City Central Church Podcast
Eternal Rewards
Chris Hippe
Father we asking Jesus name take the word of God and come forward tonight. I pray that you would encounter us tonight We are not here tonight to hear a word about you. We are here to encounter you tonight We're not here to be entertained tickled. We're not here to to fluff around tonight We just want the word we want exactly what heaven is saying for us as a community I pray tonight. Holy Spirit have your way. I pray the word would come forward in precision tonight I pray that you would infiltrate our hearts. I pray the hearts that need encouragement would be encouraged I pray the hearts that would be needing healing they would be healed I pray those that need would need challenging. They would be challenged. I pray take the word tonight and do only what you can do with it Father I ask in Jesus name anointed now and bring it forward and power and love grace and mercy in Jesus name amen Luke chapter 8 verse 17 says this it's a wonderful sober encouragement tonight. Everybody say soberly encouraging That's Luke 8 chapter. I'm sorry Luke 8 verse 17. It says this Nothing in secret that will not be revealed nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light Therefore take heed how you hear everybody say therefore Take heed how you hear Another translation is be careful then how you listen Be careful how you listen Be careful that you be attentive to the word of god Be careful that you not miss the word of god Be careful that you would not come underneath the power of the word of god and it would go by you Take heed my friends and family that it may not come in and miss that you would take heed Be careful with the word. It's sharp. It's powerful. It will penetrate. It will challenge. It will awaken It will also put to death. It has the ability so take heed that we would take heed tonight about this word I cannot encourage you tonight because tonight I want to talk to you about an eternal perspective Called eternal rewards. I want to talk to you tonight about the difference between a temporary mindset and an eternal mindset I want to talk to you about something that will that every one of us struggles with And then I want to talk to you about the antique don't to our lives I want to tell you tonight that we are here for but a moment We are here briefly. I wanted to bring a water bottle tonight and squirt it in the air and repeatedly say We are but a mist. We are but a mist. We are but a mist We must understand that you and I have been birthed onto this planet to bid for the father We must understand that we are here not for today, but for tomorrow We are not here for momentary things. We are here for eternity We are here so briefly in compared to eternity God's design is that eternity would drive us to places that we would never think of going in a temporary mindset I cannot encourage us tonight to grab hold of what the lord wants to present to us If we come out tonight with a fresh impartation of eternity on our mind, we will live differently this week We will see people differently this week. We will see the lost differently this week We will see people in bondage differently this week. We'll see the orphan differently this week We will see the motherless children the different this week We will see the single mother that is is under so much bondage differently. We will see Differently tonight and I believe God has an impartation for us for you and I it's not something That's just going to be a chill bump moment. It's the word of God What i'm going to tell you tonight the scripture calls a foundation of the faith The word of God says do not go back to the foundation of the faith because that is milk And I do not want to offend you when I say that because it was it is offended me all week this week Because i've had to realize the temper with the areas that I live for the temporary in my life And how I'm mistaking eternity and it so infused me with so much joy to understand That I get to do the father's bidding. It was a fresh understanding that fell on me this week And I pray father that you would do it for my friends and family in jesus name The objective is this our tomorrow should drive our today Could you help me and get that I am having a problem here with this thing going up and down on me? Praise god. So the objective is our tomorrow should be What drives our today our tomorrow being eternity? Thank you brothers shall be what we live for today The objective is this how many have ever heard of a gentleman named jonathan edwards Jonathan edwards was a puritan preacher back in the day and I encourage you to look up the puritan preachers They have a very strong word for us in this hour. Jonathan had a wonderful message He had a very young age in his early 20s late teens area He decided to create 70 resolves is what he called them. They were 70 life missions I resolved to fill in the blank fill in the blank fill in the blank And one of them was I resolved to have eternity seared on my eyes Father seer eternity on my eyes that every day when I wake up I would have eternity on my mind eternity on my mind that I would awaken in my my my eyes would be attentive to eternity That I would be thinking about ep people other people's eternal destiny I would be thinking not only about them, but I'd be thinking about myself and I would allow that to see I don't need a message to then drive drive urgency into me. I just become urgent Oh, I've got to go So it's eternity the word of God is actually eternal And one of its many effects is to draw us from the temporary into the permanent Second Corinthians four verse 18 get your bible close to you because we're we're gonna be pepper in you tonight Amen Pepper you with the word of God second Corinthians four verse 18 says this while we do not look at the things which are seen But at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporary everybody say temporary. I want to read that again. I want to remember take heed how you hear for the things which are seen Are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal The things which are not seen are eternal you and I are temporary It's an amazing statistic probably the only thing that I ever put a hundred percent confidence in is this every human being dies factual done Have you thought this week that you're gonna die? It's not a pleasant thought. No one likes to think about it. I'm gonna die Tomorrow is not guaranteed for this man Tomorrow is not guaranteed for you You see eternity is one breath away at all times now for you and I it makes us it invades us It gets us uncomfortable. Don't talk that way preacher boy settle down I don't want to hear about eternity because the temporary is where I still find some of my value Is what I have found in my life It is the temporary that will disappear. It's the eternal God is desiring for us as a body to invest so much in the eternal that when we die and we see each other in heaven We're high-fiving because we paid a cost here on earth because eternity got filled with rewards To throw down at the feet of father. We don't want to be misguided We do not want to be misguided in this lifetime thinking that we're living for eternity when we may not be I don't want to be the christian that stands in front of jesus christ and be disappointed It scares me not out of like oh, I'm scared of him But I don't want to stand before him and have straw that gets burnt I want to be one that comes and has everything for him And to be able to say it was the greatest joy to serve you my king And for all of eternity I will be rewarded Is what the scriptures say? I do not want to be misguided. This is the only way to make our life count here on earth is to live for eternity The only way to store treasures up in heaven is to have an outlook for eternity now So eternity is perceived by the heart and not the mind How many of you have ever tried to live for eternity like in your mind? I've tried this this is this has really been difficult. God eternity. I'm trying to figure it out I'm trying to mentally ascend. I'm trying to make it happen in my mind But actually it's impossible to understand eternity in our minds because we're temporary people But you know the joy of the regenerated believer on this planet is it stored in your heart Eternity is in your heart. Look at the klesiastes three verse 11 It says this god has made everything beautiful for its own time He has planted eternity in the human heart But even so people cannot see the whole scope of god's work from the beginning in the end Inside you and I is eternity. You see I'm speaking to your heart tonight Take heed that you would hear with the ears of your heart I want to come right into your heart your soul tonight And speak to the eternity that's in there and I want to breathe fire on it And I want to say come alive even more even more even more and get to experience the joy of having eternity Romans 1 chapter roman's 1 verse 19 for the truth about god is known to them instinctively God has put this knowledge in their hearts Every person has the knowledge of god every unbeliever knows god. It's because it's planted in their heart They know of him, but they deny him according to roman's 1 19 But still it is the knowledge of eternity is placed in their heart That's why you see national geographic specials coming out with the latest greatest Apeth they found or this evolutionary theory or that next thing that you just it's now It's adam or now it's like ollie or a baba and they've got all these different words for these bones that they find trying to Figure out eternity and where we came from because it's planted in their hearts They're just hunting down the wrong road and we pray father grace on them in jesus name So the the final judgment is you know you and I there's going to be judgment Look at look at this second Corinthians 5 10 that we would live with the final judgment in mind Now this sounds a little bit bizarre. I say the word judgment and you just go. Oh, that just freaks me out It's kind of quiet in here Is it just think about it you say the word judgment you're like oh no for you and I it's actually good news This is good news for a believer. Okay. It says this second Corinthians 5 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ That each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad Hebrews 9 27 and as it is appointed for men to die once but after this the judgment so the reality is this Is there are actually scripturally three different types of judgments? One judgment is actually for the angels one is for unbelievers and one is for believers What the scriptures clearly declare is for an unbelievers is that that they if they do not know Jesus christ as their savior and lord Then it's bad news It's real bad news. How many of you have ever heard someone take a shot against someone that preaches hellfire and brimstone Have you ever heard that before don't preach that hellfire and brimstone now? I don't I don't I'm not I don't know what they mean by that when they say that but it seems like People do not want to speak to the reality of hell these days And that people that do not know jesus christ are on a one-way ticket to isolation Torment and they're going to be in utter pain biblically forever Now it's hard from my mind to ascend there And it's not a popular thing to preach in churches, but it is a reality Scripturally that you and I must know and see And that there will be a judgment and for those that do not know jesus christ every knee will bow every tongue will confess his name But that is the judgment day the horrible day That that should it should also be a prompt for us to be able to go God have mercy on On my friend here or my family member here. God. See it drive the reality of hell will drive intercession too It will drive intercession. It will you're you're not looking for an emotional moment But the burden and the reality of the isolation. I I was doing some research into hell this week What a popular topic where is god? But I it was really fascinating how isolation is such a key part of hell And how it's like solitary confinement that you can imagine forever and ever being tormented continually in isolation Because you and I are created to be relational people and the joy of that. I mean that is a frightening thing my friends You want some good news now? Let's talk about the second judgment. That's you and I You and I will stand before jesus christ And we will know him and we will enter his kingdom And we will have the greatest joy But the question is is how much have my storing up today for eternity How much am I storing right now for eternity am I restoring in the temporary or am I storing in eternity? And I have had such a wonderful moment this week to be able to look at my life afresh And go god. I want more to store in eternity. I want my life to account on earth I want to be aligned with eternity and not aligned with the world I want to be more like eternity. I want to be more heavenly minded. I want to have the future Coming and driving my present day. I do not want my present day to just maintain I myself have found getting so caught up in worldly things and relational stuff and and so many temporary things that seem so big but in light of eternity they become so small And when I have eternity in mind, I start to pursue my personal restoration with afresh zeal I cannot store up more treasures in heaven with this anger in my life My friends, we cannot leave restoration behind I have got to tell you that I've been doing freedom immersions these last three weekends And i'm watching people get transformed in front of my face over and over and over god coming and lasering them in And freeing them from bondage in their life and they're living free and excited and I want to say this friends I want to say Come back to the restoration if you're not currently there if you become disillusioned by it. I couldn't encourage you more Return to the first fruits of restoration because there you will find Great freedom and it will free us more and more to store more treasures in heaven. It's almost illegal christianity It should be illegal because you actually get to get rid of the bondage And you have been trained many of you if and you have not we're going to open up new venues for you To break off the sin that so easily entangles to go on with god and to so fruit fruit into eternity As a happy moment Turn your neighbor and smile real quick kind of a heavy heavy look real quick. All right, praise god. Let's keep going. Amen You're doing great. You're doing great I'll tell you that we're culminating to what it means to be to be rewarded Right now and and storing up and we're going to talk about it was going to go like that Did you see that like I was going to put my cell phone right there Settle down settle down Oh multi tasking gone sideways praise god She was okay now look at first green themes three verse nine. I want to look at to set the stage for you and I to enjoy the reality of the word of god First krentians three verse nine i'm going to read out of the new living translation. It says this We work together as partners who belong to god You are god's field god's building not ours notice god's building It's an interesting thing to consider god's building It's build his building is to bring his eternity into the temporary Do you see how that works? We you and I are a body and a collective of people that god desires to bring eternity To manifest in the physical here and now that his will would be done here a building Because of god's special favor to me. I have laid the foundation like an expert builder Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful So it's a caution To us as believers be careful Be careful with what you're doing here on earth Be careful what you are sowing be careful. What's your building? Take caution again. It's similar to the luke eight passage Take caution take special attention as to where and what you are storing up in heaven Now for no one can lay any other foundation than the other that we already have jesus christ Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold silver jewels wood hay or straw So notice there's different qualities of materials Now what do you personally want to build with? Do you want to build with stray a straw a lot of us are thinking now of the three little pigs, aren't you? Sorry, I have four children and it's it's it's tough to get away from the simple things. We want to be building with materials that last But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done each person I'm going to have to go and stand get to go and stand Before my loving lord and savior and be able to go I did everything I knew how here here you go, but I want to know that I have done everything. I've known how I want to hear well done and good and faithful servant Anybody in here doesn't want to hear that well, it's all our desire We all want to hear well done and good and faithful servant. Well, we got to know this tonight very important. Okay There's something that come uh, but there is a time coming. So if the work survives The fire that builder will receive a reward everybody say reward Now know this god rewards believers in eternity for what they do here He goes outwards righteousness No, that's bible. You know he knows how he created us. I'm not talking about your salvation your salvation by grace You've been saved through faith period game set match can and clothes done. Okay But what i'm talking about is a reward He knows how he created us. Does anybody like when they do hard work a little bit of reward on the other side Why is that a common principle of every man and woman on this planet? It's because god created us that way He created us that reward to have rewards In the process and isn't it wonderful that he sees to that need for us also So 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. Hello have mercy That doesn't sound like fun at all. That's called fire insurance, baby You barely made it out of that fire and you're smoking a little bit, but who you made it in Now if we're storing up eternal things for eternity, then we will not make it in we will be escorted in And can you imagine the scene? To be able to go hey hoss bring in the trucks And dump them at his feet And to be able to go it was my joy To see your will and your kingdom come here Thank you for the opportunity to serve you my king That my friends is true life True life may we leave temporary behind and move into eternal more and more and more and more Hebrews 11 6 says this And without faith it's impossible to please god because anyone who comes to him Must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him Isn't it interesting that we say without faith, it's impossible to please god period. Uh-uh. That's not period That's just the beginning without faith. It's impossible to please god because First we must believe that he exists second. We must believe what? He's a rewarder He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him Part of faith is believing that god is a rewarder Part of faith is believing that god rewards those that diligently seek him to see eternity come here See the idea is not merely that god exists as a rewarder But he will prove himself to be a rewarder of that person who diligently seeks him Isaiah 3 10 to 11 Look at that. This is Jason Bradley praise god for this man He's amazing says this but all will be well for those who are godly Tell them you will receive a wonderful reward, but say to the wicked your destruction is sure You too will get what you deserve your well-earned punishment is on the way You see it's a it's amazing how much the bible speaks to rewards And so tonight my friends I want to share with you a couple things as we close up this message I believe this is going to be there's going to be a part b to this because there are 19 different categories according to scripture that We store up heavenly rewards right now 19 different categories. I have resourced so many books. I've gone to randy alcorn I've gone to john bevere I've gone to the I mean and it's all just bible that they've helped me explore And i've accumulated 19 different categories that the word of god speaks to for a believer that has eternity on his mind That these are the ways that we earn rewards in when we are in eternity So you go am I really storing up treasures in heaven? Well these 19 categories are a wonderful litmus litmus test and also a wonderful provoker and encourager Praise god Okay, let's look at this first. I want to set it up by second kreathing's five nine says this So we make it our goal to please him whether we are at home in the body or away from it Our goal here and now is to please god period our goal is to please it Our goal is to give him everything our goal is to to to lay it all down for the sake of the cross Our goal is to say because if I really hung my life up When I got saved if I really hung it up on the cross and I said I am yours take all of me if that truly is the case Which is genuine salvation and nothing less Then we will want to please god in such a way that we go god I want to please you and I want to see it all in heaven There's two major categories of rewards number one is this building the kingdom in accordance with our gifts and callings the first major category is building the kingdom of god in accordance with our gifts in court it is Exercising the gifts inside of you. I want to ask you are you exercising the gifts inside of you? The Ephesians chapter four gifts the multiple gifts inside of you are you exercising them for the kingdom of god It's your original design in essence. It's your original design Manifesting into its fullness and you being you and and how many of you know when you're living in your original design you're having a whole lot of fun That's the joy the second major category is this is how we build individual lives our own and others our own and others the second major category is having disciples and pouring into them and building them and growing them And seeing them mature in the faith and the far surpass You and me as individuals and they would excel deeper in the faith and have more disciples and more influence That's that's one. That's one and then from my own personal life also That I would pursue my restoration that I would pursue my sanctification that I pursue my godliness that I would make decisions That would be uncomfortable to the temporary fleshly mindset and make eternal decisions today Two major categories turned your neighbor and go say this is good news You okay? I know we're pounding through but we're going to keep going praise god. Here we go First one is this I'm going to so we share two categories with you tonight and then we're going to respond to the lord and worship First one is this doing good works doing good works Stores up treasure in heaven stores up rewards in heaven doing good works now you say what in the world good works Not to earn your salvation doing good works is a response to the grace you have been received Doing good works is in response to the goodness of god doing good works is a response to what you have been given in jesus christ Ephesians 6 8 says this remember that the lord will reward each one of us for the good We do whether we're slaves are free he will reward your goodness now Take a different spin on this just think about how many rewards you already have in heaven from doing good Think about how many rewards you already have in heaven for doing good I'm looking at a lot of your faces right now And I'm already just going to ching to ching to ching to ching to ching I mean I can hear heaven dancing right now I mean it's like So many of you I know and I look at you and I go how many good works I mean I could call up amen schwanger and I could light him up top 10 nathan on he same thing john carlson summer carlson I could go to tim and julie. I could go to amy busker I could go around the line and I could tell you top 10 things Of the good works that you've already stored up in heaven But I want to tell you don't stop And I want to tell you this this should catapult you for me This is what it's done to me is it's just put extra octane in me And I go if that's what the word of god says i'm moving twice as fast and I didn't know I could move twice as fast I'm like man. This is incredible Romans 2 6 Will judge all people according to what they've done? Romans 2 10, but there will be glory and honor and peace from god for all who Do good for the jew first and then for the gentile so doing good works stores up treasure in heaven Doing good works will do it. So I want you to think about this week What is it the lord that is asking you to do good works? What is it that you need a renewal of passion to do good A renewal to to press forward in a renewal to to say god I did not want to do that in a temporary mindset. I don't want to do that good work How many of you have ever found yourself wanting to humble yourself eternally minded But temporary minds going there is nothing about this humility thing that I like Have you ever experienced that battle or or you know the eternal thing is to apologize come low and say i'm sorry Your temporary mind is raging with the taught 20 reasons why that's most stupid reason on the planet May tonight's message be your dividing line between what you choose May you store up you see over here the temporary it only makes you more miserable more angry and less fun to be with You don't even like being with you oftentimes at that point Right at this point but over here when you come below and you take god's road and you store up treasure in heaven It's like god's notice. Hey, you're doing it my way You're like wow that was incredible Happened to me this morning early in the morning. It was like whoop. I was like man. That was a fun thing Why'd that take me so long praise god? Okay first category is what? Everybody say doing good works Okay So you get rewarded for doing good works second major category if you can go to this one Jason is denying ourselves Denying ourselves stores up rewards in heaven. Is that not amazing Saying no to your fleshly desires To you and saying yes to the lord stores up rewards Now i'm not know if i'm doing such a good job tonight of explaining that we get rewarded in heaven I know i talked about hell earlier, but i'm sharing some really good news with you right now That you and i can actually affect eternity Isn't that amazing? Matthew 16 is a wonderful passage verse 24 then jesus said to his disciples if anyone desires to come after me let him Denying himself and take up his cross and follow me Forever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will Find it for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world And loses his soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul For the son of man will come in the glory of the father with his angels and then He will reward each according to his works You See you wondered all this denial of yourself saying no you thought it really was just a hardship on your flesh But i want to tell you my friends and encourage you tonight that you've been storing up as you have been pursuing your restoration and saying no To the flesh and saying no to the things of the world and saying and saying i want less of the world I want less tv in my life. I just can't stand this relationship because we have bitterness We must rectify this and we have must all of the hard decisions my friends That you have come through to this point over the years. I want to tell you well done And keep going well done and keep going you're not starting from scratch This is not a oh my word. I never knew this before I better start storing up you got more up there than you think you do i believe Okay, but i want to tell you those are only two doing good works Denying ourselves What's an arena right now that you need to go before god and say this is an arena that I need to deny myself I need to deny myself. I need to deny myself of food and start fasting more. I need to deny myself the entitlement Revisit the entitlement worksheet We taught it this weekend and oh my word I would teach and then look over at heaven. I'd be like tally Pray through that one on the way home Tally that one too. Oh my word the less entitlements we have the more we deny ourselves the more we store up an eternity It's come comboed in you here with restoration praise god So where do you need to deny yourself? Is it deny yourself from a relationship that you know is polluting you Is it to deny yourself of a habit that you have created that you need to set yourself apart from is it to deny yourself More things of the world and invest more into the eternal word A temporary mindset will not want the word of god inside of him Because it invades the temporary Well all is just doing to you is killing your temporary So if we're if we're wanting to really sew in heaven Then we want to invest in eternal things So when jess comes up here and he talks about hey, we've got 2000 kids that are on their way to hell help Eternal temporary mindset goes that's going to cost me a lot I don't know how i'm going to do that. That doesn't make sense here here and here in eternal mindset goes Why can't I not how am I giving my life away? because remember one of the major categories is Giving away the gifts that you've been giving So it kind of pushes you out of the comfort zone a little bit praise god Are you encouraged by this like I am My wife and I stayed up late last night praying through a bunch of stuff She got I literally just preached it to her because I like to preach my messages before I deliver going just hey What do you think what's going on? And she's just all excited. She came alive. She's like pacing She's like i'm just I can't even go to bed right now in jesus name and she just starts going off Because it really is that amazingly exciting Amen Okay, daniel daniel nester went you guys come on up. Why don't you stand your feet with me tonight? Now we're going to respond to the lord God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him God is is is a god of great love and compassion that desires to see all of us win Again, we are not earning anything. What we are doing is responding to something I want to tell you this there's a declaration. Did you write the declaration down jason There's a declaration that I want to read to you, but I don't want you to say it I just want you to either write it down let it sear on your heart But this is my personal declaration. It says this I declare to live my life being driven by eternity into the places the savior beckons me to come lord jesus stamp eternity on my eyes Father in jesus name I pray that we would be a people with eternity on our minds that we would diligently seek you that lord I pray that tonight that you would bring to us a fresh infusion Of your presence tonight In a desire to see your kingdom advanced even more in jesus name Father, we are a people that desire to store things in eternity in jesus name If that's you just say amen Let's just say this just tell the lord right now lord help me this week to store up treasures in eternity You tell him between you and the lord we're going to respond to him in worship Thank him from the word of god. Thank him for the joy of the word We're going to thank him tonight in response in worship in jesus name Help us lord tonight even as we worship father in response to you We give you all the glory. Thank you that you're a loving father that loves to reward those that diligently seek you Thank you that you have wired us for rewards Thank you that we get to take the rewards and lay them down at your feet Thank you that we get we have the honor lord to lay down all the crowns and all the rewards and saying Father it was for you Make us wise investors though make us wise investors make us wise investors wise builders Wise builders expose where we've used strong Expose where we've used those lesser valued items father my life Our lives lord that you would expose every way that we are using those to build and that we would turn and start using the valuable permanent permanent materials in jesus name Everybody say wise builder And lord make me a wise builder Make me a wise builder Encouraged me on the road Encouraged me on the road Fresh life upon us. I pray those that have been living eternally minded in many areas that pray fresh lively I pray father that you would show us every temporary area To start on the path lord we realize it's not going to happen overnight But we're launching into a process so we receive tonight The revelation we receive that you are are a great rewarder and we live for eternity Thank you father. So tonight. I want us as a body to be in a habit of leaving the person to the right to the left And coming unto the lord Just me and you father. It's just me and you here now. Just me and you here now Thank you. Thank you. Let's lift our voices. We move in thanking the lord Thank you for the life we see in the world.