Maintaining A Close Connection With God — Zac Poonen

Sin Breaks Our Connection With God

If we want a lamp to burn, there has to be a wire that connects from that lamp to a socket where you plug it in. So let me give you an example. Here is a plug that comes from the wire and that has to go into a socket and there's this long wire that connects the plug to the socket to the lamp and that's how the electricity flows.

Now if you make a break in this wire, a very small break, immediately the lamp goes out and it doesn't matter if you separate this, cut it and separate it by a hundred yards or one mile. You don't need to keep it so far away.

Even a small break, a very small distance, this wire is broken, the light stops burning. What does that teach us? That's what happens in our relationship with God. That's what happened to Adam and Eve.

They did one thing wrong. They did not do two or three or a hundred things wrong. One thing, it was like a small break in this wire, a very tiny break that you can almost not see it, just a little cut and the light went out.

So you don't have to do lots and lots of sins. You know sometimes we compare ourselves as children and even as adults with other people and say, well I'm not as bad as he is or I'm not as bad as she is.

That's like saying that wire in that person's life is separated by a hundred yards. In my case it's only separated by one inch. What does it matter? His lamp does not burn and your lamp does not burn because how far that wire is from the other part of that wire doesn't make a difference.

It can be one mile or so tiny the space of one hair width. It doesn't burn. So one sin is enough to separate you from God. That's what you learn on the cross, first of all in the Garden of Eden. One sin separated Adam from God.

He didn't need to commit a hundred sins for God to send him out of his presence. It's very, very important for us to understand and that is why the Bible doesn't say that so-and-so are very great sinners and they need salvation and you haven't committed so many sins so you don't need it.

The Bible says all have sinned. The connection with God is broken with everyone. Some to a great distance, some to lesser distance, but the lamps are not burning. God is not able to live in a man's heart where there is sin.

It's just like you would not like to drink anything from a glass that's dirty, even if that's a little bit of dirt. What does it matter in a glass if there's just a little bit of dirt or a whole pile of dirt?

You say, you know, I don't want to drink anything in that. I don't want to drink my apple juice or anything in that glass. No. The amount of dirt doesn't make a difference. It's dirty. I wonder whether even grown-up people see sin like that because we tend to compare ourselves with others even in the church.

The Pharisee, Self-Righteousness, and God’s Standard

I'm not as bad as him and that's how a lot of people become proud thinking I'm better than that other person. Jesus told a story once about a religious person called a Pharisee who probably did not commit many sins and he looked at another man who was a great sinner who was cheating and telling lies and doing all types of things and he stood before God and said, Lord, I thank you.

I'm not like other people. He was comparing himself with others and that's a common tendency among all human beings and very often when we compare ourselves with others we think we are better and that's why we need to hear what we heard just now from Santosh and Jeremy that the Bible says all have sinned and come short of God's standard.

It's like in an examination. I don't know how you get marks in examinations here in the United States but in India in all examinations marks are given out of a hundred. You have a whole lot of questions and each question has got so many marks.

If there are 10 questions one may have 10 marks another 10 or some may have 30 marks and some may have five marks depending on the importance of the question and the total is a hundred. If you get all the questions right you get a hundred out of a hundred and usually pass marks to pass in an examination you get must get about 40 and to get a first class you need to get about 80 but in God's way God's eyes he says you got to get a hundred to pass.

You got to get every problem right. If one problem is wrong you get you fail that is God's standard. You know we may say well that's a very high standard who can reach it that's why the Bible says nobody can reach it all have sinned and come short of God's standard.

Every person you can look at the other children and some children are very bad in school. Yeah I'm not saying that you should be like them we should not have their bad habits but you must realize that even if you're better than them there is sin in your life that has separated you from God.

Like I said the break in your case is very little this wire is broken very little and in that other person's case it's broken a long distance makes no difference. You need to see that boy that girl's lamp is not burning your lamp is not burning either the connection with God is broken and Jesus came to restore that connection to bring us back into connection with God and the only person who could do that was God himself nobody else could do it.

God Speaks Through His Word Every Day

You know when God made man I'm going to show you something in Genesis chapter one if you go there if you go to Genesis chapter one you see something I don't know whether you've seen it but I want to show you something from Genesis chapter one there are many things you can learn from the very first chapter of Genesis.

One of the things is a number of times you find this phrase in Genesis one verse three God said and it says that was the first day and then the next day it says and God said verse six and verse eight that was the second day the next you read verse nine God said and that was the third day verse 13 and then next it says verse 14 and God said and 19 that is the fourth day verse 20 then God said verse 20 and that verse 23 that is the fifth day and verse 24 let the God said and that was the sixth day.

So what do we see one common thing in all those days God was speaking and that's written in the first chapter of the Bible to teach us that God wants to speak to you and to me every day believe it or not God wants to speak to us every single day but just like if you have a you know a headphone and the wire is broken again just a little bit the connection to the speaker is broken just a little bit and you put it on and you can't hear a thing the speaker is saying that I mean the connection there is saying something that gadget is playing music or saying something but I can't hear anything because the connection is broken.

God is speaking every day. I believe that God speaks every day and Jesus said that that man cannot live by just eating food but by every word that proceeds from God's mouth and that is every day. And even grown-up people even those who call themselves Christians do not have the habit of listening to God every day.

That is why for many years now I've been telling people when you get up in the morning before you get out of bed pray a little prayer. Lord today is also a day you're going to speak. I want to hear something that you speak because Genesis 1 says he spoke every single day he spoke and he hasn't stopped speaking Lord by your Holy Spirit.

Creation, Humanity, and the Image of God

I want to hear what you're saying to me today. So I want to show you something else in Genesis 1 you know when God made the animals most of the animals before that he made the earth the sun and the moon and the stars and the earth and the trees and the fruit and all that in four days.

But it was all done on the fifth day. He made some of the animals all the big whales and sharks and all the fish and all the fish and birds everything that flies in the air and everything that is found in the sea was all made on the fifth day.

Why didn't he make the earth animals on the fifth day. Why did he make the dogs and lions and all that on the sixth day. He could have made all the animals together on the fifth day and reserved the sixth day only to make man Adam and Eve.

No he made all the birds and the fish on the fifth day. And the sixth day divide was divided into two parts. The first part of the sixth day he made all the animals all the creeping things and the elephants and the lions and the cats and the dogs and the creeping animals and insects and everything was created on the sixth day the first part.

And then the same day he made man and woman. You know that men and women were made on the same day as animals. Why did god lump them all together on the same day. Why didn't he distinguish man and say no i'm going to make you on a special day and everybody else on another day.

There's a lesson here after god made man. You know the animals when an animal dies and it disintegrates it becomes like the dust of the earth. And when a man dies and his body disintegrates it also becomes like the dust of the earth.

The body of the animals and the your body and my body is made of the same dust. Exactly the same but one big difference. It says here in genesis that god breathed into adam and man became a living soul.

So there's something added. When he was making the animals he just made them. But when he made man man was there and god breathed into him and something came into man which no animal had. That's very important to understand that god breathed into adam into genesis 2 and verse 7.

God breathed into adam and he became a living soul. He got what the bible says is a conscience. That is what made man different from all the animals. When god breathed into man man got something which no animal has got a conscience that tells him you told a lie there you got a wrong attitude towards that person.

You're cheating constantly telling you you hate that person. That's not a good attitude to have towards that person. Why are you planning and scheming that evil. Your conscience is telling you whenever you do something wrong do you know that no animal has that lions and dogs and snakes and all these animals they can do millions of wrong things and they don't feel convicted about it.

They keep doing it. You can train a dog. That's different. But basically all animals they don't have any feeling or what are they doing is wrong. Everything do is right. They can kill and eat others and like lions eat human beings it doesn't bother them.

But god breathed into man into all of you children god's breathed and given you a conscience. So that from the earliest childhood you know something you're doing is wrong. And that is the most important thing that distinguishes you and me from animals.

And that's what tells us that we are created to be children of god. Those animals are not created to be children of god our conscience. So that's the thing we have got to save god more than our eyes and more than our hands.

Cleansing the Conscience Through Christ

And we are so careful with our bodies. But the most important part of you is your conscience. It's that conscience that tells you what that your sin. You don't need somebody else to tell you that the little child knows when it does something wrong.

Why does a little child sometimes hide something wrong that it did from its parents. Because his conscience tells him you did something wrong. So to children and adults i would say preserve your conscience is the most important thing.

And all of us have spoiled our conscience so much in our life that the only way we can clean it up is by asking jesus christ to come inside cleanse away all that sin by what he did on the cross taking our punishment and shedding his blood.

Then our conscience becomes clean. And once it becomes clean by christ coming in we must be very sensitive after that. Not to tell lies not to speak evil not to say things that hurt others. Not to get angry with people.

And not to do dirty things unclean things. Never to take advantage of somebody. Never to take things that don't belong to us. Never to steal. And we do these things. Then we need to immediately confess it to the lord.

If you hurt somebody you must immediately go and say i'm sorry for hurting you. Otherwise your conscience will trouble you. And you have to set it right. God wants us to keep our conscience clean always.

So if you can learn that one lesson through what you heard today even the adults i believe it will help you tremendously. Let me close with one word in matthew chapter 18 jesus said actually 18 and verse 3 unless you're converted and become like little children you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Becoming Like Children in the Kingdom of Heaven

And i believe he's referring to a little baby. You think of a little baby lying in the cradle. It doesn't have any bad thoughts about you. Even if you pinch it and hurt it. It may cry but it's not angry with you.

Go and look at it. Next day it'll smile at you. How can that baby smile at you when he knows that you pinched it and hurt him yesterday. That's a child. It doesn't have anything against anyone. And you go to that child in that cradle the newly born child and say oh you're looking so beautiful.

He doesn't become proud. He doesn't become oh i'm so beautiful. Everybody thinks i'm beautiful of such as the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said if you you humble yourself like this child matthew 18 4 that is the greatest person in the kingdom of heaven one who's not affected by the praise of others.

It only wants to please god. One who doesn't have a grudge even by the people hurt it. It's wonderful to meditate on what it means to be like a little child. And jesus said that is the greatest in god's kingdom.

So but as you children grow up we develop so many bad habits sometimes by looking at others and learning from others and then from our own bad nature. And that's why we need to ask jesus to lord help me help me.

The Holy Spirit Enables a Life of Holiness

And you adults also learn from what it means to be like a little baby and meditate on a little baby in a cradle all of you adults and ask yourself whether you have that innocence and simplicity. If not it says you got to be converted and become like that child where the praise of men will not affect you.

Because you realize that it's only the praise of god that matters in eternity and that you will not have a keep a grudge against anything that anybody did against you at any time. What a life we can live.

This is why we need the holy spirit. Jesus came to give us the holy spirit so that we can be strong to fight against all these other temptations that make us evil pray to jesus that he'll give you the holy spirit and fill you with the holy spirit.

Even little children to give you strength to live a life that pleases him. God bless you all.