Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of eternal rewards in his sermon 'Heavenly Crowns: Victory, Honor, and Authority.' He explains that eternal rewards, including crowns, are expressions of God's grace and reflect how we have loved Him during our lives. Bickle highlights that these rewards are not earned but are gifts from God, and they vary in glory and significance, much like the crowns given in ancient athletic competitions. He warns that while crowns are a blessing, they can also be lost if one does not remain dedicated to their faith. Ultimately, Bickle encourages believers to pursue a life of faithfulness and service, aiming for the eternal rewards that await them.

That was excellent. Well let's jump right in this. Session six, we're on an eight-part series on eternal rewards, a biblical overview of eternal rewards. It's one of the most emphasized topics in Jesus' teaching. He talked on this, not the most of all of his teachings, but it was one of his primary subjects that he pointed out and emphasized. And as I've said many times, many people in the body of Christ, they never think about this subject. They don't study it. They don't know much about it. So I want to encourage people to really focus in on this topic. Father, we come before you. Lord, we thank you for your generosity. We thank you for your generosity and your plans and the way that you have devised ways to honor and bless your people forever and forever in the new Jerusalem. I ask you by the Holy Spirit that you touch hearts tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. Well we've looked just the last couple sessions at heavenly garments. Then we looked at thrones that are ruling on the earth with the Lord. We looked at some of that. Now we're looking at heavenly crowns. And the first of all, Roman number one, I want to give a snapshot review. This is really brief of some of the other sessions that are important when you're approaching the subject of eternal rewards. Number one, eternal rewards are expression of the grace of God. It's not something we earn. God gives us so much more for what we do. There's no possible way that we could earn them. So it is the grace of God. Number two, eternal rewards is Jesus expressing how he feels about the way we loved him in this age. It's not about us strutting around because we have more rewards than somebody else. Jesus said, I want you to know how I feel about the way you loved me. That's what rewards are about. Eternal rewards are far more glorious than what anybody could imagine. Whatever you imagine, it's far greater because Paul said it's never entered even the mind of any man or woman, the glory that God has prepared. So though the Bible only gives us a phrase here and there, you can be sure when we walk it out in the age to come, that phrase is like the title of a book. It's a glorious, dynamic, vast subject, each one of these rewards. Eternal rewards are befitting of royalty, meaning they're the type of things that a royal family would want, meaning they're valuable, they're beautiful, they're honoring, they're glorious. They're not simple little artifacts. They're befitting of a royal family. They impart God's beauty. Another point I want to mention is that we will differ from one another in rewards. As we've said every session, I quote this verse in 1 Corinthians 15, as one star differs from another star in glory. So every individual believer, I mean there's a couple billion, I imagine, when it's all said and done, a couple billion, several billion believers in eternity, every single one of them will have a different measure of the glory of God in their experience. And there's many types of rewards. Jesus highlighted 18 different types in Revelation 2 and 3, but everybody will have a different expression and different measure of these rewards. Some won't have this reward, but another one will have a great measure of that reward. Biograph B, Jesus is the one that said it, that some will be called least and some will be called great. He's talking about their lifestyle. He will call their lifestyle in this age great. He's talking about born again believers in resurrected bodies in heaven. The Lord will say, your lifestyle was least, you're in my family, I love you. Your lifestyle was greatest, so it doesn't matter how much gifting you have, who your friends are, if you're faithful to the Lord, your life can be great in God's sight. Biograph Roman numeral 2, heavenly rewards. Well again, there's 18 different kinds that Jesus highlighted in Revelation 2 and 3, but they include crowns. Crowns are very significant, very valuable. I'm guessing that in the royal families through history, their crowns were among their most valued, protected items in their possession, their crowns, the crown of a king or a queen. I'm assuming that's probably true throughout history. In the ancient world, they gave crowns when they won the Olympics. If they won an event at the Olympics, they gave them like a wreath of flowers, they called it a crown. They didn't give them gold medals, they gave them a crown. And so today, we think of gold medal, but it's what they were thinking back in the ancient world when you said the word crowns, they were thinking of the athletic games as well, not just the royal family. And when I think of athletes, one of their prized possessions are their gold medals, which would be like their crowns. Royal families would be the same. Crowns were given not just to signify authority, they were given to signify accomplishments and honor and status and office. Crowns have many, many different types of functions that I'll highlight some of them as we go. Paragraph B, one of the most sober, it's encouraging, but sober, warnings is here in Revelation chapter 3. Jesus said, hold fast what you have. He's talking about to your obedience so that nobody take your crown. Well, the exciting thing is that crowns are given by God. That's fantastic. But the sober thing is crowns can be lost. Jesus said, hold fast what you have. He meant keep your dedication fresh because a person can lose their crown when they lose their dedication. A crown that was coming their way, but they decided not to finish strong in the Lord and they actually lost their crown. It's possible. He's not talking about losing their salvation here. Paragraph D, crowns are not synonymous with receiving eternal life. You know, when you go to a funeral, the guy says the funeral, well, brother Bill here, he's receiving his crown today and everybody, yeah, brother Bill is, well, don't get your theology from funerals because if you go to enough funerals, they think everybody has a crown. That's not what the Bible, there's no evidence in the scripture that every believer has a crown because a lot of people have just kind of dumbed it down and made crowns synonymous with forgiveness. And when you read it carefully and slowly, crowns are given in addition to forgiveness. They're not synonymous with it. They're related to one's function, to one's honor in the age to come and it's a statement about the way they lived and what they accomplished in their spiritual life, not how many people they touched. It's not accomplished by you touch them, you know, a hundred or a thousand, a thousand where you get a big crown. No, it's the size of your faithfulness, the size of your heart response, not the size of the crowd of the people that you influenced. Eternal life is given freely based on what Jesus did for us. Crowns are based on how we respond to his leadership. Still, it's the grace of God because we take one step of obedience and he gives us a mile of blessing. I mean, the gifts he gives us, the rewards are so much greater than our obedience. It's still the grace of God. Each of the crown passages, and we're going to look at a few of them and a handful we won't have time, but I have them right here in the notes. Each of the crown passages, they're in context to spiritual maturity. They're not talking about justification by faith, being forgiven of your sins. Their talk, every one of them is in context to spiritual maturity. Now the New Testament apostles, their view of salvation was that we would rule on the earth in the age to come with Jesus. They when they thought of salvation in the kingdom, they thought of ruling on the earth with crowns and thrones and under Jesus's leadership, bringing his dominion across the earth. But today, many people think of salvation as just going to heaven. There's no thought of reigning on the earth with a resurrected body with Jesus. So there's a very incomplete picture and perspective of salvation. Salvation to many is about being forgiven and going to heaven. I love being forgiven, that's critical, but being forgiven is the entrance into salvation. Salvation is much more than that. When we go to heaven just as a holding pattern until the second coming, then heaven comes down to the earth. Jesus brings heaven to the earth. He brings the New Jerusalem with him. We're on the earth in a heavenly experience. The New Jerusalem comes down. Heaven and earth come together down here. So I don't think of the next millions of years as going away to heaven, floating on a cloud, playing a harp. I think of reigning and ruling on the earth with crowns and thrones and garments and really good food. There's no evidence in Scripture that crowns are given to everybody. You know, when you look at, this is not authoritative, you can't look at the natural realm, I mean we can see hints of what it might be like when we look at the natural, but it's not authoritative. We look at the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games, the 2016 Summer Games, there were just over 10,000 athletes. But only about 1,000 got medals, about 10% got medals. 90% did not get medals, those are approximate numbers. And I think there's a corresponding reality, not that God is following the games, I think that some of human nature and human expression is actually, because we're made in the image of God, is actually expressing some of the things that are in us by God's design. And so, when you think of crowns, think of something that's valuable, again like the gold medal to the athlete would have been like the ancient crown in the days of old, probably the athlete's most prized position. The royal family's one of their most prized positions. Honor and authority and beauty and dignity is all associated with crowns. God created crowns to give us. I mean, I want a crown, I mean, this is serious. And all the crowns, I assume, are very different. I don't think there's one standard model and everybody has the same crown. I doubt that any royal family on the earth has a crown that looks like somebody else's. I'm imagining they are as diverse and different as imaginable. I mean, just go on the internet and look up crowns and there's so many types. I mean, there's thousands of types of crowns from crowns made of garments to crowns made of metal to crowns made of diamonds. There's so many types and I look at that, I mean, it's fascinating. And I just imagine, I say, Lord, what you've planned is far more glorious and I'm imagining far more diverse than anything we've come up with. Your creativity, just the power of your creativity, there's not like a one standard model, you know, white gown, t-shirt, everybody gets, okay, you got your clothing now. You'll have a wardrobe that will be vast and glorious and diverse forever. Crowns and thrones will be, I imagine, very diverse in appearance and in design and the message that's communicated with it and everything. Top of page two, there's two Greek words for crowns. Now, the reason I say Greek, because most of you know the New Testament 2,000 years ago was written in Greek. Was it written in English? I know that you know that, but we translated it in English, but originally it's in Greek. So when you go back to the original writings of Jesus and the apostles, there's two different Greek words that are translated crown. The first word speaks of the crown of a ruler. It indicates authority, political authority over a region, like a king, like a prime minister. They would be the crown of a ruler, a diadem, you know, we all know the name diadem. Diadem speaks of the crown of the ruler, but then there's the crown of the victor, of the athlete who won the prize, the beauty pageant. They get a crown, that's the Stephanus. They get the, we get the word Stephen from that, it's the word crown, but it's not the crown of the royal family, it's the crown of the one that was victorious in the issue that they were challenged with. That athletic, or it was in war as well, they gave crowns, and again in the modern world they give crowns in beauty contests and various other things, they give crowns. So one's the crown of a victor, and the other's the crown of a ruler, and they're quite different, and they have different messages related to them. The crown of the victor today is like the gold medal, the silver, bronze medal, etc. And I got a list of which, you know when you read the Bible you see the word crowns, and I have a list here in the notes, which ones are the ruler crown, and which is the victor who overcame the obstacles and pressed through and finished the race and won. That again, very two different lines of thought, but both of them are connected to the word crowns. Okay, Roman numeral four. Well we look at the scripture, you know when we look at thrones and garments, and we're going to look at other issues next week as well, we want to see what the scripture says about crowns. Because if the scripture lays out some things, you know, it's an indication that if God put it in the scripture, that it's meant to be understood as part of His design. Many things in the scripture give us hints about His leadership in the future and how things will be. Well in Exodus 28, it talks about crowns that are made for beauty and for glory. Now it has the word hats because a crown and a headdress is synonymous, they're interchangeable. You know some of the tribal chiefs, they would have a headdress, that would be their crown. It wasn't made of metal, it was made of feathers and many other things, but it was beautiful and had tremendous meaning to it. I mean in many of the tribal chiefs throughout all of history. So the word here in Exodus is the word hats, or head coverings, or headdresses, or crowns. It's the same idea, it's the crown or the headdress of the high priest. Other passages call it the crown, this one calls it the hat, but here's the point I want to emphasize, is that God designed them to communicate glory and beauty. So if He made earthly crowns for the spiritual leaders to indicate glory and beauty, I believe that the future crowns will indicate and express glory and beauty. Glory means honor. God's saying, I want to show you how I feel about the way you love me, I want to honor you, I want to affirm the way you lived. Here's a crown, it's my love gift to you in response to your love gift to me. Our love is weak, our love is inspired by the grace of God, I mean He's ultimately responsible for stirring us up to love, but still we had to say yes. And He gives crowns to give honor. The word here is glory, but it goes, now I want you to know how I feel about it. But it's more than that. Crowns impart the beauty of God. They, again, I think there will be so many diverse types of crowns, some with great honor and glory associated with them, some with lesser. But they will indicate honor and beauty, and they will, I believe, will be one of your most prized possessions forever. And I'm assuming there's several, there's a number of categories of crowns, not just two or three. I think they're, I'm assuming, because God is so creative. I mean just look at creation, there's so many different species of plants and animals and fish and so many stars, everything is so vast and diverse under His creative hand. And there's no reason to think His creativity is stopping simply because when He talks about eternal rewards, He only gives brief statements, but He goes, I didn't change my nature, I'm still creative, I'm still glorious, I'm still really a powerful designer, I'm really generous, I know, I have plenty of money, I can make crowns for everybody if I want to. And so you don't want to, you don't want to just be, conclude because He only gives brief phrases that these rewards are not coming out of His creative, powerful, glorious nature filled with love for us. Well anyway, in Scripture, the purpose of crowns, there's several actually, but I'm just going to highlight three. Coronation, when they, the coronation of a king, they set him in place, or a high priest, they put him in their place of authority. So the, you know, like the ordination service, when they anointed them with oil, they put the crown on them, it was part of their coronation, or their ordination, they kind of went together. Their anointing service. And I'm assuming that's how God set it up in the, in the Scripture, in the Old Testament, there will be an important moment where you, those that are faithful that receive crowns, it will not be a quick, you know, hey, your crown, 684, it's over on the table, get it real quick and come back here, we've got a meeting. I don't think it's going to be that kind of thing. I think there's going to be a celebration, I believe there will be a, just like in the Old Testament, a coronation mixed together with an ordination, an anointing type service in the Old Testament. Number two, crowns were, they served the purpose of consecration. When they dedicated the high priest, they put a crown on him to consecrate him or dedicate him, that's the same word, to consecrate or to dedicate. In other words, God says, you're set apart for me in a special way, and the crown is showing not just your authority in my purpose, but you're dedicated to me in a special way. And crowns will indicate that. Again, I think it will be so diverse and different, but it will be clear with the dedication, the full implications of that dedication. And then number three, crowns are for recognition. They affirm in the Old Testament or just even in the culture, all through history, crowns affirm victory. In war, when a general would come back from war in victory, he would receive a crown. The athletes, athletic games, and positions of honor, wherever there was a victorious achievement of great value to the culture, they would get a crown. It had to have great value to the culture, had to have distinction to it. And so I believe that these same purposes, we will see them in the age to come. I mean, imagine if you have a special moment with the Lord, and he allows you to bring together those that were closest to you in this age, and he puts a crown on your head to indicate the way he feels about the way you loved him in this life. You will be so dear to him and so dear to you and so dear to the people around you. These kinds of things, I really believe, are going to happen. Look at Roman numeral five. Let's look at, gain some insight, again, from society. It's not authoritative. When we look at the cultures of the earth, we don't say, well, if all the cultures did this and that, therefore it must be this way in heaven. No, because we're fallen human beings and there's a lot of darkness in the human heart and in the culture. So it's not authoritative. But because we're made in the image of God, there's a thumbprint of God's heart and design and creativity in us. And that comes out in many different ways, though it's tainted, it's diminished. But when we see something that happens in, like, every culture of the world nearly, then we say, huh, there's something about the human heart that this is common. They didn't get the memo, you know, 5,000 years ago in far different parts of the earth, but they still did it because it's indicating things that are in the human heart. There's like one thing is that every culture of the earth has music. My guess is music is the number one form of entertainment of every culture in the earth. Now, it's not like there might be one exception or a few exceptions, I don't know, but it'd be very, very rare. That's because music was put in the human spirit by a musical God. That's why it shows up. And there's many dark expressions of music because hearts are dark, but music, the human heart craves music. So that, you know, that's a, that's just one of many of examples of how when you see something common in cultures across the earth through centuries and centuries, it's indicator that there's hints of how the human heart might be reflecting God's design and God's creativity. So I look at culture and I, and I see, you know, I see some hints of it. And again, Paul said, the glory of these rewards is so much greater than anything you will ever imagine. So whatever you've imagined, you've come far short of it. But whatever you do, don't just have some little skinny little crown that everybody looks the same and you pick it up at the table at the back of the room, you know, type deal. It's not that kind of deal at all. So it's just forget that. And think about this because it's within the reach of every believer, but I don't believe every believer will have one. Again, the 10% of the Olympic athletes get a medal. That number is not sacred or inspired, but it might be a damn reflection. Who knows? But I know again, there's no indication that everybody has one. Paul, the apostle wanted one. He was aiming for the prize. He said it. We'll look at it in a minute. If we, if we get to that passage, he goes, I'm going for that prize. And he says the crown, I want it. He even said as a mature apostle, I haven't attained it yet. He's not talking about he, he wasn't saved. He knew he was saved. He says, no, there's something else I haven't attained yet, but I'm pressing into God for it. And if Paul, the apostle, mature apostle writing, the Bible is pressing into God for the prize and the crown, he must know something we don't know. But I can assure you, we know the way forward. It's just seeking the Lord and diligent, being diligent about our relationship with the Lord. That's it. If we're seeking the Lord hard and serving people, that's what it's all about. There's no mystery to how to do it. It's challenging to do it, but it's not mysterious. It's not like confusing. Top of page three. Well in the cultures of the earth, there's many types of crowns or headdresses. Those worn, we're on paragraph C, those worn by Kings, Queens, Royal families, governmental leaders, military leaders, they're all different types of crowns. Tribal chiefs, clergy, the crown of a cardinal, a bishop, a priest, they're all different. All the headdresses are different. Then there's wreaths of flowers or leaves. They made these wreaths that were a crown. In the ancient world, if you won the athletic contest, again I mentioned it today, you know the people that win a beauty pageant, now the athletes get a gold medal instead of a crown, but it's synonymous in terms of the value that's being communicated. Paragraph D, when we look at all the crowns of history, I've already said this, but I just wanted you to, I want to say it again, because I really like this thought, is again when I looked through the internet, it's just, you could just spend hours looking at all the diversity. There's so much creativity and difference in the cultures and the glory and the stature and the messaging that's in the different crowns. Some crowns say something really strong and others don't say so much, but Paragraph D, there's many various crowns in history, very diverse. They vary greatly in their style, in their design, in their, the length of them, the size of them, the fabric, the color, the economic value, the jewels, the material they're made of, the purpose, the message behind the crown, they all are so diverse. And again, I'm imagining that heavenly crowns will be far more diverse because God is far more creative than the human mind is. And he's the one that's devising the crown system, if you'll let me use that strange phrase. Crowns, Paragraph E in history, are worn in festive occasions, weddings, banquets, formal occasions, award ceremonies, many, many different types of special occasions is where the crowns are worn. I don't think that a person that has a crown wears it everywhere they go. I don't think they take it on their outing, their family outing, the picnic, probably not. Crowns give recognition to victory. The chariot races in the days of old, the athletic games, wars, it's like again, like winning a gold medal. Look at Roman Numeral 6. Now there's three types of crowns that are designated in the New Testament. I don't believe it's limited to three. I'm assuming, I don't know for sure, I'm assuming it's three of many categories or many types of crowns. There's the crown of life, the crown of glory, the crown of righteousness. And I don't assume at all that they are synonymous. Some people think, well they must be all the same and everybody has them and they're synonymous with being forgiven and salvation and so don't think about them much. They go, well I think they're a little more intense than that because Paul was striving for the prize and fixed his heart for that prize which he called the crown. And on his final last statements before he died, he said, finally, he goes, I'm there and I'm right before my death, I know from the Lord, the Lord has made it known to me, I will receive the crown of righteousness, I will. He wasn't talking about, I know that I'm going to be saved on that day. He already knew he was going to be saved. But he had reached and wondered about the subject of crowns. And I got a bit of that on the notes here but I don't know if we'll end up with having time to look at that. Number one, under Roman numeral eight, we can't be dogmatic but each crown seems to represent a distinct heavenly reward. And again, you can't be dogmatic. I'm imagining these three categories, these three types of crowns are three of many. There's many, because again, God's creativity is far greater than man's and there's so many types of crowns devised by the human understanding. And when you look at these, which we'll look at in a moment, these crowns, I think they're distinct and they have specific conditions associated with them. It's not like the same condition for every crown. Like for instance, James chapter one, it promises the crown of life to the people that consistently resist temptation. Then there's a crown for those, it talks about those that endure persecution. Now again, paragraph two, I assume there'll be great diversity just like crowns in this age. Paragraph B, let's look at the crown of life. The first of the three that are identified descriptively in the Bible, in the New Testament. The crown of life is promised to anybody that will stay faithful to the Lord in the face of temptation or persecution. Let's read the two. This is the only crown that's described two different times. The crown of life, it's mentioned descriptively two times. The other crowns are only mentioned once. And then the other references is just general crowns and we're left to have to wait till that day to figure out what it's going to look like in our individual life and what we receive. But this one, the crown of life is highlighted twice, which just the fact of that draws our attention to it. It's importance. It says in James chapter one, blessed is the man, the person who endures temptation. That's an interesting statement, isn't it? They endure temptation. And when they're approved, meaning when God sees them as being found as consistent, then the Lord says, okay, this is something that wasn't just a momentary resistance, it's a momentary victory. It's something you set your heart to obey me in. You set your heart to obey me. It wasn't a one-time deal. When you're approved, you're found consistent. The Lord says, the scripture says, he will receive the crown of life. Now the reason that we endure temptation, paragraph one, because temptation is persistent. Most people have a temptation or two or three. You know, one guy goes, I have 20 temptations. Whatever. But most people have a temptation or two that are far more persistent in their life than other temptations. And everybody's a bit different. But whatever those one or two or three kind of they're seemingly always in your face, it has to be endured because that temptation is persistent. It won't stop. I mean, you're walking with the Lord and it still comes and stares in your face and tries to pull you off the path. And the scripture says it's got to be endured. It's got to be endured. Because it's going to show up over and over and over. Because it's not a one-time victory. This crown is the crown of life for enduring temptation. It's because you set your heart and the Lord says, I gave you many, many, many times to prove that you would love me in that area. And we can fail in that area and repent sincerely and jump right back into the race and resist that area and still we're in the pathway of overcoming that area. He's not talking about 100% perfection. But it's the idea that once the Lord highlights that area to your life, you are at war with it. You will never just be casual with that area. You will always resist it clear to the end of your life. I mean, the temptation might become lesser, but my point is you never ever just make peace with that temptation and say, you know, I'm just going to go with it. The Lord says you're proving that you love me in that issue that's pulling your heart. And look what it says right there. James 1, it says, I'll give the crown of life promise to the people who love me because the resistance of that temptation is over and over year after year as a documented statement. It's documented in the books of heaven of your life that you loved him in that area. Again, you might stumble in that area a few times, maybe a bunch of times, but you ended up being set. And for, you know, for the years after that, you were not okay with that temptation. You fought it every single time with sincerity. Now when people think of temptation, a lot of people think automatically of sexual temptation. And that's a real one, but temptation is far more than sexual temptation. I think one of the biggest temptations around is bitterness and slander and just speech that's divisive. That it comes like, hey, I want to just say what I think about that guy. And the Lord says, don't, don't, don't. Resist that temptation. No, no, I think he needs to get the record straight about him. The Lord says, don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. Be a peacemaker, don't be divisive. I think that's one of the biggest temptations. Then there's temptations about covetousness, about vengeance. There's temptations about laziness and passivity. I'm not saying you don't need to rest or you don't need to play sometimes. That's not what I'm talking about. But some people, they just get overcome with passivity. And they need to rise up and say no to it. It's a true temptation. Maybe they don't struggle with sexual immorality, but they struggle with real lethargy and passivity in their spiritual life. And the Lord says, I want you to resist it. And not that you're going to be perfect in it, but I want you to declare your love to me in it. Now look at this next one, Revelation 2, verse 10. This is now the crown of life related to not yielding to the fear of persecution. I mean, persecution is fearful. He says, here's Jesus, Revelation 2. It's Jesus appearing to John in the book of Revelation. He's telling this to John face to face. He says, I want you to go tell that church, the church of Smyrna. Don't fear the things that are going to happen. They are going to suffer. And meaning persecution. People are going to come against you for standing for my name. But don't be fearful. They might take some of your money. They may throw you in prison. They may kill some of you. But it's a moment. You're getting a crown for billions of years of me declaring how I feel about the way you stood for me. He goes, be faithful to death. Some of you will go to prison. But the fear of prison, I think, was a primary reality that that was the issue. You know, the fear of losing is, you know, I was going to say is worse than losing. Probably not. But the fear of losing is real. And he says, be faithful until you die. If you die, you die. You know, the goal of life isn't not to die physically. That's not the goal of life. The goal of life is to be faithful to Jesus and his leadership and to live in a way where there's tremendous return in the age to come. I mean, that's the biggest goal of life, in my opinion, to walk in love in a way that touches lives now and that's recorded in his books. And then he answers then in fullness. Now, why the crown of life? When you think of life, the life of God, I think the life of God is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I don't think he's just talking about they live forever. I think he's talking about a quality of the anointing. It's a crown that's associated with the anointing of God, the life of God. And everybody in the age to come will have a different capacity to experience it. Everybody will have the life of God. But some will experience it far greater and some will impart it to others far more. Do you know your ministry doesn't stop? When Jesus returns, ministry doesn't stop. The saints will be ministering to one another in the resurrection and in the age to come, big subject, forever we will be communicating and ministering the grace of God one to another. It's not like the day you're resurrected, you get an omniscience chip where now you know everything and everything is, sin is gone, but there's all kinds of things to grow and increase and learn and our capacities in God to increase, etc., etc. There's no sin and darkness, but neither is there instant fullness in every area of God. A billion years from now, we'll still be growing in new capacities to encounter God and communicate his life. Well, the crown of life, I think, is associated with that. We don't know the details of this, but I like the whole sound of it. The crown, related to the anointing of the Spirit in your life. Maybe when you put it on, something happens. I don't know. I'd just be guessing on that, but I love number three. Look at number three here. It says when we can resist the temptation. Again, not just sexual, not just bitterness, not just slanderous words, but even spiritual passivity or vengeance or all kinds of emotions that we have, jealousy and anger, all kinds of temptations. The Lord knows we do it. If we stay steady with it, again, not perfect, but we keep signing up for it, he says, I know you're doing it because you love me. It's documented in the books of heaven. Top of page four. Well, the second crown that's designated and identified, this is called the crown of righteousness. Now, this is a beautiful picture. I've already hinted at this, and there's a little bit more on page five and six on this, but this is 2 Timothy 4. This is Paul's final statement. Paul, this is his last letter that he writes in the Bible to Timothy, his son in the faith, and then he's in Rome, and then he gets executed. This is it. Chapter four is the last chapter of anything Paul wrote. And he's writing here. He goes, well, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness because earlier he wrote that he was aiming for the prize, but he didn't know for sure he had it. But now he has the assurance. This is beautiful. He goes, the Lord will give it to me. But not only me, he'll give it to all who love his appearing. It's Paul's last statement. Now, I think the crown of righteousness, it's not, I don't think, the issue is not highlighting the free gift of righteousness the day you are born again because of what Jesus did. Every born-again believer gets it automatically, fully the day they're born again. He's talking about the grace of God working righteousness in our character. This is righteous character that's been developed. It's a crown that is depicting and honoring victory. It's the crown of a victor. This is the Stephanus crown, the one where the athlete, where against all odds you pressed in, that's the crown that he's talking about here. I believe that in this context, the issue of righteousness isn't just moral. It's not just character traits where he's kind and he's resisting immorality or bitterness. I think that he's persevering in context to his work. I believe one of the great temptations that a lot of believers yield to, they don't even think of it as a temptation, they give up and give in and just get lazy about the work God's put in front of them because it doesn't seem glorious. The work of almost every believer, yeah, I would say every believer, most of the work is small, unnoticed, unappreciated, and not that dynamic when you do it. And many believers, they're kind of imagining that when they're really obeying God, just everyone's appreciating it, has power on it, they just skip over the hills with joy like, oh, this is what it feels like to be righteous. But I think, having been a pastor 40 plus years, having been doing this, most of what I do is small and little, goes unnoticed. There's toil in it. There's, again, smallness, resistance in it. You think, you know what, I don't want to do this. Lord says, no, no, don't go there. And I think that's what Paul is talking about. He goes, I pressed to the end. I didn't back down. He wasn't talking about a moral deficiency, you know, in his sexual life. He was talking about, I didn't back down. I finished. I went all the way. I never quit. I mean, he had people beating him with whips and rods and in prison. When Paul got out of prison, then he went to the next city, they were going to beat him up and the threat of prison. He could have said, you know, I just feel the liberty of the Spirit, maybe go to the beach side and just kind of have a sabbatical for the next ten years. He went to the next city, and they beat him again. Like, Paul, you don't really have to do that. I mean, he goes, no, no, I'm an apostle, first century, you know, the church is just getting birthed. God spoke to me direct. I got to. I mean, that's intense. I think this is related to him persevering in his work. Look what he says in Philippians 1. This is his, Philippians is written about six or seven years before he died. In Philippians, he's in prison. In 2 Timothy, what we just read, it's about six or seven years later, he's in prison again. Two different prison sentences. So here in Philippians, this is, he's still got six or seven years before he dies. He's in prison. He goes, I'm hard pressed, verse 23. I'm hard pressed. You know what? I wouldn't go pee with Jesus. I don't even want to get out of prison, get beat up again, and get thrown in prison again. I don't even, you know, they don't have good air conditioning in prisons. They don't have good music. They don't have good plumbing. They don't have, I mean, prisons are bad, right? I mean, he's going, I don't even want this. He goes, I'd much rather go pee with the Lord, but he says, verse 24, but this is what I think the real issue of righteousness was to him. He goes, I'm going to remain. It's better for you. If I endure this hassle, I don't like it at all. Yeah, verse 25, I'm going to remain and help you. But you know what? Many of the people that Paul helped turned on him and didn't appreciate his help. I mean, when he wrote here in 2 Timothy 4, the verse we started with, he wrote a few verses earlier, he goes, they all forsook me. His churches turned on him and said, you know what, Paul? He's kind of a little strange. He's kind of getting out there. He's getting a little older. He's like, ah, he's missing it. So Paul was staying in the battle to help people that ended up not staying with him, and he knew all of that too. I look at Paul and I go, man, this is serious. But notice how he says it. He goes, let's go back up to paragraph C to the verse, 2 Timothy 4. This is, again, the final statement he makes before he dies. He goes, this crown of righteousness isn't promised only to me but people who love his appearing. Love his appearing. Now, here's what a lot of folks would think. They would say, oh, I love his appearing. I wish Jesus would come today. And that's good. But he's talking about if you really love his appearing, you make life choices now related to his leadership when he appears on the earth, meaning you're spending time and money and you're stewarding your body appetites related to his appearing. It's not just I wish he came today. He's saying, no, no, live under my leadership that I'm going to bring to the earth when I appear. That's what he's saying. He goes, if you love my appearing, you'll spend time and money and energy differently. So he goes, people that really love it, he goes, because that's the only way Paul could be in prison and not give up. Get out of prison. Go right back in the battle because he loved the leadership of Jesus that was associated when he appeared because his leadership then would be openly displayed over the earth. He goes, I love the hour when your leadership is displayed worldwide. And then the spirit would say, well, then live under my leadership now then. If you love it when it's openly displayed worldwide, then do it now. So he's talking about more than wouldn't it be great if Jesus came today and we didn't have to mess around with tomorrow. He's talking about something much different than that. Okay, paragraph D. The crown of glory. This is a crown promise to anyone who diligently serves in or cares for the church. Now, again, most all service in the church is small. It's little acts of service. Most of it goes unnoticed. Most of it you don't get any recognition. Matter of fact, many times the very people you serve, they go like, I didn't even like what you did. Like, well, great. There you go. There you go. But Peter wrote this. He goes, I'm exhorting the elders of the church. And elder sounds kind of cool, but it's a day to day involvement in people's lives and problems. And it's lots of work and labor. And people that you're helping often, it's three steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, two steps back. And I know lots of leaders, elders, and ministries in the church that are just going, you know, I'm just tired of the energy it takes. And Peter's going, don't. It's okay to be tired, but don't give up. Don't go into that disconnect because you're not getting appreciated and the work isn't easier or more glorious. He says, serve eagerly. Serve eagerly, serving, and the Lord will give you the crown of glory. Figure out one service that's done eagerly. In nurturing, serving, it's investing in people with eagerness. And again, if you're only investing in happy, grateful people, there's no problem. But it didn't work that way. Because the people that really need your investing aren't always that happy or that grateful or that responsive. And sometimes they talk about you in a negative way after you've invested in them. And many, again, I've been a pastor 40 years, many, many pastors, they call it sheep bite. You know, I'm suffering sheep bite. And I go, it's just how leadership is in a fallen world. It's really how it is. Get your eyes on Jesus. Serve diligently and eagerly. Don't worry about how they're receiving you or how big the applause is. You're in the back room. You're helping people. Stay with it. And Jesus said, well, no one even notices, the Lord says, I see every single investment you make in somebody. I see it and I write it in my book. And when I come, I will give you the crown of glory. There will be a glory because it's about love. There's a glory of God dimension because this is love. Now, don't think of elder in the church official job. Because you can be in that shepherding ministry in your university, your high school. You can be at the marketplace. If you're taking the initiative to invest in people, and it's, again, most of it's small, little, unglorious, and not fully appreciated or responded to right. But you stay with it decade after decade after decade. Set your heart. And Peter said, if you do that, there will be a crown of glory waiting for you. This is different than resisting the temptations of James chapter 1. Paragraph 3. Jesus looked at Peter. Says that you can read it here in John 21 three times. Do you love me? He goes, yeah. Well, then take care of people. What? Do you love me? Yeah. Take care of people. Invest in people. No, no, no. I love you. So I want, like, a famous ministry or something. No, just invest in people if you love me. He asked him three times. His love is expressed by investing in people. So my question is, are you? Are you doing that? He said, of course. Who are they? Do they know you're investing in them? Well, you know, our 16-year-olds. They say, well, I'm 16. There's a lot of 12-year-olds around. You're 12. There's a lot of 8-year-olds around. You don't need to be 60 with seminary degrees to invest in people. Start now. Again, I told you my Presbyterian youth pastor when I was 16 years old, he goes, go so into 12- and 32-year-olds. I thought, this could be dangerous. I don't know anything. He said, well, just get a Christian book at the bookstore and just read it together and just start talking and start listening to the story and pray for them and be with them. I went, really? And he talked me into it, and I did it for years. I thought, you know, this is really how it works. It's not that glorious. It's not that fun. Some of them didn't like it. But, hey, it changes your life, but more than that, the Lord's watching it. It's in his book. Well, paragraph H, paragraph H, this warning. You could lose your crown. And the way that Jesus said, don't let somebody take your crown. The way you let a person take your crown, they're giving you seductive teaching that's false. And the false teaching I'm talking about is not like they have the names of angels and it's false and you listen to the names of angels. I'm talking about something that's just weird. But I'm talking about the teaching that seduces people is the distorted grace message teaching where people hear teaching of the Word and they feel empowered to live in compromise and they feel empowered and confident to live in compromise. Beloved, if you listen to that kind of teaching and you buy it, you will lose crowns or crowns singular. Jesus said, don't let somebody talk you into something, no matter how popular it is, where you lose out with me forever. It really matters what you believe and who you listen to. It really matters. And in this internet world, there's all these kind of self-proclaimed Bible authorities that are teaching the grace of God in a way that's helping people feel good about immorality and drunkenness and covetousness and laziness and just selfishness. And you don't want to buy into that grace of God teaching. That is a distorted message. And that's what I believe He's talking about. There's many versions of that when He says, they will steal your crown from you because you bought into what they said and you didn't resist it. It does matter who you listen to and what you believe. Top of page 5, we're going to end with this. Paul, here he is. This is 1 Corinthians. He goes, verse 24, Do you not know that those who run in a race, they all run? He goes, they're in the race. Everybody's running one way or the other. But only one receives the prize. What he's really saying is there's only one type of running that wins the prize. It's running under the Lord's leadership in His way. There's only one type of running. Not only one type of winner. There's one way of running that wins. That's what he's really saying if you read it carefully. Run in a way. He's kind of indicating it here. So you obtain the prize. Now the prize clearly, a verse later, is the crown. Paul says everybody. He's now talking about the natural athletics, the Olympic Games. Everybody who competes for the prize. Every athlete in the Olympic Games. They're temperate. They're disciplined in their time, their food, what they put in their body, their schedules. They're temperate. They're measured. They're not just carefree about those things if they're true Olympic athletes. He goes, now these guys, they do it for a crown, a wreath of flowers that after a few months it kind of withers away. Well, but everybody still knows they won first place so they still have the story the rest of their life. But he goes, these guys are temperate and all they're getting is a crown of flowers to put on their head. And the story that's told about that they won. He goes, but we get an imperishable crown. One that lasts forever and ever. He goes, why aren't we temperate or disciplined? If an athlete does it so that everybody applauds him when he wins the gold medal, why wouldn't we do it? We get an eternal crown. He said, verse 26, therefore, I run this way. Not with uncertainty. He goes, not with lack of focus. I know where I'm going and what I'm after. I'm after a crown. I am. Here he is a mature apostle. He goes, I'm very clear what I'm aiming for. He goes, verse 26, therefore, I run thus. He's talking about a way of running, a way of having a lifestyle. That's what he's talking about. He's not talking about you running against me. I'm not, we're not competing with each other. We're competing with the powers of darkness chasing us down and us resisting them and doing the will of God. We're not competing. We're not outdoing each other. The race is not that way. And I have a number of sentences on that here. Verse 27, I discipline my body. I bring it into subjection. Lest I would be disqualified. Paul's not talking about losing his salvation. He's talking about losing his crown. He's not saying, if I'm not disciplined, I end up in hell. He's saying, no, if I don't live a disciplined, focused life, I'm not going to end up with the prize that is before me. And I don't have it yet. He makes that really clear in Philippians. Later on in the notes, you can look at six or seven years before he died. He said, I don't have it yet, but I'm going hard for it. I'm pressing in for it. And then finally in 2 Timothy 4, the passage we already looked at right before he died. He goes, I know I got it. The Lord made it clear. Yes. Yes. He said, I finished hard. Oh, yes. Because, you know, a lot of good athletes, just like a lot of good believers, they stumble in their latter years and they don't end well. Beloved, we want to end well. And I want to encourage you young people, old and young alike, set your heart like Paul did. He goes, I don't run, verse 26, with uncertainty. I know exactly what I'm aiming for. I want to urge you, set your heart to run well. Tell the end. Because the way it works, if you run 30, 40 years, and again my age, 40 plus years in ministry, I've seen a lot of folks on fire in their 20s and 30s. And I know them now, they're in their 50s and 60s, and they're coasting. I mean, the compromise and the passivity they're comfortable with, they were horrified with 20 years ago, and they're comfortable with it now. And I find it, it's like a miracle when I see an old person going hard for God. Because they've got so many things that disappoint them through the years, and so many people that didn't appreciate them. And, you know, I love it when young people go, but a miracle, some guy's 70 and he's pressing into God. I go, how come you're not mad? He goes, I'm not going there, man. I'm focused. I'm locked in, man. I know where I'm going and where I'm going, and I know how I'm going to live. Paul said, I run with certainty. I'm locked in. It's worth it. Anyway, as you can read the notes, Paul wasn't racing against another believer. He was racing between two ways of running. One was compromise, and one was full dedication. He goes, I'm going to run with that. Well, amen and amen. Let's end with that. Well, let's stand before the Lord. I want to pray. I mean, I want to give you an opportunity to set your heart, to run for a prize. Not to say, well, you know, it'll take care of itself. Well, Paul didn't think it would. Well, the grace of God, Jesus did it for me. Yeah, he got you into heaven. He did it all for you. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about you offering him a life, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years of walking with God, stumbling, yes, but never quitting, getting up and pressing right back into fullness. You're offering him a heart of love on that last day. And then him saying, oh, if you're going to be that way about it, here's a crown of life, a crown of glory, a crown of righteousness. And there could be many types. I don't even know. But I know one thing. I know how to run. And it's not mysterious how to do it. It's just simply staying with it. It's just staying with it. It's just serving hard, focusing on the Lord, feeding your spirit. When you stumble, get back up, repent, receive the mercy of God, jump back into full obedience. There you got it. Right there. There's the secret. It's really simple. I'm letting you get ready. I'm waiting until I hear a ding, ding, ding, ding. That's it. I want to invite people to come forward for prayer that are saying, I want to set my heart or reset my heart in a new way tonight. I want to go for the prize. I never got to Philippians 3 where Paul said, I press in. I mean, that's the big verse. I didn't even have time. He goes, I press in. I won't draw back. I press in. I won't draw back. He said in Philippians 3, I don't have the prize yet, but I'm pressing in. That's you. You may be 15. You may be 80. Beloved, it's not too late or too early to reset your heart. I tell you, I've set my heart. I know what I'm going for. I want to invite you to come forward. You may be 15. You set it now. I set my heart when I was in my teen years. I'm so glad I did. I got with godly young people. Young people, I tell you, that's the number one thing. Get with godly young people. I didn't just get with Christians who knew how to say Jesus and then they lived out in compromise. I got with 15 to 16 year olds that were going for revival in God. We didn't see some of the things we hoped for when we were 18, but we all were going for it. Get with those kind of people and hang out with them. They don't have to like your kind of music as long as they like your God. That's the scope for them. Holy Spirit, here we are. Oh, beautiful. Here we are, Holy Spirit. We love your leadership, Jesus. Holy Spirit, I ask you to mark my words. This is a night we're setting our heart in a new light. You can do it in your chair. You don't have to come forward to do that. This is something we do over and over. We reset our heart. Just keep me steady. Keep me steady. Paul said, I press in for the crown, for the prize. I press on. I set my heart. Lord, I don't care what anyone else is doing. I'm going all the way to you. I set my days on you. All of my heart, Lord, you're worthy. Holy Spirit. Here we are, Lord. We are yours for all the days of our life. Just have a look. We just want you. Instructions. Turn to do this different. Just tonight, say, okay, Lord. That's my first step. I'm going to obey those little impressions. I'm talking lifestyle impressions. This relationship isn't right. This activity, it's got death in it. It's the wrong thing. No matter who's convincing you, it's wrong. All over the room, just talk to the Lord. Say, okay, Lord. I want to hear your whisper, Lord. I say yes to your whisper, Lord. There's so much more I have the Lord says for you. There's so much more. There's so much more I have for you. I have so much more for you. Yes, you are free. Things I have for you. Yes, you are free. Holy Spirit, we invite your presence. All over this room, we ask you, Lord. Release a wave of your presence in your spirit, even now we ask. Tonight, right now, we ask, Lord. Lord, we believe you for your inspiration. Right now, tonight, the fire of the Holy Spirit. Set your fire. Release the fire of the Holy Spirit in this room right now. Release the fire right now in this room, Lord. Come and touch hearts. Come and touch hands right now by your fire. Touch the Lord. I can't contain it. I can't control it.