Zacchaeus Linked With Abraham And Melchizedek: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

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But I said, “How shall I love him and express my love for him?” And Jesus often used parables.

So, I would think of some story or example to help me love the Lord more. And one of the pictures the Lord gave me then was of me crossing a road. In India, the roads are very busy and there are no proper traffic rules very often. And here was a truck coming to run me down and I didn’t see it.

That’s a picture of how we are living on this earth and we don’t realize what a tremendous danger we are in of heading towards an eternal hell, much worse than being run down by a truck. And here is somebody who loves me, comes and pushes me out of the way of that truck just in time. And he gets run over. He doesn’t die but his legs are broken. And the legs have to be cut off and amputated. He is lying in the hospital without his legs. And I go to see him.

This is the picture the Lord gave me of how Jesus loved me. And I go to see this man with his legs broken. What will I tell him? Will I just say, “Thanks a lot, see you later”?

That is how many people thank the Lord. “Thank you Lord, see you later. I’ll come once on Sunday and say hi to you and thank you very much. For the rest of my week I’m just going to live for myself.”

That is the selfish way most Christians live. And I’m not going to try to tell you to change that. I only pray that you will see how much God loves you. And this is why sometimes word pictures are helpful.

And I saw this picture of that. Here I’m going to the hospital to see this man with the broken legs, which he lost because of me. What will I tell him? I will spend as much time as possible with him first of all. To encourage him. And I’ll say, “Listen. Now you are handicapped throughout your life because of me. I want to give you a promise. That if ever you are in any need, for some work to be done, give me a call. And wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, I’ll drop it and come and do what you want me to do.” You think that would be an unreasonable thing I said to him? An unreasonable expression of gratitude?

I would have been dead. But he lost his legs to save my life. I think you would say the same thing to him. You’d be a very ungrateful person if you just occasionally visited him and said hi and bye, when you are alive because that chap saved your life, and he is handicapped for a lifetime to save you. You ask yourself.

Use that picture in your mind. But that was one of the pictures the Lord gave me. And I felt that my attitude to the Lord would be like that. I would do anything, anytime, because of what he did for me. And if there is one person sitting here who does not feel like that towards the Lord – “I will do anything, anytime, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing, and respond to your call to do something for you” – if you don’t feel like that, I feel you have not really seen the love of Christ for you in giving his life to save you from your sin. That’s how I felt. And that’s what made me surrender my life to Christ, as soon as I was baptized.

I was baptized about a year and a half after I was born again. But as soon as I was baptized, when you know when my body went under the water and came out, I said, “Lord, my past life is buried, and I’m not going to live for that old life anymore.” Many of you have gone through baptism. Did it make any difference in your life? Or you just went through a ritual and say, “Yes, I’m baptized,” so you can testify now, “I’m baptized.” It meant a lot more than that to me. I understood baptism means my old life, where I seek my own and do my will, is buried.

And the Lord has raised me up to a new life. I want to say to you my dear brothers and sisters, you’re missing a lot if you don’t seek to live that way. And I guarantee when you meet Jesus one day, you will regret that you did not live for him 100% on this earth. And I believe, you may not agree with me, that regret will be with you for all eternity.

For all eternity, you will regret that in the one life God gave you on earth, you did not live 100% for him. You ignored the fact that he gave his life for you and saved you from an eternal damnation. And that your response to him was just going to church on some Sundays. And if something else cropped up, you would cancel even that. Can you imagine how you’ll live in eternity with Jesus? And you think that this is the way you responded to him on earth? You’re afraid what your relatives would say. You’re afraid what your friends would say. And so you kept quiet about Jesus.

Imagine being ashamed of Jesus before your friends and relatives, after all that he did for you. And he was not ashamed.

Not Being Ashamed of Jesus

I often used to think of that, you know, when I was a young Christian. One of the first things I started doing was preaching on the streets, way back in the naval base in India, outside the naval base. And you know people would make fun of me when I stand on the street preaching the gospel. I was only 23 years old. And the thing that came to me was, “Jesus was not ashamed to hang in underwear on the cross for me.”

Always that picture would be in my mind. Jesus was not ashamed to hang in underwear for me on the cross. Why should I be ashamed to proclaim his name in the street here? Just because some people make fun of me.

Let them make fun of me. In the naval base they made fun of me whenever I worked, because of my stand for Christ. I said, “Let the whole world make fun of me. It doesn’t make a difference.” So if you meditate on the tremendous love that Jesus had for you, I believe that it will be easy for you to live the Christian life. Otherwise, any little thing you do, you say, “Oh, I have done something for the Lord.” What have you done for the Lord? A drop in the ocean compared to what he did for you.

Let none of us think that we have ever done anything for the Lord. I don’t feel that I have really done anything for the Lord. I feel I have done so little when I think of the vastness of what Christ did for me.

Even if I lived a thousand years on earth and served him wholeheartedly, it would not be sufficient to repay him for what he did for me. I hope you feel like that. If you don’t feel like that, my dear brother and sister, I am not trying to condemn you. I pray that God will open your eyes to see how much Jesus did for you. And what shall our response be?

Showing Gratitude to God

You know how there are children who are so ungrateful for all that their father and mother did for them? Many children are on this earth who are so ungrateful when they grow up and completely forget what their parents did for them – all the sacrifices their parents made to feed them, clothe them, educate them, and establish them in some good job, and get them married and establish them. Many, many.

I hope there are nobody like that here. But there are many children like that. When they grow up they forget. And I think of Christians like that who forget what Jesus did for them. I believe that our life should be a lifetime of expressing our gratitude to Christ. We do our work, earthly work. Why do we do our earthly work?

So that we don’t become beggars. So that we don’t become like the homeless people on the street waiting for handouts from other people. God doesn’t want anybody to be waiting for a handout from others. 2 Thessalonians 3 says very clearly, “If a man does not work, he should not eat.” That’s God’s word. If a man doesn’t work, he should not eat. So God wants us all to work and earn our living.

And not be dependent on others, not be beggars. Not be homeless beggars standing on the street. But we work and earn our living. And if God doesn’t give us a job that earns as much as somebody else, we shouldn’t be jealous. We shouldn’t be waiting for a handout from other people in the church. That’s disgraceful.

I remember when I quit the Navy and I came into full time Christian work, I was rock bottom poor because I had given all my money away for God’s work. And I left with zero in my bank account.

And then Annie was kind enough to marry me. And we were really rock bottom poor. But one of the things the Lord showed us: never, never give anybody in the world the impression that you are in any need. Always give the impression to people that you have plenty, even when you have nothing. And I decided to do that. Never wear clothes that are a little torn or not good enough.

You can wear that at home. But when you go in public, wear your best clothes so that people think you are very well off, even when you have nothing. And I tell you what a wonderful life of holy acting that was – to pretend that we have everything when we had nothing! It was a blessed time I tell you. We learned so much and God honored us for it.

He really honored us that in our entire life, my wife and I never borrowed one cent from any human being. Can you testify to that? You had jobs and you earned much more than I ever earned.

But have you ever, can you say honestly you never borrowed any money that you haven’t returned? You borrowed in an emergency, that’s okay. But can you say that you have never been in, that you are not in debt to anybody at least now? It is then when the Lord says to us salvation has come, when we take financial matters seriously.

Zacchaeus’ Encounter with Jesus

Let me show you Luke and chapter 19. Luke 19. There was a very rich man called Zacchaeus. And he made most of his money by cheating others. He was a tax collector. In those days, like I suppose a lot of tax collectors today, they cheated and made lots of money from others. Maybe exploited poor people and rich people. And he built this huge house with that money that he had cheated others of, in fact stolen.

And one day he had a desire to see Jesus and he climbed up on this tree. And see the tremendous way in which the Holy Spirit prompted Jesus, “There is a needy man sitting up on that tree. I know he has cheated people. He is crooked. But underneath that there is a need in his life.”

I believe that. There are crooked cheats in the world who have a need in their life. And the Lord reaches even such people. It’s not just the people who want to follow him, like Peter, James and John who quit their fishing and followed him. There are other needy people who may not be able to quit their jobs, and who have cheated others and made a lot of money.

But deep down there is a need. They want something. They want the Lord. You would think that such people never want the Lord. This man who was a crooked cheat wanted the Lord. That’s why we need to give the Gospel to everybody, even to a crooked cheat of a businessman. We give the Gospel because deep down in his heart there is a need which he may be too ashamed to express to others.

I am sure Zacchaeus would be ashamed to go and tell some Rabbi, “I have a need, Sir. Can you please show me the way to God?” I believe that there are people like that who are crooked and who have a need in their life. And the Holy Spirit prompted Jesus to go to that person. And when I see that and I say the Bible says we got to walk as Jesus walked. That’s one of the prayers I have prayed.

“Lord, don’t let me judge people by what I see on the surface. ‘Oh that guy is a crook and he is a cheat. He won’t have any interest in God.'” If Jesus had been like that he never had gone to Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus would not be in heaven today. But thank God that Jesus was not like that. He said, “Hey.” He listened to the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit said, “That man has a need. And the guy sitting up on that tree.” The Holy Spirit even told him his name. “His name is Zacchaeus. Go and live in his house today.” And Jesus did it. I want to be like Jesus. Let the world say what they like.

It says in Luke 19, when Jesus said to him, Zacchaeus, verse 5, “Come down, hurry up, because I want to stay in your house today.” And he hurried and came down gladly. He was the holiest man on earth. And Zacchaeus was so happy to receive him. And when people saw it, see this is the reaction of all the religious people around.

“Look at this Jesus. He has gone to be the guest with a man who is a sinner.” And I thought that how we can also be like that. Sometimes we can look at certain people and say, “Oh they are crooks. And don’t think they will ever come to RLCF. No, no, no. They are not interested in those things. Let them go their way. Let them go to hell. They are not interested in spiritual things.”

There could be people in your office. There could be people among your relatives. You despise them and you ignore them because you say, “Yeah, they can’t be interested in that. The guy has cheated so many people. How can the world be interested?” But yet the Lord was sensitive to the Holy Spirit. And I pray that all of us will be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that it will bypass our human prejudices.

We have very human prejudices against people that make us form opinions about them. I believe if you really want to follow the Lord, you have to die to your own opinions about everybody because the Lord will lead you to the most unlikely people. And I have found that through the years in our CFC churches, that the Lord has led us to the most unlikely people who wanted salvation.

Zacchaeus’ Repentance and Salvation

Anyway, so Zacchaeus. And this is the word that stopped me. It says in verse 8, Zacchaeus stopped. When you read that, have you ever meditated on it? You probably heard me speak on it before, but I want to repeat it. They walked towards Zacchaeus’ house. And it says as they came to the gate of the house, Zacchaeus stopped.

You don’t find any statement like that anywhere else where Jesus is walking with somebody. This is the only place in the Gospels where Jesus is walking with somebody and he says, “Stop Lord. Hang on. Now I have got to say something to you.” And I want to expand the words that he spoke in verse 8.

He said, “Lord, you are going to come and stay with me in my house here. This grand house that you see has been built with other people’s money. I have cheated people. I have told lies. I have cheated the government. And I have made a lot of money. And I have built this house. But Lord, I want to tell you something. A holy person like you, I can’t take you inside this house. You are too holy to live in this house before I settle something.”

So he tells Jesus, “I want to give you my word, Lord. I have got a list of all the people I have cheated. And I have got their addresses. And I am going to their house one by one in the next few months. I don’t know, it may take more than a year perhaps. And I will give back the money plus interest, plus more than interest. I will give him, I will give everyone I have cheated, I will give four times what I have cheated them of. I give you my word, Lord. I will do it.”

“And I will go to everyone of them. And then there are a whole lot of other people I have cheated in my life because after all, I have cheated for 30-40 years. I can’t remember all of them. But there are other people I have cheated. And I have made a huge amount of money in my bank account which is not mine righteously. What shall I do with them? Shall I just forget about it saying, ‘Well, I don’t know where these people are so Lord, let me ignore it.’ No. I have no right to keep that money in my bank account.”

“So, what shall I do? Since I can’t find those original owners of it, I will give it to the poor.” You know, that’s how they gave to the Lord in those days. Today we give by putting it in the offering box. That’s what I told another brother once in one of ours who came to join one of our CFC churches. He told me that here in the US, he had cheated the government or some company or something in a huge amount of money that he owed them some, I don’t remember what it was, $100,000 or some huge amount of money. And he said, “What shall I do? There is no way for me to return it to that.” I said, “Put it in the offering box.”

This man decided, he calculated and found half of his wealth belonged to people he did not know the address, how to return it. So he said, “I will give it to the poor. And from the other half, I will pay back all the people I cheated, four times. So they will not feel I lost interest. In fact, they will be delighted that they were cheated. They got so much more back.”

And then he said, “I mean it,” and the Lord believed that he meant it. “Now Lord, come into my house.” That’s how Jesus went. And look what the Lord said to him. You know, in the entire Gospels you never find Jesus saying these words about anybody else, only about this one person, because of his attitude to money. It makes a tremendous difference in the Lord’s mind when he sees a wrong — because you know Jesus said there are only two Gods in the world.

Only two Gods in the world – not God and Satan. Satan is nobody’s God. That’s all blind people. But among Christians also, there are two Gods: God and money. The real God and money. And many people have a difficulty sometimes making a choice between God and money.

Anyway, Zacchaeus made the right choice. And so Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house.” Salvation from what? Salvation from hell, of course. But right now, salvation from the love of money. You know, there is such a thing as being saved from the love of money, just like there is such a thing as being saved from pornography. Yeah, saved from pornography, we can understand. Saved from lusting after women, we can understand. Saved from telling lies. Saved from the love of money. Salvation has come.

That salvation has come to this man today. Today. He wasn’t saved till now. But today the salvation has come. Because Jesus knew this chap would keep his word. See, that’s something that encourages me, that when the Lord sees that you made a sincere promise to do something, he treats you as if you have already done it. He hadn’t done it. It would have taken him a whole year to go and find all those people and repay that amount and give it all half to the poor.

When the Lord says, “I believe you fully that you are going to do it. And I accept you today as if you have done it.” It’s one of the wonderful things of the Lord’s dealings with us, that it’s going to take you some time to settle some of those matters, but the Lord sees you are sincere, he will accept you today as if you have already done it.

I am tremendously encouraged by that. I don’t have to wait one whole year before I finish settling all those wrong things. I can start today, the new life with a wonderful relationship with the Lord, as if I have settled it all. I hope every single person sitting here in RLCF today will say that to the Lord, “Lord, if there is anything I have to settle, I give you my word today. At the earliest opportunity, I will settle it.” It may be financial. It may be sometimes asking somebody’s forgiveness. Sometimes that can be more difficult than returning money.

I know I had to do two things that the Lord showed me when I was converted 65 years ago. One, that I cheated the government. And the other was I had to apologize to someone whom I had cheated in a very, very small thing. And that was more difficult. Apology was more difficult than returning the money. So it’s wonderful to know that the Lord will accept you if you are sincere.

But if you are the type of person who decides here on Sunday morning, “Yes, I will do it,” and by tomorrow you have forgotten all about it, and that happened in the past, maybe in the past think last year you took some decision, “I will do something,” because you were moved in the meeting by the Holy Spirit. But then you went home and you forgot all about it. And the Lord says, “You are not the type of person I can say it’s done. I will wait till you actually do it. Then I will accept you.”

But with Zacchaeus, I want to ask you brothers and sisters, are you a man or a woman of your word? That means you said something to the Lord and you do it. You won’t say something without doing it. I hope you are like that. Have you made promises to the Lord in the past that you haven’t kept? It’s better not to make a promise than to make promises and not keep them. It’s better to say, “Lord, let me just think about that. I can’t make any promise right now.”

God will honor that if you say to him, “Lord, I can’t really say yes I will yield to you now. I got to think about it because it’s pretty costly for me to do that.” He will honor you more than that other person who says, “Yes, I will do it,” because he knows that other guy has said that so many times in the past. It’s very important when you come to the Lord that you mean what you say because Jesus said, “I am the truth,” and he loves those who speak the truth.

Abraham, the Father of the Faithful

The other thing I want to say here is the Lord said about him, “He is a son of Abraham.” Why did he say that? Because Abraham was, there is a beautiful story, I will return to it right now, in Genesis 14, when his nephew Lot was captured by some kings. Abraham had 318 servants. They were not warriors. They were not soldiers. But Abraham went to rescue Lot.

The king of Sodom had been defeated by all those kings. But Abraham, as a man of faith, I don’t know how in the world he did it. He went to those kings who had captured Lot. And he brought back not only Lot and all the things he had stolen, but also all the stuff they had stolen from Sodom, with 318 servants, not soldiers.

I would really like to know how that happened. One day when I get to heaven, I am going to ask Abraham, “How did you do that?” It must have been a tremendous miracle that God did. With 318 servants he goes and defeats all those kings and brings back all the money that they had stolen. You read that at the end of Genesis 14. Take some time to read it.

When you read scripture, do what I do. Use your imagination and picture yourself in that situation. That’s the way to read scripture. And see, how could he have done it? How could he have gone and with 318 servants and defeated all those kings with those armies and brought back all that money? Anyway, God must have helped him in some wonderful way. The advantage of my using my imagination when I read such scriptures is that it helps me when I am in a similar situation, I am reminded of that situation. I say, “Well, God will help me too in this situation.”

So it’s tremendous. God has given us the power of imagination to help us in the study of scripture. So when Abraham came back with all these goods and he thought, “Boy, what a lot of goods I’ve got.” In those days, the rule in battle was, it was all accepted by all kings, that when you win a battle, all the goods that you win are yours. That is your reward for winning the battle. You see that many times in the kings when David won a battle and the property all became his of the enemies. And so David, when Abraham defeated these people and he had won this battle, the property was his. And then it’s a very interesting story there.

Melchizedek’s Prophetic Message

Maybe I should turn to that to show it to you. Turn to Genesis 14, because this has a link to Zacchaeus, because Zacchaeus is called the son of Abraham and now you’ll understand why he is called the son of Abraham. And it says here in Genesis 14, Abraham heard, verse 14, Genesis 14 verse 14, heard that his relative had been taken captive. He took his 318 men born in his house and he divided his forces.

Imagine, like an army general dividing these 318 people and going after how many kings? See verse 1, the king of Shinar, the king of Ellasar, and the king of Elam, and the king of Goiim, all these four kings. They are the ones who defeated Sodom and took away all his goods. He went after them, pursued them as far as Dan, and he divided his forces and defeated them, verse 15, and pursued those enemies, and verse 16, he brought back all the goods that these kings had taken.

It must have been a supernatural miracle, like you read sometimes in the when the Israelites went and fought with their enemies, the Lord would do some supernatural miracle and send hailstones from heaven and defeat them or something like that. Something like that must have happened. There is no other way that Abraham with 318 servants could have defeated five kings. And he came back and he brought back all the goods, brought back his relative Lot, and also the women and the people, and he was, he must have been a little proud, naturally of course, giving the glory to God definitely, but saying, “Thank God, I could save my relative nephew and all this stuff.”

And then look at the love of God for Abraham. God loved Abraham so much. And God has always hated pride, even in the Old Testament. He hated pride because that is contrary to his nature. And he saw that Abraham was getting proud and he was getting covetous when he got all, he was already a rich man, and he was covetous that he could get some more money. And God wanted to save him from his pride and he wanted to save him from his covetousness. So what does he do?

God speaks to another servant of his called Melchizedek, who is down there in another place praying, and Melchizedek does not know Abraham at all. But he was a godly, godly man and he was praying. And God speaks to Melchizedek, “I want you to do something. I’ve got a servant of mine called Abraham out there. You don’t know who he is, but he is in that particular place. I want you to go there.” And I don’t think God told Melchizedek anything of all the story. He just said, “Go to Abraham and say these words to him.”

Melchizedek was a man who listened to God because later on we read in the Bible that Jesus is called a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Yeah, that’s amazing. Even in Hebrews 7, Jesus is called a priest after the order of Melchizedek. That’s this Melchizedek, King of Salem, he was a king and a priest, verse 18, and he traveled all that distance and brought food. That’s the first thing he did. He brought some food and gave it to Abraham because Abraham was tired. Sensible thing to do.

And then he doesn’t give a sermon to Abraham saying, “You should not be covetous,” and none of all that. He is so gracious and gentle. To me, this, the way Melchizedek preached to Abraham is such a tremendous example of a spiritual way to communicate truth to a man who is going astray, not by pointing and see, “What a covetous man you are, see how you love money.” No, no, no, no. He just says, “Listen to this.” This is beautiful.

“Blessed be Abraham who belongs to God who possesses heaven and earth.” He leaves Abraham to meditate on that. “My father, my God,” he couldn’t say “my father,” he was not his father, “my God is the possessor of heaven and earth. What is this little few cents you have collected here, couple of dollars you have collected here from these kings? Are you going to be taken up with this? Remember, you are the son of the possessor of heaven and earth.”

Second, “Blessed be God most high who delivered your enemies into your hand.” That is the second problem Abraham was facing, thinking that, “I got the victory,” and he was proud of that. So there were two problems Abraham was facing: covetousness and pride. And see how Melchizedek, a wise preacher, does not hit him directly, “You are covetous, you are proud.” He puts it in such an indirect way so that Abraham realizes his covetousness and pride without being directly spoken to. That is a great way of preaching, especially if you go and speak to people individually.

All of us need to learn how to witness to others, and there is an ideal example of how to witness, not directly hitting at their sin, but pointing to the Lord. I have always been blessed by this passage. “God is the possessor of heaven and earth,” let me repeat it, and Abraham meditates on that and, “Why should I care for these little bit of these trinkets I have got here? God delivered the enemies into my hand, let me never forget it. I didn’t get it with my 318 servants. God gave it.” And Abraham humbled himself and Abraham gave a tithe of everything to Melchizedek. He said, “You are the one, you are a priest, you deserve it.”

And Melchizedek goes away. That is the other thing I see about wonderful thing about Melchizedek. He gives his message and he doesn’t wait to be appreciated and honored and all. He just disappears. He is an ideal servant of God who gives you a message and disappears. He is not waiting for the vote of thanks or any such thing. I have given my message and I am gone. Those of you who preach the word, I want to encourage you to be like Melchizedek. Be sensitive. Don’t try to hit people directly. Point people to the Lord rather than pointing out their sin. This is how Melchizedek, he didn’t point out Abraham’s sin, he just pointed to the Lord, and Abraham himself discovered his sin. That’s the best way.

Abraham’s Response to the King of Sodom

And when finally the king of Sodom came to Abraham and said, verse 21, “Okay Abraham, you know the laws of battle, those who win can keep the goods. You can keep all the goods for yourself. You can give just the people back to me.” The peopleof Sodom. And see what Abraham says.

See the title he uses for God which he never used before in his life. “I have sworn to the Lord God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.” Where in the world did he learn that title? You see verse 19, that’s exactly what Melchizedek told Abraham, “God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.” Abraham got a new revelation of God and a new title for God, “God most high, possessor of heaven and earth,” and he uses that title in verse 22. He never used it before.

And then he says to Sodom, “I have sworn to God just a few moments before you came, Sodom, king of Sodom, a few moments before you came, a servant of God came and spoke to me and I saw God as a possessor of heaven and earth. My eyes were opened. I saw my covetousness. I repented and I decided I’m not going to love money. I’m not going to live for money. You can have everything. I will not even take a thread,” verse 23, “or a shoelace or anything, because one day when I become rich and God blesses me, you will say you made me rich with all the things you gave me, and I don’t want you to get the credit for what God does for me.”

Boy, there’s something I see there about Abraham. I don’t want any human being to think that they made me rich. I will not depend on man for my needs. This is what the Lord told me when I quit my job, “Don’t ever depend on any man to meet your needs. Your heavenly Father will take care of you.” And he’s done that all these 60 years. And the other thing he said, “I will not take anything except what these young men have eaten.” That is Abraham.

Jesus Came to Save the Lost

And now turn back to Luke 17 and you’ll understand it. Sorry, Luke 19. And there you see in Luke 19 verse 9, the Lord says, “Today salvation from money has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham.” The way Abraham was saved from money when Melchizedek met him.

And now let me paraphrase verse 10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save those who are lost in the love of money, those who are lost in sexual lust, those who are lost in arrogance and pride, those who are lost in ingratitude for what the Lord has done for them, those who are lost in the fear of man, those who are lost in seeking the approval of men more than the approval of God.” The Son of Man has come to save them.

Jesus saved Zacchaeus from the love of money. And I want to tell you, we can look at these examples and be challenged, but you’ll never be saved from the love of money till Jesus saves you from it. You’ll never be saved from the opinions of people till Jesus saves you from it.

For many Christians, the only salvation they can think of is salvation from hell. That’s the final end of our life, salvation from hell. But right now he wants to save us from many things. He wants us to be saved from being a slave to the opinions of men, especially our relatives. Don’t be a slave to the opinion of your relatives. You’re a slave. You’re not a slave of Jesus Christ if you’re a slave to the opinion of your relatives and your friends and all the other people who work in your office. You’re worried about their opinion.

My dear brother, sister, you are not a slave of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you that in Jesus’ name. You’re a slave of your relatives. You’re a slave of your office colleagues. Get free from that. Jesus has come to save you from that slavery. Become a slave of Jesus Christ.

He’s come to save you from a slavery to money, where your mind is always occupied with, now, if you’re needy, definitely you need to think of how to make more money. But when you already have so much, are you still thinking of how to make more money? Then you’re definitely a slave of money. There are two different people. One is a needy person just trying to scrape making ends meet, month to month, and he’s wondering, “How can I make a little more money? How can I earn a little more? How can I work a little more?”

I met brothers like that in our churches, who are struggling to make ends meet because they’ve got sick children and other needs in their home. They’re always trying to find another job to be able to make ends meet.

And then there are another type of people who do the same thing just to make more money, and they have plenty. And what do they do with that extra they make? Put it into their bank account and accumulate it. And they come and sit in church and say, “Yeah, we’re saved.” Saved from what? You’re not saved from the love of money. You just want to be saved from hell.

Jesus wants to save us in this life from lust, from anger, from the love of money, from bitterness, from showing off, from boasting, and from so many things like this. To be saved from the opinions of men, and to be free. We don’t realize what a lot of things you’re enslaved to in your life.

So don’t only think of salvation as salvation from hell. My dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you, ask the Lord to save you from every wretched thing that’s binding you down to this earth so that you can, you know how these hot air balloons. I imagine, this is how they make these balloons go up. They dump more and more of the sand bags they have and they go more and more up. You know that’s, you know, dump out things that are of this earth and you go more and more up. If you have all those weights, the balloon will never go up. You gotta throw out all those sand bags, which are there, then you can go up. That’s what the Lord wants to do with us in our life.

And I’ll tell you, you won’t lose thereby. You won’t starve. You’ll never starve if you honor God. You’ll never starve in your whole life. And I’ll tell you, your children will not starve. Your grandchildren will not starve. You can believe that. Don’t think that your carefully accumulating all this for your children and grandchildren is gonna save them. Jesus can do a better job than you can do it. I believe that.

I believed that 60 years ago and I believe it today. You honor God, he’ll honor you. Please remember that my dear brothers and sisters. God wants to bring a salvation to us way beyond what we imagine. And probably you’ve heard some new things today. I hope you will pay attention to them.

Trying to Learn What is Pleasing to the Lord

I wanna close with one verse in Ephesians in chapter 5. I wanted to show you this at the beginning and I can show you now at the end. Ephesians 5, it says here in verse 10, it’s a beautiful word. Have you seen this verse? Ephesians 5:10, “Trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Please remember this verse, Ephesians 5:10. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Make that your goal in life.

“Lord, I may not learn all of a sudden, but I wanna try. I wanna try to learn what is pleasing to my Savior every day of my life. I wanna learn a little more of what is pleasing to my Savior. Please help me.” Say, “Lord, I wanna make this my education for the rest of my earthly life, Ephesians 5:10. I wanna try. I’ll try my best to learn.”

You know, I’m glad the verse doesn’t say “learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Ah, that would be, it’s like a strong word and I’d get thrown back by it. But I like the way the Holy Spirit has put it. “Try.” Isn’t that easier to accept? When a teacher says not “learn,” but “try to learn it.” I like the gentleness of the Holy Spirit. And I say that to all of you dear brothers and sisters, try to learn what will please the Lord in your life after what you heard today. Try to learn what you should do and what attitudes should change in your life to please the Lord in the light of what you heard today. God bless you.

Let’s pray. A moment of silence. And like I always say, if you have not forgiven anybody, please forgive him right now. Number one, God will not hear your prayer if you haven’t forgiven someone. Right now forgive that person, and the other person, and the other person. And then pray to the Lord and say, “Lord, please help me to learn what is pleasing to you, how Zacchaeus learnt and how he experienced salvation, and how you saved him from the love of money. Save me also from the love of money. Save me from the love of seeking the honor of people. Save me Lord from seeking to please my relatives, seeking to please my fellow people in the office, seeking to please anyone. I want to please only you. Please show me. I am trying to learn how to please you.”

Heavenly Father, we pray you will help each one of us in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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