Hallelujah God ruler of the universe, you are. There is No. No one like you, God giver of the deepest dreams you are. There is no one like you. God thinker of tremendous thoughts you are Thinking friendly towards me God, royal, holy, true, you are, and there is no one like you.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Welcome to Love Never Fails. In these last days, revival will come. But begins with our individual walk and personal relationship with Jesus. Let's join Brother John now.
Angels proclaim hallelujah.
Well, good morning, and thank you for listening. This is Brother John, and this is Love Never Fails. And uh Yeah.
Well This is probably only going to go on Spotify. We won't put this on the. English radio uh channel English Spanish radio channel but I have restarted this intro. This is the fifth time. And I'm going to talk about something that I hope the title caught you off guard.
And I honestly I'm kind of stuck. I'm kind of uh A little bit Not befuddled, but a little bit unsure of where I'm going with this. But I have something that's been in my heart for the last few weeks that I want to express. And I I've written books that have touched on the topic. I've taught on it.
I've preached on it. But there's something a little different going on. And I want to address it in this show because. potentially If you're listening to this show, it's because somebody told you about it and you saw that title, said, Hmm, I wonder what that's about. And So the title is provocative on purpose.
But I want to address One of the big elephants in the room. I am I I have been going to missions The missions field for 30 plus years. I have, I've seen it all. I've preached it all. I've been stabbed in the back.
I've seen good ministers, bad ministers. I've even been sitting in services where the Lord told me that a certain minister was wolf in sheep's clothing. I've been in places where the Lord's like, don't go there. Do not touch that. Then there's other people I've been around.
He's never said a word. And those people are amazing. I love them. They're the kind of people that I want come to teach in our Bible schools. They're the kind of people I want to travel with.
And then there's, yes, a lot of people who I've never heard a word from the Lord concerning them. But. Throughout our my life, I don't want to call it a ministry, but my life. I have encountered, and even before I became a Christian, when I would read the Bible, my mother was a Catholic and would force us to read the Bible as a punishment, and I enjoy it. And so I would read it and read it and read it, and I wouldn't get picked on that day in school.
And then I'd do it for 10 days straight and never get picked on. And then one day I wouldn't read the Bible, bam, I'd get stuffed in a locker. And so something early on told me that there was some truth or some power or something. in reading the Bible.
Okay. And when I got out of the military. The Lord, I went on to a convention one year while I was in college because I wanted to go skiing. It was a convention. I said, I want to go ski.
And I'd already gone to college because the Lord, while I was in the military, told me to go to college, which is a whole nother story. But when I went to this, Convention in order to get to go ski, there was a preacher that preached a sermon about Eli and Samuel and the calling of Samuel. I could preach it right now. And This is thirty plus years ago and uh At the end of the sermon, He had everyone jump up and say, Here I am, Lord. And I found myself gripping my chair, refusing to jump up.
You know, I was in my 20s. I wasn't going to commit to something I knew I didn't want to do. And I looked to my left, and my roommate's doing the same thing. And back then, you would get your plane tickets early, and you know, before you would travel, and he was getting ready to go to China to be a missionary, and his plane tickets were right there next to him on the bench. And he's gripping the chair, bawling.
And I'm doing the same thing. And I realized as I've been set up here, and I got up and left the room. When I went into a back room to just get alone and pray, the Holy Spirit just laid me out. And that's the First time it's ever happened to me, or that it happened to me. And the Lord said, I want you to go to the nations.
And I said, No, sir. Not at all. And I argued with God. I don't know how long. And he repeated it three times.
And, um At the end, I said, okay, God, I'll go, but don't make me out to be a liar. I don't want to be a liar because, in my mind's eye, that's how I viewed many, many preachers. And I didn't want to be that. I did not want to be a liar. And so.
Several years later, after I graduated college, I was in another city and I was coaching, and there were several Bible schools in this town. And I was coaching at a local university, and I picked up all the pamphlets and I said, I want to go to Bible school, Lord. Which one do you want me to go to? And the Lord spoke to me and said, You're not going to any. I'm going to teach you.
Which a point ensued in another argument with God because I'm like, Lord, if I don't go to Bible school, my friends are all going to think I'm nuts. They're going to think I'm crazy. And so that weekend, somebody asked me, What Bible school are you going to, brother John? What Bible school? And I was like, I'm not.
The Lord told me. And when I told them what the Lord said, of course, their jaws dropped, their eyes get wide, and they go, Are you sure? And I'm like, Yeah. You know, people are going to think you're nuts. And I'm like, yeah, obvious.
Already, already see that. And it's interesting that 30-some years later, these are the same people calling me going, can I ask your advice on this? Can you come do this? Can you be a part of this? And they say, you're the only one who hasn't changed.
And what happened to me is I said, okay, God, if you said you're going to teach me, start teaching me. And I started reading the word, studying the word. And within a few weeks after that, somebody came in, gave me over 100 books that I read in the next year. And I would read the books and somebody go, that's trash. That's full of trash.
I'd throw it away. Then I'd read another one, go, I like this. And I'd go through and highlight it. And then I'd go back through the book and highlight it and write the notes down, just like I did when I was in college. And that's how I studied the word and studied and grew.
And I started doing that with the word.
So. You can't see it. You can hear me turning the pages. But I have color-coded my Bibles.
So, this Bible I have is less than a year old, and it's color-coded. It's got yellow, and orange, and purple, and green plastic tabs. And then I go to that tab, and those scriptures that refer to that topic are color-coded as well with a color pencil. And then, usually, what I do is after I've color-coded this Bible according to different topics, I then give it away and I start with a new Bible. And I've been doing that for years.
And, um, I've given away some really nice Bibles.
some ones that I really liked.
Well...
So, I'm saying all this because my journey took me to the mission field. It took me to where God was teaching me. And as I would read these things, the next thing I know, I'd be having to walk some of these things out. And I can tell you, you don't have to believe me. You're just somebody out there listening.
I don't know you. You don't know me. But I can say this with pure confidence that. I've seen every kind of miracle you can think of. I've seen it all.
And it doesn't make me a better person. It doesn't make me any greater of a person in any way, shape, or form. I still get up in the morning and have to depend on God. I still get up and have to fight thoughts that come to my head. You know, there's an old expression that thoughts may come and thoughts may go, but thoughts that are unspoken and unacted die unborn.
And, you know, we've got a whole radio show out there programming that you can listen to called Renewing Your Mind, where we talk about that. But I tell you all this because I don't ever want to be a preacher. In the way you probably think what a preacher is, I'm not interested. Been at this 30 plus years. Early on, I did try to raise support.
Early on, I did try to, you know, build a ministry. I tried doing some of those things, and none of it clicked. None of it clicked. We would have people that, after a miracle, would say, Oh, can we volunteer for your ministry? I'd be like, I don't have a ministry.
Well, how do you do what you do? I was like, I work, I work, and I save and I pay for the trips myself. And I can tell you that method, yes, there are people who have partnered up with us who give money. On a semi-regular basis or a regular basis to help us do some of the things we're doing. They don't get tax receipts.
They don't care about that. All they care about is that the gospel is preached, that lives are changed. And so we have a handful of partners like that. But 90% of What we do and twenty years ago, it was ninety nine percent of what we do is from what we do through work and through my businesses and what God has taught me in operating businesses. And right now, I'm currently operating three businesses.
I'm sitting in an R V at a job site Where we're building a house on a mountaintop, and all my crew currently is out. They're doing things, getting things. It's a kind of a rainy day.
So I said, I've got to take this opportunity to do another radio show. And I work. I get up at 5 in the morning. I'm in the car usually by 6 with one of my crew. By 6:45, we're picking up this third member, and then we drive to the job site.
And I do paperwork in the morning on the way to the job site. We work six or seven hours on the job site, and I do paperwork all the way home. And I usually am done 7:30, 8 o'clock at night. That's what I do. Yesterday was a Sunday.
I had to write 14 estimates, and I work my dogs off. And I don't say all that. For any other reason, that I want you to understand, I don't take up offerings. If people say, Come to my church and preach, I don't take up offerings. I don't ask for an offering, I don't ask for an honorarium.
I did a wedding this past weekend. I gave the honorarium from that doing that wedding to somebody, to my pastor, so that he could help pay a drug addict who's recovering so he could have money to pay him to do work around the church and help him get back on his feet.
So, my concern is not in a ministry or in the money that comes with ministry or operating a business that we didn't call ministry. Not interested in any of that. Everything we do overseas, we try to pay for it ourselves, or we've taught the people that we're working with overseas how to. Do it themselves. And so we go to a number of nations, and the Lord has blessed us to where I've been to over 30 nations.
I've preached to well over a million people doing open-air crusades, Bible schools, radio shows, all of that. And our current radio show has been on the air for 12 years. And I've got a team of friends now who are helping do those shows.
So I don't have to do them every Tuesday and Thursday because that's a lot. Especially when you're operating a business to pay for all of this.
So, um, I don't have anything against those who where Scripture says the workman is worthy of his hire. Or even Paul said that do I not have a right to some sort of offering from you? I have no problem with that. It is not the path that God has led me on. I've just not been that guy.
doesn't mean you can't be. But I do believe that the American church system as a whole is broken. Yeah. A lot of it is repetitive. Religion and dogma that's taught in seminaries and Bible schools that is not even scripture.
And because of it, those guys go out there and keep repeating that stuff. And so, what I don't want to do is give you ammunition. To go to some pastor and say, Oh, this is why you're wrong. I'm not going to do that. I could.
I mean, I can think of two topics right off the top of my head that I could give seven or eight scriptures per topic and destroy it. Many, many Christians. worship of their church. if I could put it that way, or worship of their pastor. I could do it in a heartbeat.
There are topics that the American church teaches, that probably ninety percent of churches teach, that are scripturally incorrect. But I'm not interested in that. I'm not interested in arming you with information that you would use in a wrong heart. I'm not interested in. Finding an argument, just because I studied them and discovered the truth doesn't make it ammunition to use against Christians.
Because even though they may be wrong, at least they're doing something. I'd rather have somebody doing 1% than zero. And Christianity really operates on the basis of a of millions of people doing a small percentage To accomplish the goal of Christ. And I'm not interested in in a 1480. Excuse me, anybody information or tools that can be used the wrong way.
So what I really want to address is you. And why don't you want to go to church? Why do you believe people like me are liars? Why do you believe? Number one reason men don't go to church because they sit in a church long enough and then they hear something that they know, even though they can't put their finger on it, is wrong, and they go, That man's lying to us.
And they can't put their finger on it, but they know it. And I'll tell you that that's the spirit of God in them. The problem is, they're not rooted and grounded in love to where they handle it properly.
So they just quit going to church and say everybody's liars. Yeah, we all are. The only one who wasn't was Jesus.
So, you know, here's the thing: we're calling the kettle black, and every one of us is that kettle. You know, the minute Adam ate of that apple. All of us become subject to the sinful nature. You know, there's a scripture, there's a thing called the Romans road that's a religious technique for evangelism. And it's several scriptures found in Romans.
Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Well, that's not even what it says in the original language. What it really says in the original language is: all have sinned and are therefore deprived of the nature or presence of God. That's the condition that you and I were born into. That we were all sinners because of Adam, and we're born into a nature that is deprived of the presence of God. That's it.
That is your and I spiritual condition apart from God. Is that we are deprived of the presence of God. When Adam sinned and he, he, he, what did he do? He hid himself from the presence of God.
So when God came through, the Lord came walking through the garden the next day. God knew they were hiding, but he called out because God always gives an opportunity for repentance. God called out, hey, Adam, where are you? And instead of coming out and say, oh, Lord, we sinned, we were wrong, and now death, what you warned us about, eating of that tree would bring death, it's happened because the minute Adam ate of that apple, he went from being a spiritual alive being to being spiritually dead and only physical.
So that's why we say that when you become born again, you become spiritually alive.
Now you have access by the blood of Jesus into the presence of God. This whole thing, all of it that we call Christianity, Judaism, the law, all of that was what they seem to hide and they seem to miss is that every bit of this is about getting you into relationship with God, into the presence of God. You know, there was in the 90s and 80s, I remember in the circle that I ran in, oh, the Shekinah glory, the Shekinah glory, and everybody's talking about the Shekinah glory. And I was like, I know what the Shekinah glory of God is. It's the love nature of God manifest because God in 1 John says God is love, the image of God is love.
The image of God is not five fingers, five toes. The image of God is not man. The image of God is love, the image of what man is supposed to be and was until Adam and is going to become. All of creation waits within your expectation for the children of God to be revealed. Romans 8:19.
So the image of God is love. The image of man is supposed to be love. But we take the mindset of, well, I look like this, so therefore God must look like me with five fingers, toes. And then that leads to people arguing about: well, do you think God's white, black, male, female, blue, eye? You know, no, the image of God is love.
It has nothing to do with the fleshly nature. This fleshly nature is just what God gave us to inhabit and have dominion over this world. And so we have all sinned and are deprived of the nature or the presence of God. You were born into that spiritual condition. And then what happens?
You go to a church to try to find. Relief from that spiritual condition, that sin nature, because everything in you is searching for the truth. Every man is born, every woman is born with an emptiness, something they want to fill. You've heard this in Hollywood, you hear this in psychology, you hear this in your schools. Everybody's got something they're searching for.
And the thing that man is searching for is right standing with God, is the presence of God, the thing that was taken from him when the knowledge of good and evil entered in. We were never meant for the knowledge of good and evil, but what was taken out of it was love. And so, God, in the whole Old Testament, gives us all these rules and all these regulations and everything says, Because you can't love, I'm going to live, give you a moral code to live by that hopefully it'll help you understand. And begin to clarify what you're supposed to be. That's what the law is.
The law is just a bunch of boundaries and rules to try to help you understand what you're supposed to be. But where do they say you're supposed to be this, guys? Even in Christianity, modern Christianity, you can't do this, you can't do that, you have to say this, you have to pray this way, you have to do that. And on the inside, you know that's foolishness because none of that is fulfilling that empty thing on the inside of you. And so we interpret that as a lie.
Yeah. We interpret that emptiness that religious people are trying to fill with their doctrine and their religion as a lie. Never realizing that the problem, yes, I agree, they're not preaching the truth, they're not preaching religion to you, but the problem is not them. Your problem is you, it's me. Why?
Because there's something on the inside that is missing. It's missing. And you spend your life trying to fill it. And then, when you get married and you fill it, part of it with a spouse, Paul calls that a great mystery. What it's like.
He compares having a relationship with God to like having a relationship with a spouse. You fill that emptiness. And you go, wow. You know, there was that movie that Tom Cruise and whatever, I can't remember what it is. I can see her face, but he says, She says, or he says, you complete me.
The only thing That will ever complete you and I is the presence of God. You can get married. You can get married 10 times. And the problem, your marriage, the reason your marriages don't work out is because your wife cannot fill the hole. That was meant for God.
And see, your knowledge of good and evil. Which you're never meant to have is trying to tell you you gotta do it this way, you gotta do it that way, you gotta do this. And then you go to church, and I had a good a friend call me, and he was getting so mad at me because I was posting just love truth on online all the time, and he would argue with me, but, but, but. And then after about Six months he just stopped. He disappeared.
And Then he came back about six months later and he goes, Brother John, I need you to ask your forgiveness. He goes, I was getting mad at you because I knew what you were saying was right, but it couldn't make sense because, you know, all this. And he said, what happened is I got gloriously saved at 18 years old and I had such a great relationship with God. Things were amazing. And then I got steered into a particular type of denominational church.
And he goes, bit by bit, my joy and my relationship with God disappeared and was replaced by this church doctrine and church theology and church religion. He goes, and so then when you come along after 30 years of this religion and you're talking the way I felt 30 plus years ago, he goes, it aggravated me. He goes, but then I started doing the things you began to talk about. I realized the problem. Is not Brother John.
The problem is that I'm I've been trying to fill the hole that belongs to God. That's such a bad way to say that, too. But the space that's in me that needs God, I've been trying to fill it. with this religion Of do-gooders that don't have the presence of God. And he said, so I went out and began to do some of the things you did.
And the next thing I knew, it was bringing freedom. He goes, and he said, I went out and blessed the lady in the grocery store line, and I went to my car and wept. I hadn't cried like that in 30 years. He goes, I did something for someone else, and I got in a car and I cried. I went and did something for someone else, and I went home and cried on my wife's shoulder.
He goes, and he goes, it's like my relationship with God has all of a sudden been restored. Because he stepped away from the knowledge of good and evil. which includes religion and doctrine. 'Cause see the word the word of man or the doctrine of man renders God in your life powerless. That's a scripture.
You know, Ephesians says that you be rooted in ground and love that you may know the hope to which he's called you.
So for 30 years, this man was depressed and in a church and not satisfied, and just like, wow, is this as good as it gets? And I hear I come along and go, no, it gets better. How can it get better? I've been a Christian longer than you. How can it get better?
You know, I remember I preached at a church in Garner, North Carolina. I got invited to preach in this church, and I have to tell you, it was a little black church, and I was intimidated. I'd never preached in a black church. And I was praying and crying out to God. And he said, pray.
He said, I want you to share these seven truths of love. And I went in that church, and I was eight weeks out, and after. After about three weeks of studying those seven things, I repented and I cried out to God and said, I've been a supposed Christian all these years, and I don't believe I was because I have never. Understood this love or walked in this love, it confuses me and baffles me, God. And I went and preached it at that church.
And afterwards, a man came up to me and said, I have been a Christian for 50 years, and I've never heard that taught. He said, Thank you. I was like, wow. And so then I got invited to another little church, and I said, What do you want to preach on? And the Lord said, Love.
And this happened over and over. I was like, Why can't I preach faith? Why can't I preach money? Why can't I preach miracles, signs, and wonders? I was crying and moaning to God.
And then what happened is I started to just. Listen and obey. And I began, and I was preaching love. You know, and even in one of our Bible schools, 20-some years ago, I got asked to go in and teach a class. And when I went in and said, Hey, the name of the class is such and such, such and such.
And the students started laughing. I said, What's so funny? They said, Oh, you're going to spend 10 minutes talking about that topic, and you're going to spend the rest of the time talking about love. And I just, I said, Yep, you're right. I said, You want to just go right to love?
And they were like, Yep. And I'm still in communication working with a lot of those people, and they do the same thing. And to see the ministry to the poor and the destitute and the underground church and all the things they're doing with such a presence of God, I literally go overseas and come back more full than when I'm here in the United States. The United States drains me. I have a group of friends.
We're missionaries, and we're all kind of the same mindset. We haven't gotten together in years. But one of the jokes is when the stoplights and the Big Macs begin to burden you, it's time to get out of the country. Because just the American daily life is designed to distract you. And That's why I tell you all this because We are missing the presence of God.
And here's the thing is, is you know it. I know that you know it.
Some of you probably know it better than me. I'm desperate for the presence of God. I. Don't understand, I'm still even in my fifties. Living, I feel like, sometimes in Romans 6.
I mean, just a couple weeks ago, the Lord's dealing with me about worry. And I had to make some business decisions. Once I conquered that worry. But I didn't want to make those business decisions because I was worried. And so here I am.
I'm this guy that people go, oh, go see Brother John. Go talk to Brother John. He'll pray for you. I mean, there's other episodes out there. You can go listen to yourself.
I mean, you know, there was a miracle where we were in Belize last summer and the Lord. I was interrupted four times, and this couple never said a word to me. But every time I sat back down to talk to them, God gave me something to say to them, and they would start crying. And then finally, I said, Well, we can fix this. And they had never said a word.
And then when they put their hands on my hand, I bent my head and the Holy Spirit said they want children. And I blurted up as loud as I am. And I said, You guys don't have kids yet? And they're basically 40. Of course, that broke her.
He starts crying because now she's crying. He was already crying because of the trial they were going through. And I said, Well, let's fix this. And the room was full of preachers. And here I am blurting that out like a moron.
So we prayed. And I looked at him and I said, I look forward to the good news in February because we were doing a missions conference in February down there. And they showed up all summer. I'm such an idiot. Listen to this: all summer.
I'm on my WhatsApp group, and that couple is on the group, but I got their names wrong.
So I'm taking, hey, anybody know Bob and Mary? Where they are? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's not their real names. And I said, because, you know, I want to find out, are they pregnant?
Nobody's responding. Who's Bob and Mary? And at one point, the woman even goes, Is he talking about us? And I'm like, no, no, no, I'm talking about Bob and Mary.
So then they show up at the conference, and I'm like, there she is, and she's pregnant. And we're like jumping up and down. And I look at her, I said, What's your real name? And she had to tell me her real name. Look, God moved even in the middle of that stupidity.
But see, people don't want that. People want nice, clean, perfect little everything. And I've seen God do some of the most amazing things in the middle of the greatest moments of stupidity, even when you're getting it wrong, and God's right there moving. Wow. You know, and so I say to you, you where you are, You know there's more.
You know there's more. But maybe your brain, or if you're demonically influenced, there's something else going on there, which I'm not. I'm not addressing that right now. But on the inside, you know the answer to the question is: yep, there's more. You know that.
And yet you want to hold God responsible to the fact that you went to a church that wasn't preaching the word and wasn't preaching the truth and wasn't telling you about having a walk with God. And now you blame all churches for that. That's your problem. Your problem. And it's my problem.
I mean, you know, somebody went to the church I go to. He has preached two things that I disagree with. I'm not throwing him out. And leaving his church and packing my children up. No, why?
Because God spoke to me three years before he planted that church that he was going to plant a church or at least pastor. That's a whole nother thing. And I went up to him and said, Hey, you applying for the job? He goes, Yeah, he didn't get the job. And yet God told me that morning.
While I was shaving, that the pastor of that church was retiring.
So when I see him, I'm like, you're applying for the job? The pastor's retiring, right? He goes, he's like, basically, I find out later, he didn't even find out until that morning, right about the time I was showering the pastor or shaving, the pastor had picked him up to take him to church, said, Hey, I'm retiring. I want you to take the job. And the board picked a whole nother person.
Okay. Well, I didn't miss God. Because the pastor was retiring. But then what happened is that that man and his wife, God began to speak to them, and they planted a church, and we go to that church now. And I'm not going to stop going to that church because one day he looked at me cross-eyed, or one day he cracked a joke that didn't register with me.
I'm not going to stop going to that church because I be trying, trying, I'm not, but I'm trying to be a student of the word, discover that he's preaching something I don't agree with. I'm not doing that. Why? Because our hearts have been knit together by love, rooted and grounded in love. Love is the thing that holds the entire, bringing the whole church into unity.
Those are all scriptures. And here's the thing: yes, I understand why you feel the way you feel. I understand. Because you feel like the frog that realized you're in a boiling pot and you jumped out. When 87% of churches in the United States basically are not even preaching from the Bible, or they take one verse and preach some your best life now crap.
Sorry I said that. Listen. You will have trials and tribulations. If you ever read the book of Job, let me give you one hint about the book of Job. The trials and tribulations brought a realization to him that you should come to the same realization.
Job said, I have one desire. If I could have my heart's desire, what was that heart's desire? You find out later on in the book. The presence of God. The presence of God.
The presence of God is what David was after. It's what Solomon was after. It's what Abraham was after. The presence of God is what. In the new test, and even Jeremiah talked about the followers of the way were after.
That's why Paul Stood up after he became a Christian. He was being convicted of everything he was doing. He said, I am a member of the way. He was a member of the way. What is the way?
The way is how to live in the presence of God. That's the best way to explain it. There is a way to live in the presence of God. Jeremiah said in chapter 6, I believe it might be 3:16, but he said this in the first six chapters of Jeremiah. He's pleading with the pastors, the religious leaders of the day, who are obeying the law.
But he's pleading with them, saying the law is not enough. The law is what's causing the destruction of this nation. You following the law and your doctrine is what's going to bring about the fall of Jerusalem. Oh no, Jeremiah. He's pleading with them.
And he says, Today you stand at a crossroads. Last chance, guys. This is the crossroads. Choose the path you will serve: the ancient path or the path you're already on. And they replied to him and said, Oh, we like the path we're on.
They chose the law. They chose the modern church law of that day, the religion of that day, over the ancient path. What was the ancient path? It wasn't the Mosaic law. It was not the Torah.
See, the Torah and the Mosaic law was given to us because we were missing something. We were missing something and couldn't understand what we were missing.
So he gives it to us so that for. Thousands of years we can try to make it work according to and come to the realization that none of it worked. That's why Jesus was sent. And then, what did Jesus do? In John 13:34, he says, Today I give to you a new commandment.
In actuality, in original language, please take the time to figure this out. In the original language, Jesus did not say, I give you a new command today. He said, I renew with you the eternal command. What is the eternal command? That you love.
That is the law. Why? Because God is love. And if God is love, then His one law, His one command, is going to be love. Would it not be?
And so when Jeremiah says, Get back on the ancient path, what was the ancient path in their day? And how much more ancient is it now? It's so ancient now that it's a fairy tale. And it's the law of love. And let everything be established out of two or three witnesses.
But John says, dear sister, 1 John chapter 3, or. 1 John says it, and 2 John says it. And he basically says it this way. I'm going to quote one. He says, Dear sister, greatly overjoys me to know that you and your children continue in the truth.
Not as though I write you a new command, but one we've had from the eternal beginning. From the beginning, before man was created, this law existed. When man is gone, this law will still exist. And what is it? It's the law of love.
When you go read Revelation chapter 4, it says that once I was in a spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And it begins to describe the angels, the eyes and the front and over. And it says of these angels that day and night they never stop saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And when they do that, the 24 elders who surround the sea of crystal bow down before him who sits on the throne and says, You are worthy, O Lord and God, to receive honor, glory, and power, for by you and through you, all things were created. You see, God is eternal.
And every day, every moment, these angels and these 24 elders are gaining revelation about the love of God. They're seeing another facet of the love of God. And they're awed by it. They're wowed by it. They are living in the presence of God.
And the thing is, God has created you and I. When He created Adam, He created Adam so He wanted to have that fellowship with them. Not just people bowing down, saying, Oh, worthy are you, God? Yes, that's all part of it. But He wanted someone to fellowship with.
Hey, Adam, what do you want to call that animal? Let's call that a rabbit, God. Hey, what do you think about that? I don't know how this word sounds: butterfly. And so they're making all this up.
They're having those conversations. Think about when Jesus, that conversation with God, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, the man to his right said, Remember me today when you come into your kingdom. Jesus didn't look at him and go, Well, hey, let's get down off the cross. Let's baptize you. You got to pray this way.
And, you know, buddy, did you stop smoking soon enough? No, he didn't do any of that. You know what he said? He said, just like you and I, if you and I had been friends for years and I hadn't seen you in five years, I got four friends back in Oklahoma that we just messaged each other and said, hey, let's get together this summer. It's been six, seven years.
Listen, there's no catching up to do. Why? Because we're the same guys, we're the same dudes. That's how guys are. Hey, I haven't seen you in 20 years.
How's everything going? Great. Awesome. Let's go. Let's go fishing.
Let's go hunt. Let's go do this. Let's go do that. And it's just like where you picked up. Where you left off.
And so Jesus looking at this guy doesn't say, oh, this, oh, that, or you need to apologize for this. You know, that one time you said that, he didn't do any of that. What did he say? He said, Today you will be with me. With me.
That's the subject of the sentence, as far as I'm concerned. Jesus saying, You're with me. That's what you want to hear. That's what we want to hear. And you know, when he's walking past, you just want him to hear, Yeah, you're with me.
Hey! You know, what do you need to do? Go sit out on your deck and watch the sun come up and have a cup of coffee and talk to him. You know, stop going to him going, I need this, I need that. No, do you do that to your wife?
D is that what you do? Is everybody just about fulfilling some need of yours? You have a need that needs to be filled, and the only way you're going to fill that one need? Is by stopping and shutting down. and inviting him in.
That's it. Well, Brother John, what do I say? I don't know. Hey God. I'm a dummy.
You know that? I really am. I'm a dummy and I'm sorry. Kidn H you know God Instead of it being all about me today. Who can we help today?
Who can wheel? Or talk to him. Just talk to him. And you don't have to say, oh, this, you know, yes, there's prayers that have to be said in the name of Jesus. Yes, there's, yeah, I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about personal relationship stuff. I'm talking about: can you and your wife, or you and your girlfriend, sit somewhere and have a conversation? Then why not do it with Jesus? And the Holy Spirit. And then just go out that day and be.
Open. and aware. Why not? For all have sinned and fall short. Of the glory of God?
No, for all have sinned and are deprived of the presence of God. What's missing in your life? It's not all the things you think you need to fill. What's missing in your life? is the presence.
That's it. That's it. And so you can blame preachers for being bad preachers. Yep, Bible, 242 verses in the Bible that talk about that. That's not new to God.
Not new to God, new to you. Use it as an excuse if you want. Not new to God. He knew about it thousands of years ago. He wrote about it.
Go read Ezekiel 9:8 and 9, talking about the preachers turning their back on the presence of God and whitewashing the walls to make everything look good. Or go read Zachariah chapter 10, it says, And my anger is kindled against the shepherds. Why? Because all of their flock are too busy staring at their personal idols that talk lies and fantasies to them. What is that?
That sounds like a cell phone to me. You know, so all of that is out there. I could go on for hours about all these scriptures, about how they preach things that tickle your ears, the things that you want to hear. What is your pet peeve? Let's see, you know, let's see if we can get your preacher to preach about that this week and make your ears feel good.
See, the thing is, wherever you are, in whatever condition you're in right now. Your problem is not other human beings. Your problem is that you have cut God off. And you need to open the door. That's it.
You need to let him in and say, God, I'm sorry, I didn't know. And just start talking to him because let me tell you something: you go, Well, I don't know, I don't have a Bible, I don't know any word. Listen, they didn't have the Bible either. There are thousands of years they didn't have a Bible. I have friends that have gone into communist countries in the 90s, early 90s, right after the wall fell.
And you know what? They would lead people to Jesus, and people would get baptized in the Holy Spirit right then and there and begin to quote scripture. And they go, How did you, these Christians from America, missionaries, going, How did you know that? And they go, no, what? You just quoted blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And they were quoting scripture that they'd never read or heard before. Just because they got in the presence of God. I mean, think about that. God could do a lot more than we give him credit for. You know, he doesn't need.
Me. He doesn't need preachers, but he chooses to use us to fulfill his purpose in the earth.
So you see, I don't have this big-headed opinion of myself that, well, without me, the church is going to. No. No! God doesn't need me. He loves me.
He wants the best for me. But I act like an idiot sometimes. I really do. And let me give you a little clue. I don't have a single preacher friend.
That loves to hear me talk like this. They will all agree with me, but they don't want me talking about it. I wrote a book called Why Are the Fisherman Eating the Bait? And the publisher, a major publisher, said, We can't print this because no preacher will promote it. Talking about preachers abusing the church and why we're wrong, and the blind leading the blind.
And that publisher said, I can't preach it. Because even though we can't find anything scripturally wrong with it. There's not a preacher on the planet that would promote it. And yet, I have preacher friends who read it and cry. Because they know it's true.
They know it's true. I was preaching about I didn't call it fake news in the book, but I was preaching Zachariah 10, verses 1 through 5, which is all about fake news, long before the current president made it what it is. It's in the scripture. But see, here's the thing: I'm not saying all this to you. Oh, wow, Brother John, I'm saying this because all of this that I've experienced, all these things, all these miracles, signs, and wonders.
Somebody insulted me a couple years ago when they said this.
Well, that's just your flow, Brother John. Can I just be honest? Tell you, I want he's bigger than me, but I wanted to punch him. I want to scream and yell at him. Go, what are you talking about?
You've known me 30, almost 30 years. You know, I don't. have a flow. I don't have some whatever. And all these people are like, oh, you know, we walked into church the other day.
Somebody goes, oh, well, we know who you are. And my wife's like, what do you mean? He goes, well, you guys are famous. We're like, no, we're not. We're not famous.
Oh, yes, you are. And I'm like, oh, what are you talking about? And it's because people hear, oh, that miracle, that man. And, you know, so yes, miracles, signs, and wonders happen. And we don't try to prevent it.
We don't get in the way if we can help it. And then, so people start talking and a rumor starts going. And next thing you know, people think you're some kind of great preacher. And I'm like, I am Brother John. Call me Brother John and let's leave it at that.
And you know what? I'm probably gonna make a mistake today. I'm probably going to look at somebody the wrong way. And those are all the offenses that really get people going. But what you're not going to find is, I'm not going to treat somebody mean on purpose.
I'm not going to, you know, preach a sermon about kindness and then go to the restaurant and treat a waitress like dirt. I've seen that. I'll give you a secret that I do. I just did it a couple of weeks ago when I hired a new guy, is literally when I hire people, I take them to a restaurant. Or I will take a preacher to a restaurant.
Let's find out what he's really like. And I will purposely get there ahead of time and talk to the manager and the waitress and ask them to screw the meal up. And I will pay them ahead of time. to do it.
So that I can see the reaction of this preacher who wants to work with us or this Person that wants to go to work for one of my companies. If he's anything more than a labor. I will take it. Hate them to eat. to find out how they treat people.
And it is And they don't even know. The last guy I took, and we hired him. After I hired him, I told him about it. He goes, Did I pass? He said, Absolutely, you did.
I said, That's the only reason I'm even telling you. Is because he was one of the first people, and I did it to him. I did two different tests on him. One of em was a screwed up food and the other one. I'm not revealing.
And he passed with flying colors. Another thing I'll do is I'll try to get people to gossip. Mm-hmm. And if they gossip, if they take the bait and run. Yep, I don't want them around.
Don't want them around. If you're a gossiper, I don't want you around. And so I'll. try to entice you to go gossip. Yeah.
Why? Because I want to know who I'm surrounding myself around with. I want to know who I'm hiring. I want to know if you're good enough to put on the radio, you're good enough to get on a stage and preach and care about the gospel that you're preaching. I want to know who's traveling with me, these underground churches, because I can't just take some famous preacher to an underground church and risk everybody going to jail.
Just so that you can get a stamp and your passport. Don't care about that.
So I am very protective. of what we do. And so, you know, here's the thing. I don't have all the answers. I don't know everything.
But what I do know is that if you're out there and you're questioning and you're wanting to know is there more? the answer is yes. Are you my am I my brother's keeper? The answer is yes. I am not telling you to sell everything you own and give it to a church.
Don't do that. Don't do that. I'm not even saying to you, hey, you know, give all your money away to homeless or no, I would not. I wouldn't give money to Red Cross without understanding that only a small percentage actually helps the people. I know that.
So, I would rather, you know, like here's an example. How many times have you heard a preacher say, Oh, don't give to those homeless people begging on the corner? Don't help that guy. Give it to us and we'll do it. And then you go ask them, Hey, you guys do anything with homeless?
Do you have a food pantry? And they don't have any of that. But yet, they're the ones preaching about not helping people in need. Give it to us and we'll take care of it. And they don't.
So I don't.
Now, my church does. My church built a food pantry. My church takes care of homeless. My church that I go to went and took. Bunch of guys up to Western Carolina and set up a big relief center and kept it open for four months until the people up there started taking advantage of them.
Oh, I can't believe you'd say that. That's a disaster zone. In the middle of a disaster zone, the wolves come out. The witches and the wolves come out.
So the church did as much as they could as long as they could, and they're still doing some good things. But they had to shut it down. I've been there, done that with different hurricanes. And so It doesn't stop me from continuing to do what's right. Just because somebody out there turns you off to this Christianity, turns you off to Jesus because of it.
Doesn't make Jesus wrong. Just because you could, somebody tried starting a rumor about me last week, went to my pastor and said, Brother John, no, no, no, no, no, you know, by the way, you're going to kick him out of the church. And the pastor was like, hmm, that's interesting. Because the day before, I had sent him a text asking him what dates he wanted to come teach in our Bible school. And he's like, I'm kicking Brother John out of church, according to this person, but yet Brother John wants me to come teach in his Bible school.
It's like, hello. You know, but somebody tried. And I don't try to spread rumors. I don't try to get in the gossip mill. I don't want to have anything to do with that nonsense.
And even in our church, I don't know most of the people. I know 30 of the people that we started that church with when he started it. We were there the first service and he opened it up. Nine months, eight months later, and now the church is over 400 people. Praise God.
And I don't know anybody. And I'm fine with that. I don't want people knowing who I am. 'Cause Until God sets me loose in the United States, I'm happy doing what I'm doing overseas. Mm-hmm.
But this question keeps coming up. This issue of how do what do you do with somebody who doesn't believe in the church, doesn't want to be a part of the church, doesn't want to listen to the church.
Well, I mean, 87% of the time, I agree with them. Because statistics say 87% of churches in the United States are not preaching from the Bible.
So Okay, I agree with you. But that doesn't mean The other thirteen percent are trash. Doesn't mean the man on the corner. Who's waiting for you to notice him? Doesn't deserve your help?
And if you claim, you know, the whole thing, let me just be clear with you: the whole thing about being a believer. A follower of Jesus is not tithes and offerings, it's generosity. They are two different things. Generosity. To give to people in need.
Not just give to an organization. If you give to your church, I'm not telling you not to give to your church, but what I'm saying is: where's the generosity? You know, that's the real curse of Sodom and Gomorrah: they lacked generosity and hospitality. And they abused everybody around them. You know, most people claim that it's homosexuality.
That was part of it. Because when people go off into sin, all kinds of sin abound. And when they gave up... The walk of love. Kindness and hospitality.
All kinds of sin entered in. And so I'm saying to you is: yes, there's more. There's a lot more, but it is not. It is your responsibility. To confess Jesus is Lord, not mine.
It is your responsibility to address the issues you have with Jesus, not mine. What I'm hoping is that by listening to this message, you realize, oh.
So I'm not the only one? Nope, you're not. You are not that special. He loves you, and he can do special things with you. But You're not that special.
Every person. I remember years ago, I was asked to get involved in politics, and I was like, Yeah, no, I can't. Why not? I've got skeletons in my closet. They said, What do you mean by skeletons?
I said, Well, I defaulted on my student loans, and I got laughed at. They said, you have financial issues. Yep. He said, Are you an American? I said, Yep.
He goes, You know any Americans who don't have financial issues? He goes, everybody has financial issues. He goes, have you cheated on your wife? I said, no. Have you done this?
No. Have you committed a crime? No. He goes, then what's your real excuse? And that's the way it is.
So, I want to set you free and let you know that just because you're driving down the road, beating the steering wheel, you're mad, whatever it is. You're not alone, you're not the only one. It's just that in America we do a good job of hiding it. You know, when a guy like you or I goes to the church and we disagree or the pastor disagrees with us, you know, then they they come after us.
Sorry about that. They come after us with their um with everything they're doing. I don't know if this will continue to record. I dropped my. Same.
So it looks like it's still going.
So they come after us. You know, when they try to claim this and that about you, and they'll say, oh, he doesn't believe this, and they'll bad talk you. You know, pastors and churches will do it in order to protect their own hide and protect their own interests. They will bad mouth you, they'll do it. Why?
Because they're not operating according to the Spirit of God. They're operating according to their own thing. They will protect their doctrine and their religion. And yet, the scripture clearly says that the word of God and the doctrine of men, or the doctrine of men, or the doctrine of men, and the, I don't know, why am I not able to quote it right now? Anyway, that the doctrine of men rendered the word of God powerless.
And so you're seeing that, you're experiencing all that, and you're not alone in that. You're not the only guy that's ever dealt with that. You're not the only guy that's sitting in church going, these people are all wimps. You're not the only guy. Yes, most of the American church caters to women.
Because it's easier to preach to women than it is to men. It's easier to tell women and lie to women than it is to lie to men. It is. It's just the way it is. They're easy to deceive.
Sorry, ladies, if you're listening, I'm sorry, but it's the truth. You know, it's the truth. And so, you know, they don't want to preach to strong men. They don't want to preach to mighty men of valor. And here's the thing: all of creation around us, I'm sitting there looking out the window of this RV and I see all these trees.
I see all these, you know, the valley down here and going back up the hill over there and all these beautiful trees and all that. And I go, all of that is waiting for me to be what God created me to be. And it's not just me, it's you too. He's Everything is waiting. All of creation is waiting for you to become what God intended for you to be.
And you're never going to get there as long as you're blaming other people, as long as you're making excuses about churches. Why? Because the church has nothing to do with your relationship with God. You should walk into the church of God or a church and already be so full of God and so aware of his presence that everybody else is like, who's that? You don't go to church to get right with God.
You don't go to church to have a relationship with God. You go to church to fellowship with Christians. Have you not ever heard that before? You get right with God in the cool of the day. You get right with God in the middle of the night when He's talking to you and He's moving on you.
You get right with God before you get up and go out the door and interact with any other human being. You and God are. A couple that that's a bad way to put it, but you guys have to get everything straight before you ever get out there and start interacting with other people. And if you have an expectation because a religion has been taught to you that you go to church to get fixed, you're wrong. The church is not a hospital.
It's supposed to be to a degree, but it's not. It's a business, and you have to understand that.
So, if you want to go into church and you want to change things, you have to go in changed first. Stop counting on preachers who are powerless and following one another down these wild roads that aren't part of the ancient path, and then blame God when they screw things up. Because they're going to. They're going to. And you know, and that doesn't account for the fact that you're going to screw things up, but you know, you're okay because you're perfect.
It's you. No, you've got to be the one who gets right with God, and you're the one who has to stay right with God. Nobody else could do that for you. All have sinned. And we are therefore deprived of the presence of God.
You and I have sinned, and we are therefore deprived of the presence of God.
So you and I must agapeo on a daily basis. What is agapeo? It's the God kind of love. I define it as the practicing the God kind of love on a daily basis. When we practice the God kind of love on a daily basis, we become agape.
Meaning, we become like the sons and daughters of God, who is our Father in heaven, whose image is love, and when we become agape, we become the image of love. That's the full circle. That's the full circle. Your job is to practice the presence of God on a daily basis so that you can go out and agapeo others to love others. Who may not be able to, no strings attached, may not be able to do anything for you.
And in doing so, you begin to grow, mature, the presence of God on your life grows, and the next thing you know, people say of you, oh, that's your flow of love. That's your flow with God. And you've become that love nature, you've become the image of God in this earth. The image of God, remember, is not hands, fingers, toes, and eyes. The image of God is love.
The goal of any Christian is not to get to heaven, that's location. Not to go to hell, that's location. The goal of all this is to become love. John said it in 1 John chapter 3, verse 23 and 24. He says, and this is the gospel that you.
Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, Romans says that you confess with your mouth that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So if you believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll confess it. And then it says, and then obey his command. And his command is not burdensome, but it's simply this: that you love one another. Why? Because if you will go out that door after having a conversation with God in the morning.
And you will go out that door and practice loving people. Just one, just once. It'll grow. You'll do it again the next day, and the next day. And the next thing you know, people are saying, Oh, wow, what happened to you?
You're different, you've changed. And you've become love. It may take years. For some of you, it might be faster. For me, it's been decades.
Because I'm an idiot. But I'm becoming love. And I'm probably a little further down the path than a lot of people. And this is a hard word to preach because there's a lot of you out there. What's the best thing to listen to?
Well, here's what I'd tell you. Go do what nobody else has done before and stop blaming others. Go out and do what the word says to do. And become what God has asked you to become, and don't blame others. Don't gossip about others.
Don't talk about others. And just. Go out there and act it. Do it. You don't need a pastor's permission.
You don't need a church's favor. You don't need a covering. You don't need anything. I know. I've done it.
All outside the box. You can do it.
So, I encourage you to stop making excuses, stop coming up with reasons why, and just. Get up in the morning. Talk to God and then go out tomorrow and love somebody, just for a few minutes. Love somebody. Do what nobody else has done in your life for others.
That's become a mantra in my life. to do for others what nobody was willing to do for me. And now people seem to think I'm something. I'm not. I'm still that idiot, Brother John.
But I say it to you because it takes time, but you have to start somewhere. And you've got to accept responsibility for your own actions and your own life. If you're ever in the military, you've heard that before.
So, anyway, listening, you've been listening to Love Never Fails. This is a hard word. I bet it sinks like a rock to the bottom of the pond. It needs to be said, and you need to hear it. And you've got to start making the changes for yourself.
And remember this: whatever you do, wherever you go, Jesus loves people. And love never fails. And one last thought: that whole Jesus loves people, that means he loves them more than your opinion of them. He loves them more than your opinion of them. Blessings to you.
Thanks for listening. Give us some feedback. Love you, Brother John.
