JOHN: And she got angry at me. She said, (yelling) “What are you talking about? I saw fire all around the building.” And her husband’s a lot more analytical and quieter. He quieted her down, he said, ‘sir, that wasn’t a jet airplane above the building. I said, “How do you know?” He said because there were union security men all around the outside the building. He said most of them aren’t even saved. He said when the wind started blowing they came running in to see what was going on and they started saying to our leaders “what’s going on?” He said I was at the sound board, because I had to check the levels for my wife. He said the decimal beaters were at zero the whole time the wind blew. It was 90 seconds the wind blew. He said ‘not one ounce of the sound came through our sound system.” I said, ‘my God, take me to my hotel room.”
AUDIENCE AND SID: (LAUGHTER)
JOHN: No kidding, I didn’t even go out to eat that night. And I remember I just sat on my balcony and worshipped ‘til 1:30 in the morning. And so you’ll never find the Lord in an atmosphere where He’s not held with the utmost respect.
SID: —I want to ask you to do something.
JOHN: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
SID: I would like you to speak just a little while on the fear of the Lord and then lead us in repentance. Would you do that, John? Thank you.
AUDIENCE: (CLAPPING)
JOHN: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. So, what, what is the fear of the Lord? All right. Let me say this. And I’m, I’m going to say to you tonight, I’m going to repeat some things I just said on this program because I need to lay a foundation again. What is the fear of the Lord is NOT to be scared of God. And as I said, when Moses led Israel out of Egypt, and let me ask you as an audience, when Moses led Egypt out of the audience— or out of, excuse me—
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHTER)
JOHN: Yes, he led Egypt out of the audience, that’s what we’re doing right now! (laughter) I got a—when Moses led Israel out of Egypt where was their destination. Everybody say it really loud—
AUDIENCE: The Promised Land!
JOHN: The Promised Land. No. What did Moses say to Pharaoh, what did Moses say to Pharaoh over and over again. “Thus saith the Lord: Let my people go that they might worship me in the desert.” Why do you want to bring them out of Egypt into the Promised Land without first bringing them to the “Promiser? Okay, if you bring the children of Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land without first bringing them to the Promiser, you’re going to, you’re going to get a bunch of people that are going to make the Promised Land into a place of idolatry.
AUDIENCE: Wow— that’s good. JOHN: Okay? This is what we did in the 80’s and the 90’s in the church. We preached more of what Jesus would do for us rather than who He is. So we spawned disciples that started seeking God for what He can do for me not who He is, right, and that’s like a woman who marrying a man because he’s got a lot of money. She marries him out of love but for the wrong reasons. You see I find something so amazing. I look at Israel. Israel is abused by Egypt. Correct? They live in the slums, they eat the worst, wear the worst, they’re working all their lives to build somebody else’s inheritance. Their children are put to death by the Egyptians.
They come out of Egypt and they’re constantly saying: ‘let’s go back to Egypt, it was better for us.” But then I look at Moses. Now think about Moses. He’s raised in the most beautiful home on the planet “cause his grandfather Pharaoh is the wealthiest man in the whole planet. So that means he’s got a Maserati, he’s probably got a Lamborghini, he’s probably got a Porsche, he’s probably got an Audi, the top of the line Audi, he’s probably got every Harley in the collections, he’s got every “I-” this and “ I-” that. He’s got assistants. He can have any woman he wants in the whole nation and can even ask for other nations because he’s a prince. But he comes out of Egypt and he never once says “I want to go back to Egypt, it’s better for me back in Egypt.” And what’s the difference? He had one encounter with God face-to-face at that bush. Israel had a chance when he came down on the mountain. You see you have to remember, the burning bush was at Mount Sinai. So what Moses wants to do is he wants to bring these people straight to the One that he met at the bush. Because getting in to the presence of God, that took away his appetite from the world forever!
