Foundational Truths for Young People — Zac Poonen

Heavenly Father, we want your presence to be here. Lord Jesus, you are the head of the church. Be in our midst and speak to us through your Holy Spirit. Everyone, get a word from you. We thank you for hearing us.

We lean upon you and trust you. In Jesus' name we pray, Father, Amen. Okay. So I'm speaking primarily to the young people who are at the camp of the conference. Let's, first of all, I'd like to turn to Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11.

God's Plans and a Hopeful Future

This is one of my favorite verses because it says something here very clearly which is expressed in other places in scripture in different ways, but here it is very clear. And all of you young people must remember this verse.

Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11. And if you remember the chapter and you don't remember the verse, just add the two and nine in the chapter, you get 11. So Jeremiah 29, 11. And take this as a word God is speaking to you where God says, I know the plans that I have for you.

And make that personal. Because we don't know our future. We don't even know, the Bible says, you don't even know what will happen tomorrow. Leave alone in the next 30, 40, 50 years of your life. But God knows the whole future.

He knows the type of person you are. He knows your temperament. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your strengths. In fact, God knows you better than your parents, better than you know yourself. And when God makes a plan for your life, he takes all those factors into account.

Your personality, your temperament, your gifts, and your circumstances, the place you're gonna live. Years later, the type of work you're gonna do and the trials you're gonna face, the temptations that will come your way, God knows everything.

And some of those trials we can think of like pitfalls, dangers on the road. God knows them ahead of time. And he wants to guide your life so that you get the best out of your one earthly life. So read this verse with that in mind.

The Lord says to you, I know the plans I have for you. And those plans are for your good. For your welfare means for your good. And they are not for calamity. That means none of my plans, God's got many plans for your life.

And not one of those plans is gonna harm you in any way. It's not for calamity. And the purpose of the plans God has made is to give you a wonderful future and at a young age to have hope for the future.

So remember this verse. The Lord says, I know the plans I have for you. Plans for your welfare, for your good, and not for any harm to come to you. There may be trials along the way, but those trials will be to strengthen you and to give you a future and a hope.

Laying a Foundation in Youth

So in your single years and your youthful days, you must lay a foundation for the future. That's why single days are very young. Our youth time is very important. Single days are very important. You know, the first thing that people do when they want to build a house is to lay a foundation.

Sometimes in India, you hear of a three-story building suddenly developing a crack in the third floor or the fourth floor, four-story building. And you think the problem is there. It's not there. The engineers know the problem is when they laid a foundation right at the beginning of that building, they did not lay the foundation deep enough, strong enough.

And so for many years, nothing happened. And it looked as if this three, four-story building was okay. But as the earth around it began to sink, because the foundation was not strong, the house began to sink just a wee bit.

And then the crack comes in the wall. So the foundation you're laying in your younger days, in your single days, if you lay a good foundation now, it can help you throughout your life. Your life is like building a big house.

Many of you may build 10 stories, houses, skyscrapers, your whole future, but you're laying the foundation now in your single days, in your youthful days. And you read in the Bible about some young men like Joseph.

You know the story of Joseph. You get time, you read it. It's in the last 14 chapters of Genesis. Genesis 37 to 50, you don't have to turn to it now, but when you get time, read it. The story of Joseph, when he was 17 years old, God began to lay a foundation in his life.

And that helped him all the way till he died at the age of 110. Imagine, for nearly 100 years, that was a huge skyscraper Joseph was building with his life, but the foundation was laid when he was young.

And he is one of those rare people in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, against whom nothing wrong is ever said. He never seemed to have done anything wrong or evil. His brothers did evil to him, but he forgave them.

He's a wonderful example of a young man who laid a good foundation in his life. And he forgave, he went through a lot of trials. His 10 brothers were against him. And when he went into Egypt, sold as a slave into Egypt.

Imagine if you have been sold as a slave at the age of 17. You can have a lot of complaints, but he never had. And it says, God was with him. Throughout those chapters, you read, God was with him. When he was a slave, God was with him.

That his master saw, this is an unusual slave. God is with him. And he was only about 20 years old. Imagine if you, 20 years old, 25 years old, 18 years old, that you live in such a way that older people recognize this is an unusual young man.

God seems to be with him. My dear young brothers and sisters, that is my greatest longing for you. That people will recognize that God has blessed you. In the earth, they think of blessing in terms of a house and money and all that.

No, the most blessed man who walked on this earth was Jesus Christ. And he never owned a house and he had very little money. And sometimes he used to sleep out in the fields because nobody invited him in Jerusalem to their house to stay for the night.

He had no complaints. So the most blessed man who walked on this earth was not a rich man. And he was not a graduate. So the Bible says Jesus is our example. Now it's okay, in our day, perhaps it's necessary to study and get a degree to get a job, that's okay.

But the point is, in your single years, you're gonna lay a foundation. Jesus, the father sent Jesus out into the ministry at the age of 30. What was he doing in the years up to the age of 30? At the age of 12, by the age of 12, he had really studied the Bible.

That's really amazing. That means he was so eager as a young man to study the Bible every day. And remember, they never had any printed Bible like this in those days. There's one copy of the Bible in the synagogue and Jesus must have gone there maybe from the age of five or six, all the way up to the age of 12.

Every day he would go and ask the rabbi who was the preacher there, can you please read something from the Bible for me? And he would read a few verses and Jesus would say, okay, stop. I'll just remember that.

You go home, meditate on that. Come back the next day to read some more of the Bible. You tell him, please read some more. Maybe he spent a half an hour like that every day. Imagine if from a very young age, you just spent half an hour every day just to understand the Bible, that's going to lay a tremendous foundation in your life for the future.

So that's one wonderful example. The other example, I want to just mention two examples. The other example we see in the Bible is Daniel. He was another young man against whom nothing is written against him.

Two unique examples in the Bible of people who never did anything seriously wrong. Daniel was another man who was upright and honest. He stood for the Lord in the midst of a community that was against the true God.

See, some of you may go to school or college or go to work and the atmosphere around you may be exactly like Daniel's or exactly like Joseph's in Egypt. No knowledge of the true God and against the true God.

And like Joseph was faithful in Egypt, Daniel was faithful in Babylon. Babylon was a very powerful nation. But Daniel was very faithful to God, even if it meant the king would get angry with him. But he says, I will not disobey God, even in small things.

He decided he will read the book of Daniel sometime and see what a wonderful man he was. And it says, God gave him wisdom at a young age. And it's a wonderful thing if you can grow wisdom from a young age.

Meditating on Scripture and Training Children

I want to show you another verse in Proverbs in chapter 22. By the way, Proverbs is a great book for young people to read. I would suggest that you read it many times. For example, in addition to your Bible reading, if you read Proverbs regularly, it'll help you greatly.

You should read through Proverbs many times. There are some people who read Proverbs one chapter a day in their 31 chapters. And in a full month, they can finish it. They read it again. Whenever you get a chance, read Proverbs.

A lot of advice there for young people. And it doesn't matter if you read only two or three verses a day. Take a whole year to go through Proverbs, nevermind. Read two or three verses and meditate on them.

You know, just like when we eat food, the food must go into the stomach and get digested. If it does not get digested, you throw it out. You vomit. And then you don't get strong. Some people have that sickness that their food doesn't get digested.

And then even though they eat so much, they never become strong. So in the same way with the Bible, if you just read it and you don't meditate on it, if you have 15 minutes to read the scriptures, it's better to read a few verses and meditate on them rather than to read a long passage and not meditate.

Yeah, read four or five verses, particularly New Testament. Go to the New Testament, read four or five verses and meditate, meditate. I mean, it's like chewing your food. It's like you chew your food in the mouth.

You don't swallow it in the same way. Read the Bible like that. Okay, Proverbs chapter 22. Proverbs chapter 22 and verse six. If you have a Bible, turn to it. It's a very good habit to get familiar with the chapters in the Bible.

Proverbs 22 and verse six. Here it says to parents, train up a child in the way he should go. And then if he does, if you do that, when he's old, he will not depart from it. That means parents are told if you train up a child in a particular way, when he's old, he will not depart from it.

I'll give you an example from nature. Have you seen some trees which are absolutely straight? Absolutely straight. And then you've probably seen some other trees which are slanting. The whole tree trunk is slanting.

Others, the whole tree trunk is straight. So I wonder why. I believe that God created trees to grow up straight. He did not create trees to grow at an angle, grow straight. But trees are always looking for sunlight.

And if there's some building or something that hides the sunlight, then the tree will, as a plant, it'll go another way to get the sunlight. And then it grows that way and it grows up crooked. And all its life, it'll be crooked.

And then you can't straighten it. Once a tree has become strong as a crooked tree, you can never straighten it. If you want to straighten it, straighten it when it is a plant. Tie it down with some string and as it grows stronger with the ropes, and then it'll grow straight.

So that's a picture of how you grow when you're young. You'll ultimately be like that when you grow up. So if you're upright when you're young, you'll be upright all your life. It's much easier. And so one of the first things that you need to be sure of with your young age, as I said, to lay a foundation.

Assurance of Salvation and the New Birth

The foundation is to be born again. To be born again is to become a child of God and not only born again, but to be sure that you're a child of God with no doubt at all. Now, if you grew up in a Christian family, like I did, going to church every Sunday, reading the Bible almost every day, we probably would, even at a very young age, our parents would have asked us to receive Jesus into our heart.

And that's right. Even a little child can receive Christ into his heart. And I remember one sister who came to Bangalore at the age of 83 or something like that. She told us she was a European sister, but at the age of three, she accepted Christ.

And when she was about, I don't know, about seven or eight years old, she heard a missionary from China speaking about China and she felt a call to go to China. And when she was much older, 40, 50, she went to China.

So I remember that story so well that I know that a person can be born again and become a child of God even when they're three or four years old. And they get a call from God, even at a very young age.

Now, I accepted Christ probably many times because I'd go to a meeting and I'd hear, ask Jesus to come into your heart. And I said, yes, Lord, I want to be a child of God coming to my heart. But my problem was I was never sure.

Probably some of you are like that, not sure whether Christ has really come in. Have I become a child of God? And you know something, in all those years when I was not sure, I never grew spiritually. It's very important, not only to receive Christ into your life, but to be absolutely sure that Christ has come and forgiven you.

So that assurance can come by reading the Bible. So I remember, I used to have the habit of reading some verses from the Bible every day. And maybe from the age of 13 onwards, many times I would have accepted, Lord, come into my heart, come into my heart over the next six years.

Never sure. I don't know if any of you are like that. I've never had any spectacular experience or seen any light or heard any voice. I just had the Bible. And one day when I was reading the Bible, I read from John chapter six.

And I want you to look at this verse, John chapter six and verse 37. I was just reading. I was not particularly looking for a verse. That day, my passage happened to be John chapter six. And I read that in verse 37, the last part of the verse 37, John 6, 37, Jesus saying, if anyone comes to me, I will certainly not cast him out or reject him.

Listen to that. Take it as a word for you. If anyone, that's you, Jesus says comes to me, I will definitely not reject him. I will receive him. And I said, Lord Jesus, I was all alone in my room. I said, Lord Jesus, I asked you many times to come to my heart.

I came to you many times. And I felt from that verse, Jesus is saying to me from that verse, I did not reject you. I said, thank God. Thank God I can be sure today that Christ has accepted me. And if some of you are not sure, I hope you will be sure today.

Even from that verse, Jesus will not reject anyone who comes to him sincerely. I was not perfect. I had so many mistakes and problems in my life, but he accepted me. Jesus said he came for sinners. He did not come for holy people.

You remember once the Pharisees asked him, Lord, why are you always with the sinners? And he said, I'm a doctor. I'm a physician. There's a sick people who need a doctor. You people think you're healthy.

Actually, the Pharisees were more sick than anybody else, but they didn't realize it. The most sick person is the person who doesn't realize he's sick. The Pharisees were like that. They thought they were holy, but they were not.

They thought they were righteous. But there were other people in Israel who knew they were sinners and they welcomed Jesus. So remember this, if you feel there's a lot of sin in your life, I want to tell you that Jesus came for you, especially.

Confession, Forgiveness, and a Clean Conscience

And I was a young man and I was defeated by all the wrong thoughts that I had and anger and many things like that. All of you have, fighting with others and all that. I had a lot of problems, just like every young person, not especially evil, but normally evil, like other young people.

And I said, Lord, I want you to forgive me, first of all, completely blot out my past sins. And I was sure, based on that verse. And then I discovered that when I confess my sin to the Lord, he cleanses me completely from all sin.

So here's another great verse that'll help you throughout your life. 1 John, the first episode of John chapter one. If you're writing it down, it'll be very good to write down these verses. 1 John chapter one and verse nine.

Apply it to yourself. If you say to yourself, if I confess my sin, Jesus is faithful and righteous to forgive me all my sins and to cleanse me from all evil and unrighteousness in my life. That's a great verse.

I had great use for it because we don't come to a life of victory overnight. It took me how many years? Many, many years. So in all those years, when we fall down, we get up, we need to confess our sin to the Lord immediately.

Look at sin like a thorn getting into your foot. If a thorn gets into your foot, how long do you wait till you pull it out? You won't even wait one second. It hurts to have a thorn poking your foot. You stop, sit down and pull out the thorn and then move on.

Take that attitude whenever you commit a sin in words or in deeds, that's a thorn. Go to the Lord immediately in your thoughts, wherever you are. You say, Lord, I'm sorry I slipped up there in my thoughts.

I'm sorry I had a dirty thought. I'm sorry I spoke a rude word there. Please forgive me. And if the person you hurt is nearby, ask his forgiveness immediately. It's a very good habit to develop, to set things right with God and to set things right with man.

There are many people who are much older who still have a trouble asking people for forgiveness. I've met people who are 60, 70 years old. They still have such a problem asking somebody younger than them, please forgive me.

Why is that? Because they never developed that habit when they were young. Develop the habit of quickly asking forgiveness if you hurt somebody. I mean, if you were standing somewhere, you accidentally stepped on somebody's foot who was standing behind you, what would you do?

Would you have a discussion with them and say, hey, by the way, it was only accidental or would you say, hey, I'm sorry, I stepped on your foot? We don't discuss or justify ourselves. We hurt somebody.

Whether you did it accidentally or deliberately, you stepped on his foot. You hurt him. And immediately, if you all have the habit, I'm sure you all say, I'm sorry. Do the same when you hurt somebody with your words or in some other way.

It's much worse than stepping on their feet. I'm sorry, brother. As an older person, I'm sorry, sir. Settle it immediately. Very, very important. I'll tell you something. You know why we are slow in doing that?

Because of only one reason. We are all born proud. I want to tell you the truth about yourself. We are all proud creatures. Pride is the root of all sin. And we are born proud. Babies, little children as they grow up, they are proud.

That's why they fight with others, fight with each other. And that pride is what prevents you from asking forgiveness. So humble yourself. Jesus humbled himself. So let me tell you a little bit about how Satan became Satan.

Pride, Humility, and the Grace of God

It's important to know it. I'll tell you in one minute. When God created the universe, there was no Adam and Eve. In the first verse of Genesis, he made the heaven and the earth. And he also made all the angels.

That's written in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. And he made one person. We don't know his name. They call him Lucifer as the head of the angels. Today, it's a bad name, Lucifer. But in those days, he was the head of the angels.

And heaven was a beautiful place. Everybody was humble, serving one another. But this head of the angels became proud. What did he become proud of? Oh, I'm the leader of so many angels. It's very easy for pride to come into your heart.

And he said, oh, only God is above me. He was so stupid. He said, I think I'll go above God also. But even if he didn't say that, that pride in his heart was a sin. Pride comes when we compare ourselves with others.

Remember this. Pride comes in your heart only because you compare yourself with others. I'll give you an example. In India, when the schools, they grade with marks between zero and 100. Past marks are 40 and 100 is all your problems are.

You get correct, you get 100. Now, supposing a young boy is studying in a school where everybody is very poor in their academic study. They are stupid and he's the cleverest of the lot. And so he gets, say, 20 out of 100.

20 out of 100 is a very poor score. But all the others got 10, five, zero and all that. They were all less than him. He came first in the class and he was proud. Comes home and says, mom, I came first in the class.

How much did you get? I got 20 out of 100. And she says, how did you come first? And all the others got 10 and 15 and five and all. They were all worse than me. Pride. He was not very clever, but he was proud because he compared himself with others.

Okay. His father then took him and put him in another school, which was a much better school. And where all the students in his class were very clever. They were all getting 80, 90, 100 and all that. In their math tests.

He went in and he got 20. And all of a sudden he became very humble. He got the same marks in the other school. How did he become humble? That humility and pride did not come by the marks he got. Your humility or your pride does not come by your abilities.

It comes only because you compare yourself with others. And if you feel you're better than others, you become proud. If you feel they are better than you, you all of a sudden become humble. It doesn't affect only you.

I met a lot of preachers who are proud because they can preach better than other people. Or they think they can preach better than others. Or because more people admire their preaching and they become proud.

And there are other preachers, even elders who can't preach well. And they are very humble because people don't think much of them. Where does that humility come from? It's not coming from Jesus. It's coming from I'm comparing myself with my fellow elders, fellow preachers.

They're all better than me. So I humble myself. That's not true humility. Or you go to another church where everybody's worse than you, you suddenly become proud. Not because you got more ability. Humility, remember this all your life.

It's by comparing yourself with others that you become proud. For the Christian, humility does not come by comparing ourselves with others and saying, oh, well, I'm better than them. No. Humility comes by comparing yourself with Jesus.

The angel became proud and became Satan. As soon as he became proud, God put him out and he became Satan. And Jesus came from heaven and humbled himself to save us primarily from our pride. If you're saved from your pride, you'd be saved from many other sins.

I'll tell you why. Because there is a law in the Bible. You can read that. There's another great verse that you must remember. 1 Peter 5 and verse 5. Turn in your Bible to 1 Peter 5 and verse 5. It's spoken to young people.

Here's a great verse for a young people's conference like this one. You young men and young women. The middle of that verse, it says, clothe yourself with humility. That means let humility be your inner dress, not the outer dress, inner dress.

Reason, because God is against proud people, but he supports, he gives grace to humble people. That's a great verse. I want the grace of God all the time in my life. And here is how I can get it. If I humble myself, I'll get it.

That's all. You don't have to know. You don't have to know the Bible. In every situation, if you choose the path of humility, and when you're by yourself, you don't compare yourself with others and think that you're better than them, that's a tremendous temptation.

Particularly if you can sing well, or as a child, you can act well in dramas, or you can speak well, even in school, or you come do well in your math test and your English test, and you do better than others, you're ranked on top.

It's very easy to become proud. You don't have to. I'm sure Jesus did very well in school, but he was humble all through. And if you say, Lord Jesus, I want to look at you, who never became proud of anything in his life, even though he was God, he humbled himself and became like a servant on this earth to everyone.

So I want to say to you, if you learn this one lesson as a young person, that all your life you remain in humility, comparing yourself with Jesus, I'll tell you something that'll happen. God's grace will support you, support you, support you all the time.

I picture it like this. If a man is proud, God comes in front of him and pushes him back, back, back, back. I mean, the devil's already pushing all of us back. Our sins are pushing us back. And if God also pushes us back, we are doomed.

And I'll tell you something, God is pushing many of his believers back because they are proud. Even many preachers, God pushes them back. Many elders I've seen, God pushes them back because they are proud.

Even in our CFC churches, I've seen that. But I thank God for the few who are always seeking to humble themselves on God. You can see that God is behind that man, pushing him forward, pushing him forward.

He doesn't want to go forward at all. He doesn't want to go up. God's pushing him up, God's pushing him up. And the main area where God is pushing him up is not in the presence of others, not that he becomes a great preacher, but that he overcomes sin.

Don't glory in the fact that other people have a high opinion about you. That'll make you proud. Never think about the opinion others have about you. Only say, Lord, what do you think about me? It's a prayer I have even though I'm 82 years old, but I still pray, Lord, I want to know if you're pleased with me.

That's what I want to know more than anything else. I don't care what people think about me. That counts for zero in my life. What do you think of me, Lord? That's all I want to know. Live your life like that.

I tell you, you'll grow up to be a wonderful young man, young woman, if you do it. God's plan for your life will be fulfilled. Just humble yourself, humble yourself. And you'll never get into a fight with anybody.

So that's a great verse. God gives grace. Grace means strength, power to overcome sin, the temptations that come in your life. That's how you can overcome. Okay, another verse. I'm giving you these verses that'll help you all your life.

God's Forgetfulness of Confessed Sin

Hebrews 8 and verse 12. Once you've confessed your sin, and we read there in 1 John 1, 9, he forgives you and cleanses you. The devil will remind you of the sins he has already forgiven. God has forgiven.

You know you're forgiven, but the devil say, ah, but I know you remembered last year you did this, or last month you did this, and you remember yesterday how you spoke to somebody. And the devil is always out to remind you of your past failures, even though you confessed it to God and asked forgiveness.

So here is a great verse. Hebrews 8, verse 12. These are verses that helped me tremendously in my life as a young man. I will be merciful to their iniquities, the Lord says. Iniquities means sins. And I will not remember their sins anymore.

Isn't it wonderful to know that God does not think of me as, yeah, I know what you did two years ago. He doesn't say that. Other people may say that to you. Hey, I know you, man. I know how you behaved two years ago.

I know how you behaved last month. But when you go to God and you confess your sin, it's blotted out. He says, I will not remember your past sins anymore. And if God doesn't remember it, let the whole world remember it.

You say, I'm not gonna remember it because God has forgiven me. I'm very grateful to God for having forgiven me, but I'm not gonna live in condemnation. Oh, last week I did this. Last month I did this.

I'll tell you what you should feel condemned about. The sin that you did not confess to God. If there's any sin you have not confessed to the Lord, definitely you should feel condemned. But every sin that you confess to Jesus, you can be absolutely sure Jesus has blotted it out.

He will not remind you of it at all. So Jesus once said in Matthew 23, here's another great verse. Matthew 23, he told the Pharisees in verse 25, Matthew 23, 25, you are all hypocrites. A hypocrite is a person who looks holy on the outside, but is filthy inside.

He acts very holy in the presence of other believers and when he comes to church, but in his private life and his thought life, it's all filth. That's a hypocrite. And every one of us, you and I have a tendency to become hypocrites.

Let me repeat that. I don't care how holy you are. You and I have a tendency to become hypocrites, young or old. We have to fight it and say, Lord, I don't want to appear clean on the outside and dirty inside.

No. He said to them in verse 25, you clean the outside of the cup, but the inside is filthy. Now, if you are given something in a cup, milk or a cup of tea or juice or anything, it's no use the outside being clean.

You got a glass, it's no use the outside of the glass being clean. The inside is important. Even if there are a few scratches or dirt on the outside, it doesn't matter. The inside must be clean. And if the inside is clean, you will never pour any juice or anything into such a glass, will you?

When you take a glass, you want to see if the inside is clean. And that's what God is saying. Make sure your inside is clean. Very, very important. And for our inside to be clean, I told you, as soon as you're convicted that you did something wrong, confess it to the Lord.

If you heard somebody confess it to that person, Lord, I'm sorry I did that wrong thing. Please forgive me. And the Lord will forgive you immediately. And every time, keep your conscience clean. Keep your conscience clean.

That's very, very, very important. So, the next thing I want to say is, in the Old Testament, they never knew God as a father. They only knew him as a God who's got to be frightened of him and be scared of him because he's holy and you don't know what he'll do.

God as Father and the Work of the Holy Spirit

But Jesus came and revealed God as a loving father. And Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this. Our heavenly father, Matthew 6 and verse 9. It's another verse you must remember. Whenever you pray, pray, father, my father who is in heaven.

Two things. These are the two things you must remember when you pray. God is my father, therefore he loves me, cares for me, but he's also in heaven, which means he runs this whole universe. He controls everybody.

He controls your friends. He controls your enemies. He controls your circumstances. He controls your parents. He controls all those people in the school. He controls your teachers. He controls everybody in the world.

That's the meaning of being in heaven. So, there are two things in that verse. God, you're my father. I'm your child. And you love me more than my earthly parents. See, all of you have got wonderful earthly parents.

Maybe most of you have. Parents who love you so much, sacrifice so much for you. I want to tell you, please listen to this. God is a much better father than your earthly father and mother. Much better.

He loves you more than them. He will do more for you than any earthly father or mother can do. You must never forget that. In the Hebrew language in which the Bible was, the early disciples wrote, they used to call him Abba.

Abba. That's the Hebrew word for father. In English, we say dad. Daddy, dad. So, when you pray to God in private, you can call him dad. Dad. That's how I call him. In private. In public, I say father.