Listening, Unburdening and Worshipping — Zac Poonen

Jesus’ Care for Women and the Marginalized

God is a good God. We praise Him that He continuously gives us His Word to encourage us, to lift up our spirit. Today I want to speak on three things and those are three things that a woman called Mary did at Jesus' feet.

Mary of Bethany. I'm thrilled that Jesus came and lifted up women who were despised in Jewish society. A lot of Jewish men had great pride that they were men. I think very similar to the culture we see in India today where women are treated as inferior.

And that's why Jesus had a special care for women. If you look at the Gospels you see how He was very tender towards women caught in adultery. A Samaritan woman who had been divorced five times and nobody would talk to her.

He was like that. People who were pushed out by society, women, lepers, beggars, He's the same today. And I'm sorry that in most churches they still treat women the way the old covenant treated them, the way Jewish people treated them, the way non-Christians treat them because Christians haven't seen the new covenant.

They have not seen that Jesus came to lift women to the place of equality with man, poured out His spirit on men and women alike so that men and women alike would prophesy. That's why after His resurrection the first person He manifested Himself to was a woman.

God is the God of the weak and the helpless and those who are on the periphery of society. So it's wonderful when we worship God. Let's not worship a Jesus of our own imagination. Let's worship a Jesus that we see in the Bible, one who can change our view to the view He had.

I want to say to all of us who are brought up in Indian culture, you may not realize it, my dear brothers, men especially, there's a lot of heathen Indian culture in us we got to get rid of, especially in our attitude to our wives, in our attitude to our daughters.

Most Indian society does not treat girls on equality with boys in their family. If you're a Christian, it's got to change. If it doesn't change, you're not really following Jesus. You're following a heathen culture and you'll remain like that.

Mary at Jesus’ Feet: Listening Before Serving

So I want to talk about Mary and see how Jesus appreciated her. First is in Luke's Gospel chapter 10. We see her at the feet of Jesus listening. There are three things we can learn from Mary of Bethany and the first thing is Luke chapter 10 verse 38 to 42.

As they were traveling along, he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him to her home. She had a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet listening to his word. I want to learn from that.

I'm not ashamed to learn from a woman. I hope you're not. If a woman's a godly woman, I'm willing to learn from her. I've learned a lot of things from my own wife. She shared some things from scripture.

I'm willing to learn from Mary this wonderful thing of sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to his word. That's more important than all that we do for him. We can be distracted like Martha. It says here, was distracted with all her preparations.

Their home was not a rich home. If you read carefully scriptures, you see many things. For example, we read of homes in the Gospels where there were many servants. The prodigal son's father had many servants.

The Roman centurion had servants. There were other homes of Simon the Pharisee who obviously had servants. But here was a home we didn't have any servants. That's why Martha had to go and work herself.

The woman of the house has to work in the kitchen. It's not a very rich home. Jesus loved to go into these poor homes. But Martha, with great love and affection for the Lord, went straight away to the kitchen to prepare food for Jesus and his twelve disciples.

She was bothered that her sister was not coming to help her and came to Jesus and said, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Tell her to help me. And the Lord said, Martha, Martha, you're worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary.

Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. One thing is needful, Jesus said. In my observation of Christians, I have seen that most Christians do not believe that this is the one thing needful in their lives.

This is one of the hundred and one things they feel are needful in their lives. Most Christians are like Martha, feel satisfied that they're doing something for the Lord. And we think that because you've done something for the Lord and sacrificed something here and done something there for the Lord and his disciples, that the Lord's going to come and give us a pat on the back and say, well done.

He'll say that if you've done the one thing that's needful first. If you haven't done the one thing that's needful, he will rebuke you and correct you for, even though you may say my intention was good.

You know, there are a lot of people whose intention is good and they may be doing the wrong thing. There are many people like that. When Simon Peter came to Jesus and said, Lord, I'll never allow you to be crucified.

His intention was very good. But Jesus said, that's the voice of Satan. Get away from me. So our intention can be good. Martha's intention was good, but she was completely wrong. Because the Bible says, God says, my ways are not your ways.

My thoughts are not your thoughts. I don't think like you think. You know, we think that God thinks like we think. He doesn't. And if we are humble, we'll come to the scriptures and say, Lord, I need to learn to think how you think.

And I need to get rid of my own way of thinking. You see, like I said earlier, that's one reason we have this wrong approach to sisters and women in the church. Because we want God to think like we think, but he doesn't.

We're not willing to change to learn to think like he thinks. And who's going to be the loser? We're going to be the losers. The church is going to be the loser because we're not going to be willing to think like God thinks.

Hearing God’s Voice Through Scripture

Now, if we want to learn to think like God thinks, we have to listen. We have to come to the scriptures to listen. Otherwise, we'll run around like Martha, doing this, that and the other. And at the end of it, we'll say, Lord, but my intention was right.

The Lord will say, your intention was right, but you wasted your time. You wasted your life on earth. I don't want to hear that when I stand before the Lord. More than 45 years ago, the Lord spoke that verse to me, and I've never forgotten it.

One thing is needful. Listen to me. Listen to me. If I have a regret in my life, it's this, that I have not listened more. I think my life would have been far more effective for the Lord if I had insisted on listening.

I've tried. When I see many, many Christians, don't listen. You know, the Bible begins with God speaking in chapter 1. In fact, Genesis chapter 1 is full of God said, God said, God said, God said. Every day God said something.

And whenever he said something, something happened. If he said, let the trees come out, the trees came out. If he said, let there be animals, there were animals. When he said, something happened. And the New Testament begins with that.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, every temptation that came to him, he said, no, but God said this. Satan, you may say this, but God said this. It's written. That is the great conflict that has been throughout human history.

When Eve stood before the tree of knowledge of good and evil, she knew what God said, and she heard what Satan said. And I want to say to all of you, we are always hearing these two voices. And Jesus said, one thing is needful.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. And if you can think of the times in your life where you made a mess of your life, I'll tell you where you made it.

It's because you didn't listen to the voice of conscience telling you something. You were busy going to church, going to meetings, going to sing praises, and you didn't listen to the voice of conscience telling you something else.

And that's how most Christians, and even Christians who are supposed to know better, made a mess of their life. They can be so involved in service. You see, this is why Jesus said that many people who are doing greater things than Martha.

Martha was just making food in the kitchen, but there are people who have done miracles in Jesus' name who will stand before Him in the final day and the Lord will say, I don't know you. You never had time to listen to me.

You read my word and I said in my word, one thing is needful, to sit at my heart and listen, sit at my feet and listen to me. But you didn't bother. You thought, I wanted you to go and do this and that, the other thing, the other thing for me.

I didn't want all that. I wanted you to listen to me. You know, in the living Bible paraphrase of 1 Corinthians, I really like that paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 2, he's talking about we are servants of Christ, verse 1, and it's required of stewards, we are stewards of the mysteries of God, and it's required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

And the living Bible says, paraphrase of that, the most important thing about a servant, listen to this, the most important thing about a servant is that he does just what his master tells him to. You know, we are happier with a servant who will do exactly what we say, rather than someone with good intentions goes into the kitchen or goes into the garden and does what we don't want them to do.

That's why it's so important to develop the habit of listening. Learn from Genesis 1, if you listen to God's word, something will happen in your life. God said something and the trees came up, the animals came forth, the light came forth, the stars came forth, the sun came forth.

The same God, when he speaks something to your heart and you listen, something will happen. That's why the Lord told Mary, the Lord told Martha, this thing that Mary has chosen is the most important thing.

I want to say to all of you, especially those of you who are young, who are starting life, you know one of the most important and useful and very valuable habits that you can acquire right at the beginning of your Christian life is the habit of listening.

Lord, I want to listen to your voice. You say, well, how can I know? I hear so many voices in my heart. I hear the voice of my flesh, the voice of the devil, the voice of God. I'll tell you how you can identify God's voice.

That's how I learned to identify it when I was a young Christian. I faced the same thing in my heart. How do I know? Is this the voice of God or is this my own feelings or is it the devil? So many things we don't know, God's voice.

But there's one place where we can be absolutely sure of God's voice and that's the Bible. So if you develop the habit of reading and meditating on the Bible regularly and make that a discipline in your life, remember what Jesus said, one thing is needful.

Say to yourself, no Bible, no breakfast, no Bible, no lunch. If you make a simple rule like that, man shall not live by breakfast and lunch, but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. That will change your life completely.

There was a mother who gave a Bible to her son and wrote in the front page, my son, either this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book. That's all. I've met numerous believers who say, I'm so busy, I don't have time to read the Bible.

I see in their life a shallowness. They know so much they may come to the meetings, but they never seem to develop in a knowledge of God. Because you can't develop in a knowledge of God if you don't listen.

And so many people say, I think the Lord led me to do this, and I know they're going completely off track. How do they get these crazy ideas that the Lord told them to do something? I'll tell you. Because they haven't developed the habit of identifying God's voice among all the voices that they hear in their heart, because they haven't read the Bible.

And it's one of the great tricks of the devil today, is to get people to be so busy that they don't have time to read the scriptures. It's like a story I read about all the demons having a conference in hell and Satan asking them, wherever that was, not in hell, wherever it was, they were discussing how to make Christians backslide and never become Christians again.

And they become spiritual, and so many people had bright ideas that they'll bring in more pornography or boldness or materialism. And then one demon said, listen, those things will all, they'll identify as sin, but let's keep them busy doing good things, so that they have no time to listen to God.

And Satan said, that's it. Let's get these Christians to be busy doing so many good things. They will not watch dirty television programs, they'll watch good ones, but they'll spend so much time watching these good programs, Christian TV programs, that they won't read the Bible.

You know that's happening today? Good Christians who will never see anything dirty on television are watching good, clean programs and spending hours listening to all these preachers. They don't know the Bible.

They don't have time to read the Bible. Be careful. Listen again to what Jesus said. One thing is needful. Luke 10 .42. And I want to say to you, never forget it in all your life. Listen. If you listen, it can protect you from wrong paths you take in your life.

Let me show you a verse in Isaiah chapter 30. You know, these are people who the Lord had said to them, Isaiah 30 verse 15. Come back to me in repentance. Turn back to me and rest. Be quiet. Trust in me.

There you'll find your strength. But they said, no, no, no. We are in a hurry. Verse 16. We've got to rush. We've got work to do. We've got to get on our scooters or cars and we've got to flee. We've got to do this, that and the other.

There's a lot of work to do. It's okay. The Lord says, if that's what you want to do, go right ahead. What is going to be the end result of that? One thousand of you believers will run away from one demon.

One thousand of you believers will run away in fear. But the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Verse 18. And he's waiting to have compassion on you. He wants you, verse 20, last part, to see your teacher.

And if you look at Jesus as your example, listen to this, verse 21. Then you will hear a word. You will listen to a word in your ear saying, this is the way. When you turn to the right or the left means when you take a wrong turning.

That's the meaning there. You're going along life and you come to a fork in the road. You know how many times in our life we have to take a decision. Shall I do this? Shall I do that? Shall I marry this person, that person, go this place, that place?

And you're taking the wrong turning. You'll hear a voice saying, no, not that way. To the left. Imagine all through life. What a way to live. I tell you, it's been the greatest longing of my life for many years, to live like this.

I have so many decisions to take. Even in the ministry, I get a hundred invitations to go here and there and the other place. They're all good. I can go and preach anywhere. You say, Lord, I have a hundred roads in front of me.

Which one shall I take? Isn't it good that the Holy Spirit is there to prompt you in your heart saying, this one. And you take it and you find there's fruit at the end of it. Some of the other roads would end up in frustration and waste of time.

It's not only for ministry. In your own life, if you listen, develop the habit of listening, get familiar with the Bible so that God's voice is more clear to you, you can identify. You know, the more you hear, it's like, how do you recognize your mother's voice in the midst of a whole lot of ladies talking on the other side of the wall?

How is it you can identify your mother's voice and I can't? Because you've heard your mother's voice so often and I haven't heard it so often. It's the other side of a wall. You can't see a thing. Out of a twenty-five voices, you say, oh, that's my mom.

You know, you can identify God's voice like that. Out of twenty-five voices in your heart, you can identify saying, that's the voice of Jesus telling me this. What about all those other twenty-four voices?

No, no, that's not the Lord. Those are other voices. It's the most useful habit you can develop in your life. I don't know how many of you will take what I'm saying seriously, at least today. Dear brothers and sisters, read the Bible.

Read it. Meditate on it. I started reading it when I was twenty-one years old, immediately after my baptism. Seriously, I mean, I read it even after my conversion two years earlier, but seriously studying it, I used to carry the New Testament in my pocket so that I could read it.

I'm standing in a bus when everybody is just gaping around looking here and there, I would read the scriptures. Sitting in a bus or a train where everybody is just gossiping and talking and looking out of the window, I'd read the scriptures.

That's where I read the Bible, studied the Bible. There is time. If you want to make time, there is time. You've got to pick up these little fragments of time here and there. And at the end of life, what a useful life you can live.

Jesus’ Temptation and the Discipline of a Disciple’s Tongue

It's not only to predict you from wrong paths. In Jesus' example we see, when he was tempted, he lived on earth as a man. Don't ever forget this. Don't let the devil fool you to say he didn't live on earth as a man.

He who does not confess that Jesus came in the flesh is the spirit of the Antichrist. He came in the flesh. He was tempted like you and me. And when he was tempted, another voice within him said, No. God has said, Man shall not live by bread alone and by every word of God.

He speaks that. Another temptation comes. He hears a voice inside saying, No. It is written you shall not tempt the Lord your God. The third temptation. Another voice says, No. It says you shall worship only the Lord your God.

See, even Jesus, so he could confess that. How did he know these verses? They are all from Deuteronomy, all those three verses. Because he had read them from childhood. And you know, in the moment of temptation, why is it we fall?

Because we don't hear that voice. Why don't you hear that voice in temptation like Jesus heard it? Because we are not familiar with the scriptures. We have not spent our life choosing the one thing needful.

We are dabbling in 101 things. Not evil things. Some people in evil things, but I think most of you are not dabbling in evil things. But a lot of things which are good, but not the most essential thing.

So I hope we will learn one habit today. It will direct us. It will keep us in temptation. And one more thing. A lot of things God's word does. Let me tell you one more thing. Isaiah chapter 50 says about Jesus that the Lord, the Father, would open his ear every morning.

Verse 4. The Lord God, you know, this is a prophetic reference to Christ. The Lord God, my Father, has given me the tongue of a disciple. The Bible says that if you can't control your tongue, your Christianity is worth zero.

James 1 verse 26. How can I get a disciplined tongue? You know, many of us have a problem with anger. Many Christians, even after many years, they never seem to overcome anger. How to have a disciplined tongue?

Here it is. The Lord has given me a disciplined tongue. And with that disciplined tongue, instead of getting angry and yelling at people, God gives me words to help needy people who come across my path.

You know that the world is full of needy people. You got needy people in your office, in your college, in your school, in your hospital, wherever you are working, in your neighborhood, among your relatives.

The world is full of needy people who need something that will lift them up. Imagine that God can give you exactly the right word for those people. Yeah? I have experienced that numerous times. But how does that come?

He awakens me, Isaiah 50 verse 4, morning by morning. He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. When you wake up in the morning, you know, when I wake up, sometimes in the middle of the night, I always feel God has woken me up.

When I wake up in the morning, I say, God has woken me up. Start saying that. Start believing it. And he has woken you up because he wants you to start listening. Speak Lord, your servant is listening.

And listen throughout the day. Not just for a half an hour quiet time in the morning. Throughout the day, till you go to bed. Then he will speak to you, even in your dreams. Yeah. I prayed that. I said, Lord, speak to me in my dreams.

Also, not just when I am awake. I want to listen, listen, listen, listen, till my whole life becomes like this. A habit of listening. This is what Jesus had. All his life, he was listening. You won't say the stupid things that you often say, if you are listening.

You won't hurt your wife and your husband with the words sometimes that you use, if you stop to listen in the morning. You will have a word in season, every time you have to speak a word to somebody, if you listen.

It won't come overnight. You got to develop a habit. I mean, you go to a barbarian who has never brushed his teeth for thirty-five years and try to teach him to brush his teeth. You think he is going to learn it in one day?

No. It will take time, but he will learn it. People like us who have not listened regularly every day in our life, now we are going to start listening from the morning onwards and on. You are not going to learn it in one day, but maybe in one or two years you will learn to brush your teeth.

Unburdening Ourselves at Jesus’ Feet

I mean, listen to God. That's what I mean. Listen. It will change your life. That's the way to be a blessing to others. God's word is put on your mouth. It's going to be powerful. The second thing that Mary did, we read in John's Gospel, Chapter 11, again at Jesus' feet.

The first thing she did was sit at Jesus' feet to listen. The second thing we read was to tell her burdens to the Lord in John Chapter 11, to unburden herself. So first we listen to the Lord and then we tell the Lord what's burdening our heart.

It's like a telephone conversation. We listen and we tell. Then we listen and we tell. Don't let your prayer be just a big shopping list. Lord, item number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 25. Amen. Bye.

A lot of people pray like that. It's like a phone call where you are given your shopping list. It's like calling up a shop. Okay, these are the things I want. 1, 2, 3, 4, 25. Put the phone down. Please send it quickly.

I tell you, most Christians' prayers are like that. But God's not a shopkeeper. He's a Father. Imagine if you are a college student and you only call up your father when you want money. Like some students.

What about telling your dad that you love him? You are thankful for all he did for you from the time you were a child. Don't you think your dad would appreciate that? He may get a shock initially, what happened?

My son suddenly is becoming so thankful, but he'll get over it. God is a Father. Tell him. He wants to listen. A good earthly father is a picture of a heavenly father. I like to hear my children talk to him.

God likes to hear his children talk to him. Tell him. He wants you to tell him everything. It says here that Mary came to Jesus' feet. We read in verse John 11, her brother had died. She had sent a message to Jesus three or four days earlier saying, Lazarus is sick, please come.

And Jesus never came. Maybe you have had experiences like that in your life where you prayed for something. And Jesus never came. He never answered your prayer the way you expected him to do. You prayed, you prayed, you prayed, you prayed.

He never came. And you begin to wonder, what happened? Has he lost his interest? Can you imagine the thoughts that went through Mary's mind? Why hasn't he come? He's heard the message. The messenger came back and told us that he told Jesus.

And the messenger says, it looks as if Jesus didn't make any move to come. In fact, I heard him tell his disciples, let's stay here for a few days and then go. Why is that? He is disturbed. Mary is disturbed.

She is disturbed. But then Jesus came. He always comes at the right time. There's a lovely verse in Galatians 4 which says, in the fullness of time, God sent his son. Adam sinned 4 ,000 years before Jesus came.

Imagine waiting 4 ,000 years. The Bible says, in the fullness of time, he came. He always moves according to a timetable. The entire life of Jesus was like that. Mine hour has not yet come. Even to turn the water into wine, he'd say, no, not yet.

Mary, sorry, I can't do it now. Five minutes later, the time came. He'd do it. He moves according to a timetable, which is perfect. I praise God for that. So when he came, Mary, who couldn't understand it all, comes and falls at his feet.

Again, she's at his feet. First time she was listening. This time she's telling him something. Lord, verse 32, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. I want to invite you, my brothers and sisters, to come to Jesus' feet regularly and unburden yourself.

You're not supposed to carry those burdens, even things you can't understand. Tell the Lord. He likes to hear it. He's not a high priest who cannot sympathize with your weaknesses. Hebrews 4 .15 says, we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize.

I mean, other people may have a high priest like that. All those who don't believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and was a man like us, they've got a high priest who cannot sympathize with them.

I've got a high priest who came in my flesh, who became like me, who can sympathize with my struggles because he struggled like me. I follow a Jesus who struggled like me, faced temptation, faced trials, faced opposition and had to struggle to overcome.

He can sympathize with me because the Bible says he was tempted like me. If he was not tempted like me, he could still sympathize. God could sympathize with people in the Old Testament. The Bible says in the Old Testament, his mercies are great, his compassions are new every morning.

But it became altogether different when this God, compassionate God, came down from heaven to the earth and actually faced these things. It's like a surgeon who is a very tender, compassionate surgeon operating on people.

One day he himself has to go through an operation and then he becomes more compassionate to the people he's operating with. It's a small picture. Jesus tempted like us, came like us. It says he can sympathize with us because we read here that when Jesus saw them weeping, verse 33, he was deeply moved in his spirit and was troubled.

Why should he be troubled? He knew that in five minutes he's going to raise them from the dead. Raise them from the dead. Why was he troubled? And listen to this, verse 35, you know, the shortest verse in the Bible.

Jesus wept. Why did he weep when he knew that in five minutes Lazarus will be raised from the dead? What do you do when you go to a funeral? You say, hey fellas, come on, rejoice. You know there's going to be a resurrection one of these days.

Why are you fellas all grieving and weeping? Poor man's weeping. His wife died a few minutes ago and is that the message you're giving? You don't understand Jesus. I know there's going to be a resurrection.

I've got no doubt in my mind at all. But when other people weep, I weep. That's what Jesus did. We have Christians who are super spiritual. Super spiritual is another word for Pharisees, who do not know how to weep with others, who always say, no, no, no, we've got a positive message.

When Jesus wasn't teaching positive thinking there, he was sympathizing with people and he wept. He wept with them. See, that shows his heart. And again it says a second time, he was deeply moved in spirit.

And he was, verse 38, he was deeply moved within. Twice in that passage, verse 33 and 38, he was deeply moved in his spirit, sympathizing with, because they were weeping, he wept with them. And I praise God that I have a Savior like this, who though he sees the future, which I don't see, Mary and others could not see that in five minutes their brother would be raised from the dead.

If they could see the future, they would not have been weeping. And if I could see the future, maybe I wouldn't have some of these burdens. The Lord is so compassionate. He understands that we don't see the future and therefore we face certain pressures because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

You see your children growing up and you don't know what sort of world they're going to face. Will they be able to face tomorrow? You see your children getting older and they're not married and you're concerned.

It's right, it's a genuine concern parents have. Or a child is sick and not getting healed of some sickness. It's a genuine concern that you have. And I want to say to you that Jesus is concerned too.

We can go to him and unburden ourselves. There's a lovely Old Testament verse in Isaiah 63 which says, even in the Old Testament, Isaiah 63 and verse 8, this is I'm reading from the message translation, so he became their Savior.

And verse 9, in all their troubles, he was also troubled. And he did not send someone else to help them. He came himself in person. I love that. He came himself. He didn't send a messenger or an angel to help me.

He comes himself. And out of his own love and pity, he redeemed them, rescued them, carried them for a long, long time. But they turned against him, grieved his Holy Spirit. Sad. How man treats such a loving Savior.

Casting Every Burden on Christ

What I want to say to you, you can come to Jesus' feet and after you have listened to what he has to say, you can unburden yourself. You can cast your burden on him. You don't have to carry a single burden.

If he can carry you, he can carry your burdens. So many Christians believe the Lord can carry them, but they can't carry their burdens. It's like the story I heard of one of these roads in India where somebody was carrying a heavy, big bundle on their head, walking down the road.

And there was a compassionate truck driver who came by and said, Hey, I'm going the same direction. I can give you a lift. You don't have to pay anything. Just hop into the back of the truck. Oh, he said, Thank you very much.

And he got into the back of the truck. The truck was going along for about half an hour and the driver decided to look back and see what this chap is doing. He was still sitting with his weight on his head.

He said, Hey, why are you still carrying the weight on your head? He said, Well, I thought you were kind enough to carry me. I didn't want you to carry the weight as well. So I thought I'd carry the weight.

Do you know that's what you're doing? You're laughing at yourself. Jesus, you said, Lord, take me. He took you. What about this burden? Lord, I don't want to trouble you with that. I think I'll carry that myself.

Cast it on him. The truck that carries you can carry your burden too. We can unburden ourselves. Whatever it is, small things. I teach little children. Have you misplaced your keys, your rubber, your pencil?