Preserving Ourselves In God's Paths (Video) — Zac Poonen

Self on the Throne or Christ on the Throne

I'm sorry to say, in the life of many believers, it's self on the throne and Christ on the cross. If you go to reverse positions and put self on the cross and Christ on the throne, it'll change your life completely.

It'll change the way you speak. It'll change the way you speak to your wife. You'll start saying thank you for that morning cup of tea, which you don't say nowadays, because you got used to it for 20 years.

Little things. You'll think of her problems. You'll think of others in the church more. And you'll think above all of God and his work, because you're not so occupied with self and its interests. And I'll tell you something wonderful.

Putting God’s Interests Before Family

When you take care of God's interests and the interests of others, God will wonderfully take care of yours and your family. I've experienced that for nearly 40 years. I never lived for my family. God is my witness.

I lived for God. And I hope you'll have that testimony at the end of your life, that you didn't live for your family. You lived for God. And he took care of your family. That's how we prove to the world that there is a God in heaven.

If you live for your family and it goes well with your family, well, that's not a great thing. There are a lot of people in the world who can testify for that. I don't mean full-time work. I mean your mind, where it is set.

If you can say your mind is set on the things above, if we can build a church where people's minds are set on the things above and not on self, I'll tell you this, God will take much better care of your family than you're doing right now.

Wisdom, Self-Judgment, and Putting God First

What a fool you are. Not to put him first. When we stand before Jesus and we see everybody's life as it really is, we will discover the wisest people on the earth, they are very few, are the ones who decided to put God first in everything and put others next and self last and everything.

They were the wisest people on the face of the earth. The wisest people on the face of the earth were those who never gossiped about others, never spoke evil about others, but lived in a judgment of themselves.

You will discover what a fool and an idiot you were for going around speaking evil about others in your home to your children, about other people in the church. You may not discover it today. You discover it today already because you're not growing spiritually, but you'll discover it much more when you stand before the Lord.

What a mess you made of your life, a life that could have accomplished so much for God on this earth did not accomplish it because you were so selfish. You were disturbed. You were not an ordinary man.

You were not an ordinary woman. Put God first. The third thing I want to say is Jesus was humble, he was loving, and the third, he lived in a life of sacrifice. Three words, humility, love, and sacrifice.

Jesus’ Humility, Love, and Sacrificial Obedience

It says here Jesus became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He said, no one can take away my life from me. I laid down myself. No one can take your life from you. You can choose to die to yourself or choose not to.

David said in 2 Samuel 24 verse 24, I will never offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. That's a word the Lord gave to me more than 45 years ago. 2 Samuel 24, 24, I will never offer to the Lord, my God, that which costs me nothing.

Sacrifice as God’s Principle in a Sin-Cursed World

Sacrifice. Do you know that God is running this world on the principle of sacrifice? Love and humility were there in eternity and will be there in eternity future. But sacrifice, there's not going to be any sacrifice in heaven.

There wasn't any sacrifice in eternity past. Sacrifice is only in a sin-cursed earth. Because we have a flesh, because there's sin in the world. That's why we need to live. Jesus once said in John 5, they asked him, why are you working on the Sabbath day?

He said, my father has no Sabbath. He's working and I'm also working. Do you know that the last Sabbath that God had is the one mentioned in Genesis 2? God rested. Next chapter, man sinned, after that God has not rested.

What Jesus was saying, my father has never had a Sabbath after that. There is going to be a Sabbath in the future when Christ comes again and everything is set right. But in between this period, God hasn't had any Sabbath, Jesus had no Sabbath, he intercedes day and night, it says, for his saints.

Costly Service and Fellowship with God

I have decided I'm not going to have a Sabbath. The other day somebody asked me, when are you going to retire? I said, I'm looking forward to it, when I get to heaven. Not before that. No retirement for me, I don't have a retirement age.

When I get to heaven, I tell you, I'm going to rest. I'm going to lay my burdens down and rest. Not before that. There's a lot of work to be done. God runs this world on the principle of sacrifice. If you understand that, you'll be in fellowship with God.

Jesus understood that. I have to sacrifice. There were days when he went without food. So many times that his relatives thought he was mad, serving people without eating. He's not just skipping one meal.

How many meals have you ever skipped in your life because you had to serve others? I don't mean you skipped meals to make money somewhere, I'm not talking about that type of rubbish. But because you had to serve somebody and bless somebody and help somebody in Christ's name.

Have you missed even one meal in your life for doing that? Or missed one night's sleep because you had to do something for God? Yeah, there are some brothers here who have done that in conference time.

The principle of sacrifice must be found in our life always in terms of time, money, energy. I will never offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. I live in a Christendom where people have gone to the other extreme.

Rejecting the Prosperity Gospel

They are going to Christ to get something. I'm going to Christ to sacrifice. That's why I say this health, wealth, prosperity gospel is a false gospel. Because God's not running the world on that principle.

When you get to heaven, there'll be plenty of prosperity. But on this world, it's only sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice till Jesus comes again. He was obedient to death. And if our church is going to be characterized by these principles, I believe God will accomplish a tremendous thing even in the days to come.

Responding Specifically to the Challenge

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let's bow our heads in prayer. No word ever spoken here is a word of condemnation. Every word is a word to challenge, lift up, encourage, to lift you to the life of the highest possibility for you.

For you, so that you may be wise. Like it says in Proverbs, my son, listen to me so that you can be wise, so that you can spend your days in wisdom and not for the foolish empty things that a lot of people are living for even among Christians.

Don't look around at them, look at Jesus the way he lived. Think of yourself the way Jesus thought of himself. Live for the things Jesus lived for and respond to what God spoke to you this morning. Respond in specific areas.

Don't be general. These general surrenders accomplish nothing. You generally surrendered numerous times, nothing happened. Be specific this morning and say, Lord, this particular area, I'm really going to take that seriously from today and please give me the power of your Holy Spirit.

You can't do this without the power of the Spirit. Lord, give me the power of your Holy Spirit to live this life and believe that he'll do it. Thank you, Father. For those who are responding today to preserve this church in the direction you set for it when you started and to even greater heights in the days to come for the path of the righteous and the path of the righteous church to be like a shining light that shines brighter and brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, Amen.