Zac Poonen emphasizes the rarity of true faith and love in today's world, referencing Luke 18:8, where Jesus questions if He will find faith on earth upon His return. He critiques the shallow, intellectual understanding of faith that many believers possess, which leads to a lack of spiritual depth and experience of God's power. Poonen encourages believers to seek a deeper, experiential faith that aligns with the New Testament, where faith is not merely belief in facts but a transformative relationship with God that empowers them to live as Jesus did. He highlights the importance of surrendering to the Holy Spirit, allowing God to write His laws in our hearts, and living a life that reflects the values of the Kingdom of Heaven rather than earthly concerns. Ultimately, he calls for a faith that is active, vibrant, and reflective of Christ's own faith, urging believers to evaluate their lives and priorities in light of eternal truths.

It would be very difficult to find on the earth his faith. He said that in Luke chapter 18. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Luke 18 verse 8. The other thing he said there'd be a great shortage of was love. The love of many will wax cold. These are both important virtues that we need to have in our life. But just to try and understand a little bit of what faith means, because it says without faith it is impossible to please God. And very often faith has been limited to an intellectual understanding or belief in certain facts. And because it's been restricted to that, that's I believe that's one of the main reasons for the shallowness of the lives of many many believers. Their faith is an intellectual thing, which is something they just know in their head. I mean like they know that 2 plus 2 is 4 or that this earth goes around the Sun. These are facts they believe. And to believe that Jesus died for our sins. The devil believes Jesus died for the sins of the world. And the faith of many Christians is only that intellectual type of thing. And they wonder why they don't seem to experience the type of life described in the New Testament. Let me just show you a few verses which tell us the experience of some of the New Testament Christians. The Apostle Paul for example, he said in 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 16, the last part, we have the mind of Christ. You know it's a very bold statement. How many Christians today can say that? We've all been trained in a false humility not to confess anything. To tell people don't look at me, look at Jesus. Whereas the Apostle said follow me as I follow Christ. I've almost never in my life heard a preacher say that today. Follow me as I follow Christ. Look into my life, come and live with me at home, see how I live at home. Look into my financial statements and accounts and see every area of my life. See how I spend my money. I can open all my books to you and show you exactly how I live, how I earn, how I spend. Come and follow me. People are afraid to say it because most Christians live a double life. They don't want people to nose around and look too carefully and find out things that are happening in their home or in their finances and things like that because that would spoil the image they are presented of the type of Christians they are. Paul said follow me. He said we have the mind of Christ. He says in chapter 2 and verse 12 We have received the spirit that is from God so that we might know the things freely given to us by God. In the earlier verse 11 he says the thoughts of God no one knows except the spirit of God. Just like he says the thoughts of a man, verse 11, no one knows except the spirit of man. The thoughts of God no one knows but the spirit of God and then he says we have received that spirit. That means I can know what God is thinking. How many Christians dare to make such statements? I believe the vast majority of Christians I have met anyway know so little of the ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit in their life far far less than what these early Christians knew. We have a lot more knowledge of the Bible. We have a lot more interpretations. We have better singing, better music, better so many things but knowledge of God is pathetically low because we have not opened ourselves completely to the Holy Spirit. We have held back areas in our life from surrender to Him. We are unwilling to let Him break us through the circumstances of life He takes us through. We seek to fellowship with a group of believers and then when things get a little hot we pull out and go off on our own like wanderers like Cain. Where in the world are we going to know God? Not in a thousand years will we know God. We will increase in knowledge but we will never have the mind of Christ. We will never be able to know the thoughts of God. The Bible says my way, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts as the heaven is higher than the earth. You know that from Isaiah 55. And here it speaks about the thoughts of man which are earthly thoughts and the thoughts of God, verse 11, which are heavenly thoughts. We once had the thoughts of man. Now we have the thoughts of God. We think like God thinks. We look at people the way God looks at them. We look at people from God's point of view. We look at circumstances from God's point of view. I was just mentioning earlier the morning about the life of rest in God. We have to enter into God's mind to come to that rest to see things as it were from God's point of view. Just like I said the Holy Spirit brings heaven down into our hearts the Holy Spirit also lifts our thinking up to the heavenlies. The Bible says that God has seated us in Christ in the heavenly places. That's not just a figure of speech. It's an actual reality that in our spirit even though our body is on this earth if we have really identified with Christ in his death if we have died with him you know Jesus never ascended to heaven as a man until he had died first. He died and then he rose and ascended into heaven. And if a man does not is unable to look at things and people from heaven's standpoint that is one of the clearest proofs that he has not been crucified with Christ. Because if we die with him we shall certainly live with him the Bible says. There's no doubt about it. Jesus did not raise himself up from the dead. Never in the Bible does it say that Jesus raised himself up from the dead. The symbolism in baptism is so exact. I allow somebody to bury me and I can't lift myself up when I'm like that. Somebody else lifts me up. The symbolism is so accurate that when people crucify me I accept it. God raises me up. Definitely. That's what we testify to in baptism. So if we have died with Christ we will live with him and God will not only raise us up he will make us ascend with him in our spirit so that we begin to look at everything on earth from heaven's standpoint. That is faith. It's one aspect of faith. To look at things from heaven's standpoint. That's why we don't have this faith in the Old Testament. Nobody could look at things from heaven's standpoint in the Old Testament. Their standpoint was so earthly. When you read the Psalms, can't you see that? Lord, smite those fellows who are trying to hurt me. That's the earthly standpoint. Wanting God to smite our enemies and destroy them and even bash their little children's heads on the rocks. That's the type of thing they prayed for inspired by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. They were earthly. They were earthly minded and I've discovered the vast majority of believers are earthly minded especially when it comes to money and earthly things. It's one of the clearest tests of whether I've become heavenly minded is in my attitude to money and material things. I say that for myself. I evaluate myself by asking how heavenly minded I am? How am I? I can find out by my attitude to material things. When how attached I am to it how much I long for it and think about it more and more and more. We think about we think most about the thing that is most precious to us. Where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. And if most of our thoughts revolve around earthly things and how we can have more of it and this and that and comfort and ease and pleasure and a little ache here and a little pain there and the earthly future and all that we're certainly not seated in the heavenly places in Christ. I just want to say that frankly brothers and sisters so that you don't deceive yourselves reading all these wonderful verses in Ephesians chapter 2 and imagining it's all true in your life when it's not really true. I mean do you want to get a shock when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ and discover that you were living in a delusion? I don't want that. It's one of the things I've kept on praying to God many times in my life. I say Lord I don't want to get a shock when I stand before you and discover that a lot of my opinion of my own spirituality was just a lot of delusion and that the difference between me and a lot of other Christians was just in doctrine in words that I was just as earthly minded as those other people. Like this French atheist who in the 18th century his name was Voltaire he looked at all the Christians of different denominations in his time and he said all these Christians have got different doctrines in their different denominations but when it comes to money they've all got the same religion they all love it exactly alike I don't see any difference between them he said. He was a shrewd observer but you couldn't look at Jesus or Paul and say that he had the same attitude to money as the people in the world you couldn't say that about Peter you couldn't say that about many of those apostles and early Christians what do people if people could look into every area of your private life the way you earn your money, the way you spend your money the way you spend your time would they be able to say I'm not talking about the front we present before Christians whenever we come for meetings forget it but if people could look into every area of your private life the things you think about most of the week and into all your financial dealings would they be able to say this man doesn't live for the earth he lives on the earth but he doesn't live with earth's values he seems to have a completely different set of values his whole attitude to material things is different if they can't say that about you I mean you alone know that even your wife doesn't know whether you love money or not we can say that our faith is not the faith of the new testament we're deceiving ourselves when the son of man comes will he find faith on the earth look at some of the things that Paul said 1 Corinthians chapter 4 in verse 4 I am conscious of nothing against myself see we, many Christians glory in always saying oh I'm such a sinner I always sin what to do that's not the apostle Paul's testimony he said I'm conscious of nothing against myself but that doesn't mean I'm completely free from sin it doesn't mean he says I'm acquitted because the Lord sees things in me which I don't see in myself I mean there's unconscious sin in all of us till the end of our life it will be there but consciously he says I'm not aware of a single area where I'm consciously sinning this was new testament Christianity it was a result of faith I want to show you another verse 2 Corinthians in chapter 2 2 Corinthians chapter 2 we read in verse 14 thanks be to God who always leads us in his triumph in Christ this was not once a week or twice a week or occasional up and down type of life no he gives the God the glory for it this is God who does it but he always leads us in triumph in Christ this is how they live if God be for us who can be against us there was a tremendous spirit of constant triumph in the lives of those early Christians it came by faith a living faith and that's the faith we need to have um let me show you what the apostle John says in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1 he tells us the purpose of his writing this episode 1 John 2 verse 1 my little children I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin but he acknowledges the possibility that anyone can trip up and fall sure it's not that a Christian can never fall John is not unrealistic he says if anyone sins we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous now I've often thought about that how would it have sounded if he had reversed that sentence and said it like this my little children these things I'm writing to you that if anyone sins we have an advocate with the father but try not to sin it would be a completely different message he says I'm not writing to you saying what you should do when you sin that's you know not the main thing the main thing I'm writing to you is that you don't sin it's possible to live such a life that you don't consciously do what you know to be wrong but we make allowance for that possibility that you may sin I mean it's like to sin should be like having a flat tire now how many times a day do you expect to get a flat tire well it happens so you make some provision for it but that's not our normal way normal thing that happens to us when we drive everyday my little children I'm writing to you that these things that you don't sin then how should we live verse 6 the one who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same manner as he walked now you know when you read that verse that we are to walk as Jesus walked as the living bible says anyone who says he's a Christian must live as Jesus lived I have never in my life heard a man preach a sermon on living as Jesus lived that's how we're supposed to live it's a tragedy I've been a Christian 50 years I almost never, I can't think of a single sermon I heard in my life that challenged me to live as Jesus lived I wish somebody had challenged me with that when I was first converted at the age of 19 I could have started on that road much earlier than I did this was the challenge the apostles proclaimed none of this is found in the old testament no they could not come to this life in the old testament that's why faith is not even mentioned in the old testament hardly ever the faith of the old testament people was entirely for earthly things you go through that big list of what's called the great men of faith in Hebrews 11 have you noticed one thing about them? it was all earthly it was all earthly by faith Abraham had a son when he was 100 years old by faith Moses Noah built an ark and Moses split the red sea and Joshua pulled down the walls of Jericho and somebody shut the mouths of lions and somebody defeated the enemies and somebody got resurrection from the dead what's heavenly about it? and there's only a small little one little phrase which says about something heavenly where it says Abraham looked for a city whose foundation whose main architect and builder was God but it is all earthly their faith was entirely for earthly things and when we see a gospel being proclaimed today by so many Christian preachers for earthly things you can say that's an old testament gospel yeah it's faith but it's the faith of these people in the old testament that is not the faith of the new testament that's what we need to see the faith of the new testament is to believe that I can walk as Jesus walked that I can overcome sin in my life that I can live in triumph that I can have the mind of Christ that I can listen into the thoughts of God so at the end of this chapter I believe that the verse which is one of the most important verse in Hebrews 11 is the last verse where it says but God has provided something better than all this earthly faith for us by faith Abel, by faith Abraham, by faith Noah by faith Moses, by faith all these people and all the earthly things they got the fantastic I mean imagine being a man of God who can split red seas open and pull down walls of Jericho and raise the dead like Elijah and Elisha and shut the mouths of lions like Samson and all those other people and defeat enemies of thousands and at the end of it it says do you know brothers and sisters that in the new covenant God has provided something better than all of this for us another type of faith and he describes it in chapter 12 you know it's actually those first four verses the last verses of chapter 11 by faith these people and then finally by faith Jesus what did Jesus do by faith he never pulled down any walls of Jericho he never split a red sea he doesn't even mention his multiplying the loaves and fishes or healing nothing what did he do by faith this is what today's Christian preachers need to hear by faith he endured the cross he didn't enjoy the cross and he never asks us to enjoy the cross he endured the cross and don't try to be super spiritual and enjoy it he endured it for the joy set before him that joy was the joy of fellowship with his father and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God he says look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith now what I want to ask you is who is the author and finisher of your faith whenever a lot of preachers today when they fall into sin I've come across more cases more than one case of this some well known world famous preacher suddenly is found in adultery or homosexuality and then of course he refers to David David the man after God's own heart also fell into adultery who is the author and finisher of his faith David some I remember I remember hearing a preacher who was so depressed and gloomy and he said even the great prophet Elijah was depressed who was the author and finisher of his faith Elijah when was Jesus depressed when did Jesus sit under a juniper tree and say oh God I've had enough of this take away my life when did Jesus fall into adultery after preaching to others we've got a third rate good for nothing useless Christianity today that the devil has fooled people is the real gospel it is not it's a counterfeit it just makes preachers rich and wealthy with the things of this earth they proclaim psychology from the pulpit make people feel nice never expose their sin to them leave people defeated in their sin defeated in their family life divorce one another and all this rubbish that goes under the name of Christianity yup we need to come back to this faith the faith where the faith where Jesus is the author and finisher what is the meaning of an author if I took up a book here and said I am the author of this book it would mean that from the first word to the last word I wrote it that's the meaning of I am the author of this book and if I say Jesus is the author of my faith that means the faith I have in my heart from the first to the last is what Jesus wrote in my heart that's the meaning simple meaning of author of my faith it's not a faith that I got from listening to some Pentecostal preacher it's not the faith that I got by watching somebody getting healed on television but this is where a lot of people are getting their faith from or some guy says I gave my tithe to this ministry and I got a promotion my job or a better car this is all rubbish who wrote that faith in your heart some preacher some television program some book there are multitudes of books on faith nowadays in Christian bookshops they are all about this old testament faith some earthly thing and God has allowed listen to this God has allowed such books to multiply in Christian bookshops to test what do these Christians really want and he sees God sees so many of his children going and buying these books because deep down in their heart they want material things and God sees that and God says that's what you want that's what you'll get and you'll never get what Jesus came to earth and died and rose again for I tell you it will be a terrible tragedy for many many Christians when they stand before Christ and discover in the final day what the devil cheated them out of their inheritance how they played around with worthless toys when they could have had eternal riches they'll discover their currency was like the monopoly currency that children play with worthless and they missed eternal riches in the pursuit of earthly honor and earthly riches anyway for myself like Joshua said as for me and my house we will serve the Lord I say for myself I have decided that I want to let Jesus write his faith in my heart I don't want anybody else to write faith in my heart I want the faith of Jesus I hope you want that too that's the only faith which is New Testament faith let me show you Hebrews chapter 8 Hebrews is one of the greatest books of the New Testament and it's been attacked a lot it's not studied a lot if some of you have got a copy of my CD on 70 hours through the Bible you will notice that out of those 70 hours for 66 books I spent 4 hours on Hebrews it's a powerful book it shows us so many new covenant truths it shows us that Jesus lived on earth in our flesh and overcame it's the book that tells us what the faith of Jesus is Hebrews chapter 8 tells us about this new covenant that God will write in our hearts it begins with the faith that verse 12 Hebrews 8.12 that God will not remember a single one of my sins anymore that's what we've got to begin we've got to get our Old Testament record clear and I want to say that for the benefit of anyone here who's still not sure about that you know how the devil keeps reminding us of particularly of some terrible sins that we committed you know we've all committed small sins and some terrible sins many of us anyway and it's those particularly bad sins that you committed maybe years ago maybe in your unconverted days which you keep wondering has God forgiven you I know believers who have come to me and asked me Brother Zach I'm getting this sickness is it because God's punishing me for something some sin I committed 25 years ago when I was unconverted and I tell them let me tell you a story supposing I call my 8 year old boy all of a sudden one day and give him a real hard spanking and he's surprised Dad what did I do I say son you remember 3 years ago that time when you disobeyed me can you imagine a father doing that we insult God by imagining that he's worse than earthly fathers 25 years ago you remember what you did well you're getting it now faith that when he says your sins and iniquities I will remember no more he means it the blood of Jesus has blotted out all our sins somebody asked me once what is the sin that God will never forgive I said the sin that you don't confess that's the one he'll never forgive but if he confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us all our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness but he'll never forgive the sin you don't confess and if you confess it once he's got good hearing you don't have to say it a second time I'm not throwing stones I myself have done that many times because no one drilled Hebrews 8 12 into my mind when I was first converted I believe we need to teach people the power of the blood of Jesus Christ many people glorify the devil so much by talking about their sin I've heard so many people when they give their testimony they spent 25 minutes talking about all their terrible sins they committed in their life and then about 5 minutes what Jesus did for them 25 minutes glorifying the devil I never want to spend my time glorifying the devil Paul says I was the chief of sinners but he never tell us what he did it's like that the sins and iniquities I'll remember no more I have faith in that and I want everyone here who's really born again who's really confessed your sin to the Lord and I'm not saying you've given up your sin but do you want to give up your sin it may take time to give up certain habits but do you want to give them up your sins are forgiven they are blotted out and then the next thing the 3 things in the old new covenant here the other is in verse 11 where it says you won't have to teach one another saying know the Lord because all shall know me from the least to the greatest this is another type of deception that's going on in Christendom today it happens a lot in India among Pentecostal circles and I heard that it happens in some other groups among Pentecostal circles too this deception called prophecy I believe in prophecy New Testament type of prophecy mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14 that we must all covet that we can all prophesy but this counterfeit where there are self appointed prophets who people seek to find out what do you think brother prophet so and so what do you think God wants me to do should I marry this person should I go to this job should I go here should I do that and like these heathen fortune tellers these prophets say I'll tell you what you should do do you know the number of Christians who call themselves Christians who believe all that here it says they shall not teach in the Old Testament it was true even the king had to go to the prophet and say what is God saying what does God want me to do but in the New Testament everybody every Christian can't have the Holy Spirit within him that's why you don't have to go to a prophet today to find out God's will every believer can have the Holy Spirit in him and the anointing will teach you all things God is a jealous God we are the bride of Christ the Old Testament Israelites were not the bride of Christ they did not have a married relationship with Christ their relationship with God was like you know if you were a lowly factory worker God was like the CEO of the factory you couldn't contact the CEO you had to go through the secretary and so many things that's how it was in the Old Testament but in the New Testament my wife doesn't come to me through any secretary and I don't go to Jesus Christ I mean we say you don't have to go through we say the Roman Catholics you don't have to go through Mary I say you don't have to go through a prophet I mean if I had to go through somebody I'd rather choose Mary rather than these modern prophets and pastors any day any day because at least I know she was a holy woman but these other guys who go around speaking today I don't know what their condition is I wouldn't go to any of them but the wonderful thing is you don't have to go to any of them you can go directly all shall know me from the least to the greatest somebody says brother Zach I was born again only yesterday from the least to the greatest you can know if you were born again yesterday you can talk to your father now and you can know him you may not know him in the mature way that someone knows him who's walked with him for many years but you can know him and talk to him now and you can hear him tell you what to do I mean if you have a number of children and the oldest one is say 20 years old the youngest one is only 3 or 4 and if that 3 or 4 year old child comes to you and says dad can you tell me what I should do will you say well I'll tell you through your older brother which dad says that how we insult God by saying oh you gotta consult that prophet Christians are insulting God left right and center all over Christendom today and that's what grieves me because you're insulting my dad pretty badly and that hurts me when you insult my dad like that he's not like that he's a loving father he means what he says you the least was born again this morning you can know God personally you can know the father yourself you don't need to go to a pastor to find God's word you can get his advice but don't let anybody try to tell you what you should do you know being a servant of the Lord for many years you can understand so many people come to me for advice vocally verbally and through email and I always tell them this is my advice please go to God and ask him what you should do you know if things are written in scripture I can be straight forward and say the Bible says you shouldn't divorce there's no doubt about that and such things I don't need to I say it's written clearly in scripture you don't need to do anything it's written there God himself has written it when I'm talking about certain other areas where some tricky situations they ask me what do you think I should do brother Zach I say well I'm not God but I can give you a little bit of advice from my experience but take it before God and find out whether that's what God wants you to do and I tell them I will not be offended if you don't take my advice because I'm not your head I want you to be connected to Christ he's a jealous God he jealously desires the spirit in you it says in James 4 do you know the meaning of that in James 4 there's a verse God jealously desires the spirit in us in other words he doesn't want to contact our spirit through somebody else it's like a husband telling his wife I want you to ask me honey don't go and ask somebody else what I want you to do come to me directly what would you think of a wife who goes to somebody else can you tell me what my husband wants me to do but do you know there are Christians who are doing that they think they have to go to somebody else to find out God's will for them no take advice but all shall know me you must have faith for that this is new covenant faith I believe that I don't have to go to Mary I don't have to go to a pastor I don't have to go to a prophet I can go to Jesus directly I can go to God directly through Jesus Christ there is no secretary between me and Christ then why is it so many pastors and prophets so called self appointed prophets do this type of thing for money they've got their consulting fees I'll tell you that and they're pretty high it's for money the whole thing is a racket the money changers are back in the temple and there's nobody to drive them out that's the trouble all shall know me new covenant faith is that all shall know me from the least to the greatest don't ever come in the way of somebody else from knowing the Lord you may be a very very mature Christian but if you come between somebody and the Lord you're a thief and a robber you know there's one translation of that verse in John chapter 10 you know it says like this in John chapter 10 and verse 8 all who came before me are thieves and robbers but the true sheep did not hear them now you know before has got two meanings before before in terms of time and before in terms of place all who come in front of me are thieves and robbers don't ever come in front of Jesus between somebody and Jesus between a sheep and Jesus all who do that are thieves and robbers and there are plenty of them in Christendom today the third thing you read in Hebrews chapter 8 this thing I told you about Jesus being the author of our faith writing something in our hearts he says I will write I'll put my laws I will write them in your mind and in your heart this is the new covenant promise the one big difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is this and I never tire of saying it if you read the old testament law in Exodus 20 it was full of thou shalt thou shalt not thou shalt, thou shalt not thou shalt, thou shalt not all the way down to the last but when you come to the new covenant that's the old covenant when you come to the new covenant it is I will, God says I will, I will, I will I will that's the big difference between the old covenant and the new covenant and if you're living under that old covenant spirit where you hear a word of God and say oh I've got to do this now I've got to do that now I've got to do the other thing no wonder you're defeated everyone who lives under the law is doomed to be defeated I mean that's already been proved for 1500 years in the history of Israel you don't have to prove it for another 30 years with your life it's already been proved brother that you can't make it with this thou shalt and thou shalt not you don't have to be another living proof of that by wasting your life in that direction the new covenant God says I will, now the question is do you have faith when the son of man comes will he find faith that God will do what he has promised Abraham's faith is described like this he fully believed that what God had promised he could perform let me show you that it's a wonderful definition of faith in Romans chapter 4 and I want to apply it to what we've just read in Romans chapter 4 it says in verse 21 concerning 20 and 21 Abraham, the father of faith is talking about him he's talking about his getting Isaac when he was an old man with respect this is Romans 4.20 with respect to the promise of God he did not waver in unbelief do you know that all shaky, wavering Christianity is the result of unbelief a person who's got faith does not waver he's steady if you're wavering, it's because of unbelief no other reason, don't say I'm weak no, it's because you're unbelieving and it's a sin to be unbelieving it's because you're a sinner living in the sin of unbelief that you waver he did not waver in unbelief but he grew strong in faith giving glory to God and I learned something else there the only way I can give glory to God is by being strong in faith in Him believing what He said how did he give glory to God? being fully assured that what God had promised God was able to perform not what God had promised Abraham was able to perform no, no, no, no, that's not faith what God had promised God would perform that's not law that came 500 years later after Abraham thou shalt, thou shalt not thou shalt not, you got to perform that but when he came to the new covenant God says, I will put my laws into their minds, I will write them upon their hearts in simple terms, that means God will give me a desire to do His will that's when He puts His law into my mind it means that He'll give me in my mind a great longing to do His will, that won't be something I produce myself, it's what God will do in my mind and when it says He'll write it in my heart it means He'll give me the ability to do that will, He'll give me the desire He'll put it in my mind He'll give me the ability He'll write it into my heart it says later on in Hebrews 13.8 it's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace that's God writing in our hearts now it's exactly the same thing that we read in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 13 God works inside us to will that's putting it in our minds and to do that's writing it in our hearts the New Testament is uniform in its teaching now the reason I need to keep emphasizing this is because personally I find very few Christians have entered into this new covenant life and that's why they're not able to build a new covenant church most churches are old covenant congregations where you have one man like Aaron who's their leader and very often they have some headquarters in some Jerusalem and they just sit and listen to their high priest every Sunday morning it's not a new covenant church, it's not a body and the reason is because the individuals sitting there don't have a clue about what new covenant life is they don't have faith for this new covenant that God's established through Jesus Christ that God will work in me here's a promise it is God who is at work in you to will and to do his good pleasure does it mean I've got to sit back and do nothing? no, it says in the previous verse therefore, work it out work out your salvation with fear and trembling what God works in, you've got to work it out it's a partnership the new covenant is a partnership with Jesus Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me he's got one end of the yoke on his neck as the senior bullock and we're the junior ones who don't know how to plow a straight furrow he says, put my yoke upon you and I will work in you and teach you how to live a straight life I'll teach you how to live as I lived on this earth by the same principles when it says, we've got to live as Jesus lived we need to understand what that means it doesn't mean doing the miracles he did, it means living by the principles by which he lived not that I have to be a bachelor or a carpenter or wear the type of robes he wore, no, he's talking about the principles by which Jesus lived must be the principles by which I live by, if I call myself a Christian, and if God sees that I have a longing for that he promises that he will write it in my heart and mind it's amazing let me show you another verse in the old testament a prophecy concerning this new testament life, in Ezekiel 36 you know the reason why I want to show you these scriptures Paul once said my preaching was not with the enticing words of human wisdom he says in 1 Corinthians 2 so that your faith may not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God which is in his word and the reason why whenever I preach I quote a lot of scripture and I expect people to look up those scriptures so that your faith does not depend on my arguments and my logic, but on the promise of God, so that you can see for yourself in scripture what God has promised I find that very little of that in today's preaching today's preaching very often a man will take a verse to start with, that's just an excuse and then he goes off onto his psychology, that's what he teaches make people feel nice make sure they give a good offering etc this is the tragedy of today's preaching that's why I point you towards God's word, let me show you in Ezekiel in chapter 36 an old testament prophecy when God puts his Holy Spirit within us it never happened in old testament times let me repeat the Holy Spirit only came upon people but here Ezekiel is prophesying that a day is coming in the future it would come about 500-600 years later after Ezekiel prophesied it he prophesied it in Babylon and it was nearly 600 years later that the Holy Spirit was poured out in the day of Pentecost and he was prophesying about that future day in Ezekiel 36 and verse 27 thus said the Lord I will put my spirit inside you that never happened till the day of Pentecost I will put my spirit inside you and when I put my spirit inside you listen to these wonderful words I will cause you, I will make you walk in my statues and you will be very careful and exact in keeping my commandments he doesn't say you should he says you will he doesn't say you have to walk in my statues he says I will cause you to walk in my statues it's a wonderful thing I never knew this in my Christian life you know that verse I struggled for so long in my Christian life seeking for victory perpetually defeated for 16 years after I was born again till I entered into what Hebrews 4 calls the rest of God how do you enter into the rest of God Hebrews 4 10 says the one who has entered into God's rest has rested from his own works he has stopped working himself with the thou shalt and thou shalt not and this struggle and that struggle and praying and fasting he prays and fasts probably more than others but that's not the way he comes into this life God causes him to keep his statues I remember in the early days when I was more ignorant and I would say the Lord that I got victory over sin it was right but it was a childish way of putting it and like Paul said when I was a child I spoke like a child but when I grew up I put away childish things and the Lord showed me instead of saying you got victory over sin say Jesus kept me from falling same thing but has it got a different ring about it I got victory over sin Jesus kept me from falling as we get closer to God we become humbler and we are very careful that we don't touch the glory of God we don't talk as if we did something he kept me from falling he caused me to walk in his commandments because that's it I put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my commandments and when we walk in his commandments what do we say I overcame that sin no, he caused me to walk in his statues he wrote his law in my heart and lo and behold I found it easy to keep it it's just like God has written a law into the heart let's take an example of a cat that's always licking itself to make itself clean I sometimes see a cat licking itself and I don't see a speck of dirt in it but it's still licking itself it doesn't seem to be convinced that it's completely clean tremendous passion to keep its skin clean who put that law into that cat that was God and the same God says he'll give me something like that tremendous passion to be totally free from sin to be totally without a speck, without a smell of the flesh or the world imagine God giving such a desire who gets it anyone who hungers and thirsts for righteousness he will be filled it's not automatic why don't most Christians have it I'm absolutely sure the reason is they do not hunger and thirst for righteousness God sees when he tests them do you think God doesn't test you and me I tell you in my life he has tested me numerous times in different situations what will I do with that what will I do with that situation what will I do with that extra money I got which I didn't need what will I do with that spare time I have now he doesn't punish us with leprosy or cancer or any such thing but there are different decisions that people do take with that extra money they get which they don't need with the extra time they have which they don't have anything particular to do with God sees that God sees what do they do with it he is testing us Jeremiah says Lord who tests the righteous that's what makes the difference between different believers that's why you find some believers perpetually up and down and up and down you see them 20 years later they are still this up and down type of life and there are others who are just steadily going up and up getting closer and closer to God living a life of rest it's because God has seen in the different situations of life what they really hungered and thirsted for why is it some people I have seen myself God gives them grace to build an amazing church which the gates of hell cannot prevail against in their locality and then there are other people I see 25 years later they are still struggling they can't even make 2 or 3 people one God doesn't bear witness to their labor is God partial not at all not at all but he has seen a different attitude in these two types of Christians he has seen a different attitude he backs up some people with his authority and some others he doesn't back up at all there is a reason he gives grace to the humble he resists the proud generally speaking we can say that there are two types of Christians some whose attitude is and I am not here to judge you you can judge yourself as I mentioned these which category you fall into I don't believe even your wife will know or your husband will know but you will know about yourself one category of Christian are those who say what is the minimum I have to do to get to heaven tell me brother what is the minimum I have to do to get into God's kingdom repent, believe in Jesus what is the minimum I have to do to please God minimum what is the minimum I have to give to God 10% or is it 12% tell me brother what is the minimum their whole life is what is the minimum and along with that on the other side is what is the maximum I can get for myself what is the maximum I can do to enjoy myself and live a comfortable life on earth that is one type of Christian and there could be a number sitting like that over here and then there is another type of Christian who says I have got only one life I have got only 24 hours a day and a lot of that time goes with many necessity necessary things of work, earning my living taking care of my family, bringing up the children going to the market but what is the maximum I can do for the Lord in my one life what are the unnecessary things I can eliminate from my life so that I can do the maximum for the Lord what is the maximum I can give for the Lord, to the Lord in this one life and what is the minimum I need to survive on this earth it is a completely different type of Christian my brother, sister whatever image you may present to other people with all your Bible knowledge you know which of these two categories you are in and you will reap a harvest exactly according to what you have sown what a man sows that he will reap and if God gives an abundant harvest to another man you can be pretty sure that he sowed something you didn't sow God is not partial I often say in my home church I say the reason I preach as I do, I said, is because I want you to have no regrets when you stand before God, before Jesus in the final day I want you to have no regrets about the way you lived on earth I don't want you to scrape into heaven what do you want to hear Jesus say to you when you stand before him well done good and faithful servant or do you want him to say so you made it, did you? I never thought you would what do you want him to say you know that may apply to you take it seriously like I said yesterday may this weekend be a weekend that changes the direction of your life for the rest of your days before Christ comes again say Lord I want to have that faith which you had that faith which you which convinced you that the only thing worth doing on earth was the will of your father the passion that drove you at any cost to do the will of your father whatever people thought of you whatever inconvenience it caused you you know when I read when I was a young man this verse that said in Mark chapter 3 about Jesus that once when he came to his own home he lived in Capernaum after he came into, after his baptism he shifted his residence from Nazareth to Capernaum that was very considerate of him because he didn't want his home with Mary and the other brothers and sisters to be disturbed by all the people who would come to see him so he shifted and rented a house in Capernaum you read that in Matthew 4 and he lived there and he came home it says in Mark 3 and verse 20 he came to his own home and a great multitude gathered again to such an extent that he didn't even have time to eat a meal he didn't have time to eat a meal when was the last time you served the Lord in such a way that you didn't have time to eat a meal ever in your life? and when his own relatives heard this what did they hear? this guy is not eating I mean they wouldn't have done this if he had just missed one meal they went out and took custody of him they are saying he has lost his senses I mean how many people would say you have lost your senses if you have missed one meal they think you are probably reducing weight or something but he I believe he missed a number of meals because he was really so passionate to serve these people his whole way of life was father you sent me on earth to do something I want to finish that I want to do your will on earth before I leave this earth one passion he had in life that's the faith of Jesus and that's the faith he writes in our heart I tell you I can't take any credit for it but God wrote it in my heart and I remember when I read that and I was working in the Navy those days you know rich comfortable life as a naval officer good food and everything else and I felt that the Lord may call me for his service so I said Lord I've got to overcome the love of food otherwise I'll never be able to serve you I've got to overcome the love of comfortable beds otherwise I'll never be able to serve you in India and so what I'd do I'd skip meals for a couple of days just drink some liquids while working on the ship and I said Lord I have to overcome I love food I'm just like all other human beings I love food and I want to overcome it otherwise I'll never be able to serve you I love comfort I love a nice mattress so even though I had a mattress I would sleep on the hard floor just to be tough so that like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 I discipline my body lest after having preached to others I be disqualified myself that's the faith of Jesus I mean it's not the faith of the ascetic who's trying to do these things to show he's a very disciplined person or it's not some type of yoga people who practice yoga also do these things but Jesus motive was completely different it's the motive that makes the difference he wanted to please his father and he never sought for comfort he realized that if he looked for comfort he'd miss out something in his father's will dear brothers and sisters I believe that God is looking everywhere and even here for young men and women people who are passionate to do his will at any cost who will say Lord what's the maximum I can give you know there are two levels of blessing there is a blessing in receiving but Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive of course we get a blessing by receiving but you may have missed the higher blessing which comes only to those who have learned to give of themselves and their time and their everything to God you want to live with that lower level of blessing all your life and just keep increasing your knowledge or do you want to come to that higher level of blessing that Jesus spoke about let's pray will you pray that God will write these things deeply in your heart not my words but whatever you got from scripture whatever you saw of God's promises in scripture those are the words that need to be written deeply in your heart and I want to say one other thing dear brothers and sisters seek fellowship in a church that challenges you with these truths every week don't go and sit in some dead church where you'll forget all about all you heard here this weekend and if you can't find a church like that in your locality pray that God will build one maybe through you I'd rather sit at home and listen to a CD or watch a DVD that challenges me to live this type of life than go and sit in some dead church that takes away whatever little fire God puts in my heart I decided that long ago and I really believe I need to recommend that to a number of you you can hear something God can put a fire in your heart and three months later it's all gone because some church poured cold water on it now the choice is yours Heavenly Father help us to honor you we humble ourselves we believe you have great plans for every single person sitting here, every single family I pray they may not miss out on what you are seeking to do in reaching out to them in inviting them saying come up higher help them to respond to your call we pray in Jesus name