The Most Dangerous Christian to be Right Now

I hope that this disease doesn't creep into your life and you feel comfortable with being indifferent. The New Living says, "I will spit you out of my mouth." The New King James actually says, "I will vomit you out of my mouth." Why would he say that? Because you have people that are in church on Sunday morning who were plastered drunk on Friday night going, "Oh Jesus, I love you." In essence, you become a hypocrite. If I'm in Sunday morning service, I can fit in with them. If I'm out with people getting plastered drunk on Friday night, I can blend in with them. Don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, here's the consequences of not doing the word of God: you are only deceiving yourselves.

Every time I've heard people talk about this, they're like, I don't want to be lukewarm. How do you make sure that you are not?

I'm going to say something that may shake some of you. Hey everybody, welcome to the Jon Bevere Podcast. I am Jon Bevere, joined with my son Arden, and we are continuing talking about the churches of Revelation because they're very relevant to today.

We're on our final church.

I know, number 7. Uh-huh.

Yeah, this is amazing.

So this kind of satisfies two groups. There's a group that believes that they were all historic. I don't believe that. It'd never be in the Bible if it was. Then there's the group that think that each of the errors of the last 2,000 years, each church covered it. So Laodicea being the last one would cover our era. But then there are people that believe they, this is what I believe, they apply to any part of the church anywhere in the world.—

we've seen from every single one that we go through is that there's very clear things that you can take and say, no, that very much applies to right now.

So maybe on this particular one, you guys want to really pay attention because with two of these groups, which I believe one of the two is accurate, maybe they both are, we are really talking about today. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So I'm going to ask some questions. I want everybody to think about these questions. Can somebody believe they're right with God when in reality they're not? That's a question I want you to think about. Now listen to this, here's question 2, it goes off of question 1. Is it the love of God to leave a person in that place? In other words, if they are self-deceived, if they are fooled, is it the love of God to leave them in that place? I personally believe one of the most unloving things you can do is see somebody heading towards harm and not warn them. That's what we hope to do today and in these podcasts about the seven churches. All right. So the important question comes down to this: how are people getting to this place? How do they get to self-deception? That's our big question. And I think the answer— easiest, the easiest answer comes from James 1:22.

Well, I think before we even go into that, we need to first say which church we are actually talking about.

Yep. We are talking about Laodicea. Yes, which is the last. And there is a reason I'm asking these questions because this one is a real eye-opener. But James makes a statement. He said, don't just listen to God's word, you must do what it says. Otherwise, here's the consequences of not doing the word of God. You are only deceiving yourselves. Wow. I mean, I want you to stop and think about it. You can deceive, your brother and your family. You can deceive even your mom and dad. You could deceive your wife. But when you deceive yourself, that's pretty scary because you believe you're right when in reality you're not right. So if you hear the word of God and you don't do it, in essence, you become a hypocrite. Yeah. Now hypocrite's a strong word, but hypocrite is somebody who puts a mask on and appears to be somebody, but inwardly they're somebody else.

All right, what's the difference between that and then someone that is continuing to feel like they're growing and being worked on and developed? Because I think obviously someone could hear that and be like, wait, uh, am I a hypocrite? Like, I've been dealing with this, but I want to be set free, and I've been wanting to continue to see, you know, restoration in this area. So I just want to make sure we, we hold on to that.

That's a very good question. Do you want to answer it?

No, I'd love—

I mean, I'm wanting your opinion onto it because I, I believe with all my heart that we as ministers are supposed to be vulnerable. Yeah, I'm still challenged in this area. I'm still working on this. Um, the way the gospel was presented when your mom and I first started ministry 43 years ago was that the minister made themselves look like they were living a flawless life. And when we started getting in the back rooms, in the green rooms, because of our position in this church and these huge speakers were in there that we used to think, gosh, because your mom and I would sit there and go, we could never be in ministry. We're just a mess. But I remember they start— we start seeing the real people behind the scenes and we realize, wow, they're not perfect. There was even a time when I was sent out to get aspirin and because we preach very strongly on divine healing, The pastor just looked at all of us in the green room and said, "Make sure you don't tell anybody that our speaker just took aspirin." So in other words, Lisa and I, we try to be as transparent as possible because if you can't relate to the messenger, how do you relate to the message? And so I say this about people, the Bible says pursue holiness, chase after it with the intent to apprehend it, without which no man will see the Lord. Somebody that says, I've arrived at holiness is somebody I'm really scared of, that person. When I'm 85 years old, I'm going to be chasing after holiness. When I'm 85 years old, I'm going to be chasing after a greater level of humility.

So understanding, because you address church leaders, understanding is that there's a humbleness that comes within that. There's a pursuit that comes into that because I just don't want people to hear that and think, oh my gosh, I'm a hypocrite. I am dealing with this thing, but I have been desperately wanting to be set free. I've been chasing holiness and I feel like I just keep getting tugged back, but then I'm chasing forward again.

The hypocrite on purpose shows one face on purpose.

But is doing these things behind the scenes.

I want to project myself as being godly. I want to project myself as being madly in love with my wife. I want to project myself as being a good family man. When in reality, I know inside I'm a terrible family man, I'm a terrible husband, And I'm like, I'm portraying two different things. Okay, we're going to take a break from what we're talking about and we're going to talk to you about something that's very important, and that is our health. And the reason is, is our bodies are not our own. They are the temple of the Holy Spirit. If you go to goodranchers.com, you're going to end up getting meat that is grown on small-town American farms. This is meat that has not been polluted with steroids, antibiotics, and all this other stuff. And what is really cool is that they mail it right to your front door. Now, here's the really cool thing. If you go to goodranchers.com, and use our last name, just Bevir, as the code, you're going to get $40 off your order, plus you're going to get free meat for life. And they send very healthy chicken nuggets and chicken wings and stuff, things that we didn't order. They put it in there if you use the code Bevir. So again, GoodRanchers.com. Please, please invest in your health so that you can live longer and bear more fruit for the kingdom of God. Goodranchers.com, American meat delivered. If you look at 1 Timothy 4:1-6, it says, now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times, and I believe we're living in the end of the end days, right? In the last times, some will turn away from the true faith. They will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars. And their consciences are seared. Then Paul says, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished by the words of faith and the good teaching which you have carefully followed. So in the life of every true believer, we are carefully pursuing to follow the word of God. Do we miss the mark? Absolutely. Do we sin? Sadly, yes. But we have an advocate and we are able to tell people, I'm sorry. That's why the Bible says confess your faults one to another. That you might be healed. And so, gosh, Arden, you know, as a dad and a husband, how many times I've come to the family and said, I really missed it, right? And I mean it. But did I do it on purpose? No. Am I trying to act like I'm somebody I'm not? No. This sets up to hear the words of Jesus to this Laodicean church. Okay, so Laodicea, let's talk about it. It was really well known in the ancient world because it was a city of great, great wealth.

Yeah, one of the richest ones, right?

It actually was. It and Sardis were two of the richest. And interesting, that's the two churches that got the strongest rebuke from Jesus. The extent of its resources was so deep that the city was rebuilt without Roman aid when the great earthquake hit in 60 AD. Laodicea was strong in textile industry and in banking. It was renowned— and this is, Jesus actually uses this in the example of the church— it was renowned for its medical school that produced treatments of spice nard for the ears and the eye salve. So the only thing that Laodicea lacked in was a good water supply, and they had to pump it in from Denzali.

Denzali something.

They had to bring it in from Denzili. Yeah. All right. So which was 6 miles to the north. Yes. And they were so wealthy, they actually made the whole piping system out of stone. Wow. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. So I mean, it wasn't even made out of cement, tar. It was stone.

Probably a lot better than some of our piping.

Yeah, probably. Yeah, the PVC and all that stuff, right? Yes, significantly. So let's read the whole letter and then we'll talk about it. Jesus says in verse 14, write this letter to the messenger of the church of Laodicea. This is a message from the one who is the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's new creation. I know all the things you do, that you are neither cold nor hot. Now, this is the part we're going to really— the state— next statement we're really going to zero in on. I wish that you were one or the other. Okay, that, that's mind-blowing, but we'll get into it in a second. But since you are lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. You say, I'm rich, I have everything I want, I don't need a thing, and you don't realize that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. So you realize that Jesus is saying they're one way and they don't realize they're really this way. So remember our questions right in the beginning. Can you believe you're really one way when in reality you're another way? Yeah. Here's a church that's like that. So I advise you to buy gold from me, gold that's been purified by fire. Then you will be rich. Also buy white garments from me so that you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes so that you can now see. I correct and discipline everyone I love. "So be diligent and turn from your indifference." This is the New Living Translation. "Look, I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I'm gonna come in and we are gonna share a meal together as friends." I love that. "Those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne." Wow, this is heavy. "Just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne." What a promise. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

I was going to say, I love this because I love the kind of shift in tone and the promise that is brought into that. It's not just, hey, you need to do this, this, and this, and we'll figure out what happens next. It's like, do this, this, and this, and look what will happen. Behold, I'm at the door knocking. Because I think those are the two things that we hear so much. Don't be lukewarm. Here is God at the— the Bible says he's at the door knocking. Are we going to open up the door? Are we going to do what's needed? And so I think this is a good thing for us to look at, especially in the Western church.

Obviously, I personally believe the closest churches to the overall Western church— now, believe me, there's lots of exceptions, all right? But the overall Western church is Sardis and Laodicea. And if you look at what Jesus said, this message is from the one, the Amen, the faithful and true witness. I love this. He's faithful, which means he'll tell us the truth every single time, whether we like it or not. And true means he's going to make sure it's the truth whether we like it or not, right? So, um, that means true— he's going to tell us the truth if it's difficult. He's going to tell us the truth if it's uncomfortable. He's going to tell us the truth if it's not popular. He's going to tell us the truth if it corrects. He's going to tell us the truth if it hurts. He's gonna never, never flatter us. Flatter us, "Oh, you're doing such a great job." He's going to address our behavior. He will always do this because of one reason, and that is He loves us. He deeply loves this church. He loves the American church. All right, so I know the things you do, that you're neither hot in regard to what you do nor cold in regard to what you do. I wish you were one or the other. Okay, that's the mind-blowing statement. Bing, kaboom. But since you're lukewarm in regard to what you do, so we have three conditions here. Hot, we have cold, we have lukewarm. What's the hot?

What do you mean? What is the hot in terms of who?

What does the hot represent?

Well, I mean, obviously you can look at it from a standpoint and just say it'd be those people who are on fire for God. But I thought I remember even hearing this a long time ago, that it's not that he's saying like hot or cold. Meaning that it's in or out, but it's actually that they had uses for hot water and they had uses for cold water. They didn't have any uses for lukewarm water. And so him looking at this from a perspective of, are you on fire for me or are you cold? You're not even involved in here. Right?

Is that— So I have heard that myself and I've heard it and it's never sat right with me. Really? I mean, I just look at, yes, we today, we have use for hot water. Yes, today we have use for cold water. That's true.

But we do have these very lukewarm.

However, I think in regard to what he's saying is he is dealing with their works. So their works, their— in other words, their lifestyle is hot, their lifestyle is cold. Can you think of a lifestyle that's cold that he would enjoy? I don't really think— I think that's really— I think what people have done is they've tried to stretch it because they don't like what he's dealing with, what he's really dealing with. Because I really believe hot means they're on fire for God, as you said. And I believe cold means they don't want anything to do with God. Now, why is lukewarm so offensive? Because lukewarm has enough hot in it to blend in with hot, has enough cold in it to blend in with the cold. Yeah.

It's sitting on the outside. So what? Sitting on the fringes. It's looking at a line and saying, how close can I be to that line?

It blends. It's a chameleon. So if I'm in Sunday morning service, I can fit in with them. If I'm out with people getting plastered drunk on Friday night, I can blend in with them. I may not be getting as plastered as them. I may not be using the language as them, but I'm basically doing what they're doing. I'm serving the lusts of my flesh. Okay? But then I'll go to church a couple days later and now I'm blending in with the people that are really giving their lives for Jesus. I think this is this church.

Yeah. Which is kind of what we talked about even on the podcast before this, which is kind of accepting a form of Christianity but completely denying its power, denying what it actually is doing because you're living in the ways that you want to rather than on fire, passionate for God and the things that he has for you. And that's essentially what we said is the, the issue in the Western church, why we feel like there's such a lack of the presence of God and the anointing of God and the power of God, is because you have a large portion of Christians that have been lukewarm. Which I, I would say, I feel like every time I've heard people talk about this, they're like, I don't want to be lukewarm. So I mean, how do you make sure obviously that you are not lukewarm, that you are staying on fire, passionate, hot for God.

Well, he's going to give them the counsel on it here in just a second. He's going to tell them what to do to get out of that lukewarm state. Yeah. I think the statement we got to really dwell down on is Jesus saying, I wish you were either hot or cold. I wish you were one or the other. Why would he say that? Because the hot person knows they're on fire for God. The cold person knows they're cool towards God. We were just in Mauritius just a few weeks ago. We did 4 nations in Africa. One of them was Mauritius. Our driver in Mauritius, it was a hired car, and he was raised in Hindu religion. He ended up getting saved. It was easy. I mean, we literally, the 3 of us were able to, on our 45-minute ride to the airport, lead him to the Lord. You want to know why? We were able to show him he wasn't hot for Jesus. Yeah. And he was willing to say goodbye Hindu gods and hello Jesus. You are now my King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the risen Son of God. Obviously God had already been dealing with him. Yeah. Because I guess another ministry had been in there and he heard that minister and he mentioned that minister. And so God was already dealing with him. And it's kind of like we got to reap where another man labored. Yeah. But that man knew he wasn't a Christian.. He was extremely easy to lead to the Lord. The person who's cold, the person who says, I know I'm a sinner, I know I'm away from God, they're easy to get saved. Yeah. Person who thinks they're right with God, they're the ones you have to actually show that they're not right with God in order to get them right with God. Which is—

that's even like, I remember you said that's how you frame out a lot of your altar calls is you got to show them like that they're actually not saved. Because obviously we live in Tennessee., and that could be largely considered the Bible Belt. And I talked to Christian, her experience growing up was like, everyone's saved, everyone goes to church, everyone does this, but then yet the rest of their time is really not looking like they actually know God. And it was just, that's the thing you do down here. It's like you go to church. Yeah, I'm a Christian. It's cultural. It's just a part of it. But yet if you would've asked them all, are you saved? They would all say yes, but in reality they're living in a way opposed to it.

I have great, great compassion for, because you have to first show them in that altar call they're not right with God so you can get them right with God. And this is what Jesus is having to do with this church, because this church thinks it's one way, but it's really another way. And Jesus has to actually say that to them.

Well, and too, I feel like they've lost their conviction on it. I, in my mind, it's because of the comfortable lifestyle that they're in. They've lost their conviction of even a simple word might be able to turn them and understand that. Because I remember growing up as a kid and like hearing your teachings when I used to travel with you. And I remember when I felt like I was going the right direction, all these things. I remember so clearly, like, being in almost sometimes a state of fear of like, am I right with God? Am I lukewarm? Am I this? Like, and almost every single time you gave an altar call, I was like, yes, I need to give my life back to Christ. Like, I did something wrong and I needed to do this. And I had an immature understanding of what, what, you know, me giving my life to Christ actually looked like. But I feel like in this stance, in instance, like, I loved that my heart was still towards that and towards repentance and towards like, no, I need to do— like, I need to continue to turn to God and I need to continue to weed out these things. But I feel like because of their comfortable lifestyle, it's so hard to even get them to realize what they're doing is wrong or realize that they aren't close to God in that way.

Extremes make it so hard to minister sometimes because you do have the people that are rededicating themselves every single service, right? And you're like, wait a minute, let's get to the point where you realize you really are walking with God. Why are you doing this? But then the flip side is Paul says to the whole Corinthian church, examine yourselves to see if you're really in the faith. I mean, that's because some of you don't know God. I mean, that's literally what he says to this Corinthian church.

Yeah.

And Jesus is saying this church— he doesn't say the city of Laodicea, he says the church. He said, I wish you were hot and cold, so that because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot— now listen to the words he says. This is the New King James. The New Living says, "I will spit you out of my mouth." The King James, the New King James actually says, "I will vomit you out of my mouth." Now, I went to the original Greek, and the Greek word is emeo, and this is its definition. I'm gonna read it right from the Greek dictionary. "To vomit." It's first words. It also is possible to interpret to vomit out of the mouth as an idiom meaning to reject. Mm-hmm. So I realized right then, okay, and I did this years ago, I realized, okay, he's not saying spitting, he's saying vomiting. Now, do you remember we went on spring break a few months back and that bug went through about 7 of us in our family? The norovirus. The norovirus. And I was the last one to get hit, right? Yeah. I distinctly remember having myself right at that toilet and watching how rapidly what was on the inside of me coming out into that toilet. You cannot— now I'm going to say something that may shake some of you. You can't vomit something out that's not inside your body. If I have a steak in my hand, I can't vomit that steak. No. If that steak is inside my body, I can vomit that steak. Yeah, that's a great point. The use— the language he's using is vomit. I'm going to vomit you out. This is strong. And this is— this should bring a healthy fear to us to say, okay, maybe I need to examine myself. Remember, he's dealing with our works, our labor. In other words, out of— okay, you're married to Christian. Christian adores you. I see this all the time. Okay, I look at my other daughter-in-laws. Julie adores Addison. Maddie adores Alec. I look at Jessica, adores Austin. Yeah. What do you guys do? You labor at serving your wife. You labor at making sure your home is safe. You labor at giving them the comforts and conveniences needed to make life easier. And these girls are smart. They see that in you. They see your love by your works. I know you continually tell them. Yeah, but you have people that are in church on Sunday morning who were plastered drunk on Friday night going, oh Jesus, I love you. And then they get plastered drunk the next Friday night. It's like the guy that came to me and says, I sleep with women, I try to stop, but then I end up sleeping with them again. And I'm like, okay, what are you telling me? He's just basically saying, you know, if I got the willpower to stay away from it for a little while, I'll do it. No, God has given you grace, and grace gives you the ability to what? To turn away from that which is worldly and lusts of the flesh.

Yeah, and the first fruit of the Spirit is self-control. So it's like accepting what the things that God has given you and applying those actually into your life, and not just saying, I don't have those things working for me, or I don't have the ability to do it, or I genuinely do love God, but then I actually Don't, because it's those who love me will keep my commandments. And that's demonstrating— it's the same thing as I could tell Christian blue till I'm blue in the face that I love you, but if I'm continuing to look at pornography, or if I'm continuing to sleep with other women, like, she's not going to ever believe that. She's just going to say, like, no, you're not actually—

you don't love me. And so that's why Jesus is addressing works, not what they believe. You know, it's interesting. I think this scripture has been just we've lost sight of it. He said to the crowd, this is Jesus. He said to the crowd, this is Luke 9:23-24. If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way. Take up your cross daily and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you'll lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you'll actually save it. So Jesus continues to this church and he says, You say, here's what they say about themselves. We're rich. We have everything we want. We don't need a thing. And you don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Okay, so let me just make a comparison. On one side, this is what they think. Rich, not lacking, without need. Other side, poor, miserable, blind, and naked. Wow, they're really self-deceived. Okay, Jesus is giving them the report card of the way you really are. This is the way they really think they are. So they're deceived, they're self-deceived. Okay, so when we look at Paul saying, let's go back to the Corinthian church, 'cause the Corinthian church again is so much like the Western church, examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith. How do we examine ourselves? Not by what everybody else is saying on Instagram. Yeah, but by the word of God, because that's what's going to judge us on that day. Yeah. Jesus said, I don't judge you, it's the word I speak that's going to judge you on that day.

Yeah. Can I ask this? Because I think there's a lot of people, um, who are asking, well, how do I get examined by the word of God? And I think obviously there's, there's two sides of this. Is number one, of course, reading the Bible, but then two, there's people who probably feel like their conscience has been seared And so getting back to a place where it's like, they know if I read something, like I read this and I know that when I read it, it actually hit home with me. And it wasn't just, I read that and I was like, oh wow, that's some great words. Like that's a great sentiment. But then next thing I know is I go live opposite to that. So, and which I feel like is the searing of the conscience that actually has happened.

So how do we get back into that point to where we're hearts are tender? All my heart, I believe the most beautiful word other than Jesus in the New Testament is repentance. So repentance is, God, I have broken your heart. I have not walked in your wisdom. I've not walked in your word. I repent and I ask you to forgive me. The blood of Jesus washes us clean. Now, when we say that, we really mean it. It's not like we just go, okay, this will satisfy me now. I have this feeling, but then go right back into what we were doing.

Now, do you feel like that's more confession than repentance? And that's oftentimes And that's the problem is that people think, oh, I did repent, but it's actually all they did was just basically confess.

I mean, Proverbs says whoever confesses and forsakes shall obtain mercy. So there is a true story. This guy, he was destroying himself with the cigarette smoking. He's smoking 4 packs a day and he had fasted, prayed, asked every pastor to pray for him. He couldn't stop smoking. And he saw a friend of his get delivered. And he came back home and he was so upset with God. He said, God, I fasted, I've humbled myself, I've had people pray. He said, and he screamed out, he said, John, I screamed out in my living room, God, why haven't you delivered me? And he said, I heard God say, because you still like it. And he said, John, it came over one of my shoulders, it was that clear. And he said, I took a look at that Winston cigarette and I put it out. He said, I have never touched a cigarette since. Yeah, how interesting. He kept trying, trying, trying, trying, trying, trying, but God said, but really, you like this? Yeah, you know, I, I really don't want to look at pornography, honey. I'm so sorry. But yet you go right back to it. Then you go back to it the next day. You go back to it the next day. You're not sincere. You can say, I know it's not right, but I still like it, so I'm going to keep doing it. That's— that would be more— so I find when you are honest with yourself, you are at a closer place of getting deliverance. Yeah. Okay, I've got a really bad attitude. I actually like this. Lord, I need you to put— I've actually asked the Lord to do that. I've said, you got to put a hatred in my heart for this because I don't hate it like you do. Yeah, I still actually, you know, I'm drawn to it. I like it. Can you put your hatred in my heart? And you know, he's done that. Yeah, I've watched him do it. Yeah. And so Here's what Jesus' advice is to this church. Here we go. Ready? So I advise you to buy gold from me, gold that has been purified by fire. So number one, buy gold. How do you buy something from Jesus?

Yeah, that's what I was curious about. What does that even look like?

I think the way it can best be illustrated is looking at the parable of the virgins. The wise virgins said to the foolish, Go to those merchants that sell oil and buy for yourselves oil. I look at that as the wise ones came in with everything their entire life and they said, I want the lamp and I want all the oil it will buy. But the foolish came in and only gave the part of their life that they thought was required to be saved. Obviously, at the end, right before the master came, that's when their oil was running out. The way they Bought it was the wise gave their entire lives. Interesting. I believe that everything that Jesus provides for us is completely free, but the way to buy it is to lay down our life and submit to his wisdom. Yeah. So we don't earn it. We don't earn it, but we put ourselves in a position to receive it. I still look at that parable of the wedding feast, and the guy comes in without a garment. I've thought about that a lot. And he said, bind him hand and foot. How could you come into— and this was one of the guys that came from the streets and the highways— how could you come in here without a proper garment? And I started thinking about it. I thought, what if I got invited to a royal wedding? Let's say a monarchy, you know, that we still had a real true monarchy somewhere in the world, and I got invited. And I was in the streets and the highways. In other words, I wasn't very wealthy. And the person came and said, the king wants you to come to his son's wedding. Yeah. Here's the money to purchase a wedding garment. But you don't take it seriously and use it for NBA games. You use it for, you know, Xbox, use all that, and you don't buy the garment. When you walk into the wedding, it wasn't your money. It was given. It was entrusted to you to purchase something, right? You walk in., and it says to the king, I gave you what you needed and you didn't take it seriously. Bind him. And I look at the Bible, it says, behold, the lamb, the lamb, or the bridegroom is coming and his bride has made herself ready. To her it was granted to array herself with fine linen, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Yeah, I think we're talking about submitting to his discipline, submitting to his word.

So I think there's a side of this that I think is important to talk about because obviously we live in such a culture that's very much around self-help and taking time to invest into yourself. And I'm almost, as you're saying this, I'm almost hearing that side of it where I think so much of it we can say, okay, well, God's given me the finances to entrust me with this. And so I need to make sure I tithe off of this. I need to give offerings off of this, and I give those back into the church. But I think there's actually another side of this that you touched on that I think is really important, is understanding the entrustment to taking care of oneself and to, you know, whether that's how you eat, whether that's the resources that you take in, because you said, you know, you didn't go buy a garment. You went and spent your money on all these things that are essentially frivolous things, frivolous things. But yet I'm looking at that person, obviously them going and buying something for themselves to show, like, how does that correlate within our time period of buying things for ourselves that are going to help us get closer, become more disciplined, more on fire with God? And I think you have a lot of people that are obviously misusing and misappropriating their finances. But do you see that being a part of this in a way?

I would say so, to a very small degree. I think you buy things from Jesus by what you invest with your time. Okay. So obviously if your time's all being constantly being distracted, I am so into the NFL that I'm just, I'm going to read my Bible and then I can't wait and I'm going to spend 7 hours in front of the TV watching NFL. Yeah. So it's like, where are you investing your time? So I see that. And first of all, he talks about gold refined. Peter talks about our faith gets refined. So what does he mean by our faith? Our faith gets tested. Yeah. All right. So what is part of the test? Are you going to be completely distracted? Are you going to live a fruitless life? Are you— you see what I'm saying? Because Jesus tells this parable of the owner coming and seeing this tree that's using up the ground. And he says, I've come looking for fruit on this tree for 3 years. And there's nothing. And the Holy Spirit, I believe it is, says, let me dig around it, fertilize it, give it one more year. If it doesn't bear fruit in the next year, I'll cut it down. We're expected, Jesus said, I called you, I ordained you to bear fruit. I see people bearing fruit for the kingdom in the business world. I see them in medical field. I see them in all walks of life because they have such a passion for Jesus, such a passion for advancing his kingdom. I was just traveling to Africa with a man who lives way below his means. He owns a company and he makes a lot of money, but he said, my wife and I have chosen to live below our means because we want to make sure we can invest in the kingdom. I mean, he's making choices and it's like, okay, with what God has given me, I'm using that to buy something. It's not my own ability, my own goodness. It's not.

It's my choices.

Yeah.

Which I think that's kind of what I'm saying is your choices of understanding, like even the way that you allocate your time and what you said is if you're, you're spending 5 minutes, 10, 15 minutes and then you're quickly to jump and just next thing you know, you're doomscrolling for the next 2 hours, then where was your time actually being bought into? But if then if you're kind of, hey, I'm going to take this time, invest. But then also what I'm going to do is I'm going to I'm going to go and sit down and I'm going to begin to start investing into myself to become a better father, to become a better leader. Like investing your time, like seeing the investment that's taking place. I know it's a little bit— it's obviously different than buying gold from God, but I think it's investing in yourself to get you into a better place to be able to, you know, build that business, build that church, build whatever the family that you're wanting to see. I see a little bit of side of that just when you said the go and buy a garment and show up to this wedding and dressed in an appropriate way. I just think there's a level of that that we have to do that's actually very natural, not just spiritual.

So if you look at gold, gold represents our faith, and the Bible teaches very clearly that our faith gets tested. So how we respond to those tests determines whether we buy the gold, it's refined, or we still have gold that's filled with alloy or things that will cause it to weaken. Okay, so Jesus is saying, hey, endure the tests. Yeah, obey me in the midst of these intense trials. That's one thing. We're buying gold refined, right? Next one is buy white garments. The white garments, according to Revelation 19:6, are the righteous acts of the saint. It's our righteous works. So we're actually literally developing our wedding garment by investing in our opportunities of doing what God says and acting in a way that is accordance to his, his, his ways. All right. Then he says, buy ointment for your eyes so that your eyes will be able to see. Yeah. Now what do we do? What closes our eyes? Is when we hear the word of God and we don't do it. It's deception. Deception blinds us to the truth. We don't love the truth.

Well, then you can actually see your spiritual condition. I feel like the more deception has run rampant, the further you continue to keep walking down that route and not had repent, the more deceived you are, the more you see things through a lens and a filter. And then you get to a place where you're looking at things and you're like, This is okay, I guess. And so I feel like what he's even saying here is it's giving you the eyes to be able to see the insight, the discernment of your own life, your reflection in a way.

Do you know how sometimes I examine myself to find out if I'm still healthy is how far I still need to go. If I see myself as almost there, I'm a little concerned. That's good. But it seems the better I get to know Jesus, the more I realize how much more I have got to go. And I think that's seeing things correctly, how I'm absolutely dependent on him for any goodness at all. And I think when your eyes see correctly like that, you know, like Jesus says, the light of the body is the eye. It's the way you see things. And boy, do we want to pray that God opens our eyes so we see things. I mean, you hear him say, hey, these Pharisees are blind. Yeah, they can quote the first 5 books of the Bible, but they're blind. I mean, gosh, do you know anybody— do you know anybody can quote the first 4 Gospels and the book of Acts? Um, I mean, these guys, they were amazing in the scripture, but they were blind. And so obviously their pride blinded them. And so, you know, that's the thing, you look at pride rebellion, disobedience, they all strengthen each other. You look at the fear of the Lord, humility, right? And you look at faith and love, and that all strengthens each other. So I want to walk in true humility. I want to be able to say, okay, God, I still have so much more you need to do in me. And I'm saying it at 66. I know I'm going to be saying it at 85. Should Jesus tarry, I'm going to be saying that same thing. Yeah. All right, so let's go to the next verse. Jesus clearly says, I rebuke and I discipline everyone I love, so be diligent and turn from your indifference. Now it says so in another translation, says, so repent and turn.

Yeah, this says to therefore be zealous and repent.

Be zealous and repent. Right. Diligent and repent. All right, so that means, hey, I'm not going to be indifferent. What causes me to be indifferent? Constantly sidetracked. I mean, I guarantee you, I've done self-examinations. If I spend 30 minutes scrolling through Instagram, I come out of it many times feeling dull. Yeah, really dull. Now, if I've engaged with my family, if I've poured into my family, I've done things for others, I've worked hard in the ministry, I come out feeling energized. What's going on here? There are things that will literally, they'll pull us over to indifference. They will literally take the fire away of advancing the kingdom of God. I personally feel, I'll be honest with you, ever since Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I, I'm doing a lot more examination on what's distracting me from the kingdom. Yeah. And I'm realizing that there's a lot of things that I used to kind of think were normal, normal everyday life, that I'm like, you know what, it's fine, it's okay, but it's not beneficial. Yeah. Paul said all things are lawful, but not all things edify. Yeah. I'm wanting more now to be more of the edify. Edify means build up. It means build my fire. So it's a— it's kind of a— I don't want to put this on people. I don't want to put my things. So I'm not going to go down through the list of what I'm talking about. But I think what you should be doing is constantly asking yourself, what kind of dulls me? What kind of causes me to maybe start morphing towards that indifferent state? You want to eliminate it. Is it lawful? Yes. Will it send you to hell? Probably not. Out, but it's sure going to dull you. And if you keep going down that route, you might get to the place where you're almost where they were, where Jesus said, I'm going to vomit you. Yeah.

Gosh, that's strong language.

It's a scary place to be. Now, the word when he says, I correct and discipline everyone I love, the word correct means to convict, to prove one in the wrong, and thus shame him. That's what that word, Greek word, means, correct. Discipline means to punish for the purpose of improving behavior. So we talked about this on a podcast a few times ago, and we went into it in depth. I want to get to the final promise. Are you ready for this? Yeah, because I love this. He said, look, I'm standing at the door and knocking. If you hear my voice— now, who's the person that's going to hear his voice? The person that has his ears cleared out, has his ears sensitive. And you open the door to your heart. I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends. In other words, I'm going to have fellowship with you. And this is the thing that I think causes people to become more and more indifferent is the lack of fellowshipping with Jesus. Yeah, I just really believe that those who are victorious— so in other words, those who really stay sharp in this life, that go through these daily moment-by-moment battles— those who are victorious will sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat with my Father on his throne. Wow. Sit with me on my throne. Are we realizing the— I mean, Sardis and Laodicea, the only two churches that get no compliments up front, only two churches, but they have some of the greatest promises made to them. Okay. And look at this. Sit with me on my throne. And that's why he says anyone with ears to hear must listen to what the Spirit says and understand what he is saying to the churches. Look, we might be as an American church getting one of the biggest rebukes, but we also are having one of the greatest promises made to us. I believe there's so much hope for the American church. I love the American church. I serve— want to keep serving the American church as much as I love going overseas. There's 4 nations in Africa a couple weeks ago. It was glorious. I love this country, and I love this country enough to be very blunt and honest. And I know there's a lot of people that get angry at me. Believe me, I get it, I get it. And I'm willing to be misunderstood if I can help the majority. If you can see the fact that I'm just using what God entrusted to me, the anointing on my life, the ability to communicate His word, I'm using it because I wanna see you stand and hear the words, well done. I don't want to hear you almost hear the words, "If you don't change, I'm going to vomit you." I want you to hear the words, "Well done." And we are a society that is given to hate correction and discipline. And that is part of the lawlessness that has crept into our society that we talked about in the last podcast. We have got to get past this and actually get an ear, a desire for that which may be bitter to the taste, but it will bring benefit to our life. And so in other words, learn blows that are in the inside, Proverbs says, will actually protect us from death. These are hard hits from truth. These are going, oh my gosh, I need to change. It's okay. I've been saying it for 45 years, but it hasn't affected my walk, my love for my family, my love for God especially. I just keep saying, "Okay, Lord, I'm gonna keep pursuing. I'm gonna keep pursuing." This is what I hope this does for you. I hope that this lukewarm disease that is in the American church doesn't creep into your life and you feel comfortable with being indifferent. Don't ever feel comfortable with being indifferent. Only accept being on fire for Jesus and do whatever it takes. If it means just getting into the Bible a little bit more this morning, Praying a little bit more this morning to where you come out ready to face the day with the fire of God burning in your heart, do it. This is a daily walk. If anyone wants to come after me and he doesn't deny himself, take up his cross daily. Okay, this is a daily thing. This podcast is given just to help you day by day. All right. I'm so aware that Paul would say, oh my gosh, I'm so concerned that my labor was in vain. Because why? They slid into indifference. They slid into complacency. And Paul would— they slid into error. And Paul would have to write to them and say, gosh, I'm so concerned that all my labor that I put in is going to be in vain. I think about this. This is why the Bible says exhort one another daily, daily, exhort, preach, encourage one another daily, correct one another daily. Why? Because we live in a war zone. And so I hope you've seen this in talking about these 7 churches. I hope you realize the importance. This is the only place in scripture that you're gonna find the resurrected Jesus giving full sentences and paragraphs to us. You find one sentence in the book of Acts, one sentence in the book of 2 Corinthians, but this is the resurrected Jesus talking to his church. This is not Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore, talking in the Gospels to Jewish people before he went to the cross. Those are all truths that are very valid. Believe me, I'm not trying to diminish that, but these are direct words to the church. I would encourage you, meditate in these words, because the Bible says you are very, very blessed when you hear these words and you obey these words. So please stay in these 2 chapters, chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation, and allow them to examine your own life and heart. Don't avoid them. Allow them to bring that sword that actually heals you. It will not hurt you. It will heal you. Well, that's all I have.

Yeah. No, I think this is great. And what a way to finish up these, uh, 7 churches as well.

Amen. Well, until next time, this has been the John Bevere Podcast. John joined with Arden. And I just want to remind you, look, rate, review, send it to people, get this word out to people that will bring health to them. And also, I just wanna thank so much all our patrons who support this podcast. Thank you so very much, and may God richly multiply the seed you have sown, because that is precious, precious, hard-earned money of yours, and you have invested it into eternity, and we don't take that lightly. So we love you so very much, And until next time, we're going to be starting a brand new series next time. Who knows? It's going to be a topic or it's going to be a book, but you're going to have to just come and see on the next John Bevere podcast.