John Bevere - The Three Things That Will Kill Your Calling
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Guys, we are in lesson seven. I mean, are you getting something out of this? Yes, I'm having so much fun; I'm learning so much. Isn't the Holy Spirit wonderful, Chris? Isn't He wonderful? All right, so now we're going to talk in this lesson about how a calling can be aborted or severely hindered. All right, how do you abort a calling? I'm going to read from Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1. This is so amazing: Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin—now here's the key—which so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance—keyword: endurance—and we'll talk more about this in future lessons. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
You see, it's a race. I finished my race, right? Okay, so we constantly hear Jesus say, "He who endures to the end." There is something about this Christian life; it is not a sprint; it is an endurance run. Now, you may be able to run a sprint while carrying some weights, but you are never going to run a marathon carrying a 45-pound weight. You can't do it, and that's what the Apostle is talking about here. There are two things that can keep us from finishing: number one, it's the sin which so easily ensnares us, and number two, it's the weights. In fact, the first one he lists is the weights that so easily ensnare us. Since he lists those first, I'm going to talk about those first.
There is an amazing encounter that Jesus has with a multitude of people in the Gospel of Luke, chapters 9 and 10. Jesus probably has a multitude around Him; these are all eager, hungry people who want to be His disciples, correct? We read in verse 57 of Luke 9: "Now it happened, as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, 'Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.'" And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." This guy's passionate. I want you to notice he initiates this; he's like, "Jesus, I want to be your man. I want to be your boy. I want to follow You. I want to fulfill the calling on my life."
Jesus has a way of seeing through enthusiasm. He has a way of seeing through excitement or commitments that are being made without counting the cost, and Jesus speaks to security. He says, "I don't have anywhere that I'm going to lay my head. I don't know that I know of. Sometimes there are nights that I don't even know where I'm going to put my head." Now, probably—and I can see it—this guy has an issue with security. He's probably got a 401(k); he's probably got a Roth IRA; he's got his company; he's got his house three-quarters of the way paid off; his retirement fund is set; he's been paying into the IRS and regarding Social Security. I mean, this guy has been doing this for a few years. Okay, so when he hears Jesus say this, he starts slipping back, Chris. You know what? You know what else I believe? I believe a lot of other people are slipping away because they have a problem with security. All right, the same people who heard the way Jesus just talked to this guy are slipping back.
Then He said to another—now this is Jesus speaking—"Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first..." Now I want you to notice the word "first." He doesn't say "Lord, I will not follow You." Please take note; he said, "Let me first go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." Wow, that sounds a little harsh. Here's the guy burying his dad, and Jesus says something like this? You have to understand the customs of the day on this one.
If you look at Deuteronomy 21:17, you can look at it later. God talks about the rights of the firstborn; the firstborn gets the double portion. But the custom became, you know how God's word became tradition? The custom or tradition became that if the firstborn doesn't bury the father, the double portion goes to the secondborn son, and the firstborn gets nothing. So you know what this guy's got in his mind? He's got money on his mind, right? And he's slipping back, and so are a lot of other people who have an unhealthy love for money. They're slipping back, right? Okay, so now the crowd keeps getting smaller, isn't that right? Now we come to the next one and look at the next one. Another one said, "Lord, I'll follow You, but let me first..."
Again, notice the word "first." He doesn't say, "I'm not going to follow You." He said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell at my house." So guys, is he passionate? Yes. Is he excited? Yes. Does he want to follow Jesus? Yes. But he says, "Let me first go and bid them farewell at my house." But Jesus said to him, "No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit." That means mentally fit. It doesn't mean he's not going to heaven; he's not fit for the kingdom of God. Okay, he's not spiritually or mentally fit for the kingdom. Now what's going on with this guy? It's about relationships.
Okay, he's probably got a fiancé back home; his family; he's really tight with his family, and he wants to make sure they're okay with him following this fanatic because Jesus was seen as a fanatic, demon-possessed. He's on the cover of Enquirer magazine. I mean, come on. He's in all the gossip columns; they're talking about him, right? He's a winebibber, a glutton, and his family's been hearing about this, and he wants to make sure everybody's on board with his family. Yeah, so let me first go bid them farewell. You know, this reminds me of a gentleman I knew who I thought God had called to work for us. He came to work for us, and he did a fabulous job.
I remember the day came when I made the announcement that we were going to move our ministry headquarters from Orlando, Florida, to Colorado Springs, and he was my key guy. He was brilliant, and you could see the call on his life. He started saying, "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know." He kept going back and forth. He'd go to meetings with me; he'd see God move, and he'd go, "Okay, I want to go, I want to go," and then a couple of weeks later he'd go, "I don't know, I don't know." I said, "Hey man, just pray about it; you let me know." One night I'm on the road, and I go to sleep, and I have this vivid dream. In this dream, he's sharing a hotel room with me, okay? So this is a double, double room.
Now, that never happens. Whenever I go minister, my assistants stay in another room; I stay in my room because I want a place to pray. But in this dream, he was staying in the same room. I remember I wasn't able to get to the room because I was doing something for the meeting, meeting with the pastor or something. When I came to the room, he had already packed all of his bags. So I went over to my suitcase to start unpacking my bags, and I opened up a drawer, and it was full of his stuff. I opened up another drawer; it was full of his stuff. Every drawer in the hotel room was filled with his stuff, and my bag was unpacked. I woke up, and God said, "He's not going because he's putting what's important to him first."
Well, and it was like three days later we were on a trip, and he sat down and said, "John, I've made the final decision." I said, "I already know you're not going." He said, "Yeah." Now, I love that man; he's going to heaven; he's a great man; he's a godly man. But I often wonder, you know, did he miss out on something that maybe God had for him because he wanted to be close to his family? He wanted to be close to the people he grew up with, and he didn't want to leave. So it's not that this guy didn't say, "I'm not going to follow You." He said, "Let me first." Yeah, now that, to me, is so important. What are you putting first? What's important to God or what's important to you? If you put what's important to God first, then He makes what's important to you a priority. That's what I've learned. That's good; it's really true.
So, you know, years ago, I realized golf was out of place in my life, and I said, "You know what? I've got to give this up." I knew I had to give it up; God spoke to my heart. It was getting in the way of my relationship with Him, and I walked away from it for a year and a half. Then God said, "I know how much this boy likes golf," and He had two men throw thousands of dollars of equipment into my trunk within one month of each other. I said, "God, what do I do with this?" He said, "Go play golf." Now, God has used golf to raise probably over five million dollars for the kingdom. So, see, I put what was important to Him first, and He gave me back what He knew I loved. Yeah, I believe God would have done that for that man, but he made a choice, and it's okay; it's fine, but he made a choice. Are you seeing what I'm saying?
So Jesus now deals with the three major hindrances—entanglements—that keep people from fulfilling their calling. What are those three? Security, the second one is money, and the third one is relationships. Let me show you what Jesus says about relationships. I'm going to show you this; this is amazing. He said, "A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, 'If you want to be My disciple...' So remember, here you go: If you want... you must hate everyone else by comparison."
See, in other words, your love for Me, in relation to your love for everyone else, is going to be hate in comparison. Your father, and He lists it out: your mother, your wife, your children, your brothers, your sisters, yes, even your own life; otherwise, you cannot be My disciple. I look at... do you know how hard it was when I first started traveling when I said goodbye to these boys? Oh my gosh, I'm sitting there, and I remember I'm driving to the airport, and I'm looking back. There's Lisa out on the sidewalk with Addison, who's about that big, and I'm just going, "Oh my gosh." But I look at the relationship I have with my four sons now; I couldn't dream of a better relationship with four men. I believe God said, "You put what was important to Me first; now I'm giving you back what you never could have done that if you said, 'I can't do this, I'm not going to do this.'"
So that's what He's dealing with here: relationships. People going, "I can't fulfill the call of God because of the relationships. I can't deal with the call of God because I don't know where the money's coming from. I can't deal with the call of God because I've got security; I've got a house that's almost paid for." He deals with the major things, and you know what He's done? He's whittled the crowd from thousands down to about seventy. Okay, look at the very next verse, and this is the reason why we miss it, because the very next verse happens to be chapter 10, verse 1. But you see, Luke didn't write in chapter and verse. The church in the 14th century put the chapters and verses in; this is a continuation. He continues to say, "After these things..." After what things? After Jesus just whittled the crowd down from a couple of thousand down to seventy. The Lord appointed—now remember, "election," "chosen," and "appointed" are three similar words.
You can interchange them all through the New Testament. So I can say it like this: After these things, the Lord shows seventy others and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. Then He said to them, "The harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few." Why are the laborers few? Because few will pay the price. Wow, to position themselves to fulfill their specific callings. Are you seeing this? Guys, look at what Jesus says; this is a heartbreak. You ready? Jesus says, "I'm going to put this up again. The harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few." Look what He says in Matthew—watch this: "For many are called."
How many are called? Everyone's called; every single person is called. Remember, we established that in lesson one; everyone's called. But few are chosen. Why are only a few chosen? Because few will pay the price to position themselves in order to fulfill their unique, specific calling. That is a heartbreak, but it's true. So let's look again; let's look again at Hebrews and it'll make sense. All right? Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Do you know what my weight was? It was security.
Of those three major ones—let me tell you, there are other entanglements that can keep us from the calling, but I believe these are the three major ones. Mine was security, and I remember I was working as an engineer at Rockwell International. There was a young man named Tony, and Tony was about two years older than me. Tony was very busy in the call of God in his life. He too was called to full-time ministry as I was, and Lisa and I were trying to figure out how to go into ministry without problems with security. I remember at Rockwell International, they allowed young engineers to volunteer to go to Saudi Arabia because they had a big plant in Saudi Arabia. My wife was willing; she said, "You know, what maybe we should do is go overseas because they paid you so much money when you went to Saudi Arabia." Okay?
So we thought, "Let's do that; let's pay off our house so then we can go into the ministry, and we won't have to receive money from the ministry." So I actually interviewed to go to Saudi Arabia. This young man named Tony, one night after an evening service, he said, "John, is there any way I can talk to you?" I said, "Sure." He pulled me aside for two hours. You talk about a rebuke; he just looked at me and said, "What are you doing about the call of God in your life? You're called; the hand of God is on you to preach, not to be an engineer—to preach! What are you doing?"
And for two hours, he let me have it, and I remember I walked out of there—see, my dad raised me on how important security was. My dad wouldn't even get air conditioning in the car; he wouldn't even get an FM radio because it was extra money—because he always told me, "A penny saved is a penny earned." My dad never earned more than $45,000 a year, but I believe at one point he was worth a million dollars because of how frugally he lived. I mean, amazing man that was in me. So I was like, "How am I going to provide for my wife and eventually children one day?" which I didn't have any children at that time at all, and security was big because my dad put that in me. But it took that young man talking to me for two hours, and I remember I came out of that meeting and I sat down with my wife after that meeting and said, "I'm going to tell my church that I'm going to take any position that opens up. I don't care what it is, and I don't care how much they pay me." I said, "I'm going to do this; are you with me?" She said, "John, I'm with you."
I remember a couple of months later, the pastor's wife looked at me and she said, "Hey, John, we have a position; it's our assistant. He'll take care of my husband's and my personal needs. It's an 8,000 member church, and she said, 'We can only pay you $18,000 a year.'" Now I'm making way more than that, and she said, "I don't think we can afford you because the budget is $18,000 for this position." I said, "You can afford me. I'll start working whenever you want." And you know what's interesting? I was the head mechanical engineer on a multi-million dollar project for Rockwell International. I closed the whole project down; they were getting ready to put me on a whole other big project at Rockwell International. I closed the whole project down on Friday, and I started working for them on Monday.
You talk about God's timing being perfect, and that's how it all began for me. So mine was security. Now what about the sin that does so easily beset us? Let me tell you something: Sin will knock a person out of the call of God in life or greatly hinder it. I've been under three pastors, and two of my pastors—well, one of them is not in ministry anymore today, or barely in ministry. He had an 8,000 member church because of sin. Another pastor had sin that he didn't deal with, and notice it says it so easily besets us. Mine was lust, and I remember I was bound to pornography at the age of eleven. I was in ministry in 1983 and still bound to pornography, and I remember realizing—because you know what I loved?
People didn't look at me and say, "Oh, don't worry about it; grace covers it, you're okay, God understands; you've got needs." People looked at me and they actually said, "This will stop you. This will suck the life out of you. This will kill your vitality in life." I remember going on a fast for four days, and God delivered me from pornography on May 6, 1985. Now, later in life, that was the sin that so easily beset me. As far as the weight, it was security; the sin was lust, and God, in His mercy, didn't let me ignore that. I look at my third pastor—our third pastor—he had a lust issue in his life that he kept under wraps, but it came out and busted him up when he had over 50,000 churches and a church that was 16,000 members.
Now he's not really pastoring; he's pastoring a couple hundred people because he didn't address that. He didn't go and get the help that he needed. So in order to finish your calling, take care of those weights and take care of the sin. You know drinking is not a sin that easily besets me; there's no drinking in my dad's family line.
I remember looking at my mom. I was a sinner. I came home one night between Christmas and New Year's, and my friends were so drunk I had to drive them all home. My mom was waiting up for me; it was 12:30, and I said, "Mom, I don't even like drinking," and she laughed at me and said, "You're such a Bevere." I realized there was no drinking in my dad's family line. My wife, on the other hand, was an alcoholic by the time she was 17. Her dad died of alcohol-related dementia. That was a sin that she had to really be careful of because it was one that so easily beset her. For me, it was lust; it wasn't drinking.
So you have to deal with these things because these things will kill you if you don't deal with them. Later on in life, it's better to deal with them when you're in your early twenties than to have it destroy you when you're in your mid-forties. So cast aside every weight and every sin that does so easily beset us. You know, there are four hundred thousand churches in the United States, and 1,500 people are leaving vocational ministry every month. Wow! I think it's the weights, and I think it's the sin. Okay, there's so much more I could say, but I really want to turn now towards how do we fulfill our calling? How do we literally walk through it? Yeah, from point A to point B—how do we get there with what God has given us, that dream that He's given us? That's what we're going to talk about in the next lesson.