Michael Youssef - Heaven Awaits - TV Special
Jane Robelot: There are so many misconceptions about what it is, but we do know, because the Bible tells us, that heaven is real. And I know, Dr. Michael Youssef, that aside from talking about Jesus, your favorite thing to talk about is heaven. And you say it's our best investment for earth. People tend to think about heaven as "I'll think about that later," but you say it's our 401k plan right now.
Dr. Michael Youssef: That's exactly right. Well, it's better than that because the dividends is absolutely incalculable. And it grieves me that even people in churches either don't know much about heaven or don't wanna know much about heaven. But the problem is, that's where you're gonna live forever. And that is why I really want the believers to begin to think of heaven here and now. And even we have preachers say, "Don't talk about heaven or hell". In fact, they're forbidding people from talking about hell or talking about heaven in their churches because they said it's a turn off. Turn off from what? If I turn off somebody from going to hell, I'll do it all day long.
Jane Robelot: Well, in a turn off, what are we selling here? I mean, are you selling something or are you trying to bring people to the Lord?
Dr. Michael Youssef: That's the point. They are selling something. They're selling that your best life is now. And if your best life is now, God help us, 'cause... but for the non-believers, it is their best life, they're not gonna get any better. But for us, this is the worst life. The best life is yet to come. And so, heaven should be on the mind of every genuine believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, Bible-believing Christian people. I'm not talking about the professing Christians and those who play churches. I'm talking about genuine believers.
Jane Robelot: What are the misconceptions? I saw you, as we were watching that brief, there were some crazy things that people believe about heaven. What are the biggest misconceptions out there?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Well, I like to focus more on people in the church because outside there, they really have no idea. I mean, they just hear about it, and Hollywood basically sold us a big lie. It says everybody, when they die, they go to heaven or become a ghost or become an angel, and they create all those kinds of fantasies that have no relationship with reality whatsoever.
Jane Robelot: We just care about what the Bible says.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Exactly. But even so, the Christians themselves do not want to know what the Bible says, and this is what grieves me. And they said, "Well, you know, I don't want to trouble myself with this. I just wanna say when I die and if I go to heaven, that's fine. If I don't", why, I mean, why do you buy insurance? So that you can leave some money for your descendants? You should be buying insurance in terms of your own eternity. And there's some people also within the church, again, the professing Christians, would say, "Well, I bought an insurance policy. I took Jesus as my Savior. Back yonder I walked down the aisle, and I made that decision," and they're living like the devil, and they think, "Well, I got the insurance policy". But the premiums are not being paid. They may have got it one day, but the premium is elapsed. It is daily walk with Christ, it's daily intimacy with Christ, it's daily love for Jesus and love for his people, those are the premiums, those are the regular assurance that this policy is still valid. But they say, "Well, I did it, you know, 25 years ago, and I'm fine". No, you're not. That is a misconception.
Jane Robelot: But they are... can you lose your salvation?
Dr. Michael Youssef: I don't know if they were saved to begin with. They think that because they walked down that aisle at the age of 9 or 10 or 11 or 12, and in an emotional response that they're okay, they bought the policy, and that is... you were asking me about the misconception, that's one of the biggest, is "I make my decision a long time ago. I've taken care of that". And we need to plead with people and appeal to people to understand what heaven is all about. And that's why a part of my calling, the few years I've got left, is to elevate people's vision from this life into life eternal because it is life eternal that's gonna impact this life in a way, that if they're looking for joy, looking for peace, and looking for love, looking for, I mean, that is what the thought of heaven will do.
Jane Robelot: How? How do I get those things in this life by connecting to an understanding better what's to come in heaven?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Well, because the scripture says that we're gonna have rewards in heaven. It's not everybody gonna get a trophy. It's not everybody's gonna get the same... no.
Jane Robelot: So, it's different for different people?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Absolutely. Because, in fact, the Bible talks about five different crowns in heaven. And these are not necessarily crowns that we're gonna put on our head and said, "Hey, look at me, boys," but these are the crowns that we so gratefully, I don't know if I can emotionally get through this, we so gratefully gonna come at the feet of Jesus and lay them down and say, "Thank you for redeeming us. Thank you for saving me".
Jane Robelot: Is that crown our service to him now? What are the crowns?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Well, for example, Paul talks about the crown for those who love his appearing. There is a specific reward and a specific crown to those who are really living with the anticipation of the coming of the Lord, who love his appearing. There's a crown of faithfulness in service. There's a... so all these crowns are things that we're gonna bring to Jesus, or I'm gonna go, "My hands are empty. I don't have anything. Thank you for saving me". And so, that is really what the crowns are all about. It's not for us necessarily to be glorified, but in order to glorify Jesus.
Jane Robelot: But to be clear, we don't earn our way into heaven, correct?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Absolutely not. And this is the whole point. I'm talking to believers, people who have this assurance of salvation and eternal life, that they have submitted their life to Christ and they've been become born again from inside out and not just going through the outward motions, and they know who they are, you know, because the Bible said that the Spirit witnesses within us, we know. And you know something else we know? Is the Spirit witness in us, we know the other believers, the brothers and sisters, we immediately sense that spiritual connection. And so, the Spirit within us, the Spirit witness with, so those are the people I wanna talk to.
Jane Robelot: The rewards that wait for us in heaven. I don't know, even with the apostle John's great descriptions of what he saw, we just don't really have it in us to even begin to imagine what the face of God will look like or what it will look like. But you know this Bible well. Give us a picture. What is heaven like? That's a big question.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Sure. What's gonna make heaven to be heaven is Jesus. That's really the bottom line. But think about this. Moses could not see the face of God and he had to hide him in a cliff and then kind of doesn't see his face. No one could see the face of God without being incinerated because of the purity and the holiness and the relationship to our sinfulness. But here's the great news. In heaven we're not gonna be in this current condition. We will have a glorified body, a supernatural body. The Bible says it's a body like Jesus after the Resurrection. And because of that body, the new body that we have, we'll be able to see the face of God. When Moses couldn't, nobody could, not Abraham, nobody, but we will be able to see the face of God because of the supernatural body that will be given to us when we land there.
Jane Robelot: And so important to remind people, Dr. Youssef, this invitation, Jesus extends to everyone. Everyone who can see us right now and hear us right now, he's inviting you into this relationship.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Absolutely. Jesus said, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only begotten Son, so that whomsoever," whomsoever. And the invitation is open and you can receive it or you can reject it. It's your decision. And, you know, one of the things that excite me about our ministry around the world is the promise of Jesus in Matthew 24. He said, "This gospel of the kingdom must be preached," ta ethna, every ethnic group, "to the end of the world, to the end of the earth, and then the end will come". And so, being involved in taking the gospel to 175 countries is exciting to know that we are literally preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth, to every ethnic group, so that the end will come and that we will see Jesus face to face. And that's really, the two are connected: the gospel, the preaching of the gospel, the proclamation of the gospel, salvation of souls, and heaven. They're all tied together.
Jane Robelot: And so, does that part of our mission as individual Christians right now? Is that part of our tie to heaven, is to make sure that we're helping get as many people there as possible?
Dr. Michael Youssef: I think we're under obligation to witness, as Peter put it, to give an account of the hope that lies within us. How can I not cure to cancer and not tell people about it? That is really the bottom line. If I know somebody who's dying of cancer and I know the cure, and I don't tell them, people are dying in sin and going to eternity in hell, and I know the answer, I have received the answer, I've been blessed to receive that treatment, and that's the only treatment that's gonna heal people from sin and eternal hell to eternal heaven.
Jane Robelot: I have to, you know, that might be the time when people are thinking the most about heaven. You mentioned the word cancer. People who are growing older, people who are facing some health crisis or a family member who's facing a health crisis, that might be when people kind of tune in a little bit to hear more about what heaven is about.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Sometimes those little crises the Lord brings and permits to remind us this is not our home. We are travelers, we are... you don't see anybody who set up house inside the train while the train is traveling. No, even on the train, you can't wait to get off to the station you wanna go to. And this is the train. We're traveling. We're heading for home. And if we start camping and make this to be our home, God help us.
Jane Robelot: And when we accept Christ and when we believe that and when we look forward to heaven, the things of this earth are not so heavy. I mean, isn't that another benefit of heaven? Right now on earth it's just, it's not all about this. There's hope. There's more.
Dr. Michael Youssef: I think that's the whole thing, the whole thing that gives us comfort in this life, as we began talking about that, that the very blessing of this life comes from knowing that we have a far better home. And I tell people when I do a funeral of friends and believers who are know they're going to heaven, I said, "This is just a transformation". I call it going from the basement to the penthouse. I mean, you going from the tent to the mansion. In fact, it's not by accident that Paul calls this body a tent. A tent through the years will sag and become loose and then collapses, that's just happened with time, and this tent will fold one day. But thank God I have a mansion that is, in comparison to this one, the supernatural body, the glorious body that I will receive when I go to heaven. And if you compare it, it's a tent to a mansion.
Jane Robelot: And that's us, physically. Will we have bodies in heaven?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Oh, absolutely. In fact, 1 Corinthians 15 is one of the longest chapter, 58 verses. But the whole argument that the apostle Paul make in that chapter is very, very important. We're not gonna be floating souls in heaven. He said we'll be clothed, and we'd be clothed with bodies that are supernatural bodies, that bodies, that like Jesus's body after the Resurrection, so we'll be able to see and observe things and experience things the way the heavenly bodies experience. Otherwise, we couldn't.
Jane Robelot: Will we know each other?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Absolutely.
Jane Robelot: 'Cause that's something people, it's so hard to let a loved one go, but if they believed in the Lord?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Oh, I always say this is not a goodbye. This is a "I'll see you later," because for the believers, that's what it is. It is a temporary separation. But we will recognize each other. I mean, look, I'll give you examples from the Bible 'cause I'm not smart enough to make up the stuff, I'm telling you. On the Mount of Transfiguration when our Lord took three, just three disciples, with him. And there they said, "Moses and Elijah". How they recognize that Moses and Elijah, even though they were in glorified body? But they recognize them. And remember this, there's a difference between the third heaven, which is is where the believers go, and the new heaven and the new earth.
Jane Robelot: Okay, I watched my precious little mom in her last hours seeing something and smiling and marveling at it. You have a beautiful story. Your mother heard them singing. Where did they go? Where are they now?
Dr. Michael Youssef: They go to the current heaven, the very heaven that John the Revelator saw, the heaven that Paul saw and he said he's not allowed to talk about, and the heaven where Jesus is reigning and ruling right now. But then, both John and the other Peter also says, you know, there gonna be a new heaven and a new earth, that the old earth will roll away, but there gonna be a new one and that is indescribable, and we don't know a great deal about it, and we will, of course, experience it when Lord Jesus Christ comes back.
Jane Robelot: How different would this world be if Christians, if believers, focused more on heaven?
Dr. Michael Youssef: It will become almost like heaven on earth, I promise you. And this is where it's gonna start with the believers. And every revival in the past, started with believers. When they were stricken over their sin and repented and began to focus on their eternal home, things have happened, whether it be the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, or the Hebrides or in Wales. As we we know from history, these things happen, but only when the believers start really, truly believe what they say they believe and practice it. Life would change. In some of those great awakenings, they said policeman, literally, had nothing to do. Judges were handed white gloves. I mean, there was just no cases in the court and would not we love a day like that again? But if it doesn't come and Jesus comes back, that's even better.
Jane Robelot: But it's a lovely challenge for believers. Will we have jobs in heaven? Will we have things to do? We won't be bored?
Dr. Michael Youssef: No, no, no. You know, this whole concept of, you know, cherubic, fat babies with wings and playing the harp and these are about medieval fantasies. But the Bible says that we're gonna reign and rule with him, and his servant do serve him, says in the book of Revelation. So we will be serving the Lord, we'll be worshiping him, we'll be serving, we'll look, we got a whole universe to run. We'll be running the universe with Jesus. It's not just a little tiny speck called planet Earth. We got a new heaven and new earth.
Jane Robelot: What's the biggest misconception for believers? Well, there's so many for non-believers.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Sure, yeah, yeah. Let's not even go there.
Jane Robelot: What's the biggest misconception for believers that bothers you?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Well, it's the doubt, that, really, if you know about bothering me, when I say, sometimes, and I know somebody is a believer, and I was talking to him and he said, "Well, I just hope so". I said, "No, no, no, no. It's not that you hope so. You already put your faith in Christ. You take him at his word. He's not gonna go back on his word, and therefore heaven is your destination".
Jane Robelot: Earlier, you had said when believers see each other, meet each other, we know it, we sense that. I also believe that when believers and non-believers alike hear truth, they receive it. So, why are churches turning away from truth, especially when it comes to preaching heaven and hell?
Dr. Michael Youssef: Because it's easy. They choose the easy way out. And Jesus said, "Wide is the road, and it's easy". He said that. He says, "Wide and easy. But narrow and difficult the road that leads to salvation". And so it is my plea for all of the electors who know and love Jesus, do not turn your back on the narrow road, because that is your salvation, that is your eternity. Stay with it. The suffering is only for a short period of time, but eternal joy is gonna be forever. And so, this is the time when the believers begin to really take seriously their eternal home, their eternal future, and where they will spend eternity. And what they gonna say when they see Jesus? I tell folks, I said, "I am simply looking forward to the words from his wonderful lips, 'Well done.'" That's it. And the amazing thing is... and that's very important to me. Jesus did not say, "Much done," much done. If I could go to heaven and said, you know, "Look how many books I've written, how many sermons I've", no, no, no, no, no, no. Did I do all these things faithfully? It's my faithfulness, "Well done", not the quantity but the quality.
Jane Robelot: What a beautiful distinction. And, Michael, thank you so much for writing this book, "Heaven Awaits". Everything that we've been talking about and so much more is included in your most recent book, "Heaven Awaits," and I feel like this is not only inspiration for believers to get into the Word of God, you even include in the back a list of passages that we need to be looking at every day for inspiration, but it's wonderful to have that book to use as a tool to get other people excited about heaven and excited about Jesus.
Dr. Michael Youssef: And I want to take as many people to heaven with me as possible. And that book, actually, is my heart longing from what I distilled from the Word of God. There's not a single opinion of mine here, is what Jesus said, what the Word of God said, what the book of Revelation said, and what we're expecting from the Bible, what the Bible said about heaven. So, all about God and his Word.
Jane Robelot: And when we talk about heaven, it's such a big subject. And, again, I have to thank you for... this is not "you heard somebody died and came back". No, no, this is, what does the Bible say, what does Jesus say, Old Testament and New, about heaven? What really inspired you for this particular book?
Dr. Michael Youssef: You already referred to it, this heavenly tourism where people say, "Well, I went to heaven, I saw this and I saw that, and saw the other thing". And I said, "Why do I have to take your word for it when I already have the Word of the one who died and went to heaven and came and told me about it, the one who created heaven, the one who made heaven"? But we are, as humans, we just kind of hang on all this little things that are not really gonna help us afloat. We think they do, so that is why I said I want people to know what Jesus says about heaven, what the Bible said about heaven, what God and what we as believers expect about heaven. So, that really was a major motivation.
Jane Robelot: You use a wonderful analogy in your book. When you and your beautiful wife, Elizabeth, were planning to move to the United States, you didn't just kind of pop on a plane and get here and then see what it was all about. You did your homework.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Absolutely. We spent hours looking at the neighborhoods, we look at maps, and talking to people that we know that have been in that area. I mean, this is just part of where we're gonna spend only a few years, and I said, "How much more should we be making these plans for where we're gonna spend eternity"? And that's really part of my motivation of wanting believers to start taking their eternity seriously because when they do, they're gonna find this life a blessing.
Jane Robelot: Absolutely. And I have to say, for me, too, that was one of the great joys about reading this book. It's very motivational and inspirational based on God's Word for living the best today, for reaching out to others, for pouring into others.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Oh, what a joy would be for us to go to this effort and to go to write the book and so forth. If there's one person, and I know more than one person over there who's watching, and you say, "Well, Michael, I don't understand this about heaven. I don't understand this about Jesus". You know, it is so simple, Satan complicates it, that we're all sinners, we're all born sinners, we're all born with our backs to God, we're all born to say no to God, but then there is an answer, because if we continue in this life, going against God, we're gonna end up in eternity in hell. But Jesus made a way. He came from heaven, died on a cross to pay for the wages of everyone who would come and confess. Just say, "I know I'm a sinner". When people say, "I'm not perfect," well, you're saying you're a sinner, and, therefore, ask for his forgiveness, invite him into your life, and you will never be the same. Do that today.
Jane Robelot: Dr. Michael Youssef, thank you so much. Thank you for this book. Thank you for your passion for the Lord. And we just invite everyone to enjoy this book, share this book, and remember that, for you, heaven awaits. Thank you for joining us.