Lay a Good Foundation in Your Youth — Zac Poonen

Building a Strong Foundation

So, when we think of our lives as young people, the first thing, just like building a house, is checking the foundation. If you don't have a good foundation, you're going to have problems later on in your life.

It's like, if there's a crack on the 10th floor or something, the problem is with the foundation. You can go along for a number of years and then have problems, because right at the beginning, you didn't make sure whether your foundation was right.

So Jesus spoke a parable in relation to this in Mark chapter 4, about this parable of the seed, sower and the seed, and you know the four types of ground. Perhaps we should look at it in Luke chapter 8, the same parable.

Sometimes you find a little extra in some other place. Okay, Luke chapter 8, the story of the sower and the seed, verse 5 onwards, there was seed that fell on rocky soil, sorry, first of all the seed fell on the road and the birds of the air ate it up, verse 5.

That's a case of a person who listens to God's word and doesn't take it seriously, they completely forget about it. We can say it's a picture of those who read the Bible and don't meditate on it. That's category number one.

If you read the Bible and you don't meditate on what you have read, you're like, the seed came into your heart and before the day is over, it's all gone, the birds have eaten it away. And that is a condition of lots and lots of young people.

They may go through the ritual of reading and satisfy their conscience that they have read the word, but it accomplishes nothing because it's only on the surface and it's lying there, the birds come and take it away.

If you meditate, it goes in. So, it's better to read one verse and meditate on it for 15 minutes than to read a whole chapter in 15 minutes and not meditate on it. That's a simple principle. You can have seeds sown every day on your heart and it's all gone.

And that's how it is with many, many people. And the second ground is where it fell on rocky soil and verse 13, that's described as they hear the word, receive it with joy and they have no firm root. That means immediately they are excited about what they hear, but they don't allow it to sink down.

That means they don't dig up, make sure it's gone inside to get rid of things in their life which the word of God shows is wrong. They don't repent. It's repentance that digs up the ground and gets rid of things that we need to remove from our lives.

So, rocky soil is not much depth of earth, superficial. And I fear a lot of young people are like that. Their conversion is very superficial, particularly, you know, you come to CFC and some people come to CFC because their parents are in CFC.

It could be very superficial. I mean, their parents believe something, so they believe it. They're not personally convicted about it. It's not gone deep. Some people come to CFC because they want to marry some girl here.

You think they'll be converted? They are the number one candidates for hell. So a lot of people like that who come, I mean, I'm not fooled by such people. I can see through them straight away. But there are various reasons why young people come to the church and they can appear to be very interested, but there's no seriousness in their life, in their daily life and walk.

They're not seeking God, they're seeking something else. So there's no depth there. And then other seed fell and grew, but the thorns came and choked it out, it says in verse 7. And the thorns are, you know, the worries and, verse 14, riches and pleasures which choke the fruit, worries, riches, pleasures, verse 14.

There are many worries and riches and pleasures in the world and they can, you can be quite sincere, but it can choke out these things. But then the good seed, it says in verse 15, that which heard the word and in an honest and good heart held it fast and bear fruit with perseverance.

So let me say a few things about that verse, Luke 8, 15. The first thing is honesty. God loves honest people, those who are totally 100 honest. And if there's one quality I would encourage all of you young people to develop, it's honesty.

Don't ever pretend that's the easiest way to go to hell or to backslide and destroy your life, to be dishonest. Be honest with God and when we're honest with God, we are, we don't pretend before people.

The more you pretend before people, the more you're destroying yourself. And there are people like that in our church, in CFC, 99 of people can't see that. I can look at a person's eyes and tell you whether a guy's a crook or whether he's straightforward.

You can't hide it. There are a lot of things in your eyes. Adultery is in your eyes. If you have watched enough pornography in your life, it's in your eyes or it's there. You may say what you like, but adultery is in your eyes and a God-fearing person can see it.

If you're basically a proud person, that pride is in your eyes and a God-fearing person who walks with God can see it. He may not embarrass you by telling you, but he can see it. And if you're a hypocrite pretending, that's also in your eyes.

So I want to encourage you, be honest with God, don't pretend, hate it, must hate pretense. The only way to get rid of pretense is by hating it. You know, like children play with snakes because they think snakes are not dangerous, because snakes are very attractive, and they can sting the child and kill it.

Hypocrisy is one of the worst snakes that can destroy you and kill you. It's better to be known. I appreciate people who are straightforward and honest. It doesn't matter what they say. If somebody says, Brother Jack, I don't believe in God at all.

I love such a chap, to tell you honestly, because he's not trying to impress me. How can he impress me by saying I don't believe in God? But I tell you, I have more hope for that person, because he's not pretending.

He says, I don't believe in God. Or somebody who comes and says, you know, I don't know whether the Bible is God's Word. I have tremendous respect for such a person. He's not pretending. He's honest. And there's great hope that such a person can develop to a wonderful life.

And you ask yourself, number one, it's the first thing he said about the good seed. The good seed, verse 15, hear the word in an honest and good heart. An honest heart is a good heart. It may have many shortcomings, but its honesty is the number one thing.

Maybe you will lose some of the reputation you have built up so far as a very spiritual person when you become honest. That'll be good for you. I'll tell you something, when people think less of you, that's better for you than when people think more of you.

When people think more of you, you're in great danger, because it's not true. You're giving people the impression that you're someone, that you've got so much spiritual wealth when you don't have it. That is hypocrisy.

It's better they think you've got less, rather than think that you have more. I mean, in worldly things, we're all like that. If you've got a million rupees in your bank account, you don't want anybody to know that, right?

You don't want people to think, oh, I've got 500 ,000 rupees in my bank account. Because otherwise, the thieves will come after you. So you prefer that people think you have less. And the world is full of rich people who always pretend to be poor.

I wish we were like that spiritually, where we have tremendous wealth inside, but don't try to show off any of that. You know, don't you think it's repulsive when you meet a rich man who's always trying to show off how rich he is?

It's exactly equally repulsive when people try to pretend to be spiritual, when you can see that they're not, when they try to use spiritual language. And they destroy themselves. It's true. So, if there's one thing I would encourage all of you to pursue, it's honesty.

It is so important that I don't mind emphasizing it in every area, because that is the meaning of walking in the light. To have fellowship with God, the first requirement is to know God is light. There is no darkness in Him.

And if you start your life with pretense, you're going to go in the wrong direction. And every year we'll see you further and further away from God. And maybe that's the reason why you've drifted away from God.

Some of you, if you're honest, who've been in CFC some years, you may admit that you were closer to the Lord some years ago. How is it you're so far away today? Because you were dishonest. That's all.

It's not because you were battling some particular sin. All of us are battling sins. But you're not honest. You wanted to pretend and put up a front. That made you drift further away, because God hates that.

The one thing that Jesus condemned more than anything else is hypocrisy. And the reason why we pretend is because from childhood we want to be accepted. And when we want to be accepted, you know, like a little child goes to school, five years old, he's going from the protective atmosphere of his home to a school.

Everybody's against him. Unless you do certain things that'll make you popular, he begins to do those things, to be accepted. That is how they grow up and develop bad habits. You know, other children in school or something, come on, do this, what's wrong with this?

And that's how a lot of young girls start dressing like all those worldly people in their school or college, because they want acceptance. There's a tremendous desire in young people to be accepted. And in order to be accepted, we put on a front, pretend.

And that destroys us spiritually. You may be accepted by your friends, but you won't be accepted by God, because there's no darkness in God. He says, I'll take you as a prostitute, as a murderer, as a drunkard, if you're honest about it.

But if you pretend, he'll have nothing to do with you. You know, Jesus rejected on earth everyone who pretended. The main reason why he rejected the Pharisees, when he called them hypocrites, every time you read the word hypocrite in the Gospels, read pretender, one who's pretending, the Lord just rejected them, and he rejects them today.

But there was a murderer on the cross, he accepted him. There was an adulterous woman who he forgave. A woman caught in adultery. There was a Samaritan woman who had been divorced five times. God forgave her.

What was the unifying thing about all these people? They were honest. They did not pretend. And that's why Jesus said these amazing words to some of the most religious people in his time. See, all of you sitting here, you're quite religious.

You look quite religious, all of you. I want to give you a word which Jesus spoke to religious people. In Matthew 21, it's a very interesting parable. It's one of those parables we don't read much or hear about much.

It's a parable of two sons. And it's not the story of the prodigal son. This is another parable of two sons. A man had two sons, Matthew 21, verse 28. Jesus told two stories of a man who had two sons.

One is the story of the prodigal son. This is the other story. And the first one said, he came to the first and said, son, go and work today in my vineyard. And he said, sure. He said, I will not go. Now, in this story, it's the older son who's the good one.

In the other story, it's the younger son who came back. Here's the older son who says, I won't go. I'm not going to do it. You know, he's honest. I don't feel like doing it. Sorry. I've got other things to do.

I'm more interested in the movies than in your Bible and all that. Fine. But afterwards, he regretted and he went. So I think it's better to do what God says. The second one, and I think we are in danger of this.

He told the second son the same thing. Go and work in my vineyard. Oh, yes. Praise the Lord. I'll do it. You know, like we sing in the songs and raise our hands and clap and all that. That is the second son saying, I'll do it.

I'll do it. But he didn't do it in his daily life. What he said on Sunday, he never did the rest of the week. Which of these two did the will of his father? He said the first. Look at the moral of the story.

Jesus said, let me paraphrase it. The crooks and the prostitutes will get into God's kingdom before you. Anyone who is a pretender, God says to him, the crooks and the thieves and the prostitutes will get into God's kingdom before a bunch of your religious people.

It's quite a strong statement to tell religious people who go regularly to a meeting that prostitutes and thieves will get into God's kingdom before you. What do prostitutes and thieves have? Or murderers?

Honesty. The prostitutes who are in the red light district of a city, they don't pretend that they are holy. They say, we are prostitutes. What are you? Prostitute. What's your job? Prostitute. That's hope for you.

You come to the church and the Lord says, what are you? I'm a holy believer. Really? Those are the ones in danger. So dear brothers and sisters, I'm telling you something very elementary because I find that a lot of young people, their fundamental problem is they haven't got their foundation right.

The seed which is sown is not going into good soil. It's not an honest heart. If it's not an honest heart, it's not a good heart. And all the messages you hear can be like seed that is sown and just disappears.

Some are excited for a while and then some difficulty crops up because you're a Christian and they fall away. So that is the first thing. And the other thing is in verse 15, Luke 8, 15, an honest and a good heart and they hold it fast.

Holding the Word Fast Through Perseverance

How shall I hold the word of God fast? One is by reading God's word often, thinking about it often. I hold it fast. How is it the devil can take away our Christianity from us very easily? You know, if I hold something like this very tight, all five fingers, it's difficult for people to take it out from my hand.

But I hold it like this with two fingers and people can snatch it out very easily. So many of us are holding the Christian life like this. Very loose type of holding. How did the devil snatch it out of my hand?

You're not holding it fast. What you hear, you're not listening to it again and meditating on what you hear. And so you fall away. So hold it fast, whatever you hear. And then the third thing mentioned here is, remember these things, an honest, good heart, hold it fast.

And they bear fruit with perseverance. That means with patience. They wait and wait and wait. They stick it out until the harvest comes. A lot of young people expect overnight results. I accepted the Lord, why I'm not spiritual.

I'll tell you, stick at it for 25 years, you'll be a spiritual person. But you want something happen overnight, like press a button and I become spiritual. It doesn't work like that. Even if you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you will not become spiritual overnight.

It takes years and years and if you're not willing to stick it out, you're not going to become a spiritual person. So, be honest always. If you fall, say, I fell. At least to God, I'm not saying you should publicly confess your sin to anybody.

I don't believe that's any value in that. If you hurt somebody by what you did or said, then honesty means going to that person and saying, I'm sorry for hurting you. That's honesty. Walking in the light.

But if your sin was only against God, then you go only to God. And say, God, that was a bad thought or a bad attitude I had. Please forgive me. I don't want to go that way again. And if you slip up again, be honest again.

Say, Lord, I'm sorry. I seem to be slipping up in this area again and again. Something is wrong. Please help me. Always be honest. Never try to cover up your sin with spiritual language. Because when God sees you're trying to use religious language to do what you want to do, he'll allow you to be deceived.

So don't try to use Bible verses and things like that to justify what you want to do. It's very, very dangerous. Be honest and say, Lord, that was wrong, what I did. When you disobey the word of God which says, honor your father and mother, you can say, well, they're wrong.

They don't know the Lord. That may be true. They don't know the Lord. But I say, even if your father is a drunkard and an atheist, you still have to honor him. You don't have to obey him if he tells you to worship idols or do something against scripture because there's somebody above your father and mother.

That's Christ. So if they tell you to do something that Christ has told you not to do, then you obey Christ who is above them. But other than that, I've told even people from non-Christian homes, I say when you speak to your parents, never speak rudely.

Honor them. They've done a lot for you from childhood. Say, Dad, I love you and I respect you, Mom, for all the trouble you've taken to bring me up, to educate me, et cetera, but please don't ask me to do something against my conscience.

Please don't ask me to do something which will disturb my conscience. I'll ruin myself if I do that. So please excuse me. Don't ask me to do that again, whether it's tell a lie or worship an idol or marry an unbeliever or anything which is against God's word.

But other than that, we must respect. And our respect for our parents is not shown by obeying them when they tell you to disobey God's word. It's by being respectful in the way we speak to them. Always be respectful in the way it will go well with you.

I'm telling you that. As far as I remember, I always spoke respectfully to my earthly parents. And I disagreed with them in some things, and I did what the Lord told me to do. But I can't remember once speaking to my parents rudely.

I want to say it's absolutely true what Scripture says. Honor your father and mother, and it will go well with you. And I have to justify it has gone well with me. And let me repeat that. It does not mean you obey them.

You may do something different in a hundred areas, but always speak respectfully to them. Walk in the light, and where you did something wrong, ask forgiveness from your parents or anybody else. And where you sinned against God, ask God to forgive you.

And be patient. Think of a child who's got an ambition to be a Ph .D., and has just joined kindergarten. He has to wait 20 years to get a Ph .D., and he's patient. Think of all these people who get their master's degrees and Ph .D .s like some of you.

How many years it took. You didn't expect to get it in two years or five years. You worked at it and worked at it and worked at it and worked at it. God never encourages or blesses lazy people. Let me tell you that.

If you're basically lazy, you will suffer in earthly things, and you'll suffer in spiritual things. Because let me show you a few verses. First of all, in 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. We thought about the sower, the farmer, sowing the seed.

But he didn't just sow the seed and forget it. First of all, before he sowed the seed, he dug up his ground, plowed it, then sowed the seed and watered it, took care of it, drove away the birds, etc. Protected it by fertilizer and sprayed it from insects coming and eating it up.

2 Timothy 2, it says here in verse 6. The hard-working farmer is the first one to get the share of the crops. Think about what I'm saying. God will make it clear to you. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 6 and 7.

It says, think about this. The hard-working farmer gets a harvest, and you don't get it because you're not working hard. That applies in worldly things and in spiritual things. Here's another verse, Jeremiah 29 and verse 13.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. That's hard work. Lord, with all my heart, I want to seek you and I'll find you. Why is it some people find the Lord and you don't?

They are seeking him with all their hearts. Why is it some people know the Bible and you don't? It's just like asking in school, how did that person get 95 in history and you got 25 Did he have a different teacher?

No. You were playing the fool before the examination. He was working hard. That was the difference. God never blesses those who play the fool. I know a lot of people who have come to me for the exam and say, Brother Zach, pray for my exams.

First question I ask, have you studied for it? You haven't studied for it? 10 ,000 prayers of mine will not help you. It's like a farmer who never sows a seed or sleeps during sowing time. Say, Brother Zach, please pray I'll get a good harvest.

I say, you won't get a harvest. You'll get nothing. For such people, I can only say, I'll pray that you will fail so that you'll wake up and at least pass next year and learn a lesson for life that God doesn't bless lazy people.

He doesn't. You seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. God told Adam, by the sweat of your brow, you will earn your bread. That's true in the world. I mean, that's not for Christians.

It's for all human beings. Adam is not the head of Christians. He's the head of human beings. And it's a law God put for human beings. You want to get some results? You've got to perspire, work hard. And that's why you find worldly people work hard and they get some results.

It's a law which God put into the world from the time of Adam. The same principle applies to us. Now, Christians sometimes think that because I'm a Christian, God will bypass all those laws and even if I don't work hard, He's going to reward me.

That is a deception. You know, who think that God will help me, help me to pass even though I didn't study. It's like these people who go for some athletic race and say, Lord, help me to beat that chap.

I tell you, if God helps me, even at my age, I'll break the 100 meters world record without any problem. But that will be very unfair of God if He helps me and doesn't help that other guy. You think God will do something unfair?

Do you believe that if God helps me, I can do the 100 meters in less than 9 seconds? Believe it or not, I can. God who makes the cheetah run so fast can make me run as fast. But He doesn't help like that because that will be unfair.

It will be cheating. It will be like helping somebody, the teacher, helping somebody in the examination and not helping the other student. Do you think that's right for a teacher to help one student and not help the other one?

So I want to tell you that it's like somebody going, these boxers who box with each other, World Heavyweight Championship and one fellow prays, God help me to knock that other fellow out. Imagine if God helps one man to knock the fellow, the first few seconds, the fellow will be knocked out, he'll never get up.

It doesn't work like that, despite all the stories you hear. I mean people don't understand that if Almighty God helps a person, what hope has anybody else got? So don't think that you can live as you like and pray, oh God, prayer is sort of an answer that takes care of all my, He'll forgive your sins, that's for sure.

But you reap what you sow. That's also, God cannot be fooled it says. So don't fool yourself that prayer will take care of all the things, you're lazy and God will make up for it with prayer, He won't.

If you don't work hard, you don't get it. So, forgiveness of sins is free, but if you want a lot of results in your life, you got to work hard. The same thing applies in the Christian life, you got to work at it and work at it and work at it.

You got to spend time meditating on God's word, spend time talking to the Lord, that's how you become strong. You look at that, you know, I saw these pictures outside these gymnasiums, muscular fellow with muscles bulging all over.

You say, boy, I wish I had a body like that. You can keep wishing, but that guy paid a price to get a body like that. He went regularly, he was disciplined about his eating and disciplined himself every day to do all those exercises and run.

That's how he got that body. It's a law that God put into the earth in the time of Adam. By the sweat of your brow, you get your bread. If you want bread from the Bible, it's exactly the same way. By the sweat of your brow, you got to work hard.

You got to... See, these guys who want to win the marathon in the Olympics and all, do you know how four years they practice running a marathon every single day? Imagine running 40 kilometers every day.

I'm not surprised the guy wins the gold medal in the Olympics. The other lazy guy who eats all the fast food and prays that God will help him to win the marathon, he's not going to win. No. It's like if you eat junk food and get sick or get all types of other problems in your body, don't ask God to heal you, don't waste your time.

It's like eating poison and saying, God, heal me. It's like jumping off the roof of the temple and saying, Oh, Lord, protect me, I claim your promise. He'll forgive you. But I'll tell you this, you'll still reap what you sow.

I know people who got AIDS through sexually, through fooling around sexually. And then they get converted. And they say, Lord, please heal me of the AIDS. And they don't get healed, I'll tell you that.

They get converted. They go to heaven. But do you know how they go to heaven? They die of AIDS and go. Because you reap what you sow. If God removed that law of reaping what you sow, it would encourage people to do all types of wrong things.

I come to Christ, God removes all the effects. It doesn't work like that. That's why I want to say what Jesus said about perseverance. See, that word perseverance comes here in Romans chapter 2. I want to encourage you, if honesty is the first thing you should pursue, perseverance, very important.

Romans chapter 2 and verse 6. God will render to every person according to his deeds. That's a law. You can't change that law. Romans 2 verse 7. To those who by perseverance in doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.

And when somebody seeks for eternal life, how many Christians will point them to this verse? Brother, you want eternal life? You know which verse everybody points them to? Romans 6 .23. The gift of God is eternal life.

Just ask brother and you get it. It's true, I believe that. Eternal life is a gift of God because I can never deserve it. I can never earn it. I can never say I deserve this. Or I worked and earned it like a salary.

It's a gift. But to whom does God give it to you? This is also Romans. And so don't jump to chapter 6 before you read chapter 2. You don't read page 6 of a letter before you read page 2. Page 6 amplifies what is written in page 2.

It doesn't contradict it. So if it says in Romans 6 .23 the gift of God is eternal life, it also says in Romans 2. To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor in immortality, eternal life.

Eternal life is the very life of God. I'm not talking about forgiveness of sins. You don't have to persevere in doing good for 25 years to get forgiveness of sins. No. You come to Jesus and say, Lord, I'm a rotten sinner.

I take the blame for all my sins. That's important. Don't blame somebody else. I take the blame for my sins. Forgive me. Cleanse me. You're forgiven. But that doesn't mean you get the life of God straight away.

For that you have to persevere. To grow in grace. You know a child can be born and can be sick. You know these teeny weeny children that are born premature. Weight half a kilo. You've got to put it in the incubator.

Is a child dead or alive? It's alive. But it's struggling to live. So the question is, I'm not talking about just being born. Again, I'm talking about healthy children. Who are growing properly. Just like in physical birth, there are children who are born sickly and small and weak.

I want you to be born healthy. And to grow healthy. And that's why a mother ensures that that child gets good food and milk. And allows it to exercise, etc. Running around, etc. It grows healthy. So, perseverance.

I would urge you. Honesty. Perseverance. Two things that Jesus said in relation to good soil. Make sure that these two things are in your life. And don't try to cover up by prayer. Your lack of persistence.

I'll show you one more word. Which says in Hebrews 11. He's a rewarder of those who. In the King James Version, it's a little clearer. Hebrews 11. He who comes means he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Who seek him with all their heart. Okay, I want to turn back to Luke Chapter 8. I spoke a little bit about this good heart. Let's revise. Luke Chapter 8 Verse 15. The good soil is first honesty. Holding it fast.

And Perseverance. That means you stick at it, stick at it, stick at it. Like the marathon runner. Practicing every day. Why does he do it? He does it for an earthly crown. We do it because the results are going to be much better.

Now we do it in other areas in our life. For example, if you want a job in a particular field. How hard you work. In school and college. To acquire abilities in that field. So that you get a job. So we do it in worldly areas.

I'm just asking you. Why can't we follow the same principle in spiritual areas as well. That's all I'm saying. Okay. Now we want to go to Luke Chapter 8 Verse 14. It speaks about the thorns. Now here are people who are good Christians.

They received the word. But as the seed grew up. Verse 7. The thorns grew up and choked it. And these are people who had a good start in their Christian life. And what are the thorns? Verse 14. Worries.

Seeking God's Kingdom Above Work and Wealth

Riches. Pleasures. The cares of this world it says. That's number one. It can be your job. That brings so many cares. Or you get married. And there's so many earthly cares. Because you want to do well.

And you want to get a promotion. And you want to earn more money. And the anxieties of those things. Can crush out. Crowd out the word of God. So be careful that your work. Or your family never takes the place of God in your life.

Those of you who are married. And the rest of you who work. If your work ever becomes your God. Then you got to look to that God for your salvation. And when you have a problem. You got to go to that God.

Which is your work. To find a solution. Always put. What does it mean to seek God's kingdom first? It means to put God first in everything. Many people misunderstand that. What does it mean to seek God's kingdom first?

Does it mean if I spend 8 hours at work. I have to spend more than 8 hours. In prayer and the Bible study. No. It means that in every area of my life. God controls my life. That is God's kingdom first.

Morning till night. My life is governed by. See the word kingdom. This is where the mistake. I mean our misunderstanding comes. Because we misunderstand kingdom. We don't have kingdoms nowadays. We have the rule.

Government of God. So let me paraphrase it. Then you will understand. Matthew 6 .33. Seek the kingdom of God first. And his righteousness. Seek the rule of God in your life. That means God should rule you.