John Bevere - Breaking Free from Sin
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Hey everyone, welcome to lesson five. Now we’re talking about breaking intimidation. Remember there’s a book, and as much fun as it is teaching these eight lessons, I can’t cover comprehensively everything that’s in this book. Now I want to make this really clear: I highly recommend the book, but it’s not required. You’re getting a lot out of the course, but if you want to go deeper—there’s so much more that I talk about in the book—then get the book. But anyway, let me cite some things here to open up this lesson on intimidation. I’m going to make some declarations: intimidation paralyzes us in the realm of the spirit, always remember that. Number two, it causes us to compromise what we know to be right. Number three, it causes us to allow or tolerate what we or others under different circumstances wouldn’t stand for.
Now the person I want to talk about is Eli and his sons. Let me clarify: Eli was one of the judges of Israel, and he was also high priest. He was the 15th judge and the seventh high priest, judging Israel for 40 years, so he was in ministry for a long time. Hophni and Phinehas were his two sons, and they were leaders under his leadership. Now let’s talk about the spiritual atmosphere around the time Eli was judging Israel. In 1 Samuel 3:1, we read, «The word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.» What the scripture means is that there weren’t a lot of Bibles around, and at that time, it would have been called the Torah. The Bible is saying that God wasn’t speaking; in other words, God was silent. Remember, Jesus said man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, not what has proceeded.
A religious spirit always hangs on to what God said while it resists what God is saying. We are not to refuse Him, the book of Hebrews says, who speaks from heaven. God is living; He still speaks. That’s what Paul meant when he addressed the Corinthian Church: you guys used to serve those dumb idols. He didn’t mean the idols were dumb in a derogatory sense, but that the idols had no ability to speak. He said, «You’re not serving a God who doesn’t speak. The God you serve still speaks; He speaks from His throne.» But during this time period, the word of the Lord was rare. Now the question we need to ask is, why was the word of the Lord rare when Eli was the head pastor, so to speak?
Well, here’s why. In 1 Samuel 2:22, we read, «Eli was very old, and he heard everything his sons did to all of Israel.» What were they doing? They were taking offerings by force; they wouldn’t give the people a choice. There was a portion that was for the priest, but they took the best portion, and they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle. Oh my gosh! These guys had no fear of God; they were sleeping with the girls who came to see God. They were using manipulative techniques to get these girls into bed with them. I mean, this is bad news, right?
So Eli knew what his sons were doing, but he gave them a weak rebuke. He didn’t remove them from leadership; he just gave them a little slap on the hand. You’ll find this in chapter 2:23–24: «Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. Know, my sons, for it’s not a good report that I hear; you’re making the Lord’s people transgress.» Let me tell you something: this went on and on until finally, God had to send a prophet to speak directly to Eli. This prophet comes and is unnamed, and he says to Eli, «This is a direct word from the Lord: Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering, which I have commanded in My dwelling place? You honor your sons more than Me. For those who honor Me, I will honor; and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.»
So Eli, God said, was honoring his sons over God. Now let me read something to you directly from the book, because it’s important that you get this: when we are intimidated by someone not to obey what God wants, then we honor that person over God. Let me tell you something: it’s easier not to offend the person you’re looking at than God, whom you can’t see. I want you to remember that. It is actually easier to not offend the person we see rather than God, whom we don’t see. I think the Holy Spirit wanted me to say that twice, or maybe it’s just me.
Anyway, the judgment that resulted on Eli was serious. God said, «I will never forgive Eli nor his family.» I never want to hear God say that. The judgment came because God judged Eli and his household—because he did not restrain his sons—that’s 1 Samuel 3:13.
What’s the key point? Listen carefully: an intimidated person honors what he fears more than he honors God. I want that one to really settle in. I’m going to read it again: an intimidated person honors what he fears more than he honors God. With or without realizing it, he submits to what intimidates him and, at the same time, offends God. That’s strong, but it’s true. If you look at our homes, many of them are chaotic. Why are they chaotic? I was a youth pastor for years, and I’m going to tell you why: parents wouldn’t confront their children. They tried to love their children out of their problems instead of disciplining them, and the Bible says, «When you spare the rod of discipline, you hate your child.»
I’ll never forget the time a family came to see me; the husband took time off work. They sat right in front of me in my office. I remember that girl talking to her parents so disrespectfully, and I said to the father, «Aren’t you going to address how she spoke to you and your wife?» He said, «Well, we have a policy in our house: we love our children out of their difficulties.» I remember looking at him and saying, «This counseling session is over.»
The father was surprised: «I took off work to come here; we’ve only been here for 10 minutes.» I said, «I can’t help you because you know more than God.» I remember he looked at me, and I said, «God says when you spare the rod, you hate your child. This is why your daughter has no respect for you.» It was an interesting moment, but I hope that family heard the message.
If you look at Moses, he went through the same thing. I remember the first time God showed me this in the Bible; I nearly fell over. What I’m about to share really happened. Let’s paint the picture: Moses was on the backside of the desert for 40 years, watching his father-in-law’s sheep. God appeared on Mount Sinai in a burning bush, and Moses said, «I will turn aside and see this great sight.» Moses approached, and God said, «Take off your sandals; it’s holy ground.» God continued, «I’ve had it with my people being oppressed. I have come to deliver them, and you, Moses, are the deliverer.» Wow! What the people had been waiting for for over 400 years, Moses was pronounced to be the deliverer.
So God gave the covenant to Moses; He reestablished the Covenant of Abraham on that mountain. Moses came down from the mountain with a look on his face like he had just been with God, and his wife, Zipporah, noticed. She said, «Moses, what’s going on?» He replied, «Honey, God has met with me; He has come to deliver our people, and I’m the deliverer.» Zipporah looks at her husband and says, «Babe, that’s amazing; I’m with you, I’m with you.» Then he adds, «Oh, and one other thing: He reviewed the Abrahamic Covenant with me, and we need to circumcise our two sons.» So she asked, «Circumcise? What does that mean?» He replied, «Well, we have to cut off the foreskin of their penises.»
When our third-born son Alec got circumcised, I happened to be there, and the doctor looked at Leah and me, saying, «You’ll see him scream like you’ve never seen him scream.» When that doctor clamped down on the foreskin, every fiber of Alec’s being was screaming, and I wanted to go hide. I remembered being glad they did that to me when I was eight or ten days old or whatever it was; it was painful!
Do you remember when Joshua brought the men across the River Jordan, and God said, «Circumcise all the men»? They laid there for three days in pain. Do you understand the pain involved? There are a lot of nerve endings involved. So, listen: Mama is watching her boy scream, and she’s like, «What are you doing, Moses?» She grabs the youngest son, saying, «You aren’t doing that to him!» Moses says, «Honey, we have to do this; God said to do it. This is part of the Covenant.» She replies, «Oh no, we’re not!» Then she screams at him, threatening him with the silent treatment. Moses, meanwhile, is thinking, «I gotta deliver Israel,» so he and his wife, with one circumcised son and one who isn’t, start on the road to Egypt.
Now, listen to this from the Bible: «On the way to Egypt, at the place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill Moses.» Is God schizophrenic? He just said he was the deliverer, yet He was coming to kill Moses? No; God was saying, «Moses, you choose your wife or Me. You’re intimidated by your own wife.» But Zipporah got smart; she took a flint knife and circumcised her youngest son, touching Moses’s feet with the foreskin and saying, «Now you’re a bridegroom of blood to me.» When she said «bridegroom of blood,» she was referring to the circumcision. After that, the Lord left him alone.
One day, God spoke to me, saying, «John, did I come to kill Moses or did I come to kill his wife?» I said, «You came to kill Moses.» He said, «That’s right, because I put him in charge of that family, and he was intimidated by his own wife.» Isn’t this interesting? Eli is intimidated by his sons, and Moses is intimidated by his wife. This is why Jesus said, «I didn’t come to bring peace; I came to bring division. From now on, a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.»
When we honor the person we see and know we’re disobeying God, we are honoring that person at the expense of offending God. Sometimes God will say, «Time to choose.» I know this is a strong statement; it’s a very riveting statement, but I think it’s something we need to consider.
I’m going to leave you with an example I’ll never forget. I was in the southern part of the United States, ministering at a church. I’ll never forget that my words felt like they were hitting a wall and returning to hit me in the face. It was crazy. Right before I got up to minister, I met the pastor and his wife, two of the sweetest human beings I’ve ever met. They embodied model Southern hospitality—kind, gentle, and sweet. I loved meeting them. But I was sitting there wondering why there was no anointing in that church. Why couldn’t I even preach there?
We went out to lunch, and the pastor sat down with me in the car, saying, «John, my head usher in my church divorced his wife. They both come to the church; he sits on one side, and she sits on the other. Then this guy met a young girl in the church, and now they’re living together. I’ve removed him from being head usher. Have I done enough?» I said, «Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute! You mean the guy is still a member of the church?» He said, «Well, yeah.» I read to him from 1 Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul said a man was committing sexual immorality. He told the whole church, «You’re full of pride.»
Why was the church full of pride? Because they thought they could discipline the man better than God’s Word said. Paul asked four times in 13 verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, «Why haven’t you removed him from the church?» This man was living with his stepmother and would not repent. Paul said, «Remove him.» This same man was in our church, living with that young girl and refusing to let her go. We’re not talking about someone who falls into sin, gets confronted, sees the error of his ways, and repents. We’re talking about someone who knows he’s sinning, gets confronted, but continues without wanting to quit.
This influential man in the church was removed from being head usher, but he was still a member. Later, the amount of sin revealed in that church was mind-blowing. I remember when I talked to that pastor and his wife for one hour about this situation. After I shared what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the pastor’s wife said, «I don’t know that I want to be in ministry anymore. I just want to love people.» I looked at her and said, «You want to love people, but this situation is not real love. Love not only feeds; love protects. You only want to feed them; you don’t want to protect them.» She responded, «Wow.»
Again, they were two of the sweetest people, but there was no power of God in that church. The presence of God wasn’t there, and they were struggling in ministry because they were intimidated by a wealthy man in their church who had divorced his wife and was now living with a young girl. This is what intimidation does: you don’t want to offend the person you’re looking at, so you do it at the expense of offending God, whom you don’t look at.
I know I’m ending this lesson a little heavy, but it’s important that we understand it. There is, however, a really good ending to this story. I kept in touch with that pastor and his wife because they were precious, and do you know he confronted the man? And the man repented? When the pastor confronted him, the man moved out. It’s wonderful! That man was spared from many bad repercussions from that sin, and I’m sure the church experienced a much greater measure of the presence of God because of what the pastor did.
So great ending! Confrontation, though uncomfortable many times, ends well. In the next lesson, we’ll discuss how to finally awaken the gifts of God, how to stir those up and operate in the power and authority that God has placed on our lives. I hope you’re getting something out of this!