7 Reasons You're Still a Baby Christian

Dallas Willard says grace delivers us from earning, not from effort. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. We have the ability to exercise self-control.

Why is it not happening?

Lack of effort.

Proverbs 25:28 says a person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls.

The city that could be easily destroyed by the enemy.

And that's the same thing for our spirit, because I see too many people that are quitting way too early. And why? It's because they lack the fear of God.

God makes this statement: my people are destroyed because they don't know me.

But I could just see someone— I don't want to be destroyed because of a lack of knowing God.

So if you're listening and your cry is to know God, his cry is to know you. Yeah. So the fear of the Lord is what, what gives you the ability to do the endurance that we just talked about.

We were talking about the other day. What did we say?

We said these are the 7 things. These are the 7 things that God never wants us to forget. Hey everyone, welcome to the John Bevere Podcast, and I'm so excited, Arden, to be able to be joined with you to have a great discussion about how the Word of God applies to us today, because we are in some crazy times right now. Yeah, but before— what?

Well, I was going to say, for the first time you weren't uncomfortable with saying the answer.

I know, I've gotten used to it, so I can say the John Bevere Podcast cast and not flinch anymore.

Exactly. Anyway, I didn't see you shudder or anything, so that's good.

So this is a part of the Messenger International family of podcasts, and the other one I do quite frequently, of course, is Conversations. That's when Lisa's on the set with me.

But this is the John Bevere podcast.

That's, that's right. Okay. And this one, we really want to talk about how truth applies to the ever-changing times today. As we've already said, And I just wanna remind everybody, man, if you could just rate, review, and even write something about what you're getting out of this broadcast, or maybe something you wanna see us talk about, it will help us to be able to really bring a more efficient, more powerful podcast to you, 'cause that's who we really wanna serve is you, the listener. Now, what we are doing, Arden, is we are walking through the book of 2 Peter. All the producers thought we were gonna be through it in 3 programs, all 3 chapters. We have gone through, I think, 4 or 5 programs and haven't even gotten out of chapter 1, and we're still in chapter 1. But this is what we're talking about today. Everybody listen up. What are the 7 things that God never wants you to forget?

I mean, that's important.

You got any ideas?

No, I don't. I mean, I do because it's in the notes, but I want to hear from you.

I mean, I wonder what everybody— we're sitting here with people, Artin, right now, and we'd say, what are the 7 things that God never wants you to forget? I mean, what kind of answers?

Well, I feel like you would hear like that God's forgiven you.

Yep. That's good.

That is great. Significant or sufficient for you.

Yeah.

And then that it would be like simple stuff like Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back. And that's not simple. Sorry, I don't want to say simple stuff, but it's things that a lot of us know, like we understand. But yeah, I think what we want to talk about today is things that you don't necessarily correlate to your walk with Christ in the progression that you go through it.

Yeah. So in other words, what's keeping you as a baby Christian?

Yeah.

What's keeping you from becoming more like Jesus Christ? Yeah.

What's holding you back? Because that is every Christian's desire should be that it's not, I got saved and then I'm good. Like they want to continue to keep pressing forward to the high call that's set before them. And ultimately, I think we can overcomplicate that. You said it, it's becoming more like Jesus.

Okay, so I'm gonna start where this question is answered, and that's verse 12, 13, and 14 of chapter 1 in 2 Peter, okay? Chapter 1, of course. Peter makes this statement, therefore I will always remind you about these things. So remember, what are the 7 things that God never wants you to forget? I will always remind you about these things, even though you already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught. Verse 13, and it is only right that I should, keep on reminding you of these things as long as I live. Verse 14: For the Lord Jesus has shown me that I must soon leave this earthly life, so I will— now listen to this— work hard to make sure you always remember these things after I'm gone. So I mean, I just think this is amazing, Arden. Yeah, okay, you better not forget it. Times— yeah, I'm gonna make sure you always remember these things. I'm gonna do everything in my power to ensure that you always remember these things. And then after I'm dead and gone, once I'm in heaven, I'm going to make sure you always remember these things. So I would say these 7 things are pretty important. So let's back it up and let's just do a quick, quick, quick review on what we're talking about. All right, so we're going to go back. I've got so many notes now, it's crazy. All right, but this, this letter is from Simon Peter, and he says we have like precious faith, which means our faith is equal. Now he goes on in verse 2 and says, may God give you more and more grace, which tells us right there that grace is not a one-time thing. Grace can be continually increased in our life. In fact, that means greatly increased. All right, how is grace and peace increased in our life? By knowing God. Okay, knowing God. This is gonna be the theme really quick that I wanna highlight in the beginning of this, knowing God. All right, so this word knowing God is the Greek word epikinesis, which we already said it means coming to know, which means we know somebody through conversation.

Yep.

It's not something I can learn on my own. It takes me experiencing somebody. It'd be like me saying, oh, I know, I know who, I'm trying to think of somebody that's not controversial right now in our world. I know who Patrick Mahomes is.

There you go. All right. He might be controversial to some people.

Yeah, he might be. I know about Patrick Mahomes.

Sure you do, I'm a Patriots fan.

I know he won a Super Bowl or a couple Super Bowls. I know he's the quarterback for the Chiefs, right? I know all that stuff, right? But I don't know him like I know Lisa Bevere. Now, the way I know Lisa Bevere, that's epigenesis. I've been with her for 42 years. Our conversation has caused me to know what her secret inward desires are, where her main interests are.

Well, I think there's a limit to those two things. Well, there's a limit to the first one. There's a limit to how much you could look up about Patrick Mahomes. But then when you get into conversations, there's really not a limit. I look at what— I mean, obviously I've been married for 6 years, so that's not super long. But look at yours and mom's relationships. There's still things that I watch as you guys discover about each other through conversations, through— I didn't know that was on your heart. Like, you've been married for what, 42 years? 42 years. 42.

I knew.

I was like, it's either 42. We're coming into the 43rd year. But there's not a limit to that. And I love that because that's the correlation of our relationship with God.

So this is what gives us more and more grace is knowing God that way. All right. Now, the thing that's also quite amazing. This word knowledge in the Greek, it actually is not just intellectual. It's knowledge that results from committed living. In other words, me being committed to Lisa opens up Lisa's heart more to me, right? If I wasn't committed to Lisa, if I was committing adultery with several women, I guarantee you, even though I'm technically married, live with her, she wouldn't reveal herself to me. So it Speaks of committed living. Now, verse 3 is just the mind blower. By his divine power, now that would be the grace of God. God has given to us everything, and that means complete totality, everything we need to live a godly life. So it's not just saying I'm a Christian, but yet I have a lifestyle that looks just like the world. God's given me through his power. Now that word power is the Greek word dunamis. We get our English word dynamite from. God's given us that same power, and it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Exact same power. He's given us the power. So you don't, don't let it just be a superficial word, power. It is power. God's power that raised Jesus from the dead to live a godly life. I could say that's enough to give me the ability to walk away from the sinful desires of this world that would cause me to be separated from God. Right. I don't stay away from sin because I want to be a legalist. I stay away from sin because I love intimacy with God and I don't want to lose that. Yeah. Okay. So now God's given to us everything we need to live a godly life. We have received all this by coming to know him. Here we go again. To know him, the one who called us to himself. He wants to be intimate with us. He's more passionate about being intimate with us than we are with him. Now, this divine power gives us the ability to live godly, and we get that as we come to know him. I was reading in the book of Hosea just this week. Oh my goodness. God makes this statement. My people, listen up. If you say I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, if you say you belong, you know, I belong to my creator. My people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge. But here's a better translation. My people are destroyed because they don't know me. That's the New Living Translation. My people are destroyed because they don't know me. Now, can you hear that as a father who is so burdened for his children?

Yeah.

Boy, they're getting destroyed by these wicked, evil spirits, the enemy. And it's all happening because they just don't know me. Yeah.

Well, can I ask this? 'Cause I'm sure there's a lot of people who are asking this question is, I wanna know God better. And I think we've talked about this previously. So I mean, maybe you can touch it really quick, but how do you know God better? How do you progress into that? And I know this is part of what we're talking about, but I could just see someone being like, my heart cry is I don't wanna be destroyed because of a lack of knowing God, but yet I've tried in different areas. How do I know God better?

Okay, I'll answer that before I do. He goes on in verse 3 in Hosea, oh, that we might know the Lord. So again, it's emphasized, let us press on to know him. Press on. Now, Paul said in Philippians 3, I forget what's behind and I press. So we see press in Hosea, we see press with Paul, and both are the same thing. What is the high? I press on to the high calling, Paul said. What is the high calling? That I might know him. Okay, so here we go again. It's about knowing God intimately, correct? So now God responds in Hosea 6:4 by saying, I want you to show love, not sacrifices. Okay, most people would know that as I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Listen to this: I want you to know me more than I want any burnt offerings. So here's God's desire: I want to know you Hey, here's our cry, we wanna know you. So it's mutual. It's not like one party is saying, you know, I really don't wanna know you. So if you're listening and your cry is to know God, his cry is to know you. All right, now, in coming to know God, here's what we've just said. In coming to know God, we receive divine power, dunamis, that gives us the ability to live a godly life. Okay, so we're going back to your question. I wanna know God, how do I know him? So the next verse tells us how to know him. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given to us very great and precious promises. Okay, so wait a minute, whoa, whoa, whoa. He just went from knowing God to what? The great and precious promises. What are those great and precious promises? It is the word of God, it is scripture, it is the Bible. And Lisa and I just went to the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, and we were overwhelmed by how the Bible has gotten into our hands. Yeah. The lives that have been sacrificed, the blood that has been shed, the effort that has been exerted. I mean, do you know they used to write one copy of the Bible for a very wealthy person and it would take years and years and years to get that one copy of the Bible into his hands? I mean, when Gutenberg came along and did the press, in the, I think it was the 13th or 14th century. Now we've got the Bible available to us because God gave man the knowledge on how to reproduce it in a mass scale. And so God's given us these exceeding great and precious promises. Now listen to this, these are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature. Okay, so, The way we come to know God is through these promises. And once we get to know these promises, we take on his divine nature. Nature. Oh my gosh, that this is getting so good. And we escape the corruption. Now listen to this. The corruption that's in the world through sinful desires.

Yeah.

So what do sinful desires do to us? They corrupt us. What does the word of God do to us? Yeah, it gives us his nature. So we have a choice every moment of every day. Do I want to go towards corruption or do I want to go towards glory? Yeah. Okay. Every moment of every day we've got decisions. So now we come to the part of the 7 things God never wants us to forget.

You're teasing it on. I mean, you said 7 things. We haven't heard them, so I'm ready for them.

Okay. You ready? Yes. Okay. In view of all of this, Okay, so Peter says, in view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. How do we respond? We respond by faith. We respond by exerting effort. Okay, because listen to the definition of this. All right, where it says make every effort to respond to God's promises, I'm going to read right from the Bible commentary. The meaning is clear: growth in virtue is of utmost importance and deserves utmost effort. The verb translated 'added to,' okay, to add to, to add to our faith, right, or to supplement our faith, is far more colorful than the translation might indicate. It notes the expense, the effort involved in this growth in virtue. We don't automatically become more virtuous as if God infuses virtue into us intravenously. We need to make plans and expend effort. Now, this is where the controversy comes up. Yeah, because people go, wait a minute, I'm saved by grace, you're talking about effort. Love what Dallas Willard says. Dallas Willard says grace delivers us from earning not from effort.

Yeah, I love that because that is where people get tripped up on it, is they think, okay, I'm saved by grace. I'm set. I'm good. And they're like, I just have to just go through my life. And I know that leads into a bigger conversation that we don't need to go into right now, but they don't put the effort forth. And you look at the effort that was put forth from these people in the Bible.. And we are to model their example, model the example of Jesus in the effort that they did not receive this knowledge of Jesus and sit on it. When they— when the Holy Spirit fell, they went and provided effort and started to prophesy and do things on behalf of Jesus in that sphere. And I think that's what we're seeing so much is you think about the world today, how many Christians there are. There's 2.5 billion Christians, Christians. And, you know, as Christians, that can be a loose term in some areas.

2.5.

If that 2.5 was mobilized, do you realize how quick the, let's say 5, I don't know the exact number, 5 billion rest would be converted and reached? Why is it not happening? It's because there's a lack of effort.

Lack of effort.

Yeah.

Okay. The word disciple, Jesus said, go into all the world, make disciples of all nations. The word disciple, the actual meaning is pupil, a learner. Yeah. Now, it also means that you closely follow the behavior of the one you're learning from. That's where follower comes from. When you say disciple, most people hear follower. It's not follower. It's actually pupil or learner. Yeah. So that means you have to expend effort. If I go to school and I expend no effort, I don't do any homework, I don't listen in class, I get nowhere. Yeah. You can have two people sitting in the same classroom. It can be a college, let's say, lecture hall. One person is daydreaming and getting nothing. The other person, they are getting the knowledge that's going to change their world. Now, in spirituality, in Christianity, I should say spirituality, in Christianity, it's the same way. We can get saved and sit there and not grow and keep being drawn back. My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge to the point that we get destroyed. My people get destroyed. They fall back into the sinful desires of the world. They don't add to their faith. They don't expend the effort to add to that faith, right? So the Amplified Bible says it so good, "Employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop." Now we're coming to the 7 things. So I'm gonna say it one more time, "Employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop." To develop what? Peter, number one is a generous provision, he says, of moral excellence. Now some translations say virtue, moral excellence. Yeah, let's talk about that. That means excellence of character. It means exceptional civil virtue. It means to bring to maturity excellence or merit within a social context. So in other words, you become a gentleman. Yeah. Now that's the old meaning of a gentleman, or you become a lady. That's the old understanding of what a lady is. Now we don't understand that today in our society, but if you go back 100 years, if you said gentleman, you said a lady, people knew what you were talking about. This is what moral excellence means. It means you have a behavior that is like Christ. It is a behavior that glorifies God. It is a behavior that doesn't hurt people. It actually builds people.

It doesn't leave you where you were too. Like, I love this definition is full realization of potential or inherent function. Wow. Like, I love that.

Like, if you—

Realization. Yeah. If you have a full realization of your potential and this is the potential that God has given you, you cannot sit idly by. Right. And that's what I think we see so many people and why they wrestle with, I got saved, but now what am I supposed to do? What am I called to do? What's this like dynamic that I'm going through? It's because a lack of what? They don't know what their calling is. You know, but really quick, I'm sorry. I think what people do is they get so hung up on what is my calling that they completely ignore their first calling, and that is to be a son or a daughter of God, which is realizing that full potential.

So when I got my first computer, I opened it up, I was able to do a couple things, but then I sat down with the guy and I spent hours with him and he started showing me. And the whole time I kept saying, I can do that. He said, you could have done it all along. Then he'd do another thing. Okay, he'd do another thing. I go, I can do that. He goes, yeah, you could have done it all along. I was realizing the full potential of the computer that was right before me. So the potential is all there. It just has to be worked out. And this is what Peter's talking about. You have to expend effort to work out this moral excellence. Now, in the Roman and Greek societies, this word for moral excellence, it's the Greek word arete. This word was used in a merit that was given to those who were distinguished for fidelity, admirable character, uprightness, In other words, they had a concern for people and devotion to deity. Now, isn't that amazing? That was actually a word ascribed to somebody who, what, excelled in moral excellence.

Okay.

Yeah. All right. So what do we add? What? Number one is moral excellence. What's number two thing that God never wants us to forget? It's knowledge. Yeah. So he's saying, actually, you have to exert effort to gain knowledge because this knowledge is just the knowledge of God's word. It's defining or comprehending something, right? Oh, it's defined, is comprehending something on an intellectual level. So you have to do what Paul said. You have to study to show yourself approved as a workman unto God.

Yeah, I remember for me, like, I had a great foundation with you and mom, and I remember things in scripture and things in my walk with Christ did not become really real to me until I got some time away. I went, you know, went to a Bible school and I remember Bible school was great, but the things that I actually learned the most and I grew in the knowledge was from my quiet time in the word where I just sat down and just began to go through the word and asking God, what are you saying here? And I remember I also got a Bible program called Logos and I was able to go through it and, and go into a deep dive of, okay, what's the context here? What's this like? What are you actually speaking through? And I remember that time period was a solidifying of what I felt like the moral excellence in terms of the perseverance and the realization of what my life was called to be was aligning within scripture. Because I think there's one thing of you can have the the realization for my life to be. But then yet something I love that you have always prayed, as you said, God, never allow my calling to outlive— or you can say outlive my character.

Never allow what you've called me to do to exceed the character you've developed in me.

Yeah. And I feel like that comes through this, the quiet place, like the character development.

So something I noticed, you said you were having conversation as you were reading the scripture. See, most people read the scripture just to get their reading done. Yeah, I find that scripture is God talking to me. So I actually have a conversation too. Yeah, you and I both do that. We literally talk to God while we read his word. Hey everybody, spiritual growth doesn't happen by accident. That's why we here at Messenger International are passionate about equipping you with resources to help you grow in your relationship with God. One tool we hope you'll take advantage of is our free MessengerX app. Inside MessengerX, you'll get access to dozens of full-length courses, sermons, audiobooks, and more, all available to you at no cost. Whatever your goals, whether you're looking to discover your calling, develop deeper intimacy with God, find freedom, or improve your relationships, you'll find resources on MessengerX that will help you get there. Download MessengerX today, create your free account, and dive in. Now back to the podcast.

Like, sometimes we do just do our reading and it's getting from here to here and it's like, okay, I read one chapter today. It's like, no, sometimes I get so much more from the word where I take one verse, just same thing with what we're doing with this podcast. I take one verse and I'm like, huh, his divine power has granted me, granted to us everything pertaining to life. God, what do you mean everything? What do you mean pertaining to life? Like, what does life look like? Like, asking God these questions and meditating on that rather than just reading that and be like, okay, that's great.

That's what God said to Joshua. If you meditate on this day and night, you will be successful and you will be prosperous. Paul said the same thing to Timothy. He said, give yourself entirely to what? The reading of the scripture. Meditate on it so that your progress will appear to all. Yeah. So again, it's working out our salvation. This is what Peter's talking about, working it out. Right. So knowledge is number 2. What's number 3 of the 7 things God never wants us to forget? Self-control.

Self-control.

We had a big discussion about this yesterday at lunch, didn't we? Yeah.

Well, the difference between self-control and discipline.

Yeah, it's really the same thing, but in people's minds it's different. Yeah. It means continence. It means to exercise complete control over one's desires, emotions, thoughts, impulses, and actions. In the Greek lexicon, I love this, I took it right from it, an adequate rendering of the expression to exercise self-control may be required, may require an idiomatic equivalent. This is what they said would be: to hold oneself in, to command oneself, to be a chief to oneself, to make one's inner person be obedient, to command one's own desires, to be the master of what one wants, to say no to one's body. Now, this is all straight from the Greek-English lexicon. Now you say, John, that sounds like works. That's not works. Self-control, or we would know it today as discipline, is a fruit of the Spirit. Yeah. In other words, as we exert effort in our knowledge, this fruit comes out of our spirit. We have the ability to exercise self-control. Now listen to what Proverbs 25:28 says.

That's what I was going to go to.

All right. Hey, read it.

Go ahead. It says, it says, a person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls.

Okay, now let's talk about this. A city with broken down walls in the days of Solomon, who wrote Proverbs, was a city that could be easily destroyed by the enemy. And the enemy could come in and go out whenever he wanted. Yeah.

I mean, that's what the 10 spies go in and what's like one of the key things they're looking for? Do their cities have walls? That was one of the things. They had a big wall. So do what? Like when you go in, are they ripe for the taking? Do they have walls? Like that's one of the main things that they're looking for as they're spying spying on the enemy, saying, okay, they don't have walls.

How fortified are those walls?

Yes, it's easy.

Are they easily broken down? But, but a person without self-control, without this, it's like, it's like you got no walls. They're broken down.

The enemy easily slips in.

And I want you to think about this, everybody that's listening to this podcast right now. I want you to think about this. Do you find yourself saying, I just lost control? Well, You haven't developed self-control. Is this something that you arrive at one day? No, it's something that I'm continuing to do after walking with Jesus for 45 years. I don't believe when I'm 85, I'm going to say I arrived at self-control, but I am pressing towards it. I'm, I'm wanting every single day my behavior to become more and more disciplined or to have self-control. Because why? I'm going to meet up with situations. They're going to be disappointing, different than what I expected. And how I respond to those is going to be determined by have I developed the fruit of self-control? Yeah. Here's what I suddenly realized today as I was preparing for this podcast. I think Christians are looking for a cladding— many Christians, excuse me, are looking for it. A climactic or almost crisis situation where everything changes, an instantaneous change. This is not— Jesus said the whole kingdom of God's like you plant seed in the ground, you sleep by night, you rise by day, it grows up. You don't even know how it's growing.

Well, and there's some plants that it will happen, but you have to plant in the ground. And sometimes it takes time. And it's like one day, like, I know we just planted some plants. And so one day I'm like, there, that thing. Is dead, it's not coming back. And then I come out there 2 days later and it's— it's grown, it's grown 3 feet. And then there's some plants that it's a slow progression and it's just slowly growing over time.

So when everybody get this image, as a boy we used to have a lot of cornfields, okay? And I remember like those cornfields, we drive by it and they were about ankle high, they were just like stubs coming out of the brown. And then a month and a half later we drove that same route to go somewhere And all of a sudden I thought, whoa, they're waist high. I saw the growth in a month and a half. Now if I sat there day in and day out and day in and day out and never left that cornfield, I'd never see them growing. This is our Christian life. We get up, we get into the word. All of a sudden now Paul says in Thessalonians, the word of God actually works in us. It's alive, it's powerful, it actually is transforming us., but we don't know how. And if you sit there and just watch yourself day and night and day and night, you're not going to see any growth. But if you are doing this day and night and I leave for 2 months and then I come back— this is what happened when you went to Bible school. You left for 9 months and you came back. And Lisa and I looked at each other and said, he's not the same man. He is a man.

I remember actually having that conversation. His mom kept telling me, she said, you can't come back. Like, nothing's changed. And I said, Mom, I know nothing's changed. But I have changed. And that was the one thing that needed to change. I remember having that conversation.

She was like, good statement.

Okay, you can come back.

That is such a good statement.

Wow. Because before I left, I thought everything else was the problem. And then I went away and spent quiet time with God and I realized, no, the thing that needed to grow was me. Wow. All right, go ahead. We got to keep going, probably. All right.

So we're exerting effort to develop. Okay. First one is moral excellence. Second one is knowledge. Third one is self-control.

What's the next one?

Perseverance or patient endurance. Yeah, means the same thing. Okay, let's talk about that. I love this one. It remained— it means to remain under, a bearing up under, capacity to continue to bear up under difficult circumstances, persevere. Hey, everybody's going to relate to this. It's like endurance training. I have a friend who has done quite well in the Ironman competition. What is Ironman? It's 2 miles swimming, 26 miles bike, and— or 26 miles running and 100 miles bike riding.

You do that all in one.

It's insanity. It's— yeah. So he has to do endurance training. And this is what has to be done in the spirit. Now, Paul said bodily exercise profits a little. In other words, it's good for you. What he did to train for that Ironman is good. Yeah, but what it means is it profits little. It means it's only good for this life. But godliness is profitable. His next statement: to eternal life. So in other words, this kind of training that we're doing, this endurance training, is spiritually developing, making every effort, just like he made effort. He got up in the morning, he ate the right things, he slept the right amount of hours, he went out and did the amount of running and swimming and biking to prepare for the Ironman. We're doing the same thing spiritually. It takes effort. Okay. We're getting up. We're spending time with God.

I mean, I mean, when you look at the perspective of that is like you're accomplishing that race in one day, but you probably trained for months and months and months.

And I, and I think that's the amazing thing because people, people want to be perfect. So everybody wants to be Billy Graham in one day. That's, that's the mentality of so many people.

And social media might make you feel like that. Yeah. One day.

Just being honest. Okay. I'm going to be like Billy Graham in one day. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's a lifetime right there of a man who got up every single morning, prayed and spent time in the word of God. And he grew and grew and grew. And we see the big cornstalk and we go, well, that's what I'm going to be. That's what God's given me. No, you've got to expend effort to get there.

Yeah. Well, and then also, too, I love the idea of he knows the confidence in his body. So the man who's training for the Ironman is that it's not that he gets into the Ironman and it's like, this is a breeze. I just— I trained 6 months for this, a year for this. This is so easy. No, but over that 6 months to a year, he has tested his limits and he knows where he can push himself. And so that when he's in that and he's on the 25th mile of the bikes or however many miles that he's having to go through, he knows, okay, my body right now is telling me I'm weak., but I know it has more. And that's the same thing for our spirit, because I see too many people that are quitting way too early. And why? It's because they've not tested the limits of what God has given them through the quiet time that they have spending with God so that they know, I am under attack, I am under pressure, I am feeling the weight of the world. And instead of speaking to themselves and saying, God, no, you've given me so much more, like, I know I know how far God's grace— I know God's grace is sufficient for me because his power is made best in my weakness. Like, that's what I love about that, because it's not that it's an absence of— it won't be challenging. It's still going to be challenging. Yeah, but he knows what his body can get through.

Okay, so think about the Apostle Paul, his endurance, or Peter, his endurance. Paul said, I was whipped with— I mean, their whips had lead tips on them. It had broken bones on it. 5— he said 5 times I was whipped with 39 lashes. 5 times. Okay, he's in dungeons. He is beaten with rods 3 times. 3 times beaten with rods. Literally, they would bruise your bones. You'd be in excruciating pain in your bones for 6 to 8 weeks.

Can you imagine? Because it's worse to get a bruised bone than a broken bone sometimes. Like, it hurts.

Oh, I know. I bruise them. You break a bone and I never want to do it again.

Yeah.

Okay, bruising a can be painful. He was stoned. He was shipwrecked. Okay, now that's Paul. That's what he had to endure under. He stayed constant in those situations, right? Ours is social media, mainstream media, the craziness of our society. Ours has a totally different form, but it's just as wicked and destroying as what Paul was going through. Actually, I have had people that have come from overseas and said they believe that this nation, the United States, is the hardest nation to serve God in on the planet. And they said, because you have no persecution, you have luxury, leisure, and pleasure, so you don't have to fight in the way we have to fight. The problem is our fighting is seductive. And so we've gotta remain constant when everybody's running out to do this. I remember I was talking to Clark Kellogg. Clark does the, you know, Final Four every single year. He's the announcer. And Clark is a very devoted believer. And he said, "John, it is so hard to do this job." Now, he's done it every year, but he looked at me and he said, "Because the parties and what these guys do," he said, "I just have to stay, I stay in my hotel room and read my Bible." And I thought, okay, that's endurance. It's a different form than being beaten or stoned. He's got to be able to say no to all this pressure to come to these parties and engage in the lewd behavior. So number 4 is patient endurance. So number 1, moral excellence. Number 2 is knowledge. Number 3 is, is discipline or self-control. Number 4 is endurance. What's number 5? It's my favorite, and I can't believe I don't even know how long we've gone. We're so far over time, but I don't care. Number 5 is godliness, which is the Greek word that means the fear of the Lord. It means reverence towards God or piety. It means we fear God. This is what Jesus delighted in. Because why? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowing God intimately. Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 2:5 tells us the starting place of knowing God. Remember, all of this power comes to us by knowing him, right? Is the fear of the Lord. That's why Jesus delighted in it.

And can I even take it just as you were saying that, I think, take it even another step and you correct me if I'm wrong. But what's the other definition of the fear of God? Is fear of God is the beginning of what? Wisdom.

Wisdom.

And I look at this is like I've always seen the progression of knowledge versus wisdom. And what is wisdom versus knowledge? Wisdom is how do you take knowledge and apply it to your life?

Oh, that's so good.

And I think that's what the fear of God does it, because you can have a lot of people that are like, you're really smart. You know the Bible really well.

Why is it not practically not being worked out?

Why is it not actually being applied to your life? And it's because they lack the fear of God, because it gives you wisdom to be able to apply. Like I've always said, is knowledge is basically a home. Like knowledge is a home. You have the building, like you have a building, you have structure, but yet the wisdom is the life that happens within the home. It is the things that make a home a home. And it's like, you can have the structure, you can have the thing of a house, but you walk in and you really quickly will be aware there is no furniture in here. There's, there's no life in here. And without wisdom, you can't have that life happening. And so I've always seen it as that way. And I think those are—

yeah, when I walk into your Christian's home, I'm just amazed. I mean, the way you two have made that place so absolutely gorgeous, such a small home. But you've made it look like an absolute amazing embassy or castle. It's just so beautiful. That was the wisdom that you guys had to make it, how the flow of that home goes. You're constantly thinking, how can we improve this for our children? I just love that. And I'm so proud of you for that. I need to say that as a dad. But anyway, I look at the fear of the Lord and everybody's going, wait a minute, what is the fear of the Lord? It's not to be scared of God because you can't be intimate with somebody you're scared of. It's actually being scared of being away from God. It's when we reverence, stand in awe of him, revere him to the degree that he deserves. And nobody will ever hit that total degree that he deserves because he deserves so much more honor, respect, awe, trembling than what we give him. But that's what it is. It's when we— this is why Jesus delighted in it. This is the fear of the Lord gives us the staying power. It gives us the ability not to quit. It was Jesus's fear of the Lord that caused him to sweat drops of blood in that garden. Yet still fulfill what his Father called him to do, even when he knew he can call 2,000 angels to deliver him. He said, nope, this is what my Father wants. I'm going to endure this. So the fear of the Lord is what, what gives you the ability to do the endurance that we just talked about. And so it is so important. I wrote an entire book on this, actually two entire books, but the most recent is called The Awe of God, A-W-E of God. And I'm going to say this, guys, if you have not read that book, I'm not saying this because I wrote it., but it has been a bestseller for over a year. Yeah. A number one bestseller for over a year with Amazon. I know it, I see it go in and out constantly.

Can I say a quick testimony onto that?

Yeah.

Is that I was talking to a guy, he texted me today, and he navigated fear so much on a significant degree. And he knew what the Bible talked about with fear, and it was more, you know, worldly fear. And he was navigating this, and it's amazing because he got ahold of your book,. And he said, for the first time, I don't battle with fear. And he said, because he's knew so long of what it said. And I just wanted to take that more to a practical and showing what it applies into your life. So when he understood the healthy fear of God, it was like all the things connected and that wisdom took place.

And he's like, my knowledge now makes sense. This is the only generation, the only generation ever in church history that our leaders have not taught the fear of the Lord delivers us from all other fears. Yeah, we've got to start telling people this, because fear is literally the way our society is operating. This, this, uh, cancel culture, this, uh, social media, social media, everything, it's so much fear. And the fear of man is at an all-time high. I'm 65 years old, and yet I've never seen fear at a greater 64 million people in America say the number one thing they're fighting— excuse me, 164 million people in America say the number one thing they're fighting is fear and anxiety. So it's a real issue. So please read the All of God book to get more into that. Number 6. So number 1, moral excellence. Number 2 is knowledge. Number 3, self-control. Number 4 is perseverance. Number 5 is the fear of— healthy fear of God. Number 6 is brotherly affection. This is the Greek word Philadelphia. This means affectionate love. This means kindness. A Christian is kind. A Christian is not rude. A Christian is kind. A Christian cares about people. A Christian, somebody who's truly Christlike, is out to better people's lives. Now, to better somebody's life doesn't mean you give them what they want. It means you give them what they need to grow into healthy. Right now, our society thinks to better somebody, you give them what destroys them.

Yeah, it's not just being nice to someone. I'm sorry, I shouldn't even be laughing. I agree. Like, the thing that I actually— just picking up on this— is brotherly kindness. I look at my brothers, that brotherly kindness was not always just telling me what I wanted to hear. Like, that's not how we operated. Sometimes it was tough. Sometimes it was— we wrestled.. But at the end of the day, we always loved each other and was unified into that. And so it does not just mean being nice to everyone. And I think that's what people take it as for. And that's, they're like, oh, you're not being kind, so you're not being godly. It's like, no, I'm telling you honestly the things that are going to help save your life. And if I was not telling you that, that would not be kindness. And so I do think we need to see it in that greater manner. So we were talking about it the other day and saying how you never find children that at the time say, I wish my dad wasn't, you know, at the time you ask them when they're children. Yeah. Wasn't so corrective with me. But then when they grow older, they always look back on that and they say, I'm so glad that my dad was corrective with me and was able, and of course in a loving way and doing it in the correct way, but was able to tell me, no, this is wrong. This is the way that you're supposed to do it. Instead of just being their friend, their buddy, and loving them through it. No, they were there for their life to be able to instruct them and take them down the right way.

Okay, what would number 7 be? What never fails. Love never fails. Yeah. That word love is agape, and it is the God kind of love. It is where we literally lay our lives down for one another. Now, I think it's really interesting that Peter lists kindness, which is a Philadelphia, which is affectionate love, which by the way, the world has that. The world has affectionate love. Agape love is the love that Jesus said the world cannot receive. So that love is a love that's only found when the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in a born-again believer's heart. That is a love that the world longs for and doesn't know where to find it. And that's what we're supposed to do is tell them where to find it, how to find a love that will lay its life down for you and has already laid Yeah, his life down for you. And notice I said his because love is a person. God is love. Now, the thing is, we have so perverted love today in our society. We say, you love me if you give me what I want. Yeah, you love me if you affirm what I like that is destroying me. This is the love of God. The Bible says that we keep his commandments. This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. So this is the core of love. Yeah, because knowing that God knows what's best for me, and if I do what's best for me, it's going to turn out better in the long run. Whereas the world says, no, I know what's best for me and I'm going to do this. And what happens is you get suicide, you get people in depression, you get people that have regrets.

You never have regrets when it comes to God. Well, I mean, John 15, laying down, you know, what greater love is there than to lay down one's life for a friend? Yep. Right there, like Jesus' whole sacrifice, our understanding of love, Jesus' whole sacrifice was what? To forgive us and to set us free from the things that would ultimately keep us bonded. And so if we're saying, it's my role to show love to this world, and so that means I'm supposed to just accept everyone, that's not, that's not the love. That was not the love that was shown on that cross.

Not at all. He died for what was best for us. Yeah. Wow. To bring us back to our creator. Yeah. God is love. He doesn't have love, he is love. Now, these are the 7 things, these are the 7 things that God never wants us to forget. And in the next podcast, we're gonna find out the result of never forgetting the 7 things that God never wants us to forget, and the results are crazy amazing. So, I just feel right now, that there are people, Arden, that are watching and are listening, watching. You have felt very unloved. You've felt very insignificant. And yet, as you're listening to these words, you feel almost like a stirring on the deep inside of you. That's the Holy Spirit drawing you back to your Creator. I just, I want to appeal to you right now. God is not angry at you. He's not mad at you. Now don't get me wrong, you're under God's wrath if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord. That is something our father put us under. Adam and Eve put us under the wrath of God when they disobeyed God in a perfect environment. However, God loved you so much that he sent Jesus to die for you before you ever even had this desire that you feel right now. And so all God's asking for is not for your perfect behavior. God is asking for your full heart. He's asking you nothing less than what a spouse asks. A spouse says, "I just want you to be faithful to me and not be an adulterer." God says that my relationship with you is no different than a husband and a wife. When a woman walks down an aisle of a church, she's actually communicating something significant. She's saying goodbye to about 3.9 billion guys. She's saying, "This is the one and only man I'm giving the rest of my life to." Doesn't make her perfect the first day, the week, year. Just means she's given her complete, total heart to that one man. This is what God asks of you. He doesn't ask for perfect behavior. He doesn't ask for you to come bringing all your good works. He's asking for your heart. He is the one that will change you, and your works will become glorifying to him. This is what you're sensing right now. I want to lead you in a prayer. You have to realize you have been living your way. You've been living out of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I decide what's good for me. When you come to Jesus, you lay down that and you say, you, I know you know what's best for me. Therefore, I will serve you and follow you all the days of my life. And no matter what you tell me, I will believe it and I will obey it and I will act on it. And so if you can say, that's all you have to say. Is I'll give you my full heart, my full devotion, my full life, then pray this with us right now. Just say this. Father in heaven, oh God in heaven, forgive me for living my way apart from you, my creator. But this very day, this very moment, I give my full spirit, soul, and body, everything I am and everything I have to you, Lord Jesus. Jesus, you are now my king, My Lord, my husband forever, I give my life fully to you in Jesus' name. Now I really sense the presence of God right now on you. And so I'm gonna ask God to fill you with his spirit. Father, I'm asking right now that you would fill my brother, my sister, whoever's listening to me right now, that you would fill them with your presence, fill them with your Spirit, manifest the presence of Jesus right now in their life. I see you being healed right now. I see some of you being delivered right now supernaturally by the power of God. It's happening right now. I see you being set free from what you couldn't walk away from. Now you're going to notice the desire is gone. He's taken it away. There's other things he's gonna have you grow in as we've been talking about on this program, but there are some of you right now, instantly God is freeing you from the desires of things. Lord, I just thank you for this right now. That's his presence, that's his power. Baptize them in your Holy Spirit of fear, of wisdom, of might, of knowledge, of understanding, and of counsel, and most of all, the Spirit of the Lord God. May he rest upon you and fill you completely in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Till next time, this has been the John Bevere Podcast with Arden Bevere and John Bevere.