Our Exceedingly Great Reward

Hey everybody, whoa, wow. Just everybody stay standing. You know me, I love to pray before bringing the word. Can I tell you, oh, I was so blessed tonight. I didn't want worship to stop. Mia, you just, Mia, you and Andrew, oh my gosh. And then Henry came up and it just went to another level. I just think I need to come here like four times a year just so I can get refreshed. You know, I forget preaching. I'll just sit out here and worship with you guys, you know. You know, Lisa and I, our first two months of this year in Singapore, Vietnam, two places in Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, back to New Zealand, Egypt, Israel, and Russia. That's our first two months of the year, Lisa and I. So it's so nice to be back with family, amen. Gosh, you guys are amazing. I just really believe you love Jesus around here. It's just so good to be here, spending time catching up with Pastor Henry, Pastor Alec. How many of you know you have amazing leaders? No, seriously, Lisa and I are all over the United States. We've been traveling for over 30 years. You, I hope you never, ever, ever, ever underestimated and take for granted what God has given you and these precious gifts coming here. And God is just so pleased, I believe, with this church. And so please keep going, because I would love to see churches like this all over the United States.

You know, maybe, maybe you can just keep spreading from city to city to city, amen. Because we need this in America. Can you say amen to that? All right, come on, you guys need to get loud here, okay? Okay, gotta help me, okay? I was raised Catholic. I get uncomfortable when it gets quiet, all right? So I guess probably a lot of people are new here. I am family around here, you gotta understand. You got Papa Henry, Mama Alex, Uncle John's in the house tonight, okay? All right, so let me just help by introducing to people that I love so much and that's my family. And let me just show you a recent snapshot of my family. There they are, that is my amazing, beautiful, best friend, wife of 35 years this year. I told Lisa, I think it was several months ago, I said, "Baby, if you were single, "I would be so on your trail." She's just called Alex tonight and she said, "I have one thing to say, I'm jealous. "John gets to be with you and I don't. "She's writing a book right now "and getting ready to go to Australia." So she leaves on Friday, so I'll miss her very much. But anyway, there's our four sons, Addison's on the left. He is the CEO of Messenger and that's his wife, Juliana. And I've adopted her as my daughter. Now the other three guys are available.

I would love to have a daughter from the belonging, okay? So girls, let's get busy, okay? Facebook, Instagram, all that stuff. If you need there, I can put it up on the screen. If you need to know how to get ahold of them. I even brought one with me tonight. He'll be at the resource table. Go check him out, okay? That's Arden. Arden is sitting to my right. He is the tallest and maybe the most handsome. And no, I won't say that, I won't say that. But anyway, Arden just got down to Hillsong Bible School and he is now traveling with me and I absolutely love having him travel with me. Austin's to the left of Lisa. He is absolutely amazing. He's head of our marketing department and Alec. Well, Alec is Alec. He won Tough Mudder in the entire state of Colorado. And he works in our video department and it's just so creative. And so the four little ones, those are our G babies. You know, right? I'm way too young to be grandpa. So it's G Daddy and G for short, right? So anyway, that's my family. I'm deeply in love with them and the more I love them, the more I know how much God loves us 'cause we're his big family.

Can you say amen? Amen. (audience applauds) Now listen, I don't just wanna fly here and just bring you a message. I could be the best communicator on the planet but if the Holy Spirit doesn't touch these words, it's just information. We need transformation. Amen. So can you please do me a favor? I know you've come out here, we've worshiped God and I just sense the pleasure of the heart of God as we were worshiping. Can we now put our faith and believe that God will change our lives forever? I believe he can do that. I believe every service can be a service in which our lives are changed forever. I believe that. But we've gotta ask, amen? So can we do that? All right, so Heavenly Father, thank you so very much first and foremost for the privilege of being your children. You could've made us slaves and we would've been so much better off than where we were but you've called the sons and daughters. Tonight I'm asking, Holy Spirit of God, but just continue to do it and reveal Jesus to us

in a way like we've never known him before. As you do this, may we go from glory to glory to glory as by the spirit of the living God, for I decree it will be done in here tonight on earth as it is in heaven, and for this we give you all the honor, the glory and the praise and the thanksgiving, and it is in Jesus mighty, wonderful, majestic, holy, awesome, magnificent name we pray, and everybody that agree, "Shots! "Come on, give him praise for what he's gonna do." Amen, amen. You can be seated. Hey, can I ask a favor, can you put up the house lights just a tad? I wanna see everybody 'cause this is my family like, okay, tonight I'm gonna share with you out of the newest book we just released, it's called "Driven by Eternity." You know, I wanna open up with a quote from C.S. Lewis. Anybody ever read C.S. Lewis? Okay, so C.S. Lewis says this in mere Christianity, 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." I wanna talk to you about being eternally minded,

seeing life through the eternal perspective. You know, life is really all about a perspective. Let me give you an example, if you go to a wedding and they got a big, big reception, right? And you walk into that reception and there's a whole table filled with desserts. If you have a one-day perspective, you know what you're gonna do? You're gonna eat every one of the desserts, right? But if you have a six-month perspective, you're gonna eat one or no desserts, why? Because you don't want an upstick stomach tomorrow, you don't want 10 pounds next week and you don't want to compromise your health. Well, when we live with an eternal perspective, we live differently, we pursue things differently, we set goals differently, we chase after things differently, we endure things we wouldn't necessarily endure. And so it is for this reason that the Apostle John, now I want you to think with me for a minute here, when Jesus calls the Apostle John, he is like 20 or under. This is, he pens these words that I'm about to read to you when he's in his 90s. Now, when people get to be that age, they tend to be very choosy with the words, but I want you to look at what he says. He says look to yourselves. Everybody say look to myself. So you know immediately he's not talking

to the person sitting next to you, right? That we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Now everybody say reward. Come on, say it with passion. How many of you know God's a rewarder? I mean, come on, 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. Now, the thing that really got my attention on this verse is do you notice that he specifically says full reward? Now for him to do that means what? That means there is a partial reward scenario and there is a no reward scenario. Now isn't it interesting that John doesn't write and say, hey, live in such a way that you're gonna get a partial reward? Why doesn't he do that? Because I want you to listen to what I'm about to say because God wants you to have the full reward. He's passionate about it. I can say that as a dad of four boys. I love rewarding my sons. Are you with me? Now, why does John write this with such passion? Because he knows something that a lot of Christians in America don't know and understand.

And that is this, one day every one of us is gonna stand before Jesus Christ as our judge. You say, wait a minute, John. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Jesus is my savior. Yes, he's our savior. But one day you're gonna stand before him as judge. Where do you get that from? First Corinthians chapter five, glad you asked. Look at this. All right, Paul says, or second Corinthians chapter five, Paul says, we are confident, yes, very well pleased, rather than be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Now, we know right there Paul's not speaking to all humanity. How do we know that? Because when an unbeliever's absent from the body, they're not in the presence of the Lord. They're in hell. That's not a harsh statement. That's just a statement of fact. You gotta remember when Jesus came, Jesus said this. He said, hey, I didn't come to condemn the world. I came to save it. He came to save us out of what we condemned ourselves into. Can you say amen to that, right? But the point being is, Paul is only writing to Christians here, right? Now, look what he says in the next statement.

He said, therefore, we make it our aim or our goal. About 10 years ago my boys were teenagers and they were all sitting around the dinner table. And one night I just looked at our sons and I said, hey guys, I wanna share something with you. You can't do one thing to make your mother and I love you any more than we love you. And you can't do one thing to make your mother and I love you any less than we love you. Our love is just fixed. And it's growing, right? And you could see them just reveling in that, right? But then I looked at them and I said, but you are in charge of how pleased we are with you. You can't do one thing to make God love you any more than he loves you. You can't do a thing to make him love you any less than he loves you. But we are in charge of how pleased he is with us. That's why Paul said we make it our goal to be well-pleasing. Not just pleasing, well-pleasing to him. Why? Because of the next verse. We, and everybody remember, this is just Christians here. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Then each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or what? Or what? I didn't hear everybody, what?

Bad? Every one of us is gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, listen to me carefully 'cause this is so important that you get this. At that judgment seat, we're not gonna be judged for our sins. Why? Because our sins have been eradicated by the blood of Jesus. Everybody say thank God for that. Rather, we're gonna be judged on how we live this life as Christians. Now, here's a problem. When Americans hear the word judgment, where does their mind go? Their mind goes to condemnation. However, 90% of the time, the word judgment appears in the New Testament in regard to Christians. It is from the Greek word crema, K-R-I-M-A, which simply means this, a decision. Okay, so when you hear judgment, don't go to condemnation, go to a decision, resulting from an investigation. So what's gonna happen here is Jesus is gonna do a thorough investigation of our lives of how we live discussions. Now, in that investigation, he's not only gonna examine the works we did, he's gonna examine our words, our thoughts,

and even our motives. You say, "John, where do you get that?" First Corinthians chapter four, I'm glad you asked. You're asking really good questions. Look at this. Paul says this, he says, "So don't make judgments about anyone ahead of the time "before the Lord returns, for he will bring," now, look at this, "our darkest secrets to light "and will reveal our private motives." Now, to watch this, then God will give to each one, whatever praises do. I have news for you. The sinners at the Great White Throne Judgment are not gonna get any praise from God. Paul cannot be talking about the sinners' judgment seed here. He's talking about the believer's judgment. So Jesus is gonna do this thorough investigation on our lives, and every work, every word, every thought, every motive is gonna be examined. And as a result of this investigation, he's gonna make decisions over our lives. And as a result of these decisions, we're gonna either receive rewards, or we're gonna suffer losses. And the Bible's very clear, the rewards we can receive to the losses we can suffer is anywhere from ruling and reigning with Christ. Can you imagine this forever and ever? I mean, planning out a new galaxy

and being on his vision board, all the way to having everything we did burned up. The farmer would be the full reward, the latter's the no reward, and everything in between is the partial reward. Now, Hebrews, the sixth chapter tells us the judgments or decisions that he makes over our lives that judgment seat are gonna be eternal. What does that mean? The decisions he makes over our lives that judgment seat, there's never gonna be any changes to them. Do you understand? There's never gonna be revisions, amendments. They're gonna stand forever. So you know what that tells me? What we do with the cross does indeed determine where we're gonna spend eternity. However, the way we live as believers determines how we're gonna spend eternity. Do you say that again? What we do with the cross determines where we're gonna spend eternity. We know that, heaven or hell. However, the way we live as believers determines how we're gonna spend eternity. Now, James says in his little book, the fourth chapter of the 14th verse, he makes the statement he said this life is a vapor. If James was alive today,

he would have written this differently. He would have said this life is zero. Why do I know that? Because we know something today through simple mathematics. James didn't know and understand, and that is this. Any finite number divided by infinity is equal to exactly zero. So if you live to be 80 years and you divide 80 years by eternity, what do you get? You get zero. If you live to be 120, God forbid, and you divide 120 by eternity, what do you still get? You still get zero. So you know what that tells us? how we're going to spend eternity. Now, are you still with me? Let me just help you. I wanna make sure you're grasping this 'cause somehow I feel like somebody might be getting the full scope of this. Let's just say some leader walked up on this platform tonight. Let's just say we can live in our bodies a little longer and we can live in them, right? And this leader just looks at us and says, okay, the way you guys live the next 24 hours one day between now and tomorrow night is gonna determine how you're gonna spend the next thousand years in this earth. Now, I want you to go back a thousand years for reference.

If you go back a thousand years, there's no Nashville, there's no America, there's no Christopher Columbus hadn't been born yet, there's no pilgrims, they haven't been born yet, there's no King Louis XIV of France, he's not been born yet, you're back in the crusaders time. That's a long time. But yet, the job you do, the people you work with, the house you live in, the neighborhood you live in, who's gonna be your next-door neighbor? Where you live, whether it's Nashville or Siberia, for the next thousand years, it's gonna be determined by how you live the next 24 hours. How would you live the next 24 hours? Would you live with purpose? Or would you throw it to chance? I didn't hear everybody. You better believe you live it with purpose. Yet, that's nothing compared to what we're talking about because one day divided by 365,000 days, the number of days and a thousand years is still a finite number. So let me take a little further. Supposedly leader said, all right, the way you spend the next day, 24 hours, will determine how you're gonna spend the next million years on this earth. Now, we can't comprehend a million years, we have no reference point. You go back six thousand years, you're at Adam.

So we can't even comprehend this. But yet, the job you do, the people you work with, the type of work you do, what we're talking about, the neighborhood you live in, the car you drive, the people who live next-door to you, where you live, whether it's Siberia or Newport Beach, California, for the next million years will be determined by how you spend the next 24 hours. How would you spend the next 24 hours? Would you throw it to chance or on purpose? You'd live it with purpose, but that's nothing compared to what I'm talking about because one day divided by 365,000,000 days, the number of days and a million 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 about this, I remember when He spoke to me about this to write this book, I remember when it was, I remember where I was, and I remember when, being 5'30 in the morning, it was pitch dark out, I was out back, and the Spirit of God said to me, "Son, I want you to write a book on the judgment seats." And I remember when He said that to me, my rebuttal was this, what? God, I may have preached 20 minutes on this my entire life. How can I write a paragraph, let alone a book?

And of course, the Lord said nothing. So, I went home, I got on my computer, and I got in eight different versions of the Bible, and I got every single scripture has the word, eternity, judgment, rewards, losses, heaven, and hell, from eight different versions of the Bible. And you know what I ended up with? I ended up with a three ring binder notebook, that thick of scriptures, filled with these words. And you know what I realized right away? God has a whole lot to say about this. One of the first things I discovered is that when God speaks about our life here on this earth in regard to eternity in scripture, do you know what often He does? He often calls us builders, okay? Let me give you an example. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain, who build it? Let me give you another one. The stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone. How about this one? God gave the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. What's their responsibility? Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do what, to build up, build up the church. Are you seeing this, right? Now, the other thing I noticed in med, 'cause what I did is I meditated on these scriptures

for one solid month, every morning I'd sit in a chair and I would just meditate on these scriptures for an hour or two, for a month. And the other thing I noticed as I was meditating is there's two areas that we're gonna be examined in the judgment seat, two major areas. Number one, our involvement in building the kingdom of God. Now, what do I mean by that? How did we use our gifts and our talents to build this kingdom? You understand what I'm talking about? Like, let me say this, I believe Whitney Houston had the calling on her life to lead millions into the presence of God. But she used it for a different purpose. God, when he gives gifts, you can do whatever you want with it 'cause you're a steward. Sure is quiet in this Catholic church right now. Are you still here? Okay, I just wanna make sure, okay. The second area we're gonna get examined in at the judgment seat is how we built individual lives. Now, what do I mean by that? Our influence on people. How'd you influence the waiter at the restaurant? I just go, "I want this and this and this, thanks." I go, "Hey, what's your name?" And then I call him or her by their name, and then I tip them nice. You understand what I'm talking about, okay?

What was your influence on the cashier at the grocery store? What was your influence on your children? What was your influence on your husband and your wife? You follow the people you worked with? Now, I'm not gonna talk about point number two tonight. I extensively covered in the book. However, tonight, I really wanna focus in on our involvement in building the kingdom. Everybody say building the kingdom. - Building the kingdom. - Now, the Apostle Paul has to talk about eternity quite a bit to the Corinthian church. Why? Because they're 70 or 80, you're reminded. I mean, they're living just like normal people. They're suing each other, they're in division, strife. They like preachers better than other preachers. They got superstar preachers. They got average preachers. You know, they're just so carnal, right? They got sexual immorality, all this stuff going on, right? So Paul has really got to get them to think eternally. So he says to them in the third chapter of Corinthians, he says, hey guys, listen, you've been giving gifts, you have callings on your life, but you can use your gifts however you want. You can use your gifts to build for the temporal, or you can use your gifts to build for the eternal. You following me?

In other words, not listen. If you build for the temporal, it's like wood, hay, and straw, but if you build for the eternal, it's like gold, and silver, and precious stones. Let me give you an example. If you want to be on this amazing worship team, and it is amazing, okay? Because you want the people of the belonging to see you. Every time you've gotten up here, every song you've memorized, every note you've played is going to be burned up, right in front of your eyes at the Judgment Sea. But if you want to be on this platform because you want to lead these people into the presence of Jesus, you're going to be greatly rewarded. And all it has to do, you're doing the same thing, same work, same words. It's all about private motives. I'm preaching better in some of your singing men right now. Okay, are you still with me? Okay, so Paul says this on Judgment Day, everybody say Judgment Day, fire. Now what is fire? Jeremiah said your word is a fire. Do you remember what Jesus said in John chapter 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 of the Judgment Seat. That's why it's really smart to read your Bibles. Good preaching, John, amen.

Thank you so much. Okay, on Judgment Day, 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. Now look at this, if the work survives, that builder will be receive a reward. Hopefully a full reward, right? Right? Look at the next verse, but if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved. In other words, he or she will still go to heaven, but like somebody barely escaping through a wall of flames. You know, we prepare for retirement. How many of you know that's not stupid, right? Can you imagine the day you retire? The day you retire, your bank closes its doors. So all your cash, all your checking, all your savings gone. Same day social security goes bankrupt. So all the money you gave involuntarily to the government for all those years is gone. The same day your house catches fire and you get out with just the shirt on your back and the same day. Your insurance company goes bankrupt. Now that's a bad day, right? Now can I be really honest with you? No American can really understand that or comprehend that

because why we got churches or a government that will get us out of problems, right? But there are countries that can comprehend this language. My wife was just in Iraq five months ago and she was actually sitting with a family who two years ago were making $500,000 a year, U.S. and they were now living in a shipping container because of ISIS. They can relate to these words. You still with me? So Paul then moves along to the ninth chapter, 'cause remember he's trying to get these guys internally minded and he goes, so run your race. Everybody say my race, that you may lay hold of the prize. Everybody shout prize and make it yours. So John calls it a reward. Paul calls it a reward in chapter three and he calls it a prize in chapter nine. All the same thing, right? Now I've been really passionate about this. And can I share with you why? Because I was asked to go to Brazil and speak to just the pastors and leaders of a church network a year ago. there were 12,500 pastors and leaders. So the next day, I'm talking to them, I said, "How many people are in your churches?" They said, "300,000." I said, "When did you start?" I'm thinking 50 years ago.

They said, "16 years ago with one man." I dropped my fork. I said, "Hold it." You just built a church of 300,000 people in 16 years in a first world nation. "How do you do that?" They said, "We preach to our people on eternal rewards." That was their answer. And you know what they said to me? You Americans don't. He said, "So our people live with an eternal perspective. "You American Christians live with an 70 or 80 year "perspective." I came home, revised this book, updated this book, and I said, "I'm a preacher that's all over America." (audience applauds) So I'm a bit passionate about it right now. Can you tell? Okay, so I'm writing about this on my Facebook, on my social media a lot. And when you've got a million followers on social media, how many of you know you're gonna get rebuttal? I mean, if you write Mary had a little lamb, you get rebuttal, okay? So I'm good with that, but I'm getting a lot of rebuttal on this. And you know what people are saying to me? And this is the theme of the rebuttal. People that don't like what I'm writing, right? You know what they say?

Like, "I don't serve Jesus to get rewards." I serve Jesus 'cause I love Him. So I went to the Lord, I said, "What about this? "I actually kind of agree with them." (audience laughs) "I like want to serve you because I love you." And I'm writing all of this. And you know what the Holy Spirit said to me? This is what He said to me. I said, "Son, tell me about John the Apostle's life." And I went, "He's the Apostle." The five times was called the Apostle that Jesus loved. He's the one that was at the foot of the cross and because He loved Jesus so deeply, Jesus said, "Hey mom, I'm giving you to Him "because He loves me more than anybody else." He's the one that put his head on, Jesus' chest. And Jesus divulged the information. He wouldn't do it to anybody else. Of who would betray Him. Nobody loved Jesus more than John the Apostle. Yet when he's in his 90s, he writes with passion, live in such a way that you're gonna get the reward. Then the Lord said, "Tell me about the Apostle Paul. "Beaten three times with rods. "Wipped five times, 39 lashes. "Shipwrecked, stoned. "Nobody loved Jesus like Paul loved Jesus "in his generation 'cause he was later." And then the Lord brought back to my remembrance,

a vision he gave me three years ago that I forgot. So I saw a vision, I know, it's hard to believe. I saw a vision and I'll never forget this vision. I saw the New Jerusalem, I saw heaven. Now you gotta remember, it's a big city. It's like 1,500 miles long and 1,500 miles wide, okay? It's a little bigger than Nashville. All right, so I'm looking at this city and God's giving me this like bird's eye view. And I see this platform in the middle of the city, this like high elevated platform with stairs walking up and the armies of God are marching on the streets through the city and they're bringing, they're going up the stairs and bringing Jesus, his rewards. And then I saw myriads. And there were many, many, many more people on the sidewalks cheering the soldiers as they brought Jesus his rewards. And the Lord's asked me this question in the vision. He said, "Son, do you want to be one of the soldiers "or do you want to be one of the people on the sidewalks?" I said, "I wanna be one of the soldiers. "Live in such a way that you're going to get the reward." You still with me? So Paul says, "Run your race." Everybody say, "My race." Say it again, "My race." Can I remind you what Jesus said in John 17, 4? Jesus said, "Father, I have finished the work "you've given me to do."

Right? Well, Jesus was like born knowing what to do. No. He had to seek the will of him who sent him. He had to seek the will of God just like you and I do. Remember Paul said, "I've finished my race." Paul says, "Run your race." Now listen to me. How many of you know that if you don't know the route or the course of your race, - Wow. - That's right. - Okay, if you ever ran cross country track, all the runners are giving her out. If you don't know the route, the gun fires, you start running, you keep running, you keep running, the sun goes down, you keep running until you fall over and they carry you home, but you didn't say I finished 'cause you didn't know your course. So this is why Paul says to us Ephesians chapter two, and this is the famous scriptures where he says in Ephesians two, eight, nine, you're saved by grace, not of faith, right, right, right? Say by grace through faith, not of works, right? But why do we stop there? Because he says four, four means he's continuing the thought. For we are his workmanship, creating Christ Jesus. Everybody say to do. No, no, no, say it again, to do.

Say it with some passion, to do. To do, good works. Now, here's the scary mentality that's been in the church in the past, and this is changing, I'm so glad it is. But we used to think only the pastors, the missionaries, and the worship leaders had a call of God in their life. And all the rest of us just kind of exist. No, if you're born again, if you're breathing air, you have a call of God upon your life. Okay, so to do good work, so no, not listen, not only were we saved by grace to be a child of God, what this is telling us is that we were equally empowered by that grace to do something. Specific, that look what Paul says that God prepared beforehand. So he prepared your specific work beforehand. And look what he says that we should walk in, not that we would walk in, that we should walk in. There's a big difference between should and would, 'cause should brings it down to what, free will. Okay, so now let's talk about these two things I highlighted. Number one, prepared beforehand. How long before did God prepare your work? How long? David tells us, look at this, I love this. You saw me before I was born every day. I mean, Pastor Alex already read this. Every day of my life was recording in your book. You understand there's a book written about your life.

I'm so sorry I'm going through puberty. I'm working on it, okay. Okay, there's a book written about your life. Do you understand? I mean, I mean, oh my gosh, me? There is a book of me. And guess who wrote that book? God wrote the book. You're in there. You came in about two years ago. And you're there the rest of our lives. This is so, I'm preaching myself happy. This is what God does. God always writes the whole story out and then says, "Let's go back and start it." I mean, God said to Jesus, he said, "Hey, Jesus, we're going to create some people. I really like them. I love them in fact, but they're going to mess up." You willing to die for them? Yeah, Dad, I'll go die for them. You're this lamb slain from the foundations of the world. You see? He's the God who declares the end from the beginning. OK? So he writes your whole life. Look at this. Get a book. OK, now look at his every moment of your life. Every moment was laid out in that book of Mia

before a single day of Mia's life began. Every moment. Do you understand if you go to Mia's book and you go to my book, you got her and I talking to each other in front of all of you right now. Are you kidding this? I'm preaching myself happy. I hope I'm preaching you happy. OK, but remember, God said that we should walk in, not would walk in. Remember that? What does that mean? Well, look what the writer says. That which is? That which is right now has already been. It's already in the book. He's talking to me right now is in our books. You're listening in your book. That which is right now. It's already been because God planned it out before being. And what is to be? That's our tomorrow. It's already been. It's already written in the book. Remember in the book of Daniel and says that the judgment the books will be open. What book? The book of Mia, the book of Alex, the book of Henry. You understand what I'm saying? Book of Andrew, you're tracking with me?

OK, and what is to be? That's our tomorrow has already been. I look at this and God requires an account. Oh, that's judgment. God requires an account of what is passed. in that book, or did you go your own way? So you know what that tells me? In regard to our callings, at the judge and see, we're not gonna be judged according to what we did. We're gonna be judged according to what we were called to do. Watch this, it'll make sense, watch this. (chuckles) - 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 occurred. Evangelist Anderson, come forth and give an account of your stewardship on earth. Evangelist-- - Is it still with Anderson? - I'm not an evangelist, I'm an accountant. I had an accountant for it, I had an evangelist, Anderson, where are the 347,566 souls I called you to impact an Asia son? Where are they? I'm an accountant, I had an accounting firm. I helped churches, I helped ministries, with their finances, son. Where are the 347,566 souls in Asia?

I called you to impact son, where are they? Had you sought me, had you sought my face, I would have revealed this to you. And everything in regards to that man's call was burned up before the judgment seat price. Accountant Jones, step four, and give an account of your stewardship. Accountant Jones, I passed it for 35 years, I had it. 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. And again, in regards to this man's calling, everything he's done in life would be burned up before the judgment seat of Christ. Sister Smith, come forth, and give an account of your stewardship. I only raised three children, I never, a priest to the nation's side. I've never even been on a missionary trip, but I only tried my hardest to raise my children in your way. Sister Smith, I never called you to personations. I never called you to go to other countries or missionary trips.

I called you to raise three children. And let me show you the 1,579,541 souls, those three children impact. You saw me, and you heard my voice. You were obedient to my call. Well done, my good and faithful soon. 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'll be judged according to what you will call to do. (audience applauds) (applause) Does anybody read me on that? It's all in the Bible. It's all there. I've been in ministry for over 30 years. I have seen people that are in the marketplace I knew were called to ministry. I've seen people in ministry that I knew were called to marketplace. I actually have told two senior pastors in 30 years you should be the marketplace. One of them called me years later and said they were so fulfilled and thanked me. I've seen people miss their callings because of entanglements. I've seen them miss their callings because of wrong relationships, of an unhealthy addiction to security. I've seen people miss their callings because of finances. Two years ago I was in Hawaii and somebody got the information to me that a United States Navy SEAL instructor wanted to have dinner with me. If a United States Navy SEAL wants to have dinner with me I'm going. So we met at the restaurant. I sat down and I said hey what's your story after the small talk? I said hey what's your story? And I'm telling you I sat there for the next two hours and had one of the greatest encounters with the presence of God and a man of God that I've had in years. He looked at me and he said hey John I was raising the church and I loved Jesus passionately and he said so I went to Bible school. I went for two years and he said the third year of Bible school I interned in a very large church in the youth group and he

said I got accused of sleeping with a girl in the youth group. He said John I never did it but the elders believed her so they threw me out and took away all my credentials. He said three years of work gone. Now when you're like 21 years old and you've lost three years of your life that's significant. He said John I saw God like I'd never saw him before and he said as I was seeking God the Lord said I never called you to ministry. I called you to military. He said so I went to the Marines I went to the army I went to the Air Force and he said I just had one left to go. So I went to the Navy he said the Navy recruiters reading down list of things I can enlist for. He said and he says the word seals. He said I have no idea what a seal was. He says the word seals and he said when he did life explode on the inside of me and he said that's it. That's what I'm supposed to do. The recruiter went no no you do not want to enlist as a seal. He said 90% of the guys enlist the seals they they they flunk out. He said every guy in this recruiting office we all flunked out of seal training. He said I don't care that's what I'm supposed to do well you know it neither of them realized that he didn't know how to swim and there was a reason he didn't know how to swim because he was born with very narrow ear canals and they had to do several operations and put tubes in his ears as a child and he said John if I got just a few drops of water in my ear I was in excruciating pain. He said so I had to pray every day that God would heal my ear and he said one day I went down two feet in water and there was no pain and then I went five feet I went ten feet I was completely healed so he's going through his seal training he's on the last week and he's carrying a boat on top of his head running on a beach you know like four guys carrying a boat right and some kid had dug a hole in the sand his foot goes in and tears everything from his ankle to his knee ACL everything and his physical was that week it just so happened right he said John if you flunk the physical you can never re-enlist for seal training you're done for life he said I go to the physical the doctor flunks me he said doc you can't do this this is my life calling the doctor said hey I'm an officer you're questioning me he went no sir he said one of my friends saw how

absolutely dejected I was confused and he said hey I go to this Bible study why don't you come with me to this Bible study he said go to this Bible study it just so happens the guy leading the Bible study as an officer about the doctor and he's talking to the guys that week about being Spirit led and he said like I had an application come across my desk yesterday of a sealed cadet that was was rejected by a doctor he said I felt it was wrong so I overrode it found right afterwards it was him so he said then he started telling me that was a half an hour then he started telling me for the next 90 minutes his missions and this is where it really got good and I can't keep you here all night but I'll tell you one okay I'm torn between the Iraq one and the Afghanistan one but I'm gonna go with the Afghanistan one because it's it's easier to tell so they got some intel of these guys that were out kind Well, the intel was tarnished and it was actually an ambush. And he said, John, there were 30 of us seals going in. And when we went in the route to go in to get these guys in this compound, they had it all set up, automatic machine guns on both sides of us. He said, John, they are raining bullets on us. I am feeling bullets go by my head, hearing the whizzing sound of the bullets. We get in, we get the guys, we get out. Not one of us is injured. Two weeks later, I'm on the phone with my mom. He said, no, John, we carry in our slave pocket our cell phones. They have to be off on a mission. And the cell phones have to be completely cleared. They can have no pre-programmed number and no pre-dialed number. In case they're captured. He said, somehow, my cell phone turned itself on

and called my mother's cell phone. She heard the bullets and she just happened to be in her woman's Bible study. They heard the bullets started praying for us, and that's why all of us got in and all of us got out uninjured. He's called to be an AV seal. [APPLAUSE] I preached this message at the Hillsong Conference down in Australia, and there's like 22,000 people. And I remember after the service, there was a pastor, and there was a main hotel, and I'm going to wrap this in just a couple minutes, guys. There was a pastor, and she went back to-- it was a lady pastor, she was a senior lady pastor. She went back to the hotel, and she's high rate. And she sees my office manager, Australian office man. She says, hey, John could not have met what he said tonight. And he said, he did mean what he said. Why are you so upset? She said, because when I was a girl, I had dreams, night dreams, of me preaching to Filipinos. And I've passed her to this church for 35 years. Am I an officer, an office manager, just said, well, one year later, we heard back from her. She turned. She went back, turned her church over to her executive pastor and went to the Philippines, and she said she's having the time of her life. Some of you might be sitting there right now going, but it's too late for me.

I'm 50 years old. Smith Wigglesworth was one of the greatest apostles in the 20th century. He didn't even start his ministry till he was in his 50s. I think about Bill and Patricia. Bill was working for Messenger International for Lisa and I eight, nine years ago. He was one of our three IT employees. And every time I was around Bill, he just talked about Africa way too much. So one day I just call him into my office and I say, hey, Bill, we'll buy you and your wife, Patricia, a one-way ticket to Nairobi, Kenya. He said, can we talk about it tonight? I said, yeah, the offer stands. Next morning, both of them came in. They said, we're going. She's 62. He's 55. They sell everything. They go over and in the last nine years, they have set up 16 Bible schools in Western Africa, Western Kenya. And they teach primarily pastors and associate pastors. They have literally changed the landscape spiritually of Western Kenya. He's sitting in my office eight months ago. And he's laughing. He said, John, I've had malaria 17 times. My office-- my international director has had malaria twice.

And he told me, John, I wanted to go to heaven on both of them. It is that bad. But he's laughing. And he said, do you know what we told our kids on this trip? We told our kids, if you want to see your mom and dad buried, you're going to have to fly to Africa. Because we're never leaving. We love it over there. What's my story? And let me end with this. I have a mechanical engineering degree from Purdue University. I played varsity tennis at Purdue. I got saved my fraternity, actually, my sophomore year. And I'm going to be really honest with you. The last thing I ever wanted to do is go into ministry. I don't even want to go into why, but just trust me. And I remember God starts dealing with me about it. And I'm like, I've got my plans on how I'm going to serve you, Lord. I had already had my career mapped out. I was going to go to Harvard, get an MBA. I was going to go into corporate America, make a lot of money, marry a pretty girl, take three vacations a year, and tie it to my local church. And that's the way I'm going to serve God. And I remember God keeps dealing with me. - My junior year, I'm-- You go to school a semester, and then you work for the company for a semester as a co-op engineer.

So I'm at IBM my junior year, and we're celebrating a guy's 38 year with the company, right? It's just like 14 guys in the office, they're all drinking coffee, I can't drink coffee, I get too much energy. (audience laughing) And so, right in the middle of the conversation, it's all small talk. We're all trying to wake up. And the guy, all of a sudden says, "Yep, I've hated every day, "I've walked into this place for 38 years." (audience laughing) And everybody did, what Pastor Alex just did, and you all did, they just laughed. Except for me, I was horrified. (audience laughing) And I'm thinking, you know, I'm thinking the older, wiser guys will say something. Huh, so finally I just said, "Hey, why did you do it? "If you've hated every day you've walked "into this place for 30 years, "why did you do it?" Now he really got, he got mad at me. He looks at me and goes, "John, it's a job." You understand? Job, you earn money so you can eat and buy food and you know, wear clothes. And I was like, okay, he wasn't that belligerent about it,

but he was pretty strong. And I thought right there, shut up. But I made a note right there. And that note was this, I will not be saying this 38 years from today. And I remember my senior year, I called my Roman Catholic Italian mother. And I said, "I am not coming home for Thanksgiving." Now you tried telling that to your Roman Catholic Italian mother. Her first question was, "What are you gonna eat?" (audience laughing) I said, "Mom, don't worry about it." So I fasted those four days. All my fraternity brothers went home, I had the whole fraternity house of myself. Yeah, God can talk in a fraternity house. And I fasted and I said, "God, I gotta know why you put me on the earth." I just, I gotta know. And the result of that four day fast, now I want you to hear what I'm about to say. God gave me glimpses of things that I haven't started doing until I'm in my 50s. I literally have it dated, 1981. I haven't a file in my office. That God literally showed me what I'd be doing in my 50s in 1981. God showed Joseph, he was gonna be a leader, but he didn't show him the pit, the slavery, and the dungeon.

God showed David, you're gonna be king, but he didn't show him 14 years living in the deserts, and I'm in the Philstines. And I want you to hear me. Come on guys, I love you so much. God is more passionate about you fulfilling your calling than you are. And can I be really honest with you? I'm really passionate about it. Because we can't do this by ourselves. We have to be one big massive body, one big massive team. I need you to fulfill your calling. Did you get something out of this tonight? (audience applauding) Amen. I want you to bow your heads. I want you to bow your heads. Just bow your heads just for a moment. Father, thank you for what you've given to us and our Lord, draw men and women to the heart of Jesus. I'm asking in Jesus' name. Can I say this if you would just listen carefully to me? You can never, you can never, ever fulfill what you've been put on this earth to do unless you have a covenant relationship with your Creator. I'm so sorry that in America, we in the ministry have led you to believe that you could just pray a formula centers prayer and that just makes you right with God. It's just so sad.

Jesus is the bridegroom where the bride. When a bride walks down an aisle of a church, she's communicating something. She's saying goodbye to every guy in the face of the earth. She's giving herself entirely to that man. Doesn't make her perfect the first week, the first two weeks, the first year, the first 35 years. Just means she gives her entire heart. The only way you can enter into a covenant relationship with the bridegroom is to give him your entire heart, your entire life. That means I don't care what he took. Some of you sitting here tonight, you may have prayed a prayer, but listen, that doesn't make a person saved. It's when you say, "Jesus, you've got all of me." It doesn't make you perfect. You may make a mistake next week, the following week. It just means, "Jesus, I don't care what your word says, I am going to delight in doing it." If you say, "John, I've never really given my entire heart and life to Jesus, and I want to do it right now. I want you to throw your hands up in the air right now. I want to pray for you tonight." "Wow, look at the hands going up my, my, my, my." Just put them up high, no brides have ever been ashamed of a groom, come on. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Okay, put your hands down. If you say, "John, I am a believer. I've given Jesus my life, but I really don't know what I'm called to do."

Can you please pray for me tonight? I would love to do that, if that's you raise your hand. Whoa, if you raise your hand on either one of those calls, stand up immediately, right there where you're sitting. Just stand up. Oh, my, I'm so glad the Holy Spirit had me preach this message. Wow, this is going to be amazing. I want you to bow your heads, I want you to forget about who's standing, who's sitting, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're the only person all around you that's standing, it doesn't matter. I just want you to close your eyes, and I want you to turn in. In other words, go to your heart, and I want you to say these words with me, and I want you to mean them. Say this with me, God in heaven, out loud with your mouth. The Bible says with the heart you believe, with the mouth confession is made to salvation. Say this with me, God in heaven, thank you so much for sending Jesus. Forgive me for living life my way, apart from you, my creator, but this day I give my spirit soul and body. Everything I am, everything I have to you Jesus. You are now my Lord, my life is yours. Thank you that you have recreated me. I'm now a child of God. I belong to the family of God. I'm asking you, fill me with your spirit, and my request tonight, I'm asking you, show me what you've called me to do. Show me what you've put me on this earth to do, to build your kingdom. I receive this tonight in Jesus' name. Lift your hands up, lift your hands up, presence of God is in this place. Wow, there's this presence right there.

That's the Holy Spirit right there. Fill them with the presence of Jesus. There's this presence right there, right there. Lift your hands up one more time, and just thank you, Jesus. There's this presence right there, so strong. Now I want you with your lips, I want you to say something to him, and I want you to mean it, even if you're so amazing, just say something, thank him, and let's give him praise. Come on, give him praise, give him praise. [APPLAUSE]