WHAT IS YOUR "WHY"? AS A PASTOR ft John Bevere | TPUSA Faith

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage John Bevere. Good afternoon.

Well, I think I'm the final speaker.

Before dinner and hopefully you don't leave for an early dinner. I'd love to pray before we begin. And so can we all just stand? Heavenly Father, thank you so very much. You've given us the privilege to be called your children, sons and daughters. Today. We're asking Holy Spirit that our lives would be changed forever as a result of what you've done in these meetings. I'm asking that you would not only give me your word, but your presence would accompany your word and bring the change that you want to see that would cause our nation to ultimately change. In Jesus mighty name, we give you all the glory and the honor and the thanksgiving. Amen. You can be seated. I want to open up with the state of ministers in the United States. Here are some statistics I've done some research on. 90% of the ministers will not retire as ministers. 90%.

So in other words, for every 10.

People that go into ministry, only one is going to finish as a full time minister. 50% of the pastors starting out will not last five years. Approximately 4,000 new churches begin each year, while 7,000 churches close each year. In January of 2021, 29% of the pastors in America thought about quitting. Just 14 months later, March of 2022, 42% of the pastors in America considered quitting. Let's talk about the state of the church. Barna has shown us that from 2000.

To 2020, over 20 million people have.

Gone from practicing Christians to non practicing Christians.

In particular this category.

These non practicing Christians now are professed atheists, agnostics and spiritualists. 20 million people is 1 out of every 14Americans.

So the question we need to ask is, why are we losing so many leaders and believers? I believe I have the answer. It's because we have not preached the healthy fear of God in the church. I want to open up with three.

Scriptures and I want you to look at these three scriptures carefully. First of all, Isaiah 33, verse 6.

Tells us the fear of the Lord is God's treasure. Now would you please just pause? God's treasure. What do you do with your treasures? Do you put them in junk drawers or do you protect them? Isaiah 11, verse 3 tells us that the fear of the Lord is Jesus delight. Moving to the New Testament, the apostle Paul makes the statement that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, not with loving kindness, with fear and trembling. Now let's just step back and Just look at what we just looked at. We're talking about God's treasure, Jesus delight, and the very thing that matures salvation. My question is, why aren't we talking.

About this a whole lot more?

First of all, let's ask the question, what is the fear of the Lord? First of all, it is not to be scared of God. How can you have a relationship of intimacy with somebody you're afraid of? And that is God's number one desire for every one of us is to be intimate with us. When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he brought them right to the place he met with God. Mount Sinai. That's where the burning bush was. God said, I am so excited to meet my kids. Tell them the whole reason I delivered them was to bring them to me. God said, get them ready. Cause I'm gonna come down on the mountain on the third day. When he comes down, they all scream and run away. And then Moses makes this statement in Exodus 20:20. He said, do not fear because God has come to test you. What's the test? To see if his fear is in you so that you may not sin. Why is sin important? Because sin is what separates us from the one who wants to have an intimate relationship with us. I will never forget when I sat in the federal penitentiary with Jim Baker back in 1994. Jim Baker was the most famous person on the planet for all the wrong reasons. They had aired his trial every single day on cnn. I remember being a little bit surprised by the fact that he wanted me to come and visit him. And I go there a little bit leery. And I remember he looked at me, grabbed me, hugged me, wouldn't let me go. And he sat me down. He said, john, we have so much to talk about. We only have 90 minutes. First thing he said to me is, this prison was not God's judgment on my life, it was his mercy. If I would have continued living the way I was living, I would have been in the lake of fire forever separated from God. I thought, oh my goodness, I'm talking to a man of God. The humility was mind blowing. He shared how Jesus came into his prison, delivered him in his first year of prison. He shared how he spends three hours a day with his prison church studying the Gospels. They break down Jesus words, told me how they did it. After about 20 minutes telling me his whole story, I asked my number one question. I'm a young preacher. 1994. I want to know. I said, jim, at what point? When did it happen? I saw you I fed on you. I was a baby Christian. I would watch you preach. You would weep over souls. You would get so many people coming to know Jesus. At what point did you fall out of love with Jesus? He said, john, I didn't. I went, what now? My walls went up. What do you mean you didn't fall out of love with Jesus? You committed adultery and I named the woman's name. In 1983, you had all this criminal stuff you were doing between 83 and 90. We. What do you mean you love Jesus?

He said, john, I loved him all.

The way through it. And he saw the confusion on my face, and he said, john, I didn't fear God. And he said, there are millions of Americans just like me. They love Jesus, but they don't fear God. The fear of God. By the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. Evil is what separates, wants to separate us from God and will ultimately destroy our nation. So the fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God. If you really want the definition, it is to be terrified of being away from him. See, when Moses said, do not fear because God's come to see if his fear is in you, he's not speaking out of two sides of his mouth. He's actually saying he's differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. The person is scared of God. They've got something to hide. What does Adam do when he sins? He hides from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God has got nothing to hide. That person doesn't say, how close can I get to the line of world and not fall in that? That person says, I want so close to him, I can't even see that line. Amen. So the fear of the Lord is to stand in awe of and tremble before him. It is when we reverence, honor, and value him to the uttermost. It is when we put him before anything or anyone else. It is when we love what he loves and. And what he hate. And when we hate what he hates, they say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. God hates. Yes, God hates.

Read your Bibles.

God hates things. These things. Six things the Lord hates. You ever read that? Okay, now I'm going to alleviate the fears. The legalist. Everybody say legalist. I believe the enemy invented legalists to get us all scared of what will bring us life. The fear of the Lord brings us life, but yet we're all scared of it because of the legalists. The legalist. This is what the legalist says. I fear God that's why I hate those sinners over there. No, you don't fear God at all. Because God loves those quote, sinners so much he sent Jesus to die for them. What God hates is the sin that unmakes them. So fear of the Lord loves passionately loves people and passionately hates sin that unmakes them. Are you with me? This is why we read in Proverbs, those who fear the Lord will hate, not tolerate, not overlook, not ignore. Those who fear the Lord will hate evil. I remember back when I started in ministry, back in 1990, I was praying every single morning for two hours and I was a little frustrated. Why? Because when I preached, my words didn't carry power, they didn't carry weight. And so one day I'm praying and I said, God, I just don't get it. I pray two hours every morning and then I read the Bible. After that I said, why isn't there a stronger anointing on my life?

And the Holy Spirit whispered in my heart and said, because you tolerate sin. I said, what?

He said, because you tolerate sin not only in your life, but in the lives of others. And then he said, read Hebrews one. So I go to Hebrews chapter one. And it's when God the Father is inaugurating Jesus as king of the universe on the day he was raised from the dead. And God the Father says, because you have loved righteousness, stop right there. Jim Baker loved righteousness. I loved righteousness. The Lord said to me, son, every Christian loves righteousness. He said, but that's not where I stopped. Because you loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Hated. Notice the word, hated lawlessness. Therefore God, even your God, has anointed you beyond your companions. He said, son, you learn to hate sin the way I hate sin and you'll see the anointing of God increase upon your life. Lawlessness is the Greek word anomia, which means what? It means a law unto itself. This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Let me tell you something. You got two trees in the garden. You got the Tree of Life, the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There's thousands of other trees, but these are the main ones, right? Tree of Life. I know God knows what's best for me. He knows what makes me, he knows what breaks me. I'm going to live in him. Got it? Alright. The tree of the knowledge of Good and evil is when I choose what is good for me outside of what God says. When she saw it was good, not when she saw it was evil. When she saw it was good, she was drawn to what was good for her outside of what God said. Well, let me tell you something. When you put a pair of pants and a skirt in front of a little five year old and say, which one are you drawn to? You are telling that child, forget that you were fearfully and wonderfully made by your Creator in your mother's womb, and you choose what is best for your life. We can't let this happen in our nation. We got to speak about it. Amen. So you can, you can, you can, you can divide or not divide.

What's the word I'm looking for?

You. You can. There's two main areas of the fear of the Lord. Number one is to tremble at his presence. If you really want to define the fear of the Lord is to tremble at his presence. Number two, it is to tremble at his word. Now let's talk about the first one. To tremble at his presence. God asks his people through the prophet Jeremiah, do you not fear me? Will you not tremble at my presence? Have we forgotten who it is that we serve? Isaiah is a godly man. He's a preacher of righteousness. But in Isaiah 6, God brings him up to the middle of the throne room, plops him right down, and the first thing he notices are these massive angels. One is crying, the other holy. And they're crying holy so loud, they're shaking the foundations of a building that seats over a billion beings. Okay, now they're not singing a song, making God feel good about himself. They're responding to what they see. Every, every second, another facet of his glory. His greatness is being revealed. And all they can do is cry, holy. When Isaiah sees the Lord, he doesn't go, dude, there he is. There's a man upstairs. Man, oh God, it's so good to meet you. Are you kidding? He is groveling on the floor, crying out, woe is me. Now here's the man who's a preacher of righteousness, who in Isaiah 5, one chapter earlier is saying, woe to the wicked. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Woe to those that are drunk. Isaiah 6. He has one glimpse of the Lord. No longer woe is the sinner, it's woe is me. Because for the first time in his life, this is a man of righteousness. For the first time in his life, he realizes who it is he's really serving. And for the first time, he realized who this mighty God is, right? And who he is before this mighty God. Now, what's interesting is he gets cleansed. He gets cleansed. The angels cleanse him from this experience because of beholding the greatness, the glory of God, right? So then after that, God says, who will go to this nation for me? And when God speaks, it's like radio waves coming down. It's like a satellite wave coming down. The only person in the entire nation that could really hear what Isaiah was saying. Excuse me.

What God was saying was Isaiah because he had been cleansed. Let me tell you something. I'm going to say this right now.

We will not see a change in.

Our nations through legislation, through education.

We will only see a change in our nation when we have a move of the spirit of God like we've never seen before. I'm telling you that right now, it can't happen. You know, I was on an airplane one time. I got in the airplane and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, read job 34. Now I went, oh, no, no, no. Job 34.

You know, there's two books. Preachers avoid ecclesiastics and job.

Why? Because they're two uninspired men that wrote two inspired books is basically what it is. And I thought, okay.

With fear and trembling, I went to the Book of job, chapter 34.

And all of a sudden, I noticed.

It was Elihu, this young man.

He has listened to job and his three friends speak a bunch of nonsense for 34 chapters. And he finally says, I've been waiting for the wise to speak, but there's not any wisdom in the room. So he begins to preach the word of God. And, boy, I'm telling you something. He preaches 34 to 38 is amazing. Then I noticed in 38, it says, God came in like a whirlwind.

And the Holy Spirit stopped me on the plane.

I'm sitting on a commercial flight.

Holy Spirit stopped me and said, did.

You notice my presence? My glory didn't come in until somebody spoke the truth. You want it? And then he said to me, the reason there are so many churches in.

Our nation right now that are not.

Experiencing my presence and lives aren't being changed is because they're not speaking my word. They are not getting into my presence. They are not being cleansed like Isaiah was cleansed in order to speak his word. I remember when I was down In Brazil in 1997, it was a national conference. There were thousands of people in this arena. It was a church network of over 300,000 people. I was so honored to be able to speak there. And I Remember, after preaching on the fear of the Lord for 75 minutes, I will never forget this as long as my live. The presence of God came into that place so strong, literally everybody in that building, we all heard the wind blow. Okay, so wind began to blow, and thousands of Brazilians are screaming. And yet we could hear the wind above the screaming Brazilians. I will never forget it as long as I live. I was standing on that platform, petrified.

But yet I was drawn to it.

It's so weird. It's so hard to explain. I literally had never encountered an authority, a presence like that in my life. The thought goes through my mind, john Bevere, you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you're dead. Now, would that have happened? I don't know. But a man and woman came into their church service in Acts 5, into that kind of a presence and made a wrong move just with their intentions, and they were dead. I knew irreverence would not be tolerated. Psalm 89, verse 7 tells us, God is to be greatly feared in the assembly of the saints and to be held in reverence by all those around Him. You will never find his presence in.

A place where he's not held with.

The utmost of respect. And I remember when that wind subsided after 90 seconds, it let people all over the arena collapse, weeping. I remember I'm standing there, and I'm like, God, what do I do? And the Lord's like, I'm through. And I remember I turned it over to the leader.

They whisked me out in the car.

The soloist that night gets into the car with her husband, screaming, did you hear the wind? Did you hear the wind?

I said, maybe it was a jet.

Aircraft that flew too low over the arena. And she goes, what are you talking about?

And the guy stopped me.

He said, no, no, no, that wasn't the case. He said there were union workers all.

Around the outside of the arena. They were security men and policemen.

They're not even believers. When the wind started blowing, they came running in to see what was going on. He said, I was at the main soundboard. He said the whole time the wind was blowing, the decimal meters were at zero. Not one ounce of the sound of.

The wind came through our sound system.

I heard about that for 22 years.

After it happened, through mail, snail mail.

I went down to speak to 16,000 leaders in Guyana, Brazil, in 2016. First pastor I meet over this big, big network of over 300,000. It was a different one. Over 300,000 people in the churches. He said, I was in the building.

20 years ago when the wind blew. My life has never been the same.

Your life will never be the same when you encounter this presence of God. Job said, I've heard you by the hearing of the ear, my eye has seen you. I utterly abhor myself. John the apostle, who was the closest apostle to Jesus, sees Jesus in his glory on the island of Patmos and.

Falls down like a dead man. Let me tell you something.

We have forgotten in this nation who it is we serve. We have reduced him down to such a buddy that we have lost sight of who he really is. And we've got to get it back into the church.

Can you say amen?

I remember in the, in the nation of Malaysia, two years after that, after Brazil, I'm in the nation of Malaysia.

It's another national conference.

We have a packed out auditorium, not arena, and people had come from all over the country. And I remember that presence came in again.

This time it was even stronger. And again I'm standing there going, oh my God.

And I remember thinking again, bevere. You say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you're dead. And I remember I'm walking back and forth on that platform and out of my mouth comes, this is the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

And I thought that's what Isaiah said, the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. Spirit of wisdom, counsel, might, knowledge, understanding, and the fear of the Lord. And his delight was in the fear of the Lord.

That's when I realized, oh, wow.

This is one of the seven manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

What I encountered in Brazil two years.

Ago, what I encountered now, what I encountered one time in Texas and California.

And North Carolina about five times in my life. And I remember I'm sitting there walking cautiously. It lasts five minutes. And I remember when it lifted again, people are collapsed all over the, the, the, the auditorium, weeping. Okay. It was like they were all baptized in the fire of God. And I remember thinking, God, what do I do? What do I do? He said, I'm through. So I turn, look at the leader.

He says, I said, it's all yours. And the leader comes up, he says, look, there's no ending this. Just leave whenever you want. We were going to do a song. We're not doing it, really. Wise man.

And I remember I stayed for about.

15 minutes and I started walking out of the building.

It was our 10th meeting.

So I was like, I was exhausted.

I'm walking out of the building and.

There'S this Indian couple, they were, this.

Is the largest Bible school in the nation of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.

And I remember there's this Indian couple, and they're students in the Bible school.

And I happen to notice she got.

Really nailed by this presence, right?

And we're just staring at each other. What do you say? And she looks at me and she.

Goes, I feel so clean inside. I thought, my God. Gosh, that's it. That's what I sensed in Brazil. I feel clean. So I remember going to my hotel room that Friday night, and I thought, clean, clean. She nailed it.

I feel clean. I feel clean, clean. She did it. That's it.

The next morning, I'm getting ready to play basketball with the Bible school students in Malaysia. This is almost 20 years ago, right? I'm a lot younger then. And I remember I'm putting my gym shorts on. The Holy Spirit said, Read Psalm 19, son. Real, real. And so I have no idea what I'm gonna read. I go to Psalm 19. I read 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I get to verse 9. Look what I read. The fear of the Lord is clean. I went, oh, my gosh, there it is. And now look at the next words. Enduring forever. Spirit of God spoke to me in that hotel room. And he said, son, Lucifer led worship right before my throne. He was anointed to do so. He beheld my glory. He didn't fear me. He didn't endure forever. He said, a third of the angels surrounded my throne. They beheld my glory. They didn't fear me. They didn't endure forever.

He said, adam and Eve walked in.

The presence of my glory in the garden. They didn't fear me. They didn't endure in the garden forever. He said, son, every created being throughout eternity is going to be tested in the holy fear of God. I started thinking after that, how many pastors have started ministry and haven't finished? They didn't fear God. How many believers have walked away from the faith. They didn't fear God. Hey, but let me give you the good news. The Bible said they'd never come. The Bible said they would not not come back. Just as John the Baptist was sent for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

I believe there's thousands of men and.

Women that are going to be sent to the lost sheep of the house of the church, and they're going to bring them back. Amen number two. To tremble at his word. Israel was in a point in history where basically the American church is. They would obey when it was convenient. They would ignore when it wasn't. So God Comes to them one time and says, hey. He says it through Isaiah, the prophet. Your lamb sacrifices are like offering pig's blood to me. They were like, what? Why? He said, because when I spoke, you didn't listen. He said, but this is the one I'm going to look at now. You see the word look? That word look is an interesting Hebrew word. It means to pay very close attention to. Now I want you to stop and think about that. Years ago, do you remember Tommy Tenney wrote a book called God Chasers? It's one thing to chase God. It's a whole nother thing for God to be chasing you. You say God chases people? Look at David. He sends the senior prophet of Israel to this guy's house. That goes through the seven most likely candidate sons. God says, these are not the ones I'm chasing. The ones I'm chasing is out there with the sheep. God said, this is the one I'm chasing on him, who is poor, humble, contrite, and who trembles at my word. What does it mean to tremble at the word of God? It means we'll obey God immediately. David says, I will hurry to obey your commands.

It means we'll obey God even if.

It doesn't make sense. Does it make sense to forgive people who have really hurt you? Does it make sense to bless the people that are cursing and gossiping about you? I could go on the rest of the afternoon. Means we'll obey God even when it hurts. Jesus obeyed the Father to the point of death. Philippians 2. Then Peter writes and says, as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourself with the same mind. Religion seeks to suffer to please the.

God, the little G it serves.

Christianity says, I'm going to obey God in a fallen world, and I'm going to experience a lot of resistance. And I'm willing to suffer for.

Means. We'll obey God even if you don't see a benefit.

We've almost created disciples in America that the only way you can get them.

Motivated is if you show them the.

Benefit of obeying God.

If you pray, God will do this.

If you serve, God will do this. If you. If you give, God will do this.

Will God do this, this and this? Absolutely. It's.

It's. It's his covenant promise.

But that better not be our motive. What if Esther buys that motive? She's got everything to lose, including her head, and nothing to gain. But she says, I'm going for the king, and if I die, I die. She feared God. That's what we need in America. Amen. Number five. It means we'll obey God all the way to completion. King Saul does 99.99% of what God.

Asked him to do, yet God said he's rebelled.

When we tremble at God's word, it means we will not pervert his word to fit in our society's culture. That's not enough amens. I'm going to say it again. When you tremble at the word of God, you will not pervert his word to fit into our society's culture. Our society is rapidly, rapidly decreasing into lawlessness.

That's what 2 Thessalonians 2, 7 says.

The spirit of lawlessness is already at work. We have been a subculture in the church, not a counterculture. The early church was a counterculture. As the world has moved, we've moved with it. We've got our tags, we got our.

T shirts, we got our music, we.

Got our churches, but we're a subculture. 90% of the Christians, I believe the last figure I heard was the figure under certain age or whatever it is, are living together. And yet they're attending churches saying, I'm born again. Wait a minute. I read in the Bible that says the marriage bed is undefiled, but adulterers and fornicators, God will judge. Yet they go on like, I'm in a relationship with Jesus. What Jesus are they in relationship with? A knockoff Jesus, not the real Jesus. When we tremble at God's word, we will not corrupt his word to accommodate a seeker's lifestyle. Paul said, if I seek to please men, I am no longer the servant of Christ. I am not out to please men. I am not out for a popularity contest. I am out to serve Christ. I remember when our ministry was in its infinite stage. We were just growing. We'd only been in ministry for about five, six years. And I heard in my head, if you just lighten up a little, your following will grow huge. And I remember screaming out loud in that hotel room, oh, no, I won't. I will never lighten up the word of God, because if I do so I turn my back on God. I am no longer a servant of Christ. And I hurt the very people I'm serving. So what in the world did I get in the ministry for? Why am I doing this? Jesus didn't preach a seeker friendly message to the rich young ruler. He said, you got an idol in your life, get rid of it. And the guy walked away sad and sorrowful. Think about it. He could have underwritten his outreaches for the next three Years. Paul's talking to Felix about righteousness, self control and the judgment to come. Felix says, you are frightening me. And yet Felix is a wealthy man.

Who could have set Paul free.

But Paul preaches the word because he's not going to adulterate it. When we tremble at God's word, we will not twist his word to our own advantage. I'm in a conference and I'm worshiping. And the Holy Spirit asked me a question. He said, do you know what a religious spirit is? I remember, you know, when God asks you a question, he is not looking for information. Yeah, God, religious spirit is this. I've written on it. I had written on it. I'd preached on it. I'd heard other men preach on it. And I knew. When he said, do you know what a religious spirit was? I said, God, obviously I don't. Father, what is a religious spirit? He said, a religious spirit is one who uses my word, he to execute his own desires. So when you adulterate the word of God, you know what adulterating the word of God is? It doesn't mean you're just doing it for pay. It means you're doing it for popularity. You're doing it to put butts in the seat. You're using his word, but you're doing it to your own advantage. I remember people used to say about me all the time, he's one of the most loving people in our church.

Bill Federer and I were in the same staff 40 years ago. Oh, he's the most loving guy. And one day God says, people say that you love most loving man in the church. I said, yeah, but the way he asked me, it didn't sound affirming. So I said cautiously, yeah. He said, do you want to know why you avoid confrontation? Do you want to know why you tell people only nice things? I said, why? He said, because you fear their rejection. So who's the center of your love, you or them? I said, I guess I am. He said, yeah, if you love people, you tell them the truth.

When we tremble at God's word, we will not avoid any aspect of the entire counsel of his word.

Joyce Meyer said this to my wife recently.

She said, I fear what we're going.

To be judged for is not what we're saying, it's what we're not saying.

Paul made the statement, I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it is not my fault. Why is it not your fault if anybody suffers eternal death, Paul? Because I didn't shrink. I didn't keep Back from declaring the entire counsel of God, we are omitting sections of the New Testament because we.

Don'T want to offend our listeners.

We lack the fear of God. What are the promised rewards of the holy fear of God? There's over 40 rewards I share about it in the Awe of God book.

This is the one that came out in February. In 30 years of studying, I found 40 distinct promises that God makes only only to those who fear him. Number one promise is a friendship, a relationship of friendship with God.

If you look at Proverbs 25:14, it says, Friendship with the Lord is reserved.

For those who fear Him. With them, he shares his secrets.

Hey, who's the first guy called the friend of God? Abraham. Why?

Because he obeyed God instantly. He obeyed God when it didn't make sense. He obeyed God when it hurt. He obeyed God when he didn't see a benefit. And he obeyed God to completion. And as soon as he's ready to run the night through Isaac, the angel says, abraham, stop now.

I know you fear God.

Now, what's interesting is you look at Abraham and you look at Lot. Both men are righteous. The Bible calls both men righteous. And Abraham knows what God's going to do with Sodom and Gomorrah before he.

Does it and helps God decide what he's going to do.

Lot is as clueless as the world. You have two righteous men. One righteous man knows the secrets of God.

The other righteous man doesn't know a thing.

He's as clueless as the world.

Why?

Because this man fears God, therefore he's.

The friend of God.

Therefore, God shares his secrets. This man, even though he's righteous, say born again, does not fear God. Therefore, God does not share his secrets with him. Because he's not the friend of God.

You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, John, that's not New Testament. Oh, yes, it is. Look what Jesus said to his disciples.

He said, you are my friends.

We preach about this. We write books about it, we sing.

Songs about it, but we never finish the sentence.

You are my friends. If. If is a condition, this is not an automatic. You have to fulfill the condition. What is the condition? If you do whatever I command you. There are over 500 commands in the New Testament. Why are we preaching them now? Wait a minute, John. We got free from the law. You're preaching law to me. No, that's not law. Look, the law was this. We keep the commandments in order to earn a relationship with God. That's impossible. The New Testament is God changes our nature, gives us his divine nature. Now he gives us the commandments because why? We have the ability to keep them so that we remain in his blessing.

Boy, that really got a lot of.

Go into all the world, make disciples, teaching them to what?

Do all the things I've commanded you. The wisdom of the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Let me end with this. There's so many promises.

We preach that it's the beginning of.

Wisdom, but I wish we'd preach the rest of the story, because Proverbs 14:27.

Says, the fear of the Lord is.

A fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death. A fountain of life to turn one away from the traps of death. It's a fountain. Look at the word fountain. That means a continual flowing source.

All right?

This fountain, what is a fountain of? It is a fountain of the instruction of wisdom. Because look at Proverbs 15:33. So let me say it again, the way the scripture is reading. The fear of the Lord is a continual flowing source of the counsel of wisdom to keep you from the traps. Notice the word traps. Death comes in traps. Can I give you an example of somebody who feared God and had no relationship with him? How the fear of the Lord was a fountain of wisdom to protect him from the traps of death. Can I give you an example? You say. Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. You lost me. You said, feared God and had no relationship.

Yeah.

Cornelius feared God. The Bible says he was devout.

Look it up.

That means he feared God, but he had no relationship. So God sends an angel. Angel says, God likes you so much, but he has no relationship with you. There's a guy named Peter down at Simon's house.

Go down there, get him.

He will tell you how to have a relationship with me.

So Cornelius feared God and still had.

No relationship with him.

So if you look at Abimelech, everybody say, abimelech, he's the king of Ger.

What happens in Genesis 20? Abraham and Sarah come into this king's nation. Now, she's gorgeous. Abraham says, I'm going to present you as my sister.

So Abraham presents Sarah as his sister.

Abimelech is no dummy. He takes Sarah into his harem. God comes to Abimelech at night in a dream and says, you are a.

Dead man because the woman you have.

Is another man's wife.

Abimelech goes, God, I didn't know. Abraham, he told me she was his sister.

Listen to what God says. God says, I know you didn't know. That's why I kept you from touching her and did not let you sin against me. The fear of the Lord in him was a continual flowing source of the counsel of wisdom that kept him from.

Touching her even when. Hold on. Even when Abraham was tricking him into.

The trap of death.

Now can I ask a question? How can a man sit in church and hear the word of God for 20 years and end up in bed.

With another man's wife? It's not rocket science. No fear of God.

How can a pastor stand behind a pulpit and preach the word of God and end up in an affair with.

His assistant who is married to another man in his church? It's not rocket science. It's called no fear of God. But let me give you the flip side of that. If it's the continually flowing source of the counsel of God, God's wisdom, what about those decisions we have to make every day and what we're called to do? When you walk in the fear of God, you walk in that continual, flowing source of God's counsel of wisdom, and you make wise decisions. 95% of the time, you're operating in that council of wisdom. You don't even realize it. Just like Abimelech didn't realize he was operating in that wisdom. That's the good news. Amen.

Let me say this.

Let me say this.

There is so much more.

The book is out there. I know you all are hungry. You probably want to forget getting at the book table. So do this. You're all prime members. Just click the button on Amazon. It's 30% off on Amazon right now. So it's a good deal. You'll have at your house by the time you get home. The other thing I want to say is, out of the deep concern for pastors health and welfare, we began a network. I sent out an email to our list last November. I said, look, we just want to do a Zoom call. We want to minister to you. If you want to be a part of this network, just send us back and say yes. And we're going to do the first zoom call last November. Right? 2,000 pastors signed up. A couple months later, it went up to 6,000 pastors. And I realized, wow, pastors are desperate. They are so hungry. And so we decided to make this a little bit more of an organized network. So if you're interested in being in this pastoral network, we're calling it Healthy Pastors Co. I'm bringing in all the pastors. Like we just did a course two weeks ago. Pastor Jacob Aronza, who is one of the biggest churches in Louisiana, South Louisiana. He's been in ministry over 50 years, yet he acts like a teenager in energy. Okay. I brought him on. I brought Matt Hagee on. Matt Hagee.

We did a course.

We did eight lessons. We're going to make this course. It's part of the Healthy Pastors Network. It's going to be available October 3rd. I'm going to give it to you as a gift. We flew both of them in. Pastor Matt talked about secession as far as how to honor his father after his father has walked faithfully for all these years at Cornerstone there in San Antonio. We just want to help you. So if you're interested, go ahead and sign up for that. And then I just want to pray for you. Can I pray for you and then you guys can go eat? Is that all right? I want you to stand up and I want you to lift your hands, and I want you right now, before I even pray, how many of you say, God, I need the fear of the Lord in my life. Put your hands up if that's you. Okay? I want to pray for you. Remember, Jesus said, if you ask your father for the Holy Spirit, he'll give them to you. I pray that God would baptize me in the holy spirit of the fear of the Lord every day. I said, God, I want a fresh infilling today, Father. I pray for my brothers and my sisters, pastors, church leaders, men and women that have said yes to the call of God upon their lives. I'm asking you, Holy Spirit, fill them, reveal to them Jesus like they've never known him before. And I'm asking now, baptize us with the holy fear of God. May we delight in it even as Jesus did. There's. His presence is here right now. His presence is here. Be filled in Jesus name. Wow. I want you to just thank him right now in your own words. Just say, thank you so much, and let's give him praise. I love you guys. God bless you.