John Bevere - Relentless

[Music] good evening everybody can I tell you that those words meant the world to me you could have said anything else and it wouldn't have meant as much to me because you know I'm a Catholic boy I got saved fell in love with Jesus I really didn't want to be in the ministry because I thought if you go in the ministry you never get to get married because your Catholic priest so I really didn't want to do it I ran and ran and ran and finally God said to me one day I've called you to speak my word what are you going to do okay if I end up a priest or in Africa in a shack or no shoes whatever you want I'll do it and you know I've been on some of the largest platforms in the world and let me tell you something what does what really impresses me really impresses me isn't how big a work is how many people are there I always look at kids I always say what's their children like you know and when I look at you two and I just see how much you love God and your children and I mean my heart has been so deeply touched today because I'm just gonna say it because this will give glory to God but their son had $100 bill and he just looked at his parents and said I want it to go to that ministry and so I have his hundred dollar bill and you better believe that is like precious precious seed and you know when I see that you know children they're being raised like that and I see here a pastor son who just loves God and so pure-hearted not jaded not cynical not even a little bit I'm just rejoicing at what God is doing here in Central Louisiana and then to see pastors come in here and join in arms and locking arms and and and your brother-in-law come in here and a school bus guys come on man it's just my prayer god just gives you guys a double portion tonight and I am so aware that it's not by my ability it's not by my personality it's not my you know anything of me we've got to gear from God tonight amen we want him to speak to us we want him to empower us tonight amen and so I just want to say it's a great honor to be here and you know III was just standing here tonight I'm amazed at the great men and women of God that have come out of Louisiana I mean what is it about Louisiana is it the crawdads I mean I mean seriously I'm looking at the stocks tails I'm looking at Glenn Berto I'm looking at Denny Derron I'm looking at Sam car I'm looking at your father mark Hankins I'm looking at you Aaron hankins I'm looking at you Aaron hankins I'm looking at you guys I'm thinking about Chris Hodges my good friend Rick Bizet Randy Bizet I'm like what is it with Louisiana I mean these are some of the greatest ministers in the United States and they've all come out of this state and I didn't even cover all of them and so boy there's something about Louisiana and I pray it's not the crawdads because I am a health food fanatic and I've had pastors look at me when I come to Louisiana said John Bevere we just don't even know how to feed you because you don't eat like us and so I guess I eat kind of strange you know come that's what you would say I eat strange and to me you eat strange so anyway it's great to be here I love you guys I'm just so honored that you would come out to hear the word of God like this on a Sunday night and so can we just pray and you know there's a lot of people that weren't here this morning before I pray I gotta show you my family okay can I do that these are the people I love so much there is my amazing beautiful wife she's getting ready to fly to London on Tuesday to speak at her third Hillsong color woman's conference this year and then she she was just at the Jake's yesterday we've kind of been all over the place last week I was in New Zealand and by the way thank you very much I didn't even thank you I was scheduled to be here that time and you graciously let me come to this weekend so I was able to go and speak I got to speak at a national women's conference in New Zealand let me tell you and the week before I spoke at a big men's conference in Houston I take the ladies man we had so much fun in that meeting you know who was the other speaker was don cherie you know deaf pastor Denny - Ron's daughter right she's married to rich Wilkerson jr. and so it was a great time but anyway I don't know how I got into that I'm maybe on a rabbit trail tonight but anyway that's my son and daughter-in-law my oldest son and daughter-in-law over there with the two little ones those are my G babies and you say what is a G baby if you weren't here this morning I'm Way too young to be grandpa so it's G daddy and G for short and then those are my other three sons Austin's just right of Lisa and then Alec is next and then Arden in I was a little late getting to church tonight because Arden has interned at the wave church up in Virginia Beach for the last nine months and he texted me this afternoon says dad I'm preaching 10 minutes tonight and it's going to be live and I was like oh my gosh I got to watch it online so I watched him online until right until about 10:00 till 6:00 and then I had to run out of the hotel room he just made his daddy so proud he preached such amazing work and he's never heard it from his mom or me that's what I loved about it tell you what else when you say there is a God who lives inside of us amen so anyway that's my family and I love him so much and for those of you that weren't here this morning I'm family around here okay I know I don't eat like you but I am Uncle John okay so listen I want to ask you a question tonight you want your life changed forever then let's ask God amen father in the name of Jesus Lord just such a beautiful spirit in here tonight Holy Spirit in your presence there is full Ness of joy and so I thank you for the joy that's here but I'm asking that it would increase as your presence get stronger and stronger amongst us tonight I can say or do nothing apart from you so I'm asking that you would literally speak to your church strengthen the church you love so much the bride of Jesus Christ and I'm asking tonight Lord as a result of what you do that we will go from glory to glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Living God for again I decree your kingdoms come your will shall be done in this place on earth as it is in heaven and father I'm asking it not only you would speak but Lord you would confirm your word with tremendous signs and wondering is following the preaching of your word tonight for this we give you all the praise and the glory the honor and the Thanksgiving and it is in Jesus mighty wonderful majestic holy awesome magnificent name we pray and everybody that agrees shouts come on give him praise for what he's gonna do amen hallelujah well you can be seated tonight I'm gonna share with you out of a book that I wrote a couple years ago called relentless everybody shout relentless the power you need to never give up to open this tonight I'm gonna share a scripture the Apostle Paul write that I don't hear people talking about very much I don't hear it preached I don't hear people quoting it but man it is a good Scripture Paul writes to the Philippians in the first chapter and look what he says in verse 29 he says for to you it has been granted on the behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake now let's be honest that doesn't sit right with me okay can we be honest for to you it is granted I'm thinking okay what promise is he about to elaborate on what benefit in serving Jesus is he about to expound on and then he goes on to say to suffer for his sake come on that's like looking at somebody and saying for do you it is granted on your birthday to go to the dentist and get a root canal I mean that's what it sounds like to me I mean let me just do a little survey here tonight how many of you've gone through extreme hardship or sudden adversity in your life can I see a show of hands okay do I pray for the rest of you for lying now or later okay which one do you want all right now let me ask you okay did you like it I didn't hear you what no did it feel like it was granted to you or more like it was inflicted upon you inflicted right I mean let me just go through maybe some of the mine sets the thoughts that hit us when we when we face sudden adversity now I know we would never say these things okay but we do wrestle with these thoughts here's one of them I can't believe this is happening or why me or why do I have to go through this or here's the blunt one I hate this or no one can relate to what I'm going through oh this is my favorite why can I just have a normal life God please take this away why bother giving up would be so much easier now if you've had some of these thoughts let me tell you something you're not alone there's a myriad of other people that have wrestled with these thoughts in fact the Apostle Paul wrestled with some of these thoughts but he had what I like to call a paradigm shift now I know it's an old word what is the paradigm shift it is a radical change from one way of thinking to another and if you listen closely to what God's commanded me to bring to you tonight I believe you will have a paradigm shift when it comes to sudden adversity and hardship now I am going to say this to lay a foundation I'm going to go through a slew of scriptures in the beginning but then I'm gonna follow it up with a lot of illustrations and examples that will really bring it home okay so let's go to what Peter says about the exact same subject Peter says in first Peter 4:1 since Christ suffered for us in the flesh arm yourselves everybody say arm yourselves also with the same mind for he who is suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin and everybody say arm yourselves again can you imagine a nation sending its military into battle like we did with our boys and girls in Iraq a few years ago when that military goes the battle they have no guns no bullets no knives no airplanes no ships no tanks no rocket launchers no arms at all can you imagine such a ridiculous scenario I mean would that military conquer no way would they even contend not hardly they would be defeated probably in a single day well as ridiculous as that sounds to you that is equally ridiculous as a Christian who is not armed to suffer yet most Western Christians are unarmed because we are unprepared when sudden adversity hits us many times we go into a state of shock bewilderment or amazement and out of that state of shock out of that state of bewilderment amazement we react instead of act let me give you the difference between somebody who is armed and somebody who is unarmed commercial airline pilots every six months a commercial airline pilot has to go for recurrent training what is recurrent training a big part of it is they have to go into a flight simulator what do they do in the flight simulators well first of all what is a flight simulator it is basically a perfectly replicated cockpit of the actual plane that pilot flies it is a massive computer system it's got a visualization system on it it's all mounted on motion platforms to put it simple when you're in the sim you can't tell if you're in the sim or in the real plane it's that realistic and what they do is they throw every adversity they know that can hit a pilot in that plane add him over those next couple of days anything from extreme wind shear to extreme turbulence to a loss of a landing gear a loss of an engine to a loss of two engines to a loss of all power and what happens is those pilots may crash a time or two in the sim but then they start getting it and they start figuring it out the FAA tells us that many commercial aviation disasters have been avoided because of the pilots training in the simulator there is actually a recorded incident that occurred back before 9/11 2001 back in the day when the little commuters you probably had him here in Metro Alexandria when you got on those commuters in flew to either Atlanta or Dallas the palais to heaven through this place okay and you had a little plane and you had no door between you and the pilot do you remember those days okay okay one of those planes actually after taking off shortly afterward crashed killed everybody when the FAA recovered the black box they discovered something interesting when the disaster hit the senior pilot and the copilot immediately went into action the senior pilot started issuing orders pull up the end pull up the flaps copilot check feather the engines check let down the landing gear check and they were doing this all the way to the crash but because it was a small commuter plane and had no door they could also hear the passengers and what happened was the pilots were issuing these orders but the passengers were screaming in hysteria so what was the difference the pilots were acting the passengers were reacting why because the pilots were armed the passengers were unarmed if you listen to what God's put in my heart for you tonight I believe you will no longer act like the passengers and react I believe you'll begin acting like the pilots and act when sudden adversity hits you amen so number one in order to beyond you must know that adversity is going to happen it is inevitable jesus said in John 16 in this world you will he doesn't say you might he said you will have tribulation the Greek word there tribulation is the Greek word ellipsis which simply means this great emotional or spiritual stress that can be caused by external or internal pressures all comes along in acts 14 and says we must through many everybody say many tribulations it is the Greek word ellipsis enter the kingdom of God so Jesus says it's going to happen Paul says it's not just going to be a few it's going to be many so your minds will brace yourself tribulation adversity is going to happen alright that's a promise from Jesus right from his lips number two in order to be armed you must know that you absolutely have the strength to overcome whatever it is you're facing one of my favorite scriptures in the New Testament first Corinthians 10:13 Paul writes this God keeps his promise can you say amen to that what is the specific promise Paul is talking about he will not allow everybody say allow say it again say it again you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm do you know what that means whatever it is you are going through right now real time you have the strength to get through it and you have the strength to get through it successfully amen now the word I want you to really focus in on is the word allow you must know and I can safely say in this church it's probably so you must know because you've been so well taught that God is not the author or the instigator of the evil hardship you are facing James writes and says hey don't be deceived now there's only one problem with deception and that is this it's deceiving the person who's to see believes with all their hearts are right when in reality they're wrong that's scary James says if you want to stay free from deception you better get this fact in you that God is impervious to evil and he puts evil in no one's way so that means God is not the author of the instigator he simply permits or allows it now why you may ask would he even allow it well that's complex but I will give you one reason to give you the opportunity to beat up on the enemy with the same freedom of your will that cause you to succumb to him in the first place thus making his defeat a whole lot worse because it's one thing to be to get beat up by the head it's another thing when the body beats you up okay and you know what's really amazing it is a completely an unfair fight why because Jesus says in Luke 10:19 listen with an exclamation point now how many of you know everything Jesus says all the words in red are very very important but when the words in red have listened with an exclamation point don't you think we better listen just a little bit more carefully right what is he saying listening to I know my words are blue there I have given you authority power so that you can over come oh listen to the word all the power of the enemy and nothing I love this nothing will hurt you do you realize those words are more real than the chairs you're sitting on yeah because those words frame the materials that you chair you're sitting on hey man this is why the Apostle Paul writes to us and says I pray that you might know and understand what is the immeasurable now listen to these words in measure rubble you cannot measure it and unlimited listen to the word unlimited it's got no limits and surpassing greatness there is nothing greater of his power now if he stopped right there we would all go oh yeah Jesus is power it is immeasurable it has got no limits and there's no power greater but can you he's read the whole words in context because the rest of the sentence says of his power in everybody points your finger and say in say in say in and for us who believe there's the key word believe I was in a why two and a half years ago I'm doing a conference it's a statewide conference the auditorium is packed out there are pastors from all over the state there are people from all over the state I was the Friday night speaker I remember I got up and speak when I was done I'm walking out that auditorium and I literally I get confronted by this man and woman who were standing in the aisle way as if to say in their Samoan you're not getting by me okay and so it was particularly the wife she's like mister Bevier I must talk to you my husband and I are senior pastors of a church here in Hawaii she said my husband is not the same man he doesn't preach the same he doesn't pray the same he doesn't lead us the same he's a completely changed man and she whips out an x-ray right and she shows me an x-ray of her son's eye who's standing right next to her he's 12 years old okay excuse me first of all she whips out an x-ray and she says this is an x-ray of a normal eye so I look at the x-ray here okay then she whips out on another x-ray she says this is the x-ray of my son's eye who's standing right next to her last month in this x-ray is all this black stuff behind his eye I said what's all that black stuff so she gives me the 15 letter medical term for it and basically it was a rare degenerative eye nerve disease that was causing her son to go blind permanently and rapidly it's very rare and there's no cure they know it so she said John she said my husband and I were crying out to God we were fasting we were praying our entire church was fasting and praying for our son she said then my husband got a hold of your book called relentless and she said he started walking through it every single morning in his devotions she said one morning he came bursting out of his office and he said honey we are doing this all wrong we keep asking God to give us what he's already given us you see Jesus never asked God to heal one eye he never asked God to heal in ear he never asked God to heal a leg he never asked God to he took to calm the wind he spoke to the eye he spoke to the leg he spoke to the ear he spoke to the wind the Apostles never asked God to heal a leg in the book of Acts they spoke to the leg in the name of Jesus she said John we stopped asking God to heal our son and we started speaking to his eye in the name of Jesus she said today now this sounds too weird but it's actually true today we went for our routine checkup the day of the conference Friday she said we went to the lab we did the normal routine they do the x-rays she said that we go over to the doctor's offices in another complex we we wait for the doctor we go into the room he comes in he says I'm so sorry they messed up at the lab you got to go back and get x-rays again she went back to they went back to the lab they got a second set of x-rays they go back to the doctor's office the doctor walks in again he goes I don't know what they're doing over there they blew it again you got to go back and do it again they go back and get the third set of x-rays they come back the doctor walks in and goes I don't get it your son's eye is perfectly normal what is the immeasurable unlimited and surpassing greatness of his power and in force we believe and there's even a better part to this story I was just in Hawaii two months ago and there were the same pastors with now their 14-year old boy and they handed me the x-rays they said his eyes are perfect still to this day what is the immeasurable unlimited and surpassing power of a greatness of his power in and for us who you believe can you say Amen all right number three in order to be armed you must know that you never have to lose that's a good place to say man you can just sit there and just listen or you can say hey man I'd rather say Amen Paul the Apostle went through adversity that was unreal almost undescribable in Asia he wrote about it in second Corinthians chapter 1 okay he said it was so bad the adversity he said they almost died but he comes along in second Corinthians chapter 2 and look what he says after coming through it now thanks be to God who always doesn't say most of the time then say a good percentage of the time who always leads us in triumph in Christ he always if you're following the leading of the Holy Spirit he will always lead you in triumph good place to say Amen number four and this is my final point to be armed you must embrace a positive attitude towards adversity can you say Amen you want me to go really deep tonight because I can give you the short version or I can go a little longer you want the longer version been so long since I've gotten a privilege to even talk about this the Apostle Paul he went through this adversity that I told you about in second Corinthians right okay and this adversity was so bad I mean he talks about it in the 11th chapter of second Corinthians he was stoned he was he was you know I mean can you imagine this going to a city to preach the gospel and they stone you and they think you're dead and that's why they leave you alone throwing huge rocks at you in three cities he said three cities they whipped him excuse me five cities they whipped him with 39 lashes now you know when they whip people you know what they did they would tie them up to a whipping post by their wrists so their feet were dangling they do one of two ways they do it at this post where they were kneeling down or they do it like this I happen to believe that I think he was it was like this and what the goal is is get the person almost like they're on their tiptoes because that stretches out their skin and their back really good so when the cords come across it splits open their skin like warm knife going through a butter thirty-nine lashes five cities are you getting this I mean can you imagine when they're stringing them up the fourth time I mean yes unbelievable he says in three different cities he said I was beaten with rods now you know do you know why they beat them with rods to bruise their bones anybody in here ever bruise a bone okay somebody you know what it's like excruciating right I'm remember you know my wife was a little upset when we got married because my dad is one of the best handy men I've ever met in the face of the earth if anything broke in our house he fixed it okay I mean we still had the toaster my mom and II have been married 65 years they still had the toaster that they got as an engagement present cuz he kept fixing it okay so we had this antique toaster antique washer and dryer okay so I was in the sports so my wife's like I don't get it you can't fix anything around the house I said I'm sorry baby so one day I thought I'm gonna prove to my wife I can be her handyman so I decided to finish out a room in my house and I had an employee of ours who was good with construction and I said hey mark will you help me so we got these nail guns you know the nails go and they're instantly into the wood right well I got it backwards and I grip onto this nail gun and I shoot the nail into the bone of my middle finger I pulled the nail out of the bone of my middle finger okay I can't even describe to you the pain over the next eight weeks I said to a medical person with my finger cuz I couldn't move it not even that much without almost going into yours I said well I live with this they said no you bruised your bone really bad and when you bruise your bone it's like six to eight weeks but it'll eventually get better and it did that's why they beat those guys with rods they weren't in that kind of pain in their bones in their body three different cities okay he's shipwrecked he goes to preach and otherwise he's shipwrecked he has robbers that he's dealing with okay so finally it occurs to him there has been a messenger of Satan that has been assigned to me to harass me okay so he says now listen on three different occasions he begs the Lord he asks the Lord to take it away so he's doing what the pass room his wife were doing with their son asking God to take it away are you seeing this now how many of you know God gets quiet when you're going through adversity have you ever experienced that well I have right why because he expects you to believe what he's already written right but Paul's in the middle of writing this whole thing so when he barks up the wrong tree the third time God finally says I got to talk to this boy so God once Paul asks him three times and take it away finally says hey haven't you figured it out yet Paul my grace is sufficient for you see here's the problem most Americans when they hear the word grace they think of forgiveness of sins and salvation grace is God's empowerment it's his empowerment that gives us the ability to go beyond our natural ability okay that's why Peter says as his divine power grace be multiplied to you as his divine power Peter refers to Grace as his divine power my grace is sufficient for you so what is his grace it is the immeasurable unlimited and surpassing greatness of his power in us it was freely given to us my grace is sufficient for you for my power so God refers to his grace as what come on everybody say it see would you do yourself a favor every time you see grace in the New Testament would you insert the word empowerment or power in for the whole New Testament will open up in a beautiful new way because God not a Bible commentary is the one that said that his Grace's is power I preached myself happy I'm so excited right now my power is made perfect in your weakness or your human inability is what that word weakness means okay he has no human ability to handle what's coming at him God says you keep asking me to take it away my grace is my power are you seeing this once God says this Paul has the paradigm shift because look at his very next words so now I am glad now first of all that raises a flag right there for me I am glad okay to boast about my weakness my human in ability so that the power of Christ can work through me so the grace of Jesus Christ can work through me that's why I take pleasure okay are you just hearing what I just heard in my human abilities which is weakness in the insults in the hardships and the persecutions in the troubles I just listed a few verses earlier now can we talk about this for a minute NIV says I delight in them CEV says I'm glad okay I said it this morning I'm gonna reiterate it again fish him in exaggerated okay I caught a fish this big it was really this big exaggeration is nothing other than a lie God cannot lie his word cannot lie the only way the Holy Spirit is gonna permit keep the scripture out the only way he's gonna permit Paul to write I take pleasure in these hardships insults and everything is if he really means it now you see in this paradigm shift one verse earlier he's begging God to take it away now he's saying I'm taking pleasure in this baby now what is he a masochist has he turned into being a masochist no he understands now that the greater the opposition the greater the empowerment okay greater resistance look at that look at the board requires greater power to overcome thereby producing a greater victory what he's saying is no battle no victory the greater the battle the greater the victory and since I can't lose bring it on that's what he's saying now he wrote this letter in 56 ad three years later he writes another letter in 59 ad to the Roman Church he lists all those adversities again this time he's not saying please take it away look what he writes in this letter look at the blue yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gained a surpassing victory do you know what he's saying bring it on because it's just gonna give me more victories do you see the paradigm shift God allowed you to walk through the paradigm shift in 56 AD with Paul now James is another guy that writes about this okay but James you know he writes in his bet letter very first words my beloved brethren count it all joy when do we count it all joy when you go through extreme adversity and hardship wait a minute okay all joy now do you talk like that I don't talk like that do you say all joy no I don't say all joy try to look this up one day and said what do you mean what he's means is it can't be 99 part joy in one part sorrow it has to be 100 part joy why can't it be 99 part joy in your heart and one part sorrow because the chains only as strong as its weakest link you can have 99 chain links of joy and you have one link of sorrow and that's how weak you are because the sorrow of the Lord is not your strength it's the joy of the Lord so you are as weak as your sorrow is all joy but the NLT whoo Rick Renner tells me is the most accurate New Testament translation and I will listen to Rick Renner because he's an expert the new L NLT brings it to a whole nother level look what James says James says dear brothers and sisters when troubles come your way consider it an opportunity wait a minute opportu I'm an American I understand opportunity okay what's the opportunity he goes on to tell you for you know that when your faith is tested your endurance has a chance to grow what's the opportunity come on church stay with me what's the opportunity you get the chance to grow your endurance okay let's talk about endurance we just came out of the Winter Olympics how do we hear the word endurance most use today endurance training correct come on we got LSU fans around here endurance training is what it is the deliberate act hit the button for me guys it is the deliberate hit the button one more time could you endurance training thank you did we we froze up darn it all right what I can't be true really I guess my team is testing me all right endurance training is the deliberate act of exercising to increase your stamina all right so simply but at least put the scripture up if you don't have that I don't know what happened to our PowerPoint so endurance training is that listen the deliberate act of exercising to increase your stamina you got it all right so endurance training the listen increases your capacity what's capacity your potential ability right to handle future challenges okay all right look look up at me don't write any more notes look up at me the adversities that God allows in our life they have a design about them okay what is the design to increase your capacity your potential God will permit a hardship today that will simulate remember the flight simulator it will simulate the levels of pressure you're gonna face tomorrow because he knows you're in from the beginning that's why a trial always feels greater than your present level of responsibility simply put God is using your present challenges to strengthen you for greater conquests in your future it's kind of like weight lifting never say weight lifting okay when I was 35 years old I'd already been traveling for five years I was standing on a platform in Atlanta Georgia and I saw stars okay I almost fainted I weighed about 15 pounds less than what I do now I came home and I said to my wife I said I am so out of shape I'm going to the gym she said thank God I've been praying that you would go to the gym I saw you King me she said no so there was a WWF wrestler who lived two doors down from us they were our close close friends okay he was one of their big boys he made seven digits his name was Kip okay that wasn't a stage name so you won't don't try to figure it out and so he constantly was asking me John can I take you to the gym and train you I was like no no no I don't have time to do that because we'd play street hockey with our kids we play basketball with our kids and and I constantly said no I don't have time to go to the gym to waste the time right so when this incident happened I walked down to his house I knocked on the door and he comes to the door like this cuz you have to understand he's six foot four he weighs 240 pounds and he's four percent body fat his arms are as big as my legs right there and he has a perfect V chest and a perfect day pack okay so he's looking at me and I said Kip I said you've been saying you want to take me to the gym and train me I want to go he looks at me with this sadistic smile says I'll take you to the gym so the next morning we go to this sweatbox of a gym and all this training buddies are there they're huge so I feel like the in the land of the Giants okay and on the first day in the gym I learned something you do not build muscle by putting light weight on the bar and going one two three four five six seven eight nine 10 11 12 13 14 15 can I stop you put heavy weight on the bar you get down on the bench you can put you put so much weight on there that you can only lift it three times but after the third rep that's when all the fun begins because that's when your body starts shaking violently okay your face goes different colors of red blood vessels now appear on your neck and on your forehead and all the monsters around your bench are screaming at you going push and something on the inside pushes up the 4-time that's how you build muscle put it simplistically okay so please don't laugh but the first day in the gym when I was 35 years old the most I could bench was 95 okay so I knew you'd laugh so after a month of hard work and you deserve to last after a month or two of hard work I got up to 105 few more months I made it to 1 115 a few more months I made it to 125 and then I remember after about 8 months I got to 135 I had a plate on both sides I could actually hold my head up in the gym right so I kept working we got to 145 155 165 after a couple years I made it to 185 got stuck there got up to 205 and I was stuck at 205 for about 5 years and so now I'm 40 years old I'm preaching in a conference in Fresno California and there's a bunch of guys that are weight lifters that are at the conference so we all go to the gym they go Bevere what's the most you've ever benched I said 205 I just can't get past 2 if I they said b-bear you're gonna get 225 up today I said no they said hey we're gonna spot you you're gonna get 225 I said okay all right I'll do it and sure enough that day I got 225 up I was so excited right so this guy comes to work for us who used to compete in weightlifting well he and I started training together and I pushed up to 35 and one time I pushed up to 45 so then I'll preach at this church in Detroit the guy who could benchpress 540 pounds so he looks at me and he goes John you know I preach all day Sunday he was John I have a nationally renowned weight trainer in my in my church he's produced champions and he trains me Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays do you want to go to my training session tomorrow morning I said man do I ever so I go to this guy's gym right he looks me up and down talks to me asking me some questions so the most you've ever benches 245 wait wait wait one time okay this is okay let's just see what we do today so he gives me down the bench he teaches me some techniques and that day I pushed up to 65 I'm so excited I called my wife from the airport I told her about it so my employee that was the former weight trainer would happen to be with me so he says so this guy this coach look Sammy says I'm gonna train you guys by email he says every week I'm sending you a new email and he said you guys do this so I did it religiously over the next year so I go back to the church I preach on the Holy Spirit all day Sunday the next year now I'm 42 years old okay and I go into the guys gym the next day with the pastor right and this nationally renowned coach looks I mean goes Bevier I had a dream last night you pushed up 315 pounds I said you're crazy I said I weigh a hundred and seventy five pounds there is no he said there you preached on the Holy Spirit all day yesterday I had a dream last night shut up and get down there you're doing this it's the truth so I get out on the bench and after warmups the pastor and this man are my witness I pushed up 315 pounds I called my wife from Detroit Metro Airport I said baby I don't need a plane I am so high right now now the reason I said all that is to say this when I pushed up 315 at 42 years old 225 was not routine I was pushing 225 up ten times okay what would have happened if Kip would have put 225 on the bar the very first time I went in the gym when I was 35 years old I'll tell you what would happen the bar would have come down the speed of gravity then would have busted open to my chest and fatally wounded me and killed me so what was now routine at 42 would have killed me when I first began so now let me switch gears a little bit okay I'm 23 I'm 24 years old I'm working for Rockwell International as the head and mechanical engineer on a multi-million dollar Navy replacement program I'm making a lot of money I'm newly married and my pastor comes to me and says we want to hire you on our staff to be our personal assistant right personal assistant means take care of the kids swimming lessons and pick the kids up to school okay it's gopher it's gopher okay and they said they said to me they said we can only pay you eighteen thousand dollars a year that's okay that was a huge huge pay cut I'm getting paid a lot of money okay as a head mechanical engineer Rockwall and so I said I don't care of my wife and I put the pencil paper together we figured out that eighteen thousand dollars a year exactly our bills would exactly match what came in every month we would have very little leftover very little leftover okay and that was eating you know really conservatively okay at home and so we didn't care God put it in our heart I said were accepting the job so what became so interesting is now you know I was making all that money we blew through the money so we had very little and say we had nothing in savings basically so now what used to be routine to buy that I wouldn't even think of we were having to pray and fight for we're having to fight in prayer just to buy a pair of jeans just to buy a pair of socks just to buy Christmas gifts and how many of you know your unsay loved ones don't get it when you don't give them a Christmas gift okay I remember one time Lisa and I had to choose whether we were going to give our tithe our we were going to buy groceries not kidding for us it wasn't even a choice no choice at all Jesus Christ is our Lord what choice is there so we gave our tithe and we sat in the car after service and cried in the parking lot okay why because I'm not get paid for 10 more days and we have five dollars left to our name and we have no money coming in for the next 10 days now why were we in that situation it's because we had one car it was a Ford Thunderbird that I inherited when I married her okay it was a two-door with the big big windows right well I come home because I'm driving the church van come home from church one day and the rear tire is completely flat I go to get the spare a little bit notes to me I've only been married for a year there's no spare okay so I have no spare tire and I have a flat rear tire I think I'm too tired I'll deal with it tomorrow I come home the next day I go to start the car what in the world my thinking what are you gonna do if you start the car but anyway the car won't start I find out I got a dead alternator so now I got a dead alternator a flat rear tire no spare I'm sitting there considering garages but I don't have the money to pay for it okay so I think oh my gosh I'll deal with this later I got too much going on I come home a couple days later it is such a hot summer okay that one of the windows exploded it was not vandalism it exploded from the heat and there are hundreds of little pieces of glass outside and inside the car I'm cleaning this all up going this is a nightmare I get a black hefty trash can some duct tape and I make a makeshift window I'm laying in bed that night and I think all we need is one good thunderstorm and my makeshift windows gonna blow in water is pouring in the car the apartment complex is gonna deal with me about this thing that's in the parking lot I'm in trouble so the next day I went out and found a place where I could pray and I it was a place where nobody could hear me and I said alright devil you want to fight you're gonna have a fight I have a sword and you know so I'm gonna take this sword and I'm gonna cut you into pieces my God shall supply my need according to his riches in glory and I started speaking the Word of God and all of a sudden I feel his weight come off of me I'm like who the next day my wife has a friend come over for lunch she sees our car in the parking lot it is an eyesore in the parking lot and she goes Lisa isn't that your John's car out there and she goes yeah it's our car she goes I got a friend of some mechanic he comes in fixes everything for pennies God comes through again so a couple months later my wife looks at me she's honey I want to have babies we can't have babies we live in this adult apartment complex we got to get a house with a yard we got to have babies I said okay we'll find a house so we search all over the city the cheapest cookie-cutter house we could find you had to put $5,000 down the most we had ever saved as a married couple was 1800 and that's how much we had right then so we figured it out I get mine because you know I'm an engineer I got you know I understand math so I get my calculator out I put a budget together and I figure out if we eat a lot of potatoes and tuna fish and pasta we can save the five thousand dollars that we need over the course of the next two years okay so we start that Sunday I walk into service my pastor is taking a special offering it's a heart for the house offering I turned to my wife I said I think we're supposed to give $1,000 she said let's talk when we get home so we get home she said honey we have $1,800 we give a thousand we have $800 we are going backwards not forwards towards our house I said and Lisa I know it doesn't make sense but I really believe we're supposed to do this she says okay I'm with you so he sewed the thousand dollars over the next week you cannot believe what happened three different people and none of them had no idea where we were financially none of them three different people come up and give us money and it totals five thousand dollars and we move into our house three months later now the problem is we move into our house we have nothing you have like a great room okay you have the dining room in the living room and all of its right when you come in right that's what you say there's no couches there's no paintings there's no I think there was a lamp there's no dining room table there is no headboard on our master bedroom there is nothing okay now right around this time there's a couple in our church that their tithe that week was seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars so they made 7.5 million on their business that week right I saw their tithe check 750 thousand right so the lady decides we're going to change all the furniture out in our house okay now to change out your furniture what does that mean you got to get rid of your existing furniture you know where this is going no you don't she gives all her furniture to the couple's pastors at our church we are the youth pastors okay now the couple's pastors already had a house and already how to had a house filled with furniture my wife was livid she's like they miss God they gave our furniture to the wrong people they have furniture we have no furniture they date date miss Scott I said now listen you have to understand I was very strategic okay I was on my way out the door when I said this I said Lisa it is your fault we don't have furniture oh my gosh so stupid don't you dare ever imitate this she looks at me like what I mean man she's livid okay you gotta understand my wife is Sicilian and Apache Indian they stole my land and a mafia I was born ticked off you understand okay so so that's why I'm walking out the house when I said this okay and she goes what you mean it's my fault I said our agreement was I believe God for the house you believe God to fill it I've done my job you haven't done your job and I left that is so stupid don't ever imitate that okay well thank God for a godly wife because I'm at the service and and her anger turns the right direction and I walk I come back home from that service and the whole atmosphere in our house was like light you know light airy I said what happened she said I'll tell you what happened I went through this whole house and I spoke furniture throughout this whole house you want to I'm gonna give you a tour of all of our furniture and she starts walking me through the house and showing me every bit of Burnt right I'm not kidding over the next four to five months I watch every bit of what she spoke come into that house so miraculously so now we go a few months later my pastor comes into a meeting one day there's 11 of us associate pastors on staff and he said gentlemen am I going too long tonight can I go a few more minutes okay just a few more Minh he comes in he says gentlemen I had a vision last night I literally watched this vision like you're watching a TV program he said in this vision God showed me something about our church and he showed me something about one of you men and he got to the part about us men he said God showed me that one of you is not going to be on our staff much longer you're going to be traveling you're gonna go out and you're gonna come back and you're gonna be a blessing the body of Christ and he said that man is you John Bevere when he said the Spirit of God thought me I start weeping it's a pastor I I believe God showed me that about four months ago but I didn't tell anybody he said well John this is what we're gonna do this was August of 1989 he said we want to pay your salary till the end of December and he said you can build your travelling ministry from between now and the end of December but he said it once the end of December comes you're on your own okay thank you so much so I traveled to a place or two in 1989 the fall of 89 but nobody knows who I am so we come to the beginning of November right my sari is being cut off at the end of next month and I have two meanings booked one is the first week of January that met in a funeral home in Sumpter South Carolina was 70 members and the other one was the end of February at a little church of a hundred people in the hills of Tennessee and that's it I have three hundred dollars to my name I have a small house payment I have two little children to feed and my salary is being cut off the end of next month now my pastor is getting scared so my pastor comes to know I'm a pastor was a world renowned if I said his name everybody in here would know he wrote me this letter of recommendation it was like beyond amazing and he gives me 600 Church addresses now you got to think back then they were role decks cards and he said these are 600 churches I've been to here's the letter send it out do whatever you want so of course I write a cover letter I'm gonna send his letter in his stationery I started dressing the envelopes I get to the fortieth envelope and the Holy Spirit speaks to me this is what are you doing some laying pastors know I'm available he said you'll get out of my will I said God nobody knows me out there he said I know you trust me so I look at this 40 envelopes and I tore them up I thought either I'm crazy or I'm hearing from God so now we come to the end of December my sari is being cut off in one week I still have the two meetings first we could January the funeral home and two February the little Church in Tennessee now my pastor is really scared well he was just gonna begin a daily television program my wife has television production in background so he comes to us and says John I want to hire Lisa to be my TV producer from my daily program I'm gonna pay her forty-five dollars an hour how I know my gosh forty-five dollars an hour I mean that is a lot of money come on right maybe it isn't to you but it was to me okay I was like oh my goodness forty-five dollars an hour and he said John I'm gonna give you monthly support from the church and he said I'm gonna get you up in front of national TV and I'm gonna tell pastors all over America they need to have you come to their church I'm like oh right like God you've come through in the midnight hour right so I'm not praying two nights later the Holy Spirit says if Lisa accepts the job whatever he pays her I'll deduct it from your offerings on the road because I want her by your side I said okay there goes the $45 an hour job he said second your pastor will not have you up in front of national TV and he will not give you monthly support so why not he told me he would and the Lord said he won't because I'm not gonna let him and he said he's gonna listen to me I said why won't you let him and the Lord said this to me he said because when you get out there and you get in trouble you'll run to him and not to me I want you running to me so sure enough he never got me out in front of TV he didn't give me the monthly store he give me the first month January and it was it never gave me another sport that first year was so miraculous literally 40 40 thousand dollars came into the ministry the entire year it ran our our ministry and paid my salary okay we watch God literally meet our needs the day they were due we watched God open up doors like me calling my wife at the swimming pool public swimming pool in Florida and saying I'm sorry a move of God has broken out in this church I'm gonna send you a ticket and a pastor of a 2000 member hurt her on the public phone and said I'm sorry I was listening to everything you and your husband were talking about well what you were saying to him I want him to come to my church that's how God's opening up doors I mean it was crazy okay now the first year 1990 our entire year men come for the ministry was $40,000 now let me fast forward to today 2014 twenty four years later because of our 30 employees because of the 2 million books that we gave to pastors and leaders last year and forty fifty eight nations because of the how homes we've built you know our the buildings we built for the sex traffic girls because of all the things we need in order to keep our ministry running a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a week okay now can I tell you something I've never lost five seconds of sleep over that hundred and twenty five thousand a week okay not even five seconds because I've watched God absolutely never ever ever miss any deadlines budget on a bill okay now let me ask you this what if Lisa and I would had to believe God for a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a week back in nineteen ninety do you know what it would have been like it would have been like putting 225 on that bar the first time I went in the gym the bar would have come down and killed me what was routine for me when I was 42 in the in the gym would have killed me when I was 35 what is routine for me today would have killed me in 1990 God will never allow you to face anything he he hasn't given you the power to overcome okay now I have preached this whole message to get to these next three minutes and if you missed these next three minutes you've basically missed the whole message here is the problem everybody say problem how many of you know God knows your end from the beginning I mean David said you wrote my whole life in a book before my I even was even born right okay so he knows the end from the beginning right because he's not bound a time right okay so you're in a position right now okay whether it's in the marketplace whether it's an educational field whether it's in medical field whether it's in the ministry and your position that you're in right now carries 145 pounds of opposition okay but God wants to put you into a new position this new position it's going to carry a lot more influence it's gonna impact a lot more people's lives but it carries 185 pounds of opposition you're only at 145 so God permits he doesn't author he doesn't instigate he permits a 155 attack to come against you somebody at work maliciously gossips about you okay what do you do instead of doing what Jesus said blessing knows that curse you you put a little smile on your face and with your passive aggression Christian passive aggressive / Christian Way you gossip back about them God weeps and says back to 145 so he permits another 155 attack against you he doesn't author it he doesn't instigate it permits it this one has to do with finances see I just talked to you about just one area finances I didn't talk to you about the other stuff we went through which was probably even worse he permits a financial attack right you don't have to pray our credit cards aren't exhausted so God says back to 145 he permits another 155 attack you manipulate your way out of that using the strength of your own flesh God says back to 145 now the problem is the time has come where that position has opened up that he originally intended for you but because you're still at 145 he has to put somebody else in that position he originally intended for you because he will never let you face anything you don't have the power to overcome so this is what I want to know how many of us when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ you have to understand all of us are gonna stand before the judgment seat we're not gonna be judged for our sins our sins have been eradicated by blood Jesus we're gonna be judged on how we serve God in this body as believers so when we stand before Jesus at the judgment seat how many of us are going to hear this Jesus is going to be weeping because I believe Jesus is gonna weep more than any of us at that judgement seat because he really wants to reward us because He loves us so much but Jesus going to have tears running down his cheeks at that judgement seat as he looks at us and says let me show you the positions of influence they would have impacted people from my kingdom that I had for you but I couldn't put you in those positions because you kept resisting your endurance training you see with David it started out with a bear then it was a lion and then it was Goliath what if David would have skipped the bear and skipped the lion I guarantee you we would have had a different king named Steve I've been going to the gym now for 19 years I have never once heard pastor a guy coming in going on I got a list 225 do that why can't I just have a normal life are you kidding they're so excited to get down on that bench and push up that 225 because that 225 is the road to 245 this is route to 265 and they do it with a bunch of passion you see the problem is we've had lately wrong paradigm when it comes to adversity we haven't realized than in reality the enemy comes to wreak havoc he comes to put stress and we allow him to do it instead of going all right I'd take pleasure in this because I'm going to 225 look what James goes on to say and I'll close because I know I've gone a long time so let it grow what's it your capacity for when your endurance your capacity is fully developed now look at this fully developed you will be perfect you will be complete and you will need nothing now hold on a minute there's a church in the Book of Revelations you know at this church said we're blessed we need nothing and Jesus had to come along and say oh you think you're blessed you think you're prosperous you think you need nothing let me tell you your true condition your wretched you're miserable you're poor you're blind you're naked that's really scary when you think you need nothing and Jesus says you're wretched miserable poor blind and naked but when God what God says put the scripture back up God says when you go through my endurance training he said you will this is God talking you will be perfect you will be complete and you will need nothing what am I talking to you about tonight I'm talking to you about a relentless believer what does the word relentless mean the word relentless means this it is an attitude or a posture that is resolute persistent and unyielding simply put it doesn't give up it doesn't relent what does it mean to relent it means to become more lenient to slacken or to even concede what should be our paradigm shift when we face adversity now let me tell you this should be our thoughts how exciting this is no obstacle it's an opportunity I'm going to get through this and I'm gonna be stronger on the other side my capacity level is growing I'm on my way to another level of power and authority I will be much more effective what a privilege did you get something out of this tonight I said did you get something out of this tonight look it look it listen to me I hear some of your thoughts going right now but that's not the way it's been you know what your history is trying to dictate your future when are you gonna let go of those things which are behind and when are you gonna realize you just heard the Word of the Living God and I don't care how many times you have dropped your 1:45 get back on the bench go faced your bear go faced your line go face your Goliath and enter into the destiny God has created for your life and your marriage can you say Amen can you say man if you're sitting in here tonight and you'd say you know what John I've been the one that had sat there and said why do I have to go through this I've been the one that's gone through more stress when it came to adversity and hardship I've seen it totally with the wrong paradigm with the wrong mental attitude I want that paradigm shift I want to be the one that comes boldly to the throne of grace I want to be the one that like the Apostle Paul says bring it on if that's you stand up oh I'm so proud of you guys you've been worth every bit of the trip coming down here amen central Louisiana's about to get a whole lot stronger let me tell you something destinies are riding on this tonight I said destinies are riding on look man get rid of the past I'm just telling you right now I'm feeling pass pass pass pass pass don't you know God is in the business of putting the past in the sea of forgetfulness I don't care what you've done I don't care how bad you failed I don't care how much strain has been in your marriage it doesn't have to be that way from this point forward put it behind you many times some of your great adversity comes right in your own marriage many times it comes as that fan I mean I covered one little area tonight financially it could be anything let me tell you something God wasn't surprised by it he said okay we just put 20-point pounds on them on the bar they can handle it because he's got a great future for you if you look at Sarah Connor you watch The Terminator here comes Arnold Schwarzenegger he's trying to destroy her she's like I haven't done anything and then he made that famous line no it's not what you've done it's what you're going to do and if you know the stories of all the terminators you know that she was the one that brought forth the man that was going to deliver them from the machines in the future that Terminator saw what she was headed for see many times the enemy he's hit you he said you some of you right now are going there's no hope oh yeah you just tell me Jesus died and didn't rise from the dead because he's the one who's called the hope of glory of greatness glory means greatness Christ in you is the hope of greatness you're destined for greatness I don't care what your dad said to you I don't care what your mom said you I don't care what your uncle said to you I don't care what your friend said to you your Destiny's not wrapped up in what they think about you your destiny is wrapped up and what Jesus says about you all you have to do is believe I said all you have to do is believe you guys want to believe in here put your hand up alright the Bible says we are to come boldly not sheepishly not timidly but boldly into the throne of grace are you ready to do it come on if I was a football coach right now I'd have you all do push-ups are you ready to believe are you ready I'll pray you repeat father in the name of Jesus we went back to week again I want strength ready come boldly to the throne of grace father in the name of Jesus your word states that I am to come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain Grace in a time of need it is a time of need in my world of influence so I need grace greater grace to handle the challenges that you permitted me to face tonight I'm asking you for the grace of God to not only overcome but to make the name of Jesus famous in my world of influence Satan in Jesus name you have no power over my life your weapons have been removed destroyed I have the weapons of God I speak to you and commands you get under my feet I will be light in my world of influence and people will see the evidence of a resurrected Christ in my life I will overcome I will succeed I will impact I will influence those in my world for the glory of Jesus in Jesus name Amen give Him praise give him praise come on yes I really believe you guys believe this I'm gonna tell you again there's some things you ask God for there's other things you speak to remember God gave the Dominion of this earth to men and women okay and it takes a man or a woman to speak sometimes and God is waiting for you to start speaking don't stop you can't lose you have the word of the Living God heaven and earth can pass away but those words can't pass away speak them you won't feel like it what the enemy wants you to do say oh you don't have any strength when you don't have strength is when you do have strength because when I am weak that is when I'm strong because your words you don't have to feel it emotionally to speak it speak it amen and watch your world of influence change can you do that can you do that alright husbands and wives join your hands and put him up like this put him up like this and say this we were never created say it strong we were never created we were never joined to divide to manipulate to dominate we were joined to be fruitful and to multiply our union will be fruitful in Jesus name Amen thank God one more time amen you you

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Length: 74min 48sec (4488 seconds)

Published: Fri May 02 2014