God Requires Honesty and Compassion - Part 6 — Zac Poonen

The Sermon on the Mount and the Golden Rule

People kindly and fairly. Do to others. Know that verse, Matthew chapter 7, the Sermon on the Mount. You know, it's very interesting where Jesus said it. He didn't say that at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.

Poverty of Spirit and Awareness of Need

In the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, he said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Those who have a sense of their own need. I want to tell you in Jesus' name, every blessing in heaven. I'm paraphrasing Matthew 5, 3.

Every blessing in heaven belongs to the person who's aware of his own need. That's the meaning of blessed are the poor. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Every blessing in heaven belongs to the man who's aware of his own need all the time.

I've seen that clearly and I try to live there. Lord, I want to see my need. There's not a day that doesn't go by in my life when I don't have that cry in my heart, even if I don't say it in so many words.

Pursuing the Kingdom Rather Than Earthly Possessions

But I want to possess as much of the kingdom of heaven as possible before I leave this earth. I'm not interested in possessing as much of this earth as possible. I mean, I leave that to all the businessmen and politicians.

They can try to possess as much of this earth as they want. I'm not interested. God gives me a little corner. I'm happy with it. But I want to possess as much of the kingdom of heaven as possible. Sure.

Because I have only one life to possess it. And that's very easy. It's very easy because it's very easy to have a sense of our own need. Only a proud person won't have a sense of his own need. But then at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, out of preaching all these wonderful things in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, he sums it up.

The Bible's Message: Treat Others as You Want to Be Treated

He says, OK, forget about everything I said here. It is in a nutshell. Matthew 7 verse 12. Treat other people the way you want them to treat you because this is the message of the whole Bible. You know, the word the law and the prophets is another expression for the Bible.

The only Bible they had in those days was the law and the prophets. Old Testament, the law and the prophets. So Jesus, that's today we would call it the Bible. Treat other people the way you want them to treat you because this is the message of the Bible.

This is Jesus words. The message Bible puts it like this. Ask yourself what you want people to do for you and grab the initiative and do it for them. Treat your wife the way you want her to treat you.

Treat your husband the way you want him to treat you. Do any of us like to be yelled at? No. Don't yell at anybody. The only time we are permitted to yell is where it concerns the glory and the purity of God's house.

Justice, Mercy, and Honesty in Religious Stewardship

That's got nothing to do with you. Zero to do with you. But the standards of God's house, purity of God's house, there I would yell. I wouldn't take a physical whip but I would use my tongue as a whip.

When people are making money in the name of religion, when people are careless with money in religion, the Christian world is full of people, all of Christendom. I've seen, I've been in Christendom 40 years.

I've seen Christian missions. Everywhere people are careless with God's money. Very careful with their own money, very careless with God's money. It's like the money changers in the temple. Not much different from that.

We got to be fair and treat other people the way we want them to treat us. We do justice and love mercy. You remember the story with Jesus. I'll tell you a couple of stories, I mean a few stories with Jesus said.

The Elder Brother's Wrong Attitude in the Prodigal Son

He told a parable about the man who had two sons, the story of the prodigal son. I always call that the prodigal, this parable of the elder son. The prodigal son was okay. He came back and got into the house.

The problem was with the elder son. And why did he stay outside? Do you know how the story ends? The story ends with the prodigal son inside the house and the elder son outside the house. That is the point of that story.

A lot of people just read it as the story of the prodigal son. And they miss what Jesus was trying to emphasize, that if you don't have a right attitude to a younger brother who has fallen away, you'll be outside God's house.

That was his problem. He didn't have a right attitude towards his younger brother who had fallen away. He couldn't care less. He never went to his father and said, well, dad, do you think I should go and look for my brother?

And even when his brother comes back, he's not happy. Wrong attitude to a brother. That's why he was outside the house. So the story of the good Samaritan. What was Jesus emphasizing? Two religious people walk by and see a brother.

Compassion for a Brother in Need: The Good Samaritan

Remember that is your brother. It's not a stranger. It's a brother from your church. I mean, it's not like we see a lot of people lying in the street here and there. I don't compare that to the story of the good Samaritan because among the Jewish people, they were all brothers.

Just like you know, all of us here, we are brothers in Christ. They were brothers in Abraham. Every one of them. And that chap who was there was one of his brothers. The rich man and Lazarus, it was his brother, Lazarus, who was outside the gate.

And this person fallen by the wayside was a brother of the Levite, a brother of the priest. He looks at him. He knows he's a Jewish brother. You know, it's like seeing a Christian brother, the one who's your brother in Christ, lying on the road.

That's the thing. If you want to understand that story for yourself, it's like seeing a brother in Christ in need and you do nothing about it. You just turn the other side because you've got to go and pray.

And then it says the Samaritan came along. The Samaritan, they're the people who's in the wrong denomination. You know, something like the Roman Catholics or some other denomination which we despise. So somebody from that denomination comes.

That's the point of the parable. All the holy people went and left him alone. And then this man from the other dead denomination comes and picks him up and cares for him. And Jesus said, that's the person who did what God wanted him to do.

Not all these religious people. So there were a number of parables that Jesus spoke like that, where he spoke about an attitude to others. You remember the story of the laborers. What was the point in the story of the laborers?

Resisting Seniority and Status in the Church

The attitude of the people who came first, the senior brothers in the church who worked for 12 hours, towards the junior brothers in the church who'd just come three months ago. He said, how can you make them equal to us?

We are senior. That was the problem. The attitude towards someone who is, you feel is junior to you. I know at least three people who left our church because they were not made elders. At least three.

Maybe more, I don't know. You see, it's this idea that I'm senior. How in the world can I not be senior?