======================================================================== GOD CHOOSE WEAK AND FOOLISH PEOPLE by Zac Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes God's choice of the seemingly foolish and weak in the world, highlighting the importance of humility, honesty, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. It encourages individuals to recognize their unique gifts from God, not comparing themselves to others, and to focus on being full of the Holy Spirit daily rather than just being filled at specific times. The speaker shares personal experiences of overcoming inferiority and the transformative power of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Topics: "Divine Empowerment", "Embracing Humility" Scripture References: 1 Corinthians 1:26, James 4:6, John 7:38, Romans 2:11, Psalm 139:14, 1 Samuel 10:6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes God's choice of the seemingly foolish and weak in the world, highlighting the importance of humility, honesty, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. It encourages individuals to recognize their unique gifts from God, not comparing themselves to others, and to focus on being full of the Holy Spirit daily rather than just being filled at specific times. The speaker shares personal experiences of overcoming inferiority and the transformative power of being filled with the Holy Spirit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ God has picked out the people whom the world does not appreciate. Turn to 1 Corinthians in chapter 1. I'm giving you verses to arm your mind so that you don't sin. The armor that can protect you from the fiery darts of temptation, whether it's the temptation to sexual lust or the temptation to feel inferior and to condemn yourself. And especially when you come in the midst of other young people like that, even in a youth camp. And I don't know what all activities you have gone through here, but the ones who come first in these activities are usually the smartest and the cleverest who come first in the school too. People who've got a good memory are the ones who win the Bible quiz competitions, not necessarily the most spiritual. A lot of spiritual people may not have a good memory for Bible verses. In a Bible quiz competition, if the devil were here, he'd win first prize all the time. Please remember that. He knows every verse in the Bible better than anybody, better than me. I'm not saying we shouldn't know the Bible, but I'm saying don't glory in the fact that you won some prize. It doesn't make you spiritual. And so many other things. There are people whose minds are sharp and clever. There are people who are fantastically gifted in singing and music. And you sit there, you can't play an instrument, you can't sing one note properly, and you feel inferior. I want to tell you in Jesus' name, God loves you just as much as He loves the others. And if a person has got a gift, whether of preaching or singing or music, and he's proud of it and he thinks he's somebody special, in God's eyes, he's the last. And you'll discover that when Christ comes again, that some of these people who were very smart in your eyes were lost in God's eyes. Because I'll tell you something, God values humility and honesty more than anything else. If there are two things I would advise all of you to pursue from my 52 years of experience as a believer, pursue humility, pursue honesty. I'm not preaching what I have not practiced. Even today, I seek to be ruthlessly honest with myself before God. I never, never, never want to give an impression to people which is of something that's not true about me in private. And at the same time, I realize that God gives grace to the humble, and I'm so desperately eager for God's grace, because that is the power of His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Grace. And I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit every single day. I never want to live one moment without being filled with the Holy Spirit. You see, it's a sad thing that many people speak about being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a very common expression. But in the New Testament, you also read of people who are full of the Holy Spirit. What is the difference? You read in Acts about people who are filled with the Holy Spirit, and then you read in the Acts about those who are full of the Holy Spirit. And I very rarely hear about people talking about being full of the Holy Spirit. It's always being filled with the Holy Spirit. There is a distinct difference. Let me use an example. What is the difference between saying, some of you ride motorbikes. Okay, your motorbike petrol tank was filled with petrol, and is full of petrol. You think there's a difference? One is something that happened in the past, when you went to the petrol station, you filled your petrol tank with petrol. It may have been last year, may have been yesterday, but it may not be full today. A petrol tank that is full of petrol is different from a petrol tank that was filled with petrol. Remember that illustration. Not were you filled with the Holy Spirit, are you full of the Holy Spirit. Dates are not important. A lot of people glory in dates. I don't even know when I was born again. You may not know when you're filled with the Holy Spirit. I always tell people, dates are written on tombstones. You go to a graveyard, it's full of dates. Born, so and so date. What's the use? The guy is dead. And you go to some of the villages in India, most people don't know their birth date. You ask them, when were you born? He says, many years ago, there was a little flood here, and I was born in that time. That's how they express their birth date. You say, oh, then you're not alive. If you don't know your birth date, you're not alive. Or if you don't know your birth date, you're not healthy. It's nonsense. So don't worry about dates. Make sure you're full of the Holy Spirit every day. If you want to remain full of the Holy Spirit, pursue honesty and humility. The Spirit is the Spirit of grace. God gives grace to the humble. Water, the Holy Spirit is pictured like rivers of water. And you know, water always flows to the lowest place first. If you see a puddle in a ground somewhere after it rained, why is it the rest of the ground is dry and that puddle is full of water? I'll tell you why. Because that puddle, that part of the ground was the lowest part of the ground. It's 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26. Consider your calling, brethren. There are not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. God has chosen the foolish things of the world. Brother, sister, are you one of those whom the world considers foolish? Maybe you never came first in your class, in school or in college ever in your life. Maybe you didn't even come in the first half of your class. Maybe you failed in a few classes. And others look down on you. Maybe your parents look down on you. You're a dumb creature. You're not smart. You think God can choose you? God has chosen the foolish things of the world. He may choose the wise. That's because there's no difference to Him. That's my point. The thing is, in the world, we make a difference between the man who's fair and dark and the person who's fat and thin, or the person who's smart and dumb. God doesn't make a distinction. All are the same to Him. Whatever the color of their skin, whatever their height, whatever their weight, however smart they are or not smart, God is the one who's given them intelligence. The only thing He is testing, listen, will you recognize that everything I have was given to me as a gift by God to use for Him? If you recognize that, you're blessed. You know the story where Jesus spoke about one person who was given one talent, another person who was given two talents, another person who was given five talents in Matthew 25. Why didn't He give them all equal? That's up to God. If you find that somebody here is five times prettier than you or five times handsomer or five times smarter or five times better in music or five times whatever, five times richer, that's God's choice. If He has given them more, He'll expect more from them. Remember that. If He's given you less, He expects less from you. And if you produce with your one talent, one more talent, you'll get the same reward as that guy with five talents produced. He has to produce five before he gets the same reward as you. These are teachings in scripture. You read Matthew 25. And so God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. You heard a brother like Setu, who's never worn a pant in his life. He wears the same dhoti that all the people in his village wear. Can't speak English. But you heard him speak. I've heard him speak many, many times. Not only speak an anointed word, I've seen him build a church, the biggest of all of our churches, so big that it had to be divided up into three churches. And a man who is respected by others, who is invited as a speaker to other places to other states. What does he have? You think the world will be impressed by a man like that? He stands up here and speaks to people who got PhDs sitting in the congregation. God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, because there's no respect of persons with him. And he has chosen the weak things of the world. Are you one of those who are weak? Weak intellectually, weak physically? Maybe you are also got a lot of sicknesses that you don't seem to get healed from. Never, never feel discouraged by comparing yourself with others. Rejoice in the fact that I'm black, but I'm lovely in God's eyes. I'm not as healthy as others. I'm not as smart as others, but I'm lovely in God's eyes. Say that to yourself. You may not believe that when you think of me as a great smart guy standing up here, but I was not always like this. I had a tremendous inferiority complex, because I was the youngest and the shortest in my class, in school. And when I got, when I joined the military academy, I was just, I was selected when I was 14 and a half years old to join the military academy. And the people in my class said, hey, you're going to defend our country? For God have mercy on us. That's how they despised me. But, and then I, I felt inferior in the military academy and I became a Christian and I'd feel inferior because I felt everybody else was better than me. And I never took part in public speaking or never once in school or in the military academy. I didn't feel I had that ability. I was shy. But I said, Lord, I don't want to speak in public. Let me speak to two, three people in a home. That's how I started speaking. I would gather a few people in a home, maybe some nominal Christian home and say, can I come and visit your home once a week and teach the Bible to you? That was easy for me, three, four people sitting there who were nominal Christians and I could share the word with them. And I said, Lord, I don't want to be a great preacher. I just want to tell you how much I love you, because you saved my soul from hell. And if you can make me a blessing, even to three or four people or some little family here, that's enough. I'll serve you with whatever opportunity you give. But what happened was God began to increase that circle and increase that circle and gave me such an anointing that about two years after I was baptized, when I was 23 years old, I was standing preaching to 5,000 people. It's amazing what God can do. He filled me with the Holy Spirit. That's why I always say to young people, seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It'll change you into another man. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/8II-IVibXLQ.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/god-choose-weak-and-foolish-people/ ========================================================================