Pressing on to Perfection — Zac Poonen

Pressing on to Perfection and Christian Maturity

In proclaiming the whole purpose of God, we have taught about perfection. Let us press on to perfection. That's what we have in front of our pulpit. People accuse us of saying, you imagine you're perfect.

I see you haven't read what's written on that pulpit. Let us press on to perfection is the clear confession that we are not perfect. We are pressing on. It's the people who do not preach that who imagine they are perfect.

But if you say, let us press on to perfection, you're acknowledging thereby that you're not perfect. And that's the verse from Hebrews and chapter six, verse one, leaving aside the fundamental elementary teaching of Christ, let us press on to perfection or maturity.

The King James version, it says perfection. And that's how it says in the margin here. And perfection is to be like Christ. And we preach that. And it's not only written here. A church that does not preach, let us press on to perfection, is not proclaiming the whole purpose of God.

In the old Testament, there's no verse like press on to perfection. It was impossible. But the moment Jesus came, see what he said in Matthew chapter five, he was speaking in the sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 48.

Do you believe what Jesus said? Read it in your Bible. Therefore, you must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Sometimes people say, oh, brother Zach, CFC preaches such impossible standards.

CFC, look at Jesus. Supposing we stood here and said, you must be perfect like God is perfect. You'd say to me, brother Zach, don't be unrealistic. Go and say that to Jesus. Say to him, if you have the boldness, Lord, don't be unrealistic, making statements like you ought to be perfect as your father is perfect.

I tell you, it is because we don't take the word of God seriously that we live such pathetic lives far below what God wants us to be. We're not saying we're perfect. Jesus did not say, you must be perfect in one day.

That would be unrealistic. It's like telling a child, you must walk in one day. You must be mature in one day. You must get a job in one year. That's all unrealistic. You must be perfect. It's a goal that we have before us, but it's not a goal we just look at and admire.

It's a goal we press on towards. Like we saw in that video, you help one another to reach that goal. You don't just give up on the way, along the way. If we can't run, we walk. And do you know, I'll tell you some cases of marathon races and triathlon races where they couldn't even walk.

I've seen videos of that. They crawled on their knees to cross the line because they couldn't stand after such a mass, massive exercise of running and swimming and biking, crawled. It's a great challenge.

If I can't run, walk. If I can't walk, I'll crawl, but I'm going to reach the finishing line. I wish all of us Christians would have the same passion that these runners have, somehow get to the finish.

That picture should always be in our mind and put us to shame if we give up anytime. I never want to give up. Jesus said, he who endures to the end will be saved. That is the whole purpose of God that we proclaim.

Endurance, Judgment, and the Pursuit of Knowing Christ

People think it's a strange message because they never heard it in other churches. Other churches says, my sins are all forgiven. I'm on my way to heaven. I sit back in my easy chair and live for myself and watch movies all the time and go to church on Sunday and go to heaven.

I doubt whether such people will ever get to heaven. I'll tell you honestly, they are being fooled by today's preachers. And you realize that is the judgment seat of Christ. See what the apostle Paul says in Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3, he says in, I want to know him, verse 10. I've counted everything as rubbish. Let's start at verse 7. Whatever was gained to me, I counted as loss. There are so many things that have been gained to you in the world.

You've accomplished something. You've learned so much. You've got experience and you're proud of all these things. Throw it away as rubbish and say, I want Jesus. I don't want a glory in my experience.

I count everything as loss. To me, the greatest thing is to know Jesus Christ, to know him, not even to serve him. That is secondary. My service for the Lord comes out of my knowledge of Jesus. I can honestly stand before Jesus today and say, Lord, my passion is not to serve you.

It is to know you. I can honestly say that because that is my goal. But those of you who know me, I'm always traveling, even though I'm 76 years old. It makes no difference. I mean, my wife and I have traveled by bullock cart to places at one time.

I mean, we've done that for 48 years and we'll never give up. But that's not our goal, just serving, preaching. We're glad to serve others. But knowing Jesus, knowing him better, becoming like him is the passion of my life.

And if there's ministry, it is the overflow of knowing him. That's how it should be in your life. Then your life will never be boring. You'll never get tired. You'll never get exhausted and say, oh, well, I've been serving so Lord now I want to take a holiday.

I never feel like that. I'll tell you honestly, I never feel like that. Sometimes I go tired and sleepy after a lot of travel to a meeting. And I say, Lord, you got to really touch me now. I don't want to be sleepy when I speak.

By the time I finish my one hour of preaching, I'm so refreshed. I'm ready to go for another hour. It's amazing. I tell you, honestly, it's amazing what if you allow the Holy Spirit to work in you, it'll refresh you and strengthen you when you're thoroughly exhausted.

But if you say, oh, I'm tired and I'm exhausted, you'll get more exhausted. I'm just giving you a little suggestion to know Jesus. And he says, verse 8, I've suffered the loss of everything. You and I can't say that.

Counting Everything as Loss for Christ

What have you lost by coming to Christ? Some of you from non-Christian backgrounds can say you really lost something. But how many of you can say that? How many of you have lost all your property because you became a Christian?

Very few people here. Yeah, there are some people who have lost that. Some people have lost their connection with all their family members because they stood for Christ and his truth. My wife suffered like that because she stood for the truth in the church.

She suffered a loss of relationship with her own family members. Some people suffer like that. But it doesn't, I mean, she's not disturbed by that. She longs for fellowship. But what to do? We're not going to compromise our conviction and what we stand for to please human beings.

We, like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, henceforth, we don't know anybody after the flesh. Turn with me to that verse for a moment, 2 Corinthians 5. It's very important. In our Indian culture, we are very closely related to family members.

It's a good thing. We help one another. But that also becomes a hindrance in our following the Lord. And for you, you need to know this verse, 2 Corinthians 5, 16. From now on, we don't recognize anybody according to the flesh.

That means, oh, this is my blood brother, blood sister. No, we know people in Christ now. Even Christ, we don't think of him, according to the flesh means, we don't think of him as a Jew. He's not a Jew.

When he was on earth, he was part of Israel, but he's not an Israelite today. No, he's a representative of the entire human race. He's the man, Christ Jesus. We don't know him as an earthly person who spoke a certain language.

So my family, for example, is the church. I'll tell you that. This is my eternal family. And I can stand before God and say, this family means more to me than any blood relative. It's the truth. I don't know whether you can say that.

It depends on how much you know the Lord. If you don't know the Lord, of course, you don't know like that. Your blood relatives mean more to you than people in the church. Well, what can I say? I can only say, may God have mercy on you and deliver you from the old covenant.

That's part of the old covenant. In the old covenant, the Israelites only wanted to know their fellow Israelites. These are family members, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's all family members.

Others, yeah, we say hi and bye. And unfortunately, there are people sitting like that in CFC churches. No wonder they don't grow. The church is not their number one family. It's a second family. The first family is the race of Adam.

How are you related to your blood relatives through Adam? How are you related to people in the church through Christ? But the people you're related through Adam mean more to you than the people are related to you through Christ.

What type of Christian are you? Are you really born again? Has the Holy Spirit come in you? Or you're living in an imaginary world? I said the words, Lord Jesus come into my heart. But it hasn't changed your attitude.

Paul changed completely. He said, I don't know anybody after the flesh now. I don't think this person is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No. My relationship with Adam was cut off. You know, so many Christians are living like that.

Rejecting Generational Curses and Human Authority

That's why you have this false teaching called generational curse. Generational curse, because some famous charismatic Bible teachers taught it. People say, oh, it must be the truth. I say, so what if the most famous charismatic Bible teacher taught it?

Is it in the Bible? No. They say, no, it says under the law that God will curse people under the so-and-so generation. I say, that's Old Testament. So what if this great charismatic leader lived in the Old Testament?

So what if a great charismatic leader married a divorced person or encouraged accepting remarriage and all that? I'm not interested. My standard is not great Bible teachers. My standard is the Bible. According to the word of God.

If it's not according to the word of God, I don't care who teaches it. They're like the Bereans. When the Apostle Paul came and preached in the synagogue, you read in Acts 17, they told Paul, if I were to interpret those words, you read that in Acts 17, well, praise the Lord, Paul, it was great to hear you.

We don't believe you yet. We'll check up the scriptures. Next week, we'll tell you whether we agree with you or not. Imagine going up to the Apostle Paul and saying, I won't believe you until I check the scriptures, whether you're saying it's according to scriptures.

Because those days, they didn't have a Bible. They had to go to the synagogue and open the scroll. It took time for them to check whether what Paul said was in the scriptures or not. Today, you have the Bible in front of you.

You can check immediately, is it according to scripture? That's why I say, don't ever accept a man who preaches something and does not show you scripture. Don't ever accept it. You'll go astray. I guarantee you'll go astray.

I follow that rule. I don't care who preaches it. Great, famous preacher doesn't make a difference to me. Is it in the word of God or not? Say clever explanations. One of these great preachers only has written these books on generational curse.

That means you're suffering today, some problems because your great-grandfather worshipped idols and there's a curse that has come down. Well, I don't care if my great-grandfather worshipped idols. I don't know and I don't care.

I'll tell you why I don't have a generational curse. For many years in my life, I was part of a tree called Adam. The root was Adam. From that came a tree. I belong to that tree. But one day the Holy Spirit cut me off from that tree when I was born again and grafted me into another tree called Jesus Christ.

Now my relationship is through Christ. What generational curse is there in this tree? Tell me. In the other one, there may have been a lot of generational curse. I don't know. I'm not bothered. So when a person says he's got a generational curse and he says he's born again, he's only born again in his words.

He's still in Adam. He's never been cut out of Adam and put into Christ. Well, then he'll have generational curse all his life. Otherwise, it's absolute rubbish and nonsense. Like the teaching on tithing and infant baptism and appointing people as one-man pastors and all.

You'll never find these things in scripture. But some great man preaches it or some great man is a pastor of a church, so that must be right. I couldn't care less if the greatest man is the pastor of a church.

Show it to me in the Bible where the apostles appointed one man to be a pastor of a church. No, nowhere. I see them always appointing elders. He was years to hear, let him hear. But coming back to Philippians in chapter 3, Paul says there, I count everything as rubbish compared to Christ.

Knowing Christ Above Ministry and Evangelistic Success

I want to gain Christ. He doesn't say I want to reach the world. That sounds, you know, some people say I want to reach India for Christ. I want to reach the world for Christ and you're impressed by that.

I am not impressed with all this fantastic language. All these people who call themselves worldwide evangelistic fellowship and all India evangelistic fellowship, fantastic names. I'm not impressed. I'm not impressed by any of them.

It's all a way of making money and fooling other people that we are reaching the world and we are reaching Asia and we are reaching India. I am not interested. I want to know if you're passionate to know Jesus Christ and to gain Christ.

Paul was like that. He was a far greater missionary and evangelist than all these people today. But his passion was to gain Christ. He says everything else is rubbish. Paul, you mean to say evangelism also rubbish compared to gaining Christ?

Oh yes, everything is rubbish. If I do evangelism without gaining Christ, it's worthless. If I believe in building the body of Christ without gaining Christ, it's worthless. That will not be the church of Jesus Christ.

So he says I want to be found in him having his righteousness and not my own and I want to know him. And you ask Paul, why do you want all this? Tell me what is the reason? That I may know him, verse 10, that I may know the power of his resurrection and that I may fellowship with his sufferings and be willing to die with him.

Now listen to this, because that is the only way, verse 11, that I will attain to the resurrection from the dead. You believe that? I don't think most of you believe it. Resurrection from the dead, that's going to happen to me automatically.

25 years ago, I said Lord Jesus come into my heart. I'm okay now. I will be raised from the dead. Paul didn't believe that. I'm sorry to tell you that, but that's the truth. Read it again, that I may know him, verse 10, that I may have the power of his resurrection, that I'm in the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death.

Why? In order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. He didn't believe it's automatic. Where did you get this doctrine from? One saved, always saved. That doctrine has sent more people to hell than I think any other doctrine.

Somebody says, one saved, I'm okay now. What a shock they'll get at the judgment seat of Christ. When the Lord says, I don't care about what you said 25 years ago. He who endures unto the end will be saved.

It's those who press on to perfection. We'll have no regret. Those who want to gain Christ and who count everything else as rubbish compared to Jesus Christ, who don't know people according to the flesh, but who know Jesus.

And I tell you, it doesn't mean you'll hate your family members. You'll love them much better. You love them with a purer love. You'll obey God first and then you will respect your parents, not respect your parents first and then decide whether to obey God or not.

Pressing Toward Maturity Without Trusting in Works

And then he says, I'm not saying I've already obtained this perfection. I've not become perfect, verse 12. But I'm not just sitting back and saying I'm not perfect. I'm pressing on to perfection. This is what we preach in our church.

So it doesn't mean that by my pressing on, I get righteousness. No, no, no, no, no, no. Let's look at verse nine. I don't want to be found in Christ with the righteousness of my own. We got to begin there.

Some people say we are preaching salvation by works. No, no, no, no, no, no. We preach salvation by faith. We believe all our righteousness are like filthy rags to be thrown away. We believe that we need the righteousness of Christ to clothe us before we can even stand before God.

But we believe God does that in a moment when we are born of God, when we are born of the Holy Spirit, born again, we come to Christ as sinners and say, Lord, we are wretches and we can never make it to your kingdom.

All my righteousness is like filthy rags. And like we sing in that song, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. I cannot bring anything. And I believe that Jesus died for all my sins.

That's what we teach. And if we repent, which is the one thing many people don't preach, we don't say believe in Jesus Christ. We say repent and believe. Paul said, wherever I go, he said in Acts 20, I preach repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's like the two electric wires. When they touch at the switch, the light comes on. Do you know that all that a switch does is make two wires touch? You open up a switch and you'll see just two wires kept apart.

The moment you put the switch on, they touch, the light comes on, the fans come on. And when repentance and faith touch, the light of God comes. With faith alone, nothing happens. With the repentance alone, nothing happens.

It's repentance plus faith. Don't ever forget it. And that's what we preach. Repentance, that means turn from sin, not give up all your sinful habits. No. Giving up all your sinful habits is the finishing line.

Turn around from all your sinful habits is the starting line. Don't confuse the start line of the race with the finishing line of the marathon race. The finishing line is perfection, exactly like Jesus Christ in thought, word, deed, attitude, motive.

None of us have reached there. Paul says, I haven't reached there. But the starting line is I turn around from my sin. My attitude to sin has changed. I haven't overcome it all yet, but my attitude to my anger has changed.

My attitude to sexual lust has changed. My attitude to pornography has changed. It's a change of attitude. Overcoming takes time. I want to make it very clear so that there's no confusion. And we receive Christ and we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

And the Lord says, I will not remember your sins anymore. So now when I was born again at 19 and a half, I'd given my life completely to Christ. I'd committed a lot of sins in 19 and a half years. Even if you're four years old, you've committed sins.

But God looked at me that moment as if I'd never committed a single sin in 19 and a half years because I was clothed with the righteousness of Christ and the Lord had blotted out my past and said, I will not remember your sins anymore.

Running the Race Beyond the Starting Line

Hebrews 8, 12. That is how we began our Christian life. Not by works. 100 by repentance plus faith. But having been clothed with Christ, the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, then we run this race.

We don't believe that we should come to the start of the marathon race and stand there forever. I think a lot of Christians have come to the starting line and they think that's it. They confuse the start line with the finishing line.

Supposing you get selected to represent India in the Olympics at the marathon race and you come to the starting line and say, hey, I got here, man. Where did you get? You come to the starting line. You should be running and everybody else is running and you're standing there waving the Indian flag.

I'm here. That's crazy. That's exactly what a lot of Christians are doing. My sins are all forgiven. I'm on my way to heaven. Where are you in the starting line? Do you know this is a race? Great that you came to the starting line.

Great that you were born again. Now you got to run this race. Paul says, I'm running. I've not reached the finishing line yet. I've not become perfect. Verse 12. But I'm pressing on. I'm running. There's a marathon race.

I'm running, running, helping others along the way. And I want to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me. That means like this man saying, India sent me to this Olympics to represent it. I've reached the finishing starting line.

Now I want to do what my country sent me here for, to run and win. And he goes on to say, brethren, one thing I do, I'm pressing on to become like Jesus Christ. That's why Christ laid hold of me. I pressed towards the goal.

Verse 14, to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude. Now, doesn't it look a confusion? I'm not perfect. Verse 12. Then he says, let us who are perfect, are mature, have this attitude.

I'll tell you what it means. Understand it like this. If you get a hundred percent in kindergarten, because you can say BAT is bat, CAT is cat. Two plus two is four. Okay. Hundred percent in kindergarten.

Does that mean you got your PhD or your graduate degree or past postgraduate degree? No. But can you get more than a hundred percent? Can you get 101? No. So your marks, when you get a hundred percent, what is that called?

Perfect marks. But have you reached perfection in education for your PhD? No. So there's a perfection you can have in kindergarten, which you cannot exceed. You cannot get 101. But you get promoted next year and you start with 50%, 60%, 80%, 90%.

Finally you get a hundred percent. You reach perfection in first standard. But you still haven't reached perfection because that's postgraduate PhD stuff. It's a long way to go, but at your level, you're perfect.

And the next year you go to second standard and then you learn some new things. Again, in the beginning you get only 40%, 50%, but finally you press on and hard and in second standard you get a hundred percent.

You're perfect, but you haven't reached perfection. That's what he's saying. At my level, I'm perfect. And we cannot compare ourselves with one another. The fourth standard student who got a hundred percent and the first standard student a hundred percent are two different levels.

So you cannot say you must be at my level. Sometimes a husband will look at his wife and say, why can't you see that as sin? I see it clearly. I'll tell you why. She's in first standard and you're in fourth standard.

If you look down on her, can you think of an older brother who's in 10th standard looking down at his younger first standard brother, you don't know geometry, is it? Whatever fellow you are, you don't know algebra.

Tell me who's the stupid person there, the 10th standard boy or the first standard boy? Definitely the 10th standard boy. And whenever you look down on another believer, just because you know something he doesn't know, you are the fool.

Please remember that. A 10th standard student will never look down on a first standard student and say, why don't you know what I know? We are pressing on to perfection, but at our level, we must still be perfect.

Spiritual Growth and Developing Other Believers

I don't want you to get pass marks. I often ask this question. In an examination, final examination, pass marks are 40%. One student gets 40 in mathematics. Another student got 99%. Who is happier when they come home?

Who? The one who got 40%. He says, mommy, I passed. I got 40%. I'm getting promoted. And the 99%, oh, mommy, I'm so sad. One more mark and I could have got 100%. You see the difference between the student who is pressing on to perfection and the one who says, my sins are all forgiven.

I'm on my way to heaven. You haven't understood a single thing about the Christian life. You're not passionate to follow Jesus. You got 99%. You won't be happy. You're happy with 40%. There's something wrong with Christians like that.

Let us who are perfect have this attitude. And if you have a different attitude, verse 15, God will show it to you. I hope he's showing it to you right now that you're happy with 40 when you should seek for 100%.

When you send your children to school, how many of your children you send your children to school? I mean, a child feeling like that is okay. It's worse if the parent feels like that and says, son, you got 40%.

Great. I'm proud of you. What sort of foolish parent are you? That you're just happy that your child got pass marks? I don't think there's a single parent sitting here. Even if you only got 40 when you school, you want your child to get 100%, right?

Sure. That's how a real father is. And if you're an elder, you should be ashamed of yourself. If you look down on people in your church, and you're not longing for 100 yourself, and you're not longing that your children in your church should get 100%, you don't long for that.

Some of you elders, let me ask you, when you send your children to school, what do you want them to get? You want them to get 40 or 100 You want your children to get 100 You want them to graduate?

Do you look at the people in your church like your own children? Do you want them also to grow and become like you? Are you afraid? Some of them may become more spiritual than me. That is a sad thing.

Shared Leadership and Training Future Elders

Wherever I see, you know, one of the things we have taught in our church through the years is, we don't believe in single man leadership of a church, like a pastor, or executive pastor, or one man leader.

No, that's not found in the New Testament. That's Old Testament. One prophet, Isaiah, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, that's all Old Covenant. And most churches are in that state. Forget about them. It's like infant baptism and robes and rituals and hanging crosses around your neck and all that type of stuff.

No, we believe in the New Testament, the New Covenant. So in the New Covenant, we seek that everyone must enter into this New Covenant life. And that's what we must desire for everyone in our churches, that they must also press on to perfection.

And I see that sometimes I find this in some of our churches, because they realize, CFC churches, we want elders. One elder will select some fellow who is an obedient, yes, sir, yes, sir, type of person.

Okay, you're an elder, come, because CFC wants two elders. You're my fellow elder. Okay, we're going to do this. He says, yes, sir. Tomorrow, we're going to do that. Yes, sir. Okay, folks, I've got two elders, put this man's name also as a fellow elder with me.

He's not a fellow elder. In Tamil, they say Aam Saami. Yes, yes, yes, sir. Aam Saami, Aam Saami, Aam Saami. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Is that a fellow elder? No, he's a servant. I'm sorry to say there are some elders like that.

And that's because the senior elders suppress that person. Suppress him, suppress him. He never grows up to develop. He can never correct the other person. He just sits there and says Aam Saami, Aam Saami.

And that's a shame. It's better to have one man than be honest and say, I don't believe in dual eldership. I believe in one man, like a Pentecostal pastor, sit there. That's not God's way. I praise God for churches where elders have led other people to become equal to them.

And if you make them go beyond you, wow, you're really a first class elder. I don't mean beyond you in gift. Gift is God given. You can't do that. You know, God only can give a gift to a person. I can't do that.

But that he can grow beyond you spiritually in godliness, that you can learn from him something about Jesus Christ, even if you cannot learn doctrine from him. If you're not like that, you're like King Saul, who did not want David to come up, who was jealous when people said David killed 10 ,000, Saul killed 1 ,000.

He was very upset. And particularly because the sisters were saying it. The people are disturbed and the sisters appreciate someone else. That's what he says. The women were saying, David killed 10 ,000, Saul only 1 ,000.

And he tried to kill him. Now, we don't use the dagger today. But various ways there are elders who suppress others. And I want to ask such elders of CFC churches who are here, who are suppressing other people in your church, because you want to be the one man show.

But at the same time, you've got some Aam Saami people to show others that you're following CFC pattern. I want to ask you a question. Would you be disturbed if your children got higher degrees than you got in your life?

Tell me. Supposing you're only a BA, bachelor's degree, or diploma holder, and your child became a postgraduate. What would you do? Would you suppress him? No, no, no, no. You can't go ahead of me. I only got diploma, you'd be satisfied with diploma.

Is there a single father or mother sitting here like that? I don't think there's one even among non-Christians. And among all you elders, none of you are like that. Why are you like that in your church?

Why is it nobody's going ahead of you in your church? Why do you suppress them? You're ungodly. I'll tell you, you're an ungodly elder. You're like King Saul sitting on your throne. You don't want anything to rock your throne.

You're not pressing on to perfection. You're not encouraging other people to run the race. Think of that video we saw that brother coming, holding him, holding him, and then pushing him so that that fellow goes ahead of him, and he gets the prize behind him.

What an example. Do we see people like that in CFC? Do we save your one family? You do that for your children because you love them. You know, are you jealous of somebody in your church who's more gifted?

Supposing you see another brother, much younger than you, speak very powerfully in a conference, and you sit there. Wow. You've got to acknowledge that he's far better than you. There's more anointing, but along with it, there's a jealousy.

Hey, I'm older. I'm 10 years older, 20 years older. How is it he's more anointed than me? My dear brother, before you lose your salvation completely, repent of this King Saul attitude. I have to warn you, your blood will not be on my hands because I warned you.

If you're lost eternally, remember where that loss began, in jealousy. Do you know that the first human being who was cursed, you know who it was? Not Adam. Adam was never cursed. God cursed the earth.

You read in Genesis 3. Cain, in Genesis 4, God said, you are cursed. You know why? Because he was jealous of his younger brother. If Abel had been his older brother, I think he could have accepted it.

Okay, the fire fell on Abel's sacrifice, didn't fall on mine. Okay, he's my older brother, but my younger brother, having a fire, which I don't have, I've got to push him down. Today, we don't kill him with, you know, Cain must have taken a rock and hit him on the head.

We don't do such things today. We are more decent. We kill them with our tongue. Oh, somebody asked you, what do you think of that brother? Oh brother, he's not so wholehearted. Why do you say that? Because he's better than you, and you don't want him to come up.

You won't give him any opportunities in your church because people may see he's better than you. People may go to him for counsel and not to you, and you don't want that. You've been sitting as a king for so many years in your church, and you'd like King Saul, and you don't want to give up your throne.

It's sad. Can such things happen in CFC? They are happening because people are not judging themselves. We are far from perfect. Paul had such a passion that Timothy should go ahead of him. He really longed that the church would be built, and he says, let us therefore, Philippians 3 .15, who have this attitude, and if you have a different attitude, God will show it to you, and I hope God is showing it to you now.