JOHN: Okay. Jesus made a statement. He’s speaking to the “11.” Judas has already gone to betray Him. These are the eleven closest men to Him on the face of the earth. These have been His very best friends. Jesus is allowed to have friends, you know that, right? Okay. So Jesus looks at these guys after Judas leaves. And He says “No longer do I call you servants.” Now the fact that He says no longer do I call you servants means at one time they were looked at and merely regarded as servants. That’s not a revelation, that’s a grammar lesson. Okay? Why does God do that with us? Why is there a time in our walk with Him that even though we’re an “heir” He treats us as a servant? Remember Galatians 4:1 “As long the heir is a child he differs nothing from the servant.” Why? Now listen, this is so important that you understand this. Why is there a time when even though we are an heir God has to treat us as a servant? Can I tell you why? To protect us. Because He loves us so much. He doesn’t want happening to us what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. Okay, let me give you an example that’s really weak but it works, okay? We worked for two very large ministries, worldwide ministries back in the 1980’s. One had a staff of 450 people, the other one had a staff of 150 people. When we were launched into our own ministry in 1990 I came up with a new concept of leadership. Every employee’s going to be my best friend. So some of you already know the stupidity of that wisdom. Okay. So I hired our first guy on. His name was John. And I employed my new strategy. He’s my best buddy. So we’re playing basketball, we would even watch videos, he’d hang out at the house constantly, he’d eat dinner with us all the time, bestÖ the guy was great the first year, until I had to bring some minor correction to him. Because at our resource table he was treating people kinda rude. And so I sat him down after a year and I said, John, listen, these are God’s people. We love them. I don’t want you to be unapproachable at the table. I want you to smile more, I want you to help them. And he looks back at me, no kidding, and he points his finger at me and he starts railing on me. Well you’re this and you’re that and you’re this. And I’m sitting there going, “Ho, my, my.” So I immediately look inside, I said Lord, what do I do?  And the Lord said, “Fire him.” So I let him completely vent. And when he’s done venting, I said, “Well you can’t work for Messenger International anymore. I’m going to have to ask you to leave. Well he storms out. He’s mad. And I start crying “cause I really cared about the guy. Now I’m crying and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says, “He will be back working for you and he will be twice as faithful.” So three months go by, I haven’t heard a peep from him, don’t know what’s going on in his life, I have no idea. And I get a phone call from him. He says, John, this is John. He said for the (laughter). He said for the last, for the, for the last three months God has dealt with me and really spoken to me like He’s never spoken to me before. He said, John, I lost sight of the place God had put you in my life. I lost sight of the place God had placed me in your life. He said I started treating you as common and ordinary. He said I did the same thing with Lisa and he said God has really dealt with me. And he said I am just calling to tell you I am so sorry. I really, really misunderstood and lost sight of who you were in my life. I said John, I forgive you. Well I talked a few more minutes. I said would you, would you come back and work for us? He said “Absolutely!” He came back and worked for us, we never had problems with him in that area again. Now 24 years later I have a new policy. I have 30 employees, right? My policy now is I will not share intimate things of my life with any of my employees until I know first of all they’re very established in who God made them to be in my life and Lisa’s life and until, well they’re very established in who I am in their life and they’re very established in who they are in my life. Right? Are you with me? Because I don’t want to destroy, and I don’t do this because I’m scared to reveal my heart to my employees. I don’t want to destroy them like I almost destroyed that young man. But once I know an employee of ours, a team member of ours is very established in who I am, and very established in who they are, I’ll bring ‘em in.  Some of my employees are my closest friends. Okay? So this is what God says to us: He says until you’re very established in who you are before Me, and very established in who I am before you, I got toa keep you at a servant level even though you’re an heir because I don’t want happening to you what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. But once you’re established in who I am in your life and who you are in my life, the fear of the Lord, I can bring you in as a close friend. Are you seeing this?

 

AUDIENCE:                 Yeah.               (APPLAUSE)

JOHN:  Okay, some of you aren’t getting this, some of you are. Okay, all right. All of you know me as John Bevere, speaker, some of you know me as John Bevere, author, but there is a lady, and she is a lady, her name is Lisa, Lisa Bevere. She knows me as John Bevere, husband, she knows me as John Bevere, best friend, she knows me as John Bevere, Dad, she knows me as John Bevere, Gee Daddy, that’s grandpa because I’m way too young to be called grandpa, she knows me as John Bevere, athlete, she knows me as John Bevere, lover. Now can I say this ñ none of you will ever know me as John Bevere, lover!

 

AUDIENE:                   (LAUGHING)

 

JOHN:  That is a facet of my personality you will never know. Only Lisa knows it because she’s the closest person to me on this earth. God just revealed a facet of His personality to Abraham that nobody had ever known before because he’s my friend. Now if you look at the relationship between God and Abraham it’s amazing. One day God makes this statement: Should we do what we’re planning on doing with Sodom and Gomorrah without first talking to our friend Abraham about this? So the Lord comes down by the terebinth tree, has a meal with Abraham and He and Abraham leave the two angels and everybody else, all the servants and they go over to the cliff and they look over the plains of Sodom and the Lord looks at Abe and says, “Abe, we’re thinking about blowing up these two cities. What do you think?”

 

AUDIENCE:                 (BIG LAUGHTER)

 

JOHN:  And Abe goes SODOM! And the Lord goes yeah, yeah, yeah, Sodom, and Gomorrah, too. What do you think? And Abe goes “think, think, think.  Okay, okay, wait! You wouldn’t like blow up these two cities if there was 50 righteous people, would you? And the Lord goes, “Excellent idea, excellent idea! Okay, we will not blow up the cities if there’s 50 righteous people.” Glad we talked to our friend, Abraham. Abraham goes what if there isn’t 50. He goes wait a minute, wait a minute, what about if there was 45 righteous people? Would you blow up the cities if there’s 45? The Lord goes “another good idea. Okay, we will not blow up the cities if there’s 45.” So Abraham talks Him all the way down to ten. He figures there’s got to be ten, I mean I got Lot’s, one, all I need is 9 others. Right?

 

AUDIENCE:                 (LAUGHTER)

 

JOHN:  But you know there’s not. Now this is what is amazing. The Bible says Sodom and Gomorrah’s buying, selling, trading, marrying, giving in marriage, planting and harvesting. What is all that in today’s vernacular? Life is great, the economy is booming, and if there is a God, He doesn’t mind our lifestyle. They’re 24 hours from being obliterated and they’re clueless. That is not what’s scary. This is what is scary! Everybody say “Lot”!

 

AUDIENCE:                 Lot!

 

JOHN:  Who the Bible calls righteous. Okay, let me put it to you in today’s terminology. Saved, born again, Christian.

 

AUDIENCE:                 Right, uh, huh, c’mon now.

 

JOHN:  Lot’s 24 hours away from being obliterated. He’s as clueless as Sodom and Gomorrah. It takes two messengers of mercy, two angels, because Abraham prayed, thank God Abraham prayed, to get him out. And his wife was a little too attached, that’s why she became a pillar of salt and Jesus says in the New Testament “remember Lot’s wife” in speaking about the fear of the Lord. Now here’s two righteous men, two saved men, two born again men, let’s put in today’s terminology. One righteous man knows what God’s going to do before He’s does it and helps God decide how He’s going to do it. The other righteous man, righteous man, saved man is as clueless as the world. Why? This righteous saved man fears God, therefore he’s the friend of God, therefore God shares His secrets with him. This righteous saved born again man is not the friend of God. He’s saved, he’s righteous but he’s not the friend of God therefore God doesn’t share His secrets with him. Moses is the other man. The Bible says Israel knew God by His works, Moses knew His ways. He revealed His ways to Moses but Israel knew God by His works. Correct? What does it mean that Israel knew God by His works? Israel knew God by how their prayers were answered. Do you know how many people in America, Christians I’m talking about, their relationship with God is limited to how God’s answered my prayers. My daughter was sick, we prayed and God healed her. We had a financial need, we sowed a seed, and God met the need. Moses knew many times what God was going to do before he did it and two times God literally changed His mind because of what Moses said to Him in reminding God of what He had previously said. Now here’s two righteous people, okay, groups of people, because they all came out of Egypt, they all drink the same spiritual food, ate the same spiritual food, they all followed that Rock which was Christ. We have two groups of saved people. Israel who only knows God by how He’s answers his [their] prayers and you have Moses who knows what God’s going to do before he does it. Why? Because Israel doesn’t fear God therefore they don’t know the secrets of God they only know God by how He answers their prayers. And here’s Moses who knows what God’s going to do before He does it because he’s the friend of God because he fears God because the secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him and he will show them His covenant. Now do you want to see this in the New Testament? One person? (audience laughs) Do you want to see it in the New Testament?

 

AUDIENCE:                 YES!

JOHN:  So what I’m asking is what is the evidence, what is the outward evidence in somebody’s life that they truly have the fear of the Lord? Number One: they’ll obey God instantly. Number Two: they’ll obey God even if it doesn’t make sense. See has God ever told you to do something that didn’t really make a lot of sense to you?

 

AUDIENCE:                 Yes he has!

 

JOHN:  Number Three: it means you’ll obey God even if it hurts. Number Four: means you’ll obey God even if you don’t see a benefit. Okay, let’s look at Esther. She’s queen to the Persian king. And her cousin says you have got to go before the king. And you have got to remember even though she’s wife to the king, she can’t walk in that, that court room because she wasn’t scheduled. And if she walks in and he doesn’t point that scepter her head comes off. She had everything to lose and she had nothing to gain. She had nothing to gain by going in there. What, what good would it do her? I mean yeah, all the Jews were going to be destroyed on a certain day. But nobody knew she was a Jew, she’s queen, she’s not going to be destroyed. So she has everything to lose including her head and nothing to gain but she still obeyed God, she feared God. And Number 5: it means you’ll obey Him to completion. Saul did 99.9 percent of what God asked him to do. Yet Samuel still looked at him and said you disobeyed God, you rebelled against God. Think about it, he killed every Amalekite except one person. Now here’s the scripture I wanted to bring you to “cause this is the, I think, this is the jugular vein scripture in the Bible on the fear of the Lord. Psalm 25:14. It says, “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” Now I want you to listen to that: The secret of the Lord, or the secrets of the Lord are with those who fear Him. Now I want to ask you a question to all my audience, if you’re watching by video answer me. How many of you have secrets in your life, let me see a show of your hands, show your hands. Okay, what do I do with the rest of you? Pray with for your lying now or later?

 

AUDIENCE:                 (LAUGHTER)

 

JOHN:     Everybody has secrets in their life. How many of you know all secrets aren’t bad? Okay? So your mind went to the negative on that one. Okay?

 

AUDIENCE:                 (LAUGHTER)

 

JOHN: All right, so let me ask again how many of you got secrets in your life? Everybody’s got secrets. All right. Now this is, this is, I want you to honestly answer this question: Who do you share your secrets with and I’m going to give you two choices. Choice Number One, okay: acquaintances? Choice Number Two: intimate close friends?

 

AUDIENCE:                 Close friend, intimate close friends.

 

JOHN:  Intimate close friends. God’s no different. God says I share My secrets with My intimate close friends and by the way My intimate close friends are those who fear Me. Now let me show you I’m not taking this out of context. I’m going to read Psalm 25:14 same psalm out of the New Living Translation: “Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear Him.” So you know what God is saying right there? Not everybody is My friend. Let me be more specific: not everybody in the church is My friend.

 

AUDIENCE:                 Right.

 

JOHN: Okay? There were two men that were called the friend of God in the Old Testament. Okay? Who were the two men? Abraham and Moses. Were there others? Absolutely! Okay, I believe David was a friend of God, I believe Daniel was a friend of God, I believe Joseph was a friend of God, many others, Deborah, Esther. But these two men’s lives exemplified what it took to have a relationship of friendship with the Lord. Let’s talk about the first guy, Abraham. Why is Abraham called the friend of God? Because when Abraham was really old, one night God comes to him and says, “Abe?” “Yes, Lord, yes.” I want you to take your son who you really love, who you’ve really grown attached to, the son you’ve waited for for 25 years. And I want you to go on a three-day journey and kill him for Me. Now, okay, you’ve heard the story a thousand times, okay, if not, if not more. But you had the Book of Genesis to read, he didn’t. You have to understand all God says to him this night is I want you to go three days and kill Isaac. He doesn’t tell him why. He doesn’t say if you sacrifice Isaac then I’ll send My Son. He does not say that! Do you understand what God is asking him to do? It would have been easier for Abraham to go kill himself, because there was nothing or no one more important to Abraham than Isaac. Yet do you know what my Bible says? Early the next morning Abraham saddles his donkey and is on his way. You know how some people say, “Well, you know the Lord’s been dealing with me about this now for several months” and they laugh.

 

AUDIENCE:                 (LAUGHTER)

 

JOHN:  You are bragging about your lack of the fear of God. Okay? Okay? So now God gives him a three-day journey. Why? To think it over. It’s easier when you heard the booming voice of God the night before. But what about three, two and a half days later, you haven’t heard one word from heaven and you’re looking at the mountain, you’re going to put the most important person or thing to death in your life just because God said do it and didn’t give you a reason to do it. But Abraham goes to the top of the mountain, he builds the altar. Can you imagine his emotions while he’s building that altar? And his son’s helping him build it. He ties up Isaac on that altar, he lifts up the knife and he’s ready to put the most important person or thing to death in his life just because God said do it and didn’t give him a reason. And right as he’s ready to thrust the knife through Isaac, an angel of the Lord appears, and you go read it in your own Bible, and the angel says “Abraham stop, because now I know you fear God? How did the angel know that Abraham feared God? Because he obeyed instantly, because he obeyed when it didn’t make sense, because he obeyed when it hurt, because he obeyed when he didn’t see a benefit, and because he obeyed to completion. Abraham puts down the knife, unties Isaac, lifts up his eyes and there’s a ram caught in the thicket. And out of his inside comes this: JEHOVAH JIREH! The Lord my Provider! Now you’ve heard that before because you’ve read the Bible. But wait a minute. God just revealed a facet of His personality to Abraham no human being had ever known before. Why? Because he’s my friend.

 

AUDIENCE:                 Ahhh. Mmmm.