Driven By Eternity

I'm looking at Paul and I tonight I promise you we didn't coordinate our dress okay all right so I promise that hey can I say this everybody just stay standing y'all know I love to pray before bringing the word I can't tell you how much I love coming here I can't tell you how much joy that's in my heart I can't tell you how much joy I sense it's in heaven over what's happening in victory you know I truly truly have been an uncle in this house uncle John's in the house tonight okay I'm family around here and I have watched this church go through the most greatest onslaughts and yet continue to not only survive but thrive and the leadership changes that have occurred I mean I'm blown away by it I'm Paul and Ashley I I'm so proud of you I can't even tell you if I can say this I would you know I'm I'm so proud of you too so proud of you you've you've been tender you've been brave and that's what I really admire is your bravery it's not easy when you're the youngest child in the family and all this gets dumped on you by God but thank you for being brave thank you for not backing down what you know is in your heart to do and being wise enough to listen to the people that God's put around you the people that speak wisdom into your life you're smart both of you you've got a great wife your wife speaks such wisdom you are definitely definitely the lady in this house and your passion your zeal just thrills me you've honored Sharon in the most magnificent and beautiful way she deserves so much honor heaven honors this lady I mean I hugged her tonight I said mama Sharon gosh I'm probably only a couple years younger than her but she's still mama Sharon because my wife used to dance with Sharon Daughtery when Lisa and I were first married and I was at work Lisa turned on and there was this couple on TV and there was this lady that just danced and so Lisa got up and just danced with her in the presence of God would fill our living room and so you've been a mother to so many and we just love you so much our family adores you thank you I have been I have had the privilege of ministering the Word of God all over the

world I've seen everything but you know what really impresses me now how big a church is now how successful the conference is it's the children of the leaders and when I look at the four children of this woman and Billy Joe I'm in awe I look at Caleb and Sarah Sarah you and I Ruthie and then Johnny my Johnny I love him where is he Johnny how are you come here and give me a hug come here buddy I need a hug from you man oh my gosh thank you buddy I had the privilege of doing him he and Sharisa's wedding now they got all these beautiful children man I'm just it's a homecoming for me can you just let me enjoy the moment for a few moments all right all this family that has stood so strong I'm so proud of all of you it's great to be here the most important thing is that Jesus likes coming to this church you know I mean I really believe I personally believe there are churches the Holy Spirit goes to out of obligation and then there's other churches that he goes to because he really likes it because they really like him and this is a church that certainly loves him and loves people and this this this victory conference outreach tomorrow you're doing brilliant another brilliant move please be involved get involved I mean how exciting you've been so filled up by some of the greatest communicators on the planet some of my dear friends Charlotte Gamble come on one of the greatest communicators right and then you got Robert Medu oh my goodness I had the privilege of meeting him at a leadership conference in New Zealand I've loved him ever since and then my buddy Stephen Furtick oh my goodness I mean what What a four nights you've had. Wow. I mean, this is amazing. So anyway, God's doing great things. I need to know how many ORU students are here. We love you at ORU. We love the school. I remember flying in. I said to my sons, there it is. There's Oral Roberts University. What an impact that university and man and woman had on my life. So this is a great night. I love being with you. Lisa and I have been extremely busy. Some of you may not know us. So let me show you a picture of my family. This is a recent snapshot. All right. So they keep getting older and everything. So that is my amazing, absolutely gorgeous best friend, wife. 35 years this October 2nd. I am more in love with Lisa Bevere than the day I married her. And I'm under the anointing. I

gotta say, honestly, I told her a few months ago, I said, baby, if you were single, I'd be so on your trail. And so there's our four sons. Addison is wife Juliana. She's from Texas on the far left. And there's our four G babies. You guys all know I'm way too young to be grandpa. So I wonder one day when I'm going to accept that term. Probably never. But those are my G babies. August Michael just turned one today. All right. So we celebrated last night. If you watch Instagram and all that, you saw pictures. Asher's the oldest. He's on Arden's lap. And then Sophie, first girl born in our family since 1967. And then Lizzie. Oh my goodness, Lizzie. Lisa's writing a children's book called Lizzie the Lioness. It's coming out October 3rd. It's such a good book. But anyway, now you will see the other three sons. They are available. All right. And I even brought two of them for you to check out at our resource table. All right. So I want more G babies. Which means I want daughter-in-laws. Okay. Victory. I can't think of a better place than victory. Or a nice ORU girl or something like that. Let's just, come on. I brought them. Okay. So they're out there. I'm going to be in big trouble tonight. But anyway, that is my family. All of our sons work. Well, actually, Alec is in a little internship right now in San Diego. But they all work with us. We love them. They are, other than Jesus, they are the greatest gift God has given to me in my life. I absolutely adore my family. And so I realize how much God adores us. Can you say amen to that? Amen. So now let me ask you, do you want a message from me tonight? Or do you want your life changed forever? You want your life changed forever. That's a good request. But the Bible says we don't have because we don't ask. And so can we do that together right now? I really want to believe that I don't just fly all the way down here and come for the 18th word explosion just to bring a message. I want to come and I want to see our lives change forever tonight. Can we believe God for that? Amen. I could be the greatest communicator on the planet, but if the Holy Spirit doesn't touch these words, it's just information. What we need is transformation. Amen. And so Father, in the name of Jesus, we welcome the presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in here tonight. Holy Spirit, invade this sanctuary. Do what you love to do. Exalt and lift up Jesus in a way like we've never known him before. And as you do this, may we go from glory to glory to glory as by the Spirit of the living God, for I decree your kingdom has come. Your will shall be done in this place tonight on earth as it is in heaven. And for this, we give you all the honor, the glory, the praise, and the thanksgiving. And it is in Jesus' mighty, wonderful, majestic, holy, awesome, magnificent

name we pray. And everybody that agrees, shouts! Come on, give him praise for what he's gonna do. Amen. You can be seated. You know, I just want to say that since you saw us last, we've been very busy. As you know, our passion is to distribute resources to pastors and leaders all over the world. We've, as of the end of June, we gave away now 15 million resources to pastors and leaders in 94 nations and 103 languages. We decided to start going to some of the nations. First one we went to was last September, Mongolia. I was a little bit nervous, but I thought, you know what, we've given literally probably over 100,000 resources to leaders in the nations. They'd never had more than 200 leaders gather for a leadership event. We rented the largest auditorium in the nation. And I remember that Thursday praying, saying, what have I done? We've spent all this money. That's, that auditorium seats 3,700 people. All we've done is put it on Facebook and a few flyers and word of mouth. And yet we came in and 5,000 leaders were there. The last night the Spirit of God fell. They jumped up and started shouting and did not stop for 30 solid minutes. It was a move of God, like my son said, who's here with me, he has never seen before. And then the nation of Vietnam, the government, invited us to come to have, and so we had a meeting with 3,500 leaders. And it was amazing what God did in those meetings. The government said we like it and we're opening up the 10,000 seat auditorium if you'll return. So we're looking at possibly 2019 going back there. But please keep praying because this is a real passion in my heart. I really believe that if you resource leaders in the world, you'll change the world. You know, Andrew Carnegie is my inspiration. He took all of his wealth and he built 2,600 libraries from 1885 to 1926, I believe it was. 1,700 and one of those libraries were in the United States. When did the United States become the nation that it is? Between those years. That's when we became. Why? Because without knowledge, God says my people go into captivity and they perish. And so continue to pray for us, would you? You're our family. That's the only reason why I'm taking time to say that. All right, now, tonight I want to open up by reading a quote from C.S. Lewis out of Mere Christianity. You ever heard of C.S. Lewis? All right, he said, if you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the

next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one. Life is all about a perspective. Everybody say perspective. You know, I'm actually doing something that I've never done before. We relaunched a book and that book is called Driven by Eternity. And there was a reason for it. Eighteen months ago, I went to the nation of Brazil. I was asked to speak to only the pastors and leaders in this church network down there. I flew down to Goiania, Brazil, which I think is the fifth largest city in Brazil. And they drove me to the arena. And I walk into the arena and there's 12,500 pastors and leaders in this arena. And they're crazy excited. Okay? I mean, they're on your level or higher as far as passion goes tonight, okay? And I'm so impacted by this meeting. And the next day, I'm having lunch with eight of the top pastors of this church network. And I said, all right, how many people are in your church, churches, your church network? And they said over 300,000. I said, wow. I said, when did this all begin? And who's the man it started with? And I think they're going to say 50, 60 years ago. And yet, the guy who's sitting right across from me, the leader, who spoke the best English said, it started 16 years ago with a man named, and he named his name, Aluizu. And I dropped my fork. And I said, wait a minute. You're telling me you built a church network of over 300,000 people in 16 years in a first world nation? They said, exactly. I said, how do you do that? Now, I thought I was asking a rhetorical question. I thought I already know the answer, but I'm just going to ask it. I thought he was going to look at me and say because of our connect groups. But without any hesitation, he looks at me and he goes, because we teach our people on eternal rewards and judgment. I said, what? And he said, John, I speak good English, so I'm asked to come to America a lot and speak in American churches and conferences. He said, you Americans, you have a 70 or 80 year mindset. Our people have an eternal mindset. I flew back, I prayed, and I told my team, I said, I'm revising Driven by Eternity, and I'm preaching this all over America because of what I've just witnessed down there. For the first time in my life, I can actually say, I know what will produce church growth. See, life is all

about a perspective. Everybody say perspective. If I go to a wedding reception, okay? Let's say it's a big wedding, all right? And a full meal reception. If I have a one-day perspective and there's a whole table of desserts, what am I going to do with a one-day perspective? I'm going to eat every one of those desserts, right? But if I have a six-month perspective, I'm going to eat one or zero of those desserts. Why? Because I don't want the upset stomach tomorrow. I don't want the 10 pounds of fat in my body next week, and I don't want to compromise long-term health. Well, when you have an eternal perspective, you live differently than if you have a 70 or 80-year perspective. You set goals differently. You do things differently. You endure things you wouldn't necessarily endure. For this reason, John the Apostle writes in 2 John 8, he says, look to yourselves. Everybody shout that, look to myself. So you can see immediately, John is not speaking to the person sitting next to you. He's talking to you. He says that we do not lose those things we work for, but everybody say, but that we may receive a full reward. Now, everybody shout reward. How many of you know God is a rewarder? Come on, I mean, how does he introduce himself to Abraham? He appears to this guy and says, I am your shield. You're exceeding great reward. What a way to introduce yourself to somebody when you're God. But the thing that really got my attention one day is that John just doesn't say reward, notice he says full reward.

Now, I started thinking, for John to specifically say full reward, what does that mean? That means there is a partial reward scenario and there is a no reward scenario. Isn't it interesting that John doesn't write and say, hey, live in such a way that you're going to get a partial reward? Why doesn't he do that? Because listen to my words, God wants you to receive the full reward. Being a dad of four sons, I can say that. Why? Because I want my sons to receive rewards. But as a wise father, I've learned something. You don't reward your sons unless they earned it or they deserve it. Why? Because I've learned if you reward children without them earning or deserving, you take away incentive and incentive is a good thing, not a bad thing. Now, John is in his 90s when he pens these words. Why in this little short book does he say this with such intensity? Because he knows something that a lot of believers in America do not know and do not understand. And that is this, one day, every one of us is going to stand before Jesus Christ as our judge. You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, you just put a damper on this whole night. You just busted the balloons. Jesus is my savior, John. Yes, I know he's our savior, but one day you're going to stand before him as judge. You say, where do you get that from? Second Corinthians 5, glad you asked, look at this. Paul says, we are confident, yes, very well-pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

Now, we know right there Paul is only speaking to believers. How do I know that? Because when an unbeliever is absent from the body, they're not in the presence of the Lord, they're in hell. That is not a mean, harsh statement, that is just a statement of fact. You have to remember, Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the world. It was condemned already, I came to save it. He came to save us out of what we condemned ourselves into, all right? So, back to the main point, Paul is only speaking to believers. Now, look what he goes on to say, therefore, we make it our aim or simply means goal, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him. You know, 10 years ago, my sons were all sitting around the table, we were having dinner. So, Addison would have been around, oh, it was probably 12 years ago, he would have been around 19, and our youngest would have been around 11. And I remember this night at dinner, I had thought something through and I thought, I'm going to say this to the boys tonight. So, we're sitting there eating dinner and I look for the right time and I said, guys, I want to tell you something. And they looked at me and I said, you can never do one thing, one thing, not a thing, to make your mother and I love you anymore and we love you. And I said, you can never do one thing to make us love you any less than we love you. And you could just see him revel in those two statements, right? And I let it sit for a minute and then I said, but, you are in charge of how pleased we are with you. You can never do a thing to make God love you anymore and he loves you or any less than he loves you, but we are in charge of how pleased he is with us. That's why Paul said, I make it my goal, not just to be pleasing, but this is interesting, well-pleasing. Why?

Next statement, for we, remember we here is only Christians, 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 good or what? Bad? Now, a better translation of the word bad is worthless. Every one of us is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. At that judgment seat, listen carefully, you will not be judged for your sins. Everybody say, thank God for that. Rather you will be judged on how you live this life as a believer. Now we have a fundamental problem in church. And the fundamental problem is this. When you say the word judgment, do you know where a person's mind goes in church? Do you know where it goes? It goes to condemnation. Okay, now let's eradicate that right now. The word judgment in the Greek, 90% of the time that it is used in regard to a Christian in the New Testament is from the Greek word krima, K-R-I-M-A, which simply is defined as this, a decision. That's all it means. A decision resulting from an investigation. So when you hear the word judgment, don't go to condemnation. Go to a decision. So Jesus is going to do an investigation upon our lives as Christians. Not only will He examine our works, but He will examine our words, our thoughts, and even our motives. You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you get that from? First Corinthians 4. You're asking great questions. I love this tonight.

Okay. Paul says, so don't make judgments about anyone ahead of the time before the Lord returns for He will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praises due. No sinner is going to get praise from God at the great white throne judgment. He cannot be talking about the sinner's judgment. He can only be talking about the believer's judgment. So Jesus is going to examine not only our works, our words, our thoughts, and our motives. He's going to examine them. And as a result of this investigation, He's going to make decisions. Everybody say decisions. Judgments. Decisions over our lives. Are you following me? And as a result of those decisions, we're either going to receive rewards or we're going to suffer loss. The Bible is very clear. The rewards we can receive to the losses we can suffer is anywhere from reigning beside Christ forever and ever. Can you imagine being on His vision board, planning out another galaxy, all the way to having everything we did burned up? The former is the full reward. The latter is the no reward. Everything in between is the partial reward. Now Hebrews, the sixth chapter, tells us that the decisions, judgments, that He makes at that judgment seat are called eternal judgments or eternal decisions. So you know what that tells you and I? There will never be any changes to those decisions. They will never be amended. They will never be revised.

They will stand forever because they're eternal. So you know what that tells me? What we do with the cross does indeed determine where we're going to spend eternity. However, the way we live as believers determines how we're going to spend eternity. Did you hear what I just said? What we do with the cross determines where we're going to spend eternity. Heaven or hell, most of us know that. However, the way we live as believers determines how we're going to spend it. Now James, in his little book, the fourth chapter, the 14th verse, makes a statement. He said, this life's a vapor. Everybody say vapor. James was alive today. I don't believe he would have written it this way. He would have written it differently. He would have said this life is zero. How do I know that? Because we know something through simple mathematics. James didn't know and understand. That is this. Any finite number divided by infinity is equal to exactly zero. Remember, that's junior high mathematics, right? So if you live to be 80 years old and you divide 80 years by eternity, what do you get? You get zero. So if you live to be 80 years old and you divide 80 years by eternity, what do you get? You get zero. And you divide 146 by eternity, what do you still get? Zero. So what we do in this zero time determines how we'll spend eternity. Now to help you understand the gravity of this, let's say a leader walked in here tonight and let's say we can live in our bodies a little longer than we can live in them and

the leader said, all right, the way you spend the next 24 hours, one day will determine how you'll spend the next thousand years on this earth. Now would you go back a thousand years for reference? If you go back a thousand years, there is no United States, there is no Christopher Columbus. He's not even here. You haven't been born. There's no pilgrims, they've not been born. There's no King Louis XIV of France, he's not been born. You're back to the time of the crusaders. That's a long time, but yet, the way you spend the next 24 hours is gonna determine how you spend the next 1,000 years. Now think about it, the people you work with, the job you do, the house you live in, the neighborhood, who's your neighbors, the views you have from your house, where you live, whether it's Siberia or Newport Beach, California. For the next 1,000 years, it's all gonna be determined by how you live the next 24 hours. How would you spend the next 24 hours? Would you live it with purpose or would you throw it to chance? You better believe you'd live with purpose, but that's nothing compared to what we're talking about because one day divided by 365,000 days, the number of days in 1,000 years is still a finite number. What we do in this zero time

determines how we're gonna spend eternity. Now when God spoke to me and he told me to write this book, I'll never forget where I was. It was 5.30 in the morning, it was pitch black out. I was near my yard, walking outside praying, and the Holy Spirit said, I want you to write a book on the judgment seats. And I remember saying out loud, what? I have maybe preached on the judgment seats 20 minutes in my entire life. How can I write a chapter, let alone a book? And of course the Holy Spirit said nothing. So I go back to my home that morning and I get on my computer and I get every word in the Bible that has the word eternity, rewards, losses, heaven, hell, judgment, from eight different translations of the Bible. And you know what I ended up with? A three ring binder notebook that thick with 12 point scriptures. You know what I realized right away? God has a lot to say about eternity, okay? So you know what I did is I meditated on these scriptures for one solid month. I didn't write a thing, I just meditated. And God started showing me things. One of the first things I noticed is that whenever God speaks about our life

in regard to eternity, he calls us builders. Have you ever noticed that? Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain to build it. Here's another one, the stone which the builders have rejected become the chief cornerstone. Here's another one. Jesus gave the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher, what for? To equip God's people to build up the church. We're builders, everybody say builders. So in meditating on these scriptures, I noticed that we're gonna be judged in two major areas at the judgment seat. Area number one, our involvement in building the kingdom. Okay, that would involve how do we use our gifts and did we cooperate with our calling to accomplish building his kingdom? Are you seeing what I'm saying? I'll talk about that in a minute, right? Second thing that we're gonna be judged by is how do we build individual lives? What do I mean by build? How did you influence people? How did you influence your husband, your wife, your children, the people you work with, the waiter at the restaurant, the person that is ringing you up at the grocery store? How did you impact them?

How did you influence them? Now, I don't have time to talk about number two tonight. I extensively cover it in the book. I wanna talk about number one, our involvement in building. Everybody say building the kingdom of God. Now, Paul has to speak to the Corinthian church a lot about this, okay? It's all through 1 Corinthians. Why? Because the Corinthian church was a church that has 70 or 80 year mindset, perspective. So Paul is like constantly dealing with them about this. So in the third chapter, he says, okay, guys, here's the deal. You can use your gifts, what God has given you to build however you want. You can build for the temporary or you can build for the eternal. The choice is ours. Are you with me? I'm just gonna make a statement just to help you understand. Whitney Houston had a tremendous gift. I believe she could have used it to lead millions into the presence of God. She used it for other purposes. Are you tracking with me? Let me give you another example. If you wanna be on this amazing worship team, and it is amazing. Because you want the people of Tulsa to see you.

Every practice you've gone to, every service you've gotten up early for on Sunday, every song you've memorized will all be burned up right before your eyes because it's. wood, hay, and straw. But if you wanna be on this amazing worship team because you wanna lead people into the presence of Jesus, you're gonna be greatly rewarded. You still with me? Motives count. Private motives, darkest secrets. Still with me? You still with me? So Paul says to this church, he says, on judgment day, fire, everybody say fire. What is fire? Jeremiah said, your word is fire. Remember Jesus made the statement in John 12, he said, I didn't come to judge you. He said, the words that I speak will judge you on that day. We already know the criteria on the judgment day. That's why it's really smart to read your Bible and come to victory conference. Good preaching, John, amen, thank you. Fire will reveal what kind of work each builder, everybody say, I'm a builder, has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives, that builder, everybody say, I'm a builder, will receive a reward. There's that word reward, just like John.

Hopefully it's a full reward, right? Right? Now look at the next statement. But if the work is burned up, now remember, you build for the eternal, it's gold, silver, and precious stones. You build for the temporal, it's wood, hay, and straw. Fire builds up wood, hay, and straw. Fire purifies gold, silver, and precious stones. But if the work is burned up, the builder, everybody say, I'm a builder, will suffer great, not just loss, great loss. The builder will be saved. In other words, he or she will go to heaven, but like someone barely escaping through the wall of flames. Now that's pretty strong language right there. Can you imagine the day you retire in America, the day you retire, your bank goes, closes its doors. The bank you have all your money in just closes its doors. They go out of business. You lose all your checking, your savings, and all your cash. The same day, Social Security goes bankrupt. All the money you involuntarily gave to the government all those years is totally gone. The same day, your house catches fire and you get out with just a shirt on your back. And the same day, your insurance company goes bankrupt. Now, what do you call that?

A bad day. Now, can I be honest with you? In America, we can't even comprehend that scenario because why we have some 501c3 corporation or a government program that will help get us out of trouble. It's a dream center or something. But there are nations that can understand those words that Paul just used. My wife was just in Iraq nine months ago. She was sitting with a family who two years ago were making $500,000 a year. And now this family lives in a shipping container and they have nothing because of ISIS. They can understand these words that Paul's using. Yet this is the words that Paul uses to describe how some believers are gonna enter into eternity. You still with me? When I came back from Brazil, I was literally on fire. I said to my team, I said, I'm preaching this all over America. I started putting it on my Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter. I probably have, I don't know, well over a million, 1.25 million followers on those platforms. And you know, you always get rebuttal, right? If you have a million followers, they're gonna, you say, Mary has a little lamb, you won't get rebuttal. But this particular topic, I was getting a lot of kickback.

And do you know what the number one kickback statement was from people? I don't serve Jesus to get rewards, I serve Jesus because I love him. Now, I'm reading all these and I'm going, Lord, I actually agree with them. How about this? And you know what the Holy Spirit said to me immediately? This is amazing. You know what he said to me? Tell me about the Apostle John's life, who wrote, live in such a way that you're gonna get a reward. I went, I already got it. I was like, oh my gosh. See, he's the Apostle. Five times it says he was the Apostle Jesus loved. He's the. guy that puts his head on Jesus's chest and Jesus divulges information he wasn't going to do it but just because John loved him so much he did. He's the guy that's at the foot of the cross and Jesus is dying and he looks at him and says mom he looks at his mom and says mom there is nobody who loves me as much as this man. I'm giving him to you. You're not gonna find anybody love Jesus more than John in that generation. Yet 70 years after Jesus calls him to follow him he writes live in a way that you're gonna get a reward. Paul does the same thing eight years before he gets beheaded. And then the Lord reminded me of a vision he had given me about four years ago. I kind of forgot it. I'm embarrassed to say. In this vision I saw the heavenly city. I saw the New Jerusalem. It's massive and its streets are pure gold and in the middle of the city is this really high platform and there's stairs going up the platform and

on this platform is seated is Jesus. And I see these armies marching through this city. The armies of heaven. And they are bringing, they're marching towards that platform and they're marching up those stairs to bring Jesus his rewards. Souls. Okay? Now wait a minute. Now wait wait. In that vision I saw myriads of people on the sidewalks cheering the soldiers. There were many many more people on the sidewalks than there were soldiers. And I remember in that vision the Holy Spirit said son do you want to be one of the persons on the sidewalk or do you want to be one of the soldiers? I said I want to be one of the soldiers. He said live in such a way that you get a reward. See with much of America there's life and there's church. And the two don't mix. They're like oil and water. That's because they're 70 or 80 year minded. I know some of you probably thinking where's Charlotte? I'm joking. I know it's it's sometimes I'm I'm overwhelmed. I mean I'll be honest with you no book has ever shaken me like this book did when I was writing it. I always tell people my name's on these books because I was the first guy to get to read them. This one rocked me. So Paul says this he says he goes a few chapters and he's still talking to these guys about he says so run your race. Everybody say my race. That you may lay hold of the prize. Everybody say prize. So now Paul's calling a prize not a reward. So run your race that you may lay hold of the prize and make it yours. See he's saying run with intention to get the reward so you can present it to Jesus. Now notice he says your race. Everybody say my race. You remember Jesus made the statement of John 17 for a father I finished the work you've given me to do. Remember Paul made the statement I finished my race. Now Paul is telling us to run your race. How many of you know you can't say you finished your race unless you know you're out? Think with me. Did you ever run cross-country track? Every runner is given a route. If you don't know that route you'll start running when the gun goes off and you will run and you will run and you will run and the Sun will go down and you will keep running and eventually you'll collapse and they'll carry you home but you will not be able to say you finished because you didn't know your course. Run your race.

Are you getting this? This is why Paul says in Ephesians 2 10 now remember Ephesians 2 8 and 9 if you've been saved two weeks you know those verses you're saved by grace through faith right not of works right but look at verse 10 it continues for means because I'm continuing the thought we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do. Everybody say to do. See not only were you created in Christ to be a child of God you were equally by that same grace empowered to do something. See, this is the thought, I mean, this ran through the ranks back in the 90s, big time. We thought, only the pastors, only the missionaries, only the worship leaders have a call of God on their life. The rest of us, we just kind of survive and enjoy life. No, if you're born again, there is a call of God upon your life. Which God prepared, I need that scripture back up. Which God prepared beforehand, everybody say beforehand, that we should, not that we would, there's a big difference between should and would, walk in that. So now look at this, God prepared your specific work, he's called you to do beforehand. How far beforehand? David answers this in Psalm 139, he says this, he says, you saw me before I was born every day, everybody say every day, of my life was recorded in your book. Do you understand? There's a book written about your life. There's a book of Charisa. There's a book of Caleb. There's a book of Ty. There's a book of Iru. And you know what? Every day of your life's written in the book. That's so amazing. So famous people aren't the only ones that have a book about their life. Every one of you has a book about your life, and the author is God.

Now look at this, every moment was laid out in that book before a single day of your life began. See, that's the way God does things. He always says, okay, let's write the whole story out, and then let's go back and start it. Don't you remember he said, I am the God that declares the end from the beginning, right? I mean, the universe hadn't even been created yet, and God the Father looks at the Son and goes, Son, I'm going to create mankind, and they're going to mess up, will you go die for them? Yeah, Dad, I'll go die for them. Okay, you're the lamb slain from the foundations of the world. You see, that's the way he does it. So do you understand? Remember the book of Daniel says, at the judgment, the books are going to be opened. What book? The book of Iru. The book of Caleb. The book of Steve. And Jesus is going to go, let me see what I wrote about your life and let's compare it to how you lived. Are you with me? Are you following me? See, here's the thing. God has given each of us gifts, and those gifts enhance our calling. Are you tracking with me? A gift is like, let's say God gives this guy a tractor, but he wants to ride on a NASCAR track. He's not going to do very well. And let's say this guy has been given an 18-wheeler, and he wants to go plow a field. That's not going to work.

But that 18-wheeler can sure move somebody, because if the guy with the tractor tries to move somebody, it'll take him 20 days to go from Dallas to Tulsa and back and Dallas to Tulsa and back, because he can only carry so much. So you see, you understand God gives you gifts that kind of correlate with what he's called you to do so you can build more effectively. Are you seeing this? And so now, remember Paul said that we should walk in them. Everybody say, should. Where do you find that? Look at this, Ecclesiastics 3.15, that which is has already been. That which is right now has already been. It's in the book. If you go to all our books at this very moment, we're all in this building, and we're listening. You got it? And what is to be, that's our tomorrow. It's already been. It's already been written in the book, and God requires an account, everybody say account, of what is past. In other words, did you write, did you walk in what he wrote in that book, or did you go your own way? So you know what that tells me? In regard to our callings, we're not going to be judged according to what we did. We're going to be judged in the light of what we were called to do. Watch this. This will help you understand it. Question. What are you called to do? Ask that question because we won't be judged according to what we did in life, but rather what we were called to do in life. Imagine with me standing before the throne of God and a scenario like this occur. Evangelist Anderson, come forth and give an account of your stewardship on earth. Evangelist Anderson, I'm not an evangelist. I'm an accountant.

I had an accounting firm. I had... Evangelist Anderson, where are the 347,566 souls I called you to impact in Asia, son? Evangelist Anderson, where are they? I'm an accountant. I had an accounting firm. I help churches. I help ministries with their finances. Son, where are the 347,566 souls in Asia I called you to impact? Son, where are they? Had you saw me, had you saw my face, I would have revealed this to you. Accountant Jones, step forth and give an account of your stewardship. Accountant Jones, I've been a pastor for 35 years. I had a membership of 750 people. Accountant Jones, I called you to the marketplace. Had you done this, you would have significantly impacted two people. You and those two men would have helped churches with their finances, and those churches would have impacted 751,321 souls. If you would have sought me, I would have revealed this to you. Sister Smith, come forth and give an account of your stewardship. I only raised three children. I never preached to nations. I never even been on a missionary trip. I only tried my hardest to raise my children in your way. Sister Smith, I never called you to preach to nations. I never called you to go to other countries on missionary trips. I called you to raise three children. And let me show you the 1,579,541 souls those three children impacted. You sought me, and you heard my voice. You were obedient to my call. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. So remember, in regards to the calling that's on your life, you won't be judged according to what you did. You will be judged according to what you were called to do. It's riveting, but this is what I want to ask. Would you rather know this now or then? I'd rather know now. I've been in ministry now over 35 years. I have seen people miss their callings because of wrong relationships, an unhealthy love for finances, entanglements.

I've seen pastors that I knew were called to the business world, and I've seen people in the business world I knew were called to ministry. I told two pastors in 35 years, you should be in the business world. One of them ended up calling me back years later and said this, so happy. So happy. Two years ago I was in Hawaii doing a conference and someone said to me, John, a United States Navy SEAL instructor wants to have dinner with you. Now if a United States Navy SEAL instructor wants to have dinner with me, I'm going. I have so much respect for those men. So we sit down in this restaurant in Hawaii and I just looked at him. We got to know each other. He said, so what's your story? What's your story? And for the next two hours, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit like I've had a few times before anywhere with anyone. He said, John, I was raised in the church. I've loved Jesus almost my whole life. And he said, I loved him so deeply and I wanted to serve him the best way possible. So he said, I went to Bible school for two years. And he said, then I was interning for a large church my third year. And he said, I was accused of sleeping with a girl in a youth group. He said, John, I never did it.

He said, but they believed the girl, not me. They kicked me out, they took away all my papers. So I was devastated. Three years of work, gone. When you're 21 years old and you've lost three years of your life, that's significant. And he said, but John, I started seeking God like I'd never sought God in my entire life. He said, I'm seeking God and the Lord speaks to me and says, I didn't call you to ministry. I called you to military. He said, so I go to the Air Force, I go to the Marines, I go to the Army, nothing. He said, I walk into the Navy recruiter. He said, this is the last one. He said, the guy's reading down a list of things I could enlist for. He said, I had no idea what a SEAL was, absolutely no idea. But he said, the guy said the word SEAL and he said, explosion of life went off on the inside of me. He said, I said, that's it, that's it, that's what I'm supposed to do. The guy goes, no, no, no, no, no, you don't wanna be a SEAL. 90% of them flunked out. Every guy in this recruiting office, we tried, we flunked out. You do not wanna enlist to be a SEAL.

He goes, no, no, that's what I'm gonna do. Well, what neither of them really understood was that he didn't know how to swim. And there's a reason he didn't know how to swim because he was born with kind of defective ear tubes and they were so narrow, they had to operate when he was a kid and put tubes in his ears several times. And he said, John, if I got a couple drops of water in my ear, I was in excruciating pain. He said, so I taught myself how to swim and endured the pain praying every day for my ears to be healed. He said, one day I went down two feet, five feet, no pain, 10 feet. He said, I'm healed to this day. He said, now I'm going through my SEAL training. And he said, I'm in the final week of SEAL training and I'm carrying a boat on top of my head with a couple other of the SEALs and running on a beach in San Diego and some kid dug a hole in the sand. He said, my foot goes in the hole and tears everything from knee to ankle, everything. He said, now my Navy SEAL physical was that weak. And he said, if you flunk the Navy SEAL physical, you can never reapply again to be a Navy SEAL. He said, I go into the physical, the doctor flunks me. I said, doc, you can't do this. This is my calling, I've got to do this. And the doc says, hey, are you questioning me?

I'm an officer. He went, no, sir, no. He said, John, I left. One of my friends saw how dejected I was and asked me to go to a Bible study he'd been going to. He said, so I went to the Bible study for the first time. He said, just so happens the guy leading the Bible study was an officer over the doctor. It gets better. He said, and do you know what he was teaching on? He was teaching on how to be led by the Spirit. And then he said to the guys, during the Bible study, he said, like, there was an application that came that was rejected by the doctor in the physical. He said, I thought it was wrong, really wrong. So I overrode it. At the end of the Bible study, he found out he was the application. So now he's a Navy SEAL, right? He's a Navy SEAL, and now he starts telling me about his missions. That was another hour and a half. I could spend so much time, but let me just tell you one quick mission, all right? He said, John, we got some intel about some guys in the Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. He said, it was tainted intel. So he said, we plan, there's 30 of us SEALs going in to get these guys, right?

He said, but it's tampered with, okay? He said, John, we went right into an ambush. They had automatic machine gunfire set up on both sides, and I'm hearing whistles whizzing by my head. He said, we got in, we got every one of those guys, we got out, none of us got even injured. He said, two weeks later, I'm on the phone, my mom, my mom says, mom, our son, your phone just called me two weeks ago. He said, John, we carry our phone in our sleeves. The phone has to be off, and it can't have pre-dialed or pre-programmed numbers on it in case we get captured. Somehow, my phone turned itself on, calls my mother, who just happens to be in her woman's prayer study, prayer time, and they hear the gunfire, and all the women started praying for the safety of all of us SEALs. I go back to the hotel. I said, Lisa, I have been in the presence of a man of God. I preached this in Australia at the Hillsong Conference. There's a woman, she's irate, she's so angry. She sees, in the main hotel where everybody's staying, she sees my office manager in Australia, and she goes, he could not have meant what he said tonight. And my office manager said, what? She said, what John preached tonight. She knew he was my office manager. She said, he didn't mean it. And he said, of course he meant every word of it.

He said, why are you so upset? She said, because I'm senior pastor of this church, and I've been senior pastor for 35 years. And she said, but when I was a girl, I had dreams of me ministering to Filipino people. And he said, well, what are you gonna do? She said nothing, she was upset. One year later, we found out she turned her church over to her executive pastor, and she's in the Philippines, and this is what she said, quote, having the time of her life. I have so many stories in this book. Let me just say, some of you are probably sitting there right now, and you're feeling very upset. You're like, you know, you know you've not sought God, and you know you're in your 50s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Can I say this? It's not too late. Smith Wigglesworth was one of the greatest men of God in the 20th century. He didn't even start his calling until he was in his 50s. He was a plumber before that. Then there's Bill and Patricia. Nine years ago, Bill was one of our IT people at Messenger International. We had three IT people, right? Bill was one of the three IT people. And every time I walk into our office, and I walk into Bill's cubicle, there's pictures of Africa everywhere,

and he talked a little too much about Africa. So one day, I call him into my office. Now, Bill is 55 years old at this time, nine years ago, right, and I said, Bill, I'm gonna buy you and your wife a one-way ticket to Africa, to Nairobi. And he looks at me, and he goes, can I think about that? I said, sure, absolutely. Go home, talk to your wife, offer stands. So the next morning, he and his wife, Patricia, who was 62 at the time, come in, said, we're selling everything, we're going to Africa. And in the last nine years, they have set up 16 Bible schools in West Kenya, and they use Messenger International's materials to teach pastors in West Africa, okay? Now, this gets better. So a year ago, he's sitting in my office, right, and he looks at me, and he goes, John, I've had malaria 17 times. And he's smiling. I mean, my international director has had malaria twice and said he prayed that he would go to heaven both times. It is so bad. Yet he's smiling about it. And he said, you know what, me and Patricia, now, you gotta understand, last summer, he was 62, she was 69. So he looks at me, he says, you know what we told our kids on this trip? I said, what'd you tell your kids?

He said, if you wanna see your mom and dad buried, you gotta come to Africa, because we ain't never leaving Africa. We're so happy. What about my story? Let me close with my story. Last thing, last thing I ever wanted to do was be a minister. And I mean it. I could explain it, I could go into it, but I just, that's the last thing I saw myself doing. So I get saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and my college fraternity at Purdue University, and God just starts dealing with me. I mean, there's a gnawing going on inside, right? And I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no. I got my plans on how I'm serving God. I'm gonna go to Harvard. I'd already talked to my dean at the Mechanical Engineering School of Purdue. I was gonna go to Harvard, get an MBA. I was gonna marry a pretty girl, go to a big church, tithe, and take three vacations a year. That's the way I'm serving God, okay? I got my plan all mapped out. And God just keeps dealing with me. And I'm like, okay, okay. So finally, I'm co-oping. Do you know what co-oping is? You work a semester, you go to school a semester, right?

And I'm in my junior year, and I'm co-oping for IBM. And I remember we're in the office celebrating this guy's 38th year with the company. Okay, so there's 14 engineers sitting in this office and they're all drinking coffee. I can't drink coffee, I have too much energy. So anyway, they're drinking their coffee and this guy, this guy, you know what he says? You know what this guy says? He says, yep, I've hated every day I've walked into this company for 38 years. And everybody in that room except me did exactly what you just did, they laughed. Except me, I'm horrified. And I said, and finally nobody's saying anything. So Paul, I said something. I said, why'd you do it? And he got a little mad at me because I'm this smart aleck kid, right? He goes, John, it's a job. You know, you make money so you can eat and buy clothes. And I said, shut up, Bevere, don't say another word. But I made a mark in my mind right there. I said, I will not say this 38 years from now. So I go home, I go, I go, I go, I leave. My senior year, I call my Roman Catholic Italian mother. And I tell her, mom, I'm not coming home for Thanksgiving. You try telling that to your Roman Catholic Italian mother. Her first question, what you gonna eat? So mom, don't worry about it, I'll be fine, I'll be okay.

So all my fraternity brothers left the fraternity house for four days and I fasted. And I said, God, I gotta know why you put me on this earth. And do you know, as a result of that fast, I just looked at the file this month. I have a file drawer that has prophetic words that have been given to me that I know are from heaven. And I have this one that was given back in 1981 as a result of this fast. And do you know that I have not started walking in what was in that prophetic word until my 50s? But I'm walking in it now. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. But you see, that's what God always does. He gives you a little glimpse. Like he gave Joseph this little glimpse. You're gonna be a leader, your brother's gonna serve you. But he didn't show him the pit, the dungeon, and the slavery. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. What do you do? You move towards it and you listen to the peace. The peace of God is the umpire. 95% of the decisions I've made in my life have been from the peace of God that has ruled like an umpire in my heart. Most of the times I'm doing things that I know God's called me to do, I don't even know it consciously. I told my team yesterday, I said, do I have to say to my hand, hand, pick up this iPad. My hand is connected to me and it knows when my head wants to pick it up. It's not too late. And no one wants you to fulfill what you've been called to do more than God. He wants you to fulfill it more than you wanna fulfill it. I need you to fulfill what you've been called to do. We all need you to fulfill what you've been called to do because you're a part of our body. I want every head bowed and every eye closed. Heavenly Father, I thank you so very much

for what you've done tonight. You've spoken to us. You've answered our prayer and I'm so grateful to you, Holy Spirit. Now, Lord, I'm asking that you would draw men and women to the heart of Jesus. And I thank you for this in Jesus' name. With your heads bowed, your eyes closed, I just want you to have time alone with God right now. I just want you to, you just not to be looking around. I just want your eyes closed, just turn in. Let me just say this, you can never, ever, ever fulfill really what you've been created to do unless you have a covenant relationship with Almighty God. But let me say this, you can come to conferences, you can attend churches, you can know Jesus is the Son of God, know He died on the cross, know He was raised from the dead, know He was born of a virgin and still not have a covenant relationship with God. You say, John, how can you say such a thing? Well, it's really simple. Consider this, you can have a girl dating a guy. She knows the guy is an excellent football player. She knows he had a bicycle accident when he was seven. He's got a scar on his forehead from it. She knows he's an excellent math student. She's been to his house.

She's met his siblings. That doesn't give her a covenant relationship with him. She knows all about him, but she doesn't have a covenant relationship. It's not until he gets down on one knee and he opens up a little ring box and he said, will you marry me? At that place now, she's got a decision to make, a decision. She has to make it. She can ignore his proposal or say no and she will continue life as is, knowing about him, even going to his house and being with his siblings, but not having a covenant relationship. Or she can say yes. If she says yes, that means a couple months later, she's gonna put on a white dress. walk down an aisle of a church in front of a lot of people and you know what she's communicating when she walks down that aisle of that church? She's saying goodbye to every man on the planet except for that one guy waiting for her. She's giving her entire heart, her entire life to Him. Let me tell you something, when Jesus, Jesus Christ our Creator, when He hung on the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago and He shed His blood for you and me, it was Him getting down on one knee and saying would you be my bride, the bride of Christ. Now at this point we've got a decision to make. We can ignore His proposal and continue life as is, coming to His house, His church, meeting His siblings, knowing He died on a cross, knowing He's got a virgin mother, or we can say yes. If we say yes we're gonna do what that bride does. We're gonna give Him our entire heart, our entire life, nothing held back. Some of you in here tonight you know Jesus is the Son of God, but you know you haven't given Him your entire life. That's the first step to take to knowing your calling. If you're in here tonight you'd

say John, truth be told, I'm gonna be really honest right now, I'm gonna be gut level honest, I've not given Him my entire life. I know about Him, I go to church, but I even go to a Christian school. I don't, I have not given Him my entire life. I want to give you that chance right now. Make your life count for eternity, not only now but for eternity. If you're here and you'd say John, I really need to do that. I have not given Him my entire life and I want to do it right now. Raise your hand up with every head bowed, every eye closed. Wow, look at the hands going up. Put them up high. Wow, hundreds of hands. Put them up really high. Nobody's, no bride's ever been ashamed, ever, no bride has ever been ashamed of her groom. Jesus said, if you confess me before men, I'll confess you before my Father. If your hands raised right now, just stand for Him. Just stand. Stand up, stand up for your groom right now. Stand up for Him. If your hands raised, if your hands raised, just stand up. Just stand up quickly. That's it. I don't care how old you are. I don't care if you're 85 and you say, I have not done this. I'm ready to do it. Stand up right now. Stand up. Give the devil a black eye and stand up right now. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Thank you, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Okay, now listen. Those of you that are standing, listen to me. Do one more thing. Grab whatever you brought here. I want you to get out in the aisles. I want you to come down here. I want to pray for you to receive Jesus Christ tonight. I want you to come. Come on, give Him a hand. Come on. Come on. Hey, buddy. What's your name? Come on up. Come on up, guys. Come on up. Come on up. Hey, man. How you doing? Hey, how are you? Hey, I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. Come on, give Him a hand. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Hey, how are you? Hey, there. Okay, okay, hey, there. I'm so proud of you, man. I'm so proud of you. Hey, I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. Come on. Hey, man. Hey, man. Come on, come on. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Dude, look at you. Ready to become a King's kid. That's what you're ready to do. Come on. I'm so proud of you. Yes. Oh, you're so cute. I love it. Hey, man. I'm so proud of you, buddy.

Hey, buddy. Come on, give Him a hand. Yeah. Hey, turn the lights up. Turn the lights up. Turn the lights up. Hey, look at me. Come here. Look at me. Get rid of the sad looks on your face. This is the greatest decision you've ever made. Right? Right? You know what's about to happen? Let me tell you what's about to happen. Let me inform you. You're about to die. You got it? You're about to die. You ready to die? What do you mean, John, you're about to die? The slave is about to die. Okay? You see, the real you is not that physical body. The real you is your spirit. And what's about to happen is that your spirit, who is a slave to sin, is about to die. And a brand new person is going to be born instantly. Listen, he's gonna be exactly like Jesus, right? She's gonna be exactly like Jesus, and you will be a prince of the king of the entire universe. Not a fake king, a real king, you got it? Princess, what's your name? Brooklyn? Princess Brooklyn. Come on, that's a good ring to it, right? That's what's about to happen in here. Now, the rest of you say, hey, John, can you pray with me tonight to know my calling? If you're out there, you just stand up, you stand up. I wanna pray with you. You say, I'm a believer, but I really, really want you to pray for me for my calling. I'm gonna pray for everybody. I'm gonna pray for all of you first, all right?

Now, God could have made this really difficult. You gotta go dip yourself in the river over there across the street. He made it easy, just like the bride. What does the bride do? She walks up there and she make vows. God said, with the heart you believe, with the mouth confession is made to salvation. And that's what we're about to do right now. When we pray together, we're gonna walk right into the throne of the universe. And God is gonna do the greatest miracle that can be done in the life of a human being. You're gonna be changed from a slave to a prince, to a princess. You got it? You got it? You ready to pray? Can we pray with him? Pray this with me. Say it out loud. I want your ears hearing it. God in heaven, a little softer so everybody, God in heaven, thank you so much for sending Jesus. How can I ever thank you? Forgive me for living life my way, apart from you, my creator. But today I give my spirit, soul, and body, everything I am, everything I have to you, Jesus. Jesus, now you are the Lord of my life.

Not only are you my Lord, you are now my elder brother. You are now my love and you will forever be my king. Thank you for welcoming me into your household. I am a child of God. I am forgiven. I am a brand new person in Jesus' name. Now lift up your hands, lift up your hands. And I want you to just forget about who's next to you. Holy Spirit, I'm asking, now you just received. I'm asking you, fill these men and women. Fill them with the presence of God Almighty. Be filled with his spirit now. May the fire of your presence burn deep in their souls. May their bodies be washed. Softer. There's his presence right there. Right there he is, he's here, he's here. Thank you so much. Now every person that's standing, lift up your hands. Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus, you desire everyone that's standing to fulfill what you've created them to do more than they even want. So we're asking now, according to your will, reveal that work you've created them to do.