Pastor John Bevere @ Heart of God Church - Good or God?

Okay, this was from a few weeks back, but I got a special request to put up my notes on this because Pastor John Bevere is an amazing communicator and it's pretty hard to get everything he says down when you're listening to him. 



If you don't know who Pastor John Bevere is, he is one of the most famous authors in the Christian world! He has written so many books including some best sellers. One example is Fear of the Lord, which a friend gave me when I first became a Christian. 

His latest book is Good or God? and this is what he preached from when he was at Heart of God Church in September. 



So, here you go!

------------------------------------------------------------

Today, we assume that if something is good it is of God. We have made good and God is synonymous. 
But if good is so obvious why does God ask us to have discernment? 

Good is all about a reference point. 
Our reference point for good and God's reference point for good but they are not the same. 

It was not the evil side that Eve was attracted to. It was the good side.
There is a good that will lead us away from God. 

Jesus talks about deception very frequently. 
He says that even the elect could be deceived. How? They are not going to be deceived by blatant evil but by evil that is masked with good. 

Proverbs 14:12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. 

Paul wrote: “I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ is going to be corrupted just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent."
If Eve can be deceived in a perfect environment how much more can we be deceived in a corrupt environment? 

God is generous. He says that Adam and Eve can eat of any of the trees in the Garden of Eden.
People don’t see God as generous because they think there are only 2 trees in the garden but that is not true.
There are at least 2500 species of trees in the world. They could eat of at least 2499 trees. 

How did the enemy get Eve to turn on God?
There are 4 Phases to the Enemy’s Strategy

1st Phase: Get her eyes off of all God has given her. 
He put her eyes on the one thing that is being restrained versus on the many blessings we have. 

Eve said God says you cannot eat “nor shall you touch it" - the last part is not part of God's command. 
Only Adam was there when the command was given -- Eve is operating under communicated knowledge vs revelation. 
Adam had revealed knowledge but Eve didn’t. 

It's like when Jesus asked “Who do people say that I am?"
When Peter says “You are Christ, the Son of God” and Jesus says that God the Father revealed it. 
When Jesus gives harder and harder teaching many of people walk away but Peter says “Where can we go?"
He is saying, “I don’t like what You are saying but what can I do? It has been revealed to me that You are the Christ."

2nd Phase: Negate the word of God with good
Example: 2 young Christians are in love, they’re not married yet — they move in together to save money to “give more” By doing this, they negated the word of God… for what is good. 

3rd Phase: Pervert the character of God 
The devil says “God knows that your eyes will be open…"
Eve starts thinking that there is something good in that tree that God is withholding. 

4th Phase: He offers the good that is withheld
This is why James says, “Do not be deceived"
This is not a command. It is a promise. James is saying that I am about to give you the recipe for a deceit-free life. 
James then says… “Every good gift is from God..” — he is saying there is nothing good for you outside of God. 
If you can get that in you, then you will not be deceived.


What is our Reference Point?
2 Timothy — All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is right, good, true and makes us realise what is wrong / bad in our lives. It corrects us when we’re wrong. It teaches us to do what is good. 

Correction gets you off of the wrong road to be back on the right road. 
Correction also keeps us on the right road.

The Bible and Jesus
* The Bible is 66 books written over 1,500 years by 40 different authors many of whom didn’t know what the other wrote. But it is still a perfectly harmonised book. If you ask people to write a chapter of a book in the same way — try seeing if that makes sense when you put it together. 
* The Bible makes over 300 predictions about Jesus and He fulfils all of them.
* Dr. Peter Stoner studied the probability of this happening. Their work was validated to be not only accurate but conservative. 
* The Probability that 1 human being in the last 2000 years could fulfil 8 prophecies is 1/10^17 
* The Probability of fulfilling 16 prophecies is 1/10^45.
 The Probability of fulfilling 48 prophecies is 1/10^157
* Jesus did not just fulfil 48, He fulfilled 300. 
    

The HS spoke to John Bevere that "This is a message of calibration.”
Gas Detectors need to be calibrated it every day. They bring it into a clean air environment and then put it back out. 
Our clean air environment is the word of God and the presence of God. 


HOLINESS
The history of the church is that there were mean-spirited preachers who beat people up with legalism. 
But God says He is coming back for a holy church. Holiness is important. 

“A scalded cat will fear even the cool” - Chinese Proverb
In response, we put all the Scripture about holiness together and say that it’s not important. 
Out of reaction to the mean-spirited preachers we swung to the other extreme.

There are 2 different aspects of holiness:
(1) Positional Holiness
Ephesians 1:4 — God chose us in Christ, to be holy and without blame before Him. 
The moment we are saved, we are holy in God’s eyes. 

Example: 33 years ago John married Lisa and today she is not more her wife than she was 33 years ago. 
He did not isolate himself but there was a behaviour change. He did not flirt with other girls. 

(2) Behavioural Holiness
Peter says… Live as children of God. Do not conform… as God is holy, be holy in all your conduct and manner of living
Peter is not talking about the position but the behaviour that corresponds to the position

Hebrews 12:14 — Pursue holiness. 
Chase after with the intent to apprehend. 

John 14:21 — The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. 

When we don’t teach holiness we are keeping people from intimacy with God. 
To do that is like holding up a marriage certificate to my wife and saying that we are married but then go out and cheat on her. We are married, but I can guarantee there would not be any intimacy between us. 


If we don’t want to marry someone who wants to cheat on us and sleep around while we’re married then what makes us think that God would want that?