What He Did for Jesus, He'll Do for All His Children (Norwegian) — Zac Poonen

Jesus Prays All Night Before Choosing the Twelve

I want to turn to a passage in Luke's Gospel, chapter 6. There was only one time in the Gospels that it is mentioned that Jesus prayed all night. He may have prayed at other times all night, we don't know.

There's one time it is mentioned.

Now one would think, why does Jesus, who never sinned, had such perfect fellowship with the Father, why does He have to pray all night?

We could ask ourselves, why does Jesus, who never sinned, have such perfect fellowship with the Father, why does He have to pray all night? It's in Luke 6, verse 12. It says that at that time He went up to the mountain to pray, and He prayed all night in prayer to God.

And in the next verse we understand why He prayed all night. And in the morning He called His disciples, and 12 of them He chose to be His apostles. And all of them were under 30 years old.

They never chose anyone older than them to be their disciples.

So, He prayed all night to seek His Father's will.

He didn't want to make a mistake. Because the whole future of the church depended on these people whom He is choosing. The more important the decision we are taking, the more long-term consequences, the more we have to pray.

Decisions that don't have long-term consequences, we don't have to pray so much. So here was something very, very important that is going to affect the next 2 ,000 years. And so He had to be very sure about, because He was human, He had to be very sure that His mind was thinking clearly about the Father's choices.

He had to be convinced that He was completely sure about the Father's will, about whom He was going to choose as His disciples. These were not the smartest people in Israel.

These were not the greatest Bible scholars in Israel.

We know that at the same time that Jesus was on earth, there was a Bible school being run in Jerusalem by Gamaliel.

And we know that the Apostle Paul, before he was converted, was studying there for 3 years. But Jesus didn't go to that Bible school and select people to be His apostles.

Jesus didn't go to that Bible school and select people to be His apostles. He called out people who were in very ordinary professions. There were some who didn't have any special education, like Peter, Jacob, Johannes.

They were fishermen.

And then there were some very educated people, like Matthew, who was an accountant. Education didn't make a difference. There were those who were very educated, and those who were not so educated. But He picked out some, and He was going to train them for the most important work that was going to be done on the earth.

But He picked out some, and He was going to train them for the most important work that was going to be done on the earth. And even Judas Iscariot, at that time, was a wholeheartedly radical disciple.

Because it says here in verse 16, that he became a traitor. When it says that he became a traitor, it means that he was not a traitor from the beginning.

When it says that he became a traitor, it means that he was not a traitor from the beginning. And the Father would not have given that name to Jesus if He was not wholehearted. And there are some who say that Jesus chose him so that some prophecies would be fulfilled.

But it is people who do not know God who say that. God does not play with people's lives when it is a question of heaven or hell. He was a wholehearted person who became a traitor. Now the reason I mention this is, many of you are in your twenties.

God's Call to Young People

That's usually the period of time when God picks people, even today.

That's usually the period of time when God picks people, even today. For a purpose that is eternal. For the most important work that anyone can do on this earth. And if you can see how important these disciples' call was, He never prayed all night to heal the sick or cast out demons.

He did not pray all night even to preach a sermon. But when it came to selecting those who were going to serve Him,.

It was the most important decision Jesus was making in His whole life.

It was the most important decision Jesus was making in His whole life. And I want to say, that many of you now have the same privilege. You are chosen and called by God to fulfill a particular purpose.

To build God's church.

And above all to be a witness of Jesus. And I believe that is why God has brought you here this weekend. No matter how young you are, even if you are under 20, it doesn't matter. I believe people like Joseph were chosen when he was 17 years old.

And David when he was 18 or 19 years old. And Samuel when he was 89 years old. But throughout Scripture I see that the people whom God chose were mostly young.

Even the great prophet Jeremiah was probably 19 or 20 years old. Because in the first chapter God says to him, don't say you're a young man. God has to say, oh you're young, you've got to wait a long time before you serve God.

But the word of the Lord is, don't say you're young.

The question is not our age. The question is, how open are you going to be to God when He speaks to you?

No Partiality in God's Calling

One of the greatest truths that has encouraged me in the Bible is that with God there is no partiality. It's a very small verse in Romans chapter 2. But if you meditate on it, you'll find there's a tremendous depth of meaning there.

A very simple sentence.

Romans chapter 2 and verse 11. There is no partiality with God. Why does He choose some people? Why does He not choose others? He doesn't just pick names out of a hat blindly. No, He sees in people a certain willingness to respond to His call.

I don't know most of you here.

I don't know you personally. But having been in many such gatherings in the past 40 -50 years,.

With people of your age in different parts of the world,.

I have a sense that God brings together such people who He has a purpose for. Particularly if they want to hear the message I preach.

I can say that without a doubt to every one of you sitting here.

Especially you young people. That God has a very special purpose for you.

And that's why He brought you into this world. And that's why He allowed you to be born into this world.

And that's why He allowed you to hear the Gospel so early in life. And that you responded to His call. And that you now have a desire to come here to hear more of what God has to say to you. All those desires were put in our heart by God.

And you have to remember there is no partiality with God.

What He did for Joseph, or David, or Daniel, He'll do for you.

Jesus as the Perfect Example of God's Treatment

In the New Testament it's even more wonderful.

In the New Testament it's even more wonderful. Because today we have the most wonderful example of all. And that's Jesus Christ.

And one of the most wonderful truths in the New Testament that changed my whole life was when I recognized that Jesus lived on earth just like me.

He was tempted like me.

He didn't face the circumstances I faced. His circumstances were different.

But the temptations were the same.

And God treated Jesus just like anybody else on this earth.

He never made a difference.

Because of one verse. There's no partiality with God. Now it's very difficult for many Christians to understand that God did not show any partiality to Jesus, His own Son. The entire Christian world believes that God treated Jesus in a special way.

And that's why they don't have faith to follow Him.

One of the greatest truths that changed my life was when I realized that He didn't treat Him in a special way. Further down in Romans, in chapter 8, it says. And verse 29 just like He chose those 12 apostles here another word is used.

And that word applies to you and me. He chose us. He foreknew us. And it says here. He predestined us to become conformed to the image of His Son so that Jesus, the firstborn, may be the firstborn among many brothers.

It's a wonderful thing to recognize that God chose us. This word foreknowledge. Whom He foreknew.

God, way back in eternity, knew all of us. Who the 12 disciples of Jesus were going to be. When Jesus came to earth, because He came as a man He emptied Himself of all that knowledge He had when He was in heaven.

He came here with that, having emptied Himself. He needed to seek the Father to see who the 12 disciples were.

But God had chosen those 12 disciples even before He created Adam.

Because of this word foreknowledge He knew beforehand. We are human. We can only know after something is done. When you see the news on television you're seeing something that's already happened. We have afterknowledge.

Knowledge after the thing has happened. Foreknowledge means God knows it before it has happened. He doesn't influence that decision. He doesn't influence the actions. Just like if you watch news on television you're not influencing the actions that you're seeing there.

You just see it. You see everything that happens in a particular town. In the same way God can look into the future and see everything that's going to happen for millions of years. That's why long before He created Adam He could look into the future and know about you and me.

He knew where you'd be born, to whom you'd be born. Who would be your parents.

He knew that at a certain age you would give your life to Jesus. He knew that. And because He knew that you would answer yes to the Gospel He chose you.

Foreknowledge, Election, and Practical Gospel Hope

Let's look at 1 Peter 3.

This is not just theology. And I don't just want to teach you theology.

Every truth in the Bible has a practical application and value. Every single truth. So we don't study the Bible in an abstract way.

Without having practical help in our lives. So if you listen carefully and you're gripped by this truth you will find that it has a practical application in your life. Today it's like this that so many teenagers and young people are so insecure.

Today we live in a world where thousands and thousands of young people's parents are divorced. The one who is in their home, one of them is not their father or their mother very often.

Or their parents.

Because the mother is divorced and married to somebody else or the father is divorced and married to somebody else. That may not have happened to you by God's grace. But that has happened to thousands and millions of people your age in the world today.

And if you don't have a message for them.

Then they haven't understood the Gospel. There is a message for everyone. God so loved the world. He loved that woman in Samaria who was divorced five times and was sleeping with some other man who was not even her husband.

I mean most religious people would have written her off, but Jesus used her. God's love is so great. I can't understand that.

Because I don't shed my blood for these women who are divorced five times. People who criticize them don't shed their blood and die on the cross for them. That's why it's so easy to criticize them. Jesus came to die for such people.

That's why He loved them. He loves every single person in the world. And the more I become like God, the more I will love every person in the world, no matter how sinful they are. God doesn't love their sin, and I don't love their sin either.

But He loves the people. He loves the people like a mother loves a child who's got so many sicknesses.

The mother doesn't love the sicknesses. She hates the sicknesses.

She wants to free the children from all those sicknesses. But she loves the children. And it's the same with God. So God sees how you decided one day that you would accept Christ as your Savior.

So God sees how you decided one day that you would accept Christ as your Savior. And He chose you. 1 Peter 1, verses 1 and 2.

It says here, we are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Chosen, just like those twelve apostles were chosen. Chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. Can you believe that? That you were chosen because God knew you before the worlds were created.

In Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4. Here also we read that we were chosen before the foundation of the world. Now that is a verse which comes before Genesis 1, verse 1. Genesis 1, verse 1 says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1, verse 1 says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. But this verse says before Genesis 1, verse 1. Something happened that concerned me and you. Did you realize that?

That there is something concerning you that happened before Genesis 1, verse 1.

That there is something concerning you that happened before Genesis 1, verse 1. And that is, that God chose you. By name.

Exactly like Jesus prayed all night and chose those twelve disciples.

And those twelve disciples were not ready as soon as He chose them to serve Him.

They made so many mistakes. They had to be trained, they had to be taught.

But Jesus never gave up on them. They were fighting for leadership. They didn't have faith.

They couldn't cast out a demon even though Jesus gave them that authority. Many times they wouldn't trust Jesus. But He worked with them, and He worked with them, and He worked with them. And did such a tremendous job with them.

That they were ready to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And those eleven people went and turned the world upside down. And did a work that is lasting to today, 2000 years. And they were ordinary people.

That's the thing that challenges me. Now you must have faith. In my younger days, nobody urged me to have faith that God could do the same thing through me. You must have faith that God will do an eternal work through you in this world before you leave this earth.

Investing Your Life in God's Purpose

We have a theme for this weekend, making the most of your life.

You know, we live in a world today where there is a lot of emphasis on financial investment. And people have a lot of money, they need some advisors to tell them how can I invest this money in the best way so that I can get the maximum returns for many years.

And people have a lot of money, they need some advisors to tell them how can I invest this money in the best way so that I can get the maximum returns for many years. Because money is a valuable thing in this world.

And they don't want to waste it.

And we know of many people who inherited a large fortune from their parents, and then they wasted it in their lifetime because they didn't invest it properly. And I've heard of other people who received an inheritance from their parents and invested it, and it became multiplied 100 -200 times.

And I've heard of other people who received an inheritance from their parents and invested it, and it became multiplied 100 -200 times.

Our life is more important than money. There is a way in which you can invest your life. And if you think about it now when you are young, you have the opportunity to invest your whole life in a good way.

So that you get the maximum return from your life by the time you come to the end of your life. I was born again in July 1959.

It's July 2009 now, exactly 50 years ago.

And I look back over 50 years of my life. And I'm so happy about one thing.

That very soon after I was converted, I understood one thing. That God had a plan for my life.

And if I surrendered myself completely to Him, He would make the best investment of my life. And the wonderful thing is, even if we make some mistakes, He makes allowance for that.

I've made lots of mistakes. But the wonderful thing about God is, that He uses even those mistakes to teach us some lessons.

And through them, He accomplishes something. That the mistakes work for the glory of God.

It's amazing what God can do. So what I want to say is this.

If you can be gripped at this young age, God has given you billions of dollars. Do you want to invest it yourself? Or will you let me invest it for you? Your whole life is like billions of dollars. And now you have to choose.

Are you going to spend that life the way you like? Or are you going to say, Lord, which is the best way to spend my life? And I hope that all of you will give your life totally to God and say, Lord, I don't want to invest one kroner of all this.

It's all yours. Tell me how to invest it.

I want every year of my life to be invested the way you do it. You know, one of the things that confuses a lot of young people today is that there's so much division among Christians. And they wonder, why is there so much disunity?

They're fighting and quarreling among Christians. It confuses a lot of young people. They don't know the answer. These people are so much older than me, they've been believers 30 -40 years,.

But they can't get along with each other.

They start meeting together, and in a few months they split and separate. They can't get along with each other.

And they say, is this true Christianity? I'll tell you. It's not. That's not true Christianity. You should never follow such an example. But there is one example we can follow, and that's Jesus himself.

Following Christ Rather Than Human Examples

Many years ago, this is what the Lord told me.

If you see a good example of someone following me, follow such a person.

But if you don't find such a good example, then just look at me. And that's the principle I've followed all these 50 years.

Now and then, I come across a really good example of someone who's following Jesus.

And I'll tell you, in my 50 years, I've seen very, very few.

But I can really say, I want to follow the example of that man. Very few. But I've been challenged by some. And where I couldn't find such examples, I always had Jesus.

So I was never without an example. That's why I wouldn't get discouraged. But I say, okay, Lord, I can follow you. And I want to give you all that advice.

Where you find a good example of someone who is living, behaving, speaking, acting in a Christ-like way,.

And I'm not just talking about very gifted preachers.

Many people have a gift to speak, who don't have a good life.

There are many politicians who can speak very well, who live a very wicked life.

That is not what I look for. I look for a life. Primarily for humility. And if you see such an example, you can follow that. Otherwise, we've got Jesus. So, when God sent Jesus to this earth, the whole Christian world knows that He came to die for the sins of the world.

That is very important. But there's something more than that.

Jesus Shows Humanity How to Live

And that is that He came to show us in 33 years how God wanted Adam to live. I mean, when I read Genesis chapter 1 and 2, I don't see how Adam should have lived. To know how God wanted Adam to live, I have to come to the Gospel of Matthew.

There I see how God wanted Adam to live.

That is how Jesus lived in the four Gospels.

When I look at Jesus' life, I see that is how God wanted Adam to live.

And God was so disappointed that Adam didn't live like that.

Adam was tempted by the devil, Jesus was tempted by the devil. Adam failed and Jesus didn't fail. Today I'm also tempted by the devil and so are you.

And we either follow Adam or Jesus. And that's why we have a wonderful example to follow.

In the Old Testament they didn't have any example. They only had laws. And like I've often said, you can't teach a person swimming in a classroom. If I draw a diagram on this board of how to move your hands and legs, you're not going to learn how to swim.

If I draw a diagram on this board of how to move your hands and legs, you're not going to learn how to swim. And we could have had 10 hours of teaching on how to move your arms and how to breathe. And then I say, go to the river.

And remember all these 500 rules I gave you.

But then Jesus came. And He didn't give us rules. He said, follow me. That's like the man who says, I don't give you rules. Come with me to the river and just do what I'm doing. That's the difference between new covenant and old covenant.

In the old covenant they had laws and rules. In the new covenant we have an example. And in a church, if the preacher only gives you rules and rules and rules, that is an old covenant church. What is one mark of a New Testament church?

That a man can get up in front and say, follow me as I follow Christ.

The Christian Life as a Visible Example

From my experience, I'll tell you how to handle money.

I won't give you rules. I'll give you an example.

I'll show you by my life how to honor my father and mother.

And I will also show you by my life how to hate my father and mother, so that I don't allow them to control my life. Because both are in the New Testament.

And I'll show you if I'm married, how to talk to my wife, how to behave.

And if I'm married, I'll show you how to behave towards my wife. I'll show you how to raise my children. Follow me as I follow Christ. There are very few examples like that.

But God has always had a few.

There are not many. Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said, there are very few who find this narrow way to life.

So, if I look around and look around and see hypocrites, hypocrites, hypocrites everywhere.

It's true. But if I look carefully, I'll find a good example.

You know how these people look for diamonds and gold? You don't find diamonds and gold lying around on the ground. They dig and dig and dig and there's a lot of mud there. Bits. Mud, mud, mud, mud, mud.

Then, gold, a little bit of gold. It's like that. If you look, you'll find. Here and there. Really good example to those who follow Christ. In the midst of all the mud, you'll find a diamond. So, when you see that, you're encouraged.

And I'm thankful for those few examples in my life that showed me Christ.

Just in a short while, you see something of Christ in a person. And that's why God has placed us on this earth. He first sent Jesus.

Saying, this is how I want man to live. And then Jesus chose 12 people.

One of them failed him. But the other 11.

They showed the world how God wanted Adam to live.

And that's not how the world was living. When it says, they turned the world upside down.

That's a verse in John Acts 17. It's not really turned the world upside down. The world was already upside down from Adam's time. It turned the world right side up.

The world is full of people who walk upside down.

And in the midst of that, when somebody walks erect, they say, hey, there's something strange with that fellow.

And it's not really turned the world upside down.

If there was some country where everybody walked on their hands.

And you go there walking on your feet. They think you're a funny person. Everybody walks on their hands.

And then you try to teach some people to walk on their feet.

Most people are not interested. Even though it's much easier to walk on their feet.

Living Without Anxiety Under the Father's Care

You know, it's actually easier to live a Christian life than to live a worldly life.

It's very difficult to live a worldly life. You may say it's easy. But look at all the sleepless nights you have. Look at the bad conscience. Look at the depression. And the bad moods. And the anxiety.

And the fights and the quarrels. And the debts. So many problems.

Is that an easy life? It's not the way God intended man to live. God intended us to live with joy all the time. Without anxiety. Without fear. Without any fear. And living a life where we can demonstrate to others.

That I have a Father in heaven who cares for me. Not afraid of men. Not afraid of the devil. What a wonderful way to live. Very few people live that way.

The devil has done such a work to fool people.

They don't obey the principles Jesus laid down. And they have all kinds of problems in their life. Because they don't follow God's principles. So take this as a challenge.

That God sent you to this earth to show the world how God wants man to live.

I take that for myself. It's a challenge. I say, Lord, I have many weaknesses. And I will tell you honestly, the most important thing in my life is not preaching. It's a very small part of my life.

To preach is a very small part of my life. But to me, the most important part of my life is how I live every day. How I live, what goes on in my mind throughout the day.

And how I speak to other people.

How I live with my wife. How I bring up my children. These are the most important things in my life. And for me, preaching is just telling people how I do these other things. And that's the way you're supposed to live.

God may not call you to be a preacher like me. But that's not the main thing. The main thing is to live. So God chose these 11 apostles not just to be great preachers.

They were to go into an upside down world and show them how God wants people to live. I think it's fairly certain that one of those apostles came to India in 55 A .D. And his name was Thomas, 55 A .D.

And I'm so thankful that he came to India.

Because in that part of India where I come from we have had Christianity coming to India. For longer than you've had it in Norway.

2000 years. Some of our ancestors 2000 years ago were Christian.

Because one man came to South India to show how God wanted man to live. Think that one man could come.

And for 2000 years there have been Christians there. He did not have any American missionary board to support him financially. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a tremendous challenge to me.

Lord, if I'm filled with the Holy Spirit you can do wonderful things through my life.

And I wish all of you young people will be gripped by this.

Today the great tragedy is that a lot of people, Christians, think the most important requirement in God's work is education and money and all that. Particularly money. If you don't have money you can't do God's work.

That's one of the biggest lies of the devil. You don't need money to do God's work. You need the fullness of the Holy Spirit. If God gives you money, well and good.

But if he doesn't, that's also okay. We have to demonstrate that to the world.

That God can give us the power to live on this earth in the way God wants man to live. So when God allowed Jesus to walk on this earth, after that he chose those apostles.

Predestined to Become Like Christ

And now he's chosen us. Now we come back to Romans 8 and verse 29. Here we read about us, about you and me.

He knew us beforehand and he predestined us. Even the youngest person here, if you've accepted Christ as your Savior,.

You've made Jesus Christ Lord of your life. Or even an older person,.

It doesn't matter if you've made a mess of your life until today. You've made Jesus Lord of your life now. You know, I want to say that God has given you a ticket with a destination written on it. And that destination is written here, predestination.

And that is to become like Jesus Christ.

Not to go to heaven or hell.

My destination is not heaven. The destination God wrote on my ticket when I was born again is not heaven. Most Christians, they're only waiting to go to heaven. Because they think that is the destination God wrote on the ticket.

You know why? Because they don't read the Bible. Here it says predestined. Predestined means beforehand the destination is written down. And that destination is to become like Jesus Christ. I'll tell you, I'm more excited that I'll be like Jesus Christ than that I'll go to heaven.

I'm not interested in a 14 bedroom house in heaven.

What do I do with it? You can have it, I don't mind. I want to be like Jesus. That's the only thing that's got value.

People are looking for comfort and then they fly around in heaven and all.

I'm not interested in all that. I want to be like Jesus. I've seen my destination very clearly. It's not flying around in heaven. It's not a 14 bedroom mansion. It is becoming like Jesus.

I'm excited that that is going to happen in my life. And that has already begun. The Holy Spirit comes in to lead me closer and closer to that destination.

And the purpose is that finally Jesus will be the elder brother of many disciples. That's what it says here. That he'll be the firstborn of many brothers. You know, Jesus is never called the only begotten son.

After his resurrection. He was the only begotten son. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. There was a time many years ago when I had only one son.

Then I would call him my only son. Then I had more sons. Then I called him my firstborn son. Do you understand the difference?