(Disciples of Jesus) Our Attitude to Material Things — Zac Poonen

The Two Great Commissions: Evangelism and Discipleship

For the third Bible study on the subject of discipleship, let's turn again to Luke's Gospel, Chapter 14. As I was saying, my dear brothers and sisters, way back in the beginning when we started building the churches in India, the reason why we started afresh was because we felt there was not a sufficient emphasis on discipleship in the churches.

There was a lot of evangelism being done. People were being converted, praise the Lord, and even today I praise God for every evangelist, particularly those who have great sacrifice, have gone to difficult parts of this land to serve the Lord.

When I was young, I wanted to be an evangelist, and God never gave me that gift and never called me to that, even though I sought very much for it. But I saw that God called me for something else, and I had to fit in to whatever God called me to do, which I did not want, but which God wanted me to do.

And I saw that there was such a need for obeying that great commission. You know, the great commission in Mark 16, says, Mark 16, 14, 15, 16, Go into all the world, preach the gospel, and he who believes is baptized will be saved, to every creature.

So that's one part of the great commission. The other is Matthew 28, verse 19. The other side of the same coin, which says, go and make disciples. So there are two commissions that Jesus gave. One is in Mark 16, go and preach the gospel to every creature.

The other is in Matthew 28, go and make disciples. These are like two ends of a big log of wood that Christians have to carry. And when you see 99 people standing at one end of the log, carrying the log, and one person at the other end of the log, if you've got a little common sense, which end will you go and help?

Where? Where there's only one person struggling. So that's how I saw it. I saw 99 of people engaged in evangelism, reached the lost, get the gospel out, praise the Lord, wonderful. We need more people, because India is such a big country.

But I saw only about 1 of people who were preaching discipleship. Probably less. So we decided, let's support this other end of the log. And the problem is that when we started supporting the other end of the log, all the people at that end of the log began to think that we are against them.

We are not against them. We praise God for all those people who are holding up the other end of the log. But we felt there was a need at this end. But now as I said, as our numbers have increased in our churches, and the number of churches has increased, the great danger is that we shall stop preaching that message of discipleship which we preached from the beginning.

Or we can lower our standards. When we started 27 years ago, a hundred rupees was a lot of money in 1975. Today, a hundred rupees is not much. In the same way, discipleship has also got devalued through the years.

That today when people talk about being a disciple, it doesn't seem to mean the same thing as it did then. And so we want to try and restore that in our churches. And that's why we want to come back to the message of discipleship that Jesus preached in Luke's gospel chapter 14 and verse 26 onwards.

The First Condition of Discipleship: Christ Above Family

It says here, first of all we saw the condition of discipleship was that we have a right attitude to our family members. That means we do not give them the place that Jesus Christ should have in our lives.

Basically it means that that the place that Jesus Christ should have in my life I will never give to my father or my mother which is easy. But I will also not give it to my wife or children which is a little more difficult.

And I will also not give it to my fellow believers, my brothers and sisters. Nobody will be my favorite. Jesus Christ will be Lord. His commands will be supreme in my life. And I'm willing to offend father, mother, wife, all my children, all my fellow believers if I have to please the Lord.

If we don't take this position first of all we cannot be disciples of Jesus Christ. It's just completely out of the question. Please remember that many many times through the years as we've encountered different problems in our churches we've always come back to I've many times discovered the problem here is because this brother has not fulfilled the first condition of discipleship.

Many times in the last 27 years I've seen that. This brother loves his father and mother more than Jesus Christ. That's the root cause of the problem. This brother loves his wife more than Christ. This brother loves his children more than Christ.

That's why he has a problem. This brother loves some brother in the church. That's why he forms a little group. I think that problem is more with sisters. You know in a church you can form a little clique.

C-L-I-Q-U-E. A clique. A little group of your special friends where you exclude all the others can be even among the young sisters. Just few of you who are a special little group always together and always acting in unity and usually ending up in carnality and hypocrisy because some strong leader among that it may be among brothers or sisters influences all of them and if that leader is not a wholehearted radical disciple of Jesus all these people end up as carnal.

That's what happens in little cliques among sisters who sit down and gossip. That's because they love one another more than they love Christ. So many many times we have found that the problems in churches are due to not fulfilling the first condition of discipleship.

It's very difficult to fellowship with some believers. I found that. And when I traced the root cause of the problem I discovered that the problem is the same. They love their father or mother or wife or children or some brother or sister more than Christ.

And then of course if Jesus Christ is not Lord it's very difficult to fellowship with such people. I'm not saying I won't keep friendship. Fellowship is the best. Where fellowship is not possible I go to the second level of friendship with everybody in the church.

I have friendship with everybody in CFC. I have to admit I don't have fellowship with everybody in CFC. I don't want to blame them. Maybe some fault is with me. But that's the honest truth. But I believe that two people who really seek to be disciples will have wonderful fellowship.

It's impossible not to have fellowship if we are disciples. When Christ is supreme and our only passion in life is to exalt Him. I'm not interested in pleasing my father or mother or wife or children or brothers or sisters.

No, for example I've said in CFC to the brothers if Mrs. A and Mrs. B can't have fellowship why should that hinder A and B from having fellowship? Unless they are ruled under the thumbs of their wives.

But that often happens. Mrs. A and Mrs. B can't have fellowship. I don't know why. I'm not interested in finding out the reason. That's their headache. They can answer to God. But why should that hinder A and B from having fellowship?

Because Mrs. A will whisper something into A's ear and Mrs. B will whisper something into B's ear and they both unfortunately lose fellowship with each other. Why? Because both of them are not disciples.

If they were disciples the attitude of their wives wouldn't make a difference. And sometimes A and B don't have fellowship because they are more bothered about trying to bring fellowship between their wives.

Don't waste your time. You destroy your own fellowship when you try to do that. Or sometimes A's children have a problem with B's children. Why should that hinder A and B from having fellowship? Unless they are not disciples.

Where A values his children or B values his children naturally A and B won't have fellowship. Always the problem can be traced to its root. Somebody has not fulfilled the first condition of discipleship.

See, that is not the problem in your life. See, if so many problems you have faced in your local church or with other people is because you are not a disciple. Maybe once upon a time you were. But you backslid, you wandered away from that.

Some of you young people you were little children when the church started. But now you have grown up. You are young brothers and you are young sisters. Some of you are wonderful young brothers and young sisters and I praise the Lord for that.

But your parents may not be radical disciples. Even though they were in the church when you were born. They are not wholehearted, they are not radical. They can't build fellowship with others. And if you have a loyalty to your parents because you said they were in the church for so many years you will not be a disciple.

So I want to say to you young people I am not saying don't respect your father and mother. That we will never teach. We are not a cult. Honor your father and mother till the end of your life. But don't follow their bad example.

Don't be a backslider like your father is or your mother is. Be a radical disciple of Jesus and don't let your father and his opinion and your mother and her opinion come between you and Jesus Christ.

I fear that some of you young brothers your dad's opinion means more to you than Jesus Christ's opinion. Some of you young sisters your mother's opinion means more to you than Jesus Christ's opinion. I tell you in a hundred years you will never be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And that is the root cause of your problem. Settle it today. I decided that long long ago and I have tried my best by the grace of God to maintain that attitude. My dad was a believer. My mother was a believer.

My dad had many suggestions for me. I respected him. I believe he was very sincere in the suggestions he gave me. I wouldn't listen to him. Because I had my conviction. I love my wife very deeply. But she doesn't mean more to me than Jesus Christ.

Neither my children. I will not let my children influence my attitude to any of you. If they have a difficulty with your children that's none of my business. That's between them. If they are not disciples what can I do?

I am going to be a disciple till the end of my life. My dear brothers and sisters how much you young people and old people have hindered the work of God first of all in your own life and in the church in your own spiritual growth because you have never fulfilled the first condition of discipleship.

I can never stop emphasizing that. Very very very very important. I believe you may have been a disciple once but you can backslide. You can even lose your salvation. So why can't you lose go back from discipleship?

Anybody can go back from discipleship. It says bind the sacrifice with cords upon the altar. Psalm 118 you can bind it and then cut the cords and the sacrifice jumps off the altar. That can happen. So let me emphasize that again.

Very often when you have a problem in the church you may discover and all of you elders you may discover that the root cause of the problem why you can't have fellowship with somebody why there is a problem in some home or some situation with some brother in the church is that person loves some family member more than he loves the church of Jesus Christ more than he loves Christ and his body.

His attachment he is a human being attached in a human way to human attachments to his human relatives more than to Christ. I am not saying we shouldn't love them. I am not saying you shouldn't respect them.

I emphasize that so much. But don't let them influence you away from the way of discipleship. Don't let your respect for your born again father and mother who has been in the church from ages don't let that respect draw you away from discipleship.

They may not be disciples today. I am telling you from what I have seen. I have watched the development of the church in many parts of India over the last 27 years and I have seen that some wonderful brothers who were disciples many years ago are not disciples today.

And their children if they follow the example of their parents will also not be disciples. So I have to warn you. You have an independent connection with Christ quite apart from your father and mother.

We have to say that because we have a second generation growing up today. An independent connection with Christ let your mother gossip. Just quietly get up from the table and say excuse me mom I have got to do something.

Go and do something else in your room. Your dad may be running after money today. Don't follow him. Your dad may be critical of a lot of things in the church. Don't follow him. Be a disciple. Be radical.

Don't form cliques. You form a clique and you exclude somebody whom Christ has not excluded. You are an evil person. I don't want to exclude somebody whom Christ has not excluded. Christ is closer to some people than to others because some are more radical than others.

And naturally I will be closer to some people more than to others. Why was Jesus closer to Peter, James and John than to some other people? And naturally we will be closer to some believers than to other believers because they are more radical Christians.

Always it is so. We don't exclude them but they are not radical. They are not wholehearted. They were once but they are not today. I have seen so many cases so many cases of children who have fallen away because their fathers fell away.

Refusing to Follow a Parent’s Spiritual Decline

Isn't it a wonderful word? Do you know the story about in number 16 about Korah, Dathan and Abiram who rebelled against Moses? And you read in number 16 the earth opened up and Korah and Dathan and Abiram Moses told them, you fellows get away from their tent because God will punish them and the earth opened up and all of them went to hell.

But it says in number 26 verse 11 the sons of Korah however did not die. However the sons of Korah did not die because at the last minute when Moses said get away from them the sons turned around to Korah their dad and said dad we are not standing with you.

We are standing with Moses. They ran and they escaped the judgment at the last minute when the earth opened up and swallowed those tents the sons of Korah escaped and they wrote many psalms. You read in the psalms many many psalms written by the sons of Korah as the deer panted for the water brook so my soul panted for thee O God psalm 42 verse 1 written by the sons of Korah.

Psalm 46 verse 1 God is our refuge and strength even if the mountains slip and the earth opens up and swallows it up we won't be there because God is our refuge and strength. Psalm 46 written by the sons of Korah they were speaking from experience they stood with Moses against their dad and sometimes we have to do that because we are disciples.

The Second Condition: Taking Up the Cross Daily

The second condition of discipleship also we saw that we have to take up the cross every day and follow Jesus. This is not something I can do once for all. There are certain things we do once for all baptism once but there are certain things we do regularly like breaking of bread just like certain things in ordinary life.

You take a smallpox vaccination once immunized for life. But a bath how often in some places where it's hot and sticky more than once a day. You can't take a bath once for life. You can't eat once for your life every day.

Take up your cross every day and your life will be clean. Not only clean. There is a wonderful verse I forgot to mention it to you yesterday. I can mention it today. It's in John 12 and verse 24 which teaches us the reason why some believers always remain alone.

They never seem to come into fellowship. They are always alone. John 12, 24 if a grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and die it remains alone. But if it dies it brings forth much fruit. I told you the other day God's will for your life is much fruit.

My dear brother, sister don't ever believe any lie of the devil that this is only for some gifted people. No! It's for you. You may not be a preacher. Never mind. I told you, you can bring forth fruit even as a mother with many children sitting at home that you can't even go for the Wednesday meetings because you are so busy with your children.

You can go for only one meeting a week on Sunday morning. And if you got little children even that Sunday morning meeting you got to miss half of it because your child is crying. And you got to go outside.

Or you have to sit in the mother's room and the other mothers there are gossiping. So you can't even that's worse than your child crying. And so you can't listen to the meeting that happens in CFC. Sometimes we have some gossipy mothers.

I tell you that. So what? You can sit in your home and take up the cross everyday. And God will make you a blessing to many people. You can bear fruit even though you come for half a meeting in a week because you got little children.

If you are a radical disciple God will send people to your home. I tell you in Jesus name God will do it if you are a radical disciple. But why should God send people to your home if you are just going to give them juicy mouthfuls of gossip.

Why should God send anybody to your home. He'll keep them away from your home. He'll send all the gossipers to your home and He'll keep the hungry people away from your home. You don't have to be a preacher.

You got to be a disciple. And if you fall into the ground and die according to the guaranteed promise of Jesus in John 12 .24 you will never be alone. You'll have fruit and you'll have fellowship. Give me ten brothers who are willing to fall into the ground and die.

And those ten brothers will have wonderful fellowship with each other. And put in the midst of those ten brothers. One brother who is not willing to fall into the ground and die. Who is stubborn clever, smart unwilling to fall into the ground and die.

He will remain alone. All the other ten will have wonderful fellowship. All eleven will be in the meeting. But ten of them will have fellowship. This brother will have friendship. Fellowship is deeper than friendship.

Same with the sisters. You got to fall into the ground and die. Die to your reputation. Die to fighting for your rights. Die to your feelings and attitudes and selfishness pride. Die to everything. Every rotten thing that you and I have inherited from Adam.

All your opinions about people. Your prejudices against certain people against certain communities. Your being uncomfortable with certain people. I'm also a human being like you. I am uncomfortable with certain people.

I die to it and I have fellowship with them. If you are not willing to die you won't have fruit. You got to die to so many things. And God will show you more and more areas to die. And the more you die the more fruit there will be in your life.

This is the way of the cross. This is the way of power. And today we come to the third condition mentioned in Luke 14. And that is our attitude to our possessions. Our attitude to our family. We saw first of all our attitude to our self life Adamic life or the flesh the way of the cross we saw secondly and thirdly now our attitude to our possessions Luke 14 and verse 33.

The Third Condition: Surrendering Possessions to God

These are the things we emphasized right at the beginning of our ministry in this land. And these are the areas we need to re-emphasize after so many years. We want to learn from Jesus as we see in this picture here we want to learn how he what was his attitude towards his earthly parents towards his earthly brothers.

What was his attitude when people insulted him treated him badly took up the cross everyday. And finally what was his attitude to possessions. We got to learn from him. Luke 14 .33. If any, no one of you can be my disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.

All his own possessions. Not ninety percent not ten percent all that he possesses. He must give up. What has he got to give up. He doesn't have to give up everything he has. He has to give up everything he possesses.

And I want to explain to you the difference between having something and possessing something. You can have things and not possess them. And the clearest example of that in the old testament is Abraham offering up Isaac on the altar.

Abraham, Isaac, and the Altar of Possession

Abraham possessed Isaac for more than twenty years. This is my son. He was proud of him. Naturally when you get a son at the age of a hundred you are going to be pretty proud of him. He would show him off and he possessed him.

And I am absolutely sure that Abraham loved Isaac more than he loved Sarah. Without a doubt he possessed him. And gradually Abraham loved Isaac more than he loved God. That's the time when Abraham become an idol worshipper.

He was an idol worshipper in Ur of the Chaldees at the age of seventy five God pulled him out of all that idol worship and brought him to Canaan. And he was a wonderful brother till he got Isaac and Isaac grew up.

He became such a possessive father that he became an idol worshipper all over again. This time the idol was not made of brass and stone like in Ur of the Chaldees. This was an idol made of flesh and blood his own son.

There are many parents who are very proud of their children who worship their children who will always defend their children against every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world. They are idol worshippers. And God decided to break that idol worship in Abraham's life.

And he told him one day and remember we know the end of the story. But Abraham did not know the end of the story. When God told him offer up your son on the altar he really thought he had to offer him.

Think of that without knowing the end of the story that God told him tomorrow morning you got to get up. He didn't tell him tomorrow morning he said go and offer Isaac on that mountain three days away.

And it says the very next morning Abraham got up. I don't think he slept that night tossed around in bed and said boy what's God asking me of? He never asked me for anything like this so far. He asked me to give up my ancient country.

He asked me to give up my father, my mother, Lot Ishmael. So many things I have given up. Now he is asking me to kill my son. And he got up next morning. He was obedient and for three days have you thought why God told him to go three days away to Mount Moriah.

Why didn't he say just take him around the corner to some close by mountain. You read in Genesis 22 God told him to take him to that Mount Moriah three days journey away because God did not want to force Abraham to make a sudden decision which he may regret later, think about it Abraham is it worth it take three days to think about it as he walked and walked with the donkey and with Isaac.

Abraham must have talked very little on that journey and at the end of three days he said it's worth it this God is my God and I'll give him the very best I have. And he took Isaac to the altar took the knife and was about to stab him offering him up Isaac was his possession.

When God said no don't kill him, I just wanted to test you take him, take him home the next day he walked back another three days. Sarah never knew thank God she never knew where Abraham was taking their son.

He never told her some things. It's better not to tell your wife don't burden her with things which she cannot bear. And when they came back Abraham would look at Isaac after this long trip and come back.

He would have said now I have Isaac in my house. I don't possess him like I did for twenty years. He had forsaken his possession and he had him, that's the difference between possessing and having, there must be nothing we possess on this earth.

Everything must be given to God, have you got a house in your name, you have to give it to God if you want to be a disciple it will still remain in your name in the sub registrar's court, it's your name you can't put it in the name of Jesus Christ there, they won't accept it.

It's in your name but you have made a secret transaction with God on your Mount Moriah where you offered that house to God. Don't play games don't play games here with God, only if you mean it lay that house on the altar and say God it is yours, yeah that's what I did with the house I got 31 years ago here in Bangalore.

I offered it to God and said Lord it's yours, I offered it as soon as I got it I said I don't want to possess it. It's yours, I'll have it, it's in my name. If you go in the registrar's court you'll find it's in my name but it's not mine.

It's God's. I have it but I don't possess it. God is free to use it exactly as He likes. He is the landlord. I am the tenant. He has allowed me to live there free of rent and I am very thankful and I say Lord that's your house.

You can use it as you like anywhere you like. It's for your glory. If you give your house to God like that you'll find He uses it. Have you got a vehicle? Put it on the altar. Anything valuable in your house.

Put it on the altar one day it may pack up. I've got some valuable things through the years, electronic gadgets and things like that. Sometimes other people use it spoil it but I don't get disturbed. It's ok.

If God has permitted that, that's fine. I'm not going to get upset with someone just because he banked my vehicle or spoiled something. I mean we got to be careful. I'm not saying be a careless, don't give it to people who don't know how to use them like your little children.

But some people, you know everything on earth no matter how careful we are with it. One day it gets spoiled and somebody may be the last person to use it, it's not he who has spoiled it. It was wearing out and gradually it got spoiled, I've had that experience numerous times.

What do I do? I say well Lord that's yours, I'm not going to get disturbed. I'm not going to lose one night's sleep over that. No if it's stolen, it's stolen. If it's gone, it's gone. I want to be more careful.

I want to exhort others to be more careful. That's fine, but I'm not going to be disturbed if you possess it. Oh boy you will be disturbed. And that's one way we can find out whether we possess things or we have things supposing somebody else's tape recorder or something else was spoiled by somebody.

You won't get so disturbed, will you? As if somebody spoiled your tape recorder right now the thing is my tape recorder is somebody else's tape recorder already. It's not mine. That's why I don't get disturbed.

It belongs to the Lord. It's a wonderful life to live where you don't possess anything and I'll tell you something you can never, listen to me you can never live a life of perfect Sabbath rest, like I said the other morning, if you haven't forsaken all your possessions one day the devil will drop one of those things through one of your dear brothers or sisters and ruin it and all your rest will go.

You will not be in a Sabbath rest anymore, but if you have forsaken your possessions your rest will not be disturbed. In fact my prayer has always been Lord, I don't even want a flutter in my heart, I mean you know like a feather or a little flutter, slight wind.

I don't even want that in my heart. When something goes wrong or something is broken or something is spoiled. Whether my children or another brother please don't misunderstand me. We must teach our children to take care of property.

We are not millionaires to just throw it away and buy another one. No, we may not have money to buy another one. Okay, then we do without it. So we teach our children to be very careful with material things, if a child comes and urinates on my sofa, that's fine.

I'll teach that father or mother of the child not to do that in future, but I'm not going to get disturbed, we just wash it put it out in the sun, there will be a permanent stain on that sofa inside. We can put another cover on it, it's okay.

Using Possessions, Loving People

Are these things big things for you? And you want to build a church of Jesus Christ? Brother, sister forget it. You can't be a disciple if you possess things. Be careful with things but don't love them.

Don't get attached to them. Everything that God has given on earth is to be used not loved. The only people are to be loved. God gave us people to love and possessions to use. But in the world they love possessions and use people.

What do you mean by using people? When you meet somebody who is a rich person or an influential person in society or in India particularly, if you meet a white skinned person, that's a good contact to make, right?

A useful person someone I can use one day for my benefit in some way. That's what I mean by using people. A lot of people are not disciples, they use people. God never gave us people to use. He gave us people to love.

And when you are a disciple you will never never seek to use people for your benefit, never. Whether they are red or yellow, black or white. I will not use them for my benefit because God gave them to me to love.

God gave you the poor brothers to love just because they can't be of any benefit to you just because they are not so cultured. They are not so rich. You don't value them. You don't talk to them. Are you a disciple?

Ask yourself have you learned to value the poor the illiterate the uneducated the non-influential the lame and the weak. Those who can be absolutely no use to you who as soon as you look at them you know this person is zero benefit to me.

You seek fellowship with such people. Where do you find yourself gravitating towards. You discover pretty soon whether you are a disciple. We use people and we love things. And Jesus came into the world to teach us to use things and love people.

That's the way God made man. Things are going to pass away. God gives me things to bless other people. He has given me only one life and he has given me that one life not to accumulate possessions. See what the book of Ecclesiastes says in chapter 2.

Accumulating Wisdom Rather Than Material Things

Ecclesiastes chapter 2. In Ecclesiastes chapter 2 in verse 26 it says to a person who is good in God's sight God has given he has given him this task during his lifetime to accumulate wisdom to accumulate the knowledge of God and to have a tremendous supply of joy in his life.

But to the one who is the sinner God has given the task of gathering and collecting a whole lot of things in his life. What are you? These are two categories of people. Which category are you? God has given a task to sinners.

You sinners spend your life gathering collecting things and God's called all good people. Say you, I give you a task also gather wisdom get to know me during the years you are on earth. Increase, let joy increase in your life as you grow older and older and older.

That's how it should be. That's how Jesus lives. God will give us many things to bless other people with. Use them, let them be in your name but use them for his glory. Don't possess them. And when you live like that your life will be such a tremendous blessing.

God can use you to build his church of disciples. I want to show you an example from Jesus life, we are learners. How many of you know just like when a young man grows up and gets married he sets up his own house.

Jesus’ House and His Love for People

When Jesus became 30 years old he shifted his residence from Nazareth 30 years he has been in Nazareth. When he was 30 years old he left Nazareth and he I presume he rented a house or bought a house, I don't know with his earnings as a carpenter in Capernaum.

Capernaum was some distance away from Nazareth. That's where Jesus rented a home and when he travelled around with his disciples they always came finally to Capernaum where Jesus had a house there that was not the house of Joseph and Mary that was in Nazareth, this was Jesus house and his disciples would come there and they would go out again on their journeys and come back to Capernaum.

And we read one day in Mark chapter 2 after all his journeys. Mark chapter 2 verse 1 after his journeys he came back to Capernaum and it was heard that he was at home. He was at home means he had come back to his house and many were gathered together, there was no longer room there near the door and he was preaching the word in his own house and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men and they couldn't get to him and because of the crowd they went to the roof and they said this is Jesus.

He doesn't mind his roof being torn apart. He loves people more than he loves roofs. They knew that, he had that testimony if it was somebody else's house, boy they would have thought twice, they would have asked somebody's permission that fellow would say nothing doing, you wait till he finishes the meeting and then meet him, but they said this is Jesus house, he loves people so much he wouldn't care even if his roof is torn apart.