Finishing the Course - 02 Filling Up What Is Lacking — Zac Poonen

Growing Up Into Christ in Every Aspect

We were thinking yesterday morning, and at other times during the day, of our theme, which is that we must grow up in all aspects unto Christ. It's not a theme that we must just think of at the conference, but at all times in our life.

This is God's will for us. We're not to be imbalanced. When we begin our Christian life, it's like that. But God's will is, as we go on in the Christian life, that more and more of that circle gets filled up.

A lot of empty spots, and we need to see what all spots are empty and fill them up. And for each of us, as we saw, those areas may be different. And that's why we need to, you know, Paul says, we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes.

And one reason why Satan allows you to see the weaknesses of other people so clearly, you know, he shows you the circle of other people, and shows you all the areas in their life that are not Christ-like.

How does it help you? It doesn't help you one bit. And the purpose of that is that you never concentrate on your own circle. And I believe that's one of the main reasons why many, many Christians don't grow.

They're looking at all the other circles around them, and so little at their own. I believe that's the reason why we don't have a better ministry in our churches. In front of my table, I have a verse written there to remind me that the happiest people in the world are those who judge, who never judge others, and judge themselves always.

And ever since I got light on that, I have tried to live according to that. You know, in trying to live according to that, we slip up now and then and fall, but we repent and we come back. But I want to encourage all of you, my brothers and sisters, the mark of God's house is like I said yesterday, there are thrones of judgment where we judge ourselves.

Because we look at the glory of Jesus, and we see what a perfect circle His was. And as I see that, I immediately see the areas in my life which are not like that. Those of you who preach the word of God in your churches, I believe that your preaching God's word would have been ten times better or a hundred times better if you had gone home after each meeting and asked the Lord to show you where you failed in your preaching.

I have done that for 25 years. Every time I preach, I go and ask the Lord to show me as far as possible. Lord, did I waste people's time? Did I bore people? Did I say something unnecessary, useless? Did I say something for my own honor?

Did I take pains to convey your message accurately, correctly to people? And I find God speaks to me all the time. And I have to keep working on making my preaching circle perfect. But I find a lot of preachers don't do that.

They just get up and speak and imagine that everybody is tremendously excited to listen to them, not realizing they are probably boring people to death. And there's nobody to tell them. Even their wives are not faithful enough to tell them, you were boring today.

Why don't your sisters help your husbands? You're supposed, God appointed you to be a helper. And if you don't help your, you know, if other people go and tell your husband, they'll think, he'll think they hate him.

But when you tell your husband that you were too long and you were too boring, he'd probably listen. See, there are so many areas where we need to fill up what is lacking. So many areas. If we are humble enough to acknowledge, and what is humility?

We have many definitions of humility. We were thinking on Sunday about being nothing so that God can be everything. Another definition of humility, I would say, is just acknowledging that you have not yet become like Jesus.

Do you have a problem there? Anybody has a problem acknowledging that you have not yet become like Jesus Christ? That's humility. And if you always acknowledge that, your life will become more and more perfect.

I keep acknowledging that. I say, Lord, my preaching, I'm not yet preaching like Jesus preached. I've got a goal to preach like Jesus preached. Jesus was not boring even for one second. That's how he spoke.

I want to challenge you folks who preach God's word in your churches to make Jesus your example. How he spoke so simply, and to little children could understand. And I keep saying, Lord, my attitude to money.

That's not yet like the attitude of Jesus. I really want to be like that. I want to be like that. Do you have a passion? I'll tell you, brothers and sisters, you can hear any number of messages. But if you don't have a burning passion, that that circle must be filled up before you die.

You'll never get there. You'll never get there. No matter how many interesting messages you hear, and no matter how many times you hear them. You've got to have a passion. You've got to see that the purpose with which Jesus called you was that you might be like him.

And to be like Jesus is to have that circle perfect. And also to rub out all the areas outside the circle where the crayon has gone. You've got to rub all that out. And make sure that the circle is filled up.

That's perfection. That is the life of Jesus. That means get rid of the things in your life which Jesus wouldn't do. The way of speaking, the way of handling money, you know, things like that. I was talking yesterday about people who make business with each other in the church and sell things for profit.

You've just got to ask yourself, would Jesus sell something to Peter for a profit? And try to get some money out of Peter. I can't imagine Jesus doing that. That's outside the circle. I wouldn't do it.

I said to me that brother is just like Peter. It was to Jesus. I wouldn't do it. And all people who do such things, they are not at all like Jesus. They are like the devil. They're not like Jesus. But they don't have light on it, a lot of them.

A lot of things go on in the church. People just don't seem to have light on. Why don't they get light? Does an elder brother always have to come and tell them, you should not do this, you should not do this?

I mean that's okay when we were babies. You had to tell your little children, brush your teeth, go and have a bath, change your clothes, time to go to school, do your homework. But if you had to do that to a 20-year-old son, how sad you'll feel.

And that's exactly how God feels about a lot of his children. He still has to tell them, brush your teeth, go and change your clothes, go and take a shower, go and have a bath. That's the type of thing because they don't seem to judge themselves.

They've got thrones of judgment to judge other people. Will you make one decision in this conference? That you will never again spend your time judging people for whom you have no responsibility. That is crayons outside the circle.

That means you have to judge certain people. For example, if I'm an elder and two brothers in our church have a problem, I have to judge them. Because God's given me that responsibility. If two of my children have a fight when they're small at home, I have to judge them.

So there is this fear in which I have to sit on a throne of judgment to judge others, my children. But I don't have to judge other people's children. That's not my circle. God's given them a father. Let the father, I mean if they misbehave in the church, I talk to the father.

I've never in my life punished anybody else's child. Some of you may have foolishly done that. I never do it. I wouldn't touch even my brother's child or sister's child or anybody's. That's not my business.

I know my boundary. And I stick to that. I don't go to somebody else's home and talk to their servant and tell her how to conduct herself. That's not my business. If there's someone who works in my home, that's my responsibility.

You know, I'm amazed. After so many years, so many people don't know where their circle ends. A lot of the problems that come in the church are because people go outside their circles. And we need to really recognize, and that's the reason why we can't fill up what is lacking.

Boundaries and Mutual Submission in the Home

Even in a home, do you know their husband and wife have got their own circles? Do you think just because some husbands think, well, I'm the head of the home. What does that mean? You mean your wife has got no circle?

Your children have got no circle? You're the big Maharaja in charge of the whole thing? It's not true. The wife has got her circle. And if a husband doesn't recognize that, he's not going to become Christ-like.

How many of you know, there's a verse in the Bible, how many of you husbands know this? Very important verse for husbands. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as unto the Lord. Do you all know that?

Anybody here who doesn't know that, any husband? Oh, you all know that. Do you know the verse before that? No? That's for you. This verse is not actually for you. That's for wives. But see what it says in Ephesians 5.

Verse 21. Ephesians 5, 21. Verse 22 is, Wives, be subject to your own husbands as unto the Lord. That verse is not addressed to husbands. It's addressed to wives. But the previous verse is for everybody.

Verse 21. Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Now what does that mean? Who has to be subject to who in that verse? In the next verse, I know the answer. Any child can answer. Wives, be subject to your husbands.

Okay, that's understood. What about the previous verse? In the previous verse, who has to be subject to who? Even a child can answer that. Who? Everybody. Does a... Tell me this. Does a husband have to be subject to his wife or not?

Loud. All the single people are saying yes. What about the husbands? According to this verse, yes. Does an elder brother have to be subject to a younger brother according to this verse? Yes, all the younger brothers are saying yes.

Right. You know, what does this mean? Does that mean I have to take orders from my younger brothers? See, we've got this wrong idea of subjection. Subjection means, you listen to me. That's how some husbands rule their homes.

That's not the way to... That's not how Jesus told Peter, listen to me. That's not even how God tells Gabriel, the angel. That's... That's how the devil tells one of his demons. Bill Zibob, listen to me.

The fellow trembles and... That's how some husbands run their homes. That's not Christ-like. That's the rule of hell. There's a gentleness about Jesus. Jesus always says, if any man wants to come. This thou shalt and thou shalt not is back to the Old Testament.

We need to do that for children when they are small. Because children who are small are under the law. They are in the old covenant. You have to tell them thou shalt, thou shalt not. But we don't treat adults like that.

No. You don't tell your wife, thou shalt, thou shalt not. And when your children are grown up, you don't say that either. So, be subject means... Now, I want to explain this verse to you. Everybody, according to Ephesians 5 .21, has got a circle.

And when I go into his circle, I'm going outside my circle. What does that mean? When I force my wife to do something which she doesn't want to do. I've gone outside my circle. I can give a suggestion, I can say this, but I can't force her.

Even Almighty God doesn't force us. How many of you can say that Jesus forced you to do something? Any time in your life? I've been a Christian 43 years. Jesus never forced me to do a single thing till today.

And I'm supposed to love my wife like that. That I never in my life force her to do anything. Because that's how Jesus treats me. Is there a single one of you that can say that Jesus forced you to do something which you didn't want to do?

Never. Why? Because Jesus recognizes his boundary. And foolish men don't recognize their boundary. You think it's difficult for Jesus to catch me by the neck and make me do something? Not at all. It's so easy for him.

And if I don't obey him, he can make me sick. And when you don't obey, he doesn't make you sick. Why? Because he respects your circle. The head respects the circle of the members of the body and says, If you want to follow me, follow me.

When he sees some of you running after money, does he grab you by the neck and pull you back? No. He knows that will destroy you. He knows that is against the word of God. But he doesn't grab you and pull you back.

He allows you to go. That is respecting your circle. That's how we must deal with one another. Have you got light on something? And that brother doesn't have light on it yet? That sister doesn't have light?

Be patient. How long Jesus waited for us to get light? You think of some of your unconverted days, my brothers. You haven't forgotten your unconverted days, right, brothers and sisters? When you were unconverted?

And you did some things which you'd be ashamed if people in this church knew what all you did. What did the Lord do to you those days? You wouldn't be sitting here if he was not patient with you. He spoke to you and you wouldn't listen?

You rebelled but he waited, he waited, he waited. That's how we must love one another. That's how we must be patient with one another. That's how we must be, parents must be patient with their children.

If they don't suddenly get the light you have, be patient. Jesus was patient with you. That is respect the other person's circle. There are areas in your home perhaps which are your wife's circle. For example, the kitchen and the home.

That's maybe her circle and you've got to allow her freedom in that circle to run the kitchen and that department exactly as she likes, not the way you like. I find that a lot of problems can be solved if we recognize one another's boundaries.

And even in fellowship among believers in the church, recognize each person has got a boundary and I don't want to tread into that person's boundary. I want to say something, you know many people come to me for advice, you can believe that.

But I always tell them, after giving them advice, you don't have to listen to me. I'm not God. I'm not giving you commandments, I'm giving you advice. You need to know the difference between advice and commandments.

God gives commandments, you better obey them. I only give you advice and I will not be offended if you don't follow my advice, not at all. I'll have to be very immature if I get offended because you don't follow my advice.

Any elder who gives advice and is offended because they didn't follow it, I say, you're a baby, you better grow up. You know, you're not God, we can't give commandments to people. We give advice and say, pray and seek God about it.

If you feel you should do it, do it. If you don't feel you should do it, don't do it. It's fine, it's up to you. We need to recognize that even our children have a circle. For example, do you ever humiliate your children in public?

You may think that as parents you have a right, absolute authority over your children, even when they are small. You don't. You know the little 3 -4 year old children have a dignity? As far as I can remember, I never punished any of my children in public.

Even when guests were there, I would wait till the guests went away. Because that humiliation can be worse than the punishment. Do you criticize your children in the presence of others, other people? I sometimes, I've had mothers come to me and say, please pray for my child, Brother Zag, he doesn't study, he doesn't eat properly.

You know, I pray for the mother. I don't pray for the child. I never pray for the child. When some mother asks me like that, I say, Lord, bless this sister and help her to be a good mother. That's it.

Because that's, you know, we ask for a lot of stupid things. And that's why all the children are my friends, just by the way. But I'm just trying to tell you that you, parents can sometimes humiliate your children.

And you bring a distance between you and them. And gradually, over a period of time, they don't like you. But you're the one to blame. Because you went outside your circle. You think, oh, my child's got no circle.

Everything is inside my circle. No. Even a child has got a little circle. Of their respect and their dignity. And as they grow up and become more and more mature, their circle becomes wider. And you've got to give them more and more freedom.

You can't treat your 20-year-old like he was when he was 2 years old. You can't do it. And if you do it, and you have problems in your relationship with that child, you've got to blame yourself. There are so many areas where we need to keep that picture in our mind.

Lord, am I going outside my circle? So many areas. As husbands. As wives. As parents. As children. As brothers and sisters. Learn to recognize your boundaries. And concentrate on filling up what is lacking inside that circle.

In your own circle. And when people see you like that, they will love you. Your children will love you. They'll admire you. And they'll want to be like you. And they'll want to be Christ-like. And if you're an elder brother like that, your sheep will love you.

You can correct them, they'll still love you. You can rebuke them, they'll love you. Because they know you rebuke them out of love. You want the best for them. And they know it. They know that you don't tread into their circle.

Be like that, my brothers and sisters. What a great need there is in all of our churches. In all of our homes. For godly men who know how to lead. And then what shall we do if we do cross a circle and tread into somebody else's?

You know what we need to do? We need to ask forgiveness. From God and from man. You need to ask forgiveness from your wife. You need to ask forgiveness from your children. I'm sorry for hurting you. Sorry for punishing you when you didn't deserve to be punished.

We must be willing to change our mind because we had a wrong understanding. We must be willing to apologize even to a beggar. If you spoke to a beggar rudely, you need to apologize to him. If you got a servant at home, you spoke rudely, you got to apologize.

Yeah, it's true. We had a brother here who didn't treat a servant at home properly. I said, I'll never come to your house till you apologize to that servant. God is the God of the helpless and the poor.

And God's servants are on the side of the poor and the helpless. Please remember that, my brothers and sisters. We're not diplomats here standing up to serve God. We are here to defend the rights of the weak and the helpless and the widows.

And the only time I really get angry is when somebody takes advantage of somebody else. If they take advantage of me, it's okay. Forget it. You can do that. I won't get angry. I promise you I won't get angry.

But you take advantage of somebody else. And if you're in my church, boy, I'll tell you straight to your face what I think of you. If you take advantage of another brother, if you take advantage of someone who is weak or helpless.

Defending the Weak and Righteous Anger

Jesus was furious when he saw the Pharisees taking advantage of poor people. When he saw people taking money in the name of religion. He was angry. He was furious. And I'm not as angry as Jesus. I'm trying to fill up that circle to become as angry as Jesus was.

To take a whip. I haven't ever taken a whip yet because I've not yet become like Jesus. But that's areas of my life that still need to be filled up. There is an anger which I'm sorry to say a lot of people don't have.

Because they're not concerned about the rights of poor people. It's a shame when the communists have more concern for the rights of poor people than we who are supposed to be servants of almighty God.

It's a very sad thing. Jesus had a tremendous concern for poor people. For widows. For helpless orphans. For servants. These are the areas where if you want to get angry that's inside the circle. Get angry.

And don't get angry for silly things like somebody insulted you or somebody spat on your face or crucified you or something. Those are not things to get angry about. Those are all things to say Father forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing. We all get angry at the wrong things. And we don't get angry for the right things. So you see there are many areas where we got to fill up what is lacking. Like we read in that verse.

The things that are lacking. We need to fill up. And let's really take it seriously from this conference onwards. To really fill up what is lacking in these areas. I want to turn to Ephesians chapter 4 and I want you to see something here.

Speaking the Truth in Love and Growing Through the Body

In that verse that we've got at the back. How shall we grow up? It says here about growing up. Growing up means we are babies. And you know that that was drawn by a baby. Not by an adult. No adult will try to fill up a circle like that.

And whenever people cross their boundaries in such a careless way. And don't fill up what is in their circle. You know that they are spiritual babies. They have not grown up. And we have to grow up it says there.

Ephesians 4 15. Grow up in all aspects unto Christ who is the head. That means I've got to look at Jesus and see what all areas his circle was so perfect. And then I see my circle. Ok. A hundred other circles I see they may not be filled up but that's not my business.

God is their judge. He'll deal with them. If I'm an elder in Philadelphia I don't have to worry about the elder in Sardis. If I'm an elder in Laodicea I don't have to worry about the elder in Thyatira.

God will speak to them directly. Don't worry. But I have to listen to what God speaks to me. Growing up. Growing up. And growth comes when I see all aspects. All aspects. And how do I grow up? It says in this verse.

Speaking the truth in love. I grow up in all aspects unto him who is the head from whom the whole body being fitted together by that which every joint supplies. So I see three things here. Truth. Verse 15.

Love. And the body. Verse 16. If I want to grow I must love the truth first of all. I must seek to live in love to everybody around me. All going outside the circle is because I don't love. How do I love the truth?

To love the truth means first of all to love the truth about myself. To recognize when God shows me that this is a defect in you. I'll give you one example of that. I've mentioned it before. That some years ago when a brother had some difficulty with me.

And I sought the Lord. And I said, Lord why in the world is he upset with me? I've never. I never said anything to him. I never did anything to him. Why is he upset? And the Lord said, that's exactly.

You never said anything. You never did anything. You should have said something. You should have done something to build fellowship. You know sometimes our sins are not sins of commission. That means not sins that we commit.

But sins that we omit. There are two types of sins. Sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of commission are things which we do. Like you yell at somebody or get angry with somebody. And sins of omission are where you just ignore someone.

Now I'll give you an example. So I realized that at that time and I said, the Lord said in the times when he did not have any strain with you. You did not you know visit him or try to build some fellowship with him.

The result is he may not be as strong as you are. A little something happened or some misunderstanding came to his mind and a distance came. This happens so often between husbands and wives. You omit to do something.

For example, you come back from a very busy days of work at home, in your office, to your home and then you sit there and you have no fellowship with your wife. You just pick up the newspaper and read it.

And your wife is just probably waiting for some fellowship. And all she sees is a newspaper between you and her and occasionally she asks you something and you say, hmm. From behind the newspaper she hears these grunts, hmm.

She's not waiting for you to hear, hmm. When you come back from work, she wants some fellowship. You never said anything. And then she blows up. And you say, Lord, what did I do? You didn't do anything.

That's the trouble. You didn't do anything when you came back from your work. You should have built fellowship with her. She's waited the whole day. These are little things. We need to recognize the truth.

Lord, that time when my wife got upset, the fault was not with her. It was with me. I shouldn't have sat behind the newspaper and said, hmm. I should have built some fellowship. But very often we think that the fault is with the other person.

I'm just using an example. It could be many other things like that. But that's to love the truth. Just imagine if all of us began to have a passionate love for the truth about ourselves. Can you imagine the quality of fellowship you'll have with your wife and husband at home?

Or between the brothers in your church? The truth is number one. And it says here that in love, speaking the truth in love, even if we have to speak the truth to others, we must always do it in love. If I cannot speak the truth in love, we shouldn't speak.

Do you know there are letters that I have written that I have torn up and corrected about twenty times before I have mailed it. It's much easier now when you have a computer. I read and read and say, is this the right way to say it?

Am I too strong here? Because we are human. Whenever you're writing a letter to someone with whom you're a bit upset, remember you have a flesh in which dwells nothing good. And humble yourself when you're going to meet somebody to whom you want to speak about something that's disturbing you.

Remember that you've got a flesh in which dwells nothing good. And it's possible that even as I'm speaking, some of you sitting here have got a grudge in your heart against somebody else. Right now, you've allowed a snake to come inside your heart.

It's a snake. And I'll tell you something. Please listen to these words of wisdom. That snake will not kill your enemy. It will kill you. It's not such a great word of wisdom. It's just simple common sense that if a snake comes into your house, the snake will kill you.

Not your neighbor. You may have a grudge against your neighbor, but the snake will kill you because you allowed the snake to come into your heart. You know what you need to do? If you're really a born-again Christian, you need to humble yourself and say, Lord, I want to set that right at the first opportunity after this meeting is over.

You must go to that person, or if that person's not here, write to that person at the first opportunity and say, I'm sorry. Humble yourself. It'll go very well with you. If you don't do that, you stand on your pride, you can go and destroy yourself.

That's up to you. And it'll be worse because you heard so much of the truth in the church. So, do you have an attitude of love towards, can you honestly say that your heart has got an attitude of love towards every person that you know?

If you don't, you're not going to grow up. It says here, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up. Otherwise, you won't grow up. If you don't speak the truth in love, you will not grow up. I can tell you that.

All grown-up people know how to speak the truth in love. And the other thing is that God gives us the body to fill up what is lacking. You see, the right hand cannot do certain things without the left hand.

You know that a person who plays keyboard with one hand doesn't sound as good as a person who plays with both hands. You know that. You can do with one hand, I know. But it's so much better when you have both hands.

And like that with so many things, you know, for example, the olden days when they didn't have these automatic keyboards, they played the piano or an organ. And you know what all they had to have when they played an organ?

There were two pedals and both legs had to be active and all ten fingers and the eyes had to watch the music and the ears had to listen. All of that, just to get a piece of music out. That's how the church is meant to be.

You can play with one finger, I know. But it'll never be as good as if you take humbly, take your place in the body of Christ and say, I need others. Is that lacking in your life? Is there a sense of needing other people lacking in your life?

I am so tremendously thankful for the brothers and sisters, young brothers who have shared God's word in our meetings in Bangalore, that have blessed my heart. They don't know that they have blessed me.

They just get up and share their own testimony. And unconsciously they bless me. Yeah. They have blessed me more than the clever people who got up and tried to preach to impress me. They don't bless me at all.

It's the other ones who don't seek to impress anybody, who get up and give an honest testimony, that have always blessed my heart. Because God said to me, that's for you. And I said, thank you, Lord. And that's protected me, preserved me.

Learn to value the body of Christ. If you don't value the body of Christ in your locality, something's missing. The areas in our life that are missing when we don't value other members of Christ's body, whom God has given us to preserve us and protect us.

And that's why I feel so sad when young people come to CFC and they don't get integrated into the body of Christ in our church. They come, they attend the meetings, but they don't really seek to get integrated and fellowship with the other young people.

Something is wrong. Something is wrong and you'll suffer the loss. These are the areas that we need to fill up. Fill up what is lacking. God has provided us the body with a purpose. I want to say another thing.

Pride, Comparison, and the Example of Uzzah

You know, in this matter of the body and I want to show you in the Old Testament a couple of examples. First of all, in 2 Samuel and chapter 6. You know, yesterday we were hearing from Brother Setu how we can get proud after God has blessed us a little while.

You know, how Hagar got proud because she got a baby and Sarah didn't have. You know, whenever you get something which somebody else doesn't have, you're in tremendous danger. I'll tell you that. If you got a better job than somebody else, I'll tell you right now, you're in great danger.

If you got a baby when somebody else didn't have a baby, you got married at the same time, you are in great danger. That was Hagar's problem. Whenever something good happens to you, which has not happened to somebody else, you know who's got a problem?

You! You who got the blessing is the one who's got the problem. It's the rich person who's got a more greater problem than the poor person. Hagar had a problem because he was blessed. David had a problem as we heard when he got blessed.

Peter had a problem when he was walking on the water. He didn't have a problem when he was in the boat. But when he was doing this fantastic thing of walking on the water, then he had a problem. Because it was an amazing thing that he was doing.

And maybe God has done a wonderful work through you and you're going to have a problem if God's done a work through you. It's very very difficult to keep our head in the dust after we have walked on the water for about 10 feet.

I'll tell you that. It's extremely difficult to keep our head in the dust if you have walked on the water for 10 feet and that's when you sink. And you can go right to the bottom. And you'd wish that you'd never have walked on the water at all.

The people in the boat are much safer. Yeah. Those people in the boat never sank. Who was the one who sank? Peter. The one who did the great miracle. Who's the one in danger? The one whom God has used to do some wonderful thing which other people haven't done.

If you don't keep your face in the dust. So here it says in 2 Samuel chapter 6 about the time when David was taking the Ark to from the house of Abinadab. Verse 3. 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 3. Now if you understand a little bit of this history here you know the Ark was captured by the Philistines.

You read about it in 1 Samuel 6 and then came back to Israel and it was kept in a place called Beth Shemesh. And in Beth Shemesh some people opened the lid of the Ark to see what was inside and God killed 50 ,000 people who poked their head into what was none of their business.