Donkeys vs Horses - Being a Difference — Sandeep Poonen

Is my favorite and this is the second year I'm doing this. So it's such a joy for me to be here. I cannot tell you enough how much it means. You cannot. You can only understand it if you've been away from home for a while and you have to live in a foreign place.

And then you come back home you can go to many other places but coming back home is something that is unique and something that there's a special feeling that you get in your heart. So I appreciate being able to be here and I hope that this weekend is something that will help us take us to another level.

A question that I always ask myself is when we have these kind of camps and retreats what is the reason that we have that given all the things that we hear week in and week out. And it's a question that I think all of us need to ask ourselves an answer.

What am I trying to get out of this weekend. That I've taken the time and the effort and all of that to do that. There are three days going to be spent here. Some of us probably have had to take vacation.

I know I did. Some of you probably had to do it. A lot of you might have had to do that. And what do you want to get here that you can't get on Sundays and Wednesdays. And I work in the business world as a lot of you probably do if you're if you're working you work with companies that are trying to make money.

They're not just you know trying to do good for people. They're trying to do good too but they're trying to make money. And you also have money which you need to live and there are sick. And when you pay money for something you expect to get something in return.

There's an economic value. You're planning to get out of it. Okay. So there are significant costs that are included in this weekend. First as accommodation which is this facility there's food which you're well aware of.

But there's also one other thing called opportunity cost and I don't know if all of you may know what it means but let me explain it to you real quickly. Opportunity cost is often calculated by what you could be doing if you weren't doing this now.

If I wasn't doing this I would be working and I would be making money. So that money that I could have made I am losing in order to be here. So in a way that's a cost to me. Are you following me. That's called opportunity cost and I calculated it not for me.

I didn't include myself into this. I didn't include the you know the people who make lots of money like maybe Robbie I just picked him out of nowhere. I don't even know how much he makes but I may I took the average salary of how much somebody would make and I kind of divided it by two to say let's say 50 of you are not working and I came out to this.

You know I want you to take a look at this. This is the total cost for this weekend. 2 .75 lakhs is going to be spent by I estimated I think there were 55 people who said yes. At some point there may be a little bit more or not but based on what I calculated there's 2 .76 lakhs being spent from people sitting here does not include the people who have been organizing not including people like me who's speaking it's just everybody who's attending 2 .76 lakhs which means that each of you it's costing each of you five thousand rupees which and it comes down to per person per hour hundred rupees every hour you spend here is you're paying hundred rupees.

That's the way you've got to look at it. If you were to spend hundred rupees per hour on something I hope you want to get something back out of it and I think a lot of us tend to come to these conferences tend to come to these things but don't realize that there's an there's a huge cost that you are investing in it by coming to these retreats by coming to church every Sunday by claiming to be a Christian just an economic cost in any area of your life.

If you put that money towards anything you'd expect something in return. My question then is what are you getting in return for all these Sundays and Wednesdays. You're coming to church. What is the return you're going to get out of this weekend.

A wise man and a wise woman would be somebody who says if I'm putting 5 ,000 rupees for this weekend I don't think this is charging. If I'm spending 5 ,000 rupees for this weekend it's still not okay.

So as they fix that Robbie I can you try mine. Maybe as you fix that I wanted I wanted to get to a little bit of a question time that I want you to write down the answer to this. Okay so I want you to open your books to the middle page and before you write anything down I want to explain to you the rules.

Okay because I want this to be useful and I want it to be fruitful. So here's the rule. The two rules are absolute honesty and absolute privacy which means that I want you to be honest in what you write down and I want to assure you that whatever you write down will be kept private in the sense that nobody will know what you wrote down.

And this is how I want to keep those rules. This is how I want to do that. Because I want you to fill out in this in your paid something that I want you to turn in and I want you to turn it in right now.

Okay so you're gonna answer a question but I put these rules up front so that you know that there's gonna be absolute privacy. So I definitely don't want anybody writing down their name. The only person who's gonna be reading it is me.

And I've put it down into a document. I'll type it all out into a document because I want us to document this question. Why am I here. So I want you to write that down and I put it in block capital letters because it's easier to hide your handwriting if you write in block letters.

Don't try and write in all this cursive pretty little writing that some of us can do. Write in block letters so that nobody can ever guess what it is. And the reason I'm saying that is because I want you to be honest.

This is not such a private question but I still want you to be honest and I want you to start the sentence off this way and doesn't have to be a long sentence. I came here because I can give you some some some potential answers.

I came here because my Christianity is slipping. I don't even that I don't even know first presently. I don't even know if I'm saved anymore and I want but I want and you can change that and to a but but I want to start again this weekend.

That's an example. Are you following me. I came here because I'm doing great spiritually but I want to get better presently. I really love the Lord but I want to get to know him closer in a deeper level.

That's also an answer. There's no right answer. There's no wrong answer. There's only your answer. But I want you to write it down and turn it in. But I also want you to maybe write it down a second time in your own notebook wherever you want to write it and keep it keep it as something that you want to keep in front of you all weekend long.

So what one of one copy to be turned in and the other copy to be kept for yourself to do that right now. I came here start the sentence with. I came here because something something something something then period put a full stop next sentence presently or currently.

This is how I am doing comma and or. But I want whatever. Please let's not write essays. Let's try to be concise but honest. So if you have to take more words that's fine. I'll give you guys about two three minutes.

If you need more time just let me know. Yes please. Yes. For the one that you're going to turn in use the center page so that you can tear it out. Turn on. You don't have to use the whole both sides so to speak you can just use one of those two sides.

Tear it up fold it in and we've got a plastic bag. You just dump it into the plastic bag as we pass it around. Please do not write your name. I'm not interested what you specifically want you to do. I just want to get a sense of honestly.

Where are we. Where. What do you want. Most of you struggling to know that you're saved them all of you already there. Do you want the Holy Spirit in a new way. Do you are you struggling to fight with a particular sin.

I mean you can be as specific or general as part as you want. I mean as you're writing one other suggestion try not to use overly Christian words like I want to be righteous I want to be sanctified. I want to be holy.

Try to try to be honest. Use simple English if you're explaining it to a non-christian. Why are you coming here for this weekend to somebody who remember to write it down a second time so that you can keep a copy of it.

When you're writing it down for yourself you can use your own words. You can use less. You can use more. Okay. If you're taking a little longer that's okay. I don't want to you know take up to so much more time but put it in there at the end or put it in whenever you're finishing it and we can just take care of it.

Then I want you to keep the copy that you have with you. This is how you're gonna assess. Maybe this week at the end of this weekend. Maybe you have to look at this a month from now. This is what you're gonna look at to say my investment.

The how much it cost for me to be here is worth it. And it may not be monetarily that floats your boat. It may not be the money that really gets you. But at the end of the day you guys have come here because you chose to be here nobody forced you to come.

So this is just an exercise for you to get out of this these three days. What you want to get out of these three days. If you set your standards low you may have a better chance of getting it. If you set your highest chances I you may also get that too.

I'm not gonna tell you what you need to get out of it. You wrote it down. You check it out to see if you did get that get it at the end of the three days. So with that as an introduction maybe what I'll do is we'll review this will maybe spend a minute or two reviewing this but I would suggest you maybe review it maybe before you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning review what you wrote down.

I came here because this. It's the reason why I'm here presently. I'm here. I'm this where I'm at. I don't have much of a community with the people in my church and I want to get closer to people in my church.

That could be a answer. So you reviewed every day and say this is why I came here. So I'm gonna try and work on this today. Yeah. So this first time what I wanted to start off today was start off rather gentle.

I don't want to you know go to fifth gear on the first day itself will warm up a bit. Tomorrow we'll hit a little bit more of the sessions. But I wanted to start today talking whether I titled it donkeys and horses.

The Donkey and the Horse as Pictures of Kingdom Service

And I tend to work better when I see pictures. So I showed you. I'm showing you here a picture of a donkey. I'm showing you a picture of a horse. Did anybody need it. Need the help or would you have recognized it.

I think the years give it away. The years of a donkey. Give it him. Give him away. Okay so here's my next question. You don't ever write it down and hand it to me. We can answer it out loud. What do you think of when you see a donkey.

What do you think when you see a horse. I said write down your impressions. But you don't. You can just tell me what your impressions are when you see a donkey. What are your impressions. What do you think of.

Do you think ugly beauty hard-working lazy nice hard to deal with. I want to have it. I really need to get one. I want it for Christmas. Anything you can say anything. Okay. What. What is it. Okay give me a second here.

What else you can answer for either one. Okay Swift. What else you can answer for both. Being dumb. Yep. I can't slave for donkey. Okay hard-working for which one donkey. Yep. Horses. What hip isn't cool.

Okay hip. Cool graceful is that. Am I getting it right. Okay stubborn for. Okay I can almost guess anything else. Stubborn with a horse too. Okay anything else. How many of you want a donkey. How many of you want a horse.

Anybody wants a donkey here for Christmas. How many wants a donkey in the next five years. How many of you would like to have a horse. I'm just gonna say much more desirable. Well how much. How many else.

Well what about good-looking versus ugly versus donkey is not so beautiful. Most importantly that's why none of us have them. It's not because we don't want them. It's because we can't afford them. Have only one color.

Okay I'm running out of things. I got too many things about the horses. Okay anything else that's really critical that you have to tell me about a horse that has not been said that you can't burning to tell me.

I've always had this about the horses that was not been described here. You can earn money on a horse that's a good one. I like that. Okay Swift. It's kind of under Swift. Okay I think I've got a good list.

I'm gonna save this. I think it's pretty clear. I think it's pretty clear the difference between donkeys and horses. Donkey is not that desirable. It's dumb slave hard-working good stubborn shabby and ugly.

It's called the donkey is called a beast of burden. That's the word that a phrase that's used to describe a donkey. Horses very desirable. The people of old used to race horses even today. The Middle East people race horses for fun and they pride themselves in.

Who's got the best horse. Who's got the best lineage of forces. A horse of a really good lineage for race horsing can cost thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars or rupees or whatever it is.

These are not cheap animals. And for reason that very very highly prized. Now I wrote this as a perspective because I wanted to talk about what is going to be the subject of this weekend. And it's the last days.

I was not planning to speak on it. But I think after the the terrorist attack that happened I think it. I think this is what I felt like I wanted to speak on. Not because I'm thinking that you guys don't have much time left.

Or I have much time left for anything like that. I don't know. But this is what I had when I thought about the last days I asked this question. What if you knew you had only one day left. One week left to live.

Think about it. What if you had only one week left to live. What phone calls and emails would you make all right. What articles would you read on the internet. Or what articles would be like. You know what really don't need to read that only got a week left to live.

Really doesn't matter. What's happening. Whatever. What would you eat. That's kind of important. I want to have one last. You know what. I'd get. Some sweets or some. You know chicken curry. Whatever.

I really need to have mom make this special meal for me. What would you spend your time with. Who would you spend your time with again. These are not questions that are trying to tell you. That's what you should be doing all your lives.

It's just impossible to live that way. But what would you do if you had only one week to live. You know we don't know how much time we have left. But there was one person who knew he had only one week left to live.

Do you know who that was Jesus. Jesus knew that his time was running out and he had one week left to live. And he was introducing something so big that I've I reread the last week of Jesus because I wanted to see what did he emphasize as I've spent 33 years on this earth and I've got one week left.

That's it. And then I'm done. And I looked at Jesus's last week to see if I could pick certain nuggets of what are some things that we have to keep us so essential as he was saying listen. I've told you a lot of things but please don't forget this.

And I told you so many things but don't forget to remember about this. What are those things that he says. He almost I felt like he was underlying underlining saying one more time can I just explain this concept to you one more time can I just tell you this.

So I thought about the last week of Jesus. And we know that the last week of Jesus if you count the resurrection as being happening on a Sunday or whatever it is. The last week started with the time when he entered Jerusalem and what they call as Palm Sunday and people threw down their garments and he rodent on a donkey.

Now you see the correlation of why I said the donkey versus the horse. Jesus rodent on a donkey and he started to do different things. And I'm gonna start I'm gonna concentrate primarily in Mark the first few sessions and just pick nuggets here and there for you to for us to toss around for us to chew for us to digest.

And today is going to be very simple but I want you to understand it. I want you to toss it around and I want you to kind of chew on it later on as well. Little simple principle. And we all know the story so I don't think I'm kind of really explaining something deep here.

We all know the story where Jesus came and he told his disciples go and you'll find the colt tied up and go release it. And if anybody asks you why are you doing this you say that the Lord has need of him and they'll give it to you give you that cold right away.

And you can read about in Mark chapter 11. So I recommend that you do read it maybe later today maybe tomorrow morning read that passage. But it's simple. There's a simple principle I'm trying to drive home from that just in this session the Lord has need of a donkey.

Now we described already that if we had a pick we wouldn't pick a donkey over a horse. And I think it's significant in those days especially even more than today people didn't ride on donkeys. You know when people get married today they don't drive in you know a beat-up car.

They try to get a nice car. They may not own that car. They may have some friend who owns that car but they borrow that car just so that they look nice and pretty on their wedding day. In the same way when a king back then was entering after conquering or coming back after a victory he wanted to show himself as a victor.

He wanted to show himself as a king. He didn't come in on a donkey. He came in on a horse or he came in on a chariot driven by horses. So Jesus was doing something significant when he said go get me a donkey.

And it was intentional in the plan of God when God when Jesus said I am going to enter Jerusalem on a donkey. And all of the Israelites all of the culture tells me that I need to ride on a horse in order to be recognized as a king and to be recognized as being the ruler of this new kingdom.

And I am a king and I am a ruler of a new kingdom. But I'm not going to ride on a horse. I'm going to ride in on a donkey. And imagine the kind of response that the cultural people of Israel must have felt.

And they sang Hosanna blessed be the one who comes in the name of the Lord. But they must have been wondering how it is kind of weird that this person who is going to introduce this new kingdom who's been talking about this new kingdom who's calling himself the son of God is coming in on a donkey and on a horse.

But yet Jesus I believe was saying the kingdom that I'm introducing here is not something that is going to be relevant to the earth's standards and will not be will not measure up to the world's definition of success.

The world's definition of success is ride on a horse. The world's definition of a donkey is dumb cheap stupid ugly. And Jesus is saying I'm not going to fit into what the world tells me is relevant and what is great.

I'm establishing a new way in which the kingdom of God is going to be expressed completely different. So here's another question all of us I hope and whether we like it or not all of us are trying to be a success.

How many of you want to be successful. Okay I'll ask I had too many hands up. So I'll ask the question differently. How many of you want to be a failure. Nobody wants to be a fair. Okay. How many of you can say you are being successful now.

I'm not saying what success is. You can say success is to be a great teacher. And maybe that's your success in life. I'm not saying success is by the way the world says it. I'm saying success is by the way you've defined it.

How many of you can say I am being successful. Why do you say you're being successful. Because you based on your definition of success. Okay. What is your definition of success. And you have to achieve these goals.

You say you're being yeah anybody else of them. Did you raise your hand. Okay you're being successful. Anybody else. There's no right or wrong answer here. It's an important question though for you to answer.

Believe me it's a very important question. Because if you don't know what you are trying to be successful at or you don't know how you're gonna define success you're gonna be like a ship without any direction.

And I'm not speaking as being a Christian. I'm just speaking just to be to get out and get on in life. If you want to get anywhere in life you might want to plan on having some goals. For example if you want to get married but you maybe speaking most of the men here yeah if you're planning to get married but you don't have a job I would I would suggest that you're not gonna be very successful in getting married to the person you need to get married to.

Because as a man one of the things we should be looking to is seeing can I take care of my family. Now if you don't want to get married and you don't consider that to be an object of success if you don't have to get a job are you following me.

Okay let me tell you something. I'm not discarding. I have achieved certain levels of success. All of us achieve certain levels of success. If you've gone past first grade you've achieved success. You've got a second grade you've achieved success.

I've achieved success in school to a certain level not as much as the people who've gotten masters and PhDs. But I've achieved success at the college level. I've achieved certain amount of success at work.

That's why they pay me. Because apparently I'm doing something that they like that they give me money. But I have come to see that for me at least there is only one definition of success in the overarching thing scope of things.

And I want to share just with you not that you have to copy it down and tell you and you write it down because because I said it you have to adopt it. But I'm just sharing with you what I feel I have this.

I have defined what success in my life is. I want to be successful in this way and this is the goal I am trying to achieve. And having understood that definition of a definition of success it has given me two things.

It has given me a purpose in which to go and it has also freed me from so much insecurity and guilt and burdens. That is why I shared with you please don't adopt it if you're not interested in adopting it but answer the question what does it mean to be a success in your life.

You must write it down later on in the evening when you've got time over the weekend what does it mean for me to say successful. Good job done. And I'm going to answer that with two scriptures that have come alive to me.

And these two scriptures have told me what my goal is and hence how I can gauge success. I can gauge success this way because in 2nd Corinthians 3 he talks about the spirit the Lord is a spirit and where the spirit is there's liberty.

And we but we with unveiled face because in the Old Testament I couldn't see Jesus clearly. That's what 2nd Corinthians 3 is talking about. He's saying you know in the past in the Old Testament all these stories about Elijah David they couldn't see Jesus face to face.

But we with unveiled face can look straight at the glory of the Lord which is Jesus and we are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. So my definition of success is this am I being transformed more into the image of Jesus.

And so my question at the end of December 31st 2008 is am I transformed more into the image of Jesus that I was on January 1st from one level of glory to another. If I have been transformed the answer is yes.

You have been a success in this in 2008. Even if my stock portfolio went down even if I lost my job even if I still haven't gotten married even if whatever else hasn't happened. If I am being transformed into the same image I am being successful.

And let me tell you why I say that also with another verse when everything finishes on this earth and either we die or Jesus returns there's one thing that's going to happen. We will be like him because we will see him just as he is as much as we see him in a mirror.

And we can look at him through a mirror. One day we will see him completely as he is. Everyone who has who has this hope. If you want to be like Jesus being transformed into his image from glory to glory then we work on ourselves now.

Then I rate my success based on am I purifying myself as he is pure. So the most important thing about whether you were successful is not whether you got married or whether you had children or you bought that house or whether you finish that degree.

That's good and I don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to discourage you from all those other earthly goals that we have in order to do something in order to support our family. But beyond all of that beyond all of that can I suggest that consider this as a goal that the goal that God created us he for or he predestined.

Romans 8 says that we may be conformed into the image of his son. Maybe I should have had that verse up here too because he created us in advance. He predestined us means in advance he created us with an with an idea of what it would mean.

Finally when we were all done he said here's this thing I'm going to be creating in the womb. But that's where I want him to end up. And womb was that person. But end up is to the image of Christ. That's the goal that we can be sons and daughters just like Jesus is a son of God in completeness.

So what must we become sons and daughters in completeness. And so we go through life. And I say God don't take me out of this earth until I am transformed from one image of glory to another. Not because I want to have children before I die.

Not because I want to be old enough to see my grandchildren. Not because I want to go and see 50 countries before I die. Not because I because I want to go see the Taj Mahal or whatever it is before I die.

No because I want to be most conformed to the image of Jesus before I die. Because I know that when he appears to me. Because when either I go to be with him or he comes back to take me. I know that when he appears I'm gonna be like him.

Because I will see him just as he is. And this is my only chance to work on getting better. To be more like him. To be more like him from one image of glory to another. And do I have to work and work and work and squeeze it out.

No you've heard this too many times. I think as Jesus has become more and more beautiful to me the more I want to be like him and the more this drive becomes bigger and bigger in me. Because being like Jesus takes on a bigger and bigger view it takes on a bit more more it becomes more more significant to me.

And maybe that's where some of us are struggling. Is that being like Jesus is not that enticing just yet. And I don't know if that's an easy problem to solve. But I can't explain how that happened to me.

I shared a little bit of it last in the last conference so I just held on. I didn't give up and I say God I don't see you as I want to see you. And also there were there was there was pride in me there was selfishness in me that kept me from achieving those goals.

And God had to work on the big things first before I could be gripped in a way that I needed to be gripped. And I think we can try and be like Jesus purifying himself as he's pure make it such a dead endless work.

Or it could be something that is so desirable to me. And when I read this verse and I say everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself. I'm excited about it. I really am because I want to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

There is nothing that is more important to me. And I'll tell you this world tells you otherwise you pick up the newspapers and for me who follow sports people like Tiger Woods is very big he seems to be successful cricketers like Dhoni very successful.

And it's so easy to say I only I could have been like him if only I could have his life. It would be such a good life when I hear about him building this huge house with so many rooms I'm like awful I could be like him or something else or somebody else or Bill Gates if I had this much money man it would be so cool.

And secretly I have these desires that want to be like somebody on this earth. And that's maybe where some of those problems start to arise where we start to go off track. But as I keep Jesus as the most beautiful thing worth emulating and being like purifying ourselves as he is pure is something that is not difficult.

I'm not saying that it doesn't come through suffering and trials and all of that. But I truly believe that if we have found the commandments of Jesus to be burdensome and hard we are not dealing with the right Jesus.

We're looking at an incomplete version of Jesus because Jesus said if you come to me and you're weary and heavy laden I'll give you rest and my burdens are light. And for years I am speaking to you because for years the burdens of God were heavy and the yoke of God was not easy.

But I stand here and I speak driving this again and again and again year in year out that there must be that Jesus that we all grab on to. Because there's a Jesus that I seem to have my eyes open to where his burdens are easy and his yoke is easy and his burdens are light.

It comes with suffering. It comes with the way of the cross. It comes with me dying to myself but I get conformity to the image of Jesus. And that trade-off is such a no-brainer for me to give up my own will to my wife to not say something mean to her to my wife at a time when she provokes me to shut up and say nothing becomes easy.

Because not because I don't have a couple of smart words I want to get back at her with her to it. But because I value conformity with Jesus and that shapes how I respond. And that shapes how I work. And that shapes what I do in my free time.

And that shapes where I go on the internet. And that shapes what kind of music I listen to. All of these things get shaped because conformity to the image of Jesus and to to be enamored with Jesus takes on a bigger and bigger view so that my goal becomes I want to be just like he is for myself.

Redefining Success Through Christlikeness

And I'll tell you where I'm getting it to it with the donkey and the horse here with this in the success of life many of us have definitions of success some in the Christian world in our Christian ministry that we think oh I want to be like this for me.

That's the case that I had to deal with it. But for you it may be. In the world we have definitions of success that look more like a horse and a donkey. And Jesus when he was starting his last week he said I am gonna sit on a donkey.

I'm not gonna look that pretty but I'm gonna get the kingdom established. And this is what I mean by it. I like explain it to you with my own story about how what I had to deal with what I have to deal with.

One of the things that as I've started to understand what my gift is is to be able to teach one of the horses in my life was I said God I want to be successful as a teacher. I want to teach your word and God created opportunities for me to speak in public places into a lot of people's lives and to in big venues and lots of attention venues with famous people nothing wrong with that.