Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of enduring temptation in the Christian life, explaining that the crown of life is awarded to those who remain steadfast in their faith. He clarifies that this crown is not synonymous with salvation but is a reward for living a life of comprehensive obedience to God's commands. Bickle highlights the importance of running the race of faith with purpose and discipline, as believers will be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ based on their faithfulness. He warns against the perversion of grace that leads to complacency and encourages believers to strive for complete obedience in all areas of life. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a commitment to endure and resist temptation to receive the promised crown of life.

Talk about running to win the crown of life from James chapter 1 verse 12. Let's let's read that verse. James said, Blessed is the man who endures temptation for once he's been approved, once this man or woman has been approved by the Lord, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord promises to those that love him. That's, that's the Lord's promise that he will give the crown of life. Now the crown of life is not synonymous with salvation. You go to a funeral they talk about, well brother so-and-so is receiving his crown. A crown of life, a small percent of the body of Christ or of the redeemed through history receive a crown. A crown is for government. A crown is for ruling. Now the crown, my assumption is that millions receive a crown. But there could be possibly two to three billion Saints in it from all of history by the time of the Second Coming. So out of several billion, billions will not have this crown but, but millions will and so it's not so rare. But it's given only to the people that endure temptation. It says in paragraph A, the crown of life is the crown for the way that you lived your life. It's the trophy that God gives you because of the way you, you carried your heart in the way that you lived your life. It's not related to forgiveness but rather it's related to your place of function on the earth after the resurrection in the Millennial Kingdom and then beyond forever and forever. It's related to your place of function and your place of authority in the age to come. Now there's two Greek words describing the two different crowns that we find in the New Testament. It's important to know which type of crown we're talking about. The first word is the diadem and we're familiar with the diadem. The diadem is the crown of a ruler, of the king of a nation and typically that crown was inherited. A person didn't do much to get a diadem. They were in the right family line. But the next type of crown is what James is talking about here. It's the Stephanos crown. Stephanos. It was the crown that the athlete received at the Greek games if they won. It was a crown that had to do with training and preparing and then winning the race. They received a crown, a very different than the inherited crown of the diadem. And this is the crown that James is talking about. The Stephanos crown and it's only given to the people who endure temptation. It's an interesting phrase. The temptation must be endured. We meaning we must we must have a sustained resistance of this pressure, this darkness that's encroaching into our life trying to break in and completely dominate us. There is a sustaining resistance and enduring of this negative influence against our lives. Paragraph B, 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 talks about that every believer will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now the word judgment seat is the word bema seat. And the bema seat was a very well-known idea in the ancient world. It was in the modern day. It's the Olympic Games. It's where the judges stood at the bema seat. It was a place of reward. It was a place the trophy was given. And so Paul is teaching that every believer runs a race and then they stand before the Olympic judge so to speak. Of course in this case it's Jesus. Paul viewed his life and he viewed the Christian life as one long race. Not a series of races. One long race and we stood one time before the Olympic judge. And our life was measured at the bema seat. Paragraph C. I use this verse all the time but Paul makes it clear, the scripture makes it clear many places that we will all have varying degrees of glory in our resurrected bodies. That as one star differs from another star in glory, as there are multitudes of billions of stars each one of them differ in their strength, the luster and the glory and its light and its function and its place in the atmosphere or in the universe, every believer will be different in many different ways just like the stars are. And there's a many comparisons that we won't go into right now. Paragraph D. The crown of life. Jesus promised that if we're faithful to death he will give us the crown of life but it's for the people that are faithful to the end in resisting temptation. Now the crown of life, it refers to our capacities to receive and experience the life of God in greater degrees. We will all experience God at different degrees in the resurrection. The crown of life speaks about our authority to impart that life to others in our ministry. Your ministry is is hardly beginning. Billy Graham is in his internship in his ministry. In reality though he has spoken to many stadiums, more stadiums than any other person in history. A million years from today when we talk to Billy he will talk about his time on the earth as merely the beginning of the beginning of the beginning of his ministry. Now this is obviously very clear to the Lord and it's was very clear to Paul the Apostle as well. Paragraph E. We're not going to cover all the notes here but we're going to go through just a portion of them. The crown of righteousness is only given to the people, it's only given to the people that finish their lifelong race. It's one race, it's lifelong or from the day of our salvation until the time we meet the Lord. And it's only given to the people that endure temptation. And this enduring of temptation is comprehensive. The Lord calls us to this realm of complete obedience. It's in the Bible the concept of being complete in our obedience, being mature in our obedience. And it's more than having one heroic area of obedience in our life. Like some people there's one area they're exceedingly obedient on and they've got a number of other areas where they're just really negligent on. So this thing called enduring temptation, running the race and getting the crown is related to the comprehensive obedience of our life. Because the premise of Scripture, which we have in the notes and I'll reference it a little bit but I'll leave more just for you to read on your own. The premise of Scripture is that comprehensive obedience, not heroic obedience in one or two areas and not even the impact of our ministry. It's very different than that. But the comprehensive obedience of our life is the premise for receiving the crown. It's not like I'm gonna go really hot for prayer and I'm gonna be real generous and give to the poor and then I'm gonna stand before the Lord and He's gonna give me the crown. When I stand before the Lord He wants to look at all of the eight beatitudes that are found in the Sermon on the Mount. Paragraph F here. The true spirituality of which God is calling His people to are the eight beatitudes. Now there's many implications to every one of them but Jesus laid them out. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Then He gave the rest of the Sermon on the Mount to develop some of the practical implications of these eight beatitudes. Now I found that normally we pick one or two of them we want to excel in. And then the other ones, well we just don't spend too much time. Now I'm not talking about, I don't believe the Scriptures talking about sinless perfection. That's not what it's talking about. That we have to have attained perfection in every area of our life. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about contending for victory, not attaining. It's contending, it's it's stumbling, but it's getting back up and getting back in the war in a sustained effort to be obedient in that area. And in paragraph F I just put a phrase or two by each one of those eight beatitudes. And the rest of Matthew 5, 6, and 7 again develops those ideas. But that's the measuring law, a line before God. Jesus said, I don't have this in the notes, in John 12 verse 48, Jesus said, I'm not going to judge you on the last day. My Word will judge you. My Word will be the standard. Now the reason that's that's a difficult for us, because the body of Christ in the Western culture is very very narrow on what we emphasize. Almost universally there are exceptions. In the Western culture, the church emphasizes basically the parts of the Scripture that give us more comfort and more honor and more money. And most of the Scripture, and then the impacts of people as well with the gospel, but most of the rest of the Scripture is mostly ignored. And when we stand before the Lord, He's going to measure our lives. He's going to measure our obedience by these eight beatitudes. And He's going to give us a crown in the response to contending for the fullness of them. There's a domino effect when we give ourself to obedience. I mean from all of our heart, it's to touch our eyes, it's to touch our speech, it's to touch our appetites, it's to touch our schedule, it's to touch our economics. Paragraph G, I mentioned these various areas. It's not like we're picking and choosing. But when we say yes with all of our heart, the whole of our being is to be brought into this. Now when Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 verse 48, right here on the notes here, right there at the end of the beatitudes and a few verses later, after He lays out the beatitudes and then He lays out six different areas of life of which to apply the beatitudes, then at the end of Matthew 5, He says, be perfect. And what He means by the word perfect, He's talking about the word mature. He is saying, be comprehensive in your obedience in all of these areas. He goes, don't pick your three favorite out of the eight, but be comprehensive is what He is saying in your obedience. He says, you do all the eight beatitudes and then the next six areas He develops in Matthew chapter 5, which are again, they are an application of these beatitudes. He's saying, comprehensively embrace them and go for the whole thing. Top of page 2, Roman numeral 2. The great challenge in our culture is the perverting of the doctrine of the grace of God. Now through history, the grace of God was perverted by people trying to earn salvation, but that hasn't really been a reality for some many decades in the church. The perversion isn't people trying to earn it and therefore perverting the grace of God. That is a reality in history and that happens sometimes today. The perversion of the grace of God is on the other end. It's reducing the grace of God to seeking forgiveness without repentance. It's the teaching of the grace of God in a way that empowers us to feel comfortable while we're compromising. That is a dark and a deceptive perversion of the grace of God. There's a dark doctrine of the grace of God. It's very, very prominent in the land. And the idea is the kingdom of God is mostly about getting forgiven and then feeling comfortable with God while we live passive and uncompromised. And that is not at all the message of the grace of God. Yes, being forgiven after we repent is incredibly important, but in our forgiveness we're forgiven and restored to our confidence with God so we can get back on the race to become complete in terms of all the areas of obedience in our heart to get ourselves ready for our assignment in this age. Yes, absolutely. But even bigger in Paul's mind was his assignment in the age to come. An idea that is almost totally foreign to the Western Church. But the idea is completely through the New Testament that we're living in this age with the view of being prepared for our assignment in the age to come on the earth. I'm talking about on a physical earth with a physical body with all the resurrected supernatural abilities, but a physical body nonetheless on a physical earth. I have several verses here I'm going to pass over talking about how in the end times there's many. I gave a teaching on it about a year ago. There's many verses. I think it was about a six-page handout discussing what the scripture says about false teachers in the body of Christ with prominent ministries that are not discerned by the majority but they're nonetheless false teachers in the way they present the Word of God. And our nation I believe has such a problem with this issue. Popular, growing ministries filled with covetousness, allowing sensuality and pride to go unchecked and unchallenged. And somehow that's the message of Jesus. It's so foreign to what the Apostles preached. And so this issue of a perverse and a dark doctrine of grace which is so prevalent in our culture, this makes this whole subject difficult to grasp because we've been inundated with a different atmosphere, spiritual atmosphere, than that which the New Testament Church was born in. Roman numeral 3, paragraph A. Jesus encouraged them. He exhorted them to hold fast. Hold fast to the Word of God. Hold fast to a life of obedience. And the reason he says to hold fast, he goes, see to it that nobody takes your crown away. Now that's an interesting exhortation. It's a warning. You think about it. How is somebody going to take your crown? Are they going to do like sneak up into heaven and steal your crown? How do they take your crown? How does that work? And what Jesus was talking about, he was talking about the false teachers. He was saying in essence, he says don't be seduced by dark doctrines of grace to where you end up in a, that you end up being comforted and confident while living and dwelling in compromise. You will lose your crown if you do that. The only way another man can take your crown in this sense is by allowing his ideas for you to buy into them and them not to be true ideas about walking wholehearted in these eight Beatitudes that our life would be complete in obedience. John talks about this. He says look to yourself so that you do not lose the things that you worked for that you would receive a full reward. That you know that you can lose the things that you've worked for in the gospel. I'm talking about in the Spirit and not end up with a full reward. That's a biblical doctrine. You could lose out on that which you were, that which was in your reach by not continuing on in the Lord. Now it's, I have it a little bit strange there as you're looking at it because the the New King James, which is the translation that I use, it says look to yourself lest we do not lose the things we worked for and and John and the New King James puts the emphasis on the we but all the other translations the word is you. John the Apostle is exhorting them. He's saying don't you lose what you worked for so you can receive a full reward. We're talking about in the age to come and we're talking about experiencing the glory of God, receiving a crown of life, and having an assignment on the earth that is in close proximity to the Lord. Doing that which is near and dear to the Lord's heart. We're not talking about a reward so we can strut and be special. We're talking about reward so we're occupied with the things that are nearest and dearest the Lord's heart that are within our reach in the grace of God. Paragraph B, Paul talks about if any man's works are burned up, the fruit of their life, he says they will suffer loss. They can be saved but they will lose out on that which was in their reach in the grace of God. Roman numeral four, being complete in Jesus. There's two vastly different subjects that are under that are in the Bible in the New Testament that both use the word being complete and there's many exhortations particularly on the second one. The first subject of being complete has to do with what God does for you. The second one has to do with how you respond to God. Two completely different subjects now of course they're connected in God's mind. Let's look at them. Paragraph A, because of Jesus's work on the cross, we are complete in Christ. That is one very important biblical doctrine. We are made instantly complete in Christ in our legal position before him. It's called justification. The moment you're born again, your legal position before God is you are fully accepted and you're in Christ by the gift of righteousness. You are complete. You can't gain anything even a million years from now that will add to your legal position before God. It happens instantaneously. The day you're born again, it's about the subject. It's called justification. But there's another dimension of being complete in Christ which is the one most emphasized when the word complete is used in the New Testament. It's not what he did for us but it's how we respond to him. It's talking about being complete in our obedience. This is progressive. It's not instantaneous. It doesn't describe our legal position. It describes our living condition before God. It's not about justification. It's about sanctification. Paragraph B. I have here a host of Bible verses where we are exhorted to be complete. Believers are exhorted to be complete and the idea is to become complete in their obedience. You are already complete in your legal position. That's not what these verses are talking about. It's an exhortation to be complete in your living condition to bring every area of your life into submission to all eight of the Beatitudes are growing in your life and are a value to you. And those eight Beatitudes, they're a little bit, you might read them and think, hey, no biggie. They are really thought through and they're comprehensive and they touch every single area of our life. Jesus gave the clearest, most concise description of a life of complete obedience in those eight Beatitudes. And then again, he gave, he fleshed them out in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. I don't want to go into that right now. But in paragraph B, the Scripture uses the word being complete but it's something we're exhorted to do that we have not yet done as believers. And at first, you might think, wait, I thought we were complete in Christ. Why is Paul praying we'll be complete? That doesn't make sense. Another word that's used here in paragraph B is the word be perfect. Again, that's not an exhortation to sinless perfection. It means it's the same idea of be complete. Bring every area. Don't give God your money and your appetites but then neglect to obey in your schedule and in your speech. Bring the whole of your life into submission to him. Be mature. Be comprehensive is the idea. Another verse, I mean another term in the New Testament is the word mature. The word blameless or the idea of having no spot or no wrinkle or blameless before the Lord. They're all the same idea and it's talking about a life of comprehensive obedience. It's not one area of heroic obedience and the negligence on the others, but it's contending for the whole of our life to line up with the Word of God. And this was something the Apostles really urged the individuals to really go for, to take very serious because when we stand before the Lord, he's not going to evaluate the one or two areas of our life. The Lord's not gonna look at me and say, oh you were the prayer guy. That's cool. The Lord's gonna look at what I did with my eyes, what I did with my speech, what I did with my with my money, my schedule, the whole of who I am. And but here's the important premise of the New Testament that receiving the crown, receiving the fullness of what God has made available to us in terms of the glory and the function we'll have in the age to come, it's contingent upon being complete and you have X amount of time to run a race to get every area under submission to the Lord or to contend for it. And one person gets an extended period of time and the next person they die suddenly and we don't know. But Paul understood his primary mandate in his life was to live with completion, to be complete or to be blameless in his life before the Lord. This was a very clear concept to Paul. Look what he says here in Colossians 1. He goes, we warn every man. He's talking about believers here as well as unbelievers. He says we warn them so we can present them with every area of their life as clean, not just as an end in itself. It's a good end in itself. But he goes, we want them to enter into their calling in the age to come. And beloved, you cannot enter into your full calling if your life is not complete in obedience and you've got X amount of years to do it. It's an assignment from the Lord that the Lord holds us accountable for. Many believers are focused on just on getting forgiveness, getting more comfort, and having a little more effectiveness in their ministry and the Lord has his blessing in those areas. But they need to be focused on bringing every area of their life into completion before the Lord. Because that's what the Lord's going to talk to them about. I've talked to several people recently just about this topic and they go, man that makes me feel uncomfortable. I go, that's the point. It's supposed to. It is called conviction. It's called blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the poor in spirit. It's the Beatitudes. We have become conditioned to live devoid of a poverty-stricken spirit and devoid of the dimension of mourning because our tongue is not under control and our eyes are not bridled. Most believers it doesn't even bother them. It doesn't occur to them. We want to be, we want the weight of pressure on our hearts saying, Lord, you know I may have a day, I may have five decades, I don't know but I want every area brought. I'm running a race and I've got to bring every area under and then under control of the Holy Spirit. Again, I'm not talking about sinless perfection. I'm not even talking about attaining the full breakthrough of every area. I'm talking about contending in the battle of enduring and resisting temptation on that area in an active way. Top of page three, Roman numeral five. Now this, this may be a new idea for some of you but it's a biblical idea. It's an idea that, that could be talked about for hours and hours because there's so many Bible verses on it. But it's a new idea to, to many. This, this whole next couple paragraphs. Of course I repeat this paragraph A all the time but for those that are new with us I put it in the handouts. The centerpiece, the centerpiece, well let me read Roman numeral five first. God's long-term plan. What is on God's agenda? God has one huge thing on His mind. He's trying to prepare the earth so He can come and live on it. That may be a strange idea but that is one of the ultimate plan God has. He wants to move in with His people on the planet without destroying His people or the planet in the process. Now that sounds a little funny but it's real. If God came right now to planet earth in the condition of which the earth is right now and the people and the earth itself, with the pollution, He would utterly consume the people and the earth by His blazing holiness. But God is, is determined to live with His people on this earth, on this planet forever. Paragraph A, the centerpiece of His purpose is for Jesus to come back and to join, to come back to the earth. Again I say this near every time but the idea of the Bible is not for us to go away to heaven to play a harp on a cloud far away. The idea is for heaven to come to the earth at the second coming. Now for a temporary period of time, 2,000 years from the cross to the second coming, the believers would go away with a disembodied spirit to the eternal city without a resurrected body because they don't need a resurrected body to relate to the environment of the New Jerusalem. But the New Jerusalem is coming to the earth and for billions of years we need to relate to the natural environment of the earth. That's why we have a resurrected body at the second coming because we need a body to relate to the environment of the planet. And what's gonna happen is God's gonna join the two realms together, the heavenly realm and He's gonna join the earthly realm together on the earth and He's gonna, it has to, that has to be, has to happen for a while. Then righteousness needs to fill the earth and that will take a thousand years. It's called the Millennial Kingdom. Then the purpose of the Millennial Kingdom, there's several purposes of it, but one of the purposes is to prepare the world for God the Father to come back and dwell on the earth. Not this, it's not, we're not talking about the second coming of Christ. That comes just a little, a little down the road. We're talking about the first coming of the Father to dwell on the earth in open glory. And Jesus' mandate as the leader of the church and as the head of creation, as the, as the, as the, as the one with the authority over, as a man with authority over creation, fully God, fully man, is to get the earth ready for God to come back after the end of the Millennial Kingdom and dwell forever where the two realms are completely joined together, the heavenly and the earthly realms. Beloved, we will have the fullness of the resurrected life and we will have physical material bodies on a physical material earth eating food, learning, teaching, sharing, relating the things that we're doing now, but at a far higher degree of satisfaction and glory forever with God on the earth and all the angels forever. You will have teaching ministries. There will be infrastructure in all of God's kingdom. There'll be all kinds of different dimensions of the expenditure of resources and the many, many things that all the, all the things are involved in the kingdom. It has, our future has nothing to do with being on a cloud far away, playing a harp for a billion years. We're getting ready to get the earth ready for the Father's coming. Paragraph B, God's long-term purpose is to live with people on the earth in an open display of glory without destroying the planet or the people. That is not a small task. Because of who he is, he cannot do that right now. Jesus said, Father, I will go, I will become a man, I will redeem them, I'll set the whole thing up, I'll set leadership in place, and righteousness will fill the earth, and I will get you, I will get things ready for this. Paragraph C, God can only make his habitation on the earth after the nations live in full obedience to the Word of God. That's going to take a thousand years, and the scripture portrays that as one day to God. It's one day to God. Jesus is preparing the earth, right? I mean, he's looking at human history, finding out for 6,000 years from Adam to the second coming, approximately, we don't know the exact time, but about six days, because a day is a thousand years like a day to the Lord. For six days, the Lord has watched all the people who get 70 years on the earth, or whatever. He's looking at them, selecting his leadership for the grand day of all of human history. It's the day, the thousand years of which the earth will be brought into a condition that can receive the Father's presence in the full, unhindered way. Jesus has been looking for leadership for 6,000 years, and he says, here's what I'll do. Whoever wants to be in the leadership in that time of history, they can be, but they have to say no to sin in the natural realm, because for 6,000 years, he's looking for his leadership, because his leadership, we will have resurrected bodies, but we will be relating to people on a natural world who still, for a thousand years, there'll be multitudes with physical bodies, and they will be warring against sin, like we are now. The devil will be in prison, so they'll have a better go at it, but they will still have a sin nature, and they will still have the need for forgiveness, and we will be the ones training and giving leadership to the earth, the faithful in the body of Christ. I'm talking about the we as the body of Christ, the corporate we. The Lord's looking, and he says, I want to find men and women that valued obeying me while in the flesh, because they're the ones that are going to reign and rule during that one grand day called a thousand years. And the Lord's looking over history right now. He's looking at you right now. He goes, I would really like you to be a part of that, but I'm not going to have you teach people in the Millennial Kingdom to say no to sin when you didn't say no to sin when you were in the natural. I'm not going to do that, because it wouldn't be truth, because the Lord is his name, as I am the way, the truth, and the light, is how he described himself. It would not be truth to have people that were careless with sin to be in government over people to teach them about righteousness when they really did not value it that much when they were on the earth. So the Lord's looking for six days, six thousand years. He's saying, who wants this? Paul goes, I want it. I really want to be a part. He goes, okay, good. I like that. Does anybody else want this? And there's another thing, too. It's not just that the Lord wants it to be truthful. He wants us to teach others that which we believed ourselves when we were in the natural, because they'll be in the natural realm. I mean, they'll have natural bodies, not resurrected bodies. Not only that, we are going to teach them in the overflow of what we learned. We're going to teach them by our own story. The Lord will say to you, now tell them to resist sin and tell them how you did it. Well, I was really kind of mixed up on that false doctrine of grace. I didn't really resist it that much. I may did a little bit, enough not to get in too big trouble, but I didn't really go hard after it. The Lord says, well, you don't have a story to tell them then. It's essential as the Lord is the leader. Oh, Jesus, the leader over this period of time, this thousand-year period that's coming. He is looking to select his leadership team from the six days of history. And Paul really understood this. Let's go to paragraph F. The mystery of God's government. This is, I'm not going to say this in exactly the right way. The mystery of God's government is that he binds himself in part. It's important to say in part, but it's still, he binds himself. I want to say that strong too. It's attention. He not only does it in part, but he binds himself in part to our decisions for sin and righteousness. He says, if you'll do it, if you'll obey me, I'll go this far with you. If you won't obey me, I won't. And I am bound to those decisions you make in the way I'm relating to you in certain ways. He's bigger than this. It's only a partial dimension or a relationship, but it's real. Look what he told David. 1st Samuel, 1st Chronicles 28. It's one of the strangest verses, but there's a bunch of them. Once you have a paradigm for this, you find these verses all through the Bible. He tells David, David's standing before the whole nation of Israel. He's 70 years old. He's about to die. He brings the whole nation together. He goes, God chose me to be king over Israel for 70 years. No, that's not what it says. He goes, God called me to be king over Israel forever. I can imagine these guys going, what did he say? He's gonna be 70, and the scripture says he died when he was 70. He's right there. It's at his son Solomon's ordination service. It's, you know, maybe a couple guys thought, poor David just won't let it go. Gonna be king over... No, no, David, you have been king over Israel for 40 years. Your time is over. And he goes, no. I will be king over Israel forever. They're going, what are you talking about? That's a huge subject. Well, it's a clear subject. But he says, here's the Lord says to David, he goes, I chose your son Solomon to be my son. I chose your boy to be my king. And I'm gonna establish his kingdom forever as well. He has an invitation to be in government forever if he wants it. But he says, go tell him this. If he is steadfast to keep my commandments, it's gonna work. So David, verse 9, gets his son together, says, Solomon, come here. If you will seek the Lord on his ordination day, you'll find him. But if you forsake him, God will cast you off forever instead of you ruling forever. And God is bound in this dimension of his relationship to Solomon to how Solomon responds. Beloved, it's not a practice game. It's real. And Solomon cast off the Lord. And he will not be king forever. He will not rule forever. I don't know where he is in his salvation. But he, but the kingship thing, the authority thing, he, he stumbled on it. Look at what the next verse, Matthew 19, he tells the 12 apostles. He tells them the same thing he told David. He goes, you guys are all 19, 21, 22 years old. He goes, you guys are gonna be in government in the age to come. They know this in their 20s. Can you imagine this? David didn't know until he was a little bit older. They knew in their early 20s they would be in government in the age to come. That probably really affected and motivated them, affected them. They saw their life so different. Jesus motivated them with that reality. Paragraph G, our 70 year life, our 70 years on in this life is an internship. Our, our, our, our first big ministry is our assignment for a thousand years. And then we got a huge assignment coming after that assignment. But beloved, again, we're not, I'm not talking about playing a harp on a cloud. I'm talking about really with a real assignment with a physical body on a physical earth relating face to face with Jesus. It's real. Let's go to Roman Numeral 6, top of page 4. Paul has two primary analogies that he uses. He used in the, in the, in the, his writings. He had several more as well, but he had two main, he used them over and over that the Christian life was like running a race. There's an endurance dimension and the Christian life was like fighting a battle. There was a conflict dimension. They're both very different ideas. One was an athlete who worked out for years and years and years for the Olympic Games. And the other one was a soldier who got hurt and received blows and gave blows and a war, a battle. And so running a race and fighting a battle are very different emphasis. Paragraph B, let's read the passage. This is one of the primary passages where Paul opens his heart about this. He says, 1st Corinthians 9, he says, do you not know that those who run a race all run, but only one type, one person receives a crown. Now in the natural, only one man or woman wins the gold medal. But he says, but in the race we're running, our, our Christian life, our whole, however many decades, the whole thing is one race. And we're not running against each other. We're not competing against each other. We're competing against darkness and it, and it gaining a hold in our life. We're running and resisting and enduring temptation. We're running against that darkness. Paul says, run in a way that you can obtain the prize. He goes, only one type of runner gets the prize. Run in a way to win the prize. He goes on to verse 25 and he identifies the prize. He goes, everyone who competes for a prize is tempered. They're disciplined in all things. They do it to win the, the natural athletes, to win a perishable athlete. I mean, a perishable trophy or crown. He says, we are after an imperishable crown. We are running a race with endurance. We're working out. We're tempered in every area of our life in order that we can stand at the Olympic games before the judge at the beam of seat and we only get one, we only get one evaluation. Because people spend their whole young life, their young, their, their early days preparing for one Olympic game. And they live in such a way for that. And an Olympic athlete, I've had a chance to know several over the years. My father was an Olympic athlete. His, his, his passion, his whole life as a young man, was to go to the Olympics and win the gold medal. I was trained in an environment to go to the Olympics. I remember I used to work out when I was five, six, seven, eight years old. And my friends would say, what are you doing it for? I go, I'm going to the Olympics. They said, what's that? I go, I don't have a clue. I think it's a boxing match. I'm not real sure what the Olympics is. He made me watch it. He made me train for it. And he would tell me this. He goes, all over the world, young men are training for the Olympics. It may not even be there for 20 years. Well, I didn't make it, but I'm preaching the gospel. I'm happy. Okay. Verse 26, Paul said, I run in a way to get that crown. He goes, I don't run with uncertainty. There is so much ambivalence and lack of clarity. There's, it's a double negative. He goes, I don't run with uncertainty, which means I run with certainty. I know what I'm after. I'm going after a prize. Verse 27, I discipline my body like the natural athlete does to bring it in subjection. Because if I preach to others about the crown, I could be disqualified and not get the crown. He's not talking about a salvation. He's talking about getting the crown. That's what he's talking about. Let's go to paragraph D Philippians three. He takes the subject to another level. He's in prison now. It's a few years later after he wrote first Corinthians. He goes, I'm going for this prize, this crown. Look at Philippians three. Let's just read the passage. He said, oh, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to his death. You're familiar with the passage, but here's the part I want to, I want to emphasize. Here in the passage in verse 11, he goes, why do I want to be conformed to the death of Jesus? Look at verse 11. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection. Now what? Paul's in prison. He's about 60 years old. He's near the end of his life. And he's talking about maybe I can attain the resurrection. He's not talking about being born again, hopefully. Like Lord, I've served you for 30 years now and I've written half the New Testament. Hopefully I can be born again. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about I want to attain to the fullness of my calling and the resurrection. This was a huge idea to Paul's mind that he would enter into the fullness of his calling far beyond his 30 or 40 years of ministry on the earth in this life. He wanted his calling in the resurrection on the earth forever. He said, I want to attain to it. Now look what he says in verse 12. Not that I've already attained to it. I'm not perfect yet. He goes, I'm not, I haven't finished the race with obedience complete in every year of my life. I might live another 10 or 20 years. I don't know. He's in prison in Rome. It ends up he gets out of prison and about four or five years later he goes back into prison in Rome for his second imprisonment and then he dies after that in that second imprisonment. But he really does get out this time when he's writing this letter. He goes, I haven't attained yet. He goes, I may have 10 or 20 years left. I don't know. He goes, I'm set on it but I don't have it because you only attain to it when you finish the race with complete obedience in our life. With, the word is, is mature or blameless or without spot. We're talking about all of our areas. Again, we're not talking about sinless perfection. We're not talking about attainment as much as contending against all these areas of darkness. Look what he says. He goes, I'm not perfect. I haven't finished the race. I press on. Why? I want to lay hold of that which Jesus laid hold of me. Beloved, did you know that when you were born again he laid hold of you for something very specific? Do you know that what Jesus laid hold of you for is it mostly for what you will do in this age? Here's Paul. He's written half the Bible. I want to lay hold of that which I've been laid hold of. Well Paul, you've done pretty well. No, not this part. I want, I want the real long calling. I want to enter into the fullness of why I'm on the earth. He goes on, verse 13, he says it again. I don't count myself as having laid hold of it yet. I don't have it yet. He's not talking about assurance of salvation. He's talking about the assurance of his calling in the age to come. Verse 14. I press. Here he is. He's pressing. Again, he's been apostle for 30 plus years. He's in prison. He's pressing for the prize of the upward call. He's talking about his call after his physical death. He goes, I'm pressing. He goes, it's clear to me. I'm running in a way to get it. I don't want to be disqualified. I want to run in a way to get that prize. And the prize is an imperishable crown. Look at paragraph F. Paragraph F. Now it's five or six years later. Now he's in prison again. He doesn't get out of prison this time. His tone is very different than Philippians 3. 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse 6. He goes, I'm being poured out. Which means I'm in this prison. I'm being poured out like an offering before the Lord. He's talking about his experience in prison. He goes, the time of my death is right around the corner. My departure. He knows. He says, I'm gonna die real soon. It's not like Philippians 3. I don't think I'm gonna get out this time. Verse 7. I have fought the good fight. He uses these things clear to the end. The fight and the race. He constantly talks about the fighting the battle and running a race. He goes, I ran the race. I kept the faith. He doesn't mean he's still born again. He's talking about something far more than that. He's lived in the full responsiveness of his heart to God. Look at verse 8. This is so glorious. He goes, there is laid out for me the crown. The Lord will give it to me. He goes, he's made it clear to me somewhere between Philippians 3 when he was in prison and now it's six, seven years later. He's in prison again five years later. He says, I know that the crown is mine. It happened. I'm gonna die soon. I got it. I got it. I got it. It's mine. The thing that I wasn't sure about. I didn't want to be disqualified. It's mine. I have completed the race in full obedience. Top of page five. Roman numeral seven. It's gonna end with this. Jesus, Roman numeral seven. Jesus calls us to strive to enter the narrow gate. Not strive to get forgiveness. People confuse it. The word strive is a word you can't use in the church in the West. Well, I'm gonna use it anyway. Because if you strive, it means you're off. Jesus said you better strive to enter the narrow gate. Not strive to get forgiven. Not strive to get God to love you. That's not what we're striving for. That's legalism. He says you're striving to enter in the narrow gate, which is the life of complete obedience, because many won't be able to do it. When it's all said and done, they'll look at the end of their life. They won't have entered in and they were actually, it was their goal, but they didn't actually do it. The next verse down, he says the same thing. He says the narrow gate, that's talking about the life of complete obedience. It is difficult and only a few do it. And he says you better strive for it. You better go after it with all of the energy and all the attention of your life, because it won't fall your way accidentally. It will only be yours if you make it the premier goal of your life, to attain it. The narrow way isn't how to be born again. And the un-narrow way is everybody not saved. That's not talking more specific than that. He's talking even to believers here in the Sermon on the Mount. The narrow way is the life of which every one of the issues of our life, we ran the race and we've got them all in submission. Our time, our money, our speech, what we do, their eyes, our resources of life, we've brought them all. It's not a show before man. It's real. And we ran the race and there's a crown waiting for us, because we've endured temptation over a period of time. I've been asked, some guy says, you know, you know, I'm starting a little bit later on in the race. Has it still worked? I says, you know what, you go a hundred percent between now and you meet the Lord. You just sort it out when you get there. Nobody can know, but I tell you this, I have a clear prize in my mind. There is the prize of the upward call and I'm going for it. And I want to discipline myself. I want to stay the course and I want to bring completion of every area of my life. Now the next page or two, just for your own benefit, I give up maybe 25 verses where it uses the word complete, where Paul prays they would be complete in their obedience. He prays they would be worthy for their calling. Say worthy for their calling. He's not praying that they'd be worthy to be forgiven. You can't be worthy for forgiveness. He's praying they would be worthy for their calling in the age to come. Amen. Let's stand.