0:00 I was mentioning yesterday that by God's grace I've been preaching for 52 years. And after 52 years of standing it's a bit strange to be sitting down 0:17 when preaching. So, you know, in everything I try to see how did Jesus do it? So, for the first time in my life I did a little research into the Bible of whether Jesus stood or sat when he preached. And it was very interesting what I 0:35 discovered. I found that he stood when he preached to unbelievers. Like in the synagogue. Luke chapter 4. Uh where he said the spirit of the Lord is upon me. And then in John chapter 7 in the temple when he stood and shouted 0:54 if anyone thirst let him come to me. But when he spoke to the disciples I found in every single case he was sitting down. Um Matthew chapter 5 the sermon on the mount the first verse it says he sat down. And um Luke chapter 5 when he was preaching 1:13 from a boat it says he sat down. And John chapter 8 it says when he came to the temple he sat down. And then when the multitude came to capture him in Gethsemane he said every day I sat in the temple and taught you. So, I said Lord I'm becoming more 1:32 scriptural now actually. After 52 years. No, but it just showed me how I mean that's besides the point, but it showed me how there are things we read in the scripture which sometimes we don't observe. We 1:51 don't stop to think. I mean whether you sit or stand is not as important as certain other things. But I'm constantly challenged by the importance of reading scripture carefully. I mean if you really respect the Bible as the word of God 2:07 it means we treat it respectfully more than if we were signing a a legal document. If you were signing a legal document you would be so careful to read it and even get a lawyer to read it again because you don't know what you're committing 2:23 yourself to. And this is far more important than that. And yesterday I was mentioning how there were these people in David's army the sons of Issachar who had were people who understood the times. 1 Chronicles 12 2:42 32. For those of you who were not here yesterday. These were people who understood the times who knew what Israel should do in applying it today. God needs people who understand the times in which we live to know what God's people should be 3:00 doing. And not just repeat by rote what we have heard from others or read in some book. It's the knowledge of God personal intimate knowledge of God that's going to see you through in the 3:19 last days. A mere knowledge of doctrine or belonging to a good church or here understanding certain principles is not going to help. I'll tell you that. You know that verse in Daniel chapter 11 where it speaks about the last days. Let 3:35 me turn you there. Daniel 11 and 32. It says here it's referring to the last days that whole section from 29 onwards. And in verse 32 it says the people who know their God 3:54 will display strength and take action. And those who have insight among the people will give understanding to many. And then it speaks of persecution etc. And he's speaking about the end time in verse 35. So 4:13 the people who know their God are going to be strong. And there's a lot of difference between knowing the Bible and knowing God. We can say the Pharisees knew the Bible. Jesus knew God. And I feel that many 4:31 evangelical Christians know the Bible more than they know God. It's very very important. Paul's passion was that I may know him. It was the end of his life. Jesus said 4:49 eternal life is to know God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That's a definition of eternal life. Most Christians don't know the definition of eternal life. They they think they look at the dictionary and say eternal means lasting forever. So 5:04 a life that lasts forever. That's not the definition Jesus gave. John 17:3 says this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So, it's the knowledge of God 5:22 that is eternal life. Knowing Jesus Christ personally, intimately. And that's why if you really want to be what God wants you to be in these last days, I want to encourage you to develop this intimacy with Jesus Christ. 5:40 The Song of Solomon was one of my favorite books when I started a Christian life and I was very thankful for it. Because I saw that it's that intimate relationship the bride has with the bridegroom that is the secret of all effective 5:53 service. And that's why Paul said at the end of his life I still want to know him better. And he also said in Philippians 3 how he got to know Jesus better. And that is a good guideline for us for all of us. 6:12 And I believe this is the reason if there's one single reason why many Christians know more of the Bible than they know of Jesus Christ is this. Philippians 3 verse 8. 6:30 I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ. The person who counts everything on 6:48 earth as rubbish compared to Christ will know Christ in a deeper way. If there's anything on earth that we value maybe the opinions of men, maybe the our own plans we made for the future or our knowledge of the Bible. You know, 7:08 that that can bring pride to us too. Everything on earth is rubbish compared to knowing Christ. Knowing the Bible will only make you a scribe. Won't make you a disciple. And I feel that's one of the very very important things. 7:25 Everything must be rubbish to me. And it's it's a area where we need to evaluate ourselves. Is there anything which is more important to me than knowing Jesus? What about my ministry? Your ministry can be something. You know, God asked Abraham not only to 7:39 send send away Ishmael but to kill Isaac. Ishmael is a picture of that which we produce in our own flesh. Okay, I know we got to get rid of that. But what about the gift of God? Do I have to sacrifice that too? Isaac was not produced 7:56 in Abraham's strength. That was 100% the work of God. And you can have something in your life which is 100% the gift of God. Your ministry or your spiritual gift or whatever it is. And you got to sacrifice that too. Compared to Jesus Christ nothing must be 8:14 more important to you. Everything is rubbish compared to Christ. And if it becomes like that to you it'll become like that to the people whom you teach and share. And then they will not be attached to you. 8:32 They'll be attached to Jesus. So many preachers attach people to themselves. Do you seek to do that? Do you seek to impress people by your ministry or your leadership or uh you feel a little happy when 8:51 people in the church are more attached to you perhaps than to the other elders. Uh-huh. Well, that means you're not really serving the Lord. You're serving yourself. I remember reading these words many years ago in 9:09 John chapter 1. Speaking about two disciples of John the Baptist. It's very lovely words. Um there were two of his next day. John chapter 1 verse 35. The next day John was standing with two of his disciples. 9:25 And he pointed to Jesus and said there see the lamb of God. See, that was his ministry. That's That's why John the Baptist a great example for me. He never pointed to himself. He pointed to Jesus. That should be our ministry. Every message we preach 9:44 and everything we do must be behold the lamb of God. And this is the verse I was thinking of. They heard him speak. They followed Jesus. And I was telling my church back home that if the Lord takes me home before he comes, 10:03 I want that to be written on my tombstone. They heard him speak and they didn't follow him. They followed Jesus. Make that your goal, my brothers. People heard you speak whether at home, 10:20 in your office, in your factory, in your church, they heard you speak and they followed Jesus. What a testimony. That's the best life you can ever live. There's absolutely nothing to better than that. 10:39 It means having a passion for Christ to be glorified. Many years ago when I was a young Christian and I was starting my ministry, there was a verse the Lord spoke to me and that's in Colossians in chapter 1. The reason I quote so much scripture, 10:59 I think more than most other preachers you've heard, is because like Paul says, I don't want your faith to stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. So that your faith is not based on some clever thoughts I gave, 11:17 but on God's word. Colossians chapter 1, it says here in about Christ as the head of the body, Colossians 1:18. The church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. And this is the phrase that came to me that in all 11:35 things he might have the first place, the preeminence. That Christ might have the preeminence in the first place in everything. And the way the Lord spoke that to my heart was that that was the desire of God the Father. 11:53 That in everything Christ might have the preeminence. And what the Lord spoke to my heart from that passage was if you will make that your goal as well, that in everything in your life, in your ministry, in your life, in your home 12:10 life, in your family life, the way you bring up your children, the way you handle money, the way everything in your life, that Christ might have the preeminence, the Lord said you'll have my power backing you right up until the 12:21 end. And that's what I wanted. I wanted God's power to back me. As I lived at home with my wife, as I brought up my children, as I took care of my financial needs at home myself, I wanted God's power to back me to make sure that 12:39 I'd never be dependent on any man for my financial needs. I'd be dependent on God. I wanted God's power to back me when I was preaching right through till the end of my life. And here's the answer. If you also have the same goal I have, 12:56 God says, that in all things Christ might have the preeminence, you'll have my power backing you. And that applies to you as well. In other words, our goal must be that Christ should be exalted. What is the mark of a New Testament 13:13 church? Our goal should be to build new covenant churches everywhere. Jesus said he didn't come on earth to make holy individuals. I find a lot of people who listen to me on the internet. They say they're so blessed and their 13:29 life has become holy and I say that's not enough. Jesus did not say I came to make people holy. He's not going to populate heaven with a bunch of holy individuals. He said, "I will build my church." Matthew 16:18, he came on earth to build 13:48 a church, not just to make people live individual holy lives and good family lives and and bring up children properly, much, much more than that. The church of Jesus Christ which was his body, a new covenant thing. In the old 14:04 covenant they could never do it. The old covenant was a congregation. In the new covenant he builds a church and there's a lot of difference. A congregation is like a multitudes of human beings. A body is people functioning together 14:22 exactly like the members of our body. All connected to the head, working together because they're connected to the head. This is the only type of church Jesus is building. I'll tell you that. All the other things you call mega 14:38 churches and all that, they are Old Testament congregations led by great preachers who use the methods of psychology to gather people and keep them happy, make sure they pay give their offerings 14:56 so that the this institution can run. It's not the church of Jesus Christ because it's not functioning like a body. I mean, it's more like a movie theater. The you don't even know the person sitting next to you in that 30,000 people crowd. That's not the 15:11 church. That's not what Jesus came to build. Okay, that's okay as a initial stage of trying to draw people to hear the Lord, but from there you must go on to build a church. I know this because in the early part of my life after I 15:26 quit my job in the Navy, I was preaching to great crowds. And the Lord said, "Give it up. Don't waste your time doing that." And there was a time in my life, just like there was a time in my life that God asked me to quit my earthly job 15:41 and come out into the ministry, there was a time in my life after about um seven ni- uh yeah, nine years of ministry, then the Lord told me, "Quit all this preaching to the crowds and build my church." And that's when we started meeting with 15:58 about four or five people. I I quit preaching to the thousands and I said, "Lord." And most people didn't understand me. Why are you doing this? But I knew this is what God called me for, not to be a great preacher, but to 16:16 build a church. I hope that's your desire. And God can use anyone. If your ambition, I'll tell you there can be a if particularly if you're a little gifted, I want to tell you in Jesus' name, you can have a secret desire 16:31 to be known as a great preacher, to be invited here, to be invited there, and uh you're sharing things which bless people. And God sees that. I want to ask you honestly, stand before God and ask him, ask yourself, are you 16:49 interested in building the church or building your own ministry? I'm glad I made that choice 40 years ago. I don't regret it. I I couldn't care less for crowds. I couldn't care less what people think about me. I want to build what Jesus said he's come to 17:04 earth to build. I will build my church and a church against which the gates of hell will never prevail. And when you commit yourself to God like that, this is amazing what he will do. And we've seen how through these 40 17:19 years of God has raised up entirely from scratch, you know, over a hundred congregations now, churches. Couple of them in villages where there was no church for 2,000 years. God can do amazing things if he sees that you are totally 17:36 committed to the preeminence of Christ. You have zero desire for yourself. You don't want a name for yourself. You don't want money. You don't want honor. You don't want anything and you don't even want to use your gift for anything 17:48 for yourself. That's one of the things the Lord spoke to me from the first temptation. The first temptation is essentially this, you know, every temptation is there's a depth in it if you meditate on it. What the devil came to Jesus and said 18:03 was, "You have a gift now. You've been anointed. You got a supernatural ability. Now use that supernatural ability to meet your need." In this case, food. "Turn the stones into bread. Use the gift God's given you to get 18:22 something for yourself." This is what so many preachers around the world are doing. "Use your gift to make money for yourself. To build mansions for yourself. To get a name for yourself." You may say, "I'm not using my gift to make 18:40 money." Maybe not money, maybe honor. Maybe some fame. It could be anything. It's all the same. The person who's not interested in money because he's got enough maybe seeking honor and fame. There's no He's no better than the other guy who's just 18:56 swindling poor people of money in the church. "Use your gift to get something for yourself." And Jesus said, "No." But he did use that gift later on to produce bread for 5,000 people. So he would use it for others, but never use it for himself. 19:15 And if the Lord sees that attitude in you, I'll tell you something. There is absolutely no limit to what God can do through you. I love those words that God spoke to Abraham when he offered up Isaac. That was very difficult. I mean, we can 19:29 read through Genesis 22 and say, "Yeah, he laid Isaac on the altar." But to see what was going on in Abraham's heart, Isaac was the darling of his heart. And God was and it was God's gift. And uh he was proving to God, "The giver is more important to me than 19:47 the gift." That's what he was proving on Mount Moriah. "God, you the giver are more important to me than any gift you give me. And I want to tell you something. You have to continuously have that have that altar in your life where 20:06 the giver becomes more important than the gift. You know, like AB Simpson sings in the says in that song, "Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord. Once his gifts I wanted, now the giver own." That that's the test that always comes 20:20 to us. And when you're like that, the Lord will use you to build his church. So, what is the mark of a new covenant church? After many years of study, I've come to this conclusion. It's my personal opinion. 1 Corinthians 20:34 chapter 14, he's speaking about the whole church assembling together in verse 23. And uh verse 24, I don't want to go into all those details of tongues and prophecy and all, but I want to highlight what I'm trying to point out 20:52 here. Um an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters in and he is convicted by all. And he's called to account by all and the secrets of his heart are disclosed 21:10 and he falls on his face and declares that God is certainly among you. That to me is the mark of a new covenant church that people come in and they say, "Hey, Jesus is here. The Lord is here." 21:29 They go away from the meeting saying, "Not we had a good time of singing or that was a good message," but the Lord spoke to me. He spoke to the deepest need of my heart. I met with Jesus. That and that alone 21:48 is the mark of a new covenant church. It's not a pattern. It's very easy to follow a pattern. Okay, we'll have a song and then somebody shares and others are invited to share and a prayer and it's not nothing to do with a pattern. 22:03 If people haven't met with Jesus, you can follow the best pattern in the world. It's not a new covenant church. It's not a new covenant meeting. That's been the passion of my heart and it's got to be the passion of your heart 22:15 that every single meeting you're in, if you have a responsibility for leadership, that people will go away from that meeting and say, "I met with Jesus. The Lord was here. I met with him and he spoke to me." But for that, as I said yesterday, God 22:32 needs men. God uses men. God could could have done his work without us much better. I think of that example where the angel came to Cornelius and uh Cornelius is completely ignorant about the gospel and 22:52 he doesn't know the way of salvation. And the angel tells him, "Send for Peter." Now, Peter's about 2 3 days journey away. He's got to come all the way from wherever he is in Joppa all the way to Caesarea. And angel says, "Go and send for him." 23:11 And as I was reading that, I was thinking, "Doesn't the angel know the gospel? Doesn't the angel know uh salvation by faith, justification by faith?" And he knows it better than Peter. And he you like he can even explain it 23:25 better than Peter. Why does he ask for Peter to come? Why does Cornelius have to wait for 3 days? Why not straight away give him the gospel? God does not use angels because of one reason. 23:43 That angel could not say, "This is what Jesus did for me." There was no personal experience. It was truth, but it was not personal. I learned something from that for myself. That you must never preach 24:02 what has not become personal for you. That's why God doesn't allow the angels to preach the gospel, even though they can do it better than me. So, it's not fine preaching that matters because the angels can beat any of us in that area. 24:18 But from personal experience, and that's the advantage Peter had. He could say, "I was a sinner. Jesus died for me. From that foundation, he could preach the gospel." It's the same with whether we proclaim victory over sin or building the church 24:36 or anything that is not a theory, but it's from personal experience. And that is the basis on which Christ builds the church as well. And that's why Paul could say something which no Old Testament prophet could say. Follow me. 24:57 Do you know that even John the Baptist couldn't say that? No Old Testament prophet could say, "Follow me." You never hear that see that expression from the mouth of any man in the Old Testament. The first person who said it was Jesus Christ. 25:12 Follow me. And you would think that's it. Nobody else can dare say that. And Paul says it. This is the wonderful thing about new covenant ministry. New covenant ministry is not going up like Moses to the mountain, hearing God, 25:31 coming down and proclaiming it. That's good. There are preachers who preach like that. They sit in their study. They don't go to mountain necessarily. Sit in their study on a Saturday or through the week and maybe sincerely listen to God, write 25:44 down their notes, and get up on Sunday and say, "This is what the Lord has said." Maybe it is what the Lord has said. But Paul was was more than that. Paul's ministry didn't come out of just listening. It was something that 25:58 had transformed his life. He could say, "Follow me." 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow me as I follow Christ." And that should be what every new covenant preacher should say. 26:17 Otherwise, you're an old covenant preacher. If you say, "Don't look at me, look at Jesus," that sounds so spiritual. It sounds so humble, but it's not new covenant. It's not the new covenant way. That's the old covenant way. 26:35 Behold the lamb of God there. They heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Like I said, Paul was not drawing attention to himself. He didn't say, "Follow me." Well, Jesus could say, "Follow me." Paul had to say, "Follow me as I follow 26:51 Christ." That's what makes the difference. And he repeats that in Philippians. He doesn't say I'm the only one who can say that. See Philippians chapter 3. Philippians 3, he says again similar words. 27:08 Verse 17, "Brethren, join in following my example." He doesn't say just listen to my preaching. He says, "Follow my example. You saw how I lived when I was with you in Philippi. 27:26 And not only me. I'm not exclusive in this. Observe those others who also walk according to the same pattern." So, if you find another person, Paul says, who's following Christ like me, follow him as well. See, there are many many people 27:45 sometimes accuse certain believers, "Oh, you're following a man." "Oh, you belong to those people who say I'm a Paul of I'm of Apollos." No, I'm not a Paul of I'm not a Apollos, but I do follow a man. I'm happy to say that I 28:00 follow Paul. I'm not ashamed to say that. Some people may think, "Oh, I'm more spiritual than all of you. I only follow Jesus." The people who say I only follow Jesus, I've discovered are some of the most carnal people I met in my life. Proud, 28:15 arrogant. Why not be humble enough to obey scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit where Paul says, "Follow me as I follow Christ." I learned from Paul to support myself financially to serve 28:34 the Lord. I'll tell you honestly, I learned it from Paul. I learned from Paul how to plant churches, how to appoint elders over churches. Jesus never did that. I learned from Paul how to write letters to the churches and to elders. 28:53 I I'm following Paul. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm just obeying 1 Corinthians 11:1 and Philippians 3:17. And we are to be in those footsteps that we should not be ashamed to tell people, "Follow me as I follow Christ." 29:11 Why is it we're hesitant to say that? Why do we say, "Don't look at me. My home life is a mess. Uh please don't look at me. Just look at Jesus." There's something wrong with that type of preacher. We need to repent if you're like that. 29:28 Paul is not saying he's perfect. Just go a few verses earlier. It says in verse 12, "Not that I have obtained or become perfect." Jesus was perfect. Paul was not perfect. He says that very clearly in verse 12, "I've not yet 29:46 attained, but I say still say to you follow me. Can a person who's not attained say to others follow me? None of us have attained. I have not attained. I've been a believer 55 years. But I have not attained. I'll tell you 30:00 honestly, I'm not trying to be humble. The closer I come to the Lord, the more I realize what a distance there is between me and becoming like Jesus Christ in every single area. A huge distance. 30:20 When we are young and immature, you know, we are like the kindergarten student who thinks he's understood everything about mathematics because he's learned addition. Uh you know, the younger we are as Christians, we are like that. We think, 30:32 "Oh, or I got an answer to prayer. I experienced a miracle. And I prayed for somebody and they got healed." Okay. Uh it excites us so much. But when we grow spiritually, we we are like Paul who says, "I'm the least of the apostles. I'm the least of the 30:51 saints. I'm the chief of sinners." These are indications that the man was walking with God, getting closer and closer to him. He felt very insignificant. He became smaller and smaller and smaller in his own eyes. He didn't have low 31:04 self-esteem. I don't have low self-esteem. I'm a son of God. My father is the ruler of the universe. There's no low self-esteem in any of us. But I'm not big in my own eyes. That's what I mean. The closer we get to God, the 31:21 smaller we become in our own eyes. So that Christ alone will be exalted. Like John the Baptist said, "I must decrease so that he must increase." What was the whole purpose with with Jesus came to bring salvation to us? What is salvation essentially? 31:39 I want you to turn to the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6 and see something there. When Jesus taught us to pray, prayer is the deepest real prayer. I don't mean formal prayer where we just ease our conscience and say, "I prayed." Or I spent half an hour 31:53 in prayer. To me, that's all a lot of rubbish. Prayer is the deepest expression of our heart. And Jesus taught us to pray. The disciples asked him, said, "Lord, teach us to pray." And he taught them to pray. And he said, "When you pray, you must 32:08 pray like this." And he wasn't he wasn't just mentioning the words. This must be your heart attitude. Matthew 6 Pray then in this way. It's not because you have to inform your father about your need. He clarifies that in the previous verse, verse 8. 32:26 Don't pray like the heathen. They think they have to inform God about their need. He says, "You don't have to inform God about your need. He knows what you need even before you ask him." Why in the world do I have to if all my 32:43 prayer is just telling God my need? It's not even necessary. He already knows my need before I ask him. He was saying, "Don't pray to inform God about your need." You can mention it. For example, we need food and it's one 33:01 of the things listed in this Give us this day our daily bread. But we don't have to inform him. He knows it. But he still wants us to pray and ask for it. But he was teaching here how we are to pray. Our Father 33:21 who art in heaven. So we concentrate on a God who is my loving father who loves me intensely. I don't pray to God. Uh you know, that's why I don't like these songs that are sung to Jehovah. I'll tell you honestly. 33:40 Uh I'll tell you why. Because I never find a single verse in the New Testament talking about Jehovah. It's an Old Testament. You know, we pray to a father. We pray to a father even if his name is Jehovah. Uh if my son came to me and said, uh "Mr. 34:00 Poonen, I'd like to talk to you." I say, "What's wrong with you? Are you angry with me or something?" He calls me dad. So when you come to God and say, "Oh, Jehovah." He says, "What's wrong with you? Am I your dad or not?" 34:16 You know how we sing songs meaninglessly with our mind not in gear? We just by rote Are you really talking to God? Are you really talking to God when you say Jehovah? No, I don't sing those songs. 34:38 Guide me, oh thou great Jehovah. I just don't sing it. I say, "Guide me, oh my heavenly father." He's my dad. And I tell you it's very, very important that you know God as your personal dad. The spirit within if you're baptized in 34:53 the Holy Spirit, it happens automatically. The spirit within cries out, not Jehovah. The spirit within cries out, "Abba." Which is translated in English as dad. Father. Father is more formal. Dad. The spirit cries out within us. 35:11 Makes me aware as soon as he fills me that I have a father in heaven. And Jesus said, "Don't even start prayer before you know that." I believe this is part of our problem. That's why sometimes we can't pray in faith because you cannot pray in faith 35:27 without praying to a father. And that first sentence, "Our Father in heaven." was really to establish us in faith when we pray. In all of our life and ministry, we need to pray. Our life must be a life of prayer. We're not to spend 2 hours in prayer or 35:43 4 hours in prayer. You know, there are you read books like that about great men of God who spent 2 hours in prayer and 4 hours in prayer. I used to read like that all of that as a young Christian. I'll tell you what it did to me. It 35:54 depressed me. Because I could never manage that. And the second question is how in the world did other people know if you're supposed to keep all that secret? How much time you spend in prayer? How did people discover how many hours you 36:06 spend in prayer? I had some questions about all this and I said, "Let me go to scripture." And scripture told me how many hours I should pray every day. Do you know how many hours? 24 hours. Luke 18:1 36:25 Men ought always to pray. Always means 24/7. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing. How do we do that? And I used to ask myself, 36:44 "What is it in my life that I do without ceasing? Not eating, not drinking, not sleeping." Breathing. Ah. So prayer in my life must be like breathing. Think about these scriptures seriously. 37:03 Think about them seriously, brothers and sisters. Uh brothers rather, that think about are we really following scripture or what we read in the biography of some man of God? I I'm very skeptical about some of these biographies because 37:20 they are meant to portray a man as a marble saint who's got never known made never made any mistakes in his life. But if you read in scripture, prayer must be like breathing. It's a life of constant dependence 37:36 upon God all the time. And I must all the time think of him when I in this You know, that was my constant attitude toward God must be my father. My dad. And secondly, in heaven. That means one who's almighty. 37:56 Who runs this universe. Who takes care of everything. Who can handle everything. Who can make everything work for my good. The one who runs this universe is my dad. That is the basis from which we must pray always. 38:16 And then I want to go on from there. There are six requests in this prayer. And I want you to see them. It's got nothing to do with me or my needs in the beginning. That's what I want you to see. 38:33 Jesus was trying to change those Old Covenant Jews into New Covenant Christians. And he says, "If you want to be a New Covenant Christian, your focus must not be on your need. Not even on your ministry or your church or anything. 38:52 Father hallowed be thy name. Second request. Thy kingdom come. Third. Thy will be done. My needs haven't even come in as yet. Whereas most Christians and when they pray, 39:12 if you're honest, it's my needs that are uppermost. Or you go one step higher and you think the needs of my church or my people. And you think you're a little more spiritual. No. It's when God's needs are uppermost that 39:29 you're spiritual. God's kingdom must come even if my sickness is not healed. God's name must be glorified and his will must be done on earth in my life exactly like it is done in heaven. You see how difficult it is to pray that 39:50 prayer? To repeat is very easy. I grew up as a child, my parents taught me to repeat this prayer every morning. I'd never get out of bed without repeating this prayer. But it took me 35 years to really pray it properly. 40:08 Where I could mean it from my heart, Lord, I'm not interested in my name anymore. Hallowed be your name. Never mind if the name of Zac Poonen is dragged in the dust, people think he's the devil, or people think he's a heretic. No, it makes no difference. It 40:25 it won't even not even disturb me one bit. Hallowed be your name. Just meditate on that for a while. I mean, when you go home and ask yourself, am I really praying the way God wants me to pray? 40:44 Hallowed be your name. He didn't say repeat it. He was praying this way. Verse nine, in this way means this is the pattern or spirit in which you should pray. I don't have to repeat it. In other words, my way of life must be 41:00 where my passion must be that Jesus Christ must be glorified in my life and on earth and in my ministry and in the country I live in. And God's kingdom must come, the kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 41:17 And his will must be done in my life exactly like it's done in heaven. Then I come to my needs. Give me my earthly needs, food, clothing, shelter. Forgive me my sins. And 41:37 lead me not into temptation. And again, it's there again in the second part where we think of our needs, it's not me. You know the word me is never found in that prayer? I don't know whether you know that in the Lord's Prayer, 41:49 what's known as the Lord's Prayer, the word me is never found. The word which is found most in our prayers, me, my, my, my, me, my, my children, my family, is never found in the Lord's Prayer. It's us. It's us. It's us. 42:08 That means when I think of myself, I think of others as well. Give us, Lord, our daily bread, not just me. My my fellow believers, other people in the family. He's trying to bring a family a sense of family in this prayer as 42:23 well. Don't just forgive me, Lord, forgive us. Don't just deliver me, Lord, don't just bring me to into victory life, a victory over sin. Deliver us. And concluding with thine is the kingdom and the glory. So, to put it in a nutshell, 42:40 Jesus came to deliver this old covenant self-centered people into a God-centered people. And there are two Gospels being preached today. A man-centered one, which is an old covenant gospel, 43:00 and a God-centered one, which is the only new covenant gospel. The old covenant had a gospel. If you read Deuteronomy chapter 28, the Lord says, I will bless you. I will prosper you. I will prosper your farms and your 43:19 flock. You'll have many children. Your flock will multiply. Your enemies will be afraid of you. The whole thing is centered on you. Everything. And if you don't obey me, you'll get sick. 43:37 You'll get boils, you'll become blind. Your enemies will overpower you. It's all you you you you you. I mean, you got to face it. That's that's that's how it was between God and Israel. The only way he could get them to live for him and serve him was 43:55 blessing them, promising them this, threatening them with sickness. And do you know there's a gospel which is being preached today which is exactly like that? If you don't give your tithes to God, he'll curse you. So, you better pay up. 44:11 And um seek Jesus and he'll bless you, he'll prosper you. Do you know that all the heathen religions say that, too? Our Muslim friends say, Allah has blessed us with oil. That's why the king of Saudi Arabia is 44:31 so rich. Your Jesus doesn't bless you so much. The Hindu businessmen in India say, we are in the top 10 rich people in the world according to Fortune's list. Your Jesus hasn't put any of your people in that top 10 in the Fortune's list. 44:46 Who is the better God, then? Do you see this another Jesus being preached in Christendom? Which is supposed to make you rich, but is not able to do it as well as other gods? Can't you see that itself proves this is another Jesus, not the 45:00 real one? But I'll tell you what the real Jesus can do which other people can't do, and that's give you victory over sin and your selfishness and make you God-centered. That is the real Jesus. And there's a great need for men who 45:17 have the courage and boldness to expose this false gospel and to proclaim the real one. The one centered in God where we are leading people to come into a life where they are more concerned about God's name than their own name. 45:32 The entire world is full of people who are concerned about their own name. Somebody scandalized my name. Somebody scandalized my daughter. Somebody said something bad about my son or my wife. When are we going to get out of that? 45:45 The name of Jesus is being dishonored. That's the thing that should concern us. So, there are two types of Christians really in the world today. Those who are seeking wholeheartedly to be God-centered, who are seeking to be 46:02 delivered from the root of sin which we got from Adam, which is self-centeredness. And want to be completely God-centered as Jesus was. And then there are other Christians who still living in that Old Testament gospel, which is called a health, 46:18 wealth, or prosperity gospel. It's not a gospel at all because it doesn't deliver us from our big problem. I compare it to a man's had a road accident and his shirt is torn and his bones are broken. And they've taken him to a hospital and 46:38 the hospital says, we've got to first stitch his shirt up, it's torn. I can you think of anything more crazy than that? His shirt is torn. Okay, let's stitch that later. His bones are broken, man. That's the difference between our 46:55 earthly need and our spiritual need. And when a gospel concentrates on our earthly need primarily, it's as foolish as that. So, what is the greatest longing in your 47:12 heart? Is it that the name of Jesus should be glorified in your town, in your home, in your life, in your church, and you're absolutely not bothered about what people think of you 47:32 and your family and do they think highly of you? If we don't get rid of that, my brothers, you're not going to get God to back you completely. He may answer your prayers. He may even do miracles for you. 47:49 But he won't be pleased with you. Let me show you that from scripture. 1 Corinthians in chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I don't want you to be unaware, 48:10 brethren. 1 Corinthians 10:1. That our fathers, that is the Jewish people, who came out of Egypt, were all under the cloud and passed through the sea. They were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They ate the same spiritual food, which 48:27 is the manna. They drank from the rock. But with most of them, which is 600,000 of those men, God was not well pleased. He was pleased only with two of them, Joshua and Caleb. And they were laid low in the wilderness. These things happened as an 48:45 example for us that we should not crave evil things as they craved. That we should not be idolaters. An idolater is one who for whom someone other than Jesus Christ is most important in his life. That's an idolater. 49:04 If your ministry is more important, you're an idolater. If your name is more important than the name of Jesus Christ, you are an idolater, whether you know it or not. Um and so, but this group of people in the entire Bible, 49:20 nobody experienced as many miracles as this group of people. Imagine getting food from heaven every single day for 40 years. If you had food drop from heaven one day, you'd be testifying about it for the rest of your life. 49:36 I mean, these people got it every day for 40 years. Imagine getting water out of a rock and our clothes not wearing out for 40 years, our sandals not wearing out for 40 years. It says that in the Psalms. Their clothes and sandals didn't wear 49:53 out for 40 years. There was not one lame man among them. But God was not happy with them. That proves for all time that God does miracles for people whom he may not be happy with. God answers the prayers of people who 50:12 he may not be happy with. Don't ever evaluate whether God is happy with you or not by whether he answers your prayers, by whether he's done a miracle for you. He does miracles for lots of people whom he's not happy with at all. 50:30 Jesus said he makes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the fields of godless farmers as much as on the fields of God-fearing farmers. That's in Matthew 5. Because God is like that. He's a good God. So, if he 50:49 gives you material blessing, it only proves he's a good God. It proves nothing about your life. Your father makes the sun to rise on the evil and the just, evil and the the righteous and the unrighteous. He makes the rain to fall on the righteous and 51:02 the unrighteous and makes the sun to rise on the good and the evil. So, the material blessings are no proof of God's blessing. Miracles are not a proof of God's blessing. Jesus did miracles for lots of people who are in hell today. 51:17 There were thousands for whom he did miracles in places where he really healed them all. Where are they today? They didn't They were not waiting for the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. So, all these things show and not only 51:32 doing miracles, but there are people who do miracles in Jesus' name. We read in Matthew 7:21-23. He says, "I don't know you. Go to hell." So, the fact that God does material I mean, blesses us in material ways or um does miracles through us proves 51:51 absolutely nothing. And any idea that we have in our head that God is happy with me because he did a miracle through me or um brought somebody to Christ through me, it means nothing. Has he changed me in my heart that my primary desire 52:11 is that Jesus' name may be glorified? That his will will be done in my life in every single area um 24 hours a day as it is done in heaven like the angels do God's will in heaven. That his kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy 52:30 in the Holy Spirit will come into my life and come into my church. Are you happy with a church which has got people who have not come to righteousness, who have not come to a life of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit? I'm not happy. 52:47 Paul says, "I strive to present every man perfect in Christ." And if that is the goal, we need to ask ourselves whether we are moving towards that goal. Am I really being delivered from this self-centered life? 53:06 I look at the two trees in the Garden of Eden like that. We know those two trees were really symbols. That's how I look at it. There was a tree of knowledge of good and evil and a tree of life. 53:23 And I see these as two ways of life that Adam had to choose from. One was where I got the knowledge of good and evil resident within myself. I ate that fruit and I got the knowledge of good and evil. I know what is good 53:41 and evil. I don't need to consult God anymore because I got the information within myself. The other is a life of perpetual dependence upon God to know what is good and evil. That's the tree of life. That's in today's terms, it's the Holy 54:00 Spirit. It's a spirit-filled life where I don't live by rules and regulations. The knowledge of good and evil is a life of rules and regulations. This is good, this is evil. That's why you have a lot of There are many upright people 54:16 in the world who because they got the this knowledge of good and evil within them. They don't need God. They don't need the Holy Spirit. There are lots of people in the world who never commit adultery, never murder anyone, 54:32 honest I I've met honest atheists in my life who will never cheat or tell lies. Because they've got the knowledge of good and evil. They don't need God at all. Whereas the tree of life is a life of perpetual dependence upon God for 54:48 everything. This is how Jesus lived. He sought the Father's will about everything. It was a way of life. It was not a conscious asking, but a way of life where not my will, but thine, oh Father became the way he breathed. 55:06 I came from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me. It was a life of perpetual dependence. This is true spirituality. Where I'm concerned about God's name, God's glory, God's kingdom, God's will. 55:23 Not just I'm living a good life. I've got a good testimony. I've got a good ministry. That can be very self-centered. And this is why we find that God is not able to back us even though we're living such good lives. Why is God able to back some people and 55:45 he's not able to back you even though your life may outwardly be just as good as the other person's? I believe we need to know that God is backing us. I'm taken up by this expression in Hebrews in chapter 2. 56:07 I believe this should be the desire of every one of us. Uh Hebrews 2:4 is a little expression which says, "God bearing witness with them." Now, he can bear witness with signs and wonders or any other way, 56:25 but God bearing witness to my life. God bearing witness to my ministry, God bearing witness to me is much more important than anything else. Every one of us you need to ask yourself, "Is God 56:43 bearing witness to you, to the way you live, to the choices you make? Can he approve of them? Can he Does he bear witness to them?" Not just does God bless me? 57:01 There's something higher than blessing. Jesus didn't spend his life 30 years seeking God's blessing. He spent 30 years seeking God's approval. That's why at the end of 30 years at his baptism, the Father could say, 57:20 "Here is my beloved son whom I have blessed." No. "In whom I'm pleased." "With whom I'm well pleased." I fear that many Christians seek God's blessing more than his approval. And that's why their lives are so shallow. 57:38 They're exactly like the Israelites who were blessed with manna from heaven, water from the rock, many material blessings, but God is not well pleased with them. I don't want miracles in my life. I want God's approval. Can you say that honestly to God, "Lord, 57:53 I don't care if you don't answer a single prayer of mine for any physical earthly blessing. I don't care if I have to live in a hut and um people think God hasn't blessed this person materially. Let them think that. I couldn't care less." 58:07 If you looked at Paul's material state, you'd think God hasn't blessed him. The man was so poor. He says in 2 Corinthians 11, "There were times when I didn't have enough money to buy food to eat." Is that the way God treats his apostles? 58:25 But look at the life he lived. Not God's blessing, but God's approval. That's the thing that we should be seeking. God bearing witness to me, "I'm happy with you. This is my son in whom I'm well pleased." 58:43 That's what we should be longing for. Which requires of what I would call a reorientation of our thinking. To when it says our mind must be renewed in Romans 12:2, I I look at it that means 59:00 my mind must begin to think like Jesus thinks, like Jesus thought when he was on earth. That is conformity to Christ. Conformity comes in the way I'm thinking. And that is the whole purpose with which God gave us the Holy Spirit. 59:18 That God's given us the Holy Spirit so that our minds are renewed to think like Jesus thinks about everything. And there we pursue perfection. To look at women exactly 59:36 like Jesus looked at women. Is that your goal? It'll make a tremendous difference in your life if you make that your goal instead of a low goal saying, "Well, I just want to I want to avoid pornography as much as possible." Okay, that's okay 59:52 in the kindergarten class, but you can't be spending all your life at that level. I want to look at women the way God Jesus looked at women. I want to look at money exactly the way Jesus looked at money, material wealth. 1:00:06 Even if God's given me something, I want to look at it the way Jesus looked at it. I want to look at my business the way Jesus looked at his carpentry business, exactly the same way. He's our example. That's why in the new covenant God's 1:00:19 given us an example who said, "Follow me." And Paul says, "I follow Follow me as I follow Christ." If you're going this way, you can look at people who are younger than you and say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." I look at it like 1:00:33 climbing a mountain where say Jesus has reached the peak, 30,000 ft, and Paul is climbing and maybe he's reached 10,000 ft, and he can look at those who are younger behind him like me and say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." And they say, 1:00:48 "Thank you, Paul. Your example's a great example for me. It helps me to follow because I know you're walking in the footsteps of Christ." And if you're at 5,000 ft, you can look at people younger than you and say, "Hey, follow me 1:01:01 as I follow Paul and I follow Christ." I'm not ashamed to say I follow godly men. I'm thankful for the real men of God, a very few that I knew in my younger days that were an example for me. And I'm not ashamed to say that I 1:01:18 followed them as they followed Christ. So, don't try to be so super spiritual that you say, "I don't have any human examples. I just follow Jesus." I've seen through the years that people who say that there's an arrogance about 1:01:32 them and a carnality about them and they're not at all like Christ. And that proves to me that something wrong. They're not reading Philippians 3:17. They're not reading 1 Corinthians 11:1. They're not understanding that God is in the new covenant God's 1:01:49 given us human examples and not just scripture. In the Old Testament, it was just scripture. Study, study, study and try and do that, but in the New Testament, Jesus is an example. Paul was an example. And Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:02:06 4:12, "Be an example to those who believe." Be an example. In other words, let them look at 1 1 Timothy 4:12. Look at Let them look at the way you speak and learn how to speak. A number of 1:02:25 things mentioned there, speech, conduct, love, faith, purity. Let them look at your speech and learn how to speak in a Christ-like way. Let Let them look at the way you love people and learn to love people in a Christ-like way. Let them look at your 1:02:38 life of faith and learn how to depend on the Lord. Let them look at your purity. Show yourself an example. This is our calling as brothers. This is our calling as men. Women must look up to us. Our wives must 1:02:56 look up to us and see Christ in us. The people around us must see Christ in us. And this is why we need, above all things, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. My whole life changed 1:03:16 when I experienced this, the baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire. This is the whole purpose with John the Baptist said, "Don't just look at Jesus as the Lamb of God. He's also the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit and fire." 1:03:30 And I'm not surprised that the devil has made this whole doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit perhaps the most controversial doctrine in Christianity with plenty of counterfeits, which proves to me that the real thing 1:03:42 is very valuable. People don't make counterfeits of toilet paper and newspaper. People make counterfeits of diamonds and gold. So, if there there are counterfeit gifts of the spirit and counterfeit baptisms of the spirit, boy, the real thing must 1:03:55 be pretty valuable. It is. And let me also say, in my opinion, most people who claim to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, it's counterfeit. It's not the real thing. Cuz I don't see them with a passion 1:04:15 to glorify Christ. Jesus said, "When the spirit has come, he will glorify me." John 16. He will not speak about himself. He'll speak about me. The mark of a spiritual man is he points to Christ. He lifts Christ 1:04:33 up and he glorifies Christ and he doesn't speak about the spirit all the time. Very, very important. And that this experience is not something that we must have just once. It's continuous. Must be in the present continuous. You 1:04:49 know, the Acts of the Apostles speaks about people who experienced a filling with the Holy Spirit, and it says about certain people who were full of the Holy Spirit. That means they lived in that perpetual state of being filled with the spirit. 1:05:03 And that's what I emphasize. Be being filled with the spirit, which is the real translation of Ephesians 5:18. Be being filled continuously, the present continuous tense. I want to urge you, brothers, let's pursue that because that is the 1:05:22 provision God has made for us to live the type of life I've just been talking about. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we bow before you, we pray that you will remind us of the things that we need 1:05:42 reminding of among the many things we heard. Help us each one. Bless our time together the rest of today. In Jesus' name. Amen.
