======================================================================== REPENT DAILY, THEN SATAN WILL BE AFRAID OF YOU by Zac Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of avoiding the dangers of spiritual decline and drifting away from fervent love for Christ. It highlights the need to seek rest in God, overcome giants of sin, and maintain a sensitive conscience. The speaker urges against competition, pointing fingers, and compares spiritual growth to occupying the land of Canaan little by little. The focus is on personal spiritual growth, humility, and dependence on God for victory over sin. Topics: "Spiritual Growth", "Dependence on God" Scripture References: Matthew 11:28, Psalm 139:23, Hebrews 3:19, 2 Corinthians 10:12, Isaiah 58:11, 1 Corinthians 11:30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of avoiding the dangers of spiritual decline and drifting away from fervent love for Christ. It highlights the need to seek rest in God, overcome giants of sin, and maintain a sensitive conscience. The speaker urges against competition, pointing fingers, and compares spiritual growth to occupying the land of Canaan little by little. The focus is on personal spiritual growth, humility, and dependence on God for victory over sin. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now, many of you have been in RLCF for a number of years. What do you feel, not talking to the newcomers, those have been there for a number of years, what do you feel is the greatest danger that your church is facing or church is connected with CFC? Have you ever thought about that? I think about it quite a lot because I'm dealing with different churches in different places and we've been going for nearly 47 years now. And I feel the great danger is the danger that has faced every movement, every new movement that God has started in the history of Christianity, right from the first century. I mean, if you read in church history, God has raised up many movements whenever one church declines spiritually, God raises up something else to as it's like a resurrection and that becomes a new church and that's where God's presence is felt. I mean, the great example of that is the church in Ephesus. The church in Ephesus, if you read Acts chapter 20, Paul was with that church for three years and we read, I don't know whether you noticed that it says in Acts 20, he called the elders together and told them, I have been with you for three years and I preached to you day and night, Acts chapter 20 and verse 31. Day and night, that means he had morning meetings early morning before people went to work. John Wesley used to do that, he used to get up at five o'clock and have meetings for those who are old hearted, who would come to listen to his meeting before they went to work and then he'd have meetings in the evening. So Paul did the same thing, morning and evening, night and day for three years and we calculated that 365 into three for the number of days into two for the number of sermons. That's more than 2,000 sermons. Can you imagine what your life will be like if you listen to 2,000 videotapes of the Apostle Paul? They were listening to him live and yet at the end of it he says, these wolves will come and not spare the flock in verse 29. Now how in the world is it that they could not come when Paul was there? You know, I believe it's possible to live before God in such a way that as the devil was afraid of Jesus, he'd be afraid of you. And I'll tell you one thing, if you want to be a servant of God, you have to live in such a way that the devil is afraid of you. Most believers are afraid of the devil. They're scared of what the devil will do to them here or do to them there or do to the other than there or harm my family here or harm my family there. Paul was not like that. I tell you, I believe with all my heart, the devil was scared of the Apostle Paul. Because if you turn back to the previous chapter when there were people who were casting out some demons and they said in the name of Jesus who Paul preaches, we rebuke you. And you know that what the demon said was, Paul I know, Jesus I know, but who are you? And that's, you read that in Acts 19, just the previous chapter in verse 15. When somebody tried to, some of these Jewish people tried to cast out an evil spirit. The evil spirit answered, you read that area in 13, 14, and 15, Acts 19. The evil spirit answered saying, Jesus I know, which means I'm scared of Jesus. And Paul I know about, I'm scared of him too. But who in the world do you folks think you are? And the evil spirit and the man jumped on them and tore their clothes. You cannot serve God if the devil is not scared of you. You'll just be another religious nut who goes around building congregations which accomplish nothing for the Lord. So I believe God desires in every church at least one man who the devil is afraid of. He'll keep the devil out of the church. Of course, if it's more than one, it's even better. I believe we should really seek to be wholehearted, radical, and say, Lord, especially if you're an elder, you really got to take that responsibility very seriously. And all the brothers and sisters in the church, I mean, you are elders in your own home. The home is a mini church, and you don't want the devil to come into your home either. So if you're the head of your home, the devil must be scared of you. You shouldn't be scared of the devil. But here, those wolves, I don't know how many elders there were, Paul was speaking to the elders in Ephesus, maybe there were four or five elders, it was a pretty big church. But Paul told them, the devil is not scared of you folks, unfortunately. And so as soon as I go, the wolves will come in and they'll tear this place apart. And because you guys are not walking with the Lord, you guys are not radical, maybe you guys love money, or you love your own honor, or something else you're interested in, and the devil sees that. And the devil says, you're talking about Jesus and Paul, I know them, but I know all about your life. I know what your goal in life is. I know what your ambition and aim in life is. You have no power over me. Dear brothers and sisters, I'm not just talking about elders. I want to say to every single one of you in Jesus' name, you must be a person who counts for God in these last days. I believe this, I mean, I hope it is that this pandemic, which comes one variant after another that's coming more and more and more and more, I sincerely hope this is an indication of the last days. Really, I sincerely hope that, because I'm waiting for the Lord to come, this rotten old earth, not for me to go to heaven. I have zero desire to go to heaven. I can say that before God. I want to be with Jesus, wherever He is. Not heaven doesn't interest me. The presence of the Lord and the fulfillment of His purpose. You see, when Jesus taught us to pray, He didn't teach us to pray, Lord, prepare me for heaven. No, our Father who art in heaven, let your name be hallowed. Let your kingdom come on this earth. Let your will be done on this earth as it is done in heaven. That is the burden of my heart. And if you're a wholehearted disciple of Jesus, that should be the burden of your heart. If your primary desire is not that you should live a comfortable life or you should have this or you should have that, but, oh God, let your name be always respected and hallowed and let your kingdom come and let your will be done on earth. I tell you, the devil would be scared of somebody like that. That's why he was scared of Paul. And he knew that all the others there in the settlements were just sitting around listening to Paul's sermons, but they were not radical in seeking to follow Jesus. And I pray, I pray with all my heart that you brothers and sisters in RLCF will really seek to be those for whom Christ is everything, who do not live for yourself, that in the midst of all your secular work and you're bringing up your family, et cetera, that Jesus Christ is primary. Everything else is secondary or unimportant. You have a church like that, the gates of hell will never prevail. But anyway, what Paul said to Ephesus was, not only the wolves will come in, but he tells the elders, I can see that you elders are also seeking your own. Imagine after three years of listening to Paul and seeing the way he lived, these elders were still seeking their own. Maybe they were seeking honor, saying, oh, I'm an elder, I'm a big shot here or some rubbish like that. And the result was, see pride always means a person loses the grace of God. I've seen elders, even in CFC churches, wonderful brothers, went along well until God blessed them and they became proud, oh, God has blessed me, God has blessed my church. And that was the end of them. I pray that will never happen to anybody here. That is the end of them. They declined, they became unfaithful in little things, little, little things, and they continued in their position as sitting on the throne. You wouldn't think that such a thing could happen in a CFC church. Yes, it does. I mean, Paul preached for three years and at the end of it, these guys were seeking their own. Paul said, you've seen how I lived in your midst, I never took any money from you. And from the beginning, you've seen how I've lived before you. See, it says in verse 18, you know, from the day I set foot in Asia, that is in Ephesus, how I was with you the whole time. He didn't say, do you remember that sermon I preached? You remember those 2000 sermons I preached? He was not referring to his sermons. He was saying, see how I lived here for three years. That was his testimony. Now, do you remember that wonderful three-point sermon I preached that day? No, he never gloried in his wonderful sermons, he said, I served the Lord, verse 19, with all humility, with tears, and with trials, and I did not shrink from declaring to you, verse 20, publicly and privately, the full counsel of God, I preached repentance. Paul was a great preacher of repentance. That's not a very common thing preached these days. You know, many people, they ask, what is the last message that Jesus gave to the church? They say, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. No, sir, that was not the last message. The last message to the church is in Revelation chapter 2 and 3, repent, repent, repent, repent. You don't believe it? Read Revelation chapter 2 and 3. His last message to the church on earth was repent, repent, repent. Turn around from your self-centered life. That's the meaning of repent. Turn around that life where you just seek your own comfort and ease and want to call yourself a Christian and a disciple. Turn around from that and seek to be wholeheartedly mine. That's what Paul preached. So these folks listened to it, maybe they could preach great sermons, but they sought their own. And what happened? Once Paul was left, not only the wolves came in, but it says here in verse 30, from your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things. What are the perverse things people speak? It's not saying that Jesus Christ is not God or it's not a doctrinal thing, perversity, perversity, crookedness, spiritual crookedness is when a brother, verse 30, tries to draw people to himself and not to Christ. Jesus said, I, if I'm lifted up, will draw all men to me. But it's possible for an elder or any brother who's seeking his own inwardly, subtly to draw attention to himself. That's what he says in verse 30, you will draw people to follow after you because you're exalting yourself, not Christ. Very subtle. And I've seen it happen. What happened in the first century is happening in the 21st century. And what is the result? The result you read in Revelation chapter two, that the same church, this wonderful church, they didn't take Paul's warning seriously. When an apostle preaches, take his warning seriously. They did not. They said, oh, we're okay. Well, they were not okay. So finally, in Revelation chapter two, it says, the Lord says, I'm going to take away my presence from your church. That's the meaning of, I will remove, verse Revelation 2, 5, I will remove the lampstand out of its place. That lampstand is a picture of the presence of the Lord in that church, the light. And once the light is removed, what have they got left? Doctrine. Doctrine. Sermons, conferences, meetings, activities, Sunday school, dramas, children's activities, all types of things. But the presence of Jesus is gone. I'd rather not have any of those activities and have the presence of the Lord. That's so very important. And the Lord says, I'll remove my presence and then you'll be left without my presence. Do you think you'll stop having your meetings? No, you'll still have your three meetings a week. You'll still have your conferences and you'll still have your Sunday school and you'll still have all your activities. And to the external world, everything will look as if it's normal in that church, but the angels can see that the Lord has left that church. But you read, there is hope for you if you repent. That's what he says in verse five. Remember from where you have fallen. They've left that first love for the Lord. Verse four, when our fervent love for Christ decreases, you feel that you have fallen. When love for the world comes in, or love for money comes in, or love for something else comes in, love for yourself more than for the Lord, you feel you've fallen. Anyone who's not in fervent love for the Lord has fallen. When you want to please your wife more than you want to please the Lord, I want to say to you in Jesus' name, you have fallen, brother. Yes, or vice versa. If you want to please a man more than you want to please the Lord, you've fallen. You have left your first love. Remember from where you've fallen and repent. Does a man have to repent if he's not loving the Lord with the same fervency he loved some years ago? Sure. I believe that's why our life must be one of constant repentance. As long as we have not become like Jesus Christ 100% in our character, in our attitude, in our motive, in our thoughts, in every part of our personality, we have to repent. Repent of what? Lord, I'm not yet 100% like Christ. I keep saying that in my spirit every day, and so I repent every day. God is my witness. I do. I'm constantly seeking, and God is my witness when I say this, every single day of my life to see in what area I can press on towards perfection a little more and become a little more Christ-like. Not preach a better sermon. I'll tell you honestly, I have zero desire to preach better sermons. Zero. Zero desire to impress anybody with my sermons. I have a passionate desire to become more like Christ. That's all. In earlier days when I was immature, I was more interested in preaching clever sermons, but it's all gone. I've seen the things that are really valuable, and I want to urge you, press on to become Christ-like. And then even if you say a few words, that will bless people more than all your clever things that you can share. So we must be careful that the Lord does not leave our church like He left the church in Ephesus. Now what I wanted to say was, but He says there are some overcomers in your church. Praise the Lord. Revelation 2.7. And that's what we see in every church, there were some overcomers. Those are the bride of Christ, the people who had the spirit of the bride. Now at a wedding, once the wedding is over, and the bridegroom, when the bridegroom leaves the hall where the wedding was conducted, what does the bride do? The bride doesn't hang around there. The bride goes to the bridegroom. So if Jesus told His church, I will leave you if you don't repent, and supposing the elder in the church did not repent, Jesus would leave. What would these overcomers do? They would leave too. They say, we're the bride. We go with the bridegrooms. There may have been only about five or ten of them. Fine. Let the remaining 500 stay in that so-called first church of Ephesus, and these five or ten go and meet in a house, and the Lord is there. The Lord is not with that group, 500 member church. The Lord is with the small group. I mentioned that to say, that is how God has worked throughout these 20 centuries. The church becomes big, gets a name, and dies spiritually. Its leaders are not passionately following the Lord, and don't preach repentance. But there are a few, the Lord leaves the church, but there are a few overcomers who go with Him, and they stand with Him. Give that new group another 40 years, and history will be repeated. Maybe 40, maybe, like it says, a man's life is 70 years, and then history repeats itself. And this new group becomes large, 500 people, and again, it's lost out. They seek out their preaching popular messages rather than repentance. And the Lord moves on, and another group of overcomers leaves this new group. So now you have three churches in Ephesus, and the first two are big, powerful ones, and the third one is a small, despised group, but the Lord is there. And this has happened again, and again, and again, and again in 20 centuries, and it's come down to our time. And that's how CFC started. What shall we learn from all these groups that have gone before us? Every group, when it started, will say, that won't happen to us. I don't say that. I say, I don't want it to happen. But if we don't walk in humility, and if we don't walk with a passionate love for Christ, and a desire to please only the Lord, and to be very sensitive to sin in our conscience, to the smallest little thing, immediately set it right, immediately apologize, immediately clear our relationship with God, to be able to hear God speak into our heart every single day. If I don't hear God speak into my heart one single day, that means sin is there. The only thing that can block my ears from hearing God's voice in my spirit is sin. Nothing else. Not busyness. You can be busy morning till night in your work, and you're in touch with God, but sin, you can be reading the Bible the whole day, and there's sin in your heart, you're not in touch with God. You will not hear God speaking, even if you read the Bible for two hours. I know a lot of people, most of these people who go to Bible schools, they study, study, study the Bible, but they never hear God speaking. I can't think in my entire life that I've been blessed by anybody who's gone to a Bible school. All the people who have blessed me in my life as a young brother, all the great men of God have blessed me, were people who never went to Bible schools. T.L. Moody, and Charles Finney, and A.W. Tozer, and Watchman Me, now these are men who never went to a Bible school, or in India, Bhagat Singh. So Sadhgur Sundar Singh, these are people who never went to a Bible school. Those are the ones who blessed me the most, because they heard God, and brothers, sisters, we must be like that, then we can preserve our church in purity. So, the greatest danger that any church faces, I was asking that question at the beginning, is the danger of drifting away from that fervent love for Christ, and where we are very sensitive in our conscience to the smallest sin, we should be becoming more and more sensitive to anger. It may take time to get over anger, never mind, but are you sensitive to it? Do you feel, oh, I had a wrong attitude there, that was not the right tone of voice with which I should have spoken to that brother, or to my husband, or to my wife, or to anyone. Something wrong in that tone of voice is an element of anger, an element of irritation. Do you think Jesus was irritated with somebody, because of what that person did? The only thing that disturbed Jesus was when people did not seek the glory of God. When they were trying to make money in the name of God in the temple, then Jesus was furious. He didn't care what people thought about him, he took a whip and chased them out. Yeah, but otherwise he was not bothered what people thought about him. So, this sensitivity in our conscience, I want to encourage all of you to check on the sensitivity of your conscience, that it should be becoming better and better and better. We say, when a patient is sick in a hospital, the doctor keeps checking and says, yeah, he's improving, he's improving. There are various gadgets and machines and all, which they put things on their hands and on their head in order to measure how this person's health is, and say, oh, he's improving. The graph on the screen shows he's improving. So it should be in our life that we're becoming more sensitive, more sensitive to hear God speaking to us in our conscience, whenever we have done the slightest bit wrong, or whenever we find that we're seeking our own in some area, or we find we are more interested in making money than following the Lord. Now, I'll tell you something. I don't want to be super spiritual here. There is absolutely nothing wrong in earning money. The Bible says in Psalm 1, verse 3, that a person who meditates on the law of the Lord, whatever he does, he'll prosper. I believe that with all my heart, that there's nothing wrong in prospering spiritually, materially, in every way, provided Christ is first, that he never—there were rich people in the early church. Timothy was an elder in Ephesus, and Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy, chapter 6, tell those who are rich in your church, this is what they should do. They shouldn't trust in riches, but teach them to do good. So in that church in Ephesus, which Paul—Timothy was leading, 1 Timothy 6, 17, there were some rich people. He didn't tell them to become poor in order to follow the Lord. You don't have to become poor to follow the Lord. There were poor people, there were rich people. James says in his letter that poor people and rich people come into the church, you should not show any preference. So I don't believe that Jesus teaches all of us to be poor. No. I don't believe—I've never believed it. I mean, God allows some people to earn more and some people to earn less, that's okay, that's up to the Lord, but there's a lot of difference between having money and loving it. And there are people who have very little money who love money. For example, in India, I've seen lots of—we have hundreds of beggars, what you call homeless people here in India, we call them beggars, sitting on the roadside begging. Every one of them loves money. I've never met a beggar in my life who doesn't love money. Have you ever met a homeless man standing on the street who doesn't love money? He's got zero, but he loves money. And then I've met some very rich people who don't love money, who have a fantastic amount of income and they don't love money at all. So it's not a question of how much you earn. It's not a question of the size of your house or the size of your bank account. It's an attitude of heart which nobody else can detect, not even your wife. But you can do it. Now I tell you this, be careful, dear brothers, because these are the ways in which the devil makes you lose power over him. It can be a very careless attitude in the sexual area, careless with our eyes and what we look at. That's all. That's all the devil wants, is make you a little careless in that area. His aim is so that you have no power over him. He doesn't care how well you preach or what a good reputation you have in the church. The devil couldn't care less for that, so long as you don't have power over him. I want to keep my conscience sensitive so that I have power over Satan. I don't care what people think about me. That's absolutely zero importance to me. I want to make sure that Satan is scared of me. Make that your goal. Satan is scared if you know you're walking with the Lord. The only person whom Satan is scared of is one who is walking with the Lord in a clear conscience. You should be able to add your name there. The devil says, I know Jesus, I know Paul, and I know so and so as well. Yeah, that's my goal, I'll tell you honestly. I want the devil to say, I know Jesus, I know Paul, and I know Zach Neumann. Why not add your name there? Don't you want the devil to recognize you? It's more important for the devil to recognize you than this whole world to recognize you. A lot of Christians who are recognized by the world, the devil doesn't recognize them at all because they're not godly. They're not humble. They're not overcoming sin. They love money. Most preachers I've met, they're such lovers of money. The devil's not scared of them one bit. They can be world famous, but the devil doesn't care for them. Dear brothers, if you are a member of RLCF, you have a tremendous responsibility to keep this church strong for the Lord. You've got to do your part. You can't do somebody else's part, but you've got to do your part and love the Lord fervently. You don't have to preach great sermons. You may have no gift of preaching or teaching, but you faithfully committed to the church. You've come there regularly. You pray for the church, and maybe you can't even sing properly, but you support the church in your spirit, and you're keeping your heart clear and full of love for the Lord. You are a tremendous strength to the church even if you don't open your mouth because you're a person who the devil's scared of. I pray that RLCF will be full of such people. That's the only type of church that the Lord wants. Your numbers don't matter. Maybe only 30, 40 people. It can be the most powerful church in your whole state of Colorado if you are those type of people. That is God's will. That is why in that connection, I always say, you must always see whether your heart is at rest. The New Testament speaks a lot about coming to rest. Jesus said, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew chapter 11. Please turn with me, Matthew 11. You know this verse. This is a verse that is quoted very often to unbelievers. Matthew 11, 28. Jesus is inviting you, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Yeah, in one sense it's true. Rest in the sense of freedom from the guilt of sin, which can be a very heavy burden. But I've come to see, having got that rest, there are a lot of believers, you ask yourself, who are in unrest about something else. Something or the other causes them some unrest. Unrest in their heart, unrest in their home. And the Lord is saying to such people too. I believe the Lord is saying to all of us, come to me. I don't want you to be in unrest in your heart at any time about anything. I will give you rest. You can't produce it. It's not by some psychological technique that you bring rest. God has to give it to us. All of us will acknowledge that I cannot produce the forgiveness of sins myself. Agreed. God has to give it to me. I cannot produce salvation myself. The Lord has to give it to me. But we think that we can produce rest ourselves? Impossible. The Lord says, I will give you rest. You've got to come to me. And if you want it, it says in the next verse, take my yoke upon you. Learn from me day by day. Learn by gentleness and my humility. You will find rest. The rest I want to give you, you will find it if you come to me and learn humility and gentleness. There is a rest that remains for the people of God, we read in Hebrews. You know, the Old Testament is full of picture language. Put the blood on the doorposts. Kill the lamb and put the blood on the doorposts. John the Baptist said that the lamb of God is Jesus Christ. That lamb was a picture of Christ whose blood protects us from the angel of death. That's a symbol there. What about going into the river, sorry, into the Red Sea and coming out the other side? That's a picture of water baptism. And Egypt is a picture of the world, where we finish with the world. And in baptism, we are saying, I finished with the world and I'm coming out on the other side. Yeah, these are beautiful pictures. What about the pillar of cloud that came from above? That's a picture of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Everything in the Old Testament is a picture. And the purpose of the cloud coming was not just to give them some excitement. This is where I disagree with my friends, the Pentecostals. They think this is some excitement. No! You know in the Old Testament, what was the purpose of that pillar of cloud? Not to excite the people. What is the purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit? It was to lead the people day by day in their life. They had to follow the cloud until they entered the land of Canaan. Canaan was a picture of a life of victory, where all the giants of sin are killed. And so the purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit is to lead you day by day by day to enter into the life of victory. Everything in the Old Testament had a meaning. And so the Sabbath. What is the meaning of the Sabbath? The Sabbath was a picture of the life of rest God wants us to have all the time. And the land of Canaan is also a picture of a life of rest God wants us to have all the time. Where we fight the giants and kill them, but it's a life of rest. Turn with me to Hebrews in chapter 3. He's talking about exactly what I was speaking about here. Hebrews 3 verse 15. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts like your fathers did when they provoked me. Verse 16. Who provoked the Lord? Not all who came out of Egypt. Joshua and Caleb did not provoke him, but the majority did. With who was God angry? Verse 17. For 40 years, 600,000 people who refused to enter the land of rest, Canaan, and their bodies fell in the wilderness. But then, to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest? Those 600,000 people. Why could they not enter the land of Canaan? Verse 19. Because they did not believe. What did they not believe? They did not believe God can kill the giants of Canaan and give us the land. That is unbelief. I've been a slave to anger. God cannot kill it. Sorry. It's too powerful. This anger of mine is so powerful, even the Holy Spirit cannot finish with it in my life. My lusting with my eyes is so powerful that even the Holy Spirit cannot help me to overcome it. This murmuring and complaining is so characteristic of my life that even the Holy Spirit will not help me to overcome it. That is unbelief. They could not enter in. You know Joshua and Caleb. What was the difference between Joshua and Caleb and all those 600,000 people? Only one thing. They didn't have more muscles. They said we believe God is more powerful than that giant. And that other giant. And the other giant in Canaan. God is more powerful than all of them. That is how they entered into rest. Into the land of Canaan. And then it says here, they were not able to enter those 600,000 people. Hebrews 3.19. Because of their unbelief. Come to me. I will give you rest. They could not enter that rest. Therefore, chapter 4, verse 1. It's all a continuous same thought. Let us, today, who are reading this, be afraid. Lest a promise is given to us to enter into rest. There is a promise. Come to me. Learn from me and you will find rest. The promise is there. But you may seem to come short of it. Just like those 600,000 people. You can be left out in the wilderness. Let us fear. I want to have that healthy, holy fear. Of ever having unrest in my heart. Ever. Due to anything. Due to some calamity. Which I think even Almighty God cannot handle. Due to some COVID-19 or COVID-20 or COVID-120. I don't care which it is. I am not going to get into unrest. I want to be wise. I want to be careful. I don't want to unnecessarily expose myself to infection. There is no wisdom in that. But I don't want to live in fear one single second. No. I want to be at rest all the time. Because my God is more powerful than everything. I don't try to tempt God by jumping off the roof of the temple saying God will protect me. That's what some people do. They do stupid things and say God will protect me. He won't. If you do something stupid, God will not protect you. Jesus had jumped off the temple and he would have died. He can't say the angels will protect me. But there are people who do that. I have met a lot of people like that. They are sick and they won't take medicines and they die. Actually, pastors, preachers who preach healing only by faith and without medicines, they die. What do they gain by that? They jump and say God will protect me. They are not protected. God has provided medicine and they don't take it. It's like in the temple. There were stairs provided to go down. You don't take the stairs and you jump off the roof of the temple. You die. That's what Jesus didn't do. There are a lot of people who have a foolish idea of faith. Faith means doing something stupid to show that I have great faith. Usually for seeking honor. All these people do that just to get honor from people. I am a man of great faith. I have no desire to prove to you that I am a man of great faith. Not at all. Or anybody. I want to actually have faith before God. Which means a dependence upon God. That's all it means. To me, faith means a helpless dependence upon God for anything. Even if it is for a small thing like preaching a sermon. I say, Lord, I can't do it. I am helplessly dependent on you. If you help me, I will say something. If you don't help me, it will be an absolute flop. In the same way, everything in life. Faith is just that helpless dependence upon God. Like some of you heard a couple of weeks ago what Sandeep spoke there about. The helpless one. Helping that person to climb up. And that's how Jesus, the father helped Jesus. And now Jesus is helping him. Jesus helps us. Faith is exercised by the helpless person. Who says, Lord, hold my hand. Just like the father helped you. And you have shown us an example. I want to walk the same way. I am helpless. And you are the one who helps the helpless. That's faith. A helpless dependence upon God. There is a promise of entering rest. Given to us. Let us fear, chapter 4, verse 1, that you come short of it. That is the danger. It goes on further to say, in chapter 4, verse 9, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And the one who has entered into God's rest has himself rested from his own works. We don't do our own works to earn salvation. And I'll tell you, we cannot do our own works to get victory over sin. When grace is upon us, sin cannot rule over us. Romans 6, verse 14. If grace is not upon us, no matter how much you work, you'll be defeated. We must always seek to remain under the grace of God. If grace is upon us, sin will not rule over you. It's a law. It cannot rule over you. It cannot pull you down. It's something like these rockets. Once they go beyond some 150 or 250 miles, the gravity of earth cannot pull it down anymore. It pulls it down up until that point, but once it breaks past that point, it just shoots up. Gravity cannot pull it down anymore. Think of being able to live such a life where sin cannot pull us down. That is to enter into rest. Dear brothers and sisters, all of us must seek to live this life every day in our home, first of all. In our heart, in our home, in the church. Let's begin in the heart. If there is unrest in my heart, it will finally bring unrest in the home and then unrest in the church. So I've got to watch my heart with all diligence like Proverbs 4 says. Watch your heart with all diligence for from it flow all the issues of life. Proverbs chapter 4. I think it's verse 23. I don't remember. Very important. Watch your heart with all diligence for out from it flow all the issues of life. And what should I watch there? That I'm always at rest. That I believe with all my heart that there's no giant that God cannot overcome and make me possess that territory. That area of my life which some giant has been ruling for so long. I want to say to you in Jesus name whatever area of your life some giant has been ruling there. Maybe even your wife doesn't know, your husband doesn't know. You know it. I want to say to you in Jesus name God can help you to overcome that giant. And you can come to rest in that area. And like the Israelites occupied the land of Canaan little by little by little by little by little by little by little by little That's what I've discovered. Occupying the land of Canaan inside my heart. Little by little by little by little by little by little That is spiritual growth. Where area by area by area you come to rest. Rest here and rest in that area and rest in that area and rest in that area rest in that area. If you fervently plead with the Lord Lord I want to enter into rest in every area. In the sexual area in the financial area in relationship area in my home I want to enter into rest at any cost. And with no spirit of competition within your home beware of competition. Beware of comparing yourself with other believers in the church. Beware of competition to show that you are more spiritual. I mean that happens in some churches where one preacher wants to show that he is better than the other one. I hope such stupid things will never happen in our midst. Let me show you this verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I call this verse if you will excuse my expression How to be a spiritual idiot. How to be a spiritual idiot. 2 Corinthians 10-12 Those who measure themselves with each other and compare themselves with one another they are spiritual idiots. It's a paraphrase. How to become a spiritual idiot? Compare yourself with other believers in your church. Measure yourself with other people. He says they are spiritual idiots. They have no understanding. What do you think of a man who has got no intelligence and no understanding? That's what we call an idiot. That's what it says here. All you have to do to become a spiritual idiot is to compare yourself with other people in your church and think that you are better. That's all you got to do. Compare something you are doing with other people and try to compete with people to show that you can do that better. Imagine the competition to become spiritual idiots. Have you heard of such a thing? This is the craziness in so many Christians. The devil absolutely makes fools of Christians. And that's why they have so little spiritual power. And that's why God does not back them. We must have a great longing that God will back us in everything we do. That's been my passionate desire and it grows more and more. I say, Lord, I don't care what anybody in the world thinks about me. I want you to back me. I want to walk in humility. I'm willing to learn humility and gentleness from you all the time. I want you to back me. I want the devil to be scared of me when you pray that prayer for yourself. It doesn't matter if you were born again yesterday. Absolutely new believer. You don't have to be a believer 20-30 years. It depends on how wholehearted you are. Not how long you've been a believer. A lot of people have been believers for ages. The devil just laughs at them and says, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? Does the devil speak to you like that? Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? You're nobody. I know all about what you're living for. I know all about things in your inner life. Don't try to fool me, the devil says. You can fool all the others. You can't fool me. Shame on us if the devil can rebuke us like that. Be a man and a woman who says I'm going to put the devil to shame in my life and in my home first of all. Don't look for a big ministry in the church. Look for a big ministry in your home. First of all, in your home relationships. That's most important. That innermost circle in your heart, then in your home, then the church. Your heart first. You come to complete rest. You've got no bitterness against anyone. You've forgiven everybody in the whole world who did anything against you. You always live in that spirit of forgiveness. You always live in that complete freedom from competing with others. Also, one more thing. I've been talking about this more recently. Stop pointing the finger at others. Give up that habit. Please turn to Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58, the Lord says I will make your life like a watered garden. That's the promise in Isaiah 58, verse 11. In the middle of verse 11, Isaiah 58, verse 11. See the middle of that verse. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. What a wonderful spiritual promise. What do you have to do? Verse 9. Last part. Stop. Give up this pointing of the finger at others. Accusing others. You. So much in husband and wife. You. You did this. You said this. It's because of you. You know where it started? You know. When God asked Adam, Do you eat from the tree I told you not to eat? You know what Adam did? He pointed his finger. This woman. He didn't stop there. He pointed his finger at God. You gave me this woman. That's where this pointing of the finger started. You gave me this man to be your husband. You gave me this woman to be my wife. That's the cause of the problem. This pointing of the finger at God. Why did you give me this personality? Why did you give me this type of circumstance in my life? Why did you give me such poverty? Why did you give me this thing or that thing? Why did you give me such a husband, such a wife or such circumstances or such a job? Why did you do this, Lord? You will always be in unrest all your life. Finish with it today. Lord, I never want to point my finger at you or anybody else. I want to point it at myself. Help me to judge myself every day. If we judge ourselves, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 30, we will not be judged in the final day. I've taken that verse very seriously. I seek to judge myself every single day. If there's any little thing that comes up, I want to judge myself. There's something un-Christlike still left in me. Do you believe that? Maybe you can't see it. But if you have not become 100% like Christ and none of us have become 100% like Christ, there's still something un- Christlike in us. Lord, show it to me. I have a passion in my life, forgetting how much I have achieved in the past, to press on for the prize of the high calling of becoming like Jesus Christ. That's what Paul was doing. Let's do that. And that way, even if you never preach a sermon, you'll be making the greatest contribution for building RLCM into a strong body of Christ. May God help you all. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/7oEFmvVDmdE.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/repent-daily-then-satan-will-be-afraid-of-you/ ========================================================================