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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you Oh, wait, you don't do the Thursday one. You do the Saturday one. Yeah, Brother Vernon, I doubt they'll be doing that Thursday one either. So, but those are in South Carolina times. And then Brother Mark, I don't know. He may actually have something going on on that Saturday. So, in any case, you could speak to the people directly if you were wanting to go soul winning at one of those times. Just keep in mind that we have got the camping trip going on, so it may be subject to change. Salvations and baptisms there for the month of April. So, praise the Lord, you know, we've had a really awesome April. We had that soul winning marathon that really, you know, we saw a lot of salvations. And we've really just been blessed with some good results there. Good fruit of our efforts. Our labor is going forth and preaching the gospel. Let's go ahead and count up salvations for the week. It looks like I forgot to ask this morning. So, if you had any salvations prior to today, just slip your hand up real quick. I just want to get those counted if there's anything that needed to be reported and I just didn't get this morning. I didn't get to today yet. Yes, hold on a minute. Anything? Okay. One for today. I'm just kidding. Amen. And then, so, who else for today? Your group got one. Two over here. Three back there. Two. All right. Amen. So, yeah, it seems like that area, I know it's a longer drive. I think I sent most people out that direction where you went. But it seems like very good results from that neighborhood. So, praise the Lord for that. Offerings told us down there at the bottom of the page through the month of April prayer requests. And we added Mrs. Hill for a speedy recovery on her broken leg. And I only heard concerns from one person after church about Hagen-Dodie. So, if you had any other concerns, I'm going to allow them to come and, you know, that everyone's aware of what's going on there. So, if you have any other concerns, please talk to me about that. But I think everything will be okay. I think it will be managed well. As long as everyone's just aware of what's going on, just, you have the liberty to do as you will and stay, go as close or as far away as you please. So, but the good news is that she's feeling great. So, she's feeling well and is kind of, is back to her normal self. So, that's also very good news. And then we have one more addition, Ms. Cady's grandmother, Georgia Ann. And Brother Devin, you want to give just a really quick, just. Yes, she's just, she's in a mental facility right now that's helping just observe the new medications she's on and see how she's had problems with depression and also just memory loss. So, she's on medication for dementia type symptoms and her memory and just having a real low state and it's kind of a dangerous type of depression. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot to the stories, a lot of history there. But basically, she's had a troubled past in general. She's an elderly lady now and she's already suffering from some dimension, some memory loss and they're trying to treat her with medication. But she's also had a lot of problems struggling with depression and things too. So, we want to pray for her physical health as well as her spiritual health. Both are very important and as well as those who are also involved in caring for her. So, similar with Doris, there's, you know, people are caring for them. Right. So, they have, she has family helping out but it's, you know, these are difficult times dealing with these types of problems and these types of issues. So, just pray that God will strengthen the family and help them out. And, you know, most importantly, the spiritual side, the spiritual aspect of this. Pray for that as well. So, we're adding George Ann to the prayer list. And then, I mentioned, as I mentioned this morning, Sure Foundation Baptist Church is starting a new church plant in Seattle. So, Seattle, Washington. So, that's good news for the people of that area. Pray that God will bless that church plant and that they will be very successful in leading people to Christ. On the next page, the May challenge. So, I mentioned this morning, it looks like a lot of people received their prizes this morning for the April challenge. So, if you completed the April challenge and you did not get a prize, go ahead and help yourself after the service and collect on that. If you wanted something that was here before and it's no longer here, let me know. I'm happy to get whatever, whatever you saw that you'd like to have. And then, while I'm thinking about it, Pastor Bogart, you don't have to open this right now, but make sure you get this before you leave. There was a gentleman that was blessing you with a gift, with a, I don't know if you were expecting that or not, I think he probably told you about it already, and I forgot about it and I remembered it, so it's on this table here for you. You can take that after the service. And so, that was very nice. I think he got you a coat. So, very good. I just, I set it down because I didn't want to forget about that. And let's see. Continuing on, we've got the Bible memory passage. We're about halfway through Hebrews 7 verses 15 through 28, 14 verses. If you could memorize these and quote the passage word perfect out loud to someone else who's going to check your work. If you get it right, then you will earn a prize for being able to do that. We've got the birthdays and anniversaries listed down there. We already sang to my wife this morning, and then we've got the birthdays listed there and anniversaries through the month of May. And then, down at the bottom of the page, of course, I talked about the camping trip already. That's this week. It is here. We're looking forward to that. And then, our church anniversary, it's a five-year anniversary. Pastor Mejia from First Works Baptist Church is going to be out here preaching for us on that Sunday, and then on July 5th, we'll have Pastor Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church preaching on that Wednesday night service for us. And that is about it for our announcement. So, there's always one last scan, thinking like, did anyone else ask me to say anything? Was there anything else I'm missing? I don't think so. Brother Peter, come on up, please, and lead us in our next song. Yes, sir. All right, church, we hope you're able to sing a song for 327. Song 327, Hire Brown. Song 327. All right, let's sing this out on the verse. All right, let's sing this out on the verse. All right, let's sing this out on the verse. All right, let's sing this out on the last. All right, let's sing this out on the last. That was Romans, chapter 14. Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. And let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living, but why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set at naught thy brother, for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him that esteemeth it, anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably? Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. Let not then your good be evil spoken of, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroyed not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? Have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith, for whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for another opportunity to come to church tonight, and I pray that you would just bless the service. Bless all of us as we try to listen and pay attention to the message that pastor has prepared for us. Pray that you'd bless him as he comes to deliver it to us all, and that you would just bless the the week upcoming, all the preaching upcoming this week. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. And all right, now I am continuing on with my series on end times events. So we did an entire timeline of of the book of Revelation essentially, and then we've covered the day of the Lord, and the abomination of desolation. And what I'm going to cover tonight is the the topic of the judgment seat of Christ. So this is another event that's yet to happen. The timing for this, and we'll see this, is at after the first resurrection. So if you remember from 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it talks about the resurrections in the grand scheme of things. You have Christ the first fruits after that day that our Christ at his coming, which is the first resurrection, and then come at the end, and that's the second resurrection. We also see in the Bible as the resurrection of the just, and as a resurrection of the unjust. So at the first resurrection, it's the resurrection where the believers, what we also call the rapture. It's another term that's commonly used for that first resurrection. It's when the dead in Christ are going to rise. And then those which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and so shall we be with the Lord. So at that event, that precedes the millennial reign of Christ, the 1000 years that Christ is going to rule and reign on this earth. So you have the first resurrection that takes place. We will be raptured, if we're still alive, we'll be raptured together. If we're not physically alive in the flesh, then our bodies will come up out of the grave. They'll be changed in a moment, and the twinkling of an eye, we'll have a brand new body, and our soul and spirit will be reunited with our flesh. New flesh, new body, we'll be with Christ. Now, as we saw from our timeline, and I go through all that again, you go through back through the sermons recently on Sunday nights, going through this this timeline, there's going to be a time of wrath where God's pouring out his wrath on the unbelievers, on those that took the mark of the beast, on the world, essentially, after that rapture takes place. And that's going to continue for approximately three and a half years before Christ ultimately is setting up his throne and his kingdom here on earth. So we're going to get more into the timeline stuff at a future sermon, but I want to cover this topic tonight because this event of the judgment seat of Christ, which we write about as reference here in Romans chapter 14, this is throughout the Bible quite a bit, actually. I've got a lot of content, so I'm going to I'm going to try to manage my time the best I can. I might have to skip some references just so you understand how much the Bible does talk about this event. It's quite extensive, actually. And this is an event and I'm going to I'm going to give a prologue here to give you as much information as possible at the high level, and then we'll dig into all the passages and prove what I'm stating now from scripture so we can see the scriptural evidence behind what I'm trying to teach you just at this moment right now. So and what the judgment seat of Christ is going to represent is what we're going to see is that this is where believers will be judged according to their works. OK, this is not to gain access or gain entrance into the kingdom of God. This is not have anything to do with your salvation, whether or not you're going to heaven or hell, because that has nothing to do with your works. We are saved by grace. So our sins are covered completely and separated from us as far as the east is from the west through the blood of Jesus Christ and the gift that he just gives us and gives us. He grants us forgiveness of sin. So this judgment, I just want to be clear and we'll see this and go through it has nothing to do with your sin. But it does have to do with what you've done with your life and how you've lived your life now in the scripture when we when we see references to hell, there are a few places that talk about different levels of hell. There's the lowest hell or people warned about receiving the greater damnation in hell, right? So we can see references to, you know, within hell that there's some places that are even worse. Well, similarly, on the opposite side of the spectrum, you know, people who are saved, hey, everybody who's saved will go to heaven when they die. But there's a level, there's more rewards, there are bonuses or prizes, if you will, crowns, also the biblical term that's used that's given based on the life that you've lived here on this earth. So your existence in eternity, your existence with everlasting life will be some will be better than others. Now, look, it's all great if you're saved. I mean, even even the lowest position in heaven is way leaps and bounds greater than the coldest part of hell. So, I mean, there's a world of difference there. Obviously, being saved is the most important thing, making sure, hey, I've got eternal life because Christ paid my way. Amen. And what I love about this doctrine and what I love about God himself is that I think this even emphasizes more completely the free gift of salvation. Because he gives that to us for free, just you put your trust in Christ, that is yours, that is a free gift, he's given that to you. So then anything that you do for Christ on top of that, your obedience to Christ, the work that you do for him, he pays you for. He will give you reward for, he will give on top of that. Now, he doesn't have to do that, right? I mean, saving our souls, we are indebted to Christ forever, just in general, right, just because he did that. But he's not going to accept any payment from us because salvation is a free gift. Because he doesn't want to mix anything of what he did with what we can do in regards to our salvation. That's 100% Christ. All glory, all credit, all honor goes to Christ. And one more way of ensuring that is God saying, OK, well, now everything that you do, when you listen to me, when you obey me, when you do what I want you to do, I'm going to add on top of that. Because this was a free gift. Your salvation, your eternal life is free. So now I will reward you when you do good and when you do well. This is what the judgment seat of Christ is all about. Now, let's dig in to this passage, because I also want to see, I want to point out something that I've noticed through my study of this that you may or may not have seen before. We have a tendency to be, when if you're thinking about standing before, I mean, think about the judgment seat of Christ. Christ is sitting on the throne, right? You imagine yourself there being in front of Christ and being judged for your works. It's a very personal thing. We may be thinking to ourselves, hey, what might that be like? And be thinking about sins or think about other things you do. But what I want to point out, and I want you to follow, as we read through these passages, I may or may not remember to point it out to you, be thinking about, it has a lot, I don't want to say everything, but a lot to do with other people, with how you build on others, not as much what you do for yourself. This is how we will be judged. So, it'll be judged on our works for other people. So, now keep that in mind and say, okay, I don't know about that, but let's keep that in mind as we go through these passages and see if that rings true in scripture. We started in Romans chapter 14, which, by the way, Romans chapter 14 is all about how to deal with other brethren, other believers. And you have some that are weaker in the faith and some that are stronger. You have some that are not quite right on some doctrines and others that have the doctrine down pat, right? And the overall teaching of Romans 14 is, you know what, let those guys be, help them out, don't throw any stumbling blocks before your brother or sister in Christ. If they're struggling with some issue or some doctrine, it's not some big deal. It's not some fundamental doctrine. They have a problem with, oh, I don't think I could eat this and I know it's okay, you could eat that. Or someone thinking like, oh, this day, I want to separate this day and make it holy and we can, you know, and it's like, no, you can treat every day. Like these types of things, they're smaller issues, they're smaller doctrines. You say, you know what, if someone has an issue with that, don't go trying to rub their face in something or go after it with a bad attitude that might cause them to stumble. Just deal with it, be long suffering, say, okay, you know, go about making accommodation for the weaker brother or sister in Christ. That is how we would have love or charity in our heart towards our brethren. And that's what it's talking about at the beginning and at the end of Romans 14. And then smack dab in the middle, we're talking about the judgment seat of Christ. That's not a coincidence that this just happens to be thrown in there between those two concepts in Romans chapter 14. So let's look at verse number seven. The Bible says, for none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. We don't live for ourselves as believers. We shouldn't, just as Christ didn't live for himself. He lived for everybody but himself, we should have that same mind and that same attitude. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord and whether we die, we die unto the Lord, whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. Verse 10, but why does thou judge thy brother or why does thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. In this context, judging your brother, setting him at naught, it's over these little things, these little issues. He's saying, why are you judging your brother? Why are you setting him at naught? Hey, everybody's going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Just let it be. Show grace and I don't even think as much for the other person, well, yeah, that person's got to answer for himself. Well, you're going to have to answer for yourself. Why are you causing that person to stumble? How about you bless that person and build that person up and edify that person and help that person to grow and to learn? That's what you should be worried about then for the judgment seat of Christ for you. The Bible says in verse 11, for it is written, as I live, said the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Now, I also want to make this point, too, because we're going to see this as we continue on as well. And turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 while I'm explaining this a little bit. The Bible says every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Giving an account is not necessarily implying giving an answer for all of your sins. Jesus Christ has paid for all of our sins. I mean, what answer could you give to God anyways for your sin? I mean, think about that. This happens after the first resurrection. We're in our glorified body. We don't have that sinful flesh anymore. So if God's going to be asking you, hey, why did you sin? Because my flesh is weak or was weak, you're not going to have a good no one's going to have a good answer. No one will have a good answer. Okay. Giving an account, though, it's not as much the focus on what did you do wrong, it's what did you do. Right? So if you have to give an account, okay, you have this job to do. And then when you're done with that job, you give an account. Right? Like, think about in business. You have, you have somewhat, you have a project that you're tasked with doing. And then at the end of that project, you go back to your boss, and he wants you to give an account. What happened? Right? Tell me everything that happened. That's giving an account for yourself. And at the agency of Christ, it's going to be giving an account for your life. So what have you done? We're the Lord's servants. What do you, okay, you're, you've reached the end. The workday is over. Give an account now, what have you done? This is going to be our judgment. And we're going to see in a, in a little while what actually happens to those who say, yeah, I kind of took a really long break. I, I made myself look kind of busy, but I didn't really do anything, God. And, and we'll see soon that, you know, that person's still saved. They're not really going to get rewarded. The bonus check isn't coming in for that person. But nevertheless, they are still saved. It's giving an account, right? It's not an answering for all of your sins. And some people get confused about this. There's a second judgment that we see in Revelation chapter 20, which is the great white throne judgment, which happens after the millennial reign of Christ, when heaven and earth is passed away, and then everybody's just standing before this great, great white throne, and, and death and hell deliver up the dead which are in it, and the dead are standing before God. And then they are judged according to their works out of the law, out of the books of God, out of, out of God's law, they're going to be judged according to their works in that sense, because they don't have Christ, and then they're going to pay for all their sins in eternity in the lake of fire. So that is a different judgment. It is of their works, but that is all of their breaking of the commandments. Whereas the judgment seat of Christ is not about your sin. It's about what did you do for the cause of Christ. It's, it's the positive side of things versus the negative side of things. Because the negative side of things for us, hey, Christ has, has made that balance. He's, he's paid that in full. So we don't have that debt to owe. But now he's asking, well, what did you do? And then he's going to give rewards for that. Now, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, let's look at verse number 13. The Bible says, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. Now, he's talking about the resurrection, talking about us being raised up, right? Because this is after, right after his first resurrection is when this judgment seat of Christ is going to take place. And he's saying, hey, we're going to be raised up with you and you're going to be present with us. We're going to be there together because you're saved, we're saved. We're going to be part of this first resurrection and all things are for your sakes. Remember, I mentioned that before, pick up on these clues as we keep going, how much it's about other people. For which cause, verse 16, we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So the affliction that you may suffer in this lifetime, in this flesh, in this body here on earth, he says, look, first of all, it's but for a moment. Our life is like a vapor which appeareth for a short time, then vanishes away. The Bible says this is a very quick and especially if you're going to compare that to all of eternity. We are here for a very short period of time. Decades is, is tiny, it's insignificant on the grand timeline of eternity. It is, it is a blink of the eye. So if we suffer, if we are afflicted in this life, well, this is how we will be judged. And whatever we receive from God, we will have for eternity. So, so way that in your mind, am I willing to suffer, am I willing to be exhausted, am I willing to be tired, am I willing to be afflicted, am I willing to go through any suffering for the cause of Christ, but in knowing this is very temporary, this is very short, and if I know that if I can just keep faithful that if I can just keep faithful and just do what's right and just push through to the end, God has a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. There is a glory, a brightness, a shining that God gives to those that serve Him. And some glory is greater than others, we see that, there's other references in Scripture about that, but we're seeing here, look, if you can just make it through that light affliction, God has so much more abundant glory and honor for you. While we look not at the things which are seen, but that the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, that's the short term. Anything we see in this life, the things that we get to see with our eyes physically, this is all going to be gone. This whole world is going to be burned up. The money, the cars, the houses, the things that people like to live for in this time, in this day, in this age, on this planet, on this earth, it's all going to be gone. So don't set your eyes on these things. If you've got a vehicle that's peeling off all the paint and it's barely running, who cares? That doesn't matter, that's not going to be there. You don't have to spend all your time trying to make sure that you get so much money so you can have the fanciest car and the fanciest house. It doesn't matter. That's a waste of time. Focus on the things that are eternal because the things that are not seen are the things that are eternal. We don't see Jesus Christ with our eyes. We don't see the the throne of God. We don't see these things right now. We will see these things. We know that we're going to see these things. We know Christ is going to set up his kingdom here on earth. We know it's going to happen, but we just don't see it. But we act and we walk by faith on the things that we don't see knowing that they carry this eternal weight of glory. Let's keep reading now into chapter five because I wanted to start in chapter four. It gives us the context as we go into second Corinthians chapter five, which then is going to talk also about the judgment seat of Christ. So it started off in chapter four where we picked up talking about the faith, talking about the resurrection, talking about this eternal weight of glory. Now into chapter five verse number one, for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle is talking about this body were dissolved, we have a building of God and house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. Now you will also notice in relation, especially to the judgment seat of Christ, references to building in a house or a tabernacle, which would also be a structure, and our bodies. These are being used, you know, the house, the tabernacle is being used synonymously with our body, with our flesh. Okay, so we have a flesh right now, our earthly tabernacle, but we have a body that's going to be reserved for us in heaven that God's going to give us a brand new body, and we will be clothed upon with that body, with that house, with that tabernacle of God, which is from heaven. So verse two is saying in this we groan, we are desiring that new body. We are in a body of flesh and a body of sin. Now when, you know, sin, this flesh is causing us to have these lusty desires and things that would take us away from God. It also has physical pains and ailments and other things that are a result of sin. At the end of the day, all of the degradation of our body when sin entered into the world, then death entered into the world. God made us perfect. God made everything great. Sin came into the world and corrupted everything. So even our bodies now are corrupted and have this natural lifespan, which originally mankind didn't have a life span. It was eternal life until sin entered in, then death entered in, but we're going to go back to his original plan and receiving new sinless bodies, which is great. Of course, we are looking forward to this. We're earnestly desiring to have this from heaven. We're groaning internally, man, I can't wait for that day. And the older we get and the more aches and pains you get, you're going, man, I can't wait to have that body where I don't have to have the back aches and the knee aches and all the other, you know, things that cause us pain here. I can't wait to have a nice, perfect body clothed upon from heaven. If so be that being clothed there, verse number three, we shall not be found naked. If you don't have a body reserved for you, you won't have a covering. You won't, you'll be exposed. You'll have that shame of your nakedness be exposed, which is not a good place to be before God. You need covering. You need to be covered from your sin. Verse four, for we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Who's saying it's not like we just want to lose this body of nothing. We're looking for that new body, right? We're looking to have this mortality swallowed up of life and just have that brand new body. That's what we're really looking forward to. Verse five, now he that wrought us for the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. When you get saved by putting your trust in Christ, there's not a full salvation of body, soul, and spirit in that moment. Okay, you have the new man. There's a new creature that's born again inside of you. That's the new spirit, but we still have this old flesh, this old body, but see the Bible's saying, well God has laid down in earnest and he's given us the spirit, his spirit, as the seal of the promise that we will be fully redeemed one day, that he is going to give us a new body, that we are going to have that full ultimate redemption, and to prove that he's given us the earnest of the spirit. He's putting his money down, right? He's going, okay, I'm going to put the spirit down on you, which again, it makes sense, especially as we're relating this to houses and everything else. You want to buy a house. You normally put down earnest money, which is money that you can't get back. You put that down, and if you're going to walk away from that house, you lose that money. Now, if God's giving us the Holy Spirit, how likely is he going to be to walk away from the Holy Spirit? He can't. It's not that there's even a choice there. So when God puts earnest down on every person who's saved, there is no going back from that. I mean, he is bound to you by putting that earnest of the spirit within you. Amen. There's no, well, maybe you could lose yourself. No, not when God has sealed you with that Holy Spirit of promise. God doesn't go back on his promises. God's not going to say, oh yeah, I want that. Oh no, I changed my mind. No, men do that, which is why you got to put earnest money down. You let God be true, but every man a liar. But God still does put that earnest down. He gives us that confidence. He gives us that hope, and he knows, he lets us know, this is for real. This is forever. You are sealed. Amen. Therefore, so because we have this earnest, because we know we have this one, because God has sealed us with that Holy Spirit of promise, therefore we are always confident, always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, in willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Because we have that earnest of the Holy Spirit, we know, we're confident that whatever day it is that this body drops dead, we're going to be present with the Lord. We're confident, we're willing, rather, hey, I'd rather just be absent from this body right now and just be with God, because that's great. That's a great place to be. But we have the confidence, and we know, there is no doubt about it. Verse 9, wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. Now, we just got done, and this is why I like getting these verses in context. This should dispel all doubts of like, well, maybe I'm saved, you know, no, it's confident, we know, this is, this is sure, we've got the earnest, the spirit. So now when we come up to a verse that says, well, now we work, now we labor, that whether present or absent, we might be accepted of him. This being accepted of him is not talking about your salvation. It's not, okay, works, people who believe in a workspace salvation might like to point to this, like, see, look, you have to work, you have to labor. No, it already established, just read it in the context, it's already established, there is no work involved in that. You've already been bought, you, it's, it's the same way, but say, well, then what is it talking about, why is it talking about, we have to labor, we may be accepted of him. It's very simple. Think about a person, you know, we're born again, we're children of God. Think about a child who, no matter what they do, is a child. My son, Jonathan, for example, he's my son no matter what, no matter what he does, he's my son, nothing's going to change that. He has a home reserved for him permanently in my house. Now, he still is going to work and strive to be accepted of me, right? Nothing will change the fact that he's my son, but he's going to want to please me and be acceptable in my sight and be a son that could, that could be an honorable son to his father and not a shame, right? He's already confident and knows, hey, you've got a home. We know that we will be with the Lord when we breathe our last breath, but we still want to be acceptable to God when he comes back. We want to do the work and say, hey God, I hope you're pleased with what I've done. Thank you for providing for me. Thank you for giving me a home. Thank you for taking care of my sin debt that I owed. Now, I want to show you that I love you by working for you and I want to be acceptable to you. I want to be pleasing to you. This is at the end of the day, then the reckoning or the giving account at the judgment seat of Christ. Was I acceptable? Here's, here's what I ended up doing in the years that you gave me. Here it is. Will he say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Well done. Good job. You've been faithful over a few things. I'll make thee ruler over many things. Wherefore we labor, verse nine, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We're all going to be there. We're all going to be there. That everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now, good or bad is a value. The value of what you've done. It's not necessarily talking about sin here, right? We have a tendency to think of bad as something sinful, but even throughout scripture, and I didn't want to put this in my notes because it's already, I have a lot of scripture to cover, going all the way back to the sacrifices, to the offerings that people would make if, if, if an animal had a broken bone, if it had any type of blemish in it, it was considered bad, okay? That doesn't mean that animal did any sin, but it wasn't acceptable. It wasn't appropriate. It wasn't what God wanted, right? So God wants the good sacrifices. He wants the good work, but he's going to separate the good from the bad. People do work and they might think at the time it's acceptable to God, but you're going to find out the judgment seat of Christ, yeah, it actually wasn't acceptable. That was bad work. It doesn't automatically imply it's sinful. It's not about the sin. It's about what have you done? There's lots of things in this world that we do that isn't inherently sinful, but you're not necessarily serving the Lord either. It's, it's, you can do good things or not bad things, right? But in the sight of was the work good or bad, it's going to be considered bad, right? But the work that I, I mean the work that I do outside of here, I work on servers, I work with scan guns, I work with programs and code on computers, and I do all these different things, and I help make other people's job easier and more efficient, and I help our business make more money, okay? There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing sinful that I do on my job, at my work, that I spend my time doing, but how much of that do you think God's going to look, look at the judgment of Christ? He's going to say, okay, David, you, here's all the work that you've done in your life. How much of that is going to be considered good when it comes to being rewarded for the things of God? Not much. That work isn't what, now, now, maybe this much to say, well, you provided for your family, okay? Whatever, whatever that does for you by not being a deadbeat, by, by being able to provide, you know, the, the, the, the food and the clothing and provide for my own, I wasn't worse than an infidel, right? That, that's already telling me it's probably not some big reward if it, if it's likened to being worse than an infidel, if you don't take care of your own, especially those of your own household, but you see what I'm saying, right? Those things can be done that are not sinful, they're not wrong, but it's just not going to get you anything. God's going to look at that and go, yeah, I don't really see the value in that. Why? Because he's, because he's already promised, he says, look, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. So all the things that you get through your, through your work and other things, he's like, I had to provide that for you anyways. If you just follow me, you could have, you could have been making rewards and earning income in your 401k in heaven this whole time if you weren't so worried about your 401k on the earth that's burned up and gone now. So when it's talking about things, whether it be good or bad, you know, understand that sacrifices were looked at as bad, you know, there's even in, I think in Ezekiel it talks about the figs, there was some, some figs that are good and there's figs that are bad. Well, you just can't eat the bad figs, they're not sinful, they're just not good. Obviously good is bad, right? Just understand what this is talking about here. Then verse number 11 says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. Again, okay, we know the terror of the Lord. We know that God is a terrible God. God instills terror in people and he should, the almighty, the all-powerful, not just should, he does. Okay, anyone who comes across God, any man who comes in the presence of the Lord, every single one without fail falls down on their face and trembles and is, is, is in awe and in terror by being in the presence of God because of who God is. And I'm talking about people who are saved, people who are prophets, people who are great men of God, but being in the presence of the holiness of God is going to instill terror in any human, in the best human being on this planet. Look at Job. Job was greater at his time than anyone else on the whole earth. God was bragging on Job to Satan, right? But then when God shows up, Job's not talking a big game at all. He's, he's humble. He's on his face and he's just, sorry God, you're right, I'm wrong. And he was the most righteous person and there's still a terror and a fear as there ought to be. But it's not a fear of God's, oh, well, maybe God will throw me to hell. Just because you see that there's a terror of the Lord, well, what do we have to be afraid of then if you can't go to hell? Well, there's a lot to still be afraid of if you can't go to hell. And even just being in his presence will instill that terror. Now, look, knowing who God is who God is already going to be in front of the Lord, don't you want to be in good standing with a lot to offer when you're standing before the Almighty who instills terror and everybody that's in front of the Lord? Or do you want to just stand there with nothing? I'll tell you, it's right now. You're going to want to have something to bring, not because you're worried about being cast in hell, not because you're worried about this punishment. Look, Christ paid for the punishment for your sins, but you're not going to want to be standing there with nothing empty-handed. You're going to want to be there saying, look, God, I did this for you so we can have something positive to say. Great. Good job. Right? I mean, it makes sense. We don't have to read too much into this and make it about something else, especially when we have so much scripture talking about our eternal life, talking about our salvation, talking about how we are separated from our sin, okay? These are passages that some people like to take and twist and turn them into something they're not. Now flip back, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I have way too many passages. Don't worry, I won't cover them all tonight. We're doing the main ones first, and then everything else is going to be supplemental and supportive of what we've seen in these main passages. So we see the judgment seat of Christ in those first two passages explicitly spelled out by name, okay? Now we're going to see more supporting information, but not necessarily saying the judgment seat of Christ, okay? But it's talking about the same event. It's talking, you know, we'll see that it's talking about the resurrection. We'll see references to crowns and rewards and things like that. This all is doled out, given out at the judgment seat of Christ. So 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 5, the Bible says, Who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man. Now we're starting back this far in the context just to bring up the soul winning reference, the reference of preaching the gospel to other people. This is important. This is going to be a big part of the judgment of Christ. Let's keep reading. Verse 6, I have planted Apollos water, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. At the end of the day, God's the one who gets all the credit and glory and honor for salvation, right? But you still have the workers doing the work. It doesn't matter if you're doing the watering. It doesn't matter if you're doing the plowing. It doesn't matter which aspect of the work you're doing. All the increase comes of God, but we still have workers. And it says, Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. God gives the increase, but you know what? The laborers still get rewarded for doing work. The credit and glory and honor goes to the Lord. He's the life giver. It's his word that we're preaching. It's his salvation that we're pointing people to. It's his free gift, right? But we still are going to be rewarded for doing the work in this regard of bringing the gospel to people. And this is one specifically if you're wondering, Well, how am I going to get rewards in heaven? Well, it says right here that everyone's going to get reward according to his labor in this very context. So especially if you're visiting our church, if you're new to our church, and you see us talking about this, and we've gotten the first page of your book, you know, salvation, why do you care about this? Why are you recording this? Why are you making a big deal out of it? Because it is a big deal. Because it's the most important thing that a believer can do. Bring the gospel to other people. That is the heart and soul of this church. We care a lot about it. And this is having an eternal vision. Not just one of this life. We're investing our time and our resources and our energy on things we can't see. When someone gets saved, you don't see the new spirit inside of that person. You don't see it. When they put their trust in Christ, we could hear it when they call the name of the Lord, maybe, right? But we don't get to see it. But we know it's worthwhile. Because there's going to come a day where not only are we going to be before the judgment of Christ, but so are they. And we'll see the references to that as well. Let's keep reading here. So we're going to receive reward according to his own labor, verse 9, for we are laborers together with God. Ye are God's husbandry. Now it talks about the building. Ye are God's building. So we are God's work animals. We're the workhorses. But we work together with God. So Christ works with us. All the soul-winning efforts that we do, if we just went out there on our own, we would see no results. But the Lord needs to be with us. The Holy Ghost needs to be with us and endure us with that power to be able to preach the word of God and see those salvations. But he still uses us as his vehicles to do that. If we were to stop, if every believer on this earth were to stop preaching the word of God, stop preaching the gospel, nobody would get saved. It's not because God's not powerful. It's because he's chosen to use us as believers to be the ones that will deliver his message. And it's incumbent upon us because he's committed a job to us. He's committed unto us the word of reconciliation, that we are to reconcile the lost to Christ, that we are to bring the good news. And that word of reconciliation, that good news, that Christ paid for us, we need to bring that to him, to a lost world. That's our job. He's committed that to us. But as a result of doing so, because people like to say, oh, well, if you're saved anyways, then why would you do anything? Well, lots of reasons. One, because I just love God. And I'm thankful that he paid for my sins. Is that good enough for you? You know, the people that want to argue about, oh, he wasn't saved, oh, he's saved, you know, well, then why would you ever do anything? I mean, why don't you just go and just live and do a bunch of sin and everything else? I mean, you're just gonna go to heaven anyways. Well, one, because God doesn't want me to do that. And I love God. And I'm thankful. And that it's because of those things that gave me a problem with God to begin with. Now I want to do what's right because I'm thankful that he saved me. And if that's not enough, how about God also promised to reward me, too? Now, look, if you do this, he said, I'll pay you. I'll give you the reward. You labor for me and I will reward you. Great. Another reason to serve God. It's not because I'm worried about going to hell. There's so many other reasons. How about you also care about your fellow man? You look at people in the face and you go, yeah, if you just think to yourself, hey, that person might just burn in hell, that person might just burn in hell, that person might just burn in hell. At some point, are you gonna go, well, maybe I should say something? Or do you just not care? You don't have to just be motivated by hell. Especially after you're saved, there's no reason to be. You don't need to be, you're not motivated by going to hell. That's what gets someone saved. After that, it's a whole different relationship. Why? Because you're a child of God. All right, let's keep reading here. Verse 10, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth there upon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So he's talking about a foundation of salvation. That foundation is poor as Jesus Christ. He's the rock. He's the stone. He's a foundation. There is no other foundation. That is the only one. A person has to be saved, has to be in Christ. But now you can build upon that. Right? Now, we have an opportunity, I think, to build upon our own house. But if you think about it, he says, I have laid the foundation in the sense that he has poured Christ into someone else's life, and then someone else is going to come and build upon that. So Paul, as an evangelist, he's going around and preaching the gospel, and then they're going to get plugged into another church, and they're going to have teachers and other people that are going to build on that foundation. I think the works that we do are going to be judged on how other people's lives turn out. Everyone that's going to be there present, you're going to see the work that you've done on other people. Because you're building, right? The whole point, again, go back to what is the point to the Christian life. Is it about you, and what can I do to build up? Or is it about other people? It's about edifying. It's about building others up. It's about reaching the lost. It's about reaching other people and helping to strengthen them. You are building their building for them. In so doing, that's how God is going to judge your work. Verse number 12. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire. And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. So all the works that we do when you're building up, some of it's going to be good and some of it's going to be bad, as we already saw in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. The good and the bad referred to here, you have gold, silver, precious stones. Now if you were to put any of those things in the fire, it won't burn up. Gold, silver, precious stones, they abide through the fire. They're going to come out on the other end still. But then there's also wood, hay, and stubble. Wood, hay, and stubble will all burn in the fire. They're all going to come to nothing. You're going to end up, now again it's, is there anything wrong with wood, hay, and stubble? No, but it's not eternal value. That's not going to last. It's not necessarily sinful, but if you're building, if all of your work and all of your building is just wood, hay, and stubble, and you're not really building much, you're not really helping, you're not doing, well that's all going to be gone. But you're still saved. All your works will be burned up. The efforts in your life, well that didn't turn out to be much of anything because you didn't have the gold, you didn't have the silver, you didn't have the precious stones. Verse 16, know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. And you know, we are, because we have the Holy Ghost residing in us, we're the temple of God. And we do have to worry about, if we just decide to defile our bodies and go into fornication and adultery and all kinds of other things, you know what, God can just destroy your body here on earth and then take you out early. And you know what, if you're, if you are taken early out of this race, you're not going to win the prize. You're not going to have these rewards to rack up for eternal value. We want to, now look, as much as we see, hey it's so much better to be with God and to be in a new body and to be in the presence of the Lord and everything else. It's better than we're at right now, but you also have to consider, we ought to want to still stay in this life because it's what we do in this life that's going to give us the rewards for eternity. So the longer you can stay here and serve the Lord, the better your eternity will be. Makes sense, right? So we're not like, well then why don't you just kill yourself then because then you can go be with the Lord. That's better, right? No. Look, being with the Lord is better. Yes. But our eternity will be so much better by serving Him and having something to show for it than just by ending our lives now. There are crowns to win that are going to be based on your works. There are rewards. First Thessalonians chapter 2, turn there really quickly. I'm going to have to blow through a lot more of these passages that I wanted to cover. I didn't realize how long it's going to take me to get to this point. First Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 19, the Bible says, for what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye are our glory and joy. He's saying, you all, ye, y'all, okay, in the south, ye is just y'all. It's very easy translation there, okay? Y'all are in the presence of Lord Jesus Christ is coming because y'all are saved, right? Just like I'm saved, y'all are saved. So we're all going to be in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, but He's saying, what is our hope? What's my hope? What's my joy? What's my crown of rejoicing? It's y'all. Because if I'm serving you and if I'm trying to help you and if I'm trying to build you up and if I'm trying to do all these things for you, then when you are there and can give account for yourself, well, I'm going to get some credit for what you've done because I was helping build you up. That's some good news. You are our glory and our joy. And think about that. The infinite wisdom of the Lord is magnificent. And this literally just dawned upon me right now. But think about the concept. Where does glory come from? Can anyone just take their own glory and just take that on themselves and just lift themselves up? No, that's prideful. That's proud. That's pride, right? God hates pride. It's one of the worst sins of the Bible. That's where Satan fell into pride. But if you keep your head down and you just do work and you dedicate your life and you serve others and you're doing everything for other people, the glory is going to come from everybody else. It's not going to come from you. God will give you and reward you then for all that work that you've done that will be evident in every other life that you've touched. But that will speak for you. You won't speak for yourself. See, the people in Matthew 7 will, Lord, I cast out devils and I did this and I did that and I did that. We're not going to be saying this at the judgment seat of Christ. Those are the people that didn't know God and they're trusting in the works to save them. And that's why He says, I never knew you. When the believer is standing for the judgment seat of Christ, we're going to know his terror. We're going to be like, I hope I did good. I hope, you know, like, let's see what a bold, let's see what my life work is. And then, oh man, yeah, hey, you made it and you made it and you made it and you're here and you're here because we don't know for certain anyone else's salvation but our own. I mean, I believe everybody here is saved. I believe that. I don't know that. I know one person in this room is saved. Me. I know my own salvation, okay. You know yours. I trust that the others in this room are saved, right. I have no reason to doubt that. But I don't know. But see, we will know one day for a certainty. We will know those who maybe, unfortunately, never understood but we thought were saved. There might be those who pretended and put on a show but they weren't really saved. They won't be there. And then you may be others that you might have helped or done something for and then you lost contact with and, you know, but then maybe a decade later, something that you did, some influence that you had on their life, seed that was planted brought forth fruit. And then you see, oh wow, hey, great. We don't know but we'll see those things at that time. But if you're sowing sparingly, you're gonna reap sparingly. If you're not putting forth that effort and putting forth that work, you can't expect a very good harvest. I mean, you go to that judgment seat of Christ, he's gonna be like, okay, well, you know, some people are already gonna know. I mean, maybe some seed fell in my pocket somewhere and just happened to fall in the right place. I don't know. I hope so. You don't want to be that person, right? You want to be getting the Word of God out, broad, far, wide. Preach that word. Preach people. Because ultimately, you know, we can't bring our money, we can't bring our clothing, we can't bring our, we can't bring that stuff with us, but you know what you can bring with you is souls. You can bring souls with you. And that is eternal value. What will man give in exchange for his soul? That has weight. That has value. We know that that has eternal value. We know it's what God has commanded us to do over and over and over again. We know it's a good work. We know that that is what God would have us focus on. We know that that is what Jesus Christ even came to this world for. To save sinners. You could have, you might wonder about all kinds of other things in your life. Well, well this could be worth, you know what? We know that winning people to Christ will bring rewards because they're gonna be there. They'll be your joy and your crown and rejoicing. Which is why we focus on that so much. Hey, if other things get us rewards, great. But focus on the things you know that has eternal value. And then you won't be disappointed at that that judgment seat of Christ. And you'll be able to receive glory from God. Which I, it's kind of unfathomable. Which is also why we see in heaven, you know, the the men that have crowns casting their crowns before giving, like we're not worthy of this crown. Like you are Lord. But he's still giving it to them. Another reference to crowns. I'll read, I'll read through some of these. We're already past time. And let me just read a few more because there's so much good content here. References to crowns and receiving prizes. First Corinthians chapter 9 verse 22, the Bible says, to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Great passage about winning souls to Christ. And this I do for the gospel's sake that I might be partaker thereof with you. Partaker with you. There's a connection with the others that are going to also be present at the resurrection. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receive at the prize. So run that you may obtain. Now it's talking about getting prizes. It's not the prize of eternal life. That's a gift. That's not a prize. That's given to you. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. Talking about people who literally run a physical race. That's a corruptible crown. That's gonna go away. But we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly. People who run physical races and run in the Olympics everything else, that's not certain. But this race is certain. We could know exactly how to do it and you all have the potential to win. And it doesn't have to only be one winner. In the carnal world there's one winner. There's only one prize. God's looking to give out prizes to everyone, to all the workers, to all the laborers. He's gonna reward you. We have our own race to run. It's a race that you could that is gonna just be in God's eyes of you winning. It's not a competition. In a carnal world, even if everyone was terrible, someone's gonna win. You could have the race of the turtles. It's not very exciting. There's really not much glory to that but someone, one of them will eventually win. You might have people you know tell them turn around this way and that way and everything else and it's gonna take forever and someone might win. But it's not that we've got. If you are the turtle, you have nothing to show for it, then you don't get the prize. But if you run your race, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if brother Peter is out running me in his race and he's racking up. That doesn't matter for me. I can still be victorious in my race. His walk doesn't influence my walk with the Lord. I can still win. So you don't have to look and be like, oh man, this guy is just, I mean he's just gonna win so I'm just gonna quit. No. You win your race. God's got prizes for you. He's got rewards. He's got crowns. There's more than one crown. He says, I therefore shall run, not as uncertainly. So fight I not as one that beat at the air but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway. So he's keeping his body in line, in tune. You're trying to be free from sin. But what is he doing in his race? Preaching to others. Notice another reference to others in order to win that prize. The work is with other people. You're building on the foundation of other people. Philippians 4-1 says, therefore my brethren dearly beloved and long for my joy and crown. My brethren, dearly beloved, he's talking to the dearly beloved, he's talking to my brethren, and then he calls them my joy and crown. You're my joy and crown. You're my crown. Other people. You want to win a crown? Win other people. Build up other people. Focus on other people. So stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved. 2 Timothy 4 verse 5, but watch thou in all things and do afflictions, do the work of evangelists, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only. Look, I've lived my life. I've kept the faith. I've stayed strong. I've stayed in it. I've stayed in the ministry. I know I've done the work of God. This is near the end of the Apostle Paul's life. He's saying, I know that I've got a crown waiting for me now. Oh, that's real arrogant of you. No, it's not arrogant of him. He trusts in the word of God. And he knows he's been serving the Lord and he knows the work that he's been doing. And he knows that God is faithful and he knows that God's going to reward. There's nothing proud or boastful about it. He's happy. But he's also not just thinking, well, it's just for me. See, I vow work to all of you guys. No, he says, and not to me only, but unto all of them also that love is appearing. Hey, there's a crown for you too. I don't have time to get into this, but there's a lot of references also to people who will receive the crown for those who endured and suffered in afflictions and heavy persecution, martyrs. People will receive a better resurrection. Hebrews chapter 11 talks about it's a hall of faith. It talks about all is great. And people of God, people have served the Lord and done so many mighty things. And it says that they will, it says what women received their dead, raised to life again, others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. They already knew they were saved. They knew they already have a resurrection coming, but because they stayed faithful, even in the hardest times, even in the times of being martyred and being tortured and being killed for the cause of Christ, they went through it because they say, you know what, I'm going to get a better resurrection now. Why is it better? Because God's going to give you that many more rewards. That's the example of someone who loses their life early. You can say, yeah, but you know, that's not fair because they could have lived longer and earned more rewards. No, it is fair because if you lose your life that way, God's going to give you all the rewards that you could have missed out on for your whole life. You get them all right there for making that stand. That's a better resurrection. And to say anything's not fair about God the righteous judge, who do you think you are? God determines what's fair and what's right. We need to get in line with God's righteousness and not come up with our own. But, of course, it's fair. And we know that God is just, and God is more than fair. God is long suffering and good and his mercy endureth forever. I'm going to have to cover that another day. There's a whole, Philippians chapter 3 is just, I can't even, that's a whole sermon in itself. It is. Turn to Luke 14, last, last passage, last passage. I want to close on this. There's so much good content in the Bible. I'm skipping a lot. We'll close on this point. Oh wow. Luke chapter 14, verse number 12, the Bible reads, then said he also to him that bade him, when thou makest a dinner or supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also bid thee again and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maim, the lame, the blind, and thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee. For thou shalt be recompense at the resurrection of the just. God has a special place when you do things for people that can't do anything back for you. One, that's going to demonstrate that you truly care and you're sincere. You're not just doing something to get something back, right? Now I'll use anyone up here, for example. Brother Michael, right? If I take Brother Michael out to eat, I know he's probably a situation, he could take me out to eat, we could kind of go back and forth and kind of play this game, and oh yeah, I really love brother so-and-so, and we go out, and there's nothing wrong with doing that, right? There's nothing wrong with taking a friend out to eat or something like that. But that's not, you know, don't be thinking that that's going to earn you some great rewards. The Bible's saying here, look, if you take, you help people out, and you do stuff for people, they can't recompense you. God sees that. God sees that work, and he says, I like that. The gift that God gave us, none of us can do on our own. That's salvation gift. So when you go forward, and you do good, and you help people out, and you provide for those that can't provide for themselves, God says, you know what, I'm gonna reward you. I will pay you back. You will be rewarded, and not just, not rewarded, you're not even talking about like in this life. You're gonna get recompense at the resurrection of the just, at the judgment seat of Christ. I don't know about you, but whatever I could give to then get a recompense at this place, at the, it's worth all. Here, take it all. If I could trade this for some eternal reward, have it all. Because what is that gonna do me? Not much. Not even here, but. One little gemstone of eternal value that makes it through the fire is worth way more than the, than the pieces of paper that the government gives you, and calls money. That's another sermon for another day. But look at this now, okay, verse 15. And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, a certain man made a great supper in bad many, and sent his servant at suppertime to say to them that were bidden come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground. I must need to go and set it and see it. I pray they have excuse. And on and on. And all these excuses are made. And then he teaches, now look, that statement is true. Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. He was, Jesus was just talking about being rewarded at the judgment of grace. He's just saying, hey, blessed is he that, that even could just eat bread at the kingdom of God. And that's true. But then Jesus goes on to explain, yeah, a lot of you think you're saved. You're gonna eat bread in the kingdom of God and you're not. This is, this is the, the, the revealing where he's like, you know, Jesus Christ came on his own, his own received him not. Hey, I have this supper ready and I called, but you all were too busy, all that other things going on. And now, and now you're not here. And now you're not making it to that great dinner table. You know, as people assume that they were gonna make it. And you know, you might even argue, you know, the person that said that might, might have been thinking like, I haven't done anything, but I'm just happy I'm gonna be there. And then Jesus saying like, no, you're not even gonna be there. You might want to check that first. Make sure you've got eternal life and then, and then take up your cross and follow me. And you know, Jesus Christ has a name that's above every name, but Jesus Christ has also humbled himself lower than anyone. I mean, he, he, he came in and was a based, but now he has all the glory. And if you want glory, you want to have a great house built, don't focus on your house, focus on other people's. Build their house. And then you see that work abide the fire. And you see them, you know, you invest in the people. And you could see that there's so many examples of this. Read all the Epistles of Paul. Read all these churches are being followed up on. And what is the care? The care is for them. I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. The heart, the soul, the desire, laboring day and night for other people. That is what it's all about. And that is how you'll be judged. And that is how you'll earn rewards. And that is what God is pleased with. And that is what's gonna do you good in eternity. It's about rides of order prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your generosity. That not only are you willing to give us eternal life as a gift, but that you would also reward us and pay us and have crowns and prizes, dear Lord, for us by doing the things that you've commanded us to do. By working for you. By getting in the yoke and plowing, dear Lord. And we thank you for being so generous and so kind and so loving. And I pray that you please help us to keep the right focus, Lord. Keep the focus on the things that are not seen. And not get distracted with the cares and the thoughts of this world that could choke us out and cause us to not even have anything that has eternal weight. Lord, help us to see the things that are not seen. Help us to focus on the gold, the silver, and the precious stones that have the eternal value. Not the ones in this life, dear Lord. But help us to keep that focus and to not get distracted. God, we love you. We thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song before dismissed. Brother Peter, would you please lead us? Open up your hear notes. Song number 404. Song 404, when the battle's over. Song 404. The church, let's sing this out in front of the camping trip. And I, a soldier, run across the power of the land. And shout, I fear, to all his love for blessed to speak his name. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown. Yes, we shall wear a crown. Yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. A sky we carry to the skies of flowering beds of heat. While fathers want to win the fight and sail through bloody seas. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown. Yes, we shall wear a crown. Yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Right church, on the last, let's not sing this piano short. I will fight if I will increase my purpose now. I'll bear the holy word that means the glory might I bring. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown. Yes, we shall wear a crown. Yes, we shall wear a crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Wear a crown, wear a crown, wear a bright and shining crown. And when the battle's over, we shall wear a crown in the new Jerusalem. Right church, no singing. I've been thinking of filming you guys.