True Christian wants the spiritual growth in his life - Zac Poonen

there is a verse we can say is almost the theme verse for our church for from almost from the beginning that is 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6 you all know it we have spoken about it many many times and we have emphasized this I would say almost more than any other Church that you have ever come across and that is the one who says he abides in Christ must walk in the same way as he walked or as the Living Bible says anyone who says he's a Christian must live as Jesus lived I want to repeat that anyone who says he's a Christian should live as Jesus lived that's the word of God anyone who says he wants to be a member of Christian Fellowship Church Bangalore should want with all his heart to live as Jesus lived if you do not desire that dear brothers and sisters there are at least 1,000 churches in Bangalore that you can go and join please do not come here I'm not saying whether you live as Jesus lived I'm asking whether you have a passion to live as Jesus lived even if you're at the foot of the mountain that you're climbing you want it with all your heart I'm not asking if you have reached it none of us have reached the top Paul himself said I have not attained it but anyone who does not have a longing to live like this this is not the church for you let me tell you that and if anyone is not progressing year by year at least one foot higher up the mountain than you were last year you're going in the wrong direction you're going backwards you're going the wrong direction are you willing to repent and turn around and say Lord this is the way I want to live God is not asking to see what you have attained God is seeing what you want to want to want to that is the thing which God sees there's a want to in your heart and how how great that longing is what God sees not how far you attained for example somebody may be much lower than you spiritually but he may have started out 10 times lower than you and so he's made more progress than you because he started if you think of a graph that guy was minus 200 and he's come out 2 plus 10 so even if you're plus 20 you are not better than him because you started a minus 50 he started at minus 200 so we cannot evaluate ourselves with each other the question is where did you start and where you are today if you started very low and your progress quite a bit that's the thing that God sees but this is true Christianity otherwise people come to this church can drag this church down to an Old Covenant standard among people and I'll tell you honestly we do not want such people that's why God has allowed 1,000 churches here for you to go and sit and why waste our time here why drag other people down to the level that you are in so please consider what I say because Jesus told us to go and make disciples not converts Jesus did not go tell us to go and gather people who want to go to heaven Jesus told us to gather people who want to deny themselves every day and take up the cross and follow Jesus and I know from the history of the Christian Church of all the churches through 2000 years that they started out well and the devil put in there people who are not wholehearted and gradually dragged it down now that may happen here but we're going to fight it and fight it and fight it as far as possible so that's why I say the I want to speak particularly about one aspect of walking as Jesus walked in Romans 12 let me read to you first of all it says in verse 2 Romans 12 verse 2 this is really the same thing that we read in 1 John 2:6 Romans 12 verse 2 says do not be conformed to this world don't let the world shape you into its shape that's the meaning the world has got a particular shape in its attitude towards sex and it attitude towards money in its attitude towards honor position that's a shame don't let the world squeeze you into that shape resist it in all these areas in the attitude of seeking honor position money pleasures sin etc but instead don't just stand back the only way to avoid being conformed to this world is to be transformed that means changed and how do we get changed by the renewing of your mind that means your your mind attitude towards sin towards sinful pleasure towards sex towards the human honor towards money is being changed that is transformation thus you will prove in your life what God's perfect will for you is in your life one more verse Philippians chapter 3 it's all connected to the same thing the only way to have our mind transformed is by allowing us by if we try to understand the wake what God thinks about particular something that we are looking at so it's like saying there's a human viewpoint and that's God's viewpoint all of us when we are born we've got a human viewpoint towards sex money honor and conversion is were lifted up to the heavenlies where God wants to slowly change our attitude and viewpoint to all these things I got a look at sex the way God looks at I got a look at money the way God looks at it I got to look at human position and power and honor the way God looks at it increasingly that is what it means to become like Christ because jesus lived on this earth in a perfect way in all these areas and to walk as he walked means I aim towards that I've got a name Paul said I don't run without a name and none of us should run without a name in Philippians Paul says in Philippians in chapter 3 verse 12 he says I have it's not that I've already obtained I've become perfect he's saying I have not yet become like Christ my goal is to walk as Jesus walked my goal is to live as Christ lived I have not yet attained to it none of us will attain to it that means you won't reach the top of the mountain on this earth you won't get a hundred percent but you shouldn't be living at 1 percent all your life that's the point but I press on so just because I haven't reached the top of the mountain doesn't mean I sit at the bottom of the mountain and say well I haven't reached the top and here's another guy who's climbed 5000 feet and the guy sits at the bottom of the mountain says he hasn't reached the top and I haven't reached the table yes but he's 5,000 feet up because he's worked hard getting up there and Paul says I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me that's a beautiful expression to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me Christ laid hold of me to make me like him Christ laid hold of Paul and you to make you like him if you're really born again and I don't know whether all of you are but if you are really born again then Christ laid hold of you with one purpose to make you like him and if that's not the passion of your life something is fundamentally wrong and Jesus said if you want to follow me you've got to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me it's not just excitement I won't teach you to say shout and say hallelujah that's all Testament if you're little in the Psalms you tell people to shout and say hallelujah you never find the word shout say hallelujah once in the New Testament why is that because that's not the New Testament message all these Pentecostal people who teach you that spirituality is to shout and say hallelujah they haven't understood ABC of the New Covenant you go and search a concordance and see how many times the word shout comes in the New Testament never it comes plenty in the Old Testament are you an Old Covenant Christian or a New Covenant one I'll tell you what comes in the New Covenant deny yourself take up your cross search those verses don't listen to preachers who just tell you to shout listen to preachers who tell you to take up the cross and deny yourself that's what will make you spiritual otherwise you'll remain an Old Covenant question all your life please remember this Paul wasn't pressing on to learn how to praise God better he was pressing on to become more like Jesus Christ a lot of our shouting and praising is a matter of temperament those who got a very outgoing temperament shout and praise a lot and those are reserved will keep a little more silent that doesn't mean they are not spiritual there may be 10 times more spiritual than the other guys who shout because that's temperament don't mistake temperament for spirituality some are inward-looking aren't quiet naturally but they may be a hundred times more spiritual than a lot of other fellows who shout and raise their hands and wave it please remember this because I'm afraid that CFC can go the Pentecostal way and you'll end up with no spirituality and be deceived by all the others so we want to get rid of that and as long as I'm alive I'll keep emphasizing that one thing there is only one way to follow Jesus and it is not by shouting and praising it's by denying yourself every single day in your office in your home when you drive on the roads in the church in your relationship with every single brother and sister here and to take up your cross and follow Jesus there is absolutely no other way to follow Jesus Christ every day and I'll tell you this the day this church loses that vision it has already started sinking and we don't want to listen to preaching that's not going to lead to that direction never and there are very few people who preach that truth consistently if you don't believe me just go to the internet and listen to all the messages there are on YouTube and and listen to how many people are preaching about following Jesus and taking up the cross every day in denying themselves it's rare because Paul said in the last days people will want the ears tickled to hear what they like to hear and not what they need to hear so Paul told Timothy as long as you're alive you better preach the whole truth and let people hear it so Paul said I'm pressing on I want to lay hold of that for which Christ laid the hold of me and again he says in verse 13 I haven't laid hold of it yet and now I'm not pretending that I have but there's only one thing I do in life for a lot of Christians the one thing they do in life is they want to make more money or they want more honor or they want to become an elder in a church someday or they want to sneakily watch pornography that's the one thing but fall said there's one thing I do I want to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me I want to become a little more like Christ every year and I want to forget what lies behind okay maybe we messed up our life Paul do you know that Paul messed up his life for thirty years more than any of you did or you or me you never killed any Christians Paul persecuted Christians and got some of them killed he was a driving force behind Stephen the first martyr being killed have you done that no his life was more messed up than yours for thirty years many of you have come to Christ long before you were thirty are you gonna go ahead a fall no because you don't have the passion to follow like he had dear brothers and sisters let's wake up Paul because he messed up his life so much he said Oh God how can I make up for my lost time I felt like that when CFC started now I was thirty-five and I've began to understand about the New Covenant when I was 35 36 years old I said Lord so many years I've not understood this new covenant what am I going to do I better make up for lost time I don't know whether you feel like that when you look back over yours where you failed and disappointed the Lord do you feel such a regret and sorrow and say Lord I got to make up for lost time now I got to study the Bible better I've got to know your word better do you have a passion like that I often say if you've been born again for one year and you've not read through the Bible you're not a serious Christian not at all don't think you are you have time to read the newspapers and read so many other books but you don't read God's Word don't think you're a serious Christian if you spend more time on Facebook then on God's book you know where your interests are do you think if Jesus was on earth he would spend more time on Facebook than knowing the Word of God do you really think so don't fool yourself don't say well it's not sinful it's nice it's a question of how much time you spend on it I've got nothing against watching clean television but you can spend so much time on it that you don't have time to spend with God so sometimes we can ease our conscience and say that's not sinful what I'm doing agreed but if you spend so much time on something which is ordinary that cuts out that you don't have time to spend with the Lord and with His Word and you don't have an interest for example to read that book through the Bible that commentary and try to understand more and more of God's Word if you can't understand God's Word by yourself if you can understand God's Word by yourself sure then read it all by yourself but if you can't get a help like that and read it and get to know God's Word because we're living in the last days and I want to say to you if you want to bring up your children in a godly way you better teach them those truths and you won't be able to treat them that if you don't know it yourself that is the reason why I wrote that book so that the next generation can know God so that they can't make the excuse saying I can't understand the Bible a lot of people have told me that I see ok here's a book you can understand now you have no excuse saying I can't understand the Bible and you know I told you this that if you can't afford it you come to me we'll won't even charge you that much there are people we are giving it out free because I'm interested that they get to know God money is not the important thing for us we're not interested in making money through our books or our videos or anything

Channel: A True Christian

Views: 1,841

Rating: 4.8947368 out of 5

Keywords: spiritual growth, what if you don't progress in spiritual life

Id: x6KUYtHgMug

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 24 2018