Knowing God the Father and His Values — Zac Poonen

The Tree of Life and the Knowledge of Good and Evil

We know that Adam made the wrong choice in the Garden of Eden, but what happened when he chose the tree of knowledge of good and evil instead of the tree of life? We have suffered the consequences of that till today, and if we don't recognize it, we will continue unknowingly to live by the knowledge of good and evil.

Man's sense of values is distorted, crooked, upside down because of partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The only person who walked on this earth with an absolute right sense of values, who lived by the tree of life, was Jesus himself as a man.

So if you want to know what it is to live by the tree of life, you have to study the life of Jesus. You can study the Bible and be an expert in the Bible and still have only the knowledge of good and evil, not life.

The life Jesus spoke about is eternal life. Let me show you an example of that, of Jesus saying that to the Pharisees. In the Pharisees and Jesus, you have a contrast. Both knew the Bible. Jesus knew it at the age of 12.

The Pharisees were all great scholars of the Bible, and yet they were at the complete opposite of Christ as far as God is concerned, and I'll tell you the reason. They were not worshipping idols like all the other Romans and other people.

They were deceived by the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They both read the same Bible, Genesis to Malachi, Pharisees and Jesus, and yet one came to the tree of life and the other came to the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the same book.

So, in this Bible, you have the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and in the same Bible you have the tree of life. It's a question of which you find. So let me show you John chapter 5. It's very important because you can read the Bible, study the Bible, and never come to the tree of life and go to the tree of knowledge of good and evil and have such a knowledge of Scripture and miss out on what God wants you to have.

Here's the example. John chapter 5, verse 39. Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. You search the Scriptures. They knew the Scriptures better than most of us sitting here because you think eternal life is there, but what they got out of the Scripture was what they should not do on the Sabbath day, what they should do on the Sabbath day, how they should wash their hands, and all types of rules and rituals and knowledge of good and evil according to the law, and it led them to death.

To such death that Jesus said to those Pharisees, how will you escape the damnation of hell? Imagine studying the Scriptures, following all those laws, and going to hell. But he said here, you search the Scriptures and you think eternal life is in studying the Scriptures.

No, it isn't. You are unwilling to come to me, verse 40. Here's the contrast. Here's the tree of knowledge of good and evil, verse 39, and here's the tree of life. You don't come to me that you might have life.

You can read the Scriptures and not come to Jesus. If you don't see Jesus in the Scriptures, what you've got, my brother, sister, is a knowledge of good and evil. Infant baptism is wrong. Water baptism is right.

Praying to Mary is wrong. We must pray to Jesus, right? You can go to a list of a thousand things like this where you're right, and you could be just another good Pharisee because Jesus says, you don't come to me.

You haven't come closer to Jesus through reading the Bible. You've just got a lot of information, and as you pass on that information to other people, you can get a lot of honor in Christian circles. For example, let me show you this verse.

I don't know how many of you understand this. Luke chapter 16 and verse 15, the last part, that which is highly esteemed by men is detestable in the sight of God. Have you understood that? I don't mean whether you know the verse.

Do you know that all the things that you value so highly, which men value highly, which human beings value highly, God may not value at all. Not only does He not value, read it carefully, that which is highly esteemed by men is detested by God.

How did men get such values then, which God detests? By partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If they had partaken of the tree of life, they would have known what God values. But because they went to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they got such a lot of biblical knowledge that they don't value what God values.

Money, the Two Masters, and Heavenly Values

Look at the things that men value in the world. Money, Jesus said in just two verses earlier, money is a master and God is a master. And these are the two masters. Now if you go to most, I'd say 90 of Christians in the world, or 99%, and ask them this question, who are the two masters in the world, they will all say God and the devil.

Jesus said no. The two masters are not God and the devil, it's God and money. Where did I get that from? I got that from the words of Jesus. Where do people get the idea God and the devil are the two masters?

Because it's from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They are not the two masters, and that's how we get deceived, because if you were to ask somebody, do you think you'll ever serve the devil, they'll say no, I'll only serve the Lord.

But many Christians think they are serving God, but they're serving money. Money is a very big factor in their decisions. It was never a big factor in Jesus' life. He took care of his own expenses, he worked as a carpenter and he earned his living, and I believe he was honest and supported himself, so there's nothing wrong in working hard, supporting ourselves and all that.

Jesus is our example there for up to the age of 30. But that was not the big thing in his life. If somebody cheated him in that carpenter shop, he wouldn't worry about it the whole night. What shall I do with that guy?

He would have just forgiven him, okay. See, there's a lot of difference when money is your master and when money is your servant. You know where gold is in heaven? You know there's gold in heaven? It's under your feet, on the streets.

And you've heard me often say, you're fit for heaven when you can put gold under your feet, because the streets in heaven are made of gold. That's having the right sense of values. But a man can love money like anything and know the Bible backwards, up and down, because he has knowledge of good and evil.

You search the scriptures and you think you know God, but you don't come to me, Jesus says, that you might have eternal life. Eternal life is very different from knowing good and evil, from knowing scriptures.

There are many decent people in the world who will never do anything evil. I know lots of Hindus and Muslims in India who are upright, who don't cheat, who don't go around committing adultery, who don't kill, who avoid evil and do a lot of good things.

They're not born again. They don't know God at all. Some of them worship idols. They worship false gods, but they have a knowledge of good and evil, which came down from Adam. But there's a world, and there are Christians also, who avoid evil and do what is good.

But there's a lot of difference between that and knowing God. I fear that it's possible that in our church we can say, we're a little better than some other churches. In what way? Because there are certain evils that we don't do, or because we know God better, or because we have more love in our hearts for people.

Ah, that would be different. If we can say that in our church we love God more than others, and we love people more than others, then we are better. That's eternal life. Not because we do certain rituals in a certain way, or we have a certain pattern, and we have elders instead of pastors, and all these rules, and many things like that, or we sing the right type of songs.

These things mean nothing. Eternal life, that which is highly esteemed among men, is an abomination in the sight of God. So Jesus said in John chapter 17 what eternal life is. I told you man's values have been perverted when he took part of the knowledge of good and evil.

Eternal Life as Knowing God and Fulfilling His Will

And if I don't get my sense of values right, I will never be able to fulfill God's plan for my life. Let me say that again. If I don't get my values right in terms of heaven's sense of values, I will not fulfill God's plan for my life on earth.

I may do 101 good things. There are many Hindus, and Muslims, and atheists who do a lot of good things before they leave this earth. And we can be like that, and make a list of the good things we have done, and not accomplish the will of God.

Jesus didn't come to earth to do a lot of good things. He came to do the will of his Father. That was it. He didn't go to China. He didn't go to Africa. There were needy people all over. He didn't go to Europe.

He spent all his life in a small little nation called Israel. And in that nation, he spent about 30 years living at home, and making stools and benches, and three and a half years of ministry. And at the end of it, he said, Father, I finished the work you gave me to do.

That is the thing. It's not a question of how long you live. But at the end of your life, you can say, Father, when you sent me to earth, you had a particular plan that you wanted me to fulfill before I leave this earth.

And that plan was formed before I left my mother's womb. I want to finish that. That's been my passion for a number of years. I say, Lord, I don't want to accomplish great things and get a great name.

I'm not interested in that. There's a plan that you meant for me to fulfill. I want to finish that. And Mary Magdalene, about whom you hardly hear anything after the resurrection day. Well, you read of her in the Gospels.

I mean, in the Acts of the Apostles, you don't read about it. What did she do in her life? Compare that with the Apostle Paul. But I wouldn't be surprised if Mary Magdalene and Paul get the same reward in heaven.

It's not a question of how gifted you are or how much you travel or how many churches you plant. It's a question of whether you finished the work God planned for you before you were born. And if you want to do that, you must not just know the Bible.

You mustn't just go to church. You mustn't just be born again. You must know Jesus. So John 17, verse 3. This is eternal life. It is not living forever. Now you go to the average believer. I'm not talking about nominal Christian.

Go to the average believer and ask him, what does eternal life mean? He means I'll live forever in heaven. Eternal life has got nothing to do with heaven. Did you know that? Eternal life is to know the only true God and to know Jesus Christ.

Knowing is like a wife gets married, a woman gets married, and she doesn't know anything about her husband. And year by year, she gets to know him better and better and better. It's not just that the husband provides for her and takes care of her.

That's not the main thing. She gets to know her husband. If you had gone to her the first day after she was married and asked her, what do you think your husband would do in such and such a situation?

She'd say, I don't have a clue. I just got married yesterday. But if she's lived happily with her husband for 10, 15 years, and you go to her and ask her, what do you think your husband would do in this such and such a situation?

She said, I think I'll do this. And if you walked with Jesus for 10, 15 years, you should be able to say, what would Jesus do in this situation? Yeah, I know. Just like a wife who's walked with her husband for 15 years.

If you've been born again for 15 years, you should know what Jesus would do in this situation you're in. That is knowing Jesus Christ. That's different from just knowing the Bible. A lot of people who know the Bible don't have the right sense of values.

Humility and Greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven

For example, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? You know, the disciples asked that question once. And they got a surprise when Jesus said, was it Peter or Mary, or who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

You go to the Roman Catholics and they'll give you one answer. You go to the Protestants, they'll give you another answer, and both of them are wrong. You go to the disciples, they were wrong too. Matthew 18, Jesus asked the question, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Now, the question is not whether you've read this passage. My dear brother, sister, have you understood it in your life that the greatest person in the kingdom of heaven is not the greatest preacher, not the greatest healer, and not the most person who knows the Bible best, or most gifted man.

These are the people, what is a church, in most churches, whom do they value? If a person is a very gifted preacher, or has got a good personality and is able to communicate well, they value him. That's a great person.

Not in Jesus' eyes. That's what I mean by having heaven's values. He called a little child and he said, whoever, verse four, whoever humbles himself like this child, he's the greatest. I'll tell you my testimony.

I have meditated on that verse for many, many, many years, because I'll tell you, I said, Lord, I want to be great in the kingdom of heaven. I don't want to be great on this earth. I don't even want to be great among Christians.

I don't want to be known among Christians. I don't care if nobody in the world knows me. I want to be great in the kingdom of heaven. Many years ago, a word that challenged me was what the angel told Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, Elizabeth will have a child and he will be great in the sight of the Lord.

That gripped my heart. I said, Lord, I have zero interest in being great in Christianity, or people admiring me or thinking that I've accomplished something great, zero. I want to be great in the sight of the Lord.

How is that? And that's when the Lord pointed me to this verse. You've got to be like a child. You've got to have the humility of the child, not the ignorance of a child. And there's another verse which says, in understanding, be men.

Don't be children in understanding, in knowing about God. But in our attitude of our heart, if we don't have the humility of a child, and that's why I have sometimes meditated on babies lying in a cradle.

What do you think is going through the mind of a baby? I've meditated, I'm trying to be like a child. I think that one month old baby lying in the cradle, what's going on in its mind? I want to have a mind like that.

That baby's not thinking how smart I am, how clever I am, or how much I've accomplished for the Lord, all the stupid things that Christians meditate on when they lie in bed at night. What they've done for the Lord, or what they're going to do, and there's a simplicity about that child.

It just rejoices in the fact that he's got a loving father and mother doting on it. And I say, that's what I want to be, Lord. I want to be like a little child rejoicing in the fact that I've got a father in heaven who cares for me and takes care of me, tells me what to do, and I do it.

That's humility. And if you go and hurt that child in some way, pinch it or something, you come back the next day, the child smiles at you. He doesn't even remember. He doesn't remember you're the one who pinched it yesterday and hurt it.

I say, Lord, make me like that. Make me like that, that somebody hurt me badly today, and when I see him tomorrow, I don't keep it in mind. It's gone. Meditate on what it means to be a child, then we will know what it is to be great in the kingdom of heaven.

I'll show you another verse which Jesus said about, I'm trying to show you heaven's values. Who is great in the kingdom of heaven? Here's one word. Another thing Jesus said was Matthew 5 and verse 19.

If you cancel one of the least of these commandments, which teaches us one thing, there are big commandments and small commandments. Jesus said that. All commandments are not at the same level. And you go down to the least of those commandments, there are a hundred commandments and the least of them, number a hundred, and you ignore that.

That's not such an important one. You will be called one day the last person in God's kingdom. You scraped in there by the skin of your teeth. Just managed it. Oh, you accomplished so many things. You went here and there and you went to so many meetings and all that.

But your attitude to God's commandments was you ignored the least ones. But whoever keeps and teaches even the least commandment, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Have you read that verse?

When you read the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the apostles in the New Testament, there are some commandments that are very important. Love one another. Forgive one another. There are others which are very small.

Your attitude to the small ones is what determines your place in God's eyes. Not because of the commandments, it's a question of... The question is not the commandment, the question is who gave it. If God gave it, it is important.

I'm not here to determine among the list of things, this is important, this is not important. That is arrogance. Imagine when God has given us commandments that we have the arrogance to say, that one is important, you got to keep it, this one's not important.

And brother, well, in our church, it doesn't matter if you don't obey these smaller ones. Well, I don't want to build a church like that. I tell other people, you can do that if you like. But if God has commanded something, if you say the Bible is God's word, live by it.

Knowing the Father Through Jesus Christ

Let me go on to something more. Eternal life, Jesus said, is not living forever, it's knowing God. That was the secret of Jesus' life. It's not just he knew the Bible, he knew the Father. Matthew chapter 11, we read, you think it's easy to know the Father?

No. You cannot know the Father just by reading the Bible. There are a lot of people who read the Bible who don't know the Father. Jesus said in Matthew 11 and verse 27, the middle of that verse, Matthew 11, 27, no one knows the Son except the Father.

If you know Jesus Christ, it is because the Father revealed him to you, not because of your cleverness. Humble yourself and say, God revealed Jesus to me. Listen to this. No one can know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son reveals him.

You cannot know the Father by hearing some preacher explaining what knowing God the Father is, no. You can listen to my message today about knowing God as a Father, and I guarantee you will not know God as a Father.

Jesus has to reveal the Father to you. I'll give you my own testimony. I was born in a Christian family. My father was born again before I was born. So I had the good fortune of being sent to born-again Christian churches right from childhood.

I never went to a nominal Christian church, even as a child. I started to Sunday school. But for 19 years of my life, I did not know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. Till the day came in my life where I began to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I knew my sins were forgiven.

I had no doubt that Christ had come into my life and I was born again. But it took me 16 years after that to know the Father. I was about 35 and a half years old before I came to know the Father. In all those years, I'll tell you how I know I did not know the Father.

I used to be anxious. I used to be discouraged. I used to complain. I used to grumble about things. I was critical of many people. I did not know the Father. Those are the clearest proofs. Jesus said, if you know the Father, you will not be anxious because He has numbered the hairs on your head.

Those are not just theories for us to believe and just read. He knows the sparrows that fall. When was the last time you found a dead sparrow on the ground? Can you remember? The last time you saw a dead sparrow on the ground?

I tell you, I can't even remember it. That's my Father. Do you know this Father who knows the number of hairs on your head? If you wake up one morning and you find a hair on your pillow, do you get worried about it?

Oh, when hair is gone. I don't have much hair. I don't worry about it myself. But my Father in heaven, He knew the exact moment when that hair fell off my head into the pillow. You may think that's ridiculous.

It's not. I believe what Jesus said. Jesus was saying the intensity of the Father's care for those who are devoted to Him. Not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry who calls himself a Christian. No, but if you're devoted to Christ, I'll tell you something.

You're the most blessed person on the face of the earth because your Father cares for you. He cares for the hairs on your head more than He cares for the sparrows. Every detail of your life, He cares for.

He said, think of the flowers in the field. Who clothes them? Your Father will clothe you. Who feeds the birds? Three times in Matthew 6, verse 25 to 34, He said three times. Matthew 6, 25. Don't be worried.

Matthew 6, 31. Don't be worried. Matthew 6, 34. Now when Jesus, in the space of about two minutes, or one minute, it takes you about two minutes to read those nine verses. In the space of two minutes, He says, don't worry, don't worry, don't worry.

It must be serious. And how not to worry? It's not by going through a course of being free from anxiety. No. It's by knowing the Father. And I'll tell you whether you know the Father. Do you get anxious about something?

Let me tell you, brother, you need to know the Father. You don't need a course on freedom from anxiety. You need to know the Father. Three times He says, don't be anxious because you've got a Father in heaven.

Your heavenly Father, verse 32, knows what you need. Well, I'll tell you this. It took me 16 years after I was born again to know the Father like that. To know that God loved me exactly like He loved Jesus.

That was a great revelation from John 17, 23. I can show you the verse. You can remember the verse. But don't believe because you read the verse, you got revelation. I read the verse many times. That the world may know that you love them as you love me.

That the Father loves us as He loved Jesus. I've heard many Christians quote it. But the proof will be like Jesus. You will not be anxious. The proof will be like Jesus. You will not be bitter against anybody.

The proof will be like Jesus. That you'll be willing to forgive every single person, even if they crucify you. You'll forgive them immediately. Then you know the Father. If you can't forgive someone, let me tell you, my dear brother, sister.

Lovingly and humbly, you don't know the Father. Don't imagine you know Him. You know Jesus as your Savior. Yes, He died for your sins and His blood will cleanse you. But you do not know the Father. And that is the fundamental problem why you have so many other problems in your life.

Fathers Reflecting the Father's Love

And yet Jesus came from heaven to reveal the Father. And I want to tell you, today is Father's Day. If you want to be a good father to your children, you have to know the Father in heaven. God gave me four sons and I wanted to be a really good father to them.

I wanted all of them to follow Jesus. I didn't want them to be great in the world or to become millionaires. I wanted them to follow Jesus and live for eternity's values. I didn't want them to live by the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

I wanted them to live by the tree of life. I didn't want them to just say nominally, I've accepted Christ, I'm born again. I've seen umpteen people like that. I wanted children who knew God. Well, then God said, you've got to be a father.

You've got to be a father like me. How can I be a father like God if I don't know Him? That's why it's so important on Father's Day for you fathers, you've got children. Thank God many of you, your children are small.

Get to know God. That's the greatest thing you can do for your children. Because then you can get them to know God as a father. It makes a world of difference. It's not just Christ died for my sins, I accepted Him.

I signed on the dotted line and I have a date saying on so-and-so date, I accepted Christ. Look at all the Christians who say that. Look at the way they live. Do you sense that Christ is in them? Are they drawing people to Christ?

No. In a tough spot, they will do some crooked things. I'll tell you why, because they don't know the Father. If they have an opportunity to live for God and to live for money, they choose money. But they'd also have a little bit of God in their life so that it doesn't look as if they are ungodly or un-Christian.

God is in a corner, and money is the major thing. Or some position in the world is the major thing, and God is in a corner. They want to go to heaven. I don't believe these are like the Pharisees. They had God in a corner, but their goal in life was not God.

Their goal in life was getting on in the world and being respected in religious circles. If you want to be respected in religious circles, my brother, or in this church, perhaps, and you don't want to please Jesus every day of your life, if you don't want to please Jesus in those hours in your home when you're with your wife and children and nobody is watching you, if in those moments you don't want to please Jesus desperately, and if you don't repent and weep when you fail in your home, I want to say to you lovingly, get to know the Father.

He's the most wonderful person that you can ever know. There's no one on earth like Him. Loving, compassionate, kind, good, never compromising, able to deliver you from any tight spot. I'll tell you, numerous tight spots I had when I was in the military, and after it, God took me out.

Trusting the Father's Protection and Provision

He had a word. He speaks from heaven, the appropriate word. You know how Jesus lived? Jesus lived by a word from the Father. I'll give you one example, and I've had some experiences like this myself. Because I've been a witness for Christ for half a century or more in a country where 98%, as you know, are not Christians, even my life has been threatened.

And once somebody tried to kill me and my wife by setting my car on fire. It didn't succeed. If you turn to Luke chapter 4, Jesus preached a very powerful sermon in the synagogue. It was the first sermon He preached in Nazareth.

And when He said that God is going to accept the non-Jews as well, verse 28, the people in the synagogue, Luke 4, 28, the people in the synagogue were filled with anger. Not just angry, they were filled with anger.

And they got up, read this carefully, they got up, I don't know, maybe 200 people in the synagogue, 200 people ganged up to get one man, Jesus, and drove him out of the city. Read slowly, carefully, led him to the top of a hill on which Nazareth had been built in order to throw him down the cliff and kill him.

But he quietly passed through them and went his way. How did that happen? When I read that, I stopped. I say, Lord, no angel came. Once we read an angel picked up Philip by the hair and took him away.

If there was one time that Jesus needed that, it was here. No angel came. He passed through the midst of them and went his way. Who? 200 people trying to kill him, throw him over a cliff. He quietly went through that.

I meditated on that. I said, Lord, I may be some situation like this one day. I want to know how you got delivered. I don't believe there was a moment of anxiety in Jesus' mind because He knew He was in the center of His Father's will when He preached that sermon.

I preached some sermons where people got mad at me. And this passage is amazing. They got angry. They stopped Him in the middle of the sermon. I've had people stop me in the middle of a sermon when I was preaching in a Pentecostal convention once.

They didn't like what I said. They kept sending notes up to me to stop. How did He escape? And I meditated on that. How could 200 people gang up to kill one helpless man and throw him over a cliff and not able to catch him?

Do you know how God is able to bring confusion in the minds of people? You read in the Old Testament how God would bring confusion in the minds of the enemies of the Israelites and they would never succeed in winning the battle.

And I thought, well, I have a feeling that these people discussed. Now there are two or three cliffs here. Which cliff shall we throw him off? And you know, when men get into a discussion, they never agree.

So they're discussing about 10, 15 minutes which cliff to throw him over. And while they were discussing and they're all arguing over there, Jesus quietly went away. And by the time they decided after 15 minutes, Jesus is not there.

Have you ever had an experience, not exactly like that, but somewhat similar? That can be yours. If you really know the Father, there is not a situation in life in which God will not deliver you. Dear brothers and sisters, get to know the Father.

And like we protect our children, the other day I read of somebody who came into a store with a gun and began to shoot. And a father immediately protected his three children and got shot himself. That's a father.

Do you believe your heavenly Father will do that for you? Yes, he's done that for me numerous times. From physical death and from attacks by others. Know the Father, there'll be zero anxiety in your life.

I'll tell you there'll be zero anxiety. You can go to any place that God sends you. Some of you are concerned about your job, insecurity. Is there anything that the Father in heaven doesn't know about that he cannot solve?

Is there a problem on earth that your heavenly Father cannot solve? We all need to know the Father better. And then we will be better fathers to our children. We'll be able to protect them, not only from physical dangers, but from spiritual dangers.

Warning them, protecting them, preserving them. And like all you fathers, how hard you work to provide for your children. You think your heavenly Father won't care to provide for you? When I stepped out of the Navy 56 years ago, I took my entire life savings.

I had spent about 11 years in the Navy and gave it all away for the Lord's work. I said, I'm going to step out to serve you with zero in my bank account. I stepped out with zero in my bank account. And when Annie married me, we had zero in our bank account.

So we're going to trust God to provide our needs. And that's 54 years ago. We've never mentioned our needs to a single human being till today. I've never sent a prayer letter in my life. God's provided our need.

God provided Jesus' needs. God provided Paul's needs. I tell you, it's a wonderful thing to have such experiences. It's a far greater experience than getting a regular salary. But you don't try it unless God calls you.

I would have been a miserable failure if I had stepped out without God's call. I always tell people, don't ever step out into Christian work without God calling you. There were many fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus called only a few of them. If the others had said, oh, Peter's gone. Let me also go. They'd have made a mess of their life. You can't go into Christian work without God calling you. But if he does call you, I'll tell you, he'll take care of you till the very end.

I remember as I was getting older, I said, Lord, I don't want to be dependent on anyone. People get old. I'm 82 now. This is many years ago. What about if I grow older? The Lord said to me in Isaiah 46 verse 4, even to your old age, I am the same, the Lord says.

And when your hairs are gray or white, I will still carry you. I've done it. I carried you from your mother's womb. I will carry you. I will hold you up. I will deliver you. Can you imagine? Almighty God saying such a word to me, Isaiah 46 verse 4.