A Bridal Relationship - Part 3 — Zac Poonen

Coming to the Father Through Jesus

Jesus is my elder brother, but I also have a father. It's good to have an elder brother and a father. How many of you know the father? Jesus said, I am the way. No one comes to the father but by me. You know the whole purpose of his coming was that through him as a way we can come to the father.

That is the reason why the veil in the temple was torn because the father was inside. And the veil, it says, was Jesus' body, his flesh. And through that veil we come to the father. Your heavenly father knows that you need these things.

The Worldly Things Christians Are Taught to Seek

And I'll tell you this. The test is this. If you don't know the father, you will seek all the things that the people in the world seek. And you'll be very happy when you get them. We live in a generation of Christians that are seeking.

What do you think the preachers today on television and in the great so-called mega churches are telling people to seek? Well, if you read about it or you watch Christian television, you know what all the preachers are telling people to seek.

And ask yourself, aren't the Christians being told to seek exactly what the worldly people seek? The preachers say, Jesus can give you a better house. Well, that's exactly what everybody in the world is seeking.

Anybody who's working is looking forward to the day when he can build a house and settle down. Or people who have vehicles, want a better vehicle, maybe a scooter, car, anything that Jesus can give it.

That's exactly what everybody seeks. A person's salary increases, he gets rid of his scooter and buys a car, that's fine. But I'm not saying there's anything wrong in that. I'm just saying that that's what people are told that Jesus will do for you.

Health, Wealth, and the Sermon on the Mount

They're told that Jesus will... What about health? It's another thing people are told, Jesus will give you... Is there a single person in the world who doesn't seek for health? They eagerly seek it. Look at the lakhs of rupees they spend on hospitals and doctors to get health.

Health and wealth are what the entire world is seeking. They are eagerly seeking it. And we live in a generation today where preachers are teaching Christians to seek for the same thing, even though this is the very first thing he said about seeking in the Sermon on the Mount is all these things the Gentiles seek.

Seeking Jesus Rather Than His Blessings

And he asks you, when you come to him and become a disciple, what are you seeking? Why are you coming after me? Whom are you seeking? Are you seeking me? Or seeking something I can give? You know, A .B. Simpson, who wrote that song, Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord.

It was a crisis he had in his life, where he found he was seeking for blessing, not the Lord. He was seeking for it, not him. And a lot of Christians, even when they seek for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, it's an it.

Are you seeking it? Or are you seeking him? There's a lot of difference. Even when you seek for the blessing of the Lord, the Lord's question after his resurrection was, whom are you seeking? So, the whole purpose of Christ's coming was he came to earth seeking for a bride.

Sometimes we lose sight of that. He came to earth looking for a bride. And he wants a bride who wants to marry him not for his money, but for himself. I mean, there are millions of girls in the world who want to marry a man for his money.

And there are people who want to marry Jesus for health or wealth or something. But, you know, such marriages, there's no love really. The woman loves the money and loves all the things that her husband can buy her.

But then you hear of other stories of people who love one another so deeply. They don't have much in this world, but they really deeply love one another. And their happiness doesn't depend on what they can get from each other.

It's just each other. And that's how the Lord wants us to seek him. What do you seek? Whom do you seek? What are you seeking me for? Because you got something from me. Once Jesus turned around to certain people who were following him and told them in John's Gospel chapter 6.

Jesus' Rebuke of Those Seeking Bread

John chapter 6 and verse 26. He said, I know why you are seeking me. It's not because you saw the miracles and you saw that I was the son of God. The miracles were to confirm that Jesus was God's son.

But because you ate of the loaves and you were filled. Don't work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. These are such clear statements in scripture and yet we hardly find much preaching nowadays on it.

Trials Reveal the Depth of Our Connection With God

And that's the reason why many Christians don't have a deep connection with God. And that's why they are easily shaken. You know one mark of having a deep connection with God is you are not shaken in a time of trial.

And I believe one of the reasons why God allows some trials to come our way is to show us that our connection with him is not as deep as it should be. Because we are not seeking him. Maybe we are seeking it.

Whatever that it is. You may say, well I am not seeking the it of money and health. I am seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can be seeking it as a thing. A power. Boy, other people have got this power.

I want that. Let me urge you, brothers and sisters, seek for him. He has come seeking for a bride who will marry him even if they get nothing from him. It's enough Lord, I have you. See what David, I believe this is one reason why despite all his mistakes he was a man after God's own heart.

David's One Desire: To Behold God's Beauty

He said in Psalm 27. Psalm 27 and verse 4. I am asking God only for one thing. Isn't that great? I am asking God for only one thing. One thing and only one thing. To live with him my whole life long and to behold his beauty.

This is a girl who is in love. It's like those wonderful love stories we have read in our younger days. Where, you know, some poor couple fall in love with each other. They only have each other. They don't have much money or anything.

But they really love one another. And they say, well, I'll stay if you're in a hut. I'll live in a hut with you. That's enough. I just want to sit and see your face. We can look at each other. David loved Jesus.

Loved God like that, you know. And there was something deep within David that cried out to God. And something deep within God cried out to him. He slipped up. He was under the old covenant. We don't have to slip up like him in the new covenant because he didn't have the Holy Spirit within him.

He only had the Holy Spirit upon him. But we have him within. And he cries out from within. This should be our longing. Lord, I'm only seeking one thing. That I can be with you all the time. Will you grant me that?

That wherever I go, you're with me.