Mike Bickle emphasizes the call to greatness through faithfulness in the least areas of life, as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount. He explains that Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, urging believers to embody even the smallest commandments in their hearts. Bickle highlights that those who obey and teach these commandments will be called great in the kingdom of heaven, while those who disregard them will be considered least. He warns against the common misconception that grace allows for disobedience, asserting that true grace empowers believers to pursue holiness. Ultimately, he encourages the congregation to seek greatness in God's sight by faithfully living out His word in every aspect of their lives.

Let's pray. Father, we ask you in the name of Jesus for the release of the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation, even now on the hearing of your word. Lord, come and enlarge our hearts. Give us a vision for what's in your heart for your people. And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Just as we're getting the PowerPoint ready, you go ahead and open your Bibles. We'll just start with that. Matthew chapter five, we're going to continue on. And the theme we've been on for a couple of weeks, on the Lord's call, an invitation to the people of God or to everybody, anyone in the world. But they receive it by receiving Jesus. It's the invitation to enter into greatness. It says in Matthew chapter five, verse 17. Let's just look at that. Sermon on the Mount. Most of you know that Matthew five, six, and seven is the Sermon on the Mount. I call it the constitution of the kingdom of God. This is, uh, the clearest and the most important passage, uh, of scripture that gives the layout in a comprehensive way of what the kingdom of God is about. Matthew five, six, and seven, the constitution of the kingdom of God. Verse 17. Jesus said, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy it, but I came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Meaning the commandments that are written in the old Testament prophets, the commandments of the moral commandments of, of how to live and how to relate to God written in the old Testament. Jesus said, I did not come to destroy them. I came to fulfill them. In other words, to bring them to the full intention of what God meant for them to be. Because the, uh, Jewish community through the years has read these prophets and has not understood them in the fullness at all in the way that God intended them. So Jesus is making this very significant, uh, uh, significant declaration. He says, I'm not going to get rid of them. I'm not dismissing them. I'm going to completely fulfill them. I'm going to, I'm going to cause the fullness of what they're about to be implemented in the lives of the people of God. Verse 18. Then he goes on. He says, for assuredly, I say to you that until heaven and earth pass away, until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law until all of it is fully expressed. He, he uses the word fulfilled, but until the word of God, every, the smallest intention of the word of God is going to be completely fulfilled and expressed in the lives of the people of God. The Lord is going to not finish his purpose with his people until all of his people fully embody the smallest details of his commandments in their life. That's what he's going to do. And so that's not going to happen in fullness in this age, but it is going to happen before the heaven and earth pass away. Before the Lord renews the heaven and the earth at the end of the millennium, he's telling us all of my people will completely embody the full intention of what my word is about. Then he goes on in verse 19 here and he says, whoever, and that whoever is that great big, anyone, whoever, anyone who breaks even the least dimension of one of my commandments, the least intention of what I meant in those commandments. And then teaches or encourages other men to break them or to minimize them. This man, this woman, they may still be born again, but they will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Did you know that in the age to come when the Lord's kingdom is established on the earth? Now, most of you are familiar with the fact that we're not going away to heaven far away at the second coming of Christ. Heaven is coming to the earth. The new Jerusalem is going to descend to the earth. Heaven is coming down to touch, to connect with the earth and the saints with resurrected bodies. We're going to have a ministry on the earth, on the material, physical earth. And the kingdom of God is going to be organized under Jesus's leadership. And I estimate counting about a billion people in the great harvest that is yet to come. I estimate about two to 3 billion people, two to 3 billion human beings in the kingdom of God. And then a whole ton of angels on top of that. But these two to three billion people in the kingdom of God, there's going to be a tremendous range, a tremendous diversity of God's glory. And there's a number of scriptures that talk about from the least to the greatest. There will be some that will be the greatest. And they will have a dimension of glory in the resurrected body. And they will have an assignment from the Lord that causes them to serve in very close proximity to the Lord. They will have power. They will have wisdom. They will have garments that have glory. They will have the glory of God in their bodies. They will work closely with the Lord. Those are dimensions of the glory. Well, the scripture talks about, on a number of places, the least to the greatest. And we don't normally think much about that. But in those two to three billion people, there's going to be a vast range of differences of the measure of glory and the types of assignments and the work relationship that we will have with the Lord. And there are those that will be greatest. I mean, it's possible that some of the great people of the kingdom are sitting in this room right now. I mean, it's possible some of you will be on the high end of the scale. And then there are those that Jesus called least in the kingdom. They're in the kingdom. They're born again. They have resurrected bodies. They're forgiven. They are in the presence of the Lord. They have the Holy Spirit. It's glorious. But they're on the least end of the spectrum of the glory of God being manifest through them. And the Lord using them for His kingdom purposes in the age to come. Well, that's what Jesus is talking about right now. He says, verse 19, whoever breaks the least of these commandments. Now, He's talking about the Old Testament moral commands. The commands of living in obedience from the heart before God. He said, from the jot to the tittle, from the most minute intention that was in God's heart to those commandments. Jesus was announcing, and this was kind of really a bit disturbing to the people He was saying this to. He goes, God is committed to fulfilling the least intention of what He meant in those commandments. They are going to be fully expressed in His people in the age to come. He's not going to dismiss them. He's going to express them. But what He's going to do is He's going to find the people in this age that take the intention of God's heart. They're not trying to think of ways to escape obedience. They're trying to find ways to enter into the power of God to fully walk out the least intention that God meant when He gave those commandments. And as the Lord orchestrates the expressing of these commandments fully in His people in the age to come, He's going to use the people that did it most and were most faithful in embodying obedience to those commands in this age. And so the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro across the whole earth. And the Lord's eyes are looking for the men and women, old and young, that are saying, I'm going to take hold of these. The smallest areas, the what seemingly seems unimportant to others. In terms of, and I'm going to lock into this, to the moral commands, the commands related to obedience from the heart. Because there were other types of commandments in the law in terms of the ritual law. That's not what He's talking about right now. He's talking about the moral commands. Now Jesus said some of the people of the kingdom of God, some of the men in the kingdom, this includes men, women, boys and girls, young and old. They disregard the smaller dimensions, the smaller intentions, the smaller expressions of God's commands. And the Lord says, they will be in my kingdom, but they will be called least in my kingdom. And He goes on and gives the positive end of this promise. He goes, but whoever does these commandments, these least ones, and whoever teaches them, whoever encourages other people to do them, they will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Beloved, the Lord is giving this vast open end and whosoever to you. He says, if you will do them, not just talk about them, but if you will do them in the secret place of your heart, if you will do them and then if you will teach and encourage others to do them, you will be called great in my kingdom. As I've mentioned several times already, we've looked at this verse several times in the last couple of weeks, is that we're not talking about, Jesus is not talking about a public teaching ministry. Obviously that's included, but most of the teaching that happens in the body of Christ isn't done on a platform, through a microphone. Most of the teaching that's done in the body of Christ is done one-on-one or one-on-two. It's done in homes with parents and their children. It's done in friendships, casual conversations, fellowship times, sharing one another's burdens and hearts, and just normal friendship in the kingdom. Most of the teaching in the kingdom of God across the whole earth happens in that context. Every one of you in this room are teachers in that general sense. I'm not saying that everybody's called to a public teaching ministry, the office of a teacher, like an apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, but everybody is called to encourage and to speak the word of God to other people. Now if you'll do this, if you will obey the internal, it's not least as in insignificant, that's not what least means, but the issues, the smaller issues, the private issues, the internal issues of the word of God. That's what he's talking about least. By no means is he talking about insignificant. There's nothing that God commands his people that is insignificant before God. But there's dimensions of the law that seem to have a far greater social impact. Do not murder. If you obey that commandment, the implications have an impact on society. If you do not obey that commandment, the impact on other people is obvious. The Ten Commandments all have a social impact on families and society as a whole. And what happened is the Jewish community looked at those Ten Commandments and saw the larger ramifications of disobeying those laws and the impact on society, but then they limited the laws only to their bigger expression in the big picture of society. And they were content if they didn't murder, if they didn't commit adultery, if they didn't tell big lies, if they didn't worship idols, they were content if they didn't do the more overt and public expressions of disobedience of those commands. Now what Jesus is saying here, he says it's important that you obey the larger expressions and the public, the overt expressions of these commands that do have social implications. But he said that's not enough. He says, I never ever meant in giving them as God to limit them just to the open public demonstrations. I always wanted my word to be obeyed from the heart in the secret place of the heart in the smallest areas of your thought life. In the issues of your words, in the way that you spend time, the way you spend money. He said, I always intended the people of God to obey even the most private and the smaller expressions that would be between them and the Lord that others in society at large would never ever even see them. Now the Lord, he puts a very dynamic promise with this. He says, if you will, if you will get a vision to obey me at this level, you will be called great in the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are synonymous in the New Testament. Matthew uses the kingdom of heaven regularly and the others use the kingdom of God. It's exactly the same. Beloved, did you know that without any relationship, without any regard to your gifting, to the size of your ministry, you can be great in the kingdom of God in the age to come based on one thing, the response of your heart in the secret, in the private areas of your life of obeying the word of God instead of disregarding them. But it's more than that. Go on the next step and encouraging others to obey the Lord. Now you say, well, that's obvious. Well, no, that's not obvious. And what I mean by that, in my years of ministry, one thing I've observed for sure, I've observed several things for sure, but one of those things I've observed for sure is that most people actually talk people out of radical Christianity in obeying God in radical, full ways in the private issues of their life. I mean, whether I'm talking about those with big, large, huge public ministries and those with the one-on-one kind of ministries and all the sizes in between, most people that I know, and I know lots of people over the years, they make light of the details of the word of God for people's lives. And they claim the grace. It's the age-old deception. It's been used for 2,000 years. Folks typically think that their generation is the first one that invented it. Using the grace of God to minimize the word of God is one of the oldest tactics of Satan from all of church history. Claiming the grace of God in an inappropriate way that somehow nullifies the call of God to obey God in the secret places of our heart with all of our strength and all of our mind is a deception of the devil. It's a very, very common one. In the years of ministry, I've watched that over and over. Different ones will publicly and privately in extolling the glories of the grace of God, but in a way that denies the word of God, in a way that actually gives people courage to disobey and to minimize the word of God in the name of, well, because of grace, it doesn't matter, a complete distortion of the biblical New Testament doctrine of grace. Titus chapter 2 verse 13 tells us this. It says, Titus 2 verse 13 says, The grace of God will always teach you to deny ungodliness and it will teach you to obey godliness and obey the word of God. If it is the grace of God, it's wooing you into deeper and more dynamic and more careful expressions of obedience. If it's making you negligent and comfortable, it is not the grace of God. It's a false doctrine that is being called the grace of God. The grace of God is the primary champion for obedience, extravagant obedience in the secret place of the human heart. And Jude was troubled by this. In Jude verse 3, he said this. In verse 4, he said, The grace of God has been turned to licentiousness. He goes, men are teaching the grace of God in a way that's causing licentiousness, which means compromise. He says, men are preaching the grace of God, giving the people of God the boldness to obey less and to claim grace. He goes, they are distorting the glory of the grace of God. This is so common in our culture today. I have no doubt that many of you have heard this, and undoubtedly, even accidentally, you have been vehicles of this confusion and you've encouraged other people, and you call it the grace of God. You just thought, hey, I love the grace of God. But the grace of God is not that which minimizes the urgency for obedience. It strengthens it every time. The grace of God, the part that gets confused is that when we blow it, God forgives us and gives us a brand new beginning. I mean, I can blow it big time and get a brand new beginning today. I mean, start today. But it doesn't change the standards of the kingdom. It just constantly gives me a new beginning and forgives my disobedience. It gives me power to go after the high standards. The grace of God does not lower the standards. It forgives us when we blow it. The Lord takes off the shame, and He gives us the power to go after the high standards. But people confuse it, and they think the grace of God lowers the standards. It's a deception. It's an age-old, 2,000-year deception that has been used in every generation. And God always raises up men and women with prophetic voices to counter this deception in every generation. It is so common. It is so flagrant in America right now. You're almost a heretic by preaching the New Testament grace of God. If you don't lower the standards, in many places, you are accused of denying the grace of God, which is exactly the opposite of the truth. Again, the grace of God, when we preach it, we give people boldness that when they blow it, they can repent and have confidence for a new beginning. A new beginning, a complete forgiveness. And the grace of God will give them through fellowshipping with the Spirit and receiving the Spirit of Revelation and the Word of God, it will equip their hearts to go hard after God with energy and strength on the inside. The grace of God never lowers the standards. Ever. Never. That is a perversion of the New Testament doctrine of grace. But that's typically how people preach the grace of God. Well, Jesus here, in this passage, He says, you can be sure of this. Heaven and earth will not pass away. And He's talking about the renewing of the heavens and the earth at the end of the millennium. He goes, that is not going to happen until every single jot and tittle of the Word of God is being fully expressed in my people. He said, not only am I not going to destroy it, I'm going to fully express it in all of my people in those days. But He says, but between now and then, any of My servants that will become loyal to My Word, and they will be loyal in the privacy of their heart, they will seek to obey it in the privacy of their heart, meaning not only in their private issues, but more than just their public life, in their thought life, and in the way they spend time and money, they will seek to love God and obey Him with great detail of the areas of their life. He says, if anybody will do that, and then use their influence with other people, one-on-one friendships or a teaching ministry, to talk them into obeying at that level, the Lord says, this man or this woman will be called great in My kingdom. They won't be called legalistic, they will be called great. And the people, and just an observation, at least in this generation, and this last, you know, 10 or 20, 30 years that I've been observing it, it is clearly the trend of our nation to minimize the grace of God, and it's a troubling fact, because I promise you this, that Jesus did not misstate this statement. He did not overstate this principle. These people will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. They will have a lot of people backing them up. In this age, you can get a lot of affirmation, you can get a lot of pats on the back, brother, you are so preached to the grace of God, bless you. You can get all kinds of people voting for you and affirming you, but I assure you this, when you stand before the Lord, such a presentation of the word of God, that man or that woman will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Yes, they will be born again. Yes, they will be in the Lord's presence. Yes, they will live forever. But they will be on the low end of the glory of God being expressed in their garments, their resurrected body, their work assignments, their proximity to the Lord in terms of the work assignments and all of these kinds of things. I believe it's going to be the shock of many when they stand before the Lord, because beloved, many people are so in a context where all of their friends minimize the word of God and they have this idea that if everybody minimizes the word, somehow in our kind of momentum of all of us doing it together, we can somehow kind of validate the minimizing of the word. If all of us believe it, the whole movement believes it and we all affirm each other, somehow it will affect heaven and God will reduce the standards of His word. Well, you and I know that's ridiculous. It doesn't matter how many millions of Christians are proclaiming something other than what Jesus intended. He said this, I assure you, not the least, not the smallest intention that was in my heart when I gave that word originally, initially to Moses of the prophets, not the least bit of it will fall to the ground without being fulfilled, which means without being expressed in the life of my people. When I am leading my church in an active, manifest way on the earth in the Millennial Kingdom, I will see to it that everybody fully obeys my word in the fullest expression of it. That's what he's talking about. Well, I don't want to wait till then. I want to do it now. I want to go after this thing right now. And Matthew 5, verse 19 has been a verse that's really been important to me in my personal life over the years just as a mirror to look at it and to look at myself and to measure myself based on this verse right here. So I've said the last couple of weeks, I unashamedly, unashamedly have a vision to be great in God's sight. And some people, that troubles them. Most don't really think about it much one way or the other, but some people are troubled by that. They imagine they have a humility that is superior to Jesus' teaching of the body of Christ to seek to be great in God's sight. I tell you, Jesus presented this precisely the right way. Jesus didn't overstate this. Jesus didn't for a moment kind of get in a wrong spirit and then promise people greatness and go, oh no, what have I done? The cat's out of the bag, I can't get it back. Oh no, they're going to all try to be great. This is core teaching to the Sermon on the Mount. The great God, the great God created us with a longing for greatness. Now we have to express that longing in the right way and in the right time frame. We can't go after that greatness here. I'm going to look at this paragraph B. Jesus revealed a new paradigm for greatness. We are to focus on being great in his sight rather than in the sight of men. We understand that. I talked a little bit of that last week as well. We understand that this greatness will be fully manifest in the age to come. The fullness of our greatness will not be manifest in this age, but it's in the age to come. It's not in the sight of men, it's in the sight of God. And this greatness is going to be based on our heart responses, not on our giftings and ability and our ministry impact. You can have what seems like no giftings at all. Everybody has giftings, but you may think, I don't have one. I've heard people say that. I don't have one. They go, sure you do. They go, where? I go, well, you have the gift of energy right now and complaining. Look at it, you're doing great. No, everybody has some gifts. But some, I've met many, they don't like to have any. And I say, you know what? Regardless how you measure it, and even if you can identify them, you may not have language for them, it doesn't matter. Your greatness is not based on your gifting or how many people are paying attention to you or how big of an impact you're making in this age. Your greatness is dynamically based on the response of your heart to obey the Word of God in the secret place of your heart. Now, beloved, this is available to everybody. This greatness is available to every single person. Go to another next paragraph. Jesus taught on God's invitation for greatness more than any other man in Scripture. And I have a bunch of verses here. We'll look at the PowerPoint. It says, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5, verse 5. Jesus taught on greatness more than any other teacher in the whole Word of God. He taught on the call that He gave us to be great. He was unashamed about this. He knew that without connecting with this, without having a vision for this in our life, we would never be able to sustain for decades a consistent pursuit of obedience to walk out the Sermon on the Mount. If I did not have a vision for greatness in the Lord's sight, I would lose much of my momentum. Momentum is not the right word. But the energizing of my heart, the sustaining of my heart to go after the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle, I'm talking about in a literal way to obey the Sermon on the Mount. If I, you know, I look at the Sermon on the Mount and I go, Lord, this is a heavy lifestyle. Because the Sermon on the Mount is actually Jesus' statement. It's Jesus making a statement as to what these least things are. He wasn't talking about just something remote over there. When Jesus is talking in the Sermon on the Mount, He's actually talking about the areas, the specific areas that are considered least. And in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, He gives us the example of the areas that seem to be least. He goes, these are the areas you must obey because they call the heart to obey, I mean, to obey from the heart, not just the outward and the overt ways. It says here in Matthew 5, look at this. I'm going to give you a handful of verses where Jesus called the people to greatness or He called them to rewards in heaven or riches in heaven or any number of different terms that He uses. Matthew 5, verse 5, He said, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Now, when He's talking about the meek inheriting the earth, He's not talking about mostly in this age. Because to inherit the earth means to have government over the earth. That's specifically what it means. The inheriting the earth is a doctrine that King David focused on. In Psalm 37, I don't have this in the notes, but in Psalm 37, King David preached on inheriting the earth as a king. And actually, when Jesus quotes Matthew 5, 5, He's quoting King David. Well, that's okay, Jesus can do that because Jesus gave it to King David on the front end, you know, way back when. He's the one that gave it to King David. Now He's quoting what He gave to King David. But when you read Psalm 37 in its context, it's all about inheriting the earth. And though there is a dimension, we inherit the earth now a little bit. And that's when God gives us favor in the marketplace or He gives us favor and influence and laws and legislation with the government. And we do have a little favor here and there throughout church history, 2,000 years. But the inheriting of the earth is mostly in the age to come. Right now, out of 210 nations of the earth, it's 262 if you count all the territories and those kinds of designations. Out of 210 nations of the earth, almost all of the nations, there are a few exceptions, are being led mostly by unrighteous people. The church has not inherited the nations. They're not governing the nations. A little bit here and there, a righteous law will get set in and we fight for that. That's important that we do that. But beloved, the inheriting of the earth is something we do just a little bit on this age. And the more the better. I'm all for the Lord giving us more of the earth to have influence for righteousness over it. But most of the 6.5 billion people on the planet are not under government that is teaching the Sermon on the Mount. That's going to change when the Lord returns. So when He talked to us about inheriting the earth, this is a statement. This is a... He's calling us to a place of reward. He's calling us to a place where we are becoming great in God's sight. This term is synonymous with that. Matthew 5, verse 12. It says, Rejoice, for great is your reward in heaven, for they persecute the prophets. Here Jesus is talking about reward in heaven. The next passage, Matthew 5, verse 19. It's the one we were looking at a few minutes ago. He says, Whoever does and teaches the least of the commands, they will be great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5, verse 46. He's talking to the people. Because if you only love the people that love you, what reward is it? He actually appeals to reward. He appeals to reward, eternal reward, when He's trying to motivate people to love one another. Because if you only like the people that like you, there is no reward in that in heaven. But my point isn't to develop that doctrine. My point is to point out that Jesus went to eternal rewards as the chief motivator or one of the chief motivators. Let's put it that way. Yes, we want to love people because it's good to love people. We want to love people because it glorifies God. There's other motives that are biblical and they're in our hearts. But Jesus understood that in the midst of the various different motivations that we would have, righteous motivations, this idea of God seeing what we're doing and then remembering it and rewarding it is massive. Jesus understood this was a big thing, not a small thing. You get a believer that has no connection with their reward in the age to come, I tell you, unless they're really, really rare, they will not sustain a commitment for decades to live the Sermon on the Mount lifestyle. They will lose their way. I mean, 99.9999% of the time there might be that one guy who doesn't. But by far, the majority of the people of God will lose their way in this Sermon on the Mount lifestyle if they do not connect with the fact that God is watching, remembering, and then He's going to answer us in the age to come with the reward that matters to Him and matters to us. Beloved, I want to challenge you to unashamedly establish a vision in your heart to be great in God's sight. You don't need money. You don't need gifting. You don't need special education. You don't need a special provision of economics. You don't need to open special doors to famous people and ministries. And you don't need any of those kinds of things to be great in the Lord. You need to get a vision to obey the Word of God to get others to just even one-on-one. And the Lord says, you do that, you will be great in My sight. Look at Matthew 6. He said this, I mean, the whole fasted lifestyle of prayer and fasting and meditating on the Word and giving our money away. In each one of these very central issues, by the way, this prayer and fasting and giving money, these are issues that would come under this category called the least issues of the Word. And they're not least because they're unimportant. They're least because they're deemed as, well, they're not the big issues of, you know, like murder and all the big commandments. Well, those are private issues and they're not very practical anyway. I mean, let's do something really practically that's going to help society. Most people, even believers, though they wouldn't use the words, they reduce these things to the hidden, private, personal arena, not the real significant issues of the kingdom. But in each one of these, Jesus, in each one of these, Jesus connects rewards in heaven to the motivation to do this. If you don't understand that God wants to reward your prayer life, not just in this age, beloved, most of your prayers, most of the reward for fasting and prayer is not released to you in this age. Some of it is. Most of the prayer, the reward from heaven, when he rewards you openly, most of it will be in the age to come. But I guarantee you, you have not had one sentence in prayer. I don't care how weak it is, how fumbling and bumbling it seemed. There's not one prayer that you've uttered that has been wasted. Every single prayer, every single dollar you've ever given, every amount of time you've invested, every day of fasting that you've done, the Lord says, I remember it and I will personally reward you for it. And some of that reward is going to happen in this age. But beloved, most of the reward happens with our greatness and our glory in the age to come. And if that doesn't connect with you, which it doesn't to most believers, then it's not an accident that most believers struggle in the issue of fasting, praying and giving. Because they're fasting, praying and giving, they connect mostly to impact right now. And they don't see that much impact right now. So over the years, they lose their zeal for fasting and praying and giving because they have no connectedness to how God sees it and how God rewards it and how God answers it. But look at on these issues. These are such major issues to the Lord. Each one of them, he pauses and says, and I will personally reward or my father in heaven will reward you personally for this issue. And the reason the Lord attaches a reward to each one of these, because these are the least issues that are most often neglected in the kingdom of God. And the reason they're neglected, they seem like the least issues to most Christians. Now on paper, everybody admits, yeah, prayer, fasting and giving is really important. But in actual actuality of actually doing it for decades, almost all believers through history don't. They would all acknowledge it's important because it's everywhere from Genesis to Revelation. You'd have to really be confused to say it's not important. But when the Lord stands before His people and says, now how many actually did this for decades in their life? And He will ask this question. He will ask us this in the age to come. I got this strong opinion, more than opinion, that of the number that stayed consistent, we will find out they were those that understood that these, quote, least areas, that they had a revelation of God's reward and God's attentiveness to these very areas. And I want to say it again. The most of the reward that you will get for fasting and prayer and giving most of it is not in this age, though it is nice. I mean, there is a reward in this age. There are things that happen. There's more power released through ministry. There are things happening in this city because the prayer ministry, not just IHOP, I'm talking about the whole prayer ministry of the Church of Kansas City, the prayer ministry is going and people are getting saved related to that prayer ministry. But I guarantee you, our prayers that are going forth night and day in this place are going to have a dynamic release in the age to come and you will have a dynamic connectedness in terms of God rewarding you every prayer you agreed with He has recorded. I think it will be a great day. It will shock us. I've preached this for years and I'll be shocked. I'll go, no way, that was the most fumbling, bumbling, unanointed prayer meeting. The Lord says, I didn't say it had to be anointed, I just said you had to pray. You're kidding. Every time you agree with God in intercession or worship. In intercession, you're agreeing with what God promises to do, sin revival. In worship, you're agreeing with who God is. You are great. You are good. You are holy. You are kind. You are loving. When we tell God, we trust you, we love you, we're agreeing with who He is. When we ask Him to release power, we're agreeing with what He's going to do. Worship and prayer, both of them are agreement with God. But the point I want to make in that is that every time we agree with God, it's recorded in God's books. I love this. You know, I'm trapped in this IHOP lifestyle. I mean, you think you got it tough. I started this thing. I mean, everyone I know knows I'm supposed to do this till the end. So when you get in a bad mood, you know, you can, you know, start thinking of ways for God to lead you and release you and go do something else once the season's over. I'm stuck in this thing till the end. I mean, I burned the bridges, burned the boats, made a commitment. I'm going to do this till the end, except if I'm in prison, then I'll still do it in prison and just join your prayers. I'm going to do IHOP until I meet the Lord. That's great. It was a great announcement seven years ago. I made the announcement. Of course, I thought about it for years and it was the Lord's will. But then over the years, I go, I am like stuck big time. Because when I get in a bad mood or get tired, there's not a thing. I don't have an out at all. I mean, everybody I know knows I've made this commitment. I got enough pride just to keep the commitment, you know. But this is awesome because I'm hemmed in and boxed in. The Lord says, well, you're sitting in a chair. You might as well go ahead and just pray. I mean, you're in the room anyway. This is going to go on for decades. Okay, God, I agree with what stewards pray. Okay, yes. Yes. Yes. Every one of those are recorded in heaven's books. I mean, the truth be known, I would go probably to half of those prayer meetings if I wasn't involved in this. I mean, just because of weakness and carnality and being human. But the wisdom of God, he's got me in a vein and a connectedness with people who are just doing it. And half the time, I love it. And half the time, I don't have any feeling for it at all. I just do it because it's in the book. And it is my job. And I love it because it doesn't matter how you feel when you do it. It still is being recorded and will be rewarded in heaven, in glory, every single movement of your heart of what are these things. It's a fantastic thing. I said, Lord, I'm stuck, but I love it. I absolutely love it. I feel like, you know, I got Pharaoh's armies chasing me on one end and the Red Sea's on the other end. I said, I am stuck here. I have no other way out. I want to be great. I don't really like the Sermon on the Mount. I mean, I want you guys to do the Sermon on the Mount, but I don't want to really do this from the deep places of my heart for my whole life. But I want to be great. I mean, I want my life for billions of years to really be the fullness. Like I said, I feel like I'm stuck between Pharaoh's armies chasing me on one side and the Red Sea. I go, I have no other way to attain greatness in your sight. I was created with this longing to enter into the fullness. You might, maybe you're still so new at this, you can't quite say the word great. You're so humble that that word, you just choke on it. Well, then use the word the fullness of God's destiny for your life because that's identical. Living in the full destiny of God and living in greatness are synonymous concepts. I'm saying, Lord, I wouldn't do this if I wasn't, if it wasn't going to impact who I was before you forever. And, huh, Sermon on the Mount. You know, I read that thing and think, man, I don't know. I mean, you really want me to do this for decades? I mean, for real? In detail? Yes. This is what I want you to do. For decades. In real. In detail. What if I don't do it? Will you love me? Yes, I will love you. It's not about God not loving us. I will love you, Mike, if you don't do it. But you will be least in my kingdom. And, beloved, I want that to resound in your being. I just, I ask God that the word least would mark your spirit and cause your spirit to tremble because I assure you you will hear those words from the Lord Himself on that day if you neglect the Sermon on the Mount. He will look at you and say, I love you. Welcome, my beloved. You are least. You are on the low side of the kingdom of God of people from history in terms of bearing my glory. Someone says, well, that sounds like that won't be a great deal. No, we'll be in God's presence. We'll be happy. We'll be in His presence. But we will know. Absolutely. We will understand that we neglected God's call and God's will and His destiny in our life, in part. And I don't want that. That's impossible to me. I just said that is not a possible lifestyle, option for a lifestyle. I am not going to live with that reality in front of me because it's not going to go away. Jesus said, the passage I started with in Matthew 5, verse 17 and 18, He said, I promise you, heaven and earth will pass away. But my word, these things are not moving. These things are not going to pass away. They will be fulfilled to the most minute degree they will be fulfilled. Look at this in Matthew chapter 6. It says, Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by them. Otherwise, and I appreciate that don't be noticed by men. That's part of what Jesus is wanting us, our motive to be right. But I'm not focusing on the motive here. That's for another message in another day. I'm focusing on the fact that He promised a reward if we did these things right. It's the reward dimension I want you to catch. That the Lord saw this as so important that we did charitable deeds. And charitable deeds has two things. It has to do with economics and it has to do with time. Charitable deeds marries the two together. To do a charitable deed has an economic dimension. Sometimes, that's the big dimension. It's the giving of money so that others can go forward in the blessing of God. And other times, it's the deed itself. It's the work of, it's the service. And the money is a secondary part. Because it's the serving that's far more taxing and costly. And so one charitable deed is bigger on the money and less on the time commitment. And the other charitable deed is bigger on the time investment and less on the money. But He said this. This is considered, charitable deeds are considered of the least things of the kingdom. They're the things that, well, we do them if we get around to it. But, you know, we care about the big things that impact all of society. Not just little acts of kindness, one here, one there. I mean, nobody even knows it. Most of it's nobody, we don't get recognition because we're not seen doing it. We're just kind of doing it in the privacy of our heart, one on one. And the Lord says, I will reward you. I will remember this and I will personally reward you. Verse 4. Your charitable deed may be in secret, but your Father who sees in secret Himself will reward you openly. He will openly reward you. I promise you, God will openly, openly reward you. Now the openly, you think, which is in the eyes of men, in the eyes of men and women. The openly isn't the big point. It is a part of how God has chosen to do it. It won't be in secret. He will reward you and the kingdom of heaven will see it. The word open isn't the part that grabs your heart. It's the word reward because the reward is something that's dear to God and God knows will be dear to you when you understand it. It just so happens that it's open as well. It will be before others. But I want to emphasize it again. Most of the reward that you receive when you give money, you'll get some return. I have had incredible stories and I've heard many of others, many stories through others. I mean, just glorious stories of the Lord blessing me economically for sowing economically. Just, I mean, ones that are just so detailed. I gave an exact amount on an exact day and God gives me the exact amount with a zero on the exact day a year later. Those kinds, just exact numbers. It's like, Lord, this is gloriously ridiculous. This can't be an accident. This is like you went out of your way to make a point that is exactly in answer to what I just gave you. He says, yeah, I want you to know that you are rewarding me. And the Lord could whisper and say something like this, I am rewarding you, but this is only a little bit. The open full reward is yet in the age to come. You wait and see that you have forgotten you gave that guy that money back in 1972. I have not forgotten it. I remember it and I did bless you in 1972 for doing that, but I am now going to give you a blessing far beyond that in the age to come. It will blow our minds if we walked with the Lord for years and years and years in the Lord's exact accounting. The Lord's accounting is really something special because the Lord doesn't forget anything that's good and He forgives, He forgets everything that we repent of. That's the key. I said the word repent of. He will forget everything we repent of and remember everything. I mean, I forgot half of the things I've done. I'm sure that many of you have as well if you've been in the Lord for a few years. I can't remember the person I helped, the money I gave, I forgot it. My brain's too small. But when I stand before Him, I think that all of us that walk with the Lord for years, we will be shocked at the remarkable precision of His memory and His accounting. Be like, Lord, I don't even remember that. It didn't even really cost me much back there. The Lord says, it didn't have to cost you a lot and I don't care that you forgot. I didn't forget. Here is your reward. It's open. It's like, Lord, this is outrageous. You pay so well. You give so much more than what I gave. Beloved, that's the grace of God. Somebody thinks that they're working real hard and earning these rewards. No, nothing close. We, and through our prayer and fasting and giving, it's like we're bringing a dollar to the table and the Lord's bringing a million dollars to the table and He mixes them all up together and we forget whose is whose. What I mean by that, when people talk to me about, they say, well, this sounds like works. We're earning our reward. I go, no, your prayer and fasting and giving is about 1% of the whole package of the reward He's giving. It's because He's kind. It's because He remembers perfectly because He pays so well that the reward is so big. I mean, He gives us so much more than we bring to the table. What we get rewarded for is so much, I mean, the measure of how He rewards, the payment is so much higher than anything that we gave in this life. You couldn't begin to call it earning it. I've heard that through the Bible. Well, I don't want to earn it. I mean, men, I'll tell you this, I'm just going to go back on this issue of the grace of God, this false doctrine of the grace of God. Men will come up with any twist, any presentation of the grace of God to validate a lazy, passive Christian life. I mean, they will go to great extremes. They will get zealous about this one verse. They will cry and have passion about it. They never read the Bible, but they got this one verse they'll die for, the verse that proves that they can live carnal and lazy before God and everything is the same. Men get incredible passion about proving this point. But, beloved, we're not going to move heaven because we get a bunch of people voting on our askew ideas from the word of God. And so, this idea of deserving reward, I mean, my prayers are so unanointed, my giving, the money is so little, and my fasting, well, that's just nothing but skipping a couple meals. How on earth could that persuade a king to give me his riches? I mean, you'd go ask another king to give you riches based on those deeds. Go before any king of any nation and say, hey, I skipped a couple meals, was nice to a couple people and gave them some of my money and I said things in private to God. Will you give me millions of dollars? The king would say, get that lunatic out of here. Only God, I mean, it's the generosity of God that even views that as worthy of rewarding. Then he rewards it with extravagance and the idea that we somehow conclude that's earning it in no other court of life would that be construed as earning it. Now, no other king would even give us a dollar for those kinds of things. Well, he may give us a dollar and say, hey, we'll go have lunch tomorrow then, you know, forget it, you know, don't fast. But the Lord says, no, no, these little weak presentations are so highly rewarded in God's sight. Look at this in verse 6. He says, shut your door and pray to your father. Your father will reward you openly. Now, I've had people ask me about this before about praying in secret. This isn't a rebuke against solemn assemblies and public prayer meetings. I mean, there's many passages in the Bible that say, gather all the people and pray. It's not like the Lord's in heaven saying, oh no, somebody knows you're there because the whole city gathered. Hmm, I guess it's not going to work now. No, it's talking about what he's correcting isn't public prayer meetings. He's not against that. He's talking about people who pray for the purpose of getting a reputation of being a person of prayer and they're not really even praying, they're just there to get a reputation established so they can get honor for men. That's what he's correcting. The Lord doesn't care if it's a public prayer meeting or a private one. What he's saying, if you're mostly there, it's just so that the leaders will think you're special or your girlfriend will think you're awesome or the cool guy or the prophet or whoever you're trying to get the attention to. The Lord says, if that's mostly why you're carrying on in a masquerade about your devotion to prayer and it's not even real, he says your reward is already given to you. You've already impressed the person, the reward is over. I won't be talking to you about that again. But he says, so it's not a rebuke about public prayer meetings or private ones. It's why are we there? We are there because we want to obey the word of God and we want to touch God and blessing is released in this age. But I tell you, blessing our prayers for Kansas City and the age to come. We've prayed so many thousands of hours, a bunch of us for Kansas City. I just can't imagine what Kansas City is going to get in the age to come just because of the prayers of the saints going 24 hours a day for a city. Now we pray for lots of cities as well but Kansas City gets her fair share of prayers from this house of prayer and it's kind of exciting because our prayers are going to outlast this age. That's absolute fact. The reward for them will outlast this age. You will be rewarded for them in the age to come but even the prayers themselves will be effective in the age to come for the city and the people you prayed for. You pray for your loved one. Beloved, I guarantee you that prayer is going to have an impact on that person in this age and in the age to come. You cannot stand before God and agree with God and God promised to reward you and that thing dies somehow. That thing is alive in God's heart. It's a fantastic way to live. I mean, when I'm in a good mood, man, I love what I'm doing. When I get in a bad mood, I'm still glad I'm stuck. I go, Lord, I love this because it still works. I don't have to feel it. I don't have to feel excitement about it. I'm still doing it and that's all that God asked us to do was to do it. Look at this, verse 18. He says, Do not appear to men to be fasting. He says, Don't put on a charade so everybody knows you're fasting. It's about God the Father knowing you're fasting to express your desire for more of Him. And the Lord, who sees in secret, will reward you openly. He will reward you openly for fasting in this age. And the way we get rewarded by fasting in this age, yes, we do get a little bit of the power of God in our ministry. There's a little bit of which God releases power in ministry in the present tense. I mean, in the here and now. But fasting, the way that reward works with fasting in this age is your soul becomes strong and mighty and bright in God. And you get your soul bright and mighty in God. I tell you, you will do many things that will last forever and bring the glory of God to your life and the lives of others. I mean, I fast, I want to see revival and power right now. I really do. But beloved, there's something happening in my soul when I fast that I will carry forever. The impact of that will live forever. Fasting is changing you. And when you get changed and God sees it and says, I'll reward it, that change has implications for your life even into the age to come. It's really worth the hassle. It really is. Give one more verse and we're going to end. I have the worship team go ahead and come on up. It says, lay out for yourself treasures in heaven. Jesus encourages us to use money to get treasure in heaven. He uses this concept all the time. Being rich in heaven. Treasure in heaven. Rewards in heaven. Ruling in heaven. I mean, the terminology, there's many types of terminology. The Lord is offering this thing to us. He's wide open saying, whoever wants it can have it. If you want it, it's yours. You don't have to be rich, famous, gifted, anointed, have a ministry, nothing. You just obey these things and God is watching. Beloved, this makes your life powerful. Every single mundane day of your life, your life has power in it. Because God's remembering what you're doing. And every afternoon or every evening or morning, whatever, you just feel like it's not really happening. You just do what these passages say. You bless your enemies. You serve. And you begin to give your heart to the attitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. And I tell you, the Lord is watching. It crowns every day with meaning. I want to end with this idea. I want to challenge you to take the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, read it. I mean, read it a thousand times. A thousand times in your life, at least. And ask the Lord, say, Lord, I don't get this verse. I don't get that verse. I'm going to obey every single intention that was in your heart when you gave the Sermon on the Mount. Because, again, the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus explaining how the big areas of the Word of God have been reduced. And what Jesus is saying, they've been reduced. Most of their meaning has been denied and eliminated. And the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus restoring the so-called least areas to those commandments, the hidden areas of the heart, the heart expressions of those commandments. And those are the ones we want to make sure we're obeying. Amen.