Overcomers Will Reign In Christ - Part 5 — Zac Poonen

The Danger of Backslidden Elders

Those are the five bad elders. They were elders of churches. New Testament churches, but backslidden elders. Yeah, an elder can be a backslider. Paul said, I'm afraid, lest after having preached to others, not only I'll be a backslider, but I won't even be accepted before God.

He said, therefore I discipline myself. Paul lived in that fear, and so he never became a backslider. And if we live in that fear, we'll never become backsliders. But if we sit back and say, oh well, I'm okay, then we're in danger.

Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. But these five elders were backsliders. And so the churches, you can imagine, if a church has got a backslidden worldly elder, it's pretty sure that that church is also going to be backslidden and worldly.

I've seen that all around India and everywhere, where the pastor or leader or elder is backslidden, half-hearted, cold. The church becomes like that. And so to all those churches, the Lord says, He who overcomes.

At the end of each of those messages, it says, He who overcomes. And I understood that to mean, okay, the elder is backslidden, never mind him. But you sitting there, you young brother, you young sister, why do you not overcome?

Well, you say, oh well, my elder is like that. He doesn't teach us properly. He's backslidden. That's got nothing to do with you. The Lord doesn't accept that excuse. To all those five churches, He says, but if you overcome, there's a challenge to people in backslidden churches, with backslidden elders, that you must be an overcomer.

Pursuing Truth in a Spiritually Weak Church

It's a personal challenge. The Lord realizes that everyone in the church will not be overcomers. And I believe we are living in those days all over the world. It's very difficult to find a spiritual church.

You can find spiritual people, but to find a spiritual church, it's very difficult. Maybe in China perhaps, where there's a lot of persecution. But in countries like ours, where there's no persecution, it's very difficult to find a spiritual church.

But there are spiritual people. And if you want to be a spiritual person, you have to fight a battle all the time. All the time. You have to keep on opening yourself to the truth. Love the truth. Ask God to show you the truth about yourself.

And say, Lord, I want to be saved from that. I want to be saved from that pride. You know, we got to consider the possibility that there's a lot of selfishness in us. A lot more selfishness and self-centeredness than we think.

To face up to it and say, Lord, there must be. I mean, I'm talking about myself. I don't preach what I don't practice. I say, Lord, there's so much of selfishness in me. In my flesh dwells nothing good.

And I want to get light on it before I leave this earth as much as possible. Purify myself as He is pure. But it's selfishness and pride and love of money is of course linked to selfishness. But these are the two things particularly we get light on more and more and more and more and more.

How we seek our own. Not the things of Christ. And so, if we're getting light on this, we can be overcomers. And the call comes to the individual. Now, the thing that struck me was the other two churches, which had good elders.

Smyrna: Faithfulness Amid Persecution and Poverty

You know, one church was the church in Smyrna, where it says, Hey, you fellas, Revelation 2 .8, your elder is nothing to complain on. Your tribulation, your poverty, and people are persecuting you, and you're going to suffer, and you're going to be put in prison, but be faithful unto death.

Yeah, there's no complaint against that church in Smyrna. And they're facing tribulation, facing poverty, and it doesn't say anything particularly good about that church, but there's nothing bad. And then, it speaks about another church in Revelation 3 and verse 7, which is even better, where the elder brother is such a radical, wholehearted brother.

It says here in verse 8, the Lord says, I've put before you an open door, and because you have a little power, and you've kept My word, and you have not denied My name, there are people who are persecuting you who belong to the synagogue of Satan.

They say they are Jews, or today they say they are Christians, but they are not Christians. They tell lies. You know, the people who say they are Christians, who say they are believers and are not believers, I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.

You know, that's how God honors His servants. He will make people know that He loves them. Oh, I want people to know that God loves me. I want the world to know that I am a person whom Jesus loves. You know, that was John in his epistle.

He never says John. He never says John. He just says a disciple whom Jesus loved. Not a disciple who loved Jesus. No, that would be difficult to say, but a disciple whom Jesus loved. Oh Lord, I want to be like that.

I will make them know that I have loved you. Will you pray that prayer? Lord Jesus, make people around me know, not that I'm a great man, but that you love me, that you care for me, that the lions have fallen to me in goodly places, that I have a good heritage, because I'm loved by the Father.

It's a wonderful thing. I will make them know that I have loved you. Boy, wonderful. And because you've kept the word of my perseverance, I will keep you from the hour of testing that will come on the whole world.

Hold fast what you have, so that no one takes your crown. Now, this is a wonderful church with a wonderful elder, but even in such a church, he says, verse 12, he who overcomes. Even to the church in Smyrna, he who overcomes.

Overcoming Even in the Best Church

Revelation 2 .11. So it's not just in the five churches which have got backslidden elders, backslidden church, worldly churches that you got to be overcomers. Supposing you're in the midst of a wonderful church with a radical wholehearted elders who are on fire for God.

That doesn't guarantee anything. You still got to be an overcomer there. In other words, Philadelphia is the best of these seven churches. And let's say that you're sitting in the best church in the whole world.

You know what the Lord's message is to you is, be an overcomer. Because sitting in the best church in the world does not guarantee that you'll be an overcomer. Even there, the message is, be overcome, be an overcomer.

Becoming a Pillar in the Church

And I will make you a pillar, verse 12, in the temple of God. I'll make you a pillar in the church. Be an overcomer. It's not restricted to brothers. How many of you sisters believe that you can be a pillar in the church of God?

You know, if you don't believe it, it won't happen. Unfortunately, there are lots and lots of sisters who say, oh, I'm a sister. I can't be a pillar. I'll just be a doormat. But God says, I want you to be a pillar.

Why can't you be a pillar in the church? One who supports others, one who holds up the weight of others, one who doesn't crumble when people put some weight on you. That's a pillar. You know, these are pillars you have here on the side of the church.

They're supporting the weight of this roof. If you take off those pillars, it collapses. Pillars are meant to take weight. God says, I want pillars in the church. Be an overcomer. He who overcomes will inherit all things one day.

I will be his God, and he will be my son. So the book of Revelation speaks a lot about this overcoming, overcoming, overcoming. And I believe that that should be the focus of our thinking as we approach the end of the age.

Continuous Filling and Spiritual Maturity

Lord, I want to be an overcomer. And a major part of that is to love the truth. Whenever God shows me, acknowledge it. Acknowledge it. If God says, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you need to be baptized with fire.

Maybe you were once upon a time, but you're not today. Acknowledge it. Don't ever quote a date. Like so many Pentecostals and Charismatics do on such and such a date. Who is interested in the date? You may have had a genuine experience way back there 20 years ago or two years ago or last week, and you may not be filled with the Spirit today.

Because it's a continuous ongoing experience. There's a difference between being filled with the Spirit once and being a Spirit filled believer. The Acts of the Apostles speaks about certain people who were full of the Spirit, which is different from people who were baptized in the Spirit.