John Bevere - Are You Really Serving Jesus?
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All right, unless you’ve lived on a deserted island for the last 80 years, everyone here knows who Superman is, right? So let me say this: I did not set out to write a book about Superman or about Kryptonite. I was, in fact, doing one of the most in-depth studies I’ve ever done in my life, focusing on the church at Corinth. I’ll be honest with you: I was 60 years old when I started this, and I thought we would be much further along as a church when I turned 60. I’ve been in ministry for decades, and I believed that we would be much further ahead. So at 60, I began asking some hard questions—the kinds of questions you really don’t want to ask because you’re not sure you want to know the answers. Do you understand? I started asking those questions because I felt God had given me a vision of how much further we should be. The Holy Spirit led me to study the church at Corinth.
If you look at the early church, now let me clarify: when I say the early church, I’m not just talking about the Corinthian church; I’m referring to the church in Acts chapters 1 through 12. This period spans from 32 to 35 A.D. If you look at Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, it was written in 56 A.D., so we’re looking at a gap of 20 to 25 years. A lot can happen in 25 years, and for those of us who are over 40, we know that, right?
So Paul begins addressing this church. He loves the Corinthian church; he birthed it, he fathered it, and he cares for them. He starts addressing some of their issues because they had issues. Right? I mean, they were in strife, they were arguing with one another, and they even had favorite preachers—can you believe it? They were committing immorality, things that even the unbelievers weren’t doing. They were suing one another, and finally, Paul writes to this church and makes this statement: «For this reason, many of you are weak.» Now, what did Kryptonite do to Superman? It neutralized his otherworldly powers. Paul is saying, «Hey Corinthian church, you are being neutralized in your authority and power; you are weak.»
But now listen to me carefully: I am not a preacher of doom. I believe if you walk with Jesus, you have a very positive outlook on life. A renewed mind is a positive mind—are you with me? There is another prophet named Daniel who saw the last-days church, and I want you to see what he writes about it. He said, «The people who know their God shall be strong.» Everybody shout «strong.» Now, what’s the opposite of weak? Come on, say it! Say it really strongly! The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. This is your future. This is your day today—are you with me?
Now, the key here is «the people who know their God.» The Hebrew word for «know» (k-n-o-w) is the Hebrew word y-a-d-a. This is an amazing Hebrew word; it means to know someone intimately. It is often used in regard to God knowing our hearts. How many of you know God knows your heart better than you know your heart? Right? This word is so intimate that it’s actually used in Genesis 4:1, where the Bible says that Adam knew his wife Eve and they conceived. The most intimate two human beings can be on this earth, the Holy Spirit in Genesis 4:1, actually uses this Hebrew word, yada, to describe it.
Now, this doesn’t surprise me because throughout the Bible, God uses marriage imagery to illustrate His relationship with us. Are you following me? You see this all over; statements like «Your creator is your husband.» Right? If you look at the New Testament, Paul the Apostle writes, «Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.» But then he makes this statement: «This is actually an illustration of the way the church and Jesus are one.» So God is the one who gave the first illustrated sermon, something we see every single day before our eyes.
Now, with this illustration in mind, I want you to watch this video; it will only take a few minutes. Isn’t that phenomenal? So they taught you how to fold the napkins? Yes! Oh wow! Believe it or not, I know how to fold the Sydney Opera House. I don’t believe you! No, I really do! I can totally show you! I am very excited! Good evening! Have you dined with us before? Yes, actually, this is our favorite restaurant! Welcome back! No babe, I’m pretty sure we’ve never been here before. Oh, that’s weird! Really? Yeah, no, hold that thought just one second, I’m really, really sorry! Oh, no problem!
So what would you like to order? Yes, sir! You know what? I think I would like to have that salmon; that sounds absolutely wonderful. That’s one of my favorites! Oh great! And for you, ma’am? Um, I will have the filet mignon, the New York strip, and the eight-ounce sirloin, all medium rare, please! Yes, that is a great choice! I will get those right out to you! Babe, that’s a lot of food, isn’t it? I’m not just ordering for one, you know! Wait, are you telling me that we’re expecting? Yeah, he’ll be here soon—it’s a boy! Oh my gosh, baby! Okay, this has got to be—there he is now! Hi! Bonjour! Sorry I’m late! I ordered for you! Oh, thank you! So, uh, I’m sorry, do you know each other? Yeah, he is my boyfriend from high school. Your boyfriend from high school? Babe, can I ask your white old boyfriend’s dad? Did I come at a bad time? No, I really don’t see the problem here, Justin. Yeah, I really don’t see the problem here! Okay, who are you? Honey, stop; you’re embarrassing me! I just wanted us to have one nice night at our favorite restaurant!
Okay, first of all, I’ve never been to this restaurant, and second, what is going on? Hey babe, sorry I’m late—did I miss anything? Okay, seriously, hey, you alright? You take your hand off her! What is going on? Just sit down, right? It’s all right! Angela, is this some kind of joke? Are you actually seeing these guys? Justin, I’ve known these guys longer than I’ve known you. Wait, what? Are you seriously jealous right now? Jealous? Angela, in case you forgot, we’re married! Okay? And we spend the majority of our time together. I love you more than any of my other boyfriends! That’s why you’ll always be my favorite! Your favorite? Is there anyone else I need to know about, babe? Is there a problem over here? Okay, really? The waiter? No, Dennis, we’re all right; seriously, the food will be right out! Oh okay, Angela, Angelo! All right, these guys need to go; we need to talk. We’re done. I cannot believe this; you are being so selfish! Why do you always have to make everything about you? You ruined our favorite restaurant! Excuse me, I’m sorry! Yeah, I’ve still never been to this restaurant! Okay, a little out there, but I think you got the point.
So let me ask you a question, and I want you to really think this through before you answer it, okay? How many of you would want to be married to somebody like that? Let me see a show of hands. Nobody? Come on, she’s gorgeous; she’s got a great personality! Okay, why didn’t any of you raise your hands? Can I answer why? Can I articulate it? Because even though she’s gorgeous and has a good personality and spends 90% of her time with him, and he’s her favorite, she still has other lovers in her heart. She’s not giving her entire heart to him. Now, you and I would never marry someone like that, so what makes us think Jesus is coming back for a bride like that? If you think that Jesus is coming back for a bride like that, you’re as deceived as she is. See, when a girl puts on a white dress and walks down the aisle in a church to the wedding march, she’s making a strong statement. She’s saying goodbye to about 3.9 billion guys; she’s saying, «This is the one and only man I will give the rest of my life to.» She completely breaks off all old relationships and determines that she will not develop any new relationships.
Well, Paul finally had to write to this church that he loves so much, and he said, «Many"—everybody say «many.» Remember, «For this reason, many of you are weak.» Many of you have not given up your old sins, your old boyfriends; you have not repented of your impurity, your sexual immorality, and your eagerness for lustful pleasures. So the key word is you have not repented. Now, before I go any further, we need to address the elephant in the room, okay? Because this word has been so misrepresented. Often when you say the word «repentance» in a church, people recoil; they shut down; they don’t want to hear another word. Why is that? Because mean-spirited preachers in the past, who didn’t even like people—who should have been math teachers or science teachers—used this word to beat us up to control our behavior the way they wanted to. Now I’ve got news for you, that is not repentance. In fact, in my 40 years of studying the Word of God, I have to say that repentance is probably one of the most beautiful, irresistible words in the New Testament, other than the name of Jesus.
So can we address it? Are you okay with that? First of all, God calls repentance a gift. How many of you know that God does not give restraining, constricting, or binding gifts to His children, right? He gives good gifts to His children. The Greek word for repentance in the New Testament is the Greek word «metanoia.» It is found over 50 times in the New Testament alone. Now, when you hear that word, don’t think of Old Testament repentance—sackcloth, ashes, strikes—that’s not repentance in the New Testament. The definition of this Greek word is a change of mind.
Now, if I leave it there, listen carefully to me: if I leave it there, you’re really not going to get the impact of this word because how many of you know that I can change my mind about something but not be fully persuaded? Come on, talk to me! So, Baker’s Encyclopedia brings us a little deeper and defines this Greek word as a change in the whole personality. Repentance isn’t just the change of mind; it goes deeper—it penetrates to the will, to the heart. It’s when we are fully persuaded at the core of our being about something. Are you with me? This is why Jesus makes the statement «from the heart.» Everybody say «from the heart.» Okay? If repentance is just a change of mind, He would say «from the mind!» From the heart come evil thoughts—everyone say «evil thoughts"—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, and lying.
One day, I’m in prayer, and I’m like, «Lord, this word is so battered, so beat up, so misunderstood! I know your wisdom is simple. Would you please give me a simple understanding of what repentance is?» He said, «This is repentance. The unrepented person says this at the core of their being: 'I choose what is good, best, and right for my life.' Got it? Therefore, the Word of God is wonderful as long as I agree with it.» In other words, if we really get to the heart of the matter, the unrepentant person says, «The Word of God is optional.» Okay? The repentant person says, «I choose what God says is good, best, and right for my life.» So for the repentant person, the Word of God is the final authority. Good preaching, John! Amen! Thank you so much!
Okay, I’m helping some of you now! If you go back to that video, it’s a little strange, and we made it strange on purpose. Did you notice in this video that she was actually more upset than he was? Angela was more upset than Justin! She’s the one that accuses him of being selfish; she is the one who accuses him of being jealous; she’s the one that gets up and leaves the table. Now here’s my question: how could that ever happen in real life? It can. Do you know how it could happen in real life? If the people in Angela’s life—and when I say «the people,» I mean her family, her friends, and her teachers—never once told her that in order to enter a marriage covenant, you have to break up with your old boyfriends. If they never told her that, she’s going to be mad at him for not sharing in her past life. Are you seeing this?
Well, when I look at the way we’ve preached Jesus in our Western culture, we sell Him almost like used car salespeople. Now, if you’re a saved used car salesperson, I’m not talking about you; I’m talking about unsaved used car salespeople, okay? So you know what I’m talking аbout: you walk out on the lot, and I mean, man, this guy walks up and he makes you think you’re the most important person on the earth. Man, oh man, you are a hard-working American! Our economy is held up because of guys like you; I’m telling you, you deserve the best deal I’ve got on this lot! And the guy’s sitting there going, «Man, my wife didn’t even talk this nicely to me today.» That’s because your wife loves you; he wants to flatter you and stab you in the back by taking your money!
But I look at the way we present Jesus, and it’s almost that way. Now don’t get me wrong: the Bible says the goodness of God causes men to repent. But when you sell Jesus and use the goodness to sell Him, that’s a different story. Just trying to invoke a reaction—are you still with me? So we give this message of selling Jesus, and then we say, «Bow your heads after our 35-minute message and ask, 'Do you want a relationship with God? Do you want to belong to His family? '» Then we say, «Raise your hand, come on down!» We pray this prayer: «Jesus, come into my life; I receive you as my Savior; forgive me of all my sins!» And then we all celebrate, «You’re a child of God! You’re a child of God!» We never said one word about repentance. So what did we just do? We just created a bunch of Angelas.
Now that’s not what I see in the New Testament. If you look at Jesus, do you know what the very first words out of His mouth were in public? The very first words—Matthew 4:17—Jesus, look at this: «began,» everybody shout «began to preach!» Now look at this: «Repent of your sins and turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near.» Now what is He saying? He’s saying you cannot turn to God unless you first break up with your old boyfriends—that’s what He’s saying!
Now notice that He began—did He continue? Oh, let me show you a couple of others—just a couple more. Matthew 11:20: «Then Jesus began to denounce the towns where He had done so many of His miracles because they hadn’t repented of their sins and turned to God.» Look at Luke’s Gospel! Jesus—these are words of Jesus—you will perish too unless you what? Repent of your sins and turn to God. Now He’s pouring into these 12 disciples for a year and a half before He sends them on their first journey without Him, right? And when He sends them on their first journey, I want you to notice what these disciples do—Mark 6:12: «So the disciples went out telling everyone they met to repent of their sins and turn to God.» Isn’t that interesting? They’re preaching exactly what Jesus is preaching—right? Are you seeing this?
Now, what about the rich man in hell? How many of you know people in hell don’t have to put on a facade? What does the rich man in hell say? The rich man replied, «No, Father Abraham, but if someone is sent to my five brothers from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.» I mean, this guy knows more than a lot of preachers in America—are you still with me?
Okay, how about Peter on the day of Pentecost? Did everything change on the day of Pentecost? Here’s 3,000 people—excuse me, thousands of people that want to get saved! I mean, they bought a ticket to the conference, okay? They want to be saved, and look what Peter says to them: «Each of you must"—notice the word «must.» He doesn’t say, «I highly recommend it; I strongly suggest it.» He says, «Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God.» How about the Apostle Paul? He got the revelation of grace. Did it change with him? Look what Paul said: «I preach first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all of Judea and also to the Gentiles that all—again, notice the word „must"—repent of their sins and turn to God and prove they have changed by the good things they do.» Are you seeing a pattern here?
How about God the Father? Let’s just go straight to Him—Acts 17:30: «God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now He commands"—notice He doesn’t recommend; He commands—"everyone everywhere,» that covers Nashville—to repent of their sins and turn to Him. Now are you seeing a pattern? I could show you more Scriptures, but I’m not going to. Are you seeing a pattern? What is the pattern that we’re seeing here? Here it is: there is no genuine faith in Jesus Christ without repentance. There it is! Okay, wait a minute; it might be counterfeit faith. You ever try spending counterfeit money? Okay? Let me help you with this: Hebrews 6 tells you what the foundations of our relationship with God are. What’s the number one foundation? Everything’s built on this number one foundation. What is it? Repentance from dead works. What’s the next foundation? You can’t have the next foundation without the first foundation. What’s the next foundation? Faith in God.
So you know what the writer of Hebrews is saying? Your faith is not genuine without repentance! Good preaching, John! Amen! Thank you so much! I’m helping you this morning; I’m helping you. Okay? Are you tracking with me?
So I started meditating on this and thought, «Okay, what is the core motivation of a person who’s genuinely repented?» I’m going to show it to you. I will no longer live as the judge of what is best for me. From this moment forward, I will embrace what God says is best for me, even if I don’t get it. Still with me? Okay, I want to protect you from legalism because I hate legalism. Legalism is such a stench in the nostrils of God. Okay?
Day of Pentecost, 3,000 people—3,000 people, right? They get saved; they repent of their sins and turn to Jesus Christ! Right? Three thousand! You’ve got this guy and girl in that 3,000, and they’re living together, right? And they repent, but they keep living together for the next four months, okay? Now I’ll tell you what the legalists are going to do: they couldn’t have gotten saved; they’re living together! Oh no, no, no, no! No! Let me show you what true repentance is. Four months later, Pastor Peter’s preaching one Sunday morning and he comes to Hebrews 13:2. Now, Hebrews wasn’t written yet, but you stay with me. Peter preaches, «The marriage bed is undefiled, but those who have sex before they’re married and those who are adulterers, God will judge.» And the man and woman sitting there go, «Whoa, babe, did you hear that?» Well, we decided four months ago that whatever God says is final authority, I’m moving out today or we’re getting married today! Which one do you want to do?
You see the difference? They don’t sit there and go, «Well, now, Peter, 90% of the people live together before they get married. 95% of people have sex before they get married; they just want to make sure they’re compatible.» No! It’s final authority!
See, here’s the problem: God is our Creator, and He knows what breaks us and what makes us. See, I’m the typical dad; you see my four sons up there—those four sons, okay? I’m the typical dad; when they were toddlers, Christmas was a workday. Do you understand? Okay, I’m building all these toys, right? Now I am the typical dad—I crack open the box, throw the pieces on the floor, throw the box and the manual over in the corner, and I start building it. I spend an hour building it, and when I’m finished, there are still 10 pieces on the floor. And then I switch it on to turn it on, and it doesn’t work. So what do I do? I go get the manual, I deconstruct the toy, and I put it back together, and oh my gosh, all 10 pieces are in it! And then I flip the switch, and it works! God is our Creator; He knows what fixes us and what undoes us.
So the person who’s repented understands that God loves me, and He knows what will make me and what will break me. And that’s why that person is smart enough to say, «I don’t care what society is doing; I don’t care what society says is healthy; I know who made me, and I know He cares about me.» Are you still with me? I’m preaching better than some of you are saying, «Amen!» right now. Glad the rest of you are allowed! I was raised Catholic; don’t scare me in here, okay? Catholic, man! It’s so easy; the church is so quiet. Man, you say something, you whisper, and everybody turns and looks at you!
All right, now Paul goes on to say this to the Corinthian church: «Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God?» Now look at this statement: «Don’t fool yourself.» Okay? Now, it is one thing to fool the person sitting next to you; it’s a whole other animal to fool yourself! Would you just stop and think about that? You fooled yourself! You listened to these glamorous preachers who told you, «Oh, it’s okay; you can live however you want to because, you know, we’re all flesh, and we have needs, and the blood of Jesus will just cover you,» and they’re fooling you, and you are believing it, and therefore now you are fooling yourself! You know James makes the statement, «If you don’t obey the word of God, you deceive yourself.»
Now there is only one problem with deception. You know what it is? It’s deceiving. The person who is deceived believes with all their heart they are right when in reality, they’re wrong. That’s scary. Good preaching! Amen! Thank you! Don’t fool yourselves!
Now look at this: «Those who indulge in sexual sin…» Stop right there! I’m number one on the list! Okay? I’m number one on this list! Nobody’s throwing stones here this morning; I’m number one on this list! Okay? When I was 11 years old, a friend of mine introduced me to pornography. Okay? Playboy magazines back in those days—I mean, it’s on the phones today; we had magazines! So I’ve got these magazines hidden all over my house where my mom can’t find them! Within months, I am just addicted! By the time I get into high school, I’ve got a seducing spirit up to my eyeballs, and I’m literally undressing girls in my high school classes, okay? And having the wildest sexual fantasies! I go to Purdue University; I played varsity tennis at Purdue; I joined one of the premier fraternities there—you talk about adding fuel to the fire! Oh my gosh, but my sophomore year, one of the best athletes in the state of Indiana came up to my fraternity room and shared Campus Crusades for Spiritual Laws. And that night, in January of 1979, I got saved!
And I remember, yeah, it is so cool! That night, I’m telling you, cussing—I couldn’t construct a sentence without putting a profane word in it! Okay? Cussing left me like that! Okay? Alcoholism left me, bam, gone! Well, one thing didn’t leave me, and that was pornography. Okay? So now, let’s go forward a couple of years! I’m 23 years old; I’m married to who I consider still to this day the most gorgeous girl that walks the earth! Okay? And I think, «Okay, I am marrying a supermodel; I don’t need to be concerned about this pornography stuff anymore!» But you guys know what happened? I got married, and it continued! Okay?
Now I go into ministry. I leave a full-time paying engineering job with Rockwell International—a very high salary, take a massive salary cut, and I go work for my church with 450 employees; okay? One of the most well-known churches in the United States—and I’m still bound! Now my job at this church is taking care of guest speakers! So we had every major known guest speaker in the world coming into our church—I mean people like Dr. Cho, we had Oral Roberts; I mean all of them, okay? And one of the speakers that came in frequently ministers—his name was Lester Sumrall. Now, most of you probably don’t even know who Lester Sumrall is, but I’m going to tell you this: He probably had the most powerful deliverance ministry of anybody in the world in the 20th century! Okay? Maybe he and Derek Prince were the two, right?
So he’s coming regularly, and we got really close. One day, because I’m the guy that drives him to the restaurant to the airport and all that stuff, I’m sitting in the church van alone with him, and I opened up and said, «Dr. Sumrall, I’m bound.» I began to share with him, and I remember, boy, did he let me have it! Oh my gosh! The first thing he says to me is, «Stop it!» And I remember listening to every word he said to me because I could tell in his gruffness was his deep love for me, okay? Because he really loved me, and I listened to every word he had to say.
When he was finished, I said, «Doc, Doc Sumrall, would you please pray deliverance over my life? I want this out of my life forever!» He said, «Absolutely, John, come close.» And I remember he put his hand on me and prayed a strong prayer—really strong prayer, okay? You know what happened? Nothing! Let me go deeper—absolutely nothing! So I guess you’d better find a better deliverance ministry! No, you’re not going to find anybody stronger than Doc Sumrall in those days! Nine months go by, and now we’re in May of 1985. So remember that was the fall of '84, and I go on this four-day fast. On the fourth day of the fast, May 6, 1985, I got completely and totally delivered from pornography! And I’m still free today—thank God! Thank God!
Now, I started walking in this freedom for a couple of years, and I had this major nagging question I couldn’t shake. So I finally brought it before the Lord, and I said, «Lord, I’m a bit baffled by this. I’m so thankful that You’ve set me free, that I’m not drawn like a magnet towards pornography anymore! I’m so thankful, Lord; I’m not—not! Not only now am I repulsed by it—by the time my mind was renewed, I was repulsed by it—I said, 'God, I’m so—but I don’t get it. I said, I humbled myself with Dr. Sumrall and opened up to him; why didn’t you deliver me in the fall of 1984? Why wasn’t it until May 5, 1985? ' And God started showing me my prayer life.»
Now stay with me; what does this have to do with it? It has a lot to do with it; just stay with me! In 1982, I read this book by Ian Bounds called «The Power of Prayer.» Oh, it so impacted my life! I started praying every morning for at least an hour and a half, sometimes two hours. I would get up every single morning at 4:45 a.m., and I would be outside in a deserted place praying by 5, and I would pray till 6:30 to 7 every single morning, and I would be in the office by eight. Now, when you’re praying an hour and a half every morning, how many of you know you have a default prayer? Do you know what I mean by a default prayer? Does anybody in here know what I’m talking about? That’s the prayer that you go back to every time you run out of something to ask for, okay?
So my default prayer was, «God, use me! God, use me to heal the sick! God, use me to win multitudes to Jesus! God, use me to get people delivered! God, use me!» I mean, I would pray sometimes so passionately, «God give me souls or I’m going to die!» Right? So, CeCe and I, we’re cut from the same mold; we understand each other—Alvin too; we all understand each other, okay?
So this is like probably the same time period as I opened up to Dr. Sumrall—so this is the fall of '84, right? It’s probably a month before or a month after; I don’t know, it’s sometime in that time period. I’m praying my default prayer, and I remember I could close my eyes; I remember where I was. I was on the 12th hole of a golf course, and because it’s dark outside, nobody’s out there, right? So I’m crying out, «God, use me!» Right? to win souls to Jesus, right? And I hear the Holy Spirit say, «Son, your prayers are off-target.» I went, «What? What do you mean? I’m praying to win souls, to heal people, to get people delivered, and what do you mean my prayers are off-target?»
Then He said this to me: «You can win souls to Jesus; you can get people healed; you can get people delivered and still end up in hell forever!» Now, I’m thinking that’s the devil, but I know it’s the Lord! And then He said this to me, something I’d never thought about in my entire life. This is how I knew it was God, and He said it in a pleading voice: «Son, Judas left everything he had to come follow Me. He healed the sick in My name; he got people delivered in My name; he preached repentance in My name. He said Judas is in hell forever.» And I’m telling you I’m a Catholic boy, I started trembling by that big tree on that 12th hole. I mean literally I’m quaking, and I’m like, «Oh my gosh!» Because I’m justifying—I left an engineering job; I took a several thousand dollar pay cut; I work at my church, and I’m thinking Judas did the same thing! So I’m trembling, and I remember I very cautiously said, «What should my default prayer be?»
The Holy Spirit said to «know Me intimately.» And I started thinking, that was Moses’s number one cry! He finished well! That was King David’s number one heart cry! He finished well! That was Paul the Apostle’s number one heart cry, that I might know Him! In the power of His resurrection, he finished well!
So I changed—I changed my prayers! I started praying, «God, I want to know You the best a man can know You. I want to please You the best a man can please You. I want to walk with You as closely as a man can walk with You. I want to know Your heart! I want to know what You love; I want to love what You love! I want to hate what You hate! I want to know what You love, and I want to know what You hate! I want you to reveal Your heart to me!»
I started praying that way. You say, «What does this have to do with you getting set free from pornography?» It has everything to do with it! Because let me show you another statement that Paul makes to the Corinthian church. Look what he says: «For godly sorrow"—everybody say «godly sorrow"—"produces repentance.» Watch this: «leading to salvation.» Now, when you hear the word «salvation,» don’t think «die and go to heaven.» Salvation is the Greek word «soteria,» which simply means this: healing, preservation, soundness of mind, and deliverance. Now we’re talking about deliverance here. I’m going to put that word in—is that all right? For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to your deliverance! Not to be regretted, but sorrow of the world produces death!
Okay, whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Look up! Everybody look up at me! You got two sorrows here! Now listen: both are genuine sorrows! It’s not that one is a real sorrow and one is a fake sorrow. I just talked to you earlier about genuine faith and counterfeit faith—this is not counterfeit sorrow! These are both genuine sorrows! But this sorrow produces the repentance that leads to your deliverance; but this sorrow produces death! Okay?
Both sorrows have remorse. Both sorrows have tears. Matter of fact, I’ve seen godly sorrow with no tears and worldly sorrow with tons of tears. Both sorrows confess they’ve sinned! Balaam confessed he sinned to the Lord, but he was judged! King Saul confessed he sinned to the prophet, yet he had his kingdom torn away from him! Judas confessed he had sinned, yet he hung himself! And Jesus said it’d be better that he was never born!
Both sorrows have remorse in the sense that Judas was so remorseful he threw the money back into the temple when the priests wouldn’t take it. So what is the difference between these two sorrows? You can see the difference in the life of two kings in the Bible. First of all, King Saul—everybody say King Saul! King Saul disobeys God! Hey, the root of all sin is disobedience to God’s authority right? Adam didn’t jump in bed with a prostitute in the garden; he didn’t take ecstasy; he just simply disobeyed God’s authority, right?
So King Saul disobeys the authority of God. The prophet Samuel comes to him—are you with me? And the prophet Samuel does what all the prophets do: he backs Saul into the corner. Saul tries to put the blame on the army—Samuel’s like, «Oh no, no, no!» And he backs Saul right into the corner, and finally Saul goes, «I’ve sinned.» But you know what the next words out of his mouth were? «Samuel, honor me in front of my elders!» In other words, you’ve embarrassed me! The focus of his sorrow is himself!
King David commits adultery with a woman, murders her husband to cover it up—oh my gosh, he’d be excommunicated from every church in America! The prophet comes to him, backs him into the corner—King David goes, «I’ve sinned against the Lord!» Falls on his face and stays in his face seven days, and he cries out, «God, against You, and against You only have I sinned! I’m so sorry!» Right? And he couldn’t care less what his leaders thought! The focus of his sorrow was him!
Okay, now watch this! Godly sorrow focuses on «Will I lose my position in ministry? Will I lose my marriage? What are the consequences I’m going to have to face? Will I lose my job? Will I burn in hell?» The focus is you. Godly sorrow—the focus is Him! «I’ve hurt the heart of the One I love so deeply!»
Okay, so God gave me a revelation. He said, «Son, when you opened up to Dr. Sumrall in the fall of '84, you were afraid that sin was going to keep you from the international call of God that you knew was on your life to preach the gospel to nations.» He said the focus of your sorrow is you! Worldly sorrow, He said, after crying out to know Me intimately for nine months, your heart was breaking because you were hurting My heart! He said the focus of your sorrow was Me! That was the sorrow that produced the repentance that led to your deliverance!
Okay, 1 Corinthians 6—let’s go back. Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves! Those who indulge in sexual sin, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or abusive or cheap people, none of these—none of these—will inherit the kingdom of God!
Now, look! Why am I being so strong? Because I want to protect you! I want to protect you from this lie that is being propagated that is keeping people from a relationship with the only One who can satisfy them! None of these will inherit the kingdom of God! Don’t fool yourselves! Don’t let somebody else fool you! Don’t let the government fool you! Don’t let preachers fool you! Don’t let educators fool you! None of these!
Now listen, if you don’t want to spend eternity with Jesus, you want to spend eternity in a lake of fire and burn and suffer and have worms eat you for all eternity, then that’s fine. You can fool yourself, and you can be the authority of your life, and you can allow other people to deceive you and be the authority in your life; that’s fine. But I don’t think anyone wants that! I don’t think anyone in their right mind wants that! And that’s why we are hurting people in this nation by not telling them the truth! Because we’re more concerned about getting butts in seats and getting converts than we are in people’s eternal destiny! Are you still with me?
All right, now I’m going to go to the words of Jesus and close this thing out. I’ve got nine minutes left; hopefully, I’m doing okay! Thanks for letting me preach for a while, Pastor! Gosh, it’s so wonderful when I’m told I can preach a little longer than 30 minutes!
All right, now we’re going to the words in red. Now it’s going to get really serious! If you think this has been serious, it hasn’t gotten serious yet. This is serious; these words are red! Jesus Himself, God manifested in the flesh spoke these words that I’m about to read. He said—you can identify people by their actions! Okay, my two oldest sons went to Christian high school, and oh my gosh, oral sex, all the people getting pregnant, all this stuff! And you don’t know how many times I had to look at my sons and say, «Guys, how do you know that they are believers? How do you know that they are following Jesus?» Is it because their dad is a pastor? And my boys are looking to go, «No, sir!»
I said, «Is it because their dad is an elder in the church?» «No, sir!» «Is it because they listen to worship music?» «No, sir!» «Is it because they listen to CeCe Winans?» «No, sir!» «Is it because they wear Christian t-shirts?» «No, sir!» «Is it because they go to Christian conferences?» «No, sir!» «I said, 'How do you know? '» «Dad, by their actions!» «I said, you got it, boys!»
Because I didn’t say this—Jesus said this! You can’t—I mean there are a lot of people that don’t want to be identified by their actions! I thought we were identified because I confess Jesus as my Christ and my Lord! Well, He’ll address that in the next statement. Look! «Not everyone who says to me"—now wait a minute—this is not who says to Muhammad; this is me, Jesus Christ!
So Jesus is being very specific here! «Not everyone who calls out to me 'Lord, Lord.'» Now why is «Lord» written twice? Because that’s the way Hebrew writers would emphasize words. We italicize; we boldface! Right? Hebrew writers would write it twice! If you’re Matthew sitting on this sermon on the mount, Jesus goes, «Hey guys, not everyone who calls me Lord is going to enter the kingdom of heaven!» So Matthew goes, «Whoa, whoa, whoa! He emphasized that word 'Lord' and wrote it twice!»
So what do these people do? They call him Lord! So what Jesus is saying is not everyone who calls out to me Lord is going to enter heaven! You know what Jesus just did? He just annihilated our formula seminars! Prayer? We’ll just get him to pray—just get them to pray! What good does that do? You actually make them a little more deceived! They haven’t repented of their sins and turned to Him! They haven’t even broken up with their old boyfriends! You just had them pray a prayer! Jesus just said not everyone who prays the sinner’s prayer is going to heaven! Then Jesus— I want to know something! Who is going to heaven? He tells us: «Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter!»
Well that’s law; that’s works! No, it’s not! It’s evidence! Whoa, whoa! What evidence? Yeah, it’s evidence! Okay, let me give you an example. If there’s an electrical outlet over here, and I put a knife in that electrical outlet, if you are not doing my funeral three days from now, that means there’s no power in that outlet! The evidence of power being in that outlet is you’re doing my funeral three days from now!
Does this make sense? So the law says you have to live a certain way to earn a relationship with God. God says you earn a relationship with Me by faith, and the evidence that you really have a relationship with Me is that now you have the character, the nature, to do what I say, because the law proved you couldn’t do it on your own! That’s why James says, «Show me your faith without your works, and I’ll show you my faith by my works!»
You say you believe in God? Big deal! The demons believe—they even tremble!
I might cut your church in half after this week! Okay, you still with me? Okay? Okay! It gets a little stronger! On judgment day—this is still red words! Okay? Jesus—on judgment day, many—now the word «many» literally means «majority,» so it means at least 51%. I had six pastors sit me down because I used to say «many» is a lot, but it’s not the majority, and six pastors sat me down and read out of a Greek lexicon. They said this word carries the meaning most! And I started trembling!
«Many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord! ' We proclaimed the gospel in Your name and cast out demons in Your name—that’s what our church did! We believed in it! And we performed many miracles in Your name! And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you.'» You know what the Greek word there is for «knew?» It’s the Greek word «ginosko.» And «ginosko» is «yada!» In other words, John is one in Spanish, correct? Right? Are you following me? Okay? «Yada» in Greek is «ginosko.» It’s the exact same word! «I never intimately knew you! Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!» The key word there is «practice.» Jesus is not talking about the person who falls into sin and cries out and says, «God, forgive me!» That’s not the person He’s talking about! He’s talking about the person that goes, «Come on, man! I’ve got needs!»
Like the guy that walked up to me two months ago in California when I preached. He said, «Look man, I’m single and I sleep with women every once in a while. I stop, but I sleep with women because I have needs. Now can you please tell me—» and he looked at me; I couldn’t believe it! «Can you please tell me why I’m struggling in my business?» I said, «The reason you came up is to ask me why you’re struggling in your business, and you tell me you sleep with women?» Well, he said, «Yeah, but you know, sometimes I stop.» That is a man that’s practicing lawlessness!
And if he doesn’t change, he’s going to be in for a huge surprise! We’re not talking about the person struggling; we’re talking about the person who practices. In other words, it’s like God’s grace covers all my sins, past, present, future; I’m cool while I continue to practice lawlessness. What is lawlessness? It’s the Greek word «anomia,» which simply means you’re an authority! You’re a law unto yourself! So the law unto yourself means I can embrace 98% of what the Scripture says, but to the 2% I don’t like, I can just kind of put it over here!
We’ve got time! Watch this video!
Wake up! What is happening? Are you Kevin Adams? Yeah! Who are you? Kevin, we don’t have a lot of time! I’ve been sent here for you; your doors are about to close again! I need to get you out of here! You want to get out of here? Uh, yeah, absolutely! All right, come with me; let’s go! Okay?
All right, so Kevin, what we’re going to do is we’re just gonna head down here. I hope you’re going to be able to climb because we’re just gonna—what? Kevin, what are you doing? If there’s anything I’ve learned in prison, it’s that orange is definitely my color! Oh no, no, no, you want to leave everything behind! If you bring that with you, the dogs will be able to find you! You’ll be right back! Right? Right? Right? Okay!
So, all right, team, I have the package; we’re heading to the extraction zone right now! Kevin, what I need you to do is—what? What are you doing? This bed is perfect for me! Okay? You think that we’re going to be able to get that through there? It contours to my every shape! Okay, I can’t sleep without it! Kevin, let’s go! All right, let’s get—right? Right? Right? Okay?
So wait! Hot Dog Wednesday! What? Today’s Tuesday! Tomorrow is Wednesday; they serve hot dogs on Wednesday! Are you serious? Yeah! I can’t miss that! Kevin, you can buy whatever food you want whenever we’re out there! We just need to go! What about Chester? Okay, what is that?
Just hold on! Oh my gosh! What is it? Oh, Kevin! What is it now? Look, I’ve been saving these up for a long time! Okay, hey Daryl, you still want to trade cigarettes? Yeah, that’s cool! Look, I gotta trade this with Daryl, okay? Me and Kyle got this like cigarette business and I can’t just leave him! Now, Kevin, I don’t think you understand this! Your door’s gonna close again, I need to get you! Kevin, come out! We need to go right now! Please, just leave everything! Kevin, you need to come with me right now! We need to go!
But what could be better than all this? Kevin, you don’t understand; they’ll find the way! I got it! I won’t be able to come back for you! Yeah, I just need more time! Okay? Like this is my home! Get out of this sound! I know I can’t; I can’t just leave your own experience! I seem to think about this; this is my home! Oh, Kevin, Damien! Kevin secured; suspect is at large!
Wait! Wait! Please don’t leave me here! Please! I can let it go! I can let it go! Please wait! Please! I promise I can let it go! Please! Please don’t leave me here! Please! I can let it go; I promise! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!
Kevin refused to let go of what would cost him his freedom until it was too late! I had a vision in the late 1980s or the early 1990s—I can’t remember what year—but I saw an ocean of people in the vision; it was so clear! It was a spiritual vision! The humanity was so—I mean, so many people I couldn’t see the end! Anywhere any direction I looked behind me was Jesus, the gates and the city! I never saw the gate; I never saw the city; I didn’t see Jesus! God just wanted me to see the people! Every one of those people came saying, «Jesus is my Lord!» And they expected Him to say, «Enter into the joy of the Lord!» And instead, they heard the words, «I don’t know who you are; leave me!»
Well, God let me see was the excruciating horror, the painful horror that was on their faces! And right then, God gave me a passion—not just for the lost on the streets, but even more so, the lost in the church! Paul makes this final statement to the Corinthian church: «Stop sinning!» That’s exactly what Lester Sumrall said to me: «Stop sinning for you, your shame!» I say that some of you don’t know God at all!
I want every head bowed, every eye closed. Father, in the name of Jesus, thank You for what You’ve given us this morning. And now, Holy Spirit, we prayed and we asked that this would be a service that would change our lives forever. And it can’t happen without You, Holy Spirit! So I thank You for taking the words that have been spoken and seeding our hearts deeply and changing us forever.