Listen Daily to God Who Has Planned Your Life — Zac Poonen

Brothers and sisters, because I had not been speaking anywhere for the last month or so, a lot of people thought I was sick, which I'm thankful for their concern, but my wife and I have kept perfect health by God's goodness, and we've got three sons here taking care of us, so we've done very well.

We've been extremely healthy, but I felt that I should, you know, up till about October, I was very busy, so many Zoom meetings, more than I've almost done any year of my life, so I felt I should take one month off, and I've never done that for the last many, many years.

Listening for God's Word Personally

I just wanted to spend one month not talking to anybody, not hearing what the Lord has to say to other people through me, but what the Lord has to say to me personally. It's one of the great dangers of preachers, particularly those who have the gift of preaching, or especially those who have a lust for preaching, that they're always, even when they read the Bible, and they get something there, they say, ah, that's something I can share with somebody, get rid of that habit, say that's something God's speaking to me.

You see, the Bible is like a two-edged sword, and one edge has to cut me before I can use the other edge to help other people, not the knife of a murderer, but the knife of a surgeon. Sometimes a preacher has to use a knife, which is a knife of a surgeon, so to hear what God has to say to me, that is why I was off the air for one month, and I'm sure many people who thought I was sick prayed for me.

God heard their prayers and answered it by speaking to my heart in many ways. I'm very, very thankful for that, and one of the first things that God spoke to me almost from day one was what God spoke to me way back when I began my Christian life 61 years ago.

Mary, Martha, and Sitting at the Lord's Feet

One of the things I developed from the time I was born again was to read. I would start my day on my knees, kneel by my bed. I was in the Navy, and then I would sit at my table with a notebook and my Bible and read, and one of the first things that the Lord spoke to me then was from Luke chapter 10 and verse 39 to 42.

This is a story, you know the story, of Mary and Martha. Jesus went to the house of Mary and Martha, and it says here, Mary right from the beginning sat at the Lord's feet, verse 39, Luke 10, 39, listening to his word, but Martha, being a really good housewife, immediately, oh Jesus has come with the 12 disciples.

I have to make food for 13 people. Rushed into the kitchen and got everything. Can you imagine, you housewives, if you have suddenly 13 people land up without any warning, and you have to rush into the kitchen to prepare.

You're a really hospitable woman, and Martha was really hospitable. She was not serving herself. She was sacrificially serving the Lord and his people. Is there any greater ministry that you can do than sacrificially serving the Lord and his people?

The answer is yes, there is. That's what I want to tell you. Sometimes we congratulate ourselves that we have sacrificed something for the Lord, or for his church, or for his people, and we pat ourselves on the back that we are not thinking of ourselves, but we are thinking of others, and we're caring for others.

Martha was there, and if you went into that home at that time and saw these two sisters not knowing what is happening, and you see these 13 Jesus and the 12 disciples sitting there, and Martha slogging away in the kitchen, perspiring, and Mary just sitting and listening, you would have thought the same thing that Martha thought.

What in the world is Mary? She's also a woman in this house. What is she doing just sitting there listening when her sister is struggling there to make food not for herself, and she's the only other woman, Mary, in the house?

What is she doing sitting here? I'm sure every one of us, including me, would have thought Mary was wrong, and you can't blame Martha for thinking like that, but one good thing about Martha, a lot of people complain about Martha that she was busy serving, and they themselves are serving so much, and they don't realize how wrong they are, and she came to the Lord.

One good thing we can see here. What is the good thing you can see about Martha here? One good thing, if you have read carefully, when she had a complaint against her sister, she did not talk about it to anybody else.

She went directly to the Lord. Isn't that a good habit? Do you have a complaint against somebody? Some brother? Some sister? Who do you go and talk about it to? Learn from Martha. Go to the Lord and say, Lord, this sister is like this, or this brother is like this.

I wish we would all develop that habit from today. One good habit. I was going to speak about Mary, but I got to speak about Martha first. One good thing there. Let me repeat it. Whenever a thought comes into your hand, into your mind, in your heart, this person is like this, or this person is so thoughtless, unconcerned.

Look at all that I'm doing here, slogging away for the church, not for myself. And look at this other person. Look what he's doing. Look at that family. What do they do for the church? And look what I'm doing.

Maybe you're right. You're sacrificing a lot for NCCF. Good. But if you complain against others, all that is wiped out before the Lord, because you did it in the wrong spirit. You have a complaint and the Lord doesn't say you have to keep quiet about it.

Go to him. Say, Lord, here, I'm doing this. And the Lord will give you an answer that will change the direction of your life. Because I'm sure Martha received that rebuke from the Lord, and it changed her life.

It'll change your life. I don't believe Martha would ever again, ever again, complain about Mary. I don't have scripture to show it to you, but I think that's true. Imagine if you got a rebuke directly from Jesus.

Do you think you'd ever be the same after that? I mean, you get a rebuke from a godly older brother, that itself would help us. But imagine if Jesus himself appeared to you and gave you a rebuke. You wouldn't forget it for the rest of your life.

I don't think I would. And do you think Martha would have forgotten that? It changed her life. One thing, don't complain about your sisters and brothers. Come to me. I know how to deal with them. Now, if you have, and if you're an elder or you're a father or a mother and you have responsibility or you're an officer in a factory and your responsibility over people, your children or a church members, then you have to deal with it.

But Martha was not appointed as a head over Mary. I'm talking about where you're not appointed as an authority over someone. You should not be complaining about them. That's the first thing. But when she came and said, aren't you concerned, Lord, that I'm serving alone?

Please tell her to help me. The Lord's not going to listen to us. And he said it so gently. He didn't yell at her and rebuke her. He knew that she did it so sacrificially. And I tell you, when you serve the Lord sacrificially, even if the Lord corrects you for a wrong attitude, he'll correct you gently.

Martha, Martha, I can imagine the tone of voice with which Jesus spoke, Martha, Martha, you are concerned and bothered about so many things. But let me tell you something. You probably never understood this with the Old Testament message that Moses brought and that you heard in the synagogue all these 30 years of your life.

But I'm telling you something which is more important in the new covenant. And that is what Mary has chosen. She got a revelation of what is more important. You know, any woman in a house, the immediate reaction when guests come is to provide something, especially if Jesus came.

You think if Jesus came into your house, all of a sudden, what would you do? You'd immediately go get him a glass of water or give him some food to eat because they had come after a long journey. And so it was a good attitude, Martha had to serve.

And Mary also would have felt like that. Why in the world did she not do it? I think she was so gripped by the words she had heard from Jesus in previous occasions in the marketplace or here and there.

She said, I want to hear that. Those few times that I've heard my Lord speak to me have so changed my life that I want to hear more. She wanted her life to be changed. And she knew in the long run, and she also, she would become a better person for the glory of God.

And she knew what Jesus longed for with his people. It's a wonderful thing. It's not just listening to his word, but fellowship, fellowship. It's not good for Adam to be alone. What did he give him? Fellowship.

What is the thing missing in many homes? Fellowship. What did Jesus want here? Fellowship. And Mary understood that. And she sat and listened to Jesus. That's the word the Lord spoke to me 61 years ago.

And I'm very, very thankful that through the years he's helped me to that. It was my daily habit in those days to begin my day with the word of God and to read it based on this verse. One thing is needful.

Verse 42. The first book that I ever wrote many years before CFC started in 1970 was a series of messages I gave to students. And the first message was one thing is needful. The first book is the Supreme Priorities.

That's the first book I wrote. And the first chapter of that, the first of the four things mentioned there is this one thing is needful. Supreme priorities. Number one, sit at the Lord's feet and hear his word.

Because the Holy Spirit has come, it's possible for us to do that even today. And that's the thing that helped me when I was a young man. I said, Lord, I was seven years in the Navy before after as a believer, seven years as a believer in the Navy before I left my job.

And all those seven years I spent studying the word of God. By the end of those seven years, I really knew the scriptures well because it was what I read and meditated and studied every day in all my spare time.

I did my secular work. No commanding officer had any complaint about my work. I would do that faithfully. But my priority was God's word. And that saved me from so many temptations between the ages of 19 and 26.

You know, years when young people can easily be tempted. And God kept me from all types of things because every spare moment was spent studying the word. And I would say that to all of you young people, spend your spare time studying the word.

And because God urged me to have that foundation at that time, I believe that's become the basis of my ministry today that I know the scriptures. And when the Lord wants to speak to me from one scripture or another, he reminds me of things that I have read.

I believe that this is what Jesus did in the first 30 years of his life. You know, very often I have felt that Jesus, he, when I spoke of the first 30 years of Jesus life, I always spoke about, speak about, yeah, he obeyed his parents and he worked as a carpenter, earned his living, all those good things.

But one thing I forgot to mention, those 30 years, every day he spent listening to his father, that continued always. And that is how he knew what to do. He knew when to step out of the ministry and step out of his home rather into the ministry.

And it's because I had this habit myself that I also knew one day when the Lord spoke to me to step out of my job, into his ministry. I want to say to all of you, even if God never called you to full-time work, one thing is needful for every single believer.

Let's look at that verse Luke 10 42 and see what Jesus says here. Mary has chosen the, I would say the best part. You know, that saying the good is the enemy of the best. The best is always better than the good.

To serve the Lord and his people like Martha did, good. But the best, to sit at Jesus' feet and hear his word, which will look as if you're not doing anything. But in the long run, I tell you in Jesus' name, you will accomplish a lot more than if you just run around helter-skelter in activity.

Hearing God's Plan for Ministry

It's one of the things I discovered in, as we, as the Lord planted churches. I've never planted a church, one single church in my life. God planted them all. And I just went around to water the plant that he had planted.

That's all I've done in every place. But I've discovered one thing, you know, I, when I was a young man, I thankfully discovered it in my early thirties. I said, Lord, I don't want to waste my life and come to the end of my life and discovered that I did a lot of good things for the Lord, but not his plan.

I want to fulfill your plan. You know, like you get, when you get appointed in an office, supposing you get a new job, you got, many of you got jobs and you reported for work on the first day. What did you do?

Did you go and start working, go and sit at some table and start doing something for that office? They'd have thrown you out immediately. The first thing you did was go to the boss and say, sir, what am I supposed to do?

And he gives you a job description. And it doesn't matter if there are 10 ,000 needs in that office, you fulfill your job description. That's what you get paid for. We all know that in our secular job.

And even if you're not in full-time Christian work, every child of God is a servant of the Lord. You have a task in the body. This is the difference in the old covenant. It was one high priest and some priests and some prophets and Kings.

They had a ministry from the Lord in the new Testament. It's a body. Somebody like me, maybe the tongue, there may be a number of tongues in the body, but some are hands and some are hidden ministries of prayer, like the liver and the kidney and different internal organs and the nerves and veins and all of which supply blood those are people who pray and do a lot of things in secret who have never seen.

So everybody has a ministry in the body of Christ, but every member of this body has a connection with the head. And that is what Mary's part is to have a connection with the head, where you're listening to what the head is saying.

We, without realizing it, we don't realize it, but every part of our body from the day you were born was constantly listening to the brain. What am I supposed to do for a baby? It is crying, crying for milk.

That's the brain prompting it. You're hungry, cry out. From that time onwards, we don't realize it. It's all unconscious now, but we are doing what our brain is prompting us to do. When a mosquito comes and sits on a hand, the brain prompts you to take it off.

And we're doing all this unconsciously, but the parts of our body are listening to the brain. That's the meaning of Luke 10 42. One thing is needful, sit and listen, and you'll accomplish a lot more that way.

And as I looked around as a young man, my early thirties, that's more than 50 years ago, around 50 years ago, I observed different people in doing Christian work in India. And I read about it in other places.

I hadn't traveled anywhere else. And I saw one or two people that I admired who did a fantastic work for the Lord. They didn't waste their time. They would go here and they'd plant a church and the Lord would plant a church through them.

And then they wouldn't go anywhere here and there and there. They wouldn't be just like wandering preachers, waiting for an invitation and just going where to get an invitation and then get another invitation, go over there.

No, I was not impressed with that. That way you become famous. You make them a lot of money and you become a famous international people like preacher or something like that. I did that for three, four years.

It was very frustrating. I mean, you get a lot of honor, you make money, but inwardly, you backslide. But I saw these other people who would wait on the Lord and the Lord doesn't go there. Sometime later, there's a church there.

Some years later, the Lord doesn't go there. And I said, Lord, that's the way I want to serve. I don't want to waste my life. I only want life. And I don't want the end of another 50 years to be known as a great international preacher.

In fact, as I was rising in the Christian world sphere, those days getting more and more known, the Lord told me to give it up. And I remember that time in 1975, when all over India, people knew me as a well-known speaker and invited me here and there, the Lord said, quit it.

Martha, you are distracted about many, many things. That's not what I want you to do. My dear brothers, let me give you my testimony. 50, yeah, it's 45 years ago, the Lord told me to quit that. I'd left my job 54 years ago, 1966.

But after nine years of this type of becoming an international preacher, the Lord said, quit it. It's what most people don't do. When you're rising in fame, most people say, hey, this is great. I can now become world famous.

But somehow the Lord told me quit. And as I look back now, boy, am I thankful that I quit. And meet with five or six people in my house. That's how we started. And people would come and go. And in the eyes of others, it was the most stupid thing to do.

Like Moses going into the wilderness. Okay. And we also didn't know at that time where we were going to go. But I tried to listen. I would sit with my Bible in the morning and hear what God is trying to say to me.

And this word kept coming back. I remember one birthday of mine, November 5th, one of those years. I said, Lord, do you have a word for me? And the Lord said, what I told you in the beginning, one thing is needful.

And this is what now recently in this last one month, I said, Lord, have you got a word for me? The Lord said, go back to what I told you 61 years ago. One thing is needful. I want to hear it more and more to sit at his feet and listen to his word.

If the one thing needful was preaching, many of you would be incapable of doing it. Women would be at a handicap. People who are not good in language or limited would be at a handicap. You can say, oh, Brother Zack's got some gift of speaking.

No, I don't have. God gave it to me. But maybe God doesn't give it to you. What do you do then? You envy somebody else in NCCF who can preach well and better than you? Don't. You want to envy somebody?

Envy the man who hears God clearly. And you will see that in a transformed life. Through the years, that's what's helped me. I've heard a lot of great preachers. And I'll tell you honestly, I do not envy any of them.

In my young, immature days, I wanted to preach like some of them. I gave it up. The Lord said, you are unique. Don't be like anybody else. Just listen to me. And if you're a woman, who made you a woman?

Did you choose that? God made you because he's got a specific ministry for you. It was to a woman, Mary. It was to a woman, Jesus said, one thing is needful. She was the one who sat at Jesus' feet. It's a woman who taught me, Mary, who taught me to sit at Jesus' feet.

So don't think your sisters have no ministry. Your example can bless others. Mary was not a great preacher, but look at that one word. That example of hers has blessed me for 60 years. Example of a woman.

So don't your sisters think that you don't have any ministry? Listen to God. Listen to God. The one who hears God has got something to say. I ask my wife sometimes, what have you heard from God? And I find that sometimes there's something significant that I have to hear, which I haven't heard clearly myself.

So there's no difference in the body of Christ. God didn't make a mistake in making me a man. He didn't make a mistake in making you a woman. You know, one thing is needful, essential, very, very, very important.

Sit at his feet, be still. Sitting, you know, has got to, if you expand on that, it's a position of relaxed rest. You're not in a panic. You're not running around doing things. You're not, you know, your mind must be also sitting.

Very often we sit physically and read the Bible. That's happened to me also. And the mind is running around. Mind is like Martha, body is like Mary. It's more important for the mind to be like Mary. I mean, you can sympathize with me because you've experienced the same thing yourself.

I used to kneel down to pray and all types of things would come to my mind that I had to do. And I wouldn't be able to pray and I almost started saying, if you have forgotten things to do, just kneel down to pray.

The devil will remind you of all the things you're supposed to do. And I say, Lord, I have to discipline myself here. Not let my mind wander when I'm supposed to be praying. Not let my mind wander when I'm supposed to be reading the word.

I say it's unimportant. All those things are unimportant. I mean, if there's something urgent to be done, I do it. I'm not a fanatic that I have to read the Bible in the morning. If one of the children was sick early morning, then I would forget about the Bible reading and take the child to the hospital.

I don't live under any law. My principle is I want to listen, not the Bible. The 1400 years people never had a Bible. You know that the Bible was first printed only in the 1400s. So people didn't have a Bible.

They could listen. The early apostles never had a Bible. The New Testament wasn't even available for 60, 70 years, but they could listen. Listening to the word, it's good to have a Bible, but to listen to God's word, you can do as soon as you wake up in the morning.

Christ and the Believer's Daily Fellowship

You know, the first, I've often said this, the first book that the Lord taught me to study was, interestingly enough, Song of Solomon. And I wasn't married, so I wasn't thinking of a wife. I was thinking of Jesus.

And the Song of Solomon is a picture of a bride and bridegroom relationship. And I saw it as a picture of my relationship with Jesus Christ. I was on a ship those days, 1960 and 61, where, and it was not a warship, which was always busy, active here and there.

It was interesting. The warships would go to interesting places around the world. Exciting. But the Lord posted me on a survey ship. The survey ship had to go around surveying the uncharted waters around India.

And the uncharted waters were always in the unheard of villages and where there was nothing, no town, no city, there was nothing to go ashore for. And so one year of boredom, and I was on, but I had a room because I was an officer.

I had a cabin on the ship. And somehow at that time, I didn't know anything about how to study the Bible, but I brought with me a commentary. I didn't even know what it was. It was something my dad had.

I took from his library and it was a commentary on the Song of Solomon, small little booklet. And that's the only thing I had. So I said, okay, let me study the Bible with this book. And it was a sovereignty of God.

My first Bible is full of notes on the Song of Solomon that I wrote. And I really developed a relationship with Jesus. And I learned there that Jesus loves me. The most important thing for me to know as a new believer, like, listen to this.

Song of Solomon chapter two, verse 14. Imagine the Lord saying to me as a new believer, still struggling to overcome sin. Song of Solomon two, 14 in the middle, it says, my dove, boy, what a comforting word.

I know in today's language would be my darling, my dear son. Let me see your face. Let me hear your voice. Here we long to hear the Lord's voice. And the Lord is saying, let me hear your voice. Your voice is sweet.

And you look so beautiful. And your look means not my physical looks, but my heart. And even though I was not far from perfect, the Lord was looking at my heart and saying, in my eyes, you're beautiful.

Yeah. You know, a loving husband will tell his wife, even if she's got a scarred face with injury or anything, you're beautiful in my eyes. That's how the Lord is. I don't know, I realize sometimes we are so burdened by our sin and our failure that we think, oh, the Lord can't possibly look at me and think I'm beautiful.

I want to say to you in Jesus name, you are. If you don't believe it, spend the next month reading Song of Solomon and hear the Lord speaking to you and learn to speak to the Lord like the bride speaks to the Lord here.

And when we feel condemned and feel unworthy, let me give you a verse which is very misunderstood among Christians. It's a verse where the bride feels so unworthy and so small and nothing. Song of Solomon chapter two, verse one.

This is not the bridegroom speaking. This is the bride speaking. And let me paraphrase it to you. The bride saying, oh, my dear bridegroom, I'm only an ordinary rose of Sharon among the millions of roses there.

Not special. An ordinary rose of Sharon in the midst of millions of roses there. I'm just an ordinary lily of the valleys in the midst of millions of lilies. And the Lord replies, oh, yeah, you may think you're a lily, but you are a lily.

Verse two, among thorns, you're my darling. Among all those thorns, you are a lily. I see so many thorns, but you're a lily. So don't deprecate yourself. Don't make yourself say to yourself, I'm good for nothing.

I'm good for nothing. The devil will keep telling you that. Don't repeat the devil's lie saying you're good for nothing. You're precious in God's eyes. Even if you feel you're an ordinary person, like you're so ordinary, you look at other people in NCCF and you say they are, oh, they are so much ahead of me.

They are better than me. They know the Bible better. They can share better. OK, OK, OK, fine. You feel you're ordinary and the Lord will say to you, my darling, among the thorns, you're a lily. I don't compare you with others.

You know, a good husband will never, never compare his wife with anybody else. The Lord has shown me that a husband who compares his wife with some other woman is in his spirit an adulterer already. Now, some people may not have that standard.

Some people may say only if you lust after a woman, it's adultery. Good. That's true. But I've gone a little beyond that. I feel that the Lord showed me that if you compare your wife with somebody else and think she's better, you're an adulterer.

You've got adultery in your mind already. The little seed of it is there already. And the Lord doesn't do that. He does not. The Lord is not an adulterer. He does not compare you with somebody else. He says you're precious.

Let me hear your voice, your form, your face is beautiful. Luke Song 214 and Song of Solomon 4 verse 1. How beautiful you are, my darling, how beautiful you are. And he describes her. I praise God. If I sit at the Lord's feet like Mary, those are the words I will hear.

Those are the words you will hear. If you sit at the Lord's feet like Mary. And I tell you, I've been a believer 61 years. Let me give you my honest testimony. I still want to hear it. I still want to hear it.

I'm desperate to hear the Lord's commendation. You probably know so many people around the world commend me and thank me for this and thank me for that. And I hear many appreciations. I say, I mean, I accept it.

I don't act super spiritual and say, no, no, no, I'm not interested. Thank you, brother. I'm glad you were blessed. I'm glad you were blessed. I'm glad you were helped by something I shared. But when that's all over, when the voices of the men and women have died down, I come to the Lord and say, Lord, I want to hear you.

What do you think of me? That's far more important. I believe these people are sincere in what they say, their words of appreciation. But Lord, I want to hear you. I want to hear you. And if there's something in me to be set right, like that's also you read in Song of Solomon and Chapter 2, take away the little foxes that are spoiling the wines, it says here.

If you don't know that verse, that's a good verse to remember Song of Solomon. And in Chapter 2, in fact, Chapter 2 is a good chapter. Verse 15, catch the foxes, the little foxes, not the big ones, the little dirty thoughts that come in, the little thoughts of jealousy, the little thoughts of comparing yourself as better than the other person.

Maybe you've got some ability, preaching ability, musical ability or something, and you're comparing yourself with the other person. You're either jealous that he's better or you're proud that you're better.

Both are foxes. The jealousy is a little fox and the pride is a little fox. Catch it because they will ruin Song of Solomon 2 .15. They'll ruin the vineyard. I want to hear that also. It's not only appreciation.

It is a warning. Warning, the little foxes coming into your mind that are ruining this vineyard. My beloved darling, the Lord says, catch them, get rid of them. And let me hear your voice. Song of Solomon 4 .7, you are altogether beautiful, my darling.

4 .7, there is no blemish in you. Is it possible for a woman to have no blemish at all in the eyes of her husband? Yes. That depends on the extent of his love. Some of you husbands who do not value your wives enough, who loved your wife once upon a time and thought much of her the day you married her.

But now you don't value her sufficiently. Go to Jesus and learn how he appreciates his bride. There is no fault in you. Song of Solomon 4 .7. Is it possible that Jesus looks at me and says there is no fault in me?

I can myself see so many faults in me. I'll tell you why. Because I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ. There is no fault in that. Many of us, we've heard so much about judging ourselves and cleansing ourselves, which is very important.

Christ's Righteousness as the Foundation

But as I've always said, that must be based on the foundation of you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. If you don't begin in that foundation, don't build a building. No, don't build a building without a foundation.

It will collapse. Judging yourself, cleansing yourself, examining yourself is part of the superstructure. What is the foundation? We are cleansed in the blood of Christ. Christ is our righteousness. I'm accepted by God in the beloved.

Have you got that foundation strong? Is that a rock or is it sort of moving sand? I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure whether Christ is my righteousness. I'm not so sure whether God has accepted me. I'm not so sure whether all my sins are forgiven.

I'm not so sure whether God still remembers all the evil things I did in the past. Rather than forget about building the superstructures, concentrate on the foundation until it's solid. I believe I have to say that word to many, many believers nowadays.

They get all shaky. They're trying to build a third floor, fourth floor, and that cracks in the wall. The crack in the floor in the fourth floor is because of the fault in the foundation. It's got nothing to do with the wall.

You're wondering, what am I doing wrong here? I'll tell you what you're doing wrong here. You haven't got your foundation right. You don't accept Christ as your righteousness. You're always trying to be good enough to be accepted by the Lord.

You'll never be good enough. I'll tell you that right now. I'm not good enough to come before the Lord. How do I come before the Lord today? Exactly the same basis as you, youngest believer in NCCF, come before the Lord with Christ as my righteousness.

I am equal with you, the youngest believer in NCCF, when it comes to acceptance before the Lord. And when we get to the gates of heaven, what shall we say? I am a sinner, but Jesus died for me. His blood has cleansed me.

He is my righteousness. I have no other passport to get into heaven, just like you don't have. My foundation is clear today, but in the early days, it was not. The early days, I used to think I have to be good enough.

I'm pretty good enough. And always there were cracks coming in the building because I didn't get the foundation right. I thank God that I woke up to that. Many years of my backsliding in those early years before CFC was formed was because I didn't have a spiritual father to teach me.

I didn't have a teacher who got me foundation right. I was an unlearned construction person trying to build a structure without a proper foundation. So anyway, you guys are not in that position. You've heard many times from me.

You must lay your foundation. Christ is your righteousness. Your righteousness, when you were converted, was a filthy rag. A hundred years from now, if you live, it will still be a filthy rag. Don't ever try to build on any other foundation.

Don't make that your foundation at the beginning and then build somewhere else. That's another thing I was doing. Yeah, I knew the theory. If you had asked me to answer a question paper, who is your righteousness?

I would get the right answer. Christ. How are your sins forgiven? 1 John 1 .7. If I confess my sins, 1 John 1 .9. I knew all the answers. I got the correct answers, but I was building on somewhere else, not on that foundation.