Think about getting to heaven. I mean think about the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Think about being caught up together to meet him in the air in the clouds.
Think about being given a position by him where he says,
You, because you're a priest, because you're a king, you will rule and reign with me in this earth for a thousand years.
I mean can you imagine the excitement?
And look, I'm going to tell you something, it's not communism.
It's not everybody who's going to be ruling the same.
If you think everybody's ruling the same, you're wrong.
Because he says to one guy, be thou over ten cities in Luke 12.
He says to another guy, be thou over five cities.
He says to different people, according to what they did with what they were given,
they're given different rewards, different authority.
Now look, I want to get to heaven, and I want the big crown.
You know what I'm saying?
I want to get there, and I want to be ruling and reigning with Christ big time.
And look, those of us who win souls, and you know, none of us is perfect.
I mean we all have a long ways to go in our Christian growth.
But those of us who win souls, those of us who take a stand for what's right,
those of us who will not budge, those of us who read the Bible faithfully and fellowship with God,
and those of us who bring forth much fruit, I'm going to tell you something.
We are going to be ruling and reigning literally with Christ in this world.
Can you even imagine what that's like?
And you say, I just can't take it anymore.
I'm going to quit church.
Hey look, you're going to quit church when you've only got 50 years left?
And then you can reign for 1,000 years?
Boy, push yourself as much as you can in this life.
Push it all the way to the last breath.
Push yourself.
Endure the pain.
Just move forward.
Just go soul winning as much as you can.
Read the Bible as much as you can.
Just push it all the way to the end and say, I don't know if I can take it,
but I think I can just take one more day of it.
I think I can just push myself just a little further.
I think I can just stay awake a little longer and study the Bible and pray and work
and fast and toil and sweat and get people saved.
I think I can just push it a little further.
Hey, push it as far as you can.
And then when you get to the finish line, it's going to be the Lord for 1,000 years
and then for all eternity.
I mean, just think about who we are.
Think about the sinners that we are.
I mean, think about where we came from.
And then think about the fact that you can go from, I mean, talk about from rags to riches.
I mean, you can go from being whatever your past is like, whatever the sorrow, the misery,
the gutter, and you can go to just being.
I mean, think about that.
Go from being totally sinful to one day you could be a priest ruling and reigning with God.
To go from being maybe poor in this life to being a rich king in the next life.
Wow, what a privilege. I mean, none of us deserves that.
And so if God doesn't give us everything we want in this life, you know what?
He's still giving us a fair shake because we're going to be rewarded 100 times in the next life,
the Bible says 100 times in this earth we're going to be given anything we give up for God.
That's a pretty good deal.
That's a pretty good investment.
People go to college for years and years because they want their investing in their future.
I remember talking to a guy in his 20s.
He was putting money into retirement like crazy.
He's like, man, I can't wait.
He's like, I got it all set up.
When I'm 65, I can retire and just play golf all day.
I think to myself, that's crazy.
You know what I mean?
He's amassing wealth for when he's 65.
I think to myself, what's he going to have for 10 years?
I mean, how long are you really going to live with that 65?
15 years of golf, wow.
The world will do without a sacrifice so they can have 10 years of fun retirement in the world.
We can push ourselves so that we can have 1,000 years of rejoicing and then all interferment with Jesus Christ,
rejoicing about the souls that we've started to see saved in this life.
It's so obvious, but see, it's unclear to those that don't have their eyes focused on the things of God.
It's hazy, it's heaven, you know.
But you know what?
The closer you get to God, heaven seems like it's around the corner.
I mean, seriously.
I mean, the kingdom of Jesus Christ on this earth just seems like it's around the corner.
And so you've got to get your perspective right.
How are you going to get your perspective right?
Get in this book a lot.
Let this book consume your mind and you'll start to get a very cool picture.