Being Prepared To Be Partners With God — Zac Poonen

Christian Commitment and a Good Foundation for Life

So, since all of you are young people here, I want to share something with you. You're single, you haven't taken major decisions in your life like marriage, where you're going to live, and I want to share something with you which will lay a good foundation for the future.

It's not only for your Christian life, but also for your life in the world. You know, I believe that if you're a really committed Christian, everything goes well with you. It's not just that you become a spiritually minded person.

I believe your health will be better, your mind will think better, you can do better in your examinations. I'm not saying you'll come first in the class. What I'm saying is, you'll be the best that you can be.

See, we're not here in competition with others to show that we're going to be richer than them or healthier than them or cleverer than them, but if you want to be the best that God wants you to be, some of these principles in Christianity will help us in every area.

See, an honest Christian businessman may not make as much money as a crooked businessman, but he's going to be much happier. He's going to sleep better, he's going to have a better family life, and ultimately at the end of his life, he'll have a sense of having accomplished something, etc.

So in every area, it'll help you. You know, if you're a software engineer, you have a problem with some program you're writing, even there, Christianity can help you. God can solve every problem. I've always encouraged people to take your little problems, big problems, to God.

So don't think that commitment to Christ is going to help you only in being a spiritual Christian in terms of religious Christian things. It applies to every single area. And if you only knew that, I believe all of you would want to commit yourself to Christ totally.

Resisting Temptation and Considering Future Consequences

But that's where the devil hides from you, saying, Yahweh, you're going to miss out on something in life if you commit yourself to Christ. You see, for example, the devil seeks to tempt people with pornography nowadays.

A lot of young people are tempted with it. And it's exactly like the tree which God told Adam and Eve, if you eat of it, you'll die. Pornography on the Internet or through magazines and things like that is like that.

It's there. It's very attractive. Don't you think the tree in the Garden of Eden was very attractive? And a lot of these women are very attractive. But God says, no, it'll kill you. And we know in Scripture that Eve didn't believe that.

Eve just thought of the pleasure it was going to give her at that time and didn't think of the future consequences. See, our subject for this camp is my father's business. That means our heavenly father's business.

And we think of Luke chapter 2, where Jesus was in the temple when he was 12 years old. And his parents had gone along with the crowd and on their way back home to Nazareth. And they didn't find him. They thought he was with some of the other boys.

And it says after three days, verse 46 of Luke chapter 2, they found him in the temples sitting in the midst of all the Bible scholars, listening to them and asking them questions. And all those who heard had never heard a 12-year-old boy like this, were amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Because when he asked them some questions, they didn't have the answer. He gave the answers, which surprised them. And he was only 12 years old. And don't think he came from heaven with all this knowledge crammed up in his mind as a baby.

No. He had to learn just like you and me, he had to learn the Hebrew language or whatever language they spoke, Aramaic or whatever it was. He had to learn everything. He had to learn the Bible, and he didn't have a Bible at home.

He had to listen to it when he went to the synagogue, or probably they used the Bible in school as well. But it was by careful listening, paying attention, that he knew the scriptures so well that he could even question the scholars.

And when his mother and Joseph saw him and said, we've been looking for you, he said to them in Luke 2 49, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in my father's affairs or father's business?

That's where we get our theme for this camp. My father's business. It was like a son, the son of a businessman who was not just a lazy, careless, irresponsible type of son, but one who wanted to share in the father's business, share the burden at a sense of responsibility.

And from that age, you see, he was concerned. He was committed to his father's business. And that teaches us that God has got a business on the earth. And I tell you, it's the most important business of all.

Partnership With God in His Business

And if you want to participate in that business, imagine being a partner with God. Supposing the richest businessman in India asked one of you young fellows not just to work in his company, but to be a partner with him.

Boy, you think you'd turn that down? I don't think you will. I mean, even if you get a job in the company of some of these rich businessmen, you'd be so thrilled. Say, boy, I got a job in such a big company.

Imagine on top of that, if he asked you to be his partner. I believe that many of us don't believe that God has a business on the earth and that he wants us to be his partner. He wants us to share with him, not just work for him.

And if I serve the Lord, I don't serve him as a servant employed by him, no. The Bible says that was under the Old Testament. But now in the New Testament, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

And he calls us co-workers, means partners in his business. It's almighty God asking all of you young fellows to be a partner in the greatest business that's running on this earth. Jesus decided as a man, as a young boy, to be a partner in that business.

Now, you know, you can hear all these messages and say, yeah, it's a nice thought. But if you really believed it, and you believe that God's greater than the richest businessman in India, and that what he offers you is a far greater opportunity than if you were to be a partner with the richest businessman in India, you'd jump at it.

You wouldn't even wait for one second. Why is it then so many young people don't jump at that opportunity? Why is it so many young people don't say, hey, I want to volunteer, I want to join this? I want to be, I mean, even if you had your own interest in view, supposing, as I said, the richest businessman in India asked you to be his partner, you'd have your own interest in view, right?

Well, that's going to be good for me. Whenever you look for a job, you always look, is that going to be good for me? That's okay. Now here, don't you think it's going to be good for you if you join God and his business?

What do you think? You think it will bring you loss? I mean, earthly businesses, even big businesses can sometimes collapse. You read in the United States how suddenly when the recession came, a lot of big, big banks and big companies just collapsed.

There's a lot of corruption there, but there's no corruption in God's business. It can never collapse. It's the thing that's going to last for all eternity. And I, for one, chose as a young man to be a partner with God and his business.

So that's where, if you want to be a partner with God and his business, we have to work according to his rules. Now, first of all, I want to tell you what a tremendous opportunity it is to be a partner with God and his business, to be a true Christian, to be a committed Christian, not just one who wants to accept Christ because that's the way to go to heaven.

Most of you are here because, anyway, many of you are here because your parents chose to come to CFC. But have you got a sense that God wants you also to be a partner in his business? Think of it like that.

Think of Christianity not just as getting our sins forgiven and going to heaven, but being a partner in the greatest and spiritually the most wealthy and most profitable, most useful business that's going on on earth at this time.

The only difference is in worldly businesses, you can do a lot of crooked things. You know, cheat the government, cheat on your taxes, cheat people, cheat customers, tell lies, do all types of wrong things.

In fact, most businesses do that all over the world in every country. But that's the difference between worldly businesses and God's business. In God's business, there's nothing shady, nothing unrighteous.

There's no telling lies. There's no taking advantage of anybody. It's a business where we are absolutely 100 honest and true, totally. And it's a business which really seeks the good of others. There's no business like that in the world.

And in the process, we get immensely blessed too. I'll tell you why. Because you know, God is the one who made our beings, our mind and our body and our whole personality. And God has made our mind and body and personality in such a way that it'll function best if it has these goals.

Otherwise, it'll function, but it won't function best. Just like, you know, these people who conduct physical education and gyms, that run gyms where they build their body, they tell you how to exercise and what to eat to keep your body physically fit, if you want to get the maximum out of your body.

There are certain laws which they've discovered in the body. Now, exactly the same way, there are certain laws for our soul and spirit. And you know, you violate those laws of the body, you're going to be a fat, flabby person and you're not going to be physically strong.

And people understand that. And that's why a lot of people started eating healthy and doing exercise, etc. But what they haven't realized is there are laws for the soul and spirit, which are much more important.

Seeking God’s Glory and the Good of Others

And it's only as we keep those laws that we can get the maximum potential, because that's the way God's created us. So the way God's created us is this, that if you want to get the maximum potential out of yourself, you have to seek the glory of God first and the good of others, and not just selfishly think only of yourself.

If you keep on selfishly thinking of yourself like all the people in the world, you're ultimately going to be a very miserable person. God's, I mean, that's the way it is. God's programmed it like that.

That's why you suddenly find some of these millionaires committing suicide, world famous film actresses committing suicide. Why is that? What did they lack? They had beauty, honor, money, everything, but they were frustrated inside.

So God has made us, you know, like someone said, there's a vacuum inside us that people try to fill with pleasure and money and honor and power, and it never gets filled. It can only be filled by God.

So it's good for all of you to learn that when you're young. So as I said, in the Father's business, there are certain rules, rules of uprightness and honesty and purity. And that's why I was talking earlier about these temptations that the devil draws, I mean, draws us to like internet pornography and other things which are going to pollute us.

I mean, it's something like eating a little poison, which may be very tasty, but it's going to destroy you. I mean, people have now discovered even a lot of this fast foods. Fast foods are very tasty, but people have discovered now that they make you fat and sick if you keep on eating it.

And so they stop. They say, hey, we got to eat healthy. But they haven't understood that when it comes to the type of books you read or programs you watch on television or things you watch on the internet, they haven't realized that it's the same thing for the mind.

You know, what we read and look at, particularly when you're young, you're putting things into your mind, which is exactly like food. And you know, there are various types of food. As I said, there's fast food, which is really junk food, which is not good for you.

And there's other food which is healthy. So in the same way, for our mind also, there's food which is healthy and there's food which is poisonous. So is God trying to stop us from eating healthy food for our mind?

Not at all. God's only trying to stop us from eating poisonous food for our mind. Why does a mother take that stone out of the baby's mouth when the baby puts some mud into the mouth? The mother immediately washes out its mouth and says, don't do that.

Because the baby doesn't know. This is going to harm it. A lot of babies get sick because they put all types of things into their mouth. They crawl along the ground and put their finger into their mouth and they get sick.

Now we understand that when we grow up, that little, little germs, and you know, it's a wee tiny germ that can make us sick. And a wee tiny germ so small that you can't even see it is enough to kill a person.

We know that. When people get different sicknesses, any doctor will tell you that the germ that caused that sickness, that serious sickness where a person is knocked out of the fever and can hardly get up, is a wee teeny weeny little germ that you can't even see.

That's the thing that makes a strong man sick. It's not a big lion or a snake or something, it's just such a small little germ, you can't even see it. And they're all around the air, we're breathing it.

So it's exactly like that, you know, you put a wee tiny bit of poison into your mind, your mind is polluted, and who's going to be destroyed? You yourself. Imagine God called you to be a partner with him in his business, and you miss out on that because you violate some rule of his.

I'm not saying God will hate you or give you up. I'm just saying that you'll miss out on the privilege God has for you. There's a, you know the story of Esau and Jacob, they were young people when they both took a decision.

Esau, Jacob, and the Cost of Immediate Gratification

You read about it in Hebrews in chapter 12, you know decisions that young people take sometimes have long term consequences, that's what you must remember. You may think, oh well I'm just taking a decision now, I can turn back and repent, yeah there's certain things we can repent and it doesn't have long term consequences, but there are some decisions that have long term consequences.

For example, if you marry the wrong person, that's not a decision you can take back. That's going to have long term consequences. That's why I tell young people you'd be better careful with whom you're going to marry, that the person's got the same mind and goal as you have, otherwise you're going to suffer.

Certain other decisions may not have such long term consequences. You know one day you feel so tired and you don't feel like going to work and you take leave and don't go to work, okay. That may not have long term consequences, but certain decisions have.

Sometimes a small decision can have a long term consequence too. See Hebrews chapter 12, it says about Esau, now you know the story of Esau, you read about it in Genesis, how he was a hunter and one day he came back tired from hunting, and by the way he was the elder of the two twins, and because he was the elder he had the birthright, that was the privilege of the oldest son in a home, the birthright.

Now I don't know all that was involved in that, in the birthright, for most families it probably meant that he'd get double the share of the wealth which all the other children would get, and perhaps in the case of Isaac, because Abraham was chosen by God to be the head of the nation of Israel, perhaps it meant that the birthright would go to the one who was chosen to be the head of that nation through which Jesus would come.

Boy, then the birthright means a lot more than just getting double the share of property here on earth. It's a tremendous honor. Imagine if Esau was supposed to be the head of the nation of Israel. Now, we can't say that definitely because we don't know all that's involved in the birthright, but it says here that when he came back from, you read that in Genesis 25 -26, he came back from hunting and Jacob was making this porridge which was some type of lentil soup or something which was the aroma of it came to Esau's nose and he said, I want that.

I'm hungry. I'm famished. Jacob was a shrewd person. He said, well, I'll give it to you if you give me your birthright. I mean, that means Jacob was thinking about it for many years. This guy was born just a few minutes before me and because of that he's got the birthright.

Just because I happened to come out a few minutes later from my mother's womb, I missed it. I want the birthright and he thought, here's a good opportunity. I'm sure that Esau knew there's something spiritual in the birthright, but it was in the future, not immediate, maybe many years later.

But right now, he said, I want to satisfy my body. I don't care whether this thing that's going to come in the future, who knows and like that. And so he said, oh, birthright, sure. Right now, I want to satisfy my body.

Give me that lentil soup. And he took it. And later on, when the time came for Isaac to bless his sons and to give the birthright to the eldest, God himself made sure that Isaac didn't give it to Esau.

And Esau wept and said, oh, my father, please, don't you have a blessing for me? And the father couldn't give him the birthright. He'd already given it to Jacob. And that's the thing mentioned here in Hebrews 12, verse 16.

He says, make sure there's no immoral person or godless person like Esau in your midst who sold his own birthright for a single meal. Why is Esau called an immoral person? This is not talking about sexual immorality.

Why is he called a godless person if all that the birthright involved was just getting double the share of the father's property? No, there was something spiritual about it. And it says Esau despised his birthright.

He sold it. And afterwards, verse 17, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, even though he sought for it with tears. It was too late to repent. That's what it says. Is it possible that you can come to a place where it's too late to repent and that there's something you take a decision when you're a young man and you missed it forever?

Now, Esau was a young man and the birthright was his father's business. He could have been a shareholder in that. But he missed it because when he was young, he despised it. And he chose something that would satisfy the immediate needs of his body.

And this is written in the New Testament as a warning. And such people are called immoral and godless. Why are they immoral and godless? Because they want to satisfy the immediate longing of their body and despise the spiritual inheritance that can be theirs later on.

Addiction, Forgiveness, and Freedom in Christ

And, you know, that's the choice that many of you are making in the little decisions that you make every day. It's little, little things. You know, if a person, for example, take the matter of the human body and I'm speaking about people go to fast food and eat a lot of unhealthy food.

Now, if you eat one unhealthy meal, that's not necessarily going to affect you. But when it happens again and again and again, you just get an addiction for you to love it. You keep on eating it. It's just going to destroy your body.

It's the same thing with the mind. A little bit may not destroy your whole future. But the point is a little bit can give you a craving for something more of that. It's very difficult for a person who's once gone to a pornographic site on the Internet to not want to go back there again.

And then he says after some months of not doing it just once and little by little it becomes an addiction. It's just as bad an addiction as taking drugs or some immoral man going every now and then to a prostitute.

There's really no difference. It's an addiction. And after some time it'll be like every time you do it, it's like somebody tightening the screw. One more turn of the screw. One more turn of the screw.

You can't escape. It's very, very difficult. Only Jesus can set you free. And many of you have probably already destroyed yourselves, your minds in many ways with that. But you can't do anything about the past.

God can forgive you. But before you destroy your mind anymore, the Lord wants you, warns you through the example of Esau. Don't give up your birthright in the future for some immediate benefit that you're going to get in your body.

Eve, Adam, and the Hidden Consequences of Sin

See, that's what Eve also wanted. There's something similar about Eve and Esau here and you and me. If we make the wrong choice, Eve also didn't think of the future consequences. She said, right now, this is going to satisfy my body.

This fruit, it looks so attractive. This makes my mouth water. I want it. I know God has said no, but I want it. And the devil convinced her, you're going to get so many good things out of it. Exactly the way the devil convinces us when we are doing something wrong, that you'll get something out of it.

You'll get some pleasure out of it. But he never told Eve, you'll get some pleasure out of it right now, but you know what will happen later on? You and your wife, you and your husband are going to fight with each other for 900 years.

Your first son will murder your second son and there'll be all types of problems. You'll have sicknesses, you'll have disease, your life will be miserable and you'll have to go out and live on your own out in that.

The world will become a terrible place to live in. Now eat this fruit. You think she'd have eaten it if she knew all the consequences? They lived about 900 years in those days. And imagine if she knew all the consequences of fever and sickness and disease and the children fighting and killing each other and all these things that are going to happen in her life for 900 years just because she wanted to satisfy her body right now.

You think she'd have done it? No. But the devil hides the future results. He said forget about the future right now. You're going to enjoy it. And she did it. And the same day she was thrown out of the Garden of Eden, her contact with God was gone.

The Garden of Eden is like paradise. Everything was so wonderful. Even the wild, there were no wild animals there. Imagine giving up all that to come into the type of world that you and I are living in just to satisfy some lust in your body and missing the opportunity thereafter.

Adam could never walk with God after that. He walked one day with God on the seventh day. He never got a chance again. Missed it all just because he wanted to satisfy his body just like his wife. And you guys and girls don't realize what you're missing by these little choices you make to satisfy the desires of your body.

If I can please myself, maybe do something wrong, there are long-term consequences of it. Think of that. Esau was the same thing. The devil said, come on, you're hungry. Satisfy the need of your body now.

Forget about this birthright which is in the future. The wise person is the one who thinks about the future. Why do you think parents send their children to nursery school? You think that child wants to go at the age of three or four?

Not at all. There's no child in the world that wants to go, leave home and go to sit in some kindergarten. They cry when they go to school. Why does a parent force it? Is that child enjoying it there?

Not necessarily. And then how many years before, I mean, you young people, how many years of working, how many years it took for you to get a degree and then get a job? In some cases, more than 20 years of education, right, all the way from nursery, you study for 20 years and if you want to get a really good job, maybe another two or three years.

Why does a person go through 23 years of study? And why do some people sit, I mean, small children cry when they go to the kindergarten, but serious students when they're in their college and all, they work so hard.

Think of people who go and do a one-year training course just to get admission into some medical college or engineering college and spend so much money just to get that admission. Why do they spend so much money and energy and effort?

Immediately they're not getting anything. Immediately it's all painful and suffering and self-denial. You can't go for all these picnics and outings. Other people are going because you've got to study for this exam that's coming up.

But you see, a few years later, those fellows who just played the fool, where they are, and these people who worked hard, where they are. It's the same in the Christian life, exactly the same. There are long-term consequences of the decisions we make now.

When you're young, the devil doesn't want you to think about it. Just like he didn't want Eve to think about what will happen in the future. He didn't want Esau to think about what will happen in the future.

He just wants you to think about what's going to enable you to enjoy something right now. And that's the thing which I want you to get out of your mind. I want you to realize that God wants you to be his partner in his business on earth.

Preparing for Partnership Through Discipline and Sowing

And if you can be gripped by that when you're young, say, oh, God, I want to be even a sister. Sure, God wants you to be a partner in his business on earth. And if you're gripped by that, you say, Lord, then how can I prepare myself for it?

These people who, the sons and daughters of these big businessmen, the parents just train them, send them to good colleges, because then only they can take over this business. And they tell them, listen, if you work hard now, you can be a partner in this business and everything will go, you'll have a lot of money.

That's all they care for on this earth. But that's the reason why they work hard. Every student who works in college or anything, he's not thinking of immediately can I enjoy myself, he's thinking of the future.

Even in the world, how much more as Christians we should recognize that. Let me show you another verse which is very important for young people to remember. It's in Galatians chapter 6. In Galatians chapter 6, it says, don't be deceived.

I think it's written particularly for young people. Galatians 6 and verse 7. Don't fool yourself. A man will reap what he has sown. He's not going to reap something else. I mean, every farmer knows that if you sow potatoes, you're going to get potatoes.

If you sow tomatoes, you get tomatoes. You sow rice, you get rice. You sow wheat, you get wheat. Whatever a man sows, that he will reap. And then he says, there are two options. Just like Eve had two options to satisfy her own desires or to please God.

And this is a tremendous temptation to satisfy our own desires. Like Esau, at that time, supposing Esau had said, yeah, I'm terribly hungry, but I'm not going to give up the birthright. I'm willing to suffer a little hunger in my body right now.

It doesn't matter. I'm not going to die. I don't want to enjoy this. I don't want to lose the birthright. If he had that attitude, think what a difference it would have made. And if Eve had that attitude, yeah, it looks very attractive.

It makes my mouth water. But God has said no. There must be some reason why God has said no. It must be harmful for me in some way, which I can't understand. I want to tell you there are certain things you know can harm you.

For example, if you take a blade, cut yourself, you know it'll harm you. None of you will ever take a blade and cut your hand or any part of your body because you know it's going to harm you. Supposing you have a bottle labeled poison.

None of you are going to drink it, even if there's sugar mixed in it. Say, yeah, I don't want it, even if it's tasty. And you've read about all this harm that harmful drugs do to young people, and so you stay away from it.

What the devil wants you to not know is that a lot of these things that God says no to are things that can harm you. You know that anger can harm you, even physically, spiritually, when you don't forgive somebody.

It harms you. It doesn't harm the other person. That fellow who harmed you, he's happy. But you don't forgive him. You're bitter and sour, and you have all types of problems, even in your body. Everything that God says is for our good.

So it says here, you can either sow to your flesh, verse 8, Galatians 6, 8. If you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption. But if you sow to the Holy Spirit, you'll reap eternal life. So that's a law. We can say that in the things you do every day, you're sowing something.

Your thoughts, you're sowing something. Your words, you're sowing something. And the habits you develop, like reading the Bible, for example. Reading the Bible is an excellent habit. I believe all of you should have that habit to read the scriptures every single day.

You shouldn't miss a single day, like some people have the rule, no Bible, no breakfast. Very good law to remind ourselves when we go to breakfast, have I read my Bible today? No Bible, no breakfast. Why is it we're ready to eat breakfast, even if you haven't read the Bible?

Because we think that reading the Bible is not going to do me any good. Eating breakfast is going to do me some good. See, we do take care of ourselves. We think of ourselves, and we think if I do this, it'll help me.

So I'll do it if this thing is not going to help me. That's what I'm trying to convince you. That reading the scriptures will help you a lot more than eating breakfast. If you're convinced about that, you'd rather read the Bible and have your breakfast.

See, that's something you sow. I'm very happy that in my younger days, I sowed reading the scriptures. Many times. Sometimes I'd skip meals as well. But I see now the harvest I'm reaping from that. It's a fantastic harvest.

Peace of mind and health in the body and being able to serve God and do so many things. Think that God could have that type of a ministry and opportunity that He wants you to have. I never knew when I was 21 years old that God had anything in store for me.

I was just baptized, and I just wanted to read the Bible to know more about God. That's all. God is watching you, dear young people. And there's a law, just like there's a law in the universe. If you sow and work hard, you're going to get a tremendous crop.

See this verse in 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, it says in verse 6, the hard-working farmer gets the first share of the crops. Consider what I say. The Lord will give you understanding in everything. That's a law.

It doesn't matter whether you are... Supposing a farmer is an atheist, but he works hard in his field. And here's another farmer who's a believer, and he doesn't work hard in his field during sowing time.

Why is that atheist farmer going to get a better crop than this so-called believer farmer who was lazy? Because it's a law. That man obeyed certain laws of God, and he got a fantastic crop from his field.

And this man was lazy. He thought he could, last minute, just pray, Oh God, give me a good harvest, and he gets a useless crop. I sometimes have young people coming up to me and say, Uncle Jack, can you pray for me for my examinations?

And I tell them the story this. I tell them the story. Do you think a farmer will get a good crop if he hasn't sowed seed and watered the field, and he just, last minute, he prays? No. So I want to ask you, I say, have you worked hard?

Have you studied hard? Then I'll pray for you. But don't think that laziness is going to be blessed by God. So one of the important things that you young people need to think about is that every action of yours, you're sowing something.

You're sowing something. If you discipline yourself, read the scriptures, you're sowing something. If you go and watch pornography, you're going to do so something. If you don't get over your anger and your bitterness and your unwillingness to talk to somebody because you hate him, you're sowing something in your own life.

Honoring Parents, Elders, and All People

You're not going to destroy the other person, you're going to destroy yourself. Another area which young people need to especially be careful in sowing is the matter of respect. You know, it says in Ephesians 6 that honor your father and mother so that it may go well with you and you may live long on the earth, Ephesians 6, 3.

And out of all the Ten Commandments, it says this is the one which has got a promise attached to it. It's the first commandment with a promise. The other commandments don't have a promise. The other commandments are don't steal, don't commit adultery, don't kill, etc.

But this one has got a promise attached to it. If you honor your father and mother, it'll go well with you. You'll live long on the earth. The principle behind it is to respect those who are older. Now I'll tell you something which is a very sad thing I see in today's young people.

I don't see it in the villages. In the villages, they still have that respect for older people which they've got from Hinduism. Yeah, those non-Christian religions. You don't have to be a Christian, it's just society teaches children to be respectful to those who are older.