======================================================================== STOP BLAMING OTHERS by Zac Poonen ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of not pointing fingers at others but taking responsibility for our own actions. It highlights the need to confess our sins, have a pure heart, and be merciful towards others, following the example of Jesus in showing compassion and forgiveness. The speaker urges listeners to focus on self-improvement rather than blaming others, encouraging a deeper understanding of personal accountability and grace. Topics: "Personal Accountability", "Compassion and Forgiveness" Scripture References: 2 Corinthians 5:10, Psalms 66:18, Isaiah 58:9, John 8:7, 1 John 1:9, Matthew 5:1, Luke 23:39 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of not pointing fingers at others but taking responsibility for our own actions. It highlights the need to confess our sins, have a pure heart, and be merciful towards others, following the example of Jesus in showing compassion and forgiveness. The speaker urges listeners to focus on self-improvement rather than blaming others, encouraging a deeper understanding of personal accountability and grace. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Okay, we were looking at this narrow way that leads to life. And we also saw that one day, we have to give an account of everything we have done in our life. So, turn to 2 Corinthians in chapter 5. Everything we need to know for our life on this earth is written in the scriptures. So, if you don't read the bible, you will not know. In most churches, they don't teach everything written in the bible. What they are teaching is not wrong. People say, what have you got in CFC which other churches don't have? So, are they teaching something wrong? That is like asking, in the kindergarten class, are they teaching anything wrong? No. They are teaching the alphabets and they are teaching some words. And they teach them that 2 plus 2 is 4 and 3 plus 3 is 6. There is nothing wrong there. But if a child is sitting there for 20 years and that's all he is learning, then there is something wrong. If that child is in the same class for 20 years and that's all he is learning, then there is something wrong. That is why we don't agree with some churches. What they are saying is right. Christ died for our sins. But that is the same thing they are teaching for 20 years, 30 years. As if there is only one sentence in the bible. Christ died for our sins. That's not all. There is a lot more in the bible. So, the difference is we teach everything in the bible. A good school is not only kindergarten. It goes all the way up to the highest class. A good church is that which teaches the whole bible. For example, listen to this. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 10. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that everyone can be rewarded for the deeds done in the body, what he has done, whether good or bad. There is no one who is going to avoid that. Every one of us sitting here, including me, one day we have to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. That is like the final examination. And just like you prepare your children for the final examination, you will tell your children, you study the subjects that are coming in the final examination. Don't worry about the other subjects, but whatever subject is coming in the final examination, study for that. So, for Christians, the final examination is the judgment seat of Christ when he comes back. And what is the subject? It is written here. Everything we did in our body. Whether good or bad. What all we do in our body. We do things with our hands. We see things with our eyes. We say things with our tongue. These are the things we do with our body. And we think things in our mind. And we have attitudes towards people in our heart. Every one of those things will be judged. Because from the day we were born, everything we did is stored in our memory. Because whatever we did in our lifetime, it is stored in our mind. You remember what you did last week. It is stored in your mind. If you have a good memory, you can remember some things you did 10 years ago. I can remember things I did 60 years ago. I am sure you can remember some things that you did many, many years ago. How do you remember that? Somebody did some good to you or somebody did some bad to you. You remember it. It is all in our memory. And when we stand before Christ, everything in our memory will be revealed on a screen. Everything in our memory will be revealed on a screen. Whether you did something good or bad, it will be revealed on the screen. All the things you did in your lifetime will be revealed on the screen. And from the day you were born, everything, good and bad, would you like to sit here? If that is going to be played on the screen. Because there are so many things we did we are ashamed of. Because there are so many things we did we are ashamed of. Will everyone see what I did? Will everyone see what I thought in my mind? Will everyone see what I did in my secret life? Everyone will see it. You will feel like running away from here. It will all be revealed there. And that is why Jesus died so that all the bad things can be cleansed away from the blood of Christ. But it is not automatically cleansed. You have to do something. Read that in 1 John 1 verse 9. It says here, If we confess our sins, The message we are saying here should not be recorded in the video. It is a little disc and everything is being recorded. Our memory is also like a disc. It is automatically recording everything. But this camera disc cannot record my thoughts. It can only record what I am doing or what I am speaking. But the disc in my mind, that can record even what I am thinking. If I have got a wrong attitude towards somebody, that is also recorded. And that will come on the screen on the last day when Christ comes. But there is a wonderful thing about this disc. You can go in there and erase some things. For example, if there is some disturbance here and all that, we don't want that in the message, so we rub it out. So then the whole recording will be clean without any disturbance. In all recordings, we try to keep it clean right through. So, this disc in our mind also, some parts can be erased. That is the good news of the Gospel. Isn't that good news? Because every one of us has done something or the other bad in our life. The Bible says, all have sinned. There is not even one righteous person on the earth. See Romans 3. Romans 3. Let's read from verse 10. There is no one righteous, not even one. All of us who are sitting here, including me, none of us are righteous. We have all done bad things. We have spoken bad things. We have thought bad things. We have had bad attitudes towards people. We have cheated, maybe in examinations. Maybe we took somebody's money sometimes. So many things. And we don't want everybody to know that. Because that is very shameful. And then some of us have done things which are so bad that we never want anybody to see it. You don't want your parents to know it. You don't want your husband to know it. You don't want your wife to know some things you did. And you don't want your children to know what a bad father of mother you were in your younger days. So here is the good news. God says, I will wipe it away from your hard disk. So that in the final day when it is played, all those bad things are wiped out. But there is a condition. You read that in 1 John 1. You have to confess it. That's all. Confess it. See Jeremiah chapter 3. And verse Sorry. Jeremiah. I was in chapter 28. The Lord wants us to do only one thing. It says here. Jeremiah chapter 3. I was in the wrong page. Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 13. Only acknowledge that you have transgressed against the Lord your God. Verse 13. That's all. Only admit it. That you did something wrong. You know that is so difficult for man to do. Supposing two of your children are fighting. Any two children are fighting. And you ask them. Why did you do that? Why did you hit him? He said he hit me first. Always there is an excuse. And do you know where this started? It started with Adam. With Adam. See in Genesis chapter 3. You know the story how God said don't eat from that tree. And the devil tempted Eve the woman to go and take the fruit. Why didn't he tempt the man? Because he knows the woman is a little weaker. He said if I first get the woman then I can get the man also. The devil is very clever. Be careful. Sometimes the devil may try to knock you down through your wife. So don't always listen to your wife. She may lead you astray. Eve led Adam astray. She ate that fruit and gave it to Adam. And Adam also ate it. And then it says in Genesis 3 God came into the garden in verse 8. So who is the one who sinned first? Eve. Adam was second. But notice God did not go to Eve first. Why? She is the one who did the wrong first. Why didn't God go to her? He goes to Adam. You know why? Because he made Adam the head of the house. He should have stopped his wife when she was talking to the devil. He was standing there next to her. And the conversation is going on between the devil and Eve. And Adam is just watching the whole thing. There we see the first example of a husband who did not take his responsibility in the home. Something is going wrong in the home and the husband is just sitting there and watching it. He doesn't put his foot down and say I am not going to allow that in this house. Are you a father like that? Say I will not allow those wrong things in this house. That's what Adam should have been. He would have said Eve, stop talking to the devil right now. But he just kept quiet. He is watching, watching, watching. And then she eats it. And she says Adam, eat this. And that foolish man, he just opens his mouth and he eats it. It's all written there. In Genesis 3 verse 6. She gave it to her husband who was standing with her and he ate it. And then God comes. Verse 8. And he called the man. Verse 9. And he asked you. He asked him. Verse 11. Did you eat from the tree which I commanded you? What should he have said? Lord, I am sorry. I ate it. But he didn't say that. He said this woman. Verse 12. Whom you gave. So it is your fault. You gave me this useless wife. That is why I sinned. Do any of you husbands blame your wife for your sin? You say all the problem in my house is because of my wife? That began with Adam. So don't follow Adam there. Take the blame. Lord, if something is wrong in my house, I am the head, I take the blame. Don't say it's because my children are like this or my wife is like this. You are the head of your house. You are the father of your children. You cannot allow them to do what they like against God's word in your house. When they grow up and set their own house, then you have no control over them. I had four sons growing up in my house. I told them, as long as you are in this house, I am the one who decides what is happening here. You cannot bring in here all types of music which is not good. All your friends in school may all listen to that but you can't bring that and play it here. You can't bring any book you like into this house and read it. I check your school bag to see what books you have there. Do you parents check the school bag of your children? I used to do it. Because I wanted my children to grow up in a godly way. I was not an irresponsible father and said it doesn't matter what they do. I didn't leave my children. All the problems in this world were caused by Adam. I knew that. It is good to be the head of the house. But this habit of blaming somebody else started with Adam. I told you the two children are fighting he said no, he started it. This pointing of the finger at my wife or my child or somebody else it started with Adam. If I were to paint a painting of this event God is standing there asking Adam. Adam is pointing the finger at his wife. Can you picture this? That is how sin came. That is why we have so many problems in our life. Don't blame other people. Don't blame others. When Jesus died on the cross there were two thieves hanging on either side. They were both very bad people. They were murderers and thieves. They killed people, they stole people's money and it was so bad that the Roman government said not only prison but crucifixion. If it was not so bad they would have put them in prison. Even today even some people who kill others they are only given life imprisonment. But some people they hang them because they are so bad. These two were very bad people. They were being crucified. Because they were very bad people. But one went to heaven the other went to hell. How did that happen? It is very simple to understand. One man said bring us down from the cross. We read in Luke 23 Luke 23 It says here that verse 39 the criminals were hurling abuse at Jesus. If you are the Christ save yourself and save us. One criminal said that. The other thief he said don't you fear God? Look what he says verse 41 We are suffering righteously because we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. He does not blame others. He says I am deserving this punishment. I have done wrong. I don't blame my parents for bringing me up badly. I don't blame my young friends who led me in bad ways. I am to blame 100%. He said Lord please remember me when you come in your kingdom verse 42 After 2000 years Jesus said no. You don't have to wait 2000 years. Today today verse 43 you can walk with him in paradise. How did Jesus forgive that person in a moment like that? He had one quality that Adam did not have. He did not point his finger at somebody else. Adam pointed his finger at his wife You look at your life my brothers and sisters we have this habit of pointing the finger at somebody else when we have done something wrong. We are always trying to justify ourselves and say the fault is with somebody else. If something goes wrong in the office or the factory we say that person did this or that. 99% fault may be yours but you point the finger at that fellow did also something wrong. That habit came from Adam. That's why Adam was kicked out of paradise. But this man went into paradise. He did not point the finger. He said I am wrong. He pointed the finger at himself. Lord it's my fault. I deserve this. I deserve to be punished and crucified because I am so bad. He did not know anything about the bible like you and I know. He went into paradise the same day. What a lesson for us. One of the first things to have a pure heart is to stop pointing the finger at other people. Blessed are the pure in heart that is blessed are those who don't point the finger at other people. You look in your own home particularly husband and wife see how you speak to each other. You say you did this. You did this. If you hadn't done this this would not have happened. What is it? It's a pointing finger. Both ways. Husband to the wife, wife to the husband. You did this. If you had not done this this would not have happened. Or if you had done this then this would not have happened. But you forgot to do this. So it happened. Nobody is perfect. We all make mistakes. So don't jump on somebody else just because I made a mistake. We must be merciful to others. Be forgiving to others. Then God will be merciful to you. Please learn one habit for this new year. Say Lord I don't want to point the finger at anybody. I want to keep my heart pure. I have pointed the finger at so many people in my life. I am boasting that I am born again Christian. I am boasting that I am in a good church, CFC church. But I am still pointing the finger at my wife. Still pointing the finger at my husband. And still pointing the finger at my children and neighbours and the elders. These elders are like this. They are doing like this. Or some other brother in the church. Or some other brother in the church. So God does not listen to us. You know why your prayer is not heard? So many. You pray one thousand prayers and only one prayer is answered. If you pray one thousand prayers to your heavenly father, he must hear all one thousand. If you pray one thousand prayers to your heavenly father, he must hear all one thousand. Why doesn't he listen to our prayer? I will tell you two reasons. The first is Psalm 66. Kirtan 66. Psalm 66. Number one reason why God does not listen to your prayer. Verse 18. If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. You don't have to do anything wrong. In your heart, you think of something wicked. And then you pray. God will not hear you. So what should you do? First confess that. Remember 1 John 1.9? If we confess our sins, he will cleanse us. If we confess our sins, he will cleanse us. If you think of something bad about someone, ask God to forgive you. Father, I have done a mistake. Please forgive me. Otherwise, the Lord will not hear. Here is the second reason. Isaiah 58. Isaiah 58. Verse 9. Isaiah 58. Verse 9. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry. And he will say, here I am. But there is a condition. You must stop pointing the finger at other people. Do you see that? Adam pointed his finger at Eve. We have all done it. We do it so much in our home. We have all done it so much in our home. All our life, we have pointed our finger at others. Some people say, I want to sit at the foot of the cross and see Jesus. I tell them, before you sit at the foot of the cross of Jesus, you sit at the foot of the cross of that thief. Jesus is that side. Don't look at him. Look at this thief hanging on the cross and meditate on him. What will you learn? I blame myself. That is what you have to learn first, before sitting at the foot of Jesus. Very important lesson. Lord, I am guilty. I am not blaming anybody else. When you stop pointing the finger at others, the Lord says, I will hear your crying. As soon as you pray, the Lord says, here I am. Stop pointing the finger at your husband. Stop pointing the finger at your wife. Or anybody else in the church. Or at the elders. They are all human. We are all human. We make mistakes. They are all human. They make mistakes. God is the only one who never makes a mistake. He doesn't point fingers. Let me show you another example. How to have a pure heart? John chapter 8. John chapter 8. By the way, I want to tell you something. Read John 8 verse 2. Early in the morning, he came to the temple. All the people came and he sat down and began to teach them. It says here Jesus sat down. He wasn't standing. People ask me, why are you sitting down? I say, Jesus sat down and taught. I can also do that. The most famous sermon of Jesus is the sermon on the mount. The sermon of Jesus was very important. Let me give you a bible quiz. When Jesus preached the sermon on the mount, was he standing or sitting? Matthew 5 verse 1. Matthew 5 verse 1. He came, he sat down and he taught. The most famous sermon. There were two long sermons that Jesus preached. One is the sermon on the mount. The other was at the last supper where John 14, 15, 16 gave a long message. That also he was sitting on the table. Once you know Jesus preached from a boat. People were all there. So he got into Simon's boat. Luke chapter 5. A big crowd was pressing around him. Verse 1. Verse 3. He got into one of the boats. He said, move back a little. He sat down and began to teach. I discovered one thing. Jesus always sat down when he preached. I said, Lord, what is the meaning of this? The Old Testament prophets stood. I said, that's the difference between a teacher and a father. At school, does the teacher sit down and teach or does he stand up? Stand up. We need to teach also and we stand up and teach. When your father is teaching your children in the house, your father does he stand up? He sits around the table and says, okay, let's talk about something. That is the difference between a teacher and a father. That's what I learned. Jesus said, I want the church to be like a family. That is why I sat down and taught. Because when you sit down, it's a family atmosphere. I'm not saying we should not stand. There are times we have to teach and preach and we need to stand and speak firmly. What I'm trying to emphasize is not whether you stand or sit, but that Jesus speaks to us like a family. So here, Jesus was sitting in a family in John chapter 8, sitting and teaching people. And at that time, the Pharisees came, pointing the finger. See, the same habit, pointing the finger. They brought a woman, verse 3, caught in adultery. They pointed the finger and said, this woman was caught in adultery. And it says, in the Old Testament, Moses said, all women caught in adultery will be stoned to death. Verse 5. Moses said, all women caught in adultery will be stoned to death. But Jesus, you know what he did with his finger? He said he used his finger to write something on the ground. Verse 6. He didn't point the finger at her. Then he said, He said, You want to throw the stone at her? Whoever, verse 7, has never committed any sin, please take the first stone and throw it at her. Who has the right to point a finger? The one who has never committed a sin. Please remember that. Yes, you can point the finger. You have never committed a sin. If you have committed even one sin, put your finger down. Point it at yourself. Confess your own sin. That's what he said. He who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone. Again, he stooped down and started writing with his finger on the ground. He says in verse 9, See, what that woman did was wrong. Very wrong to commit adultery. It's a very great sin. But Jesus said, The only person who can stone such a woman is someone who has not committed any sin. The only person who can stone such a woman is someone who has not committed any sin. They heard it, verse 9, they all went away. Now, I thought, why did they all go away? One man could have said, No, I have not committed any sin. He was afraid that Jesus would make a list of all the sins that he ever committed in his life. So he said, I better not. This man knows too much. He knows all my secrets also. It says, the older ones, verse 9, went away first. Because they have committed the maximum sins. One by one, nobody was left. But there was one man left who had never committed a sin. Who was that? Jesus. And Jesus said, The one who is without sin can take a stone and throw it. And Jesus could have done it. He could have said, I am without sin. I will obey the word of God and throw the stone and kill this woman. But did he do it? No. Because he did not come to earth to throw stones at people. We are so bad that even though we are full of sin, we throw stones at other people. Jesus, who was perfect, he did not have one stone to throw at anybody. When Jesus points out our sin, he does it in order to cleanse us. Not to tell us that we are evil. When a good doctor tells you about your sickness, it is not to make you feel bad. It is to heal you. Does the Holy Spirit point out our sin to us? Yes. But he is not pointing a finger. He is saying, let me cleanse that. So, when God points out something wrong in us, it is in order to help us to be free from it. But that is not the way you point your finger at your wife or husband. You say, you are so bad and I am so good. That is a different spirit. That is what we need to cleanse ourselves from. And you can cleanse yourself from that today. Say, Lord, the rest of this year, I don't want to point my finger at anybody in the whole world. If I see a sin in someone, I want to help him like Jesus, to help him to be free from it. Let me give you an example. Supposing your son is studying in 4th standard or something like that. Or 2nd standard or some class. And there is some mathematics problem and he does not know how to do it. Which you know as a father. So, when he comes, Daddy, this sum I got wrong. What do you do? You say, you stupid boy, you don't know how to do that? You don't have any intelligence? But he is your son. He got his intelligence from you only. Why blame him? So, you can't blame him. If he is foolish, it is because he is your son. So, don't point the finger at him. What do you do as a good father? You say, come, sit down, let's do it. And you explain to him. And he still can't do it. What do you say? Oh, you stupid son. No. Okay, never mind son. Let's try again. Let's do it again. He still doesn't get it. Let's do it. No, we will try again. We are going to do it. And at the end of the day, he still can't do it. What do you say? Never mind son. We will start again tomorrow. I love you. And I am going to teach you this before you leave this house. That is a good father. That's how you teach your child how to ride a bicycle. That's how you teach your children to take a bath. They come into the world knowing nothing. You teach them how to go to the toilet. You don't point the finger at them saying, oh, you don't know that. You know, I will tell you something. When you really love somebody, you won't be pointing the finger at them. So, let's learn something from this. Completely stop pointing the finger at others. What is Isaiah 58? God says, I will listen to your prayer. The pure in heart will see God. God will hear them. So, here is one part of being pure in heart. I don't point the finger at others because only one who is without sin can throw a stone. And that's why the thief on the cross went to heaven. Because he did not point the finger, he pointed it at himself. That's why Adam was kicked out from God's presence because he pointed the finger. When the Lord asked Eve, did you do that? What did she do? She pointed the finger at the snake. It's not me, it's that snake. It's this habit. Always put the blame on somebody else. Have you seen this in scripture? So, Adam and Eve were both out of paradise. And the thief came into paradise. You see the big difference? So, this is one big area. To confess our sin means I'm not blaming anybody else. Turn back to 1 John 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us, cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us. To cleanse me from all unrighteousness means my heart becomes pure. Then I can see God, I can hear God. But we have to confess our sins, not somebody else's sin. Don't confess Eve's sin or what the serpent did. Lord, this is where I have made a mistake. Even if 99% fault is with the other person and your fault is only 1%, you confess the 1%. This is a very important lesson because Christians have got a very bad habit of blaming others. I'll give you an example. You see somebody's children going astray. And by God's grace, your children are God fearing. How you point the finger at them. Look at the way they brought up their children. Look at the way their parents brought up their children. You give so many reasons why they are like that. These are the reasons. How did you get the courage to point that finger? Because by God's grace, your children are God fearing. You are proud. You are taking the credit for the way your children grew up. Instead of saying, it was not me Lord, it was you only who brought up my children. What I'm trying to say is this. When we do something wrong, the blame is on others. If we do something good, we say, yeah, that's me. I only brought up my children properly. That is part of the evil nature in us. We take the credit for what God has done. My dear brothers and sisters, if your children have grown up in a good way, please, please give the glory to God. Don't say, because I was such a strict father. I taught them the Bible every day. You could have done that for 20, 50 years and your children would have gone astray. God was merciful to them. I say that. My four sons are following the Lord. It is 100% God. I don't say 90% God and 10% me. It's God who did it. I'm not here to point fingers at others saying they are like this, they are like this. I see something wrong, I feel sad that their children are going astray. But I don't want to be like the Pharisees pointing the finger at the woman caught in adultery. Because there we find Jesus took the side of that woman against the Pharisees. He told the woman, I don't condemn you. But he never said that to the Pharisees. The Pharisees got condemned and the woman went away without condemning. Be careful when you point the finger at somebody else. God may deliver that person and you will be condemned finally. We need in the church to have more compassion and mercy on one another. In CFC we preach holiness. The great danger of people preaching holiness is being unmerciful towards other people. And people don't realize this unmerciful attitude is an impure heart. So purity of heart is to be merciful to others. When the Pharisees saw this woman caught in adultery they should have had compassion on her. Maybe she was led astray. Maybe she fell accidentally. It's a bad sin. Let us help her to come out of it. And let's cover it so that nobody knows about it. You know in CFC Bangalore there are different people who have committed some sins. Some of them we had to put out of the church. But I've never told anybody what they did. No. I won't tell. Why should I tell? They have to be disciplined. They even put out of the church. But they say, Brother Jack, what happened? It is not important for you to know that. It's between God and me. He's done something wrong. People are curious. Tell me what happened. I will not point the finger or do anything. I fear God. Dear brothers, if you want to grow in the Christian life if you want to not only walk this narrow way but run this narrow way and run like a rocket stop pointing finger at other people. Judge yourself. When you see something wrong in somebody, pray for that person. If you are an elder brother, go and correct that person. Because then you are like a father. See, I am a physical father and a spiritual father. If somebody looks to me like a spiritual father or a physical father, I will correct them. That's not pointing the finger. I am there to help them like God helps us. That's why when people in some other church do something wrong, I say, I am not here to go and correct them. When I preach against these false pastors and preachers, I am not here to preach against these false pastors and preachers. The reason I am saying this is that my children should not be deceived by them. The Pharisees are like this, like this, like this. Jesus said that to his disciples to protect the disciples from being deceived. Jesus said that to his disciples to protect the disciples from being deceived. For example, if there are some bad children in your neighbor's house, you will warn your children, don't mix with them because they are doing some bad things. That's not pointing the finger. That is protecting your children. But unnecessarily we don't have to go pointing out all the faults of other people. As human beings, we have a bad habit of pointing out the mistakes of others. We sit at home and talk about various evils of other people. Shall we pray, Lord, please help us this year to have a pure heart. And let's talk about some good things. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we believe you want us to go to a higher level this year. To everyone here, Lord, please help everyone. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/rxaLs8oXcSo.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/zac-poonen/stop-blaming-others/ ========================================================================