Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - What It Really Means to “Eagerly Await” Christ’s Return [Featuring John Bevere]

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

What does it really mean to be ready for the return of Jesus? In this powerful conversation, Pastor Allen Jackson sits down with John Bevere to discuss John's new book, The King Is Coming, and why the Second Coming isn’t just a prophetic event—it’s a wedding. They unpack what it means to “eagerly await” Christ’s return, how to remain in fellowship with Him, and why holy living is a response to grace, not a replacement for it. In a culture shaped by distraction and compromise, this episode is a call to wake up, purify our hearts, and prepare as a bride who is confident—not ashamed—at His appearing. John’s Book, THE KING IS COMING: https://amzn.to/4u7Slly — It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6d Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Welcome to Culture and Christianity. My guest today, he may have more experience in ministry than I do, which is kind of fun. I don't get to say that too often. It's a treat. John Bevere, welcome to culture and Christianity. Pastor Allen, it's a pleasure to be on with you. I love what you're doing for Middle Tennessee and for the nation. And what I really love is that you have been so outspoken on some of our cultural issues that has caused our country to go down the,

down a wrong path. And I'm just grateful. I know you and I both, we really love Charlie Kirk and do love Charlie Kirk still and what he did for us. And so thank you for all you've done, both in Middle Tennessee and for the nation. Well, that's mutual. You are a, you're a resident of Middle Tennessee now. Now we are. We moved here five years ago. That's really good. And I think my thirdborn son described it the best, Pastor Allen. He said, we left beautiful land for beautiful people. And that was the trade, and it's a better trade. Well, we're really glad you're here. Your ministry has been a strength to the body of Christ for a bit. Your books, you and your wife and your perspectives on marriage. And I always, when I think of your ministry and the things that I'm familiar with, it feels like a peaceful, calming voice in the midst of the storm.

So I thank you for that. I hope it is. Now, I'm sure it has been that. You've authored, what, more than 20 books? Yeah, I think this one's number 25. So other than this one, do you have a favorite out of that list? You know, that's a great question. I would say the awe of God is my life message. I would say, driven by attorney, riveted me as a, you know, in my Christian walk.

I actually, when I was writing Driven by Attorney, thought, who in the world will ever read this? But I've had so many testimonies of people that said their lives are totally changed when they start. seeing life through the eternal perspective rather than just 70, 80 years. And then the other one, of course, is Beta Satan. That one passed six million copies, I think two years ago. And it just, I shake my head. I wrote it 32 years ago, but it still just keeps going, going, going, going. So I'm in all. My worst subject to Allen in high school was English and creative writing. In foreign language. I'm not joking. I scored 370 on the English on SAT. So when God came to me and he said, son, I want you to write. I was like, okay, you've got so many of us kids now,

you're getting me mixed up with somebody else. You just talk to my English teachers. It would take me four hours to write a one-page paper in high school. And he said nothing, and I took his silence as an agreement to my rebuttal. And so 10 months later, this is the most amazing thing. 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'll give the messages to somebody else. And one day, you'll stand in judgment for it. Now, when the second woman from the state of Texas said it two weeks after the first woman from Florida, the fear of God hit me. So this is what I did.

I got a notebook piece of paper. I got a Sharpie. And I, because we didn't have iPads in 1991, and I put contract on top. And I wrote a contract with God. I said, I think you're making a massive mistake. You have much better writers. So I need grace. And I signed the contract.

And I look at the books now there in that, well, there's probably been over 10 million sold. we've given away now 65.5 million resources to pastors and leaders in 243 nations. We have 1,000 team members globally and 50 team members here in the United States. And if you would have told me that this is the way God would have sent me to the nations of the world 35 years ago. I would have laughed you out of the room. I always said, you're completely drunk, you're stoned, you've lost your mind. But yet God does take the very foolish things of this world to confound the wise. But honestly, I think he did it to protect our lives because there's no way I could ever take credit for this because I know how bad I was.

So there you go. No, that resonates. I didn't get called to write primarily. But I hated public speaking. I mean, if I stood up in front of people, my brain froze. And I felt this invitation from God. Then I thought, you've got to be kidding me. And so I tried for a bit.

finally said, okay, if I'm going to do this, either you've got to make a change, you've got to give me something I don't have, or I don't need to be doing this. And there wasn't a day I can say, but at least my brain doesn't freeze. What comes out may not always be good, but it's not frozen. I want to do something. I want to get to the book. That's a heart of why we're here. But there's a unique opportunity in this for me. We have done ministry for a bit. And in your book, you talk about times and seasons. Yeah. And from the experience doesn't make us smarter, but it does give us a different, for me,

I feel like it gives us a different perspective. Yes, sir. And I have to say over the course of my life and what God has invited me to, I can see today there have been times and seasons. And COVID, I feel like the landscape changed. There's a greater urgency. There's an acceleration of what's happening versus how I saw things prior to COVID. any of that resonate with you?

It absolutely does. It did. It accelerated things, but there's been a real shift. And actually, be honest with you, I think it's a healthy shift. I think people really understand we are in a war now. They look back. COVID was not that far in their memory. And they realize, okay, there's a very evil force that's moving our society.

And that evil force hates the church. But the thing is, we're going to be more than overcomers. We're going to be victorious because our faith overcomes. this world, the Bible says so clearly. But I feel that it really woke people up out of a slumber. I look at how many people walked away from the faith between 2000 and 2020. You and I both know, Barnett did a massive study. Over 33 million Americans walked away from the faith. But if you look at 2022 till now, there's been a resurgence. There is an awakening, especially among young people right now. They're seeing it in Bible sales and worship music and all of that. And that's not a way.

not a real indicator, but it is something that you can use as an indicator, but not the indicator. And I am looking for some of the greatest days the church has ever experienced in the near future because there is a ladder rain the Bible talks about. And I look at our moves that we've had, most of our moves, you'd had to go to the location. You had to go to Azusa. You had to go to the Welsh Revival. You had to go to Brownsville, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But if you look at the early rain, wherever they went, the outpouring was the same, just as it was. was everywhere else. It literally covered the earth. And that's the ladder rain that God promises us. And I believe we're going to see that just before the return of Jesus. And so I believe we're living

in those days right now. That is good. That early rain, ladder rain. It's biblical language. It's used a lot of times in a prophetic context. I lived in Israel for a bit. It made more sense to me. It's a desert country. There is no rain from middle of April until the first of October. There's just not any. If it rains in Jerusalem, July, Messiah is coming. But the rains will come about the time of the high holy days are over when Sukkot and usually October-ish, and it will rain. And for six or eight weeks, they get a good bit of rain, but then it stops. And the rains don't come back until kind of what we would call the beginning of spring. And then they'll get their latter rain. And then that's the rain that's going to get them to the harvest. And so when you talk about that, when we talk about this moving of the

Spirit of God in this season. We're moving towards the harvest, which really is exciting. The Lord spoke to me in 1990. 1990. That's a long time ago. He said, what I'm about to do in your lifetime will make the Book of Acts look like Child's Play. I said, okay, okay, I cannot believe that. I mean, I look at the Book of Acts, and they're putting people on the streets and they're being healed. I mean, they're praying in the building shakes. The whole region of Asia heard the Word of the Lord in two years without podcasts. Okay, so like, I'm in... Electricity.

I'm like, wait a minute. I need scripture. And immediately, he gave me four scriptures. I mean, the end of the thing's better in the beginning. The glory of the latter house is going to be greater in the former. He gave you the former reign moderately. And then Isaiah 30 was the cleanser. And I actually have that towards the end of this book, where he said that the people of

God will say in that day, get away from me, idols. I don't want you anymore. Remember, idols are, idolatry is covetousness. That's what the New Testament calls idolatry. So remember, Isaiah is writing in a way that they understood. Get away from the idols. And he said, in that day, the rain will begin to pour. And he said, and in that day, the sun will be seven times brighter. And I went, oh my goodness, the sun is not seven times brighter when it's naturally raining out. He's talking about what Zechariah said, ask me for rain in the time of the latter rain. And so it's a very exciting time we're heading into, but it's a very fearful time for people who don't have a close relationship with Jesus. And that's what you and I are doing. We're calling

people back to the heart of God. I believe it's the midnight hour. I believe we're going to hear arise. The bridegroom's coming. Trim your lamps, go out to meet him. And I believe that just as John the Baptist came to wake up the lost sheep in the House of Israel, I believe you're going to see a prophetic anointing arise in these next few years that's going to go to the lost sheep in the church, and they're going to say, trim your lamps, fill up your vessels, the bridegroom's coming. And that is what the second coming is all about. So many people see the second coming as an event, and that's the problem. It's not an event. It is a marriage. It's the marriage of the ages. It is a groom that's just waiting for his dad to say, go get your girl.

And us, a lovesick bride, is waiting for our groom to come get us. And when you see it through that vantage point, because you look at Revelation, the wedding of the lamb has come and the bride has made herself ready. I mean, this is not a book about timelines and dates. And although I do talk about, I spend five of the 28 chapters talking about when is that catching away of his bride going to happen. But this is a book about how do we prepare ourselves? Every bride in every single age, no matter what custom, no matter what culture, had to prepare for her wedding.

And one of the biggest things that they used to do, that they don't do anymore, is she had to make her wedding garment. And it says the bride has made herself ready. And to her it was grand to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And I look at what we do for him. We can never earn a relationship with him. It is a free gift. It's by grace that only by grace were saved. But we are preparing ourselves.

And he gives us the grace to be able to do things. You have the grace. You never could speak, but now you've got a church. Man, I couldn't believe how big this place is. You got a massive church. Here's a guy that could never speak. But God gave him grace to preach the gospel. And he drew people from all over.

That's your righteous works, right? You're making your wedding dress. You're getting ready for your bridegroom. to come. And sometimes I think some believers, we don't have enough material to make a bikini, let alone a wedding dress. And so I just want to, as a, I got a dad's heart. I want to see the church wake up. And I want to see them get engaged in what God's called them to do. Because Jesus said, my meat, my food, my nourishment is to do the will of him who sent me in to finish what he sent me to do. And we're sent as he has sent, he said. So this book is more about being prepared.

than it is about dates and timelines. You know, you don't have to look far to see that our economy is in real turmoil. Our nation is $37 trillion in debt. Inflation rates made it hard to buy and sell a house, even a car. We're all feeling it. When you go to the grocery store and you spend an extra dollar or two in every item, that gets personal in a hurry. Well, the most important thing we can do during uncertain times is to invest ourselves in knowing God better. Read his word, pray.

That's the only place we're really going to find stability. ability we need for the disruption that I'm pretty certain is ahead of us. Beyond that, it's just plain wise to make the best decisions possible in our daily lives with our investments. When you think of all the options out there, gold is an investment that has stood the test of time. That's why I work with preserved gold. They've treated me with honesty, integrity, kindness, every step of the way.

They're offering a free wealth protection kit, and all you need to do is text Allen, that's A-L-E-N to 50-505. As a bonus, you'll get up to $15,000 in free gold and silver with a qualified purchase. Go ahead and text them today. I think your point is so well taken, and I think it's a message that's too soft in temporary Christian Christianity. We've heard a lot of messaging about the gift of righteousness, and it is a free gift, and we can't earn it or qualify for it, and we'll never work our way into the kingdom. But the passage in Revelation does tell that that fine linen will be clothed with is our response to the gift of righteousness, or do we choose righteous lives?

And I love that emphasis and that invitation that's in here. You had a life event five years ago or so that kind of prompted this book? Yeah. So I didn't preach about the second coming for four decades. People used to ask me, they say, don't you preach on the second coming? I was like, no, no, no, no. I'm not called to. And I think I was a little shocked by what happened in 88.

You know, Edgar Wein sets, 88 reasons why Jesus is coming back in September of 1988. I bought it hook-line sinker, so did a lot of my friends. My wife didn't. What I didn't like was the fallout. What I didn't like is people arguing about pre-primption rapture post, mid, etc. A millennialism, all that just was like, no, I don't want to get in dogmatic discussion. So I just avoided it. Right.

But the Holy Spirit started drawing me in. And Alan, I didn't spend hundreds of hours. I spent in the thousands. And I started pouring in. And what happened was my family started saying, Dad, we're seeing a change in you. So my wife says to me now all the time. She says, you're my favorite husband.

I'm like, what does that mean? And she said, well, I like this 2.0 version better than 1.0. Wow. And she has seen a change in me. And then I've become more passionate. I never before have I been out literally weeping saying, God, just let me win souls to Jesus. I became more passionate about ministry. Ministry became, I became pure in my motives about ministry. And I'm thinking, what is this all about? Well, then I started noticing, Pastor Allen,

okay, it's the second most written about subject in the entire Bible. There's 318 verses in just the New Testament on the second coming, which is one out of every three verses. It is the second... It is the second... ...three hundred and 18 verses in the New Testament about Jesus' return. About the second coming. Yeah. Okay. It is the second most written about topic of the early church fathers in the first three centuries.

There are 300 prophecies about his first coming. There are over 2,400 about his second coming. So all of a sudden my mind goes, wait a minute. Why has God put so much emphasis on this? And I started realizing why. Because there is a passage of scripture. First of all, well, let me say this. I'm jumping, let me make this even a sweeter punchline.

The first thing I felt led to do is go back and look at Jesus' first coming. Were the people that got it wrong? Yep. Where the people that got it right? Yep. Okay, what was the difference? So I look at the Pharisees, and that's an easy one. They could quote the first five books of the Bible from memory.

I mean, that's a lot of, can you and I, before we can go into ministry, got to quote, Matthew Mark, Luke, John and Axe. I'm like... Mercifully, no. No, I don't, I wouldn't, I would have flunked. They can't recognize God manifested in the flesh when he's 30 years old raising the dead. Then I look at these guys called the Aseans. And the Aseans were a group of people that start a community called Qumran in the middle of the desert. And that's where we get the caves of Qumran where we had the 1948 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. But this community

saw the corruption and leadership, and they pulled aside because they highly valued the scripture, and they studied it. If you look at the prophets of old in 1 Peter 10 and 11, they inquired diligently of what manner and what manner of time. The Ascenes were that way. They predicted 150 years before Jesus was born the exact week he would be executed. That's crazy. Okay. So these guys, they were scattered throughout Israel, but they started in Qumran. And the bulk of them lived in Kumran. A lot of people believe John the Baptist was in a scene. Even more people believe that Simeon was in a scene. Now, who's this guy named Simeon? He's this guy you only find in the book of Luke. And just, I want you to think about it. I'm going to speak like we're here in

Tennessee. Okay. I'm going to make this realistic. You got this little couple from Kentucky. They come down in Nashville where the temple is. Nobody knows who these guys are. And in the temple area, you got crowds of people every single day. This unknown couple in their young 20s walks into the temple, and this guy, Simeon does a bee line right for him in the midst of the whole crowd, holds up their 40-day old baby and says the Messiah. I'm like, wait a minute. Now, what is it about him? We have one verse, Luke 225. He was righteous, he was devout, and he was eagerly waiting for the coming of the Messiah. Righteous means he pursued godly living. Devout means he highly valued and treasured and took seriously the word of God. That's the exact definition. It carries the meaning of reverential

fear of the Lord, which the fear of the Lord isn't to be scared of God. It's terrified of being away from God. But here's the big one. He was eagerly waiting for the coming of the Messiah. The word eagerly waiting is the Greek word, parstectomy. Parstectomy is a very interesting word. I never realized how much it appeared in the New Testament. If you look at when he puts the baby down and totally shocks Mary and Joseph, Anna comes up.

She's been praying for 80 years. And Anna starts talking about this child, not to everybody in the temple, but only those who were eagerly waiting. Greek word is prostateomy. Now let's look at it. at what Jesus says to us for a second coming. Luke 12, Jesus said, stay dressed for service. There's the righteous acts of the saints. Stay dressed for service. Keep your lamps burning.

There's the virgins. And you be like men who are waiting for their master to return. Now, the word waiting there, I'm going to add eagerly waiting because it's the same Greek word prostectomy. All right? I did not realize, Alan, I've read my Bible for 47 years. I didn't realize how many times the apostles talk about eagerly waiting for the Messiah's return. If you look at Paul, he writes to the Corinthians in verse 7, chapter 1, you who are eagerly waiting for Christ to return. He writes to Timothy. He said, you are, the crown of righteousness is not just for me. It's for all those who are eagerly awaiting his appearing. If you look at Hebrews, Christ will come in that day, not to deal with our sins, but to what, save those who are eagerly waiting?

What creates eagre anticipation? Look at a wedding. You've got to view the second coming through a wedding. Man, Lisa and I are engaged four months, tirely too long. But the last two months was absolute dredgery. I have to stay in Dallas. She's going up to Indiana to get the church ready, right? that two months seem like two years. A day seemed like a week, a week seemed like a month.

And I remember you just give me an opening. And I'm talking about my fiancee, how much I love her, I'm going to talk nonstop about her. Why? Because my eyes are fixed on that day and that girl. This is why we are told in Colossians, set your sights on the realities of heaven, not the things of the earth. think about those things. Why? Because what we set our sights on, something coming that we're anticipating is what we think about. So if you look at what Paul writes to the Philippians, he said, I'm going to say this with tears.

There are many, not some, many, whose behavior shows, whose behavior shows their minds are set on earthly things. He said, but the next verse, verse 20, Philippians 320, but we are those who are eagerly waiting. Now, why is eager anticipation so important? This is what I was going to right when you asked me the question. John, who saw the Book of Revelation, makes this statement in 1.1-John 3-3,

when he appears, we're going to see him as he is, and all who have this eager expectation purify themselves even as he is pure. God knows that our eager expectation carries a power. to protect us from the onslaughts of the world. And I think this is why you hear Jesus saying, I'm coming soon, four times in Revelation. This is why James says, the Lord is coming soon. Paul writes, the Lord is coming soon. I remember when I was two days away from flying up to that wedding, I'm on the phone with Lisa,

and I said, baby, I'm going to see you soon. Two days was nothing compared to that two months. Well, Peter said, a day with the Lord's a thousand years. It's only been two days since Jesus has been raised from the dead. So God has kept this eager expectation in the 12th century church, 14th century church, 16th century church, and in our generation, so he could protect us from the world that would try to creep into our souls and pull us away from our bridegroom, from the love, our pure love for the bridegroom. Almost everybody I know wants to be healthy or healthier. And I think most of us would like it to happen to us by accident. But that hasn't been my experience.

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If you'll use the code fuel 26, you'll get a 26% discount sitewide on ancient nutrition. That's ancient nutrition.com. Let's make choices to be healthier. And maybe we can limit the pharmaceuticals will be dependent upon. That would be a God thing. God's moving in the earth and we can be a part of it by what we put on our fork and not just The pills we take. Well, the verse in Second Timothy where Paul's in prison, and he writes Timothy.

Yeah. He said, there's in store for me a crown of righteousness, but not also to me, but for all who were... Eagerly waiting, is appearing. So I think we've all got to own that. But the skeptics that say that we've talked about this for two millennia. I mean, Peter picked that up and said, there's going to be these people that say, where is this coming?

But when you talked about Anna and Simeon, in a temple mountain area that can accommodate tens of thousands of people, there were two. Now, that bothers me because I don't think I'm exceptional, but I desperately want to be in that group of people that are eagerly awaiting. I think you are. So how do we... You wouldn't be talking to me like this if you weren't. What's your coaching? Because it's so easy to get caught up. The messaging that washes over us, I think of it like Niagara Falls. I mean, it's crushing the messaging we hear day in and day out that isn't focused on eagerly awaiting the Lord. And a lot of it comes from Christian sources.

I'm not throwing stones, but so how do we hold that place other than buy a copy of the king is coming and do it. What I loved about your approach is it's in these little bite-sized daily applications. It's like a training manual. You know, if I want to lose 30 pounds, I'd go to the gym and work out really hard one day. That's such a good example. I've got to agree to go for 90 days. Yeah.

And keep applying my. myself incrementally. And you've given somebody a tool to do that. It's a 28-day book, very short chapters, and there's five p's at the end of every chapter. It's not a devotional. It's a book. Yeah. You can read in one reading if you want, but that's like you said going to the gym. That's why I strongly recommend people would read this book in 28 days, which is four weeks, not one day. So do ignite that longing in us, so that eager expectation? Let me make this comment. John, the Apostle, and I'm going to speak. from the new living translation on this.

Okay. Four times in 60 verses says remain in fellowship with him. Who are the people that remain in fellowship with him? One of those verses, he said, He who keeps his commandment remains in fellowship with him and he with him. He who keeps his commandments. Now, we've made commandments a dirty word. It's not a dirty word.

Let's just walk through this. Garden of Eden is Eve choosing what she thinks is good for me outside of what God says. She wasn't drawn. She didn't say when the tree, she saw the tree was evil and would make her wicked. She saw it was good. It would make her wise.

So that represents when we choose what is good for me outside of what God says. So God says, now they've got to sin nature, and now they're going to gravitate towards the very things that harm them. So I'm going to give them commandments to protect them from themselves. But the Old Testament proved to us we couldn't keep those commandments because we have a sin nature. So now you come to the New Testament.

You got 613 commandments in the Old Testament. You have over 500 in the New Testament. What are the commandments for in the New Testament? To keep us in fellowship with him. Remain in fellowship with him. Jesus said, He who has my commandments and keeps them. It's he who really loves me, and I will manifest myself to him. I'm going to give you an example.

I always go back to marriage because this whole second coming is about a marriage. Okay. Can you imagine, I have a marriage certificate with my wife from the state of Indiana that says she is legally my wife. Can you imagine I hold up that certificate and say, look, we're married, but I'm sleeping with two other women in Nashville. Now, I may not lose my marriage right away, although my wife is Sicilian and she is a sniper and she said she would make it painless. And she is promised. And to be honest with you, I'm good with that. Because I fear God, and my fear of God is even greater than her killing me, okay? But I'm joking. Lisa would never kill me. She said, John, I kind of alluded to that, but I never really said it. I said, babe, it's okay. It's just, I tried to get a little laugh out of everybody, okay?

Why don't I commit adultery against Lisa? Why? Because I'm more in love with that girl than the day I married her. And I mean it. I'm not joking when I say that. What I don't ever want to lose is when she looks at me when we're all by ourselves and she speaks to me the desires, the secrets of her heart that she wouldn't tell anybody else. I don't ever want to lose that.

The reason I never want to commit adultery against Jesus is because I never want those times when he whispered something in me that I never knew before. I don't want to lose that intimacy. So remain in fellowship with him is what John's talking about. Now, here's the thing that really shakes me. John says in 1st John 228, and now dear children, remain in fellowship with him, that when he appears, we may be confident and not shrink back in shame. Dear children, he's talking to believers.

Okay? So what he's saying right there is there's going to be two responses from believers when he appears. One's going to be confidence, and the other one's going to be shame. Let me give you an example. I'm at Purdue University. My dad never made more than $45,000 a year. He saved and invested so diligently from the time I was a baby so that I could go to the school of my choice. I picked an out-of-state school, Purdue University, to study mechanical engineering, and my dad paid all that money. And I'm sitting in there with three, three, three, three, thousand freshman engineering students on the first day. And the dean of engineering of Purdue University

stands up and says, take a look at the person on your right, take a look at the person on your left. They won't be here next year. We will flunk 50% of you out this year. And then next year we'll flunk another 50%. So there will only be 25% of you around come junior year. I'm telling you that put a healthy fear in me, and I started that week studying like crazy. And I remember when that report card came, now remember, we didn't have cell phones in those days, so it's snail mail. And there's about a 10-day lag from the end of semester to the time you get report card. I was confident. I was confident.

Pastor, I was so confident. I couldn't wait for that report card. And when it came, I was shocked. It was better than I thought. made the dean's list at Purdue University. And I remember when my dad looked and I saw the delight that came over my World War II veteran dad has just made my heart so warm. But then I joined a fraternity a couple semesters later. You know where I'm going. So now I'm partying. Now I'm playing Frisbee football. I'm having a great time. But I'm no longer applying myself. And I remember when

that report card came, the end of that semester, I did not have confidence. And I remember that report card arrived. And my dad said, son, let me see it. And I handed it to him. I'll never forget the look on his face. And, you know, my dad who had worked so hard, he just looked at me. He said, you could have done better, couldn't you? I said, yeah. I was ashamed. I look at what Jesus paid to get us free. What a lot of people don't realize is he went before four squadrons of soldiers in that one 10-hour period. Anus, Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate. Three of them, the trained soldiers beat him until they were physically exhausted. So can you imagine going to a new fresh batch of warriors? And the Bible says by the time they were done with him, his face didn't even look like a human being.

When they scourged him, I have felt the scourging. Just the weight of it literally digs into my hand. And they tie him naked on that little two-foot-tall stone, and they would tie his hands up, and his backbone would be exposed by the time they're done. I look at our creator was willing to go through that. And it's like my dad paying my tuition. That's what made it hurt.

When I looked at my dad's face and I knew he had saved, all my life. And I look, I don't want to look at my creator one day when I know what he paid for my bride price. And I don't want him to have that look of why? Why didn't you use the grace that I provided for you? What did you do with your life? And as a guy with a daddy's heart, I don't want anybody in the body of Christ being ashamed.

I want them to be confident because it's not too late no matter who we are or what we've done and I realize there's guys in ministry out there that ministries I've seen a lot of jaded guys in ministry I've seen a lot of cynical and Alan I said to myself

I don't want to be like that what do I do? What do I do? And so I set a goal I set a goal a long time ago My number one goal of ministry is not to reach, you know, a billion people. My number one goal in ministry is that I'm more in love with Jesus the day he comes for me than the day I started ministry. And that's a lot better goal, I think, than reaching so many people because he'll take care of that part.

My job is to prepare my heart, to be a bride that's ready that's excited, anticipating my groom's coming. So it causes you to live different. and it causes you to protect your heart different, guarding your heart with all diligence. Just as how many guys get married, then all of a sudden, oh, that's my wife. When you were engaged, you were like, couldn't stop talking about her. And now she asked you to do her a favor. And it's like, really? Well, you would have done that in a heartbeat in the middle of the night when you were engaged.

It's all about protecting our love. That's what this message is about. You know, I often hear people say that we have a real leadership deficit in our nation or in our communities or even in our churches. And I know there's some truth to that, but I would like to refine it a bit. I see people that are great leaders in lots of places. You're great leaders in your business environment, in your corporate settings, in classrooms. You're great leaders in your community or in mobilizing your family. The place where I see this astounding leadership deficit is in our willingness to lead with our faith.

We have confidence in the business setting or confidence in coaching an athletic team or coaching a group of students. But we don't have much confidence to bring our faith view to bear in the places where we have influence. If we don't lead with our faith, our other expressions of leadership are secondary. Well, I've written a new book on guess what? How to lead with faith. And the goal is to help give you the courage and the boldness to lead with your biblical worldview on the matters that will impact our culture and help make our future better. Read the book, open your heart.

God's raising up a whole new generations of leaders, and I want to be a part of that, and I believe you do too. I want to push around a little bit. I know your material well enough. You can push me all you want. No, no, but I mean, I agree with you. It's not about reaching the billions of people.

But there's a statement that's made about David in the book of Acts that God says he would do anything I ask him to do. Yeah. And what I find in this season of my life is it's so easy to say, well, you know, I love the Lord more than I've ever loved him. But I don't have to match the effort that I put in two decades ago. And I can point to my CV or your book list or, and you challenged me on that a bit. I don't, we met, we had a conversation. year and a go, year and a half ago, at a church in Georgia.

We were at a pastor's conference. Yeah. And I was out someplace, and I got a note that said John was back in the green room. So I went back, and we sat down for a minute. And I don't, sometimes my memory of events and other people's memories are different, so I won't force this on you. But my memories, when I sat down, you pretty quickly said something to me, like, are you retiring?

And I said, no, I don't think so. And you said, well, good. And we had a conversation around that. But I think we both understood it was about being willing to do whatever God asks us to do. And I don't want to hide behind the numbers thing, because if God asks us to reach a billion people, dang straight, we're going to saddle up and go. Because that's how I give my expression to the love of God. But I don't measure it by the numbers that come back. I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but I wanted to be sure I understood.

Because I don't see you as somebody who's mailing it in. coasting on your previous momentums. I turned 67 this year, and I feel like I'm just starting. You know, I hear what Paul said in Philippians. I said, I want to know Christ and the power of resurrection and the fellowship of sharing and his suffering that somehow I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. I love that humility. And what's missing, I'm concerned about our generation because Bonhofer called it cheap grace.

Some call it easy-believism. I mean, there's a lot of labels. Yeah. But it's this soft approach to the gospel that you can have a personal salvation and then kind of a private faith. That's the Western gospel. And it's a false gospel. It is. You know what Paul said?

You do know this, but I'm going to say, do you know what Paul said? I'm going to quote the new living. He said, if anybody suffers eternal damnation, it's not my fault. I mean, I'm like, what? And why isn't it your fault? because I didn't withhold anything that was needful. I believe what's going to get us in trouble in this Western church culture is not what we're saying. It's what we're not saying.

Okay. I didn't withhold. Think about that. I didn't withhold. If you look at Jesus when he's talking to Pergamum and Thyra-Tyra, it's not what they were doing. It's what they were tolerating. You know, a lot of people don't realize they think. think he's going after Jezebel, right, who's seducing God's servants into idolatry and immorality.

He's not going out. He's going after the leaders for tolerating her. So, you know, we don't like confrontation. I remember when I first started ministry, I was in a massive church just like this. We had 450 paid employees. I was the pastor's executive assistant. And I had a very high-profile position. And I was the nicest guy in the church. That's what everybody else was saying. It's because I always told you what you wanted to hear, even if it wasn't true. And one day, I was in prayer, and I'll never forget this as long as I live. God said, they say, I'll never, I can hear it, still hear it. People say in the church that you're one of the most loving men in the church. And the way he said it to me, it wasn't affirming.

And I very cautiously said, yeah. And he said, do you want to know what they, do you? He said, John, if you truly love these people, you would tell them what they needed to hear. He said, the focus of your love is not them. The reason you tell everybody what they want to hear is because you don't want to be rejected. So who's the focus of your love, you or them? And I said, it's me. He said, if you really love people, you tell them what they needed to hear.

That changed my life. And I started realizing it's more important if I really want to love somebody to love them correctly, is to tell them the truth. To do it with compassion, to do it with their benefit before your benefit. And because of it, I've lost a lot of relationships. And I have people saying things about me out there and I don't care anymore. And if it's a hard message, you don't do it joyfully. I'm going to do it with joy. Yeah, but there's no glee in telling people difficult things.

We don't use the truth like a club. I know you don't. I don't want to, but I want to speak the truth. We have to. All right, I'll finish the story. I started beating the sheep. I'll be really honest with you. And I did a massive conference in Europe in 2001.

And the guy was one of the best known pastors in Europe. and after speaking three times, I heard from three different continents, three different continents, that John Bevere beats the sheet. And it came from him. Finally, South Africa, one of the leaders with a guy named Ray McCauley, one of his top leaders calls me and says, John, what are you doing? Why did I hear this? And I remember, I went in my basement. I cried out to God like I've never cried out before.

And I said, God, please give me more compassion for your people. And he gave me a revelation. He gave me a revelation in that four months. And that is a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. And all of a sudden I realize, because everybody back in that era criticized sugar-coded messages. And I start saying sugar-coded as much as you can because I don't care how much sugar you put on arsenic, it's still going to do its job. Well, we have medicine, the medicine of life. And sometimes it's not very tasteful.

But if you can give it with joy, if you can put a little honey around it, it's sure a lot easier to swallow. Absolutely. So I went to one of the largest churches in Canada two years later, and I preached three times for him. I remember this. It was his conference, his big conference. He said, can you and I go to dinner alone tonight? Sure. So he sits down with me at the restaurant.

He goes, John, you know, I've known you for a long time. I said, yeah. He said, your message hadn't changed a bit. He said, but it's filled with so much compassion. And I said, I start crying. I said, God's answered my prayer. So you can swing the pendulum both ways. The thing is, when you become a father, you're a father.

Let's face it, you're a father in the church, Alan. You don't compromise the truth, but you say it where the people know that you care about them. more than you're trying to be right. When I was young, I was in the fight to be in the fight because I like the fight, because I'm an athlete. And that's wrong. But God was patient with me. And he developed a daddy's heart in me. Amen. All right. My guest is John Bevere. His newest book is The King is Coming and how we can prepare. There's one question we always ask on this podcast, what can we do? So what can we do, other than buy your book and read it, 28 days to help us get ready. What can we do to be prepared for the return of the king? Well, I mean, what can we do to be prepared is protect your fellowship, remain intimate. I've done it.

I met a pastor last year, and I actually didn't meet him. I've been with him several times. He's in his 70s. He's been faithful. He's birth 500 churches. and he's like a bulldog. I said, okay, what did you do to make it five decades? I'm only four decades.

What did you do to make it five decades? He said, without a doubt, it's my prayer time every morning at four o'clock. And I started thinking about it. David said, my voice you'll hear in the morning. And when I'm writing, the one thing I do is I make sure I pray first and then read the Bible first because I want the Bible to correct me. I want the Holy Spirit to correct me and make the adjustments that the world kind of bleed it in on me the day before, before I start doing any ministry. And I find a lot of my

pastor, young pastor friends, all their time cracking open the Bible is getting their message for Sunday. And I constantly tell them, guys, first of all, let the Bible read you. First of all, let God speak to you through his word and then start doing your message. So I would say it's making sure we remain in fellowship with him by spending time with him. Very good. Thank you for the book. Thank you for the reminder. Absolutely. Keep up the good word. Thank you, sir.

Thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure and subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast. You can do that on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith. We can change our culture. I'll see you next time.