Security In God As Our Loving Father — Zac Poonen

Security in God as the Foundation for Healthy Relationships

As I've observed believers through many years, I've seen a lot of problems that there are in relationships between people which prevents us from living like a happy family either at home or in the church.

It's because in that vertical relationship with God there is an insecurity and where there is insecurity it leads to a lot of problems on the horizontal level. Jealousy, strife, competition. The problem is not there.

The problem is an insecure relationship with God. That means I'm not so sure that God really loves me. I'm not so sure that God is a loving father. Not so sure that God has forgiven me. All the blunders and mistakes I made in my life.

If you feel like that. You may think that's only a vertical problem. I'm not so sure that God's forgiven me everything but it leads to a lot of problems in the horizontal relationship with other people so to build a good relationship at home and in the church it's very important that we Make sure the vertical relationship with God our fellowship with God is clear.

Repentance, Confession, and Freedom from Self-Condemnation

For example. How many times do I have to confess a sin to God before he forgives me? Supposing I told a small lie. Okay, confess it once. What if you committed adultery? You have to confess it 500 times before he forgives you.

More important than how many times you confess it Is whether you have repented of it. Repentance is more important than confession. If you have really repented really truly broken over your sin. You have to confess your sin to God only once He's got good hearing.

He hears you but You know, this is a feeling we have that the more we confess it serious sins once we confess numerous times. Smaller sins just once is due. We have so many Ideas from false religions.

These are the teaching of false religions and there's a lot of teaching of false religions in Christianity among Christians. Because we have our own ideas of what God is like and the other thing, you know in the olden days I've heard of Roman Catholic monks who used to do a thing called Flagellation self-flagellation that means they would take a whip and hit themselves.

You know, yeah, I spoke yesterday about judging oneself. That's not judging yourself, you know to hit yourself and make your body suffer because you did something wrong or to show God you're sorry I say no Jesus suffered enough.

There's no need for you to go over all over that again. And it's a it's a false teaching. It's a wrong concept. That I can take a little bit of the punishment for my sin. You know, it's not enough that Jesus died on the cross.

I got a whip myself and We may not take a rope to or a leather whip to whip ourselves. We can whip ourselves in our mind. You know keep on saying you're good for nothing. You're good for nothing. You're good for nothing.

You know, I've heard of Parents and fathers who tell their children you're good for nothing. You're good for nothing good for nothing. They turn out good for nothing. You must never tell your children that I Mean you yourself may be good for nothing, but don't tell your children that They may turn out better than you.

We're not here to Condemn others and we must not condemn ourselves. There's a great verse in John 3 17 Which says God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. But that the world through him might be saved that has many applications.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. And I don't have to keep condemning myself. If I recognize that in my flesh, there is nothing good and I slipped up and I asked God to forgive me and if I Repented properly. I need to confess only once like I said Of course you if you haven't repented then even a thousand confessions won't do the job.

The important thing is not whether I have spoken a word saying Lord I did something wrong, but have I turned around from turned around doesn't mean I've overcome sin. There's a difference between Repenting of a sin and overcoming sin.

Overcoming sin may take time. But repentance is an act of a moment. Repentance is just like in the military. There's a command called about turn. You're facing one way and you turn around that's repentance a change of mind towards sin and God accepts that but if I haven't repented then any amount of confession doesn't solve the problem.

But if I have repented I confess once and I shouldn't keep on condemning myself and there is a lot of that because of Insecurity that I'm not so sure whether God really Heard me when I said that if he was sincere he did hear you.

Christ’s Finished Work and the Loving Father

God is a loving father. He there's no you know this it's a heathen idea that God loves to torture us and make us suffer and You know Weep and cry and all types of thing no amount of tears will cleanse my sin.

You've got to remember that I Mean tears may come because I'm sorry for what I did, but any number of tears won't cleanse one sin of mine. It's only the blood of Jesus that cleanses sin. Don't ever forget that and Any amount of sorrow doesn't confer doesn't cleanse sin.

Sorrow is natural if it comes naturally because I did something wrong. It's okay, but I It's very very important to have a secure Relationship with our Heavenly Father. It makes a lot of difference in our horizontal relationship with other people a Lot of hitting out at other people with words and all is because of an insecure relationship with our Heavenly Father.

There's a verse in the Psalms which says those who worship idols become like them. You become like the God you worship. I've discovered that through the years if you think God is a policeman Who is just waiting to catch you having violated some law?

And you always picture God is coming behind you with his light shining to make you stop and pull you over. You're gonna treat other people like that. You're gonna treat your children like that. You're gonna treat other believers like that who you have any authority over because the authority you are working under you think he's like that.

He's not. You know in the Old Covenant. We read there was a veil That blocked off the most holy place of the tabernacle. The tabernacle had three parts of the most holy place was blocked off with a veil or a curtain and thereby God was saying you Can't come into my presence.

Nobody could come into God's presence because Sins were not cleansed until Jesus shed his blood. All the blood of bulls and goats were only symbolic. The actual cleansing of humanity's sins took place on Calvary and till that happened everything was really a picture of what would happen and until Jesus shed his blood and rose again.

Our sins were not forgiven and so man could not enter into God's presence. That was the meaning of that blocked veil and when Jesus died It says that veil was torn. When he said it is finished. Then the door was open.

But because there was that veil people didn't know what God was like. Was it a strict policeman sitting inside that veil was it a very severe judge. And Jesus came he rent that veil and showed people that it was a loving father.

And even though he Did so much to try and convince his disciples, you know, he used examples like if Your son asked you for bread Will you give him a stone? If he asked you for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?

And if you being evil Know how to give good gifts to your children and what he meant by that was the best of you fathers is evil. Compared to God now, we're not evil father. There are many of us are very good fathers.

But it's been a great I think I I've tried to be a very good father to my sons but I read that verse and I say Lord I Who have tried to be good and evil compared to you. That means God's goodness is so much more than the best father on the earth.

I don't know whether you believe that. Some of you have had good fathers Who cared for you provided for you did so much for you sacrifice for you? Multiply that by a billion or trillion and you've got an understanding what God is like and never never lose that concept God is a loving father and if I lose that I Should never lose that understanding.

Jesus tried so much to convince people your heavenly father cares for you your heavenly father wants to give you the kingdom. And I found in my own life that even victory over sin Came only after I realized that I'll tell you a verse that I discovered after 16 years of reading the Bible you think Is that some worse hidden somewhere, which is not in the way?

Most translation. No, it's not hidden anywhere, but I never noticed it. It's John's gospel chapter 17. For myself it may not be the worst that transformed your life, but for my life it transformed my life completely.

For 16 years. I lived as an up-and-down defeated Christian, you know, like a child learning to walk wanting to walk definitely. But always stumbling and falling stumbling and falling and getting up.

I Never lay down permanently if I would fall I'd confess it get up and walk it up and walk and I'd get discouraged so often because of those frequent failures. But when I understood and then I realized it is because this truth I hadn't been gripped by John 17 23 one of the things that Jesus prayed was He.

This is a prayer of Jesus to the father father. I want these people whom I want them to be I in them and you and me and In the middle of that verses is I want the world to know one that you sent me and That you love them.

Even as you have loved me now, there are many verses in the entire Bible that tell us God loves us. Many verses. But this is the only verse that I have discovered in the whole Bible. And there are more than 31 ,000 verses in the Bible.

And this is the only verse I discovered. Which tells us how much God loves us. If you find another one like that, let me know. I haven't found it that God loves me as much as He loved Jesus and that's a fantastic statement.

When you look at the love the father had for Jesus there was never a moment when He didn't love him. He didn't care for him. He didn't provide for him. He protected him when he was a helpless baby from Herod's soldiers.

He protected him when he the people in the synagogue got furious with him in Nazareth and wanted to throw him over the cliff and So many times when soldiers came to capture him. They couldn't capture him and the only reason given in the Bible was his hour had not yet come.

It's amazing. They couldn't touch him. Just because God's time for him to die had not come and Herod's soldiers couldn't kill him. Nobody could throw him over a cliff. He couldn't die of cancer. You think there was cancer in those days in the first century?

Sure, I believe all diseases were there. Jesus couldn't he never got any infection that killed him. He lived on earth as a man because his hour had not come always. The answer is his hour had not come and When I understand when I understood.

Then God loves me as he loved Jesus. I said well that applies to me as well. That means he cares for me as he cared for Jesus. It's very difficult for us to believe that because you know it we think that we have to come to a certain level before God loves us.

When are you ever going to reach a level where? You feel worthy for God to love you, I don't think I'll ever reach that at any time on this earth. He loves me as I love Jesus and when you think of those about whom he was talking about here.

He wasn't talking about you and me it applies to you and me, but at that time he was referring to those disciples. Those 11 disciples he had. Father I mean the whole prayer is related to those 11 disciples.

Father I want the world to know that you love these 11 disciples of mine. Just like you love me and ask yourself this question. Are you better than at least those 11 disciples? Have you denied the Lord sometime?

Are you fighting with others to see who's the leader? These are the things they fought about. And the father loved them. It's not because they were perfect. It's because the father is a God of love for example that verse which says it's challenged me many times in Matthew 5 it says You must be like your father.

And what does he say there about him. Look at that verse if you're not familiar with it. Matthew chapter 5 verse 44. I'll say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So that why should you do that.

So that you can be sons of your father in heaven. He makes the Sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, you know those days people were farmers and You know farmlands need Sun and rain.

So here are two people who got farms. One's a God-fearing farmer who prays every day with his family in the morning and prays concerning his crops and prays when he sows the seed and he's regular in the synagogue and God-fearing man next door to him as an atheist who says I don't believe there's a God.

And you know the rain falls equally on both farms. Isn't that amazing? Would you do that? If you were God. Or would you think you should teach that fellow a lesson by not sending any rain on his farm?

Don't send any and don't let the Sun shine on his. God's not like that. Do you believe in a God like this Who is good to evil people? He makes this Sun to rise on the evil and the good person equally.

And he makes the rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous equally and the Lord says be like that. It's quite a challenge and he says in verse 46. If you only love those who love you, what reward do you have?

That's not a great thing because even the sinners love those who love them. The communists love those who love them. You're not better than them. If you love only those who love you, and if you greet only your brothers, you're not better than others.

But even the heathen people greet those who greet them. Try greeting someone who doesn't want to greet you. There you see whether you really want to be like Jesus or not. See in our in our human nature.

Forgiving Enemies and Refusing Revenge

One of the things that's found very deeply in us Which can cause a lot of problems is the desire for revenge. And I want you to see Romans 12 which tells us Something about what our attitude should be towards somebody who has really harmed us.

Romans chapter 12 says. In verse 19 Never Take your own revenge. But leave room for the wrath of God for it's written vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord. See vengeance is the act of a judge and we are not the judge.

God is the judge of the whole universe. I Have no right to judge people. I have no right to pass judgment on people. I can discern. Discernment is different. We must discern the world is full. I mean Christendom is full of a lot of crooked people and if you don't have discernment, they'll fool you outright so we need discernment, but we don't judge.

God is a judge and Therefore it says here. I must never take revenge. I must not wish evil on someone Who's done evil to me. In fact, it says here in verse 20 if your enemy is hungry. Feed him. If he's thirsty give him a drink.

So not only I don't take revenge, you know. Someone can read this verse like this. Well, God has said verse 19. It's written there. Vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord and our attitude can be say ya Lord repay him.

Really let him have it. But that's not you know. That's the spirit of vengeance to even you may not want to do it yourself and say God. Don't just let him have it teach him a lesson for the way. He treated me.

That attitude will destroy you. And to correct that he says if your enemy is hungry, don't wish that God. God will take care of what he has to do. He will judge. But our attitude is to forgive, you know, for example, let me give you an example.

When Jesus hung on the cross is the worst possible thing that the worst crime. That any human being did to another human being on the face of this earth. What is it the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? I Remember once when a brother came and told me about all the evil things people are doing to him.

I said have they crucified you yet? They said no. I said then you got a long way to go don't Complain about people doing things to you. They haven't crucified you yet, man. You got a long way to go before you become like Jesus.

They crucified him and he said father forgive them. No those people Who were who crucified him did Jesus forgive them or not? Absolutely 100 But in the day of judgment. Those fellows are going to be judged by God for killing Jesus.

They're not gonna escape that. Because there are. Sin is in two directions. See there are certain sins which are only in the vertical direction for example, if I have a dirty thought I'm not harming you.

I'm only hara. It's only between me and God. That's only one direction sin. But if I've hurt you in any way, for example, not just crucified you if I've gossiped against you Behind your back. I Think a lot of believers Don't think that is a sin.

It is. It's sinning against somebody it's not killing him it's killing his reputation. It's killing a person's reputation. Isn't it some type of murder it is you're murdering his reputation by speaking evil about him and that horizontal sin.

It's a sin that I have to confess to God and if I hurt you I have to confess it to you. Now if you don't know about it, then it's better. I don't confess to you because I'll cause more problems. But if I if you know that I've hurt you I have to confess it to you as well.

Otherwise, I can't be forgiven. So when Jesus said father forgive them. He was forgiving that horizontal aspect of Sin forgiven, but the vertical aspect they were still guilty. They were still guilty before God for killing Jesus Christ and that could never be forgiven till they repented and they did not repent and The Lord gave the Jews 40 years after that because you know.

They cried out there saying his blood be on us and on our children. They said and it happened like that 40 years later. God gave them 40 years to repent. They didn't and he scattered them for 2 ,000 years.

He scattered them all over the world. So God does judge. But it's not my business. But I'm not here waiting for God to judge my duty as long as I live on the earth Is to be good to the people who are evil to me.

To wish the best never to wish that. Some calamity will come on them or their children or they lose their job or they get some sickness. No, that's unbecoming of a Christian. And why do we have those attitudes?

Because we think that we're so good. You know, if God had dealt with us like that, we'd have been dead long ago. Think of all the wretched attitudes we had in our life and the wretched things we've committed and God's been so merciful to us and Forgiven us.

That's why Jesus said you must forgive others. Exactly like God forgave you. Forgive us our sins as we forgive them the trespasses against us because God's forgiven us so much. The Bible says be imitators of God and forgive us.

God has forgiven you so that's why We want to forgive others. We have to meditate on how much God has forgiven us. I don't know whether we ever take any time. I take time frequently in my life to think back and To think of how much God has forgiven me.

Two results come from that. Jesus said he who is forgiven much loves much. He was forgiven little Loves little now. I don't believe there's a human being on earth Who's been forgiven little? But there are people who think They've been forgiven little and so they love little but people who recognize that they love much so what I would Translate those words of Jesus like this he who recognizes That he's been forgiven much will love much.

But he who thinks he's been forgiven little will love little. So whenever you say Lord, you've forgiven me so much. You're obligated to love the Lord more than others if you think you've been forgiven more than others.

You love the Lord more than others. When Paul said I believe I'm the chief of sinners. He said that towards the end of his life. He said I'm the chief of all the sinners in the world. I think there's no sinner greater than me in the world.

Really Paul? Well, you better love the Lord better than everybody else and he did. He showed by his love of life of sacrifice how much he loved the Lord how much he is willing to give up. For the Lord because he felt he God's forgiven me so much.

He felt I don't think there's a man on the earth who's been forgiven as much as me. So I see there that the more we realize How much God has forgiven us the more we respond in love saying Lord I want to live a life of sacrifice for you and it will translate into our relationship with others as well.

That'd be very very merciful towards others. So in our security in our relationship with God is the secret of being free from jealousy strife and the spirit of revenge. We got to be very careful. And if you find something of that in your in your heart You need to cleanse yourself.

Assurance of Forgiveness and God’s Mercy

Think of somebody who harmed you. You can think of him right now him or her. Somebody who really did something bad to you, I'm sure all of us. Anybody who's more than four years old somebody on the other than the world has hurt him.

And you know, I'm sure a lot of people in your life have hurt you. What is your attitude towards them. People have hurt you or hurt your children or spread stories about you or spread stories about your daughter or son or something and What do you think of them today?

You know, I'm I've been serving the Lord for many years and we serve the Lord you're the target of the devil all along. Many people have harmed me and I've always checked myself Lord. What is my attitude towards them?

Do I wish even the slightest evil towards any of them? Do I wish calamity or sickness or judgment or death on them or their children or any such thing? I want to be free from that because if I have that I'm evil.

Then I don't have the attitude towards them that God has towards me and that can happen even in a church. So it's very important to always remember How much God has forgiven me? I must never feel condemned about my past because I've been cleansed completely the blood of Jesus has cleansed me.

And it's very important to remember. You know To have a secure relationship with God is very important to remember what it says in Hebrews 8 and verse 12 that the Lord says there's sins and Iniquities.

I will remember No more. I didn't know that the day I was converted and I used to condemn myself a lot because The early years after my conversion because I was aware of my sins. I was aware of my failures.

I'd asked the Lord to forgive me and I believe it forgiven me, but I always felt that. When I came before God he'd be looking at me and say yeah, I know what you did ten years ago. And I it's made in my relationship with God insecure because I always felt he was looking at me like that.

And I remember once it's so vivid to me. I was standing on the deck of my ship. I was in the Navy those days. And I remember that day when I was standing on the deck on the ship and I suddenly this verse came to my heart.

Which I'd read in scripture. I Will not remember your sins anymore. My life was different from that day as far as assurance that God would not hold my past against me. Do you have that assurance? Are you absolutely sure?

I mean I mean 100 sure. Then God says I will not Remember your past against you if you're sure on that I tell you it will change your horizontal relationship with people as well. Because when God is so good to you You will learn to be good to others.

I Believe that's the secret and whenever I see people hitting out at others. I know this guy is not Secure in his relationship with God. That's the problem. So it's very very important that this like I was saying yesterday.

The horizontal relationship is very dependent on the vertical. You must be 100 sure and never get tired of emphasizing this. Then God says I will not remember your sins anymore. That means I look back over the past and there's not one sin and then God remembers.

And I'll tell you something. It's not he doesn't say we must read it carefully. I read it exactly. Has God forgotten my sins? No. That's not what he says. He says I will not remember. I Mean, how can God forget my sins and I myself don't forget it is his memory worse than mine.

And I'll tell you another reason. There's a story Jesus said About a man who was forgiven something like 10 billion dollars if I converted into this currency a King forgave somebody a debt of 10 billion dollars and say, okay forgiven.

You don't have to go to jail. And that fellow went out and caught somebody by the throat to offer owed him some 10 20 dollars or something and said pay up and Got him in prison for not paying his debt.

And then the king heard it. He said get that servant back here. He said how much did I forgive you on 10 trillion or whatever it is. And you couldn't forgive that guy 10 20 dollars. Okay, I put all this debt back upon your head you got to pay up.

Go to jail until you can pay up. Where would he be impossible for him to pay up? He was in jail for the rest of his life. You read that in Matthew chapter 18 at the end of that parable Jesus said these words.

At the end of that parable he said in the last verse of Matthew 18. He said So will my heavenly father do to you. If you don't forgive others from your heart. Got it. So will my heavenly father do to you.

If you don't forgive people from your heart. For that trivial thing and everything a human being does to you is trivial. Compared to the trillions of sins God's forgiven you. That's the meaning of that parable and that whole parable is there from verse 21 onwards and What is it that how did the Lord the Lord did the king did not just put him in jail.

I Want you to see here. I Mean initially he was just going to jail for the crime, but when he didn't forgive someone. He was not only going to be put in jail. It says in the jail the Lord appointed verse 34 the king appointed torturers.

Torturers to torture him in the jail and it's in that connection the Lord says. Verse next verse so will my heavenly father do to you that means God will allow the demons to harass you to trouble you at night in your dreams and to trouble you during the day with all types of fears and threats and The demons will harass you in your mind.

And why? Because you wouldn't forgive somebody. So in our horizontal relationships, it's very very very important to forgive. Even if you're only interested in yourself, I'd say forgive. It's the best thing you can do for yourself.

Warnings Against an Unforgiving Spirit

So the Jesus spoke such strong warnings against an unforgiving attitude. Let me show you Matthew 6 and verse 14 and 15 if you forgive others for their transgressions. Your heavenly father will forgive you.

But if you don't forgive others Matthew 6 15 Your father will not forgive your sins your transgressions. Now he's not talking about God. He doesn't say God will not forgive your father. Your Father, so what are you a child of God?

He's not talking about unbelievers here. Jesus would never refer to an unbeliever and say your father. There he would say God will not forgive you. But here he's talking about I told you earlier than the sermon on the mount was spoken to the disciples.

And he looks at his disciples those 12 of them and says your father Will not forgive you. If you don't forgive somebody else. Now my question is Can you go to heaven if your sins not forgiven? Supposing you die without your sins being forgiven.

Is there a second chance somewhere after death? Like the Roman Catholic saying purgatory or someplace where before you go to hell God gives you one more chance to Repent and ask forgiveness there isn't.

Hebrews 9 27 says it's appointed unto men once to die and After that judgment, that's all there's nothing in between so Let me take an example now. Supposing you lived a very good life. Say for 40 years as a believer good life.

And then in the last year of your life you become so bitter against somebody who treated you really badly. And you don't forgive him and you die. Tell me where will you go? Most believers will say well you live 40 years of good life, so God will take him to heaven.

Ah. That is the religion of the heathen. That in the final day God will take a balance and put all your good deeds on one side. And all your bad deeds on the other side and the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds you go to heaven.

There's a bad deeds outweigh the good deeds you go to hell. Which teaching is that do you find that anywhere in the Bible? That's heathenism and yet you may be believing that unconsciously. That if I've lived a good life for 40 years and just I happen to die without having forgiven somebody somehow the other God will Take me to heaven because I lived for good life for 40 years, and you don't realize how heathen your concept is.

I believe with all my heart, and I've taught this to people. That if you don't forgive others brother, it doesn't matter how long you lived a good life. You will not be forgiven. It's absolute and clear.

A Missionary’s Testimony of Forgiveness

And I had a living example of that with A man who came to India as a missionary. He was an Indian man who came from another country a Hindu convert who was a missionary in India for 20 years. Serving the Lord he was very famous in India.

And we were a small group had begun An unknown despised group as a church in our home and One day lo and behold This famous man came to our church. Now we're wondering why in the world he came. He says no brother Zack.

I heard some of your messages, and I Felt God wanted me to come here and he came regularly off and on off and on for all our meetings and for two years and Then he became seriously sick. And he was about to die, and he called me over and I went to his hospital bed where he was dying.

And he said brother Zack. I want to tell you something. I served the Lord for 20 years in India sincerely. But so many pastors in this country Told lies about me and spread all types of false stories about me, and I had such bitterness against them for 20 years.

And it's only when I came to your church two years ago. That I heard for the first time for the first time. That if I don't forgive those people God will not forgive me. And he says I took it seriously and he said to me.

I'm on my deathbed now. But I wanted to call you to tell you thank you for teaching me that I Have forgiven everybody. I'm ready to meet my Savior. And he died. I'll never forget that then I knew Why God brought him to our church it was to hear one message.

Which he had never heard in any other church. He went to for 20 years. And yet it was written plainly in Scripture, and he went into the kingdom of God. He took it seriously. He knew that all his fame and all his service for God wouldn't count for anything if he hadn't forgiven someone.

It's a very serious thing. Dear brothers and sisters. I find that a lot of preachers don't tell you the truth. Because they don't want to hurt you. I'd rather hurt you and send you to heaven. Then keep you happy and send you to hell any day so our Security in our heavenly in our relationship with our Heavenly Father is very very important.

Security in the Father and Freedom from Expectations

If you want to build good relationships with each other at home. And if you have tension with your wife. Don't think the problem is there the problem is in your insecure relationship with your Heavenly Father if your tension with your husband.

The problem is an insecure relationship with your Heavenly Father the more secure You are in your relationship with your Heavenly Father. It will not disturb you. If people think less about you. Are you disturbed if people think you're a nobody you're a good-for-nothing.

Don't disturb you because your security is in your Heavenly Father. Do you go to a church? Expecting people to esteem you and respect you. What if nobody esteems you or respects you in your church? What if people treat you like dirt?

It doesn't make a difference to me because I'm secure in my Heavenly Father. So that verse John 17 23 made a tremendous difference in my life. That God loves me as he loved Jesus. Jesus was so secure in his life because he knew his father loved him.