Taking Sin Seriously — Zac Poonen

You heard a song in a couple of Indian languages, India is a unique country. I don't think there's another country like that in the whole world because we have about twenty or more languages in one country and about three hundred dialects.

So if you go from one state to another state in the same country, nobody understands what you're saying because it's a completely different language. So to reach India you need to know many languages and I really appreciate those missionaries who came to India in early years, right from the late 1700s with William Carey from England and many others who came at great sacrifice.

Many of them, their wives died there, their children died there, they were real missionaries. The people who come to India on short-term mission trips today are tourists, they're not missionaries. I've never seen, they come to ease their conscience from western countries to spend a few weeks in India to feel compassion for the poor and maybe to teach their children how much better off they are in the western country than in the poor country.

These are not missionaries, they're tourists. I have no respect for them, zero respect. They're seeking their own, they're seeking their own good and all that. Whereas the missionaries who came before 1950, before the Second World War, there's another quality, people who committed themselves, who lived there, they didn't come to ease their conscience, they didn't come to teach their children to appreciate the good they have in western countries.

They came with a tremendous passion to teach the laws for Christ and they sacrificed a lot translating the Bible into Indian languages at tremendous cost. And I think their real worth will be appreciated only when Christ comes.

I've just not seen that quality of missionaries now in India anywhere, none of them. Preachers and everyone who comes now, I really have no respect for them compared to the folks in the early days. And that's why when my children were small, I taught them to read missionary biographies.

Missionary Sacrifice and a Life of Purpose

It's a very great thing. I don't know how many of you have read biographies of missionaries. The biographies of missionaries challenged me more than anything else to see how people who were so gripped by the life of Christ that they were willing to give everything in order to spread the gospel.

And that's what challenged me when I was working in the Navy, to say, hey, what am I doing with my one life? Just go to meetings, sing a few songs, ease my conscience on Sundays, and then spend the rest of my time increasing in Bible knowledge, more Bible knowledge, more Bible knowledge.

And I said, Lord, I want to do something with my life before I leave this earth. I don't want to just drift along like all the other Christians and ease my conscience by going on Sundays to service, church service.

We have only one life. And when we come to the end of that life, we must have no regret about how we lived that life. I have two expressions in scripture that describe the whole world. Let me just share that with you.

The Fear of God and Respect for People

One is in Romans chapter 3, verse 18. The whole world, there is no fear of God before their eyes. And when a person is really converted, that word should no longer be true in their life. There must be a tremendous fear of God or a reverence for God in my life.

And when I reverence God, I respect people as well. One of the marks of the fear of God is that I respect human beings. In the Old Testament, let me show you a verse which the Lord taught the Israelites in Leviticus in chapter 19.

He gave them one way by which they could test whether they fear God or not. Leviticus 19 and chapter 32. You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the older person because thus you fear God.

I am the Lord. So the Lord taught the Israelites that one way they show their respect for God was by showing respect for older people. That is something that is completely gone from today's Christianity.

People just don't have any respect for older people. But like I said earlier, everything that was only partial in the Old Covenant has become total in the New Covenant. It's 10 in the Old Covenant. It's 100 in the New Covenant.

It was one day in seven in the Old Covenant. It was seven days in seven in the New. You gave only your older son to God. Now you give all your children to the Lord. And in the Old Covenant you respected older people to show your fear of God.

In the New Covenant, 1 Peter chapter 2, how you show your fear of God, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse, this is New Covenant, honor all men, not just the older ones. Thus, and love the brotherhood, thus you fear God.

So my reverence for God in the Old Covenant, if I were an Israelite, would be shown by my respecting older people. My reverence for God in the New Covenant is shown by my respecting all people. When I speak rudely to somebody because I think he's inferior to me, I don't respect God.

The Lord's taught me to speak respectfully to all people, even to little children. If I don't know how to speak in a good way to little children, I don't fear God. I'll tell you something, my observation is the vast majority of Christians do not fear God.

And this is one proof of it. They don't know how to speak respectfully to others. Wives don't know how to speak respectfully to their husbands. Husbands don't know how to speak respectfully to their wives.

All their religion is a bunch of rubbish, garbage. Their Christianity, their Bible knowledge, their preaching is a lot of garbage because it is garbage because they don't know how to speak respectfully to one another.

It's as simple as that. We are the light of the world and that light is seen in the way we speak. I had a problem with my tongue. I never sought for the gift of speaking in other tongues. God gave it to me when I didn't seek for it.

What I did seek was for the gift of speaking in a godly way in my mother tongue. God helped me to control my mother tongue. I don't care whether I get other tongues or not. And if I get the gift of speaking in other tongues, I can't speak that other tongue, must be a counterfeit.

I've seen a lot of Pentecostals who speak in other tongues, but who don't know how to speak respectfully with their mother tongue. I say, your other tongue is garbage, throw it in the trash. When God gave me the gift of speaking in other tongues, the way I checked it was to see whether I could control my mother tongue, whether I could control my anger, the way I speak.

That's how I knew the gift was genuine. I didn't want a gift that didn't help me to control my mother tongue. You mean the Holy Spirit can supernaturally enable me to speak a language which I haven't learned and he can't control me in the language I have learned?

That must be a lot of nonsense. I'm amazed how so many Christians are deceived by this. Thousands, millions, because they want to show off to others. I've got something. Why don't you show off to others by controlling your anger?

Show Christ. I'll show you a verse that challenged me. James chapter 1, verse 26. For a long time I wanted to write a book on verses that Christians don't believe. It would be verses that Christians don't obey.

Here's one of those verses. Verses that Christians don't believe. James 1, 26. If anyone thinks he's a very spiritual Christian and he cannot control his tongue, his whole Christianity is worth zero. How many Christians believe that?

That if you cannot control your tongue, your Christianity is worth exactly zero. I'll show you another verse. Matthew chapter 13. Matthew 12, white verse. Poison from its mouth. Jesus is very strong. Some people tell me, Brother Zak, you speak so strongly.

I said, you haven't read what Jesus spoke. He used to say things like, if you stumble a little child, get a heavy millstone and tie it around your neck and go and jump in the sea. I've never said that.

He would say things like that. Strong words. And here's another one. You vipers who spit out poison from your mouth. There's something fundamentally wrong with your nature. That's why all those evil words come out of your mouth.

That's why you can't control your tongue. These are the words of Jesus. How can you, being evil, speak what is good? Because you have to, verse 33, make a tree good first. Then the fruit will be good.

He is known by its fruit. Verse 33. By further. The good man. Verse 35. Out of his good treasure, brings forth what is good. And remember, the good he's speaking of in verse 34 is the words we speak. The mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.

Verse 34. The problem is not with our mouth. We think, oh dear, I lost my temper and I lost my testimony. No, your problem is not with your mouth. Problem is with the heart. The heart is not clean. There was a very godly missionary in India called Amy Carmichael.

The Heart Revealed Through Speech

One of the most godly women who came to India. She lived, I think, 50 years in India, never going back to her home in Ireland. And helped so many, many poor orphans and little children who were thrown in the temple.

Girl babies were thrown in the temple to grow up to become prostitutes for the priests there. And she would dress in a sari and go and pick them up. This is 1930, 19 and all, you know, when... And she didn't want...

There's a very beautiful story about her. That when she was a little girl in Ireland, she prayed. She had brown eyes and she wanted blue eyes. And she heard a preacher once in the meeting say, if you ask anything in Jesus' name, he'll give it to you.

So she went as a little girl and prayed to Jesus that night, Lord, give me blue eyes. Up next morning and looked in the mirror. She prayed again, prayed again. Next morning, it was still brown. But when she came to India, India, nobody has blue eyes.

And she wore a sari. She looked exactly like an Indian. There are fair Indians, but no Indian has got blue eyes. But because she had brown eyes, she looked so thoroughly Indian that she could go into the temple and people thought she was an Indian.

And she could quietly pick up these babies and take them to the orphanage that she was running. Then she understood that God did answer her prayer by not changing the color of her eyes because God had a ministry for her.

That's why she was born with brown eyes. You know, like it says, before we are born, God has formed us in our mother's womb. These are gifts for the ministry we have in the future. Anyway, A. M. Carmichael once said these words, if you are carrying a cup of sweet water, like orange juice or something, and somebody shakes you hard, water will spill out.

That is impossible. Only sweet water will spill out. So when somebody irritates you and shakes you really hard, what spills out of your mouth is in your heart. Suddenly made your heart bitter. Be thankful to that person that he shook you and showed you what was in your glass.

You got to be thankful. Oh, brother, thank you. I thought I was carrying sweet water in my heart all this time. You got to be thankful to your wives and shake you up really good. Not to condemn you, but so that you can cleanse yourself and say, Lord, thank you.

I discovered something. Out of the goodness of your heart comes good. Out of the evil man, verse 35, out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil. And I tell you, when we think of the light of the world today, we are the light of the world.

It's not just to strangers and other people. We are always very kind to strangers. I remember a wife telling her husband, if you speak to me as kindly as you speak to the stranger who comes to the door, I'm sure that's enough.

How do you speak to the stranger who comes to your door? Imagine if you speak to your wife and your husband like that, how sweet your life at home will be. But we're kind to strangers, but we are rude to the ones we call loved ones.

The evil of our heart comes forth what is evil. And then he says, sometimes Jesus would say, I say to you. That's like, you know, you write something in a letter and you underline it. That's what Jesus is saying in verse 36.

I say to you, verses that Christians do not believe. Listen, every careless, useless word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it of judgment. How many Christians believe that? How many Christians believe that all the useless words, careless, rude words, hurting words, you know, subtle words in which there was a sting hidden in it, very subtly.

It looked very kind, but there was a sting in it. Spoken to those whom you call your loved ones and beloved and all that. You're going to give an account in the day of judgment. I don't think most Christians believe that.

And how is it they're not convicted that they keep on speaking such words and they say, well, I repented and I asked God to forgive me. But your repentance was not serious because it doesn't seem to have improved your speech filled with the Holy Spirit.

I'll tell you, ask God for the gift of speaking kindly in your mother tongue before we seek for other tongues. And if you have other tongues and you're pretty proud of it, check up whether the Spirit of God is controlling your mother tongue.

Otherwise, go before God and say, Lord, now please give me the gift of speaking in my mother tongue properly. Let me not fool myself that I'm a little more spiritual than others because I can boast of some gift.

All we need is to speak kindly in our mother tongue. That is a light that has to shine from us because every word I'll tell you, I have taken it very seriously. If I think I'm spiritual and I cannot control my tongue and that tongue it can also mean letters that you write because that's your tongue really.

Letters that you write which are not I'm not saying they shouldn't be sharp. Jesus was very sharp when he spoke. You're like wipers, he said. When it comes to preaching God's Word we have to be very sharp.

Not seek any honor. That's the other thing. I find most preachers seek honor when they speak. They want to impress people by, oh, I'm a very gracious type of person. I couldn't care less whether people think I'm gracious or not.

I want to speak prophetically exactly what God says. But we must be like lions when we preach God's Word in the pulpit. But outside the pulpit we must be like lambs. Jesus was a lion and a lamb. And I want to say to you be a lion in the pulpit and a lamb outside.

Most Christians are lions outside and lambs in the pulpit. It shouldn't be like that. It should be the other way around. Jesus was a lion in the pulpit but when he spoke to people he was like a lamb. He would tell women caught in adultery it's alright I don't condemn you.

Eight times divorced Samaritan woman boy, he was like a lamb. He was so compassionate when speaking to individuals a crooked cheating tax collector like Zacchaeus would say salvation has come to you Zacchaeus.

He would say die on a stone around your neck and go and drown yourself and cut off your right hand pull out your right eye nowhere that's how Jesus was and I want to encourage you my brothers and sisters yesterday I spoke about the humanity of Jesus how he was tempted like us that's the thing that changed my life.

Following the Footsteps of Jesus

I'll tell you honestly the secret of godliness is that Jesus came in the flesh and once I saw that it became the passion of my life to study the life of Jesus and I spent 40 years now studying the earthly life of Jesus knowing that by the power of the Holy Spirit I could walk like him a little better every day.

Always quick. Be always quick to acknowledge your mistake. Be always quick to ask forgiveness because we have not become like Christ yet we have a long way to go. And wherever if you are humble enough to acknowledge I have not yet become like Jesus you will really be quick to apologize to anybody in the world to your children to your husband to your wife and to a beggar if you hurt somebody or in any way you did something wrong you want to set it right immediately because you want to be like Christ.

The passion of your life is to become like Jesus so that that light will shine brighter and brighter and brighter in your life every day so that the glory of Christ will be seen more and more in your life.

Not that we decrease in knowledge. Not that people appreciate us because people don't see most of our life. Do you know that even your closest friends know only about 10 of your life. You can live with your wife for 30 years.

And she still may not be able to discover whether you love money. Live with your wife for 30 years and she still may not know whether you are having dirty lustful thoughts in your mind she doesn't know.

Seek even to impress your wife. You'll never. The light in your life must shine not only before people. It must shine before the devil. The devil knows areas of your life which a lot of other Christians and people who see you don't know.

There are private areas in your life that even your husband and wife don't know which the devil knows. Are you interested in letting your light shine before the devil who sees other areas of your life.

That nobody knows false accounts that you keep and people you cheat and unrighteousness and money matters. And the devil sees all that is your light shining there. I'm more interested in letting my light shine there than just before a whole lot of believers who see 5 of my life.

How many hours do other believers see you in a week. Maybe 3 -4 hours a week. Where should our light shine. The areas of our life having no part dark. No part dark. If that's your goal every careless word we should give an account in the day of judgment.

I really believe that. And that's why I want to confess every word that I've spoken that hurt others. Careless words useless words and rude words because I know they can be cleansed by the blood of Christ.

But if I confess and I don't repent of it then I will do it again. You know when you find yourself falling again and again into the same thing you can be pretty sure that you confessed it but you did not repent of it.

If you repented of it you wouldn't fall so frequently. You may still.

Fall but it won't be so frequent. We need to not only learn to turn from sin but we need to hate sin. The bible says about Jesus he hated sin. It's one thing to give up sin. It's another thing to hate it.

I hate disease. That's why I'm very careful when I feel I can pick up a disease. That's why we wash our hands before we eat. Because we know we can pick up infection. That's why we are careful when we go near people who are sick with the very highly infectious diseases that we don't want to catch that disease.

We are very careful. We go to a hospital or you know we wear masks. Doctors wear masks. It's because we are very careful that we don't transmit our disease to somebody else and we don't pick up disease from someone else.

I wish we were just as careful with sin. Exactly careful. Imagine oh I want to wear a mask because I don't want to pick up sin from other people. I want to wear a mask so that I don't say words that are sinful.

If we were as serious about sin as we are a sinner all of us will be a lot more holy today than we are at the moment. But we have to take these words seriously. Verses that Christians don't believe every careless word.

Accountability at the Judgment Seat of Christ

How many of you believe that in the day of judgment everything we have done in our life will be judged. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may be recompensed for the deeds done in the body according to what he has done.

Therefore since we know the fear of the Lord we persuade men we appear before the judgment seat of Christ that every single one will be rewarded for what he did in his earthly body on earth whether it was good or whether it was bad.

And that's why he says in only one ambition whether we are at home in heaven. Yeah it is referring to heaven in the previous verses. Whether I am at home in heaven that is my home or absent from home here on the earth.

You know a true Christian is like a foreigner. A foreigner comes and lives in India as a tourist for a few months. He knows he's a foreigner. I come here as a tourist. I don't belong to this country. I know I'm a tourist.

I'm here for a short time. I'm not settling down here. And I say that is exactly the attitude of a true Christian to his entire life on this earth. Exactly like I have when I come to Australia. I'm a tourist.

And everybody around me knows that I am a tourist. Why don't you settle down here. I'm a tourist. And if I have that attitude to this earth I don't mean you shouldn't have a house. Please don't misunderstand me.

Don't misquote me. But what I'm saying is the attitude to the things of earth. Is I'm a tourist. I'm just here for a short time. My home is in heaven. And Paul says whether I'm at home or I'm absent from home I want to please him.

That verse challenged me when I go to heaven it'll be very easy. I'm sure when you get to heaven you'll never want to please anybody. But God you won't be looking.

Around to impress Peter or Paul. Or that's easy in heaven. But Paul says it's exactly the same for me when I'm away from home on this earth. In other words when I go up to heaven the same desire I had on earth to please him it's just going to continue.

There won't be any modification of my passion. Will there be some modification in your desire when you get to heaven then now you have to rid of trying to please people. You have one ambition. You know young people have ambition.

That's the word used in verse 9. We have an ambition. It's good to have an ambition if it's the right one an ambition to please God. Just like let me paraphrase verse 9 to you I have a great ambition.

Paul says please God. Exactly like I would want to please only God when I get to heaven. Let me encourage all of you to have that ambition. I will only please God here on the earth so that when I get to heaven there won't be any modification of my ambition to be the same with what I say or what I do.

Because we're all going to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And everything we did on earth and said on earth is going to be revealed in that day. Imagine it's all going to be played on a screen.

It's like I used to think you know how could God remember all the things that every human being ever you know from the time of Adam billions and billions and billions of people every single thing they thought and they did and they said.

And I realized that God doesn't have to remember any of that. We've got a thing called memory. And whether you know it or not your memory is like a videotape that has stored everything you ever did said thought attitudes you had to people.

It's better than these other videotapes which can only copy the outside. This wonderful memory videotape can copy inner attitudes a little bitterness or an unforgiving attitude and it's faithful. You can't fool that videotape you can't even edit it.

Everything is there the good the bad the right motives the wrong motives. And in the day of judgment all that God has to do is press the rewind button and goes back to zero and plays from the day you were born every single word you spoke every single thing you said did inner attitudes thoughts everything will be played back except what you confessed and asked the blood of Jesus to cleanse that will be erased.

And if you are faithful to your conscience not to impress people but to your conscience to really confess every known sin a thought word deed attitude motive that will be cleansed and only the good parts will be left and the videotape will only show all the good things you did look like a saint over there is one who's never did anything wrong because all of that was repented and confessed and cleansed in the blood of Christ it's wonderful of course some people can take advantage of that and say well it doesn't matter how I live I just confessed everything after I confessed I am a great man.

I will always great man because I love Jesus, not because I'm afraid it'll all get exposed. I don't care whether it gets exposed. I keep His commandments, speak kindly to people and even if they don't speak respectfully to me.

I follow a savior who when they slapped him and killed him said, Father forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. When you kill a man you don't know what you're doing? You crucify such a good man and not to know what you're doing?

What did Jesus mean when He said forgive them is okay, I can understand that God, Father forgive them. But they don't know what they're doing? If you kill a man and you don't know what you're doing? I think what Jesus meant was they don't know whom they're killing, to your wife and husband because when they speak rudely to you, who they're speaking to?

They're speaking to a son of God. Father forgive her, she doesn't know to whom she's speaking. Father forgive him, he doesn't know who he's speaking to. I'm a child of God. High authority. We don't recognize in each other Christ dwelling in that person.

The Image of God and Human Dignity

James said all human beings are made in the image of God. See James in chapter 3 verse 8, no one can tame the tongue. It's a restless evil, full of deadly poison. You know we come to the church service and bless our Lord and Father and say wonderful things to Him and with the same tongue we curse human beings or speak rudely to people who have been made in the likeness of God.

See that's it's an amazing revelation to me. It's the only verse in the Bible that I have found which teaches me that even after man's fall, he's still said to be made in the likeness of God. That wicked man there's something in the likeness of God in him and I like to read the Bible and think in pictures because Jesus spoke in pictures and I find I understand the Bible much better when I picture it in some way.

So I picture this verse made in the likeness of God, this guy doesn't behave like God at all. It's the picture I have is you know in India we have sometimes especially like we've just had an election still going on and during election time the posters of candidates and people are wanting to be members of parliament and then after elections are over people tear away that.

You see a little bit of the face one eye or one ear or something left there. You sort of can make out yeah I know who this guy was like from his eye or ear and that's the picture I have of human beings who were once perfectly in the image of God.

Most of it is torn away by sin and a little bit is still there. A little bit is still there in that sinner, in that beggar, in that rude crude person. So a little bit of the image of God is still there.

Believe it or not dear brothers there is still a little bit image of God in your wife. You may not see much of it but it's there and recognize it from that little bit of that the rest of it is all torn off but from the little bit you say there was someone made in the image of God.

It's a wonderful thing to see that. I said Lord please help me that I'll never never speak in a rude way. I'll have a part of the Holy Spirit to control my temper, insult someone made in the image of God.

Would you speak to Jesus like that? And I came to you and you gave me a drink and I came in ragged clothes and you spoke kindly to me. That is me weakest of my and to me that is Christianity. That is the light of the world.

Grace, Truth, and Righteous Anger

It was religious hypocrites. People who made money in the name of religion in the temple. There he was unsparing. He wasn't gentle there. He didn't go to those money changers and say will you gentlemen please remove your tables from here.

No. He just turned the tables and opened the house to fly out and drove the sheep out. The time I see Jesus violently angry was when he saw people making money. You got to be violently angry today. Television preachers and every other preacher who exploits poor people to make money out of them to fill his pocket.

If you're not angry with such people you are not like Jesus Christ. You're a diplomat seeking your own army like Jesus. I want to be gentle towards adulterous women to five times divorced women like Samaritan women and being crucified.

I want to be gentle towards them but I want to be ruthless towards Pharisees, religious hypocrites and humbugs and people who are making money in the name of religion. This is what it means to be like Christ.

Full of grace and truth. Unfortunately I find Christians are gracious to the wrong people and they go hard on people they should be gentle to. We've got it all upside down. Meditate on the life of Jesus.

If you want to be the light of the world meditate on how Jesus was. One more word here in Matthew 12. I didn't conclude that section. Matthew 12 is really strong. We've all heard about justification by faith.

Evangelical Christians are very strong and we are justified by faith because the Bible says so. Please see the other side of the coin. Don't have half truth. Here's the other side of your coin. Matthew 12 37.

You are justified by the way you speak and you'll be condemned by the way you have spoken. Can you have a higher authority than Jesus telling you how you'll be justified in the day of judgment? You say but Paul said we're justified by faith.

I know but Jesus said you'll be justified by your words. You mean you accept Paul but you don't accept Jesus? Whatever question are you? I'll tell you I accept both. I'm justified by faith but a faith that is living that's manifested in the way I speak.

I'm justified by my words and I'm condemned. You will be condemned by your words. I've hardly ever heard a sermon on controlling the tongue, on anger being a sin. There are many people who've come to CFC who said Brother Zach, I never even knew that anger was a sin till I came here.

I said well thank God you came here before you died. You didn't know the truth. God was merciful to you. You want me to tell you something, say it, preach something which I couldn't show you a verse for?

And he said how is it Brother Zach, we read the same Bible and we don't see these things? I'll tell you why. Because the Bible says the God of this world has a tremendous power to blind people's eyes.

Blindness, Victory Over Sin, and the Holy Spirit

The Bible says that, 2nd Corinthians 4, the God of this world has blinded the minds of people, verse 4, that they might not see the light. So Satan has a power. He's got power to do many things. One power he has is to blind people's eyes so that they don't see the light.

You think he doesn't do that with Christians? Sure. He spoke about baptism. How is it so many believers still believe in infant baptism? There's only one reason. Satan has blinded their eyes. They read the scriptures and they don't see it.

I'll help you. If a blind man says this wall is black, I won't argue with him. I say well I hope his eyes will be open because it's not black. If a blind person says there's infant baptism in the Bible, I don't argue with him.

I say God of this world has blinded his eyes, what can I do? His eyes are open, he'll see it. It's the same thing with victory over sin. There are plenty of verses that speak about victory over sin and not just in the Old New Testament.

Do you know where victory over sin is mentioned first in the Bible? You haven't heard my message on that? Yeah, some of you have. Genesis 4. Victory over sin is mentioned in Genesis chapter 4 immediately after the first sin mentioned outside the Garden of Eden.

The first sin mentioned is Genesis 3 inside the Garden of Eden. The first sin outside the Garden of Eden is Cain. Before he killed Abel, he had a wrong attitude to Abel and the Lord points that out. And you know what he tells him?

People ask me, why do you speak so much against anger? I say because that's the first question that the Lord asked a man after he left Eden. Genesis 4, 6. Why are you angry? Did you know that is the first question that the Lord asked after man was thrown out of Eden?

Why are you angry? And I think the Lord is asking some of you husbands and wives, why are you angry? Same question he asked Cain. And why is your face falling? Why is your face like that? Why aren't you cheerful?

It can be seen on your face. You can't fool people. It's on your face. Others can see it. Your partner can see it. And the Lord said to him, if your attitude was good, let me paraphrase verse 7, if your attitude is good, your face will be cheerful.