City Central Church Podcast
Eternal Rewards pt. II
Chris Hippe
It's like the amount that's happening in the city is, we could do it every week. And so the Lord has said, I want you to start doing that. And so you can talk with Jeremy Wood or Pete Mahoney or Tyler Connell or Nelson Nyland about some of the go team stuff that's been happening on Friday and Saturday nights at the local high schools. I'm telling you, it's amazing. And so I want to encourage you to continue to talk to people about that. But tonight we're going to ask Peter Williams to come on up. Come on up, Peter Williams. Now, Peter Williams is this guy. I describe him. I'm going to tell you what I tell other people behind your back in front of your face right now. I describe Peter Williams as this kind of guy. He is both the lamb and the lion all combined in one. It's like you see the man, you shake his hand, and he is the most gentle guy you feel like you've known him forever, and you would love to go on vacation with him. You know that kind of guy. And then all of a sudden you put a microphone in the man's hand. And you want to hit the deck and start repenting. You don't even know what you're repenting about. But it's like my word, the man is fierce. And so if you don't know Peter and Deborah, the great woman behind the scenes I want to encourage you to do so, but Peter and Deborah are with a number of other people out at Washington High School. Some alma mater in here, anyone in alma mater, I mean an alumni of Washington High School, right there, Yogi. I knew we had a couple, praise God, Mandy. OK, so Peter's going to share with us what is going on at Washington High School. Let's give it up for Peter. All right, that's encouraging. So I want to encourage you guys that the-- I just know that the labor of prayer that has just gone in and has been going for a long time. For those of you guys who may not necessarily be on the school scenes, there is something happening. There is something happening. I'll just say that Washington High School-- I just sense the sovereign hand of God, I sense his mercy, I sense his hand over the school that it's like I don't necessarily-- we don't even have to necessarily always be constantly warring against something because his hand is literally like holding back this attack of the enemy. And so there's things that we go through and we press into. But the prayers of the saints of the body here have absolutely paved the way for something amazing that is just beginning to happen. Just a short little history of Washington High School. Last December, I had some students over to my house. For a Christmas deal, every one of them came over just got greatly ministered to by the Lord, received all kinds of words. They're just weeping. Then in March, when we did power team, 10% of the school heard the gospel at the power team. And so just this awesome deal in five days-- I've been in youth ministries before that were very successful and effective, but they were built over years and years and years and through different strategies. And this was a four to five day period where 10% of the school heard the gospel. And so that was really exciting. A ton of them made decisions as well for Christ. And so we've really been building off of that. Directly after that, we were going to do another outreach at Washington. It ended up-- we ran into some stuff. It ended up getting shut down for a couple of reasons. And so we're off the campus for a couple of months. It was just this time for myself, my wife, and the team around us, who is just an amazing team, to just really continue to believe the Lord. It was a real trial to believe the Lord. And so then we got a club at the end of the year had a bunch of kids come for the interest meeting. And then we've had three clubs this year so far. And it's just been so exciting. The first two, we had about 75 kids come each time. And then this last one, there's about 50 plus students. And the excitement and the energy that was there was just ridiculous. It was incredible. I was so excited about the 50 that were there because they seemed absolutely sold out to the deal. Very few of them Christians, which is just so awesome to me. One of our major prayers-- oh, before I go on from that, you should have heard my brother Pat McFall speak at the Dealing Club. The power of God was there, the presence of God. It was incredible. Students were ministered to-- there's a hunger. And when I talk about the sovereign hand of God, he has provided this hunger for students. In fact, the day after club, I was driving down the street with my wife. And I saw Tara and another member of our team walking. And I had just gone by a girl who had driven by a girl who had been at club. And I said, hey, that girl, her name is Pandora. Go chase her down. And so they went and they chased her down. And she's like walking away from them, like kind of fast. And talking to them, they're back there. And she's just like talking like this. Doesn't really want to get caught up to where they get up to or they ask her, how are you doing? And she just starts crying and just shares all this stuff. They walk her home. They ministered to her. And it's just a hunger that is unbelievable. And so we've pressed in for these three weeks we're excited about what God is building in the momentum that is there. And then one of the big prayer requests, I guess I would say, is that God would begin to build a team of students around us. Our team that we have working out there is pretty incredible. But we need a team of students. I was going to the lunchroom every week inviting kids to come to club and realizing with a vision to reach 900 or 1,000 students that are at Washington, which is very doable, it can't be just like myself or a couple of people going out and handing out flyers and inviting kids. So we, if you could pray for us, a team of students would be developed around us. The next thing is just kind of a short little announcement here as well is that we're going to be doing the exposed drama at Washington on November 3. Some of you guys saw that at Foster. You saw it here at Church. You know it's an anointed thing. It's incredible, the presence of the Lord is all over it. And so when students see it, they were just immediately broken and open to the gospel. And so we're so excited for these three weeks out or so that it's going to come. And Pat and Tara are really charging that deal and going ahead. So we're excited for that to see God move on that, if you could pray for that. There's also, it was kind of just a girl's deal last time. The Lord really just downloaded to Pat. Kind of a little bit of a guy's piece to it as well. And it's powerfully shared with me last night. And I was just blown away. This is the plan of the Lord. And so God is going to move on this deal like crazy. One of the things that you could help us with is if you could come find me tonight, if you would like to be an altar worker at that deal to pray for people, I would love to have your help and get your contact information. The other thing is, is that kind of piggybacking off of the Parkland Prayer, the 40 Days of Parkland Prayer that we did, our Washington High School team is going to continue for a couple days a week to have prayer watches and just continue to press in to see God move at Washington. If you would like to come join us for any of those prayer watches, just come contact me. Would love to have you there and just have people praying. And so I just want you to be encouraged that the prayers that you are sowing in the community here are lifting something on campuses. You can literally feel it as you walk on campus. It's a unique place and that there's not this closed off deal. Students are so hungry, it is, it is ridiculous. (audience cheering) - Whoa, come here, come here real quick, real quick. I want you to, I want you to pray for us tonight. Would you mind praying for us tonight? Okay, pray for the service and the word as we dig in, we just want you to pray and impartation, clear the way tonight so we're all ready to hear. Amen. - God, I thank you so much, Lord, that you are so sovereign and you're so merciful, God, that you absolutely have chosen to move, God, you've chosen to move among our community and in this place and in Tacoma. God, we just look with gratitude on our hearts. It's such a privilege to be a part of the mission base that you have designed and you have brought, God. Thank you so much for that, God. We thank you for your mercy. May you continue to pour out your mercy upon us, God. I pray that in this service right now, God, that the power of God would come to us to understand your character and to understand your nature and your attributes to know who you are, God. Oh, Lord, break us, break us to know you, God. I just am so struck by that song, God, that we don't want anything but you. Anything but you, God, we have to have you, Lord. We have to have you. We just agree with the heart and the cry of Moses that we will not go forward without you, God. We will not pursue anything else except you, God. Oh, Lord, just give us the desire and enable us with that desire, Lord. It is a gift from you and we ask for it, God. Thank you for the word. Oh, Lord, may we not be dull to the word, God. Just strike the dullness off of our hearts. God, lift dullness from us, God. May we just be, may our hearts be absolutely tender in a place where you could sow seed and you could harvest things, God. Look down with mercy and have pleasure on us, God. And may you give us a radical where you're so filled with grace and mercy and we love you, God. Amen. Amen, everybody say amen. Amen, okay, tonight I got a few things to start you off with. Are you in a good mood tonight? Now, if you weren't here last week, you might be going, what in the world is going on here? You know what we're doing? Is we are mixing everything up. What we're doing is we are preaching the word right from the forefront and spending a lot of time right on the back end and responding to the word of God. And so as a people, we want to be responding to truth, we want to respond to the Lord. And so tonight we're going to start with the word and then from the word, thank you, brother, from the word that we're going to respond and spend some time in worship. Now, I want to ask you this, how many of you have ever read a Bob Sorgi book or heard a Bob Sorgi message before, raise your hand? Keep your hand up if you got touched by it, okay? Looks like most of the hands, if not all hands from it. Bob Sorgi is actually coming to meet with us this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Now, go ahead and get excited for that real quick because if you're not excited for that, I don't know what you're going to be excited for. Bob Sorgi is a gentleman who comes out of IHOP, he had a flourishing ministry and through a bad course of situations, what happened is his vocal cord stopped functioning and he cannot talk like you and I can talk. He has to whisper. And it's almost like every word that comes out of his mouth is so anointed and so powerful that you will be as so attentive. I've listened to a number of his messages read a number of his books and when he preaches, he preaches like this. But I'm listening to it through my computer and I'm almost in my computer because I'm so drawn to his words and so we have that great pleasure for us coming up this Friday night and the Saturday night and also Sunday morning and it's all going to be at the Marriott Hotel downtown right next to the convention center. So Friday night, we're going to be meeting at 6.30, Saturday night, we're going to be meeting at 6.30 and then Sunday morning, we're going to be meeting at 10 a.m. Now that means that we are not going to be meeting here one week from tonight in Geodroni Middle School 'cause we're actually going to take our service and put it right in the morning so we can meet with Bob, amen. And then that afternoon, you want to come out to Geodroni Middle School because we are teaming up with Discovery Bible Church to do a harvest party. We're going to basically convert this whole thing into a massive carnival and it's meant to go and bring your kids but bring all your neighbor kids and preach the gospel in this venue. And so you want to do it, it's going to be from 3 to 5 p.m. next Sunday night. So we're going to be about 10 to noon on Sunday morning and then there's a perfect time for some break, a little nap time to bring your kids, come out from three to five here and bring your neighbor kids and have a good old time. So that's next week important to know again, we're not going to be meeting here Sunday night but Sunday morning. Now also if you have a child that wants to be dedicated, that's going to be November 1st, okay? So mark your calendars Sunday night, November 1st and then there's one other announcement to tell you is Thursday night classes. What we're going to do is we are going to now start, start at 6.30 instead of 6 p.m. 'cause a lot of people are having a hard time getting off of work and getting there on time, amen? So hopefully that will open up a wonderful venue for you to be able to be there Thursday night at 6.30 then the prayer room will run from 7.30 to 9.30 on the tail end. Is that enough details to get your mind absolutely soaked into the glory? Amen? So now let's pray and ask the Lord to anoint the word of God. Father in Jesus' name tonight, we ask that all of those details would sink very deep and now that the word of God would come forward, that you would take the word and encourage our spirits tonight, that there would be a release that would happen right now even in our spirits, that even if we have had a hard week, we would be able to lay them at the foot of the cross right now in Jesus' name. Any weight that we have come in with tonight, that we would be able to just lay it aside right now in Jesus' name. In fact, I just encourage you to do that right now. Just tell the Lord I lay it aside. I lay the weight aside of my time this week or this relational issue. Just lay aside every weight before we get into the word of God. We don't want anything to hinder us tonight. So Lord, every weight that we would do away with and that the word of God would have free domain and freedom to pour into our hearts in our minds this evening in Jesus' name. Tell the Lord I need the word. Say it like you mean it, say it need the word. All right, now say amen. Okay, so here we go. Tonight, we are going to do a briefing. Believe you got a handout on your chair, wave it in the air a little bit. You got it, everyone has one in your hand, okay, wonderful. We are gonna be touching that briefly in just a minute, but what I wanna do is review for the moment what the Lord, am I gonna be right in the middle of the, okay, perfect. What we wanna do is review last week for those of us that weren't here. Last week we started by talking out of Luke eight and referring to really having being careful how we hear, being a people that come in and were careful, were attentive. We are not allowing anything to block from the word of God that we are ones that would dive in and then we started talking about eternity. How many of you remember that from last week? We talked about eternity that you and I are called to allow eternity to drive our today. It's so easy for you and I to live a life here and now to be able to be so focused on our jobs and so focused on the things here that we forget about eternity. And the reality is eternity has been created for you and I to be driven by it today. We wanna be a people that store treasures in heaven. We want every minute of our lives to count. This is what we were referring to last week. We talked about that we are but amissed. We talked about how our time here is so brief that a hundred percent of us have something completely in common in all fronts and that is that we will all die at one time. It's as good as done. It's as good as finished. And so for you and I, we want to be here on earth being the ultimate Jesus representative. We want eternity and the thoughts of eternity and heaven to invade here and now through me. A great example tonight that I want you to look at is go to Luke 4. And we want to allow Luke 4 to brief us and give us a summary. What we see in Luke 4 is here we find Jesus coming together and really showing how eternity comes in and affects the temporary. In Luke 4 verses 18 and 19, are you familiar with Luke 4 18 and 19? The passage is a fulfillment in Jesus but it's a promise for you and I. I want you to look at Luke chapter four verse 17. Let's start there, it says this. And now he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah and when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim the captives to liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set a liberty to those who were oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. This is exactly what Jesus came to fulfill and you're in my call also then is in turn to be the ones that are many Christ having eternity come in and wreck the temporary. How many of you have been a little disgusted by the temporary? How many of you have found that the temporary doesn't fulfill? That the temporary you can have a vacation but you can still feel absolutely vacant. You can get all the things in the world and still have absolutely nothing. When when eternity drives our today, that is the point by which we can say, man, Jesus came to heal those and to see the brokenhearted restored, to have the captive set free. You can see that it is a design of the eternal coming in through you and I to have a confrontation with the temporary. Everybody say confrontation. The confrontation comes through the word anointing. Everybody say the word anointing. Anointing has been given to you and I for the very purpose to come and take the crooked highway and straighten it out, to take the dips and raise it up. Anointing is meant to prepare the way for God's glory. It is one that comes and has so eternally minded that erects the temporary through the understanding that God's anointing rests on his believers. And as we exercise that anointing, what we're seeing are crooked paths brought in to straight lives. What we ultimately see are the loss that come to Christ and then they come in and they need restoration and the crooked areas of their mind get stabilized. The anointing comes and lifts them out of the doldrums. It gives them the ability to be the runway, if you will, where God's Holy Spirit can come down in land and that's the glory of the Lord. The anointing precedes the glory of God coming. And so for you and I, when we are eternally minded, we're living here and now through and in the temporary, but as an eternal one, being in the world, but not of the world. And to be a vessel to see eternity come and play here. This is really good news. You can smile now and just say hi to everybody. And this is really good news that you and I have been given that in Christ. And so we see that eternity comes in. In fact, I was reminded of a quote that CT stud said of an atheist that he encountered at one time. And it's funny how atheists even can get it, you know? 'Cause you don't get eternity by the mind. You get it by the heart. But you can see that the Lord was working on this atheist and the atheist that CT encountered said this. If I firmly believed as millions say they do, that the knowledge of a practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, then religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Religion would be, which he's saying religion in a good way, okay? Religion like loving Jesus, okay? Religion would be my first waking thought in my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I would labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the marrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequences would never stay in my head or seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone and on the immortal souls around me. Soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season. And my text would be, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? That's an account from an atheist that understands because he is a created one that there is eternity. But if he actually believed it, then he would actually in every way allow it to consume his existence to remove from the world even further and to be even that more eternally minded. Remember what Jonathan Edwards said. He said, I want eternity stamped on my eyes. We talked about this last week. We also talked about for you and I that there will be two different judgments. There will be a judgment for unbelievers and then there will be that opportunity for you and I to stand before our Christ and to be able to say here are all the things that I have done here on this planet not to gain salvation, but to be able to give in return because of your grace that you've given my life. We talked about it from 2 Corinthians 3. If you have that passage, I want you to just look it up. Look up 1 Corinthians 3, verse 14. Actually, let's start at verse 12. This is all review. Does anybody like, does that sit right with you tonight? You're going to, I'm right in the way, let me move. I'll be off to the side tonight. Praise God. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 12 says this. Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw, but there's going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind that each builder has done. Everyone's work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value. If the work survives the fire, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builders themselves will be saved, but like someone escaping through a wall of flames. So what we see here is is that you and I, as believers, will get to stand before the Lord. And we will be able to see, are we building with precious things? Because oftentimes those precious things are the most costly things, amen? Are we building with precious things? Or are we building with wood, hay and straw? And last week we said, hey, you have more treasures in heaven than you think you do most likely. And I want to encourage you, we said, we want to keep pressing forward into the things of the Lord. Hebrews 11, 6 says that, and without faith, it's impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists. And he rewards those who earnestly seek him. That God is a rewarder we talked about last week. That God loves to reward us. It's an amazing thing that we have the honor to serve him, but that he would reward us in turn. That is a phenomenon in my mind that I just think not quite frankly fair. It just seems like I get, you mean there's rewards on this thing too, it's unbelievable. So this is the stuff we were talking about last week. And so I want to now bring in a couple new things into our mind before we park on heavenly rewards. How many of you want to learn a little bit about heavenly rewards tonight? Anybody want to be one that gets to heaven and say my word? Jesus, thank you for the joy of being able to serve you and be able to cast everything at his feet and realize that you literally have such value. There was such a wonderful process on this earth of giving back to him and then when we die, we're able to go back to him and go, Jesus, it's all yours. Every soul that was one, everyone that was loved, everyone that was restored. And if we could talk then tonight about heavenly rewards, what does the Bible say about heavenly rewards? What is it that the Bible says will be rewarded? And that's what we want to hone in on tonight. But I want to make sure of one principle first and that's this, is that salvation and rewards are two very different things. Salvation begins now and covers the past, the present and the future. Rewards are in the future, in eternity. Salvation is free, rewards are earned. Salvation cannot be lost, rewards can be lost. You see, salvation is the same for all Christians, rewards differ between Christians. Rewards are for those who labor. And so we have been saved by grace through faith if we know Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord. And as we then give back out of that grace, that's where the rewards come into play. So the key is this, is to know my God is the greatest honor that I could ever have. And this is the very primary motivation of my existence. Rewards don't motivate me. Rewards are not my primary existence. Rewards are not, oh, I get to earn, I get to earn. No, my joy is to know him. That is my driving force is to know my God and love my God and give him everything that's in this person that I can. But then rewards come alongside. Isn't that incredible? Someone say amen. And here's the other thing as I was doing this research and looking into the Word of God and I was going back and forth, it's an amazing thing how the Lord works that he basically, he then rewards us for being like him. He rewards you and I for being like him. He says, this is who I am, I'm loving, I'm gracious. This is all the characteristics. Now in turn, come and be like me. And if that wasn't good enough, then he rewards on top of that. Isn't that amazing? That we can know God and then we can be like the Lord in these attributes because the Holy Spirit inside of us and there's rewards on the other end. Praise God, that's good news. So what we see is we earn, now on your seat, grab your sheet. We earn rewards in a variety of ways. So now we're going into teaching mode here. So prepare yourself. 2 Corinthians 5, 9 says this. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. There's two major categories that we see in rewards. Number one is we talked about this last week briefly. Building the kingdom in accordance with our gifts and callings. So that's understanding who you are. Do you know who you are? Do you know how you're gifted? Do you know where God's anointing force through your life? Where is it that you are most at home? And is there arenas in your life that you know that they're you, but you're not cultivating them? The first category is us cultivating the gifting inside of us and investing what he has put inside of you and I for eternity and not temporary. There's a lot of Christians on the planet that take what's been invested inside of them and fulfill and come in a selfish vein to fulfill their own personal desires and not to then invest for the kingdom. So to invest for the kingdom, you and I are, that's a major category of our giftings and our callings being invested for the kingdom of God. And the second major category is how we built individual lives, ours and others. And so that's a building portion, that's a creating, that's a building up of other people, okay? So last week we talked about doing good works and how doing good works does in fact create and give us rewards to give back to the Lord and then also denying ourselves. How many of you had an opportunity or two to deny yourself this week? Anybody show a hands? Couple of us, okay? Denying ourselves and doing good works are two areas that scripturally speak to having rewards behind it. But I wanna hit on three specific areas tonight that the Lord has just laid very, very heavy on my heart. Very heavy on my heart. And the first one is this. Tonight you're gonna have a lot of homework and I'm gonna send some reading out to you this week. But what I want you to look at is number 12. And that number 12 says this. I believe it's number 12 for you. It's rewards are promised to those that are faithful. Everybody say faithful. Rewards are promised to those that are faithful. You see what the scriptures declare to us as Proverbs 28 verse 20 says, "The trustworthy or faithful will get a rich reward." Reward, everybody say reward. The faithful will get a rich reward. Now when we talk about faithfulness, we're talking about being faithful to the Lord, being faithful to one another, being faithful to in the small things, being faithful in the big things, being faithful to give our lives away and being faithful to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. It is a faithfulness that the Lord so loves. How many of you have had your faithfulness tested in the last year? How many of us have really gone through the gauntlet where you feel like, oh God have mercy, where there's a groan in your spirit, help God, help. I don't know what else else to pray, but mercy, mercy. I wanna tell you that you have come through something not just to say I made it through, but you passed through a season in your life to understand God's faithfulness afresh, but to understand you were faithful to Him. And I want you to know that you are some of the richest people I personally have ever met. I want you to know that as I pray for you, it's the most amazing thing 'cause I see your faces come up in my mind. And I go, oh God, could they just know how rich they are? God, would you show them how rich they are? 'Cause I literally, if you see your life through the lens of his faithfulness to you and I, but then your response, your faithfulness to him, there's a rich reward for you. You see the scriptures declare the faithful will get a rich reward. 1 Samuel 26, open your Bibles to 1 Samuel 26. It says this, this is where we run into our man David. Now, we know David, I kind of appreciate David because it's those tales of the schizophrenic guy. He's just kind of like a bipolar tendencies throughout the book of Psalms. You're like, where is he at exactly right now? But you see how he functioned in life. Now we catch up with him in 1 Samuel 26 when Saul is hunting his life. The king is hunting his life. The anointed one is running and the one that is currently in position is hunting. And we catch up with him and you would imagine if he was not eternally minded, he would have done some very bad things. He would have not exactly functioned appropriately, but I want you to get into David's mind tonight. In 1 Samuel 26, look at verse 21. This is where Saul was sleeping and David and Abishai went and crept in the night and stole the water jug and the spear from by his head. Verse 21, then Saul said, I have sinned. Return my son David for I will harm you no more because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Indeed, I have played the fool and erred exceedingly. And David answered and said, here is the king's spear. Let one of your young men come over and get it. May the Lord repay or may the Lord reward every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed. We see that David's faithfulness came from knowing who God was. But it's a remarkable principle that David says God is the one that's gonna fight my battle. God is the one that's gonna intercede. God is the one that is gonna come and do the work. And eternally minded person is able to go, that's not in my hands. You see David went and you standing over the king and he grabs the water jug and he grabs the spear and he's making a point. He is saying, listen, at any point I could have killed you, but he runs across the valley and he says, I could have killed you, Saul, but I want you to know that I did not because I know eternally minded. I know what God is saying that I will not touch God's anointed. And then he proceeds to talk about himself. And indeed, as your life was valued much this day in my eyes, so let my life be valued much in the eyes of the Lord and let him deliver me out of all tribulation. You see, he says this, he goes, in my eyes, he was saying your life was valued much in my eyes, talking to Saul, but then he says, let my life be valued in the Lord's. You see, his faithfulness came from knowing who God was. His faithfulness came through the battle of understanding that his God would come through for him. Now, how many of you need God to come through for you right now? How many of you are just going, God, there's nothing more than I need you to be faithful. And I want to tell you that you continue to be faithful. You continue to press forward because he was able to say and declare that because of my faithfulness, my God will reward me. You're storing up treasures. You do not see potentially, and they're all getting stored up in heaven. You see, this is the faithfulness to love God and others when we don't feel like it. This is the faithfulness to persevere through hardship. This is faithfulness to do what is right, even when it makes no earthly sense. This is faithful to invest our abilities and our gifts into what the Lord has given us. Open your Bibles to Matthew 25 now. Flip over to Matthew 25. You see, the Lord has invested in you and I. He's invested in us. We are created in his image, and he has planted within you and I, gifts and callings and a number of different arenas that his desire would be that they be functioning on all fronts. And it's an interesting principle that when we look at Matthew 25, you look at verse 14. That's where we'll read, it says this. And again, it will be like a man going on a journey, meaning having an ample amount of time, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them to one he gave five talents of money to another two talents and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. What we see here is there's been an investment of five talents or two talents or one talent. The issue of this parable is not how much have we been given. It's what we do with what he's given us. It's being faithful with what we've been given. We don't want to get so caught up in going one of my five or am I two or am I one. It's an issue of faithfulness in investing in eternity what he's invested inside of us. Matthew, and then you look at verse 29 at the very end, it says this, "For everyone who has will be given more, "and he will have an abundance, "whoever does not have even what he has, "will be taken from him." So what we see here is an abundance comes from investing in to eternity the things that have been given us. So I want to ask you this tonight. As you see your life, and you see who you are, the faithfulness to invest, who you are, the faithfulness to invest, who God has created you to be. I want to encourage you tonight to look at your life and go, man, this is amazing. And then allow the Holy Spirit to go, there's this one area to continue to advance the ball and advance what has been invested inside of you because you're storing up treasures in heaven. Faithful investment of what he's given us, it happens when we have that eternal vision. So the first thing is this, is that our faithfulness to the Lord will produce heavenly reward, amen? The second thing is this, number 13, it says this, rewards are promised to the humble, period. Rewards are promised to the humble. You see, open your Bibles now, flip over to Philippians two. I'm just taking you from that sheet 'cause you're gonna have to do homework on that sheet. Amen, you mind homework? Philippians two, humility stores up amazing treasures in heaven, in fact, humility is, in essence, the foundation of many things that store up treasures in heaven, it takes humility to store things up in eternity in all every one of these 19 categories, but it's a specific one that the Word of God speaks to. Philippians chapter two says this, therefore if there's any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being like-minded, everybody say like-minded. Having three things, same love, being of one accord, of one mind. So what we see here is an affection and mercy like-mindedness comes from the same love being in one accord and one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit or let nothing be done through empty pride marked by opinion. An opinion mind, let nothing be done through selfish ambition and an empty opinionated pride but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. But in lowliness of mind, it's the picture of a river that has been dehydrated into a little trickle like the Nile River or a Mississippi River that has been so dehydrated that it's just a little trickle that goes through lowliness of mind to be able to consider others better than ourselves. That each would esteem others better than themselves. This is a steaming of other people's gifts that are not like ourselves. How many of you get along with people that are just like you that have the same gifts? Isn't that amazing how that works? Similar giftings hang out with similar giftings. There's an appreciation that happens and it's easy then to draw the assumption that I have the right gifting. Now I know that no one would declare that out loud but to esteem the other gifts within the body, the evangelist and the pastor being able to esteem the apostle and that apostle being able to esteem the gifts, the ability to give and the ministry gifts. You see what it says is consider yourself lowly at a low stage and esteem those that have different giftings as high along with you because what that happens then is it creates a team. And then how do we do this? We do it through proper self-evaluation. Proper self-evaluation, being able to see myself through correct lenses, being able to see myself and be able to then acknowledge the need for those around me. This is an essence according to Philippians two, the humility for you and I to live in. Then it goes on to speak of Jesus Christ and how Jesus was of no reputation and he humbled himself. You see, this is in essence us being more like Christ stores up more treasure in heaven. Humility stores up treasure in heaven. 1 John 3 says this, flip over there to 1 John 3. Is this good news tonight? I hope this is encouraging you tonight because when we grab hold of this, I'm telling you, it just makes a whole lot of sense. Some of us have come in here tonight and said, why in the world did that happen? Why in the world did this thing happen with my finances? This with my time, this with my family, this with this relationship and it makes no sense, but in view of eternity and heavenly rewards, you go, oh, I get it. You mean I was actually storing up in eternity while I was going through this difficult thing right here? That is an amazing thing to consider and I'm praying God right now by your spirit that we would connect dots even over situations that would bring great healing and closure over our lives in Jesus name. 1 John chapter 3 says this in verse 13. Do not marvel my brethren if the world hates you. Just say praise God. Do not marvel my brethren if the world hates you. Man, I love the word of God. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. You see, humility is manifested love for one another. Humility is manifested when I can initiate love. When I can come in here and say, oh, I get to see my family tonight. Did I'm able to come in here? Humility is one that fiercely loves, that goes outside of themselves, that presses into other people, that loves with such an intensity that it's not about me, it's about another person. Humility loves and it is a true sign that we're storing up treasures in heaven. And then you flip over to verse 23 and it says and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. They will know him by our love for one another. You see, for you and I, it's an important thing to always remind ourselves that how we love each other will be our witness, how we love each other and build each other up and encourage each other. When was the last time you just radically encouraged someone that you lavishly just poured into them just, I mean, just going to such a degree to love and to build another up. That is a sign of humility that is storing treasures in heaven. You see, first and foremost, we love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Then we love our neighbor as ourselves, each other, and then we go into the world. Number three, the great commission. So for you and I to store up treasures in heaven is to love one another fiercely. Let me ask you this, how many of you have had a little bit of loneliness in your life? You found yourself, don't raise your hand by the way, I'm sorry, if you did praise God, okay? But what happens in life is we start to get lonely in arenas and we start to isolate the enemy wants to come and bring you and pull you off. And I want to tell you to press in in that time, if you've known loneliness in your life, I want you to encourage you to allow the humility of the Spirit of God to press you into a relationship. I want you to consider loving each other so intensely that people are holding back tears. You see, I believe that the Lord wants to do a special impartation of intense love. Do you know around the world, many people know us as for freedom ministry and all these different things, but the primary thing that you go around is they go, man, you just know how to love each other. You know how to love each other. You know how to see a need and meet a need. You know how to see someone that's isolated in the back of the room and go, give them a word of truth. You know how to be able to meet someone with compassion and mercy and go, I don't know, but God knows and I will walk you through this. You see, you know how to love. And it's the humility within your love that stores up treasures in heaven. Praise God, Luke 14, 11 says this. It's on your piece of paper, by the way. In the amplified version, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, ranked below others who are honored or rewarded. And he who humbles himself or keeps a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly will be exalted or rewarded, which means elevated in rank. Those that keep a modest opinion about themselves and behave out of that will be rewarded. That is amazing news that we are storing up treasures in heaven by functioning humility towards a Lord in one another. Good news, last one is this. Are you ready? It's kind of quiet in here. You all right in here? I hope you're doing well. This is the last one. And this is one that has really gripped me this week. And I believe that the Lord wants to do something with this tonight in our lives. It's this, it says, rewards are promised to those who endure difficult circumstances out of their trust in God. Rewards are promised to those who endure difficult circumstances out of their trust in God. Hebrews 10, verse 34, in the new living translation. It's number six, by the way. I hear your pages flipping. Hebrews 10, verse 34 says this, you suffered along with those who were thrown into jail. When all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew you had better things waiting for you in eternity. Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord, no matter what happens. Remember the great reward it brings you. Patient endurance is what you need now. So you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. Someone say, amen. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 34 clearly declares that those that endure difficult circumstances out of their trust in the Lord are storing up treasures in heaven. Knowing in my translation, the new King James says, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Knowing that eternity is on your mind. Knowing in light of the difficult situations of your health, your finances, your time, relational conflict. Knowing in light of all of these things, having eternity in mind, you will patiently endure. This is what you need right now is what Paul says. He says, you need to now understand in view of eternity to endure through knowing that heaven is on your mind. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, verse 35, which has great reward. He says very clearly, do not cast away your confidence or do not cast away your conviction or do not cast away that edge in your spirit. Do not cast away what you know. Do not cast away what's been invested inside of you. Do not cast away the love of Christ inside of you. He says, may the conviction rest even more firm through the difficult situation that you have come through. And from that, you will have a great reward for you have need of endurance, everybody's saying endurance. So that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. The endurance is the word hoopamony that many of us know. Everybody say hoopamony. Hoopamony basically means this in this context is confidently and patiently remaining under. Confidently trusting the Lord. Confidently expecting in light of all of these circumstances that you may have come through in light of eternity confidently endure and press through trusting God. Cast your vision upon heaven and you will be able to endure through. Because the great fruit is that you will then have done the will of God that you may receive the promise. You see, this is where richness comes from is God's hoopamony to endure. And as I've been praying for you this week, I know that the Lord has just put on my heart, some of you have come in here tonight heavy. Some of you might have come in in an arena of life that you're saying, oh God, I'm heavy and I don't know what to do about X, Y, and Z. But I tell you tonight, the good news is to endure to hoopamony confidently expect good from God but to endure through patiently in light of eternity you're storing up rewards and treasures in heaven. Stand your feet with me tonight. For you and I, we are storing up treasures in heaven. For you and I, we, our existence here is for heaven. And I want you tonight, Father tonight in Jesus name, even as we just want to now look to heaven, we want to look to you amongst all these other areas that we are rewarded, Lord, we want to stay and look at being faithful unto you as you are faithful to us. Being humble before you and my brothers and sisters as you humbly came and shown it to us. And Father also in return to endure like you endured, to looking through this world. Father, I thank you tonight for the freshness that it brings me of thanksgiving unto you. Freshness unto you knowing that you humbly moved through this world, that you endured for me and that you were faithful to the end. Father, I thank you tonight in Jesus name. And Lord, even tonight as we respond in worship is Daniel and Esther come back up here and meet with us. Tonight, Lord, we want to cast our vision on heaven and thank you that you have promised to us great and wonderful things in salvation. And even as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Lord, we're storing up treasures in heaven, Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters that you would freshly impart to us a fresh hoopamony, a fresh endurance. I invite you to raise your hands to heaven tonight, a fresh hoopamony to have confident trust in the Lord that he's going to come through. Declare out loud, my God's going to come through. Mike, tell him, just look right to heaven right now. Lord, you're going to come through for me. You're going to come through for me in this situation. You're going to come through in that situation. Even this thing that I don't even want to say out loud. Lord, you're coming through as I keep eternity on my mind. And as I continue to press forward, tell the Lord that he is the one that is going to do it. Re-instate yourself of faithfulness. God, you are faithful to me. And I am termed and faithful to you. Your humility marked me, Lord, now increase my humility. Tell the Lord tonight to just ask him for a fresh impartation, a fresh impartation tonight, to see through the eyes of hoopamony, to see through the eyes of confidently trusting in the Lord, to see through the eyes that even as we worship him, we worship him in spirit and truth and a lack of heaviness. There will heaviness allowed when we are having eternity on our mind. We just give you, Lord, every way that we thought through a temporary mindset right now in Jesus' name. We lay aside the temporary. We see it all, Lord, for what it is. And we ask, Lord, rearrange our minds for eternity tonight. I invite you to put your hands on your mind right now. And ask the Lord, Lord, rearrange my mind for eternity. Pray the prayer of Jonathan Edwards. Stamp eternity on my eyelids. I want to store treasures in heaven. Renew a fresh passion where I have become hurt or have found myself dried out God knew life upon us tonight, new life upon our minds, upon our hearts, upon our spirits to press forward, that we would receive a fresh understanding of how we're gifted, and that we would store treasures in heaven, that we would literally press into those arenas every way that we have not pressed into because we have been scared because we don't know how to develop this gifting. Father, we give you the right right now to call us into new levels of gifting, to call us into new levels of ability. Even as we worship tonight, Lord, I pray that you would baptize us afresh tonight of areas that you are calling us to turn our gifting up to a new level, turn our gifting up to a new place, a new level of sanctification, and set apart unto the Lord to pursue humility, faithfulness, to pursue enduring through the things of this world with the victorious mentality. So tonight, let's turn our mind to the Lord. Let's turn our mind to the Lord and thank him for the truth of God's Word. Thank him for the Word of God, how it's able to dissect our lives. And as we worship, we lock in right now on you, Lord. We lock in on you in Jesus name. Let's lift our voice and not force Daniel to bring us in. Let's just, Lord, we love you and we thank you. And we worship you tonight. [MUSIC PLAYING] (gentle music)