======================================================================== GAZING AT GOD： HIS LOVE IN HIS UNITY by Sandeep Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of adoring God, focusing on the unity, love, submission, and holiness within the Godhead as a model for believers. It highlights the need for believers to be transformed by beholding God's glory, particularly the infinite love that God bestows upon them, leading to a life of obedience and overcoming sin through the assurance of being loved by God. The sermon also stresses the significance of the local church in binding and loosening spiritual authorities, engaging in spiritual warfare, and demonstrating unity, love, and submission as reflections of the Godhead's attributes. Duration: 58:02 Topics: "Adoration of God", "Transformation through Love" Scripture References: Matthew 16:18, Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:17, 1 John 5:3, John 17:24 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of adoring God, focusing on the unity, love, submission, and holiness within the Godhead as a model for believers. It highlights the need for believers to be transformed by beholding God's glory, particularly the infinite love that God bestows upon them, leading to a life of obedience and overcoming sin through the assurance of being loved by God. The sermon also stresses the significance of the local church in binding and loosening spiritual authorities, engaging in spiritual warfare, and demonstrating unity, love, and submission as reflections of the Godhead's attributes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ That song we just sang, Father of Jesus, love's reward, what rapture it will be. Prostrate at thy throne to lie and gaze and gaze on thee. Can you picture that for a second? Prostrate at the feet, in heaven, imagine that you're there. And gazing and gazing. But let me ask you this, what will you see? You look at God, but what's going to be the rapture of it? That's one of the thoughts that I wanted to share, which was, it depends on what you are raptured by. I think it depends on what really catches your fancy. What is it about God that really grabs a hold of you? If you sang that song, what is it going to be? When you see God, you'll be like, I just can't stop gazing and gazing on thee. And there's many parts to that, for sure. One of the things that helped me in this journey of understanding the church, I spoke at the end of the previous message about the church. On how, I'll just recap it, maybe some folks were teaching the children. I was saying that the enemy that we have to be worried about in our personal life is the flesh. That is the enemy that hates God. But the moment we start thinking about how do we attack the forces that's beyond my flesh, I have no ability to do that. I've been given no weapon to do that except one, which is the church. The church has been equipped in a unique way to fight against the gates of hell. Now the gate doesn't move. The gate is a stationary thing that guards the fortress. That's how it was, the gates of a castle. That was entry into the castle. The gates of a city was the front entrance into the city. So when Jesus said the church will attack the gates of hell, it showed the church as an offensive power going and taking, capturing the gates of hell, where the devil sits. That's an offensive capability of the Christian. And the only offensive capability of the Christian is in the church. If you look at the armor of God, it's all very defensive. It's always all very protective. It's protecting you, the helmet, the breastplate, the loins of truth, the shoes on your feet. The sword and the shield of faith, the sword of God is to ward off if somebody comes at you. Again, that's the only offensive weapon in the sense, but you can't attack the gates of hell with that. There's no verse that gives me that authority. The only way I can attack the gates of hell, the only way I can attack against the devil is if I go with the church. So the local church is so critically important. But here's the tricky thing about the local church. I can't do anything about it. God must build it. That's a lesson I learned. Anybody who seeks to build a church learns that lesson is that you can't do anything you can do about it. You at best can position yourself to be ready to be a part of it. That's the best you can do. But it is God's timing, not only God's will. It is God's will to build the church. It's God's will for me to be a part of the church. But it's God's timing and wisdom to decide how and when he does it. I discovered that at NCCS. I wanted to build a church years before anything ever happened. And it happened in God's way and in God's timing in a way that it just happened. So this is the mystery about it. But we should also know that that's the only way you're going to beat the devil. And in my journey of understanding the church, I want to show you a couple of verses. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Be on guard. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. He says that be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd. Here's the point I wanted to underline this line here. To shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. The blood of Jesus is something that is so foundational into so much of what allows us to be Christians. He shed his blood to his very last drop or shed on the cross. But the blood of Jesus is what in whom we have redemption. That's written in God's word. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Jesus justifies us as Romans 3.24. And here it is the blood of Jesus is what purchased for God the church. So if you want to believe in the blood of Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you should remember the blood of Jesus is not just forgiving you of your sins. It's justifying you and it is also saying I have a church. And what we Christians are good at is we are good at claiming part of the truth and not all of the truth. And we have to be very careful about that. We have to realize that God's word expands much more than we may think it is. We may think of God as forgiving us of our sins and God says no I have so much more. We can limit God in his love towards us. Similarly, if you believe that Jesus' blood forgives you of sins and you feel you have the faith to grab a hold of the blood of Jesus to ask God to forgive you of your sins, wonderful. You're believing God at his word. But I will say that if you believe that you must also believe Acts 20 verse 28 which says the same blood of Jesus has purchased the church. So what that means to me is I must value the church. I must value the church so tremendously that I put a very high valuation on it. I must think of it with very high regard, the church of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the same blood of Jesus purchased it. That same blood of Jesus that's allowing you to get forgiveness from sins, let's say the sins you've committed. If you don't get forgiveness of sins you're not going to heaven. We know that. If your sins are not forgiven you're not going to heaven. This should be clear to every one of us. If your sins are not forgiven you're not going to heaven. And the only way to get your sins forgiven is that the blood of Jesus will cleanse us of all our sins. So that's how precious the blood of Jesus is. But what I think a lot of us have missed is the same blood of Jesus has also purchased the church. And we are extremely selfish or we may have been ignorant. In my case it was ignorant plus selfishness. Maybe other different reasons but now that it is written in God's word and we see it. We must not value the blood of Jesus for our forgiveness but not value the blood of Jesus also for the church. You can't separate it. It's the same blood. It's the exact same blood of Jesus. So you show me a Christian who values the blood of Jesus for their forgiveness of sins but doesn't value the church. I'll tell you they're either ignorant or they're badly misusing the blood of Jesus. They're not valuing the blood of Jesus for what it is. They're just using the blood of Jesus for their convenient purposes. And the Lord took me through this journey to where because of the preaching at CFC and because of my own failures I thought that to be holy was what was the best thing that could happen to me. That if I could one day be free from all sin that all of the sins that were raging inside of my flesh that would be perfect. That would be awesome. That would be it. That I thought that if that flesh with all my lust could be killed all the time that would be it. But the mistake I made in that was I was always anti something. I was never for something. That's a dangerous end for many Christians. Because we know that Christianity ought to be have a fundamental hatred for sin. The mistake we can make is that our whole objective is to be anti-sin. But not for God. You know what Jesus, it says in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9 maybe I quoted it earlier today but maybe good for you to remember this for a couple of different reasons. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9 it talks about Jesus and it talks about how Jesus was able to be filled with the oil of gladness or rejoicing because he did two things. He loved righteousness and he hated lawlessness or sin. So you see those two contrasts in there. He was not just anti-sin. Jesus was anti-sin and pro-God, the Father. And what I realized was that the mistake I was making was I was only anti-sin. And there was this vacuum of negative, negative, negative, negative that got me into discouragement and many other things. I didn't realize that a deficiency, almost like a vitamin deficiency or something like that, was that I was not for God. I was fighting sin but I was not growing in my loyalty towards God. I was fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting sin but I was not growing in my loyalty to God. And when I was getting victory over sin I was becoming more legalistic. I realized that Lord, having the vitamin of hating sin is not good enough. I should take both the vitamins. Hating sin and loving righteousness or loving God. And if I'm missing the other one I'm deficient. Some people claim to love God and don't hate sin. We know better than that. But our danger is to hate sin but not love God. And I like the fact that Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9 puts loving God first. This is the greatest commandment. Not to hate sin but to love God. To love, to love. And so I realized that the top of the mountain was not victory over sin. Remember what I said? What is the top of the mountain? It's not victory over sin. It was the love of God. Love. And I want to explain what that looks like. I want to describe that. Because if holiness was the top of the mountain I would stop short. I asked this question in the beginning, right? What will I look at when I prostrate myself before the throne of God and I gaze and gaze at God? What am I going to see? Here's what I'm going to see. I'm going to see three persons. Yes? Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I'm not going to see... They are one. Three is one. But if you can allow this imagery. I'm going to see three persons who are what? Who are one. That is love. Love is just not this one being pushing this thing called love, love, love. That's not love. That's just bogus theory. I'll see love in action. I'll see infinite love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit back to the Father, Son, Holy Spirit in this triangle of all three going at each other in love. That is what I'll see when I gaze about God much more than His holiness. When I mean holiness, I don't know because I'm using English words. Holiness, when I think of holiness I tend to think no sin. That's what we tend to think about. Holiness means no sin. But the proper understanding of the holiness of God is really love. So when I say holiness is not I don't mean that God is something more than holy. It's just that our holiness has to be redefined in the context of God who is love and it is that unity of love. The unity of love that is the top of the mountain. So that's how I really should describe holiness of God. The way I should describe am I becoming holy is not well, I'm not sinning in those sins like I used to sin before. Good, that's part of it. That's definitely part of the holiness journey. It's the highway of holiness as we talked about it. But it's not the final destination. The final destination is the unity of love. That is what we will gaze and gaze and gaze at is infinite love throbbing from God the Father to God the Son to God the Holy Spirit. Another word for that is called fellowship. And you can maybe now understand what 1 John chapter 1 verse says. We can turn to 1 John chapter 1. We call ourselves New Covenant Christian Fellowship NCCF I think London Christian Fellowship Church, is that what it's called? Christian Fellowship, that word fellowship. It's a massive word. Because remember we're talking about what the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have. You know what they have? It's the unity of love which is called fellowship. That's what that word fellowship means. So you read this 1 John chapter 1. What was from the beginning? What we have heard, what we have seen, what we have beheld in our hands and our hands handled concerning the word of life, that life was manifested. And we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has been manifested now to us. What we have seen and heard we proclaim also that you may have fellowship with us and that indeed our fellowship is with the Father. This is what we're proclaiming. This life that was manifested, this life that was with the Father, that's what we're trying to proclaim to you. Not a life that is just free from sin, because that could happen in a vacuum. This is a life with somebody else that we are proclaiming. And so you need somebody else in order to have this life with. And I talked about it a little bit yesterday in the wedding as well. It was not good, it was not good for man to be alone. Because unity cannot be portrayed when there's only one person. Cannot be demonstrated. God cannot be demonstrated if there's only one person. Well, what if he preaches the most amazing sermons that I've ever listened to? Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Because what we're trying to demonstrate is God. And God is three with love pulsing between them. That's why, that is the revelation of the church that God needs to open our eyes to see. That is the revelation of love in the context of marriage that we have to see. That this is God's entrusting, the top of the mountain, the highest ideal. And God wants in a very limited way, God wants the world to be able to marvel at this thing called the church. Not because of its glamour, but because of its unity. That is the glory we ought to have. And you know, angels long to look into this. This reflection of the church in its unity. That many other churches have gotten lost with all kinds of other things. But this is the foundational value of who was then God. Let us make man in our own image. And He created two to be one. And He said, I'm not just going to make you two as partners. Because you know, left brain versus right brain or whatever it is. That's not the point of it at all. That was not the point of it all. It wasn't to complete one because other ones. No, it is to demonstrate love. I am complete in Christ and my wife is complete in Christ. And we have to demonstrate love. Love. Love. Between two people who are complete in Christ. I don't need somebody else to complete me. I'm complete in Christ. My wife doesn't need me to complete her. She's complete in Christ. Whom have I in heaven but thee? But besides you I desire nothing on this earth. Except my husband. No. I'm complete in Christ. My wife is complete in Christ. And these are two complete in Christ beings throwing love at each other. Love. That is what our dying world needs to see. That is the authority of the church. That we were asked to have. Not for my wife or my children or my husband to complete me. No. No, no, no. No such thing. I'm complete in Christ. I don't need to get married to be complete in Christ. I don't need to have children to be complete in Christ. I don't need a job to be complete in Christ. I don't need grandchildren to be complete in Christ. I am complete in Christ. Period. And my wife is complete in Christ but it is not good for me to be alone. How am I going to demonstrate love? If I don't have somebody to love. So then I stop looking to any spouse or anybody else to complete me. I remove that thought. I say no, no, I don't need anybody to do anything for me to complete me. Christ is enough. What I do want to have other people for is to show love. To show how God loves. And if we're married, the template can be at home. But even if we're not married, that's what God says, this is the church. And when Jesus was preparing for the church in the upper room, He first broke the bread in the cup and He gave it to them and He said, this is my blood. And then right after that in John chapter 13, He says, I'm going to give you a new commandment. Not love the Lord your God. Not love your neighbor. Love one another. And how should you love one another? As I have loved you. And He was basically saying, you know, this love that was between the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit. Now the Son now loved you. You know this infinite love, infinite love, infinite love that God has. Jesus had infinite love towards the Father and the Son. This infinite love, that same pulsing infinite love came down with that same ferocity. With that same velocity and loved all of us. Fullness of love that is willing to die for us. All of that, that throbbing love. Imagine how much love, the force of that love. Rivers cannot quench it. That love, pulsing all directed at you. And He said, love one another. With that same pulsing love. Love one another as I have loved you. That's what John is saying too. This fellowship, we want you to have fellowship with us. The same fellowship that we have with the Father and the Son. And God is inviting us into this ever increasing rivers of living water love. Between Him and us first. Out of which we can now say, Lord I want to love other people. And that's where self comes in the way. Self saying, I want to be somebody. Self saying, I want to be somebody important. Self that says, it's my way rather than her way. Self comes in so many ways. And we have to see that self is the enemy of love. I have thought about this more and more. And the Lord keeps reminding me of this. That the opposite of love is not hate. That's how the world thinks about it. But to me I have seen more and more that the opposite of love is lust. And I am not talking about sexual lust. That's one demonstration of lust. But lust just means to desire, to selfishly desire. That's what lust is. A woman can lust after another woman's hair and it's got nothing to do with sexual lust. But you eagerly desire it. And out of that comes jealousy. Comes comparison. Comes pride. Comes all kinds of things. And we have this lust for something. For that car. Your neighbor's car. Your neighbor's this. Another word for that is covet. And out of this comes all of this stuff. And I have to see that the opposite of love is this coveting and this lust. For something that somebody else has. Somehow not happy with something in my life. Something that somebody else has or something else I feel I should have. And that is what is preventing me from love. Preventing me from the love of God coming towards me. Preventing me from giving other people the love of God. And Jesus when He was about to die. He gave that new commandment on the upper room. He said, love one another as I have loved you. And then when He went to pray in John chapter 17. Is where I really saw. You can turn there in John chapter 17. It's an interesting expression. I do not know if you have noticed it. But if you have. I want you to read this carefully. In John chapter 17. I think if you have listened to Zakpoonen long enough. You know John chapter 17 verse 23. Because if you have heard Zakpoonen. He said that John chapter 17 verse 23. Is the greatest truth. He would say that is there in the Bible. John chapter 17 verse 23. The last part of it where he says. That the Father loves you and me. Just as the Father loves Jesus. That God loves us just as much as He loves Jesus. My dad has spoken sermons on that. That's John chapter 17 verse 23. That's where he gets that truth from. But I actually want to use that. John chapter 17 verse 23. By having us look at verse 22 and 24. Let's read verse 22 first. It says in verse 22. The glory which you have given me. Listen to this. Think about this carefully as you are reading this. And see if you can understand this. The glory. Remember. In case you don't know. This is Jesus talking to the Father. The glory which you have given me. I have given to them. That they may be one. Just as we are one. Okay. Let's kind of think about this. What is he saying here? The glory. Father. Which you gave me. I have given to them. Who has he given it to? The disciples. Right? Those 11 disciples. The glory that the Father had given Jesus. He is saying I have given it to them already. What glory is that? Is it the Holy Spirit? No. The Holy Spirit hadn't been given to them. What is the glory that God had given Jesus. That Jesus says I have already given it to them. I don't know if you have ever thought about that. I don't know if your scripture says something different. But that's what it says to me here very clearly. The glory Father which you have given me. I gave to them. Now the reason I gave that glory so that they could be one. So unity is not the glory. Because that's the end result of that glory. Are you following me? Alright. The English is not that complicated. This is Britain afterwards. So this is where English started. So you guys should be right along with this. No problem. Okay. The glory which you have given me. I have given to them. So that they may be one. So I know because God gave Jesus that glory. And because Jesus gave that glory to the disciples. Now the disciples can now as a result of that be one. Okay. I still don't know what that glory is. Okay we'll keep reading. I in them and you in me. So this is the kind of unity. That they may be perfected in unity. See again he's saying look all of this glory. That you gave me. All that glory I gave to them. And the whole point of this glory is not that they may be holy. But that they may be one. See that's kind of where the Lord opened my eyes to these people. Hey unity is a big deal. That Jesus is going to die in four hours. Jesus is going to be killed in five hours. And this is what he's praying for. That they may be one. I in them and you in me. That they may be perfected in unity. So that evangelism might happen. Did you read that? How is evangelism going to happen? By the people being one. It's not what you hear in most of the YouTube videos in evangelism. So that the world may know that you sent me. That's evangelism 101. How will they know? Well if these guys will just be one. Then it will happen apparently. That the world may know that you sent me. That the world will know that you love them. Even as you have loved me. That same love. This will all happen. If they are one. So then verse 24. That told me what is the glory that God had given Jesus. And that Jesus had given to them already. Father I desire that they also whom you have given me. These eleven disciples. May be with me where I am. So that they may see my glory which you have given me. And here it is. This is the glory that you have given me Lord. That you loved me before the foundation of the world. That was the glory of Jesus. The glory of Jesus on this earth. Was not him shining. Sparkling. He was despised of man. The glory of Jesus wasn't that he walked on water. Glory of Jesus wasn't that he turned water into wine. The glory of Jesus was that he was loved. And that was the glory he gave to his disciples too. He said you know this glory of being loved. I gave that glory to them too. So that they know that they are loved. By whom? By Jesus. And Jesus says. Because remember the new commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. Trust me I have loved you. If you have seen me. You have seen the father. He said that in the same context. And he is saying it just a different way. Whatever glory I had. I gave it to him. Because you know Lord what is my glory. Father you know what the glory you have given me. What Jesus is saying. Is that you love me. And he is saying I gave that to you. I gave that to all the disciples too. But what that showed me was the glory of Jesus on this earth. That we beheld. Full of grace and truth was this. That Jesus walked around. That he was loved. Eternally loved. Nobody can stop you from living that way. Nobody. Not your spouse. Not your nearest one. Can stop you from having the glory of Jesus. In you. The love of God has been shed abroad through the Holy Spirit. And when you are born again. The Holy Spirit pours out the love of God. And that is what is supposed to be over our hearts. Is the infinite love of God. Over us. Not that we love one another. That is secondary. That comes second. Step number one is first. That I have the glory of God upon me. Can you have the glory of God upon you today? Yes you can. What is it? That you are loved before the foundation of the earth. That God loved you before the foundation of the earth. And I said nobody can stop you from it. Nobody can stop you from receiving that right now. You don't need your father to be saved. Your mother to be saved. You don't need your wife to be saved. Your husband to be saved. You don't need your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your wife to even come with you in that journey. God is no respecter of persons. God is saying you can have that. You can have the glory of Jesus. This is my glory that I was loved. I gave that glory to these eleven disciples. I gave it to them. All of it. I love them too. Just like you love me. I love them. And we are imperfect versions of that. But that is what God is asking us to do. Walk around as if you are loved. How much insecurity was there in Jesus' eyes? Zero. Why? Because he had the power of positive thinking? No. Because he was loved. He was infinitely loved. That is the basis of all our actions that we do. And this is the glory of Jesus. Lord show me your glory. We sing songs like that. Lord reveal me your glory. Lord may your glory be on this place. What does that mean? You want a cloud? That's what the charismatics are looking for. Charismatics are looking for cloud and smoke and dust and gold dust. What are you looking for? When you say Lord show me your glory. Lord I want your glory to be present. What are you looking for? A feeling? I'll tell you what I want when I ask for the glory of Jesus. It's right here, John 17, 24. Let's be Bible people. I'm not saying this is the only thing. It may be other things too. But in the purpose of what I'm speaking, let it at least be this. There could be other things too, but let it at least be this, which is that you are loved. Let us be increasingly secure people. Because we are loved infinitely. No matter what circumstance happens in my life. No matter what situation happens to me. No matter what happens in my job. No matter what email my co-worker sends me. None of that's going to change whether I am loved. I have to start there. That's my glory. I hope that we will be able to come into the meetings more and more, bringing the glory of Jesus into the meeting. That is the precursor. That is the requirement. As it says, John 17, 22. Lord, the glory which you gave me, I gave to them so that they can be one. So, who are the kind of people who can be one and demonstrate to the world that God sent Jesus. There's not any two people who believe the right doctrinal faith. That's not the requirement here. John 17, 22 is very clear. Lord, the glory that you gave me, I gave them. Such people can show the world that God sent Jesus. Because such people can be one. That's the requirement for unity. And so, is listening to Zakir Khan the requirement? Absolutely not. Is believing the theology the requirement? Absolutely not. It's a much higher requirement than that. Much more tougher requirement. That you live as if you've been loved. Easy to get people to listen to Zakir Khan, especially now because he's well known. To get two people to live as if they are loved independently, loved by God. Try it out. Try it out for a week. Much easier to listen to Zakir Khan and I'll tell you that. Try to live a week saying, I'm loved infinitely. It'll be so beautiful if you'll give it six months to a year. You'll never go back on any other kind of life. And it's such a freeing place to be. The wonderful news about the Gospel is it's really good news. I'm not saying it's easy news. The Gospel is not called easy news. But it's good news. And it requires death to self. It requires killing this person inside of you called your flesh, that wants to do its own will. But it's amazing news. It's the happiest life we can live. And it starts by this good news being, I am loved. This is the starting place on which we have unity. This is the starting place on how we are able to build a church. So, I hope that as I, and one other thing that I want to say, which I said in the previous message as well. We in our local churches, so I'll give this as a message for LCFC too. The purpose of the church existing is to attack the gates of hell. Which means the devil should always be afraid of London Christian Fellowship Church. I do not know if that's a truth about LCFC or NCCF. The church that I'm really responsible for. I have no responsibility here. So, it's more a question for you guys. But it's also a question for me as it relates to NCCF. So, let me share that with you. That's the question that I'm engaging with. That I'd encourage you also to engage with. Which is, is my local church a threat to the devil? Let me pose some questions to you for this. And I'll tell you this as an elder of NCCF. Can those brothers who are sitting at NCCF, call me and say, Sandeep, will you please pray with me on this issue which I'm dealing with. And they have the confidence that this is a guy I can go to battle with. Because he doesn't love the world. That I know. I know that he wants nothing to do with his flesh. I know that he is passionate about God's kingdom and God's name. Not that he's an elder. That means nothing. But I know that that man is militant towards seeking the will of God. Such a person, you want him on your side when you got cancer. Or when you got trouble in your life. Or when the devil is attacking your children. Who you gonna call up? Some guy who knows verses? No. You want somebody you can bind. You want somebody you can bind and loose. Spiritual authorities in the heavenly places. Please don't go over the eloquent ones. Don't go over the ones who can preach good sermons. Don't go over the people who's got a last name similar to some famous man. That's not requirements. To have the same last name as Zach Gunan or Wesley or whatever it is. It means nothing. You know that. You want somebody who has the authority to bind. It's much more important than anybody. Being the son of somebody or being an elder or anything like that. At the end of the day when you're going to battle, you're not looking at last names. You're looking at does this person have authority to bind the devil. Who you gonna call? Don't go after the religious idea. Oh I'm gonna call my elders. Don't think about that even though that's the right answer. But I hope it'll be people who you know. They have authority. I have confidence that they have authority. That they wield an authority. If you don't have that confidence in me at NCCF. I would encourage you at NCCF. You should probably find another church. If not me. If me and Bobby and Jeremy. Those three elders. If you don't have confidence in that war. Please find another church. Because that's what this church is existing for. And I'm not saying we're supposed to be that. We're trying to be it. But if you don't think that we're doing a good job. Please find another church. That you can call in your moment of need. To go to battle against the devil. When your young children or your young people are getting affected. And being torn across by all the temptations that are in the world. Who you gonna call on your side? To bind and loose. This is not some small game you're playing now anymore. These are your children's souls. Eternal souls. Who you gonna call? I hope you'll call somebody who has authority. If Jesus was here. You'll go to him. For sure. If Peter or Paul was there. You'll go to them. For sure. And can I be somebody like that? At NCCF? Definitely don't want to be the only one. But can I be one person? Who you can count on. That I'll be an ally in that battle. Whenever I find you interested in just having a nicer life. Sorry, you got the wrong guy for that. I'm not binding anything for that. But if you are singular focus to seeking the will of God. I'm your man. I'll come into the battle with you. And we all need to be able to say that. And the way we say that is not with our words. It's with our lives. Day in, day out. Week in, week out. I'm demonstrating to the brothers and sisters at NCCF. In normal times, I'm a soldier. I don't know when you're gonna need me. It may be 3 years from now. But for the next 3 years, 52 times 3, 150 weeks. I'm gonna be showing you. I'm somebody you can call. Because watch me. Week after week after week. You'll see me. Armor on. Fighting for God. No battle. You don't need me for a battle. That's okay. But I'm always where I've always been. You think about your house. You know where the couch is? Can you picture where the couch is? Will you be shocked? If you go to your house and be like, Wait, the couch is gone. Where did the couch go? Couch isn't going anywhere. Unless somebody steals it. Couch is where the couch has always been. The bed is where the bed has always been. Do you know where the bed is in your room? Are you gonna be shocked if you go back home? And suddenly find the bed gone? Yes, you will be. I wanna be like that. You come to NCCF, I'm there. You should be shocked if I'm not there. Because I'm part of the furniture. I'm not going anywhere as it comes to the church of Jesus Christ. I'm a fixture. You can count on me. You can count on your bed being where it is when you go home tonight. You can count on me being part of the church. That's the message I'm trying to give. As when I say, I'm part of this. I'm not loyal to any particular human institution. But I'm part of the kingdom of God. And I wanna do battle with fellow saints who wants to do the will of God. And there is no special battle that we're dealing with at NCCF right now, to be honest. There's no special big thing we're fighting against. There's always small, small things. We're not against some big battle. But I don't know when this brother of mine's children is gonna suddenly get into some mess that's above the child's control. And this father is gonna come desperate and say, I don't know what to do with my child. He's 16 years old and he's caught up with the wrong people. What do I do? And then I gotta say, I'll be one of those people who'll do battle with you. And it may take days, it may take weeks, it may take months, but I'll pray with you. And we will bind and we will loosen. And actually there are some battles that we are fighting right now. We're fighting for loved ones who are not saved. I'm not just talking about children. I'm talking about some people's wives who have been coming to our church for years and their wives are not even saved. They hate the Gospel that we preach. And the husband's been coming, for example. In some cases the wife is gripped and the husband's not even born again. And we're fighting. And we as a church are seeking to do battle. We're not seeking to be like, yeah, let's just not pray for it every now and then. The Lord is gripping our hearts to be doing more battle for these people. These dear brothers. What's the difference between me and them? You think I deserve to have a godly wife and he doesn't? The fact that he was married in some random, another group where they got married and not even knowing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then he came after he was married for many years and he came and now his wife is not converted. Is that his fault? Do I have some big privilege over him? No, he's my brother. God had a different path for him. But now his wife is not supporting him in that. And he's got a frigid situation at home. Cold. Who's going to fight with him? Is he praying alone or is he going to have people? Who's going to pray with him whose prayers matter? Binding and loosening. In the church of Jesus Christ, Matthew 16 and Matthew 18, I'll close with this. Dear brothers and sisters, don't be part of the local church that I'm talking about because it's preaching the right doctrine or because it has a godly man who's connected with it. Those are all good reasons, but that's not the main reason. The main reasons are given, that'll protect you from wrong doctrines and that'll protect you from being deceived. But that's the negative. What the positive is, verse 18, Jesus says to Peter, on this rock I will build my church. The rock being that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God. And the gates of hell will not overpower it. That tells you the authority that the church has. And I will, verse 19, Matthew 16 verse 19, I will give you the keys and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. There's a binding that we can do as a church. You don't have that authority in an individual thing. And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Jesus talked only two times about the church in his ministry. Jesus I'm talking about, on his ministry on earth. Only two times talked about the church. One in Matthew chapter 16 and the other in Matthew chapter 18. I probably have to turn the page. And in Matthew chapter 18 verse 17, he says that, in the matter of sin, Matthew chapter 18 verse 17, he says, if sin keeps on going, now then go tell it to the church. So there's the other time he talks about the church. And in that context too, he says, verse 18, the very next verse, Matthew 18 verse 18, he also says, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. The two times he talks about the church, he only talked about it twice, in both those times he told, whenever I think about the church, what I think about is, binding and loosening. That's the role of the church, is to bind, bind. Humans, absolutely not. Bind spiritual authorities. I don't need to bind my flesh. I kill him. I have to do that myself. I don't need my wife's help, I don't need anybody's help to do that. That's my own responsibility, to kill my flesh, to crucify it, to kill my own will. But when it comes to the spiritual authorities, I'm helpless by myself. But the church is not helpless. And the church is not meant to be the elders. When I have a problem with it, go tell the elders and have them pray. Why is that? Why is it that I cannot be part of that group of people who binds and loosens? Definitely the elders should be that, but it should be the elders plus. And the true church is not based on certain responsibilities, that's what the elders are. The true church is the people who have that authority to bind and loose. That's the church. I don't know how many people come to LCCF, I don't know how many people come to NCCF, I know relatively, approximately how many number of people are there. But that's not the true quantity of our church. The number of adults who come is not the true quantity. The number is the number of people whom God sees and the devil sees, whom he's afraid of. And he says, those people, if those people pray as one, then I'm in trouble. That's what the devil would say. We have maybe let's say about 60 adults. That doesn't, it's not the number of people who have the authority to bind or loose. It's a subset of that, almost always is. Even Jesus' time of 12, it wasn't 12, it was 11 out of 12. Judas betrayed him. So in our church of 60 adults, the only question I have is, Lord am I one of them? Oh well I'm an elder, means nothing. Are you gonna be one that the devil is afraid of? He doesn't look at my title, doesn't look at my last name. He says, does he have authority? Does he seek my kingdom alone? Does he fight the flesh day in and day out? Does he seek to be one with other people? Prostrate at the feet of God, at the feet of God and to gaze and gaze on the Lord. I want to gaze and gaze on your unity. As I gaze and gaze on your unity and the love that you have in unity, that fellowship, that becomes my biggest thing that I want to. And it's in that, that I see the virtue of submission. Where the father is submitting to the son and the father has handed all things over to the son. And then the son is saying, I can do nothing on my own initiative except the father saying, the son submitting back to the father. And the Holy Spirit saying, I don't do nothing on my own initiative except I hear from Jesus and He tells me. And they're all submitting to one another. And that's where we see submission in the unity of the Godhead. And that's why submission becomes so important to us. And portraying submission in the marriage also becomes so important. Because I'm prostrate at God's feet and adoring God. And God is not one, it's three. And submission is there. And humility is there. All deferring to the other. Pushing the other one ahead. Learn from me because I'm humble and gentle. Now if you gaze on God and just see God being the throne and the king and the crown, that's what you want to be as well. You want to be a king. But if I gaze at Jesus sitting on a donkey, if I gaze at Jesus washing in the feet, if I see love in unity in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always giving the other person prominence, it'll be reflected in my marriage. It'll be reflected in my life in the church. When I see holiness in the Godhead and I adore Him, and I adore Him for His holiness, it'll be what I really want in my life too. I'll covet it. I pray that the Lord will grip us with God. We'll pursue God and His unity of His love, and His submission, and His holiness, and His humility. Then it won't be a commandment. This is the love of God, 1 John 5, verse 3. That I obey the commandments and they are not burdensome. That is the love of God. That I'm obeying the commandments and it's not burdensome. Why? Because I'm obeying after adoring. Massive difference between obeying and obeying after adoring. When I adore God, we are transformed from one level of glory to another as we behold His glory as in a mirror. What is the glory of Jesus? What is the glory of God? That I'm loved. Remember that? John 17, verse 24. This is the glory of Jesus, that He was loved. As I behold the glory of God over me, that I'm loved, I get transformed. There it happens. I get transformed and I say, I want to be like that. I want to show this glory to other people that they too are loved. By God, of course, but by me too. That's what Jesus said. The glory that you gave me, that I'm loved, helped me through all of life. I went 33 years without sinning even once. Because you gave me this glory that you love me. And I gave it to them the whole time too. They too can now have this life. And I want them to pass it on to other people, love one another. So that they can be one. These are all the secrets of how we overcome sin. Not just that we overcome sin. But how we overcome sin. By beholding the glory of God. Beholding the incredible infinite love of God that has been bestowed upon us. And acting not as insecure beings but by fully loved people. Fighting sin all the way. Cherishing holiness, cherishing submission, cherishing unity. It's a massive calling as a church. And it's an incredible opportunity for us to be a part of that. I hope if LCFC is your home, that you will have a renewed and an increased desire to demonstrate that. To demonstrate the glory of Jesus. And to really adore Jesus for all of His beauty. And love one another as God has loved you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I think we are going to have some Q&A in a bit. But I appreciate the time you have taken to listen. And I pray that NCCF, please pray for us at NCCF. We really want to be fellow soldiers. Two units, so to speak. In God's army who has plenty of other units. Some who have never heard of Zach Boonin. And some of different things, that's fine. But at least for the two of us. That's all that we have to be worried about. Can we be two units in God's army? That can be wholly devoted to doing it God's way. Who know without a matter of fact that they are loved. And come into the church every Sunday or whenever you meet. With one thing being crystal clear. I brought the glory of Jesus with me. I am loved. May God help us. Yeah, let's pray. Let's stand please. You know standing is an act of respect. So I hope that even though our position in our hearts can be flat on our face before God. Standing is also a way of saying Lord we respect you. So let's stand as a matter of respect to God and say God we want to reverence you. These little physical acts we do to respect you, we don't want it to be meaningless. We want to stand before you Lord and reverence you for who you are. We want to say thank you. We want to rise to our feet as a way of showing honour to you. Not as a way just to stretch our legs but a way to say thank you. We stand at attention Lord. We stand in humble gratitude for what you have done. On the cross you have loved us for all eternity Lord. Open our eyes Lord Jesus. No amount of eloquence can do this. You can do this Lord Jesus. You can open our eyes to these truths. Help us Lord Jesus to carry these truths in our hearts. To ponder them, to meditate on them. You will search me and seek me and find me when you search me with all of your heart. That's not the prayer. It's not the result of a one minute prayer at the end of a sermon Lord. It's a lifestyle. We want to carry this lifestyle of seeking you Lord and knowing you. To living out this life that we are loved. The great security of knowing that we are loved. Help us to live this life Lord. For the days that are left before you come again or you take us home. Please bless this group of believers here Lord. Help us Lord Jesus to love one another as you have loved us. In Jesus name. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/M-lX_WBQDi0.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/sandeep-poonen/gazing-at-god-his-love-in-his-unity/ ========================================================================