John Bevere - Are You Using Your Gifts Wisely?

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All right, welcome to session six. I can’t believe we’re in our final section; I want to just keep going. None of you do. All right. I want to open up with this amazing scripture we’re talking аbout: the Believers. What are the two areas we’re going to be judged in? Number one, our involvement in building the kingdom, and number two, our involvement in how we built individual lives.

Let me show you this in regard to both; this is amazing. The one who plants and the one who waters work together as a team. Don’t you love teamwork? I’m so glad. I don’t think when I first started in ministry, 30-some years ago, we had that concept of being team members. Today we do, and I love being part of a team; I love our team at Messenger International. We work together; I love all of our partners, the prayer partners, and the financial partners of Messenger International. The one who plants and the one who waters work together as a team with the same purpose, yet they will be rewarded individually according to their own hard work. That is an amazing statement in the word of God right there. Can you say Amen to that?

How do we labor? If you look at Romans chapter 12, verse 6, it says, «Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them.» I love this scripture. All of us have different gifts. Those different gifts help us fulfill our calling that God has placed on us to build His custom home. I mean, you know, I’ve had the privilege to build that home. I remember watching those guys come in, those subs; I’m telling you what, I was amazed when those carpenters would come in and start making the stair rails with their skill in wood. I was just like, wow! That’s the way it is in the spirit; God has given us different abilities to build this custom home. And if we just stay in our ability… You know, the most miserable person on Earth is somebody—well, I should say this: the most miserable person in the church is somebody trying to operate in someone else’s gift. The happiest person in the church is someone trying to operate in their own gifts, right?

So, having gifts differing according to the grace that’s given to us, let us use them. Use them for what? To build the custom home, right? If you look at 1 Peter 4:10, it says each one has received a gift; that is the Greek word charisma. It doesn’t say «each pastor,» it doesn’t say «each minister,» it doesn’t say «each apostle.» It says each one. If you’re born again and you’re filled with the Spirit, you have a gift or gifts in your life. What are those gifts? Those are God’s abilities that you couldn’t do on your own that give you the ability to build His eternal house. Hallelujah!

Minister to one another; don’t sit on it! God doesn’t like it when you sit on your gifts. Okay, what keeps you from using your gift is fear. Minister to one another as good stewards—that’s another key word. A steward is someone who manages what belongs to somebody else. The gift of God in your life is not your ability; it’s His ability, but He’s given you stewardship. Now, if I were to give you my chainsaw, which is my chainsaw, and I said, «I’m going away for six months; you can use this however you want,» you could come into my yard and tear all my trees down, making it look like there are stumps everywhere, thus making my yard look terrible. Believe me, you would give an account to me when I come home. Or you could say, «I’m going to trim up all of his trees and take off these unwanted branches,» and when I come home, I go, «Whoa!» But the thing I want you to understand is, even though it was my chainsaw, you could use it however you wanted to.

See, let me tell you something: there have been people who have been given gifts of communicating and singing. There are people who’ve been called to lead millions into the presence of God, but they have used it for Hollywood purposes, for their record labels, for their own fanfare. Burned up! You see, that’s what you’ve got to remember: you get to choose how to use that gift. Are you going to build the kingdom, or are you going to build your own life? Are you going to build it for the Eternal, or are you going to build it for the temporary? Minister to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Manifold just means many-sided. There are so many different gifts in the church, and one of the great blessings I get from traveling all over the world is I get to see all the amazing different gifts in people’s lives. Man, they’re amazing! When you really look at the whole scope and the overall view, you’re just in awe seeing what God has given to people.

You know, I remember the first time I preached after Lisa and I got married. Lisa was sitting in the front row; do you know she was sound asleep within five minutes of my message? Her best friend sitting next to her was in such deep sleep that I watched drool come out of the side of her mouth! So, what’s the deal? I didn’t have the ability to speak, but when God said to me, «I want you to go and be a youth pastor in Orlando, Florida,» I remember the first time I got to speak. The whole crowd went crazy! My wife was sitting there going, «Don’t embarrass us! Please don’t embarrass us!» I got up, and the whole place was on their feet, screaming and roaring! Then I handed it back to the pastor and sat down next to Lisa, shaking. She just looked at me like, «Who just took over my husband’s body?» That gift came, and that gift gave me the ability to do what I’m called to do. Are you seeing this?

Now, I want you to look at 1 Corinthians 4:2. Moreover, it is required; here is the one requirement of a steward: that one be found faithful. Isn’t this amazing? God says, «I’ve given you these gifts, and there’s one requirement: to be faithful.» Everybody say, «Faithful.» All right. Now, I’ve done this with leadership teams across the country. Let’s put up the word «faithful» only here. I’ve said, «All right, give me definitions of the word 'faithful.'» To save time, and some of my team members are here so they know the answers, here are the overwhelming majority of responses I’ve gotten: steadfast, dependable, loyal, trustworthy, devoted, and truthful. These have been the majority of the answers I’ve received from leadership teams across America when I’ve taught their teams on this.

Okay, here is a definition of faithful that I’ve never heard before: multiplication. Let me remind you about the parable of the talents and the parable of the minas. Do you remember that there was a man who gave his stewards five talents, two talents, and one talent? I believe they were not talents; I believe they were gifts, charismas. He went away on a long trip, and when he came back, remember what the guy with the five talents did? He went to work and multiplied it. When the guy came back, he gave him ten talents. The guy with two talents multiplied what was given to him and gave back four talents. Do you know the reward for both of those guys was exactly the same? «Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful.» Notice Jesus identifies faithfulness with only one aspect—there’s nothing else in the parable. He didn’t say he was dependable or reliable; he just said he multiplied. «You were faithful over a few things; I’ll make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of the Lord.» This is actually for both guys, the one who went from five to ten and the one who multiplied from two to four. Are you following me?

But then the guy who hid and buried his talent, his gift, the master came to him, and he said, «I was afraid.» Fear will keep you from using your talent, okay? «I was intimidated, I was afraid,» and he didn’t realize the character of his master. He said, «I saw you as a very hard man.» God’s not a hard man! Are you kidding me? He’s a father who’s cheering us on, going, «Go, go, go! I’m for you! I’m not against you; I’m for you! You’re going to do great!» He’s the most optimistic person in your life—God! Okay? Are you with me?

To this one guy, he looks at him and says, «You wicked and lazy servant.» Then he says, «Take his talent and give it to the guy with ten.» So, do you understand? The guy with five went to ten, ends up with eleven, and the one ends up with none. One day I was in prayer, and God said to me, «Do you notice that I am not socialistic in my thinking? I’m more capitalistic in my thinking.» A socialistic God would have given each three and then the two faithful guys would have gone to six while the lazy guy stayed at three. The socialistic God would have taken one from each of the guys who made six, made them five, and given those two to him so they all had five. God’s not socialistic; he’s capitalistic in the way he thinks. Good preaching, John! Amen!

What’s His first command? «Be fruitful and multiply.» He wasn’t just saying have babies! He was saying, «Anything I give to you, return it back to me! Multiply! Build my house, baby! You got it, and I’ll lead you and guide you in your process.»

So, how do we multiply? One of the first ways we can multiply—and this is not the top way, this is one of the ways—is through giving. Everybody say giving. Okay, I want you to hear what Jesus said: «Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone—that’s when we leave this earth—your friends that you’ve made with worldly resources will welcome you into their eternal home.» In other words, He’s saying, «Use your worldly resources. Convert them into kingdom purposes.» Because when you convert worldly resources into kingdom purposes, now you’ve just caused your resources to last forever and ever.

If you look at 2 Corinthians 9:9, it says, «He has dispersed abroad. He has given and put His resources into the kingdom. He has given to the poor.» Remember, it’s not just the financially poor; it’s the poor—those who are desperate for God. His righteousness endures forever. In other words, by transferring His finances into the kingdom and benefiting others' lives, what He’s done will endure forever.

So, if you just look at a typical business person, all right? They work hard; they earn money. They say, «I’m going to keep all of this money, and I’m going to benefit my kids; I’m going to benefit my wife.» You know, I’ll tell you a true story. Everybody knows I like golf; it’s just out there. One of our partners knew I was speaking at the Dream Center in LA, and he said, «John, you’re going to be really close to Riviera. Would you like to play?» I said, «Oh my gosh, yes!» So I go out and play Riviera; it was a great day. I’m not going to tell you my score and all that, but it was a great day. Well, yeah, I was three over after four holes and ended up with 70. So anyway, you can figure that one out if you know how to play golf.

We were driving back to the hotel, and he said, «John, can I ask you a question? You know, I’m just about to turn 50. I’ve…"—and this is his language—"I busted my butt. I’ve built my business up to 9 million; my wife’s cared for, my children are cared for. Why should I bust my butt in my 50s to build my business to 35 million?» I said, «Good question. But let me answer it with this: Suppose I said to you, 'I’ve written enough books; my wife and children are cared for. I’m in my 50s; why should I bust my butt and write any more books or travel and get on planes and preach to anybody else? '»

He looked at me and said, «That’s horrible! I wouldn’t want to be you when you stand before Jesus.» I said, «You just said the exact same thing. The problem is you have a disconnect with your calling. You see my calling as a direct calling; you see a disconnect with yours. You haven’t realized that God has put you in the marketplace not only to be a bright, shining light in the marketplace but to get resources so that we can keep getting the gospel out.» He was like, «Whoa!» Well, I called him six months later—his name’s Scott. I said, «Scott, how you doing?» He said, «I’ve been haunted every day for the last six months by what you said to me.» I said, «Well, what are you doing?» He said, «I’m busting my butt to build my business to 35 million because I want to give more to the kingdom.»

So, see, that’s what we’re trying to say: every one of you is called to build God’s custom home. Another way that we can—and I talk about this in the book as far as giving—oh, huge is partnership. You know, Paul says when you give to a minister, you become a partner. All of the partners of Messenger International, every single partner that has given to us to help reach the people all over the world, for every soul we reach, they’re going to get credit for! How do I know that? Because David said those that stay back and guard the equipment are rewarded equally as those that went out in the field. You become literally part of the team. I’m looking at team members sitting here right now; they’ve been financial partners with us for years. Some of you will literally get credit for every soul that Lisa and I have touched and the rest of the Messenger International team touches. That’s big! And that’s in Philippians chapter four, but we’ll show you that another time; you can read that in the book.

The second way you can multiply is through serving. Everybody say serving. You know, one of my board members is in his church—Governor Huckabee is in his church! Okay, can I tell you? Governor Huckabee works in the parking lot! Did you hear what I just said? He directs traffic into the parking lot because he realizes, «I’m called to serve.» When I first started going to the church, he was working in the cafeteria, so he went from the cafeteria to the parking lot. Now, don’t get me wrong; he’s called into the political arena of the United States, but he realizes, «I’m also called to serve my local church. I’m also called to serve.» So here he is, being a really bright light all over the nation, but he also understands how important it is to serve. Are you seeing this?

You know, I fully believe—and I said this earlier—that people who serve in ministries get rewarded for every soul that’s touched. I’ll never forget a great, great minister today; he was serving actually Oral Roberts way back in the day when Roberts was doing the big meetings, and he just happened to be serving in a capacity on the team. One night he was standing behind the curtain, and he thought, «I can do this; I could stand up and preach to these people.» The Holy Spirit spoke to him, and He said, «If you were out there right now preaching to those people, you wouldn’t get credit for one soul.» He said, «Because you’re doing what I told you to do. You’re standing here, and you’re doing what you’re doing on this team. Every single person that gets one to Me tonight, you will get eternal credit for.» That’s how important serving is. Are you with me?

Can I tell you? It’s really important that we as a church serve, because I’m going to tell you something: if you look at Peter, he’s doing all the preaching; the apostles are doing all the work in the first five chapters of the book of Acts. But then you know what happens? We find out that the believers start realizing, «Hey, we’re supposed to preach too!» because it says, «In every house they preached.» But then you go to the very next chapter, chapter six, and they started appointing guys to serve widows food. One of them was Philip; one of them was Stephen. You know what the Bible says? After they laid hands on them and appointed them to serve food to widows, because the apostles said, «We’ve got to give ourselves to the word of God and prayer,» the Bible says the number of the disciples in those days began to greatly multiply.

Let me tell you something: if I won 10,000 people to the Lord every single month and I did that continuously, it would take me 50,000 years to win everybody on Earth, provided in those 50,000 years nobody died and nobody was born. But if you have two people, and they each win two people, you get four people; and those four people win two more people, and it keeps going—takes 3.6 years! The first one’s called addition; the second one’s called great multiplication. That’s what happens when we get in our places of serving! God, I believe, put that in the book of Acts on purpose so that we would see how important your position is in serving! Nobody sees you. In fact, the Bible says the parts of the body that are not seen are more valuable than the parts that are seen. Why do we put a premium on the pulpit? Why do we put a premium on the platform? Right? That’s a seen part! Do you realize that God said the parts that get more honor, more value, are the parts that are not seen? So we really have to have our minds renewed to that.

The third way that we can multiply is through prayer. We have prayer partners at Messenger International that pray. Let me tell you something; that is so valuable to me! When I look at my team and I say, «Hey, I’m going somewhere; I need you guys to pray,» you don’t know the comfort, the peace that comes to me knowing that these guys know how to pray. I love it when someone comes up to me and says, «I pray for you every day.» Now, sometimes they go kind of superficially, and then there are times where I believe them, and they are some of my most treasured people in my life! Because let me tell you something: you can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have that prayer, forget it!

Last thing I want to talk to you about—because we’re running out of time—and that is how we build individual lives. First of all, it would be our own. Are you growing? Are you growing in the Lord? When you walk with somebody, and they’re wiser than you, you grow! When you walk with God, you grow! You become more mature, you become wiser. I think David is a type of this. You think of David; he is living in caves and wildernesses. Finally, God brings him some people, and the people God brings him are all the disgruntled, the in debt, the offended! That’s the people God brought for David. But you know what’s amazing? He influenced them; they didn’t influence him! And they became some of the greatest men of renown of that entire generation because they were with a wise man.

Can you imagine what happens to people when we walk with Jesus? When we walk with His Spirit, we become wiser! You can always tell if someone is really walking with Jesus by whether they become more godly. Are they more humble? Do they have more vision? Do they have more passion? Have they lost their fire? If they’ve lost their fire, they’re not walking with Jesus! It’s a daily walk! Yes, you just take time to spend in His presence—that’s yourself. But what about our influence on other people? We’ll be rewarded, or we’ll suffer loss in regard to our influence in others' lives. This will not only result from our ministries, but just as importantly, our personal walk. The manner in which we lived before and how we treated others—how we view others—motivates our treatment of them—either edifying or destructive!

If we see people below us, we’ll treat them as such. We’ll take their needs lightly, and we’ll speak down to them. If we value individuals, we’ll seek to build and strengthen their lives out of a heart of compassion. If we see people as sources, then we’ll use them, especially when our wishes, needs, and desires are placed above their value.

If we view an individual as one who is created in the image of God and is extremely precious and valuable, then our motive will be to bless others, even when it appears to be at our own expense. How do we treat waiters in restaurants? How do we treat the person in the grocery store? How do we treat our team members? I mean, I’m not just talking about me as a leader; I’m talking about treating team members well. Do we just treat them well only when the boss isn’t around? How do we treat our wives? How do we treat our children? You know, all of this really, really matters to God.

There is a lady who wrote a book called «Intra Mura.» Her name is Rebecca Ruter Springer. She lived in the 1800s, and this book has been one of the most read books in Christianity. Her brother-in-law is the one who took her on a tour of heaven, and basically, I love this book because it shows how our relationships here on this Earth are even more enhanced in heaven. It’s not like we don’t know who we are. We all know each other; we still have family members, and our relationships are even closer in heaven! I love that! So that means Alec, Addison, Austin, Arden—they’re going to be really, really close. All you guys, I’m going to be really close to you. What I’m really excited about is I get to travel all over the world, so I’m going to have a lot of close friends in heaven! But anyway, he said this: «If we only could realize while we are yet mortals that day-by-day, we are building for eternity, how different our lives in many ways would be. Every gentle word, every generous thought, every unselfish deed will become a pillar of eternal beauty in the life to come.»

You know I think about my friend Mike. I met him at Rockwell International; I was an engineer, and he was one of their accountants. We became very close friends. Mike was doing taxes on the side, and he used to do my taxes for free. We just became really close, and then one day he left Rockwell, and I left Rockwell. I went into ministry; he went and started his own accounting firm. Since then, his accounting firm has, I think last I heard, 12,000 clients. I called Mike and I said, «Mike, how many of those clients have you ministered the word of God to?» Oh, he said, «John, easily 90.» I said, «So you’re saying you’ve ministered the word of God to over 10,000 clients?» He said, «Oh, absolutely.» I said, «You know, there are a lot of pastors who haven’t done that.» I asked him, «How many have you led to the Lord?» He said, «Oh, hundreds.» I remember we were on the phone, and he said, «Just last week a Cuban man came in, and he got totally healed of cancer! He went back to the doctor; we just prayed while we were doing his taxes!»

Well, Mike used to always talk to me about this guy named Charlie, who had the biggest impact on his life. So I called him. I said, «Mike, you always talked about Charlie. In fact, his daughter wrote a paper about 'the greatest man I never met, ' named Charlie.» I said, «Mike, tell me about this guy named Charlie.» Mike started weeping on the phone; I mean, really sobbing. He said, «John, six out of my nine aunts and uncles went into insane asylums. My mother ended up in an insane asylum. Both my grandfathers were shot by other men. That was my destiny.» But he said, «My mom couldn’t afford me because we were so troubled, so she brought me to a family of a paper mill janitor—the man’s name was Charlie.» Charlie, for seven years, taught Mike about Jesus, brought him to church every Sunday, and just kept training him in the ways of God. He was a little Baptist janitor for this paper mill.

Mike’s weeping on the phone telling me how he said, «I would have been in an insane asylum; I would have been shot! But because of what God did through Charlie…» Look at my life! So I started thinking, «Wow! Wait a minute! Charlie’s impact—look what it had on Mike! Mike’s impact on 10,000 clients he’s ministered the word of God to! But then Mike’s impact on my life, which was profound. How many millions of people have I been allowed to touch?»

So you understand how many millions of people a paper mill janitor, Charlie, has impacted. That’s why personal influence is so important!

I’m going to end it with this true story—there are two men I want to talk about. The first guy’s name is Max Jukes. How many of you have heard of him? Probably haven’t unless you’ve read «Driven by Eternity.» The second guy, I’m going to talk about, his name is Jonathan Edwards. How many of you have heard about Jonathan Edwards? One of the great, great preachers in America’s history! Max Dukes, the atheist, lived a godless life; he married an ungodly girl, and from that union, there were 310 who died as paupers, 150 were criminals, 7 were murderers, 100 drunkards, and more than half of the women were prostitutes. His 540 descendants cost the state one and a quarter million dollars. Now you have to realize that back then that was a lot of money!

Now, praise the Lord! It works both ways. There is a record of a great American man of God named Jonathan Edwards. He lived at the same time as Max Dukes, but he married a godly girl. An investigation was made of the 1,394 known descendants of Jonathan Edwards, of which 13 became college presidents, 65 college professors, 3 United States senators, 30 judges, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 authors of prominence, 1 vice president of the United States, and 80 became public officials in other capacities. 295 were college graduates among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries. His descendants did not cost the state a single penny.

So do you understand how important personal influence is? The greatest influence we can have on someone’s life is leading them to Jesus. If we look at Proverbs 11:30, it says this: «The fruit of the uncompromisingly righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise captures human lives for God; as a fisher of men, he gathers and receives them for eternity.» Let me tell you something: we have an opportunity to build God’s custom house, whether it’s directly through ministry or whether it’s through our individual impact that we have on others. I think we’ve got a tremendous opportunity. I think you have been so wise to sit through these sessions and read this book so that you can properly align yourself with the Holy Spirit to build God’s custom house so that literally the righteous deeds and things you do for God by the strength of the Holy Spirit will last forever and ever and ever and ever. Let’s have fun building the kingdom! God bless you, thank you!

Here’s the thing we want to emphasize for this final session. First of all, you are called to make a significant difference in this life. God has given you gifts; you have the choice of using those gifts however you want. You can use them to build the kingdom, or you can use them to build your own personal life. One will be burned up; the other you will be rewarded eternally. As far as your personal influence goes, remember people are valuable. You can try to treat people nicely; that will last a few weeks. You have to value men, women, and children in your heart and pray.

Here’s your action step: pray that God would give you the value that He has for people. Remember, He died for those people, that God would give you that value and the honor in your heart towards others that He has for them. So I want to pray for you here at the conclusion of «Driven by Eternity.»

Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank You for my brothers and sisters that are watching right now. We’re together, we’re coming to Your throne room. Heavenly Father, I’m asking that, Lord, their lives would be established, firmly established on the eternal word of God. I pray that, Lord, You would empower them to be obedient to You. Father, I remind You of Your covenant promise that You are working in us both to will and to do of Your good pleasure. So I ask that You would do this with my brothers and sisters, and I pray that they would receive the full reward—not the partial. So I speak in the name of Jesus. I speak the strength to obey. I speak purpose, and I speak the love and the holy fear of God to burn in your heart. I pray that the presence of the living God would come upon you right now, and just as the Spirit of the living God empowered Jesus to fulfill His destiny, I pray that He would empower you to fulfill your destiny on this earth. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen.

I love you so much, and it’s been an honor to share with you, «Driven by Eternity.»