SID: Hello. Sid Roth with Something More! My special guest John Bevere. And John, we’re talking about holiness. We’re talking about intimacy with God. A lot of Christians are feeling guilty about the golf. About being a football or a baseball or a basketball fan. Would you help us on that?
JOHN: Yeah. I think the easiest way to look at that is what, where is your heart in regards to these things? You know I look at when I married Lisa I said you’re the girl for me for the rest of my life. Now I used to date girls. I used to court girls. I used to flirt with girls. I used to get their numbers. When I got married to Lisa I stopped doing all of that. Now does that mean that I would never, ever talk to another girl again? No, absolutely not. I sit next to them on airplanes sometimes. Sometimes they are the receptionist that is checking me into, you know, a car rental agency. I talk to them as clerks in the grocery store. I talk to women all the time. I have more women than men on our staff. However, there’s a certain way in which I relate to them now that is different than before I got married to Lisa. I look at some people and they take sledgehammers to their TV. They’ll say I’ll never watch a football game. I’ll never watch this. You know to be honest with you, my question is this. Why are having to put these extreme; prohibit, prohibitations, or prohibitions on yourself? Rather than just saying, “I’m so in love with Jesus this doesn’t really hold my interest.” And I remember you know, talking to a lady who was – she was a very attractive lady. And this was before I got married, and she was – she was – she was talking about a friend of hers. And this friend was an extremely attractive women, and she was married. And these guys kept flirting with her, and she’d go, “Well I’m married.” And they’d continue to flirt with her, and she’d finally look at them and go, “I love my husband. I really love him.” And she said, “That was the only thing that got men to stop going after her.” Well the thing is, when you REALLY fall in love with Jesus, all these other things like football, baseball, shopping; all these other things that are attractive and the world feeds off of and lives on, becomes less and less attractive to us. And so you know just as I didn’t like separating myself from every single woman on the planet once I got married, now, I still interact with women. I still have to live; in this earth. Even so, when a believer comes to know Jesus, we should be so in love with Jesus, that now even our posture. The way – the way we participate in the things the world, does change and look like a different picture, than what it was; then before we were saved. Does this make sense, Sid?
SID: Although it makes sense. I like sports. I use that to unwind. In fact the more boring game I can find the better off I like it before I go to sleep. Am I wrong?
JOHN: [laughing] NO, absolutely not! As a matter of fact, I was, I just came back from Australia and I was speaking down there in New Zealand and I was having trouble getting to sleep one night in my hotel room. What I did was, I put on golf. You know I like to play golf, but man, that put me to sleep so fast. [laughing] So –
SID: Okay, John, our time is slipping away. Have we lost a healthy fear of God?
JOHN: Well you know, Sid, it’s interesting you bring that up. I’ve had literally people argue with me. Hey, “God’s not given us a spirit of fear. He’s given us a spirit of love and power and a sound mind.” And I realized that they are confusing the “spirit of fear” with the genuine “fear of the Lord”. If you look at the “fear of the Lord” it’s mentioned all over the New Testament. I mean we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness that affects our spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The Bible says, “We work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. So these people have either conveniently cut these scriptures out of their Bible or they are just really blind to them. The fear of the Lord is not to be scared of God. A better way of describing it is to be terrified to be away from Him. If you look at Moses when God came down to the people Moses said to the people in Exodus 20:20 he said do not fear. Okay? So that’s the spirit of fear right there. He said because God comes to test you. What’s the test? That His fear might be, in you; so that you may not sin. So Moses differentiates. He talks about two different fears, though. He talks about being scared of God. The person who’s scared of God has something to hide. I mean what does Adam do as soon as he sins? He hides from the presence of the Lord. A person who fears God has nothing to hide. He’s terrified or she’s terrified to be away from God. And with that, because God is so magnificently awesome there is a HEALTHY trembling that comes. If you look at Isaiah, Isaiah was a godly man. He preached woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Woe to the proud. Woe to the drunkard in Isaiah 3, 4 and 5. Or excuse me, Isaiah 4 and 5. But then he comes to Isaiah 6 and he has one glimpse of God in His glory, His greatness. And he’s not saying woe is the drunkard anymore. He’s saying woe is me because for the first time in his entire life even though he was a preacher of righteousness, even though he was a godly man he realized who this awesome Being was that he served. If you look at John; John was a friend of Jesus. He even put his head on His chest. But yet when John saw Jesus in His greatness on the Island of Patmos he fell down like a dead man, and Jesus had to say to him don’t fear. He was saying don’t be scared of me. You have a healthy fear of me but don’t be scared of me. I want to tell you something. God is so passionately in love with you. He loves you so much that He gave His son to die for you when you were still His enemy. And if He loves you that much, and you know what? And He’s your Creator. He is definitely worth listening to! But yet He makes it clear if I’m going to have a relationship with you. It’s going to be an authentic relationship. I’m not going to give myself completely to you, He says, and you give yourself to me AND to the world. He wants a true relationship.
SID: John –
JOHN: And so the only way –
SID: John, let me repeat that prayer after you when you pray it and everyone watching us you repeat that prayer with me.
JOHN: Absolutely. So the only way that you can receive Jesus is by accepting His supreme authority in your life and you can pray this pray by saying this: Dear God in heaven.
SID: Dear God in heaven.
JOHN: Forgive me.
SID: Forgive me.
JOHN: For living life my way.
SID: For living life my way.
JOHN: Apart from You.
SID: Apart from You.
JOHN: My Creator.
SID: My Creator.
JOHN: But this day.
SID: But this day.
JOHN: I give.
SID: I give.
JOHN: My spirit, soul, and body.
SID: My spirit, soul, and body.
JOHN: Everything I am.
SID: Everything I am.
JOHN: Everything I have.
SID: Everything I have.
JOHN: To You, Jesus Christ.
SID: To You, Jesus Christ.
JOHN: Jesus, You are now my Lord.
SID: Jesus, You are now my Lord.
JOHN: My King.
SID: My King.
JOHN: The supreme authority in my life.
SID: The supreme authority in my life.
JOHN: And my Savior.
SID: And my Savior.
JOHN: And I will love and serve You all the days of my life.
SID: And I will love and serve You all the days of my life.
JOHN: In Jesus’ name!
SID: In Jesus’ name!
JOHN: Amen!
SID: Amen!
Tags: It's Supernatural, Sid Roth