Zac Poonen - Knowing The Father And Jesus

we've been having a feast a real feast these two days the riches of heaven have been revealed to us and some of us have heard these truths for so many years there are different movements that god has raised up through the years by godly men wonderful godly man one of those movements was called the christian missionary alliance it started in the end of the 19th century by a very godly man called a.b simpson who wrote that song we sometimes sings once it was the blessing now it is the lord and once i sought for healing now i seek for him alone etc all in all in jesus jesus will i sing many years later maybe 50 60 years after the movement was founded there was another godly man who was a pastor in that chair in that christian mission alliance called a.w dozer some of us would have read his writings aw tozer and he once as a young pastor he went to he was a really sincere godly man he went to one of the older pastors in the christian missionary alliance church and asked him with this wonderful gospel that we preach of jesus christ as savior baptizer and maybe simpson used to preach about exchanging our self-life for christ's life for the christ life he asked this older man as a young pastor tozer why is it that these people who for so many years have heard these wonderful truths who should be some of the sweetest saints on the face of the earth are sometimes so sour and grumpy and hard to get along with difficult to fellowship with so hard and demanding and he said that wise old man just kept quiet he had no answer to give i asked that same question today why is it so many who come regularly for the conferences who hear some of these wonderful truths who should be the sweetest most gracious saints on the face of the earth or sometimes so hard to get along with why is it some elders are so hard to fellowship with why is it people in the churches complain about that something is missing we've got it all up here in the mind we stir but the stirring doesn't seem to last we make decisions in conferences but it doesn't last it's all disappears after a while something is wrong yeah i feel very often that in spite of all that we hear many of us are like orphans you know there's an insecurity about orphans because they've never felt the kiss of a mother or the hug of a father growing up in an orphanage maybe they're given food clothing education and all but there's something that orphans miss the hug and intimacy of parents that brings a security orphans are insecure and i believe that a lot of observed christians for more than 50 years more than half a century i believe that insecurity is the root cause of so many sins orphans are jealous of others they're very possessive they don't want you if you meet you're friendly with an orphan that orphan will not want you to be friendly with anybody else because they're so insecure they're very possessive if you become their friend they want you possessive they won't let you share you with anybody else and if they see two people talking together they'll say oh they must be talking about me suspicion jealousy and orphans are if they get something they want to keep it they don't want to lose it it's like like elders who don't want to lose their position or they want honor from people they want acceptance all the time orphans can never stand a rebuke oh they'll get going to depression for days because somebody corrected them insecure insecure insecure all of humanity was like that from the days of adam when adam lost his father lost god knowing god intimately in eden ever since that day adam and all his children have been insecure orphans in the world everybody under the old covenant that's why you see some of those great saints falling into depression the great john the baptist who was the greatest prophet of all when he was imprisoned just because jesus didn't get him out of prison do a miracle and kill herod he began to doubt and from prison he sends his disciples to john to jesus and says are you really the messiah i mean he had heard the voice from heaven supposing you heard a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son would you ever doubt after that you think you won't you will john the baptist did when something you want desperately your prayer that you asked for didn't get answered that child you prayed for died instead of being healed then you begin to doubt this is really is he really the messiah is all this true i've had people sit in cfc for many years who say brother zack i'll be honest with you i remember one brother telling me this is i'll be honest with you that sometimes i doubt is this bible really god's word is there really is jesus really the only way because i've never seen him or heard him or anything like that and then he says he said to me but there's one thing that keeps coming to me i remember on one conference way back in 1983 or something he said a man came crawling through the aisle just as i was about to start a bible study i was up in the pulpit and he says he remembers that he saw a man crawling up and and he said i saw you brother zach say to that person in jesus name lie down there and the man went to sleep and we had a bible study and when the bible study was over he got up and he says that day i realized there is power in the name of jesus and that sometimes god does something like that but then the same person became insecure after some time and he left coc insecurity insecurity orphans orphans always looking for attention i must be the center of attention i don't like anybody else to be the center of attention there was a joke they used to say about a german ruler in the early part of the 20th century he always wanted attention uh if he went to the wedding he wished he were the bride and if he went to a funeral he wished he were the corpse in the car because the attention was all centered around or are you like that you find you like to have attention and everybody talks about you and thinks about you and you feel insecure if you're live by yourself you can never be insecure if you know god is your father and that's what the fullness of the holy spirit really came to bring turn with me to john's gospel chapter 14. john 14 and jesus the first time he spoke about the holy spirit about the coming of the holy spirit it was the night before he went to the cross he left that subject out completely in all his teaching and just the night before he went to the cross after they had broken bread he had washed their feet he says i want to tell you something verse 15 john 14 15. if you love me there's only one proof of that you will keep my commandments and they've already heard his commandments very high standard love one another as i have loved you that means be willing to lay down your life for one another are you brothers and sisters willing to lay down your life you may lay down your life for your child that even a heathen godless atheist mother will do but to lay down your life for one another in who other believers that's an almost impossible standard or love one another a new commandment i give you love one another exactly as i have loved you how did he love me he loved me by laying down his life for me he gave up everything because he wanted me and to have that type of relationship in the church where brother i don't want anything from you and if you take something from me i'm not going to fight for it you just go right ahead i i love you and i want to love you as jesus loved me and jesus is willing to lose everything to have me then i'm willing to lose things for the sake of the church that's the type of bond that god brings only god can do it bring that type of bond between believers where we are willing to give up everything it's it's that type of unity in which the church must grow and so it's so difficult to keep these commandments if you love me keep my commandments immediately the disciples would have thought well how in the world can we keep them and jesus said yeah i know your question i know what's christians coming in your mind he said i will ask the father to give you a helper to keep the commandments so you see the first time that jesus spoke about the holy spirit it was in relation to keeping the commandments not in relation to speaking in tongues or healing or any of these things that's what we emphasize in cfc the ministry of the holy spirit is to help us keep his commandments he's a helper and he said it in relation to keeping the commandments and he'll be with you forever and he said he's the spirit of truth the world cannot receive him because he doesn't know him right now verse 17 he's only with you but one day he'll be in you throughout the old testament he was with different people when he anointed people even when it says john the baptist was filled with the holy spirit it was from the outside he was not in him he was with him he was with moses he was with david he was with elijah elisha but never in anybody why couldn't he be in anyone because everybody's heart was dirty you could kill thousands of bulls and goats but the heart is still dirty there was only one thing that could cleanse the heart and that is the blood of jesus christ and until the blood of jesus christ was shed the holy spirit just could not come into anybody's heart that's why there had to be a preparation period you know with israel being kept under the law before the holy spirit could come but once christ had shed his blood and risen from the dead and gone after the father immediately the holy spirit could come so he's with you but in that day he'll be in you you know like the cup covered you pour water on it it flows and flows outside and blesses people the inside of the cup remains dirty like samson's heart but if you remove the lid and pour water in it it overflows from within and then the inside is clean and it flows out in blessing that's the difference between old covenant fullness of this being filled with the spirit upon a new covenant filled with spirit which is from within and then overflowing that's what he meant by he is with you till now he will be in you on the day of pentecost and then he says and when that happens you know what's going to happen when the holy spirit comes within you you will not be an orphan anymore so he spoke the when he spoke about the holy spirit he spoke about freedom from being an orphan i will come to you and that is one of the greatest things that the holy spirit does it says in romans in chapter 8 that when the spirit comes into our heart romans 8 15 when we receive this spirit of adoption adoption is a word where uh a father it's not adoption in the sense we know today where someone who's not your child you adopt into your family that's not this is talking about another type of adoption which you know some some religions have where a child comes of age 12 years old or something their own child is adopted now as a son now and in her one who is the heir we can say he's made an heir that's the meaning here we've been made heirs of god in christ and the holy spirit comes in and shows us we are heirs along with christ and cries out abba father the holy spirit when the holy spirit really comes into us it makes us know immediately god is our father that is the first thing you don't have to brainwash your fellow hey listen god is your father god is your father god is your father i often think that many christians their knowledge of god as a father is a very kind father who lives in a very distant country supposing your father was living in another country 10 000 kilometers away or 15 000 kilometers away but he's a very kind father he sends you letters you've never seen him from the time of your birth you've never seen him but he sends you gifts and he speaks to you sends you but you've never seen him you never felt him hug you there's a sense in which you're still an orphan you know him theoretically he asked you do you have father yeah i've got a father have you ever seen him never seen him has he ever hugged you no never hugged me but i know he's there because i get his letters now and then and he sends us money for the family there are people like that you know whose fathers are working in distant lands i feel that many christians know god like that as a father who's in a distant land we can send emails to him and tell him certain things we need and he sends us certain things that we need but we never know in hagas no intimacy i was like that for 16 years after i was born again i had a father he was up there he helped me in so many ways he'd send me letters and i could send him letters but a day came in my life when the holy spirit filled me i could say daddy abba is a hebrew word i wish they are translated in this english language into dad what a wonderful thing it is to say dad oh dad i'm in your arms i'm secure you hug me it's a wonderful thing to know god is your father and i often think that i'm like a little child jesus said that to enter god's kingdom you must be like little children i often think there's a song that we played at the time of my birthday which says you will always be a child in my eyes and even when you're growing old i hope you realize god says you will always be a child in my eyes and i like that however old i may be i'm a child in god's eyes and i feel secure with my heavenly father his arms around me and he's hugging me and i sit on his lap and i'm secure in the midst of a very insecure world a lot of things that happen in this world even today a lot of the worst things that are going to happen in the days to come i want to say to you my brothers and sisters you need to know god as your dad you need to let the holy spirit show you god is your dad intimate close to you and jesus it says in john chapter 1 one of the main functions why he came to earth was not just to die for our sins in john chapter 1 it says in verse 18. no one has seen god at any time john 1 18 the only begotten son of god who's in the booth of the father he has explained him he has revealed him you see i told he saw in the tabernacle this veil thick curtain and god was on the other side of the veil and nobody knew what he was like because nobody had seen him it says here no one has seen god at any time who is this person living the other side of the whale and the pharisees said we'll tell you what he's like he's very strict if you pluck a grain of wheat on the sabbath day he's going to come down hard on you and they had all types of silly rules about you can't go travel a certain distance on the sabbath day and you can't do this and you can't they would take those laws of god and interpret it and thou shalt not lift a burden on the sabbath day that was a law in the old testament they said well we've got to decide now what the weight of your slippers are because every time you walk you're lifting a burden so we decide what the weight of your slippers are uh so that you're not supposed and then you had to wear slippers so they decided the weight of your slippers must be so much if it's more than that it's a burden and these guys they didn't have a bible they were listening to this pharisees and they said boy we're scared to go inside the whale at some strict policeman or judge sitting there and jesus rent that veil one day and said these pharisees are liars it's a dad who sits in there he's not bothered about these silly rules that these people have made that's not real god and i want to tell you this jesus said that 2000 years ago but there are people sitting in cfc churches who still think that god is like that they will criticize a sister who wears a 400 rupee artificial gold earring and say you're not supposed to come to the church wearing that when that guy's own wife is wearing a 5000 rupee sari that's what i mean hypocrisy hypocrisy there are people like that there are people like that in cfc there are new people who come cfc and some foolish sister will go and ask her why are you wearing ornaments i say you know there are babies in every church you can't help it who say stupid things who somebody comes to they don't know who it is and that two-year-old says who are you why have you come here there are people like that are 40 year old babies in cfc too who go around saying stupid things and drive people away there's nothing attractive about they haven't they don't know god is a father they know a policeman they know a judge who is saying all types of things i've had people say to my wife you know those designs on your sarees it reminds me of some hindu temple and i said boy what why how wild your imagination goes you know some small one-inch design i said if i were a woman and i heard something like that i'd wear a saree like that every single day to drive these pharisees out of the church so much of legalism which prevents us from knowing god as a dad a loving father it's love that he wants he said the only two commandments i give you love god with all your heart and love one another as yourself and people break that down into silly little rules that will hurt others jesus reveals the father i want you to turn to matthew chapter 11. matthew chapter 11 and verse 25 jesus said i praise you father lord of heaven and earth that you've hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and you've revealed them to babes i want you to see a very important word there reveal revelation in the old testament there was zero revelation it was understanding and knowledge revelation is a new testament word revelation comes from the holy spirit you remember when simon peter jesus asked who do you think i am inside you say you're the christ the son of the living god how did he know that well he hadn't studied the scriptures he didn't even have a bible at home and the great rabbis and scholars and scribes who had studied the bible day after day after day after day and they saw the bible speaks about the seed of the woman will come to crutch the serpent's head they saw the passover lamb in exodus and the serpent lifted up in the wilderness all referring to christ and isaiah 53 so the servant of god would be sacrificed and the son of righteousness in malachi all the way it's all about jesus and when they studied it studied it studied it and when jesus came to the midst they said this is the prince of devils he's the prince of devils even though they'd studied the scriptures every saturday but peter who hadn't studied all those scriptures he said you're the christ you're the messiah the son of the living god and jesus said blessed are you simon son of jonah because if i were to paraphrase those words flesh and blood does not reveal this to you matthew 16 17 that means your human intelligence did not show this to you but my father gave you revelation this simple fisherman understood in a moment what those great scholars who had studied the bible for years could not understand those 60 year old scholars could not understand what 30 year old peter understood by revelation the great word in the new testament is revelation reveal revelation take a concordance sometime and study the word reveal and revelation in the new testament you'll be amazed it's not primarily understanding with in the intellect but revelation in the spirit paul says in galatians 1 it pleased the lord one day to reveal again he uses that word the great secret of paul and peter was this not that they were clever one was clever one was not it doesn't make a difference it says here in galatians in chapter 1 that one day it pleased god verse 15 and 16 to reveal his son not outside me on the road to damascus but in me it pleased god through his grace he had called me verse 15 from my mother's womb and i was completely blind i studied the scriptures and i thought this is a false prophet all his followers must be killed because the old testament law was that all false prophet and all the pro his followers must be killed and he did it did it till one day god revealed his son in him then he was changed immediately you know when revelation comes and hits you you're radically changed you'll be willing to give up everything in the world so many times when we ask you say ask people to receive jesus into their heart they say it but i wonder in my heart have they really got this revelation in their heart that she who jesus is and have they got a revelation now god is now my father there's something missing so much of our salvation we need the holy spirit we need to be filled with the holy spirit we will reveal god as a father it's a wonderful thing you know that's what jesus tried so much to impress upon his disciples you don't have to be worried i know the world is a very insecure place to live in and that's why i'm sending the holy spirit to reveal god as your father and i believe that many of you sitting here you need to get that revelation from god as he's your dad who cares for you it's because of that that he said don't be anxious your heavenly father knows what you have need of before you ask him turn with me to matthew chapter 6. matthew chapter 6 verse 8 verse 7 don't pray like the non-christians with their meaningless repetition they think they will be heard because of their many words they think they'll be heard because they prayed for so long the prophets of baal prayed for so long nothing happened elijah prayed for 30 seconds and the fire came the non-christian thinks if i pray for a long time i'll be heard he said don't be like that just repeating repeating certain things meaningless repetition because don't be like them because verse 8 your father knows what you need before you ask him the next time you pray think of this verse matthew 6 8 your father knows what you need before you ask him this is what the holy spirit tells me you're he's your dad he knows what you need before you ask him therefore what therefore for this reason verse 25 i say don't be anxious connect these two verses together read verse 8 and 25 together your father knows what you need before you ask him therefore for this reason don't be anxious what is the request that is uppermost in your heart today let's be practical let's do some homework i think in many of your hearts there's an uppermost request some usually some earthly thing some uppermost request shall we do a little homework today while we're sitting here do you believe that your father knows what you need before you ask him therefore don't be anxious look at the birds of the air verse 26 they don't sow they don't reap they don't gather into barn yet your father feeds them do you believe that you're more valued than those birds like that little poem which says one bird talks to another and says why these human beings so anxious and worried and the other bird says maybe they don't have a heavenly father like we have maybe that's why they're so anxious and very we're okay think of a bird talking like that to another is it because they saw you did they talk like that and he says look at all the flowers the lilies in the field verse 28 they don't work hard yet they get they're clothed by the father and even solomon in all his glory verse 29 was not clothed like this if god the father so clothes the grass of the field oh men of little faith won't he do that for you i believe the greatest need in the days to come is security to know god is our father very very important even when everybody leaves you remember jesus once told his disciples yeah you stood by me all this time but the time is coming john 16 verse 32 this is just before they went to the garden of gethsemane in john 16 32 he said the hour is coming and it has already come you will all run away to your own home john 16 32 and you leave me alone but i'm not alone my father is with me i remember when we started preaching the truths we preached in cfc way back in 75 the lord asked me will you continue to stand for these truths if everybody leaves you i said yes sure i'd come to know god as my father and didn't matter to me now whether people stood with me or how many people came to our church it never bothered me one bit because one man with god is a majority remember this my brothers and sisters if you're lonely in some situations some of you come from non-christian homes and i really can sympathize with the struggle you have your parents are non-christians and you feel you're alone there in the house you're not alone if god is with you you're a majority that everybody be against you you're a majority this is the thing that gave boldness to the apostles to face lions and spears and thomas who came to india was speared to death how did they how did thomas come all alone to india how did he have that boldness he knew the father that's the thing i believe that is the great need the first person of the trinity the father we need to know him intimately that will bring security then we go to the second person of the trinity jesus christ jesus said the holy spirit john 16 he will take of mine verse 14 and show it to you he will take of jesus and show it to you he'll not only reveal the father that's great like he cries out daddy but then he reveals jesus to me he reveals the second person of the trinity to me he takes up jesus and shows me how jesus was and then i see how jesus was on this earth and the holy spirit shows me jesus came in a body like yours he was made like you in everything except that he had no sin in him but he was capable of being tempted just like you so now i have a revelation of jesus this is the other thing we need to see we need to see god is our father that delivers us from our orphan syndrome and insecurity i know him as dad i don't have to be anxious anymore you know like whatever problems that may be in a home a little two-year-old child is not bothered whatever problem think of your little one-year-old child or two-year-old you think that child is bothered about all the problems you father and mother worrying about uh you have to your landlord has asked you to vacate the house or you're losing your job and you don't know what the two-year-old is happy and playing i'm not bothered about all these things you go to him and say do you know your dad's league leaving losing his job he doesn't have another job he doesn't have much in his bank account he says just leave me alone i want to play i don't care you go and talk to my dad about all that i'm not interested imagine my brothers and sisters living on earth like that is it possible yes it is it's not that we don't care for our responsibilities we do what we can but the anxiety part is taken out of us and it'll make you work much better make you do everything in love much better if anxiety can be taken out of our system insecurity anxiety it's a wonderful thing to know god is a father and then he you see that's the beginning we know him as a child to know god is a father and then as we grow up the holy spirit says now you need to take responsibility and learn to live like jesus and immediately another question comes anxiety how in the world can i live like jesus i'm such a rotten old sinner i can be forgiven by him but to live like him impossible we say and yet john at the age of 95 says in one john 2 6 the one who says he abides in christ must walk as jesus walked i remember reading the testimony of john wesley one of the greatest saints that christianity has seen he said when i read that verse the one who says he abides in him ought to walk as he walked i didn't think of it as a burden i thought of it as a fantastic possibility hey i mean he didn't say hey i'm just adding that but i can walk like jesus how do you look at that verse oh burden oh i have to walk like jesus or a possibility imagine a wretch like me who's been saved from the gutter having messed up my life and hurt god in so many ways now i can walk as the son of god walked on the earth in every area i can live on earth in the same way jesus lived with her dignity without fear jesus was never afraid oh i may get cancer you think he was living in that type of fear a lot of sickness going around i may catch it i don't know what will happen and many people are dying i may die never i can live like jesus this is the christianity we preach in cfc this is why they call us a heretics and false teachers of course the devil wants you to believe it's a false teaching because he wants you to live like an orphan insecure fighting quarreling all your life that's the best way to the devil to turn people away from god from the truth i tell them oh that's heresy that's all wrong teaching that's the way he makes people turn away from the truth i'm not surprised you think the devil wants you to walk as jesus walked tell me who will be most upset if you start walking as jesus walked from tomorrow onwards you think god will be upset oh he started walking as jesus walked i'll tell you who will be upset is the devil then who's trying to stop you from even attempting it who's trying to stop you from believing that it is possible if the bible says so it must be possible will you ask your child to put a 500 ton weight on his head and walk no if you as a evil father or mother will not burden your children with commands they cannot keep how in the world can god tell me to walk as jesus walked if it's not possible it's a fantastic possibility that the devil wants to blind your eyes to so they say it's not possible for you and if you see one or two people walking like that and say yeah it's possible for him he's a special case but it doesn't work for you then you believe another lie that is a special case a few people god gives grace like that but not for you you know god sends across your path now and then a godly man whose life challenges you i experienced that as a young christian not very frequently once in a while i i think of two or three people who came across my path who were really godly and i saw something in them i mean i don't know how they preached and already so something in their life that really challenged me something of the beauty of christ and i said lord i want that i've never never in my life have i wanted to preach like somebody maybe when i was a young christian i was immature and i attempted foolish things but that's not been my goal but i've seen some people live a godly life and i said lord i want to live like that have you and i believe that god allowed such people to come across my path to challenge me to show me that it was possible these guys are not telling lies they're not hypocrites they're genuine it's possible and that hope gets stirred in my heart i too can walk like that and god will send across your path now and then a really godly man one here and one there and you will see okay you're disappointed with so many christians okay fine it's like god told satan okay all these fellows are hypocrites and groups but have you seen joe he's different that was one man and like that god may send across your path now and then a man who you know is genuine he's not exactly like jesus but oh you see a possibility in you as you see his life that can happen in your life too that's what challenged me and the holy spirit shows us how jesus lived on this earth tempted exactly like me he says in hebrews chapter 2 that he was made like his brothers in everything just like the devil would like to hide from your eyes that god is your father the next thing the devil wants to hide from your eyes is that jesus was a man like you i mean even though it's written plainly in scripture people won't believe it hebrews 2 17 he had to be made like his brothers in all things in spite of a statement like that some people say he was made like adam there's not a single verse that says he was made like adam he was made like his brothers and somebody once somebody asked jesus who are your brothers he said these who hear my word and do it those are my brothers he said so we know who the brothers or jesus are on the day of his resurrection he told mary magdalene go and tell my brothers who are they those disciples they were not perfect but he said to me mary magdalene go and tell my brothers that i'm ascending to your father and my father that's you and me born again children of god we're not perfect but he was made like his brothers in everything so that he can become a merciful and faithful high priest you see the jews had to be had to have one among them who could be the high priest not somebody who came from mars or mercury or somewhere someone who is right part of their race and he is made like us and because this one was made like us was verse 18 was tempted in he had to suffer in that temptation suffer means what he had to deny himself denying oneself is a suffering he denied himself and suffered because he knows what it is to deny himself and suffer and overcome he is able to run to help those who are tempted today and again in chapter 4 verse 15 he's one who can sympathize with our struggle in temptation you know how you can sympathize with someone who's facing something that you've already faced supposing you lost an only child supposing you had only one child and that child was a darling of your heart and one day got sick and you prayed and prayed and it died and yet to oh you overcame it by the grace of god you found comfort in god and years later you meet another mother whose only child died you can sympathize with her i can't but you can because you gone through that experience and here it says we got a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness what weakness the weakness of our flesh in the time of temptation he knows it don't you feel weak when you're tempted i feel terribly weak when i'm tempted but he knows it because he was weak too it's good to know that the holy spirit shows you one who can sympathize with your struggle and your weakness in the time of temptation you're not alone what a comfort that mother who's lost an only child can put her arms around this other mother who's lost the child and says i know exactly what you're feeling i've gone through it myself he she can comfort her more than i can even if she's a new convert because she's gone through it herself and if that's what it says that jesus can sympathize with my struggle when i'm facing some terrible temptation and i'm struggling and struggling he can sympathize with it because he faced it himself he faced a struggle he had to battle it says in chapter 5 verse 7 in the days of his flesh how did he overcome this temptation he prayed with loud crying and tears he prayed that this spiritual death might not touch him oh father save me from the spiritual death that can come to me if i yield to this temptation that's why you would sometimes go into the wilderness and pray and i remember understanding that and is saying now i know in the early days when i was seeking for victory i i now i know why i cannot conquer sin that desperate crying is not there i want to follow jesus but i don't want to cry so desperately even though i'm a slave i want you to turn to exodus in chapter 2. we see an example of a few people who were slaves slaves in egypt just like we are slaves of sin the israelites were slaves in egypt for 430 years and you've been a slave of sin for many years even though you're a believer even though you come to cfc there are some sins that keep plaguing you plaguing you plaguing you and you've heard the messages you know the theory but it doesn't seem to work in your case it seems to have worked in some other people it doesn't work in me this message is for you it came about exodus chapter 2 verse 23 in the middle of that verse the sons of israel sighed what's a sigh ah oh god we've been slaves so long you can hardly pray oh god when are you gonna help us because of that bondage they were not asking for wealth they were not asking for a new car or a new house or anything like these foolish christians are asking today they were saying because of that bondage oh god we're slaves every day we feel the whip of sin saying obey me obey me get angry lust be jealous fight be proud exalt yourself be hard be cruel i hear the whip lord i'm fed up i don't want to be a slave and they cried out and they cry for help because of their bondage rose up to god and god heard their groaning and i want to ask those of you who are praying to god for victory do you believe god hears your groaning and god remembered his covenant with that that case abraham he's made a covenant with us through jesus christ through his blood and god saw and god took notice the very next verse he sent moses that's a beautiful passage of how god can lead us you know that jesus prayed with loud crying and tears i've done that at night not with a loud mouth you can i've discovered you can cry in your heart without any sound coming out of your mouth yeah i've discovered that you can have a loud cry in your heart without anybody around you hearing a sound and the tears come out of your eyes and wet your pillow as you pray i find one of the best times to pray is when you're in bed the world is asleep and there you are alone with god everybody in your room houses asleep and you're awake and you're praying god i slipped up again today i want to walk like jesus i want to act like jesus towards every person i meet and i didn't react like that to the person who put petrol into my scooter and spilled some of it on my clothes i didn't react in the proper way there i didn't react the way jesus would have reacted that happened lord forgive me and i cry lord when will i be free from this when will i in every situation react the way jesus reacted i hope there will be a cry in your heart before the end of this conference it will make you another person think of that verse they sighed they cried and we read that jesus prayed with loud crying and tears and it says in hebrews in chapter 5 that he was hurt because of his godly fear that's why he was hurt he doesn't say he was hurt because he's the son of god because of his godly fear that means there was a terrific fear oh lest i sin and hurt my father see there are two types of fear of god one is the fear that god may hurt me the other is the fear that i may hurt god now which fear do you think it is here and he wasn't afraid that god would hurt him no god will never hurt jesus and by the way he won't hurt you either but jesus had a fear that i may hurt my father that's the right type of fear of god oh god i don't want to hurt you there's a beautiful verse in psalm 139 which reads like this psalm 139 verse 23 and 24 the last two verses search me o god and know my heart try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there's any hurtful way in me hurtful way of pain and the meaning is is there anything in me that's hurting you god that's how it gets in the living bible show me if there's anything that makes you sad anything that's hurting you father show me what a wonderful prayer lord search me and show me if there's anything in my life that's hurting you it's making you feel sad because i'm your child i'm behaving like this i believe that should be a constant prayer i remember once preaching on this and printing out little cards with that show me lord show me anything in my life that makes you sad printing it and giving out to everybody in our churches keep in your sitting room pray that prayer daily lord show me anything in my life that's making you sad i pray that regularly and i will pray that until i become completely like christ i believe that until i become completely like christ until like we heard this earlier that until the divine nature takes over completely and makes me not struggle to do something but automatically when tempted that my reaction is made me a struggle the reaction is to do good to love and not to hate to trust god and not to be fearful and anxious lord that nature that which you you've given me the holy spirit to have that i want it i want to be like jesus if that's your passion as if as you've heard me often speak the destination for us romans 8 29 is to become like jesus christ not as we heard earlier not victory over sin no victory over sin is a path in romans 6. romans is a systematic presentation of the gospel chapter 1 godless sinners chapter 2 religious sinners chapter 3 all are sinners and from chapter 3 onwards forgiveness of sins through the death of christ justification declared righteous by faith chapter 4 chapter 5 victory over sin yes needed in chapter 6 then freedom from legalism chapter seven that usually happens when people get victory over sin the next thing is they become legalists looking down on others freedom from legalism and then you come to chapter eight life in the spirit where what the law could not accomplish the holy spirit accomplishes and then romans 8 29 the goal that we might be conformed to the image of his son that is the goal all that romans 6 14 and all is on the way victory over sin and freedom from legalism our goal is to become like jesus that the very nature of jesus will be in me what a wonderful thing it is compare that with the nature of adam think back to the days when you were not born again when you had only the nature of adam in you don't you think the nature of adam did a first class job of making you tell lies making you hate making you jealous making you bitter making you anxious and no problem it was so easy to be anxious and to hate and to get angry and yell at people and tell lies and cheat and do all types of the nature of adam spontaneously flowed out of you do you think the holy spirit will do a lesser work when he puts the nature of christ in you that it will spontaneously flow out of you that you learn to forgive and love and be good and be humble never seek to lord it over others and seek to bless when people cursed you are you saying the nature of adam could do a better job than the holy spirit oh men and women of little faith let's trust that god can do a greater work in us than the nature of adam did so perfectly in us ruining us though jesus has come to not only forgive us but to make his nature well up in us when jesus said to the woman of samaria you drink this water in the well you'll thirst again but if you drink of the water that i give you it'll be a well a spring of water springing up springing up not drawing with wear with a bucket it is a spring of water that springs up and springs up and satisfies you'll never thirst again you'll never thirst because this satisfies you completely a life of victory he shows us jesus not only that we can walk as he walked in our life and he shows us how he fulfilled his ministry jesus didn't only live a godly life he served his father and he stood against the religious system of his day and that's what god has called cfc to stand for against the religious systems of our day and i was studying in the scriptures what is it that made jesus angry i read a verse like ephesians 4 26 which says be angry but not sinful anger i read the verse like that be angry but don't let it be sinful anger so in other words i have a command there's a command in the bible it says be angry but don't let it be sinful anger unfortunately most of the time we are angry it is sinful anger sinful anger is when somebody hurts you jesus never got angry when people slapped him called him the devil spat on him insulted him in so many ways ah you were born of fornication nobody knows who your father is he never got angry you're the prince of devils he never got angry whatever people did to him he never never got angry anything concerning him so i said what is this be angry but don't let it be sinful so i said okay jesus is my dictionary whenever i don't understand a verse in scripture which is the written word i go to the word made flesh i say ah the word made flesh is my dictionary where was he angry without sin and i see two times in jesus life he's angry and the holy spirit wants me to make like making me like him not only in my overcoming sin but in my ministry and you also must be like that the only two times that jesus became angry was one when he saw all these people making money in the name of god and it's written he did it once at the beginning of his ministry in john chapter 2 and he did it once at the end of his ministry as you read in matthew's gospel he did it twice let's take the john chapter 2 incident where he went into the temple and he saw all these people selling oxen at john 2 14 sheep and money changes and they were making money for themselves saying hey you fellows have come to offer sacrifice we'll sell you another fellow says hey i'll sell it cheaper don't take his sheep i'll give you i've got better sheep to offer another fella says no no i can give you something else better sheep this going on in the temple in the name of offering sacrifice to god and these fellows competing with each other to make profit and jesus this is a beautiful verse he made a scourge of cords he didn't have anything ready so he told his disciples can you just go and get some string from somewhere any type of string they're wondering what do you want string for and they go and pick up any old cloth or something like that they go pick up all these shreds from here and there and he sits in a corner of the temple and twists and vision they wonder what he's doing i like this picture of jesus twisting it reminds me of sitting and preparing a message to hit all these money changers today in christianity how shall i do it lord give me a real whip and he sat he's my example i tell you it took him some time to make a whip that would really dry these fellas out and he took it and that's the way you should prepare a sermon against such people and he drove them out of the temple verse 15 and said take these things away stop making my father's house a house of making money of business today the father's house has become a place of business all over christendom we saw that 40 years ago thankfully that's why we stood against it that we stood against it for 40 years we'll stand against it till jesus comes the principle of babylon is business revelation chapter 18 the merchants of the earth weep because they've lost their business christmas is such big business even the non-christians put banners of christmas sale and all that it's business it's business business everybody making money in the name of jesus everybody non-christians i heard a joke about this about children in a school being asked what did you do for christmas and some children said we are roman catholics and we went for the mass and we sang and we came back and opened the christmas presents and then there were protestants said we went for sunday morning service and we came back we also had christmas presents and the jewish man who doesn't believe in jewish child he doesn't believe in jesus my father is has a store selling gifts which christians come to buy at christmas time and all our shelves are empty at christmas time so we held hands and sang what a friend we have in jesus business business business this is it the non-christians here in commercial street will sing that what a friend we have in jesus we so much of business at christmas time this is babylon and it's happening in the church too people make coming rich in the name of jesus pastors that's why we decided 40 years ago that we take some radical steps in the matter of finances because jesus was angry and we didn't want jesus ever to be angry with cfc not even the slightest bit so we decided starting with me and ian we started that we would never take any salary from cfc zero we would never take a gift we would support ourselves it was a struggle for me it was a struggle for him as we began it's less of a struggle now but it was a tremendous struggle in those early days and i think more for him than for me and we said we are going to take this stand and as churches began to be added to us we said to them our elders will never take one cent for preaching no there are secular aspects of our ministry like we employ cooks to cook for us we pay them we employ people to pack our books and send them we pay them that's not that's a secular part of our ministry but for the ministry of the word the elders will be paid zero and now we have over 120 elders in our 60 70 churches not one of them receives a single paisa for their work it's a miracle there's not a single other church in india that can talk talk about it another thing this is just one part of it we decided we would never take an offering no bags being passed around 40 years 60 70 churches no offering we keep a box because we saw jesus sat next to a box and the widow came and put money in so we see that's the way it must be those who want to put in can put in i don't know who puts in but we've always had enough throughout these 40 years we serve people as you see in the conferences free and if you can live with your simple accommodation we provide even the accommodation is free we've received freely from the lord we give freely and we're not stingy god has given us and we bless people i remember when there were 5000 people in one place and jesus uh the disciples started calculating how much money will it cost to feed these people at the conference and jesus said feed them that's the word that we decide to follow we'll feed them freely god will provide for us he multiplied the loaves in those days he multiplies the money today and gives us enough to feed everybody to provide accommodation everything he is the same this god who lived in that time 2000 years ago is the same today and i said we want to prove that in a poor country like india where there's no social security where people have to pay for everything poor brothers and sisters we will prove that almighty god is the same and we'll have enough to build buildings without asking anybody for money and we will have enough to build multitudes of church buildings because we can't rent buildings in many places because of the non-christians who will not allow you to have a christian meeting in their place so we are compelled to build buildings and god provides we've taken we said we'll never send a report of our work in 40 years we've never sent a report of our work to anywhere about what we have done nobody knows what we are doing except among our fellow elders nobody knows what we are doing if you go to the cfc website you'll think there's only one church in india cfc bangalore try and look for branches no branches go and search the website what is happening is brother zach traveling somewhere you go and search the website no indication of it i mean now people discover through the live stream something but otherwise we are not we don't advertise our work at all we don't send letters asking people for money we have never done that in all these years a radical standing in the area of money because jesus said my house must have nothing to do with merchandise and money it's very very important our books sold at prices for which they are printed you're paying for the paper and the printing ink you're not paying for the material in it it's free that's why you put all the books on the internet no christian publisher will ever ever allow you to put their books on the internet you know that because they say if you put in the internet people won't buy the books i see we're not bothered whether people buy our books or not we want to spread the word around the world what is the second thing that jesus got angry with and that's in you read in mark's gospel in chapter three he there was a man with a withered hand in one place and he wanted to heal him and the pharisees were watching verse 2 to see whether to heal on the sabbath mark 3 verse 2 and jesus verse 5 looked around at them with anger wow i wish i could see a picture of his eyes and his face there in that synagogue angry with legalists that's the second thing jesus was angry with legalism he was angry with making money in the name of christ in the name of god and he was angry with legalists who picked up little commandments and amplified them and made life miserable for people we have faced that we faced it in cfc we faced it in kerala tamil nadu legalists who are particular about little things make life miserable for these people some teeny weeny little um commandment and impose it on people and forget about the law of love to god and love to man i want to hate it i want to look at with anger at such people i want to be like jesus i want to look with anger at people who make money in the name of christ today whether it's on the television screen or anywhere and i want to speak with anger to them don't make god's house a place of making money and when i see legalists who try to make life miserable for other people so that they don't liberate them i have to say to them you don't get into the kingdom of god yourselves and these poor people who want to get in you stop them with all your legalism i want to be against it i want to not just say gently oh dear brother sister that's not the way to do it no i want to speak to them with anger then i can obey that command in ephesians 4 26 be angry without sinning only two things jesus was angry with making money in the name of christ in the name of god and legalism picking up commandments to they don't apply to themselves but to other people you can't do this you can't do that see this verse you can't do this i say to people why don't you leave it to godly humble elders to guide these people so much of legalism there is i'm sorry to say there is still this legalism in some of our churches in tamil nadu in kerala it's there i see it i get sick and tired of it when i see it i get angry because poor people are being oppressed by legalistic elders they haven't seen how angry jesus is the same yesterday today and forever if he looks down from heaven at such elders and churches i want to say to you in the name of jesus he is looking at you with anger not with kindness get rid of the legalism in your life very very important cfc stood against making money and stood against legalism making rules for people in all types of things this is the type of dress you must wear and this is the type of dress you cannot wear this is the type of shoes you must wear or this is the type of thing you cannot wear jeans when you come to church you can wear jeans when you go there all types of rules you can't have this and you can't have that and you can't have the other thing mainly related to dress modesty in dress is a good thing i'll tell you why because you're tempting other men to sin if you come with your tight-fitting clothes and exposing your flesh we stand against sin so we hate immodesty in your dress but we don't make rules about what type of clothes you should wear and make rules you can't do this and you can't do that and you can't do the other thing so many little things you can't go for an examination on a sunday where does it say that the bible says all days are the same before god there's no holy day today there's all old testament legalism you can't do this you can't do that you can't do the other thing so many rules people make i want to look at all of them with anger this is what it means to walk as jesus worked in our life and our ministry and i praise god for brothers who are free from that legalism with whom might be able to work brother ian is an exceptional example in that area we have had wonderful fellowship because he's a man who's totally free from legalism it's been a delight for me to work with him more than with any other elder some are slowly getting free from the legalism thankfully praise the lord i thank god for those who are liberated and i want to encourage all of you especially elders because you're the ones who lead you you will not god will not build your church he'll look at with anger at your church because of your legalism the way you make life miserable for some people in your church i want to say to you in jesus name if you never heard it before jesus is angry with you but he doesn't have to continue like that you've been delivered from the area of money you're very upright in that what about legalism the second thing jesus is angry with are you do you equally hate that as you hate making money in the name of christ if i were to ask all of you how many of you want to make money in the name of jesus christ oh i hate it do you hate legalism in the same way let's pray heavenly father please help us to walk as jesus walked know you as our father help each one of us we pray in jesus name amen

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Id: A-NH2Jtz2xo

Length: 76min 4sec (4564 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 22 2021