Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:06] Welcome John Bevere. As he comes to the stage, let's give him a Kingdom Movement. Welcome.
[00:00:14] Thank you for being here. We love you. Thank you.
[00:00:22] Good morning. Good morning. Everybody stay standing. We got to pray before bringing the word of God.
[00:00:27] I loved being with you guys last night. What a really, really precious time in the. I mean, the spirit of God just filled this building.
[00:00:36] And, boy, it was a good night's sleep last night. Just, just. Just enjoying the presence of the Lord. I went back to my room. I just put in. I. I can only imagine. Played it a few times and then just fell asleep. It was a beautiful evening. I want to say this. A lot of you were not here for. First of all, let me say this, Pastor, it's such a pleasure and an honor to know you and your beautiful wife, Sophia. I am just so excited about what God is doing through you. I love your humility, and I just believe with all my heart that this is only the beginning. Sorry, but you're gonna have to go to two services pretty quick.
[00:01:15] How many of you would say amen?
[00:01:17] Because let me tell you why. Because you are all called to be ministers of reconciliation, which means if you just get him here, just get him here, just say, come and sense the atmosphere. The music is, the worship is unbelievable.
[00:01:33] Let him lead him to Jesus. You know, I have a pastor friend of mine, years ago, he made an agreement with this congregation. He said, every single service, I'll spend 10 minutes leading people to Jesus. And so all the people just kept asking their friends to come to Sunday morning service. And, you know, I remember there were 60 people saved the four weekend services. I did, and he didn't say anything. We went and played golf the next day. Still didn't say anything. I said, you're not saying anything about the 60 people that got saved.
[00:02:01] He said, well, it was a pretty low weekend. We usually have 200 to 250 get saved.
[00:02:07] I said, I am all ears. I said, first thing. He said, when you do an altar call, you do it by faith. Most ministers hope people get saved.
[00:02:17] He said, everything in the kingdom is done by faith. He said, secondly, I've made an agreement with my people.
[00:02:22] If they will bring their friends, I will spend at least 10 minutes leading them to Jesus.
[00:02:27] Well, the church is a 17,000 member church, and this was like two and a half decades ago.
[00:02:34] And so that was one of the biggest churches in America.
[00:02:38] And so, listen, we are all called as ministers of reconciliation. If you just think about eternity, then start telling your friends, come on, come on, come on. Who cares if you got to do three or four services here on a weekend, right? I mean, he'll, he'll, they'll figure it out. They'll figure it out. But let's get people in here. I mean, I was at the coffee shop this morning and the girl knew about this church. I, I think it was called 13 coins. If you go there, just bless her. Okay? But anyway, the coffee shop, just really focusing on getting people in, in here so they can experience this presence. Just walking into this atmosphere is enough to get somebody's attention. And then when the word comes forth, they're going to come into the kingdom. Amen.
[00:03:23] For those of you that weren't here last night, quick picture of my family. These are the people I love so much. Lisa and I've been married 44 years.
[00:03:31] I told her, I, I constantly asked her, I said, will you marry me? She goes, no, I'm not already married. So anyway, that's a Sicilian wife for you. These are our four sons, our four daughter in laws and our G babies. You say, what's a G baby? I'm way too young to be grandpa. So it's G daddy and G for short. And as a matter of fact, our 10th was just born. So this, this picture is a little bit older. It's about a year and a half old. So we have actually 10 now. And I'm, I have an agreement with all my sons. You got to have at least four each. So that gives me 16, right. Hopefully the daughter in laws will agree with that. All right, this morning I want to share with you, I want to continue to share with you out of the book that I shared out of last night. The king is coming.
[00:04:10] Last night. I got about two chapters out of 28 out this morning. I'm going to get maybe one, one and a half chapter out. There's 28 chapters in this book. I made it really easy to read. It is so important that we understand. Jesus said, go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, not converts. A disciple. A lot of people don't understand the word disciple. A disciple is a pupil.
[00:04:32] That's literally what the word means in the Greek. A learner. A learner who follows very closely the life of his master. But he's a learner, she's a learner. Something I hated when I got saved is I hated reading. But I had to develop a discipline in my life because, you know, we all like audio learning nowadays. All right, we've got YouTube, right, all of that stuff. But the thing is, I find When I am in the Bible or I've got somebody's anointed book, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit starts taking me on tangents. If it's an anointed book, and he starts speaking to me. And this all began in 1987, when my life was changed forever in one service. I was in the Philippines. I went there to minister. But the guy who ministered with me taught on the lordship of Jesus.
[00:05:23] And I. My life was forever changed. I was already in the ministry. I was forever changed. And I remember I got the book he carried, and I got his book in that Bible, and I opened and I went to all the Scriptures and it solidified what God did in me.
[00:05:38] Now, last night, the Lord did something in you. And I believe he's going to do something in you again this morning.
[00:05:43] How wonderful to be able to get a book and be able to have your Bible and that book open up. There's over 500 scriptures in this book, okay? Because why?
[00:05:55] Faith comes by hearing and by hearing and by hearing the word of God. And so I want to encourage you. You know, the table's wiped out out there. I think there's two books left, but Amazon's available, so I'll show you how to get it on Amazon at the end. Because I really, really believe that we're in the season of his return and there's something the bride has to do to make herself ready. Can you say amen?
[00:06:19] So let's pray this morning. I want to believe there's another impartation of the Holy Spirit this morning. Amen. How many of you want your life changed forever? Put up your hand. Put up the other hand. Let's ask him. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much, Lord God, for this church. What a bright light it is to Lord, the South Washington and North Oregon area. I'm asking today, Holy Spirit, that you would invade our sanctuary, our overflow room, reveal Jesus in a way like we've never seen him before. As you do this, may we go from glory to glory and from faith to faith. For I decree your kingdom has come. Your will shall be done in this place, on earth as it is in heaven. And for this, we give you all the glory, the honor and the praise and the thanksgiving. And it's in Jesus mighty name we pray. And everybody that agrees shouts, Come on. Give him praise in advance.
[00:07:09] Amen.
[00:07:10] Amen. Amen. Amen. You can be seated.
[00:07:14] I want to open up this morning with A quote from C.S. lewis.
[00:07:18] C.S. lewis said this. He said, if you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for this present world were precisely those who thought most of the next.
[00:07:31] It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of other world, of the other world, that they have become so ineffective in this one.
[00:07:45] It's actually counterintuitive, but it's true.
[00:07:49] The people that have made the greatest changes in difference in this life are the people that are focused on the next life.
[00:07:57] John the Apostle when he was in his 90s. Now I want you to stop and think about this.
[00:08:03] He was chosen to be a disciple of Jesus when he was in his teens.
[00:08:08] Now he's in his 90s.
[00:08:12] So he has what I like to call a grandfather or a grandmother anointing. What is that? You can say a whole lot in a few words.
[00:08:20] I remember Lisa and I visited Oral and Evelyn Roberts three years before she went to heaven. And I remember it was just our children and them in the living room with Lisa's assistant. And that man said things to us. She said things to us that we were chewing on for months because their words carried greater weight.
[00:08:38] Do you ever notice somebody can get up and preach something and it doesn't carry weight?
[00:08:45] Then other people can get up and say something, and it carries great weight. This is John the Apostle, and I want you to look at what he says in his 90s.
[00:08:54] He says, look to yourselves. Everybody say, look to myself.
[00:08:58] So you know immediately this message is not for the person sitting next to you this morning. It's for you that we do not lose those things we worked for. Man, I could spend another hour on that one right there. But I'm gonna move on. But everybody say, but that we may receive a full reward.
[00:09:17] Now, can I say this?
[00:09:19] Two and a half books have come out of this one scripture.
[00:09:23] That's the weight of these words.
[00:09:26] There is so much in what he is saying. Look at the final statement. But that we may receive a full reward. Everybody say reward.
[00:09:36] Say it again.
[00:09:37] Come on, say it with passion.
[00:09:39] That's better. How many of you know God's a rewarder?
[00:09:44] That's not enough. How many of you know God's a rewarder?
[00:09:49] Oh, yeah. I mean, how does he introduce himself to Abraham? He appears to this guy, he falls on his face, and then he gets him up. And God looks at him and says, I am your shield, your exceeding great reward. What a way to introduce yourself to somebody when you are God.
[00:10:02] I mean, your neighbor says, I'm your exceeding great reward. Big deal.
[00:10:06] But God says, I'm your reward. That's pretty significant.
[00:10:11] Are you with me? Now, as a father of four sons, I've learned something.
[00:10:18] Learned that you don't reward your children unless they earn it or deserve it.
[00:10:27] Oh, that's one. Amen there. Thank you.
[00:10:33] You do not reward your children unless they earn it or deserve it.
[00:10:40] God is a very wise father.
[00:10:42] John, the apostle, if we can put that scripture back up, notice he says that we might receive a full reward.
[00:10:51] Now, the word full leapt up on the page, leapt up off the page, and I went, wait a minute. For him to specifically say there's a full reward means what?
[00:11:03] That means there's a partial reward scenario, and there's actually a no reward scenario. Now, isn't it interesting? John doesn't write and say, hey, live in a way that you're going to get a partial reward.
[00:11:14] Why doesn't he write it? Because everybody, listen to me. God wants you to receive the full reward because as a father of four sons, there's something else I didn't tell you. I love rewarding my children.
[00:11:28] So does God.
[00:11:30] And so John in his 90s. Think about it. This is what this letter is so short, it's only a couple verses long. He's saying, live in a way that you're going to get a full reward, not a partial reward. Now, what is he talking about?
[00:11:42] He's talking specifically about the judgment seat of Christ because he's near that time. He's near his departure because he knows something that a lot of Christians don't know and understand today, and that is that every single one of us in this room and in the overflow, we are going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and Jesus is going to be our judge.
[00:12:09] You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, John, John, John, Jesus is my Savior. Yes, he is our Savior. But one day you're going to stand before him as judge.
[00:12:16] You say, where do you get that from?
[00:12:19] 2nd Corinthians. I'm glad you asked. Watch this.
[00:12:22] Paul writes to the Corinthian Church, and look what he says. We are confident. Yes, we're very well pleased. Rather be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Let's establish who he's writing to. When a sinner, an unbeliever, is absent from the body, are they in the presence of the Lord?
[00:12:37] Come on. I didn't hear everybody. No, no, no, no. They're in hell.
[00:12:41] Now, that's not a harsh, cruel statement.
[00:12:43] That's just a statement of fact. Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the world. I came to save the world.
[00:12:50] Because the World had already condemned itself.
[00:12:54] We condemned ourselves, and he came to save us.
[00:12:57] So if you do not receive Jesus Christ as your Lord, and when you leave the body, you'll be immediately in hell when you are a believer. Paul the apostle said, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
[00:13:11] All right, are you with me? So we know Paul is only talking to Christians here. What does he go on to say?
[00:13:18] Therefore, we make it our aim. That word aim simply means goal. We make it our goal, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing.
[00:13:26] Everybody say well pleasing, not just pleasing, well pleasing to him. I remember when my our sons were like 19 years down to 11 years old. We were all sitting around the dinner, and I was always trying to think of things to say to them that would help them grow in their faith. And I remember one night I had this thing come into my heart and I looked at my sons at dinner, and we were all sitting around eating at the dinner table. And I said, hey, guys, I want to say something to you. I said, you can never do one thing to make your mother and I love you any more than we love you.
[00:14:01] And I said, you can never do a thing to make us love you any less than we love you.
[00:14:06] And you could see them just almost revel in this, right? And I let it sink in for a few minutes. But then I said this to them. I said, but you are in charge of how pleased we are with you.
[00:14:20] You can never do one thing to make God love you any more than he loves you. You can never do one thing to make him love you any less than he loves you.
[00:14:28] But we are in charge of pleased how pleased he is with us. That's why Paul said, my goal is not just to be pleasing, it's to be well, pleasing. Why do you say this, Paul? Because of the next statement. For that means because we now remember, we here is only Christians. He's only talking to believers. Those who, when they're absent from the body, are present with the Lord. Right? For we believers must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done. Whether what, good or bad? Now, the word bad actually means worthless.
[00:14:59] Whether good or worthless, every one of us is going to stand before Jesus Christ as judge.
[00:15:11] Now, the first problem we have before I can go one step further, is our understanding of the word judgment.
[00:15:21] When someone says judgment, where do our minds go? Our minds go to condemnation.
[00:15:29] Okay? Do you know 90% of the time in the New Testament when the word judge is used in the light of a Christian, do you know what it is? It's the Greek word krima, which simply means this.
[00:15:43] A decision resulting from an investigation.
[00:15:48] So when you hear the word judgment, you should hear a decision is made that's a result of an investigation. So here's what's going to happen. All of us are going to stand before Jesus and he's going to do a thorough investigation on the life we lived as believers.
[00:16:05] Not only will our works be examined, but our words.
[00:16:11] Remember, he said, you'll give an account for every empty word you speak.
[00:16:16] Our. Our works, our words, our thoughts, and our motives.
[00:16:23] You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, my motives? Yeah, our motives. Look, look what Paul writes. Paul says in First Corinthians 4, don't make any judgments about anyone ahead of time before the Lord returns, for he will bring our darkest secrets. Everybody say darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives.
[00:16:45] Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due. Now, there's two great judgments, the White throne judgment and the believer's judgment. The white throne judgment is when those who never receive Jesus will be judged for their sins.
[00:16:59] The believer's judgment is when we will be rewarded or lose everything according to our works as a believer. Our works, our words, our motives and intentions.
[00:17:10] Do you notice the last line? Can we put that scripture back up? It says, God will give to each one whatever praise is due. God is not going to give any sinner praise.
[00:17:20] This is not talking about the judgment seat.
[00:17:26] Are you hearing me? The white throne judgment seat. This is talking about the believer's judgment seat.
[00:17:32] Now notice our darkest secrets and our private motives are going to be examined.
[00:17:39] So do you know what Paul's next statement after this is? I don't have it, so you guys won't find it knowing. Therefore, the fear of the Lord we persuade.
[00:17:47] The fear of the Lord keeps you in contact with your motives and intentions.
[00:17:52] Remember, Jesus has a multitude so great, there's there. There. It's innumerable.
[00:17:59] And most preachers would go, it's my time to preach.
[00:18:02] Step aside, team. I'm. I'm going to preach to these guys.
[00:18:06] No. The Bible says he turns to his disciples first. First and says, there is nothing covered that will not be revealed. There's nothing hidden that will not be made known.
[00:18:15] Don't fear those that can kill the body, but fear God after he's killed the body and cast the soul into hell. And then two verses later, he says, hey, you know how valuable sparrows are? You're more valuable than sparrows. So do not fear.
[00:18:27] So what is he doing? He's differentiating between the fear of God and the spirit of fear.
[00:18:33] Right?
[00:18:33] The fear of the Lord keeps God central in my life, in my thoughts, in my motives.
[00:18:43] So this is why Paul says to the Corinthian Church, he said, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men because why? We know we are all going to stand before him and be examined and either be rewarded or suffer loss. Are you with me?
[00:19:00] All right. Now, the book of Hebrews tells us that the decision. So here's Jesus. He's going to look at our life. He's going to examine our works, our motives, our intentions, and our words. And as a result of the investigation, he's going to make decisions.
[00:19:18] And as a result of those decisions, we're either going to be rewarded or we're going to suffer loss.
[00:19:25] Are you with me?
[00:19:27] And do you know what Hebrews chapter six tells us? This is a foundational doctrine of the church.
[00:19:33] The decisions he makes are eternal.
[00:19:37] Okay, now I want you to stop and think about it, not laying again the foundation of eternal judgments. This is one of the six foundations the church is built on.
[00:19:45] All right, now again, replace the word judgments with what the meaning is. It's decisions, a foundation, an elementary teaching of the church.
[00:19:57] What do you get in elementary school? How to read, write, add or subtract. Right.
[00:20:01] Are you with me? Are you staying with me? Can you imagine building your college education not knowing how to read or write?
[00:20:07] This is how ridiculous it is for a believer to try to build their Christian life not understanding the elementary teachings of Jesus.
[00:20:17] Yet I found most Christians don't even realize they're going to be standing in front of Jesus as their judge.
[00:20:23] If you go to Hebrews 6:1 and 2 later, go do it. Write it down. And there are six. The first one's repentance from dead works. The second one is faith towards God. The last two is the resurrection of the dead, which is the second coming of Jesus. And eternal judgments. But eternal judgments. What do you hear when you hear judgment? What should you hear?
[00:20:44] Decisions.
[00:20:46] So the decisions he makes over us are never going to change.
[00:20:51] They'll never be revised. They will never be altered.
[00:20:55] They will never be amended. They will stand forever.
[00:21:00] So you know what that tells me?
[00:21:03] What we do with the cross does indeed determine how we're going to spend eternity.
[00:21:11] However, the way we live as believers determines how we're going to spend eternity.
[00:21:18] Sure is quiet here in this Methodist Church. You still with me?
[00:21:23] Okay, now James tells us in his Little Book, chapter 4, verse 14, he tells us this life is a vapor. Everybody say vapor. If James was writing this today, I believe he would have written it differently. Because we know something that James didn't know, and that is this. Any finite number divided by infinity is equal to zero.
[00:21:44] I believe if he was writing this today with the elementary knowledge of mathematics, that we get that any number, finite number, divided by infinity is equal to zero. He would have said, this life is zero.
[00:21:56] See, let me make this really clear.
[00:21:59] You take 80 years because we live 80 years, right? 80 to 100 to 120 years. We take that time 80, and we divide it, or we compare it to eternity.
[00:22:08] We get zero.
[00:22:10] So you know what that tells me?
[00:22:12] What we do in this zero time determines how we're going to spend eternity.
[00:22:19] Because the decisions he makes over us are in this time that we're living in right now.
[00:22:24] And those decisions he makes over us over this time, right now, are going to stand forever.
[00:22:34] Okay, I still don't think some of you are connected. Let me make this really simple. Let's say we could live in our bodies a little longer than we do. Okay? And we got this great leader comes up on this platform this morning. He looks at us and says, okay, the way you live the next 24 hours one day is going to determine how you're going to spend the next thousand years on this Earth.
[00:22:59] Okay? Could. Could you go back a thousand years? King Louis XIV of France hadn't even been born yet. Columbus hadn't sailed the seas.
[00:23:07] He hasn't been born.
[00:23:09] A thousand years is a long time yet. Now, listen, the job you have, the people you work with, the neighborhood you live in for the next thousand years, it's gonna be determined by how you live the next 24 hours, one day.
[00:23:25] How would you live that 24 hours?
[00:23:28] With purpose. With purpose. Yet that's nothing compared to what I'm talking to you about. Because one day divided by 365,000 days, the number of days in a thousand years is still a finite number.
[00:23:38] So let me go a little farther.
[00:23:40] Suppose this leader says, all right, the way you spend the next 24 hours one day will determine how you spend the next million years. Now, we can't even comprehend that. We don't have any reference. I mean, Adam was 6,000 years ago, so we can't even comprehend that.
[00:23:56] But yet the job we have, the people we work with, the position we hold, the neighborhood I live in for the next million years is determined by how I'm living the next 24 years. How would you live?
[00:24:08] With purpose.
[00:24:09] Yet that's nothing compared to what I'm talking to you about. Because one day divided by 365 million days, numbers of days in a million years is still a finite number. What we do in this zero time determines how going to spend eternity.
[00:24:26] Now, what is the purpose of the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor and teacher? Our purpose is to equip you.
[00:24:34] To do what?
[00:24:36] To build up the body of Christ.
[00:24:41] Listen. Our purpose is to equip you.
[00:24:45] What am I doing this morning? I'm equipping you. What did I do last night? What is your pastor doing every Sunday? What are the executive pastors and assistant pastors doing every Sunday? They're equipping you because all of us are called.
[00:25:00] You know, people say, oh, he has a call on his life. Every one of us has a call in our life.
[00:25:09] I remember it was 10 years ago this year. I was preaching in Los Angeles, and I was back. I was going to be preaching at the Dream Center. One of our partners, as you know, I shared with you last night. We've given away 60, 66.8 million books and courses to pastors and leaders in 244 nations of the world. Right? One of our partners that has helped us significantly do that. He saw that I was going to be preaching in la, and he said, john, have you ever played Riviera? And I said, no, that's where they hold the Genesis Open on the PGA Tour. I said, no. He said, would you like to play? I said, yeah. He said, fly in a night before and I'll take you. I said, great.
[00:25:50] So I'll never forget it. We go out and play. It was a great round.
[00:25:54] And we're driving back to the hotel, and he said, john, can I be really honest with you? I said, sure.
[00:26:00] He said, I really. I really, really want to speak what's been on my heart. I said, sure.
[00:26:06] He said, okay. I just turned 50 years old. And he said, I have worked my tail off for three decades to build my businesses to where they are.
[00:26:16] I said, my net worth. He said, my net worth's over $9 million. I said, my wife's cared for life. My children cared for life.
[00:26:22] And then he said his question. He said, why should I work as hard the next 10 years?
[00:26:29] And I remember the fear of God hit me at that moment, because I thought, what I say to this man is going to determine what. What he does the next 10 years of his life and probably further.
[00:26:45] And I'll never forget. I looked inside, I said, holy spirit, I need help, like, right now.
[00:26:50] And he gave me the idea.
[00:26:52] So I looked at him and I said, scott.
[00:26:57] I said, every single one of us has a call of God on our life. Every single one of us.
[00:27:04] And with that calling comes unique gifts, supernatural gifts to accomplish it. Mine would be writing minds, preaching. Mine's leading.
[00:27:14] I said, we can do one of three things with those gifts.
[00:27:18] I said, yours is entrepreneurship. I said, we can do one of three things with these gifts.
[00:27:23] We can use them just for ourselves or our family.
[00:27:26] We can use them as intended to build the kingdom.
[00:27:30] Or. I said, or we can just sit on those gifts and do nothing.
[00:27:33] I said, the problem we have here, Scott, is you've connected my dots. You haven't connected your dots.
[00:27:39] He said, what do you mean? I said, you see how my dots of speaking and leading and writing are building the kingdom of God? I said, you don't see how your dots are connected?
[00:27:51] And I said, in fact, your gifts are more valuable than mine. He said, where do you get that? I said, the Bible says the parts of the body that are not seen, we put more honor on than the parts we do. See, I have a seen gift. You have an unseen gift. You, yours is more valuable.
[00:28:08] Well, he drops me off at the hotel. He calls me six months later. I said, scott, how you doing? He goes, you want the honest truth? I said, yeah. He said, I have been haunted.
[00:28:18] In a good way. He said, john, in a good way. I have been haunted every single day the last six months. By what? You spoke to me in that car. I said, what are you doing about it? He said, I'm busting my rear end to build my business up to 35 million so I can do more for the kingdom of God.
[00:28:32] He connected his dots.
[00:28:35] I got a text from him a year and a half ago. Man, it's on my phone. I wish I had my phone. It's in my bag.
[00:28:42] He wrote to me and he said, john, do you remember the long talk we had in the car eight years ago where you talked to me about my calling? I said, yeah.
[00:28:51] He said, I wanted to wait until it was final, but he said, after that talk, I was motivated to use my gifts to build the kingdom of God.
[00:29:02] He said, and I started a business right after that long talk with three Jewish businessmen. We just sold the company this morning for $555 million.
[00:29:17] See, he realized he was called and he realized he was gifted to build up. Let's put that scripture back up. Ephesians 4 to build up up the church.
[00:29:30] You still with me?
[00:29:32] Okay. Now, at the believer's judgment, there's going to be two major things that Jesus examines us. I'm going to tell you something. When the Lord spoke to me and told me to write on this, I was like, God, how do I write on this? And I remember I got every scripture in the Bible on heaven, hell, eternity, rewards, losses, and I put it in a three ring binder and I had a book that thick with eight different versions of those verses. And, and I realized God had a lot to say about it. So this is what I discovered in meditating on those verses.
[00:30:00] That our. We're going to be judged at the judgment seat for two major things. Number one, our involvement in building the kingdom of God. Number two, how we built individual lives.
[00:30:10] How did you treat the waiter at the restaurant?
[00:30:14] Did you give him a $5 tip when the bill was a hundred dollars?
[00:30:20] How did you speak to the person at the ticket counter when they weren't moving as fast as you wanted to? How did you speak to the flight attendant when they didn't bring the napkins out fast enough? When the water spilled all over you?
[00:30:34] How did you treat your wife? How did you speak to your children?
[00:30:38] How we built individual lives. You're either tearing somebody down or you're building them up.
[00:30:42] Good preaching, John. Amen. Thank you.
[00:30:47] But the one I want to focus on this morning is our involvement in building the kingdom of God. Every one of us are called to build the kingdom, the church, every single one of us.
[00:31:00] See, my thumb does things my mouth can't do. My mouth can do things my stomach can't do. My stomach can do things my toes can't do. Every member of the body has different abilities.
[00:31:09] Can you imagine if my thumb said, you know what, Mouth? You've been preaching for 36 years. I'm preaching to kingdom this morning.
[00:31:19] See, happy is the man or woman who knows their gifts and operates in it, miserable as the man or woman operates and who tries to operate in somebody else's gift.
[00:31:30] Okay, now watch this. Paul's writing to Corinthians. Why is, why is. Why are most of these scriptures found in Corinthians? Because of how carnal they were.
[00:31:39] They were just like the American church.
[00:31:42] There was divisions, there were stripes. They were picking favorite preachers. Can you believe it? That's ridiculous.
[00:31:48] It's like Paul had to say, who is Apollos? Who is Paul?
[00:31:52] Is Christ divided?
[00:32:00] Okay, so on judgment day, everybody say, on judgment day, fire. Everybody say fire.
[00:32:06] Jeremiah said, you word is a fire. Do you know we know exactly how Jesus is going to judge us on Judgment Day. Do you know that? Do you know In John, chapter 12, you know what Jesus said? I don't judge you. The words that I speak will judge you on that day.
[00:32:20] That's why if you don't read your Bible, I'm really concerned for you.
[00:32:24] You don't become a disciple and learner of Jesus Christ. I'm concerned for you.
[00:32:30] On Judgment Day, fire will reveal what kind of work? Each builder. Everybody say builder. Everybody say, I'm a builder.
[00:32:38] Okay, wait, wait, wait.
[00:32:40] Do you know that in Scripture, God often calls us builders? Did you know that?
[00:32:45] Except the Lord build the house. They labor. They. They labor in vain that they build it. The stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone.
[00:32:55] Right? I could go on, right?
[00:32:58] So everybody say, I'm a builder.
[00:33:00] What are you called to build? You're called to build God's house, the home he's going to dwell in forever. And you know who builds this house?
[00:33:11] What's the material?
[00:33:13] People. Peter said, you are living stones and Jesus is the chief cornerstone that are being built up to a habitation of God. When you look at the city, this is where he's going to dwell forever. And the city, yes, it's made out of gold and all of that, but the personality of the city is the bride and the church.
[00:33:34] Oh, my gosh. I'm preaching myself. So happy. Do you? That is God's custom home he's building, and we're all subcontractors.
[00:33:45] Are you. Are you following me? It's called Zion. God said, I desire Zion. That's where I want to live forever. It's in the Book of Psalms. So you know how. How?
[00:33:54] You know, like the Queen of England or King of England now, I guess put a name on his house. He calls it what? Windsor. God put a name on his house. He calls it Zion.
[00:34:06] He said, that's where I'm gonna rest forever.
[00:34:10] I'm just preaching myself so happy right now. Can I just have a praise break for myself?
[00:34:16] My goodness.
[00:34:18] Okay. On Judgment Day, fire revealed. What kind of work? Each builder. Everybody say, I'm a builder.
[00:34:25] What kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value.
[00:34:32] Remember, he's going to examine us.
[00:34:36] Every work, every word, every thought, every intention, whether good or worthless.
[00:34:43] The fire is going to determine if it's worthless or it's worth Eternal.
[00:34:52] Next verse. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward.
[00:34:57] Hopefully, it's listen. It's a full reward.
[00:35:04] And there'll never be any change to that reward. It will stand forever.
[00:35:08] Next verse. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss.
[00:35:16] Not just loss, great loss.
[00:35:20] The builder will be saved. In other words, the builder's going to heaven. Believe me, going to heaven is so much better than burning in a lake of fire forever. The builder will be saved. But like somebody barely escaping through a wall of flames, you know, people prepare for retirement in America. I think it's hilarious. There's not even a word for retirement in the Hebrew language. But anyway, it's just, it's just preparing people to die young anyway.
[00:35:44] I mean, no, I shouldn't say that. I'm going to take that back.
[00:35:48] I think it's smart, it's wise so that people can now give themselves more fully to building the kingdom and they don't have to work a secular job, you know.
[00:35:57] But, but your secular job was your calling too.
[00:36:00] See. See, I, I, I, my heart broke because one of my friends, you know, he has a conference that sells out every single year. It's a leadership conference.
[00:36:08] And you know, his church is like 50,000 people. And the day before the conference started, there was a very well known doctor in their city. And he was putting, he was putting the workbooks for the leaders that were going to fill the auditorium the next day. He was putting them on the chairs and the pastor ran over that doctor, really well known doctor and he said, doc, doc, doc, we have volunteers to do this. And the doctor looked at him and said, please pastor, don't stop me from doing this. I take off my practice this one week every year so I can help. I can build the kingdom of God.
[00:36:44] My heart is broke over that.
[00:36:47] See, that doctor doesn't realize he's called to do what he's doing that other 51 weeks a year. He is still building the kingdom because God gifted him as a doctor. You know, if you had a tumor and I operated on you, we might as well schedule your funeral the same time.
[00:37:04] But that doctor is called just, are you going to do your work to the glory of God or are you going to do it just to have a paycheck?
[00:37:13] Some of you are looking at me like a dog at a brand new pan.
[00:37:17] You're looking at me like, where are you from? I am from heaven. Where are you from?
[00:37:23] Amen.
[00:37:24] Okay, now watch this. We need to see that verse up there again. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be Saved, but like somebody barely escaping through a wall of fires.
[00:37:38] Now we prepare for retirement. That's where I was going. Can you imagine the day you retire? Day you retire, your house burns to the ground.
[00:37:47] You get out with just the shirt on your back.
[00:37:50] Same day your bank closes its doors, you lose all your checking, all your savings. Same day Social Security goes bankrupt.
[00:37:58] Same day all your 401ks are gone. The institutions went bankrupt.
[00:38:05] That'd be a bad day.
[00:38:08] Do you know that we can't even relate to that because in America, we have so many programs to help people in that situation. Do you know, in Paul's day, there was no government things that would help people like that.
[00:38:20] Yet that's the language he's using to describe how some people are going to enter into eternity, how some saints, they're gonna be saved.
[00:38:30] But like somebody who barely escaped through a wall of fire, you know, I was in 2016, I went down to the nation of Brazil. I've been to Brazil like, 20, 30 times. I'm going down there again in a couple months.
[00:38:48] And I remember I was speaking to. I went to Goiania, Brazil, and I was speaking to the pastors and leaders only. Like, they were the only ones allowed in the building of this church network. And there were 12,000 pastors and leaders in the building. It was. It was an arena. And they were blowing the roof off. They were like, you guys. They were blowing the roof off. I was like, wow.
[00:39:11] I mean, these are pastors and leaders, and they're on fire.
[00:39:15] And so I remember the next day at lunch, I'm at lunch with eight of the top pastors.
[00:39:22] And I remember I sat there and I said, guys, that was just pastors and leaders last night, right? They said, yeah, yeah, it's closed meeting.
[00:39:31] I said, okay, so how many people are in your church?
[00:39:35] Your churches, Right? How many?
[00:39:38] They said, oh, well, over 300,000.
[00:39:42] I said, okay, when did this whole thing start? Who was the man now? I thought they were going to say it was a man about 120 years ago. He's already in heaven, right? They said, oh, it started with Pastor Al Luigio. And you met him last night. He couldn't be at lunch today, but it started 16 years ago with just him and his family.
[00:39:58] I said. I dropped my fork. I said, hold on, wait a minute.
[00:40:04] We got to take this little slower for me.
[00:40:07] You're telling me that you guys have built a church, a network of churches, from one family in 16 years to over 300,000? They said, yeah, exactly. I said, how do you do that?
[00:40:23] And I thought I knew my own answer. I thought, they're gonna say, it's our small groups, our life groups, right?
[00:40:29] And the guy who sat across from me said, without even hesitating, he goes, it's because we teach our people on the return of Jesus the millennial reign and eternal rewards and judgment.
[00:40:41] I went, what did you just say?
[00:40:45] He said, john, he said, you Americans, he said, I speak good English. So I get asked to speak at a lot of American conferences. You American Christians have a 70 or 80 year perspective.
[00:40:56] He said, we teach our people to have an eternal perspective.
[00:40:59] Okay, so now, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's make this really clear.
[00:41:03] Let's say you go to a really nice brunch this afternoon, like a high end brunch, right?
[00:41:10] And you go in and you eat your food and then it's time for dessert. And there's these two tables filled with unbelievable desserts.
[00:41:20] If you have a one day perspective, what are you going to do? You're going to eat every one of those desserts.
[00:41:26] But if you have a one year perspective, what are you going to do? You're going to eat one or none, because you don't want an upset stomach tomorrow, you don't want 10 pounds of fat on your body next week, and you don't want compromise long term health.
[00:41:37] When we have an eternal perspective, we make decisions differently in life. We endure things we wouldn't necessarily endure without the eternal perspective. The problem with the American Christians, he said to me, is they have a 70 or 80 year perspective.
[00:41:50] They don't really live. Like one day they're going to stand in front of the judgment seat.
[00:41:57] You still with me?
[00:41:59] So I start, I, I've been, I, I, I, you know, I preach this all over the United States, right? And because, I mean, the king is coming, all right? I live like, he's coming back today.
[00:42:11] He is coming. This is one chapter of 28 in this book, okay?
[00:42:16] So I'm preaching this, right? And you know what I get? You know what I get all these people on social media and going, I don't, I don't live for rewards.
[00:42:26] I do what I do because I love Jesus.
[00:42:29] Now, I got a lot of those.
[00:42:31] And I went to prayer and I said, lord, I actually agree with them.
[00:42:34] I mean, I love serving you, Jesus, just because of who you are. It's not like I'm serving you for rewards. You know what the Holy Spirit said to me?
[00:42:45] Are you ready for this?
[00:42:52] He reminded me of a dream that I had, a very vivid dream And I saw the city of God in this dream massive.
[00:43:07] And I saw the armies of God marching through the city.
[00:43:12] And in the middle of the city was this high elevated platform that had stairs going up to it. And I'm watching the armies walk through the city and they're bringing Jesus's rewards to him souls.
[00:43:30] And I saw myriads, many, many more people on the sidewalks cheering the soldiers.
[00:43:38] So the soldiers were the minority. People on the sidewalks cheering were the majority.
[00:43:44] And the Holy Spirit said, do you want to be a soldier, or do you want to be one of those on the sidewalk cheering them on?
[00:43:51] I said, I want to be a soldier bringing Jesus Royce. He said, live in a way that you're going to get a full reward.
[00:43:58] Then he reminded me, John the Apostle was the apostle of love. John the Apostle is at the end of his life.
[00:44:07] And John the Apostle is the one who said, live in a way that you're going to get a full reward.
[00:44:12] Because why? I want something to give to my master. I want a crown to be able to throw back at his feet.
[00:44:21] I want to utilize the time he's given me in an effective way, because he's coming soon.
[00:44:28] So this is why Paul says, run your race, that you may lay hold of the prize and make it yours. Even the Apostle Paul says, run it away that you're going to win the prize. You're not competing against others, you're competing against the world.
[00:44:45] And the world is going to try to make you lose. The world's going to try to get you to sit on the couch and eat potato chips.
[00:44:52] And the world is going to try to distract you because the world doesn't want you to get the prize. Because if you get a prize, that means you influence other people's lives.
[00:45:04] Watch this.
[00:45:06] For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared for you and I to do.
[00:45:15] That we should walk in them. Notice it didn't say that we walk in, would walk in them. Said we should.
[00:45:24] I said, we're subcontractors.
[00:45:26] I will never forget when a builder got really impacted by the Beta Satan. Lisa and I didn't have hardly. We had hardly any money. We were. We were almost hand to mouth, but we had a little bit saved.
[00:45:38] And we looked at this gorgeous house that we knew not, not the season of life.
[00:45:45] And all of a sudden this guy comes walking in going, beta Satan, Beta Satan, I want to build you a godhouse. And I'm like. And the realtor looks at us and goes, that's the builder. And he was the award winning builder.
[00:45:57] And this guy got so impacted by the Beta Satan book, and he said, I want to build you, and I will not make one penny off of this. So he did, and it was amazing.
[00:46:07] But I remember him coming over.
[00:46:10] He put a blank piece of paper down. He said, draw your dream house, Lisa.
[00:46:16] We said, what we're so used to, you know, track homes.
[00:46:20] No, we can't move this. No, we can't do that. No, this is the way it is. He says, draw your dream house.
[00:46:27] And Lisa's the daughter of a builder. She got to work.
[00:46:32] I think I did my study in the garage. She did everything else.
[00:46:37] And we watched how he took that drawing, brought it to engineering and brought the blueprints looked just like what she drew. And they started building that house.
[00:46:49] Lisa and I went to that job site twice a day.
[00:46:54] I'm not kidding.
[00:46:55] We were so excited. I mean, this is a custom home.
[00:47:00] And I remember one time we went and one of the subs did something wrong.
[00:47:05] We called him. His name was Bob Stone. We called him and said, bob. Hey, Bob, this doesn't look right. He comes over, he was furious. He rips everything out. He gets in his truck, he put gets. He rips it all out. Then he fires the guy and hires another sub.
[00:47:20] And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit used that to show me.
[00:47:25] Every one of us are called to be subcontractors.
[00:47:29] And God's got assignments for each of us.
[00:47:33] And if we don't do them, he'll just get another sub, but his house will be filled.
[00:47:40] Do you know Kathryn Kuhlman said she was God's third choice for her ministry? He spoke to two other men. They didn't want it. So he said he gave it to me, a little farm girl from Missouri.
[00:47:53] Do you know the man who has the largest church in South Africa looked at me and said, I know I can tell you the man's name. I was God's second choice to pastor this church.
[00:48:09] Live in such a way that you're going to get a full reward because the king is coming.
[00:48:18] Did you get something out of this?
[00:48:20] Did you get something out of this? I want every head bowed. I want every head bowed, every eye closed. Heavenly Father, I preach what you've commanded me to preach. And I'm so grateful to you, Lord God, because I really believe that you did what we asked you to this morning. Holy Spirit, that literally, you changed our lives. You changed our lives by imparting to us your eternal word.
[00:48:41] And now, Lord God, I'M asking, prepare every man, woman and child for what you've called them to do. Now, I want you to be really honest. If you're somebody that's just been coasting, just existing, and you've been living in a way that you didn't realize that you were called to build up the house of God, and you say, I'm willing to repent right now, and I'm willing right now to seek God. Because how do you find out what you're called to do? You seek him earnestly in faith. The Bible doesn't say he rewards those who casually seek him in wonder and doubt. He rewards those who diligently seek him in faith.
[00:49:20] If you say, john, I really haven't taken the calling that he's placed on my life very seriously. Now, don't get me wrong. I started out as a driver at my church for four and a half years, but then it moved to a youth pastor. And then one day, God spoke to me and said, you've been faithful. I want you to write.
[00:49:38] And then one day, God and to him who has, Jesus said to him who is faithful to what I've given him, I will give them more.
[00:49:48] So if you haven't taken your calling seriously and you say, john, I want to. I'm ready. I'm ready to seek God. I'm ready to take serious what he's called me to do. I don't care if it's working in the parking lot. I don't care if it's greeting people. I don't care if it's. If it. If it's being a school teacher. I don't care if it's being a doctor who operates on people. I am going to do it seriously as building the kingdom of God. If that's you, and you say, john, I've been doing that, but I'm going to do it with purpose now. I'm going to do it with purpose. I want you to stand up. I want to pray for you this morning.
[00:50:23] Good. The rest of you, sitting. That means one of two things. You don't want to fulfill what God's called you to do. Or number two, you have been taking it seriously. So that's good.
[00:50:34] Well, a lot more people stood up.
[00:50:37] Okay.
[00:50:39] All right. I want you to lift your hands up. The Bible says, listen, you know what? God spoke to me one day. I want you to look at me. I want you to hear what I'm about to say.
[00:50:48] He said, son, who put the calling on your life, you or me?
[00:50:53] I said, you did he said, don't you think I'm more concerned about what I called you to do than you are?
[00:50:58] I said, yeah. He said, just seek me and obey me.
[00:51:02] I'll lead you right to it. It.
[00:51:06] Okay.
[00:51:07] We don't strive because the apostle said, lord, what do we do? What do we do to do the works of God? You know what Jesus said?
[00:51:14] Believe.
[00:51:21] Did you hear what I just said? I don't want any of you striving, struggling in your flesh, because that will never build the kingdom.
[00:51:29] I want you to learn how to listen and obey. Can I tell you one more story while you're standing before I pray? Come on, talk to me. Can I tell you one more or have I gone too long? I'm the one that's catching the flight, okay? Not you. Okay, listen, listen.
[00:51:46] I'm preaching in a big conference in Dallas. It's in the Telstra Arena, I think it's called the. I don't know, the Xfinity Arena.
[00:51:54] And the leader of the big conference calls me and goes, there's a multi billionaire that wants to meet with you.
[00:52:01] He's flying his Gulfstream 550 around the United States, and he's meeting with certain leaders, pastors, to speak into his life.
[00:52:10] He wants to meet with you.
[00:52:12] Said, sure, I'll meet with him. He said, I'll bring the lunch in. You sit down, meet with him. So I sit down at the lunch, and I said, so, what's your story?
[00:52:22] Wow.
[00:52:22] He looked at me and he said he was from New Zealand. He said, I was a floundering businessman.
[00:52:29] I read all the New York Times bestsellers on how to run a business, you know, how to market, how to brand, how to do all this stuff, right?
[00:52:36] Build teams.
[00:52:37] Said, I'm floundering.
[00:52:39] So one day my pastor's preaching, and the thought hit me.
[00:52:44] He depends on the Holy Spirit to do what he does.
[00:52:47] Why don't I depend on the Holy Spirit to do what I do?
[00:52:51] So he said, I made an agreement with God. I said, I'm gonna sit down every morning with the yellow pad and you're gonna tell me what to do. I'm gonna give it 30 minutes, and you're gonna tell me. I'm gonna write down everything you tell me to do. And I don't care how stupid it looks, how irrelevant it looks. I'm gonna do what you tell me to do.
[00:53:07] And that's how he started.
[00:53:09] He told. He told me. He said, the Holy Spirit told me to do something. And it sounds so silly, but. But he said, I was committed to the process, so I did it.
[00:53:18] And the Holy Spirit didn't tell me how many times to do this certain thing. So he said, I remember the king shot only three arrows and he got rebuked by the prophet. So I did it 20 times.
[00:53:27] He said, that day I bought 20 hospitals in Vietnam. Then he told me how he bought the second largest bank in the world.
[00:53:35] And that was even crazier.
[00:53:39] Same man.
[00:53:41] But you see, he's trying to do it in his own strength and he's floundering.
[00:53:46] But then he taps in to just listening and obeying.
[00:53:52] What do we do to do the works of God? Jesus said, believe, which believe means simply obey.
[00:54:01] So you're not standing so you can be busier, although you'll probably be busy.
[00:54:08] You're standing because you're saying, I'm going to seek God. I'm going to let him tell me what he wants me to do, and I'm just going to obey him. If you do that, this church will grow like crazy.
[00:54:20] Are you with me?
[00:54:22] All right, so put up your hands.
[00:54:25] Put up your hands.
[00:54:26] Say this. Heavenly Father, thank you for speaking to me this morning through your servant.
[00:54:37] Forgive me for not taking my calling seriously.
[00:54:44] I discounted what you called me to do because it wasn't pulpit, it wasn't worship, it wasn't being a missionary.
[00:54:53] But I realize now that you have placed a divine calling on my my life.
[00:54:59] And I realize now that you put gifts in my life.
[00:55:02] I am going to now take it seriously.
[00:55:05] And I purpose every day to wake up with the intention to build your kingdom. But you're going to have to tell me how to do it.
[00:55:16] I know it's by grace that Paul did more labor than any other apostle.
[00:55:22] So I need your grace to do what you've called me to do to impact people's lives and build the kingdom of the living God.
[00:55:31] I commit myself to this process.
[00:55:34] In Jesus mighty name, Amen. Give him praise.
[00:55:40] Give him praise. Come on, give him praise.
[00:55:44] Amen.
[00:55:46] Amen. Amen. Amen.
[00:55:48] I want to say this.
[00:55:50] I realize that there are people in here. We want to give you a chance to give your life to Jesus. I'm going to ask one of the pastors to come and do that.
[00:55:57] I've got a flight to catch. But I do want to say, please get this book. Can we put this QR code? I'm going to send you to Amazon because there's only two copies left out there. Okay, listen, the good news is Amazon has it 46% off right now. It's like $16.36 and it's a $30 book.
[00:56:15] This morning was one chapter.
[00:56:17] There's 28 chapters. Last night was two and a half chapters. Okay.
[00:56:22] Please invest in your life. Can I, can I ask you a question before I preach this this morning? Did you understand this and know this?
[00:56:30] What happened?
[00:56:32] The message from heaven was given to now pull the scriptures together to hear what God said all along that was in the Bible.
[00:56:42] This is why I get, I get a little frustrated with people in the church that don't read.
[00:56:46] It's like, do you not understand? God anointed apostles of prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, and many of us write to do what? To put the word of. To hear a message from heaven. To organize the scriptures in a way that the message speaks to you personally. Okay, so what I don't want to see is, I don't want to see all the blanks I didn't fill in because this took about four, a thousand hours to write. Okay. And there's a second book called Driven by Eternity that has even more in it on this this morning. So the two books are complementary books. Invest in your life. And most importantly, when you do a life group, we've given you the tools. If you go to the next slide, this is a group study or individual study that has six 30 minute videos. We give you all the questions to ask your group. It will create a great discussion for your life groups so that you can build the people up and have them ready for the coming of the king and the judgment seat. That's going to be so wonderful for all of us. Amen. I love you guys. God bless you. Pastor. Where are you at, Pastor? Thank you.
[00:57:52] Amen. Amen. You have it.
[00:57:56] Thank you for joining Kingdom Movement online. I pray and hope that that sermon impacted you deeply. I would love if you shared this with a few friends and family. And before you go, don't forget to subscribe. See you next week.
