Freedom From the Love of Money — Zac Poonen

Freedom Through Christ and the Holy Spirit

We've been talking these days about being free. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. It's not just intellectual knowledge of the truth. When the truth comes into the heart, Christ himself sets us free.

That's one way we know whether we are filled with the Holy Spirit. It's one of the most important things in the Christian life, to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The whole new covenant began on the day of Pentecost, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

In my own life, my whole ministry was revolutionized by being filled with the Holy Spirit. And it's not something once for all, it's every day. I seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day. And that's where I differ with the Pentecostals.

But I do appreciate the Pentecostals for bringing forth the truth that we must be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. Because most other Christians don't emphasize that. So there were a few questions from before, which I'd like to answer before I go into the message.

Physical and Spiritual Healing in Isaiah 53

One is about healing. How do we understand Isaiah 53, verses 4 and 5? Where it says, by his stripes we are healed. Now whenever we try to interpret any scripture, I want to share with you a principle of Bible study.

Get a concordance, and see if that verse is quoted anywhere else in the Bible. And if it is quoted somewhere else, then that is the interpretation. Like this morning we saw about, he took our infirmities and sicknesses.

Which is from Isaiah 53. When you come to the New Testament, it's explained, not that he took it into himself, but he took it away from people. So we must see, is this verse quoted in the New Testament?

If so, see there are different types of healing. There is physical healing from sickness. There is spiritual healing from sin. So when he talks about his stripes, is that referring to my physical healing, or my spiritual healing to righteousness?

Physical healing brings health. Spiritual healing brings righteousness. So when it says, by his stripes I am healed, which of these two healings is he talking about? So we go to the New Testament. And we read in 1 Peter, in chapter 2, where this word is quoted.

Exactly the same verse. 1 Peter 2, verse 24. Christ himself bore our sins in his own body on the cross. Not our sicknesses, our sins. Why? So that we might die to sin, and live to righteousness. So that we might be healed from sin, and be righteous.

Because, by his stripes you are healed. That's quoting Isaiah 54. So the answer is clear. The Holy Spirit has interpreted that verse in the New Testament. That shows that this healing is dying to sin, and living to righteousness.

You know, I have found that so many answers to questions in the Bible, are somewhere else in the Bible. I have found that so many answers to questions in the Bible, are somewhere else in the Bible. Another question.

Submission to God Above Human Authority

Today there are many problems with spiritual authority in the church. What should we do if we don't agree with the elders in the church? Every authority is under God. Let me use an example. The Bible says that a woman, a wife, must submit to her husband.

But, that is not the full verse. That is a verse many people quote incompletely. Do wives have to submit to their husbands? If it stopped there, then they would have to do everything, the husband says.

And we have a lot of problems in India, where a wife is converted to Christ, and the husband is still worshipping idols. And the husband tells his wife, you've got to submit to me according to your Bible, worship this idol.

And the husband tells his wife, you've got to submit to me according to your Bible, worship this idol. But what does the Bible say? Ephesians 5, verse 22. The Holy Spirit is very exact. It says, women, be submissive to your husbands, as to the Lord.

So, the wife is submissive to her husband, but the Lord is still above her. What does that mean? If the husband tells his wife to do something, and the Lord has told something else in the Scriptures, she must listen to the Lord.

That's what we tell all converted wives in our churches, who've got non-Christian husbands. If your husband tells you something against Scripture, remember this verse. You're submitting to the Lord. And so, anything where he has said, his word is supreme.

Now, the same thing applies to submitting to authority in a church. The Bible tells us to submit to the elders. See, it says here in 1 Peter 5, you younger men must subject to your elders. But not just that.

You must humble yourself, verse 6, under the mighty hand of God. So, over the elders is God. So, the same principle as in a wife and a husband. If an elder, or a priest, or a pastor, or a bishop, or anyone, tells you to do something which is against the word of God, then you do not submit to that person.

You submit to God. If your pastor says, we sprinkle you as a child, and that is baptism, and the word of God says baptism is by immersion in water, you obey God. That's what I did. When I was a child, some priest sprinkled in my head and called me Christian.

I read the word of God, and I saw baptism is by immersion after you're born again. So, then I found all the other things in churches which are against God's word. The best thing to do is to lovingly talk to your leader.

I've done that with many Christian leaders. They've been double my age when I was a young man. Some of them are fine born again Christians. So, I would always speak respectfully. Whenever you speak to any elder, or leader in a church, always speak respectfully.

In fact, we must speak respectfully to all human beings. If you're not respectful, something's wrong with you. So, speak respectfully and say, brother, this is not what God's word says. I have spoken to older brothers and said, brother, I recognize that you're a spiritual man.

You're better than me, but I'm not arguing my version versus your version. This is when I was young, in my 30s or 35 years old. I would say, what you're saying is this, but here's this verse, the apostles say this.

Shall I accept what you say, brother, or what Paul or Peter says here? So, if the matter is very serious, then you leave the church. See, in the book of Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3, I don't have time to show it to you.

When Churches Drift From Christ

Out of the seven messengers of the churches, the letter was sent to the messenger of each church, that is the leader of the church. And some of those leaders were all backslidden to the leader, Revelation 3, 1, to the leader in Sardis says, you've got only a name that you're alive, but you're dead.

And to the leader in Laodicea in Revelation 3, the last church, he says, you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked. Imagine telling an elder that. But to each church, the Lord says, he who overcomes, will get this reward.

So, five of those churches had backslidden elders. Five of those churches were in a backslidden condition. Five of those churches were in a backslidden condition. And to each elder, the Lord said, repent.

Now, suppose they did not repent. For example, Revelation 2, the Lord told the elder in Ephesus, verse 5, remember from where you have fallen, repent, otherwise, the punishment is, I will remove your lampstand from out of its place.

That means, I will de-recognize you as a church. You won't be a church anymore. You won't be my church. You will call yourself First Church in Ephesus. That would be a big board outside, First Church in Ephesus.

But the Lord will not recognize it. And how does he do that? He goes away. The Lord is not there. But the church, 500 people are still singing and having their meetings and their conferences. Like many churches today.

But then it says here, he who overcomes, it speaks about overcomers there. So, if an overcomer there, sense, oh, the Lord has left this church. He is not here anymore. What will the overcomer do? What will the bride do, when the bridegroom has left the marriage hall?

A lot of visitors may be there in the meeting, in the marriage hall. When the bridegroom leaves, the bride leaves. So, when I sense the Lord has left the church, if I am the bride of Christ and I am an overcomer, I leave also.

So, what would have happened in Ephesus is, maybe 8 or 10 overcomers, those 10 of them would leave the church. And they would meet separately. And they would meet somewhere else. Maybe you only have a very small church of 10 people compared to that big church in Ephesus.

And that big church in Ephesus would keep saying, Paul founded this church, we are the real church. And that was true, 40 or 50 years ago. But now things have changed and the Lord has left the church.

And now the Lord is with that small group of 10 people there. But every week this first church in Ephesus will be denouncing that group of heretics who are rebels and gone astray and God will curse them and all that they will say.

But the Lord was with them. And He will build a church there. That's what happened to us 41 years ago. We were in a Baptist church in Bangalore, India. And we preached about being filled with the Holy Spirit and living a holy life.

And I was preaching there every Sunday. And the board members said, we want you to go. I said, okay, I will not cause any trouble. I will quietly leave. And I will not ask anybody else to leave. I will not split this church.

Thank you very much for the one year you allowed me to preach here. I gave them a last message. You have come to the borders of the promised land. God is asking you to go in, but you are turning back.

You have to face the consequences of your decision. But I'm going to go on with God. And when I came to meet that evening in my house, there were two, three other families that wanted to meet with me.

I said, okay, I never asked you to leave. We didn't know what to do. We had no plan to start a church. But we said, okay, let's pray together. So we knelt down and prayed to the Lord and said, Lord, what do you want us to do?

Then we parted and said, okay, next Sunday morning we'll meet again. And we started meeting again. And I made a rule there. Nobody must speak evil of that church, the Baptist church. Nobody must speak evil of their elders.

If you meet them on the street, greet them warmly. We have no hatred for them. Hatred will ruin us. We are come together to judge ourselves. Not them. There are many things wrong with us. We are not like Jesus yet.

We are not perfect. So let's not spend our time criticizing other groups. Let us judge ourselves. In all these 41 years, we never criticized that church. Because that church disintegrated and had a lot of problems.

God blessed us tremendously. Numbers grew and many, many churches were planted after that. So, if you humble yourself before God and take a stand for the Lord, He will stand by you. How can I know what my spiritual gifts and talents are?

Discovering Spiritual Gifts Through Faithful Service

That will come as you seek to do whatever you can do with whatever ability you have. I started just going out to the streets preaching and giving out flags and witnessing. And doing whatever little thing I could.

I went once to a nominal Christian's home whom I knew. I knew him. And I said, God, I want to be a Christian. Can we have a little half an hour Bible study every week in your house? I won't take more than half an hour.

Oh, he said, sure. So I went there and shared for half an hour and went away. And I said, can we meet next week? And if you want to invite other people, they can come. Half an hour. God began to do a work.

That family got born again. And that man left his job to serve the Lord full time. But I only shared little bit I knew. I was born again just for three years at that time. I tried to do what I could. God blessed it.

If you exercise over a period of time, over some years, God will show you what your gift is. It's good for you to get a confirmation from some older brother. Otherwise, when you're young, you can think, oh, I've got so many gifts.

Maybe you have. But I hope some older brother can confirm it. So the older brother confirmed my gift. That's how I knew I had a gift of teaching the Word of God. That I was not an evangelist primarily, but a teacher of God's Word.

Lessons From a Life of Serving God

Okay, now the last question here. Can you tell us what is the most important lesson that God taught you and that's important for young adults? There's a little book I wrote called Principles of Serving God.

By the way, all my books are available on the internet free. You can read them. In English. Some of them in Dutch as well. You can go to cfcindia .com. You can go to the website. Www .cfcindia .com. And there, there's a book called Principles of Serving God.

And I've written there some lessons I have learned. Some important lessons I've learned. And that is also on YouTube as two messages. Some important lessons I've learned in 50 years. And I've listed 16 important lessons I learned.

The first of them was God loves honest people. Don't ever pretend before God. Be honest about your sin. Always. In my life, the fullness of the Holy Spirit has been very, very important for me. I cannot think what my life would have been if I were not filled with the Holy Spirit.

Because then God began to open to me this wonderful truth of the new covenant. That the old covenant was man struggling to keep God's law. And always failing, like the disciples failed to catch fish. And the new covenant is God making me from within keep his commandments.

The verse particularly is Hebrews 8 and verse 10. In the old testament, God wrote his commandments on two tablets of rock. Which Moses brought down from the mountain. Today in the new covenant, which are the two tablets on which God has written his laws?

Hebrews 8 and 10. My mind and my heart. I will put my law into your mind, I will write it upon your heart. What does that mean? When God puts his law in my mind, it means he gives me a desire to do his will.

And I think God has already done that in many of you. He has given you a desire to do his will. Praise the Lord. But the job is not complete. Electricity always has two wires. You can never have electricity with only one wire.

When you put on a switch, all that you are doing is make those two wires touch. When you put off the switch, the wires are separated. You put it on, the wires touch. The light comes on. So, in the same way, God giving me a desire to do his will, that's good.

That must touch another. God giving me the ability to do his will. One is desire and the other is power. So, he first puts a desire into my mind and then gives me power in my heart to do it. That's what grace does.

See Hebrews 13. If you use a concordance, you can find this out very quickly. Go to heart. All the verses, heart, heart, heart, heart, heart. And you'll find out. Here it is, Hebrews 13 .9. It is good for the heart to be strengthened or empowered by grace.

So, what is it that will strengthen my heart? Grace. So, I see that grace is a power that strengthens me to do the will of God. And that agrees with what is written in Philippians 2. That God does two things.

He works inside me. Philippians 2 .13. Whenever it says God is working inside me, it's always the Holy Spirit. God the Father is in heaven. God the Son, Jesus Christ, is in heaven. The one who comes into my heart is the Holy Spirit.

When you ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, who comes in? The Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit comes in. As soon as you're born again. Christ comes in means the Holy Spirit comes in. But you may not be filled with the Holy Spirit.

But He comes in. See, there's a difference between receiving the Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 .9 says, if you don't have the Spirit of Christ, you don't even belong to Him. So, that's another area where I disagree with the Pentecostals.

When you are born again, you don't belong to the Holy Spirit. You receive the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, Romans 8 .9 says, you're not even born again. Because Christ is in heaven. When you ask Him to come into your heart, it's the Spirit of Christ that comes in.

You receive the Holy Spirit. You don't have to wait for that now. But a heart is like a house with many rooms. Supposing you see a house with ten rooms, and there's light in one room, and you ask the question, is there light in that house?

Yes. But the nine rooms are dark. Is it filled with light? No. So, has the Spirit of God come into your heart? The one room of guilt He has come. He's cleansed me from guilt. There's light in one room.

The Spirit has come in. But I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit. Why? Because I've locked other rooms from Him. When Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock, Revelation 3 .20, it's the Holy Spirit wanting to come into these other rooms.

Because remember, those words were not spoken to unbelievers, they were spoken to a church in Laodicea. We quote Revelation 3 .20 to the unbeliever, Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. But read the Bible carefully.

To whom was it said? It was not said to unbelievers. It's said to believers in a church in Laodicea. I'm knocking at the door of your heart. Lord, I thought you've forgiven me and come in. Yes, I've come into one room.

I want to come into some other rooms. Can I come into your television room? And decide what all programs you watch? You say, no, Lord, please. I watch some programs you may not like. Please, don't disturb me in that room.

And Jesus is a gentleman. He will never walk into a room if you don't want Him. Can I look through your DVDs, the Lord says, and the type of music you're listening to? I said, Lord, please don't look through that.

Because in the midst of all the Christian music, I've got some other music as well. You may not like it, Lord. So we keep that door locked. The Lord says, can I look at your finances room? Can I check how you earn your money?

Is it all righteous? Or how do you spend your money? Are you a miser, keeping it all to yourself? Or are you rich towards God with your money? Lord, I don't want anybody to check on my money. I earn it, and I spend it as I like.

The Lord says, okay, I won't come into that room. You do as you like. And like that, there are many other rooms. Can I look at your library, the type of books you read? Lord, please don't come there. I get some magazines and books which you may not like.

Stay outside. Like that, many, many things. Can I come into your marriage relationship? And how you husband and wife, you relate to each other and talk to each other. Lord, that's a difficult area. The wife will say, I've got a difficult husband, Lord.

The Lord goes to the husband, the husband says, Lord, you don't know, my wife is a witch. Okay, I won't disturb you. And we say, oh God, fill me with the Holy Spirit. But every door is locked. You can pray for a hundred years, nothing will happen.

How will He come in when all the doors are locked? I'll tell you how you can be filled with the Spirit in one evening. I mean that, I mean that. One evening. Get down, go home, get down on your knees before God.

And ask God to show His light into every area of your life. The areas of your life where you've locked the door, preventing the Holy Spirit from coming in. The things you know to be sin. The Lord's not asking you to give them up.

He says, are you willing to give them up? That's wonderful. He doesn't ask you to give up anything. Maybe you love rock music. No, that's not helping you to be spiritual. The Lord's not asking you to give it up.

Maybe you love it so much. The Lord's asking you, are you willing to give it up? Do you love me more than everything else? Or is there something on earth that you love more than me? And area by area by area.

Open the door, open the door. Say, Lord, I want to get rid of anything in my life that disturbs you. If you read the epistles, you'll find the church in Ephesus was probably the best church because the most spiritual things are written in Ephesians.

But that's because the church in Ephesus was a very radical church. And you know what the people in Ephesus did? You read that in Acts 19. When they got converted, they brought all their books and all of magic and other things and made a big bonfire and burned it all out.

And in those days they had DVDs and CDs and they brought it as well. They had such a revival because they were so radical. They became a spiritual church. But if you hold on to things in your life and you think you're a disciple of Jesus, you're only fooling yourself.

Other people may think you're a born again Christian. What's the use of that when the Lord comes and he sends you to hell? You say, Lord, but everybody thought I was a Christian. I was doing full-time Christian work.

You know the Lord Jesus once said, that in the last day many people will come to me. Matthew 7, 22. And they'll say, Lord, I did miracles in your name. I preached in your name. And the Lord will say, I never knew you.

Go away to hell, all of you. I hope none of you will hear those words. Don't care for the opinion of men. Surrender to God and ask him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. And one more thing I want to say.

Walking the Way of the Cross

When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you have to walk in the Spirit. There is a way to walk. That's called the way of the cross. Or the way of brokenness. Or the way of denying yourself and taking up your cross every day.

That, coupled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, are two of the greatest truths God taught me. That if you're filled with the Spirit, it's like a cup being filled with the Spirit. With water. But if I walk the way of the cross, of brokenness, after a while the cup will become like a bucket.

Then I'll be filled again. Capacity becomes more. And I continue to walk the way of the cross. Death to self, death to self. The bucket will become a big tub. Again I'm filled with the Spirit. I continue to walk the way of the cross.

This tub will become a lake. Wow! When the lake is filled, that's different from being a cup being filled. And then I continue to walk the way of the cross. The lake becomes a river. And then I continue the same way.

And it becomes many rivers. Then the Word is fulfilled. Out of His innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So two people can be filled with the Spirit. One is a cup. The other is 10, 15 rivers.

There's a lot of difference between a cup and 10 or 15 rivers. So don't think all Spirit-filled people are equal. A cup is full. The bucket is full. The lake is full. 15 rivers are full. But there's a lot of difference between that brother and this one who's got a little cup.

And if you're filled with the Holy Spirit soon after you're born again, and you do not walk the way of the cross, after 50 years you'll still be a cup. And you can boast, 50 years ago I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I've heard people like that. Carnal, defeated by sin, useless to God, useless to man, not become like Christ. So don't be satisfied with merely being filled with the Holy Spirit. Ask God to increase your capacity.

And the only way is to walk the way of the cross. Death to self. Death to self. Do you know the most useful work you can do for God? It's written in John 12, 24. Fall into the ground like a corn of wheat and die.

You know what will happen? Jesus said in John 12, 24, a huge harvest will come from one corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died. These are the two messages that are not being proclaimed sufficiently.

The genuine daily fullness of the Spirit with increasing capacity. And walking the way of the cross. As you go this way, God gives you more and more revelation. As your capacity increases, God shows you things in the Bible which nobody else saw before.

Others whose capacity is increasing, they're seeing it. God began to show me the truth of the new covenant. What I just explained to you. That in the old covenant, he wrote it on two rocks there. But in the new covenant, he gives me the desire to do God's will and the ability to do God's will.

I didn't read that in any book. God showed that to me from scripture. And proved it in my life. By giving me the desire to do the entire will of God. Everything written in scripture. I've prayed two prayers for many years now.

Lord, before I leave this earth, I want to obey every single commandment you have given for Christians. I don't want to go to heaven with some commandments incomplete. I do not study the Bible to preach sermons.

I study the Bible to find out which commandments I have not yet obeyed. I would encourage you to read the Bible for that reason. To read and see, Lord, is there something else I have not obeyed? I want to obey every commandment before I leave this earth.

You'll have a very happy meeting with the Lord when he comes again. If, before you meet him, you have obeyed every command he gave. Because he told his disciples, go into all the world and teach people to do everything I taught you.

That is not being done. If you go to the CFC India website, there are 80 studies I have taken there on one subject. Half an hour each. The title is, All that Jesus Taught. Spend half an hour a day and in three months you can finish it.

All that Jesus Taught. Listen to it. It's worth losing a little half an hour sleep every day. Get up half an hour early or go to sleep half an hour late. In three months your life can be different. Your capacity will increase.

The second prayer I have prayed, Lord, before I leave this earth, I want to claim every promise you have given for Christians in the Bible. I don't want to obey Old Testament commandments and promises, but what you have given for Christians.

If you get 10 checks in the mail one day, how many of them will you credit into your bank account? Four? Five? You say, no, I'll deposit all 10. Money is important. If God has given you a hundred promises, how many of them do you want to claim before you leave this earth?

Half of them? No. Why not treat them like checks? Every promise in the New Testament is like a check. You could have become a spiritual millionaire by now. You are poor because you haven't claimed those promises.

The Two Masters: God and Mammon

So my brothers and sisters, there's a big answer I gave as to what was the most important things in my life. And I want to go to the subject today, freedom from the love of money. This is just the introduction.

I haven't even started. Don't you know we've got all night tonight? You don't want to go before midnight, right? Don't you all love Jesus with all your heart? No, don't worry. We won't go till midnight.

Luke chapter 16. Luke 16. I don't think you'll ever hear another preacher preach on this. Why I say that is because I have listened to a lot of messages on YouTube. I don't hear anybody speaking on this.

Luke 16 and verse 13. No servant can serve two masters. You go to any Christian and ask him, which are the two masters in the world? I guarantee that 95 of them will say God and Satan. You test it out.

With born again believers. Ask them, who are the two masters? 95 of them will say God and Satan. Unless they have listened to my sermon. But it's not God and Satan. It is God and money. See that. The two masters, you cannot serve God and mammon.

The two masters, you cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon means money, house, property, shares, in companies, in cars, anything that's got to do with wealth. Your assets. You cannot serve God and mammon.

It doesn't say you cannot have mammon. It doesn't say you cannot have mammon. You can make mammon serve you. But you must not serve mammon. See, money is a very good servant. But it's a terrible master.

God is not saying you should not make money your servant. Where do people put gold in this earth? On their head? Around their neck? Their ears? Do you know there is gold in heaven also? It must be a good thing if there is gold in heaven also.

But where is the gold in heaven? Who knows? On the street. Under your feet. If you have learned to put gold under your feet, you're ready for heaven. If gold is still on your head, brother, you better hurry up and bring it down beneath your feet.

But most of us, we start with gold on our head. But learn to put it under your feet. I'm not saying get rid of it. Electricity is a good servant. But you play the fool with it, you can die. Fire is a good servant.

But it's a terrible master if it burns up your house. So I'm not saying don't have fire or electricity.

I said make it serve you. Use money, make it your servant.

How to find out who you're serving? Very easy. Supposing there are two men here. A and B. Both of them say Zak Poonen is my servant. Very easy to find out. Tell both of them to call Zak Poonen. A says, Zak Poonen, come here.

B says, Zak Poonen, come here. And wherever I go, that's my master. So in the same way, you look at your life. God calls you somewhere. Money calls you somewhere. Who do you listen to? Whether you know it or not.

You are the servant of that one you respond to. It happens even among Christian workers. I've seen that. They start working in one organization. Oh, I have a great burden to work with children. And I want to work with children evangelizing.

Then one day they hear that in radio ministry you can make more money. And suddenly they have a burden for radio ministry. Or a man is a pastor in a small church. They love him and he loves them. And then one day a bigger church with more salary invites him.

And he says, brothers, I've been praying if God would lead me somewhere else. What is pulling him? Money. It's happening in Christian work. It's happening everywhere. It's happening with businessmen. Money is a tremendous power like a magnet to pull people.

If you don't break free from its power, you'll never be a servant of God. And if you're serious about it, God will do some radical things to deliver you from the power of money. I prayed many times. Lord, every human being loves money and I'm a human being.

It's not only rich people who love money. Have you ever seen a beggar, homeless man who doesn't love money? There is no homeless man in the world who doesn't love money. He doesn't have a cent in his pocket, but he loves money.