SPEAKER_00: You are listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk.
SPEAKER_00: Mentioned tonight.
SPEAKER_00: How many in here are parents of teens that are at camp right now?
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
SPEAKER_00: You know, um, I prayed the prayer, the salvation prayer a couple of times as a child, and I don't ever want to discount that at all.
SPEAKER_00: But when I was 16 at a church camp in Red Lodge, uh Montana, close to Deer Lodge, where you know Pastor Miller's family is from, that is really where I did business with God on a hardwood floor at a bench and just gave my heart to Christ at age 16.
SPEAKER_00: And the next year I got baptized in a cold Montana mountain stream, and it wasn't even deep enough to immerse, so I had to take care of that later.
SPEAKER_00: We got I got that taken care of uh in Israel when we went over there.
SPEAKER_00: But um I remember church camp was the highlight of the year.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what the hardest week was?
SPEAKER_00: The week after.
SPEAKER_00: So that's why I appreciate Bryce what you said about encouraging those teens and parents do talk to your kids, and it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: You're on the mountaintop, and then you come back down to that valley, and all of a sudden you've got your parents again and your siblings, and you're getting ready for school, and now you've got to live in the world again.
SPEAKER_00: You've been surrounded by a bunch of Christian young people, and now you've got to come and live in reality.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a tough week.
SPEAKER_00: So don't stop praying for those kids next week.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's really lift them.
SPEAKER_00: And parents, I encourage you, if you're not doing a family altar at home, if you're not doing family devotions, this would be a great time to start when they come home.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when our boys were growing up, we used to do what was called a wisdom search.
SPEAKER_00: We'd get up in the morning and we would do the proverb of the day, 31 Proverbs, we do the proverb of the day.
SPEAKER_00: And we contrast uh uh wise and foolish and good and evil, and we just went through all the different things that you know were just contained in the book of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: But it's, you know, those they they need you at home to instill that.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Janine and I, uh our children are all grown up and gone out of the house, but we still right now we're going through uh a devotional book every night ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We still do have you know family devotions at home.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00: The the pastor, the teacher that actually led me to Christ at a Red Lodge Youth Camp actually ended up being my Old Testament teacher at uh uh Bartlesville Wesleyan College in Oklahoma.
SPEAKER_00: And there were a lot of great things that happened at that school.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh at the time when I graduated from Laramie High School, 1977, I could have gone to University of Wyoming for$351 a semester.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, it was, you know, but my pastor said, just go for one year, go for one year to this school.
SPEAKER_00: And so I finally, it took me to like a couple of weeks before school to make that decision.
SPEAKER_00: There was one dorm room left, and I got it.
SPEAKER_00: On the second day of freshman orientation, I met this really attractive young lady, and uh yeah, so it was actually a very one of the best moves I I ever made.
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, it's kind of funny for her, though.
SPEAKER_00: Well, not so funny for her, but I showed up with my Wyoming driver's um Wyoming license plates.
SPEAKER_00: My I have a an El Camino, the cowboy Cadillac, and she loved horses.
SPEAKER_00: She thought she was getting a Wyoming cowboy.
SPEAKER_00: She got a fan of the Wyoming Cowboys, so yeah, poor thing.
SPEAKER_00: So uh anyhow, her family all thinks I've duped her several times.
SPEAKER_00: So you know, at that first year at Bartlesville, uh in the Sunday school class there, we had a Sunday school lesson done by Francis Schaefer.
SPEAKER_00: It was a video series.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody ever heard of Francis Schaefer?
SPEAKER_00: He is a tremendous, I was just reading some things about him today.
SPEAKER_00: That guy was he was right on, but he did a series called How Then Should We Live?
SPEAKER_00: And that question has just stuck with me all of these years.
SPEAKER_00: When I hear a teaching, when I am confronted with the truth or whatever, how then should I live?
SPEAKER_00: Is this going to change the way I live?
SPEAKER_00: And that should be a question we ask ourselves really every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: You know, is it just are we just coming for knowledge or are we really coming for a life change?
SPEAKER_00: How then, you know, should we should we live?
SPEAKER_00: And that has just kind of started me.
SPEAKER_00: I feel like um one of the ways God um I guess the impetus he gives me, or what I like to, I like to find practical teaching.
SPEAKER_00: That to me is just good practical teaching.
SPEAKER_00: How then should I live?
SPEAKER_00: So I look for books, and uh, if you'd put the first slide up.
SPEAKER_00: So this is uh this is my read of the year this year.
SPEAKER_00: This is it's called the Reward Iffic Life, and that's a picture of uh uh the author and I, that's Pastor Cooper.
SPEAKER_00: He was on staff at my uh son's church in uh in Orlando, Florida, and I got to go down and see him this year, but um, he is now just writing and just trying to reach as many people as he can.
SPEAKER_00: But this is just such a good practical book.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about some of the things that are that are in this book tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Um he uh he did give me permission to use his material just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: But I titled this, and this is one of his chapter titles.
SPEAKER_00: It's called Checkers or Chess.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Have you been playing the wrong game?
SPEAKER_00: Checkers.
SPEAKER_00: Each piece looks the same, each piece moves the same way.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get captured and you and you and you get to the other side.
SPEAKER_00: The goal is survival and basic forward movement.
SPEAKER_00: No specialized roles, no moves that carry more weight than others.
SPEAKER_00: Is this how you picture the Christian life?
SPEAKER_00: Show up, give, serve, don't sin too badly, make it to the end, every believer doing the same thing, aiming for the same general outcome, with no real sense that some moves carry more eternal weight than others.
SPEAKER_00: But God didn't design a checkerboard way of living for his people to get to heaven or receive his rewards.
SPEAKER_00: He designed chess.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a direct quote from Pastor Coop's book.
SPEAKER_00: He likes to be called Coop.
SPEAKER_00: He's a great teacher.
SPEAKER_00: So we look at chess.
SPEAKER_00: A chess is a board where different pieces have different roles, different ranges of movement, different levels of strategic importance.
SPEAKER_00: A board where every move matters, where the same square can mean different things depending on what piece is standing on it and what is at stake in the position.
SPEAKER_00: It's a game, let's see if we can.
SPEAKER_00: Can we advance that for me?
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: A game where you can't play well without understanding what each piece is for, what it can do, and what the board is building toward.
SPEAKER_00: Chess isn't harder than checkers because it's more complicated for the sake of it.
SPEAKER_00: It's more complicated because it's real.
SPEAKER_00: It reflects the actual weight and consequences of choices being made.
SPEAKER_00: This is the board that God has set up in our Christian walk.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture describes a Christian life with real differentiation built into it.
SPEAKER_00: We all have different gifts, different abilities, different callings, different levels of faithfulness, and different rewards attached to each.
SPEAKER_00: God designed a system where what you do with what you are given produces specific, different, eternal results.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote about it, Jesus described it in parable after parable.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament is full of the language of competition, of training, of running to win, of building with materials that will either survive fire or burn up.
SPEAKER_00: None of that is checkers' language, it is chess language.
SPEAKER_00: It's the language of a game where your moves have real lasting consequences and where understanding the rules changes everything about how you play.
SPEAKER_00: The Checker's illusion is the belief that all believers are essentially doing the same thing, headed toward the same outcome, and the quality and intentionality of your daily faithfulness doesn't produce meaningfully different results.
SPEAKER_00: It's the quiet assumption that once you're saved, the details of how we live don't carry much weight, that God grades on a curve.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I read that, I thought to myself, I had a chemistry prof at Bartles Wesley in College that I he was my favorite teacher, and this is what he said to us on the first day of class.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't believe in the bell curve.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Every one of you is capable of getting an A.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, This is a hard class.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I will lecture and give you everything you need to know.
SPEAKER_00: You read and do your work and study hard.
SPEAKER_00: I will give you a difficult but fair exam, and every one of you can get an A.
SPEAKER_00: And I've, you know, that just that I thought, what a great teacher, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And I went from that to an organic teacher who his claim to fame was he flunked half his class, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So I had the bad the worst, the best and the worst in chemistry.
SPEAKER_00: So he does that.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't grade on a curve, and that everyone who makes it through the front door ends up in roughly the same place on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: That assumption feels humble.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds inclusive, and it has done enormous damage to the spiritual ambition of millions of sincere believers who stop playing with intention because no one told them the moves matter, but they do matter enormously.
SPEAKER_00: Turn in your Bibles to Luke 19.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read verses eleven to twenty-seven.
SPEAKER_00: And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
SPEAKER_00: And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
SPEAKER_00: But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us.
SPEAKER_00: And it came to pass that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, that he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
SPEAKER_00: Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
SPEAKER_00: And he said unto him, Well, thou good and thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful unto very little, have thou authority over ten cities.
SPEAKER_00: And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.
SPEAKER_00: And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.
SPEAKER_00: And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin.
SPEAKER_00: For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man.
SPEAKER_00: Thou takest up that thou laidest not down, and reapest thou that thou didst not sow.
SPEAKER_00: And he said unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.
SPEAKER_00: Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I had laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow.
SPEAKER_00: Wherefore then gave us not thou my money into the bank, that at mine coming I might have required mine own with usury.
SPEAKER_00: And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten.
SPEAKER_00: And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like, hey, that isn't fair, right?
SPEAKER_00: The sense of our God's ways are not our ways, are they?
SPEAKER_00: For I say unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be given, and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.
SPEAKER_00: But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before me.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the I would encourage you to go this week to Matthew twenty-five and read the parable of the talents to go along with this.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, God, a lot of people believe that servant who who hid the talent or hid the pound in this case, was an unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: But if you look at it, God calls him servants and he gives them a gift.
SPEAKER_00: He does not give, he does not call an unbeliever a servant, and he doesn't give an unbeliever a gift.
SPEAKER_00: But look at the language, it's some of the most severe language that Christ ever uses in the New Testament when he talks about the judgment that comes from people who do not use what he's given them.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not a checker story, it's a chess story.
SPEAKER_00: Different moves produce different outcomes, different faithfulness produced different rewards.
SPEAKER_00: The master did not average everyone out and give them the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: He rewarded each one according to what they had done with what they were given.
SPEAKER_00: This is the game each one of us are in, but the checker's illusion keeps us from seeing it.
SPEAKER_00: You play defensively, focused on not losing, not losing rather than on building something.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps your faith in a survival mode, aimed at the minimum rather than the maximum, and it robs you of the specific scripture-backed motivation that God designed to fuel a life of genuine, daily, intentional faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: So this week I just encourage you, read Luke 19, 11 to 27 slowly in one sitting.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to the language the Master uses when he returns.
SPEAKER_00: See the difference between what each faithful servant is given and what the unfaithful one loses.
SPEAKER_00: Then ask yourself honestly, which servant's posture describes my faith life?
SPEAKER_00: Have I been multiplying what I've been given, or have I been burying it in the ground and calling that safety?
SPEAKER_00: The burying servant thought he was being responsible, but he was actually making the most dangerous move he could ever make.
SPEAKER_00: So now turn to 1 Corinthians 3.
SPEAKER_00: And let's look at a passage there.
SPEAKER_00: So we start in verse 10, go through 15.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
SPEAKER_00: But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
SPEAKER_00: For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that is such an important verse.
SPEAKER_00: When you're talking to people of different belief systems, take them to the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: The foundation is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, Russell and I have been talking to a young man in jail that's uh he's 19, has been schooled very good, and as a Mormon, how to talk to Christians.
SPEAKER_00: But we just keep taking him back to the other night, it was uh the foundation is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But what about works?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're gonna talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're saved unto good works, but this is all that saves us is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The foundation is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And but they meld the two together so it's like they're just welded together.
SPEAKER_00: And to get them to break that up is a very tough thing to do.
SPEAKER_00: So repeat that verse, it's such a key verse, for other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
SPEAKER_00: If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
SPEAKER_00: God wants to reward his kids.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is not a selfish thing to want rewards in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It is something that God is calling all of us to.
SPEAKER_00: He wants all of us to seek rewards.
SPEAKER_00: If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be saved just so as by fire.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: I want to I this is the goal of this, and what I'm trying to encourage you tonight is God wants to reward us.
SPEAKER_00: He wants he wants us to be active in his kingdom work.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to reward his kids, and he loves doing it.
SPEAKER_00: So we see, you know, I just put these pictures, just the, you know, and a lot of the what we're talking about, I was sitting there thinking how much this dovetails with what Pastor Miller's been preaching about in 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: So many things.
SPEAKER_00: He talked about, what did he talk about?
SPEAKER_00: The the solid rock of Christ, I think just a couple of weeks ago, and the foundation of our faith, the solid rock of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you look at how important a foundation, you know, is in a building.
SPEAKER_00: And Christ talked about it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't build on the sand, build on the rock.
SPEAKER_00: Importance, the foundation, the foundation is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So let's compare these two types of faith: earning mode faith versus survival mode faith.
SPEAKER_00: Playing by the right rules.
SPEAKER_00: There are two fundamentally different ways to live the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Survival mode faith is the most common version of Christianity in the Western world today.
SPEAKER_00: It's built around a single question: what do I need to avoid?
SPEAKER_00: It's defensive by nature.
SPEAKER_00: The goal is to not sin too much, not miss too many Sundays, not fall too far behind in your giving, not disappoint God too badly.
SPEAKER_00: Success is measured by absence of failure.
SPEAKER_00: We're always asking, am I still okay?
SPEAKER_00: rather than what am I building?
SPEAKER_00: The faith of someone already in the boat and just trying not to fall out, rather than someone who is rowing hard towards something specific on the horizon.
SPEAKER_00: Most don't even realize they're even stuck in this mode.
SPEAKER_00: The measuring stick for a good week spiritually has been mostly been about what didn't happen, what sins weren't committed, what obligations weren't missed.
SPEAKER_00: And none of that is completely wrong.
SPEAKER_00: It's a radically incomplete picture of what the New Testament calls believers to do.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at Earning Mode Faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's built on a completely different question.
SPEAKER_00: What can I build today that has eternal value?
SPEAKER_00: It is offensive by nature, and I thought I'd better put in there not that type of offensive.
SPEAKER_00: Going on the offense, okay.
SPEAKER_00: So I just saw my wife look.
SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It is forward looking, eyes fixed on the finish line rather than glancing at the obstacles behind.
SPEAKER_00: It is the faith of someone who knows their salvation is secure and is now asking what they want to be holding when they stand before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is not asking, Am I still saved?
SPEAKER_00: Because that question has already been settled.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to repeat that line.
SPEAKER_00: Asking what they want to be holding when they stand before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: All that Christ has done for us, do we want to show up to heaven empty-handed, having done nothing for him?
SPEAKER_00: That's that say that's that man so saved as by fire.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing to give.
SPEAKER_00: No, nothing, nothing has been built there.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, have you run into people that are always worried about their salvation?
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: They're living in survival mode faith.
SPEAKER_00: They're just constantly, am I, I don't know if I'm really saved.
SPEAKER_00: Am I I did this, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I've I've seen a lot of those people.
SPEAKER_00: We see a lot of them in jail.
SPEAKER_00: We see a lot in jail ministry, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_00: So it's asking instead, what am I doing with the life I've been given?
SPEAKER_00: It's running towards something specific with the awareness that every faithful choice is a move on the chessboard that has real, differentiated, eternal consequences.
SPEAKER_00: Survival mode faith produces a believer who's reactive, they're exhausted, and they're fundamentally directionless directionless.
SPEAKER_00: Directionlessness, it should say.
SPEAKER_00: They're working hard, but not building toward anything specific.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful, but not sure why.
SPEAKER_00: They give because they should, they serve because they should, they endure because they have to.
SPEAKER_00: And when the hard seasons come, this type of faith has little to offer them beyond just hold on.
SPEAKER_00: There's no specific scripture-backed reason to endure, there is no named reward waiting on the other side of the trial.
SPEAKER_00: There's just a vague hope that God will eventually make things easier.
SPEAKER_00: Contrast that with earning mode faith, it transforms the hard seasons completely.
SPEAKER_00: When you know, and this is what 1 Peter is about, 1 Peter is about in a group of saints that are suffering, they've got to endure to the end.
SPEAKER_00: And when you know that your endurance under trial is directly connected to something, and in this case the crown of life, the trial doesn't stop being hard, but it stops being meaningless.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look through the scriptures, and we're going to just mention the others in a minute, but there are three crowns mentioned that we can get.
SPEAKER_00: There's the crown of life, there's the crown of victory, and there's the crown of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And God wants to award those to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: For pastors, there's another one, pastors and elders, the crown of glory.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to pray that our our pastor, our pastor is well on his way, I believe.
SPEAKER_00: So but anyhow, when you have the crown of life, your trial doesn't stop being hard, but when you know you're working towards something, in James, uh, it talks about that in James 1.12.
SPEAKER_00: If you in Romans, you persevere to the end, I will give you the crown of life.
SPEAKER_00: So write those verses down.
SPEAKER_00: Look those up this week.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, just a plug in men's prayer breakfast this this Saturday, I'm gonna break down and we're gonna talk about the crown of life.
SPEAKER_00: So I encourage all you men, come to come to prayer breakfast if you haven't been one.
SPEAKER_00: We have a good time, we have a great breakfast, we have a good time, we try to have a good time of study, I do as good as I can, and then we have a time of of uh prayer and fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: And the best part is we get to set up chairs afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So when you know that private discipline, the daily unglamorous work of bringing your flesh under the Spirit's control, is connected to the crown of victory, the discipline stops feeling like punishment and starts feeling more like training.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I've had, when you know, we all struggle with our thought life.
SPEAKER_00: And this has been one of my strategies lately.
SPEAKER_00: When one of those thoughts comes, I throw a crown over that thought.
SPEAKER_00: What do I want here?
SPEAKER_00: I want to build, I want to build with something.
SPEAKER_00: I want the crown of life.
SPEAKER_00: I want that crown of victory.
SPEAKER_00: I want that crown of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just one of the, you know, we have to, you know, Satan is so good at bringing those things along when we're tired, when we're weak, and this is great to have a this we're on the offensive here.
SPEAKER_00: When you know that living with genuine, active anticipation of Christ's return shapes your daily choices toward the crown of righteousness in 2 Timothy 4.8.
SPEAKER_00: Monday morning looks different.
SPEAKER_00: Tuesday afternoon looks different.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just enduring, you're going for a crown.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, God, what can I, how what can I get out of this crown?
SPEAKER_00: The ordinary moments that survival mode faith would dismiss as spiritually invisible become in earning mode faith the primary building site for your eternal reward.
SPEAKER_00: Eternal earning mode faith gives weight to the moments that survival mode faith treats as ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: So to make a shift, let's see, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: The shift from survival mode to earning mode doesn't require a dramatic spiritual experience or a personality overhaul.
SPEAKER_00: It requires a change in the questions you're asking every day.
SPEAKER_00: Survival mode asks, did I mess up today?
SPEAKER_00: Earning mode asks, what did I build today?
SPEAKER_00: Survival mode ends the day with a review of failures.
SPEAKER_00: Earning mode faith ends the day with a review of faithful moments, the small choices that nobody saw, the private disciplines that nobody applauded, the moments of genuine Christ-likeness that will still be standing when the fire comes.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just uh just encourage one of the things that uh that he challenged us with in the book that I've been trying to do, he said, when you read, you know, a lot of us have been Christians for a long time, some are some are not, but those of us that have, I encourage all of you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: But when you read Scripture, ask yourself the question before you read, say, what reward is spoken of in this in this passage?
SPEAKER_00: It'll wake you up, it'll make you read some of those old dry passages that you might have been reading.
SPEAKER_00: I'm reading and I was reading in Kings, and I thought, hmm, look what Josiah did.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the reward Josiah's going to get for different things that he, you know, he brought the law.
SPEAKER_00: He did, look at the things he did.
SPEAKER_00: He was after a reward, you know, and it's and it just is a new way to challenge you to read your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Just ask yourself, what reward is pictured in this passage of Scripture?
SPEAKER_00: The foundation underneath all of this is critical to understand.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is not about earning your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That conversation is closed.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is a gift received by grace through faith, and nothing you do adds to it or makes it more secure.
SPEAKER_00: This is about what happens inside the life of a person who is already saved.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation and rewards are two separate things.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is a gift, rewards are earned.
SPEAKER_00: Confusing them creates enormous problems in both directions.
SPEAKER_00: It either makes people think they have to earn their way to God, and we see that a lot, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Works-based.
SPEAKER_00: Or it makes people think that since salvation is by grace, what they do with their lives doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: And neither is true, is it?
SPEAKER_00: And we see this a lot again, you know, those are in here that do jail ministry work, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I talked with a guy the other night.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, I'm a Christian, but I'm not going to tell you I'm not going to use drugs again.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'll just tell you right now, you're going to use drugs again.
SPEAKER_00: If that's the if that's the way you're going into this, rather than what am I going to, my body is a temple.
SPEAKER_00: Why would I defile the temple of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Why would I, why would I live that way?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you know?
SPEAKER_00: They see the way they're thinking is, you know, there's, I I can't, I can't beat this.
SPEAKER_00: And we can, and that's what we need to, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Not only, I hope, is this a help to you, but I hope it's a help to other people that you come come across and meet that are that are struggling with these things.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people out there living in survival mode faith.
SPEAKER_00: Your Monday through Saturday is a building sight.
SPEAKER_00: Every single day.
SPEAKER_00: The way you treat your spouse when you're tired and frustrated, the way you handle a situ Janine didn't ask me to put that in there, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: So, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was that was that was in the text.
SPEAKER_00: So the way you handle a situation at work where the honest choice costs you something, the way you stand, you stay in prayer during a season when God feels distant and nothing seems to be happening.
SPEAKER_00: Any anybody ever been there?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: The way you respond to the person who cannot pay you back, the way you endure a hard season without walking away from God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we realize how many people out there are bitter against God for things that have happened in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: They're carrying a bitterness against God, and we need to help them realize that and help them understand that.
SPEAKER_00: That's why this study in 1 Peter, the pastor, is doing, is just, I think, is just going to be so good because so many of those things are just dealt with.
SPEAKER_00: And every week he gives us new material on that.
SPEAKER_00: All of this is building material.
SPEAKER_00: Everything we do is building material.
SPEAKER_00: And you think about it, every day, all the choices, the things we do, we are building, hopefully on the foundation of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But what are we building?
SPEAKER_00: You're building either gold, silver, precious jewels, or wood, hay, and stubble.
SPEAKER_00: The difference is your motivation underneath it and the faithfulness with which it is carried out.
SPEAKER_00: God sees the building site and every single piece of building material you lay down, and he has promised to give to the believer who builds faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: So, steps to take to shift earny mode book.
SPEAKER_00: And I like this book that Pastor Cooper has written.
SPEAKER_00: Every chapter he gives, here are steps to take.
SPEAKER_00: Here's things you can do to, you know, it's just not just a good luck, welcome.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Here are steps you can take to start building this into your life.
SPEAKER_00: I really like it.
SPEAKER_00: But it says, for the next seven mornings, ask yourself one question out loud.
SPEAKER_00: What can I build today that has eternal value?
SPEAKER_00: Not what do I need to avoid today?
SPEAKER_00: Not how can I be a better person today, but look for the ordinary moments where you can build something that has eternal value.
SPEAKER_00: And then I want you to go back to 1 Corinthians 3, 10 through 15 and read it carefully, once a day for the next three days.
SPEAKER_00: Read it like Paul is describing your life specifically.
SPEAKER_00: Picture the foundation, which is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Picture the materials you're using in the building going up.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the visible ones, but the ones no one sees.
SPEAKER_00: Then ask, what's the quality of what I've been building?
SPEAKER_00: And this is not to produce guilt.
SPEAKER_00: This is not to make us feel guilty, but it's to produce clarity in our lives, to help us to understand what this is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Here's another project.
SPEAKER_00: Write down the name of one person in your life right now, who you've been treating as a side character in your story rather than someone God has placed in your path for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: Now, with no one knowing, show up for them in a way that is genuinely costly to you, something that requires self-sacrifice rather than just convenience.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, what did Christ say in Matthew 6?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus talks a lot.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you do these things for people to see you, you've already got your reward.
SPEAKER_00: Do things where nobody else sees you.
SPEAKER_00: Do something, you know, do something out of the blue, you know, that nobody would expect, and anonymously.
SPEAKER_00: And that's those are the things that God says.
SPEAKER_00: I love to reward things like that.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, if we just do it for the praise of men, if our motive is for that, you know, we already have the reward.
SPEAKER_00: So action steps are important.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
SPEAKER_00: Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
SPEAKER_00: Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well, the devils also believe and tremble.
SPEAKER_00: But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
SPEAKER_00: Serious verse, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And then what does it say?
SPEAKER_00: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus and to good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why Marussell and I have been trying to help this Mormon young man see.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we are created for this, but that doesn't save us.
SPEAKER_00: This is the only thing that saves us, but this is what we're supposed to do afterwards.
SPEAKER_00: And for them it's a very hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: That's been pounded into them the other way.
SPEAKER_00: And Mormons are not the only ones.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of others out there the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Any other system, belief system that you'll find other than Christianity, you'll find is basically it's works-based.
SPEAKER_00: So this is in- I thought this was interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, um, if we could just see God work, you know, then we're our faith would be strengthened, right?
SPEAKER_00: Show us a sign, they said.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so let's look at five miraculous periods in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Creation.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest display of the miraculous the world will ever know.
SPEAKER_00: Calling things that do not exist into reality.
SPEAKER_00: And every day people all over the world step out and say, wow, what an amazing God we have, right?
SPEAKER_00: No! They they say, Oh, look what evolution did, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, what is happening more and more is more and more Christians and churches are trying to marry evolution with God's creative ability.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to give God a break.
SPEAKER_00: Well, God needed millions of years, and we don't want to look silly to the scientific community, and we don't want, yeah, uh, you know, it's in anyhow, it's just uh, you know, creation should be the amaz the most amazing thing ever.
SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't even need to go further.
SPEAKER_00: Moses and the Exodus, think of the children of Israel, how they were provided for 40 years.
SPEAKER_00: Food, water, air conditioning, the cloud by day, heat, the fire by night, right?
SPEAKER_00: Look at all that God did.
SPEAKER_00: Protection, food, everything.
SPEAKER_00: And look at the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: They followed him faithfully forever, didn't they?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: After seeing all this, right?
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't even go into the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: Those ten spies talked them out of going in and taking their inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: I read that just the other day.
SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's just uh so we see prophets, Elijah and Elisha, the most supernatural displays of God's power the people could have ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: We see Daniel and the Hebrew boys, all that happened there.
SPEAKER_00: And then the ultimate, the ministry of Jesus, and the lives of the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: Over 36 miracles.
SPEAKER_00: He raises the dead, he feeds the multitudes, demons are cast out.
SPEAKER_00: He can think of all the things that people saw him do, and that increased their faith, didn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And God gained him a large following.
SPEAKER_00: One of his own disciples even turned away and never even saw it.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it amazing?
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's uh people uh they want to see a sign.
SPEAKER_00: It's there if they want to look for it.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews reminds us, but without faith it is impossible to please him.
SPEAKER_00: For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder.
SPEAKER_00: Say that with me, church.
SPEAKER_00: Rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
SPEAKER_00: So we're back to our beginning, the checker's board.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to keep playing a game where moves don't really matter and everyone ends up in the same place?
SPEAKER_00: The board God has designed for you is more specific, more consequential, and far more connected to the details of your ordinary life than that.
SPEAKER_00: Every move matters, every faithful choice has weight.
SPEAKER_00: And the game you are in has rewards attached to it that God Himself described, promised, and is holding for you right now.
SPEAKER_00: All the promises in Christ Jesus are yea, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: He is not broken one.
SPEAKER_00: The only question is whether you're going to keep playing checkers or start playing the game you're designed for.
SPEAKER_00: I like this quote by D.L.
SPEAKER_00: Moody.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures were not given to increase our knowledge, but they were given to change our lives.
SPEAKER_00: They were given to change our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully, as you look through all these things, as you go back through the day or you know, this week, I hope you will look at that.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you ask yourself as you read your word, what rewards does God have in this passage of scripture for me today?
SPEAKER_00: But and do it, but you know, but do a fair analysis of yourself too.
SPEAKER_00: When you look back on your day, you know, and Pastor Cooper, he has a lot, he says you need to do like an every Sunday night, look at what did I build this past week?
SPEAKER_00: And a quarterly, what did I build?
SPEAKER_00: And he and the question is, do you see a stack of wood or do you see some gold sitting there?
SPEAKER_00: And what did we read in Peter last week?
SPEAKER_00: What'd Pastor talk about?
SPEAKER_00: More precious than gold.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Pastor talked about gold in that in that passage in Peter.
SPEAKER_00: So I think this is just, you know, it's always good just to reflect.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at three scripture passages, you know, as far as the parables of the pounds and the talents.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at um the building on the foundation, what we build with, and we've looked at faith without works is dead.
SPEAKER_00: So I think it just I would just ask every every head bowed, every eye closed, and this is just a great time to ask, uh, ask some questions.
SPEAKER_00: Are you truly using the gifts, the abilities, the talents that God has given you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you actively pursuing rewards?
SPEAKER_00: And for anybody in here tonight that is, as uh as uh Bryce mentioned, uh if you're living the life, if you're trying to live this life without having the foundation of Christ, you're it's you're not gonna be successful.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to start with the foundation of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If there's anybody here who has never come to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, tonight could be that night, and I'd be happy to talk with you.
SPEAKER_00: We have other men and women here that would do the same.
SPEAKER_00: But believer, are you stacking wood or are you building with gold?
SPEAKER_00: And think about are you demonstrating your faith by the works that you're doing?
SPEAKER_00: So just take a minute and just talk to the Lord about it before we close.