Leading The Way

Guest (Male): And now Dr. Michael Youssef introduces the topic of this episode of Leading The Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Today I want to give you five reasons as to why believers tend to take their eyes off the prize and they place them totally, completely on this life. First of all, reason number one is false perception of the heavenly Jerusalem.

Second reason is the overwhelming pressures of this life, which we all face. Third reason is the allure of the seen versus the unseen. And fourthly, it is the apostasy or the worldliness of the church of Jesus Christ here on earth. And finally, the false teaching regarding salvation and heaven.

Guest (Male): Focusing on eternity is difficult when surrounded by the struggles and enamoring of earthly life. But eternity is what Dr. Youssef helps you look toward on this episode of Leading The Way. Now before he begins, a quick challenge to connect further with Dr. Youssef and Leading The Way by visiting us at LTW.org/connect.

You'll be so glad you did because there you'll find links to subscriptions, apps, podcasts, and more. Again, that's LTW.org/connect. Okay, listen now as Dr. Michael Youssef continues his series on Unholy Alliance of the Antichrist.

Dr. Michael Youssef: One of the great challenges for believers in the 21st century is how do we live in the city of man, wherever we are, with all of its problems, with all of its difficulties, with all of its challenges, and all of its distractions, but keep our eyes on the city of God to which we belong. That's really a challenge. That is really a temptation.

Why am I saying this? Because I find it much easier to love this life with little attention to where I'm going to be spending my forever. There are very few of us who could say with the writer to the Hebrews in chapter 13, verse 14, "For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."

All of us, young or old, it doesn't matter, all of us who live in this city of man, we don't think often of our eternal future. I think you don't have to look or listen hard to find out that in our culture, in our day, there is so much confusion about heaven and hell and eternity, eternal life, and the life after.

And Hollywood sold us a bill of goods by the movies and the shows that constantly tell everybody that when they die, everyone goes to heaven. And it really is. And now those unscrupulous people who supposedly have died and when they died, they saw light and they saw Jesus and they write these books and they tell that everybody's going to make it to heaven.

Well, beloved, that does not only contradict every single page of the Word of God, but they are misleading people all the way to hell. The Gospel makes it very, very clear, very clear that only those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sin and their eternal life, they are the ones who are assured of eternity in heaven with Jesus. Period.

Now today I want to give you five reasons as to why believers tend to take their eyes off the prize and they place them totally, completely on this life. Five reasons. I want to share them with you. First of all, reason number one is false perception of the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

Second reason is the overwhelming pressures of this life, which we all face. Third reason is the allure of the seen versus the unseen. And fourthly, it is the apostasy or the worldliness of the church of Jesus Christ here on earth. And finally, the false teaching regarding salvation and heaven.

First of all, it's the false perception of the city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Listen to me. If I believed half of that stuff, those false perceptions, I wouldn't want to go there either. I mean, think about this: sitting in clouds, playing harp, and singing choruses 24/7, wearing halos and looking very cherubic.

The streets of gold and the pearly gates and 24/7 boring church services. That is not heaven. There are all sorts of distortion about the city of God, the New Jerusalem. And the truth is this: the heavenly city of God is awesome. It is absolutely magnificent. The heavenly city of God is indescribable to the human mind.

There is a reason why the Bible only gives us glimpses of eternity in heaven, and the reason for that is because if we really knew what it was like, we would be jumping off of skyscrapers to get there. Think of the best that you see here on earth and multiply it a billion times, and then you get to the truth.

Think of the most beautiful scenery that you've ever seen anywhere in the world, multiply it a billion times, and then you get close to the truth. Philippians 1:23, Paul was trying to describe heaven, trying to explain heaven. He finally says it's far, far, far, far better. And so false perception keeps us from focusing on heaven.

Secondly, the overwhelming pressures in life. Young or old, we all seem to feel the pressure and that eclipses our vision of our eternal future. Please listen carefully. Even the godliest among us has to admit that the problems of life steal our focus from heaven. The godliest among us.

The pressures of business and career and difficulties and family and financial challenges. When you consider the emotional wear and tear of life, when you consider the hurt and rejection and pain, when you consider the loss of loved ones, when you consider the various responsibilities that we carry with us in this life, all of these are combined to dim our vision of heaven.

Don't misunderstand me. I believe God wants us to work hard. He does not want us to goof off. God wants us to be good stewards. I'm not saying you've got to put white robes and head for the mountain. No. But by the same token that we do all of that with our focus and our attention toward the city of God that is yet to come.

Our focus is to introduce people to the Savior. We allow these pressures in life, these problems of life, to help us to let the light of Christ shine through us. What difference otherwise between us and those who don't know Jesus, who are not going to heaven, who don't know they're going to heaven? These are all, should be the focus of our heavenly reward.

Beloved, the world is desperate to know God. There is deep longing inside of them. In fact, they're living in quiet desperation. They want to know God. They want to know the true God. The reason we must forgive their insults and ridicule, the reason we must love them despite the fact they set themselves as enemies toward us, the reason we pray for them in spite of that enmity and hatred is because we long for them to come and know Jesus. Amen?

So false perception of the city of God distorts the truth about the city of God. And secondly, the overwhelming pressures of the city of man often eclipses our vision of the eternal city of God. Thirdly, the allure of what is seen trips us. It really does. I don't know about you, I know it trips me all the time.

By nature, listen, all of us, your pastor is included, what we see with our eyes gets our immediate attention, right? By nature, what is visible tugs on our heartstrings, right? We say, out of sight, out of mind, and this is absolutely true. In this postmodern culture, people can literally believe what can only be described as make-believe.

There are some people who sit there for hours, I'm talking about millions of people, watching these soap operas in the morning and they really believe it's real. You don't believe me? Just a couple of years ago, there was one of those morning soap operas where somebody killed somebody and the person died. Thousands and thousands of cards and flowers were sent.

Make-believe becomes believed by most people. That's the problem. That's what we're dealing with. So many millions of people are confusing reality with make-believe and they're living in their non-reality world. And yet there are many others who think that God's promise of heaven is a foolish fantasy.

They say, well, it's just something for the poor and the needy to hold on to so they can cope with life. Even the least materialistic believer among us can get sucked in by these make-believe. So they make their business plans, they make their life plans, they make their retirement plans, they make all sorts of plans as if they're going to live forever.

So many people who confess Christ as Savior and Lord, and yet they give the crumbs that are falling off their tables and they think they're great philanthropists. Give me a break. I mean, there's some people who come to church late, leave early and they think they're great spiritual people. Beloved, the scripture is clear: only what you give to the Lord in this life will be waiting for you on the other side.

False perception of the city of God works against us. Overwhelming pressures of life eclipse our vision of the city of God. The allure of what is seen blinds us to the reality of the city of God. And fourthly, the church's worldliness, the church's muddled teaching, muddled thinking regarding the city of God impacts us.

Walk to the average church and pick someone at random and ask, "What are your spiritual goals?" You'll be shocked with the answers. Walk to the average church and pick someone at random and say, "How are you accomplishing God's purpose in your life?" You'll be shocked with the answers.

Good grief, there is the average pastor in the church has a muddled view. There's some people now, megachurch pastors, teaching that your best life is now. Give me a break. The early church lived and worked to glorify God and the name of God in this life because they were looking forward to the next.

They planned for heaven and for eternity. Their priority was holiness, ours is happiness. Their priority was sacrificing for God, ours is self-satisfaction. Their measure of success was measured by eternity and an eternal perspective, ours is measured by how much we can accumulate.

Let me ask you this: why would anyone want to think of heaven, the city of God, when their best life is here, when their best life is now? It's not a secret that today we try to live a life without risk, without loss, and without pain. We really do. After all, every desire can be gratified and every pain can be alleviated and every limitation can be transcended and every happiness can be achieved.

Why ever think about heaven and plan for heaven? And so false perception of heaven can deter us. Life's pressures can eclipse our vision of heaven. The allure of the visible blinds us. The church's worldliness muddles our vision.

Five: false teaching, which is rampant about eternity and heaven and salvation. There are so many so-called mega-evangelical churches who never preach on heaven or hell or eternity. Never. Not one time. Now I thank God for all the faithful ones here in this city who preach the truth and let the chips fall where they may, but there are very few of us left.

The mainline denominations are gone a long time ago about the subject. Now the so-called evangelical churches have joined the chorus and you hear them say, "God will not send anyone to hell." Well, this is actually true and false at the same time. God is not going to send anyone to hell that has not chosen to go to hell.

If they refuse God's plan of salvation, if they refuse Jesus' salvation, if they refuse His hand of forgiveness, if they refuse the cross of Christ, they're going to walk into hell with their own feet. They're sending themselves to hell. They will go there because they refuse the one and only true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'll never forget in the early days of this church when we were part of a mainline church and I felt a burden in my heart to reach out to some of these pastors in the mainline denominations. I really did, and I began to set a series of lunches. I would invite them to come one-on-one and I would just talk to them, draw them out, begin to talk to them about why is it only one way to go, why Jesus is the only way to heaven.

I'll never forget one time a man who's ordained in the mainline denomination and I had set up a series of lunches with him. I invited him and I began to talk to him about what the scripture said and why it's very important about the truth and so forth. And then all of a sudden in the end he got so angry and he looked at me and said, "How arrogant of you to say that there's only one way to God, that Jesus is the only way to God!"

I said to him, I said, "Your false teaching not only misleads people, but misleads them all the way to hell. Your false teaching confuses even some of the professing Christians." I pleaded with him: this is not my idea, this is the truth of God, I only accept it. It is Jesus who made the claim, it is Jesus who made the statement, it is Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," to no avail. To no avail.

Now this teaching, for some of you might not know, is known as Universalism. It's a big word, but what it means is so many in the churches practice or believe Universalism. Everybody's going to make it. It doesn't matter whether you're Hindu or Buddhist, everyone's going to make it in the end. This is how they see it. The Bible said God is love and therefore love is God, and all we need to do is love.

Beloved, this is to me at least, as I've been studying the scripture for 50 years and as I'm looking at our world today in the last three to five years, as I'm examining the condition of the church of where we are and where we're going, I believe with all my heart we're coming toward the end. Not fear! Lift up your head, the Bible said, for your day of redemption draws nigh. Amen. Give God praise.

Very few now can really say with Hebrews 13:14, "We have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city that is to come." Please hear me out, I'm getting close to the end. I love life as much as you do. I love serving the Lord in this life. I love serving the Kingdom of God in this life. I love serving my family in this life.

But every waking moment now, I am looking forward to the coming of Jesus, to that new city. And every day it's growing in intensity. I know probably some of you walked in here felt discouraged, maybe despondent, disappointed. Only you and God know where you are. I see God on my knees because I don't know everyone.

And I say, "Lord, how can I be an encouragement?" And my mind just immediately went to something I have heard. I'm going to share it with you as I conclude. A man by the name of Henry C. Morrison from the Midwest. Henry served the Lord in Africa for 40 years, faithfully.

He worked long and hard. He endured cold nights and hot days and served Jesus with all of his heart. At the end of his 40 years' service, he was returning home to retire in the Midwest. On the boat that brought him from Europe into the New York Harbor, there was President Teddy Roosevelt on the same boat, the same ship.

And so when they docked at the New York Harbor, there were thousands of people at the harbor waiting for Teddy Roosevelt and they were waving flags and there was music and fanfare and celebration, welcoming President Roosevelt home. Not one, not one person was waiting for Henry and welcoming him home. Not one.

Being made of flesh and blood like all of us, Henry Morrison felt dejected, disappointed, disparaged, and he became depressed. And so he went from the harbor to the train station, bought a ticket to get home to the Midwest. And as he sat in that train, he heard the voice of the Lord audibly, whispering in his ear, "Henry, you're not home yet. You're not home yet. You're not home yet."

He was not talking about the Midwest; He was talking about heaven. My beloved friends, some of you may have faithfully served the Lord and received not a word of thanks and you're despondent, discouraged. Some of you may have sacrificed dearly, no one acknowledged your sacrifice. You might have been teaching and serving and giving and no one said a thing to you.

Remember, you're not home yet. You're not home yet. Wait till you get home and you hear from the lips of Jesus, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And I want to say amen, and amen, and amen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. If you missed any of today's teaching or other messages in this life-changing series, visit LTW.org. That's where you can stream, get connected with the app, podcast, and more. LTW.org.

Well, no doubt you've seen the wave of extremism sweeping through universities, the media, politics of course, and even the church. What you may not realize is that behind this destructive chaos is a truth that many avoid: radical Islamist and radical progressives, groups normally opposed to one another, have joined in an unholy alliance. They share one common goal, which is destruction of Western Judeo-Christian civilization, and this truth goes beyond what you could ever imagine.

Well, Dr. Youssef understands the history and growth of this alliance through his biblical study, his decades of global ministry, and his extensive research. He reveals even more in his most urgent book to date called *An Unholy Alliance*.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Hello friends. You have seen the wave of extremism on college campuses, in conversation with some young people in your life, even in many churches. Two radical ideologies, once enemies, now they're marching together. They shut down debate, excuse violence, and they target biblical truth. That alliance is real, and it is deliberate.

In my new book, *An Unholy Alliance*, I explain what these two radical opposed forces are, why they are working together, and also give you the 1400-year back story many people are entirely ignorant about that is shaping today's headlines. Get my new book, *An Unholy Alliance*. It's going to open your eyes and give you practical ways to make a difference for Christ.

Guest (Male): Ordering details for *An Unholy Alliance* are available when you call us: 866-626-4356. And the website is LTW.org. LTW.org. And we love it when you write us a note. Tell us how this ministry is impacting your spiritual walk, send a gift to the ministry, send us your prayer request. Send it to Leading The Way, Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325.

That's Post Office Box 20100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325. Hey, we want to thank you for taking time in your day for the Bible teaching of Dr. Michael Youssef on Leading The Way. And remember, you're invited back when he passionately proclaims even more uncompromising truth. This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.