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 talkin’ 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: 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 playin’ basketball, we would even watch videos, he’d hang out at the house constantly, he’d eat dinner with us all the time, best, 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 kind of 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 goin’, ‘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 cryin’ 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 to 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: So Jesus says ‘No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing”, the master’s ways, his secrets, his wisdom. “But I now have called you friends.” Now here’s His universal decree to the whole church. This is John 15:14, you ready? Jesus said, “You are my friends…” Now we always stop it right there. We sing songs about it, we preach sermons about it, we write books about Jesus being our friend, right? But we never finish the statement. Because He said, “You are my friends if,” Now “if” where I come from in Colorado is a “condition.” Okay? In other words, if I look at you and I say, ‘I will pay you 2000 dollars if you work for me next month.’ Did you hear the word “if?” IF you work for me next month. So you don’t do anything for me next month and then you come to me sayin’ ‘where’s my 2000 dollars?’ I say forget it. I told you I would pay you the 2000 IF you work for me next month. You didn’t work for me the next month therefore you don’t get the 2000. We all understand that. Why don’t we understand it when it comes to the Bible? Because Jesus said, “You are my friends IF,” Well, what’s the condition? You want to know it? He said “You are my friends IF you do WHATEVER I command you.” There it is, the fear of the Lord, trembling at His word. You know what Jesus is saying? Not everybody in the church is My intimate close friend. But He passionately desires everyone to be His close friend. Because James 4:5 says “the Spirit who dwells in us yearns,” To yearn means to long for intensely and consistently. He yearns for our intimate fellowship. He yearns for our friendship intensely. So He yearns, but you see He loves us so much He wants to protect us so we’re not a statistic like Ananias and Sapphira or an example like Ananias and Sapphira. So can you imagine, here’s God wanting to come down, wrap His big arms around Israel and reveal Himself to ‘em ‘cause He said “I brought you out to reveal you to Myself.” But He comes down and they all run away. And if you keep reading you’ll find out in Deuteronomy chapter 5, God reviewed that account with Moses. And God said: You know what, Moses? I really, really wanted to reveal Myself to all of them but they didn’t fear Me so I couldn’t. So I told them to go to their tents and I told you to come stand by Me and I talked to you face to face and My voice to them was like thunder. You know people ask me all the time they say where do you get these revelations from your book? Can I be really honest with you? I believe what God has revealed has come out of the fear of the Lord. And can I tell you something? The fear of the Lord and humility run hand in hand. Okay? The person who truly fears God, let me tell you something, you become much more humble. A lack of humility in a person’s life is a lack of the fear of the Lord. If you look at, if you look at Isaiah. Isaiah’s a, he’s a, he’s a godly man, he’s a preacher of holiness, of righteousness. I mean if you look at his book, Isaiah 4, 5, chapters 4 and 5, ‘Woe to the ungodly, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, Woe to the drunkard, right? When it comes to Isaiah 6 and he gets one glimpse of the Lord, it’s no longer “Woe is the drunkard,” it’s ‘Woe is me.’ And you know what he says? He says ‘I’m coming apart at the seams,’ that’s literally what he’s saying. Because for the first time in Isaiah’s life, even though he’s a preacher of righteousness, he realized who it really was he was serving and for the first time in his life he realized who he was before this holy God. Because you’ve have to remember these seraphim are massive angels. And when he saw the Lord, these seraphim were covering their faces and one was crying to the other, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy.’ Now we wrote a song and people sleep when we sing the song, it’s a hymn, “holy, holy, holy,” and people, half the people are sleeping, right? That is not what they’re doing. They are responding to what they see. Every moment another facet of His holiness is being revealed. Okay? His greatness is being revealed and all they can do is cry “Holy.” Now they’re not crying “holy, holy, holy” three times. That’s a Hebrew form of writing. I’ve got an expert here in Sid. Whenever the Hebrews want to emphasize a word they’d write it twice. Like when Jesus said “Verily, Verily, I say unto you.” Right? If you were in that room He would have said “VERILY, I say to you.” When He said “Not everybody who says to me, Lord, Lord.” You would have heard it like this, “Not everybody who says to me LORD is going to enter the kingdom of heaven.” They go whoa, we got to emphasize it. They write it twice. They would, we today we boldface, we italicize, right? We put all caps. The Hebrew writers would write it twice. Very rarely does a Hebrew writer elevate it to the third degree. Okay? You see it in the Book of Revelations when the angels go “Woe, Woe, Woe.” They don’t go “Woe” three times. They are railing “Woe” so loud that John writes it three time because Hebrews really respect words. Okay? And so they won’t ever, you know we overemphasize, Naaa, (slaps table) you got to eat at an “In and Out Burger.” IT’S AWESOME! Right?
AUDIENCE: (LAUGHING)
