(Youth Conference 2006) Be Faithful in These Little Matters — Zac Poonen

The Rich Young Ruler’s Respect and Desire for Eternal Life

There is a very lovely verse which I often think of in relation to young people, it's in Mark's Gospel chapter 10. I shared this once before at a meeting recently. It's the story of the rich young ruler.

We know that he was a young man and he came to Jesus in Mark's Gospel chapter 10. Mark 10, 17, as Jesus was setting out on a journey, a young man ran up to him, knelt before him. This is a very respectful young man.

He wasn't one of those who was finding fault with Jesus. He was one who respected Jesus, knelt before him and he wanted to know, verse 17, how to inherit eternal life. Think of the good qualities this young man had, respect, desire to know eternal life.

And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God. You know the commandments, don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't bear false witness, don't cheat, you must honour your father and mother.

And he said to him, teacher, from my childhood I have kept all these things. How many of you can say that from your childhood you have honoured your father and mother? That you have never cheated, never told, bore false witness against others?

This was a remarkable young man. And Jesus didn't say, no, you are telling a lie. Jesus knew he was a very God-fearing young man. And this is the word I want you to notice. Looking at him, verse 21, Jesus felt a love for him.

He loved him. I believe that's how Jesus looks at many of you who have grown up in God-fearing homes, most of you. He looks at you and he loves you. And he tells you straight to your face, there is still one thing you lack.

And in his case, it's because he had a lot of money and he loved it. And we read here in verse 22, this wonderful young man, who could have become an apostle, who could have become a wonderful servant of God, turned away and went.

He was sad. What a foolish decision. Jesus looked at him and loved him. And he missed what God had for him. As the Lord says things to you in this weekend, he looks at you today and loves you. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And you can turn away. He won't come after you. He will let you go. We see here. Jesus didn't say, hey, hey, come back, come back. If you can't give everything straight away, give 10 percent. Let's move up to 20 percent next year.

No. If you want to be my disciple, you have to really be radical, wholehearted. Make me first in your life, more important than your profession, more important than your family, more important than money, more important than everything.

And you turn away and say, well, I've got friends, I've got interests, ambitions. The Lord says, ok, go. He won't force you. He will just let you go. I don't know where this rich young man is today, whether he finally turned towards the end of his life perhaps.

Some people say, let me enjoy my younger days and when I'm old I'll turn. Or perhaps he went to hell. But even if he didn't go to hell and finally repented on his deathbed or something, you go and ask him today, do you regret that decision you made that day when you turned away and the Lord loved you and offered you something and you turned away and lived so many years for yourself and maybe in the last years of your life you turned, he'd say, boy, I wish I could live my life again.

I wish I could make those decisions again, that foolish man that I was at that time, to listen to what the devil told me, that I turned away from a wonderful opportunity to live my life in a worthwhile way for Christ.

You know, we all come to a place, particularly in our younger days, where we choose a certain course. I'm glad the decision I made when I was twenty years old. I decided that Christ would be everything for me.

It doesn't mean I don't have a bank account. It doesn't mean I don't have a family. I have a house, a family, a bank account, but Christ is first. So it doesn't mean you don't have a job. I have a job.

I support myself. I run a business to support myself. I've done it for thirty years. You can have a job, you can have a family, you can have a bank account, but if God is first in your life, that's the thing which the Lord sees.

Jesus made the same call to Peter. Young man, Peter, John, leave that and follow me. They left. This man didn't think that he could have been an apostle like Peter. We know the names Peter, James, John.

You would have known this fellow's name. But he's a nameless person. One rich young ruler. We don't even know his name. And in eternity, we won't know his name. He's not going to be great in heaven. You can be known in heaven for eternity if you make a choice now.

You may be unknown on earth, despised on earth. Usually you will be despised, ridiculed, laughed at. But what is your desire? To be great in the sight of the Lord or great in the sight of your friends?

You want to please yourself or you want to please the Lord? See, when we are young people, we have certain struggles. And I've often spoken to young people that one of the first things you need to do, all of you, is to learn to accept yourself the way God made you.

Accepting God’s Design and Sovereignty Over Our Lives

I believe that's one of the first things because some people have a difficulty with that when they are young. They have a wish, I wish God had made me a little different. Maybe a little taller or a little shorter or a little fairer, not so dark.

Or a little better features or a little more intelligent. Or perhaps born, some of you may wish, I wish I was born into a richer family than the family I was born into. There could be all types of questions like this in your mind.

Do you believe that God did not make a mistake when he made you? If he made you a boy, that was not a mistake. If he made you a girl, that was not a mistake. God makes no mistakes. Some of you sisters may wish you were brothers.

God didn't make a mistake. He needs sisters and that's why he made you. The Bible says he formed you in your mother's womb. Turn to Psalm 139. Some of you may already know these things but it's good to hear them again and many of you are probably hearing it for the first time.

Psalm 139, Lord, verse 13, you formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb and I will give thanks to you for the way you made me. It's what David says. God was the one who formed you in your mother's womb, gave you the color of your skin, determined your intelligence and decided how tall you should be, how short you should be, how fat you should be, how thin you should be.

It's all programmed into your genes and like you can program a computer, God programmed your system. So you came out of your mother's womb and you grew up to be tall or short or fat or thin or dark or fair.

According to God's programming and I'll tell you this, you may make a mistake with your computer programming but God does not make any mistake in the way he programmed you. He determined everything. You formed me in my mother's womb and my frame was not hidden from you, I was made in secret.

And not only that, it says here, verse 16, your eyes saw my unformed substance. You know when you were in your mother's womb you didn't even look like a human being, it was just an unformed substance and God saw that and while you were in that unformed state, God wrote a book with your name written on it, verse 16, and in that book he wrote that you were to be born on such and such a day and you were born on that day.

And in that book he saw when you would hear the gospel and be born again and that's in that book. And from that time he determined how long you should live on this earth. All the days that were ordained for me, while yet there was not even one of them.

This is before you were born, before your first day on earth, he wrote a book with your entire life, what he planned for you to be. Now, we may say, well I made my choices. Yeah, you made your choices but God's hand was over it all.

For example, I'll tell you my life. I was not really born again, I don't even know whether I was when I joined the Navy. And I certainly didn't join the Navy to glorify God. The Bible says whatever you do, do for the glory of God.

I didn't choose the Navy to glorify God. I had no interest in that. I wanted to be a Christian but I chose the Navy because in those days, in the 1950s, that's more than 50 years ago, 52 years ago, that was the military, it was the profession.

People wanted to join for the career prospects. And that's why I joined it. And it was a very tough selection. When I got it, I was very happy. And I wanted to do well for my own interest. I wanted to really get on in life.

But God was in it. He saw that. And He, you know, it could have been very easy for Him, if that was not His will for me, to know, well, He could have seen this young boy, five years from now, He's going to surrender His life to me.

So, I don't want Him to join the military. I'll make Him fail. Or I'll make Him not selected. He'll do something stupid in the selection board and He won't be selected. That would have been the easiest thing for God to do.

If that was not His will for me, because He knew that five, six years later, I'm going to surrender my life to Him, He could have, then I would have not been selected. I'd have tried for something else.

I'd have gone to college, perhaps, and done some other course. But the fact that God saw where I was going, and He allowed me to get selected. In fact, a lot of people got surprised when I got selected.

I was so small and thin and people in my class said, hey, you're going to defend our country? Anyway, that was God in it. So, what I'm trying to say is, God's hand was on you even before you knew Him.

You may think that, well, I selected that course and I did that and I went that way because I felt that was good for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but God could have stopped you. He could have stopped you when you were going down some path, but He didn't.

And can you think of some times in your life when you planned to do something sinful and go along that way and God arrested you and turned your life around? That was God. Some of you would have been dead today if God hadn't stopped you somewhere from some accident.

I know God saved me from serious accidents. I should have been in the grave today. I should have been dust. God saved me and I've often thought of those incidents. And you need to think of those times in your life when you were almost certainly killed by some accident or something.

All of us have got occasions like that where we miss death. Sometimes by hair breadth. I've seen sometimes when I used to ride the scooter. That was scary. I remember once when I was taking Sunil on a scooter to school.

He was in 9th standard or something, my youngest son. And there was a postman riding the cycle on the wrong side of the road. And I don't know what he was thinking of, whether he had some difficulties at home or what he was thinking, looking down and driving.

He had delivered a letter in one house, looking down and driving, not even seeing me coming down the scooter. And you know, I drive very slowly, as you all know. And I'm only joking. I learned to drive in the military.

It's one of those unconscious sins of mine. Anyway, I was driving down the road and I tried to avoid him because he was on the wrong side of the road. And he decided to get on the right side of the road at the same time.

And we collided. Of course, it's always 100 the other person's fault, you know, whenever anything like that happens. And we both got tossed, my son and I. And fortunately, no car was coming down the other side of the road.

And we just got a little injury and got up and I drove the scooter back home and did up his injuries. And then it was very minor, just a scratch. I thought, you know, it just needed one car coming down the road at that time and both of us would be dead.

That's just one instance. I could tell you so many instances like that. I said, Lord, you had a plan for my son and you had a plan for me. Now, I'm just using that example to tell you, you can think of instances like that in your life.

Why did God allow you to live? Why did God allow me to live? I know. Not that I might live for myself. I, who should have been in the grave, God allowed me to live so that I can serve Him and be a blessing to other people.

And I want to say to you, young people, don't ever forget that. Don't ever take those things for granted. You'll see one day in heaven that there are angels who pushed vehicles out of the way to save your life.

I believe that. Who protected you from serious injuries. How is it that no car comes down the road when you're tossed? I remember once when my foot brake broke on the scooter. That's the most dangerous thing to happen because the front brake, the hand brakes are not usually kept very tight.

The foot brake wire snaps means you are in danger. And guess what? No vehicle was coming down the road at that time. I know somewhere down the road some angel slowed down somebody or gave somebody a flat tire or made some traffic light stay on red for a little longer.

But I have got a lot of angels I'm going to shake hands with when I get up to heaven. And you too. And I want to say to you, don't ever forget those incidents and don't think that your life belongs to yourself.

It doesn't. The days were determined for you. You say, Lord, how am I to spend those days? I want to spend it the way you wrote in your book for me. I want to accept that you made me the way I am. You determined my life.

Learning Contentment from Jesus’ Humble Earthly Life

I'm not going to complain about the house I was born in. I mean, were any of you born in a cow shed? I don't think so. Jesus was. He was the son of God and he grew up in a very poor home. Remember, he had four younger brothers, two younger sisters, seven children at least in that family.

And it was a very poor carpenters family. I have a feeling they all slept in one room, you know, next to each other. Some of you may wish you had a separate bedroom for all the boys at least. Jesus didn't.

They all slept in the sitting room, one next to the other. I've seen families in our churches like that, where they have only one room in their house and they all sleep there. And I thought, that must be a type of home Jesus lived in.

He didn't have a separate bedroom to retire to when temperature got too hot in the house with people yelling at him and he could go inside and lock the door. There was no door to lock. No, there wasn't.

There wasn't even a toilet in those houses. You just went into the bushes. You couldn't lock anything anywhere. That's the type of life Jesus grew up in. The son of God. Look at the things we complain about.

My parents don't give me this and don't give me that and don't give me the other thing. Think how Jesus lived. He lived on earth without ever complaining. He who had lived in heaven for millions of years came down and never complained.

What an example. I want to say to you, that's what it means to be a Christian. To accept our circumstances. We complain because we are so used to luxuries. You say, I don't have any luxuries. You've got a hundred luxuries that Jesus never had.

I'll tell you, you can travel by train. Do you know how Jesus went from Galilee to Judea? He didn't have a chariot. He didn't even have a bicycle. He walked. It would have taken many days to walk those 50, 60 miles, 100 kilometers.

Then he'd come back. We have a hundred luxuries at least that Jesus never had. We have gas stoves. Jesus never had a gas stove. They had to gather wood and light a fire and burn and cook food. In the winter, they didn't have any heater.

Just a fire perhaps with a smoke in the house. In the summer, they didn't even have a fan. There was no electricity in the house. They'd light a lamp and live by that lamp. What a lot of things we have.

We are used to so many comforts that we haven't learned to be grateful. I want to encourage all of you young people, learn to be thankful to God. It's a very big lesson to learn. Learn to be thankful the way he has made you.

Don't complain. Say, oh, I wish I had this type of hair. See, most of us are tempted by what we see in those models on television and newspapers. You know, people standing in different poses and wearing different dresses and with different hairstyles and you want to be like that.

I'll tell you something. Let all the worldly brothers and sisters in your church be like that and let them go that way. Don't imitate them. Don't imitate them. There are worldly people in every church.

We don't have to imitate them. Let's not imitate them. Let's follow Jesus. If you want to imitate somebody, imitate Jesus. Think of the passions he had. And before you ask your dad to get you this type of shoes, think of the type of shoes Jesus wore.

Type of clothes he would wear. Just the simple clothes which anybody else this level wore. You know, we destroy ourselves by asking for this. Maybe your father is rich. And I'll tell you something. I have seen through many years and I'm 67 years old now.

It's usually the rich people's children who are the most spoiled. Because they get everything they want. Their dad and mom never say no to them for anything. That's the way to ruin and destroy a child.

Just give him everything he wants. Give her everything she wants from childhood. You're raising a child for hell. If you've got good parents, they'll say no to you for some things. And don't always wish that you could wear the clothes that others in your school or college wear.

And don't say, oh my father is so poor he can't get me that. Thank God. You know, Jesus grew up with self-denial. A lot of things he didn't have. His parents just couldn't afford it. And he never asked them for it.

Do you want to be a man of God or a woman of God? You've got to learn self-denial. Be thankful for the little things you have. And say, Lord, I'll not complain. A wonderful lesson to learn when you're young to be thankful.

Like they say, count your blessings, name them one by one. And it'll surprise you what the Lord has done for you. So thankfulness for the way God's made me, for my parents. How many of you have thanked God for your parents?

How many of you have written a birthday card to your dad and mom on their birthday with one little line saying, Dad, I thank God that I'm your son, I'm your daughter, that God brought me into your home.

If you have never done that, find out your dad's birthday, your mom's birthday, and give them a surprise. I mean, they'll be so surprised. What happened to my son, my daughter? They went for a camp in Bangalore.

Learn to thank your parents. They've suffered so much for you. You'll never know till you become parents yourself how much a father and mother have to go through to bring up one child to the place where they get educated and stand on their own feet.

It's not easy. Don't wait. By the time your father and mother may be dead, they may not even be converted. Fine. They may get converted when you start appreciating them for what they did. You don't appreciate them for their godless life.

Maybe they are non-Christians, maybe they worship idols. Fine. But they still took care of you when you were a little child. So you're not saying, oh, I thank God you're a great example for my Christian life.

No, they're not. They're not even Christians, perhaps. But you're saying, I thank God that you took care of me. When I was young and helpless, I want to say thank you. I really want to say I appreciate you for that.

You know, thankfulness. Learn to thank the elders in your church who serve you. It's not easy. It's not at all easy to serve you, to look after you. To build a church is one of the most difficult. It's difficult to build a family.

Imagine building a church. Learn to appreciate them. Don't take anything for granted in life. Learn to be thankful to your teachers. Learn to be thankful for the people around you, anyone who does any good to you.

Be thankful, be thankful. I'll tell you this, I have eliminated complaining from my life 100%. It's made my life so happy. Because I say, God's mercy is new every morning. He's been so good to me, way beyond what I deserve.

I'm thankful. I want to encourage you to be thankful for the way God made you, thankful for your parents, thankful for the house you live in, even if it's in a one-room house. Say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you for everything.

Thank you for health. You know, a lot of people never thank God, think of health, till they get sick. It's like that statement I read somewhere, I complained because I didn't have a new pair of shoes until I saw a boy who didn't have any feet.

He learned to thank God for his old pair of shoes when he saw another boy whose feet were amputated through some accident. Then he stopped complaining that he didn't have a new pair of shoes. You know, we have many, many, many things we never thank God for.

We take so much for granted and I believe that's the way to remain in a stagnant Christian life. When God sees that you're thankful for the little things he's done for you, he'll give you more. You remember that story of the man who got one talent and he just buried it, didn't do anything with it?

And the master came back and said, what do you do with that? He didn't do anything. Give it to the fellow who has got ten. No, he's already got ten, Lord. No, give it to him. Because he was faithful. Apply that to the simple matter of thanksgiving.

Here's a brother or a sister, young boy or girl, who just thanks God, Lord, I thank you for this and I thank you for this and I thank you for that. Good thing before you go to bed tonight, to think of some of the things you can thank God for.

It won't take you more than five minutes. As you lie in bed and the lights are out, quietly, Lord, I can thank you for this, this, this, this, this, this, this, the number of times you were saved from death, your parents, education, the fact that you can understand English.

I really thank God that I could understand English because it's opened up a whole world of Christian literature to me. Many things like this. And as you do that, you'll find God says, give him some more.

The person who got something never thanked God for it. He's going to lose even what he has. So that's one of the first things that we need to learn. Another thing I want to say is we need to learn to respect older people.

Respecting Elders and Those Whom God Honors

When you are young, we are living in a day when respect is disappearing. We still see traces of it in the villages. I've seen, I'll give you my example. We have about 40 churches in India and among the young people, I'll tell you my own testimony that the young people who have shown me the maximum respect are the ones who are not so educated in the villages.

Some of the more educated ones in Bangalore, especially once they get jobs and all, it's sort of high. It's almost as though I'm their equal. But I never see that in the villages. I've asked my wife, how do the sisters treat you?

Oh, they don't even say hi. That's in Bangalore, never in the villages. It's because of the pathetic state of some of our young people in CFC Bangalore. I'm just telling you the truth. I don't do anything about it.

I say if they want to destroy themselves, they can destroy themselves. But I have seen respect has disappeared because the devil has got more and more control over the earth. And it's disappearing. You go to western countries, it's even worse.

They don't respect older people. They don't even respect a servant of God. The Bible says, God says, I honor those who honor me. And God honors a lot of his servants, but here are young people who don't know how to do that.

Who's the loser? I'm never a loser. I don't want anybody in the world to respect me. Not at all. But I feel sorry for those young people because they are the losers. And I can see that. I can see that they don't progress spiritually.

They were good people ten years ago, they are good people today. That's like saying they got 100 ten years ago and they got 100 today but they are still in the first standard. That's the sad part of it.

They were good ten years ago, they are good today, but they are still in the first standard. You may not realize that you are not progressing, but it's obvious to somebody like me. You haven't become evil.

You didn't get 90%, you are still getting 100%, but you are in first standard still. Learn to respect people. I'll give you that advice. God is my witness that from my younger days I have always respected my parents, I have respected every genuine servant of God I have met in my life till today.

Really honored them, respected them very highly and what's the result? It's gone well with me. I know my wife has done the same. It's gone well with her. It's gone well with our family. But I feel sorry for some of you young people.

I don't know how it will be when you get married and set up homes. Because I see that sense of respect is not there. The Bible says we must respect honor father and mother. It means respect someone who is older than you.

I was so strict on this in my home. Some of you know we had a young girl working for us as a helper in our home. I would never allow any of my children to speak to her disrespectfully. No. Even if they were older than her.

We must speak respectfully even to those who are lower than us in society. And I think that girl, you know she is married now in Tamil Nadu. She can testify today that not one of my children ever spoke disrespectfully to her even once.

In all the 10 or 12 years she was with us. See that's something if your parents haven't taught you that. You must learn yourself. It will go well with you. Always speak respectfully to people. And if you don't know how to speak respectfully to older people how in the world are you going to speak respectfully to those of your own age?

It's part of that spirit of rebellion which the devil has. You know how the devil became the devil? He turned around to God and said who do you think you are? I'm equal to you. I'm going to be like you.

And that's the attitude that he puts in a lot of young people. Hi, I'm equal to you. Are you really? Has God honored you as he's honored that other man? Has God honored you as he's honored that other sister?

These are some things which we must learn. And I know this doesn't apply to most of you because many of you from the villages you already know. Our village culture has taught us to respect older people and I pray we'll never lose it.

It's the educated people in the cities who have this problem. Because there's an arrogance and I've seen particularly those who come from very poor homes. I've seen in CFC those who come from poor homes.

I've seen through many years some of them have left the church. They came to the church as very poor homes but then they got blessed in the church and God blessed them and they got good jobs. These young people were little children they got good jobs and they got good salaries and then it went to their head and they lose the sense of respect and the devils destroyed them.

They become useless to God. People who should have been fantastically useful. I think of case after case after case of young people who've grown up in CFC who have lost. What are they doing? Maybe they're just earning a lot of money somewhere, that's all.

Useless to God just like this rich young ruler. He had a lot of money but useless to God. Don't be like that. One of the ways in which you prove that you respect God is that you respect anyone who's older than you.

You know there's a good habit that they had and they have in the villages. We don't practice it so much in the cities. In our Indian languages even someone who's 2 -3 years older than you you don't call him by his first name.

You call him Anna Achayan in different languages that means a sign of respect. Now we've dispensed with that in the cities. That's fine. I'm not saying that you should call people with those names but you shouldn't dispense with the respect you have for somebody whom God allowed to be born onto this earth 2 -3 years before you were born.

If you are interested in becoming a Christian yourself learn to respect someone whom God brought onto the earth a few years before you. It's good for you not to treat everybody like you're equal. They are not your equals.

They've lived on earth a little longer than you. And even if you don't call them Anna or Achayan learn to show them a little respect learn to show a little respect to people who probably have double your age and who walked with God for longer than you have existed on this earth.

Respect. So important. The other thing I want to say concerning young people is, you know, just before I go on, when you disagree with your parents speak to them respectfully and if you find it difficult, ask God for the power of his Holy Spirit.

Supposing your dad asked you to bow down to an idol and you say, well dad, don't turn around and say well you don't know anything. Don't talk to him like that. Say, dad I respect you for being my father but God is greater than you and I have to I cannot bow down to that idol.

I cannot go through that ritual of a heathen religion you're asking me to do. I'm a Christian. Speak respectfully. When they ask you to marry an unbeliever say Mom, I respect you. I'm sorry you're crying so much but I can't marry an unbeliever.

I've got to marry someone who loves Jesus just like I do, otherwise do you want me to have a miserable, unhappy married life? Please give me freedom that I will not marry an unbeliever. I'd rather be single than marry an unbeliever, one who doesn't love Jesus.

Standing Firm Against Peer Pressure

So the other thing that I wanted to say to you was concerning our friends in school, in college, in workplace see, we show a lot of respect to them which is the wrong thing. We should be showing respect to our parents and elders and godly people and these others who are godless today's young people in the world are absolutely godless.

They don't have any look at the language they use look at the filthy language they use in every few sentences in their conversation. These are 100 influenced by the devil. You want to be popular with them?

You want to show respect to them? Are you a child of the devil yourself? That you don't respect a godly man or woman but you want to respect these servants of the devil? Something's wrong with you. I wonder whether you're born again.

I wonder whether you ever want to be a disciple of Jesus. Take a hold of yourself this weekend and say, Lord I want to honor those whom you honor. See this verse in 1 Samuel chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2 in verse 30 it says 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 30 in the last part of that verse it says, those who honor me, I will honor.

I'll tell you why I have honored many servants of God in my younger days in my life is because I've seen that God has honored them and if God has honored them, I certainly will honor them and those who despise me will be lightly esteemed those who despise the Lord and I tell you in your school, in your college, in your place of work, there are multitudes of people who despise the Lord.

The Lord says I don't, I esteem them very lightly. I demean them, God doesn't care for them. Well, I'm friendly with them but I don't care for their opinion. You want to be like God honor those whom God honors and don't care for the opinion of those who treat God lightly otherwise you're not serious about being a disciple.

I'll tell you that you can come to CFC or you can come to one of our churches and sing and praise come to youth camp and act very spiritual and all that. But God sees this person doesn't know how to honor those whom I honor.

This person doesn't know how to lightly esteem those whom despise me. They've got it all upside down. They want to honor those people who despise me and they don't learn to value those whom I honor. So it's all upside down and that's what hinders our spiritual growth.