You've Been Lied To About Heaven

Here's the thing that everybody needs to understand. Not just sinners are going to experience judgment. Christians are going to experience judgment. Everybody just went, ah, freaking out. Don't freak out. Reason is, is because why is this really serious? The world lives for the now, whereas the believer lives for the eternal. Just stop and think about this. That means everybody's not entering heaven the same way.

How can I ultimately make this count? That's what God's going to judge you on. And it's not just for ministry. Leaders Only is everywhere.

I'm going to throw a wrench in this whole thing.

Let's do it. Okay.

So now, hey everyone, welcome to the Jon Bevere podcast. I actually say it without flinching. Arden, I am joined by my son Arden Bevere. It's so good to have you, Arden.

It's good to be on. It's an honor.

Yeah, it's— it's an honor anytime to be able to share the word of God. I've had that honor for a lot of years. It's been about 40, 40 years had the honor, and it never gets old.

Yeah, you guys never have lost the sight of that too.

No, it's so exciting. My favorite book to read in the world is the whole— is the Bible. Now, Arden, I'm so excited about today. And let me say this, please, please, everybody, please rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast. It really helps get the word of God out there. This, this, this podcast is Timeless Truth for changing times. And I would say we are living in rapidly changing times, but here's what we're going to talk about on this podcast. All right. How can you secure a grand entrance into heaven? How did you know the Bible actually talks about this? How can we secure a grand entrance into the kingdom of heaven? And I have news for you. It's not about earning. It's about effort.

Yeah, I love it. That's hard. We talked about that previously of earning versus effort, because sometimes people confuse those two things.

I know they do.

They do.

They say, hey, I am— you know, grace has set me free from all effort. No, that's not true. Grace has set you free from trying to earn a relationship with God, but it hasn't set you free from effort. And that's what Peter makes so crystal clear. If you don't exert the effort— okay, let's just— let me just put it to you this way. Well, actually, let's— I'll put it to you in just a minute. We are reading out of 2 Peter chapter 1. I don't know how many podcasts we've done and we still aren't even out of chapter 1. However, let's just do a quick summation. Peter is telling us— he opens up and he gives us the summary. Hey, you get more grace in your Christian walk. In other words, it's not intravenously given and that's the most you'll ever get. Grace can be given to you. How do we get it? We get it by knowing God. Now, this in knowing God, it gives us the word. He's given us his promises so that we can know him. And in knowing him, that gives us the dunamis or power for living a godly life.

Yeah.

So here's, here's my challenge. Here's our challenge. Excuse me. Let me say it like that. Here's our challenge today. We teach that the grace of God frees us from the penalty of sin. But we don't teach as much about the fact that the grace of God frees us from what will destroy us, the bondage of what will destroy us. Sin is what destroys a person. Yeah. Okay? Yeah. Let's just be honest, okay? Sin sounds very religious to a lot of people today, but it is the very things that God wants to deliver you from because it destroys you and breaks intimacy with him. Mm-hmm. So then Peter says, okay, now that you've got this measure of faith that God's given every single believer, You got to make this grow and you make it grow by adding these 7 things that we talked about in the last podcast. Let's quickly go through it. Moral excellence, right? Knowledge, self-control, perseverance. Then we have the fear of the Lord. We have kindness, brotherly kindness, and then we have love.

Yeah.

So now let's get to the point. Okay. And if we do these things now, now I want to get back to what we were saying. All right, in doing these things, we're exerting effort, okay? Now I wanna ask you a question. You're married, you've been married for 6 years. Yeah. Do you exert effort to have a better marriage?

Every day.

Does it earn you the marriage?

No, it doesn't make me any more married.

Okay, so you're just as married. Yeah. Whether you exert effort or not. Correct. But what does the effort do?

It makes my marriage more rich and more happy, more fun, more life-giving. A lot that it does to my marriage. Makes my wife happy.

Right?

A lot of things.

Okay. So we don't exert effort to earn a relationship with God. No. We exert effort because we want to be closer to God. Yep. We want to have a rich life with him now. This is what people need to understand. Peter is saying, You got to exert effort. You can't just, God doesn't just intravenously put this into you and just say, there you are, you've gotta work it out. And Paul, in his letter, Paul writes the same thing. He says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So he too is talking about the fear of the Lord as Peter was talking about the fear of the Lord. All right, so now I wanna move right into what's the result of exerting this effort? Peter goes on to say in verse 8 of chapter 1, the more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So productivity and usefulness, actually very similar words, but he uses both. Yeah. And I've actually read the commentaries. The commentaries even say Peter chose two words that literally are like synonyms. But what I find interesting is the New Living Translation hits it from the positive angle, but most of the other translations go from more of the negative angle. Because the ESV, the English Standard Version, says, for if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the New Living says, hey, you do this and you're going to be productive and you're going to be useful, right? The ESV, the New King James, the Amplified, many of them say, hey, these qualities are yours and they're increasing. They will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in your knowledge. Yeah. Now, which one is more accurate? Actually, the commentators say the second one, the negative aspect, actually. Okay. But it doesn't matter because they're saying the same thing. There's just two different sides of a coin, right? All right. Now listen to this. But those who fail to develop in this way are short-sighted or blind. Yeah.

Okay.

Stop right there. Just stop. Short-sighted, blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

Which in my mind, when I first hear that, that just feels like a spat on the face. Like, it just feels like you forgot what was done for you. If you don't take what was done for you and apply effort to it, you've forgotten what was even done for you.

You'll forget if you don't exert the effort to grow in godliness. Like that. These 7 things, you'll end up becoming blind and short-sighted.

Yeah, that's so great.

And you're going to forget. Now what happens if you forget that you've been delivered from your sins? You become proud. And what is pride? Pride is what opens us up to destruction because pride, those that are proud get blindsided. If you look at the armor of God, it's all forward facing, but the glory of the Lord's our rear guard, Isaiah 58, right? Now God says, I'll share my glory with nobody. When you enter into pride, you enter into touching God's glory. Now what happens? Your blind side is open. People that are in pride never see the destruction that's coming. They get blindsided by it. They— I've talked to ministers that have fallen and they said, I didn't see it coming. It snuck up on me. I didn't— I wasn't aware of it. Okay, so now let's go to the fact that you're short-sighted. All right, I'm going to talk about this and then you and I need to have conversation. This is taken right from a commentary. A person who fails to develop these 7, these 7 virtues is so short-sighted that they cannot see either the past or the future. Yeah. Okay, so focused on the present, oh my gosh, that they cannot see the depth of sin they were forgiven of and they can't see the future judgment that they're gonna face.

Oh man.

So you lose sight of both.

Yeah.

All right, now why is this really serious? Because the Bible tells us the foundational teaching of Jesus Christ is repentance from dead works, and the last one is eternal judgments. Now we're going to talk about this on this program, okay? In the ancient world— I'm continuing to read from, from a, um, a Bible commentary— in the ancient world, one significant duty of a client towards his or her patron was the remembrance of past benefits received from the patron. So in other words, this was their duty to never forget how kind their patron, or I should say their leader, their master, their lord was to them. They, they on purpose constantly remembered, okay, I wouldn't have the meals I have, I wouldn't have the roof over my head, the shelter, had my patron not been kind to me.

Yeah.

All right, now one of the commentaries said this makes them vulnerable to the teachers of chapter 2, the false teachers of chapter 2, which is going to be— one day we're going to get to it. Okay, we're gonna make it to chapter 2. Okay, we will do it. Uh, but so now here's what we need to talk about. All right, let's talk about what it means to be blind. Let's talk about what it means to be short-sighted. Jesus is constantly saying to him, him who has ears to hear, let him hear. Him who has eyes to see, let him see. Okay, the Bible talks about their eyes they have closed, their ears they have shut, their heart, right? The Bible says, Paul said, may the eyes of your understanding be enlightened so that you might know what is the hope of your calling. The Bible says, oh, taste and see, see that the Lord is good. Okay, I don't see any longer the goodness of God. I now start seeing God more the way the world sees God. I now start seeing God as, why aren't you doing this for me? Why aren't you doing? Because 'cause I'm short-sighted and I'm focused on right now. So literally I put myself into a tunnel and I cannot see what's coming, I cannot see what I've came from, and now I'm in danger because the world lives for the now, whereas the believer lives for the eternal. God has put eternity in our hearts and literally what we do is we close up our hearts and we shut ourselves off to seeing life from an eternal perspective.

Can I say this too? Is we don't talk about that because I think a lot of people— I know, and I'm not saying this as a disservice to the church, but when I hear a message on eternity, it sticks out to me. But yet it's talked about so much within the Bible and it's what we are all going towards. And so we just don't talk about it. And so a lot of people are not aware about it in terms of their focus, in terms of how they're living their life. Which you talk so much about living your life with an eternal perspective that changes everything, that understands of you fully being aware of what has been done for you and what you are going towards. So this is something that we've gotta talk about more within the church.

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Yeah.

If I always say this and this is a good way of saying it, if I, if I go to a wedding reception, there's a whole table filled with desserts and cake. If I have a one-day perspective, I'm eating every dessert on that table. If I have a great day— yeah, if I have a 1-year perspective, I'm eating 1 or 0. Why? Because I don't want an upset stomach tomorrow. I don't want 10 pounds of fat on my body next week, and I don't want compromised long-term health. Yeah. I mean, Arden, I remember when I was in my 20s, I was walking into my fraternity and I had never heard a health food teacher in my entire life. And the Spirit of God said, your body's my temple, take care of it. And the thought came to me, if I had a Ferrari, would I put dirty gas or recycled oil in it? Would the car still run? Yes., but I would what? It wouldn't run to its peak performance and I would shorten its life. So now people live, when they live for the right now, they live differently than if they live with the eternal perspective. When you're blind, you can't see the eternal perspective. See, this is a cause and effect thing that can really be devastating. And so he said, I'm gonna keep reading. He said, so, dear brothers and sisters, work hard. There we go. Work hard again. Exert the effort to prove that you really are among those God has called. This is verse 10. And chosen. Do these things and you'll never fall away.

What a promise.

What a promise, right? Other translations say you'll never stumble. Either one. I'm all for this. Never fall away. Never stumble. Now, you're going to notice in chapter 2, we start talking about all these false teachers. They at one time had a relationship. Yep. Most— many of them one time had a relationship. I'm going to prove it when we get there. Okay. So they stumbled. They fell away. Yeah. Why? Because they didn't develop these godly virtues. They didn't exert the effort. Okay. All right. So now I want to go to verse 11. Then God will get here. Here's, here's what we're talking about in this program. Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, stop and think about this. That means everybody's not entering heaven the same way. Oh my goodness, I, I, I, I, I— this, this just literally— if you get this today, folks, your life's going to change. Okay, if you do these things, you'll receive a rich welcome. This is another translation: you'll receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Okay, one of the commentaries said this. He said it's a picture of a victor returning to his home city after the Olympic Games and being received with a triumphant welcome. So think about when the guys came back from World War II, way, way back, right? There was a big parade on Fifth Avenue in New York, right? It was a jubilant celebration. When somebody wins the Super Bowl, the city has a big, big grand entrance for the athletes when they come back. They're at the plane, they're celebrating, then they have a parade. Okay, this is what he's talking about here. So now Brings me back to a vision I had about 8 years ago. I had a very vivid vision, Arden. I was in prayer, and I will never forget this as long as I live. I saw a massive city, and in the center of that massive city was high up, elevated, like these stairs went up almost like Washington, D.C. When you walk up the stairs to go to the, the Supreme Court. Yeah, the Supreme Court. These stairs were going up, and on this at the top was seated Jesus. And I saw these soldiers marching in the streets of heaven and they were bringing Jesus his rewards. So they were bringing the souls. They were bringing what he— because his inheritance is souls, right? And this army was powerful. And I saw myriads of people on the sidewalks cheering the army. And there were many, many, many, many more people on the sidewalks than there were soldiers.. And the Holy Spirit asked me a question in that vision. He said, do you want to be one of the people on the sidewalks? Yeah. Or do you want to be one of the soldiers bringing me my rewards? And I said, God, I want to be one of those soldiers. Yeah. This is exactly what Peter's talking about. There's going to be a lot. In other words, everybody's not entering into eternity the same.

Well, can you talk about eternity? Because that's the thing. Like I said, people aren't talking about eternity. So a lot of people have a lot of questions about it. So can you break that down a little bit and why we don't talk about it?

So Paul the Apostle is speaking to a Corinthian church who's very carnal, very worldly, very much like the American church. Yeah. And Paul tells them in chapter 3, he says, but whoever is building on the foundation— what's foundation? Born again. I've been born again. My foundation is the Lordship of Jesus. Whoever is building on the foundation must be very careful. This is why we're doing this podcast. Yeah, not just careful, very careful. That's 1 Corinthians 3:10. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials: gold, silver, jewel, wood, hay, or straw. Okay, what is gold, silver, and jewels? That's doing things by the Spirit of God, being led by the Spirit in obedience to the Spirit. What's wood, hay, or straw? I'm doing things to gain favor, gain popularity, gain notoriety. I want to be— I want my Instagram followers to go past 5 $500,000.

There are things that will die with you, right?

I love that. Say it again.

There are things that will die with you. Okay.

Yeah. That's the wood, hay, and straw. Okay. So you've got gold, silver, jewels. You got wood, hay, and straw. Gold, silver, jewels. I'm building for the eternal. I'm building people's lives. I'm seeking to, to be kind to people, to build people, to speak truth to people, to even confront people when they're doing what's damaging to them by saying, hey, this sexual perverted lifestyle, it's contrary to the word of God that you're living is going to destroy you. This fact that you think you can choose your gender— listen, God made them male and female. Man didn't make them male and female. God made them male and female. You choosing to be a different gender than the way God made you, this will end up ultimately destroying you. It's not good for you. God doesn't want this for you. He loves you. Okay? That's, that's building for the eternal. Mm-hmm. Okay, building for the now means, oh, you want to be a zebra? Go ahead and be a zebra. You want to be a dog? Oh yeah, you can be a dog. Here, I'll get you a doggy bowl and you can— and I just want to affirm you in being a dog. Okay, that's not loving somebody. No, that's not building for the eternal. That's building for the right now. Yeah, is what it is. All right, so we have a choice, but on Judgment Day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. Now, what's fire? God says in Jeremiah chapter 23, verse 29, is not my word a fire? Yeah. Jesus said in John 12:48, the word that I have spoken will judge you on that day. The word of God is a fire, and the word of God is what's going to be the standard of judgment at the judgment seat. Okay, so now God's going to examine our motives. He's going to examine our our thoughts, our intentions, our words, and our works. I'm gonna show this in a second. He's gonna examine all of that, the judgment, and he's gonna examine it with the fire of his word. And if you put fire under wood, hay, and straw, poof, it's gone forever. You put fire under gold, silver, and jewels, it purifies them. Okay, so now if the work, so in other words, if my life, the work, my motives for living, what I did, If the work survives, that builder— and God always calls you and I builders in scripture. I mean, that's just— except the Lord build the house, they who build it build in vain. The stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone. God looks at us as builders. Why? Because we're building his eternal home. We're building Zion, the city in which he's going to dwell in forever and ever. It's made out of living stones, bricks, And those living bricks are human beings. Jesus is the chief cornerstone, but Peter says in his first book, "But you as living stones." We're the living stones that are being built up on the eternal home that God's gonna dwell in forever and ever. I mean, how exciting, God's gonna dwell among us. He's gonna live in us and dwell among us. Literally, we are gonna be a part of his house. Oh my gosh, it's amazing. Okay, if that work survives—

Can I say this really quick? 'Cause I love how excited you're getting about it. And I think that's like the misunderstanding that people get is they're like, whoa, I don't want to think about eternity like that. I don't want to go there. Like, that's death. Like, I don't want to fully understand it. And to them, it's something that's like it's more fear-based rather than— I look at what you're saying. When you have this understanding of what eternity is, what God is having waiting for you, you have an excitement about you. And so eternity doesn't become a scary thing. It becomes a thing. I can't wait. Like, I'm living in anticipation for what God has for me waiting in there.

You know, when you live that way, Arden, do you know what? You see yourself as a temporary resident here. That's the way all the heroes of faith were. They saw themselves as pilgrims. Pilgrim means I'm a temporary resident. I got a job to do here. In other words, I meet guys on airplanes all the time, right? They're flying to a city. You want to know what they're flying to that city to do? To do work. Okay, so I see guys that are like, I've seen literally builders pull their tools on first class on an airplane domestically. They're flying to another city 'cause they're part of, they're specialists in an area and they're building this building, right? And they're doing it for like 3 weeks, right? But they can't wait to get home. That's not their home. I got a job to do over there in Kansas City, but I live in Atlanta. So I met them on Atlanta getting on the plane. They didn't look very, they weren't really ecstatic because they were leaving their wife, their kids. Okay, they're a pilgrim in Kansas City. Their home is in Atlanta. Okay, a true believer, my home is his throne. My home is where he is. My home is a city whose builder and maker is God. This, this is where I'm doing my job. This isn't my home. But yet somebody who's shortsighted lives as if this is my home. Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. Anyway, if the work survives, the builder will receive a reward. Oh gosh, that's just amazing. Now listen to this: but if the work is burned up, the builder— now we're talking about the builder— will suffer great loss. Not just loss, great loss. The builder will be saved. In other words, they're going to heaven. Yeah, but they're going to be on the sidewalk. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through walls of flames. That's what Paul says about Christians. Now I want everybody to think about this. Can you Imagine the day you retire. You know, Americans, we, we, we, we build for retirement, right? Which I'll never retire as long as I'm here. I got a job to do. Retirement for me is like, hey, I'm with Jesus in heaven, okay? But that's not retirement either because we're going to be building galaxies and all that with him. It's going to be a blast. But anyway, um, I, I just look at this as, is like crazy. I mean, people listen to this. The Christian will suffer great loss. The Christian will be saved. They will go to heaven, but like somebody barely escaping flames. Now, I want you guys to imagine the day you retire. Social Security goes bankrupt, so you have no Social Security. All, all you put your work into for 40 years is gone. Yeah. Your bank account, your banks close their doors. You lose every bit of your savings, every bit of your checking. Your house burns to the ground. You escape with just the shirt on your back. Now, in America, we can't relate to this because we got some kind of government program that will bail that person out. Yeah. Or insurance policy. That's not the way it was in Paul's time. If this happens in Paul's time, you lose everything you worked for, for your life. Your house burns to the ground. You don't have any government programs. Yeah. So there's actually people— and I've been to countries, let me tell you something— if their house burns down and they lose everything they've worked for, they have nothing. They lose everything. They lose everything. Yeah. There's no government programs in these countries I've been to. This is the language that Paul uses on how some Christians are going to enter into eternity. The Christian will be saved, the builder will be saved, but like somebody barely escaping. Then you look at the builder receive a reward, yet Peter comes and says a grand and glorious entrance. I'll never forget, and I just keep having this come up, so I'm going to say it because some people are going to freak, but there was a great, great man of God in our— in the 20th century that I knew personally. This man, he's in the Billy Graham category, okay? And he wasn't Billy Graham, but he's in the Billy Graham category. He's that well-known. Uh, his son was beside his bed when he went, and he said, John, God opened my eyes and I saw two of the most highly decorated angels come and take my dad out of his body. He said, John, those, those angels were so, so awesome looking. And he said, they literally— now, I can only imagine the entrance that this man got because he lived his life for Jesus. Yeah. Now, you can be a schoolteacher and get that kind of entrance. You can be a stay-at-home mom and get that kind of entrance because you took care of those kids that God told you to. And you meant it. You were a witness to the people in your neighborhood. You'll get that grand. You prayed when God woke you up in the middle of the night to pray for some. You'll get that grand and glorious entrance because you developed those 7 things. Yeah, because you exerted effort to develop in moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, right? And I want to applaud everybody who's listening to the podcast. You wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't want knowledge. Yeah, if you didn't want to develop, right? Self-control, perseverance, the fear of the Lord, kindness, loving, and, and love. You developed in that, you get a grand entrance, as opposed to being somebody getting an entrance where you barely escaped the fire. Or you came through the fire.

Yeah. You said something too that's really, really important that I want people to understand. As you said, it doesn't have to be ministry. Like, you don't have to be full-time ministry to receive the grand entrance. And I think that's what people will confuse is that they're like, well, my life doesn't matter as much. Like, and you always talk about this. I remember when you shared this with us, You always talked about is the talents that were given to the different servants and understanding that each talent was— or each servant was given a measure of talent. What they did with that talent was ultimately what was the deciding factor on if they were good and faithful. But if they sat on that talent, then they're what? Wicked and lazy. And I've seen some people, Christians, being like, oh, just like, it's just— I can ease through life and I go through things and I can be patient and I can— It's like, no, you— if you have an eternal perspective, there is not time to waste. That doesn't mean that you're comparing yourself to other people and thinking, oh, they're further gone. But no, it's seeing what it is that has been given to you, the talents, the giftings, what is in your hand right now of how can I ultimately make this count? Like, how can I entrust the students that have been given to me? How can I entrust them and pour into them and use the talents that have been given to me on an internal perspective. That's what God's going to judge you on. He's not going to judge you by how many, how many nations did you preach in if you're a schoolteacher. And I think that's what people got to get that understanding is they've been given these specific talents. And it's not just for ministry leaders only.

It is for everyone. You know, it really changed my life is when I was in Hawaii and our partner said, hey, there's a Navy SEAL instructor that wants to meet with you. Yeah. And I'll never forget this as long as I live. We sat down at the restaurant in Hawaii and there was 8 of us at the table. And I just turned to him and said, what's your story? And for the next 2 hours, my jaw dropped. I'd never heard— he said, John, I'm Jewish, and yet I'm born again. You know, I'm a Messianic Jew. And he said, I always thought that I love Jesus so much. I always thought the only way I could serve him is go into ministry. I went in ministry for 2 years, 3rd year is interning for a church, got accused of lying. Are sleeping with a girl in the youth group. He said, I never slept with her, but I got thrown out. Yeah, all my papers taken away, everything lost after 3 years of work. And he said, I, I sought God like I'd never sought him before. And God said, I didn't call you to ministry, I called you to military. So the gifts he had— you said we're given talents— the talent he was given was to be an absolute crazy amazing warrior in the Navy SEALs. He started telling me about his missions, how he got in. He couldn't even swim because he had—

he, he, he He had tubes.

He had defective ears that he was born with. They had to put tubes in. He said, if I got a couple drops of water in my ear, I was in excruciating pain. I said, what'd you do? He said, I, I just endured the pain and said, God, I, I— every day I believe God to heal my ears. And one day I went down 5 feet, 10 feet, no pain. Yeah. He said, God totally healed my ears. And then went, started telling me about the missions he was on and how God miraculously delivered him. And I'm sitting there with my jaw dropped.

And well, and I don't want to skip over because some of those things were incredible of like the correlation of what was happening with his mom and satellite phone turned itself on with no preprogrammed numbers, called his mom during a trap that he was in, a crossfire.

She was just so happened she was in her morning women's Bible study when he's in the middle of the night over in Afghanistan being shot at. And they all start praying for their protection. Gunfire. He said, I literally felt bullets whizzed by my head. We got in, we got the two Taliban, we got out, and none of us got killed.

Not a single one. Yeah, but then they had translators with them or people that did die. And he said it was a different mission. Okay, that's a different— that was, that was an indirect— didn't he tell his mom?

He said, next time, next time, pray for everyone. They were training Iraqi soldiers to be special ops. And all these—

and it happened again. And they prayed for everyone and everyone got out. Like, just incredible, incredible. And that's the thing too, the satellite phone. Like, I just— sorry, I love this story because The satellite phone has no pre-programmed numbers in it.

And it calls his mom's cell phone.

They're in a battle and it calls his mom's phone. Yes. And she's in a prayer meeting. Like, if God's not working through that situation, then what is going on?

So if he goes through ministry, Jesus is gonna look at him and say, "I called you to be a Navy SEAL instructor. Why did you pastor that church?" So, you know, yeah, we have been given We have callings on our life. You know, Ephesians 2:8, 9, and 10 is something that I wish people would read a little more carefully. For we've been saved by grace. Now we talk about this all the time. Saved by grace, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God preordained in advance that we would walk in. Oh my goodness, there's a calling on you, Arden, that God saw before you were even formed in your mother's womb, in Lisa's womb, God said, I know exactly what I've called him to do. And you are— all you have to do is seek him to walk in it. And when you walk in it, your giftings will be what gives you the ability to supernaturally do what he's called you to do. I don't care if it's stay-at-home mom. I don't care if it's public school teacher. I don't care if it's a surgeon. I don't care if you're an oral surgeon. It doesn't matter. God has called you. Yeah.

And I want to— I want to reassure people because sometimes then they can get into this mindset of, well, what am I called to do? Bible says the righteous steps of a man are ordered of the Lord.

Well, and also, I'm going to say this practically because I want— I know that if you go to Messenger X, yeah, you download Messenger X, we have a course, and the title of the course is Called, and it's 10 lessons on this very thing. And that's— we teach how to find out what you're called to do in this life. Now, we, um, I want to read something that C.S. Lewis wrote. He said, if you read history, you 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 ceased thinking of the other world that they become so ineffective in this one. So what C.S. Lewis is saying is you become a better pilgrim if you're focused on the city that we're going to. Whereas I hear people say, oh, don't be so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. That's exactly opposite of what C.S. Lewis says. C.S. Lewis says when you're heavenly minded, you do become more effective in this earth. So, well, here's the thing that everybody needs to understand. Not just sinners are going to experience judgment. Christians are going to experience judgment.

Yeah. Now, is there multiple judgments?

There's two major— well, there's actually multiple. You're right. There's the judgment of angels. There's the judgment of nations. There's the judgment of Christians, and there's the judgment of unbelievers. Okay, so yes, there's multiple judgments. Okay, and the Bible says that we in the church are going to judge angels. We're going to judge angels on how they served us. Oh my gosh, that's crazy when you think about it. Okay, so anyway, so, um, here's the deal. Christians are going through judgment. Now I'm going to tell you why everybody just went freaking out. Don't freak out. You don't need to freak out. The reason is, is because judgment is misunderstood. The Greek word is krima. Now, when we hear the word judgment, where our mind goes today is condemnation. That's not what the word judgment means. The word judgment is the Greek word krima, which means a decision for or against after an investigation. Yeah. So in essence, what it's saying is Jesus is going to do an investigation on how we lived as Christians, and he's going to make decisions. Let me read it. 2 Corinthians 5:8. Paul said, we are confident, yes, very well pleased rather, to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. So we know he's only talking about Christians here, because when an unbeliever is absent from the body, they're in hell. That's not a mean statement. That's just a statement of fact. Verse 9. Therefore we— now, who's we? We are Christians, because these are the people who are going to be present with the Lord when they're absent from their body. Therefore we make it our goal, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him. Now, I want to bring you guys back to when you were in high school. Mm-hmm. I was getting a little concerned because Mom and I were leaving so much. We were traveling. And I was like, I got to talk to my boys and make sure they're not resenting God. And I said to them, I said, guys, do you believe that your mom and dad traveling? Do you believe it's God taking us away from you? Or do you believe that it's God giving you the chance to sow your mom and dad into the lives of countless others?

And just to clarify, it was when Addison was in high school, not me.

Okay. Yeah. But you all agreed. We all agreed. And you said, we believe it's our part of the ministry of sowing you and mom into the lives of countless others. And I said, just for that one statement, just for that attitude, all of you are gonna get credit for every soul we reach. If you had the attitude, I resent this, God's taken my mom and dad away, I said, you would've lost credit for every single soul.

I said that because I remember as a young, younger boy getting upset with our babysitters because they were like, oh, you're, you're acting out just because you miss your parents. And I'd be like, no, I don't miss my parents. Like, and not in like a mean way, but like, I didn't want them to go to you guys and say, oh, they miss you too much. And this is like maybe not good because I didn't want you guys to stop traveling because I knew like what you guys were doing was purposeful and we did not see it as you were being taken away, but we were sending you. And I didn't want it to come across that like, oh, I'm acting out because I miss my parents and I want them to come back because I was really felt like I was involved in the reward that was happening, not just felt, but I am involved in the reward. And so I didn't want our babysitter to tell you guys wrong. And so I was like, no, I don't miss them.

And it's not out of negative way until today.

That's amazing. But it wasn't in a negative way. It was just I I understood the gravity of what you guys were doing, and I felt so much a part of it. And so I didn't wanna have the wrong heart behind that. And so that was really a pivotal moment.

But not only does it bless you in the life to come, because godliness is profitable, not only in this life, but in the life to come, it is profitable in this life. I look at you now, you're an accomplished author. Your book is out there. It's been out there for a few years. It's on Amazon. It's called "Redefine Guys." If you haven't gotten it, it's an outstanding book.

It's a great book. For if you have kids or young, young adults that are navigating this world.

I look at you, you stand up and you speak the gospel. You're leading an entire team. You're the lead guy here in our Franklin office, Tennessee. I mean, so there's rewards that are coming for you keeping that attitude because I've seen ministers' kids that they're really struggling right now. Why? Because maybe it had to do with their attitude. Yeah. So we must— all right. So therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent. Okay, so now wait a minute. I'm not done yet. So when you guys were sitting around that table, I looked at them and I said, before I said that statement, I made this statement. I said, guys, you can't do anything to cause your mom and I to love you any more than we love you. And I said, you can't do a thing to make us love you any less than we love you. And I remember you all just like, okay. Then I said, but you are in charge of how pleased we are with you. And you were like, what? I said, no, that's your, that's your category, not ours. And this is what Paul is saying. God loves you unconditionally. You can't do a thing to make him not love you, but you're in charge of how pleased he is with you. That's why Paul said we make it our goal to be well pleasing to him. Why? Next verse. For we, we as those who are absent from the body are present with the Lord, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he's done, whether good or bad. Whoa. Bad? Yes, that word bad, another translation would be worthless. What's worthless? Spending 50 hours on social media a week? Unless you're called to be in the social media world to do that. I'm talking about just letting yourself veg out on social media instead of spending time in the word of God, instead of spending time building other people's lives, your neighbor's lives, your friend's lives, your family's lives.

Can I say this? I've had mornings where I have shortened my time in the word because I was on my phone. And every single time I walk away from it and I was like, that was a waste of a morning. I never think that was a great— like, that helps out. It was a good balance. It was like, that was a waste of a morning. And that is something. And this is something I would love to challenge everyone. This is the 24-hour challenge, like, for people to really understand this is that If I told you your next 24 hours of your life is dependent, like, on your eternity. So how you live in this next 24 hours, your house, your, your family, your neighborhood, whatever it is, everything is dependent on 24 hours. How are you going to live that next 24 hours? There is going to be so much purpose. Like, there's not going to be a single— you might not sleep. Like, there's not going to be a single moment within that 24 hours that you are going to see as is meaningless or doesn't matter, it doesn't count, or I can't fill it with something. And yet the Bible says this life is a vapor, meaning it's nothing.

It's nothing compared to eternity. It's compared to eternity. So, you know, what's interesting is in Hebrews, it says that at that judgment seat, it's actually— it's called eternal judgments. So let's put the word decision. They're eternal decisions. So Jesus is going to make decisions over our lives based off of what we did in this vapor life that are going to stand forever. There's never— because they're eternal decisions, there's never going to be any changes. So what you just said, the house you live in, the people you work with, the job you do for eternity is going to be determined by what you do in this vapor life. Yeah. Okay. So, and that's what this is saying. Okay.

So, and again, wait, hang on. I want to send out this reminder again because we talked about this in the very beginning.

Right.

And I know people could start getting to this, this feel. We're talking about effort. We're not talking about earning. Right. Like even you talking about the judgment, there's multiple judgment. There is the believer's judgment. And then there's also like, I want to focus on there's salvation.

Right.

Right. And so making sure that people understand the difference—

the difference is this: what we do at the cross determines whether we're going to spend in heaven or hell forever. That's been decided. That's been decided. That's the way we live as believers determines how we're going to spend eternity. Now, I'm going to throw a wrench in this whole thing. Let's do it. Okay. So now everybody's sitting there going to go, oh my gosh, I'm going to work, I'm going to work, I'm going to work, I'm going to work. Wait a minute. One of God's commands is take Sabbath. Yeah. So that means you could work nonstop, take no rest, and now you're disobeying God. Now you're going to end up— in other words, everything I do is with purpose. Yeah. When I'm on a golf course, it's like, this is going to make me more effective when I get behind the mic and preach or when I get in the Bible and study. Yeah. When I play pickleball, this is going to do the same thing. Okay. So I'm looking, I'm, I'm looking at my week and I'm going, okay, Where's my Sabbath? Because Sabbath is actually not just rest. Sabbath is trust. Mm-hmm. Yeah. God, I believe you're going to bless me doing nothing because you told me to do nothing. Because you rested on the seventh day, I am going to take a Sabbath. Now, some people take Sabbath days. In the New Testament, Paul said some take Sabbath periods. Some people take Sabbaths as far as 3 weeks or a month or whatever. You, you— we are commanded to rest because that brings us into a balance.

So I want to make sure everybody gets that before they go, oh my gosh, I gotta do it every single day, it's got to be filled with something. It's like, there is purpose within rest.

You know, I actually, every once in a while, I enjoy 5 minutes looking at reels on Instagram. I, I think there is room for that. I love watching the whales. I like seeing Italy because I subscribe to Italy. You know, it's got Sardinia, it's got all the Amalfi Coast, which, you know, Italy is my favorite country. And because I'm Italian, and when I go there, I feel like I'm kind of going home because the genes are in me, right? When I drink the olive oil, there's some deep— some people eat olive oil, I drink it. But anyway, you know, I enjoy that. But you know, it's like, I'll go, you know, I've been doing this for 5 minutes. I think maybe the longest I've scrolled and looked at Reels, maybe 10 minutes, because I'm like, you know what, I've had enough rest. You're doing really good. Time to get back. Time to get back. You know? And so, You know, even when I'm in the gym, you know, I'm like, you know what, I wanna do something that's gonna refresh me, and I'll go to YouTube, and I'll find a good message by a minister I know and trust, sometimes by a minister I don't know. I say, I wanna listen to this. I just wanna hear what's being said. And it refreshes me spiritually while I'm being built up physically. I'm trying to budget every bit of my time. This is why I eat healthy, because I wanna be strong when I'm 85, as I was when I was 35. And so anyway, this is how we get a grand and glorious entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this in closing. I wrote a book called Driven by Eternity. This book has been one of the most read books of any of the 24 books that God has had me write. I've had more people telling me, tell me that their life was completely, totally, radically changed after reading that book. If this podcast really, really touched you, I want to encourage you to get the book Driven by Eternity. And there's actually a story inside that book called Aphabel, and it's an allegory that shows eternal rewards and judgment. And we actually produced it in Hollywood And it was almost 20 years ago we did this, but people still love it today. And that's on MessengerX. The book is on MessengerX, I believe. It may not be. You can get it at Amazon or you can get it at our website. But Affabel is on MessengerX, the actual Hollywood production, and it's 2.5 hours long. It's like listening to a movie. You don't watch it, you listen to it. It's got all the sound effects, the beautiful score, done by one of Disney's top ones. So anyway, I want to encourage everybody to get that. And I want to say to everybody, till next time, this has been the John Bevere Podcast with Arden Bevere and John Bevere.