John Bevere - Why Does God HATE Sin?
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Hey guys, welcome to Lesson 12 of Multiply. I’m so proud of you; you are completing the race, and I am believing for an extra special blessing from God for you doing this. Remember, don’t listen to this course just once; go through it again and again and again so you will build faith to be able to multiply. The other thing I can’t stress enough is this book, «Multiply Your God-Given Potential.» It is critical that you read this book; it will highly complement and add to what you have learned from this course and build your faith to an even greater level of multiplying.
I want to open up with a story. Last Thanksgiving was the first Thanksgiving in my 60s, my sixth decade, and I remember having some of our family members at the table. It’s a very special meal, as you know, for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we had some of our team members and interns sitting around the table. I thought, «Gosh, I’m 60; I better have some fatherly advice here for the table.» You know, when I had that thought, the Holy Spirit immediately gave me something to say. I said, «Guys, you all know I just turned 60,» and they kind of chuckled. I continued, «I feel like I’ve got to give you some fatherly wisdom. When I look back on the past 40 years of walking with Jesus, I would say one of the most important things your mother and I have done is walk consistently in obedience to God’s Word. There have been times in our lives when we wanted to throw in the towel. There have been times when if we had compromised, it would have alleviated pain, promoted us, and caused us to get out of a trial we were in more easily. But we chose to obey God’s Word.
One of the smart things Job said when he was in his intense trials is found in Job 6:10: „I can take comfort in this: despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One.“ I said, „It’s going to be painful in life, but when you choose to obey God’s Word, the long-term benefits are so amazing.“ I look around this table; I see what God’s done in and through us, and it causes me to stand in awe of the goodness of our Creator. Please be consistently obedient. During that Thanksgiving dinner, I wanted my family and team members who were present to know that consistent obedience is crucial to the fulfillment of our destiny because such consistency positions us for the enhancement of our gifts, and that enhancement is the anointing.
In the early 1990s, I had a very fortunate encounter with the Holy Spirit. I was frustrated; I was praying two hours every single morning, spending time in the Bible, yet when I got up to preach, my words were not weighty; they weren’t changing people; they were struggling. One day, in utter frustration, I was praying, and I said, „God, I don’t get it. I’m praying two hours a day, I’m reading the Word, I’m avoiding sin; why are my words so powerless? Why is the gift of God in my life not bringing the change I know it should bring?“ The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, „Son, because you tolerate sin.“ I replied, „What?“ He continued, „You tolerate sin not only in your life, but you overlook it in the lives of others.“
Then He brought me to where God the Father was inaugurating Jesus. Hebrews chapter 1 is an amazing chapter because it tells what happened on inauguration day when Jesus was raised from the dead, and God the Father set Him in as King of the universe. God the Father made a statement to Jesus, and it’s powerful. He said, „You have loved righteousness.“ The Holy Spirit said, „Stop! Every Christian loves righteousness,“ but He didn’t stop there: „and hated lawlessness.“ Notice it doesn’t say „and disliked lawlessness.“ It says „and hated lawlessness.“ That’s sin! Therefore, God, even your God, has anointed you more than your companions. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, „If you learn to hate sin the way I hate sin, you’ll see the anointing increase upon your life.“ Boy, did that change my life!
Now, let me make this clear: God hates sin but loves sinners. So, a person who says, „I hate sinners“ is a person who will not have a strong anointing on their life. You hate the sin. Why do you hate the sin? Because it undoes people; it undoes what God loves—the object of His affection. That’s why God hates sin; because it diminishes, pulls down, and undoes a human being whom He loves.
Righteousness means conformity to the claims of a higher authority. He loved righteousness. Lawlessness is the Greek word „anomia,“ which means disobedience to the authority of God. Jesus hated disobedience to the authority of God. That obedience, that consistent obedience that Jesus walked in, no matter what the difficulty, is the reason the anointing on His life was more powerful than any of His companions. If you look at the anointing, it is what fuels our God-given abilities. Think of it as an enhancer to your gifts. If you consider an engine, and you put a fuel enhancer in, the engine will run, but when you put the fuel enhancer in, it will run even better. When you tune up the engine, it will run even better. That’s what the anointing does.
Let me give you some examples. I’ve heard people preach, I’ve heard people give leadership talks; they were stimulating, they fed me information, and they even helped me a little with my leadership ability, but they didn’t change my heart. Yet, I’ve heard people preach what didn’t even seem to be a very knowledgeable sermon, but it so impacted me and brought change. What was the difference? The anointing! I have heard people sing with a voice like Celine Dion or a handsome voice like Andrea Bocelli. They were nice, but they didn’t move me. Then I’ve had other people sing that have so impacted me that it brought me into the presence of God. What’s the difference? The anointing. Both are gifted, but one has the enhancer on it.
David says in Psalm 92:10, „But my horn—you have exalted like that of a wild ox. I am anointed with fresh oil.“ Wow, there’s so much here! First of all, the anointing gives us strength, and it brings joy. If you look at what God said to Jesus, „You have been anointed with the oil of joy more than your companions.“ What is our strength? The joy of the Lord is our strength. The true anointing brings real, authentic joy, which brings strength into our lives.
Notice David said, „You have anointed me with fresh oil.“ The anointing is not something we get one time and it stays at that level for the rest of our life. Our consistent obedience, our consistent love for righteousness, and hatred of lawlessness cause the anointing to be fresh upon our lives. I have heard ministers who were once tremendous instruments of God, but now their messages seem flat; they don’t carry weight anymore. What happened? The anointing has waned; it’s gotten unfresh, if that’s the right word.
If you look at Samson, he was mightily anointed by God. He had the strength to take down a thousand men with one jawbone of a donkey. However, he was consistently disobeying God. The first few times he disobeyed, it was fine; he kept getting away with it; he still had his strength. But there came a point where he disobeyed one too many times, and his strength left him. This is found in Judges 16:19–20: His strength left him, and Delilah said, „The Philistines are upon you, Samson!“ So, he awoke from his sleep and said, „I’ll go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free.“ But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. The anointing had lifted.
It’s heartbreaking when you think about it. He said, „I’m going to go preach like I’ve preached before; I’m going to go make money like I’ve made in the marketplace before; I’m going to go paint like I’ve painted before; I’m going to go sing like I’ve sung before.“ But they didn’t know their consistent disobedience eventually came to the point where that anointing wasn’t there anymore. I’ve seen this with great leaders in the church. I’ve seen great leaders who could stir other leaders and multitudes, but they disobeyed one too many times. Now all of a sudden, their words don’t carry weight anymore; they did not know that the anointing had lifted. You don’t want that to happen with your life. This is why consistent obedience is so important.
If you look at David, after he had sinned and committed the terrible sin of adultery with Bathsheba and murdering her husband to cover up his adultery, when he gets confronted, he cries out to God. What is his heart cry? He says, „Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a loyal spirit within me.“ In other words, „I want to get back to consistent obedience to you because I love you.“ He said, „Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.“ That’s his number one cry: „Don’t take your Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation.“ He knew that if he lost that anointing, the joy goes with it because the anointing of gladness or the anointing of joy restores the joy of your salvation and makes me willing to consistently obey you.
Now I want to talk to you about the word „chosen“ as we close. 1 Corinthians 1:21 makes the statement, „Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God.“ I love that! „He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God.“ What is the Greek word „anointed“? It’s „chriō.“ It is defined as: to assign a person to a task with the implication of supernatural sanctions, blessings, and endowment. To anoint means to assign or appoint. The key word here is „sanction.“ What does that word „sanction“ mean? It means supernatural sanction—it’s authoritative permission or approval for an action.
If you look at what Jesus said, „The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He has anointed me to…“ There’s an action to it! How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power who went about doing… There is a sanction; action follows. The anointing comes upon us to do something; it comes upon us to enhance our gifts to fulfill the area we have been assigned to. As I said right at the beginning of the course, the anointing is not on my life to go out into the marketplace and make a lot of money to give into the kingdom. The anointing is on my life for preaching, writing, leading, and other things, and those are the areas that I am sanctioned to operate in to build the church.
Your area may not seem as important as someone like me or your pastor, but I’m telling you again, it’s the gifts that are not noticeable, not seen, that God has put greater honor upon than even the ones that are seen. So, you may think your gift is not noticeable. Oh no, it is so valuable to all of us. So we see the word „assign,“ we see the word „appoint.“ It’s so important that we remember that in serving God, there’s always a testing period. We are tested in obedience before we are appointed. This is why Jesus says over and over, „Many are called, but few are chosen.“ Everyone is called. Everyone is called by God to do something. They are gifted to do it and are supposed to multiply in it. But Jesus said sadly, „Only few are appointed.“ In other words, few pay the price of consistent obedience to be chosen. That’s a tough statement, but it needs to be said. If Jesus wouldn’t have said it twice, maybe I wouldn’t put so much emphasis on it, but He actually said it twice: „Many are called, but only few are chosen.“
If you look at Romans 16:10 in the Amplified Bible, this is amazing. Paul writes to the Roman church and says, „Greet Apelles, that one tried and approved in Christ.“ So there was a trial, and once the trial was completed through consistent obedience, he was approved and was now anointed for that area and will multiply in that area. In 2 Corinthians 10:8 in the Amplified, it says, „For it is not the man who praises and commends himself who is approved and accepted, but it is the person whom the Lord credits and commends.“ So it is so important that we live a life of consistent obedience.
If you have friends that are compromising and you see them getting promoted, or you see them getting out of trouble, don’t follow that path. Don’t stand in the way of the ungodly, but stay in the counsel of the Word of God. Be like Job and say, „Even if it’s painful, I’m going to obey the words of the Almighty.“
Well, we’ve completed our course. I want to close by quickly reviewing what we’ve talked about and then I want to pray for you. You are uniquely called and gifted by God—never forget that! We are stewards of the gifts that God gives us, and His desire for you and me is to return multiplied what He has entrusted to us. You are called as much as anyone else. Don’t look at your pastor and think he’s more called. Don’t look at me and think I’m more called. Don’t look at Billy Graham and think he’s more called. You are just as called as Billy Graham.
You are privileged! Listen carefully: you are privileged to excel, to stand out in the arena of life to which you are sent—if it’s in the educational field, in healthcare, or in government offices. Just as Daniel distinguished himself and was ten times wiser, that is what God has called you to do. That is called letting your light shine in a dark world. One of the ways that God distinguishes you is by your giftings, causing you to stand out. So if you’re a professional athlete, believe for the grace of God to outperform other athletes, to live in a character that is far beyond what the other athletes live in. God’s grace will empower your labor.
Remember, it’s not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Living God. That temple, God said, would be erected with shouts of „Grace, Grace!“ So remember, you are called as an erector of God’s temple where He will dwell forever and ever, and that is going to be erected by grace. By the grace of God, it empowers. It just doesn’t save us; we multiply by seeking strategies of heaven—we have to ask in faith. We multiply through investing. Remember, multiplication always comes when we sow the seeds. Invest our gifts. Our catalyst is having a heart to serve. Our desire should be for the anointing. When you begin to walk in what we have discussed in this course, you will distinguish yourself; you will impact many lives, and you will be rewarded greatly on Judgment Day. You will be glad you did, forever and ever and ever!
Now, in closing, I want to say this: I’m so proud of you. As a dad in the church, I want to say I’m cheering you on. I want you to go further than me. I hope you can learn from my mistakes. When you read the book „X,“ I really open up my heart and my life to my blunders, my stupidity, my mistakes, in order for you to avoid those. I want to blaze a trail for you so that you don’t have to walk through the hard way as I did. I don’t want you to have to take the machete and go through all that stuff and cut it up. I want you to blaze new trails for future generations to walk in.
So I want to pray for you. You are gifted; you are called, and I am praying that you will be mightily anointed so that you can affect many lives. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you so much for my brother and my sister who are watching this video, whether it’s a group or an individual. Lord, I’m asking that your anointing would be upon their lives as they consistently obey your Word. I first ask that they would discover the unique giftings that You’ve placed within their lives, that they would not despise or look down upon those giftings, seeing them as insignificant.
May they understand that any gift given to them by You is significant. I’m asking that they would stir up that gift, that they would fan it into a flame. May they be motivated to give careful attention and operate in that gift so that others may benefit. I speak to the enemy, the spirit of intimidation, the spirit of fear that would try to hold them back, and I bind you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Father, I pray that you would just put a shield of protection over my brother and my sister, and may Your presence be strong upon their lives. May they flourish, may they be fruitful, and may they multiply all the days of their lives. In Jesus' mighty name, amen.
Hey, I love you guys. You’re amazing! I look forward to meeting you one day in person, and until that time, be fruitful and multiply!