The Awe of God

Hey I love you. Thank you so much. Good morning Victory! Hey everybody stay standing. Uncle John is in the house and I actually shouldn't have said good morning Victory. I'd rather say good morning family because I love love love love this church. I have been coming over 30 years. Oh my gosh so I started coming when I was three years old. Isn't that cool? So anyway listen I know a lot of you are new. You don't know me and just because two over 2,000 people have come into the church just this year alone. That is so exciting. So I've been around a while and I'm gonna treat you like family because I love you like family and I was praying this morning God give me your heart for this beautiful beautiful church and I just want to say hi to Hamilton Mill, Midtown, Hamilton Mill, Midtown and all the other campuses. I just am so aware. I feel you here right now and let me just say this. I am absolutely so blessed by your leaders and this is why this is one of the greatest churches in the United States and I've been in over a thousand churches. This is truly one of the greatest churches and I look at Pastor Johnson, Pastor Summer and the foundation that Pastor Dennis and Colleen laid. Amazing. Pastor Johnson, Pastor Summer. God has put his hand on their life to bring you guys to levels like you never dreamed of. Hey this is going to be a great ride. It is because God is gonna do so much through this church. So much more than you ever even imagined. Amen. And remember the church is all of us not just the leaders. Amen. My family's doing great. We finally got all four sons married off. It happened last year. Here's a recent picture. I'm glad. I got four new daughters. Lisa. Lisa is my very best friend. We've been married 41 years. Four sons. Four gorgeous daughter-in-laws. Our sons have worked for us nine years plus all of them and and then we've got all those G babies. You say what's a G baby? I'm way too young to be grandpa so it's G daddy and G for short. And you could see Christian's pregnant right there holding her tummy. That's because Azzy came along a couple months later. So let's show you Azzy. My first real Italian looking boy. That's what I love. That's what I love. Oh my gosh he's got my heart. Anyway that's my family. The more I love him the more I know how much God loves us because we're his big family. Can you

say amen? And he does love us. Amen. So listen I I don't want to just bring you a message today. I want to see your life change forever. How many of you actually believe your life can be changed in one service? Let me see a show of hands. Alright put up your other hand because we don't have because we don't ask. So we gotta ask. Amen. Alright keep them up. Keep them up. There you go. Father in Jesus name you love this church so much. You love the every single individual in this building so much. Lord I'm asking today that you would do again what you love to do the most. Reveal Jesus in a way like we've never ever seen him before. What an honor it is to stand here and to proclaim your word. What an honor to even speak your name. And so I'm asking Holy Spirit of God that you would change us forever today. May we go from glory to glory and strength to strength. For I decree your kingdom has come. Your will shall be done in this place on earth as it is in heaven. For this we give you all the glory and the honor and the praise and the thanksgiving. And it's in Jesus mighty majestic holy name we pray. And everybody that agrees shouts. Come on give him praise for what he's gonna do. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Okay this morning I'm gonna be sharing with you more of a burden not a message. This is the newest book that I've written. It's called the awe of God. It has actually blown me away. We have never seen a book that I've written and this is my 23rd shoot out of the gate like this one has. It's literally exploded around the nation and I think you'll understand why. Because I believe it's a right now word. And so in order to introduce this and I want to say this because at the end I don't think it'll be appropriate. I prayed and I said God this is the most important message I believe you've ever had me write. What do I do? People aren't reading. And he put it in my heart to write short chapters. So there's 42 chapters in this book. All but two chapters have only six pages. So I don't care if you're the slowest reader in Atlanta you'll get through it in eight minutes okay. And then there's the five Ps, the point, the passage, the ponder, the prayer, and the profession. So it's not a devotional. You can sit and read it as a book from cover to cover if you want. But it is set up like that so that you can

do a 42 day journey which is six weeks. And not only that there are 42 four minute videos there in the back in the QR code that you can go through that are supplemental material. I just want to see this get into your heart and you'll understand why. I want to open up with three verses of Scripture this morning. Scripture number one is Isaiah 33 verse 6. I want you to look at these words. The fear of the Lord is God's treasure. Now would you just stop and think about what you just read and heard. God's treasure? Do you have treasures? What do you do with your treasures? Do you throw them in your junk drawer? Do you just put them in the front lawn and forget about them? You take great care of your treasures because they are valuable. The fear of the Lord is God's treasure. Now, look at Isaiah 11 three. It tells us that the fear of the Lord is Jesus's delight. Okay, now let's move into the New Testament. And Paul the Apostle writes in Philippians chapter two that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Notice we don't work out our salvation with love and kindness, fear and trembling. So, wait a minute, let's step back and think about what we just read. We are talking about God's treasure, Jesus's delight, and the very thing that matures our salvation. Why are we talking about this a whole lot more in the Western church? First of all, let's start out with defining

what is the fear of the Lord? It is not about being scared of God. How can you have a relationship of intimacy with somebody you're afraid of? If you'll remember, when Moses leads Israel out of Egypt, he brings them to Sinai, and God says, tell them the whole reason I brought them out of Egypt was to bring them to me. I can't wait to introduce myself to my kids. And when God comes down on the mountain three days later to introduce himself, they all scream and run away. Moses, in shock, looks at the people and says this. This is an amazing statement. Do not fear. Everybody say, do not fear. Do not fear. Because God's come to test you. What's the test? To see if his fear is in you so that you may not sin. Now, wait a minute. Do not fear because God's come to see if his fear is in you? Is Moses talking out of two sides of his mouth? No, he's differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. There is a difference. The person who is scared of God has something to hide. What does Adam do when he sins against God? He hides from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God has nothing to hide. That person is actually terrified of being away from God.

So if you want your first definition of the fear of the Lord, it is to be scared, even further, terrified of being away from God. How else do we define the fear of the Lord? Well, or the awe of God, I should say. It is to stand in awe or to tremble before him. That's what it really means to fear God. You stand in awe and you tremble before him, okay? We reverence, we honor, we value him more than anything or anyone else. We prioritize him. He's top of the list. What is important to him becomes important to me. What is not so important to him is not so important to me. We literally take on his heart. Therefore, we love what he loves and we hate. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, you just said hate? Yeah, we hate what he hates. Wait a minute, John, God hates? Yes, God doesn't hate people, but God hates, okay? Now, let me make this really clear because I feel concern in the room. Okay, let's just say it like this. Legalists, everybody say legalists. Who are legalists? They are people that I believe the enemy raises up to pervert what brings us close to God. The legalist would make a statement like this. I fear God, that's why I hate those sinners. No, you, sir, have no fear.

You, sir, have no fear of God because you hate who he loves. God loves those sinners so much, he came and died for them. What God hates is the sin that unmakes them, the object of his love. This is why the Bible says in Proverbs 8, verse 13, all who fear the Lord will hate. Now, look at this, hate, everybody say hate. It doesn't say all who fear the Lord will dislike. You dislike evil, you don't have the fear of the Lord. You avoid evil and say, I'm not gonna talk about it. I question whether you fear God or not. This is why Paul brings it to another level in the New Testament, he says, abhor what is evil. The word abhor in the original language means strong hatred. So Paul doesn't just say, hey, he says, strongly hate what's evil. Good preaching, John, amen, thank you so much. I remember when I first started the ministry back in 1990, I actually was coming here, right? You were storefront right over there. I was praying two hours every single morning. And then I would study the Bible. I had a lot of time because people were inviting me to come. And yet I would stand up and preach and my words didn't carry very much weight. There wasn't an anointing on me. And I started getting really frustrated because I'm praying two hours every morning

and then spending time in the Word. And I'm like, God, I don't get it. Why isn't there a stronger anointing on my life? You've called me to do this. Why do my words seem so powerless? And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said, son, because you tolerate sin. I said, what? He said, not only in your life, but in the lives of others. He said, read Hebrews chapter one. So I go over to Hebrews chapter one and I find out this is the day that Jesus is raised from the dead and God the Father is inaugurating him as King of the universe. And God the Father, listen to what he says to Jesus. He says, because you have loved righteousness. And the Holy Spirit said, stop right there. Every Christian loves righteousness, including you. He said, but that's not all I said. Because you have loved righteousness and, now look at this and, hated, hated sin. Therefore God, even your God has anointed you beyond your companions. The Spirit of God spoke to me right there and he said, son, learn to hate sin the way I hate sin. You'll see the anointing increase upon your life. Now notice he specifically says lawlessness. Lawlessness is actually the definition of sin. Hey, you gotta remember, Adam didn't jump in bed

with a prostitute in the garden, guys. He simply disobeyed what God told him to do. You know, if you look at the word lawlessness, the word lawlessness, that word is the Greek word anomia, which means you're a law unto yourself. In other words, you determine what's right for your life. If you look at the two trees in the garden, they really illustrate what's going on in our society today. If you look at the tree of life, the tree of life means God is my creator. I know he knows what makes me and breaks me, so I trust him, okay? Okay, let me give it to you so you really get it. As a father of four sons about two decades ago when they were all toddlers, Christmas was always a work day. You get it? They open up the gifts and guess who's building the toys all day long? Me, right? So I'm your typical dad. I rip open the box, throw the pieces on the floor, throw the box and the instruction manual over in the corner and just start building it. I spend an hour building it and I'm finished, but there's still 10 pieces on the floor. I hit the switch and it doesn't work. What do I do? I go get the instruction manual, I deconstruct the toy, I build it the way the author or the manufacturer said to do it, and wow, I hit the switch

and lo and behold, it works. God is the one who created us. He knows what breaks me and he knows what makes me. Okay, that's the tree of life. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is when I choose what is best for my life outside of what God says. When she saw the tree was good. It doesn't say when she saw the tree was evil and would make her wicked. When she saw it was good and was made, that was when they decided we know what's right for our life. Well, let me tell you something. If you look at our society today, you put a pair of hands up and a skirt up in front of a six year old and you say, okay, which one are you drawn to? You know what you're saying, that child? Forget that you were fearfully and wonderfully made by your creator in your mother's womb. You're the one that chooses what's right for your life. You are literally training that child in lawlessness. Good preaching, John, amen. Thank you so much. I'm helping you this morning. They told me you were the rowdy one now. Come on, live up to your expectation here, okay? Amen? If you wanna divide the fear of the Lord

into two categories, let's do it to define it this morning. Category number one is to tremble at his presence. Category number two is to tremble at his word. I wanna talk about each briefly, all right? What does it mean to tremble at his presence? God asks his people, he said, hey, do you not fear me? Will you not tremble? Look at the word tremble at my presence. In other words, do you really know who I am? I mean, Isaiah is a godly man. He's a preacher of righteousness. God transports him to the throne in Isaiah 6. He has one glimpse of the Lord. And let me tell you something, when he sees the throne, he notices these massive angels. They're crying, holy, holy, holy. They're not crying, holy, holy. They're not singing a song, holy, holy, holy Lord. No, that's a Hebrew form of writing. Whatever a Hebrew wanted to emphasize a word, they write it twice. Remember, Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, Jesus didn't have a speech impediment, guys. If you're John at the last supper, Jesus goes, verily, I say to you guys. John goes, whoa, I gotta write that twice. Not everybody says to me, Lord, Lord. He didn't say Lord twice. He said, Lord so strong, Matthew wrote it twice.

Now, Hebrews were careful with words. Like, we're so sloppy with words in America. Seriously, you know, the only place you'll find awesome in the whole Bible, you know the only place you'll find it? Dealing with God and his attributes because he is full of all, right? So you eat the hamburger and you go to the. Movie, awesome movie, right? Hamburger's awesome. I tell you, God is awesome and you think so is my hamburger. So the Hebrews understood the power of words. So there's only two, there's only three or four times in the whole Bible that a word's written three times. And one of them's in Revelations when the angels are crying, "'Woe, woe, woe,' to the rest of the people on the earth before the judgment's poured out." They're not saying, woe, three times. They're saying, woe, so loud, it's shaking all the heavens and the earth. Okay, Isaiah and John both, John in Revelations and Isaiah, see the throne and these massive beings called seraphim. One is crying to the other, holy. And you're crying holy so strong, shaking an arena in heaven that seats over a billion beings to its foundations. They're not saying, God, I've been doing this for 10 trillion years.

Can I go to another part of the universe and take a break? Are you kidding? They don't wanna be anywhere else. Every minute, another facet of his greatness is being revealed and one cries to the other, holy. And you know what's amazing? You know what's amazing? One's not crying to the other, faithful, faithful, faithful. Is God faithful? You better believe he's faithful. But that's not his attribute that stands out. They're not saying, love, love, love, is God love? Yes, you better believe he's love. He doesn't even have love, he is love. But they're crying, holy, because the attribute of God that stands out above all other attributes is his holiness. You know what Oswald Chambers said? Oswald Chambers said, oh boy. He said, when we preach the love of God, there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals, first of all, not the love of God, but the intense, blazing holiness of God with his love at the center of that holiness. Isaiah sees the Lord in his glory. And he doesn't say, dude, there he is, man. I'm finally meeting a man upstairs. No, are you kidding me? He is on his face. He is undone.

He is coming apart at the scenes. And he cries out, woe is me. Are you kidding me? This is a preacher of righteousness. In Isaiah five, he said, woe to the sinner, woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, woe to the proud. Isaiah six, he has one glimpse of the one he's serving. It's no longer woe is the sinner, it's woe is me. For the first time in his life, he realizes who he is before this holy God. And for the first time in his life, he realizes who this holy God is. You know, Job was the most righteous man on the whole earth. When he saw God, he said, I've heard you. By the hearing of the ear of my eye, he sees you. I utterly abhor myself. John the apostle was the closest disciple to Jesus. He saw Jesus on the island of Patamos in his glory. His face shone like the sun, and John fell down like a dead man. Let me tell you something. The enemy wants more than anything else to dumb down who God is in your eyes. He wants to dumb him down. He wants you to think God's on your level. That's where the leaders of Israel said, the Lord doesn't see us. Yeah, you can hide things from your wife, but you can't hide things from him

because everything is naked and exposed to him to who we must give an account. We have forgotten who it is we are serving. Let me tell you something. I was asked to the nation of Brazil, 1997. And I was so excited because I had always wanted to go to Brazil. And I remember flying down to Brazil, and it's a national conference for a church network of over 300,000 people in that church network, right? And I remember they drove me to the arena. It's not an auditorium, it's an arena. And the place is completely packed. And I'm on the platform. Unfortunately, back in those days, they put pastors on the platform. We felt like spectacles, but anyway. I'm on the platform, and the first thing I notice is the absence of the presence of God in the arena. And I'm baffled. I'm like, wait a minute, this is a believer's conference, not an evangelistic conference. Where's the presence of God? So I bowed my head and I said, God, where is your presence? And all of a sudden, I opened my eyes and I see things that I didn't see before. I saw people standing around like this during worship going like this. They got their hands in their pocket doing this.

They're talking to their friends, fumbling through their purses. They're walking up and down the aisles, going to the concession stands all around the arena, getting their soft drinks, getting their tacos. You see the friend coming back, hey man, what's going on, high five. I'm like, this will stop. Well, they go through the whole worship set. Now the music's not playing, because the music's not playing, you can hear the rumble of all the conversations that are going on. Leader comes up and starts reading from the Bible. And you can still hear people talking, watching people walking around, high-fiving each other. And I'm like, this is crazy. And the Holy Spirit speaks to me. He said, son, you gotta deal with this. I said, yeah, but how do I even get their attention? So I remember, he gave me an idea. So when they introduced me, I walk up to the podium, and I just put my elbow on the podium, and I just stared at them, didn't say a word. Now when you're the Friday night guest speaker of the National Conference in Brazil, and you're just staring at people, that will get people's attention. Because it's like, everybody stop walking around, everybody stop talking, they're all looking at me like.

What are you doing? And when I realized every eye was on me in the place, it took 60 seconds, every eye was on me in the place, this is the first words I ever spoke in Brazil in public, first words, first words, I didn't say thank you for having me, I said, I have a question. You're sitting talking to somebody sitting across the table, the whole time you're talking to them, they got their arms crossed looking around as if they're disinterested, they got their hands in the pocket looking down, or they're talking to somebody sitting next to them. I said, are you gonna continue to talk to them? No, I said, I've been in this arena for over an hour, there's not a drop of the presence of God in this arena. I said, because God will never come into a place where he's not held with the utmost of respect. I said, Psalm 89 verse seven says, God is to be greatly feared in the assembly of the saints and to be held in reverence by all those who surround them. Put it up there for us so everybody can see it. God is to be greatly feared in the assembly, oh, yeah, greatly feared, everybody say greatly. I said, and then I looked at him, I said, hey, if the president of your nation would have walked on this platform tonight, you would have given him 10 times the respect

you did the Holy Spirit. I said, if Pele, the greatest soccer player in Brazil's history, I mean, he is their Michael Jordan. I said, if he would have walked on this platform tonight, you would have been on the edge of your seats anticipating every word. I said, you've given no respect to the Spirit of God. And I preached them for 75 minutes on the fear of the Lord. When I was done after 75 minutes, I said, you're in here, you say you're born again, but you lack the fear of God and you're willing to repent, stand to your feet. 75% of the arena stands to their feet immediately. As soon as they do, the presence of God comes in. I'm like, finally, right? And it was wonderful. People, I hear sobs and it's beautiful and I let him in a prayer of repentance, a couple waves of his presence. But then there was like a lull and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and he said, son, I'm gonna come one more time. And I remember saying, he's coming one last time. And there's no way I can ever do this justice, but I'm gonna try to tell you what happened. Imagine being at the end of Hartsfield Airport and a Boeing jet takes off. That kind of a violent wind came blowing into that arena. When that wind started blowing, the people started screaming.

Now, can you imagine thousands of Latinos screaming? That's loud, the wind was louder. And I remember, listen to me carefully, I am standing there and I am petrified. I'm not kidding, but yet I'm drawn to it. It's the weirdest thing. You're petrified, but you're drawn. I remember the Bible says in the New Testament, Moses exceedingly quaked when God's presence came on that mountain. I had never encountered authority like this, a presence like this. And I remember I'm standing there and this wind is blowing and these people are screaming and this thought goes through my mind really strong. John Bevere, you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you're dead. Would that have happened? I don't know, but a man and a wife made a wrong move in a presence like that when they came to their church service in the book of Acts, chapter five, and they buried them both the same day. I knew irreverence would not be tolerated in this atmosphere. And I remember the wind lasted 90 seconds, it subsided, it left in its wake, the people were collapsed all over the arena. They're on the floor, they're bent over the seats in front of them, weeping. And I'm like, what do I do?

What do I do? And Holy Spirit finally spoke to me and said, send them through with you. So I turned it over to the leader, I said, it's all yours. So they real quick whisked me out to the car. They put the soloist that night and her husband in the car, she screams, did you hear the wind? I said, hey, hey, maybe it was just a jet aircraft that flew too low over the arena. She goes, what are you talking about? And she starts saying, and her husband calms her down. He says, sir, that wasn't a jet airplane. I said, how do you know? He said, because there were security men and policemen outside of the arena. When the wind started blowing, they came running in to see what was going on. He said, furthermore, I'm at the soundboard because I had to make sure my wife's levels were right, singing. He said, I'm looking at the decimal mirrors while the wind is blowing and they're at zero. That means not one bit of that sound came through our sound system. And then the driver goes, sir, where would you like to eat? I said, no, take me to my hotel room. And I remember I sat on the balcony until one third in the morning, just worshiping, thinking, did I really, really just encounter

what we encountered tonight? Let me tell you, God makes a statement, Leviticus 10 three, by those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy. There are the should be's in scriptures, there are the must be's. You're wise to know the should be's, you're a fool to not know the must be's. I must be regarded as holy. I was in Malaysia two years later, this is 1990. now. This is another national conference. It is an auditorium like this. It is not an arena this time. People had come from all over the nation of Malaysia to Kuala Lumpur, the capital, for these meetings. We did 10 meetings. We were on the 10th meeting, and I will never forget this as long as I live. That presence came in again, but it was even stronger this time. No wind, no sound, just the presence. And I remember when that presence came in, without me saying a word, everybody started screaming in prayer. And again, I'm standing there, petrified. Again, I am thinking, Bavir, you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you're dead. Okay? And I remember I'm pacing very cautiously, and out of my mouth comes words that my mind had never thought of before. I heard these words come out of my mouth. This is the spirit of the fear of the Lord, and all of a sudden I realized in my mind, that's one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Jesus, Isaiah said. The spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord. I realized right there, this is one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I remember this one lasted about five, six minutes. It subsided. People are all over the floor, literally on the floor. Nobody caught them, they're all over the floor. And I'm standing there, what do I do? And the Lord's like, I'm through with you. So I turn over the leader again, right? And the leader comes up, he's wise, he goes, we were gonna do a song, we're not doing it. This service is over, you can stay as

long as you want. And I remember I hung out for 15 minutes, and I thought, I'm exhausted, I gotta go. And I'm walking out the back of the auditorium, and I get met by this couple. And I have noticed this couple got absolutely nailed by this presence. She literally baptized in fire. And we're just staring at each other for like 30 seconds and not saying a word. I mean, what do you say? Cool service. Yeah, man, cool service. Really was. Now, we're just staring at each other. And finally, she breaks the silence after about 30 seconds. She goes, I feel so clean inside. I went, oh my gosh, that nailed it. That's what I felt in Brazil two years ago. That's what I feel right now. That's what I felt in Texas, in Northern California. I mean, because I've experienced this like five times in my life. And I remember going to my hotel room that night, I thought, clean, clean, clean. She's right, clean. That's it, clean. And I remember the next morning, I'm up, and I'm getting ready to go actually go play basketball with the Bible school students in Malaysia. And the Spirit of God, I'm putting my gym shorts on, and the Spirit of God said, read Psalm 19. I had no idea what was in Psalm 19. I'm like, okay. I grabbed my Bible, because it wasn't an iPad back in those days, and I opened up my Bible to Psalm 19. I started reading verse 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. It doesn't make any sense until I get to verse 9, because look what I read in verse 9. The fear of the Lord is clean. I went, oh my gosh, there it is. Now, look at the next words, enduring forever. And those words jumped off the page. And the Spirit of God, right there in that hotel room, spoke to me. And he said, son, Lucifer led worship right before my throne. He was anointed to do so. He beheld my glory, what put Isaiah on his face. He didn't fear me. He didn't endure forever. He said, son, a third of the angels surrounded my throne in heaven. They beheld my glory. They didn't fear me. They didn't endure in heaven forever. He said, Adam and Eve walked in the garden, in the presence of my glory. They didn't fear me. They didn't endure in the garden forever. A few hours later, I started thinking, wow, there are ministers that have started ministry. They didn't endure in ministry forever, because they lacked the fear of the Lord. Barna tells us there's over 20 million Americans that

have walked away from the faith in the last 23 years. 20 million. That's one out of every 14 Americans. They have gone from practicing Christians to now agnostics, spiritualists, and atheists. They profess that. Paul said this would happen. He said, before that day comes, he said, there will be a massive falling away. But what Paul never wrote is that these people wouldn't come back. And just as John the Baptist was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, I believe there's a company of men and women, young and old alike, that are going after the lost sheep of the house of the church. And I believe some of you are in here. Amen? Many of you are in here. Let me go a little further. Many of you are in here. Let me tell you something. It's go time, guys. We are not in a cruise time. We are in go time. The coming of the Lord is so near. And if you can't see that you are spiritually blind, Jesus rebuked the leaders and said, you can't discern, you can discern the sky, you can tell the weather from the sky, but you can't discern the season. He said we know the season, not the day or the hour, but we would know the time period. We're in it, and it's go time. Amen. Amen. The fear of the Lord is to tremble at God's word. Now this is amazing. What does it mean to tremble at God's word? If you look at Isaiah 66, Isaiah was a lot like America. They were selectively obeying God. In other words, they obeyed when it was convenient, they just ignored when it wasn't. So God finally rebukes them through the prophet, and God makes the statement then,

this is the one to whom I will look. Now look at this. The word look is an interesting Hebrew word. You know what it means? It means pay close attention to. God is saying this is the one that I pay close attention to. Tommy Tenney wrote a book years ago called The God Chasers. One thing to chase God, it's a whole nother thing to have God chasing you. You say God chases people? Mm-hmm. He chased after Cornelius, the Roman centurion, sent an angel. Angel said, I can't tell you how to get saved, but Peter can, go send for him. God was chasing because he feared God. If you look at David, God was chasing David. He sent the senior prophet to his house. Daddy sends all seven sons. God says, I'm not chasing any of these seven sons. I'm chasing the little ruddy one with the sheep. Okay, so when God says this is the one I'm paying close attention to, in essence, he's saying this is the one I'm chasing. Now, how many of you really, honestly, would love it if God was chasing you? Oh my God. We're called a bride. I chase my bride. You understand what I'm talking about?

You know where I'm going here? Okay, now, who does he chase? He tells us, the person that is humble, who's contrite in spirit or in heart, and who trembles at my word. So this is a scriptural term. What does it mean to tremble at the word of God? It means we obey him instantly. You ever meet somebody and they say, well, you know, the Lord's been dealing with me about this now for several months. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Okay, you are like laughing at your lack of the fear of God. David says in Psalm 119, listen to this, I will hurry to obey your commands because they're my delight. It means we'll obey God even if it doesn't make sense. Does it make sense? Does God ever tell you to do something that doesn't make sense? Does it make sense to forgive somebody who's really hurt your family? Does it make sense to bless people who are actually cursing you? Blessing them. Does it make sense to do good to somebody does it make sense to do good to somebody who has abused you? You'll find it all in the book of Luke and the book of Matthew, Sermon on the Mount.

What we're talking about the last 10 months. You still with me? When we tremble at his word, we obey God even if it hurts. Jesus obeyed the father to the point of death and Peter said, as Christ suffered, you arm yourself with the same mind because when you obey God in a fallen world, you are going to suffer. To tremble at God's word means we obey him. Notice we obey in all of them. We obey him even if you don't see a benefit. Do you know that the only way you can get a lot of Christians to obey God is to show them the benefit. If you pray, God will do this. If you obey, God will do this. If you serve, God will do this. Does God do this, this, and this? Yes. If you give, he will multiply your seed, Tony. If you serve, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that better not be your motive because what if that was Esther's motive? Esther's got everything to lose, including her head, and nothing to gain. And she looks at her cousin and says, I'm going for the king. If I die, I die. She feared God. Because when you fear God, obedience is a premium. If you tremble at his word,

that means you'll obey him all the way to completion. King Saul does 99.99% of what God asked him to do. God says, he disobeyed me. Now, if King Saul was a millennial today, he would've said, wait a minute, why don't you look at the 99.9 that I did? Why are you looking at the 0.1 I didn't do? Jesus said, when you've done all these things you're commanded, say, we're unprofitable servants. The fear of the Lord, when we tremble at his word, we obey to completion. When we fear God, we don't twist his word to fit into our culture. When we fear God, we don't pervert his word to fit into my lifestyle. Why are we saying, why are, here's what I'm convinced. What is getting the American church in trouble is not what we're saying. It's what we're not saying. Still with me? Paul said, I'm innocent of the blood of all men. In other words, another translation, he said, if anybody goes to hell, it's not my fault because I didn't hold back any part of God's counsel. I didn't shun. I didn't ignore any part of God's counsel. When you walk through the Beatitudes, let me tell you something, you're a pastor that's willing to say some stuff.

Your pastor just preached on hell a couple weeks ago. You need to thank God for that. Jesus talked about hell twice as much as heaven because he wants to protect people so they don't go there because he died for them because he loves them so much. Still with me? Let me go to some of the rewards. Let me make this a little happier now. Can I do that? I'm gonna tell you this. I've been studying this for 30 years. It's my life message. And I have discovered in 30 years over 40 distinct promises or rewards that are made to only those who fear God. And I'm not talking one scripture. I'm talking a boatload of scriptures for each of the 40. I mean, the promises are amazing. A blessed posterity, I could talk about that. I could talk about security. I can talk about freedom from the fear of man. The only thing that will set you free from the fear of man is the fear of God. Church has taught that for 2,000 years, but we don't talk about it in America. And the fear of man is a snare, it's a trap. Can I tell you what the number one, everybody say number one, number one benefit, promise, reward made to those that fear God is an intimate friendship with him.

Proverbs 1.7 and 2.5 tells us that the fear of Lord is the starting place of an intimate relationship with God. Psalm 25 verse 14 says, look at this up, I'm gonna put up on the board, friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear him. With them, he shares his secrets. You know what God's saying there? Not everybody in the church is my friend. I don't share my secrets with everybody. Okay, no, no, no, no. Look at it, who's the first person called the friend of God in the Bible? Who's the first one? Abraham. Why is Abraham called the friend of God? Because when he's old, God comes to him one night and says, Abe. Ah, yes, Lord, yes, yes. You know your son that you love more than anything or anyone else, the one you waited for for 25 years that I promised you? Yeah, Isaac, sure, I know. I want you to go on a three-day journey and sacrifice him. That's all, that's it, that's all he said. He didn't say if you go sacrifice him, I'll send my son. And Abraham doesn't have the book of Genesis to read. I quite imagine he didn't sleep that night. I mean, he's wrestling all night, yelling in a dark room with no response.

God, why don't you let me sacrifice me? You said the nations would come through him. I sacrifice him. Are you gonna give me like another son? But you told me he was the promised one. I would imagine he didn't sleep. But you know what my Bible says? Early the next morning. Look at this. Well, you know, the Lord's been dealing with me about this now for several months. You and Abraham, two different birds. He's on his way early the next morning. Now, God gives him a three-day journey. Why? It's a little easier when you heard the booming voice of God the night before, but what about two and a half days later when you've not heard anything from heaven? Anything. And now you're looking at the mountain. You're gonna 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. Abraham goes to the top of the mountain, starts building the altar with his son, his 13-year-old son, helping him. And then his 13-year-old son goes, Dad, where's the sacrifice? Abraham's like, God don't provide, son, God don't provide.

He builds it, ties up Isaac on the altar, lifts the knife, is ready to put the most important person or thing to death in his life just because God said do it. And an angel appears, and an angel says, Abraham, stop! Because now you're gonna die. Now I know, you fear God. How does the angel know that Abraham feared God? Number one, he obeyed instantly. Number two, he obeyed when it didn't make sense. He obeyed when it hurt. He obeyed when he didn't see a benefit and he obeyed to completion. Abraham puts down the knife, unties Isaac, lifts his eyes and there's a ram caught in the thicket and out of his mouth comes Jehovah-Jireh. God just revealed a facet of his personality to Abraham no human being had ever known before because he's my friend. Okay. You're not getting it. All of you know me as John Bevere speaker, Uncle John. You all know me as Uncle John, right? Some of you know me as John Bevere author, but there is a lady and whoa, she's a lady. She knows me as John Bevere husband, John Bevere best friend, John Bevere G-Daddy, John Bevere dad, John Bevere athlete. Can I say this? None of you will ever know me as John Bevere husband. That is a facet of my personality.

Nobody knows but her. God just revealed a facet of his personality to Abraham nobody had ever known before because he's my friend. Now look at the relationship between God and Abraham. It's amazing. One day the Lord says, should we dare to Sodom and Gomorrah what we're planning on doing without first talking to our friend Abraham? So the Lord comes down by the cherubic trees and he and Abe go over and they stand at this cliff and the Lord looks at Abe and goes, Abe, yes, yes, Lord. We're thinking about blowing up these two cities over there. What do you think? Abe goes, Sodom? Lord goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, and Gomorrah. What do you think? Abraham goes, think, think, think lots over there. Oh my gosh, my nephew's over there. Okay, Lord, you wouldn't like blow up the cities if there was 50 righteous people, would you? Lord goes, excellent idea, excellent idea. Okay, we will not blow up the cities with 50 righteous people. Glad we talked to our friend Abraham. Abraham goes, well, there isn't 50. Okay, what about 45? Would you blow up those 45?

Lord goes, another good idea. So Abraham talks him all the way down to 10. He figures there's lots one. All I need is nine other guys. But here's what's really scary. There isn't. Now listen, listen to this. The Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah is 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. It's on an upswing. A lot better than us today, but it's on a booming, it's an upswing. And if there's a God, He doesn't mind our lifestyle. He's cool with trans. He's cool with homosexuality. He's cool with living together before I get married. He's cool with me hooked on drugs. He's cool with all that. Gosh, 24 hours away from being annihilated and they're clueless. That's not what's scary. This is what's scary. Lot, everybody say Lot. It's the name of man. It's Abraham's nephew, who the Bible calls righteous. Second Peter chapter two, the Bible calls him righteous.

He'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. Go look in your Bible. Abraham prayed and said, God sent angels down to get him out. What if Abraham hadn't prayed? We wouldn't have had Moab and Ammon, but anyway, that's another whole story. Now, here's the thing. Here's two righteous men. Let me modernize this. Two saved men, two born-again men. One righteous man knows what God's gonna do before he does it and helps God decide how he's gonna do it. The other righteous saved, born-again man is as clueless as the world. Why? This righteous saved man, born-again man, he fears God, therefore he's the friends of God, therefore God shares his secrets. This righteous saved, born-again man does not fear God, therefore he is not the friend of God, therefore God does not share his secrets with him. You say, John, is this in the New Testament? Yes, look what Jesus said in John 14. He said, you are my friends. Now, we sing songs about it, we preach sermons,

write books, but we don't finish the sentence. He said, if, if is a condition. If I say, I'll pay you $2,000 if you work 40 hours for me next week, and you don't work the 40 hours, and you come and say, where's my $2,000? I said, I said I'd pay you if you work the 40 hours. You didn't fulfill the condition. Friendship with the Lord is conditional on us, not on him, on us. You are my friends if, if what, Jesus? You do whatever I command you. There it is, trembling at God's word, the fear of the Lord. Do you know what Jesus is saying? Is not everybody in the church, is my intimate close friend? but he passionately desires every one of you to be his intimate close friend. If you look at Moses, Moses knew God's ways, Israel knew him by his acts. What does it mean Israel knew God by his acts? Israel knew God by how he answered their prayers. Do you know how many people in America, American churches, their relationship with God is limited to how God's answered their prayers. My daughter was sick, my pastor prayed for her, God healed her. Great. But Moses knew what God was gonna do often before he did it and twice he changed God's mind. Oh yeah, he changed God's mind. And you know what God said about Moses?

There is no one in the whole nation that I trust more than him. Do you know what John chapter two says? Jesus did not trust men because he knew what was in their heart. But he looks at the 12 after three years of staying with him and being obedient to him. Excuse me, he looks at the 11, Judas is gone and said, you are my friends. I trust you. I don't know about you, but the greatest thing God can say to me is I trust you. The fear of God is what gives me the ability to stay trustworthy. Did you get something out of this today? Amen. I want every head bowed. I want every eye closed and all of our campuses, bow your heads, close your eyes. I just wanna say this right now. There are people in our churches in the United States that do not have a real relationship with God. Because they think they prayed a prayer. They think everything's fine. The sad thing is they still have lovers that Jesus died for that they entertain in their life. The Bible says he's the groom. The Bible says we're the bride. When a bride walks down an aisle of a church, she's actually saying goodbye to 3.9 billion guys.

Can you imagine a young man opening up that ring box and his name is Tim and he looks at his fiance, he looks at his girlfriend, Amy and says, Amy, I love you. I wanna spend the rest of my life with you. And he opens that box and she squeals with delight and she says, yes, I'll marry you. But you know, I was going steady with Tony in high school and I'd like a couple nights with him a year. And actually Peter, he and I were pinned in college. So could I have a couple nights a year with him? There's not a young man in the nation that would say yes to that. Every young man in the nation would close up that little ring box and walk away heartbroken. Well, let me tell you something. Jesus left what you and I can't even imagine yet. He comes to a cursed world, takes a body on, knowing that he is going to be lied about, mocked, spit on, punched, beard plucked out, thorns shoved into his head, beat unmercifully to the point where by the time he gets to the cross, Isaiah actually wrote he wouldn't be recognized as a human being, he would be so beat. Our creator does that because he wants a relationship with us. He gave himself entirely to us. He's not coming back for a bride that's sleeping with the world a few nights a year. We would never expect Tim to accept Amy's proposition.

Why have we thought that Jesus can come back for people who flirt with and entertain sin willfully? And the sad thing is people that think that way don't have an authentic relationship. So they don't experience his presence. They don't experience his promises being fulfilled. They don't experience their prayers being answered because they're not in relationship. I wanna make sure before I pray for you to receive the fear of the Lord, I wanna make sure everybody's in relationship. I wanna ask you a question. Have you done what that bride does? Have you said goodbye and broken up with everything that offends Jesus? Are you ready to do it? You may not know everything that offends Jesus because you haven't been in church. That's okay. Are you willing to break up with them once you find out who they are? That's true repentance. And that's where genuine faith is born. If you say, John, I haven't done what a bride does. I have not done that. But you can do it right now. And let me tell you something. Jesus is standing here in this auditorium and he's got a look of hope on his face. He's already died for you, but he gave you a free will.

And if you say, no, I don't want you. I wanna spend eternity in the lake of fire being. by worms and utter darkness, he will respect your right to choose. He took a risk, he took a risk for you. He died a very horrible death, hoping that you would say yes. If you're in here today and you'd say, John, truth be told, I have not done what that bride does, but I'm ready to do it right now, then I want you to raise your hand up. If you say, John, I'm ready to give my life totally and completely, and wow, look at all the hands. I imagine hands are up all over. Wow, this is amazing. Okay, if your hand's in the air, stand up. No bride's ever been ashamed of her groom. Stand up immediately. In all of our campuses, stand up. Oh my goodness, hundreds are standing. I love you guys. You're so teachable, you're so tender. Lift up your hands, because the presence of God's in this place. He's already beginning to move, and we haven't even prayed. There's his presence right there. He's here. I'm telling you, he's here. All you have to do is close your eyes,

lift up your hands, and open up your eyes and look at him. And you're not gonna see anger in his face. You're not gonna see a disgusted look. You're gonna see the most tender loving eyes and the biggest smile you've ever seen, because he's so happy you responded. Heaven's having a party right now. Here's his presence right there. Right there. Boy, I'm telling you what, people are getting delivered right now, and we haven't even prayed yet. Jesus. Lord Jesus. Jesus. I command you to be free. I command you to be free. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. It's all right. It's all right. Don't be afraid. People are getting set free all over this auditorium. In our campuses, people are getting free. Now lift up your hands, all of you. Lift up your hands. Now I want you to say these words. God in heaven. Amen. Forgive me for living life my way, apart from you, my creator. But today, that is all changing. This day, I give my spirit, soul, and body, everything I am, everything I have, to you, Jesus. Jesus, you're my Lord and King, my Bridegroom. I am forever yours. Now I ask you. Oh, if you say, John, I wanna be baptized in the spirit of the fear of the Lord, stand up, stand up, stand up,

all over the campuses, everywhere. Stand up. Say this out loud. Say, Father, you said if I ask you for the Holy Spirit, you would give him to me. I am asking you, baptize me in the holy fear of God. I delight in what Jesus delights in. I delight in your treasure. Fill me with the holy fear of God so that I can love you more deeply and walk with you more closely. In Jesus' mighty name. Now give him praise. Come on, give him praise. Give him praise. Praise. Oh, my, my. There is freedom in the house. Freedom.