Our choices and decisions made here on earth determine our rewards in heaven and shape our character.
John Follette emphasizes the significance of the choices and decisions we make in shaping our character and determining our future in the spiritual realm. He highlights that our actions and surrender in this life have a direct impact on what we will experience in the afterlife, stressing the importance of living faithfully and making righteous decisions now. Follette challenges the misconception that heaven will be a place of instant reward, explaining that the true reward lies in the growth of qualities like faithfulness that we cultivate here, projecting them onto a higher plane in the future.
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We are standing here, and we are the sum total of all the choices and decisions we have made in our lives. They have all registered, and this, is the composition of our character. We live in our wills.
We forget, when speaking about heaven, that so many of the things which are for us in the ages yet to come, after this life has been lived, and we as a conscious entity,-- a spirit released from the body, and moving in the new resurrection body -- in a new spiritual realm, most of the things that we have on that other shore --over there in the ages -- are DETERMINED HERE.
Now don't think that we can just live a Christian life as happy as bumble bees, and, when we go to heaven, everything is going to be so wonderful, l am sorry to disillusion some people. It isn't going to be that way! Right here and now, we are making the derisions; the choices; the surrenders; the outpourings of life. We are doing that HERE, and THAT. WILL DETERMINE what we will have over there. That is not built up all of a sudden over there; not at all. We determine all that right here and now.
Life is too short for us to put into manifestation much that we would choose. Even with a good choice, life is too short for it. But I tell you one thing, life is long enough so that when Truth is presented, and there is an occasion for us to make a decision; or a surrender; or die a death; or accept a Truth -- right here is where we do it, but the fruitage -- the real fruitage -- of it, won't always be seen here. We aren't here long enough; the real fruitage will be projected in the things yet to come.
Remember when Jesus was talking about the talents? He said the same thing to all three men; (two were faithful and one wasn't) He said, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things ... I will now give you a gold house to live in, a pair of wings to fly with, and also an harp!" No, all of those things hadn't anything to do with what He was talking about. He said, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things." What was the reward? A gold crown? An harp? No, the reward was the lifting up of a quality of faithfulness, which the two men earned her~, and projecting it Upon a new plane over there -- multiplied!
The reward was not the material things which most hymn writers put in singing books. The reward for those men was the faithfulness which they had acquired HERE, multiplied and projected upon a new level; on a new plane. Jesus Said "Thou hast been faithful over a few things -- you will also now be faithful over many things."
People think that, when we die, God is going to give us all presents; that He is going around with a big clothes basket full of crowns and sawing, Here's a crown ... and I won't give you any, you missed chapel twice.. ?' He doesn't do any such fantastic things that in the world. CROWNS ARE WON! We EARN THEM -- they are not souvenirs. Crowns are symbolic of certain authority and power which we merit and earn while we are here. It is here that we make our decisions, and certain surrenders. We have to die to a lot of things that nearly kill us -- they SHOULD kill Us! The trouble is we don't die. We say, "It nearly killed me." It is supposed to kill us ... so we will learn.
Sermon Outline
- We are the sum total of our choices and decisions
- Heavenly rewards are determined here
- Life is short, but decisions have eternal consequences
- Choices and decisions shape our character
- We live in our wills
- Choices and decisions determine our future
- Faithfulness is rewarded in heaven
- We must make choices and decisions now
- The fruit of our decisions will be seen in eternity
Key Quotes
“We determine all that right here and now.” — John Follette
“CROWNS ARE WON! We EARN THEM -- they are not souvenirs.” — John Follette
“It is here that we make our decisions, and certain surrenders.” — John Follette
Application Points
- We must make choices and decisions now that will determine our future and shape our character.
- Faithfulness is rewarded in heaven, and we earn crowns by making decisions and surrenders here on earth.
- We must die to our old selves and surrender to God's will in order to grow and be transformed.
