What Brokenness Means by Zac Poonen

[Music] you I believe that one of the biggest problems many of us face our elders and in many of our churches is the problem of legalism of going by the letter of the law and imagining that therefore you are spiritual because you keep certain do certain religious activities and not realizing that those are only leaves all religious activity is leaves Bible reading praying going to meetings all these things are leaves and the fruit may not be there and Jesus comes looking for fruit the Galatians had this problem they started well they were born again and in the spirit and then but they got off onto a sidetrack into legalism thinking that that would take them where God had destined for them see the destination as we've seen is not heaven but becoming like Christ and legalism will never take you there and one of the words that Paul spoke to them to correct this and this is a word which all of us who tend to be legalistic should take heed to Galatians 6 verse 3 if anyone thinks that he is a somebody when he is a nobody he deceives himself that was just for emphasis if anybody thinks uses somebody when he's a nobody he deceives himself the mark of a legalist is he thinks he's a somebody and he thinks he is more than all these others who are nobodies when you look at others and think there are nobodies you're a legalist and when you think you're a somebody your legalist a truly spiritual man really deep down himself considers himself a nobody Paul was like that he once said in 1 Corinthians 3 who is Paul who is Apollo's I planted Apollo's watered but God gave the increase he who plants is a nobody he's referring to himself 1 Corinthians 3 he who waters is a nobody but God is everything how do you know that you love God with all your heart when we are born into this world you see that in every child their heart is full of love for themselves they love themselves and there are psychologists who teach today you must learn to love yourself you don't need to learn it adam has taught all of us that long ago but there are Christians preachers totally deceived by these psychologists because they study psychology more than the Bible who say you cannot love your neighbor as yourself if you don't first love yourself as if you have a problem loving ourselves anybody here who had a problem loving yourself don't fool yourself we already love ourselves Jesus said we got to hate ourselves because only if I hate myself I'll be able to love God and love my neighbor as myself we already love ourselves when a heart is full of love for self and Jesus wants to bring us to the place where we love God with all of our heart something has to be eliminated I have I have to become a nobody then my heart will be full of love for the Lord and that's why God has to break us like like we heard just now God has to break us bring us down to zero you know in schools a useless student who starts at zero they try to work him up to 100% that's good for earthly things but in spiritual things we start with hundred percent and God is trying to work us down to zero I want to know how far you've come I want to know how far I've come how far is God succeeded in bringing you who are 100 percent full of yourself down to zero as he come fifty percent at least 75 percent when you get down to zero God can really let the flood of living waters go out through brokenness is the most important thing brokenness means God's reduce has to reduce us to zero these Galatians who really thought they were somebody because they were following little little rules and regulations you know I've seen that with legalists every legalist thinks he's somebody I mean he may be obeying some scripture for example their scriptures of against women wearing jewelry so here's a sister who takes off her jewelry and she really thinks she's somebody because she's taken off jewelry but then she also looks down on others who wear jewelry saying there are nobodies now I'm I'm never wearing jewelry my wife and I've never won jewelry and all alike because we respect scripture but that does not make us somebodies that's the point and it doesn't make somebody else wear jewelry and nobody because it's a matter of the heart and we're not here to judge one another that's just one area a sister who wears skirts can look down on another sister wears pants I'm a somebody there are a thousand in one areas where we look down on others and in areas which are not seen and that's the mark of a legalist I was telling the elders yesterday some time ago one of my sons decided to grow his hair long well I wanted to see a scripture if I could tell him because you know we've always believed that women should have long hair and men should have short hair so I searched the scriptures and what I found in 1 Corinthians 11 was that nature says your hair should be short what does God say I don't know so I couldn't tell my son nature says your hair should be short because what does it matter nature is like tradition and I realized when I studied scripture that I had formed an opinion which was not what God had said but it says nature says your hair should be so I realized that I hadn't had a wrong opinion all my life about this because of tradition so I decided not to tell them anything because if I can't point out saying that is sin according to this because God has said it how can I say that I can't tell him my opinion and vibe if Jesus had longer I tell him that too then or John Wesley are others so once I got over that I said yeah what I'm going to say there then I could tell him well it doesn't bother me anymore let your longer because they studied the scripture on it and I removed the wrong idea I had by careless reading of Scripture but I said why did why do you have long hair me just out of curiosity and he said well dad I made a vow before God and every time I see that I remind myself of that vow and one day when it's fulfilled I'll cut it off I should find if it being even God I'm not going to interfere on that and so when a few months ago he got it off I said yeah that's what in him and God yes just an example many of us drive away our children by pointing out to them something which you cannot find in Scripture as a sin it is a opinion you have I'm just using that as an example it could be some other area in your life parents must have a very close relationship with their children in the last days the Bible says God is going to send the spirit of Elijah who will bring the hearts of the fathers towards the children and the hearts of the children towards the father's we are living in those days where children are becoming more and more distant from their parents we stand against sin of course but make sure you're standing against sin and not against some tradition that you have got without any foundation in Scripture because that is what you have inherited Jesus fought against tradition as much as he fought against sin today's Christians legalists do not fight against tradition and they don't even fight against sin and because they think there's somebody so what we heard is so important see one mark of one who is a nobody is that he's not making demands on others you must wear skirts like me some sister says you must not have jewelry like me or you must have short hair like me some brother says these are all demands this brother who just spoke to you brother Eck Holt my son Sanjay and his wife when before they were engaged in Norway and they went up to brother Eck Holt attained was just before they got married or just after I don't remember and asked him a question they said how is it you been so happily married for 50 years with your wife and brother a cold gave a reply which they have not forgotten which I haven't forgotten he said it's because we decided never to make any demands on each other that's a secret I don't make any demands on because very often my demands come out of my prejudices my opinions which may not be in Scripture you ask yourself do you have a demand on someone that they should be like you have your convictions on things which are not in Scripture this is legalism a broken man has no demands I mean I can believe that that what brother I Cole said was true when you don't have demands on each other you don't have fights if you have a demand you must respect me that's a demand you must the food you cook must be good that's a demand and one day the food is not good you get upset why do you get upset because you have a demand you are not a zero God is not succeeded in bringing you down to zero perhaps God allowed your wife to burn the food one day and add so much salt to help you to come down to zero but you didn't it didn't God didn't succeed because you fought against it or maybe one day your husband said he would come home for dinner at 7:00 and came at 11 o'clock at night because if something urgent happened just to break you sister and you got all upset when he came back and God didn't succeed in bringing you down to zero do you know how much God is trying trying trying to bring us to zero but we are fighting against it because we have demands we have demands on each other in the church you heard about brothers who have problems with each other do you think I went and told by the record about that no he had a word from the Lord why don't you listen to it why do you have a problem with someone because you have a demand that he must understand you what a deception that is who said he must understand you you know the there was this prayer of I had it someone here yeah the prayer of Francis of Assisi some of you may wonder who he is he's a Roman Catholic saint who live 1180 he said Lord make me an instrument of your peace wherever I find hatred let me sow some love where I find injury someone feels injured let me sow pardon and where I find out let me sow faith and where there is darkness let me sow light and where there is despair hopelessness let me sow some hope and where there is sadness let me go around sowing some joy divine master grant that I may not seek to be consoled by others as much as to console others let me seek not to be understood by others as much as to understand others let me not seek to be loved by others as much as to love them for it is in giving that we receive it is in pardoning that we are pardoned it is in dying that we are born to eternal life like Jesus told the Jews they will come from the east and the West and the Gentiles will be sitting in God's kingdom I say to today's Protestants and Pentecostals and charismatics and CFC folk the Roman Catholics will be sitting in God's kingdom ahead of us some men like this they knew God the doctrine was wrong the head was wrong their heart was right with many of us our head is right but our heart is wrong cuz we can't get along with somebody we want to be understood more than to understand to understand why is it he has a problem with me but as if I'm somebody my question is why in the world can't he understand me my position that is the mark of a somebody and nobody says maybe I'm troubling him in some way help me to know it Lord I don't have a demand that we should understand me you know we think we are spiritual when we are not broken why do I say these things because we are really approaching the end times Christ is coming soon [Music] there is no time to allow the devil to deceive us anymore we must have our eyes wide open and see areas where the devil has robbed us of our inheritance in Christ my dear brothers and sisters don't think you love God if you are not broken don't think you love God if you seek to be understood more than to understand no you don't don't think your spiritual just because of these externals if you don't have compassion to understand somebody else see when we are not broken we're always justifying ourselves somebody comes to correct you or find out something and you got an answer no no brother this is the thing you know what Jesus said about those who justify themselves it's a habit of Adam Jesus said in Luke 16 and verse 15 to the Pharisees I want you to listen to Luke 16 15 you to the Pharisees who were scoffing at Jesus was 14 he said you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men I want to ask you in Jesus name this morning is there any one of us you or me whom Jesus would look straight in the eye and say you try to justify yourselves in the sight of others when you are corrected when somebody points out something in you even an older brother points out something in you you try to justify yourself and that self justification read the rest of the verse may impress men but it is an abomination in the sight of God it is an abomination in the sight of God do you know that self justification is an abomination in the sight of God I looked up the word abomination in the Old Testament particularly I think in the King James Version it's very interesting to find out where abomination comes shall I tell you in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy the Lord told the Israelites when you are out in the wilderness there are no toilets there you must go outside the camp and take a Spade and dig a hole and when you're finished doing what you want to do answering the calls of nature cover it up with a spade otherwise it's an abomination to God got it what is you're justifying yourself like a toilet that's not flushed in modern language please don't show somebody an unflushed toilet in future somebody corrects you consider you could be 100 percent wrong not 99 percent but when you try to prove that you're a hundred percent right it's like an unflushed toilet and your stuffing more into that toilet and every time you justify yourself there's more in that muck in that toilet somebody asked me once brother Zach why do you keep using this word garbage rubbish I said I didn't use it first Paul used it first in Philippians this is all rubbish she said but do you know the word there the word in the original is what is in that unflushed toilet be thankful that I don't not using that word that's that's the original meaning that's what I mean by rubbish that's what Paul means by rubbish that's the rubbish he's talking about he takes the most stinking repulsive thing that you can think of and he says everything outside of Christ is rubbish that's what it is when you see everything outside of Christ as rubbish including the honour of men you will never seek for it and you will never seek to justify yourself before anyone when you're a broken person you do not seek to justify yourself before anybody because you see it for the unflushed toilet that it is which you are presenting to somebody oh I want to hate it if it's an abomination before God Jesus said it is an abomination before God it is detestable the King James Version is better sometimes an abomination in the sight of God what justice justifying yourself in the sight of men yeah that's the mark it's an unwillingness to receive it's because it's an indication of a man who is unwilling to judge himself because he thinks he's right and he's jealous of others you find that such people become jealous of others very quickly jealous if they are not given prominence do you find that brother/sister that you're jealous when you're not given some prominence it's because you just define yourself God has not given you grace your face is not in the dust who is the one who is disturbed when he's not given prominence in the church the one who thinks he's our somebody uh-huh that person is given prominence but not me I'm us also somebody here you feel like that you feel like that if some brothers I invited to share the word and you're not invited to share the word it's an unflushed toilet what is the exhortation to you flush the toilet brother flush it flush it out don't leave it like that and keep on accumulating in every conference more and more stink do you think you're very important that's the main reason why the anointing departs and you don't even realize it's departed and others can see it she can't see yourself when Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with these words blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the whole kingdom of heaven he came to earth to give us the Kingdom of Heaven and he told us is only one type of person that can get it the one who is poor in spirit what is the most important requirement for fellowship why were to ask you for fellowship between two brothers what is the most important requirement we'd say walking in the light but you know one brother can say but he's not walking in the light that's the problem I'm walking in the light he is what do you do then okay then we move on to something else a love and this brother will say well I've got love he doesn't have long what do you do then or you say humility and this brother says I'm humble all right but he's not humble where do you go from here holiness I'm holy he's not holy and that broken fellowship remains but when it comes to being poor in spirit a man says I'm poor in spirit but he's not that proves he's not poor in spirit because a man who is poor in spirit is aware of his own need that is the mark of a man who is poor in spirit he is not aware of the need of others he is aware of his own need Lord I'm a needy person his face is in the dust if you read the book of Job you have a classic example of this teaching job and it's three preacher friends they are saying this is why your God is punishing you this is why you're sick this is why your children died they must have committed some secret sin and every time job saying no no it's not like that you don't know I've done this I've cared for the widows I've not made money my god I don't even lust after women and so many Oh each is back at it reminds me of some brothers some husband and wife try to get them together this it's like this it's like the book of Job and some brothers try to get them together it's like the book of Job he's got an answer and he's got nuns and he's got an answer and there's one young fellow called Eli who he was better than the others he said some good things but he was also couldn't solve the problem to Joe and then God said let me speak now all you preachers shut up let me speak and what does God say does God say see how holy I am no no no there's not one word about his holiness he asked job job where were you when I created this universe where were you tell me can you make an alligator your pet these are the type of questions I ask Joe do you know where the snow comes from can you produce it nothing about holiness not a word about holiness and saline or any such thing we try to convict people about sin and those preachers tried to convict you about a sin no no God has another way his ways are so different from man's ways the more you know God you know God if you read the scriptures you'll see his ways are different and he says and Jobe listens to all this not one word about Jobe sin it's all about how great God is and every time God speaks Jobe becomes smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller finally he says in chapter 40 Lord I'm nobody you know that's what he said I am and nobody God said at last I have accomplished in Joe what I wanted to accomplish to bring him to be a nobody turn to that word sin that is the end result of God's working in job God is so full of compassion what those preachers could not succeed in job finally said in job 40 and verse 4 after he heard God speak about his greatness I am noting job 40 words for I am nothing I lay my hand on my mouth I've spoken once I will not answer I will not justify myself any more when God can bring you to the place where you say Lord I'm nothing I will lay my hand on my mouth I've got no answer I will add nothing more he has succeeded job was a perfect man in Chapter 1 perfect according to the light he had he had so many good things he never lusted after women before the Bible was written the only thing he's a million times better than today's believers he helped the poor he didn't make money his God all these things were there but there was one thing job lacked he was proud of his righteousness and I believe that is a problem with many of us we have heard about victory over sin we have experienced some victory in our life and we have got many good qualities but we are pretty proud about it and the proof of it is you get offended when you don't you're not given prominence and you justify yourself when you're corrected God has to do a work in you like he did in job you're an excellent brother excellent sister like job was in chapter 1 but he was not a broken person in chapter 1 by the time you come to the end of that book he's a broken man and finally in chapter 42 he says Oh Lord verse 46 I repent in dust and ashes he put his mouth in the dust and said I'm a nobody I'm living in repentance repentance repentance repentance before you from now on and God said in verse 7 the last part my servant job has spoken what is right can the Lord say that about you my sermon brother so-and-so sister's phone so has spoken what is right what is that I am nothing I'm a nobody I will not Oh put open my mouth and justify myself anymore I shall from henceforth live with my face in the dust and ashes and in repentance and brokenness every day that's what God is looking for what should the church what type of people should be in the church let me share this in closing Luke chapter 15 [Music] Luke chapter 15 and verse 3 onwards to 7 it's a well-known story but in many of these stories we sometimes concentrate on the wrong person the story of the prodigal son we need to learn about the elder son most sermons are on the prodigal son and we need to concentrate on the father in the story of the prodigal son in the story of the Lost coin we need to think of the compassion of that that eagerness of that woman to find the coin and we need to ask us well why the coin was lost the woman there is a picture of the church but is careless and loses people through its carelessness and in this parable the shepherd is Jesus he seems far the Holy Spirit in the church the church doesn't respond to the Holy Spirit is careless and loses coins that God gives it but here it's Jesus is the Shepherd and this is lost sheep and the Sheep Jesus goes and finds that sheep and brings that sheep into the church ok how does Jesus describe the church read carefully verse 7 ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance that's the church you asked a lot Lord what is your definition of the church people who need righteous people who need no repentance you say how in the world you mean there are people in the world who know didn't don't need any repentance yes because they are repenting every day they're not only once a day they're repenting many times a day because they're getting a light on themselves I get light on myself many times during the day I got light on myself even today not just in sermons most of the time I get my light when nobody is preaching when I'm walking down the road when I wake up in the morning when I'm doing something else suddenly out of the blue I get light on something which I told you I've looked at the faces of godly humble people and got light on myself without even there I'm out and I repent immediately I want to be a part of the church which consists of righteous people who need no repentance because they are repenting constantly that's what makes you a part of the church not that you have understood the new covenant and you know all about the doctrines and about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and all the explanations all that is good brother but it's no use if you don't have a foundation of brokenness and repentance blessed are the poor in spirit the poor in spirit are those who are always aware of their own need and those are the people I love to hear when they speak there's a there's a there's a spirit about such people which blesses my heart they may not say clever things and beautiful stories and all that but I sense when I listen to people that man is a broken man that is a man is a man who is judging himself there is a man who is living in constant repentance lord give me such people to listen to it give us such people in the church give us such elder brothers in the church who have no desire for prominence who do not think they are somebody we have many righteous brothers who think they are somebody just like job in Chapter one I want to invite you all to take the journey to become like job in chapter 42 don't be like job in Chapter 1 perfect and an upright man who turns away from evil who fears God and that is your opinion of yourself right now who brought up his children properly gathered the 10 of them every day to pray with them family prayer and all that and not lusting after women not worshiping gold and all that all the things you know you got it all in your mind what you are the main thing is missing brokenness may the Lord take you through all creatures won't help you you can have 3 preachers Eliphaz Bildad so far even a lie who you got to meet with God and God has to say to you where were you when I created the universe can you make an alligator like a magic one you who think you're so powerful and mighty servant of God and all that can you make a little thing like snow I stopped the sea with grains of sand grains of sand stop the mighty tsunamis can you do that job becomes smaller I have many times exhorted people sit outside some night and look at the Stars and see how great God is and see what a nobody you are I do it many times I say Lord I think of this mighty universe you know if I don't see it I think about it this mighty universe and your small speck tall earth and on this speck of Earth is even a smaller speck called me and I think I'm God's representative that I'm such a great leader put your mouth in the dust brother it's what God's told me put your mother in the dust all the time I want to live there all my days you cannot fall when you're down on the ground you can never fall that's how the Lord keeps you from falling if you stand you can fall you need to sit down you can fall but how can you fall when you're flat on the ground with your mouth in the dust he is able to keep us from falling because your mouth is in the dust is impossible to fall may God help us let's pray Heavenly Father we pray that you will apply what we have heard to our lives that we shall walk all our days softly before you in continuous repentance your name will be glorified through our lives that will be like Joe boys in chapter 42 and not like he was in chapter 1 help us each one in Jesus name Amen

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Keywords: Zac, Poonen, Revival, Repent, God, Sermons, Jesus, SermonIndex

Id: DnbBMTXL88s

Length: 36min 12sec (2172 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2010