Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the judgment seat of Christ, portraying it as a place of public affirmation rather than condemnation. He explains that at this bema seat, believers will be rewarded for their secret acts of love and faithfulness, which often go unnoticed in this life. Bickle encourages the congregation to pursue greatness in God's sight, highlighting that true greatness is based on heart responses rather than outward achievements. He reassures that God remembers even the smallest acts of love and service, and that our life work will be evaluated based on our deeds, motives, and speech. Ultimately, he calls for a life of wholehearted devotion to God, warning against the regret of wasted opportunities at the judgment seat.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for your blessing even now. And I ask you to release an impartation of living understanding, to release the power of your Spirit to touch our mind and our spirit. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, tonight I want to talk about the judgment seat of Christ. This is one of the great themes in the Word of God that one day we'll stand before the Lord and this is a very positive reality and that He will openly affirm us. I want to say the word brag on us. He will openly declare and vindicate all of our secret and private desires to be faithful to Him and to be righteous. When we were mistreated and we set our heart to bless our enemies and nobody saw it and nobody valued it, the Lord will that day value it openly and He will declare that it was a statement of our love for Him. The judgment seat of Christ is a public affirmation where Jesus declares openly the quality of our love for Him. Now, the judgment seat of Christ is a phrase that's used in Romans 14, verse 10, 2 Corinthians 10, 5. The judgment seat actually means the place of reward. It's the bema seat. It's not the courtroom where the prosecuting attorney comes after you to prove you're wrong. It's not a setting of which God is anxious to prove we're wrong. It's opposite. It's the bema seat. B-E-M-A is how you spell it. The bema seat, which is the place in the Olympic Games where the judge comes and gives the gold medal or the silver or the bronze. So it's not a place of accusation to seek to prove that we're wrong, but rather it's a place of public affirmation where the things that we did secretly, privately, and in smallness. I mean, most of our faithfulness is in areas of smallness that nobody really appreciates. And even we ourselves do not appreciate the majority of the small faithfulness we have. We kind of look at it, roll our eyes, forget it. We don't think much about it, but the Lord remembers it forever. He writes it in his book. There's many passages in the scripture about God writing the things that move his heart in the book. You got to get a concordance sometime. Just put book and find how many times it's God's book that is referred to. It will surprise you. It's many. And so this is a positive statement about God's desire to openly declare how he feels about our love. Because the reason I say this, the judgment seat of Christ, often when we hear of it, we think, oh no, we're caught red-handed and everybody's going to find out. It's horrible. And so most people think when I say the judgment seat of Christ, I talk about speaking on it. They kind of like, you know, hold their breath and go, this could be heavy tonight. And I go, well, that's really, there is a heavy dimension to it. If we haven't sought to love him, that is heavy. To stand before the great lover of all the ages, and we haven't sought to love him. Well, I don't know if we'd be standing there at the judgment seat of Christ. We'd rather be at the great white throne, then that's where the unbelievers are judged. Because at the Bema seat, only believers are at the judgment seat of Christ. Unbelievers don't stand at the Bema seat, at the reward seat. Unbelievers stand at the great white throne of judgment in Revelation chapter 20, verse 11 to 15. That's terrifying. Now that's a really heavy subject. But the reward place is meant to be glorious. It's a statement of God's desire. It's a statement of the vindication of the private small acts of love that many never see, and we have often forgotten. God openly declares to you how he feels about the way you loved him. That's what the judgment seat of Christ is. It's a glorious subject. It's been a subject over the years that I've sought to buy. There's not that many, but every book I can, I search for them. There are several types of books I've searched for for near 30 years, and always books on eternity. If I'm in another city, or now with the internet, you can do a whole lot more visiting bookstores far away, I will always go usually first to the section on eternity, and if I don't have both the books there, then I buy them. There's almost no books. There's almost no books on eternity in any bookstores. There are very few, and that's why in our bookstore here, I've sought to make sure we've had books on eternity. Feed your spirit on it. It's not just spiritual edification. It's really divine entertainment. It touches my spirit. I want to encourage you to read these books. Now, undergirding this reality of the judgment seat of Christ, this reward time, is the fact that in the personality of God, in Jesus' heart, he desires that we would be great. He has planned our greatness, and he's committed to our greatness. Now, this is an idea that some really struggle with, because they look at God through the lens of the fallen human heart, and they think, well, you know, if somebody's great, often they want to make sure nobody else is, because it threatens their greatness. That's not how the Lord is. Jesus is so great and so filled with love, he is committed to our greatness. Now, he won't force it on us, but he woos us. He beckons us. He motivates us if we will listen to him, because he desires our greatness, and he wants to make it known everywhere. He's not hoping to diminish it and hide it, because, oh no, somebody else did well besides him on the earth. No, it's exactly opposite. He wants everyone to know when you've done well in the secret place of your heart, because he takes it personal, because when you do well in your faith, it's a statement of love. It's the arena of which you show him your love. Now, one of the great principles, I mean, really, it's a prominent theme in the Sermon on the Mount is here in Matthew chapter 5, verse 19. It starts off negative, but it really ends positive in this verse, and it's the positive dimension I want to draw attention to. Jesus said in verse 19, whoever breaks one of the least of my commandments and then teaches others to do so, this person shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Talking about in the age to come, not in this age, but in the age to come. Whoever does and then encourages other people, teaches others to do even the least of the commandments, the Lord says, this man or woman shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now, first I want to point out that he's talking about being called great in the age to come. He's not talking about being called great now. Often, if you will obey the Lord in a very specific way, and you will encourage others to do that, you're called fanatical, legalistic, and out of balance. Because the word of God doesn't set right with the natural mindset. And so much of the natural thinking is in the church in the west that deep passion, obedience is written off. A person's not called great, they're actually called out of balance and fanatical. John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of a woman, Jesus said in Matthew 11. And in that same passage, in verse 17, he said, he was the greatest man, he says in chapter 11, verse 11, then in verse 17, he said, but Israel said that John had a demon. The nation of Israel wrote John off as dangerous and demonized at the end. For about six months, they celebrated his ministry, they rejoiced in his light for a moment. But at the end, they concluded he was out of balance and dangerous to the people of God. So when it talks about being called great in the kingdom of heaven, it's not talking about being famous in this age, because it's quite the opposite. Often, the ones that are most famous are those who have watered down the word of God and made it most acceptable without repentance. So this is a promise about the age to come. So I want to make that point. Second point I want to make is that in the age to come, born again, this is only talking about believers, by the way, this is in the kingdom of heaven, so only believers are there. With among the believing community in the age to come, and I'm guessing there will be two to three billion, just using the numbers from history, and throw adding an extra billion, that I believe we're going to see in the great harvest, when the gospel, when there's a spirit of revival in every single nation of the earth, every tribe and every tongue, there will be radical believers, according to Revelation chapter seven, verse nine. So at a billion that's coming, I say about three billion people, something like that, plus or minus a couple hundred million. But in the community of believers, there will be those who are called least, and those called greatest. Amongst the community of God, just like in this age, in any sphere of life, there are the greatest and the least. There are variations and there are differences. Now some, well, many don't ever think about this, as though not thinking about it dismisses the reality of it. I think it's far better to think about it. It is a fact that will be true for billions and billions and billions of years. I have unashamedly set in my heart, it was some years ago, in my 20s, I'm in my early 50s now, 52, but I remember in my early 20s, I unashamedly determined my life goal, one of my life goals, was to be great in God's sight. And I made it one of the primary goals of my life, and I set my focus on it, and went after it. A lot of my friends thought, that's silly, that's proud, that's extreme, that's eccentric. I said, think what you think, it is my goal, and I'm going after it, and it's actually biblical. And Jesus taught on this more than any other person in the Word of God, the call to greatness. Now we can't repent of greatness. You can't repent of your desire for greatness, because it was put into your spirit by the great God, and you were made in His image. God, when you were designed, He put in you a longing for greatness. You can't get rid of it. If you stifle it or ignore it, something will go wrong on the inside of your emotions. Something will be injured, or it will get into error. We were created with a longing for greatness, with the intention that we would pursue it. Now what we repent of is seeking for greatness the wrong way, and in the wrong time frame. That's what we repent of. But many confuse that. They think the seeking of greatness in a wrong way, and seeking of it even in the wrong time frame, is synonymous with not seeking greatness. No, I'm going after greatness unashamedly, and I feel the Lord's pleasure. He smiles over it. He says, you're paying attention to my Word. That's what I imagine Him saying. You're paying attention to my Word. This is good. Well, going after it's one thing. I want to attain it. I don't want to just go after it. I'm willing to let anything go right or left in this age by the grace of God to go after that goal. So we repent of seeking it the wrong way, and we repent of seeking it at a wrong time frame. But you know what we also need to repent of? Not seeking it. We need to repent of neglecting this glorious invitation. We're not talking about a king, a regular king in history, inviting you to greatness. We're talking about Jesus inviting you to greatness. Beloved, that is not an invitation that you should mock or ignore or minimize. I assure you He takes it personal. I say, Lord, if it's you and it's great in your sight, I'm going for it unashamedly. It will cost a lot to pursue it in this age, but it will end up when all the information's out, it will have cost you nothing when all the information's out. It just seems like it costs a lot right now because we only got a little bit of information. But when all the information's on the table, it will make total sense that you went after it. Paragraph B, Jesus taught more on greatness than any other man in scripture, on God's invitation to our greatness. But He gave a new paradigm for it. He gave a new view of it. We seek it in His sight, not in the sight of men, but we still seek it. We seek it in the age to come, not in this age. And it's a greatness that's based on heart responses, not an outward achievement. We seek it the right way. I'm not seeking for greatness by making IHOP big. IHOP big doesn't add anything to my standing before God, nothing. The Lord's not going to look at Billy Graham when he stands before him and say, you know, it's not like Jesus is saying, Father, I think that's Billy Graham over there. Let's have him come over and talk to us. That's not going to happen. The Lord's not going to say, Billy Graham, what was it like? It was stadiums filled. Actually, the Lord might say, what's it like? Because you know what? The Lord will ask us all kinds of questions because He cares about our heart, not because He's impressed by the numbers. Does it matter how big or little your ministry is? The Lord's not going to evaluate me based on the size of conferences, book sales, mailing lists, anything like that. It has nothing to do with the number of people I touch in preaching now or years from now or before. Irrelevant. It is totally and only based on heart responses. Therefore, everybody is on equal standing to have greatness. It's not based on education, not based on gift mix, not based on opportunity for ministry. It's based on heart responses. And here this passage is where, right there in Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount, it means the heart responses according to the Sermon on the Mount. And real specifically in Matthew 5, verse 19, it's the Beatitudes. It's the eight attitudes right beforehand in verse 3 to 12. This is right after the teaching of the eight attitudes of the kingdom. Beloved, you can be the most ungifted. You can be illiterate, totally unknown, and seemingly no gifts whatsoever. There's no such a thing as that. And you can be one of the greatest people forever in the kingdom of God. Lock into this thing. Go after it. Matter of fact, the Bible teaches that the people with more money and honor in this age, Jesus taught it with his own lips it is a hindrance to those that are rich to enter in. Rich in prominence or rich in money because they're distracted by their riches, getting them, keeping them, and managing them distracts their pursuit of godly attitudes. It's not impossible. It's just a lot harder. If you're rich in prominence or money, Jesus said in Matthew 19, it is actually harder to enter in because the guy that has the chance to be rich in honor or the rich in money, he's locked into it and it gets in the way all the time. And then when he gets riches in whether honor or money, then he's got to manage it. And then he's got to multiply it. They've got to protect it to make sure nobody takes it. All of that emotional energy, Jesus said, I tell you, it's hard for that guy to enter into the deeper things of the kingdom. You know, as I live my life before the Lord with the awareness, with the awareness that IHOP is going to get really large, I hear the whisper of the Lord for me personally. That is a warning more than a promise. That is a warning to your heart because that's not going to help my life or my standing before God. And so I'm girding up my spirit for difficulty in the hour of increased prominence because I don't want to lose my life vision while I'm pursuing my assignment in ministry. My life vision is not IHOP. That's secondary. My life vision is to be a wholehearted lover of God and to be great in God's sight. IHOP's my assignment. I appreciate my assignments sometimes. No, I appreciate this assignment in life, but it's not my dream, and it's certainly not my life vision. It's my assignment. Let's go to Roman numeral two. Paul said, no other foundation can anyone lay than this, than Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 11 to 15. Verse 11, no other foundation can anybody lay besides our relationship with Jesus. That's the foundation. Nobody else can change that foundation. That is the foundation of the kingdom of God. But you can, well not you can, you will build on the foundation. The foundation's laid and now the Lord says you have X amount of months and years in your life now to build on that foundation now that you're born again. You could build with various types of building materials. The first three, gold, silver, precious stones, the fire does not injure them, but the fire purifies them, and they become brighter and more pure when the fire touches them. The next three, wood, hay, and straw, the fire destroys them. And what Paul is saying is when we stand before God at the reward place, before God, the reward seat, the bema seat, that according to what we've done after we're born again will determine on if we have rewards in the Lord's sight. It says in verse 13, each person's work will become clear. It will be openly clear. Here's why. Your work is not clear right now. It's not clear what your work is. I mean, you might know what your assignment is. You're supposed to do this and that, but it's not clear how valuable it is to God right now. Colossians chapter 3, I don't have this in the notes, verse 3 and 4, it says that our life, it says, seek the things that are above. Why? Because our life is hidden in Christ. You know what that means? Your beauty and your greatness is even hidden from your own eyes right now. That's a massive passage, I mean, a verse, all that's involved in that. Your life is hidden from your own eyes. Your glory and your beauty that God will give you, you can only see a fraction of it. So you're faithful with the Lord, before the Lord. You're serving in out-of-the-way places. You're serving in a way that even people, you know, they criticize you after you've served. Often that happens in the body of Christ, as well as outside the body of Christ. You think, well, that was kind of a waste of an afternoon. You know, they, not only did I not do it that good, they're mad at me. I lost ground. Anybody ever had that experience? You served and you kind of fumbled the ball when you didn't do that good of a job, and then they got mad. They found out. It's worse if you did do good, but they think you did bad. And so you go, well, so what? You know, and the Lord says, wait, it's not clear to you at all what just happened. I'm not looking at the quality of how good you did the task. I'm looking at the quality of what was in your heart. It's not clear to you or to me the glory of what we're doing from God's esteem. I mean, the guys in the church, they were annoyed at you. The Lord wasn't. He said, on that day, it's going to become clear. It's going to be evident. And the person that will be more shocked than anybody else will be you. The Lord will bring you back years ago, you know, in your early time in your faith, and you'll go, I don't even remember that. The Lord says, remember it. He says, Lord, do you remember that? I don't remember. The Lord says, remember it. That moved my heart. Of course I remember it. Yeah, but I didn't do that good. Yeah, but your heart did it for me, and you're trying to love people. You didn't get any recognition, and yet you still bless the people who complained against you. Do I remember it? Yes, I remember it. It will become evident. Again, Colossians 3 verse 4 says, our life is hidden in Christ. It's hidden from our own eyes, the beauty and the greatness and the quality of what we're doing. But, verse 13, the day will declare it. Let's talk about the day of the Lord. When we stand before the Lord, it will declare. Your hidden glory and beauty and greatness will be openly declared. It's not just going to declare it to you. God will declare it openly. And it's going to be revealed by fire. When the fire of God hits it, it will prove it. It will prove it. When the fire of God hits it, it will prove to you and everyone that it was a godly attitude, because the godly attitude will shine when the fire hits it. Just say, I didn't, you know, I remember being a little grouchy about that. Lord says, well, you were a little bit grouchy, but you were trying to love me and love the people. That's the part I captured. Really? Cool. How long are you going to remember this, Lord? Forever. Wow. Why didn't anybody ever tell me that on the earth? Beloved, this is one of the great passages on intimacy with God. It really is. The fire will test or reveal each one's work, what sort it is, what spirit it's of. Remember the time in Luke 9 when Peter, James and John, John was the one who did it. They were together. And John said, those guys in Samaria, they won't come to our meeting because I want to cast fire down from heaven on Samaria. Lord says, John, stop it, because you don't know what kind of spirit you are. You don't know what kind of spirit you have. There is a spirit behind our ministry, what we want. I don't mean a demon spirit. I'm talking about an attitude. When I say spirit, I'm talking about the spirit of the mind, the attitude of the heart. It's going to be revealed what sort of spirit. So much ministry is about the person finally getting recognition. That is that's not going to send anybody to hell, but it's going to cause their labors to be wasted. And then when somebody didn't appreciate it, which happens more than not, then the person gets offended. Now they're in double trouble. They had a bad attitude. Now they're offended. And that's all in their heart before God. It's all the opposite of the eight beatitudes. Lord's going, you don't want to go there. I gave them a chance to serve and I told them I was going to serve and Lord, it was for you. And that's how they treat me. Lord says, you don't want to go there. You don't want that showing up as the, as the fragrance that comes from your life. Now everybody's done that here and there, but I'm saying you don't want that as a lifestyle. You don't want that as the spirit of your life, the fragrance that comes forth from your life on the earth. He's using that word picture. It says in verse 14, if anyone's work, which he's built upon it, if it endures, in other words, when the fire hits it, the gold, silver, and precious stones will shine brighter. And the wood, hay and stable stubble will this, wood, hay and straw will disappear. If it does remain in, and the only thing that will remain are the actions established in the beatitudes, those eight attitudes, those eight attitudes encompass everything may not appear that way at first reading, but you can be sure Jesus didn't forget one of the main ones. Those eight attitudes are the it's the constitution of the kingdom of heaven. God says, I will reward you. I will openly declare to all that I see the way, the recognition that you loved me in secret in a small area of your life. However, he goes, there's only one negative here. He ends it with a negative. I mean, it's really a very positive passage. He ends it with the negative so that the people would have the full scope of the truth on it. He goes, but if your labors, and it's not just your preaching, because most people aren't called to preach. Now, I don't know, maybe one or 2% of the body of Christ preaches. So it's not some people think it's public ministry. No, not in that sense, not in the platform sense, your work, your life work, it's your friendships. It's the serving in your family. It's the serving, just your neighbors, the workplace, the church, your siblings, your parents, your spouse, your work is all of that your worship, your just your everything is your life work. It has nothing to do with I mean, public ministry is a really small part of this. Very, very small part. But if anyone's work, their their life work, because your work is like your, your statement when you stand before God of worship. It's your life work. You know, the famous artist, you know, or sculptor will talk about it was his life work to to, you know, make this one work of art. Well, your life work is to present as all the relationships and all the interactions in a presented before God. And in your public platform ministry, if you are called to that is a very, very small part of your life work. Most of my life work is not about standing on a platform talking. It's probably 1% of my life, my life work, most of your life work has nothing to do with a platform. And a lot of guys are trying so hard to get in a platform so they can finally have a ministry and their life work is going astray. That great work of art, they're going to present to the Lord on the last day, which is the sum of the relationships, their interactions at every level. I'm talking about that bad spirited family member, it's part of your life work, your relationship to them. The unbeliever and the believer with a bad spirit. It's part of your life work. It wasn't an accident, what family that that you're in. That's all part of your life work to show the love of God, whether they receive it or not. God shows his love to billions who don't receive it, but he still shows it. Paragraph C. Well, now I got to go to B. I love B. Obviously, we're not going to finish all these notes, but we never do. I give them to you so you can look at them later and so you can get them on the internet and make your own handouts when you have your own Bible studies now or 10 years from now. You know, our copyrights, the right to copy, you can use it all. Don't have to reference anybody here. Anything you want, word for word, you can have it. It's to run with. Look at what Jesus says. Paragraph B. I'm reading Revelation 2. Here's what the son of God says. This is one of the great statements of love. I mean, this is a huge statement of love. I know your works. Your life work. This talk about so much more than your department of ministry at the church. It's all that goes to a part of your life. I know your love. It's your love for God, your love for believers, and your love for unbelievers. I know the love you have. I see it when nobody else sees it. When they write you off, I see it. I know your service. That might be related to your ministry, your ministry assignment in a more specific way. I know your faith. I know the confidence that you labor to have in me instead of quitting, backing down and quitting. I know, just put the word confidence. I know your confidence in what I've told you. You're trying to maintain it, and there's a warfare in your heart to keep that confidence going. I know your patience, and that word patience should rightfully be perseverance, the fact you're not quitting. It's not so much patience in your, you know, your interactions with people. That's certainly a part of perseverance. Perseverance is a bigger word. I know the fact you want to quit. You feel like quitting, but you don't quit. I know that. Beloved, there is nothing more powerful than the one that has eyes in his fire. That's the judgment seat of Christ Jesus. Eyes of his fire, he looks. He goes, I see the movements of your heart in all of these areas. We just had a powerful word that Julie Meyer gave. She had a supernatural encounter with the Lord, and the Lord spoke in this encounter about various people, and the Lord pointed out one of our most faithful guys, Matt Candler, who is, you know, serving for eight years of IHOP, and Matt picks the out-of-the-way, he picked the hardest spots. I remember he came to me and said, anywhere, anywhere in this place I'll serve. I don't care the prayer room, parking lot, you name it, I'll do it. I said, well, I tell you, our hardest spot, we can't get people to show up until we had, you know, three 6 a.m. prayer meetings. It's always been the hardest set. He says, I'll do it. It's almost eight years later. He's still doing 6 a.m. He says, I'll pick the hardest out-of-the-way ones, and I'll do the assignments nobody wants. So anyway, that, he just, eight years later, still doing it. But anyway, the Lord speaks to Julie Meyer and says, tell him, in a heavenly experience, tell him that when you thought nobody noticed, I saw it every single time you did it. That's what this verse means. I know your service. None of it is forgotten. None of it is forgotten. None of it. The movements of your heart towards him. Paragraph C, the Holy Spirit says, Revelation 14, verse 13, blessed are those who die in the Lord. Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works will follow them. The setting of their heart to obey God is what our works are. Our works are far more, again, than our ministry department. It's all that happens with our words and our motives and our actions that flows out of the setting of our heart. That's what our works are. Our words are our speech. Our words are our motives. Our works are all of these things. He says, their works will follow them. Now, here's the truth, though. Not all of our works follow us, because a lot of our works, well, they all follow us to the judgment seat, but not that they don't all make it through. They all make it there, but they don't all make it through. Beloved, we want, I want to press you on this. We want to discover the truth about our life work, which is the way we carry our hearts, our motives, our words, our deeds. We want to discover the truth about it now, not wait till then. It's not going to go away. If it's positive, which so many of you in this room, I believe it is positive. You wouldn't be sitting in this chair if you were not trying hard to give yourself to the Lord. If it's positive, you want to know it. There's nothing that jazzes my heart more, except that He loves me, than when He says, I know you love me back. I go, oh, I love it that you think I love you. There's nothing that jazzes my heart more. That's the Greek for blessed. That when He looks at my life in the little out of the way ways of life, and He says, this is the arena that you're showing love to me. I like it. And when I can feel that, oh, I love it. It gives me strength like nothing else does, except for the sheer fact He loves me. This is the testimony that He believes I love Him. Powerful. So you want to know this truth. Now you don't want to wait till then, but that's the positive sense, but you don't want to wait till then to find out that you were in a, just doing it all different than the Lord was pleased with. Love it. You want to go after this thing. Now, a lot of guys, they just think I'll sort it out when I get there. No, be specific. Be diligent. Ask about it now. Press into it. Make it your goal to be strong in this arena now. There's a prayer I've prayed for years. Lord, shock me now. Don't shock me then. If there's something to shock me with, it's negative. Tell me now. I want to know. And the Lord would say, if you ask, I actually will tell you. If you care, I will tell you. But be guarded. I will often use the lips of imperfect people to tell you, but it will be my voice. No, no, I don't want them to tell me. I want an angel to tell me. I want someone who's bright and shining, and it hasn't ever bugged me once. That's the guy I want to tell me. The Lord says, well, I got somebody who's going to be bright and shining. A delayed response. It'll be a little while for their bright and shining, and they've bugged you a lot, but they will tell you. No. Top of page two. This is just to assure you that when he evaluates us with fire in his eyes, he will remember our weakness. This is critical because we can imagine somebody from history receiving a good testimony from the Lord. You know, David, yes. You know why we can imagine David? Because we have David in a combination of the greatest athlete in the world, the greatest movie star in the world, the most intelligent guy in the world, the nine or ten areas, the best. I'm telling you, when we meet Elijah and David and these guys, you're going to say, that's Moses. That's Elijah. I got this feeling he didn't look anything like Charlton Heston. And I might say, no way. That is not Moses. No, no, that's Moses. No way. He was nothing like the movie. Nothing. He might come up and shock you in how human he is. It says in James 5 that Elijah is a man of like nature. He has the same weaknesses we have. We've got Elijah in a non-human category. That's why we can't really relate to him. Elijah was a man of like nature. My point is the evaluation of what God calls good and right is within the reach of broken people. This isn't like, see, as long as it's way out of reach, this only condemns you and it doesn't empower you. But if you get the right paradigm of this and the guys that are great are people like you and the guy next to you, you're going, you're kidding. Well, if this is within reach for real, I'm going for it. But as long as we have a falsely elevated view of the heroes of faith from the past, this will never be relevant to us. I believe the apostles and all those prophets are as dorky as you and me are. I really do. In their real life. Like, you're kidding. We knew the whole story of their life and we never will know the whole story of their life, even in the age to come, because the Lord has deleted lots of Isaiah's life that we'll never know about. Praise God. He's one of my favorites, Isaiah. Here's what the Lord said in Psalm 103. He knows our frame. He remembers we're dust. He remembers. He didn't forget. I mean, there's 6 billion of us. He knows. He knows how this thing works. He remembers Psalm 78, verse 38, that we're flesh. He remembers. Is that great? And these are both in context to God showing mercy in the larger context. Paragraph E. He pays so well. God, we take one step towards him. He moves 10 steps towards us. He pays so well. There isn't anyone on the earth. There's not a king on the earth that if you have an intention of your heart, he will pay you 10 times what anybody else would. There's no king on the earth, but Jesus will do it more than that. He doesn't even wait for the action, the movements of your heart. He records it in his book. He'll pay you in eternity tenfold of anything you could ever earn from that in the market value of that attitude. Call it a hundred fold. Call it a thousand fold. Put any zero you want on there because the reward will last forever. It's it makes every day powerful, mundane, routine. Boring days with rigor and routine. The movements of our heart, they move his heart. He records them and he remembers them. Even a cup of cold water. He says in Hebrew 610, he said, God is not unjust to forget your works and labor of love, which you've shown towards his name and ministering to the saints. If God forgets the love you show him by helping out another believer who's not even that grateful while you're helping them, not even that aware of what it costs you, you don't even have to tell him the Lord knows because remember the passage in Revelation two, he remembers our love. The Lord says, if I forget one act, one act, you can charge me with injustice on the last day. One time you served in the difficult way in your family, in the church, in the market, one time that you did it because you loved God and he forgot, you can charge him with injustice. That is not going to happen. We're going to say faithful and true. You'll remember everything. Paragraph F. This is a message on intimacy with God. It really is that he sees our heart and he values it. We see his heart and we value it. It's a, it's a glorious reality. God judges us according to three things. It's really important. He evaluates us. Let's, the word judgment sounds negative. I actually mean it in the sense of evaluation. He rewards us because judgment is positive and negative. I'm talking about the positive side of judgment right now. Deeds, motives, and speech. Now the scripture most emphasizes deeds because deeds come out of motives. Deeds, what deeds are, more times than not, it's what motive, it's, it's the reflection of a motive that's been steady. The same motive. That's what a deed is. It's motive, sustained motive. Now we just do some really stupid deeds. I'm going, Lord, please, please don't attribute that to my sustained motive. Remember, I'm flesh. I'm not talking about all of our deeds, but, but many of our deeds, the main trend of our deeds in our life come out of our motives. Now, here's the part I want, here's the part I'm going to make, and you read the verses on your own. When you have a fleet, a fleeting thought is not the same as a motive. We have fleeting thoughts with all expressions and manner of darkness and lust, whether money or pride or sensuality or greed, there's all types of loss. A thought, a fleeting thought that you have for a while is not a motive. A motive is when you sustain it, I don't mean for an hour or two, and it becomes an important part of your life motivations. It's the way you carry your heart. A thought, he does not judge us with our fleeting thoughts. Here's why I'm telling you, it's very important. So the, so the guy says, I have this fleeting thought. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. It doesn't matter if I do or don't, beloved, it doesn't show up at the judgment seat, tell it's a deed. Don't do it. Don't do it. Deeds are governmental statements before heaven. When you do a deed, a good or bad, it's a statement that's governmental. What I mean by that, what I mean is a very powerful reality. A deed is an official act representing the real estate of humanity. I mean, it's an actual legal act that opens the doors to demons or angels. When you act in good, it attracts angels. When you act in bad, it's bad. So the guy says, I think I'm just going to do a little bit of pornography. You don't want to do that. That is a legal action that gives the keys to the devils to touch you. And it was recorded in the book against you. A fleeting thought is not a life motive is much more than a life motive is a far bigger thing than a fleeting thought. It is worth it not to do it. So the guy says, I'm going to give that guy a piece of my mind. Don't, don't, don't. You need all the pieces you can have. Keep them all. I mean, if you're like me, I need them all, you know? No, I'm going to let that guy have it. He deserves it. No, it is not a problem yet. Demons can't move on it yet. And it's not recorded in God's book yet. And you go and do it is now a legal governmental act that moves spirits, angels or demons towards you or away from you. And it's written in the book now. Now you could repent of it, go to the guy and repent of it and you can get it covered, but it must have a deed to cover it. Cry out to Jesus. And then if you go out to Jesus where you've shown your anger, he will say, good, now go make it right. Oh Lord, just forgive me. Let's just end it there. I will forgive you. I will forgive you, but I want you to make it right. So I'm not, don't get me wrong. I'm talking about, I'm using this in the realm of anger right now. I'm not saying a deed deserves a deed to balance out the Jesus on the cross is what balanced it out. But when we obey, there are times, not, not all times, but there are times you'll say now followed up with an act, particularly when it comes to anger and repenting to the person you're angry. That's what I'm focusing on. Roman numeral three. We're coming to the end of this in just a moment here. This is an interesting thing. Uh, it says that we must all second Corinthians five, 10, we must all appear before the judgment seat. Now that's the word Bema seat, the judgment seat. I started off with that verse. It's the reward seat. Each one will receive the things done in the body, whether according to what he's done, not even thought, not thought this is a, he's focusing on acts, acts that certainly involves speech and is a, is a, is an act, but it's, it's an action that has a whole lot more priority at the throne of God. So if you're thinking of doing it, you think, I won't matter. You know, boys will be boys. Don't do it. Don't do it. Seriously. It gets a whole nother level of importance when you act it out. He says things, whether you've done in the body, both good or bad, like or bad, your Bible say bad, good or bad. I thought this was only believers before God. What I thought the bad was forgotten. Well, the bad that we're accountable for the judgment seat of Christ. Won't get anybody thrown in the lake of fire. They're born again, and they will have the gift of righteous. They're standing before God is clear. This isn't about whether they're accepted into the kingdom, into the family that's already established. This is about the evaluation of the work, their life work, which is their life. Let's look at the word good. First, the most seemingly insignificant deeds are remembered. Oh, I love this. It didn't say whether big or small, it's a good or bad. Most of our good deeds are really small, really small. You only do a few big things in your whole life. Most of your life, all of us, even the, the big famous, the Billy Graham guys, you know, the right heart bonkey, you know, preaches to millions. Most of their life of their life needs are really, really small. Even if they have, you know, some big million member ministry outreaches, most of the 99% of their life is small, their deeds are. So these are really small things. Because some of us think what moves God is the big stuff. We're rewarded. This is a powerful reality. Now bad. And here's what I believe this means. That any area of your life that you have confidence not to repent of, you know, the Lord's talking to you to speak different. He's telling you to serve more. Again, whether it's your family, it doesn't have to be in, in the quote, the ministry organization, serve more. I want you to serve more. And you say, no. Lord says, no, I really want you to know. I want you to do different things with your money, with your time, with your words. No, versus you have confidence to bring that to the judgment seat. Yes. You can even get five or 10 believers. You can all gang up on each other with Bible verses and give each other confidence that you're okay. That the Lord says, if you have confidence to bring it to here, you will answer for it. If you don't repent of it. So I'm asking the Lord, Lord, what am I doing? What spirit am I operating in? What deeds am I doing that you were don't like? And I've done lots of them over the years, lots of them. If I will declare it as sinful and repent of it, I will never ever talk to the Lord about it again. If I justify it and get a bunch of believers to back it up with me, does it matter what the Christian culture says in our nation? If the Lord didn't agree with it, you have the confidence to bring it. You will answer for it. It's not an issue of salvation or no salvation. It will be the issue of the, of the degree of reward in your life. He really, really will take that into account. I don't want that taken into account. He said, well, then repent of it. There's so much going on in the body of Christ of believers, getting a couple Bible verses out of context and backing each other up on their laziness, their sensuality, their drunkenness, their covetousness. And they think it's just going to be fine because they got 10 more guys using the same Bible verse and they all hang out together. Beloved, you want to be judged by the word of God now, because that's what will evaluate you then. And if you do any of those things, we've all done some of those things. Declare them as sin. Declare war on them. Break your agreement with them and they'll never show up again. Validate them, justify them, and prove them. You'll answer for me because, oh, you want to answer for that. Yeah, you have the confidence to answer for that. My spirit wooed you. My word testified against it. I raised up people to declare it. And you want to bring this into the evaluation. Yes. Okay. To the evaluation, that deed will come. Beloved, I do not want that. Say, Lord, just anything. Just show me anything. Anything. I will declare war on it. I am not going to try to outrun the word of God and somehow beat it. Because it judges me now if I fear the Lord, and it will judge me then for sure. It will judge everybody then. Paragraph E says, if anybody's work is burned up, he'll suffer loss. He'll suffer loss. But that guy himself will be saved yet as though through fire. Now, how can a person at the judgment seat have bad stuff and suffer loss? And the loss means the full reward they would have potentially received. I have that in the paragraph before. I have that sentence. Fully, it talks about if the Lord has a full reward ordained for your life and my life, if I've come up short of it, it's called suffering loss. Now, what we would like to do, this is the only negative verse in that whole passage, verse 15, suffer loss. What we want to do is we want to reduce the word suffer to incur loss. It didn't say incur loss. It said suffer loss. I believe on the judgment seat of Christ, there will be many tears. So wait a second. What about that verse, there'll be no more tears? It's true. After the millennial kingdom, that is true. There will be no more tears. I believe there will be so many people when they see the story of his love, number one, and the opportunity he gave them that they refused over and over and over and over. They will have the pain of love that was lost. It's called regret. It won't stay with them forever, but they will feel it. It's a real relationship. We're not, a computer didn't save us. A man did. It's a real relationship. It's a real man and you're a real human and it's real. The love is real. It didn't say incur loss. It said suffer loss. People will go, I hate that I live that way. I love you, God. I love you, God. I hate that I live that way. The biggest fear I have in my life is the fear of regret on the last day. I have other fears, but the biggest fear I have is the fear of regret. I'll stand before him and I will regret the way I lived. There's no going back when you stand before him. Paragraph I, 2 John 8. He said, look to yourself and the new King James, I think, obscures the meaning here. He says, for we do not want to lose the things we work for and all the, most of the other translations say that you do not want to lose the things you work for, that you would receive a full reward. Beloved, you can lose the things you've worked for in the kingdom of God. You can lose the reward, a dimension of the reward that God ordained for you. You can lose it. John, this is John the Apostle. This is the man that wrote the book of Revelation. I mean, he knew the Bible real well. He said, I'm encouraging you. Look to yourself. So you do not lose the things we work for, but you would receive a full reward before the Lord. Beloved, I want the fullness. Now, remember, that full reward is not based on perfection, because he remembers our weakness that we're dust. He will evaluate it through the lens of our weakness. The way that we do it is by the Holy Spirit talking to us about an area over and over, and we silence it. He says, okay, I won't talk to you about that area for, for quite a while again. I'll let you walk in that area for a season. And he may not talk to you about it for months. There are people that they are so in a sinful speech pattern. There's so much sinful speech in the body of Christ. And so many people live in complaint and slander, complaint and slander, complaint is that it is so common and the Holy Spirit says, okay, I'm not going to talk to you about it anymore. I don't want to only talk to you about that. I want to talk to you about the areas you'll listen to. There's so much defiled speech in the body of Christ. I said, Lord, I want to, I want to own. I want to go. I don't want to just be clean for the sake of being clean. I want to like your fresh word. I want whatever you want to say. I want to hear it. If I miss it, I want to come back and hear it. I don't want to just hear about avoiding scandalous disasters. I want to hear about money, time, speech, talk to me, talk to me. And the Lord says, if you want me to, I will. I really will. Everybody complains a lot and everybody slanders a little bit. You know, I was telling somebody the other day, I said that, you know, it's this idea that slander, well, I just got my one friend I vent to as though it's okay to have, you know, one personal person that you can be carnal invent with. God didn't say, I want you to be righteous in every relationship, but be carnal in one. That's just not a biblical concept. Well, I got to get relief from it. No, you don't get relieved, relief from your complaints against a person by telling somebody proverb says, when you speak those words, the words of a whisper, they go deeper into your own spirit and into the spirit of the person. You're not relieved by talking about it. You're really, it goes deeper by talking about it. It's a fact say, no, wait, I heard that, you know, psychologists say, when you talk about it, you get off your chest. Yes. If you repent of it, you get it off your chest. That's right. There are reconciliation meetings where you speak your mind, they speak their mind and you repent of your attitudes. They were paid your ads. You forgive each other. You pray for each other and it's over. Your heart's relief. That is a different context than having a, a, a person where we come up with an idea. I got to vent to someone who said that I got to quench the Holy spirit in at least one relationship so I can be healthy at the heart level. And my point is, and I'm not trying to actually be mean about slander or complaint. There's so much of the body of Christ. What I'm trying to actually do is fight for your liberty at your, in your spirit. You want to get liberty in your spirit. You really do. So he says, if you'll, the Holy spirit would say to you, if you will, if you'll listen, I'll tell you more. If you won't listen, I won't talk to you about that area for a while. And maybe I won't talk to you about it for years, but it doesn't mean the area's right. If you listen, I'll talk to you. That's what David said. Psalm 139. He said, search me, God, search me. Talk to me about every area. Talk to me about my time, my money, my every area. Search me, what a wise, but courageous prayer. Search me or anything, every area. Talk to me, come up fresh, fresh, new information. If I haven't listened, tell me again. I'll listen. Beloved, that's wisdom. I'm going to end with an experience I had. And then the last page or so, I just give seven, eight, actually eight different areas of eternal rewards. We have so many areas of rewards that the Lord, this is just a hint of a hint. There's so much more in the Bible on this subject, but you can look at that later. But I always want to end with this experience. It was in October, 1978. So I was, I was a young man. I was 23 years old. Remember, it was so one of the most powerful. I've had a couple of supernatural experiences in my 35 years of walking with the Lord. This is when I was 23 years old. And I remember I went to bed one night. It was, it started off as a dream, but it became something more than a dream before it was over. And what, what happens is in this dream, I'm kneeling before Jesus. I'm 23, but I'm seeing the end of my life. And I don't know how time and space works in the spirit like that in visionary experiences, but I'm, I'm kneeling and I'm looking and the Lord looks at me with a sober face. Wasn't smiling. He wasn't mad. He was serious. He was sober face. And he said to me, he looked me right in the eyes and I saw him. I was looking right in the face. I remember kneeling there going, where am I at? Cause it was more than a dream experience. It was actually, it was a, an encounter that was different than a dream. I've had a, you know, a number of dreams over the years of spiritual dreams. And I was kneeling before him and he looked at me and he said, saved, but your life was wasted. I was 23 years old. I was like really, I mean, as far as weak people go, I was really diligent about prayer and fast. I was going hard when I was 23 years old. And I remember thinking, he said this to me, save, but your life was wasted. I look at him and I say, no wrong person. I actually say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait. I serve you. He looked at me. He didn't smile. He didn't frown. He didn't say another word. And I was pleading with him. I said, wait, you got the wrong guy. I'm pursuing you. And here's what the word came into my spirit, like from the Holy spirit. It is impossible to manipulate this man. It's just like, like an arrow hit me like, and he was just looking at me. And this sentence came from the Holy spirit impossible to manipulate this man. So that I switched tactics from, you got the wrong guy to give me another try. Give me one more try. I said, give me one more chance. I won't do this. The word of the Lord came like by the spirit of you, like an arrow Hebrews nine 27, but I mean, it was just the word that came, not, not the Bible text, but I would put it down there for you. It came. It's appointed on demand once to die once you get one shot. Oh, I remember going, Oh, that was sobbing and weeping. I said, I'm sorry. I didn't want to live this way. I wanted to live different. And then all of a sudden, I mean, I'm, I'm weeping with anguish. It was the anguish flowing from love. That's what it was. That's suffering. I assure you that word suffering is a real description. It's a suffering that flows from love. I said, Oh, that was weeping and weeping. And I said, I'm so sad. I'm so sad the way I live. Then all of a sudden the dream is over. It's the middle of the night, whatever. I'm over there in the room. I'm not in bed. I'm on my knees in the exact same posture that I am in the experience. My hands are moving. I wake up. I'm, my shirt is wet with tears. How did I get over here? Well, that's not my first thought. That second, my first thought is the weight of what's happening. But then after that lift, I go, wait, how did I get, when did that happen? I don't, I don't, can't sort that kind of stuff out. How you start in a dream, but you end up in an open vision. And I sit there and I was so sad. I said, Ford, what's this about? And the Lord spoke so clear. This is what will happen between you and me. If you don't live with extraordinary devotion to me in the way I've called you. I don't want to put the word extraordinary, he did, but if you don't live in wholehearted devotion, but I under, I understand he didn't use the word extraordinary, but I understood the challenge to be extraordinary to go all the way to go all the way, no matter what my friends, they said, Mike, you know, you need to do a little different on the money. You need more of the money. You need more free time. He a little less of that, a little more of that. You're not going to be healthy. I said, forget it. That dream. I would be exaggerated to say, I think of it every day, but it's certainly not exaggerated to say, I think of it thousands and thousands of times since that day, beloved, nobody will be able to answer for you on that day and different over the years, the, you know, uh, 30 years since that experience, October 78. I've had lots of guys tell me, Hey, you don't need to do this. You don't need to do that. I said, if you, if you could only prove to me, your vote will count where I'm going. I'll listen to you, but I don't think your vote counts because I was there once as a token toward me. I said, I don't think your vote counts. Nobody was there with their Bible verses to prove to Jesus why me and that guy were right. And Jesus was wrong. Amen. Let's stand.