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  CONSTANT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD IN THE LIGHT
  by Zac Poonen
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of fellowship in two
directions: vertically with God and horizontally with one another. It
encourages the congregation to seek spiritual growth through self-
examination, walking in love, and preparing for the final judgment. The
speaker highlights the need to manifest the life of Christ through love,
peace, and joy, and challenges believers to follow his example as he
follows Christ, focusing on living a life that reflects the light and
love of God.

Topics: "Fellowship with God", "Manifesting Christ's Love"
Scripture References: 1 John 1:7, 1 Corinthians 11:31, Romans 14:17, Matthew 5:14, 1 Corinthians 16:14, Psalms 16:11, Amos 5:24, 2 Chronicles 25:9, Isaiah 61:1, Colossians 3:15, John 9:5, 1 John 4:8

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of fellowship in two directions:
vertically with God and horizontally with one another. It encourages the
congregation to seek spiritual growth through self-examination, walking
in love, and preparing for the final judgment. The speaker highlights
the need to manifest the life of Christ through love, peace, and joy,
and challenges believers to follow his example as he follows Christ,
focusing on living a life that reflects the light and love of God.

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CONTENT
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In the church, the most important word is fellowship. Fellowship in two
directions, vertical, horizontal. With God, with one another.

With God first and with one another. I want to encourage you to buy two
books, if you haven't already got them, before you leave. If you don't
have the money, we'll give it to you even free.

If you have the money, pay for it, because we can give it to somebody
poorer than you. That's the only reason we ask people to pay for the
books. We like to give to the poor.

One book is what Brother Joji Samuel mentioned yesterday, the
congregation, the club and the church, written by Santosh Poonen. We
have it in Hindi, we have it in Malayalam, we have it in Tamil, we have
it in Telugu and in English and in Romanian. It may be translated into
other languages.

We don't have all those languages here, but if you need any of them and
you give your address, we'll put you in touch with those who are
distributing those books. It's only a small booklet, you can read it in
a couple of hours. 32 pages, small booklet.

I would really encourage you to read it to find out if you are in a
congregation or a club or a church and if you have a burden to buy at
least one extra copy to give it to somebody in some other church who is
a believer, so that he can discover whether he is in a true church or
not. That's how we can help others. If you are not bold enough to
witness to people, we can give them a cheap book.

It doesn't cost much. Have a burden to witness to others, not only that
Christ died for our sins, but what a church is like. You've experienced
it.

It's a very easy way to witness. Instead of spending 25 rupees on a
birthday card, spend 10 rupees on a book and give that as a birthday
gift. You can bless them more than with that birthday card which you'll
tear up and throw away.

I really want to encourage you to pass this on to other Christians who
you can help. It can be a form of witness to them and you can help them
and if you know them well, their blood will not be on your hands in the
day of judgment because you've told them the truth. The second book is a
book that I took 43 years to write.

It's called God's Work Done in God's Way. That's a little thicker book.
The first two chapters speak about our own experience in building a new
covenant church and the remaining chapters speak about certain
principles of spiritual leadership.

I also want to say if you have an internet connection, you can read both
these books free on the internet at your convenience. You can download
it onto your phone and read it conveniently anytime. We have tried to
provide everything we have free.

Every book of ours is freely available on the internet. Even through the
Bible is available in video, 70 hours on video. We have a CFC app which
you can download onto your phone from your play store and that has all
the Bible studies that we have.

Many hundreds of hours with that app you can access for personal life,
for foundational truths, for building the church, entire New Testament
verse by verse from Matthew 1 to the last verse of Revelation. A study
of every verse. Everything is there.

It's all free. I heard many years ago the statement, the devil is always
stealing, man is always selling, and God is always giving free. The
devil is always stealing, man is always selling, and God is always
giving free.

We want to be like God. Even the books that we ask you to pay for is
only to print more books. If you want it free, everything is available
on the internet free for the whole world.

That's how we believe Jesus would want us to do it, and that's how we've
done it. So I encourage you, please remember these two books, The
Congregation, The Club and The Church, and God's Work Done in God's Way.
I believe it will be a blessing to you, both of them.

That book also, God's Work Done in God's Way. Prayerfully give it also
to others who may be helped to see how God's work should be done.
Pastors, preachers, be a witness.

Give it prayerfully, not in a condemnatory way. Oh, you're not doing it
right. Here, read this.

No, God will not bless that. God loved the world and came to save it. He
did not come here to condemn.

The message of condemnation is not the message of the New Covenant. God
did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save
the world. I've seen people give out tracts down the street, walking
down the street, tractor, and everybody who comes, you go 100 yards up
the street, you see most of the tracts on the floor.

I've seen people put tracts in parking lots on the windshield wipers of
cars, and those people come and pick it up and say, who is this wretched
Christian who tries to put a tract on my windshield wiper? That's not
the way to witness. You'll offend people. God so loved the world.

Jesus was known as a friend of sinners before he was known as the savior
of sinners. We must present Jesus as a friend before we present him as a
savior, not as a legal judge. He's going to be a judge one day, but that
is in the future.

Don't present an old covenant God to people. God is the same, but the
old covenant understanding of God was more under the law. Today our
understanding of God is clearer.

So it's very important that whatever we do, we do with prayer and in
love. If you cannot do it in love, don't do it. All that you do must be
done in love.

If it cannot be done in love, don't do it. Do you know this verse in 1
Corinthians chapter 16 and verse 14? Let all that you do be done in
love. A-L-L.

Let all that you do be done in love. For many years, I think for about
30 years, I've had that verse framed up in a big wall plaque in my
house. Let all that you do be done in love to remind me all the time.

I have a couple of other verses also in my house. If you fear God, you
need fear nothing else. I've told the story once of a local city
official who came to my house to try and frighten me.

He wanted a bribe from me saying, we have a question about the taxes
you're paying for your house. We think you have not given a correct
dimension of your house and you're not paying enough tax. I said, sir,
we've given the correct dimension and I always pay the correct taxes.

No, no, no, there's a question about it and I'll have to deal with this.
And I know these techniques. They want some money.

Say, okay, here's some money, keep quiet about it. But I was absolutely
right. So I was not afraid.

Then I said, sir, you see this verse on top of my head. If you fear God,
you need fear nothing else. This is how I live all my life.

God bless you. He went away, never came back for the last 30 years. I
don't think he'll ever come back.

I'm not saying you put that verse to frighten away city officials. Live
in the fear of God. The other verse I have is if you love God, he will
make everything work for your good.

I wish the thieves who came to my house would have read that, but they
probably don't know English. They would have seen they're doing me some
good now. I believe that.

There's never been a person till today, believe me, who's been able to
harm me. Never. Not one person alive has been able to harm me today.

Whatever they try, whatever they try, it has always worked for my good.
Mistakes that doctors have done in trying to treat me, it worked for my
good. Believe it or not, I have no complaint against the doctors who
made mistakes in some treatment of mine.

No. You think God was not watching when the doctor was doing that? What
a lot of complaints people have against doctors. Oh, he gave me the
wrong medicine or the surgery messed up.

Brother, your problem is not the doctor. Your problem is you don't love
God. You're not called according to his purpose.

That's your problem. Don't blame that fellow. If you have a complaint
against a single human being, I'll tell you the reason.

You're not enduring in love. You don't love Jesus with all your heart.
That's all.

That's the reason, at least from today onwards. Stop all your complaints
against people and say, Lord, the problem is that I don't love you. And
so all things are not working for my good.

Why blame him? Why blame pickpockets and thieves and crooks and those
who harm you or take you to court or try to even try to hurt you or hurt
your children? Lord, I love you. I have no desire to live on this earth
for anything but to fulfill your purpose and your will for my life. Tell
me who can harm me.

Either that or you don't believe the word of God. If you don't believe
the word of God, I'll tell you, take the Bible and tear it up and throw
it in the trash can. Give it to the garbage man.

Don't keep it there as a holy book on your table and you don't even read
it and you don't believe it. That's just fooling people. It's fooling
people keeping the Bible as a holy book there for everybody to see and
you don't read it, you don't believe it.

No. Throw it away. Believe it and obey it.

Otherwise, it's useless. And then you will see in every situation, God
is in control. So these are the two or three verses I have in my house.

And for many years I had another verse, Galatians 1.10, If I seek to
please men, I cannot please be a servant of Christ. That's now written
in my head. I had it in my sitting room for years.

If I seek to please men, I cannot be the servant of Christ. And it's
drilled into my head. I will never in my life to seek to please any man.

I will not even seek to please my fellow elders. No. I'm willing to
speak the truth to my fellow elders in India.

They get hurt, they get hurt. But I'll speak it in love, that's for
sure. If I don't speak it in love, I'll go home and repent.

But if I speak it in love, sometimes love, open rebuke, is better than
secret love. And the Bible says in the Psalms that one way to pour the
anointing oil upon people's heads is by smiting them. Have you read that
verse in the Psalms? Let the righteous smite me.

It is like oil on my head. Yeah, so sometimes we have to do that. But
never anything not in love.

I believe when Jesus used the whip, he used it in love. So that those
fellows who were making money would wake up and not go to hell. I hope
some of them repented after Jesus used the whip.

Always his aim was to save people. Whether he forgave the adulteress or
used the whip, his aim was always how to save this person from the
deception of the devil. So love is very strong sometimes.

It's not a wishy-washy saying nice things. Firm. You can't be a good
elder if you don't have grace and truth.

If you don't see the kindness and the severity of God, both. But that's
one thing the Lord showed me once in Isaiah 61 about the kindness and
the severity of God. Isaiah 61 we read is the verse that Jesus quoted
when he spoke in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke chapter 4. He said
the spirit of the Lord is upon me, Isaiah 61 because he's anointed me to
bring the good news to the afflicted and so on.

And verse 2, listen to this. To proclaim two things, the year of favor
and the day of judgment. 365 days of favor, one day of judgment.

God is loving 365 times more than he is judging people. That's what I
see in that verse. He has called me to proclaim 365 days of favor.

And in the church I want to proclaim 365 days of favor and one day of
judgment. That's the proportion. It's not just God is kind and God is
severe.

God is 365 times more kind than he's severe. That's what I see in that
verse. It's not 50-50.

So that must be like that in my life. We're usually like that. Usually
most of us begin with 365 days of severity and one day of kindness.

How is it with your children? Ask them whether you're more severe or
kind. There must be kindness and severity. Otherwise you're not a good
father or mother.

But kindness is the basis on which we can be strict. If you really love
a child and the child has seen your tremendous love and compassion, one
day when you correct it and spank it, you know what it'll do after
you've spanked it? It'll come and hug you. I would always pray with my
children after I punish them in some way because I say, my dear boy,
you've sinned against God, not just me.

We must ask his forgiveness. So love is strong. Let all that you do be
done in love.

And fellowship, as I said, 1 John 1. Love brings fellowship. John is
writing at the end of his life and he says, I'm not preaching a
doctrine. I'm telling you what I have heard, 1 John 1. What I've seen,
what I've looked at, what I've touched, the word of life.

The word of life was made flesh in a human being. In the Old Testament,
it was in a book, printed or handwritten those days. And they had to get
the word of, word was in a book, the word of the law and the scribes
would explain it to us.

But then God sent his son and that word which was in a book came as
flesh. The word became flesh in Jesus Christ. And that is the word of
life.

And that we could see, we could hear, we could touch. And then Jesus
said before he went up to heaven, as the Father sent me, so send I you.
So I am now to let that word become flesh in me.

The word of God has become flesh in me so that people can see and touch
and hear the word of life. That is Christ speaking through me, loving
through me, looking through me, hearing the problems of people through
me. The word dwelt in the flesh, came in flesh.

And this life, verse 2, was manifested. Not a doctrine, not a word, a
life was manifested. I want to ask you brothers, is that life being
manifested? Can people say, we have seen, verse 2, and we testify, we
can proclaim to you this eternal life which is not a doctrine, which is
with the Father and was manifested to us in Jesus Christ and now to be
manifested through you and me.

In John chapter 9, verse 4, Jesus said, as long as I am in the world, I
am the light of the world. Who is the light of the world today? Not
Jesus Christ. You read Matthew 5, verse 14, Jesus said, you are the
light of the world.

So I sometimes surprise people when they ask me, who is the light of the
world? I say, me and my fellow believers. They say, where is that? You
are so arrogant. You and your fellow believers are the light of the
world? Yeah, I say, I believe what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5,
verse 14.

You don't believe it, that's the problem. I believe what Jesus said in
Matthew 5, verse 14, that we are the light of the world, the church. And
I also believe what Jesus said in John chapter 9, verse 5, that he is
the light of the world only as long as he is in the world.

He is not in the world today. He has made us the light of the world. So
many things in the Bible Christians don't preach.

How many preachers have you heard? Tell me in your whole life, you've
heard many preachers. Have you heard any preacher say to you, follow me
as I follow Christ? You hear them say, listen to me, do what I say. No,
no, no, no, I'm not talking about that.

There are hundreds of preachers like that. There are politicians like
that. I'm talking about someone who can follow me, follow my example as
I follow Christ.

Paul said that. We can follow Paul and say the same thing, follow me as
I follow Christ. In other words, look at my life.

Come and live in my home. See how I talk to my wife every day, morning
till night. See how I wish you could come home.

See how I brought up my children 30 years ago. Come and look at all my
finances. See how I handle my finances.

See the type of books I read. See the type of things I look at on
internet or anywhere. Come anytime.

Surprise me. Come and see what I'm watching on the internet or reading.
Follow me as I follow Christ.

I'm not perfect. Christ has reached the mountaintop, but I see his
footsteps and I'm getting closer and closer and closer. I'm not saying
I've reached the top.

Paul said, I'm not perfect, but forgetting how much I walked, I pressed
towards that mark, but you see my footsteps, you can follow me. It's
like somebody climbing a mountain. In the snow, you see the footsteps
and he says, follow me.

He's not saying he's reached the peak. No, but he says, look at my
footsteps and follow me and you will reach the peak. Jesus is at the
top.

I'm trying to get there. So when you say, follow me as I follow Christ,
you're not saying you're perfect, but you're pressing on to perfection.
That's why we have this verse on our pulpit.

Let us press on to perfection. People read that and say, oh, you guys
think you're perfect. I say, no, you haven't read it properly.

Yes, we are saying, let us press on to perfection. That is, we are
acknowledging we are not perfect. You're the guys who don't believe in
that verse.

You think you're perfect. We are not, but we are pressing on to
perfection. We're not sitting back and saying we are not perfect.

We are not perfect, but we are pressing on to perfection every day. And
every conference will help us to press on a little more to perfection.
But it's a life we want to manifest, not a doctrine.

And we want to proclaim this eternal life, which is with the Father,
which is manifested in Christ and which is now being manifested in the
church. And what is the purpose of all this? It's not just to show off,
hey, this is what we preach in CFC and these are the type of people we
produce in CFC. No.

Or these are the type of families we are producing in CFC. No. The
purpose is, verse 3, that you may have fellowship, that wonderful word,
fellowship, not friendship, not a congregation or a club, but a church,
that you may have fellowship with us.

And our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. And you
cannot have fellowship with us if you don't come into fellowship with
the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. You can have friendship.

I can be friendly with anybody in the world, even an atheist. I can be
friendly with, as I said, pickpockets or robbers who cheat me. I have
got no enemies.

I've got zero enemies in the world. Zero. But fellowship I have with
very few.

There's an outer court fellowship, there's a holy place fellowship, and
there's a most holy place fellowship. Jesus had that outer court
fellowship, 70 disciples whom he sent out, holy place fellowship with
11, and then a closer fellowship with three. It's like that with me
also.

There's an outer court fellowship, there's a ministry fellowship, and
there's a fellowship with those who worship the Father in spirit and in
truth. So like Jesus had the small circle, three circles, I also have
three circles of fellowship in CFC churches. I don't have equal
fellowship with all the elders, I'll have equal fellowship with all the
brothers and sisters.

There are three degrees. It doesn't depend on me. I'm not the one who
makes a choice.

They are the ones who make a choice which of these areas they want to
live in. If you want to live in the most holy place, you have to deny
yourself every single day. Rent the veil.

The veil is rent, but you've got to walk the way of the rent veil every
day. You'll automatically come into fellowship with all those who are in
the most holy place. But if you're not denying yourself, you're seeking
to exalt yourself, seeking something for yourself, you may be either in
the outer court or in the holy place.

Good. Thank God you're not outside the camp. At least you're born again.

Okay. But you won't have fellowship with the truly godly worshipers of
Christ. And you will see the loss that has come to you only when Christ
comes again.

I hope you realize it now. I often say in our church that if you listen
to everything I teach you, you will see in the judgment seat of Christ
that you were saved from so much of spiritual loss. You will have no
regret.

If you take everything that I say seriously and say, Lord, give me the
Holy Spirit to live according to this, I guarantee you'll have no regret
in the day of judgment. Fellowship with the Father and with one another.
And that is the way, verse 4, that our joy can be full.

The Christian life is one full of joy. Romans 14, 17 says, the kingdom
of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. In the Old Testament, it was
righteousness.

Full stop. No peace and joy. In the New Testament, it's righteousness
plus peace and joy.

If you have a righteousness, without peace in your heart towards God and
towards every human being, and without constant joy in your heart, it is
an old covenant righteousness. You're paying your taxes, you're not
cheating anybody, you're upright, and you don't lust after women, and
you do so many things which are good. But there's no peace in your
heart.

You're in unrest all the time about something, somebody cheated you, or
somebody did something at you, or you don't like that person or the
other church, and there's always an unrest. And you don't have a joy all
the time. That's not new covenant righteousness.

New covenant righteousness in the kingdom of God is righteousness,
peace, and joy. Psalm 16, 11, in His presence is fullness of joy. How do
I know I have fellowship with the Father? Your joy will be full, it says
in verse 4. Psalm 16, 11 says, it is only in the Father's presence there
is fullness of joy.

And anytime in my life I lack that fullness of joy, I say to myself, at
this moment, I'm not in my Father's presence. There may be 101 things
going wrong around me in the world. I refuse to let my joy go away,
because whatever may happen around me in the world, I'm going to live in
the Father's presence.

Whatever news which people call bad news, there is no bad news for me.
Everything, Romans 8, 28, everything is good news for me. The worst news
that you can think of, come and tell me.

I believe it's, I convert it to good news from Romans 8, 28. And
therefore I'm full of joy. I'm in the Father's presence.

If there's anything that comes to you that disturbs you, immediately you
know, you are not living in the Father's presence. And I thank God for
such situations, because that wakes me up. Hey, you're not living in the
Father's presence.

Thank you, Lord, for waking me up. Thank God for the situations that
come in our life that show us we are not living in the Father's
presence, even though we have all the theory of the New Covenant, and we
can even teach other people the New Covenant, but we don't have joy in
our heart. We're gloomy, depressed, looking sad at other people.

It's like the gloomy looking Christian who went to witness to somebody
and said, would you like to be born again? And he looked at his face and
said, no, thank you. I've got enough problems already. I've got enough
problems already.

Thank you. I don't want your Christianity looking at your face. Is that
the type of Christianity that you are portraying to others? I believe in
the Father's presence is fullness of joy.

And I have said to myself, particularly in the last few years, I say to
myself, I'm not here to judge you. Anytime I don't have fullness of joy,
I am not in the Father's presence. Anytime I don't have peace in my
heart, something is wrong.

I don't have fellowship with the Father. Maybe I don't love God at this
time enough, or maybe I don't love people enough. That's why this peace
is lost.

See, Colossians in chapter 3, these are things I've taught for 40 years,
and I don't mind repeating it for a new generation growing up. Children
who have grown up have never heard these things before. New people have
come to the church.

Some preachers are afraid to preach the same message again in the
church. I'm not afraid, because I say newcomers have come. I have to
teach them.

Our children have grown up. What are you saying? I preached on that 20
years ago. 20 years ago, they were little one-year-olds.

They couldn't understand it. I have to preach it again. That's why I
keep on preaching the same messages, and I say if you're tired of
hearing the same messages, go somewhere else.

I read the same Bible. I don't get a new Bible every year. The same
Bible I read every year, that I've read for 60 years, and I always get
something out of it.

So I'm not afraid of preaching the same message. Colossians 3 and verse
15. Let the peace of Christ be the referee in your heart.

Great verse. You know, all those who play games, you know referee. Blow
the whistle.

Stop the game. If you're playing soccer, or football as we call it here,
when the referee blows the whistle, it's no use. You can see everybody's
standing still.

Good time for me to kick the goal. Go run around and kick the goal.
Referee will say bring it back.

That's not a goal. You thought everybody's standing still, and it's a
good time for you to go and score a goal. You haven't understood the
rules of the game.

When the referee blows the whistle, everything stops. Let the peace of
Christ be the referee. Anytime in your life, peace has gone from your
heart.

Stop. No kicking the ball. No nothing.

And the referee will say, don't keep the ball there. Bring the ball to
the exact spot where the foul was committed. You can't keep the ball
there.

You've got to bring it here. Find the exact thing that caused the lack
of peace in your heart. What was it? Something that person said?
Something the other person did yesterday? Something that your mother-in-
law told you? Bring the ball to that spot and say, Lord, what my mother-
in-law told me disturbed me tremendously.

And seek for peace. With your mother-in-law? Yes, even with your mother-
in-law. There's only one person we are not allowed to seek peace with.

That's the devil. Don't say your mother-in-law is like the devil. It
doesn't matter.

Satan is the only person with whom you must not seek peace. Whoever you
are, I'm serious. I know there are people sitting here who have problem
with their mother-in-law, or their daughter-in-law, or their father-in-
law, or their brother-in-law.

Let them have a problem. Why should you have a problem? Why should you
lose your peace? Why should you lose your joy? Because that fellow has
lost it. He cheated you.

God can give you much more than this. You remember that verse? 2nd
Chronicles 25. God can give you much more than this.

Many people have cheated me in my life. It's part of my education. I
would not be able to preach today if people had not cheated me.

I would not be able to preach today if I did not lose money through my
own mistakes. I would not be able to preach today if I had not gone
through physical pain, suffering, through the mistakes of doctors,
through criminal cases filed against me, through thieves coming into my
house. I mean that's a recent education.

But I'm getting an education all the time. God says your education is
not over. I said praise the Lord.

Everything is for my good. I'm getting an education. I'm going from 10th
standard to 11th standard to 12th standard.

I'm going to college. I'm going to first college degree and second
college degree. I'm going to postgraduate.

I want to finish with whatever Jesus had all the way at the end. Do you
want that? Then face everything you face and say Lord give me the power
of the Holy Spirit to overcome this. I will remain in joy.

I will remain in peace through the power of the Holy Spirit. The fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. If you don't have these three,
whatever you talk about being filled with the Spirit is a lot of garbage
fit for the trash can.

If you can't love people, you're not filled with the Spirit. Anybody, I
don't care how bad that person is. Again I say the only person you must
not love is the devil.

I don't care who the other person is. He's got nothing to do with the
other person. Look at the flowers which give a beautiful smell.

I mean I don't know which of the flowers are the most beautiful smell.
Is it the rose? Whatever it is. The flower doesn't say who's this guy
coming to smell me.

Is it a bad person? Then I won't give a smell or I'll give a bad smell.
It's a nice person who I give a good smell. Which flower in the world
behaves like that? He's got nothing to do with the person.

He's got to do with the flower and that's how it is. If God does a work
in you, it'll have nothing to do with who comes and does something to
you. How can your nature be affected by that other person? No.

You can't make a dove into a vulture by treating it badly or shouting at
it. No. I remember hearing a story, a true story of a man who was living
in a house and a dove came and built a nest there just outside the
window.

That's so wonderful. What a symbol of peace. And he said every time he
banged the door in the house the dove would fly off.

If he yelled at his wife the dove would fly off. I said this is great. I
wish we could have a dove in all of our houses since we are not
listening to the Holy Spirit.

At least a dove with its nest telling us something is wrong here. It's a
true story. When peace is gone, your fellowship with God is gone.

When joy is gone, whatever you may say, you may say you're in a CFC
church, you're not in fellowship with God. We believe in fellowship with
God and with one another. As we read in 1 John 1, 1 John 1 5 and this is
the message if you want to live in this fellowship.

1 John 1 5. God is light. There is no darkness at all in him. There are
two things that John says God is.

Read the Bible slowly, read the Bible carefully, compare scripture with
scripture and I find this. God is, number one, light. And number two,
God is love.

1 John 4 verse 8. God is light. 1 John 1 5. God is love. 1 John 4 8.
It's the same thing.

So I understand light is love. God is light, God is love. So to walk in
the light, verse 1 John 1 7. If we walk in the light, if we walk in
love, as he is in love, we have fellowship.

Otherwise we don't have fellowship. And the blood of Jesus will cleanse
us from those areas of our life where we don't have light. Don't worry,
there are many areas in our life where we don't have light.

Don't feel condemned, the blood of Jesus will take care of that. But in
the area where you have light, walk in love. Endure in love till the
end.

Are you having difficult people in your life? God is allowing you to
face them so that you can learn to love. So that you can get a promotion
to the next class. Do you want your children to get promoted next year
to the next standard in school? What about you yourself? Supposing you
tell your child, oh my son, today is examination day, don't go to
school.

No, no, no, examination is tough. Then your son will sit in the same
class next year also. Because in many Indian schools, it's the final
examination that determines whether you get promoted or not.

And you don't send your child to school on the examination day and sit
in the same class. So no, the examination is tough. Go the other days
when they play marbles and do so many things like that in school or
cricket and all that type of stuff.

Today is examination day. Those trials that come to your life, that's
the examination day. God says it's for your promotion.

Don't run away from it. That's the day you need to go to school. That's
the day you need to face the trial, pass the examination and you'll find
next year you're in a higher class.

And like that, class by class by class we progress. Why is it so many
believers, I see them in different places. They are in exactly the same
place they were when I first saw them.

Some of them are worse. I'm talking about CFC believers. I can speak to
a person for five minutes and discern where they stand spiritually.

It's not because I'm God, it's just because I've been serving the Lord
for 53 years and dealt with many many people. And God gives the gift of
discernment to his servants so that they are not deceived. So as I
travel around, I'm not here to judge other churches, but the churches I
have a responsibility for, believers from other churches, I have zero
responsibility for.

I don't judge them. I don't discern them. I'm not interested to know
whether they are spiritual, whether they are growing, they're not
growing.

I have zero interest in them because I have no responsibility. If my
neighbor's child is misbehaving, I have no responsibility to correct
him. And so many believers in other churches, I have zero responsibility
for them.

I don't judge them. I don't correct them. I say if they want to go to
hell, they can go to hell.

I'm not here to stop them. But the ones who choose to come under my
authority and my responsibility, I have a responsibility to tell them.
And sometimes I speak very strong words.

Sometimes it needs surgery. But I always tell them, remember the knife
in my hand is not the knife of a murderer. It's the knife of a surgeon.

It's not to kill you. It is to remove the cancer from you. It's painful.

But I'll give you some anesthetics, some words of comfort, and you'll be
all right. But if you resist that removal of the cancer, you live with
the cancer forever. I will not force you.

If you say, doctor, I don't want that. Okay, live with your cancer. Dear
brothers, if you have a God-fearing elder who cares enough for you to
point out that you have cancer in your life and is enough also willing
to do a surgery for you for free, value such an elder brother.

If you have one like that, a shepherd after God's heart in your church,
you should be thankful more than all the fellows who flatter you and
tell you all types of things. All the people who don't even bother about
your spiritual life, whether you're sinking or drowning, they don't
bother about you. Be thankful for those who walk in the light and
challenge you to walk in the light.

You'll be thankful for them in the day of judgment. 1 Corinthians
chapter 11. Endure in love until the end.

1 Corinthians 11 has been a verse that's greatly comforted me. Verse 31.
1 Corinthians 11 31.

If we judge ourselves rightly, we will not be judged. What do I need to
judge myself rightly? Am I walking in love to God? He'll let me keep my
commandments. Am I keeping his commandments? Am I walking in love with
my fellow believer? I have to judge myself, not him.

I'm not wondering. I'm not here to find out whether he's walking in love
with me. He will not walk in love with me because he may be an
unbeliever or he's a believer who doesn't have light.

Why should he walk in love? I cannot have a demand. My wife must walk in
love. Who said that? My husband must walk in love.

My neighbor must walk in love. My fellow believers must walk in love.
Even my elder must walk in love.

No. Don't have any demands on anyone. I must walk in love.

Full stop. And if I judge myself rightly, I only got to judge myself one
thing. In this situation, am I walking in love with God, obeying his
commandments? Am I walking in love towards my fellow believer or
stranger or anybody? And if I judge myself where I did something wrong
or I have the wrong attitude, I cleanse myself.

If I keep living like that in the day of judgment, listen to this. In
the day of judgment, when my turn comes to stand before Christ, he'll
say, my son, I have nothing to say. I have a crown of righteousness for
you.

You have judged yourself faithfully without judging others every day of
your life. And you presented my life to others by your life. Maybe you
couldn't preach well.

It doesn't matter. You presented my life to others. I have nothing.

We will not be judged. And I've said that many times in CFC churches.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are preparing people for the final
examination.

We are preparing people for the final judgment. That's why we speak
strongly. It's like these tuition colleges they have for those who want
to get medical entrance and entrance into the technical IITs and all.

It's a very high standard. It's tough. They give you a tough syllabus
too, but then when you pass, you get a very good admission to good
college and a good job.

CFC is like that. Very high standards, tough things to standard, but the
end of it, what will happen in the final day, the Lord says to you 100%.
Do you want to hear the Lord saying to you 100% in the final day? We
will not be judged means what? You've judged yourself rightly in
everything on earth, enduring in love until the end towards the Lord and
towards one another.

May it be so. And I shall proclaim this as long as I live, as long as
God gives me breath. And I pray that you will also pass on that message
to others.

Walk in that first. Let that life which was with the Father manifested
in Jesus Christ now be manifested in you and me. To a world that only
hears doctrines and sermons and other things from preachers, let them
see a life.

So that you can also, even if you are a very new believer, say follow me
as I follow Christ. Ask yourself one question, whether you're like Jesus
in one area. What is your reaction to children? I don't mean your own
children.

How do you react to other people's children coming to you? Are children
drawn to you or you push them away? Then you're a Pharisee. If children,
not your children, other people's children are not drawn to you when you
meet them in your church, I want to say to you in Jesus' name, you're a
Pharisee. Children were drawn to Jesus.

The more we become like Christ, little children will be happy to come to
us. They won't be scared. They won't be shooed away.

That's one test. There are many other tests the Holy Spirit can show
you. Look at the life of Jesus and follow it.

What is your attitude to money? You can easily find out whether you're
following Jesus or not. Yeah, I don't have to say everything. The Holy
Spirit will teach you all things.

Let us pray now. I hope there's a spirit of thankfulness in you for all
that God gave you in these days. In broken words, through different
people, the Lord tried to minister something to you, to give you
something for all the trouble and expense that you took to come here.

God says, I've given you something that you can take home, which is much
more valuable than all the money you spent traveling here and all the
difficulties you took coming here. I've given you something that will
change your whole life for the future, that can give you a hundred
percent in the day of judgment. Heavenly Father, thank you for your love
and care for us.

We want to live in the goodness of that all our days. Bless everyone
who's here. Encourage them.

Help them to be true disciples. Raise up shepherds. Raise up apostles
and prophets in this land.

What a need there is. For the church is built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone.

Raise up apostles and prophets, Lord, and shepherds and evangelists and
teachers as well. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/hkKaonjeQ-s.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/constant-fellowship-with-god-in-the-light/
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