Discarding Rubbish and Gaining Christ — Zac Poonen

Seeking the Life Paul Experienced

When we look at the extremely satisfying Christian experience that a man like Paul had, we need to understand the secret of it, if you are serious about living the same type of life. I think many Christians are not really serious about living the same type of life, and that's why they never seek to find out the answer.

See, those of you who have migrated to the United States from other countries, if you look back to the time when you were in your home country, there was a reason why you decided to come here. You felt you could have a better life.

There's nothing wrong in that. And I'm sure you made a lot of efforts to find out how it was possible. I've seen in India how people stand outside the United States consulate from two o 'clock in the morning.

Some people overnight sleep there so that they can get first in line to get an interview for a visa. It's amazing. I wish Christians would have 5 of that much interest to seek after God, because they feel, if I can get to the United States, I can live a far better life than in my own country.

Now, they wouldn't sleep overnight outside of some small African country to get a visa, to go there. There are no lines outside those consulates of those embassies. Why is that? Because they know, I'm not going to get much there.

We are very wholehearted about something we know will be good for us and for our children. Many people who come here for the sake of their children. And I am convinced that if only we would understand the life God wants to give us is a million times better than anything you can get in the United States.

You would sleep overnight anywhere, any number of nights in order to get it. Why is it Paul came to such a wonderful life where... Let me just give you a little picture of his life. I believe the Lord has allowed...

You see, in the New Testament, there are two lives that are described in greater extent than anybody else's. One is Jesus in the Gospels and the other is Paul in the Acts of the Apostles and in most of the Episodes.

At least 13 of the Episodes are written by him. And we get a lot of understanding of his life. Of course, Jesus' life is perfect. But then a lot of people say, well, you know, most Christians, even if you understand that Jesus was like us and he was tempted like us, they still can't believe it's possible to walk like Jesus walked.

It says that in 1 John 2, 6, every Christian must walk as Jesus walked, but they say it's not possible. What about Paul? Do you believe at least he was a human being like you? I think that's the reason why God's also given Paul for people who can't rise up to have faith that I can walk like Jesus.

I'd say, can you at least walk like Paul walked? I mean, if you believe that Jesus was not like you, do you believe Paul was like you? Paul was not born of a virgin. He was born like you and me. And he was a pretty rotten sinner in the sense he opposed Christians for 30 years.

Certainly he was like us. Look at the life he came to when he met Christ and was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was radical from day one. He was radically against Christ from the beginning. See, that was the secret of his life.

Paul was a student in a Jewish Bible college in Jerusalem run by a professor called Gamaliel. And he taught them the law which said in the book of Deuteronomy 13 that if anybody comes to you and teaches you to worship another god, you must kill him.

It was a law. Even if he does signs and wonders, if that prophet does some signs and wonders but he leads you to worship another god, kill him. And Paul spent years studying this under Gamaliel. And here was this prophet from Nazareth who was doing signs and wonders and teaching people that he was God.

You couldn't think of anything more blasphemous than that. And people were falling down and worshipping him and he was accepting it. Paul was convinced this falls under the category of Deuteronomy 13.

He's got to be killed. His followers have got to be killed. And it's spreading. This religion is spreading. Now his professor Gamaliel, you read about him in Acts chapter 5. When he heard that Christianity was spreading, you know what he said?

When the people said, we've got to get rid of this religion, kill the leaders. Gamaliel, Acts 5 .34, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people because he was the top professor in the Bible college, stood up and said, put these men outside for a while.

I want to say something. Men of Israel, verse 35. Take care what you plan to do. Because there were different men who tried to rise up. There's Judas in verse 37. And then nothing happened. It got scattered.

So in the present case, I say, stay away from these men. Because, verse 39, if it is of God, you won't be able to overthrow it. You may be found fighting against God. Now, you see how his attitude was.

I'm not so sure. But his student Paul said, I'm absolutely sure. There's no doubt this is something that's got to be destroyed. Paul was like a ship going full speed in the wrong direction. God could turn him around.

Gamaliel was like his other ship, stationary. You know, it's easier to turn a ship around when it's going full speed in the wrong direction than when it's stationary. I've been on ships for years and I tell you, you cannot turn a ship around when it's stationary.

You can try as much as you like. A ship going full speed in the wrong direction, in a moment it's wrong the other way. That's why Gamaliel died as a Jew. I don't know where he went. Probably to hell. Because of this moderate attitude to Christianity.

We don't know whether this is the truth. Let's not take it too seriously. Let's not fight with them. We don't know whether Hinduism is true or Buddhism is true or Christianity is true. We don't know whether Roman Catholicism is true or Protestantism or Pentecostalism.

We don't know whether this little group that meets here in this building, that's true or some other big churches. We don't know. This attitude ends up with a whole lot of Christians exactly like Gamaliel.

And there are others like Paul who are determined at any cost to find the truth. They may be completely wrong but God will turn them around. Because God's looking for people who are wholehearted. And that's why in the world you find so many moderate type of Christians who never get anywhere.

I mean, look at the communists. They're completely wrong. But look how much they accomplish. They're serious. I mean, I read years ago, I think Billy Graham read a letter that a young communist wrote to his girlfriend.

He said, hey, I've become a communist now. This is years ago, maybe 60, 70 years ago in the United States. And he said, I've got to break our friendship. I have no time for, you know, going on dates and going for dinners with you.

Communism demands all my attention. Every bit of spare money I have I have to give it for the cause of communism. I can't waste it on you, my girlfriend. So, sorry, we've got to break it up. Imagine if there were Christians like that.

We'd have a different type of Christianity. Always like that. And that's why he says things like this. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ. Now, these are not words written casually.

We believe that they're inspired by the Holy Spirit and I don't believe the Holy Spirit would have allowed Paul to write a lie even in one word. So if he said always, he must have meant always. If what he meant was most of the time, the Holy Spirit would have said, hey, hey, don't write always.

It's not true in your life. Be honest, Paul. Write most of the time. But he wrote always and the Holy Spirit endorsed it. What is it? Always in triumph. I don't do it. God leads me always in triumph in Christ and manifests through me the sweet aroma.

There's no stink there. The sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ through my life in every place I go to. Whether people put me in a prison or put me on a pulpit or people, it doesn't matter. Whether I'm making tents, working with others who hate Christianity, I have the sweet aroma of Christ from me.

Not that everybody gets converted. No. Because to some, verse 16, we have the aroma of death. To the other, we have the aroma of life. That depends on them. Let me show you another verse. He's talking about his life.

Paul's Triumph Through Suffering

Romans 8, verse 35. See, these are areas where he's giving his own testimony of his own life. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress. See, most of these things mentioned in verse 35 none of us have ever faced.

We talk about our trials and our problems which are like little mosquito bites. Oh, this mosquito bit me here. These guys were facing lions, not mosquitoes. Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword.

I mean, Christians those days faced things like this. Not I didn't get my promotion because I was a Christian. Or they didn't give me an increment in my salary because they found out I was a disciple of Jesus.

What are the things people fight against today? Oh, in the school they don't allow prayer. They never allowed school and prayers in the schools in India for years. Never in the history of India. These are not the things he fought about.

They were facing tribulation and persecution and distress and famine because they were Christians. And nakedness and peril and sword and being put to death, verse 36, the whole day long. But in all these things, verse 37, in all these things we don't just conquer, we overwhelmingly conquer.

As King James says, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. There's a spirit of triumph in this man's life. I don't get a smell of, oh, occasionally I'm sort of depressed and defeated. Always in triumph, it doesn't matter if it's persecution for I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities or no things present or things to come nor powers, nobody can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What I want to ask you, dear brothers and sisters, is do you believe that that is a life of a human being just like you and me, born of Adam who lived in sin for 30 years killing Christians could come to?

You know why? Because he was radical, wholehearted. His marriage to Christ was total. Whereas most Christians, their marriage to Christ is like a woman who's married to a man but occasionally she wants to fool around with other men.

That's why their marriage is not a happy marriage to Christ. Imagine if your wife was occasionally going around with other men. Whatever marriage would yours be? That's exactly the Christianity that most people have.

There are other things in the world that attract them. They are careless in the way they spend money. They are... There are many things in the world that mean a lot to them. The opinions of men, the honor of the world, getting out in the world and being somebody.

If somebody spoke something bad about them and they feel depressed about that, think about that. They can't forgive that person. Where will such people come to the life Paul had? Not in a hundred years.

They live and die as miserable people who just go to churches and sing songs and always hope for a better life, which will never come. I guarantee it will never come. Because they're not serious. They're half-hearted.

They pursue their profession more seriously than they pursue Christianity. If the eagerness with which you sought to get a visa to come here to the United States or the eagerness with which you sought to get a job when you didn't have one, that eagerness was there to pursue Jesus and to overcome sin and to please God at any cost.

I tell you, all of us would be much better Christians by now. I'm not trying to make anybody feel guilty or condemned. I often think that I'm like a person who's taking a scan of people's lives and telling them, hey, this is what the scan says.

You don't have to be sick. Here's another guy. He lives in the same area as you with the same limitations, but he's healthy. So here's Paul, and the reason why he lived this life was, we read it earlier in Philippians, Philippians 2 sorry, 3, Philippians 3 and verse, he says, I'll tell you what I was before Philippians 3, 6 all my zeal, you know we talk about being zealous my zeal was to persecute the church Philippians 3, 6 my goal was not to study the Bible my zeal was to kill Christians persecute the church, destroy this religion and what about my righteousness according to the law means my external life I didn't kill anybody I didn't commit adultery, I didn't steal, I didn't bear false witness I didn't worship idols my external life was good but I was a persecutor of the church but all these things that brought me honor in Israel you know, in Israel, if a man was like that he was respected.

Counting the World as Rubbish

He says, I counted all rubbish, and if a Jewish person in those days accepted Christ, he was rejected. You worship that false prophet, Jesus. He says, I counted all loss, I found Christ and he says, I count, this is an amazing verse, verse 8 think about it, think about it you've already probably memorized it, some of you, if you haven't memorized it now, I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ, my Lord for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

He says the things that the world thinks so much of I count it all as trash. In India, we have some very poor children from the slums, who I see sometimes going into the trash cans to pick up leftover bits of food you know who they remind me of?

Christians who go into the seeking something in the world to find satisfaction exactly like those poor children looking in the trash cans for a bit of food. This is all rubbish. So, you ask Paul, according to verse 8, how do you gain Christ?

He says, I counted everything in the world as rubbish. Oh, you say, Paul you gain Christ like that, I got it much cheaper. I still have an interest in a lot of things in the world and I've also gained Christ.

Really? Paul says, you gain the same Christ I got. Well, your life doesn't look like that. There you see the difference, why Paul came to this life. He considered everything on earth as rubbish compared to Christ.

It was rubbish. The honour of this world, the wealth of this world the glamour, the style, the fashions and everything that the world considers great. You can see in television and movies and the billboards and the advertisements all that the world considers great and when you imitate them and you dress like them and you behave like them and you want to speak like them and you want to own what they own and do what they do you know that you don't consider that rubbish.

You don't go into the garbage cans to pick up things. Paul counted it all as rubbish. If you were to ask him, hey, what are you doing Paul? He'd say, I'm an apostle. Oh, I see, I thought you were a tent maker.

Oh, he's a tent maker. That's just a profession to earn my living. My job is to be a witness for Christ. You know that's how every one of us should be. You're supposed to be a witness for Christ primarily.

Your job, just a means of earning a living. We have to earn a living otherwise we'll be beggars and parasites on society. But our job, our primary job on earth is to be a witness for Christ. I was, you know when I was about 14 years old.

I was finishing my high school. I was quite a young age and I was 15 when I finished. My father said I want you to join the military academy. It's like West Point here in the US. I want you to join the Navy and become the Admiral of the Indian Navy.

I said fine, I worked, I got admission. I joined, I completed my course and I was moving up. I was top of my class and I said, hey, I'm going in the right direction. And when I was 19 years old like Paul says, Christ laid hold of me came into my life.

All my ambitions disappeared immediately. I did not receive Christ to go to heaven. I did not receive Christ merely to get my sins forgiven or to escape hell. I responded to Christ because I said Lord, you gave your entire life for me.

I'm going to respond with my entire life for you. I will not live for myself anymore. My turning around was not 90 degrees or 130, it was 180 degrees and I found very soon that I had to give up my worldly ambition.

There's nothing wrong in being an Admiral or being a big shot in the world. But if it conflicts with Christ's purpose for your life you've got to give it up. It's all a question of priority. It's all a question of whether you see Paul didn't take time.

Some people take 20 years to gradually discover. Oh yeah, the world is rubbish. I better give it up. It's like wallowing in the sewage and taking 20 years to come out. I want to get out immediately. That's how Paul got out because he saw it was all sewage and rubbish.

If you're lying in the sewage the garbage dump and if you think you take time to come out of there there's something wrong with your understanding. That's the trouble with a lot of Christians. They don't understand what the world is like.

I don't claim to be better than any other Christian. I can only say, like the blind man said Once I was blind I thought greatness in the world was something important. I thought money was very important.

I thought of a comfortable life was very important. I was blind but he opened my eyes and I could see what was really valuable and what was not. I really believe that's what happened to Paul. His eyes were opened on the Damascus road.

When the scales fell off his eyes three days later, it was not just physical but inside his heart he saw what is the only thing worth living for on this earth. What did God Almighty weave me in my mother's womb for and bring me out.

For what? And he said, I want to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me. That's the expression he uses, beautiful expression in verse 12, the last part. I want to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold of me.

Jesus laid hold of me for a purpose and I can never lay hold of it if I don't consider everything else as rubbish. That's why he came to this life of always in triumph and here he speaks in Philippians 4 .4 of rejoicing in the Lord always.

If I ask you, do you believe that Jesus could rejoice in the Lord and the Father all the time, you say yes. What about Paul? He was like you. In fact, he faced more trials and problems than any of us have ever faced.

He was imprisoned so many times beaten so many times for the sake of the Gospel. Sometimes he didn't have enough money to buy food. He starved, he fasted. He speaks about starvation and fasting separately.

Fasting was out of choice, starvation was when he wanted food, he didn't have money. You read about it all in 2 Corinthians 11. Sometimes he didn't have enough money to buy a blanket to cover himself in the Roman prison.

He writes in 2 Timothy 4 to Timothy, please send my blanket. I'm shivering here in the cold. But he was rejoicing always, it doesn't matter. This is all for Christ. A man who rejoiced always, it says a man in Philippians 4 .6 who was anxious for zero.

Anxiety in Paul's life was zero. If you said Jesus' anxiety level was zero, that we can understand. You know where he wrote this by the way Philippians was written from a prison in Rome, and prisons in Rome were not like prisons today where prisoners can lie on beds and watch television and all that.

It was a dungeon with rats and mosquitoes and all types of things crawling around, a hole in the ground. That's where he lived and he writes. Be anxious for nothing, rejoice always. Let your mind always be thinking of things which are honorable and pure and right and lovely and excellent.

Don't waste your time thinking about all the evil that other people have done to you. It will just make you more miserable. I read this as a young Christian and I said, Lord, this is the life I want. My goals were something else and I did not know you.

But I see this as a life. As much as I pursued advancement in the world as my goal, now I want to pursue living for Christ alone. When I came out and so that was the first stage in my Christian life when the Lord asked me to give up my pursuit of a worldly goal and to give it up and follow Him.

Giving Up Worldly and Religious Honor

And then I found as I sought to follow Him and five years later God called me to leave my job and I quit it. I'd given up honor in the world. Then I found as God had gifted me to speak God's word and I was traveling around.

I found that giving up honor in the world, I could gradually begin to seek honor in Christendom with my gift of preaching and my abilities God had given me. I could use it to get honor, I could use it to make money.

And that's the second thing the Lord said, give up. Now, you've given up honor in the world now give up honor in Christendom. I said, sure I gave it up. That's when the Lord said, seek to gather with those who want to be wholehearted disciples who will obey everything written in the New Testament even if there are only two or three.

Before that, I was preaching to thousands, traveling to different countries and speaking at international conferences the radio program that is all over Southeast Asia every week and I've written books and all that.

This is when I was 30 years old and the Lord said, give it all up. I said, fine. But I've seen one thing, God is never in debt to anyone. You give up one thing for God, He'll give you a hundred times back.

Because He'll never be in debt to you. You give up something for the sake of Jesus, you think God's going to be in debt to you? Impossible. He will repay you. He'll repay your children and He'll repay your grandchildren.

Believe me It's true. Because He'll never be in debt. He'll never be in debt. That's why the people who are afraid to give up something for God are so foolish. They live such miserable, spiritually poverty stricken lives because they're holding on to something which they think will make them happy.

Give it up my brothers. Be wholehearted like Paul. God wants people like that. Once I was gripped by these things honor, position, great numbers in my church didn't interest me anymore. The honor of the world did not interest me.

The honor of Christendom didn't interest me. I knew it was all garbage. I don't know whether you've seen it as garbage. It would make a world of difference. That's how Paul gained Christ. He says, Philippians 3 .8, I gained Christ by counting everything else as rubbish.

You tell Paul, well I gained Christ without counting everything as rubbish. No wonder why your life is so shallow. Must be another Christ you got or half a Christ. But if you want all of Christ this is it.

It means total obedience to God's word. I mentioned this a number of times. In my early years as a Christian I found very, very few people who were radical Christians. Very few. I used to attend an assembly where the elders were, well they were born again, that's about all.

They'd come away from Roman Catholicism and dead Protestantism and formed a little local church. They were not radical Christians. I couldn't look up to them as men of God. I couldn't look up to them as men who knew God who could speak with God face to face like Moses did.

So I couldn't respect them, but they were elders. So I submitted to them and I sat in that church. Now and then in those years, once in a blue moon as they say, once in a while I would see a really godly man.

Really godly man. And he would always be extremely humble. It was a primary thing I saw in godly people. They were extremely humble people who would treat me, a young man, as if I was equal to them even though they were much older than me and so godly.

There were two things I found in all of their lives. They believed the Bible to be the word of God. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. I said, Lord, that is the secret. I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Not just to have an experience but a genuine filling of the Holy Spirit and I need to believe the Bible as God's word. I started doing that and it changed my life. I began to seek God and said, Lord, whatever the cost whatever the price I have to pay, I want a genuine filling of the Holy Spirit exactly equal to what the apostles got on the day of Pentecost.

There were 120 people there. Mary was there, the mother of Jesus, many others but all of them didn't do healing and miracles. No, that was given to some. I didn't ask for healing and miracles. I said, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit to be like Jesus, to walk like Him to have this life that Paul spoke about always in triumph, never anxious, always rejoicing no matter what the circumstances are and I said, Lord, no, I want to be filled with the Spirit so that I can be a witness for you in India.

I never thought of anyone anywhere outside of that and I was married and I said, I want to be a really good father so that all my children will follow Jesus and I want to be a witness in India not to bring people who find people who want to go to heaven.

Everybody wants to go to heaven. You know that we have 1 ,200 million people in India who want to go to heaven. That's the entire population. I've never met a man who wants to go to hell but I was not looking for such people.

I was looking for people who wanted to wholeheartedly follow Jesus on earth before going to heaven. That number is very few, even today in every country in the world. Not who wants to go to heaven, I'm not interested asking that question.

Who wants to wholeheartedly obey everything in the Bible. By everything, I mean everything. By 100%, I mean 100 of every single thing written in the New Testament and obey it, whatever the price whatever it costs me I want it.

I say, Lord, I'd rather have ten people like that. I often thought, Lord Jesus. If in my lifetime I could make eleven disciples like the ones you made I would say, Lord, I can depart in peace. I've done my life's work.

Eleven. I mean, imagine, Jesus, Son of God, walked on this earth and He couldn't produce more than that and after that mighty ministry of three and a half years how many people waited for the Holy Spirit on the Day of Trenbosch?

120. How many were healed? Thousands. How many saw the miracles? Thousands. How many wanted the Holy Spirit's power? 120. So I saw that the Christianity that this described in the Bible is so different from what I saw around me which is all mercenary, connected with money.

The Church as Christ’s Body Rather Than a Religious Club

Christianity was like a business. It started in those early days in Palestine as a mighty, powerful movement from heaven and it's ended up today as a business in America, India, everywhere but it's supposed to be, a church is supposed to be a body and I was reading something very interesting the other day when a body is used as a business the word for it is prostitute.

It's only a prostitute who uses her body for business and that's what the church has become. In the midst of this corrupt Christendom the Lord is looking for one here one there, one there to come together and be an expression of His body.

Not first of all loving one another, no, that would be a club but loving Him, counting everything as rubbish. If the mark of this church is that you love one another there may be clubs in the world that are better than you but if the mark of this church is that everyone here considers everything on earth as rubbish compared to Christ, then you are in the right direction then your love for one another has value it's a Christian love otherwise I'll tell you honestly communists love one another, there are clubs where they love one another, there are families that will sacrifice and love one another but that's not the first commandment the first commandment is love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and then love one another you know the reason why there is a great attraction to cult groups that form in different places.

How do you know that a little group meeting together is not a cult? I'll tell you an easy way to find out. Many people are drawn to cults like the Moonies and different cult groups that have risen up in the world because they are small and they care for one another they help one another financially they help one another move house in so many ways it's wonderful to belong to, instead of this impersonal type of mega church where you just sit and watch a performance and go home.

I like to be in this little group but it's a club, it's a cult because it's horizontal it's all helping one another and caring for one another and standing by each other through thick and thin. It's a nice little club and people join it who want some type of earthly security and I found this, some churches like that where especially immigrants who come to this country they like to be there because immigrants are the most insecure people in the country so they like to be in a group where here's a nice place where I feel a little secure.

You can't call that a church, it's a nice club, Christian club maybe but it's not a church no, it's not the church of Jesus Christ it's a nice little club and if it's to become a church it must have people who are consider everything on earth as rubbish compared to Christ.

Jesus is everything not one of the most important things in my life everything all that the world considers important. I've thrown it in the trash because I found Christ. Is this the Jesus that you know?

I believe there are different Jesuses in the world, you know, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 11 says about another Jesus there are many Jesuses some who are not worth giving up everything for that's the Jesus that many Christians know but the real Jesus that Paul knew he says I gained Christ by counting everything as rubbish and I suffered the loss of all things and it's perfectly ok, I lost everything gave up everything in order to get Christ and as I said when you say oh Paul, I didn't have to pay such a price it's like you know some very very expensive gadget highly expensive, I can't think of anything but some highly expensive electronic gadget which costs say 10 million dollars.

A man says ah, I'm going to put my life savings into that and get it, I need it and there's some cheap counterfeit down the street that you can also buy, looks exactly the same looks exactly like that for maybe a couple of hundred dollars and you look at this guy who spent 10 million dollars hey, you spent 10 million dollars for this.

I bought the same thing for 200 dollars. Man, you got cheated really? Well, you wait and see how long your product lasts and wait and see how long his product lasts, that'll be the difference many many things, there's a Christianity that's duplicated which looks like the real thing, it's not it's not the type of Christianity Paul had because if you want that, you've got to pay a price and you go for something cheap, you know how we always go for something cheap it looks nice, it looks the same but it's not the same so when you sit here, my dear brothers and sisters, I want to speak to you plainly because I don't want you to, you've got only one life man you don't want to spend your life being deceived with the wrong thing, this is not like buying the wrong electronic gadget, this is a matter of eternity you can't afford to have the wrong thing.

You must have the genuine thing and the genuine thing is in the scriptures. My Christianity has come only out of reading the Bible and wherever I found things in Christendom, even in great preachers, which is not according to scripture.

I say, God bless you brother, I'm not here to judge you, I'm sorry, I can't follow you I can't work with you a lot of Christians I can't work with, I'm sorry they can call me exclusive, they can call me what you like but I say if it's against God's word I'm not going to go that direction many years ago, I was gripped by this truth in Luke 16, Luke 16 these are the words of Jesus, Luke 16 .15 in the last part it says, Luke 16 .15 that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the eyes of God or as the King James Version says King James Version, is an abomination in the eyes of God, that which is men value highly is an abomination in the eyes of God.

I say Lord, I want to remember that, God's values are so different from man's values so many things, look at your own life my brother, sister evaluate your own life honestly and see if there are things in your life which are done or practiced only because people around you esteem that very highly an abomination in the sight of God abomination, you know in the Old Testament I looked up that word abomination once and it came in the book of Deuteronomy where the children of Israel were out wandering in the desert for 40 years, you know they didn't have toilets there so the Lord would say whenever you want to go to the toilet you go outside the camp, dig a hole in the ground go with a spade always, dig a hole and when you're finished, cover it up because the Lord your God moves in your midst and does not want to see any abomination there.

So you understand what abomination is. It's like an unflushed toilet and the Lord says all that is big and great in the eyes of men, is like an unflushed toilet in my eye look at the crazy Christians who go after that but no wonder, they're sick.

If you keep licking the toilet bowl you will get sick too, sure you got to face up to it. When I look at things from God's viewpoint there's a translation of Colossians 1 verse 9 you know where Paul prays.