Hope Church Sunday Podcast

Judgment Day of Christ

Is what you're building going to last for eternity? Pastor Steve unpacks this question in today's message and challenges us to consider the weight of what we pursue in this life as it could have eternal consequences.

Recorded at Hope Church in Springfield, MO.

Duration:: 49m
Broadcast on:: 29 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Thanks for tuning in to the Hope Church Podcast. We hope that you're blessed and encouraged to walk out the gospel as you listen to this message. Come on, tell your neighbor they look good on a Sunday as you be seated. Beautiful, beautiful. It's been an incredible last seven weeks with these students and just a quick shameless plug. And then we're going to go to work. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. DTS 2025 is coming. Yeah, it's been a phenomenal first school and we just want to encourage you guys, if you are 16 to 26 or know somebody who wants to sow a summer into running with a discipleship community and DTS, send them our way. We're going to open up registration real soon for that. And just so excited to see what God's going to do with these students in Brazil. And then as we continue on in the days to come, God has met us every step of the way through this class. All right. Let's go to work today. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 over the last seven, eight months probably, maybe even more. You kind of, if you've been paying attention, hopefully you have, we've been, there's been this common kind of thread through the messaging of our spiritual family here. It's a few things, but it all connects. It's kind of been eternal perspective, foundational, like the first commandment, the first love returning to the first things, the fear of the Lord, very foundational. Those have been kind of the common themes. And so today I kind of want to revisit a little bit of that and talk probably a little bit about all of it, but come at it from a different angle. Is that okay? You guys all right? Okay. How many brought their Bibles to church? Good. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, if you're taking notes, we just want to encourage you to take notes today. Write a few things down. It always goes deeper when you write it down versus when you just sit there and stare at the talking head. Okay? 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 8, we're going to look at a subject that you might be familiar with. Maybe you're not. And we're just going to kind of introduce this idea today. We're going to look at the judgment seat of Christ. Everybody said, yay. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 8. Are you ready? Okay. Here we go. Each one will receive his own reward. Everybody say reward. According to what? His own labor, okay, and then skip forward a little bit. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if anybody builds on that foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, each one's work, everybody say work, will become manifest for God. For the day will disclose it. Notice how day is capital D. For the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. Everybody say reward. Are you guys picking up on a theme through these verses? If anyone's work, everybody say work, is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Whoa. Okay, so let's pray real quick because we're going to need a lot of help this morning. We need the preacher to show up, amen? Jesus, we ask you in these few moments here that you would come and make entrance. The word of the Lord, go forth and make entrance into hearts. We want to hear the word of the Lord today. So we ask you Holy Spirit, come and bring that into this space in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, any of you guys ever built Legos before, anybody raise your hand? Come on, a few people, yeah. Legos has taken their game to another level. You know what I mean? It's a totally different animal from when I was a kid. I think it was like duplos or something when I was a kid. They got battery powered. I mean, those things shoot stuff. I mean, it's a different game, okay? So Brooke and I, we have a couple kiddos that have loved Legos over the year. Brooke's my wife. We have four kids. But I'd say we've spent the most time building Legos with our youngest son, Zion, okay? Which is great until you actually open the box and you dump out the 16 bags and you really very quickly get slapped with the reality that they do not advertise on the outside of the box that you need a degree in engineering to make all the little pieces fit together to form the picture on the box. Can I get a witness? You got a six-year-old with the attention span of a squirrel sitting next to you at the kitchen table and they're counting on you to give them the picture on the box in the next three minutes. Come on. All the dads out there know all about this life, okay? Putting together Legos is really only 50% about putting together Legos. The real task is keeping the squirrel engaged long enough while you try to figure out what the heck you're doing. So it's been several years ago and Zion and I, we sat down, and I'll put together one of these sets, okay? I didn't know at this time when we bought it, but this was actually the largest and most intricate Lego set ever produced. The Millennium Falcon, shout out Star Wars, 7,541 pieces. We were seven days into this thing, guys. Just about reached my limit at this point. After you've built entire sections backwards and you're flipping through the instruction manual back and forth convinced Lego has made a mistake, only to discover the inevitable. You missed a step and you got to go back and undo hours of work. There's only so much Lego building one man can take until he breaks, okay? That's where I was. We're just about to get to the end, okay? The Millennium Falcon is coming together and I look into the last bag. The Lord is with us. I see light at the end of the tunnel. There are three pieces left in the bag. Praise God. Only one problem. When I looked at the instruction manual, there were four pieces needed to complete the set, 7,541 pieces. You know the engineer could have fabricated that thing in 7,540, but he's sitting there laughing thinking about all the dads out there that are going to lose that one final piece. 7,541 it is. The devil is a liar. Get the entire thing built. You need to come to the end and realize that what you built is missing something. It's lacking. It's actually not as it should be. Sort of a cute story when it's the Millennium Falcon and you're six-year-old. It's cute when it's Legos and you're trying to make the picture on the box, but maybe it's not so cute when you spend your life building and laboring for the proverbial population. Take a picture on the box only to get to the end. Having reached my definition of a successful life, only to realize what I built is not actually as I thought it was. What I thought was success was actually bankruptcy. It's lacking according to the evaluation of the one whose opinion matters the most. Each one of us, young and old. We are all reaching towards a picture right now in the lifetime of what we want with our lives. Everybody in this room. Every human on the earth. We're building and ordering our lives according to that picture. Whatever the picture is for you, fill in the blank. The question is not, are we building something with our life? The question is, is what we're building going to last for eternity? Where no one can lay a foundation other than that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now, if anybody builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day we'll disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. The fire will test what sort of work each one has done if the work that anybody has built on the foundation survives, he'll receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss, though he himself will be saved but only as through fire. Well, this is one of the premier and primary issues the apostles emphasized all throughout the epistles that our life decisions in this age have a payoff in the age to come. But our decisions in this age actually have eternal consequences, which means you can't necessarily look at a person's external temporal circumstances to determine if they're successful or not because the payoff of one's life is not primarily what's seen in this age. You can't look at somebody's bank account and the comfort of their living condition to determine if they're rich because the payoff isn't seen by what we have or don't have externally in this age. The payoff is yet to come. So shameless plug, DTS again, we're going to talk about it all day, I guess. We had Marcus and Mariana with us all week and DTS had just racked by the beauty of Jesus through their lives and he told this story about a sermon that John Piper preached to his congregation. So Piper opens up Sunday morning, regular Sunday morning, but it's a little different this Sunday morning versus all the other ones because he's standing there holding a newspaper where he proceeds to read an article out of the newspaper about a couple of 80-year-old women who had given their lives to the foreign mission field, 80 years old, given their strength so that the gospel would go forth in this specific region. The article goes on, he's reading, the newspaper goes on to tell about how these 80-year-old women had just been murdered by some radical group in the area where they were living. And Piper asked the question to the congregation, "Isn't that absolutely horrible with the resounding unanimous answer? Yes, horrible, absolutely horrible." And then Piper pauses and he says, "Actually, it's not horrible. You want to know what is?" And he picks up a different magazine, it's Forbes or something like that, and he reads this article to the congregation about another couple who'd spent their lives building a name for themselves, they'd accumulated wealth, they'd achieved status and gotten accolades and applause. And the article was about this couple celebrating how they had built an empire to their name. And the article ends showing how the couple had retired, bought a yacht, and were spending the remainder of their days sailing from island to island collecting seashells. And Piper says something like this, "The ladies that spent their lives pouring out their strength unto martyrdom in love for Jesus is not horrible. To spend your life chasing wealth just so you can retire on a yacht and collect seashells is." Just wrecked. Listen to how the writer of Hebrews says this, Hebrews 11, 24, "By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin." He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking to a, is that last word, reward. This is the primary emphasis in the New Testament presentation of the gospel, an eternal perspective. We cannot afford to misunderstand, downplay, underestimate our destiny. An anemic perspective of our lives and the age to come makes us casual with how we live our lives right now. What we believe about where we're going of forms how we live today, Ecclesiastes writer said God has written eternity into the hearts of men. Having a biblical perspective of how and why God is moving the storyline of human history forward the way that he is, how the end times drama unfolds and what that's all unto in the ages to come, it's critical for us to understand because it affects how we view our future and what we believe about our future affects how we live right now. All the church fathers and mothers preached this, believed this and lived this way. Look at this, 2 Corinthians 5, 9, it is all through the Scriptures. So whether we are at home or away, Paul said we make it our aim, or you could say it like this, I make it my primary dream to please God, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he's done in the body, whether good or bad. Now that word bad is not necessarily sin, it's more like worthless things, idol things. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, and I love this phrase, but what we are is known to God. That is the definition of the fear of the Lord. God sees, which means if he sees, everything matters, everything. So what does this actually and practically mean for us as believers? Trying to live my life in 2024, bro, trying to establish a career, raise a family, get their school and get dinner in my kid's stomach so they can get the soccer practice on time. What are the implications of that day for you and I? And how are we called to live our lives in this age unto that day? So let me just start by saying this, are you guys okay? Let me just smile for a second. The most, let me say this, the most important appointment of our lives is yet to come. In the opening text, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul calls this most important appointment of our lives. He calls it the day, capital D. Later on in Corinthians, he calls it the judgment seat of Christ. And then again, at other times it's referred to as the day of the Lord. It's all talking about the same thing. The language is all referring to the second coming of Christ. There is a day coming church when an event is going to take place in the sky. Jesus called this event the sign of the Son of Man where a burning Jewish man named Jesus in a resurrected body is going to return to this planet. He's going to put his feet down on the Mount of Olives. He's going to set up his throne in Jerusalem and he's going to begin to govern and rule over the all the nations of the earth in righteousness. And the glory of the Lord is going to cover this earth the way the waters cover the sea. Zachariah 14 says, when that day happens, he's bringing all the saints and the holy angels with him. The grandstands of heaven are going to be emptied and on display on this planet for every eye to see. Jesus is coming back the second time as a man of war to destroy the Antichrist and his armies riding on a white horse, fire in his eyes, sword in his hand, garment dipped in blood, Revelation 19, to eradicate evil from this planet and all of its influence. He's coming back the second time to swallow up death forever. And so will begin a thousand years of unprecedented blessing on this planet underneath Jesus' perfect leadership called the Millennial Kingdom. And within that time frame right there, each of us in this room, right here on the sound of my voice, each and every young and old, rich and poor, during that time frame, every one of us will experience that most important appointment of our lives. We will not be one second late to that appointment. You won't be able to reschedule it. You won't be able to call on a sick day. There'll be no excuses that will work on that day pretending like it's not going to happen. We'll do nothing to change that appointment. And here's the reality of that day. What that appointment reveals will determine how we spend eternity forever, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each of one may receive what's due for what he has done in the body, in the body, in this life, whether good or bad. So can we walk through this real quick? Guys good? There's a couple of different judgment events that are going to take place in the age to come. Okay? A couple. One of those judgments is called the Great White Throne Judgment. Anybody ever heard of that? Raise your hand. Three. Okay. Here we go. That's the right message, Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. Then I saw a Great White Throne and him who was seated on it from his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. That's not my words. Can't, don't get mad at me. Okay. The only people that will stand before this great white throne judgment are those who refused the free gift of salvation in this age. And this is the judgment that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light. They rejected the work of the cross. They were not born again by the blood of the Lamb. Those people, all of those people will stand before the one seated on the great white throne from whose presence, earth and sky flee. And on that day, they will be judged to the second death in the lake of fire because their names are not found written in the Lamb's Book of Life. On that day, there will be no doovers, there will be no more chances, there will not be a casual reset button on that day. The judgment on that day will be just right, set and eternal. That reality should produce two things in us, the believers. The first thing is to produce is deep gratitude and thankfulness in our hearts to this perfect father and his beautiful son named Jesus that laid down his life so we don't have to experience the white throne judgment in the second death, which is what we all deserve, as is be honest. For the believers, this reality of the great white throne should cause us to bow down and kiss the son. The second thing this reality should do is produce deep urgency in us as believers to go into all the world and preach the gospel. The good news is we don't have to experience the white throne judgment in the second death because of the love of God through his son Jesus and you don't have to either if you'll believe in him and be born again. The great white throne, it's a judgment for unbelievers to determine where they'll spend eternity. Okay. Here we go. Second judgment event, which is what we're going to introduce today. There's so much on this, we're not going to get it through even a fraction of it, but I just want to put it on your radar, okay? The second judgment event is what the Scripture calls the judgment seat of Christ. And guess who will be standing before that judgment event? That would be me and you, born again believers. This judgment, it's not to determine where you'll spend eternity. That is secure through the work of Jesus, faith in Jesus and his work on the cross. That judgment is not to determine where that's secure, you ought to get that out of beat. That's like it's the good news. Okay, we're all like, yeah, we know we got to wake up church because God's bringing us back to the simple gospel where this thing moves us deeply again. That's not another Sunday morning sermon, but it moves us deeply in our hearts. This judgment, judgment seat of Christ is an evaluation of the quality of the way we lived our lives in love for Jesus in this age to determine how we'll spend eternity. It's not about where it's about how. So let me say it like this. Our entrance into the eternal city is based on what he did. Our place and function in that city is based on what we did with our life after salvation. Uh-oh, Romans chapter 14, let's all through the Bible here. Let's just get into the Bible. Don't take my word for it. Romans chapter 14 verse 10, Paul again, "For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." He's talking to the believers. We'll all stand before the judgment seat of Christ for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue confess to God." So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. What matters the most about your life is what Jesus will think when your eyes meet his on that day. Okay, so let's take this a little further. The phrase "judgment seat" is the Greek word "bema seat" - B-E-M-A seat. This is big. It's a super common phrase used in the ancient world. Everybody would have understand what Paul was saying when he said, "You will all stand before the beema seat of Christ." It's important because the beema seat was a place of reward, not a place of penalty. Okay, take a deep breath. In other words, the beema seat was not a courtroom where the judge would send somebody to prison. The beema seat was a raised platform where a group of judges would be seated, and the athletes would appear before the beema seat, and the judges would evaluate how the athletes ran their race or participated in their event, whatever. And then reward them according to the judge's evaluation. The beema seat is a place of evaluation and reward. We're in the Olympics right now, okay? Ask any Olympic athlete that stood on the pedestal to receive a medal at the beema seat, and they would tell you, "It was one of the greatest privileges and honors of my life to stand there." The joy on that day as all of my training, my sacrifice, my dedication, when nobody was looking, waking up early, getting to the gym on time, nobody was looking. All of that has its full payoff the day I stand at the beema seat. First Corinthians 9. Let's get back into the Bible. Can't go right. You can't get any more prophetic than the Bible, people. First Corinthians 9, 24. Do you not know that in a race the runners run, but only one receives the prize or we could put in the word reward. So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, a perishable reward, but we, the believers, are running to get a reward that is imperishable, eternal. Every born-again believer will stand before this Jewish man named Jesus at his beema seat in the age to come and give an account of what they did in this life with what God gave them. The race we ran in this life will be evaluated on that day. And whatever that evaluation reveals about the way you ran your race will be eternal. This should motivate us, people are like, I don't like this message. I feel pressure will sow. When I thought there wasn't any pressure after the grace of God, well, where did you hear that? The reach of our hearts and love for Jesus will cause deep, deep. It will force changes to take place in our lives. This, the reality, it should motivate us unto intentionality, that we would begin to take great care with how we run because everything matters. So that on that day, at the judgment seat of Christ, upon evaluation, we would actually receive a full reward. Second John 1, I mean, yeah, second John 1, 8, look at this. This is literally, I want to challenge you, go home as you do your study time. Look at the Bible through this lens. It's literally everywhere. Second John 1, 8, watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for, which means you fell in the blank, but rather, but we may win a full reward. If there's a full reward, that must mean there's a partial reward in a quarter reward and a 16th reward. So a couple of things. You guys still okay? I got 15 minutes. There's no way this is going to happen. Let me just get as far as I can. Okay? I just want to stir up holy curiosity. Go home and get in your Bible because the goal of the pastor is not to feed you a meal every week. I come to church to get the meal from the talking head. That's not what this says, man, our goal is to stir you up into hunger so you go home and get your own food. Number one, we will only be evaluated based on what God gave us. You want to say, amen, praise God. God has given each person a unique life assignment based on their capacities. God gave you a certain amount of gifting, finances, a certain family setting, certain generation, certain country, certain emotional capacity, certain physical capacity, life circumstances, all of it. We will not be accountable for what we don't have. God will not ask you for any more than what He gave you on that day, okay? Number two, and more importantly, God will not evaluate us on that day based on the size of our footprint, but rather on the size of our heart response before the Lord. God does not regard how big your outward achievements are in His valuation of your life. The greatness of our days in this age is not primarily about the size of our ministry impact, although that's important, but it's more about the size of your heart response before the Lord. Matthew 22, here's the standard, always has been, always will be, the first commandment. You shall love the Lord your God with. What's that next little, three little word? Let's just say that together. Well, your heart with your soul and with. And then verse 38, this is the first and the greatest commandment. In other words, that's the life that God calls great. Here we find right here, Matthew 24, the God summarizing the human race's mission statement. What is the most reliable definition of the life that God calls great? You won't find a better one. It's the first and the greatest commandment, loving God with all our hearts. It's the first emphasis of the spirit in our lives, and it's the greatest calling of our lives. The success of your life in this age will not, it's not found in your bank account, your 401k, your life insurance policy, the vehicles you have in the garage, the college you send your kids to, and getting your mortgage paid off. The success of our lives in this age is only based on how well we walked in the grace to love God with all of our hearts. It's the first and the greatest commandment. Now, notice the standard here. Jesus did not teach that we're supposed to love God more than everything else. Shout out DTS, Marcus, week seven. He might as well just preach this whole thing. Jesus did not teach that we're supposed to love God more than everything else. Sounds good, though, right? Sounds really spiritual. I love God more than everything else. The only problem is that's not the biblical standard, because you can love Netflix 50% and Jesus 60%. You love God more than Netflix, but the standard isn't love God more than everything else. The standard is love God with all, which should cause all of us, myself included, to go. It's the primary dream of my life to do the thing that God called great, which is the only thing that matters in the light of eternity. It's the one thing that's needed. Am I reaching for this one thing more than other things? Or am I reaching for this one thing with all? There's a big old difference there, and the Holy Spirit is jealous to restore the first commandment to first place in His church again. He's not jealous for better songs and better preaching. He's jealous to restore this first and greatest commandment back to first place in His people to give. Listen to how Henry Nowon says it, "You know, I've got to throw a Henry Croton here." He live as though there were something important to be found outside of Him. God defines success differently than we do. God defines us by the cry of our heart reached, not the size of our footprint. This is actually good news, friends, because you could be the least gifted. You could have the least beauty. You could have the least popularity, no platform, no following, no notoriety, no applause, no finances, no resources, no options. But if your heart is responding with all in love for Jesus on that day, God will call your life great and you will be fully rewarded. I don't know, let me give you a news flash. Our lives, friends, are on a trajectory for greatness if we want them to be, regardless of our life circumstances. People celebrate the gift, but God celebrates faithfulness. In the Kingdom, it's not your level of experience that counts. It's the level of your dependence. Okay, I'm just going to jump way ahead. Let's go back to our first text, 1 Corinthians 3-8. There's so much here, guys, go home and study your Bible. This is not some peripheral. Jesus taught more on rewards than the prophets and apostles all combined put together. He talked more about rewards than all of them combined. Jesus talked a lot about this subject and we should too. Rewards, a little bit in this age, but the primary emphasis was not what we get in this age, it's what we get in the age to come. Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. You can interchange labor and works, same word. Jesus said works, Paul said labor. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Christ. Now if anybody builds on the foundation, notice the six building materials. Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it'll be revealed by fire. And the fire will test what sort of work each one's done. If the work that anybody has built on the foundation survives, he'll receive a reward. If anybody's works burned up, he'll suffer loss, though he himself will be saved but only as through fire. Fire is true about how we love Jesus with our lives, will come to light in his presence on that day. You won't be able to manipulate that man's evaluation. The one with fire in his eyes will look at your life and whatever is revealed is true will be eternal in that moment. Everyone's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire. Fire will test what sort of work it was. We will all stand before Jesus on that day with what we've built with our lives after salvation. The rule of our choices, our life's choices, thousands of little choices every day, some big but mostly thousands upon thousands of small daily choices we made throughout the course of our born-again lives. Those will be revealed and tested by fire on that day. The secret motives, tensions of our heart, some pure and upright, born out of a burning heart of love for Jesus and some worthless and idle, born out of selfishness and pride. The fire will reveal the truth about the quality of what we've built with our lives on earth. Think about this. We should think about this on that day. To one, they will present this massive edifice of accomplishment to the Lord. I don't even know if that's the right word, trying to sound smart up here, I'm not. Massive. Look, it's been their life building, their days building this thing, labored for it. Look at what I've built. And Jesus will go, "Okay, let's test the quality of it." And the fire of God's glory will fall on that person's life's work, the summation of their life's choices, and in one second reveal the true quality of it all. Whether it was built with wood, hay and straw, or gold, silver and precious stones. If that person's life's work was built with wood, hay and straw, in one second it will be burned to the ground, a pile of ash, because the fire revealed that it was built with wrong motives, selfish intentions and ambitions. It was done for the applause of man to be seen by men and not God. And on that day, that guy, he'll suffer loss, the loss of potential rewards that could have been. If anybody's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. Here's the picture, and I'm done. Here's the picture, a guy trapped in a burning house, the whole thing's on fire, the walls are collapsing in, the ceilings caving in, the flames are rising, and at the last second, someone pulls them out of the burning house, right as the entire house collapses and burns to the ground. That's the picture. They were saved, they actually lost everything. It's actually the picture that Paul gives us about the reality of that day. Here's the implication, you're saved, but your life was wasted. The judgment seat of Christ is a day of great reward, but it should not be taken lightly. The judgments on that day will be absolutely generous. Remember Jesus said, "You give even a cup of cold water in my name, and I see it." He's gonna hand your reward on that day, and you're gonna be like, "What in the world is this for?" He's like, "Remember that little cup of cold water you gave in my name?" He'll be like, "Yeah, yeah, here's your payoff for that." You're like, "Wait, this for that?" He's gonna be like, "I'm really rich." So the payoff will be generous, but it will be just as well. On the other side of that, friends, there will be people on that day that will come before the Lord with what seems to be very little. In the eyes of men, it was nothing. They had no applause. They had no notoriety. In the eyes of men, what they achieved with their lives was absolutely nothing, and Jesus also go, "Okay, let's test the quality of that work." The fire of God's glory will fall on that person's life's work, and in one second, the quality of their life's decisions will be revealed as gold, silver, and precious stones. The fire revealed that what they built, although it was secret and small and hidden, it was selfless. There was no selfish ambition in it. It was done for the applause of God alone, not to be seen by men, but out of pure love for God's. And though their lives seemed small and insignificant before men in this life, before the Lord on that day, they will be called great and receive a full reward. Amen. You guys can stand. Let me just read this, this isn't in the notes. Matthew chapter 6, verse 1, you guys okay, you need to stretch or something? Those of Christ here, and we're closing, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people, in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven; thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others." Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. They got applauded by men, and that's their full reward. I'm just concerned maybe that we get to heaven and go, "God, look at all I built." He said, "Actually, your reward was 453 likes you got on Instagram." That was your reward. You won't get one here because I gave it to you there, you match. I think we're going to be shocked on that day, I truly do. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward, verse 3, "But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret." Now get this phrase, "And the Father who sees in secret will reward you." The Father who sees in secret, the Lord is restoring this reality to His people. The Father who sees in secret, when nobody else is looking. And if He sees everything, it means everything matters, friends. Nothing about our lives doesn't matter. No decision we make doesn't matter. Great, small, large, tiny, it doesn't matter. I mean it all matters. It doesn't matter how big it is, it all matters. Amen, let's pray together. Did you just lift your hands? I don't know, whatever is in your heart, just lift it up to the Lord. Whatever you're feeling, whatever stirring inside of you, bring it before Him. Don't wait for the talking head to Legion Prayer, come on, what's in your heart right now in this moment? Lift it up to Him. Here we are, we want to stand before you, having lived a life fully pleasing, fully pleasing, not lacking. We want to receive a full reward on that day. I pray God for a deep purging of our hearts that all the intentions and motives that are selfish and done for the applause of men that you would reveal them as they are right now. So we don't stand before you on that day and are shocked at what we built within this life. Shock us now, not then God, we pray. I don't want nothing but by any day. Oh God, release the fear of the Lord on this messaging, on this house. Let us learn, learn to walk in the fear of the Lord in Jesus name, Jesus name, amen, amen. Go get your kids, we love you guys, bless you, we'll see you Wednesday.