The Fear of the Lord

I want you to open your Bibles with me this morning, please, to James the fourth chapter.

James chapter four.

And while you're turning over there, I want to say good morning to my dear, dear friends, James and Betty Robison.

Hello to both of you.

We love you.

Don't you appreciate their ministry of the body of Christ?

Come on.

I mean, let's really thank them for what they're doing.

Amen.

So many lives being touched.

I'm all over the world.

Australia, we have an office there with four employees and our Australia offices.

Oh, we love James and Betty Robinson so much.

And you are really touching the world.

And Lisa and I, we love you guys so much.

Thank God for your lives.

Amen.

I'm looking forward to being with you a week from Tuesday.

All right, James, the fourth chapter.

Are you there?

Okay, how about the rest of you?

Are you there yet?

Now, let me say this.

I have been in the ministry 21 years of my life.

I got saved in my college fraternity.

And I can honestly say this.

In the last two years of my life, I have never been so hungry for the presence of the Lord as I have been in the last two years of my life.

And even more than the presence of the Lord, let me say this, to be intimate with Him.

You say, is there a difference?

Oh, yes, absolutely.

I can show you people that have been married 40 years, sleep in the same bed, eat the same meals together, and yet they don't know each other.

They've been in each other's presence for 40 years, but they don't know each other.

You understand what I'm saying?

I have never wept as much as I have wept in the last two years of my life.

In my car, in airplanes, in my office, in hotel rooms, in my bedroom, because of the presence of the Lord and him whispering things into my heart that I've never heard before.

I have literally learned in the last two years that it is better to be quiet than it is to speak in prayer, because prayer is not a one-way conversation.

It is a two-way conversation.

Can you say amen?

Now, James 4.8 has literally become the I would say this scripture is my life scripture and it will be the rest of my life.

And James says here, just a very simple statement, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Now I want you to say it with me this morning.

I'll say it and then you repeat it.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Now let me ask you something.

Who draws first?

I heard about ten of you.

We do, right?

There's something we can do, we can initiate, that will literally cause the one who created the universe to come near me.

Now, what the Spirit of God is saying here through James the Apostle is this in a nutshell.

You are the one that determines the level of your relationship with God, not God.

Okay, half of you didn't get that, okay?

I'm gonna make sure you get it.

You are the one that determines the level of your relationship with God, not God.

Are you with me?

Some people think that there are some ministers that were born with a star over their crib, okay?

No, it's because those ministers decided to draw near.

And I'm gonna tell you the truth.

Some of the people that have some of the most intimate walks with God that I know you'll never see in a pulpit.

Are you with me?

God has made this invitation available to every single one of us.

Now, if you look at verse 5, you will see that he says here, or do you think that the scripture says in vain, the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?

Everybody say yearns.

Now to yearn means to long for intensely.

Now, when I think of him longing for me intensely, I think about what David said in Psalm 139.

David said, Lord, if I was to consider the thoughts that you have about me personally, not somebody else, me personally.

He said, if I were able to number those thoughts, they would outnumber every grain of sand that's on this planet.

Now, I want you to think about every single grain of sand that's on this planet.

Every beach, every desert, every golf course.

All right?

That's a lot of sand.

Are you with me?

Now, how many of you know you think a lot about the person that you want to be with?

When I think about how many times I've had thoughts about Lisa over the last 21 years, I've had a lot of thoughts, okay?

Because I think about her a lot.

But if I was to add up all the thoughts that I've had Lisa in all 21 years, I don't think I'd get a sandbox full, and I think I'm doing better than most.

Are you with me?

Yet God says, my thoughts that I have about you personally outnumber every grain of sand that's on this planet.

I mean, that's mind-blowing, folks.

Are you with me?

That's how much he yearns for you.

Now, when I think about drawing near, everybody say drawing near.

There are two scriptures that immediately come to mind.

The first scripture, and you can write this down and you can look it up later, is found in Psalm 89, verse 7.

Psalms 89:7

Psalm 89, verse 7 says this God is to be greatly feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around him.

Psalms 89:7

Now I want you to hear the second part of this verse again.

God is to be held in reverence by all those around him.

Listen carefully, you will never find God in an atmosphere where he is not held in the utmost of respect and reverence.

Are you with me?

I'll never forget when I first learned this was when I was asked of the nation of Brazil.

Back in 1996, I was asked of the nation of Brazil to do a national conference.

It was the first time I was in the nation, and they did this kind of interestingly.

Instead of having the people travel, they had the ministers travel.

They had three preachers, Bensonita Host and myself, and one other.

And what we did is we went to the three largest cities in the nation, Brasilia, Sampalo, and Rio de Janeiro.

My first city was Brasilia.

And I will never forget flying down, praying all afternoon, and I was really prepared for the service that night.

They were driving me to this auditorium, and I remember blocks and blocks away from the auditorium, there was nothing but cars parked everywhere.

And when you got into this massive parking lot and this huge auditorium, I mean, every parking spot was taken.

We get out of the car, and I remember I could hear the praise and worship coming from inside this massive auditorium because down in Brazil, what they do is their top wall has a separation from the ceiling of about five, six feet, so you can get air ventilation through these massive auditoriums.

Are you with me?

And so you can hear the praise and worship coming from inside.

And how many of you know Latinos are good?

I mean, they can play.

You understand?

So they whisk me into this building and they bring me right up to the platform.

Now, I cannot understand a lick of English, uh lick of what they're saying because they're singing in Portuguese, but I can tell these guys are good.

These are the national guys, you understand?

And so I'm on the platform, the praise and worship sounds great, and there isn't an ounce of the presence of God in the entire place.

Now, how many of you know that there are two kinds of the presence of God the Bible speaks of?

The first one is his omnipresence.

That is the presence of God that David said, if I make my bed in hell, you're there.

If I'm in the highest mountain, you're there.

That's the presence of the Lord where he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Correct?

The other presence of God is the manifest presence of God, which Jesus speaks about in John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

That is when God comes from the unseen into the seen, the unknown into the known.

That is when he reveals himself to our mind and our senses, where we can actually sense him.

Are you with me?

That presence is the presence I'm talking about.

There wasn't a drop of presence of God in that auditorium, even though the present worship was amazing.

And so I asked the Lord, I said, Lord, I don't understand.

Where is your presence?

How come?

This is a believer's meeting.

There are thousands of people in here.

The place is jam-packed, the musicians are good in the natural.

You'd think there would be a strong presence of God.

But there was nothing.

And all of a sudden, God opened up my eyes, and this is what I started seeing.

I saw people standing there during the worship, and they were sitting there like this, their arms crossed, kind of looking around at the ceiling.

Others of them had their hands in their pocket, looking down at the floor.

Others of them were just sitting there with their hands leaning against the chair in front of them, just kind of looking straight ahead.

Others of them were whispering to one another.

I'm watching people walking in and out, getting concessions.

And I think, what are they doing?

So this goes on through the praise and then the worship.

And then it continues even when the leader came up and began to read down the scriptures.

I can still hear people whispering to each other.

Here's the person reading down the scriptures.

Nobody's got their Bible open.

They're just kind of sitting there with their hands in their seat and just looking up and around.

And now, I'm going to be very honest with you, I started getting angry.

All right?

To be really blunt, I start getting Texas spitting mad.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Okay?

Now, I'd never been to this nation before, and when they finally introduced me, I'll never forget walking up to the platform and I didn't do anything.

I didn't say a word.

I just sat there with my elbow on the platform and just leaned on it and just looked at him.

Now, how many of you know when he gets quiet for about 45, 50 seconds and there's no activity at all, everybody starts looking up and thinking, what happened?

The show stopped.

Do you understand what I'm talking about?

And so when I realized after about 45 seconds, every single eye of these thousands of people were on me, I looked at him and I said, I didn't say hello, nice to be here.

I said, I have two questions for you.

First of all, you are speaking to a person sitting across the table, and they have their hands sitting there like this, and they're looking around at the ceiling and not giving you any attention.

Or they're whispering to somebody sitting next to them, would you continue to speak to them?

And they all said, No.

I said, Well, what if you went over to somebody's house and you knocked on their door, and every time you knocked on the door, they open up the door and they go, Oh, it's you again.

Come on in.

Would you continue to go?

And they said, No.

I said, I have been in this building for two hours and I have not sensed one ounce of God's presence.

I asked him, and the reason is, is because God will never manifest in an atmosphere where he is not held in the utmost of respect.

I said, if your prime minister would have walked up to this pulpit tonight, you would have given him ten times more respect than you did the Spirit of God.

I said, if Pele, your greatest soccer player, would have came into this platform tonight, you would have been on the edge of your seats anticipating every word.

I said, God has gotten no respect in this place in the last two hours.

And for the next two hours and for the next hour and 15 minutes, I preached to them on the fear of the Lord.

When I was finished, I said to those people, I said, every person in this place, you are a believer, you have confessed Jesus as your Lord, but you lacked the fear of God.

Stand to your feet right now.

I will never forget this.

75% of that auditorium stood to their feet.

75% of these thousands of people.

Now, this is what was amazing.

As soon as they stood, the presence of God came into the building.

We didn't even pray.

People were weeping all over the auditorium.

It lasted two, three, four minutes, actually, four or five minutes.

And it lifted.

And the Holy Spirit whispered to me, He said, Now I want you to lead him in a prayer of repentance.

I led him in a prayer of repentance.

Another wave, even stronger, came in, and now I am looking at people just bowed over, tears coming down, what I can see of the people in the front, hearing sobs and weeping all over the building.

It was beautiful.

It lasted about four or five minutes.

Again, it lifted.

Then the Lord spoke to me and he said, Son, I'm coming one more time.

And I'll never forget this.

There's no way I can do this justice, but I'll try.

The only way I can describe to you what happened was as you're standing at the end of a runway and a jet is getting ready to take off right in front of you.

That kind of a sound of a rushing mighty wind came into that auditorium.

When it did, I froze.

The people started screaming.

I mean, now can you imagine an auditorium with thousands of people and people are screaming, but yet the wind was louder than all of them scream screaming.

I f the this went on for a minute and a half, and it eventually died out.

And I'll never forget it left in its wake, people just weeping, collapsed in their chairs all over the auditorium.

I'm standing in that pulpit, and I thought, John Bevere, you don't say one wrong word or you don't make one wrong move.

You don't do that in this atmosphere.

And there was nothing.

So I turned to the leader after about five minutes of silence and I said, It's all yours.

They walked me out of the building.

Yeah, isn't that a nice, nice thing to do?

They walked me out of the building, they put me into this car, and one of the national singers, they put her and her husband in the car, and she screams, she goes, Did you hear the wind?

I said, It wasn't a wind, it was an airplane.

Because I didn't want to be the first one to say it.

And she now she's mad at me, okay?

She looks at me, I'll never forget her eyes.

She said, What are you talking about?

She said, I saw fire all around the building.

I said, and I'm just stunned at what she's saying.

And her husband goes, Sir, that wasn't an airplane.

I said, Well, how do you know?

He said, Well, sir, he said there were policemen and security men all around the outside of the building.

And he said, Most of them aren't even saved.

And he said, When the wind began to blow, they all were reporting and sending messages in.

What is the sound of the wind that's coming from the inside of the building?

He said, Furthermore, I was at the soundboard because my wife is the singer and I had her tracks back there.

He said, John, I looked at the decimal beaters and they were completely at zero.

Not one ounce of the sound of the wind came through the sound system.

I said, My God, take me to my hotel room.

Just three weeks ago, I had another email from a guy who was at the soundboard in broken English saying, I was there, it all happened, it all happened.

God will never manifest in a place where he's not held in the utmost of respect.

Are you with me?

I have learned how to come into the presence of God so much easier in my own personal prayer closet in the last year.

What I started doing is walking out in my prayer closet and just I wouldn't even pray, I wouldn't sing, I wouldn't do anything, I would just start meditating on the awesomeness of my Father.

And all of a sudden, wham, there's his presence.

And so one day I was baffled because I used to have to struggle sometimes to get in the presence of God.

You understand what I'm saying?

And one morning I was baffled.

I said, Lord, I don't get this.

How come now it is so easy to come into your presence?

And the Holy Spirit said to me, He said, What did Jesus teach his disciples?

And I started, when he taught him to pray, and I started reciting the Lord's Prayer, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

And I went, There it is.

Hallowed be thy name.

Jesus, you taught your disciples the only way to come into the presence of God is through reverence.

Are you seeing this?

Now go with me to Leviticus, the 10th chapter.

I want to show you something.

Leviticus the 10th chapter, please.

Now in Leviticus chapter 10, we're gonna read from verse 1.

Leviticus 10 · chapter mention

We read Nadab and Abahu.

Now I still hear pages turning, hopefully you'll get there quickly.

But I'm gonna go ahead and read.

Nadab and Abahu.

How would you like it if you were named that, huh?

Nadab and Abuhu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censor and put fire in it and put incense on it and offered profane fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.

Now everybody say profane fire.

Come on, everybody say profane fire.

Now, some of your translations say unauthorized, some say strange, some say unholy, correct?

But I'm preaching this morning.

So we're going with mine.

Alright?

Profane.

Everybody say profane.

Now, before I explain this word profane, let me explain this to you.

At this time, there were only six people on the planet that were authorized to come into the presence of God.

Okay?

Moses, Aaron, and his four sons.

Nadab, Abahu, Eliezer, and Ithamar.

Nadab and Abuhu are his two oldest sons, and they are authorized to come into the presence of God.

But when they come, they bring profane fire.

Now, let me let me explain to you what the word profane means.

I hope you're taking notes.

The word profane means this: to treat what is sacred as common.

Did you get that?

To treat what is holy as ordinary.

Webster's gives it a one-word definition, and the one-word definition it gives is irreverence.

So here you have two men that are authorized to come into the presence of God, but they come in with irreverence.

Now, how many of you know every person that's born again today is authorized to come into the presence of God?

Right?

Hebrews says we can come with confidence, right?

Nadab could come with confidence, but they come with irreverence.

Everybody say irreverence.

Watch what happens.

Verse 2.

So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

Now, this is the kind of dead where you bury them six feet under the ground.

Are you with me?

Verse 3.

And Moses, who is Uncle Moses, says to Daddy Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke, saying.

Now look up at me before we read this.

What we're about to read is a universal and eternal decree.

Everybody say universal and eternal.

What does that mean?

Universal means it applies to every being in the universe.

Eternal means it's always been this way and it's always going to be this way.

Never going to change.

Got it?

Let's see what it is.

God says, by those who come near me, everybody say near me.

Everybody say, draw near to God.

Alright?

Now watch what he says.

By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy.

And before all the people, I must be glorified.

God says, You cannot come into my presence with irreverence.

I must be treated with the utmost of respect and fear and reverence.

Can you say amen?

Now somebody says, Well, that's the Old Testament, John.

We're in the New Testament.

Well, let me tell you about another couple in the New Testament.

This couple named Ananias and Sapphira.

They bring some money and they want everybody to think that they are giving everything that they sold their plot of land for.

But it's way too much money to give, so they say, this is everything we got, but they held some of it back.

So in other words, they were more concerned about impressing people than they were God.

You understand what I'm saying?

Let me say this: you will serve who you fear.

If you fear God, you will serve and obey him.

If you fear man, you'll eventually and ultimately serve and obey man.

Ananias and Sapphire, bring the money, leave it at Peter's feet.

And Peter said, Why have you lied to the Spirit of God?

And they fell over dead.

When they did, the Bible says, great fear came upon the entire church.

Not the city, the church.

Because why?

It takes the love of God and the fear of God to keep us on the road of life.

Everybody say the love of God and the fear of God.

How many of you know there's two ditches on every side of a road?

Right?

Well, the path of life is a narrow road and it's got two ditches.

First ditch is called legalism.

Are you with me?

Legalism, we were bound to.

We were all more into what we were dressed like and how our hair was.

How many of you know a woman can have her hair up in a bun and dress down her ankles and still have a seducing spirit up to their eyeballs?

Are you with me?

Legal uh holiness is nothing about the what you dress, it's all about being his.

Are you with me?

And so God gave a revelation to one man in particular, and his name was Orl Roberts, and God, and the revelation was God is a good God.

And how many of you know when we discovered the love of God, we got out of that ditch of legalism, right?

But you know what we did?

We said, I went so far away from that legalistic ditch I never fallen into it again.

We went to the other side of the road and fell into the other ditch.

And the other ditch is called lawlessness or lasciviousness, an excessive fleshly, worldly lifestyle.

And God's given us another force that keeps us out of that ditch, and it's called the fear of God.

Are you with me?

Now, let's talk about the fear of God.

The fear of God does not mean to be scared of God.

The fear of God means you're scared to be away from Him.

The person who fears God does not fear or is scared of His presence.

Rather, he is a person that says, I want so far away from the line of sin and disobedience in the world you can't even see it.

Are you with me?

So to fear God means you tremble at not only his presence, but you tremble at his word.

Everybody hates say his word.

So you love what he loves and you hate what he hates.

What is important to him is important to you.

What is not so important to him is not so important to you.

How many of you know there are weightier matters of the scripture?

Right?

So what's weightier to him is weightier to you.

What he emphasizes, you emphasize.

What he doesn't emphasize, you don't emphasize.

Are you with me?

To fear God means you will obey whether you understand or not.

Are you still here?

To fear God means you'll obey whether you see the benefit or not.

See, we've done a terrible disservice in the body of Christ.

We have developed disciples, trained disciples in the Church of America that will only obey God if they see the benefit of it.

If you pray, God will do this.

If you give, God will do this.

If you obey, God will do this.

Well, will He do that?

Absolutely.

But should that be our motive for doing it?

No.

What if Esther would have bought that theology?

She had nothing to gain by going before the king and everything to lose, including her head.

But she chose to obey because she feared God.

Now turn with me to Psalms 25.

I want to show you something quickly here.

Psalm 25.

Are you getting something out of this this morning?

Alright, Psalm 25.

You're just good listeners here, I can tell.

Psalm 25.

Say amen if you're there.

Verse 14 says the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him.

Look up to me, please.

Now I'm not gonna change it.

I'm gonna say it like this.

The secrets of the Lord are with those who fear him.

Let me ask a question.

How many of you have secrets?

Can you put your hands up, please, if you got secrets?

Okay, do I pray for the rest of you for lying?

How many of you have secrets?

Put up your hands.

Everybody's got secrets.

There's good secrets, right?

Now, let me ask you this question Who do you share the secrets of your life with?

Acquaintances or Intimate friends.

Intimate friends, right?

You don't share it with acquaintances.

Right?

God's no different.

God says this.

I share the secrets of my heart with those who are my intimate friends, and those are the ones who love me or who fear me.

See, let me read to you Psalm 25, verse 14.

Psalms 25:14

Let me quote it to you out of the New Living Translation.

Does anybody in here have a New Living Translation?

NLT?

Nobody?

Anybody got an NLT here this morning?

New Living Translation?

You got one.

Where, where, where?

Okay.

You got a real loud projecting voice?

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You ready?

It says, friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him.

You gotta say so, everybody in here, yes or no?

Alright?

Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him.

Now look up at me.

Everybody is not God's friend.

Now let me get even more specific.

Everybody in the church is not God's friend.

Thank you for those three.

That's right.

God says, my friendship is reserved for those who fear me, or those who tremble at my word and instantly obey my commands and reverence my presence.

There are two people in the Old Testament that are called the friends of God.

Were there others?

Absolutely, but I believe these two men's lives exemplify what it means to have friendship with God.

First guy's name was Abraham.

Everybody say Abraham.

Now, look up at me.

Why is Abraham the friend of God?

Well, God, when Abraham is well old in age and he's been given a promise, Isaac, and he's waited for Isaac for 25 years, and he's really in love with Isaac, and there's no one or nothing more important to him in his life.

God comes to Abraham one night and says, Abraham, I want you to go and offer up Isaac as a sacrifice, put him to death.

Now that's all God says.

He doesn't say, Abraham, I want you to offer up Isaac because if you do, you're going to secure the covenant and I'm going to send my son.

He doesn't say that.

He just says, Hey, go kill him.

Are you with me?

Now, you know what my Bible says?

Early the next morning, the NIV translation, Abraham starts the journey.

And you know how many people will say this?

Well, you know, the Lord's been dealing with me about this and that for several months.

Ha?

Ha! Ha!

No fear of God.

They don't tremble at his word.

Sure is quiet in this Presbyterian church.

Are you still here?

Why does Abraham go?

He fears God.

Now, God gives him three days.

Why does God give him three days?

Because he wants to give him three days to think it over in case he wants to turn back.

I mean, it's really easy when you hear the booming voice of God the night before.

What about two and a half days later, when you haven't heard one Pete from heaven, and you're looking at the mountain, where you're going to put to death the most important person in your life?

Just because God said, do it.

But Abraham goes to the top, he builds the altar, ties up Isaac, lifts up the knife, and suddenly the angel of the Lord says this stop, Abraham, and hear what the angel says.

Because now I know you fear God.

How did the angel know that Abraham feared God?

Because he trembled at his word.

He instantly obeyed, even when he didn't understand, and even when it hurt.

Now listen, watch this carefully.

Abraham puts down the knife, lifts up his eyes, and he sees a ram caught in the thicket.

And out of his spirit comes this Jehovah Jairah! Right?

The Lord who provides, right?

Now listen to me.

God revealed a facet of his personality that nobody had ever known before.

Because Abraham's his friend.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Some people are getting this, but some of you aren't.

Okay, look.

All of you this morning now know me as John Bevere preacher, right?

Correct?

Some of you know me as John Bevere author, correct?

But there is a lady.

Her name's Lisa.

She knows me as lover, friend, daddy, husband.

Are you following me?

Sportsman, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

See, let me make this really clear.

None of you will ever know me as lover.

You got it?

But that girl knows me under the sheets.

She's my intimate friend.

She knows facets of my personality, nobody else knows.

God had just revealed a facet of his personality that nobody had ever known him as before.

Why?

Because Abraham's my intimate friend.

Are you seeing this?

Now God sits there and goes, now this is really cool.

The Lord goes, he says, you know, do we do to Sodom and Gomorrah what we're thinking about doing without first talking to our friend Abraham about this?

Right?

Are you remembering this?

And so the Lord comes down, he has a chat with Abe.

He says, Hey, babe, you know, we think about blowing these cities up.

What do you think?

And Abe goes, Ha! My nephew's over there, Lot.

So Abe goes, okay, God, you wouldn't blow them up if there was 50 righteous, right?

And the Lord goes, good idea, I guess I won't.

Abe goes, a 350.

Okay, you wouldn't do it if it was 45, right?

And God goes, I guess I won't.

How about 40?

And he talks them all the way down to 10.

Because Abraham finally thinks there's gotta be at least 10 righteous guys over there.

I mean, Lot's one of them.

We only got nine more to get.

But there isn't.

There isn't.

Everybody said there isn't.

So you know what?

Here's Sodom and Gomorrah.

They're prospering, they're buying, they're selling, they're trading, they're marrying, they're giving in marriage.

I mean, man, they got a booming economy.

Things are going great.

And they're thinking, if there is a God, he certainly doesn't mind the way we're living.

Correct?

Correct?

Now, they don't know that they are 24 hours away from being annihilated.

They don't have a clue.

That is not what's scary.

This is what's scary.

Lot, everybody say Lot, who the Bible calls a righteous man, is 24 hours away from being annihilated, and he doesn't have a clue either.

He is a worldly believer.

He doesn't fear God.

He doesn't know the secrets like Abraham does.

Are you with me?

God has to send two messengers of mercy, two angels, to warn Lot.

And Lot's wife's just a little too attached.

That's why Jesus says, remember Lot's wife in the New Testament.

Are you getting this?

Abraham is the friend of God.

He shares his secrets.

See, this is why Noah knows a hundred years before God even does what he does on the earth what's going to happen.

A secret was kept between he and God for a hundred years.

Look at what the Bible says about Moses.

Moses is the other man that talks to God face to face like a friend.

The Bible says this about Moses in the book of Psalms.

Listen carefully.

The Bible says that the children of Israel knew God's acts, but Moses knew his ways.

Everybody say, knew his acts.

Now, let me bring this into our vernacular, okay?

Let me tell you what this is saying.

This is saying the children of Israel knew God by how he answered their prayers.

Do you know how many people there are, believers there are in America, that their relationship with God is limited to how he's answered their prayers?

I mean, we had a need in our family, we prayed, and God met it.

I had a sickness in my body, I prayed, and God healed my body.

Are you following me?

My daughter had a need, we prayed, and God answered the prayer.

That's their relationship with God.

They know him by his acts.

But Moses knew what God was going to do many times before he even did it.

Because God would talk it over with him because he shared his secrets with him.

In fact, Moses changed God's mind twice when he was angry.

Are you with me?

Now go with me, please.

Over to John's Gospel, the 15th chapter.

John's Gospel, the 15th chapter.

And I'll wrap it up here.

John's Gospel, the 15th chapter.

Look what Jesus says.

If you're there, I still hear pages turning.

Look at verse 15.

Jesus says, No longer do I call you servants.

Now stop and look up at me.

Stop and look up at me.

This is no difficult thing to understand.

This is a simple lesson in English.

The very fact, now you've got to understand before I go on, he's speaking to the eleven.

Judas is already split, okay?

The very fact that he says to these 11 guys, no longer do I call you servants, means that at one point they were regarded as merely servants.

Are you with me?

Now, why does God do that?

Why is there a time period that He only regards us as servants?

I'll tell you why.

To protect us.

Let me give you an example.

This is a very, very, very weak example, but it works.

Back in 1990, when Lisa and I were launched into the ministry and we started our ministry, Lisa and I, I personally made a policy.

I said, you know, I've been working for a ministry with a staff of 400, another ministry worked with a staff of 150, so I had my own ideas of how I'm going to run my staff.

Okay, Robert?

And my ideas was this.

I said, I'm gonna be the best friend to all my employees.

I'm gonna be their buddy.

Well, the first guy I hired, I was his best buddy for about a year.

We watched a movie together, we'd have Thanksgiving together.

He was always over at my house, and it was great for a year until I had to bring some minor correction.

A year later, I brought a little minor correction, and I'll never forget, he looked back across the desk and just railed on me.

And I was like, whoo! And the Holy Spirit immediately said, You gotta fire him.

So I immediately said, I'm just gonna have to let you go.

And I remember when he left, I cried like a baby because I loved the guy so much.

And the Holy Spirit spoke to me.

He said, John, he'll be back.

Three months later, I get a phone call.

He said, John, God has never spoken to me like he's spoken to me in the last three months.

I became too familiar with you and Lisa.

I treated you like ordinary people.

I lost sight of the place God had put you in my life and the place he had placed me in your life.

I became too familiar with your kids, with your family, on and on, and right down through the list.

I said, You're hired.

And he came back and I never had another problem.

Want to know why?

He understood his place and my place.

God says, I'm gonna regard you as just a servant until you fear me.

Why?

Because I don't take joy in Ananias' and Sapphira's.

Are you with me?

Now let me tell you my policy now with my employees.

I will keep them at an employee level until I know that they know in their heart who God has made me in their life and who they are in my life.

You understand what I'm saying?

Once I know they're very firm in that, I open up my heart and they become my friends.

Because listen, some of my dearest friends in the world are my employees, are a couple of my employees.

Are you with me?

Why?

Because they're very firm in who they are and who I am.

And God says, I'm gonna wait until you fear me, until you're very confident in who you are and who I am.

Because I don't like it when Ananias and Sapphira situations happen.

And I want to reveal my glory to you, but if I did, maybe some of you would fall over dead, and so that's why I'm holding back.

Are you with me?

So you gotta remember Ananias and Sapphira, New Testament.

Why aren't people falling over dead now?

Because you got to understand the glory, God's not come as close as he was back then.

Peter is just walking down streets and people are getting uphealed.

I mean, I don't know any pastor that's walking through hospitals emptying them yet.

Why?

Because God's saying, as much as I want to come near, as much as I yearn, I gotta hold it back because I don't want you falling over dead.

Are you seeing?

Can you imagine his father's heart beating for us?

But he says, I gotta wait until you know who I am and who you are.

Are you seeing this?

Say amen.

Now look at this.

Jesus said, No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master's doing.

Look at this.

But I have called you friends.

Why?

Now are they friends?

For all things that I heard from my Father, I've made known to you.

In other words, I'm showing you the secret ways of my Father, right?

Now look what he says in verse 14.

Are you ready for this?

He said, You are my friends.

Here's a general statement.

If.

Everybody say if.

No, no, everybody say if.

If is a condition.

The condition means if you don't fulfill this, you can't have that.

Correct?

Look what he says.

You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.

Friendship with Jesus is reserved for those who fear him.

He said, those who tremble at my word who do whatever I command, they're the ones that are my intimate friends.

Folks, I have such a burden for this nation.

Because we have so many large, large churches.

We have millions, billions of dollars in television, and videos, and books, and church buildings.

But yet, so many Americans today, their relationship with God is based on what he's done in their life by answered prayers.

They're not walking in intimacy, and that's the reason you were created.

God created you for one purpose to have intimacy with him.

You were put on this earth to have dominion.

That was your reason for being put on the earth.

But you were created to have intimacy with him.

And you'll never be fulfilled until you walk in it.

Can you say amen?

Bow your heads.

Father, in Jesus' name, I've preached what you've commanded me to preach, and I thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness.

And now, Lord God, in Jesus' name, draw men and women to your heart this morning.

Simple and quick question this morning I want to ask.

How many of you in this place this morning would say, you know, I am born again, but I find myself only obeying when it's convenient or it doesn't interfere with my schedule or my agenda?

I really do lack the fear of God, and I want it.

If that's you, raise your hands up high right now, all over this place.

Lift them up high.

Put them up high.

And I want those of you with your hands raised to stand to your feet immediately.

Immediately.

Now let me say this.

I'm looking at half the building standing, but there's more.

I know it.

Let me give you one more opportunity.

See, the Bible says today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.

I just preached to you about trembling at his word.

Instantly respond.

Some of you have not stood yet, and you know you should.

Let me give you another opportunity.

Yes, ma'am.

Anyone else, yes, ma'am.

Yes, sir, yes, sir.

Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, yes, sir, yes, ma'am, yes, sir.

Anyone else?

Yes, yes, sir.

I see you back there.

Anyone else?

Right?

Because of time limits, I want to just pray with you right where you're at, at your seats.

Just lift up your hands, right where you're standing, and pray this with me from the depths of your heart.

Now listen to draw near to God where you'd go.

You turn in because that's where the Holy Spirit is.

Pray this with me now.

Father in heaven, thank you so much for speaking to my heart today.

I realize that even though I've called Jesus my Lord, I've not trembled at your word.

I've really more lived my life many times for myself.

For this I ask your forgiveness.

What I ask for today is that you would baptize me, my life, with your holy fear.

I want to tremble at your word.

I want to honor your presence.

I want to draw near and be intimate with you for the rest of the days of my life here on this earth.

I commit everything to you, Jesus Christ, as my supreme Lord and Master.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now I want you to thank him right now.

Come on, let's thank him.

Come on, let's thank him.