Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of understanding eternal rewards as a central theme in Jesus' teachings, highlighting that rewards reflect how Jesus feels about our love for Him. He explains that rewards are expressions of God's grace, celebrating our small acts of obedience and love, and that they are befitting of God's royal family. Bickle encourages believers to seek a deeper understanding of these rewards through biblical principles, asserting that they are eternal, glorious, and vary in measure. He warns against the secular mindset that dismisses the importance of rewards, urging believers to embrace the biblical perspective that recognizes the value of their actions in light of eternity.

Session three of an eight-part series of a subject that Jesus talked about more than anybody else did in the Bible. And it's one of the subjects he emphasized the most in all of his teaching. It's not number one, but it's at the top. Fifty different passages by the mouth of Jesus on heavenly rewards. Fifty. Very few subjects did he repeat with that kind of emphasis. And yet the body of Christ mostly ignores this subject, and they're illiterate of it. And there's so much in the scripture on it. Well, just a quick review of what we covered last week. Very quick review. And again, if you're first time here and you want to catch up with this, all the notes and the videos on the website. Why should a believer desire eternal rewards? First of all, rewards, my favorite definition of rewards or purpose of rewards, it's Jesus expressing how he feels about the way you loved him in this life. He is so enthusiastic about the small ways we love him, he wants to reward us for it. He wants to express it. Rewards are about partnership, about working in close proximity to the Lord. I want more eternal rewards because I want to work in closer proximity. I want to be closer to him. Now, we all will have access to him by the Holy Spirit, his presence. But Jesus, in his physical body, will only be one place at one time. And I want to be occasionally working close to him. And he says, according to responsibilities and authority, he gives them according to how we said yes to him in humility and obedience, etc. Rewards are about Jesus celebrating righteousness. He is so zealous for righteousness that it's impossible that righteousness could be done in this age without him wanting to celebrate it and make it known in the age to come. His name is called righteousness. Number four, the truth. Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth, the life. When we are in his presence, whatever is true about us will come to light. And our small, weak love, which we often just, you know, kind of dismiss, it will come to light in his presence because it's true. Though our love is weak, it's still real. And it's real to him. It doesn't seem that real to us. But the truth of it will come to light. Number five, I understand when people say, I'm not interested in eternal rewards. What they mean is the secular paradigm about showing their superiority or their status over others. But that's not the reason for the biblical, I mean, that's not the biblical reason for which rewards are offered. So though I've had many believers say, I don't want them. They're thinking of the secular paradigm. And I understand that. But there's the biblical paradigm. And that's exciting. And I just gave a snapshot of some of it. Paragraph B. We looked at seven principles of how to interpret eternal rewards. Because the eternal rewards are given in just real brief phrases, descriptions. And it's like Jesus is saying, go look at the Word. Go ask the Holy Spirit to show you. There's a lot more behind that simple phrase. And it's for you to discover because it's within the book. And it's by the Holy Spirit I'll give you more insight. And so I've identified 15 principles. Seven last week. And we're going to look at eight tonight. That through these 15 principles, and it's my personal experience, that I have a, I'm more equipped to see the larger framework of what eternal rewards are about and their implications because I look at them through the grid of these 15 different principles. And if you don't do that, you just see the simple phrase, you know, the one I've been using as Jesus says to the overcomer, I will give them a white stone with their name on it. You might think, well, it's a nice, I'm sure it's a pretty little rock. It's got my name engraved on it. Cool. No, it's far more glorious than you can imagine. Principle number one we looked at. That eternal rewards are expressions of the grace of God. It is impossible to deserve the measure of the rewards that He gives us. His rewards are far beyond anything we deserve. We take a step of obedience. He gives us a mile of reward. So there's no sense of earning it at all. We developed that a bit last week. Principle number two. Eternal rewards are giving according to our works. There is a strong correlation to what we do to how He rewards us. That our works don't earn the love of God. They express the love that He's put in us. Our good works express love and express grace. They don't earn grace or earn love. Matter of fact, our record of good works, and by the way, our good works are very small typically. Giving someone a cup of cold water, helping, encouraging somebody, serving in little ways. Most of our service is very, very little things. But our record of our service is our love gift to Him. The gift of gratitude we offer Him on the last day. There's no element of deserving or boasting in it. Principle number three we looked at in our last session. All of our works are written in God's books. Meaning they're so valuable. Our small little cup of cold water we give someone is so valuable to God He writes them in His book. Our names, our actions, our conversations are important to such a degree He writes them in the book. Because they have a lasting value and the only ones that are in the book are the good ones, by the way, to the redeemed. The other ones have been forgiven and I believe that in those books, there's never going to be a book burning in heaven. Those books are eternal. And it's like biographies. I'll be able to go up to, you know, King David's life and read the larger statement of his life. Not just 1st and 2nd Samuel. What all the books say about him. And all the different people through history. I mean there's, I'm guessing there's going to be several billion believers and they will all have a bio in the heavenly library. And I want to see some of the stuff you did that you forgot about. That he remembered. That cup of cold water you gave 20 years ago. You don't even remember you gave it. That money you gave 15, 20, 30 years ago. Those kind words you spoke to somebody discouraged. You don't remember. They're written in the book. I want to read your biography. We got billions of years. We got plenty of time. I'll read it a couple times. Number four. There's many types of rewards. I mentioned in our last session that in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 there's 18 distinct rewards identified. 18. But when you take the Gospels as well as the teaching of the Apostles that there's another 10 or 15 rewards that you could possibly identify. I mean it depends on how you categorize them. But there's been somewhere between 20 or 30 distinct rewards. Again depending on how you categorize them. And why so many? Because our life in the New Jerusalem will have many diverse facets to it. We're not just going to be on a floating on a cloud playing a harp. We will have many many facets to our life in the New Jerusalem with our resurrected body reigning on the earth when the New Jerusalem comes down to the earth. Just like your life now has many facets, your life then, your physical resurrected body and your relationships, you will have many more facets of life. And there's rewards that interface with many facets of those of our life. And it expresses God's creative design. He's so creative. He's going to express the way He feels about the way you loved Him in many ways of in your life in the age to come. Principle number five, eternal rewards are glorious. This is a really important one. I mean all of these are. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 2 that we looked at last week, he says, eye has not seen, ear has not heard. It's never entered the imagination of anyone. The measure of the glory of what he's prepared. So whatever the rewards are, they're far beyond the measure of glory that you can even imagine. So whatever you do, don't reduce these rewards though they're in the Bible described in such a simple phrase. Don't reduce them to something you can easily imagine. They're far more glorious than you imagine. That little white stone with your name on it has many dimensions of glory. I am confident of it. Far beyond what we're thinking. The garments have many dimensions of glory. Far beyond what we're thinking. They're so glorious they have to be commensurate. They have to be befitting of the life in the New Jerusalem. So you're not going to have kind of dull garments in a glorious celestial diamond-like city and walking around in dull garments. They're going to be commensurate with the city we live in and the king that we're married to. Number six, we can compare Scripture with Scripture to get insight into some of the implications like the illustration I used. We go back to Ezekiel 28. God said, this is God's idea. Moses, make garments for beauty and garments for glory and put them on the priests. It was God's idea to make garments for beauty. That's in his heart. When he has garments for his eternal priesthood, they will be beautiful and glorious. So we can go back to the Scripture and get hints as to what this might be like in the age to come. Principle seven, the last one we looked at last week. We can gain insight by looking at the natural realm. King David said we look at just the natural realm, the stars, and we see the glory, the beauty of God. We see the thumbprint of God, the handiwork of His beauty through the works of creation. So we can look at some facets of creation and as John Piper says, I love it, he goes, our eyes run up the beam of the beauty of creation to the original beauty. And we can imagine how glorious facets of creation are. I can imagine the Holy Spirit saying, imagine what the new creation is like if you think that's glorious. So whenever you think of rewards, see to it that you're interpreting them through these seven principles plus the eight more principles that we're going to look at in just a moment. But let's look down at paragraph E on your notes on page 1. The writer of Hebrews said in chapter 11, verse 6, he who comes to God must believe he is a rewarder of those who seek Him. And the reason I'm pushing this is that Jesus told us, I mean with real clarity, no timidity, lay up treasure for yourself. Don't have some false religious humility. No, I just want a little cabin on the edge of glory. I just love Him, that's enough for me. And the Lord says, no, I want to show you how I feel about the way you love me. And I'm real rich, and I'm real kind, and I'm really generous, so let me reward you and show you what I see and think about the way you love me. But there's a kind of a logic that I've heard over the years of people say, well, I don't really go for that, I don't care about that. And that's it, I just want to be clear. I want to be nice about it, but I want to be clear. That's a non-biblical mindset. Jesus said, made 50 references to this. Almost, it's one of the most, it's one of the subjects he emphasized the most. Not the most, but one of the most. So my point is, don't allow some simple arguments that people have that are, I want to say it nicely, biblically shallow arguments, where they steal this truth out of your heart. Because it's really an important truth to Jesus and the Apostles. And there's this kind of pseudo-nobility, and a lot of believers go, I don't, I'm just not into that. And I say, no, get rid of that. And if they don't want to get rid of it, that's their business. But don't let them steal it from you with shallow little arguments. And as I've talked about this over the years, they're typically two basic arguments that I hear all the time. They are the idea that they're so noble, they don't care about them. They do everything for love. And the second argument is that if we get rewards, that somehow diminishes or undermines the doctrine of grace. Those are basically the only two arguments I've heard over many, many years of discussing this. But when I bring these 50 verses from the lips of Jesus, I rarely get any good answer as to why those are not valid. And so most people just kind of listen to those and go, I don't know about that. I just know that I'm really noble, and I just, I don't, I'm into grace. And I go, those are really shallow arguments. Lay hold of this glorious reality. But my real point to you is, don't let someone steal this from you by simple, shallow little arguments that don't answer the biblical narrative on the subject. Because this is an anchor in your soul, and you don't want to lose sight of it. And most believers I know don't have a grid for this. Because they're easily tripped up and distracted from this glorious subject. Let's look at page 2. Let's go on now to the 15 principles. We're at number 8. We looked at 1 through 7 last week. Number 8. Eternal rewards are befitting God's royal family. They are befitting God's royal family. What do I mean by that? See, when you see these simple little phrases from the lips of Jesus about rewards, think right from the beginning. They're glorious, like the New Jerusalem. But also think, would my definition of that simple phrase, is it befitting to the royal family? Would a royal family have a reward like that in their context? Because we are the royal family, and that's not just a neat little kind of poetic phrase. This is reality. You are the aristocracy of the New Jerusalem. You are truly the royal family, and you're truly the eternal companion of the King of Kings. This is real. This isn't just poetry. So ask yourself, when you read the rewards, and you're trying to imagine them, would what you're thinking be fit, that which would fit in the royal family? Would the royal family, even in the natural, would they be excited about what you're imagining as a gift? Because these are rewards for service. And so, meaning, you need to have a high standard because there's a royalty dimension to it. Paragraph B, Psalm 45, talking about the Bride of Christ. This is a prophetic passage, Psalm 45. The royal daughter, that's the Bride of Christ, is all glorious within the palace. Everything about her is glorious in her life in the palace. Her clothing is woven with gold. Now this is a natural picture, but it's pointing to something more than natural. Again, my point is, all these descriptions of eternal rewards we're going to be looking at starting in our next session, they have to be befitting of royalty. Or your imagination, what you're thinking, is far too low. They have to be glorious enough to fit in the New Jerusalem, and royal and dignified enough to fit in a royal family. Or you're not thinking the right thoughts. That's the point I'm trying to make. Paragraph C, Isaiah 62, God says you will be a crown of glory, a royal diadem, which is the same thing as a crown. It's another word for a crown. In the hand of God. So you are a person who will be living in a royal environment, and everything about you will be commensurate and befitting to royalty. Your clothing, your dining, talking about fine dining. I mean the food's good, and it's all healthy, and you never watch any calories, and you never have to work out, and you never get sick, and it's fantastic, and it's free. And the environment of the dining, don't think you're just going to get some little carry out, you know, through a drive-thru. I mean I'm imagining the dining experiences in the palace, in the New Jerusalem, that's befitting of the king, who loves to host banquets. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, that's for future sessions. But anyway, Ephesians 1, Paul said now catch this, think of eternal rewards with this very familiar passage. Paul prays that the Father of glory would give you living understanding, the spirit of revelation, that you would know the riches of the glory of being His inheritance. The riches of the glory of what you inherited by being His inheritance. The riches of the glory. So whatever your view of eternal rewards, whatever you're imagining those garments are, and that residence and dwelling place, and thrones and crowns, lift up the standard of what your imagination is what you're pondering. Now we're never going to get the details down clear, we're never going to get all the specifics, the Bible doesn't give them to us, but the Bible gives us enough, even in these kind of phrases, that we have a framework to think big, think glorious, think royalty, think amazing and splendor, think fascination. Those are the grid of which you should be thinking. I mean the garments, again I meant the fine dining, the protocols, just the way people come and go in life, and the way people interact at various levels of society, the vehicles, the royal courts, I mean with the angels serving, the angels are such glorious, radiant beings with such bright righteousness, they're the royal household, they're the court that serves the royal family. Oh I just can't wait, I mean the more I read this like, okay just stay steady Mike, just don't get in a hurry. This is what it's supposed to do, it's supposed to awaken in you a longing for that age, but again, just stay steady down here in this age. Okay, paragraph D, Solomon's wisdom was manifested in the way he established the royal household. Now Jesus is the greater Solomon, he's the greater David, the greater Moses, the greater Joshua, the greater Elijah, the greater Solomon, you can go down the list. So we look at the biblical record of the splendor of Solomon in his royal household, and take it up a thousand degrees of glory, or whatever, and you're getting a glimpse of Jesus's royal household. Here's what it says, this amazing passage in 1st Kings 10, the queen of Sheba, she came up to Jerusalem to visit Solomon, and she saw all the wisdom of Solomon. Now notice there's seven aspects highlighted. She saw the house, his residence, and went wow, not just the splendor of it, the architecture, the wisdom, and the creativity behind it, and the functionality. Then she looked at the food at his table, not just the quality of the food, but the service, and the coming, and the going, and the whole royal court related to food. Then she looked at the seating of the servants, and how they were honored, and how there was such dignity, and honor, and even, well the way they were honored, not just verbally, but the gifts that were given, and the way they were seated, and the way they were presented. Then she looked at the service of the royal court, all the, which in the New Jerusalem, that would be the angels. Then she looked at their apparel, their garments. Then she looked at the cupbearers, meaning even the most, even the most, kind of the out-of-the-way detail that would not be the biggest thing a queen would look into. She said even the smallest details, the entryways, the ways you go into the house, the big foyers, and the grand entrances, and the stairways. She went everything is amazing. She saw these, and there was no more spirit in her. She was overwhelmed as these seven things are mentioned, and I'm sure there could be 50 on this list. She was overwhelmed. She said, verse 6, your wisdom exceeds, your wisdom's far beyond what I was thinking. Your prosperity is remarkable. And then in verse 13, King Solomon gave the Queen of all she desired, everything she asked, besides what he had already given her, according to the royal generosity. And that's the word, the royal generosity. So the Queen was overwhelmed by his wisdom, his wealth and prosperity, and his generosity. Beloved, I have good news for you. You are going to be overwhelmed at the King's generosity and wisdom and his prosperity in the way that he conducts his royal household, of which you are part of the royal family. And eternal rewards are a part of that. They're not the whole of it, but they are a part of it. And again, there's 20 or 30 of them identified in the Word of God. So principle number 8, whatever you're imagining these rewards are, they have to be befitting of a royal family and a royal court. If they're lower than what a queen and her court would accept, then you're thinking too low. Go higher. Okay, principle number 9, rewards are eternal and they never ever diminish. They're eternal and they never diminish. Paragraph A, Jesus said, provide for yourself treasure in heaven that does not fail. Now, it would be easy for a lot of folks to kind of run past that and go, that's great, without catching more of the weightiness of this. Now, for people who have treasure, not so many people in the earth have a lot of treasure. But for that small percent of the people of the earth that have treasure, how to secure their treasure, how to multiply it, how to keep it from being destroyed, is a major, major concern to them. So if you're not a person with a couple million dollars, you probably don't think about it that much. But people that have millions of dollars, they are consumed with this idea of how it's protected, preserved, and multiplied. How does this happen? And so because a lot of believers don't think much about the reality of the treasure they're going to have, they don't think that much about what Jesus says about it. But when you're making investments in this age, gee, you want investments with the highest returns possible. You want investments with the lowest risks. You want investments with the most security, that are protected from theft, from political or just economic corruption. You want investments protected from inflation, that are backed by the federal government, the Federal Reserve. Well, beloved Jesus is saying, you're wealthier than you know, and because you don't know it, you don't think about it. But let me assure you of this, you have the highest return for your investment. Your little acts of obedience have the highest return of any investors in human history. There's no risk, you're totally secure, you're protected from theft, from all kinds of corruption, and it's backed by the New Jerusalem Bank forever and forever. It will never ever diminish. You have a most glorious portfolio. And that sounds cute, and the reason it sounds cute, because we're so unfamiliar with how real this is. This is real. And when Jesus addresses the permanence of the treasure, He's talking to the mindset of wealthy people who this is their biggest fear in life, is losing their treasure. He's saying, no, this is more than you think. So again, folks that don't have much money don't think much about this, but this is a huge point. A very, very big point. Paragraph B, that our bodies, here in Daniel chapter 12, we'll look at this verse many times in this series. Verse 2 of Daniel 12, those that sleep in the dust, that means physical death, they will awaken, that's the resurrection. They'll awaken to everlasting life, some of them, and others to everlasting damnation. Verse 3 is the point I'm wanting to make. Those that awake in the resurrection, the godly, that are wise, they're going to shine. But here's the point I'm making here. There's many points to make in this passage. The brilliance and the splendor of the shining in their being will last forever. It will never ever diminish. Do you remember the time when Moses, in the book of Exodus, he saw the glory of God and his face shone in the brightness of the glory? He had to put a covering over his face because all of Israel was so troubled when they looked at him, because he had a glory on his face that was supernatural, but it faded over time. Well, this will not fade at all. That our bodies will shine with a luster that continues forever and forever. Paragraph C, the crowns are imperishable. There's no overthrows. The crown can't be taken by a revolt, you know, in the area that you're ruling. It's imperishable. It's a permanent crown. It can never be lost once it's given. Paragraph D, a lot of treasures in the ancient world, even today, can be destroyed by rust or moth. Just the natural processes of a fallen earth, that valuable things are diminished by rust. That's what he's pointing to, the whole realm of creation diminishing the glory of valuables. Or they can be stolen. And Jesus said these will never ever happen. Not only will your investment secure and it won't be lost to inflation or an economic crash or any of these things, nobody can steal it at all. And no environmental corruption can slowly diminish its glory. Okay, page, top of page 3. Let's look at principle number 10. Eternal rewards are given in varying measure. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul addresses this. He says, there's one glory of the sun. There's another glory of the moon. There's another glory of the stars. For one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. This is a very profound statement. It says for one star differs from another star in glory. There are billions and billions of stars. No two stars are the same. Just like no two human beings are the same. No two angels are the same that we have any record of in the Bible. God's creativity is such there is diversity in all of his creation. I mean just look at the human race. The angelic realm has so much diversity in it. The stars have billions and billions. The mass, the weight, the energy, the brightness of every star is radically, is so different from the stars that are near them. So when he says in verse 42, so also is the resurrection, I don't think he only means the resurrected body. I think he means so also is the whole realm of the resurrection. Body, garments, thrones, crowns, you name it, on and on and on. The whole realm of the resurrection, I believe that's what Paul is saying here, has diversity of glory. Each area of our life in the resurrection will have a different measure of glory. Your garments, your dwelling place, crowns, thrones, your interaction with people, your capacity to learn, your rule, your reigning, your responsibilities, all of them will differ just like they do in this age. It's not an accident. Our diversity in this age is not because of the fall. Our frustration and our dullness and our sin is, but diversity was always in God's plan. It was in His plan. So that isn't a mark of the fall. The fall has taken advantage of that and created strife among nations, etc. Look at paragraph 2. There are billions of stars. I just want to, I always like to highlight this one, the pistol star, 10 million times brighter than our Sun. I mean, I like our Sun. I mean, I'm really impressed. I look up and go, wow, you know, today I could have said, hey, go a little bit softer, a little easier than today. It's really hot out there. But the pistol star, 10 million times brighter. And Paul said, as one star or one sun differs from another sun in glory, the resurrection, the whole realm of the resurrection will follow this principle. I don't believe there'll be any two believers that are identically the same in their responsibility and the glory, the capacities for the glory of God, in their relationships, in their skills, in their authority, in their thrones, in their crowns. It really will be this way, like it is in this age, the diversity, but in, but with no sin in it, with total love and honor and unity and no jealousy, no competition. The diversity will dwell in context of perfect love and gratitude and humility. Paragraph B. Some in the kingdom will be called least. This is in the millennial kingdom. This isn't just in this age. Jesus is talking about the age to come, about born-again believers. They will be called least. Some will be called great. Now here's my theory, is that I don't know that, you know, someone like David comes on the stage and somebody goes, he is great. I think the way I interpret it is, the Lord will say his life choices were great. His life choices were great. They were esteemed by God. I believe, I am assuming, if God calls a godly man or woman's life choices great, the angels do too. The angels will interface with the saints like they do now, but it will be open and face-to-face. Right now the angels are helping us and serving us all the time. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14. They are the servants, the royal court, so to speak, the royal household that's serving the royal family. I think, and I think the saints will know the stories of one another. Their lives are written in the books, in the heavenly libraries. Now I don't think people will, will focus on who's least and say, oh boy you were least, but the distinctions will be clear. Now that's a verse that is commonly overlooked, but it's a glorious verse. Matthew chapter 5 verse 19. I love the word whoever, whosoever, whosoever breaks the least. It doesn't, these commands will be called least in the kingdom. It doesn't mean they stumble one time. It means they settle into compromise on an area of their life that they're aware of. They go, that's a small area, nobody's paying attention, and they settle into compromise. That's, I don't think it's a one-time stumble. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about a consistent, like hey, I'm okay with this. And the Lord is saying, don't be okay with something and make it an acceptable part of your life. If you're not sure, the Word of God will back it up. Because I'm really clear what's happening. Because, you know, right now in the body of Christ there's all kinds of folks that are promoting doctrinal views of the grace of God, where compromise is normal and acceptable and even celebrated. And as long as a lot of people are applauding, and they all go to the same, they all go to church, people go, wow, it must be okay. Don't buy it. If it's not in agreement with the Word of God, don't settle into any small areas of compromise. Don't do it. Stumble, yes. I don't mean, I'm not telling you to stumble. Get back up, repent, push, delete. The Lord will mark it from your book. But be found as one reaching for full obedience all your days. In your weakness, sign back up for fullness. That's what it's talking about. But here's the first I like. He says, but whosoever, oh I love it, does the commands and teaches them, will be called great. You can take a guy that has apparently no gifting, no money, no education, no platform, nobody recognizes him, no friends. There isn't such a guy, but just pretend that. But into the privacy of his heart, he is trying to obey God with all of his heart. There's only one kid in the neighborhood that will even listen to him. And he speaks to that kid about the Word of God. The Lord says, you're gonna be called great when you stand before me. The great equalizer is on the last day when the Lord says, I don't care how big your impact was. If you did it and you said it to others, you didn't just go along with the popular flow of the conversation of the culture and just go ahead and wink at compromise. But you were contending, even in your conversations with people, for obedience. The Lord says, I will call your life great. I don't care how many people ignored you or how little impact you have, you will be called great. Beloved, this is the great equalizer, standing before the Lord on that day. Because anybody can be great. Everyone in the church can ignore you. Everyone in your family reject you, have no money, no opportunity, and your life can be great forever. Beloved, this is amazing. Man, I look at this, I go, I'm going for it, man. I'm going for that. I'm going for that. Now, in Revelation 9, 19, this is around the throne, okay? Revelation 19. The voice says, praise our God, all you servants. And it acknowledges the small and the great among the family of God. And again, I believe it's great in stature, but also, which means, in essence, that God called their life choices great. It's not about being famous in this age. It's about being obedient before the Lord. That's what this thing is about. So we have a little bit more on that. I have in paragraph D, at the bottom of it, there'll be no competition, no envy, no comparing. I think people will be so preoccupied with the love of God and the beauty of Jesus, and such gratitude, because they will know the real story. And even if their life is called least, they go, I'm in the kingdom, I'm in the family, I'm part of the aristocracy of the New Jerusalem. I got it made. I'm in this thing. I don't think there's going to be the grid of the jealousy, comparison, envy that we have in a sin-filled culture. But because we're going to be preoccupied with beauty and gratitude. But we still want to contend for a life that God says, your choices were great. And again, don't imagine these are choices for real big events. These are just everyday choices of small things. Most of our life, 99% of it is small little things we do through the day. So don't imagine that, well, in a couple years, I'm going to go on a mission trip, and maybe a thousand people will get saved. That's my biggie at the judgment seat. The Lord says, no, no, that's not. If you touch a thousand people on a mission trip, that's because I released the grace of God. You're not going to be rewarded by the number, you're going to be rewarded by the heart response. That way everybody can contend for greatness. There are resurrected bodies. There will be a diversity of glory in them. Jesus talked about, in Matthew 13, our bodies will shine like the sun. And I believe every person will have a different capacity, like the angels do. And Jesus is the ultimate, but we will reflect Jesus's glory in different measures, like we do now. But it will be far more manifest, but the diversity will be like it is in this age, and even like it is in the angelic realm. They have a diversity of capacity to express the glory of God. You know, in Matthew chapter 17, verse 2, it adds that Jesus's face and his garments shone bright. Not just his body, but his face and his garments. And so our garments, they will shine, and I believe that I have it written here in garments, that there will be varying measure of garments. I think you'll have many types of garments. We'll spend a whole session on garments. There's so much in the Bible about this, that again, it's not you're gonna have the one glorious white gown t-shirt that's beautiful, but only one for billions of years. The king decreed that he wanted Moses to make garments for glory and beauty. That was in God's mind, not Moses's. That wasn't Moses's idea. There'll be many different types of garments. I have written here different design, fabric, brightness, color, fragrance, on and on. I believe there'll be many diverse occasions for different garments. Your wardrobe will be beyond what you can imagine. Your face, your clothes, your body will shine in the glory of God. Look here, our authority. We'll have different work assignments, just like we do now. There'll be different measures of authority and responsibility. Many different roles in the infrastructure of a nation. I mentioned this last time, there's 22 million people that have a role in the Nash, in the infrastructure of the government of this nation. 22 million from federal, state, and local. 22 million. And so when the Lord says kings and priests and ruling and reigning, He's not saying, you know, several billion people are all going to be kings over the same nation. There's going to be an infrastructure with a, everyone's going to have their sphere of responsibility and authority that's commensurate with their responsibility. But it's connected to our choices in this age. Look what he says here in Luke chapter 19. He says, one man, one person's over ten cities, one person's over five cities. There's a diversity that Jesus made clear, and it's clear in many other places as well. Paragraph H, the angels have the same diversity in the angelic realm. And you can just look at that on your own. Matter of fact, paragraph I, the principle is consistent in the resurrection in hell. In hell there's different, there's diversity of condemnation. Some people will receive a far greater condemnation than others, according to their works. There are difference in terms of the power and the sphere of authority and the wickedness of demons. I mean, some are murderous. I mean, I don't know the details of this, but some are far more powerful in their murder than others. I mean, I think they're all perfectly established in hatred and in wickedness, but there's different levels in the demonic kingdom, and there's different levels in the resurrection of the damned as well. So this principle of diversity in the age to come is a clear biblical principle, but a lot of believers, they don't, they just kind of read over those or they ignore that. And you don't want to, because you want to be aware now what the Bible says about them. Now the Bible didn't give us that much information, but the Bible gives us a lot more information than most believers know. I mean, there's a lot to know, although there's a whole lot more we don't know. And I want to know it. Like I've told the Lord many times, I go, Lord, shock me now. Don't shock me then. Don't let me get there and then go, oh my goodness, I should have pressed into God when I was on the earth. I go, tell me now. And that's what friends and family are all about. They tell you, okay, that's the gift of God. Principle, if they're faithful that is. Principle number 11. So don't be defensive. If somebody tells you some blind spot, give them $10, man. I don't care if it's a hundred percent accurate. Let them tell you a little bit so you can clean it up. Even if they're saying it with a wrong spirit and half of what they're saying is wrong, still give them 10 bucks. Say, thank you. You're gonna get a lot more out of it if you make that change in the age to come. Believe me, it's a good, it's worth, give them 20 bucks. Okay. I'm judgment, talking about believers now, is stricter. I put here for leaders. What James actually said is, judgment is stricter for teachers. But I think the principle, it's more than a teaching ministry. I think it involves those that have a larger sphere of responsibility, whether it's teaching or shepherding. And I don't mean just in the church org chart, just in the kingdom. Because many of God's best teachers and best shepherds are in the marketplace teaching and shepherding and making disciples in the marketplace. So don't imagine you have to be on the church staff. But just know there is a stricter standard. What does that mean? Paragraph B. Jesus will require a greater response. Look at Revelation, I mean Luke 12, verse 48. He says, for everyone to whom much is given, that's leadership. He's given a greater gifting, greater resources, greater platform, greater favor to impact people. And people get excited about their greater finances, their greater gifting, their greater profile. They get excited and the Lord says, well, there's another side of this. It's good to be thankful, but don't be thankful and presumptuous. Because if I give you a greater gifting, greater finances, greater impact, greater favor, more alliances with more people working with you and supporting you, I'm going to require more from you. I'm going to require a more consistent diligence. I'm going to require a greater humility in your responses. I'm going to require a more consistent generosity out of you, etc., etc. That's not the whole list. Then he goes on and Jesus repeats it. To the man or woman who's been, whom much has been committed, again, they've been given a sphere of influence, finance, gifting, personality, whatever, whatever. He says, I will ask more. Now the principle is simple to understand. That if I was to call a five-year-old to be diligent and a fifty-year-old to be diligent, I would ask more from the fifty-year-old in their diligence. I would ask for a greater response of faithfulness and diligence and humility than I would the five. A five-year-old can be very responsive in a right way, but the measure of it's going to be far smaller than the one that's trained and seasoned in life and their mind is mature. They've got a lot of kingdom experiences. They're going to have a lot greater capacity for humility, for diligence, for having the right perspective. Even the Lord's going to require them to have it. Some folks are going to, they've been in the kingdom for years and they're still just, you know, really just indulging in self-pity all the time about how bad they got it. The Lord says, man, you've been with me for years. I'm going to ask you to respond to me according to someone that's walked with me for 40 years, who's been hearing teaching for 20, 30, 40 years, whom I've done miracles through. You can't just be self-indulgent in your bitterness and your self-pity. You've got to respond to me because I've given you more over the years. And he's going to say that to different people on the last day. And some of them, it's going to shock them. They're going to go, well, you know, they didn't like me very much at the church. And the Lord will say, I liked you? Well, they didn't pay attention. No one did. I paid attention to you. Well, I didn't have anything. Yeah, you've got the Holy Spirit and I put people in front of you all the time. Broken and poor people, you just ignored them because you were just always licking your wounds all the time. Well, let's move on to the next point. Principle 12. Principle 12, some will suffer loss at the judgment seat. And I don't think it's a reward they had, they gained. And then the Lord says, sorry, I'm taking that, you know, using the Olympic analogy that Paul is using, you know, of the Bema seat where the athlete gives the gold, silver medal or the bronze medal-ish. That's kind of the contemporary application of it. But he's not going to say, hey, you won the bronze medal. I'm taking it back now because you did something a few years later. I don't think that's what it is. I think the loss of reward is the loss of rewards that could have been potentially received. I think it's the loss of what would have been. But that's real. The loss does not involve physical, the suffering of the loss. I've had people ask, suffering? I mean, are we going to be, is it like purgatory? Do we have a little timeout down in the hot section? No, no. It's not talking about physical suffering. I believe it's talking about the forfeiture of potential rewards. Look at 2 John 8, and I give you a few verses actually, and we'll look at this hopefully a bit more. I'm hoping to spend a whole session on it in the eight sessions, this whole idea of loss. But there's so many rewards to cover, and we only have five sessions to go. Okay, but verse 8, watch out, he says, 2 John 8, watch out you do not lose what you've worked for, that you may be rewarded fully. And don't get in a trajectory of you're going in the right way, walking in the Spirit, you're growing in humility, you're growing in wisdom, your diligence is increasing, and then you stumble and compromise, you get into bitterness. You start licking your wounds, I'm filled sober yourself, you get into condemnation, and you just put yourself into timeout for two years. In that sense, you pause, you're losing that which was well within your reach. That's the idea that I believe he's talking about. Look at paragraph B, Revelation 3.11, Jesus says it really strong. He says in verse 11, hold fast that no one take your crown. A crown, somebody takes it, like what? Now he's not saying you got your crown, and you're just enjoying yourself one day, and some unsuspecting believer sneaks up behind you and steals it and runs to the other park or something. He's not talking about that. He's not talking about someone taking your crown off your head in the New Jerusalem. Here's what I think he means, and I have it written in paragraph B. I think that if you allow somebody to influence you with their teaching, their views of scripture that promote compromise, and it's almost always in the grace of God. It's like I've said it like a broken record. I am most concerned by the distorted grace message that is exploding in the church in the last 10 years. It's grievous beyond measure how many fiery saints are getting captured by religious rhetoric with the words grace in it, where they start drifting into compromise, and they got a group of people applauding them, so they go, it must be right. You accept that persuasion and settle into compromise. Beloved, that teacher stole your crown from you because you gave yourself to that way of thinking. That's what I believe he's talking about. Jesus says it again in Matthew 16 a little differently. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Again, we'll look at this in more detail. I'm thinking on the last session, session 8, I'm going to reserve for the whole bit of loss. And I believe they don't lose their salvation. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the forfeiture of that which could have been theirs. And there's quite a number of verses on it, which again are mostly unknown in the body of Christ or just ignored. But they won't go away when we stand before the Lord. They will be there. And so it's the same old thing. Lord, shock me now, don't shock me then. I love your leadership. Whatever you say, it is right. And I'm going to go with what you say. So I want to learn it now, I want to teach it now, and I want to live as though what you said is true. Top of page 5. Principle 13. The fullness of rewards for overcomers. I'm going to be brief on this because I'll leave it to you to read here. Jesus mentioned 18 rewards in Revelation 2 and 3. And in Revelation 2 and 3, he tied these rewards specifically to specific actions. He said, if you do this, you overcome this issue, you will get this reward. So the question is, who are these overcomers? Because Jesus put forth the idea of being an overcomer related to a very specific issue to overcome that was predominant in that culture at that time, in that part of the body of Christ. Who are these overcomers? If the overcomers are automatically... If everybody's the overcomer, then Jesus' warnings to you better repent, they're empty. They don't mean anything if everybody's automatically overcoming anyway. Because some Bible teachers present every believer is the overcomer, and they get all these rewards in fullness. Therefore, Jesus' specific warnings and exhortations, you need to repent of this and overcome. They mean nothing with that point of view. And I think that point of view is a wrong one, and it's one that steals motivation. I think that overcoming has very specific elements of response to it. You can look a little bit more on that on your own, but look at paragraph B. In John's teaching, John the Apostle, he presents overcomers in two different contexts. Number one context, he talks about overcoming the world, or overcoming unbelief. He ties this in with overcoming unbelief. All believers are overcoming by this definition. In this context, Jesus, John wrote, of overcoming the world in the way he identified overcoming the world, by believing in Jesus and refusing the heresies of that day that he wasn't the Son of God and he didn't come in the flesh. He goes, if you believe in him as who he says he is, you've overcome. But in this context here in verse 5, he's talking about overcoming heresy and unbelief. But number two, the second context, which is the one we're referring to in the book of Revelation, this is John again, but it's the lips of Jesus, it's talking about overcoming unfaithfulness. Not all believers overcome unfaithfulness. There's many believers, they continue unfaithful in an area of their life to the end. But they're still believers and they're still in the eternal city. And again, what I mean by they're overcome by an area of unfaithfulness, the Lord has convicted them, the Lord's highlighted them, he's told them over and over. They've just settled into a pattern where they're not going to change it. And they go, Lord, I love you, you love me, just deal with it. And he goes, okay, we'll deal with it, but that's called not overcoming. So paragraph C, we overcome the world and unbelief the day we're born again. But as believers, we overcome unfaithfulness as we persevere to the end of our life. So there's two different contexts of the overcomers, and you can read more of that on your own. Top of page 6. Principle 14. This is an exciting one. This is a really exciting one. Our rewards have some correspondence with our earthly relationships. Meaning the people we know, we interface with, we serve, the people we support and give money to, the memory of it and the cherished value of that will be alive in our relationships in the age to come. That's a beautiful thing. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians, he says, what's our hope? What's our joy? What's our rejoicing? It's you! He goes, when we stand before the Lord and we see you, we go, oh, Lord! You know, Bill, he walked with God, he came all the way through, yes! And you'll hug each other and the Lord will honor Paul in part for Bill's progress and honor Bill and the love they had. That will be real. Our relationships in this age aren't all forgotten. And the reason I'm saying this, when we understand eternal rewards, it needs to be in a relational context as well. You will know these people. The Lord will remember this teaching right here. I will talk to some of you, and we will remember this conversation in our resurrected minds in the age to come. We will remember this. I hope one of you come up to me and say, hey, you know that one thing you said? I did it! It was right! Unbelievable! We'll high-five each other with our resurrected bodies and say, man, we did it! Or something like that. I don't know how it works. But look at 2 Corinthians 4. Paul says, knowing this, he'll raise us up with Jesus. Look, he'll present us with you. The people you're connected with in the kingdom, in one way, not your entire presentation, standing before the Lord, but there is a corporate dimension of people standing together in their generation, in their ministry assignment. They rejoice, and they stand together in an element of the report at the judgment seat on the last day. We stand as individuals, but we're presented together as a facet of our rewards on that day. What we did together. God gives churches and ministries mandates and assignments, and they celebrate together when they stayed faithful to those assignments. That's a beautiful reality. Paragraph B. This is an interesting one. Jesus taught a parable, and then he gave the application. He goes, let me tell you what that parable means. He goes, make friends for yourself by giving your money, so that when you fail, physical death, the people you blessed will receive you in their eternal dwellings in the age to come. The money you're giving to somebody over there to do the work of the ministry is touching people, and the people that is being touched by that missionary you're supporting, they're going to actually connect the dots and invite you over for dinner. They're going to invite you to their dwelling and say, hey, you don't even know this. You supported Bill, and Bill touched me. Thank you, because all of the story will be told. All of the dots will be connected. So Jesus was exhorting his people to spend their money in a way to make friends. The godly use of money will enhance our relationships, because people will have fond remembrance of the money we gave. They will, with affection and fondness, remember and say, thank you. And you'll go like, I don't even remember giving that. Like, this is amazing. This is beautiful. Paragraph C talks about, you can read that on your own, but John talks about your fellow workers. When you support people in a way that's worthy of the Lord financially, your fellow workers, not just in their labors, but in their reward. Paragraph D, Jesus talked about receiving a prophet's reward. Receiving a righteous man's reward. And that's by supporting and standing with prophets and righteous people. There may be a person in your neighborhood, not a part of your ministry at all, but they're taking a stand, and you're standing with them. You can inherit some of their reward by standing with them. Not backing away, but standing and taking some of the pressure. You say, brother, you know, I don't know you that well, but the stand you're taking, it touches me, and I'm standing with you. And the Lord says, you do that, you're going to share some of their reward. Not their full reward, but some of it. And finally, last paragraph, Principle 15, the way we judge others will impact how we're judged. Now, that's not the total standard, but it does impact the way we're judged. What do I mean by that? Jesus said, Matthew 7, with what judgment you use against other people, that's the standard that will be used against you. So if you're harsh and you're overly strict, there's going to be an element of that judgment coming your way. Now, that's not a whole of our judgment, is it, that way? But He says, I'll let your words determine some of what you believe is right. And if you're zealous about putting that person in their place, but you're doing something different, but the same principle, but a different application, then let it be known by your own words, that's a standard you think is worthy of negative judgment because you said it with your own mouth against her. So it will be on your account, it will be in the conversation. And so it doesn't, people don't lose their salvation over it. But I want to stand before the Lord saying, man, I was tender. I was merciful to people. And the Lord says, yeah, you vocalized that. We got a lot of that in the book here. You were tender and you were merciful a couple of times, but you repented of it. You went to the guy and said you're sorry, so that's off the books. That's good, that's good. Because what you're really doing, when you're judging that gal over there, you're saying with your own words, that's a standard of zealous righteousness I can't live with. And the Lord says, okay, then we'll take you into account on that standard. Though it's a different application, I'm going to hold you accountable because it's your own words. And that's a real issue. Paragraph C, James 2. Worship team, go ahead and come on up. He says, James says, Speak, so speak and so act as those that will be judged by the law of liberty. James is warning them. Talk and act by the law of liberty. Judge people by the law of liberty because that's the law that you want to be judged with. And then in one of the parables in paragraph D, one of the servants, he charged the Lord. The lazy servant said, you're an unfair king, an unfair judge. And the Lord says, okay, out of your own mouth. If that's what you say about me, then you're going to receive a judgment that's according to your own words. And I don't know how all this works and how it all plays out, but there's enough passages on it that our judgments play into it in part. I mean, our judgments aren't, they don't nullify the gift of righteousness and the free grace of God, our entrance into heaven, nothing like that. But when it comes to rewards, and we get more or less are the way that we considered others worthy of judgment by our own words, the Lord will say, I will take some of that into account when I measure you. So I just want to be real careful. The good news is, you can get in a bad mood, and you say, brother, blah, blah, blah. You can repent of it. Get it off the record and say, that was wrong, that was wrong. Go to the guy you said it to and say, you know, that was really wrong. Off the record. The Lord says, okay, it's off the record then. If that's how you want to be about it, it's off the record. So if you get in a funny mood, go clean it up. Amen and amen. Let's stand before the Lord. I really hope that you'll go study this stuff, because this is kind of rapid fire. You know, these two sessions, 15 principles, like what? But I want this to kind of germinate in your heart and your understanding. Ask the Holy Spirit, what part of this is really you, Lord? I always tell people, don't accept anything that you can't see with your own eyes and your own Bible. Find out how much of what I said is really here. And then say, I got to let this grow in me. This is what God says, these Bible verses, that I want to be ready. I want to be prepared for that day. Father, we say yes to your leadership. We love your leadership. Lord, we say we thank you for the grace of God. We ask you just again tonight, wash us with the grace of God. Lord, I want to renounce attitudes and words and compromises 100%. And when we pray, we want to be specific, not just general like I just was. But Lord, we want to be real specific. We love your leadership. We love your leadership. So we're going to take a few moments and just wait on the Lord here. Misty, go ahead and lead us here. And then I'm going to invite people to come up for ministry. Holy Spirit, just come. We ask you for your manifest glory, even right now. Come and touch us now, Lord. Come and speak to us, Holy Spirit. It's never entered the heart. No dream has ever dreamt. Eye has not seen. No dream has ever dreamt. We say thank you, Lord, even now. Holy Spirit, I ask you to touch us right now. No dream has ever dreamt. A dream of where this is going. To come with the spirit of revelation. I ask you, Father, for the spirit of wisdom and revelation. That will be justified. I know you see. I believe in the Lord and you're watching me. There's something greater than what I presently see. A vision and purpose. Put it in the sky. Put it in the sky. It's worth it to give it all. But it's not too late. We can come in our weakness and he will accept us. Our weak love, our weak retentance. He says, yes, I will honor it. It's got to be worth it. It's going to be worth it. It's going to be worth it. I'm going to pray for people. The Lord has been speaking to you about a new measure of dedication, a new beginning. What's the season for your dedication to go to the next level? That means different things to different people. But you know you're in that season in a special way right now. I would like tonight to pray with you and to just say before the Lord, Lord, I'm accepting this season. This is important. I want to invite you to come on up for prayer if you would like that. Just come stand on the front row if you would. Front row is full, then on the second row. What's going to happen? In this season. You stand on the second row up to the front row. I say yes to you. Lord, we say yes to you now. Lord, release your glory right now. Release your glory right now upon this room we ask. The Lord says it's not too late. People, for a new dedication. Books. As you say yes to me in a new way. The past be the past. Walk away from it. Push to lead on your failure. This is a new day, a new beginning. Loyalty. Walk in who you are. Treasure waiting for you. Release your glory, Lord. The Lord says walk. Walk as one who has treasure. Surrender in your heart tonight. You're one that has treasure in heaven. The devil is a liar. Your life is not wasted. You have treasure building in heaven. Empty me out. Consume. Empty me out. Empty me out. Lord, release your glory right now. Oh Lord, consume. Empty me out. Consume me again. Empty me out.