You Are Called

You came to church on a great Sunday.

I personally think any Sunday, every Sunday, is a great Sunday to come to church and to worship God and to learn from the Word and to fellowship with one another.

But today...

We have a very special, honored guest with us today who has deeply impacted our church, even if you have never heard of him, which will maybe be one of you.

Over the years, God has used this man and his wife to deeply impact the body of Christ globally for decades.

He has written 25 books.

His latest book, The King is Coming, has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for 11 times just since it got released in the last couple of months.

He could be anywhere on the planet, but God decided that he was supposed to be in Walla Walla, Washington.

on this Sunday morning.

And so, church, God likes you a lot.

He likes you a lot.

And it's so humbling for me to be able to have spent a little bit of time with such an incredible giant of the faith.

And while we sang the song that we sang about the hymn of heaven that

There will be a day when we stand by the heroes of the faith.

I personally believe this man is one of them in this generation.

Walla Walla, Pendleton, Department of Corrections, come on, let's stand to our feet.

Welcome, John Bevere.

You know, Jesus didn't need microphones, did he?

Hey, good morning.

Everybody stay standing.

I have to pray before bringing the word of God.

Can I say what a privilege and an honor it is to be with you.

I didn't realize I get to speak to my brothers.

at the Department of Corrections.

Guys, I love you so much.

We are so passionate about getting resources into prisons all over the United States.

If you need some, let us know.

We'll get them to you.

Pendleton, it's so great to see you guys here today.

And I met your campus pastor last night.

What an amazing man of God he is.

He and his wife are so beautiful.

She has the most beautiful curly hair, doesn't she?

Anyway, I just want to say this.

How many of you were not here last night?

Don't feel bad if you put your hand up.

I just need to know what kind of introduction I need to do.

First of all, let me say what an honor it is to be with Pastor Bob and Pastor Kara.

I mean, my wife has been bragging about you for years.

They have been inviting her for years.

I always felt left out.

had to fight.

It was good.

It built my character because I got over jealousy.

Okay.

And, but then when he called and asked me to come last year, I didn't even have to pray about it.

I said, I'm coming.

And so I'm so glad I did.

I mean, last night, just the hunger in the room.

And again, this morning is just amazing.

I want to say it's such an honor to be here with one of the greatest pastors in our nation, in our generation, Pastor Jude, Pastor Becky and

So great to be with you both.

It's been a lot of years we've been together, and I just love you.

You age so well.

You both are so handsome and beautiful.

Oh my gosh, but I still am older than you.

So anyway, I just want you to know, guys, this morning, I want to give every minute to the Holy Spirit as possible.

I usually introduce my family.

I'm not going to do that.

I love them so much.

Lisa's my best friend on planet Earth.

But I want to get into the word of God to give the Holy Spirit every minute.

Now, I'm going to preach two different messages.

So the next service, I'm going to preach a different message.

They're going to kind of build on each other.

So if you want to double dip, we'll have a chaos here.

We will have people everywhere.

It's just good.

It makes people hungry, right?

So it's all right.

Listen, how many of you want to be impacted?

Okay, we got to ask God to do it.

Okay, put up the other hand.

The Bible says we pray.

We don't have because we don't ask.

Amen.

So Heavenly Father.

Thank you for the privilege of being your children.

You could have made us slaves, and that would have been so much better than where we were.

But you've called us sons and daughters.

You've welcomed us into your family.

Today, again, Holy Spirit, do what you love to do the most.

Glorify and magnify Jesus in a way like we have never known him before.

As you do this, may we go from glory to glory, from faith to faith.

For again, I decree, your kingdom has come.

Your will shall be done.

in Pendleton, in the correctional facility, and on this campus here in Walla Walla, on earth as it is in heaven.

And for this, we give you the praise, the glory, the honor, and the thanksgiving.

And it's in Jesus' mighty, wonderful, majestic, holy, awesome, magnificent name we pray.

And everybody that agrees, shouts!

Come on, give him praise.

Amen, and amen, and amen, amen.

You can be seated.

All right, this morning I want to share, and it's a small portion of the book The King is Coming, and this is the latest book.

And this might be a chapter in it.

I think it might be one chapter.

But it's something I'm extremely, extremely passionate about.

Because I've found that what we've done so well in the body of Christ is that we have shared who we are in Christ Jesus.

Sons and daughters of God.

I mean, when you think about it, it blows your mind.

What manner of love that God has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons and daughters.

I mean, man, go try visiting President Trump.

Before you got through the gate, you'd be on your face with chains on you.

I mean, God says, I'm your dad.

You can come in anytime you want.

I think it's amazing, okay?

Amen.

But what I find that we don't emphasize enough is that what we're called to do in Christ.

And to be honest with you, both are just as important.

Because Jesus made a statement.

He said, my meat.

Everybody say meat.

My food is.

is to do the will of him who sent me.

Can we put that scripture up?

My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

Now think about it.

And also, you know what else Jesus said?

As the Father sent me, so I'm sending you.

Okay, so think about it.

Our food is to do the will.

Now, what does food do?

It strengthens us.

Can you imagine going three weeks without eating anything and then doing eight hours of hard work?

I mean, you'd faint.

I have to say, one of the top reasons I've seen people fall away from the faith or people fall into gross sin is that they disengage from what they were created to do.

Now, it ends up, you know, they're in bed with their assistant or they get into substance abuse, but that's because they were weakened from not doing what they were created to do.

Are you with me?

My Bible says that we are saved by grace through faith.

It is the gift of God.

But then he goes on to say for, which means because, we are his workmanship creating Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Amen?

So I want to share a story with you.

It was 10 years ago, and I was going to the Dream Center down in LA.

One of our partners who has helped us

significantly in getting books out all over the world, saw I was going to be in LA.

So he said to me, John, have you ever played Riviera?

Now everybody in America that knows me knows I like to play golf.

And I said, no, I've not played Riviera.

He said, you want to play?

I said, yes.

He said, come in a day early, I'm going to take you.

So he played.

It was a magnificent day of golf.

I mean, seriously.

One of my best.

I bogeyed three of the first four holes.

I was so nervous, but then I par, I birdied five other holes and ended up with two under par score at Riviera.

It was so good.

So I'm on cloud nine, right?

And we're driving back to the hotel.

And this guy, he's a friend of mine.

His name is Scott.

He said to me, John, can I be a little vulnerable with you for a few minutes?

I said, sure, sure.

What do you want to talk about?

He said, you know, I have busted my rear end off the last three decades of my life.

I just turned 50.

And I mean, I've worked so hard to build my businesses to where they are today.

He said, you know, my net worth is over $9 million.

My wife has cared for life.

My children are cared for life.

He said, you know, John, why should I work as hard the next decade of my life as I have the last three decades?

Now, when he asked me that question, guys, I knew, wow, this is a moment.

Because what I say to him is going to literally shape his life for the next 10 years and probably later.

And so I looked inside really fast and I said, Holy Spirit, I need help.

Like right now, right now.

And he gave me the answer.

I said, hey, Scott, I'm gonna answer your question with another scenario.

I said, as you know, at that time, 10 years ago, I've written 17 books.

They're in over 100 languages.

I said, they're in the millions.

I said, I've gotten on planes and I've flown all over the world, 12 million miles.

I said, I've stayed in little 400 square foot hotel rooms for as many as 229 nights a year.

I said, you know what?

I said,

My wife's cared for life.

My children are cared for life.

Why should I get on another plane?

Why should I write another book?

And he laughed.

He laughed at me.

And you know what he said?

I wouldn't want to be in your shoes when you face Jesus.

I thought, oh my, my.

I looked at him and said, you just said the exact same thing.

And I remember the smile left his face and he turned to me and said, what in the world are you talking about?

I said, Scott, God has placed a calling on every person's life.

I said, when we hear people say he's got a call on their life, our mind goes to pulpit ministry.

I said, that's only about 5% of what we're called to do.

I said, you have a calling on your life, and every one of us do.

And I said, with that calling comes unique spiritual giftings.

And I said, we can do one of three things with those giftings.

We can use them only for ourselves and our family.

Or number two, we can use them as intended to build a kingdom.

Or number three, we can sit on them and do nothing.

I said, you know what the problem is here, Scott?

You've connected my dots.

You haven't connected your dots.

I said, you see how my gifts of leadership, writing, and speaking are building the kingdom of God.

You do not see how your gifts of entrepreneurship are building the kingdom.

And I said, in fact, Scott, let me say this.

Your gifts are more valuable than my gifts.

And he goes, where do you get that?

I said, the Bible says the parts of the body that are not seen are more valuable than the parts that are seen.

I said, I got a seen gift.

You got an unseen gift.

Yours are more valuable.

So I remember we said goodbye because we got to the hotel, right?

So six months later, Scott calls me.

I said, hey, Scott, how you doing?

He said, you want the honest truth?

I said, sure.

He said, I have been haunted in a good way, John.

I have been haunted every single day since we had that talk six months ago.

I said, what are you doing about it?

He said, I'm busting my rear end to build my business up to 35 million so I can do more to build the kingdom.

I said, that's great.

I said, I love it.

Now, I got a text from him two years ago.

And I want to read this text to you.

Eight years ago, after I played golf with you at Riviera, I started a new company with three Jewish guys.

Again, this was after you and I had that long talk.

This morning, we closed on the sale of that company to a private equity group in New York.

Very exciting.

We ended up selling it for $555 million.

Thank you for your words of wisdom.

Do you realize that man would have coasted?

But now he put a purpose behind what he was called to do, and he realized that what he was called to do was to impact souls, even though it wasn't directly, and he started working and believing more diligently.

So I want to start.

The message I'm going to bring to you today, for those of you who were here last night, is the next parable after the parable of the virgins.

But I've got to establish three words before I can get to this parable.

Can we do that?

Is that all right?

All right.

I've got to make sure we're all on the same playing field because the message is really only going to take me about 10, 15 minutes.

But I've got to make sure that we're all on the same page.

So let's go to Romans 12, verse 6, and I'm going to highlight three words.

All right, I want you to pay really close attention.

Romans 12, six makes the statement, having gifts then differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.

I love that last statement, let us use them.

All right, having gifts differing according to the grace.

First word I wanna talk about is grace.

I find a lot of American Christians don't really, they're not on the same page when it comes to grace.

In fact, let me say this, it was about 10 years ago that a nationwide survey was done

And it polled over 5,000 Christians across America.

And these are Bible-believing, Sunday morning church-attending Christians.

And the question was asked, give three or more one-word definitions of the grace of God.

The overwhelming response was salvation.

That was number one.

Number two was forgiveness of sins.

Number three was a free, unmerited gift.

And number four, I believe, was the love of God.

Now here's, and let me say this, I am so glad Americans know we're saved by grace and only by grace, and you can't earn it, and it is by the grace of God our sins are forgiven.

Thank God American Christians understand, amen?

All right, but here's the tragedy of the survey.

Only 2%, the actual figure was 1.9%, of those over 5,000 polled said that grace was God's empowerment.

Yet this is exactly how God defines his grace.

For he said to the Apostle Paul, and these words are in red in your red letter edition.

He said, my grace is all you need for my power.

Works best in your weakness.

What's your weakness?

Your human inability.

So God identifies his grace as his power, yet only 2% of the Christians in America understand that.

The apostle Peter writes to us in 2 Peter chapter 1 and says, Grace be multiplied to you.

Now watch this.

As his divine power, so Peter refers to grace as his divine power, has given to us everything we need to live a godly life.

All right, so Peter identifies the grace of God as his divine power, yet only 2% of the Christians understand it.

So after years of studying every scripture in the New Testament on the grace of God, I put a definition on it that I'd like to share, and that is this.

It is God's free empowerment that gives you and I the ability to go beyond our natural ability.

See, let me tell you something about the call of God in your life.

The call of God in your life is impossible for you to achieve in your own ability.

Why is that?

Because God said, I will never allow anyone to glory in my presence.

So if God makes your calling on your life capable of being accomplished by your own ability, then he'd have to share the glory with you.

God on purpose made your calling, what he's put you on this earth to do, beyond your natural ability.

So you'd have to depend on grace to fulfill it.

I'm preaching better than some of you saying amen right now.

All right, so now let's look at this again because I want to get to this quickly.

Having then gifts differing, let's go back to Romans 12.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.

Now, you can see the Greek word for grace is charis.

You put an M and an A on charis and you get charisma.

Okay, what is the definition of charisma?

It is a specific gift of grace that empowers an individual to fulfill what they have been created to do.

All right, let me just make this really easy, all right?

One of the obvious gifts on my life would be what?

Writing, correct?

Okay, so what a lot of you don't know is my very worst subjects in high school were English and creative writing.

I'm not kidding.

It used to take me four hours to write a one-page paper.

I went into engineering to avoid having to take English because do you know what I scored on the SATs?

The SATs, the National Entrance Exam on English, I scored 370.

Out of 800.

Do you understand?

I've only met two human beings in all my life of travels that scored lower than me on the SAT in English.

And on the ACT, it was worse.

The highest score is 36.

I scored 16 on English.

Oh, my wife went, wow, when she heard that one.

So when God came to me in 1991 and said, son, I want you to write, I said, okay, you have so many kids on the earth right now, you're getting us mixed up with one another.

You do not want me to write.

All you have to do is talk to my English teachers.

And he said nothing.

So I took, Jude, I took his silence as an agreement to my rebuttal, and I didn't write.

Well, 10 months later, two women come to me from two different states in the United States, within two weeks of each other, and they both said the exact same words.

They said, John Bevere, if you don't write what God's giving you to write, he will give the message to somebody else, and one day you will stand in judgment for it.

Now, when the second woman said it from the state of Texas, two weeks after the first woman from Florida, the fear of God hit me.

And I remember I got a notebook piece of paper.

This is 91.

We don't have iPads.

I tore out a notebook piece of paper.

I got a Sharpie.

I wrote contract.

I wrote a contract with God.

I said, God, I think you're making a huge mistake.

You have much better writers.

I can't write.

I need grace.

And I didn't even know grace empowered me in 1991.

And I signed the contract.

Now the books today are in the tens of millions.

They're all over the world.

They're in 146 languages.

I'm the most published author in the entire nation of Vietnam, secular or Christian.

I mean, I showed up to Seoul, Korea to do a conference about 15 years ago.

And I remember, they said, we wanna do a press conference.

I was like, okay, there's gonna be five reporters from Christian magazines.

I walk in, there are five television stations, the third largest newspaper in the country, and 36 reporters.

And my first statement was, what are you all doing here?

They said, well, your book has been on the top 10 bestselling list in Korea for the last two years every single week.

We need to know who you are.

And so, you know, I said this last night.

I'm saying it again.

Listen, nobody knows why my name is on that book.

I was the first guy to get to read it.

That's why my name is on it.

I can't write like that.

There's no way I can write like that.

It has to be the gift of grace, charisma.

Are you with me?

Another obvious gift on my life is preaching.

Okay, so the first time I preached, after Lisa and I were married, she was sitting in the front row, and while I'm preaching, within five minutes, she falls sound asleep.

I'm not kidding.

No, no, no, this is real.

Okay, and I'm watching her do this for the next 50 minutes, and her best friend sitting next to her, who's a pastor's wife today, had drool coming out of the side of her mouth, because she was in such deep sleep during my preaching.

Now I preach to 5,000 people, 10,000 people.

People say, do you get nervous before you preach to that many people?

I say, no, not at all.

Because I know how bad I am.

So if grace doesn't show up, I'm in big trouble.

We're all in big trouble.

Are you seeing what I'm saying?

Okay, so here's the deal.

Here's the deal.

These are the gifts.

One of the gifts that's not in my life is singing.

Oh my gosh, every time I sing and my family will go, Dad, please, please, just go sing somewhere by yourself.

Would you please?

And they're right.

So anyway, that's word number two.

Word number three, and then we can start the message.

1 Corinthians 4.1, let a man so consider us the servants of Christ and stewards.

Everybody say, I'm a steward.

I'm a steward.

All right, what are we stewards of?

Charisma.

Charisma.

The gifts.

Okay, my ability to speak is not my ability.

My ability to write is not my ability.

It's his.

Paul said to the Corinthian church, what do you have that you didn't receive?

So why do you act like you didn't receive it?

I love that verse.

Amen.

All right.

Are you with me?

All right.

So we're stewards of his grace.

Now, what is a steward?

Because we don't talk about stewards very much anymore.

A steward is one who manages what belongs to somebody else.

A good example of a steward would be my 401k manager.

Okay, I talk to him once a year because he has to by law.

I couldn't care less.

I am not like calling him every day saying, what are you investing in?

I wouldn't even know what to do, right?

Potiphar, Joseph starts as a slave in his house, but he ends up a steward of his household.

And you know what the Bible says?

Potiphar doesn't even know what's going on in his house except for the food at his table.

Because a steward, one of the definitions of a steward is a steward is not micromanaged.

Right?

Can you put that definition up?

A steward, look at number three.

A steward is not micromanaged by the person who owns it.

I don't micromanage my 401k manager.

You still with me?

All right, now let me show you a verse that'll bring these all together.

1 Peter 4.10, and then I can start the message.

Okay?

You guys still with me at the correctional facility?

Okay, all right.

As each one has received a gift...

This is Peter.

Charisma.

Notice it doesn't say, as each pastor has received a gift.

Notice it doesn't say, as each five-fold minister has received a gift.

If you are born again, you're filled with the Spirit of God, you have a gift or gifts, and those gifts or gifts are given with the intent for you to build a kingdom.

All right?

Minister it to one another.

Remember Paul said, having gifts differing according to the grace that is given us, let us use them.

Notice Peter says, minister it.

One to another.

In other words, don't sit on it.

As good stewards, everybody say stewards.

Say I'm a steward.

What are you a steward of?

The charisma of God that he entrusted to you.

Of the manifold grace.

Notice the word manifold.

That means many-sided.

Look, Paul said it better than anybody else.

I'm not gonna prove on it.

Look at a human body.

You have many different members.

Each member has its own abilities.

In other words, my fingers can do things, my eyes can't do, my eyes can do things, my toes can't do, my toes can do things, my stomach can't do, my stomach can do things, my spleen can't do.

I can go on and on and on.

Happy is the man or woman who knows their gift and operates in it.

Miserable is the man or woman who tries to operate in somebody else's gift.

Wouldn't it be really weird when I woke up this morning, my thumb said, I've had it.

Mouth, you've been preaching for 36 years, I'm preaching.

So what am I going to do now?

I'm going to frustrate you and my thumb is going to be frustrated.

That's how weird it is when you try to operate in somebody else's gift.

Good preaching.

Amen.

And can I say manifold?

I get so, I think it's hilarious.

People say, oh, the gifts are limited to the nine gifts in the book

of Romans.

That is ridiculous.

That is not an exhaustive list.

Okay, Akiana, who painted the Prince of Peace.

The original is worth over a million dollars, right?

She did it when she was eight years old.

And that painting of Jesus hangs in my office.

Where's that in the list?

Okay, removing somebody's tumor.

Where's that in the list?

You ask me to remove a tumor in your body?

We might as well schedule your funeral the same time.

You don't want that.

Okay.

So now, and I'm going to say this, the gifts should be utilized inside the church, but the gifts are really given for outside the church.

We're to equip you for the work of the ministry outside the church.

Okay.

So now watch this.

Now we can bring the message.

Finally, I got 15 minutes to do it.

This worked out.

Okay.

Okay.

because all I need is 15 minutes.

Let a man so consider, let's go back to that verse.

Let a man so consider the servants of Christ and stewards.

All right, and the dot, dot, dot is Paul talks about his stewardship specific.

All right, moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found.

Everybody say it.

Faithful.

Say it again.

Faithful.

Say it again.

Faithful.

One requirement.

All right, when you hear the word faithful, what comes into your mind?

All right, I have asked leadership groups this all over the world for the last 10 years, and this is the answers I've gotten.

I'm going to put it together.

Steadfast, consistent, dependable, reliable, loyal, true, trustworthy, devoted, truthful.

Now, there are some other outliers, but this is the core of the answers I get from leadership teams.

And well done.

Well done.

Because if you go to the thesaurus and you look at faithful, these are the words you get.

So great job, leaders, right?

But can I tell you the tragedy?

I have not heard one time in 10 years one of the most important definitions of faithfulness.

I've not heard it in one time in 10 years.

You say, what's that one definition you've not heard?

Multiplication.

You say, John, John, John, multiplication is not a definition of faithful.

Oh, yes, it is.

Oh, yeah, it is.

Noah Webster didn't say that.

Well, he should have.

He was a believer and Jesus defines, defines.

Faithfulness is multiplication.

You say, where do you get that from?

Glad you asked.

Matthew 25, right after Jesus talks about his second coming.

For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.

His abilities, his goods.

Now remember, this is a parable, right?

All right, so what happens?

To one he gives five.

Now, some translations say talents.

This is not a talent like singing.

A talent is a measure of weight.

Okay?

The more accurate translations say bags of silver.

So one gets five bags of silver, and by the way, a talent of silver is approximately 75 pounds.

So one servant gets five 75-pound bags of silver.

Another servant gets two bags.

And matter of fact, I'm gonna personalize them.

I'm gonna say Ashley gets five, okay?

Dave is gonna get two, and we're gonna say Larry gets one.

If you're Larry in here, no identification intended, okay?

All right, now, what happens?

He goes away on a long trip.

Jesus says the word long twice in this parable.

Yeah, 2,000 years is a long time.

So he goes away on a long trip, okay?

And he tells them to do business until he returns.

Use what I've entrusted to you.

Do business until I return.

So now after a long time, Jesus said, he comes back to give an account for them to give an account of what they did with their stewardship, right?

All right.

So now Ashley and Dave, they come up and they say, Ashley says, here's your five.

I'm now giving you 10.

She multiplied.

Dave said, here's four.

You gave me two, here's four.

He multiplied.

Can I show you what he says?

Exact words to both of them.

Watch this.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Stop right there, stop there, stop there.

If all I have is well done, good and faithful servant, I cannot say that the definition of faithful is multiplication.

the next three words you were faithful there is no other action there is no other behavior identified by Jesus by these two in that parable other than the fact they multiplied you're not going to find she showed up at time you're not going to find she was dependable you're not going to find that she stayed married her whole life okay now are those not definitions of faith yes they are remember

But Jesus, I believe, for a purpose, is only revealing one definition of faithful.

One.

The one that should come to your mind every time you hear the word faithful.

And that is multiplication.

See, when I hear you say faithful, I hear multiply.

And this is what I'm believing the Holy Spirit's going to do.

He's going to transform you this morning.

When you think you hear faithful, you hear multiplication.

Because all of us wanna hear a well done, good and faithful servant.

You were faithful, keep reading, you were faithful over a few things, I'll make you rule over many things, enter into the joy of your Lord.

Now, Larry.

Larry maintains, he doesn't lose, he maintains his one, okay?

His judgment comes up.

And look what he says.

He said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man.

Problem number one, he doesn't know the character of his master.

Okay?

But here's the bigger reason.

And I was afraid.

Fear will cause the gift of God in your life to go dormant quicker than anything else.

Intimidation, timidity, fear will literally...

Cause the gift of God to go dormant in your life.

It will not work.

It will go to the place of being inoperative.

I was afraid.

You guys got to leave this up.

Scriptures are better than me, okay?

No, go back.

Yeah, no, yeah.

I knew you to be a hard man and I was afraid.

And I went and I hid your talent in the ground.

So he maintained.

Now look at the master's reply to him.

But his Lord answered him and said, you wicked man.

and lazy servant.

Not wicked and lazy heathen.

You wicked and lazy servant.

Now this really troubled me.

I was writing this book and it troubled me.

And I said, I gotta get the definitions of these two Greek words.

So I'll do the obvious.

Lazy, lazy we all get.

Lazy means shrinking from or hesitating to engage in something worthwhile.

We get that one.

What about wicked?

The word wicked means possessing a serious fault and consequently being worthless in regard to our labor.

So what does that tell you and I?

God views those who multiply as faithful, good and faithful.

He views those who maintain as wicked and lazy.

So now, if your definition of faithful is, I show up to service on time, I got my nice little business, I'm making money,

A little bit more than I expected.

Even more than my mom and dad made.

Are you being faithful according to this definition?

Run it through the filter.

Remember, to maintain is wicked and lazy.

Sure is quiet in this Methodist church.

All right, so now it's about to get worse.

So stay with me.

So here's what he says.

He says, so take the talent from Larry and give it to Ashley, who has 10 talents.

Now, I wrote this down on a paper and I said, wow, Larry starts out with one, ends up with zero.

Ashley starts out with five and ends up with 11.

Now, can I tell you the backstory of why I wrote this down on a paper?

Because this happened to me in 2016.

And I came back from prayer one morning.

I was sitting at my desk.

My Bible was open.

I hadn't read this parable in months.

The Holy Spirit speaks to me, and he said, son, the way I think, and you gotta really listen to what I'm about to say.

The way I think, remember, God says, my thoughts aren't your thoughts.

My ways aren't your ways.

So he said, the way I think lines up more with capitalism, not socialism.

Right.

Now, if you walk out of here and say, John Bevere said God is a capitalist, you lied.

The way he thinks lines up more with capitalism is what I said.

Why did he have to say that to me?

Because maybe I was floating over to the fact that maybe God is more socialistic in the way he thinks.

But then the Holy Spirit said this to me.

He said, son, can I please show you what the hypothetical socialistic God would have done in this situation?

All right, now are you ready for this?

He would have given each of them three.

Especially the millennial hypothetical God.

Okay.

All right.

So now Ashley and Dave would have been faithful and Larry would have been wicked and lazy.

So what would have happened?

Ashley and Dave would have multiplied and made their sin to six.

Larry would have maintained his three.

The hypothetical socialistic thinking God would have taken one from Ashley, one from Dave and given it to Larry.

So they all ended up with five.

No, Ashley ended up with 11 and Larry ended up with zero.

Zero.

God never told us in Scripture to take care of the lazy.

He told us to take care of the poor and the needy.

There is a huge difference.

Oh, it gets worse.

It gets worse.

Jesus then says, now you've got to read this next statement in the light of the parable because this is part of the parable.

For to everyone who has, who is that?

For to everyone who multiplies, more will be given and he will have an abundance.

But from him who does not have, from him who maintains, even what he or she has will be taken away.

A good friend of mine named Mike, I called him three times to make sure I had the story correct.

Mike got saved when he was 11 years old.

At the age of 36, this is his exact words.

I got fed up with being a fruitless Christian.

That's what he said to me on the phone.

I said, what'd you do about it?

He said, well, over the next six months, I memorized 6,000 scriptures.

Smart man.

You sharpen the ax, you cut down more trees with the same amount of strength, right?

So he's smart.

In that six months, he said, I went to Pastor Tommy Barnett's pastor school.

It was called back in those days.

He said, I was so broke, John, that I had to live with 11 Master's Commission students in a two-bedroom apartment just to be at the conference.

He said, Pastor Tommy got up and said, please pray about what God is having you do for the offering for the conference.

He said, I did exactly what Pastor Tommy said.

I went out and prayed, and he said, I heard so clear.

The Holy Spirit said, Mike, I want you to give $200.

He said, God, no.

That is all I have.

That's it.

That's everything.

And you know what the Lord said to him?

I'm not asking you for any more.

So he said, John, I gave every penny to my name in that offering.

He said, I had to bum money, gas money, to get back to West Texas.

Now, while he's driving back to West Texas, God starts giving him ideas.

This is the way multiplication always starts.

He gave him ideas.

He started acting on those ideas.

He started making money.

So the Lord put it in his heart to give $100 above his tithe every single month.

So he did it that first year.

The next year, it was $400 every month above his tithe.

The next year, it was $1,000 above his tithe.

He did it.

The next year, it went to $2,500 above his tithe.

The next year, $3,500 above his tithe.

Next year, $5,000 every single month above his tithe.

The next year, it went to $10,000.

Then you know what he said to me on the phone?

He said, then it kicked in.

I said, bro, this has already kicked in in my book.

The next year, it went to $16,666.

Why?

I don't understand.

The next year, it went to $25,000.

Next year, $35,000.

Next year, $50,000.

He said, then, John, it went to $100,000 every month above my tithe.

Then it went to $150,000 every month above my tithe.

I said, Mike, how much do you live on?

He said, you know, it's really interesting you ask.

My accountant's just told me recently.

He said, I live on 10% to 15% of my income.

And he lives really good on that 10% to 15%.

He said, I give 85 to 90% of my income away.

What's his gift?

Giving.

I remember preaching to 10,000 people.

I actually shared about it last night.

I'll never forget this conference.

I preached to 10,000 people.

I'm being offended.

8,000 responded, repenting of being offended.

8,000.

8,000 people.

And in every service I've done, except one,

In 32 years, that's what I've seen above 50%.

It's amazing.

But 8,000 people stood up.

And I mean, the presence of God came into that place.

And I remember in the first 10 minutes after that service was over, we had 700 Beta Satan books in the lobby and everyone sold in 10 minutes.

My team was so excited.

I was so angry.

Why was I angry?

Because 7,300 of those people

didn't get the rest of the message.

I preached maybe two chapters, maybe three out of that book, which means 7,300 people didn't get the full message.

Only 700 people got the message of those 8,000 that stood up.

And I was so frustrated.

So what's God doing?

He uses frustration to...

And I thought, I can teach every chapter, I can have a workbook, groups can do it, they'll get the whole message.

So I started doing it.

Well, do you know what, eventually 25,000 churches in America were using our curriculums.

Churches have bought over a million of those curriculums, okay?

And I come in from playing golf, May 31st, 2010, it's Memorial Day.

Lisa's in England doing a conference.

I play golf with my friends.

My boys are out doing something.

The house is empty.

I go to the basement.

I start reading the book of Daniel.

Why the book of Daniel?

I have no idea.

I'm in the second chapter and the spirit of God fills my basement, fills my basement.

And this is exactly what he says.

I mean, one of those where you think if you move wrong, you're dead.

And I hear this so clearly.

You have been faithful.

I didn't even know faithful meant multiplication.

That's where this is coming from.

You have been faithful with the English-speaking community because there were 1,000 churches in Australia using them.

There were 500 in England.

There was over 25,000 in America.

You've been faithful with the English-speaking community.

Okay, what's the word?

You've multiplied with the English-speaking community.

I want you to get your resource in the hands of every pastor in the world that can't afford them.

I thought every pastor in the world?

So we have a director's meeting a couple months later.

I said, guys, you know, I've always wanted to give away more books than we've sold.

We've sold millions.

I said, how many did we give to pastors overseas last year?

He's ripping through and he goes, 33,000.

He's so excited.

One of my directors.

I go, that's pathetic.

This year we're going to give away 250,000.

The room goes silent.

Lisa said she tasted the rope in her mouth.

That's the way she describes the moment.

My COO argues with me for 20 minutes.

I slam my fist down the table.

I said, we're going to do this.

That year,

That year.

You know what's amazing?

We didn't even tell our partners yet, and a guy hears about it through the grapevine and writes a check for $300,000.

Four months later, a guy flies from Texas up to Colorado to release an IR, and he's crying, and he said, I heard you're giving books to pastors overseas, and he slides a $750,000 check across the table.

So my team is laughing.

They'll go, dad, my son said, dad, we'll give away a million books if you say.

Well, that year we gave away 271,700 books to pastors and leaders in 48 nations and 44 languages.

The next year it went to 1.3 million.

The next year it went to 2.7 million.

The next year it went to over 4 million.

And we just passed 66.8 million resources.

A resource being a book or a full course.

To pastors and leaders in 146 languages.

In 61 of those nations.

61 of those nations.

Reaching a potential of 676 million people.

676 million.

That's three quarters of a billion people.

We're the only provider right now of discipleship resources in those 61 languages.

They have no book.

They have no course in their language.

They have Bibles.

Thank God for the Bible Society.

Okay.

We've put over 4 million in Iran alone.

All right.

I have gone to these nations, like Mongolia.

I've gone to Vietnam.

I've gone, just last year, down to Madagascar.

Second worst roads in the world.

They had a historic meeting.

They had 2,600 pastors from all over, pastors and church leaders from all over.

Do you understand, one pastor had to cross 11 rivers to get to our meeting, okay?

The president of the nation sent his right-hand person out because he couldn't be there, he was out of the country.

They were now playing him on the public transportation.

I'm not kidding.

We've had five kings or presidents make their entire parliament go through the bait of Satan.

We've had the Chinese print 20,000 bait of Satans on the government press to give to the government church.

I mean, it has been so miraculous.

To whom much, excuse me, to him who has, to him who multiplies, more will be given and he or she will have an abundance.

What was God's first command to mankind?

Be fruitful and multiply.

He wasn't just saying have babies.

He was saying whatever I put in your hands, return it back to me multiplied.

Now, if you walk out of here, if you walk out of here this morning feeling frustrated, you didn't hear what I said.

I never could have done a thing that I've done except by the grace of God.

That's why I said what you're called to do is so far beyond your natural ability.

That God does it on purpose.

You have to depend on grace.

Because remember the disciples got so frustrated.

They said, Jesus, what do we do to do the works of God?

He said, believe.

This is why the Bible says, come boldly, not timidly, not sheepishly, to the throne of grace.

To do what?

To obtain mercy and to find grace in a time of need.

Grace empowers us for a time of need.

There is a great need in our nation.

There is a great need in Walla Walla.

There is a great need in southern Washington State and northern Oregon.

Guys, multiply.

Because when you multiply, the whole body is working.

And when the whole body is working, we will see the revival that we have been looking for.

Amen?

Amen?

Every head bowed, every eye closed.

Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us what you have given to us this morning.

I'm so grateful to you.

Now, Holy Spirit, I'm asking, draw men and women to Jesus.

And let me say this with your heads bowed, your eyes closed.

I'm not gonna take, I want two minutes over.

So I just wanna say this.

The only way you can properly multiply eternally, I'm talking about your multiplication will impact eternity.

is to have a real relationship with Jesus Christ.

He's the only way to God.

There is no other way.

Now, you can't receive Him as just Savior.

It's impossible.

You have to receive Him as the Lord.

The Bible doesn't say whoever confesses the Savior Jesus, whoever confesses the Lord.

Lord means He's supreme authority over my life.

It means He has my entire heart, my entire life.

That means I am not going to flirt with, date, anything that drove the nails through his hands because he is my bridegroom and I'm giving my heart to him like a bride gives her heart to her groom.

If you haven't done that, you can do it this morning.

I just want to show of hands if you say, John, I have not given my entire life to Jesus and I want to do it right now.

Put up your hand because he's hoping you're going to.

Yeah, I see the hands.

Wow, this is beautiful.

Okay, I'm sure in the correctional facility, I'm sure at Pendleton, you guys are doing this.

I think it's so beautiful.

Can we pray this prayer with those that have raised their hands?

Say this out loud.

Say, dear Lord God, thank you for speaking to me through your servant.

Today, I repent.

Walk away from the very things that drove the nails in your hands and feet.

And I give you my spirit, soul, and body.

Everything I am, everything I have.

Jesus, you are my Lord.

Thank you for welcoming me into your family.

In Jesus' name.