Sixteen Truths That I Have Learnt (Part 1): Zac Poonen (Transcript)

The church is like a body, and in this body there are many visible parts which are very prominent: tongue, eyes, ears, hands. And then there are invisible parts: the heart, the liver, the kidneys. Which do you think is more important? I would any day lose one hand rather than lose one kidney. I’d any day lose my one eye than lose my liver.

We believe that about the human body. It’s exactly the same in the body of Christ. We will discover when Christ comes back that there are many Godly men and women who never sat or stood in a pulpit in their entire life, and who have fulfilled a fantastic ministry in the body of Christ, of quietly working behind the scenes, helping people who are needy, praying much in secret for God’s servants.

I’m personally very conscious of the fact there are hundreds of people who pray for me, which is the way I can — is one reason I can minister and one reason why I keep healthy.

So don’t ever think of a public ministry as the thing that makes you useful in God’s kingdom. Sometimes Christians have a lust to be up there in the pulpit, and I’ve seen people who have that lust, it destroys them.

I started my ministry by doing all types of odd jobs and never preaching on the pulpit. And nobody ever gave me a chance for that. I preached in the streets for years. I learned to preach on the streets where you don’t get honor, where people call you the devil and all types of things they say while you’re speaking to them.

I remember when I was in the Navy and in a period of two years when I was there, I used to go on my scooter with another brother, with me to translate into the local language. And in two years, I covered every street in that town. Standing in a corner, preaching the gospel. A lot of people, ten people would gather. They’d make fun of you, laugh at you, and I preach the gospel and move on to the next street corner. And that’s where I learned to be free from the fear of men. Many Christians are slaves to the fear of men.

And I tell you, I was a very, very timid person. Very timid person. When I started out I used to go far away from the naval base when nobody knew me. And there I would preach. And I said, Lord, I’m not going to believe that I’m filled with the Holy Spirit till I can stand right in front of the naval base and all the sailors who work under me will see me and laugh at me. And the senior officers who are my bosses would see me and wonder what this crazy man is doing in the streets. And I would do it in my off time so they couldn’t complain about it.

But there I learned to be bold. There I learned to trust God and there I learned to speak. So don’t covet preaching in the pulpit. Seek to be — if God gives you that gift, it’s one thing, but there’s a lot of honor, I’ll tell you, standing in the pulpit. And I’ve seen it has destroyed numerous people because God never called them for that. They thrust themselves into it.

Seek for a ministry that God gives you and if it’s a small ministry, be happy with it. But there are some important truths that I learned. I was born again when I was 19, but I came into building the church 16 years later when I was 35. That’s when the first CFC church was planted. But, boy, there were lots of lessons I learned in those 16 years.

Mainly, I had to be broken. Broken and humbled through numerous circumstances and by older brothers who kept me under their thumb when the Lord said, keep quiet and submit to them. And I learned some very precious lessons in those days.

You know, Jacob had to be broken before he became Israel. And I’ve learned that. Peter had to be broken by denying the Lord and seeing how useless he was. Then he was ready for Pentecost; it’s like that with everyone. Paul had to be taken into the wilderness of Arabia for three years. You read in Galatians 1 that’s what prepared him for his ministry.

Many people do never go through a period of brokenness and they want to serve the Lord and invariably they mess up their lives and they’re ruined. Let God lead you forward slowly, and if there’s one prayer that you need to praise, says Lord, break my stubborn pride and my selfishness. Selfishness and pride are the two greatest sins that all human beings have.

Okay, so much for an introduction.

So let me speak about some 16 truths that I’ve learned in these 63 years that I’ve been a Christian. The first truth that changed my life many years ago was this that GOD LOVES THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS AS MUCH AS HE LOVED JESUS HIMSELF. That’s an amazing truth.

For many years, I believed in John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life… that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world. And that’s a favorite verse of many, many Christians. It’s a very good verse. It tells the Gospel in a nutshell.

But many years ago, I told you how the Lord met with me and filled me with the Spirit 47 years ago. And one of the truths that came to me after that was from John 17:23.

So today, John 17:23 is to me the most important verse in the whole Bible for me, more than John 3:16, which was the most important verse for me for a long time.

And John 17:23 is part of the prayer of Jesus where He said in the last part, I want the world to know, middle of that verse, that You loved these disciples of Mine as much as You loved Me. Think of that.

How much did the Father love Jesus Christ? Do you have any doubt about it? Love of the Father was so intense for Him. There were many times people tried to kill Jesus. They couldn’t kill Him. You read in the Gospels the number of times people tried to kill Him. They could not kill Him. They couldn’t touch Him. The Father’s protective arms around Him because He loved Him. And to know that I am loved by the Father as much as He loved Jesus is greater than John 3:16 for me.

To know that God loves me is a great truth. But there’s an extent to God’s love and to know that He loved me as much as He loved Jesus. There was never a time that Jesus stood up to speak when the Father did not give Him the words every single time. And if He had lived on earth 100 years and preached 10,000 times, the Father would have given Him that word 10,000 times.

In the early days, it was a struggle for me to prepare a message and all that. But it changed after I learned this one truth: God loves me as much as He loved Jesus. But I want to qualify it. It’s not for everybody. He doesn’t say God loved the world as much as He loved Jesus. Not true. That’s John 3:16… for the whole world. John 3:16, God so loved the world that He gave Jesus to die for them, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And that’s where we begin.

But if you become a wholehearted disciple of Jesus, if you say, Lord, I don’t want to just go to heaven, my aim in becoming a Christian is not to go to heaven. For many Christians, that is it. I don’t want to go to hell. Most people accept Christ because they don’t want to go to hell. I’ll tell you this, this is the honest truth, I stand before God and say I have zero interest in going to heaven. Zero.

When I was a young, immature Christian, that is important for me. Not today. Today I want to be with Jesus for all eternity. I’m not interested in the mansions and the golden streets of heaven. I once told the Lord, I said, Lord, I am willing to spend eternity in hell if You are there. That will not be hell for me. It’ll be heaven, the fires of hell, let them burn me. If Christ is there, I’d be happy to be there.

I want to ask you, my dear brothers, do you love Jesus like that? That’s the secret of the Christian life. When you love Jesus so much that you’ll sincerely say from your heart, mean it. Don’t repeat it because I said it. I said it from my heart. I’m willing to spend eternity in hell burning, Lord Jesus, if You are there. My surroundings mean nothing to me. You are all in all to me and I want to be with You wherever You are. And it’s the same on earth. I want to be with You wherever I go, every day of my life. I want to be with the Lord.

If you come into that life, you have entered into what Jesus calls the abundant life. You know, Jesus came to give us two things. He said — turn to John chapter 10. Or I would say a choice to live at two levels.

In John chapter 10, he says, I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10. I came, number one, that people may have life. That means they get out of spiritual death into life. Sins are forgiven, born again. And like people say, I’m on my way to heaven now.

But then there’s another level of the Christian life, people call the higher Christian life or the deeper Christian life. Very, very few people enter into it. It’s pictured in the Old Testament: 600,000 grown up men left Egypt and came out. And if you read there in two years, the Lord led them to the borders of the promised land… two years, and said, Go in. And they sent twelve spies. And the spies came back and said, this is a wonderful land.

Coming out of Egypt is life. Entering Canaan is abundant life. I have come that you might have life that you might have come out of Egypt and that you might enter Canaan, that you might have abundant life. In Canaan, the giants are slain one by one, all the giants of sin, one by one they are slain. That’s the abundant life. And He came to give us both.

But out of that, you know the story. They should have gone in in two years, but they disobeyed God and they had to wander for another 38 years, spending 40 years in the wilderness. And out of those 600,000 people, two people entered Canaan. That’s about the proportion. Out of 600,000 born-again believers, two people will enter the abundant life. Calculate the proportion of that. I know some .0 something percent.

So if only you know that only two people — supposing there are 600,000 applicants for a job and only two people are going to get the job, I tell you, you’ll really and if you want that job desperately, you will do anything for it.

See, those of you who are immigrants, you know what an eagerness you had to come to the United States of America and how you filled the forms and filled up all the applications and did everything possible to get here. Imagine if I tell immigrants, if you had that much desire for abundant life, where you would be today if you had that much desire, like you have to get a good job with a good salary, the eagerness, and you apply and do the necessary courses in order to get that job. If you had that much desire to get abundant life, you’d have been a different person today.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. And if you say, Lord, I want to be a wholehearted disciple, then John 17:23 is for you. He came to give us life and abundant life. And those who say, Lord, I’m not satisfied with life. I’m not satisfied with getting out of Egypt, my sins forgiven, baptized in the Red Sea, baptized in water. I want to enter the Promised Land where every giant of sin in my life is slain and I possess that land for Christ. If that’s your passion, and only if that is your passion, then John 17:23 is for you, not otherwise.

God loves us as He loved Jesus, so that will save us from being insecure depressed believers. I was a very insecure depressed believer for 16 years of my Christian life. I’ll tell you, discouragement was my biggest sin, and it’s gone. You may not believe it, but I’ll tell you, I can hardly think of any time I was discouraged in the last more than 40 years, it’s gone.

Abundant life takes care of many, many things. Yes, I’ve been through tough times, difficult times. People have taken me to court, to the Supreme Court, because I exposed their wrong doctrines. That’s fine. But through it all, I wasn’t depressed or discouraged. It’s amazing what God can do for you. The Holy Spirit’s power is so great, it’s capable of conquering anything, but is reserved for those who will love Jesus supremely who will love Jesus more than they love their own life more than they love their wives and families and their job and money and anything on earth who say, Lord, you gave everything up for me. I give up everything up for You. That is the life I want to invite all of you to come to. And then this promise is for you. God loves you as He loved Jesus.

It’s not only the sinner God loves, if you’re like the elder son, critical of others because God enabled you never to fall into deep sin. See, there are two types of believers in the church. One, those who fall into deep sin in their life. I met murderers who were converted. I personally have met murderers who were converted in the church. One of them was a good friend of mine who was a gangster, murderer, got converted. He got converted on his way to murder somebody. He followed some girls into a church and got converted. And, yeah, there are people like that, and there are other people who lived a very protected life because of God fearing parents and have come into the church.

There are these types of people, prodigal son type, who are wayward, an elder son type. Sometimes the elder son type are the worst because they look down on the prodigal son. Look at him, how can God love him?

Yeah, God loves the Pharisaical elder son, and He loves the wretched criminal, the younger son. He loves them all. And if they respond in love, this promise is for you. God loves you as He loved Jesus. So that’s the first lesson you need to learn. And then if you’re like that, He’ll care for you as He cared for Jesus. Okay?

The second thing I want to say is GOD DELIGHTS IN HONEST PEOPLE. For many years, I did not understand what 1 John 1:7 meant when he said, walk in the light. But the promise is fantastic if you understand what it means to walk in the light.

1 John 1:7 says, ‘if we walk in the Light as God is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another.’ To have fellowship with God is the most wonderful thing in the universe. But there’s only one condition: ‘to walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light.’ And initially when I read it, I said, how in the world can I live in God’s light. His light is so holy and so pure. Do I need to understand all that before I can have fellowship with God? That will take me a lifetime. But I want to have fellowship from day one. That’s how I’ll grow. I can’t grow if I don’t have fellowship with God.

And then I realized that to walk in the light means to be 100% honest, that’s all. And that even a prostitute can be 100% honest, and come to the Lord. Say, Lord, I’m a prostitute. Save me. That’s honesty. That’s all God requires: throughout your life, be 100% honest. That’s walking in the light as He’s in the light. That made life so simple for me.

He’s not asking me to be holy. If he asks me to be holy, I say, Lord, impossible. The Lord says, I’ll make you holy if you’re honest. And I’ve striven with all my heart for one thing to be absolutely honest before God in my life. I don’t want to cover up an unclean thought. They’re saying, no, Lord, I was just admiring beauty. Rubbish. You were lusting. Don’t call lusting admiring beauty. You have that type of hypocrisy and dishonesty, I’ll tell you, you will never have fellowship with God. And that’s what’s happened with many brothers in their past life. They have never grown.

I believe you could have grown much more in your Christian life by today if you are determined that you’re going to be ruthlessly honest. That’s the word I use: ruthless, be honest with yourself. Ruthless is a hard word that criminals are ruthless towards their ones they want to harm. Torturers are ruthless when they torture somebody. I want to be ruthless towards myself, towards the dishonesty that I’ve inherited from Adam. Adam sinned and went and hid in the tree. And then when God asked him what happened, he blamed his wife: dishonesty. And you and I have got that poison in our system: dishonesty.

Even when you’re wrong, you blame your wife to find something, even though the fault was yours. I want to be ruthlessly honest with myself, and it has helped me tremendously in my life to have fellowship with God. That’s the only condition. It’s an easy condition. He’s not asking you to be a great height, as I told you, even if you’re a prostitute, you can be honest.

What was it that saved one thief and sent one thief to heaven, another thief to hell at the cross? You know what it was? Not holiness. Honesty.

One thief said, ‘Why don’t You bring us down from the cross?’ What he meant was, only the worst criminals are crucified. I don’t deserve to be crucified with them. I’m not such a bad criminal, so bring us down from the cross. I mean, I don’t mind spending ten years in prison or something, but not crucifixion. I’m not so bad. That’s what he meant. He went to hell.

The other thief said, I deserve this. If he could raise his hand, he would have said, I deserve this, I’m the worst of the lot. I don’t deserve ten years in prison. I deserve the worst. I deserve to be hanged, crucified. I don’t deserve anything but hell. But Lord, have mercy on me.

And Jesus said, ‘Today you’re going to walk with Me in paradise.’

Did he go and set everything right with all the people? He had made widows by killing their husbands, the children he had made fatherless by killing their fathers? Did he go and set it right with them? No, he had no chance. If you have no chance to set something right, God is merciful. If you have no money to repay the debts you owe and you die like that, God is merciful. But if you have the money and you don’t repay, that’s another thing.

God is so merciful. The only qualification he had was ruthless honesty. I deserve this. Jesus said today… Imagine a few hours after that he was on his way to hell. At the last minute, his life was changed. And where is he today? He’s in heaven with Jesus. I’m looking forward to meet him when I get there, I say, Brother, you’ve been a great example to me, even though you never knew me and I never met you. But your story helped me so much that all that God requires from me is honesty. And I want to be ruthlessly honest throughout my life.

And also I want to say that DON’T EVER CALL SIN A MISTAKE. You know, there’s a group of Christians, I don’t know whether you know of them who preach entire sanctification. That means God does a work in you and your whole bone is entirely sanctified. And after that, you don’t sin. Believe it or not, there are preacher people — it was a twist of the doctrine that John Wesley preached. I mean, John Wesley didn’t preach that, but people through the years twisted. And I’ve met people like that in India, missionaries and others who taught Indians that. And those Indians would live in sin and think they were free from it.

So I would say, I try to find out what do these people do when they do fall into sin? They call it a mistake. So I tell them, ‘Unfortunately, the blood of Christ does not cleanse mistakes, so you have to live with that. You’ll go to hell. The blood of Christ only cleanses sin.’

If you call something a mistake, let me tell you in Jesus name, you will never be cleansed from it in time or in eternity, do you call something a mistake, which was a sin? Well, let me tell you, that was never cleansed, never forgiven. It’s still hanging on your head. Call it a sin and turn from it and you’ll be forgiven immediately.

There’s a pride in us, especially in conflicts with our wife or something. There’s a tension and you knew did something wrong and you say, well, darling, it was a mistake. It was not a mistake, it was a sin. God requires ruthless honesty. That’s a great lesson that I learned in my life, which is the first thing that God wanted. It says in Proverbs 28 and verse 13, turn with me to that verse…

Proverbs 28:13: ‘He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses it as a sin and forsakes it, he’ll find mercy from God.’

How do I conceal my transgression? By calling it by some other name? I can hide it. That’s one way of concealing it. The other is by calling it by some other decent name. Mistake is a decent name. Sin is a terrible name, but the blood of Jesus only cleanses sin. God loves honest people. That’s what it means to walk in the light.

And I’ll tell you something. A lot of people who come to churches are turned away, especially young people who are sincerely coming to church are turned away by the hypocrisy that they see in older people who’ve been in that church for a long time. We’re not straightforward, we’re not upright, we’re not honest about their failure.

Have you ever acknowledged your fault? Let me ask you, test yourself. Have you ever acknowledged your fault to someone very much younger than you? I have. I’ve asked forgiveness from people who are younger than my youngest son.

I’ll give you an example. I still do it today. I’m ready to ask forgiveness from little children. Because if I do something wrong, it’s wrong. It’s a sin. I will not call it a mistake.

I remember many years ago in our church, in a Sunday meeting there’s something went disruptive with the recording. And somebody told me it was because of one young brother who was handling the recording, messed up something carelessly. So I went and corrected him because I said, people have to hear this and we can’t afford to lose these things.

Then afterwards somebody told me, ‘Brother Zac, it was not him, it was somebody else.’ Can you imagine how bad I felt? I went immediately to that brother. I put my arm around him and said, ‘Brother, I’m really sorry. Please forgive me. I’m so sorry that without investigating I just went straight away because somebody told me, you messed it up. Please forgive me.’ Of course he forgave me, I’m very happy.

But I didn’t go to him with a sort of well, it’s unfortunate that happened, but I heard somebody else also was involved in it. So it’s okay. I could have said it like that.

How would you say it if you had to speak and that chap was what, 40 years younger than me? How would you speak to someone very much younger than you if you know you made a blunder? How do you confess sin to your wife?

Do you wonder why you don’t make spiritual progress? Do you wonder why you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you wonder why God is not near you, making you an overcomer? Perhaps some of these reasons, okay?

Many young people are turned away from churches because they see this unreality in older people. Older people act perfect, and those young people can see through them that they are far from perfect. Honesty. Honesty. Love it, walk in the light. Very simple definition. If we are honest, He will cleanse us from all our sin. That’s how I read 1 John 1:7, all my sin. I live my life free from sin every day. Cleansed all the time. Not because I’m perfect, but because I’m honest. I want to keep that honesty, ruthless honesty all my life.

Number three: GOD DELIGHTS IN CHEERFUL GIVERS. Not grumpy, sour, reluctant givers. You know, I’m sure a lot of people who paid their tight in the Old Testament did so reluctantly. How Cain brought his offering. Oh, God wants an offering. Okay, here it is.

Like we read in Malachi, chapter one, about, okay, we have to give an offering to God. Here it is. Let me give it.

Not like that. God loves cheerful givers. 2 Corinthians in chapter 9 and verse 7, he’s talking about giving money for the poor. Whenever Paul spoke about giving money, it was never for himself or for his ministry. Never. Never. No Jesus and no preacher ever asked money for themselves or for the ministry said give to the poor.

And it says here, ‘when you give, everyone must do as he purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’ If you can’t give cheerfully, I say, don’t give. Don’t ever give anything which you can’t give cheerfully. Anything, even service. Anything you are asked to do in the church, don’t do it reluctantly. Consider it a privilege and an honor to sweep the floor. I’ve done that back in my home church. I’ve cleaned the toilets in my home church. I do anything because the Lord said to me, the church is My house. And therefore He told me, it’s your house, and if you can clean the toilets in your house, you can clean the toilets in the church. I said, sure, I’ll do it, and I’ve done it. And cheerfully, any job cheerfully.

It’s very, very important to do that because God doesn’t want anything to be done under compulsion. And that’s why He gave Adam total freedom when you go into the garden, not sending an angel with him to see that he doesn’t go near the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He could have done that. If an angel was with him, Adam, and Eve would never have gone near the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Supposing a believer. He’s got in his car to go and commit adultery with some woman. Do you think God will send an angel to stop that car or give it a flat tire or something? No, He won’t. He will not stop you, if you’re on your way to commit some sin. He’d say, Go ahead, you’ve heard enough in the church. I’m not going to stop you. You can do what you like. You’re going to do something unrighteous. You’re going to sign a false statement to make some money. God will say, Go ahead, go right ahead.

Of course you’ll reap what you sow. There’s no doubt about that. Because He gives you complete freedom. Because if He stops you every time you’re going to do something wrong, He’s taken away your free will. Every time I’m going to say something wrong, if He gives me a pain in the heart or stopped me in some way, He’s taken away my free will. He gives us complete freedom. That’s why you see, here are pastors falling into adultery and all types of terrible things like that.

But God gives us the Holy Spirit so that we have self control… it’s one of the fruit of the Spirit you read in Galatians 5:23: self control.

And let me tell you this also. Just like God gives us freedom to cheerfully do His will, a man who’s understood that and being gripped by it will give freedom to others. Complete freedom.

See, as an elder, a lot of people respect me in many churches. Sometimes people come to me at home and ask me, ‘Brother Zac, I want your advice in this complicated situation, what should I do?’ And according to the wisdom I have, I tell them, yeah, I think you should do this.

But then, before they leave my home I tell them, now, before you go away, let me tell you one more thing: Don’t do what I told you until you go home, pray about it, seek God’s will, and don’t be in a rush if it takes one day, okay? And when you feel free in your spirit yes, Lord, I feel free in my spirit to do what Brother Zac suggested, then do it. If necessary, consult with other people, even people who are younger than me. Maybe they can give you better advice sometimes, because maybe they have more experience of your situation than I have. I’m not offended.

And I told them, I won’t be offended if you tell me next week that you didn’t do what I said. Not at all. I say you’ll never commit sin by disobeying me. No, I release people in my church by saying that you’ll never sin by disobeying me. Please remember that, dear brothers. You sin if you disobey God. You sin if you disobey your conscience.

I never want a single brother or sister in the church to be a slave of mine, to think, oh, Brother Zac said this, I must do it. What do you think of me if I don’t do it? I will not think anything of you, anything bad of you. I purposely tell people after I give them advice, please don’t do it until you have sought God about it, because I am not the mediator between you and the Father.

There is one Mediator, we read in 1 Timothy 2, I think, verse 5. There’s only one mediator between God and men, and that is the man Christ Jesus. I want to tell you, there are many pastors who try to be a second mediator.

1 Timothy 2:5, there is only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. And I will never intervene and become a second mediator between you and God. Christ is the one between you and God. And I will only help you to be more connected to that one mediator so that you can go to God. You come through me; you will not go to God. I will only help you to find Christ, who is the mediator to help you to go to the Father. But I want you to be connected with Christ. That’s why even if he’s a young believer, I tell him, you’re born again, you’ve got the Holy Spirit. I want you from very early in life to learn to listen to that Spirit and don’t be afraid of making a mistake. I made a lot of mistakes in my life, and that’s how I learned.

But God loves a cheerful giver. You must do it cheerfully, not oh, brothers Zac told me… I remember once, I’ll never forget this, a brother came to me and asked my opinion about marrying someone. I said, yeah, you can consider that. I’m very careful about telling people whom they should marry. I never tell people, you must marry this person, like some pastors do, because I’m not the mediator, I’m not the head. They are connected to Christ.

I say, yeah, but I always tell people in Bangalore, I used to say, whenever you consider a girl, pray three months about it. And there’s no word in the scripture, but I’ve generally found, take some time, pray three months about it, and you’re sure then proceed. No matter which person gives you advice, take advice from as many people as possible, pray and get it directly from the Lord. Yeah, this is the girl I want to marry. That’s how I got married. And after 54 years, I’ve not regretted it one bit. There’s not a single person I’ve found in my life who’s more suitable than my wife for me.

I prayed about it, and I wouldn’t let somebody else tell me whom to marry. But I remember this brother didn’t pray three months. And the reason you need to pray three months, in those three months, God may reveal something where it shows that this is not the person for you. That’s why I tell people to wait. And he did not wait. Within about a few days, he said yes.

And then a few days later, they discovered something wrong with that sister, and he had to break it up. And then I went to him and I said, brothers, why in the world did you rush into it in one week instead of waiting three months like I told you?

And you know what he replied? He said, Brother Zac, you said, she’s a good girl. I said, Dear me, I told you not to go by my word. Thank God you didn’t marry her. No. Anyway, he didn’t marry her, he married somebody else. That is good.

But I’ve never forgotten that. So I’ve been very careful after that even to say anything to people who are considering marriage. I have to repeat don’t listen to me, listen to God. God loves a cheerful giver and He wants you to make your own decisions, every single person. Take advice from all types of people, but everything you do must be done cheerfully.

You know the meaning of dead works? The Bible says we have to repent of dead works. Have you read that expression in Hebrews, chapter 6? We must repent not only of sin.

Turn there in Hebrews, in chapter 6, if you haven’t seen it.

Hebrews 6:1: we must repent from dead works. You never read of dead works in the Old Testament? The Old Testament you read of sin, you repent from sin. In the New Testament you read you repent from sin and from dead works.

What’s the difference between dead works and sin? Sin is what your conscience tells you is completely wrong. Dead works are works done under compulsion, not cheerfully, not joyfully, not happily, not voluntarily, not freely under compulsion. It’s a dead work. It could be a good thing, but it’s a dead work.

Supposing somebody asks you to do something for the church and you go about reluctantly doing it. It’s a good work that you’re doing, but it’s a dead work. And it says, we have to repent of dead works, which means I must not do that in that spirit. And that’s why we must never try to control other people’s lives. I mean, if you’re a father, naturally you’re to guide your children. That’s different.

But in a church, don’t have a lust to control other people. I’ve met numerous church leaders and elders and pastors who love to have rejoiced that somebody listens to me, I’m scared even somebody listens to me. I openly tell people you do not commit a sin by disobeying me. You commit a sin if you disobey God. John Wesley used to say that you don’t commit a sin by disobeying me. You commit a sin if you disobey God. I say the same thing.

So allow people to have a connection with the Lord and to do cheerfully, joyfully, happily; when they give money give cheerfully. You must never give money to the Lord or any service to the Lord reluctantly. Seek the Lord about this and let your whole life — I’ll tell you this my whole life has been tremendously joyful since I understood this truth. It’s one way in which discouragement and depression disappears from our life when we say, I’m not going to be compelled to do something because somebody told me to do it or somebody expected me to do it, I can take advice from a lot of people, but I say, Lord, I must do it as unto You, and God loves a cheerful giver. God’s given us freedom of will, and the great example is Adam.

Adam, go into the garden. I’m not going to send an angel to hover around you to make sure you don’t do something wrong. You’ll be completely free. There’s a tree of knowledge of good and evil. That’s the only tree. There are thousands of trees you can use, you can eat from, but don’t go near there. But I’m not going to put an angel in front of it. He put an angel in front of it only after Adam sinned. You know that, not before. You can go there if you like. It’s wrong; you should not eat of it. But I will not compel you.

If Almighty God did not compel Adam in that most important decision that messed up the world for the rest of the thousands of years, who are you to go and compel somebody else? Have you done it? A lot of things you have to repent of. Even when believers do something wrong, I tell them this is wrong. But I leave it to you to decide whether you’re going to set it right with God or not. I’m not your conscience, and I will never be your conscience.

Be careful even with your wife. If you force her to do something, you know it’s good. You’re going to have a strained relationship with your wife. Why not wait till she comes to that understanding? Unless it’s something important for her health or something serious. But otherwise, even there, I would never force my wife to do anything. I will explain to her the reasons why this is good to take this medicine, or good to have this treatment or something. But compulsion, no, because she’s a free person. Even though I am the head of my wife, I will not compel her. Give people freedom.

Another thing. Don’t do things merely to ease your conscience. Oh, my conscience tells me how to do that. Then it’s not joyful. Oh, my conscience. To ease my conscience, I do something. There are lot of people who give money to God to ease their conscience oh, I didn’t give any money to God. I better give something and go and put something in the offering box. You think God wants that? He says, ‘Take it. Keep it. I don’t want it.’

You give money to ease your conscience. That’s not how Jesus did work for God. He didn’t work for His Father. My conscience, I have to do something for My Father. Never. Never. I’m trying to liberate you.

Okay, next is number four. WE MUST TREAT EVERY HUMAN BEING WITH DIGNITY, says in James in chapter 3 and verse 9 and 10, we bless our Lord and Father with our tongue. James 3:9. And with the same tongue we curse men, or speak evil of men, or backbite against them the same tongue with which on Sunday you’re shouting the praises of God, you’re cursing men who have been made in the likeness of God. That’s the one verse in the Bible that teaches me even an unbeliever is made in the likeness of God. There’s something of the likeness of God in that Godless unconverted human being. He’s not an animal. There’s no likeness of God in a dog or a pig or a cow, but that unconverted terrorist who’s going around killing people, there’s still a spark of something of God in him.

It’s been spoiled tremendously, the likeness of God, but he was made in the likeness of God. The Bible tells me that I’m not to curse them. I disagree with them. I can expose error and expose a false teacher like Paul exposed the false teachers in 1 Timothy. But I’m not to curse them, because from the same mouth, verse 10, comes blessing and cursing.

From the same mouth I bless God and curse a man made in the likeness of God. My brethren, verse 10, dear brothers, it should not be like this. How gently James says it: Dear brothers, it should not be like this. I like that way of saying something to someone.

‘Don’t do it.’ Not like that. Dear brothers, it should not be like this. That’s the gentleness of the Holy Spirit. So that’s something very important. Because if you say something that degrades a human being made in the image of God, that cannot be from God, let me reassure you.

Another verse 1 Peter and chapter 3. It speaks about how we should witness for Christ. Always be ready…

1 Peter 3:15: ‘sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence’ or respect. With gentleness and respect, that people who argue with me says in verse 16, the last part: those who revile your good behavior in Christ, someone who’s against Christ and reviles you, and how will you put him to shame? Verse 16: by you speaking with gentleness and respect. He’s shouting and yelling at you. You reply in gentleness because you respect every human being. You treat every human being you see, according to James, chapter 3, made in the image of God.

Even in India we have beggars who come to the door, gate, bang, bang, bang. And they can keep on banging there. They can be banging at a time when you’re busy doing something urgent. It’s easy for people to go and say, get out, don’t — I’m busy doing something. I used to tell people if you ever speak to a beggar or a homeless man like that, stop your important work, go and follow him down the street and say sir. Call him sir. I’m sorry for speaking to you like that. Please forgive me. I tell you, you’ll be amazed to see how God blesses you when you treat a poor homeless person with respect because he’s made in the image of God.

Unfortunately, circumstances brought him to those desperate conditions. But I’m no better than him.

I’ve often said to the Lord… Lord, I believe that I would have been the greatest terrorist on earth if I had the same upbringing as that terrorist had. I was brought up in a God fearing home, so I turned out like this. But that guy was born of Adam. I was born of Adam too. I have the same nature as him. I don’t believe that my nature is better than any human beings. All flesh is the same. That’s why I refuse to despise anybody. Treat all human beings with dignity and respect, no matter.

In India we have many what it is a wretched caste system. Some people are considered high caste and low caste. And people glory in the fact, particularly in the part of the country I come from, they glory in the fact that they are connected to some very godly man or some bishop or some well known person. And very subtly, sometimes in conversation, they would like to bring that out, how they are connected to that particular person or family. And they have a habit of asking which family are you from?

I have my answer ready. I say I come from the family that was kicked out of the Garden of Eden because of sin. So that’s the family I come from. But Jesus loved me and saved me, so I’m not in that condition today.

I don’t want to glory in my ancestry or heredity or there are people who glory in all those things. I want to glory in the fact that Jesus loved me and forgave me. And I want to treat every human being that I meet with dignity. I say even with my own children. I say my children are to be under God and they’ve been temporarily given to me to care for them and look after them. But I must not treat them in a rude way. I’ve seen parents speak to their child in such a rude way sometimes. That is another human being who’s sent into your family by God, but respect that child.

People who say to a child you’re useless and you’re good for nothing, and just because they did something wrong. If ever you say that, remember that child came from you. That’s why he’s useless and good for nothing. But don’t ever say that because it can ruin. I’ve heard so many stories of people who ruined their life because they said ‘My dad always said you’ll never amount to anything. You’re good for nothing, you’re useless.’

We must say things that encourage them, no matter how bad they are. No, my son, that’s not the way to do it. We are Christians. We must not behave like that. That’s not the way to treat somebody.

If your child hurts someone, even if the other person hit him first, go with your child and ask his forgiveness. Ask your child to ask his forgiveness. I’ve done that, taken my child to another child. Say ask his forgiveness and I tell my son. It doesn’t bother me if he doesn’t ask you. We are children of God. I don’t know what they are. You got to ask forgiveness because you did something wrong. Never mind if he hit you first.

We treat every human being with dignity. It has helped me tremendously in my life. It’s changed my life. And treat your wife with dignity always says in 1 Peter 3, verse 7: husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she’s a woman. And I often ask husbands, what is it that you need to understand about your wife? They try to think, so you don’t have to think. It’s written right there. Read the rest of the sentence.

Live with your wife in an understanding way knowing she is weaker. That’s what I need to understand about my wife all my married life. She is weaker. She’s a weaker person. She’s weaker because — not because she’s less spiritual. She’s weaker because she’s a woman and you’re stronger because you’re a man. That’s all.

The only reason is she has a — certain times in her life when she’s upset or moody. Because women’s constitution is different. Make allowance for it. Don’t say I’m so strong. Why can’t you be like that? Treat your wife with dignity. It’ll make a great difference in your own Christian life.

These are not lessons I learned from day one of my Christian life. I wish somebody had taught this to me the day I was converted. But I’ve learned them slowly and it’s made a tremendous difference in my life. I would encourage you to learn them quickly. Remind yourself and your life can be a blessing. As men, we are to be the leaders.

Okay, let’s pray. Let’s bow our heads before God.

Heavenly Father, we are weak, but You are strong. Apart from You, You told us we can do zero. We acknowledge that. All that we heard we can never do it apart from You. But we say with the apostle Paul I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and encourages me continuously. Thank You, Father. It will be so. I pray to be so for all of us who are here. And Lord Jesus, You are here right now in our midst. We want to acknowledge Your presence in our midst. I pray You will touch our hearts with Your nail pierced hands. Strengthen us, touch our minds so that these truths we heard will grip us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

For Further Reading:

(Through The Bible) – Book of Proverbs: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

The Way To Find Rest In Your Soul: Zac Poonen Sermon (Transcript)

Billy Graham’s Message To America And The World (Transcript)

(Through The Bible) – Book Of Job (Part 2): Zac Poonen (Transcript)

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