Some Practical Instructions For A Godly Life: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

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And he’s questioning him, what is the quality of your church? And some churches that started so well have sunk down in a few years.

The Importance of Repetition in Teaching

So even if you have heard it before, let me repeat it again. In Acts chapter 20, one reason I keep repeating my messages, well, two reasons, is there are always new people in the church who have come to the church, who have not heard it when I preached it the first time. So I see myself as a class teacher. You go to any third standard, second standard, fourth standard, first standard. Every year you go to the school in June when the school year begins and you hear the teachers teaching something, say, second standard.

You go next year, the teacher is saying teaching the same thing. You go 10 years later, the teacher is teaching the same thing. And you say, “Why are you teaching the same thing?” He says, “Because every year we have new students. They have not learned it.” That’s how a good teacher is.

So we have so many new people coming here. I mean, I don’t even know the names of most of you. I have not met many of you. So that is why we repeat what we have heard again and again, what we have spoken again and again. And those who have heard it before also need not feel bored listening to it because we tend to forget what we have heard.

And so we must also be concerned about the new people. That’s one reason. The second reason is there are children, your own children, who are growing up in this church. That’s the second reason. They may have been here five years ago when this certain message was preached the first time.

But they didn’t understand it then. Now they are – they were only seven years old then, they couldn’t understand. Now they are 12 years old after five years, they are ready to understand. So if anybody wants to keep on preaching new messages, he does not take these two factors into account. One, there are new people, and second, there are growing up children.

Many churches. I know some well-known preachers even in India. They have all their points written down in a page of one message. And they’ll write down underneath, we have preached this message in such and such a church on such and such a day. So if I go back there again, I don’t preach it.

I say, I go back there, I’ll preach it again. Because I’m not led by some rules. So what does the Holy Spirit prompt as to what this church needs to hear? So in Acts chapter 20, that’s how the early apostles preached. They did not have a notebook saying I already preached this five months ago, so I won’t preach it again.

Paul’s Ministry in Ephesus

They would preach. And Jesus preached the same message numerous times. So I don’t know whether you have heard this, but Acts chapter 20, we read Paul verse 17. He sent from Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. He said, “Please come to me.”

And when they came, he said to them, “You know from the first day that I came to Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.” See, we read in verse 31, middle of verse 31, “I have been here for three years.” Paul never stayed for three years in any town except Ephesus. And that’s why you read the letters Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians. You find in Ephesians, it’s the highest standard of Christian life that he preaches.

He preaches about revelation of the Holy Spirit. He preaches about fighting against evil spirits. He doesn’t mention that in Thessalonians or Romans or any of these others. Why did he preach these high truths to the Ephesians? Because he says, “I’ve been with you for a long time and I’ve raised you to a certain standard.”

There are things you hear in CFC you’ll never hear in another church. So he had a burden for this church in Ephesus and he called the elders because the elders are the ones who are responsible just like when you want to speak to the children in a family, you call the parents. Okay. And when the elders came, he said to them, “You know from the first day I came here how I have lived with you.” That’s the first thing he says.

He doesn’t say remember what all I preached to you. That is secondary. You have seen how I lived here from the first day I came. And how long had he been living there? Verse 31, three years.

So he didn’t have any wife or children, he was single. And he says, “You know how I lived among you,” that’s the first thing, not how I preached. And you know that verse 33, “I did not desire any money from any of you, no silver, no gold. I did not ask you even to buy me any shirt or pant or anything.” He says that, he says, “What I needed, I worked and supported myself, all my necessities,” and he lived very simply.

And why did I do it like that? Because I showed you, verse 35, that by working hard like that, we must support the weak people in the church. That means we must help those who are poor. And also I wanted to teach you to remember verse 35, the last part, the words of Jesus who said, “It is always more blessed to give than to receive.” So if I ask a person a question, do you want to be blessed or you want to be more blessed?

Is there any doubt about what we should ask for? Do you want to be – when you ask a child, do you want to be blessed or you want to be more blessed? So he says to be more blessed, then you must learn to give rather than receive. It’s human nature to always want to receive. No matter how much we get, we want to sell more.

The Danger of Always Wanting More

That’s part of human nature. And in the book of Proverbs, turn to Proverbs, There is some wonderful new covenant truths in Proverbs, it is about one book in the Old Testament. And Proverbs chapter 30, there it says in verse 15, first of all, the horse leech, I don’t know what type of animal that is, has two daughters. But they have only one thing they cry out for, “Give me, give me, give me.” He is warning you, don’t be like that.

And there are three things that are never satisfied. No matter how much they get, they are not satisfied. And there are four things in the world verse Proverbs 30:15 that never say, “Okay, that’s enough. I’ve got enough.” And who are these?

The grave. You know that. The grave never says, “Okay. You have buried enough people.” No.

We know we want more. The barren womb. Here’s a woman who’s been married for so many years. No children. She’s not satisfied.

She’s, “I want one child” and even those who want want more. But it’s completely barren. Every barren mother in the world say “I want.” And then he says there are four things that never says enough. The grave, the barren womb.

And the earth, no matter how much water it gets in the rain, says “I want more rain.” Isn’t that true? And the fire that never says enough, a fire that burns says “Put more in me, put more in me.” In this especially in the fireplace and all people have in their house to keep the house warm. You put something there to make the fireplace and the fireplace says, “Give me some more, give me some more, otherwise I’ll die out.”

So he’s saying don’t be like that to all believers. Don’t always expect to get and get and get and get and get. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Turn back to Acts 20. That’s one of the things that Paul tells this church.

You want blessing or you want more blessing? If you want blessing, receive from the Lord. But if you want more blessing, then give. That’s what it says in Acts 20 verse 35. I showed you from my own example that by working hard, supporting the weak people to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said it is more blessed to give than to receive.

The Blessing of Giving

That’s a very important lesson to learn. I can’t say I’ve learned it perfectly because I compare myself with Jesus and I say I’m far behind, but I’m trying to learn not to expect people to give me anything. But, Lord, teach me to give and not to receive. In a one way, it’s selfish because I want more blessing. And he says you get more blessing if you give than receive.

Oh, Lord, then teach me how to get that way. I want definitely, I’m not ashamed to say that I want to be more blessed by the Lord than I am already blessed. Anybody here who’s already satisfied with the amount of blessing God gave you? You should not be. You should be pressing on.

To receive more blessing from the Lord is a good thing, but I should not be expecting more from people around me. To them, I must give what God has given me. So we have to receive first before we can give to others. And that’s why we must all develop the habit of receiving from God first, but not just keeping it to ourselves. Whatever God has blessed you with, share it with others, especially some spiritual lessons God has given you.

I don’t mean Bible knowledge. The world is full of Bible knowledge. But some practical things God has taught you in your life, share it with others and you’ll be doubly blessed. It is more blessed to give than to receive. See, what you’re doing now is not giving.

What you’re doing now is receiving. And is there a blessing in it? Of course, there’s a blessing. You hear the word of God, and it blesses you. But if you keep it to yourself, it can stagnate.

Like, you get some meat and you keep it. It gets spoiled after some time. You have to give it out so that you get fresh. And if you give it out, God will give you something fresh. Okay.

Paul’s Dedication to Teaching

And the important thing I want you to see here is that Paul was in this place for three years, verse 31. In Ephesus, he says night and day, I preached for three years. So calculate that. In one year, there are 365 days. And if he preached in the morning and at night, that means morning meeting before people went to work, evening after they came back from work.

John Wesley used to do that. He used to get up in the morning at five o’clock and ride his horse to some place where workers had gathered together. Those days, they were not office workers. They were workers who worked in farms or factories or something like that. Not even factories.

Some farms are hand labor. That’s how they earn their living. So he would call them together, those who wanted to hear the word of God, and preach to them. And then he would go home, and in the evening, he’d come back again at after six or seven o’clock and call these people again to preach. Every day, he preached two messages, morning and night.

Paul did the same thing. Day and night he preached for three years. So if he one year itself will be 365 into two messages, 730. And then in three years, it’ll be nearly 2,200 messages. Can you imagine if you had 2,200 tapes of the apostle Paul?

Boy, I’d be listening to it every day. Imagine having tapes of the apostle Paul. Yeah. Really if I anybody who’s really hungry for God would say, “Boy, I want to listen to that anointed man.” And those who seek for God like that will become rich spiritually and be able to bless others and give to others.

And what they give will be fresh, not stale, old food. I want to encourage all of you to learn to share God’s word with others. I don’t mean it from the pulpit. Sometimes that can be honor seeking to preach from the pulpit. But when you talk to people, when you speak on the phone, when you meet with one another in a home or somewhere, you can always share something God shared with you.

The Power of Encouragement

You probably heard me say the story of two discouraged believers who were so discouraged one day, they were walking down the road and they met each other. And they talked a little while, And then after they went home, one of them called the other and said, “Brother, I’m so happy I met you because I was so discouraged when I met you and I got encouraged.” And the other person said, “Hey, I was discouraged and you encouraged me.” Two discouraged brothers met each other and they got encouraged. How was that?

Because the Lord was in the middle. Where two are gathered together, I am in the middle. So even if you’re a discouraged person, just by sharing with another person, you’ll be encouraged. So he preached all these messages and it must have been a very spiritually rich church to listen to fantastic messages of the apostle Paul as he explained scripture in a way that nobody else could explain. And Paul was never boring.

The Power of Anointed Preaching

I’ve heard a lot of boring preachers in my life. Nowadays I just turn off after if I find it’s going like that, I just switch it off and say, I don’t want to hear anymore. It’s just waste of time. But then I’ve heard also a few preachers who have the anointing of God upon their life, who gripped my heart and I would not want to stop listening. They blessed me and always seek to whenever you share anything, even I’m not talking about preaching.

I’m talking about ordinary conversation. See Hebrews 3:13. Hebrews 3:13, exhort one another daily, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So if you get an opportunity, exhort means encourage, challenge. So encourage and challenge others every day because you can be hardened.

So those days there was no printed Bible when this book was written. Nowadays, you don’t need to get a brother to exhort you every day. You can have the Bible. You can have the apostle Paul exhorting you every day from the letter to the Ephesians or the letters of the Romans. I seek to get an exhortation every day.

Sometimes Paul preaches to me. Sometimes Peter preaches to me. Sometimes John preaches to me. Sometimes one of the Old Testament prophets Ezekiel preaches to me. But every day, exhort one another every day.

And I seek to receive an exhortation every day from some prophet, and they’re in the Bible. And if I listen to them, I will not be hardened. Because sin is a very deceitful thing that seeks to harden us. But if I listen to the prophets every day, I will not be hardened. And you can do your part when you meet with some brother that you can or a sister that you can share something which the Lord laid on your heart.

Maybe one sentence that may be enough to encourage somebody. So when you meet one another, if some thought was in your mind, don’t hesitate to share it with your brother or your sister. You never know whether it will protect that person from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Exhort one another, encourage one another every day. Encourage one another.

See, there’s so much of discouragement in the world in the office, family life, from relatives. The world is full of people who are saying something or doing something to discourage you. So in the midst of such a world, isn’t it wonderful if each of us here say, Lord, I never want to discourage anybody by what I share, even on a phone call or if I can’t say anything, let me keep quiet. But let me never discourage anyone. Let me say things that will encourage people.

The Core Message of Paul’s Preaching

So I think that’s what the apostle did Paul did for three years. Turn with me again to Exodus chapter 20. It says here, what was the content of what he preached? What is the subject? Acts 20 verse 21.

The main subject of what he preached in all those three years that he was there. Three years means what? Two thousand and more sermons. So as I said, if you’re listening to 2,000 video tapes of the Apostle Paul, what a fantastic blessing. And he says here, the main subject of what I preached, Acts 20 verse 21, is the repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Two things. Repentance means you’re facing sin, your back is towards God, you turn around, face God and your back is towards him. In the military, there’s a command called about turn. So that is what repentance means. So all of you who never taken it seriously, please understand repentance is not turning away from sin halfway.

Many believers have done only that much. They’re facing sin, their back is towards God, and they turn halfway. One eye is seeking a sin, one eye is looking at God. This is the way most people repent, and they have problems. It’s like getting married.

The Importance of Complete Commitment in Marriage

You’re a single man and you get married, and you don’t think of only one woman. You come halfway and you think of the woman you’re married, and then you got another eye for some other girl in your office or somewhere else. Those are the most unhappy marriages in the world. The happiest are those who turn down and say, I’ve got eyes only for you, my wife. Can all husbands say that?

I have eyes only for you, my wife. Can all wives say that? I have now want to submit to you and not to my parents. I was under them once, but now the Bible has asked me to submit to you. Those are the really happy marriages.

I don’t want husbands to take that word and tell their wife, see what brother Zac said, that you got to submit to me. When you speak like that, you’re taking a hammer and hitting her on the head saying, you have to submit to me. Listen to what brother Zac said. That is you’re quoting me, but you’re quoting in the wrong spirit. I’ve been married 56 years, and we have a very happy marriage.

I’ll tell you honestly, my home life is a foretaste of heaven. That is the honest truth. We never shout at each other or raise our voice at each other and we never get upset with each other. We have no demands on each other. But we did not start like that.

We worked our way towards a godly marriage where we can be an example. So don’t be discouraged if you are not like that on day one, but work towards it. Work towards a life where you have no demands on each other. No demand that you must behave like this towards me or you must behave towards like this. No.

We want to just love and forgive and be patient. And when you get an opportunity, encourage. No demand. Many husbands and wives have a demand on each other. If one day the food is not up to the mark, forget it.

Forget it. Maybe your wife is busy or some problem with a child or something. She couldn’t could not look carefully into the food. Don’t make food your god. My wife is not the best cook in the world, but I’m very happy with what she makes because she’s trying to help me, taking care of has kept me healthy up to this age.

Why should I complain? It’s not tasty food that keeps you healthy. It’s good food. Very simple food keeps you healthier than sometimes a lot of tasty food which adds so many things which is bad for your health. A lot of restaurant food is has got added things in it which may make it more tasty, but it’s not good for your health.

My wife and I hardly ever eat any restaurant food. God has kept us healthy. I don’t want to live a long life because I love life on this earth. Not at all. But I want to live a long healthy life because I want to be useful to the Lord.

And I don’t want to shorten that life by some lust in my own heart for food. That is an important thing, sister. We haven’t spoken, brothers, sisters, because we haven’t spoken much about eating habits. But I want to mention something now that I’m on that subject. Please turn to Philippians 3:18 and 19.

The Danger of Making Your Belly Your God

Paul says, many people walk of whom I have often told you. First of all he says in verse 17, look at me. Philippians 3:17, be a follower of me and mark all those others who are walking like I am walking. I am not the only one. And make us your example.

Because in contrast to the way I am walking, Paul says, there are some others who are walking another way. And he says, I’m not criticizing them. I’m weeping while I’m writing this letter. Boy, what compassion that man had. That he’s writing a letter and he’s weeping because he feels that these Christians may not take seriously what I’m saying.

What a heart he had for God’s people that as he wrote, I can imagine the tears falling on the paper and the ink spreading because tears are falling on that ink. Amazing man. He said, I’m telling you something and I’m telling you weeping that some people are enemies of the cross of Christ. And who are these enemies? Not people who are going around attacking Christians.

Not the non-Christians who attack Christians, but Christians, verse 19, whose god is their belly. Who are the enemies of the cross of Christ? Read verse 18 and 19 together. A man whose god is his stomach is an enemy of the cross of Christ. They mind earthly things.

So he said even in a simple thing like eating and drinking, be disciplined and don’t make your stomach your god. And those are the people who clash with their wives saying the food is not tasty enough or not good enough. And it says, if God is your belly, verse 19, then your end is destruction and you are minding earthly things. So there are many things we have to repent of. Repent means turning away from something displeasing to God.

So even in the matter of discipline of our eating habits, we have to be careful that we don’t make our stomach our god. Many people don’t think of that as idolatry. You see somebody else were bowing down before some idol made of brass or stone and say, look at those blind people. What about a brother in CFC or a sister here who is so crazy about good food that they get upset with their dumb wife when someday the food is not up to the mark or there’s not variety in all the things that the wife cooks. I say that person is just as much as an idolater as the other person bowing down to those bronze and silver gods.

Whereas here it doesn’t look like an idolatry, but it is whose god is their stomach, we read. So Acts 20, come back to Acts 20. Repentance toward God, verse 21, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. That means I turn away from everything that God has make that dishonor God in my life and absolute trust in Jesus. I lean upon him.

I’m confident in him. And he says that and also he says in verse 20, I did not keep back anything that I knew would be profitable for you, but showed you publicly and from house to house. That’s what he did for three years. And you would have thought that is the most spiritual church of all and it was because in all the letters of Paul the highest standard is proclaimed in Ephesians. These people are in Ephesus.

The Challenges Faced by Even the Most Spiritual Churches

The church the letters to the Corinthians, there’s a lot of correction. You guys are all carnal and baby like. To the Galatians, he says you’re worshiping so many other things. Your rebuke there and even among the Philippians, there are two sisters who are quarreling with each other, and there are problems in every church. But to the Ephesians, you read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, there’s hardly anything he’s correcting there.

What a wonderful church it was. So but what I want to show you is this wonderful church in Ephesus. The Lord — Paul had to tell the elders, please see Acts chapter 20 again. I have spoken to you verse 31 for three years day and night warning you. But I know something is going to happen after I leave.

I know that after I leave, verse 29, wolves will come into the flock. He’s telling the elders, he’s not talking to the church, he’s telling the elders, you guys are the shepherds. And so don’t think of just the four elders sitting here. If you are an older brother or sister to somebody else, you are in a sense an elder. Then you have a responsibility towards that other person to make sure that this doesn’t happen to you.

I’m afraid that wolves will come in and you’re not stopping them. What is the job of a shepherd? To stop the wolves from coming in and we have been very strict with that. Many of you may not know, but the elders have been very strict in every church that I have responsibility for, and now there are many. In 16 countries, God has established CFC.

So many nearly a hundred churches and 300 elders. Nobody takes a salary. Nobody takes an offering in any of these churches. And we warn everybody, be careful. Don’t let the wolves come in.

And I thank God for elders who are not seeking for a reputation for gentleness. See, a person who’s seeking a reputation that I want to be known as a gentle brother who does not correct anybody, rebuke anybody, that is the type of person who will allow a wolf to come in. And the wolf you know, there are wolves all around. In the first century, there were wolves. Now also there are wolves seeking to come into the church who are not interested in godliness.

Protecting the Flock from Wolves

You know, there are people who come to the CFC. They are looking for some sister young sister to get married for their son. They are not themselves interested in being disciples of Jesus, but they say, “Oh, in CFC, they teach submission. Wives will submit. I want a wife like that for my son.”

They have not taught their son to be the type of husband who will lay down his life for his wife like Jesus laid down his life for us. No. They haven’t taught that to their son, but they want their son to get a wife who will submit like the church submits to Christ. If I have anything to do with that, I’ll never allow such a young man to get a wife from our church. We are not producing slaves for covetous, greedy men.

So elders have a great responsibility to protect the flock, the lambs. The young people in our church are like the lambs. They don’t have much wisdom. We have to protect them. And not only three or four elders, but many of us must be elders too and guide these people.

And many of you are married and you have experience and you know what CFC stands for. Don’t think only of your own family. Think of all these young people here. Some of them here are do not have godly parents. You may be a godly person.

Your children are very fortunate to have you as a parent. But think of some people here. I always think of young people. You know, sometimes I look through the CFC matrimonial column. And I tell you my heart begins to weep the truth.

I say, Lord, all these young brothers and sisters, some of them in their mid-thirties, and where can we find godly young people who will marry these men and women and live a godly life? Please have mercy on them and find good partners for them. Please link them up. That is one of my biggest burdens nowadays, that another generation will grow up of godly people who are not here to take advantage of one another. And then there are some others who come to CFC because they say the children here are so well behaved and there’s a good Sunday school.

That’s not the reason to join a church, that you want your children to grow well. That is utter selfishness. You’re a thoroughly selfish person. You don’t want to give anything to the church. You want to get all the benefit of your children growing up well.

No wonder you don’t progress spiritually. True spiritual progress is where you think of others first, not yourself. You’ve heard that expression of how do you get joy in your heart? J O Y. Jesus first.

O, others next. Y yourself last. One way of getting joy. Jesus first, others next, yourself last. J O Y.

That’s the secret of true joy. Seek to serve the Lord like that. I thank you know, you don’t you need to be thankful for these wonderful elders who are sitting here. There are not many churches that have elders like this. You have to be extremely thankful.

The Joy of Serving the Lord

These brothers sacrificed a lot to serve you. What do they get out of it? The joy of serving the Lord. That’s all. Nothing else.

They’re not seeking your money. They’re not seeking your honor. So they are keeping away the wolves, but all of us have a responsibility to keep the wolves. What is the difference between a sheep and a wolf? A wolf is coming to get something for itself.

I want a husband for my daughter. I want a humble, godly man for my daughter, and I want a wonderful, submissive wife for my son. Or I want my children to grow up nicely. Everybody wants their children to grow up nicely. You want Christ to be Lord of your home?

Those are the people we invite to the church. Those who are quick to acknowledge their mistakes and their failures. So these elders listened to it, and Paul warned them, I’ll tell you what will happen after I leave. Verse 29, Wolves will come in and will destroy this flock. And not only that, some of you elders will try to get followers for your own self.

Thank God that has never happened here. We’ve always pushed out some elders like that. We had one or two in the past who wanted a following for themselves, and they’ve been removed. And wherever in any church we see a person who’s trying to get people to follow him, we’ll remove him. We are encouraging people to follow Christ.

So we have to be extremely thankful, dear brothers, that none of these four elders here are seeking anything for themselves. They not only don’t want your money, they don’t want anybody to follow them. They want you to follow Christ. Don’t take it for granted. Be extremely thankful for the elders you have because there are not many churches that have elders like this.

The Second Letter to the Ephesians

So in Ephesus, as I have often pointed out, can you turn with me to the second letter to the Ephesians? You know where that is? One Ephesians and two Ephesians. The second letter to the Ephesians is in Revelation chapter 2. That could have been called second Ephesians, like 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians.

We could have 1 Ephesians, 2 Ephesians. This is 2 Ephesians. Revelation chapter 2, to the angel means the messenger, that’s the elder of the church in Ephesus, say, “I know your works, your labor was true. You’re all a very wonderful, what all you are doing, and you have stood up for my name. But, verse 5, you have fallen.”

You have fallen from your first love. Verse 4, you have left your first love. That means the way you loved me once, Jesus says, it’s gone. You don’t love me like you did in those early days. Now you’re taken up just going for meetings, reading the Bible, and going through the rules of your life, but that fervent love for Jesus is gone.

So the most important thing that should remain in a marriage is not the quality of the food or the size of the house, but the quality of love between the husband and wife. That is the atmosphere in which God wants children to grow up, that they see how their parents love one another, forgive one another, don’t criticize or yell at each other or blame one another. That is the atmosphere of love in which children can grow up healthy. And the same way in our relationship with the Lord, he’s talking about not what we do for the Lord, but that love relationship he had with me in the beginning where I was number one in your affections. That means, like I often have taught nowadays, as soon as you get up in the morning, you must first think of Jesus, not of anything else.

Everything else will fall into place. You’ll be able to do your work better. You’ll be able to do everything better during the day if you start with Jesus Christ. And if that’s not your habit, I want to encourage all of you sitting here, even young people, children, grown-ups, when you get up in the morning, before you get out of bed, please spend at least five minutes or if more. If you have time, fifteen minutes.

But whether you lie down or sit up, talk to Jesus, I do it. That’s how I begin my day. There’s a lot of important work to be done that can wait. I can get up fifteen minutes early and just talk to the Lord as a personal friend. Thank him for protecting you, for caring for you.

Begin your day like that and spend a few minutes meditating on his love for you. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God’s mouth.” Shall I tell you how Jesus began his day every morning? That is written in a prophecy in Isaiah in chapter 50. If you have heard me speak about it before, please listen again.

Jesus’ Daily Routine

If you have never heard me speak on it before, listen now. Isaiah 50, we read and verse 5. This is a prophecy about Jesus. Many verses in Isaiah are a prophecy of Jesus Christ. And he says the Lord God, the Father, Jesus is speaking here, has opened my ear to and I did not turn away.

But what did he do opening the ear? It says in the last part of verse 4, he wakes me up morning by morning to hear my ear. That’s the meaning of saying he opened my ear. How did he open my ear? Verse 4 last part.

He woke me up every morning to listen to what he has to say. This is how Jesus lived. So when you wake up in the morning, dear brothers and sisters, it’s good to think, my Father has woken me up. Jesus has woken me up today. He wants to speak to me.

That’s why he woke me up. I’ve got a few more minutes before I start my work, and I say, “Lord, please speak to me. I want to listen.” So the Lord God has opened my ear, and he wakes me up in order to hear what he has to say. And when I hear it, verse 5, I will not be rebellious and turn away and say, “Oh, no. No. No. I can’t do that.” And if he tells me to give my back to somebody who’s smiting me or to my cheeks, to somebody who’s that pluck off my hair and or wants to spit on me, I’m willing to suffer anything. And the Lord God, verse 7, will help me.

So I’ve been quoting this verse to many people the last few years. Please let this be true in your life that you when you wake up, you can say, the Lord God has woken me up, and I want to listen what he has to say to me. Isn’t it a wonderful way to wake up? I find that. It’s become a precious reality for me now that my wife may be sleeping and I’m awake.

And I say the Lord has opened me waken me up to here or your husband may be sleeping and you’re awake. And the Lord says I’ve woken your ear to listen to me. Don’t turn away. I’ve got something to say to you. Man shall not live by breath alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

It will change your life. I tell you, if there’s one thing that has changed my life in the last 65 years, it is listening. I know many people say, how long do you pray? They tell me stories of somebody who prayed for four hours or five hours. And I say, you want me to tell you how long I pray?

Praying Without Ceasing

Please turn to Luke chapter 18. I’ll tell you exactly how many hours I pray. I obey God who has told me in Luke 18 verse 1, we must pray all the time, 24 hours, and must not faint. So what does it mean to pray 24 hours? Obviously, not being on our knees 24 hours because Jesus was not on his knees.

He worked as a carpenter for so many hours. His prayer, like I told you earlier, he weakens my ear. And while I’m doing my other work, my ear is open to hear what the Lord is saying. It’s a wonderful habit. When you get up in the morning, you hear something and you respond to it.

And then throughout the day, say, “Lord, my ear is open.” One of the best pictures I have seen is, in some countries, they have these policemen who drive cars and go around immediately to react to some situation where there’s a problem. And they have a walkie-talkie in their car connected to their headquarters. And it is on all the time. Because anytime the message may come to this policeman who’s in this car, sometimes it may be to another policeman in the car, but this set must be kept open all the time.

And they’ll call one particular policeman, and that man responds to it or sometime may come to you. Sometimes the whole day, this man is not called at all because the problems are in other parts of the city. But his walkie-talkie or not walkie-talkie, that transmitting radio must be there, open all the time. And that has been my example. I must have an ear that’s always open to the Lord.

What is the Lord saying to me all the time? I’m not listening I’m doing many other things, but with a heart that is open to listen. I’m trying to encourage everybody here to live by the highest standard of the Christian life. What I’m telling you is the highest standard of the Christian life, and every one of you can live by that. I wish somebody had told me this when I was 19 years old when I got converted, but I had to learn it myself.

So what does it say? Men not always to pray? That means 24 hours. You want to know how many hours I pray? Here it is.

24 hours a day. Not on my knees, but with the heart that’s opening. Because I believe when his chest, Jesus went into the wilderness to pray. I remember telling the Lord, I said, there’s no wilderness in Bangalore, which is the nearest wilderness. Have you found any wilderness near your place?

I lived here for 50 years. I never found a wilderness. And the Lord said, you know, early morning bed your bed can be a wilderness. What did Jesus go to the wilderness to do? He wanted to be quiet, to listen.

What is my Father saying to me? And every one of us can do that every day. When you get up, either while lying down or sit in your bed and say, “Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, speak to me. Please let me hear.” God is a God who speaks.

God Speaks Every Day

What do we read in the first page of the Bible? First day, God said something. Something happened. Second day, God said something. Something happened.

The third day, God said something. Something happened. Like that, all six days, he said something and something happened. That shows us couple of things. One, that every day God wants to speak to you.

That is written in the first page of the Bible. Every day. And the seventh day, they sat the whole day listening to God. Not just in the morning. Adam and Eve had been created on the sixth day, and the seventh day was a Sabbath.

They listened to God the whole day. And as I said, when God spoke something something happened. Because the word of God will never return empty. It will always accomplish what it went for. Have you read Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 11?

“So shall my word be that goes forth in my mouth. It will not return to me empty.” That means it will not return to me without accomplishing. It will accomplish something. That which I wanted it to accomplish by speaking.

That’s what you read in the first page of the Bible. Let there be light. Light came. Let the heavens be separated from the beneath part, separated. Let there be a sun and a moon, separated.

Let there be fish in the waters. Let there be animals on the earth. Something happens when the word of God is spoken. And that is the first message on the first page of the Bible. Every day God is speaking, people may not listen.

But if you listen, something will happen. I’ll tell you a recent example. You know, I was speaking a few days ago, I think on Saturday last, to some people, and I was quoting to them, do you know that God’s way of thinking is very different from yours? It says here in verse 8, “My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not God says my way of doing things is not your way, by the way.”

And what is the difference? As high as the heaven is from the earth, that is the difference between my way of thinking and doing in your way. And so I read that and shared that with somebody. It was on my I think I shared it from my Bible on my phone, and I shut down the phone. And Sunday morning, I got a message from Robson family that brother Ian has gone to be with the Lord.

It was morning in America, but it was evening here. And I heard he’s gone to be with the Lord. And as I said, I did not cry because all the previous week, I had cried a few times when I thought of the way he was suffering. But now is the time for rejoicing. Most people cry when they hear of a death.

I was rejoicing that he’s in heaven. He’s met with the Lord. And I told him what to tell the Lord that I was thankful for allowing him to be my coworker. And I said, “Wonderful. He’s told Jesus already about it and he’s so happy.”

When he’s happy, why should I be unhappy? If your husband is happy, should the wife look sad? If your coworker is happy, you’ll also be happy. So I was honestly happy. But then I heard also from the family that they’re going to have the funeral on Tuesday, 10 o’clock.

Now Tuesday on 10 o’clock is Monday night 10 o’clock in America. So here is there Sunday morning, I hear that Monday night is the funeral halfway around the world. And Santosh also felt we must go. He didn’t tell me to go. He said he’s going.

So I said, “Lord, do you want me to go?” I am little older than Santosh, and It’s not easy to travel halfway around the world. This trip, up and down. So you want me to go or not? I said, okay.

I don’t have any clear voice from you. Let me open my phone Bible. Where did I stop reading the previous day I was showing somebody? I stopped by showing him my thoughts are not your thoughts and the like the rain from heaven. I was telling him.

And then I came to I was I opened my Bible and I came to the next verse. After that, my word goes out of my mouth. Verse 12. “You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.” No.

That’s fine. I’ll go out with joy and I know you’ll lead me forth with peace. But you have to get a last minute ticket to travel halfway around the world, and you must reach here before 10 o’clock, morning time here. And it’s amazing how Santosh was able to get that ticket for us, both of us. And it was wonderful that we could be here.

Honoring a Faithful Servant

I say, when you come after he’s going to be with the Lord. When did you come before? And I didn’t know when he’s going to be with the Lord. We don’t know the future. I thought maybe, if I come in December, I’ll see him.

But, Lord, you’re always perfect. And, anyway, I felt okay. He said, “I shall go forth with joy and let forth peace,” so I say I’ll come. And I came here, Santosh and I, to show to all the people who came for a funeral that for a man like this, who served with me for 50 years, we never broke fellowship for one day in those 50 years. Barnabas and Paul broke fellowship after two years, but Ian and I never, not even in 50 years.

And I must honor such a man that people who come for their funeral must see that I’m willing to travel halfway around the world to honor such a man. Just come for one day and then I’ll go back. I’m going back tonight. And I believe that many people saw that. And that made I’m sure that made people appreciate brother Ian even more.

That brother Zac will travel halfway around the world to come to honor this man. Yeah. I don’t hesitate to say that. So we are thankful for such leaders that we have had. I want to say that God speaks to us.

The Danger of Spiritual Decline

The sad thing in Ephesus was this. You know, Paul said, wolves will come in. So here is a young 35-year-old elder sitting in Ephesus listening. I think some of those elders may have been 35 years old listening. I was 35 years old when I became an elder in CFC in 1975.

So here’s this young elder listening to Paul, 35 years old, saying Paul’s warning. Wolves will come in here. Be careful. And he says, “No. No. No. I’m alright. I’m wholehearted. The Lord will take care of me.” Thirty years later, in second letter to the Ephesians, we read in Revelation 2.

The Lord says to the elder and the messenger of the church of the elder in Ephesus, he tells him, “You have left your first love.” Verse 4. Revelation 2:4. Exactly like Paul warned you 30 years ago when you were a young 35-year-old man. Now you elder, you are 65 years old and it has been fulfilled.

You should not have. You did not take Paul’s observations seriously. Paul kept the church pure as long as he was there. But he said, once I’m gone, you guys will not keep this church pure. You will not be radical.

You’ll seek your popularity, and you’ll seek to be accepted before people and you won’t tell them what they should hear. And so the wolves will come in and destroy this flock and you yourselves will try to get followers to follow after you. That’s what he said in Acts 20. And that’s exactly like that it happened. The wolves came in and tore up that church.

And the Lord says in Revelation 2, I will the last part of verse 5, “I will remove the lampstand from your midst.” That means I will not be in your midst anymore. You will still have your meetings and sing 500 people, singing wonderful songs and all that, but Christ is not there. And there may be five or ten people sitting in that church who say, “Oh, the bridegroom doesn’t seem to be here now. That sense that we had of the Lord’s presence in those days when Paul was here, it’s not there.”

That sense of the Lord’s presence is not here. It’s not the personal type of preaching. It’s not clever preaching. I’m not talking about that. The sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus in the midst of the church.

The sense of the love of God in the midst of the church. They say it’s not here. The elders are just seeking their own. And so five or ten people say, when the bridegroom leaves the wedding hall, what should the bride do? Still sit there?

No. If the bridegroom has left, the bride says, I’m going too. I want to go where the bridegroom is. The bridegroom has left the wedding hall and gone somewhere else, and the bride says, I’ll go there. So five or ten people in that church who have the spirit of the bride leave that church and go and meet somewhere else in a little house, because they say the Lord is not here.

It has become just a big church with a lot of pomp and show. And they meet there and the elders the new elders or the old elders who are backslidden get up and say, “Look at those ten rebellious people who left. Don’t follow their example. They are backsliders.” They are not backsliders.

They are the people who really love the Lord. And they were fed up with the carnality and the honor seeking there and because the elders did not love the Lord. And they’ll be called rebels. But they were not bothered what they were called. Jesus was now there.

Like it says here, the Lord took away the lampstand from here and planted with his ten people over there. My dear brothers, this is what is, sisters, this is what happened in many churches in the world. They just increased in numbers. The presence of Christ is not there. See, so much of Sofiro, with all these YouTube, there are so many songs of worship and all that.

They’re not singing to the Lord. They’re singing. Maybe Christian words, but it’s singing. The presence of Jesus Christ is not there. They’re not worshiping the Lord.

There’s no reverence and awe, a w e, awe in the presence of Christ. I remember years ago, the Lord spoke to me very strongly through John chapter 4. John chapter 4, the Lord said to the Samaritan woman, something that God is eagerly seeking. Now you good wives, many of there are many good wives here. Supposing you feel that your husband is eagerly seeking for some particular type of food one day, Not every day, but one day he says, “I’d be very happy if I could have this particular food today.”

I believe a good wife will do everything possible to make that food for him. He’s not asking every day. Once in a year he said something. And when you hear that the heavenly Father is seeking for something, a good Christian will say, “Lord, I want to give you that, what you’re seeking.” John 4, it says in verse 23, middle of that verse, “The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth because the Father is seeking for such people to worship him.”

True Worship

And the way it came to my heart is, heavenly Father from heaven, you’re seeking for some people who will worship you from their spirit and in reality. Not just clap their hands and sing a song and have a good time and go home. And some people try to rattle off a few words in tongues and impress people and all that. Then fool people that they are filled with the Holy Spirit. You go home, they find it’s not the Holy Spirit.

They fight and shout at their wives. That’s not the way. They come to the church and speak in unknown tongues, and in a known tongue, they’ll shout at their wife at home. That’s not Christianity. So I said, “Lord, if you’re eagerly seeking for true worshipers, please make me one.”

There may not be many on the earth, but I want to be one. The Father is eagerly seeking for true worshipers in the spirit and truth. And I said, “Lord, I want to be one in that number. More than being a preacher, I want to be a worshiper.” There’s a beautiful story in the Old Testament to Isaiah chapter 6.

When you get time, read it. Oh, he saw the glory of the Lord, and he saw himself so corrupt. He said, “Oh, Lord. There’s so much sin in me. Please cleanse me.”

And he says, and God sent an angel with a fire from heaven, and it touched his tongue and told him you are cleansed. And the fire of heaven came upon his life, And he worshiped God, and he said, now go and tell other people. So that was a great challenge to me. Lord, I want to be like that, a worshiper. I don’t want to be a preacher first.

I want to be a worshiper. It doesn’t say God is seeking for preachers. He’s seeking for those who will worship him. Dear brothers and sisters, have you read that verse? How do you feel when you’re if somebody you love very much says “I wish somebody would give me this.”

There’s an Old Testament story of David when he was running away from king Saul. If you know the story in book of Samuel, 1 Samuel, he was running away from Saul, was trying to kill him, and David just had a few friends and he was running away running away in the caves and all that he was hiding. See David was born in Bethlehem, that was his hometown. And he was exhausted one day. He just made a statement like that.

“Oh, I wish I could get some water from that wonderful well in Bethlehem.” He just made a statement like that and Bethlehem was under the custody of King Saul, who was trying to kill David. You know, there are one or two people David’s, fellow soldiers heard that and said “Our leader wants some water from the well of Bethlehem.” Maybe it’s a particularly tasty water he drank in his younger days. It’s very dangerous to go there because it’s under the rule of Saul.

And if we go there, he may kill us. But they went. And they went to that well of Bethlehem taking a risk of their lives and took, I don’t know how much of water, and they brought it to David. And I’m sure David wept when he saw what wonderful brothers I have, that they’re willing to take a risk to get me this water. And he said, “No. I can’t drink it. They have risked their lives to give me this water.” He just poured it out. How can I drink water? These people risked their lives.

But look at the devotion they had. The earthly leader, he just expressed a desire. I wish I could have some water from my hometown. And here I see God saying, “I wish I had somebody who will worship me in spirit and truth.” How do you feel?

You feel like David’s soldiers? “Oh, Father. I want to satisfy you. I want to be one of those. I maybe I don’t understand what it means, but I want to I want to satisfy your heart because you’ve done so much for me.”

I’m more devoted to you than those soldiers are to David. The relationship I have with God must be a love relationship. Not like a master saying you do it. He just expresses a desire. I wish I could have some water from Bethlehem.

He said, okay. I’ll go and get it. And I hear a desire expressed. God is eagerly seeking for someone who will worship in spirit and truth. I say, “Yes, Lord. I want to be one of those.” Please say that to the Lord. You will never be a backslider then. You may never be a preacher. To tell you honestly, my desire is not to be a great preacher or a famous preacher.

I want to be a worshipper. That doesn’t mean raising your hands and singing. I do all that Mostly alone, particularly alone in my bed when I get up in the morning. Sometimes in the middle of the night, my wife is asleep. She probably also worships when I’m asleep.

And I say, “Father in heaven, that eager desire you have, I want to satisfy you.” I’ll tell you something, my brothers and sisters. Seek for that. It’ll change your life, and there’ll be such a radiance in your life and an atmosphere of heaven in your home that your children will say, this is the God I want to follow, the God of my father and my mother. They were not just run of the mill Christians who just went to church like a routine.

They had a passion for God. That’s okay. Let’s pray. Yeah. There are many things we have heard today.

Conclusion and Prayer

Please take them seriously. You won’t reach the PhD in one day. Start with the kindergarten. Say, “Lord, I am in the kindergarten. I want to learn the ABC first of this life.”

I’m willing to if it takes a little time, I’ll work hard and learn the ABC. Then I’ll go to the next stage to learn CAT is CAT and BAT is BAT little by little. One day, I’ll get my PhD also. But I want to work towards it. It is not going to happen in one day, but I am going to start.

There is an old proverb which says, “The journey of one thousand miles starts with one small step.” How do you walk ten one thousand miles? With one step and then another step. And after some time, you reach the end of that one thousand mile journey. This way is open for everybody here. If you have a willing heart, you can become a man of God, a woman of God.

Heavenly Father, please help all of us, we pray, to walk this way and satisfy your heart. Preserve this church that it will never become a backslidden church. That the wolves will never be able to come in here. Never, never, never.

But it will be church that is loyal and true to you until the day, Lord Jesus, you come back. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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