Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of enduring tests and trials as a pathway to receiving eternal rewards, specifically the crowns that God promises to those who remain faithful. He explains that God's ultimate purpose is to unite heaven and earth, and our actions in this life will determine our assignments in the age to come. Bickle encourages believers to view their trials as opportunities for growth and endurance, which are essential for qualifying for these crowns. He highlights that every believer will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, where their faithfulness will be rewarded, and urges the congregation to have a clear vision for their eternal calling. Ultimately, he calls for a diligent and disciplined life in pursuit of God's glory and the eternal prize.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 9 and 10, it's a verse that I look at quite often, we'll get the PowerPoint up going in a second, some of you have the handout we're going through, that the centerpiece of God's eternal purpose is to join together heaven and earth. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 9 and 10 it says this, that God made known to us the mystery or the hidden plan of His will which He purposed in Himself, and this is the hidden plan, that in the fullness of times God would bring together everything that's in heaven and in earth. And God's eternal purpose has always been to join together the heavenly realm and the earthly realm on the earth. And there's many passages in the Word of God that give the details of this. And I comment on this on a regular basis, this passage, because until we understand what's on God's agenda, we're thinking of the future in a way different than the scripture describes. There's nothing could be more damaging than thinking of the future in just kind of a nebulous way, floating on a cloud, playing a harp, kind of not really doing anything much, that the real action is now, and after we really are in the game now, we're really in the midst of it now, then things kind of mellow out for the next billions and billions of years. And it's exactly opposite, I'm gonna bring this down still a little bit too low, it's exactly opposite that the action really picks up in the age to come, in terms of our involvement, in terms of our dynamic ministries. You will have a ministry on the earth with a physical resurrected body, after the second coming, that will be far more dynamic and thrilling and exciting than your ministry is right now. Many people in the kingdom of God never think about their ministry beyond this age, or their assignment. Well, we don't know the actual details of what our assignment would be, but we do know that God has a great diversity of assignments in the age to come in ruling and governing the earth. Now when Jesus returns, the scripture makes it clear, he's gonna bring heaven to the earth. And the two realms are going to come together, the heavenly realm and the earthly realm are gonna come together. And we're gonna live life to its fullness in that hour. We will eat food, we will have conversations, we will teach, we will remember the past, we will tell our stories to each other, we will discover new information, and we will bring all of God's creation. God will use the saints to bring it under his government and under his order. There'll be infrastructure in all the realms of life. And the infrastructure will be comprised of the saints, and they will have different assignments according to their faithfulness in this age. And those assignments matter, because a lot of believers have this really false idea, well it doesn't really matter, it'll all sort itself out then. That there are assignments that are near and dear the Lord's heart, that the Lord is going to give those that were most faithful to him on the earth. And they will live, they will spend many many years, millions of years into the future involved in these assignments, billions of years, when the Lord brings the two realms together. Paragraph or Roman numeral 2, it says this, that all believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. It says in 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 10, we must all appear before the judgment seat. Now the judgment seat is the Greek word the bema seat, it's very commonly known, the idea of the bema seat, it's the reward seat, it's where the judges would sit in the Olympic Games and the ancient world, and it's where they gave the gold medals, so to speak, at the bema seat. We will all appear before the stand and the judge will be there to reward us for our life on the earth. And every single believer will stand there. This is not a place where our salvation is being determined, our salvation is already established, we're born again, we're in the kingdom, that's not an issue, this is related to our assignment in the kingdom, not our salvation. It says in 1st Corinthians chapter 4, the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in darkness and he will reveal the counsels of the heart and then each person's praise will come to him from God. There's a day coming when the secret hidden things of your heart, the hidden things of darkness, the things that nobody can see, and beloved, these aren't just, he's not talking about right now the negative things, it's talking about your secret faithfulness, your secret righteousness, the longing of your heart to please God, though you didn't ever fully walked out it in the in the full dimension that you desire. I mean, I want to walk with God with far greater faithfulness and maturity than I am right now, and I have this longing in my heart, and many of you in this room have that same longing. God sees that longing and he will actually speak to us and relate to us based on the counsels of our heart. It's not only the counsels of our heart, it's what we do and say as well, but even our longing for this matters to the Lord. Notice that when God reveals the secrets of your heart, you will receive praise, not rebuke. When you read this verse, you might think, oh no, the secrets of our heart. He goes, no, the things you did that no man noticed, or no man valued, or no man paid attention to, I saw it, and I noticed it, and I want to praise you and honor you for it. Paragraph B, James chapter 1 verse 12, a passage I've been talking about the last couple weeks at different Encounter God services, as well as a little bit on the Sunday here. It's a very important passage for every one of us. God promises to bless the man or the woman who endures temptation by giving us a crown of life. James said, blessed is the man or the woman, the person that endures temptation. And the idea that temptation must be endured. Temptation to compromise, temptation to pride, temptation to all manner of things, is constantly assaulting, and harassing, and coming against us to throw us off. And it takes endurance. Endurance is the key word here. We endure in our obedience, and we ward off the temptation to laziness, to covetousness, to stubbornness, to the pride of our heart, to hold our tongue in check, instead of venting the things that, all the things that come to us that should be repented of, instead of spoken out loud. We have to endure this assault against our heart of sinful lusts. But what James says, if you'll do this, if you will faithfully do it, I don't mean just for a, you know, one summer, a summer retreat kind of deal, but over the years. And no one does it perfectly. He's not talking about sinless perfection. It's talking about a rigor to be real before God at the heart level. What James says is, God will approve of you, because God's the only one that can approve. This isn't about salvation. This isn't, this isn't the Lord saying, I've welcomed you into the kingdom. But he's approving you for government, or for an assignment that requires authority, and requires a crown. Now, I assume that most believers will not have a crown. A crown is not the same thing. It's not synonymous with salvation. I believe millions will, millions. But beloved, by the time the great revival comes before the coming of the Lord, there could be two to three billion saints in the kingdom of heaven. And I believe millions will have crowns. But I believe billions will not have crowns. Because the crowns are only given by direct approval and appointment of the Lord Himself. And they're given to designate assignments that require authority, and they're part of God's government. They're not just part of His kingdom, but they're a statement. The Lord wants the people to work with Him in the most important tasks that were faithful to Him in righteousness on the earth. Though we're all forgiven. Everybody's forgiven in the, you know, that comes into the kingdom of God. That's what it's about. But we're talking about something different than forgiveness. And James says that the Lord will give this crown to the people who love Him. The Lord takes it personal. When you resist pride, and stubbornness, and laziness, and covetousness, and slander, and complaint, the Lord takes it personal. He understands you do it because you're trying to express love to Him. And the Lord watches, and He remembers. And the most boring, routine, mundane day where we've resisted temptation in our heart becomes a day that's glorious in the sight of God, and it's remembered in our life, is crowned because of that day. Nothing eventful may be happening in your life in the next days. Anything that you remember years from now. But the movements of your heart will be remembered in the presence of God forever. Forever. Paragraph C, talking about the subject of the crown of life. There are nine references to the crown that a believer may receive from the Lord. The crown has three different titles, and I'm assuming it's the same crown with different nuances. It's called the crown of life. That's what James calls it. It's called the crown of righteousness, and it's also called the crown of glory. Paragraph D. So the crown of life, the crown of righteousness, the crown of glory. Some commentators make them separate crowns. My assumption is that it's the same thing. Paragraph D. The crown of life refers to our capacity to experience and to impart the life of God or the glory of God to others in the resurrection. The crown of life, it's a reflection. Those that receive a crown of life, it is a reflection of their capacity to experience the life of God. The life of God is the anointing. It's the presence of God. It's the glory of God. The life of God and the glory of God is the same thing. And it's righteous. That's why I believe it's all the same thing. Now in the eternal city that is coming to the earth, by the way, the new Jerusalem is coming down to the earth. So there'll be a very physical, material realm to our eternal life. As we will have a physical, material body, though, with all the qualities of the power of the resurrection and the supernatural realm mixed in with our material, physical dimensions of our body. I mean, it's the best of the best of the best. It's so awesome that when we understand it, we become like really grateful to God our whole life. When we understand it, it's like, thank you, God. Thank you. This is awesome. This is good. And that's what it's supposed to do. And so much of the body of Christ doesn't grasp the reality of where we're going and what we're about. It is absolutely indescribable in its glory, Paul said. Well, first Corinthians 15, verse 41, says that as one star differs from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead. Each believer will be different in the capacity of glory that they have. Not only our capacity to experience it, our capacity to impart it with authority. You know that there will be many that will have a teaching gift in the age to come. Many saints will be teaching the saints in the age to come. They'll be teaching the angels. It says in 1 Peter, the angels are looking at the church to understand what's going on. There are several passages that reflect that. There will be many that will be teaching and prophesying and speaking and training in the age to come. Other saints, as well as the angelic realm. And many different facets of government and servanthood in the infrastructure of heaven that will be upon the earth. And each one of us will have a different capacity to experience God, and that capacity will continually increase throughout eternity. But we will also have a different capacity in terms of imparting the life of God to others. Just like now, there's some who can impart the life and revelation of God at one level, and others impart it at another level. In grace, in life, the same thing as in the age to come. It's the same principle because it's the same kingdom. Paragraph E, the top of page 2. There are two Greek words that describe the two different types of crowns in the New Testament. There's the diadem. That's the crown of a ruler. A king has a diadem. And then there's the Stephanos. The Stephanos crown, which is the one used in this passage in James 1 when we receive a crown. The Stephanos crown is the crown that the athlete received in the Greek games. It was the crown that they ran a race and won the race and got the crown. It's very different than a king who typically inherited his crown. This is a crown that was earned through hard work and striving and competing in the games, and they had victory. Now, we're not trying to have victory over one another. We're having victory over our hearts and over the flesh. It says in paragraph F, Hebrews 2. How many? 12. The writer of Hebrews says, let us lay aside every weight and let us lay aside the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run a marathon race. Run with endurance. Now he says two things here. Number one, he says lay aside every weight. A weight and a sin are two different issues. You would never imagine a marathon runner, you know, a world champion marathon. Here it is, the world champion race, and they're all there. The top runners in the earth, and one of the top runners says, wait a second. He bends over and takes a 10-pound weight, straps it around his ankle, his right ankle, then another 10-pound weight on his left ankle and says, I'm ready now. The other runners would say, what are you doing? I just wanted a little extra hair. 26-mile run, two 10-pound weights, one on each ankle. Paul said, or the writer of Hebrews says, if you're gonna run the race with endurance, you have to throw weights away. Weights are things that are in themselves legitimate, but they don't help you win the race. They are not wrong in themselves, but they're not profitable to your spiritual life. The Lord will not find fault in the fact that people do them, but neither will they enhance their spiritual life. Those are called weights, and I have found over the years that there's a great energy in the body of Christ to find as many Bible verses as possible to validate the value of weights, and it's mostly the grace verses. Whenever you put your finger on a weight in a person's life, they just get lots of Bible verses, lots of energy to prove it's good. The weight slows you down and stops your spiritual progress. Sins are different. Sins are a different matter, but the writer of Hebrews says, lay them all aside. Lay them aside. Get a vision to run this race, and the race is a lifelong race, and if we run in the right way, we receive the prize of the highest potential of our calling that God has for us. I ask you, we talked a minute ago about each one will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Do you have a vision? I mean a clear vision that you can articulate. Have you ever written it out? A vision for your life at the judgment seat of Christ of what's going to happen. I mean people have a vision for their 70 years on the earth. What about their billion years after the earth? Isn't it important to have a vision? And people just kind of throw their future to the wind when their future is dynamically related to the decisions they make in this life. I'm talking about after we're born again. Our future assignment, our future experiences are molded in part by our choices in this age. And there's a great energy for believers to find reasons why they can opt out of running hard instead of finding ways in the grace of God to run hard, because they don't have a vision past the grave. I mean they want to go to the pearly gates and that's it. But the men and women in the scripture, and I'll just point this out to you, many of them had a clear vision past the grave. I want to challenge you, do you have a vision for your life after the grave? And if you don't, why not? Why not? If you get a vision, you will spend time and money very differently in this age. If you don't have a vision, you just kind of go with the flow and if the general body of Christ around you kind of approves of it, it's cool. And if they don't approve of it, you kind of shy away from it or just do it in secret. Beloved, that's not a clear enough vision for your few moments on the earth. Paragraph G, crowns are given to overcomers. Crowns are only given to overcomers, those that are faithful. Paragraph H, let's just read the passage here from James chapter 1. And this is the passage of which this promise about crowns is in verse 12, but we're going to begin in verse 2, because I want you to see how this is all connected as one idea in James's mind. He says in verse 2, my brethren, count it all joy when you have trials. And where he's going to bring this, he's going to say because the trials produce the quality that makes you qualify for the crown. He goes, you want trials, you cannot produce the kind of endurance and the kind of faithfulness without pressure on your life. Nobody can do it in and of themselves. He says, but the problem is people don't connect their trial in this age to their assignment in the age to come. They see in their trial an assault against them and they don't see in it a necessary process to form the kind of heart responses that gets approved to receive the crown. In verse 12, in verse 2, James already has in his mind that he's going to verse 12. He says count it joy. Now this kind of seems like an odd and even a morbid exhortation because saints read it and they only see the trial in context to the next couple years of their life and they think of it as their life being better in this age because of the trial. Many trials do not make your circumstances better in this age. When I was younger, I kind of assumed that, you know, if you have a trial in your 20s, you'll be awesome in your 30s. Well, I'm in my 50s and that theory's gone. Trials in one decade of your life, they might occasionally enhance the next decade of your life in circumstances. Occasionally they really do. You hear the stories, you know, they make great biographies of the guy who struggled for this decade and in the next decade many great things happen. But 99% of the human race, it doesn't work that way. And so what we do is, because we connect trials in our circumstances in this age to better circumstances later on in this age, and we get in complete confusion about it. And we get angry at God because God looks like he's a liar or he's playing favorites and the Lord would say, I never said that. I didn't say trials in this age would make your circumstances better in this age, though sometimes they will. They really will sometimes, but that's not the point. They will make your circumstances better in the age to come dynamically if you respond right to the trial. And that's why James is serious when he says, consider it joy. He's not kind of getting carried away as a preacher. He means it. He goes, you can't enter into the realm that you need to enter into of steadfastness and endurance without the pressure. The analogy I used the other night, the lump of coal without the pressure cannot turn into a diamond. It simply cannot turn into a diamond. The caterpillar without the struggle and the cocoon cannot become a butterfly. And those are many, many analogies in life that are meant to speak to our hearts. You have to have pressure in order for coal to become a diamond, for the gold to be purified. It has to have fire, it has to have heat and pressure. It has to be hit with a hammer, with fire, and the impurities can be removed from that gold. The scripture makes it very clear that's what our life is about. And our hearts get bigger in this age spiritually, for sure, and that makes our life better. But it's not a guarantee our circumstances are going to be a lot better. It doesn't mean you're going to be a rich and famous, anointed man or woman of God with great power that's going to dazzle the multitudes. And a lot of young people are kind of buying their time, hopefully, you know, twenty years will go by and they'll be, you know, this powerful wonder that changes church history. And there will be a few that emerge, but the vast majority, that's not even what God's called them to. He's called them to prepare to be faithful in this age with a view to their assignment even in the age to come. It's not the only thing that we have a view to. We have a view to loving the Lord in and of itself. That's a good enough view. That's a good enough reason to obey God, just to love him. But more times than not, people come up short on that motivation. It goes, it's good on paper, but they don't actually follow through consistently over decades. And he says, consider it all joy when you fall into various trials. He says, don't, don't go look for the trials. You'll fall into them. They'll find you. You don't have to go look for them. You don't have to pray for them. They just, they will come on their own accord. And even though a number of these trials we are to rebuke and we are to resist, because some of these trials are the work of Satan and we're to speak against it, but even the working of our muscle to resist it is building our spirit if we are doing it with the right attitude, with right understanding. Here's what he says. You got to know this. You can't count it joy if you don't know that the testing or the working of your faith, the exercising of your faith, pushups, you know, setups, day in and a hundreds, you know, pushups, setups, day in and day out. You're exercising your faith. These little incremental exercises. He says, do you know that when your faith does pushups every day, that it produces endurance in your character? The word patience, most translations use the word endurance. Says, okay, that's cool. James say, well, no, don't write it off. Without endurance, you won't have, your life won't be mature. It won't be, your life won't be a perfect work in the grace of God or mature. The word perfect, you just put mature. The goal, here's your goal in this age. Your goal in this age is to lack nothing in the major areas of your life in obedience. Not to lack, have no major area of your life where there's unsettled issues that you're not pressing into God with. That's your goal, to lack nothing before you stand before the Lord. That is your express goal in this life. For anybody with wisdom, I want to challenge you. Is that your goal? You have, some people have 20 or 30 years in the earth, but as Moses said, 70 years, 80 due to strength. And the purpose of this life, there's a number of purposes in it, but one of them is to confront the issues in your heart, settle them in obedience and in faith and in diligence and vigilance, and have it, your life, ready to present to the Lord as lacking nothing. Meaning there's not an area where we're resisting God. There's no area in our life where we're saying no to the Holy Spirit. And we're actually following through. Now again, this is not talking about sinless perfection, but it is talking about being rigorous with our eyes, our speech, the use of our time, our servanthood in secret, in areas where we get no recognition for our servanthood. It's talking about the use of our money, the use of our words. And the Lord's going to evaluate every one of us on the last day, and I want to urge you as a shepherd, your goal is to stand there lacking nothing in those areas. There's no area that's not been settled and perseverance for years brought under the Lordship of Jesus. The goal isn't to impress the leaders of the church. The goal is to get ready to stand before the Bema seat and to get your assignment. Now verse 5, which is, James hasn't changed the subject, he says, if any of you lack wisdom, he's talking about wisdom about your trial. He goes, if any of you are lacking spiritual revelation as to what's going on in your trial, ask God and God will give you insight. James didn't just suddenly change subjects when he said ask for wisdom. He didn't say, now if you need to know what career you're supposed to do, you know, go ahead and ask God. He's talking about the formation of your life in God under the pressure of trials so you would lack nothing at the end of your life when you stand before God. That's what he's talking about. He goes, ask God for insight. There is no issue more important than your ability to stand lacking nothing. There's no area of your life where you have not aggressively submitted it to the Lord. Doesn't matter if the people around you do it or not, the Lord's going to evaluate you when you stand before him. The Lord's not gonna, you know, say, Mike Bickle, come up here. You know, you had a little bit more energy than some of the others you were hanging out with. He's gonna say, Mike, I want to talk about your eyes. I want to talk about your money. I want to talk about your time. I want to talk about your words. I want to talk about your motives. I want to talk about you serving an inconvenience with no recognition. Let's talk, Mike, because I want to give you an assignment in the age to come. And I need to approve of you to have this crown before I give it to you. And I gave you X amount of years on the earth. I gave you the Word of God. I gave you godly friends. I gave you an anointed atmosphere with singers and musicians. Did you do what I assigned you to do to end your life with the goal of lacking nothing, having no area that was kind of on the side? I mean, all the immorality, all of it, the pornography immorality, the visual immorality, all of it needs to be gone. All of the areas of dishonesty and lack of obedience and finances, a hundred percent of our finances under the Lord's leadership, for real. All of our words, all of our afternoons, all of our mornings and evenings, all of them, we will stand before the Lord not to figure out if we're gonna get into heaven or hell. It's the gift of righteousness that gets us in. We're in the city. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about to see if we were worthy of receiving a crown or what Paul calls the prize of the upward call. He's talking about his own upward calling in Christ Jesus. Now he goes on, and you can just read the rest of James on your own there. Let's look at paragraph I. Paul desired, he earnestly desired to receive what he called the prize of the upward call. It's in verse 14, the prize of the upward call. Which is the crown of righteousness or the crown of life or the crown of glory? It has three names to it, if they are in fact the same crown. Because the life and the glory of God are the same thing. It's the ability to experience it and then to minister it in the eternal kingdom to others. Now the prize is the ability to walk in the fullness of what God ordained for you. Beloved, I do not want to stand before the Lord in the age to come and the Lord say, Mike, I would have. I had so much more planned for you. I couldn't get you connected to staying diligent and faithful with me. Yes, you had the reputation that you were very diligent. You had the reputation that you were passionate. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about your reputation. I couldn't keep you steady when nobody was looking. And so I have good things for you, but I had more for you planned. And the prize is the ability and the grace of God to enter into the fullness of what God had planned for you. But do you even have a vision for your life after this age? Or do you, it's like, go to the grave and then you take your chances from there, claiming the name of Jesus. Yes, that will get you in the eternal city. It really will. But the eternal city is a vast city. It's a vast empire, and it goes on forever. I'm with the fullness of what God has for me. Look at this very interesting passage that Paul said in Philippians 3. He said, oh, that I might know, verse 10, that I might know the power, that I might know him and the power of the resurrection, the fellowship of suffering. Verse 11, if by any means, here it is, I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. You go, now what do you mean you might attain? He's not talking about being born again right now. Paul says, I have not attained that yet, or I am not perfected. He goes, I have not finished my race with the declaration of the Lord, finished and approved. He goes, I'm trusting I will finish and be approved, but I haven't finished my race yet. He goes, I've not attained to the resurrection. He's not talking about being born again. He's talking about to the full capacity of his calling in the resurrection is what he's talking about. He goes, I don't have it yet. He goes, but I'm going after it. He says in verse 12, not that I have attained or already perfected, but I'm pressing on. I want to lay hold of that for which Jesus lay hold of me. Do you know that Jesus laid hold of you with a plan in mind? Jesus cornered you. He ambushed you. He trapped you in against the back wall. You couldn't have any way of escape, and then you said, yes, I'll love you, and then you tell your story. Oh, I sought the Lord, and the Lord says, that's not how I remember it. I chased you down and cornered you, and tell it like you want it, but that's not exactly how it happened. But did you know you were laid hold of by God, not just for a function. It's more than a function for a place in his kingdom forever. God had a place in his kingdom in mind when he laid hold of you, and Paul says, I am going to lay hold of whatever that is, and there's only one way to lay hold of it, through faithfulness, through meekness, through obedience. Beloved, you don't ever have to be known by anybody on the earth. You don't have to have any gifts, no abilities, no profile, no ministry, and you can still have one of the highest callings in eternity, because your calling on that side has nothing to do with your profile or gifting on this side. The most unknown, out-of-the-way, seemingly forgotten person that has seems like no gifts whatsoever, can have the highest place of function and assignment in the age to come, because it's based a hundred percent upon the grace of God and our response to it in faithfulness and meekness. Follow through, follow through, in the secret areas of our hearts, follow through. It's not doing it so that, you know, men look at you and say, hey, boy, you're real dedicated. It has nothing to do about doing it in the sight of men. Men may notice it, it's okay if they notice it, but that doesn't get you anywhere, because they do. It may get you a promotion on this side, but it won't get you anything where we're going. Paul said, verse 12, not that I've already obtained to it, or imperfect, but I lay hold of it. I press on. Are you pressing on with a vision to lay hold of that which what you were laid hold of for? Verse 13, he goes, I don't count myself as having apprehended it. Here he is at the end of his life. Philippians was written at the end of Paul's life. He goes, I don't have it yet. You're thinking, what is he after that he doesn't have? I mean, does he want apostolic ministry? He is one. Does he want to be anointed? He is. Does he want to write the Bible? He's written half the New Testament. What is it he hasn't apprehended? Does he need assurance of salvation? You ought to see what some of the commentators do with this. Well, Paul couldn't be too sure. I his spirit that he was born again. He knew he was born again. He had a vision of his assignment in the age to come. Now he goes on, he says, I'm reaching forward to it, to the things that are ahead. Now Paul's writing in a Roman cell the letter of Philippians, and he's going to die pretty soon, but he goes, I'm pressing on to what's ahead on the other side. That's filled my imagination. It's filled my understanding. I don't know exactly what I will be doing. I'm not talking about the Lord giving you direct clarity, you know, you're going to be doing this assignment, that assignment, but what you want to do is enter into the fullness of your assignment, and it has to do with your responses in this age. In our nation, this is a tough place. The reason we have so much, we have so much going on, but there's so much deception in the Western culture about what being an on-fire Christian is. The most on fire among us in our nation, compared to the saints of history and the saints in the underground church in Asia, hardly measure up to the discipline and the diligence of the saints of history. We compare ourselves with ourselves with ourselves, and we get comforted, but it's a false comfort. We need to compare ourself by the Word of God. I don't want to be more diligent than you. I want to be more diligent than I was yesterday, and my standard is the Word of God, not being more than somebody else, because you're not the judge. You don't get to vote where I go when I stand before the Lord. A guy told me just some time ago, he goes, hey brother, you don't have to do that. He goes, you know, just grace, be at peace, you know, don't worry about it. I says, well, if you get to vote at the judgment seat, I'll take your advice. If you don't get to vote, well, thank you anyway for caring, but I'm moving on. If you can assure me that your vote counts where I'm going, I'm gonna really listen to you, but I don't think your vote counts. I do appreciate your sentiment, but it's steeped in the Western culture passivity, so no thanks. Verse 14, here's what he says, he goes, I press toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly or the upward call. Did you know you have an upward call? You have a heavenly call, and the prize is that you would get into that which God ordained for you. That's the great prize of this life, that you would enter into the upward call of your life. The highest calling God has for you, it's the eternal heavenly one, it's called the upward call. The prize is the few, and I think it's millions, but again, out of billions, it's a small number. I want the prize. In my brokenness and in my weakness, every single man or woman that gets this prize has a broken and weak life. It's not about sinless perfection, it's about going hard for God in honesty and all the areas of the heart. Paul the Apostle, King David, all of these guys, we will be surprised at the real truth, that they were as weak as we are. Beloved, do you have a vision to enter into the prize of the upward, eternal, the ultimate calling of your life, which is clearly beyond this age? Here's Paul, he's just a short amount of time from death. Those that have studied the book of Philippians know the time in Paul's life, and he's pressing on for a call that he's not entered into, and he's written half the New Testament already. He's not talking about his call in this life. Let's go to paragraph J. Paul continues in this same zeal in his heart. Paragraph J, let's go ahead and read the passage. First Corinthians 9 verse 24 on the PowerPoint. Let's move that over. Here's what he says. Paul is presenting the Christian life as a champion marathon race again. I mean, he does this several times. He goes, don't you know that those who run in a race, they all run, but only one person receives the prize. Now, Paul's not talking about you receiving it, but the person next to you not. He's going to apply the analogy as this way. He's not talking about one, there's one who wins the gold, and one who wins the silver, that kind of thing. But there's, instead of one person that wins the prize, there's only one kind of lifestyle that wins the prize. There's only one type of life that wins the prize, and that type of lifestyle is rare in our nation. The reason I'm saying that, I'm not putting down our nation. I love our nation. I'm not putting down the church in our nation. I love the church in our nation, but I don't want to be deceived and lulled to sleep by looking around, because there's only one kind of lifestyle. There's only one kind of way that wins. Only one kind. And he's talking about getting the prize now. He's not verse 24. He says, run in a way, run in a way that you could obtain it. There's a way to run that's rare, and a way to run that's common, and the common way does not get you the prize. There's a way to run. He goes on to say, verse 25, he begins to discuss it. He goes, now you understand that the athlete who's running the marathon, he competes for the prize. He's temperate in everything. Everything. The marathon runner is temperate. I've known some extraordinary athletes in my day, and these athletes, I'm thinking of different ones of them, were so restrained, temperate, you put the word discipline or restraint, what they ate, their schedule, they were rigorous about their time and what they put in their body, and what they did with it every facet of their life, calculated to win the prize, the gold medal. The runner is temperate in all things. Here's my question. Are you running a race that you're aware of? Because you are running a race. Are you temperate in your money, your time? Are you restrained in your words? Are you restrained in what you do or don't do? Because if you're not, you're not running in the way that will win the prize. Because there's only one way that wins, it's the way of temperance, the way of restraint. He goes on, he says, verse 26, Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. He goes, I don't run with uncertainty. Beloved, do you run with uncertainty? Are you living your life without a clear focus and a vision for the future? Paul the Apostle had a clear, certain focus. He won the prize of the upward call. He goes, I'm not running with uncertainty, I'm not living my life just kind of taking it as it goes and trusting the sovereignty of God in a false way. He says, I run with focus. That's the opposite of uncertainty. He goes, I know what I want. I want the prize of the upward calling. I want the ultimate thing that God has for me in the age to come, because that's it's ever before me. Verse 27, he says, I discipline my body. That's the same idea as temperate. Back in verse 25, he goes, I discipline my body. I'm restrained. I bring my body into subjection. Why? Because I don't want to preach under the anointing to others and be disqualified from the prize. He says, I can be disqualified. There's no guarantee I will have the prize except I finish the race diligent. I have to finish it. Did you know that Paul was concerned as a mature Apostle that he would finish the race in discipline and vigilance so that he would not be disqualified of the thing which he was aiming for, his prize. Paragraph L. Let's go down to L. Now this is Paul in prison. Let's just read the passage, 2 Timothy 4. He's in prison. This is it. He's writing to Timothy. He's going to die in a short amount of time. We don't know, some weeks or months. Who knows? You know, he asked Timothy to come quickly. So he goes, get here quick. So you know, he may have several weeks. We don't know if Timothy made it. He may have had a month or two. Who knows? He says, I am, here it is in verse 6, I am already being poured out. He's talking about getting ready to be a martyr. I'm poured out as an offering before God. The time of my death is at hand. The time my departure means is death. I fought the good fight. I have now finished the race. The race I've been talking about in all these different epistles, it's over. I'm at the finish line. I hear him talking and they're saying it's coming soon. I finished the race. Look at verse 8. He takes the uncertainty he had in these other passages. He says, I haven't attained it yet. I don't want to be disqualified. And he says in verse 8 with such boldness, he goes, there is laid up for me the crown. I got it. Somehow by the witness of the Spirit of the Lord spoke to him in a dream. I don't know how he knew this. He was not talking about being born again. He says, I got the crown. I'm at the end. I got the prize. It's over. I did it. It's good. It's good. Timothy, you must do this too. My question is, do you live in the same grace that Paul the Apostle is talking about in the Bible? Or does the grace of God that you imagine just make you comfortable in your compromise and sin? The grace of God that's so often preached in the pulpits of our nation is calculated to make people comfortable while they're sinning instead of giving them the grace to persevere and to end the race with a supernatural ability to walk in meekness and obedience with their eyes and their speech and their words and their time. Beloved, we want to be temperate in all things. We're not trying to make a impression on other people. We know we're gonna stand before the beam receipt one day. Roman numeral three. I'm not gonna read this to you, Roman numeral three, but I'm just gonna leave this and you can get these notes on the internet if it interests you or you get them at the back. Here's my point of Roman numeral three. I'm not gonna even go through it. That we talk about faith. Most of the faith that people talk about is faith to get something now to enhance their circumstances. And there is a true biblical dimension of faith. It's not the primary way that faith is talked about in the Bible, but that is a biblical thing. To use faith or to operate in faith to get better circumstances now. That is clearly a biblical reality. But it's at the low end of faith teaching in the Bible. But that's the high end of how faith teaching is presented. When you read Hebrews 11, about every other person in Hebrews 11, the faith they had was the confidence that when they stood before God they would have the testimony that they were overcomers. They would have the testimony they were pleasing. The faith that they wanted, the confidence they wanted, was what Paul was was talking about earlier. They wanted the realization that they knew that how they were living was well-pleasing to God. I'll just pull out verse six or verse five. Enoch was taken away so he did not see death. Verse five here, for before he was taken he had the testimony. The Lord bore witness to his spirit before he died. He says, Enoch, you have the prize. What a glorious thing to have that testimony on this side. Paul had it in that prison when he said, I got the crown. He received the testimony on this side of how it was going to be on the other side. He didn't know all the specifics of his assignment. Look at verse 35. I said I wasn't going to read it, but. And the others were tortured. They did not accept their deliverance. In other words, they said, hey we'll let you out of jail. They said no, because they wanted to obtain what? A better resurrection. They were already saved. They wanted a better standing in God's kingdom in the age to come. They said no, we want a better resurrection. Paragraph A underneath this. This is one of the most remarkable statements of King David about his life. Paragraph A. It's 1st Chronicles 28.4. The context is David's 70 years old. He gets together all the military leaders of Israel. All the captains and generals and lieutenants. They're all there. Thousands. And he's 70 years old. He's got two things he's gonna tell them. He says, number one, he says I'm gonna lay hands on my son Solomon. He's 30 years old. He's the new king. I'm gonna set him in place before I die. Yeah, you know we have a successful succession. It's good. He lays hands on Solomon. He charges him. He says you're the new king. He goes, number two, he says I don't know the exact number. I'm gonna figure it out one of these days. But he, it was like I'm just making this up. Millions of tons of gold and silver and everything. He says I have all of this money I have saved up through my life and I'm giving it to the building of the temple. I'm giving it to IHOP. Because the building of the temple, he says I'm gonna fund it zealously with my own money. And he had, I mean millions, I mean hundreds of millions of dollars undoubtedly. First Chronicles 27, 22 to 28 it tells you all the numbers. It's just amazing. He goes, I have a tremendous amount of wealth and I want the singers and the musicians all in place. Because David set the order. He goes, I will use the money to build the building and to fund the thing. And then in the midst of this, I mean David's gonna die in a few months. He's 70 when he's doing this. He tells them this absolutely strange thing. He says in verse 4, the God of Israel has chosen me to be the king of Israel forever. They're going like, what? What? He goes, I'm gonna be the king of Israel forever. Oh man, David's losing it. He just laid hands on his son. He just set Solomon in to be king of Israel. He goes, no, I'm not talking about where you guys are thinking. I already know as an elderly man, my assignment the Lord has spoken to me. I have an assignment in the age to come that will never be taken from me. What an amazing statement. Look at the next passage, B. You just know you could read it on your own. He tells the apostles. They're 20 year olds. They're not 70 year old kings with experience. They're 20 year olds. He says, you guys are gonna have a role in the age to come. They knew it on the front end. And you think, Lord, was that wise to tell them that on the front end? That information will make a young man wild with pride or absolutely abandoned in their zeal and dedication. And 11 out of 12, it worked the right way. The Lord says, I know they are gonna birth something new that are gonna be resisted by the Rome and by Israel and the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And they're just young men. They have to know about the prize of their upward call. And he tells them, he goes, you guys are gonna have a significant role in the age to come. He tells them this to anchor them. And it's all of these guys that we're reading. I mean, you read Peter. Peter talks about in the age to come. He's getting his calling ready for the age to come is what he's talking about. These guys are anchored in this reality. Roman numeral 4. I just want to make this point. You can read any of the notes that you want to read. I just want to make a point in Romans 5. Paul said this in verse 2. I'm just gonna read it to you. He says, we rejoice in the hope, hope means confidence, of the glory of God. He goes, we rejoice that we're gonna experience the glory of God in the future. Now Paul's talking about the glory of God in the age to come. That's the fullness of what he's talking about. He goes, we are so excited, not just about having a little bit of spiritual activity in a worship service. He's talking about more than that, than the spirit of glory, you know, at a conference. He says, no, we are absolutely anchored into the confidence we're gonna walk in the glory of God forever. But look what he says in verse 3. He says, not only that, not only are we excited about the glory of God, we also are glorying in our tribulations because we know our tribulations will prepare us for the glory of God in the age to come. You can read the details of that. But he says, I'm excited when the trouble comes, it is translating to transform character, which translates to me receiving that crown in the future. Amen. Let's just stand. Let's just end with that.