John Bevere - How Your Life CHANGES Future Generations
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All right, I want to pray and believe God that He truly ministers to us today. I ask that the Holy Spirit would literally change us—change the way we think and change our hearts to be more and more like Jesus today. Can we do that? So let’s lift up our hands and pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You so very much for Your presence here in this sanctuary, in Mville, in Newcastle. Lord, we just thank You, and as we come before Your throne, we ask, Spirit of God, that You would do what You love to do the most, which is reveal Jesus to us in a way we have never known Him before. As You do this, may we go from glory to glory and strength to strength; for I decree that Your kingdom has come, Your will shall be done in our places here on Earth as it is in heaven. I take authority over the atmosphere and bind the enemy that would keep any man or woman from having their hearts open to receiving the word of God. I declare liberty in the spirit, and we give You all the praise, glory, and honor for this in Jesus' mighty name we pray. And everybody that agrees shouts, «Come on, give Him praise, give Him praise!» Amen, amen, amen.
You may be seated. This morning, I will continue the series on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I want to open with Psalm 112, and I would like you to meditate on Psalm 112 today. This Psalm is one of my favorites, and God has really opened it up to me in the last couple of years. I think it’s because I just turned 65 last week, and I’ve been thinking about legacy—legacy and posterity. When I look at Psalm 112, verses 1 and 2 say, «Praise the Lord. How joyful—» everybody shout «joyful!» Okay, oh, I guess the scripture is up here. «How joyful are those who fear the Lord.» Wait a minute, those two words just don’t go together: joy and fear. Yep. There is a scripture in the Book of Psalms that says, «Rejoice with trembling.» I love that. «Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying His commands. Their children—» I love this—"will be successful everywhere. An entire generation of godly people will be blessed.»
The first thing I need to make clear is that the fear of the Lord is not about being scared of God. How can we have a relationship with someone we are afraid of? How can we be intimate with someone we are afraid of? And yet God’s number one desire for you is to be intimate with you. Remember when Moses brought the children of Israel to the mountain to meet with God? When God came down to introduce Himself, the people all ran away. Moses made a statement in Exodus 20:20. He says, «Do not fear,» because God has come to test you, to see if His fear is in you, so that you may not sin.
Now, wait a minute. «Do not fear because God has come to see if His fear is in you.» Is Moses speaking out of both sides of his mouth? No, he is differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. There is a massive difference. The person who is scared of God hides, just like Adam did when he sinned against the Lord; he hid from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God has nothing to hide; that person is actually terrified of being away from God. So, if you want your first definition of a healthy fear of God, it is to be terrified of being away from God.
So, what is the fear of the Lord? It is when we stand in awe of God. We tremble before Him because we realize who He is. He is not a man; He is the Creator of everything seen and unseen. Can you say «Amen»? So, when we fear God, we literally embrace His heart. What He loves, we love; what He hates, we hate. That is why the Bible says in Proverbs 8:13, «All who fear the Lord will hate evil.» They don’t just dislike evil; they hate it. Paul brings this to a whole other level in the New Testament when he says, «Abhor,» which means strong hatred, «what is evil.»
Now, what is the manifestation of someone who truly fears God? In other words, what’s the evidence? Let me make it really clear: if you have a wall outlet, what’s the evidence that there is power in that wall? Plug in a blow dryer. If the blow dryer turns on, you have power; if the blow dryer doesn’t work, maybe you don’t have power. Do you see what I’m saying? What’s the telltale sign of someone who truly fears God? The answer is simple: obedience.
God makes a statement to the people of Israel. He says, «Oh, that they would always—» look at the word «always.» Everybody say «always"—"have a heart like this, that they might fear Me and obey—» everybody say, «obey.» «98% of My commandments?» No, «all My commandments.» «If they did this, they and their descendants would prosper.» So, the psalmist says those who fear the Lord, their descendants will be successful everywhere. God says here, right out of His mouth, «It will go well for your descendants if you fear Me and obey Me.» So, obedience is the outward evidence of somebody who truly fears God.
In the New Testament, Paul makes a statement to the Philippian church. I want to make a statement before we read this: this is Paul writing to the Philippian church, but really, it’s God speaking to us. There is no private interpretation of the word of God, so when I read the word of God, I don’t read it as Paul writing to these guys; I read it as God talking to me. Does that make sense? Whenever I read my Bible, that’s the way I read it: this is God talking to John. So, listen to these words in that light.
«As you have always"—again, notice the word «always"—"obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence—» Now, let me say this: it’s easy to obey God when you’re in an atmosphere like this. What about Wednesday night when you’re surfing the web, and you run across pornography? It sure is quiet here right now. Are you with me? The fear of the Lord gives you the ability to obey not only in His presence but when you don’t sense His presence. «As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation by obeying God with fear and trembling.» Notice it doesn’t say «loving kindness.» It says, «work out your own salvation by obeying God with fear and trembling.» It doesn’t say that. Now, don’t get me wrong. God is love; He doesn’t even have love; He is love. However, the way our salvation matures is not through the love of God.
I will never forget when the world-famous evangelist, who was in prison, looked at me and, going through all the hideous things he did, said, «Jesus has delivered me.» I asked him the question, «When did you fall out of love with Jesus? At what point in your ministry?» He said, «I didn’t; I loved Him all the way through it.» He saw the confusion on my face, and he said, «John, I didn’t fear God.» He said, «There are millions of Americans like this. They love Jesus, but they have no fear of God.» It takes the love of God and the fear of God to keep us on the road to life. The love of God keeps us from becoming legalistic; the fear of God keeps us from being lawless.
I don’t want to be in either ditch; are you with me? Okay. So, our salvation is matured through the holy, healthy fear of God. Now that we understand the fear of the Lord, let’s go back to Psalm 112. «Praise the Lord! How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight—» See, the fear of the Lord will actually work on your attitude, because the next verse says in Philippians that I just read to you, «Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work within you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.» The will deals with your attitude, so the fear of the Lord deals with my attitude, which gives me great delight in obeying His commandments.
Have you ever seen someone for whom obeying the commandments of God is like drudgery? «I guess we got to go to church this morning, don’t we? I guess I have to obey God in this situation, don’t I?» That’s the way Balaam was. «The Lord won’t let me come.» The person who fears God delights. Why do they delight? They know that whatever God wants for them is what’s best for them and those around them, and He’s way smarter than them. Good preaching, John. Amen! Thank you.
All right, praise the Lord! «How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying His commands! Their children"—everybody say «their children"—"will be successful everywhere.» Gosh, I love that! Now, look at this: «An entire generation of godly people will be blessed.» Everybody say «entire generation.» Okay, first of all, the Hebrew words for «entire generation» are amazing. It means «succeeding generations.» It is used figuratively to mean «an indefinite or unending length of time.» An entire generation of godly people will be blessed, talking about their descendants. We’re not just talking about the next generation; we’re talking about the next generation’s next generation, and on and on and on—it’s posterity; it’s succeeding generations. Are you tracking with me?
Let me show you this in the New Testament: when Jesus comes into the temple, Simeon looks at Mary and Joseph and says, «His mercy, God’s mercy, is on those who fear Him.» What I’m talking to you about this morning is not made for every «quote believer.» Look, Lot was a righteous man; he was a believer, but he had no fear of God. If you look at his generations, we get Moab and Ammon. Abraham feared God; their succeeding generations were totally different. So we are not talking about people who are just born again.
I have to make this distinction because it’s like that famous evangelist said to me in the penitentiary: «There are millions of Americans who love Jesus but have no fear of God.» What I’m preaching to you this morning is not for every Christian, just like it didn’t apply to Lot. His descendants ended up being the enemies of Israel, and yet he was a righteous man. Peter calls him a righteous man in 2 Peter. He vexed his righteous soul. If you look at Lot, it’s really interesting—Abraham and Lot got into strife, and Abraham said, «Wherever you want to go, pick; I’ll go the other place.» The Bible says he took a long look at the plains of Jordan, where Sodom and Gomorrah were. Why? Because he knew the wickedness of these cities, and he’s going through this long look. He’s trying to figure out how he can enjoy the fruitfulness of those fields but not get caught up in the wickedness of those cities. So he gets an idea during this long look: «I will pitch my tent in the plains of Sodom.»
But one chapter later, when the angels come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he’s not in his tents on the plain; he’s in a house inside the city of Sodom because he flirted with the world. He lacked the fear of God, and the world had this alluring effect on him. «His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.» Back in 1874, there was a sociologist named Richard Dugdale. He went to 13 prisons in Northern New York and discovered something: there were six people in those 13 prisons who were all related to each other. Now, they had different last names, but they were related to each other. He started doing a deep dive—he was a sociologist—and traced it all the way back to a Dutch settler who was born between 1720 and 1740. He gave him a fictitious name and called him Max Jukes.
He started studying Max Jukes this Dutch settler, who was a very foul, vile man and a drunkard. He starts studying his lineage and discovers 540 descendants of Max Jukes. Let me show you what he discovered: 310 died as paupers; 180 had received 800 years' worth of poverty relief from the government; 140 were convicted criminals, and seven of them were murderers; 18 were brothel keepers. These are his descendants, talking about Moab and Ammon—440 alcoholics, 128 prostitutes.
But there was a man born around the same time as Max Jukes whose name was Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards married a lady named Sarah Porter, and they had 11 children. Jonathan Edwards said, «Every single family is a small church,» so he ran his home like a small church. He laid hands on his children, his 11 children, every single day. He prayed with them and studied the word of God with them and taught them to fear the Lord. Now can I show you his descendants? They discovered 1,394 descendants for him—way more than the 570 for Max!
13 became college or university presidents; 65 became college or university professors; three became United States senators; 30 became judges; 100 became lawyers; 60 became physicians; 75 became Army and Navy officers; 100 were preachers and missionaries; 60 became prominent authors; one became Vice President of the United States, and 80 became public officials in other capacities.
Now, does this make sense? Deuteronomy 7:9: «Know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those—» watch this—"who love Him and keep His commandments.» Can I say it like this? «Who love Him and fear Him.» This is a good place to clap.
We’ve got to realize that God is a father—He’s the original Father—and He is concerned about generations. If you look at this in Exodus 3:15, it’s crazy. «Say to the people, 'This is the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever'.» He made a covenant with Abraham, as John said last week. I watched John’s message; it was so good. He made a covenant with Abram. Why isn’t He called the God of Abram? Because He’s a generational God; He’s a generational-keeping God. God cares more about your lineage than you do because it’s not your family; it’s actually His, and He desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
So what we’re actually seeing right now is that the choices I make today—the way I walk—will affect many generations. That should put a healthy fear of God in you. Why did God choose Abraham? Did you ever wonder? I have asked so many people this question in marriage conferences, and so many people don’t know why God chose Abraham. The reason God chose Abraham is found in Genesis 18:19. «For I have chosen Abraham, that he might command—» everybody say «command.» Say it again. «We don’t like that word today because we live in a generation that despises authority—» «that he might command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring Abraham what He has promised.»
There are examples of this in scripture. If you go to the Book of Jeremiah, you see a beautiful example of this. There’s a clan, a family clan, called the Rechabites. I’m looking at our family, and it’s becoming a clan. I mean, we keep growing and growing! There’s this clan of people called the Rechabites, and God speaks to Jeremiah. He says, «Jeremiah, I want you to go to the Rechabite clan, to this group of family members, and I want you to bring them into the temple of the Lord and offer them wine.» God tells Jeremiah this, so Jeremiah goes into the temple.
Well, I’m actually going to read it because I’ve got it. Some of you might not even believe this. This is the message the Lord gave to Jeremiah: «Go to the settlement where the family of the Rechabites live and invite them into the Lord’s temple and offer some wine.» So, Jeremiah does this; he sets the cups and jugs of wine before them and invites them to have a drink, and they refuse. «No,» they said, «we will not drink wine because our ancestor Jonadab, son of Rechab, gave us this command: 'You and your descendants must never drink wine.'»
Then the Lord suddenly speaks to Jeremiah. The Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: «Come and look; learn a lesson of how to obey Me. The Rechabites do not drink wine to this day because their ancestor Jonadab told them not to. Therefore—» everybody say «therefore"—"this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab, son of Rechab, will always have descendants who stand before Me.» How would you like that promise?
You know, some of you are here today because of the choices your ancestors made! You still with me? Let me show you the other way around. There’s a guy named Gehazi. He is actually the servant of Elisha, next in line. Elisha was a servant to Elijah the prophet. Elisha got a double portion; he has a servant named Gehazi. Gehazi does not fear God; he’s a believer, but he doesn’t fear God. Naaman, the commander of the Syrian king’s armies, gets struck with leprosy. He can’t find any healing in his own country. A little Jewish girl, who is a servant in his family, says, «There is a prophet in Israel you should go see.» The king sends him with a really big gift.
Naaman gets angry, storms away; one of his servants says, «Hey, look; all he asks you to do is dip in the Jordan seven times.» Come on! So, he goes and does it, and he is completely cleansed of his leprosy. He is so excited; this commander of the Syrian army goes back to Elisha’s house and says, «Oh my goodness! Please let me give you a gift!» Elisha said, «I don’t want to take anything from you. I want you to know it was the Lord God who healed you.»
Naaman tries; he persists, but Elisha is like, «No, no, no.» Naaman and his entourage begin to head back to Syria, and Gehazi goes, «Oh my gosh, Elisha just passed up a blessing.» So he runs after the commander, and when he gets there, he says, «Oh, Elisha, my master forgot.» He lies to him and says, «We do have a need.» The guy gives him a bunch of money. Gehazi goes back, hides it in his house, and then stands in front of Elisha. Elisha says, «Hey, Gehazi, my spirit went with you. Is it time to receive gifts?»
Now watch what’s said to Gehazi. Are you ready for this? Elisha says, «Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.» I hope this puts a little holy, healthy fear in you, so he went out from his presence like a leper, as white as snow.
Let’s go back to positive again, okay? That was heavy; let’s go back to the positive. We’ve got Aaron. Aaron’s got a son named Eleazar. Eleazar’s got a son named Phineas. You’ve got this thing where Balaam teaches the king of Moab how to get Israel under a curse. «Send your women in; get them to commit adultery, bring their idols. That will bring them under a curse.» Boy, did it ever! A plague broke out, and 24,000 people died in Israel because these Moabit women were coming in with their gods, committing sexual immorality with the men of Israel.
This guy from Israel takes a Moabit woman and goes into the tent to have sex with her right in front of Moses. Phineas, the son of Eleazar the priest, takes a javelin, runs into the tent, and thrusts him through the man and woman. God says, «Because he was zealous for Me,» that’s called the fear of the Lord. «And for My people,» because the plague stops as soon as he does this. The plague doesn’t stop when they prayed; are you here?
I’m hearing you; is it because you’re listening? Okay, I was thinking I was hearing Mville, okay? So anyway, the plague doesn’t stop when they prayed; it stops when Phineas obeys. Now, listen to what God says: «You tell him that I’m making My special covenant of peace.» Yeah, to the guy that jabbed the woman with the sword! He gets peace—figure that one out! See, you’ll never have true peace until you are passionate about obeying God. You’ll never have true peace.
«Now tell him that I’m making My special covenant of peace with him, and this covenant I give to him—» oh, here we go again—"a permanent right to the priesthood.» The psalmist affirms this. The psalmist writes about it: «Then Phineas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed, and that was counted to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever.»
Don’t you want to affect your generations after you? Still with me? I said it earlier; I’m going to say it again just as a reminder: Lot had no fear of God. He’s a believer; he’s a righteous man, but look at his descendants—the Moabites and the Ammonites—coming from having sex with his daughters because they seduced him. Was he forgiven? He’s called a righteous man thousands of years later, but I sure wouldn’t want the lineage or posterity that he has. There are consequences to our decisions.
Maybe if you start thinking about the next generation, the next generation, the next generation, the next generation, that might be a staying force to keep you from doing something stupid. I already have done something stupid! Well, repent and start living in the fear of the Lord because the promise still applies today. If you go read in the Book of Ezekiel, it says if a righteous man turns from their righteousness, the righteousness they’ve done will be forgotten. But someone who turns from their wickedness and begins to live righteously, their righteousness is what will be remembered, and God says He will forget their wickedness.
It’s not how you start the race that counts, guys; it’s how you finish. I want to put—I want you to understand—you’re still breathing, you’re still in a body, you still have time. If you haven’t walked in the fear of God, you can make that change today!
That was a better place to clap! Good job, Newcastle! I heard you. I’m joking! Okay, I’ll show you a positive again. Paul says to Timothy, «I remember your genuine faith.» Where did that genuine faith begin for you? «It first filled your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I know that same faith continues strong in you.»
Okay, let me close with this. Are you getting something out of this this morning? There is one more aspect of this that will make you happy; it will make you hungry to walk in the fear of the Lord. Go back to Psalm 112: «How joyful are those who fear the Lord and delight in obeying His commands! Their children will be successful everywhere. An entire generation of godly people will be blessed.»
This is also—and if you read it, this is also a reward of a kingdom builder because this whole psalm talks about those who give to the poor. Their giving, their righteous works will be remembered forever. So, when you put the fear of the Lord—when you talk about the fear of the Lord, it breeds generosity.
Now look at this: «They"—everybody say «they"—"will long be remembered.» All right, let’s go back to Abraham. Abraham fears God. How does God know he fears him? Because God comes to him one night and says, «You know your son, whom you love more than anything or anyone else, the one you waited for for 25 years that I promised you? Yeah, Isaac. He’s sleeping right now. I want you to go on a three-day journey and offer him up as a sacrifice for Me.» That’s it. That’s all He says. We have a church—a people in the western church—that you have to show me the «why» before I obey. Uh-uh! He doesn’t give him the «why.»
You know my son looked at me when he was young, in his late teens. He said, «Dad, I’m a millennial; I need the 'why' of why you’re asking me to do this.» I said, «Okay, I’ll make you a deal. I make you a deal. 1 Kings—go read it, son! There’s a prophet, and God tells the prophet, 'You go and prophesy to Jeroboam, the king of Israel.' And let me tell you, this guy goes and prophesies, but God says, 'You’ve got to go one route and don’t eat anything while you’re going. When you’re done prophesying, come back a different route. Don’t eat anything until you get back.' And boy, that guy prophesies, and the prophecy comes to pass! I mean, the king’s hand withers—it’s restored—all this stuff, right? But the prophet doesn’t obey because an older prophet seduces him to come to his house to have a meal and lies to him, saying an angel told him that if he came to his house, he could eat with him.
He doesn’t do it. Well, the young prophet gets killed by a lion because of his disobedience. I said, „Okay, now, son, the day you tell me why God tells this guy to go one route, come back another route, and not to eat anything—“ is the day I will tell you why I’m asking you to do this. And to this day, and he is 38 years old, preaching at our home church in Franklin, Tennessee, this morning, to this day, he still can’t tell me why!
I can’t even tell you why! God tells Abraham, „Go, offer your son,“ and He doesn’t even give him Genesis to read. I mean, God doesn’t say, „You go offer your son, then I’ll send My son.“ He doesn’t say that! He just says, „Go offer him!“ So, God gives him a three-day journey. Three days! The thing is a little easier when you heard the voice of God the night before, but what about two and a half days later when you haven’t heard a word from Heaven? You’re looking at the mountain you’re going to offer the most important person or thing to death in your life just because God said to do it and didn’t even give you a reason.
So, Abraham’s building this altar, right? And 13-year-old Isaac asks, „Dad, where’s the offering?“ „Dad? Oh yeah, right!“ What are you supposed to say to your 13-year-old son? „Uh, God will provide.“ Just let’s keep building! Okay? We know what happens. He’s ready. He’s ready to thrust the knife, and the angel appears and says, „Abraham, stop, because now I know you fear God.“ How does the angel know Abraham feared God? Because he obeyed God instantly.
He obeyed God when it didn’t make sense. He obeyed God when it hurt. He obeyed God when he didn’t see a benefit, and he obeyed God to completion. Did you hear that? He obeyed God to completion! So now he puts down the knife, and this angel—and God now comes. I believe it was—I don’t want to go there, but God now comes, okay? And God says, „Abraham, by Myself I have sworn,“ says the Lord, „because you have done this thing, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you, and your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies.“ Whoa!
I know I could go to the gates of the enemy, but I’m not going to talk about that. „Blessing I will bless you.“ I’m sitting there, and I’ve read this for years, and finally, one day, I said, „I’ve got to talk to our Jewish rabbi. Our family has a rabbi.“ Yeah, he lives in California; we love the guy; he’s great! So anyway, I go to Rabbi Brian and say, „Rabbi, I’ve read this for years. I’m missing something! What does 'blessing I will bless you' mean?“ He writes back, and this is what he said: „In Jewish understanding, when you have a double reference like this, it’s all about multiplying. Because one verb tense is present and the other verb tense is future tense, it is described as one blessing on Father Abraham, but God is promising that there will be a blessing on his descendants.“
In other words—now this is the part I want you to see—in blessing you, Abraham, I will continue to bless you through your descendants, through your children. Let me give you a natural example of this. There is a man named Archie Manning. Archie Manning was the starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints for 10 years. He was back in the days of Terry Bradshaw. Archie was very much unlike Terry Bradshaw, who won four Super Bowls. Archie had one 500 season, and all nine other seasons were losing records. Archie retires from the NFL, and we would have totally forgotten him by now, but Archie has these two sons: one’s named Payton, and the other one is named Eli. Those two boys won four Super Bowls; they were MVPs in Super Bowls and the league a few times.
When Archie walks into a room now, he gets a lot of respect! If it wasn’t for Payton and Eli, he would have walked into the room, and people would have said, „Who’s that?“ „He’s Archie Manning.“ „Well, who’s R. Manning?“ „He played for New Orleans.“ „I’ve never heard of him!“ Let me tell you something—now they know him, not because of him, but because of Payton and Eli! „So, I’m blessed!“
Are you seeing this? „I will continue to bless you through your descendants.“ Think about Father Abraham. He walks into a room in heaven and goes, „There’s my boy Joseph; there’s my boy David; there’s my boy Daniel; there’s my boy Jesus!“ Now don’t get me wrong; he’s not going to do that—"Oh, there’s Jesus!» Okay, wow, I’m on my face, there’s Jesus! Okay? You understand? God is still blessing him through his descendants. He’s long-remembered. Archie Manning is long-remembered.
Psalm 31:19: «Oh, how great is the goodness You have stored up for those who fear You! You lavish it on those who trust in You, blessing them before a watching world.» I hope Jonathan Edwards' and Max Jukes' testimonies, and all the other ones I gave you, will show you what happens when you fear the Lord and obey all of His commandments.
I want every head bowed and every eye closed. Heavenly Father, I thank You so very much. Thank You, and I’m also speaking to our two campuses. Please bow your heads. Father, I thank You for what You’ve given us. Thank You, Lord God. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, the person who fears God is the one who says, «I’m going to have an authentic relationship with Him.»
I’m so sorry and sad to hear that we’ve lost sight of this in the American church. Just yesterday, a new survey came out from Barna: 53% of evangelical Christians don’t believe that Jesus lived a sinless life! 53%! I don’t want to be a leader that misleads you. There are many people that have prayed the sinner’s prayer, and I question whether they really have an authentic relationship with Jesus. My Bible says that Jesus is the groom and we are the bride, and that a marriage between a man and a woman, as described in Ephesians 5, illustrates the relationship we have with Christ.
If you look at a groom—a young man proposing to a girl—when a bride walks down the aisle of a church on her wedding day, she’s actually making a pretty strong statement. She’s saying goodbye to 3.9 billion guys. She’s saying, «This is the one and only man I’m giving my entire heart and my entire life to—no one else!» It doesn’t make her perfect the first day, the first week, the first year, or even the first 50 years. It just means my entire heart is His!
You can have somebody pray the sinner’s prayer, and they still have a bunch of lovers in their life. They still like sleeping with their girlfriend more than they love Jesus. They still like their worldly television programs, entertaining themselves with the things that drove the nails through His hands. They still like that! And say, «No, I’m not going to give that up! I’ve got grace!» You’ve been lied to! You made a covenant like that bride makes a covenant.
«I will not love what You hate. I will not even dislike what You hate; I will hate what You hate and love what You love.» That is how a person comes to know Jesus intimately! No groom has ever accepted a counterproposal of, «Let me sleep with my old boyfriends a couple of nights a year. You will be my favorite. I will love You the most. I’m so excited to be married to you, but these guys are a part of my life.» No! She makes a decision: «No more! All old boyfriends are gone!»
That’s a simple word right there. What I just illustrated to you is a simple word in the Bible called repentance. Repentance got made religious, and so we disconnected from it. Repentance is simply what that girl does the moment she says yes. She says, «Okay, old boyfriends? No more chances! I made my decision!»
When she walks down that aisle, she’s saying to all boyfriends, «No more chances! I made my decision; my heart’s totally His!» You see, there’s not genuine faith until there’s repentance. Because if you look at the foundation of the church, the Bible says the first foundation is repentance from dead works. The next foundation is faith in God.
In other words, your faith is counterfeit if there has not been repentance. This is why the fear of the Lord is so important. The Bible says this message is sent to you Jews and to all those who fear the Lord, as many as the Lord our God calls. See that holy fear right there? That’s the first step of your relationship with God. Okay?
I’m not going to enter into a compromised relationship where I still have other lovers—the things that drove the nails into Jesus’s hands and feet. I’m not going to flirt with them anymore. I’m not going to have them in my heart anymore. I’m all His! We still live in a world; you can still watch a hockey game and not be in love where you love the hockey more than you love Jesus. See, this is not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about my heart being fully His, and if it comes up that I can compromise His word or obey, I’m choosing to obey because I love Him more than I love anything I can gain by compromising His word.
That is a real relationship with Jesus! Some of you in here, you don’t have that. You haven’t made that step that that girl makes when she’s proposed to by her guy she’s been dating for a few years. I want to give you a chance to do that. If you’ve never done that before, I want to give you a chance this morning. At all of our campuses, if you say, «John, truth be told, I’ve prayed a sinner’s prayer. Yes, I’ve done that, but I’ve never made that firm decision to embrace the fear of the Lord, to say, 'Jesus, I am Yours, and fully Yours.' I may miss it, yes, after I get saved, and I probably will, but You’ll forgive me, but I’m making the choice! I’m not seeking to disobey you! I’m not going to compromise on purpose.» If that’s you and you’d say, «I’m ready to make that decision this morning,» I want you to raise your hand at all campuses. I want to just pray for you this morning.
Put up your hand really high! All over this place! Okay, hands are going up! I see the hands going up! All right, I want you to do this: I want you to stand to your feet; if that’s you, stand up quickly—quickly! No bride has ever been ashamed of her groom!
Now, if you’d say, «John, I’m going to be really honest with you. I genuinely am saved; I know I’m saved, but I lack the fear of God. I lack it, and I want the fear of the Lord in my life. I want to make the decision that I’m going to always obey His commands.» I want you to stand up with these people. Stand up quickly, very quickly. I’m so proud of you! I know people are standing all over our other two campuses. Is there anyone else? I want to make sure that you really, really take time to search your heart. Anyone else?
Now, if you’re sitting there and you say, «John, I want a fresh baptism of the holy fear of God in my life!» You know Jesus loved; He delighted in the fear of the Lord! Isaiah 11:3 tells us He had the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge, the Spirit of understanding, and He had the Spirit of the fear of the Lord, and His delight was in the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. It is actually called God’s treasure in Isaiah 33:6.
If you say, «John, I want a fresh baptism of that holy fear of God!» Stand up with these people. Say, «I need a fresh baptism.» Now, not everybody needs to stand, but if you say, «God, I need that fresh baptism,» I want you to lift up your hands all over this place, and I’m going to lead all three groups in a prayer.
I want you to just say this out loud, and people that are sitting, would you pray with them? I realize there are people sitting and saying, «I don’t want a relationship with Jesus. I don’t want the fear of the Lord; I don’t want any of that.» I realize that, and God respects your right to choose, and He will protect your right to choose and protect your right to be separated from Him for eternity.
If you’re sitting and say, «Really, I don’t want this. I don’t want to coerce or persuade you against your own will.» Please stay seated; stand back down if you feel like I’ve done that. With your hands lifted up now, I want you all to pray this prayer. Just say this to me:
«Lord God, forgive me for living life my way, apart from You, my Creator. But today, June 22nd, that’s all changing. On this day, I give You my spirit, soul, and body—everything I am, everything I have. Just the way a bride gives herself completely to her groom, I give my life to You. You are now my Lord and my King—Lord, my bridegroom! Thank You for welcoming me, for receiving me into Your family.
I am asking You today that You would wash me clean from sin—cleanse me in Your sight. It’s not based on my righteousness— not based on my good works—but on Your gift of grace that I stand before You clean, pure, holy.
And now, Lord God, I ask You: baptize me in the holy fear of God. I want to delight in it the way Jesus delights in it! Let the thousand generations of Your mercy begin with me. May Your covenant promises made to those who fear You begin right now. In Jesus' mighty name!»
Now give Him praise for what He’s done! Amen, amen, and amen! You can be seated. I just want to say this: I preached one chapter out of this book, and there are 42 chapters. I did not really cover so the book is called «The Awe of God,» and what I did is I preached one of the 40 promises that are made to those who have the healthy fear of God.
We have taken many of these promises and applied them to any Christian, just like Lot—somebody who’s «quote» righteous, yes, absolutely righteous but doesn’t fear God. These 40 promises are made to only those who fear God. It’s not based on your works; we are saved by grace and only by grace, not of our works lest any man should boast! But when we walk in the healthy—it’s not a «but"—when we walk in the healthy fear of God and realize that grace is given to me not only to save me from what I couldn’t save myself from, but it’s given to me to empower me to do what I couldn’t do before.
This is explained in this book—how the Scripture teaches that I couldn’t obey God before I was saved! The law proved it! After I got saved, grace empowered me to obey God! When people find that out, they realize, «Oh wow!» See, we have taught saving grace so well in the church—what we haven’t taught is empowering grace. God said to Paul, «My grace is sufficient for you, for My power—which is His grace—works best in your weakness.» That’s your human inability! What I couldn’t do in my own ability, grace now empowers me to do!
So, just as you have to have faith to receive saving grace, you have to have faith to receive empowering grace, and that’s what this will do. That’s what this will do! Amen! Frustrated is the man and woman who don’t know that they’ve been empowered to obey God. They’re trying to do it on their own! Amen? Are you seeing this?