loves you my your father loves you he's your dad he loves you just like he loved jesus thank you father that love is poured out in my heart then on top of that foundation he fills the holy spirit again it says here the holy spirit fills my heart with love for love for god love for jesus he has to do it i say lord i love you with all my heart and thirdly on top of that the holy spirit helps me to love unlovely people and all the people around me so that not just that i don't hate anybody that's a negative statement i mean if you say that you don't hate your wife that's not a great thing love is something positive so in that connection i want you to turn to acts of the apostles chapter 10 where it speaks about jesus being anointed with the holy spirit in acts chapter 10 we read you know peter was speaking to cornelius and cornelius knew nothing about the bible i mean he was a god-fearing man but he was not a jew he was a roman centurion military man and paul speaks to him about being filled with the holy spirit it's the very first time when he preaches the gospel and he says i'll give you the example of the one who was anointed with the spirit jesus of nazareth acts chapter 10 please try to access the apostles chapter 10 and verse 38. this is a great passage which tells us how what happened to jesus when he was anointed with the holy spirit and power the thing which so many christians are seeking for i want to power the holy spirit i want to be anointed what was the result in jesus life it was a love for people that the father gave him flooded with love the holy spirit filled his heart with love commandment you love god with all your heart and you love your neighbors yourself he went about doing good and delivering people who are oppressed by the devil the world is full of people oppressed by the devil to a greater or a lesser extent they're not demon-possessed he's not just talking about demon possession very few are demon possessed but oppressed by the devil every single home on earth is oppressed by the devil in some way or the other that's why there's so much anger in so many homes that's why so many wayward children that's why so many husbands and wives fight because the devil's oppressing them even christian homes and jesus went around delivering people who are oppressed by the devil this is our calling to go and bless people you may have no you may never cast out a demon you may not have any gift to cast out demons forget it but you can deliver people are oppressed by the devil all around you are people oppressed by the devil god wants to fill your heart with love you go about jesus was filled with the spirit he went about doing good you know that's i've often thought that's a great thing if that can be written on your tombstone after you end your life this man went about doing good and delivering all the people around him who were oppressed by satan what one do you want he didn't become a great preacher no he didn't have the gift of preaching or teaching but he went about doing good he had a testimony that he did good to people who can't do that little children can do that he went about doing good and setting people free who are oppressed by condemnation and guilt and anger and so much he just went about blessing them and setting them free so i've often thought about that and that was the proof it says in acts 10 38 that god was with him if god is with me and i want god to be with me all the time i will go about doing good i'll do good in my home first of all i'll do good to other people whom i meet especially to those to those who do evil to me i say lord fill me with the holy spirit said i can do good to them that is to have a heart filled with love that is a love from a pure heart so we i mean we spent a lot of time on that because that's the most important thing in one timothy one and verse five love from a pure heart let's get back to that now one timothy one five what is the goal of all the preaching and teaching to get everyone who hears us in the church to love from a pure heart if you've accomplished that you've reached the goal in teaching and if that's you make that your goal and if you're seeking to you're getting closer and closer to that goal you're going on the right track so we're trying to draw show the path that god wants us to walk on this earth i must get closer and closer to love from a pure heart then let me move on and a good conscience very very important i stressed it earlier let me repeat it again a good conscience means at no time should i have something telling me you've done something wrong and you haven't said it right you hurt somebody and you did not ask his forgiveness or you haven't forgiven someone who hurt you that's also a bad conscience somebody hurt you you didn't do anything you were good to him but he hurt you but you haven't forgiven him you still got that little you think about him at night at bed why he treated you like that and it bothers you your conscience is not clear and it will not be clear till you forgive him and you know don't go by feeling i've discovered in this matter of forgiving people who hurt us that you can never remove the memory of a person's wrong from your mind that is impossible because the blood of christ does not cleanse my memory it cleanses my heart sometimes i wish lord i wish you'd get rid of so many things in my memory which are rubbish and garbage which um [Music] in my unconverted days i accumulated so much garbage and some of it is still in my memory what to do and the lord says don't worry your memory cannot pollute you that was a great deliverance for me to know that that the memory cannot pollute you it's a heart that pollutes you it's your attitude towards those things that you remember that can pollute you but that thing itself cannot pollute you did you read something did you read some rubbish in your olden days okay it's there in your memory what to do about it you can't do anything about it but it will not pollute you in fact it will make you stronger if you resist it every time so i say this because some people feel guilty oh i still remember that that person did harm to me you remember that all your life but you can still have a forgiving attitude towards him so what i used to say is i say lord i'm not going to live by my memory my heart i have forgiven that person and i have forgiven this person and i've forgiven this person and i think of different ones who have hurt me or harmed me through the years that i can remember and i say i before god i say lord before you i say i forgive him i forgive him i forgive him and the books are closed all accounts settled and i'm not going to let the devil torment me anymore about that by saying oh you haven't forgiven him because you remember i'll remember that all your life all my life but i have forgiven him absolutely so don't let memory uh taunt you don't let the devil taunt you by saying you remember that i remember a lot of rubbish all my life what can i do but i don't meditate on them i don't have control over my memory i wish god would cleanse my memory but god in his great wisdom has kept the memory of evil there you know we can remember things we did 50 years ago and i think one reason god keeps it in our memory is so that we are careful that we don't put any more rubbish into our memory you know that one of the dangers if god had not only cleansed our heart but cleansed our memory as soon as we were converted we'd keep on doing wrong things because when you say oh i can cleanse my memory ask the lord to cleanse me but he does not cleanse your memory so that you're more careful about what you put into your mind and future so i discovered why god in his great wisdom does not cleanse my memory it's there i i remember it but it doesn't make me dirty it's just a memory it's like that i remember two plus two is four so what and i remember so many all right remember some evil thing that i saw somebody else do this and it's there in my mind i saw that guy hitting that fellow okay but i'm not affected by it so i can't do anything about my memory but i can do something about my heart i'm mentioning these things because i used to when i in the days when i was not clear about these things i used to condemn myself unnecessarily so what set me free i'm telling you what will set you free a good conscience make sure you've forgiven everybody and make sure you have asked forgiveness from everybody whom you've heard this is very very important there must not be a single person on earth whom i'm not forgiven and there must not be a single person whom i've hurt who might not ask forgiveness from even your wife or your children or someone lower down in society someone in your office wherever you had opportunity maybe there's some people you hurt you don't even know where they are well you can't do anything about that whenever you have the opportunity we must ask forgiveness it's very very important i've come to see that many many christians do not make progress in their life because of this one area i've been stressing it more and more and more in the last one year especially forgiveness forgive others and ask forgiveness because i've come to see so many people there their foot is on the brakes they're pressing the accelerator they get challenged in the meeting and they press the accelerator but the foot is on the brake so the car is screeching as it goes along it doesn't make much progress and what are the brakes they're pressing they haven't forgiven somebody they haven't asked forgiveness from someone get your foot off the brakes and you'll find your car suddenly shooting forward keep a good conscience money matters very very important try your best my brother sister to avoid debt i have followed that rule strictly in my life that in my entire life i can say my wife and i be married 52 years we have never been in debt for a single day and we were far poorer than any of you have ever been i can say that when we got married we were extremely poor so poor we did not have money to rent a house but we decided we will never buy anything that we could not afford we lived with old clothes and made something ourselves for our children when they were babies my wife made because we couldn't afford to buy even clothes for our baby but because we needed money and we didn't have it and the bible says oh no man anything romans 13 8. so i say it's more important to read the to obey the bible than to get fancy clothes for our children so we never did it we decided we never borrow and boy as i look at it now i'm so thankful you know god takes note of it when you make a sacrifice in order to obey his word he remembers it he'll remember it for years and years and years that in order to please him you denied yourself something and we denied ourselves numerous things and i thank god i had a wife who cooperated with me that self denied who never said let's borrow money and do this never not even once we can't afford it we don't get it and little by little god i mean today god has blessed us with so much that i'm overwhelmed but it was not our seeking it was the blessing of god and different things but never did i borrow never did i beg nor did i steal back borrow and steal things that people do avoid it brother sister keep your conscience clear if you have little live with little be thankful be content with such things as you have never never never compare yourself with somebody else some relative of yours who's much better off than you well praise the lord god bless him let him have even more but i'm not in competition with him to have more than him i'm not in competition with anybody in the world no it's very easy don't be in competition with other people in the church don't be in competition to preach better than them or do something better to get more honor than them to be respected all this is rubbish garbage see it does garbage then he won't secret keep a clear conscience in this area forgiveness money very important and keep a good conscience and that as you do that you'll find god leads you to higher things where you say lord i want to keep my thoughts pure i want to battle battle battle till my thoughts become pure don't ever give up that battle don't say this is hopeless i'm falling again and again you say lord if i fall 50 times a day i'm going to confess and repent 50 times a day till it becomes 40 times a day and 30 times a day and a day is going to come and i'm going to be free from all this dirty thinking i'm going to be pure in my mind keep your conscience clear fight that battle that is the goal of our instruction love from up your heart and a good conscience all the time is it possible to live like that every day look what paul says in one corinthians it's a word that's challenged me one corinthians in chapter four i say lord i want to be able to say this every single moment of my life one corinthians 4 verse 4. i am conscious of nothing against myself nothing all his life he lived like that from the time he got light and was filled with the holy spirit i want to live conscious of nothing i mean unconsciously i may be doing something wrong i'm sure unconsciously i'm doing many things wrong but consciously god only checks you in your conscious life your conscience tells you about your conscious life the unconscious part of it god will reveal to you little by little as you're faithful in your conscious life and that's why he says in the same verse 1 corinthians 4 4 i'm i'm conscious of nothing against myself that means in my conscious area of my life i'm absolutely clear before god but paul says there's an unconscious part of me therefore i'm not acquitted god doesn't say not guilty completely but the lord examines me in that area and but he does not condemn me because i don't have light on it it's only what i'm conscious of that god asked me to confess i cannot confess unconscious sin [Music] i use the example of a piece of an ice cube if i put an ice cube in this glass of water you know what will happen 10 of that ice cube will be on top and 90 will be underneath that's how ice cubes are now that's a picture of my conscious life an unconscious part what is beneath the surface i mean this is a colored liquid i wouldn't be able to see what's underneath i just see that top 10 of that cube of ice that's my conscious life and this is dark water so i can't see what's beneath but if i take a knife and slice off that top ten percent of that ice cube what will happen that little bit of which is hidden will come up i'll get a little more of the ice cube will become visible then i can deal with that that is spiritual progress i deal totally with whatever i'm conscious of and when god sees that he gives me as a gift almost a little revelation on the unconscious part of my life then i can deal with that it may take years for me to deal with it but as i deal with it then a little more comes up that is the meaning of he who has this hope of becoming like christ when he comes one john chapter three verse three purifies himself purifies himself as he is pure that's what it means to keep a good conscience it's a progressive thing you may have had a good conscience last year but your conscience should be more sensitive today than it was last year because a little bit of that ice cube has come up because you've dealt radically with the top part of the ice cube that is above the surface okay we've got to move on ask god to give you more revelation on that and the third thing love from a pure heart second a good conscience one timothy one and verse five and the third is a sincere faith a genuine faith and faith is not such a difficult thing faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god faith means a simple trust and to me here is the best definition of faith that i have got for myself i like to think in word pictures i find that jesus used parables and when i use word pictures it helps me to understand faith what's the picture i get about faith the word picture i get is from john 15 and verse 5 a branch abiding in a tree producing fruit automatically that branch is helplessly dependent on the tree for the sap to flow in that's a picture of the holy spirit the helpless dependence on the tree that's faith it's the branch saying i can do nothing by myself i can't produce a single fruit if i'm cut off from the tree even if i'm a little distance away from the tree finished and must be deeply in the tree that's why jesus said abide in me without me you can do nothing faith is to say without you i can do nothing lord but like paul said with christ i can do everything these are the two sides of the coin john 15 5 and philippians 4 13. without christ i can do nothing turn the coin over with christ i can do everything both must be there that's faith without christ i can do nothing john 15 5 with christ i can do everything that god wants me to do philippians 4 13 and that means i have faith that if i depend on christ fruit will come see the branch doesn't have to struggle to produce fruit it just remains there this is faith and i want to say to you my dear brother sister however weak or foolish or ignorant or stupid you think you are god wants you to bear fruit fruit doesn't mean that you become a great well-known preacher or anything like that it just means that you go around doing good you'll be a blessing to others your blessing to whomever you meet abraham did not travel the whole world he traveled a very limited area of the middle east and the lord said i i will make you a blessing to all the families on the earth it's amazing what god can do even though your whole travel in your entire life maybe in a very small area all of us i think have traveled more than abraham did in his entire life he was in a very small area and god said i'll make your blessing to all the families on the earth just leave that to me and even more so it says the blessing of abraham is for us today galatians 3 14 that blessing is for us through the holy spirit to abide in him abide in christ and say lord i trust you i trust you i can't do anything by myself but i trust you to produce in me that divine nature which will produce fruit in my life you will work in my heart and you will make my thoughts pure and you will control my tongue and you will give me light as to what i should do i may not be able to accomplish the great mighty things that some man of god can do his calling is different i want to do my my little part you know one corinthians 12 speaks about the different parts of the body you know our human body we see what all wonderful things we can do with our hands whatever wonderful things we can do with our tongue amazing but then there are so many hidden parts of the body in the body of christ for example the the veins and the arteries aren't they important i mean if one artery is that's cut end of your life an artery and you never see it it's inside all the blood flowing through it lord if you make me an artery in the body of christ i just want to be a very good artery without any cholesterol stuck in it preventing the blood flow [Music] i want the blood to be able to flow freely through me just making a clean artery through which the blood control nobody sees your artery there are miles of arteries and veins in our body we hardly ever think of it so don't get discouraged if you are one of those who never get prominence and never get into the pulpit say lord you decide which part of the body i should be i'm quite happy to be there i'm going to trust you i'm going to live by faith that you have given me exactly the gifts that i'm supposed to have in the body of christ i'm not here to determine uh which part of the body i should be 1 corinthians 12 is very clear that god decided and you decided that before the worlds were created what part you should have in the body of christ think of the body of christ like a human body with hands eyes tongue ears arteries kidneys heart liver so many so many hidden there are more hidden parts than visible parts just like in a church there are very few people who are visible out in the pulpit and most of the members of the body are invisible but those invisible parts of our body is very important so faith means lord i trust you i trust you to completely fulfill through me in my one lifetime whatever you set me for but i'll tell you this if you god meant you to be an artery and you want to be a visible tongue you spend all your life and you'll be frustrated and you want to accomplish what god wants you to be because you envy that person who's so much in public who gets honored there you're seeking the honor of men so many christians are seeking the honor of people in trying to have a ministry die to that lord i want to be dead i want to be just what you want me to be then our life comes to rest the bible speaks about the rest of faith one mark of faith it says in hebrews 4 there's a rest we can enter into that means like the sabbath rest in a way we don't struggle we're not working we're at rest in god there's a beautiful song which says there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of god a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of god that's the rest god wants us to have that comes by faith hebrews speaks about the rest of faith when we have faith in god we are completely at rest means i'm not in competition with anybody else i'm not trying to show that i can preach better than that person or pray better than that person or do something else better than that person or to be more recognized in the church that person all this is i've thrown in the trash can i'm a dressed in god my heavenly father knows me and loves me and i'm so happy in that i'm not here to impress anybody in the world [Music] and now if anything i've said uh you feel is too high for you say lord i make that my goal i haven't got there but that is my goal don't say it's impossible make it your goal if you haven't got that never mind you'll get there speak the word of faith i will get there i will come to that life of rest there are 101 things in the world we cannot explain a lot of sicknesses for example i have prayed for so many sick people in my life and i tell you honestly i don't know why god allows sickness i don't know why god allows accidents i don't know why god allows so many things there are a million things i can't explain but one thing i know god is a good god he's good all the time he loves me and he wants me to be good even if i can't accomplish great things so faith doesn't mean i do miracles no those are the that's faith is a gift i'm talking about faith as a virtue that george mulan had faith as a gift to take care of orphans there are people who have faith as a gift to do healing i'm not talking about that that's a gift this i'm talking about the fruit of faith which all of us can have which is simple resting in god as a branch in a tree with no complaints perfectly happy if god makes me a small branch or a big one i'm just want to be resting in the tree and the holy spirit flowing in me that is faith the christian life is not complicated it's very very simple and all that i've said to you today was try to make it simple and i pray that you will live in that simplicity and be blessed god bless you shall we above in prayer heavenly father please help us to see the goal of all the instruction in scripture love from a pure heart a good conscience and a simple sincere faith dependence on you help us lord we pray not to be disturbed by strange teachings and doctrines and so many things people speak about so many people stray from these things and have turned aside to fruitless discussion your word says help us to avoid all that bless everyone who's heard your word we pray and remind us of this again and again we pray in jesus name amen you

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

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Keywords: rlcf, river, life, christian, fellowship, church, god, jesus, bible, scripture, way, must, live, every, day, sermon, zac, poonen

Id: JpInk9XYJX4

Length: 62min 12sec (3732 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 04 2021