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  GUARDING OUR LAMPSTAND FOR JESUS
  by Sandeep Poonen
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of maintaining a pure
offering to God, drawing parallels between the church in Malachi and the
church in Ephesus. It highlights the need to remember our first love for
Jesus, repent, and return to simple, heartfelt devotion. The message
stresses the significance of having a sensitive conscience towards sin,
fighting to preserve faith and a good conscience, and arming ourselves
as spiritual soldiers to endure suffering for Christ.

Topics: "Purity in Worship", "Returning to Our First Love"
Scripture References: Malachi 1:11, Revelation 2:4, Romans 5:8, 1 Peter 2:2, 1 Timothy 1:18, 1 Peter 4:1

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of maintaining a pure offering to
God, drawing parallels between the church in Malachi and the church in
Ephesus. It highlights the need to remember our first love for Jesus,
repent, and return to simple, heartfelt devotion. The message stresses
the significance of having a sensitive conscience towards sin, fighting
to preserve faith and a good conscience, and arming ourselves as
spiritual soldiers to endure suffering for Christ.

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CONTENT
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I wanted to share something that I've been thinking of. I want to start
with a passage that I think we are familiar with. It's in Malachi
chapter 1. We know this passage.

It's been a special verse, I believe, for CFC, but it's also been a very
special passage for NCCF. In verse 11, For from the rising of the sun to
its setting my name will be great And in every place incense is going to
be offered to my name And a grain offering that is pure says the Lord of
hosts And in this passage in Malachi chapter 1 God is contrasting this
where a pure offering is being offered to God with Another kind of
offering where he talks about in verse 8 where he says the offering here
that is being offered instead Is an offering where you offer That which
is sick and that which is blind in verse 8 And the lesson that we learn
from that is that God was disappointed and angry with these people Even
though they were offering sacrifices Even though they were offering
things to God they were doing all the right things But God was
displeased with them because they were not offering the best and in
verse 10 in Malachi chapter 1 verse 10, he says Even though you're doing
all these sacrifices, even though you're obeying the law in many of the
technical ways I'd prefer that you just shut it down because The only
kind of offering that I'm looking for is if it's the best So it's almost
as if God is saying if you're not going to offer the best don't offer
anything at all And I was thinking about this passage and this passage
has been speaking to me As it relates to me personally as well as to my
church in california and I was thinking of The Lord brought me to this
an example of this church in the new testament Which is the church of
ephesus in revelation chapter 2 And in revelation chapter 2 if you want
to turn there, this is the verse These are the verses that I want to
focus on An example of a church that God is saying If you're not going
to offer the best let's just shut this down And I never saw it as
strongly as I did When I connected malachi chapter 1 with this church in
ephesus And we know this passage. Hopefully a lot of us do which is this
was a good church This is obviously founded by the apostle paul And they
have a lot of good things in verse 2 and 3 But as we see here that they
had lost their first love And so in verse 5 Jesus tells to the church
Remember from where you have fallen And repent and do the deeds at first
or else I'm coming and I will Remove the lampstand Which basically means
i'm going to shut this this church down not in terms of that the church
won't exist But God's presence won't be there And so I saw this the same
thing that the church the offerings of the sacrifices in malachi's time
Is the same thing that was happening to the church in ephesus That God
was saying i'm getting ready that if you don't do this I'm coming to and
I will remove my lampstand and as I thought about the church At nccf and
i'm sure it applies here, too I asked myself lord.

I want to do what I can to guard the lampstand That should be a priority
For me that should be a priority for us in the church and what I
contrast that with is So I can say lord I want to guard this lampstand
And if I read this passage I see that jesus was about getting ready to
remove the lampstand But I see a lot of the good things that that church
was doing And as I looked in verses two and three I see that it's very
easy for me to get fooled Into thinking that I can do a lot of good
things and I think that I have a good church Meanwhile jesus is telling
me i'm getting ready to Remove my presence from this church altogether
You see that in verse two onwards, I mean at two and three It's a
remarkable church what this church was in verse two. He's doing a lot of
good deeds and toils and perseverance I mean, that's I mean nccf has
been around seven years cfc has been around 40 plus years we nccf is a
Is a result of the toils and the labors of that this church has done we
sustain ourselves weekly from the teachings that we receive And the web
ministry all the the internet capabilities that have been provided Is
what has made our church able to get? sermons every day That's all
because of the toil of cfc And we nccf are similarly trying to toil I
know that we don't tolerate evil people Is one of the few churches where
I know that people will be where there's evil it's going to be exposed
People will even be confronted about sin people will be publicly exposed
people will be put out of the church This is the kind of church that
Ephesus was that i've seen Cfc to be that I want nccf to be as well Cfc
tests those who are apostles And sees if they are false or not this
church nccf too is learning from it We're trying to protect the pulpit
So that not the wrong doctrines come in All different kinds of
theologies that are coming in through the world. This church is a
wonderful beacon of light And we at nccf has been so tremendously
blessed by it And of course as it says here, there's a lot of trials
that you've gone perseverance.

So I find that This the churches that ephesus was Has so many good
things And if I look at what nccf is doing what csc may have done it may
check off every single box And so I found that this Rebuke by jesus
these words by jesus were actually reserved For very special churches
I'd like to think that in ephesus at that time There were probably a lot
of half-hearted churches. There may have been seeker friendly churches
There have been may have been churches that were preaching all about
healing and the gifts of the spirit And people falling down it could
have happened in that day, too there could have been churches that were
big into music and Having all the young people have a good time Not a
preaching of holiness. I'm sure in ephesus.

There were a lot of other churches like that Where were all these false
apostles going they must have gone somewhere else They must have gone to
some other church in ephesus But there was no message even for the such
a church And so in in one sense the ephesus the church in ephesus that
received this letter should have considered itself privileged That it
got a message from jesus Because jesus was still saying I consider you a
church. I consider you a lampstand where my presence is I'm still
looking to your off your altar and hoping to find a good sacrifice But
i'm not pleased with you So that's where I found it I can so easily
think That when I read this book or when I read this letter to the
church of ephesus It's applying to many other churches that are
compromising in some way And because we have such a strong doctrine
because we have such a pure theology it's because we have Seen the way
these doctrines have made a difference in our lives We can comfort
ourselves with a lot of the things that are actually in verses two and
three But the seriousness of what jesus was telling me here really hit
me When god said if you lose your first love if you lose your best love
for jesus Jesus is saying I'm ready to do such a drastic thing Which is
remove my presence remove my lampstand for you And so while we have one
many wonderful things that we can be thankful for The question that I
had to ask myself Lord is my church Still a lampstand for god That's the
one question I should have So i'm thankful for the good theology i'm
thankful that false apostles are rooted out I'm thankful that we stand
against evil evil that comes into the church. I'm thankful that we
persevere and we toil But I could have all of those things and god could
still be displeased with me So displeased with me that god is saying i'm
ready to remove my lampstand And the god was saying in malachi you have
to give your best If you don't give your very best I don't know if I can
be there with you anymore If you keep carrying on this giving second
best I'll eventually take away the lampstand and that's what he was
telling the church in ephesus And I wonder how the church in ephesus may
have been different from our churches Because the question that god
would ask of such churches like us where we have such good theology and
good Doctrine is but what about your first love? What about the best
love? And I also recognize that maybe there's some of us who've never
had a first love I know I had a first love.

It wasn't when I Was growing up in the church, but it was after I came
to Recognize who jesus was But I can think of a time when I had a first
love and that's the one I think a wonderful thing about this rebuke That
all of us not all of us many of us can have a reference point Where we
say I remember a time when? I was so pure in my love for jesus I was so
wholehearted in my love for jesus It was simple It wasn't complicated I
only wanted to follow jesus I can remember such a time And I think
that's the wonderful thing about this review because god's not saying I
want you to have a pure love like paul had I want you to have a first
love like peter had he's not comparing it to somebody else He's saying
just think about your own life Think about the first love that you once
had And I know at least for myself any one of you who hopefully been
baptized or Have come to ask jesus into your heart and to be a personal
savior. You recognize a time when you had that pure love And god's
looking at that as the only question And he's saying the moment you drop
from that you're in a very dangerous position And you're in an
especially dangerous position if you fall from that love But you have a
lot of good things Going for you because that can fool you that can
deceive you So The remedy is something that jesus gives us in this
passage, too So even if we don't have a first love for jesus Even if
we've never had a first love for jesus some of you young people Some of
you even children may say, you know, I don't even know if i've ever had
a first love for jesus maybe some adults have grown up in the church
have just Fallen into the ways of a good church, which has good
doctrines Maybe you appreciate the teachings here. Maybe you appreciate
the community here.

Maybe you appreciate the love here But if we are honest you may say i've
never had a first love I've always just adopted the doctrines I just
don't want to go to hell But I can't say that I ever had a first love
for jesus I'm sure it's possible for even some adults To have that
Whether we've had a first love or whether we've not had god is asking us
to have That first love that best love for jesus and he's telling he
tells me how to get it if I don't have it So I want to kind of just
focus on verse five and the three things that he says in here that we
should do He says in verse five Therefore remember from where you have
fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first That's what he says
that's the remedy So the good news is he's not a surgeon. He's not a
doctor who just says you've got cancer He tells you here's the way to
fix it And here's the first thing that he tells me to do and I'll tell
you this I often skipped over it The first thing that he asked me to do
is something that i've often skipped over and you might have too the
first thing he tells you to do is Remember from where you have fallen.
That's the first step We I often used to think that the first thing I
need to do is repent I tried that also for many years, but I realized
that that never sustained Starting with repentance It wasn't
sustainable, but I found a secret When I found what was written in god's
word was true that the first thing I had to do was Remember from where
you have fallen So the question is where is the place that I was? and
that I have fallen from And for me that place Is not the physical place
of calvary, but it's the place where I knelt in my heart Surrendered my
life and recognized What jesus did for me on the cross? So if i've lost
my first love If I don't have a first love if i've just been following
theology and i'm not speaking Theory i'm telling you what I Practice
because I often find that I have to rediscover Lord, i've lost a little
bit of that heat And I found That this is the first thing that I ought
to do Even before I repent I have to remember Where I have fallen from
And these are two verses romans chapter 5 Verse 8 there are so many
verses in scripture that tells me what it is about calvary Romans
chapter 5 verse 8 and verse 10 God says Remember where you fell from me
where you fell from and when I where I fell from is this place where god
says You were messed up You were a sinner romans 5 verse 8 and then I
loved you You had nothing to offer You had nothing good you could do for
you When you were still sinners before you even repented That's what to
me romans 5 verse 8 says god demonstrated his own love towards me.

This is how he showed me his love That while I was still sinners not a
sinner who repented while I was still a sinner jesus died for me And
verse 10 he makes he uses another word that as I was an enemy of god and
so for me what I had to Remind myself and what I have to remind myself
When I find that I have lost my first love is before I even try to
repent and say sorry I have to remember Who I was Who I still am That
there's something inside of me There was all of me back then That was an
enemy of god I was completely that's what it says in romans chapter 5
verse 10 I was an enemy of god. I don't know Many of you if it's very
difficult for me, especially if i'm if you've grown up in the church I
don't know if you normally think of yourself as an enemy of god. Do you
remember a time when you really were an enemy of god? Yeah, you may have
done bad things.

You may have not been kind to your brother or sister or to your parents
You have done some wrong things at school. But would you really say that
you're an enemy of god? And I know for me it's very difficult for me to
imagine this But this is the truth And so when it says remember from
where you have fallen the starting place of the christian life Is where
I recognize and i'm willing to accept The truth even if I don't feel it
The truth That I am an enemy of god that my lifestyle when I don't
surrender to god is saying Shouting out loud God I hate you. That's what
an enemy of god does An enemy of me says I hate you an enemy of sandeep
says I hate you.

I'm against you so if That was my position Before I was born again, I
must recognize that I wasn't just a you know, somewhat bad guy I was
somebody who was saying and i'm saying when i'm not with christ When
i've not surrendered my life to christ there's something that is
shouting out through my life god, I hate you i'm your enemy No matter
what my words say No, whatever my feelings are that is the state of my
heart And when I was shouting out to god god, I hate you That's when he
died for me. That's what it means that it says my sin put god on the
cross I was the enemy pushing jesus onto the cross And I was the one
whose voice was there among the scoffers as we hear in that song I've
got to hear my voice too when jesus is hanging on the cross saying I I
hear that's me Wait, what am I doing? What's my voice doing there?
That's to remember the place from where I have fallen that's the
starting point from where I find the love of god And so when I have lost
my first love I have to go back and remember Verses like romans chapter
5 verse 8 and 10 That i'm an enemy That i'm basically saying that and
even after I become a christian it says in romans chapter 8 that my
selfish will my flesh That selfish will inside of me is At enmity with
god is an enemy of god. That's romans chapter 8 verse 7 So even after I
become a christian There are times and with my selfish will when I do my
own will it's crying out saying god, I don't like god I hate you.

I'm an enemy of you. I'm hostile towards god And if I don't see that and
accept god's word And say no, I don't feel like i'm such a bad guy. I
don't feel like i'm such a horrible person Then i'll accept second best
third best I have to see From where I have fallen to this place where I
was an enemy of god that there's still this Instinct inside of me my
selfish will to say god.

I hate you And it's in that place where god says Here's how I
demonstrate my love towards you that I died for you and It says that you
know when we think about the prodigal son too Before the prodigal son
repented He remembered That was the first step for the prodigal son to
come home was he remembered his father's house He remembered the love of
the father And that's how he came to his senses and he got up And so
it's as we remember the love of god that we are prompted to repent So
for many years I was trying to repent God was telling me remember your
remember my love for you Go back to where you see you're in it. I you
are an enemy of christ that you are an enemy right now When you do your
own will When you're not passionate to do the will of god That's what it
means to give my best to god to be always willing to do god's will And
whenever I find myself having some resistance to it in some area of my
life Not fully surrendered not happy to wake up in the morning and
saying lord I happily want to do your will And I may not do all of god's
will all the time. But is there a happy willingness to do anything that
the lord asks me to do? Then I can say that lord i'm willing to give you
my best And when I don't have that when i'm trying to hold something
when I have some ambition some desire of mine that's standing in the way
God says even before you repent remember remember that place Called
calvary remember that place of the cross of christ Where I died for you
when you were still an enemy And I poured out all of my love and you're
still an enemy of mine.

You're still shouting even as i'm dying Even as I took my last breath I
can hear you saying i'm your enemy and I still went all the way for you
That is the starting point. That is the starting point from which god
says now As you remember from where you've fallen now turn around when
you remember the father's house And you see and you remember and you
come to your senses and you Remember how the father treats even the
servants Then the son says i'm ready to come home. I should come home.

I i'm what am I doing here sitting in the pig farm? I need to come home
And then the next thing in revelation chapter 2 Is to After I remember
the obvious thing to do If I see such great love would be to turn around
So if I don't have a spirit of repentance It's because I have not Gone
to the cross And seen the cross on which jesus died for me Repentance
should come more and more naturally to me When I recognize what jesus
did for me, it shouldn't be some great forced squeezing of a towel It
should be the natural turning around When I recognize what jesus did for
me And repentance the word I wanted to underline for that is turning
around and changing your mind Changing your way of thinking Changing
your way of thinking about two things. That's another thing that the
lord has been underlining with me when you say you repent What are you
changing your way of thinking about? And the my initial my instinctive
answer is change your way of thinking about sin And that's absolutely
true But what I felt the lord telling me is again sandeep. You're
putting step two before step one Change your way of thinking about me
That because of what christ did I'm, not a judge I'm, not angry at you
I'm your father So when you start turning around towards me, I come
running out to meet you So I find that I have to most For me somebody
like me who's heard so much about holiness and wants to turn around from
sin And I my default is to say change your way of thinking is change
your way of thinking about sin I can change my way of my attitude about
sin, but I may not change my attitude about god.

I may still think that god is a hard task master And I find that I
personally feel that the devil will even allow me to be willing to
change my thinking about sin If he can still make me think that god is
not my father if that god is not a good father He did that to adam and
eve in the very beginning He says I don't know if god is good Because
god really he really doesn't want you to be like him. That's the problem
God's trying to restrict you and even with jesus The devil had the
boldness To try to question to jesus I don't know if you're the son of
god I'm questioning it right now. That's what the devil went to jesus
said.

I'm not sure you are actually the son of god the father I don't know if
god is your father And so I find that the devil will love to rock me off
god is not your father And god is only my father because of what christ
did on the cross But when I turn around I have to turn around to come
home to a father Not to a judge Because of what christ has done god has
taken christ has taken away all the wrath of god So I I know that for me
repentance is not just Turning away from sin But before that lord as I
come home I don't want the devil to ever rob me of who god is that god
is my father That's the way i'm going to motivate myself to walk home
And because i'm coming home to a father because of what christ did for
them Then lord, I want to the flip side of the coin Of repentance is a
changed mind about god and a changed mind about sin But that's something
also I don't want to just because i'm saying it second doesn't mean it's
not important A changed attitude towards sin Is something that the lord
has also been telling me Remember your first love sandeep remember the
love that you first had and i'll tell you when I remember I had a first
love I often think about the time when I first got baptized I didn't
want to sin even once that was my honest testimony Lord jesus, I don't
want to sin even once when we ask people to get baptized in our church
We learned it from here. We ask people look you should be willing to say
I don't want to sin even once And we expect people to mean it when they
say it Otherwise you're not ready to get baptized And I know why I can
expect people to say it because I know I had that genuine honest
attitude I don't want to sin even once I'm, not making this up I
genuinely when I that day I got baptized in that time period. I remember
that I didn't want to sin even once I remember the zeal.

I remember the passion. I remember the longing. I remember the
seriousness I don't want to sin even once And so the question the lord
asked me is look You've lost your first love If you want to come back If
you want to regain your first love what you'll have to do is change your
way of thinking about sin to the Thinking you used to have not the
thinking that paul had not the thinking that peter had the thinking that
you had At least for me And if you've been baptized if you've given your
heart to jesus and if you can honestly say Yes, I can remember a time I
can remember There's an attitude I used to have where I didn't even want
to sin even once God is saying that is true repentance And god says that
you know baptism in one peter chapter.

Maybe I can just quickly Read this verse the act of baptism one peter
chapter three verse 21 Baptism now corresponding to that baptism now
saves you not the removal of dirt from the flesh but an appeal to god
for a good conscience Now obviously we know that the physical act of
baptism doesn't have any Ability to save us just like the water. He's
talking about noah. The water didn't save noah But the attitude in
baptism Is saying it's an appeal of to god And it's an appeal relating
to a clean conscience A not a clean conscience.

I'm, sorry a good conscience When we've we've been taught that the
conscience is like a weighing machine That a weighing machine that can
become very sensitive towards him that the slightest wrong attitude the
slightest wrong look The slightest wrong conversation the way a
conversation is going towards flirtation Or towards lust the smallest
area of that I get My conscience pricks me and says stop And baptism
that attitude that we had when we got baptized the attitude when we say
lord I don't want to sin even once is to have a very tender conscience
And I was reminded of this plant that i've actually seen in india, but
i've never seen in america But this plant called a touch me not I used
to be fascinated by the touch me not plant when I was a kid I used to be
fascinated that you can just touch this plant just barely touch it and
it will just close up like that Hopefully some of you have seen it on
the streets. That's where I saw it And I thought about my conscience
that way the moment sin touches it It just closes up said no Can't go
with that conversation anymore Can't have that Keep going on the
internet in that link anymore need to shut that down Need to stop
listening to that kind of music need to walk away from that kind of
friend. It's a touch me not conscience The moment sin touches it the
moment temptation touches it Conscience closes and that is what baptism
was an appeal to and it's an appeal to say lord jesus I want to touch me
not conscience again I used to have it So that I would say lord.

I don't want to sin even once But lord it's getting a little not so
quick to close It's creaking now as it closes. It doesn't close all the
way. It still allows us some of the junk in Then I need to I don't need
to be physically re-baptized again, but I need to have a brand new start
I need to almost say lord.

I want to have the same heart That I had when I first got baptized take
me back lord. Jesus To that heart when I first got baptized because that
day or when I was first born again is even a better mark Or when I was
truly born again, I had that heart That was so quick to say that is
going to be displeasing to my father It's a different attitude towards
my father and because I see god as a father who's hurt By my wrong
attitudes by my lustful glances by my love of money My repentance is a
touch me not sensitivity Because I don't want to hurt my father but I
think what i've learned also is when we keep on listening to victory
over sin When we can keep on talking about all the deep sins. I find
that I can become somewhat insensitive towards it in reality That I can
get I can have a very good understanding in my mind Of all the different
ways in which I can sin and thought and deed and motive But the truth is
the only question that god asks me is how sensitive is your conscience?
So when the love of money touches you, what does your conscience do? Do
you feel it and say no I shouldn't be doing I shouldn't be thinking
about this I should be walking away from this And we can get so used to
messages on holiness That we can sit here sunday after sunday listen to
wonderful messages of holiness But what has changed is my conscience is
no longer a touch me not kind of conscience And so I keep sitting here
and I wonder why my conscience is actually becoming more dead Remember
from where you have fallen Change your way of thinking about who god is
and change your way of thinking to once again what sin is And long for a
touch me not attitude towards sin Jesus had the most sensitive
conscience that ever when he was tempted every time he was tempted
closed up Brutally and said no not even going to go down that route And
that's what we say when we want to become like jesus When we have a
first love for jesus, we're saying lord jesus, I I want your conscience
The same tender conscience that you had that just closed up The moment
you were tempted.

I want that I don't need to change water into wine. I don't need to heal
the sick But lord jesus, I want to have the most tender conscience in
the world If I have that then i'm able to say lord I find that This is
how my first love can be regained And the last thing is to do the deeds
that we did at first That's the last thing in revelation chapter 2 What
do we do at first? When I was first born again, it says in one peter
chapter 2 Maybe you can turn one peter chapter 2 verse 2 It says like
newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word And I just want to
underline that word milk that We hear lots of very Um High doctrines and
we've been privileged to hear the full gospel So there are wonderful
truths about the body of christ and about different areas and
sanctification But We've lost our first love Or we've never had a first
love And god is trying to birth something new. He says look Things are
pretty bad for you.

You're doing a lot of good things, you know false apostles You've got
lots of toil you're doing a lot of great things, but you've lost your
first love This is a pretty serious cancer And when you've got such a
serious cancer It looks really good on the outside, but you've got a
very serious cancer You need to do something drastic You've got to
remember from where you've fallen. You've got to change your way of
thinking about who I am And change your attitude completely about sin
Regain that sensitive conscience towards sin and do the things you did
at first The things I did at first is I had a very simple relationship
with god and his word I didn't try to make it too complicated I didn't
spend the meditations of my life during the day On the complicated
theologies I focused on god and me I focused on talking to god and
saying god Are you happy with me? Is there anything in me that makes you
sad? And I focused on simple things Like the love of god I focused on
simple things that god looks at me as if i've never sinned And that I
can always come and sit on his lap That was easily for me to digest that
was like milk And I when I Do the things I did at first I have to be
very sensitive towards sin, but I don't need to be complicated About all
the different things that are wrong in that theology or that other
church or that other christian or there are things let the The leaders
and all the other people take care of that for me. I want to drink milk
again My body needs to be healed There's some deep surgery that needs to
happen in my heart I'm, not happy.

I'm not ready to process all the meats and all the Complicated foods
that adults can eat. I need to go back to being very simple in my
relationship with god I find that sometimes singing some of the songs
that are songs that you probably can also know a lot of from from
childhood are very meaningful too like amazing grace What a friend we
have in jesus Blessed assurance jesus is mine. I don't know.

We know these songs. I don't know how many times You've sung it to where
you've thought about it and thought about it and thought about it To
where you can say it is truly a happy Confidence that jesus is mine
That's the blessed assurance that jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of
glory divine.

And so that's what I mean by milk We know the words Amazing grace that
saved a wretch like me Make keeping it simple. Those are the things I
did at first The simple love of god That god wants us to say come back
to that. Don't worry about all the other stuff.

Keep it very simple with me sunday right now Focus prioritize my love
let this exchange of love Continue till where it's flowing again This
first love where my love is poured out towards you through the holy
spirit And that you receive it and this dry land It starts to get water
again Just let it soak in The love of god. That's the thing that you did
at first the other thing that I feel like the lord is telling me to do
is I remember something about those days too I armed myself. That's 1
peter chapter 4 verse 1 Actually, you know what let me let me show you
where I got that from In the reason why I say I myself is actually from
1 timothy chapter 1 1 timothy chapter 1 verse 18 and 19 1 timothy
chapter 1 verse 18 and 19 He says here To fight the good fight.

That's the end of verse 18 fight the good fight Here's the fighting the
good fight This is what it means to fight the good fight, which is to
keep faith and a good conscience We've talked about a good conscience
And if I don't keep faith and a good conscience, here's what happens I
shipwreck my faith So I gotta keep faith and a good conscience, but if I
let go of a good conscience my faith goes too So the focus really to me
as I saw this was if I don't Keep a good conscience. My faith is going
to be shipwrecked. Not that your faith will go through rocky times Let's
be clear paul didn't paul was very specific that if I don't keep a good
conscience It's not that well, you're going to go through storms and
your life will be much more difficult than it needs to be No, he says
you'll shipwreck your faith So good conscience is so critical and in
order to keep faith and a good conscience paul says Fight and I remember
those in the early days.

I remember that that whenever I surrender fully to god God stirs up in
me a desire to be a soldier And it says in 1 peter chapter 4 verse 1 arm
yourself to suffer Because christ suffered you can go to that just so
that we remember that 1 peter chapter 4 verse 1 This is the spirit of a
soldier 1 peter chapter 4 verse 1 since christ This is right after he
talks about baptism and having a good conscience, too Right in 1 peter
3. We were just there where it talks about Baptism the the heart that is
there when we get baptized Is that we don't want to sin even once and
it's appeal for this very touch me not conscience and then he says
Christ had this touch me not conscience that didn't even sin even once
but he didn't get it that way easily. He suffered He constantly said no
since christ suffered in his constant Preserving his touch me not
conference you too arm yourself With the same purpose because he has
suffered in the flesh because he was suffered in the flesh has ceased
from sin So that you too can live the rest of your life No longer in the
lusts of men but doing the will of god So if I want to do the rest of my
live the rest of my life doing the will of god I need to be a soldier I
need to arm myself to fight to keep my conscience sensitive If I don't
Fight the fight of faith and a good conscience and I just let good
conscience be like well, I got my faith I still believe in jesus. I'm
still trusting in jesus I'll shipwreck my faith I'll hit rocks So the
secret of keeping my faith alive Really is to say lord.

I want to keep a tender conscience towards you I want to always have A
conscience that's extremely sensitive that has a touch me not attitude
towards sin The lord has given me great hope in what I have shared
today. This is not a message to you This is a message to me and
hopefully for many of you here The lord has encouraged me greatly with
Whenever I lose my first love the lord is saying keep coming back and
this happens to me Sometimes in the middle of the day But sometimes
often what i'm trying to remind myself at the beginning of the day and
throughout the day Lord, I want to remember I never want to forget
calvary. I want to often go back Go back to that spot and Act as if I
was there for the first time help me to remember where I've fallen Help
me to repent and change my way of thinking about who you are.

You are my father I have access to you because of jesus christ I want to
have a very tender conscience. I want to fight Lord with all of my heart
to preserve my tender conscience Then I won't shipwreck my faith and I
believe that the lord will be able to See that i'm giving a pure
offering to god And hopefully if a group of us get together, we will be
a church that offers a pure offering to god. May god bless us

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/1ikJCCh9GnQ.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/sandeep-poonen/guarding-our-lampstand-for-jesus/
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