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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, good morning, everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats. As you find your seat, grab a songbook. Turn to song number 43. Song number 43, We're Marching to Zion. Let's all stand together for this first song, if you're able. ["We're Marching to Zion"] Song number 43, We're Marching to Zion. All together, nice and strong on that first verse. ["We're Marching to Zion"] ["We're Marching to Zion"] ["We're Marching to Zion"] ["We're Marching to Zion"] ["Beautiful, beautiful Zion"] ["We're Marching upward to Zion"] ["The beautiful city of God"] ["Let those refused to sing who never knew are God"] ["But children of the heavenly King"] ["But children of the heavenly King"] ["They speak their joys abroad"] ["They speak their joys abroad"] ["We're Marching to Zion"] ["Beautiful, beautiful Zion"] ["We're Marching upward to Zion"] ["The beautiful city of God"] ["The hill of Zion"] ["Yields a thousand sacred sweets"] ["Before we reach the heavenly hills"] ["Before we reach the heavenly hills"] ["Or walk the golden streets"] ["Or walk the golden streets"] ["We're Marching to Zion"] ["Beautiful, beautiful Zion"] ["We're Marching upward to Zion"] ["The beautiful city of God"] ["Let those refused to sing who never knew are God"] ["We're Marching upward to Zion"] Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! All right! All right! All right! All right! All right! All right! All right! All right! All right! All right! Song number 401, Set My Soul Afire. All together nice and strong on that first verse. Set my soul afar, Lord, for Thy holy Word. Burn it deep within me, let Your voice be heard. Millions grow in darkness in this day and hour. I will be Your witness, fill me with Thy power. Set my soul afar, Lord, set my soul afar. Make my life a witness of Thy saving power. Millions grow in darkness waiting for Thy Word. Set my soul afar, Lord, set my soul afar. Set my soul afar, Lord, for the lost in sin. Give to me a passion as I seek to win. Help me not to falter, never let me fail. Fill me with Thy Spirit, let Thy will prevail. Set my soul afar, Lord, set my soul afar. Make my life a witness of Thy saving power. Millions grow in darkness waiting for Thy Word. Set my soul afar, Lord, set my soul afar. Set my soul afar, Lord, in my daily life. For too long I've wandered in this day of strife. Nothing else will matter but to live for Thee. I will be Your witness as You live in me. Set my soul afar, Lord, set my soul afar. Make my life a witness of Thy saving power. Millions grow in darkness waiting for Thy Word. Set my soul afar, Lord, set my soul afar. Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time, the ushers will come forward to receive the offering. You can turn your Bibles to Romans chapter four, Romans chapter number four. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Morning we're in Romans chapter number four. Romans chapter four and the Bible reads. What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath were of to glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the Lord not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described with the blessedness of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness without works saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh his blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircumcised. That it might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. And the father of circumcision, to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be of grace. To the end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee the father of many nations. Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he may have become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not of the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for ours also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him the raised of Jesus our Lord from the dead. It was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." Let's pray. Dear Lord God, just thank you again for this opportunity to be in your house, and just ask that you would bless Pastor Mahir with your Holy Spirit now as he preaches your word, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Romans chapter 4 this morning, and hold your place so we're gonna come back to that towards the end of the sermon, and if you can go with me if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter number 5, 2 Corinthians chapter number 5. The title of my sermon this morning is Serving Jesus Christ. Serving Jesus Christ. We as Christians should endeavor to serve the Lord all the days of our life, and I hope to inspire you this morning to serve Jesus Christ today, tomorrow, this month, this year, and from here on out. I have three points this morning about serving Jesus Christ. Point number one is gonna be the motive for serving Jesus Christ. Point number two is the manner for serving Jesus Christ, and point number three are the merits for serving Jesus Christ. The motive, the manner, and the merits. This morning, I wanna exhort you as a church to continue to serve Jesus Christ, or if you haven't started serving Christ, that you would begin today with the right motive, in the right manner, and for the right merits. Let's start off here talking about serving Jesus Christ with the right motive. Serving Jesus Christ with the right motive. What is the right motive to have when serving Jesus? Well, let me just say this, is that we serve Jesus Christ because we love Jesus Christ, and the wrong reason to serve Jesus Christ would be the reasons why a lot of churches who don't believe in the right salvation serve Jesus, and that's because they're afraid that they're gonna go to hell if they don't serve Jesus Christ. And quite frankly, that is a wrong motive for serving Jesus Christ, and people who labor and work for Jesus Christ, or in the name of Christ, doing it for salvation, it's not gonna mean anything when it comes to the judgment seat, the white throne judgment. It's actually gonna work against them, according to the Bible. And in fact, when you look at the example of the man in Matthew chapter 7 verse 22, when he talks, when he's before God, he's giving all the reasons why he should be given eternal life, he lists all the services that he did for God, right? He says that he cast out demons in his name, he prophesied in his name, and just in general did many wonderful works. Well, that didn't help him much, because Jesus tells him, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. That's the wrong reason to serve the Lord, is because you wanna earn salvation, you wanna earn eternal life. The right reason, as a Christian, someone who's saved, we serve God because of the fact that we love the Lord, okay? We don't serve God out of a fear of hell, we serve God because we love the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14, it says, For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. That's a wonderful phrase there in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, with the Apostle Paul stating here that it's God's love that constrains us, essentially to serve him, to be in the house of God, to win souls to Christ, to read our Bibles, essentially to encapsulate our lives with the service of God. It's just the love of Christ that constrains us to do so. It's not because we're afraid we're gonna go to hell, it's not because we're afraid, we're not sure about our salvation, it's because we have a love for the Lord. And you know what? Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments. So how does the Lord Jesus Christ interpret love for him? I'll tell you how, by you obeying the commandments of God. Obeying his commandments, obeying his word. He goes on to say, in chapter 14, stay there in 2 Corinthians, chapter 14 verse 21 says, He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Now here's the thing is that when it comes to loving the Lord, you know, a lot of it does have to do with emotion, right? You know, we have a great swelling joy of emotion and love for the Lord. And that's biblical because the Bible says to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength, right? So there should be some emotion involved, but let's just be honest here. Not all of us have an emotion to love God 100% of the time. And so when you don't feel that emotion of loving God, well, keep doing his commandments and God still interprets that as love. You're like, Oh man, I just feel like I don't love God. But hold on a second. Are you keeping the commandments of God? Well, yes, then according to God, you do love him, because that's how we've used your love for him. Now, obviously, we're going to have instances where we feel that emotion, where we feel that joy. And when we say, Yeah, I love the Lord, I can feel it in my heart. But let's just be quite honest here. There's instances throughout our lives where we don't feel that way. But we keep keeping his commandments, because God says that that's a manner in which we love him. We serve God, because we love him. Now, let me clarify something. And that is that this doesn't mean that if you experience a season where you lapse in your faith and your love for God, and for others that, you know, it doesn't mean you don't love Christ. You're like, Oh, man, I just don't feel that love for Christ right now. I don't love God right now. And so you know, therefore, I'm not going to serve God, because I don't love the Lord as I should, therefore, I'm not going to serve God. You know, we serve God, obviously, because we feel love for him. But you know, when that love wanes, we should just keep serving God until that desire returns. The worst thing you could do as a Christian is only serve God when you feel like serving God. And if people only serve God when they felt like serving God, they probably wouldn't serve God a whole lot. Because our emotions just, you know, fluctuate throughout the week, throughout the month. And the Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, who can know it? We all know that we go through seasons of carnality, maybe we're fleshly, and we don't feel as spiritual as we did yesteryear, but at the end of the day, we should keep serving God until the desire returns. And this is what I believe the Bible means. When the Apostle Paul says in First Corinthians chapter nine, that I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. What is he referring to there? He's referring to the fact that we serve God with our body, okay, our members. And he's saying there that when he's preaching the Word of God, lest he should become a castaway, he's going to continue to serve God with his body, bringing his body into subjection, making his body go to church, making his body read the Bible, making his body preach the gospel, making his body and the members of his body do what it's supposed to do. And guess what? The desire will eventually return to serve the Lord once again. Let me read to you from Romans chapter six. Hold your place there in Second Corinthians and go to Proverbs chapter sixteen. Proverbs chapter sixteen, Romans chapter six verse nineteen says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. What is Romans six saying? Romans six is essentially telling us or teaching us that God wants us to subject the members of our body to serve the Lord. And just as your members were subjected to serve sin, to serve uncleanness, to serve iniquity, God says you should also put in that same effort to serve the Lord with your body. And, you know, we all go through seasons where we just don't feel like doing what we're supposed to be doing. We all go through seasons where we don't really feel like loving God and serving God. But here's the key, folks, make your body do it anyways. Make your body do what it's supposed to do, keep the commandments of God, even when you don't feel like doing it. You know, a lot of times Christians fail in their Bible reading because they don't read their Bibles because they don't feel like it. They're just like, oh, I just don't feel like, you know, I just, I'm just not in the Spirit today. Yeah, but what'll get you in the Spirit is actually reading the Bible, though. So it's kind of like, you know, this vicious cycle of, well, I'm not going to read the Bible that will get me in the Spirit because I'm not feeling in the Spirit. Well, that's why you need to read the Bible to get back in the Spirit. And so it's important for us as Christians to mature, you know, as believers, recognizing that there's instances where we're supposed to do what we're supposed to do, even if we don't feel like doing it. And you realize that once you commit yourself to doing those things, eventually your desire returns. Because, you know, your desires are closely tied into the way you think, too, you know. Like I don't feel like loving God, maybe I don't love God, right? You're like, I don't feel like loving God, therefore, oh, you know what, maybe I don't love Him. So you come to these conclusions based upon how you feel. But look what Proverbs 16 and verse 3 tells us about that. Proverbs 16 verse 3 says, commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. So according to the Bible, when you commit your works unto God, you do what you're supposed to do, your thoughts end up leveling out. They end up establishing themselves in the present truth, right? This is teaching us that don't serve God only when you feel like it, you should do it even when you don't feel like it, and in fact, especially when you don't feel like it. Here's a very carnal example, going to the gym, lifting weights, you know, a lot of people, a lot of people don't feel like lifting weights, they don't feel like going to the gym, a lot of people, okay? Myself included, you know, you got a heavy leg day, I'll be honest with you, I don't feel like doing heavy leg days, I just, it's not fun. Sometimes you got to squat really heavy and do Bulgarian split squats, that's not fun. But you know what, you do it anyways. And there's times when the weight is just moving really good, you got your protein in, you're just making a lot of progress, and you just can't wait to get under that bar. But what about the days that it's just not going as well? I'm kind of experiencing that a little right now, where it's just like the weight's not moving as good, I feel a little weaker because of the caloric deficit, and it's easy for me to just be like, you know, I think I'm going to skip Saturday, I'm going to skip this leg day. I got more important spiritual things to do. This stuff is vain anyways. I'm going to get a resurrected body, you know, just come up with all kinds of reasons why not to lift, right? But the point is, I do it anyway. You get under the bar, you complete your sets and your reps, and you go to failure, and you make sure that you lift, even when you don't feel like it, and then by the end of the workout, you feel pretty good. Why? Because when you commit your works, your thoughts are established. And the same goes for the spiritual life. You know, you think to yourself, I don't feel like going to church today, but let me just say this, by the end of the service, you're going to think to yourself, I'm glad I went. You know, oh, man, I just don't feel like going sowing. But then you take yourself sowing, you end up preaching the gospel to someone, you get someone saved, and then you think to yourself, man, I'm glad that I went. And then you start realizing, dang, my heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? Because if I didn't go to church, I wouldn't have heard that spiritual truth that would have helped me. If I didn't go sowing, I wouldn't have led someone to the Lord. If I didn't do what I was supposed to do, I wouldn't have experienced the blessing of doing and committing my works into the Lord. Now your thoughts are established. This is a very mature verse to teach us that the formula to getting your mind right thinking about the things of God is you just got to do what you're supposed to do, even when you don't feel like doing it. The point that I'm making here is that just because you don't love God today doesn't mean you should stop serving God. Just because you don't feel that desire today doesn't mean you should stop going sowing, you should stop going to church, you should stop reading your Bible, commit your works into the Lord, your thoughts will eventually be established and they will level out. Go back to 2 Corinthians if you wouldn't. So what is the motive for serving God? I'll tell you what the prime motive is, is because we love the Lord. And this is a lot easier for a lot of brand new Christians who are just in that new phase of just discovering the things of God, reading the Bible, they get a fresh new start, it's that babe in Christ type of a thing, that season, that honeymoon stage, and that's great. But you know, as the years go by, it does wane. It goes up and down, up and down, there's an ebb and flow to our love for God. And thank God that we don't have to love God to be saved, right? Because none of us love God 100% of the time, we have the flesh that wars against us, so we do serve God because we love Him. But you know what, we also serve God because we love people, right? A good motive to serve God is because we love Him, but another motive to serve God is because we love the people that we're around. We love our brothers and sisters in Christ, we love the lost, we love our children. Let me read to you from Hebrews chapter 6 and verse number 10. It says, For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which he have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister. First Thessalonians chapter 4 and verse number 9 says, But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. So according to the Bible, you know, when you get saved, you begin to develop and cultivate a love for other people. And it starts off first with this nucleus of people that you're surrounded with known as your local New Testament church. You develop relationships with the people in your church, you begin to develop a love for them and cultivate an affection towards them, and this ends up operating as a good motive to serve God. Because you want what's best for your brethren. You develop these deep relationships within church, and you think to yourself, I don't feel like going to church today, but I'm going to go because I know someone is depending on me. I'm going to go because I want to see brother so-and-so, I want to see sister so-and-so, I want to see this family, or they want to see me at church, so I need to make sure that I'm there. So you essentially, you know, forego certain of your selfish pleasures because of the fact that you know someone is going to benefit from your presence, they're going to benefit from your service, this is why you serve God. And if you think to yourself, well, I don't serve God because I love people, then get right with the Lord then. What's wrong with you? Now, just like the first point, though, we're not always going to love the people around us. What do you mean, amen? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. It's true, though. Brother Mark's amen is very well-merited there, it's a fact. Because we're humans, right? And humans annoy other humans, they irritate them, they offend them, and so we don't always love each other as we're supposed to. And you say, well, how do I love my brethren once again if I don't have love for them? Well, the same thing goes with you loving God, it's the same formula, love your brethren anyways. Be a blessing to them anyways. And then the love will once again develop and cultivate within your heart for the brethren. And the Bible tells us here that we're taught of God to love one another. It should come as second nature to a certain degree to love our brethren when we're in our local New Testament church because we are social beings that interact with each other, we share the same beliefs, sometimes in certain instances we even share the same experiences, and when we serve God together, those relationships deepen even further. Look what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, I would say, is actually pretty easy, right? Because all of us like to have friendships, we enjoy the camaraderie and the fellowship, and it's easy for us to just get along with one another, right? Obviously it's not like that in every church, but in general that's how it should be, okay? And I think most of you, if not all of you, get along with each other, okay? I hope, no I'm just kidding, I know you do. But here's the thing is that we serve God by loving God, we serve God, the motive for serving God is loving God, the motive for serving God is loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, but it's also by loving lost people as well. One motive that we have to serve God is because we love the lost. We don't want them to go to hell. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse number 8, it says we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord, wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Look at verse 11, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, the Bible says. So what is the terror of the Lord? Hell is the terror of the Lord. And because we have an understanding of that eternal damnation of hell, we want to persuade men, not for our benefit but for their benefit. Why do we go on to preach the gospel? I'll tell you why, because we love the lost. We want to persuade them to believe the gospel because we don't want them to suffer the eternal condemnation of fire and torment for all of eternity. So we serve God because of that. And you know sometimes this actually even supersedes our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ at times. Sometimes people come to church and maybe they're not getting along with people or maybe they're not feeling as interactive or social with others, but they still have a desire to go and preach the gospel because they want to see people saved. And that's still a great motive for serving God. The point that I'm making here is that the reason we serve God are because of these virtuous things, because we love the Lord, because we love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and because we love the lost. Go with me if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, 1 Corinthians chapter number 10, 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. What is the motive for serving the Lord Jesus Christ? I'll tell you what the motive is, is that we love Him. And you know part of developing a love for God is obviously walking with God, reading the Bible, but it's also just recognizing the amount of sins you've been forgiven, right? You think of the story of the Pharisee that invited the Lord to dine with Him, and the Bible says that there was a sinner present at the dinner, it doesn't say what particular sin she was guilty of, but she's wiping His feet with her hairs and her tears, she's anointing Him with an alabaster box of oil, and the Lord ends up explaining to the Pharisee that she loves Him more than the Pharisee, because of the fact that she's forgiven much. And of course he's forgiven little. And the concept there is that people have the potential to love God more when they are forgiven of more. And this is why sometimes people who get saved later on in life end up being a little more zealous than people who grew up in church. It doesn't have to be that way, but sometimes it is. You know, first generation Christians are often far more zealous and excited about the things of God. They have a tendency to love God a little more than maybe a second generation Christian would. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can raise a second generation of Christians that love and are zealous for the things of God. I'm just saying naturally, that's the tendency. Now here's the thing though, is that all of us have been forgiven of a lot. So even if a person got saved later on in their 30s, in their 40s, and someone's been saved since they were five years old, guess what? The Lord saved that five year old, you know, not just from stealing cookies out of the cookie jar, but just from a life of other sins, right? If they grew up in a Christian home, they grew up in church, they grew up around preaching, you know, the Lord is saving that person from some pretty bad experiences. And so that five year old, when he grows to be an 18 year old, a 20 year old, a 30 year old, needs to think upon the fact that God rescued that young man, that young lady, from a life of sin that could destroy their lives. And what does that do? That ends up cultivating a love for God, right? And so the motive for serving God is we love the Lord. But let's talk about the manner of serving Jesus Christ. What is the manner of serving Jesus Christ? Because, you know, a lot of churches out there promote a manner of serving God that's not really serving God at all. And we want to make sure that as Christians that we get the most bang for our buck, that we're actually serving God according to the biblical standard of serving God. Okay, we want a greater return on our investments. Now look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 31. It says here, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now what is this verse saying? It's saying that anything you do can count. Anything? Whether therefore you eat or drink, do all to the glory, whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. You know what this means? It means we're always on the clock. You see, as a Christian, you don't just get paid when you're in church, spiritually speaking. You don't just get paid when you're out soloing. No, you're always on the clock. You are on call 24 hours a day as a Christian. Like, where can I serve God? Well obviously, the local New Testament church is the hub of service where you get trained and edified, you are perfected for the work of the ministry, right? But at the end of the day, when you leave these doors, you're on the clock still. The point that I'm making is that we actually, there's not one specific way to serve God, we actually just serve God with our bodies. We serve God with our lives. You know what, when you go home with your spouse, you're serving God. When you're at your job working for your earthly boss, you're still serving God. When you're at your high school, your public school, and you're learning there, guess what, you're still serving God. When you're out and about at the restaurants just living your life according to the Bible, you should do it to the glory of God. You are serving God at that point. You know what, when you understand this particular concept, you live a little differently. A lot of Christians have a tendency to compartmentalize God and compartmentalize the service of God and say, well, you know, when I come to church, I just want to do so many, that's my service for God. I ain't wrong. That's part of your service for God, but you serving God happens all the time, 24 hours a day. Even if, even in matters that don't necessarily have to do with spiritual things, you're still serving God because, you know what, eating and drinking is not a spiritual thing, right? Eating and drinking, we wish it was, but, you know, it's not really a spiritual thing. It's not. It's not a spiritual thing at all, but yet God views it as, if you're doing that with your body due to the glory of God, live your life to the glory of God. Don't compartmentalize the service of God, don't think, well, the service of God is only at church, but outside of these walls, I just kind of do my own thing, I just kind of live a worldly life, I just kind of live a carnal life, I kind of live like a double life. Wrong, folks. You're always on the clock as a Christian, you're always serving God 100% of the time. Go to Romans chapter 6, if you would, Romans chapter 6. Our bodies should be used as members of righteousness. That's basically what the Bible's teaching us here. Whether therefore you eat, you drink, or whatsoever you do, do also the glory of God. What this is saying here is that our bodies should be used for the service of God in all matters, not just in what we would consider to be spiritual matters, in all matters. Look at Romans 6 and verse 13, actually look at verse 12, Romans chapter 6 verse 12 says, Let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lustre of, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, and I want you to notice this, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. What is he referring to when he talks about hidden members? Talk about this right here. Your hands, your feet, your ears, your mouth, your eyes, everything that you have should be used as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now here's the thing is that we have corruptible flesh, and this corruptible flesh desires to sin, that's why we need to bring it into subjection, this is why the Bible's saying that we have to conscientiously think about these things, and yield ourselves unto God. Make your body do what it is supposed to do. Go to Colossians chapter 3 if you would, Colossians chapter 3, Colossians chapter number 3. Now this particular point is for the newer Christians, obviously I'm reminding a lot of the seasoned Christians, and if you consider yourself to be a seasoned Christian and you don't know this, then you're not quite seasoned, now are you? A lot of this is going to be for newer Christians because newer Christians think, well no, serving God is just me preaching the gospel. But yeah, that is a service for God for sure, but that's not the only service of God. So you know, if you're soul winning and winning people to Christ, you're serving God, but you're doing yourself a disservice when the other times of the week, you're living a sinful life, you're around sinful people, you're doing sinful things, you're drinking, you're smoking, you're running with those that do, by the way, if you are, come and let me know, and I gotta talk to you about some stuff here, it's called excommunication if you don't get that right. But here's the thing is that sometimes Christians are like that, well you know, let me just offset my service for God by soul winning, but the rest of the time I'm just going to live a sinful life. Wrong. Folks, you know, you will be rewarded for the souls you win to Christ, but hold on a second, you have a misconstrued conception of what it is to serve God, you're supposed to serve God with your entire life. And more specific, let me say this, we serve God through our biblical roles. Look at Colossians chapter 3 verse 17. It says, Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Now what is verse 17 referring to here? It's referring to the fact that no matter what we do, whether we speak, the actions that we commit, the deeds that we do, we should do it in the name of Jesus, meaning for the Lord Jesus Christ. This is verse 18, he gives us some examples here, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. So folks, according to the Bible, women submitting to their husband is a service for God. And if a wife refuses to submit to her husband, she is disobeying and not serving God. Now what does it mean for a wife to submit to her husband? It means that the husband's in charge, not the other way around. You know, in this church, from the word of God, the Bible teaches that the man is the head of the household, not the other way around. You know, God doesn't, by the way, you don't please God by being a henpecked husband. You're actually doing a disservice, you're disrespecting the roles that God has established in the Bible. And if you're a pushover henpecked husband, you need to get right with God. Why? Because at the end of the day, God commands your wife to be in submission to you, not you in submission to your wife. You know, there should be no leash around your neck being let about of your wife. That is a reproach, that is an insult to the roles that God has set forth in the Bible, and you're not serving God. But the Bible's telling us here that a wife, a way that a wife can serve God is by submitting to her husband. Now, this is important because, you know, one question that I get all the time is like, what service gets me the most rewards, though? You know, isn't it soul winning, pastor? And most of the time, the ones asking this are who? The singles? Because they got all the time in the world to go soul winning. So they're like, oh, for sure, soul winning has to be the one that gets us the most rewards. But actually, we don't know. There's no chart in the Bible that tells us, you know, what gives us the most bang for our buck. And this is one of the reasons why God just says just serve God with your body. He doesn't just give us one fishing pole and one pond. He gives us many fishing poles and just says fish in every pond. Yeah, but which pond has the most fish, though? I don't know. Just do it, though. And so the reason I'm saying that is because, you know, a wife who is married, she has children, she doesn't necessarily have the same amount of time as the single guy does. So the single guy could look down on everyone else who doesn't go soul winning as much as them. Like, oh, man, I must love God more than anybody else because I soul win for like eight hours a day. Look at these guys, you know. What are you doing? Serving your husband? Yeah. The wife is actually increasing her rewards if she goes soul winning and if she serves her husband. You see, the single guy only has one fishing pole, though. You see what I'm saying? Whereas the married person gets two. The single guy only has access to one pond to fish in, whereas the wife actually has a few, especially if she starts having children. You got one in soul winning, you got one for your husband, and you got five for your kids. Because as you serve your children, you are also earning rewards. So if we want to get really specific or if we want to navel gaze just a little bit, we can actually say that the person who's married actually gets more rewards than the single person. We don't know that for a fact, I'm just saying they have more opportunities to serve. You say, you know, well, what if a single guy serves in church? Absolutely, they get rewarded, but you also got to keep in mind that the wife is at home with her kids 24 hours a day. And remember, whatsoever you do. So every time she's cleaning that diaper, every time she irons the shirt, every time she's scrubbing the floors on her hands and knees, it's the only way you should clean the floors, amen. What, you got a problem with that? Anytime she cooks a meal, anytime she cleans the house, if she does it in the name of Jesus Christ, she's just earning more rewards. Hey, when her husband says, this is what I want, and she does it and she submits to that, she gets rewarded for that. You know, it just kind of blows my mind too, let me just chase this rabbit a little bit. You know, it just blows my mind when women refuse to submit to their husband, well, he's not worthy of it. And they just completely negate the fact that she's doing it as unto the Lord. I mean, we know that's what the Bible says, right? When the Bible says for a wife to submit to her husband, it's not just like, just submit to him, period. It's as unto the Lord. Now why does the Bible say that? Well, because your husband is not as righteous as the Lord. And so, God wants you to submit to him, because even though your husband may not deserve it all the time, the Lord Jesus Christ does deserve it all the time, 100% of the time. And when you choose not to submit to your husband, and when you insult him, and you criticize him, and you put him down, guess what? It's as unto the Lord, you blasphemer. It's true. I'm just trying to teach her how to serve God, ladies. According to the Bible, that's what you're doing. You're doing it as a... He takes that personal, just put it that way. When you serve your husband, when you disrespect your husband, just mark it down, you're disrespecting the Lord Jesus Christ as well. Well, I don't mean that because I actually love the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, but remember what Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments, plain and simple. Now obviously, we as husbands don't deserve submission 100% of the time, because we don't deserve that. Maybe some of us do sometimes. Maybe we're good husbands sometimes. Maybe we have a good streak. Maybe you're just a perfect husband, not me. But at the end of the day, guess what? We deserve to be served by our wives, not because of us, but because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God is saying here, if you want to serve God, and maybe you can't do it at the capacity of some of these younger men who are out soul winning, just winning souls to Christ, and they're essentially just taking care of things of the world, how they may please the Lord, then you know what? That doesn't mean you can't earn rewards, because you can serve God at home. Every shirt you iron, every towel you fold, all the laundry you do, when you cook your husband his favorite meal, when you teach your children, when you change the diapers, when you clean the house, guess what? You're actually serving God by doing that. Now if you're just kind of like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, then let me just be honest with you, you're a feminist. That could change though. Is it crazy to say you're a feminist in a local New Testament church where we believe the Bible? No. That's what the Bible teaches. And you know what? Every woman has a little bit of feminist tendencies because we grew up in this era, an era where feminism is constantly being promoted, constantly being taught, and we need to renew our minds and teach ourselves and bring ourselves into alignment with what the Bible says. And look, you enjoy submitting to your husband that much the more when you realize that you're doing it as unto the Lord. Because you're like, man, this guy does not, he does not deserve this. This guy is just not Abraham. You know, he's just, but I'm going to do it anyways because the Lord deserves it. You know what you realize is that when you do it as unto the Lord, it's like the first point, you actually begin to realize, actually, my husband's not that bad. He's actually a really good guy. You know, he begins to thank you for it, he begins to show you affection for it, and then you realize like, actually, I love the Lord and my husband. Point that I'm making here, man, that went over like a screen door in a submarine, you know. The point that I'm making here is that the Bible's teaching us that the way we serve God is through our roles. Because God knows that not all of us can invest as much time as a single person who's able to serve the Lord just 100% of the time in the service of God, in the house of God. And thank God for these single young men, by the way. You know, I am encouraged by the single young men in our church who are zealous for the things of God. They're not worldly, they love righteousness, they love souls, and guess what, they brought themselves to church. I commend that. That is a commendable thing, my friends. When I was a young man, I didn't have anybody bringing me to church. Mom and Dad weren't dragging me to church. You know what, thank God for these young men who drug themselves to church. The only drugs they're into is drugging themselves to church, amen. Coming to church, bringing people to church, serving God, investing their time in the things of God, I commend that. And we gotta pray for them to get married, amen. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Why? Because whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. It goes on to say in verse 19, husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them. So husbands, this is the way we can serve God at home and that is by loving our wives and according to the Bible, that means we're supposed to be forgiving towards our wives because sometimes wives can cause their husbands to become bitter towards them. Why? Because, what is it, men are for Mars, women are for Venus or something like that? We're just two different people. We like things a certain way and sometimes our wives don't do it exactly the way we want it. Maybe our personalities clash a little bit. Maybe one's a little more passive, one's a little more aggressive, you know, whatever may be. It's easy for a husband to become bitter towards their wife because maybe they don't submit themselves as they should. Right? Maybe you're just like, my wife doesn't submit to me. Oh, okay, well be not bitter against them and you can serve God by doing that. And by the way, wives, don't be like, yeah, yeah, that's right, you know, don't be bitter against them. No, you submit to your husband. You worry about your role. But when it comes to the husband, you better make sure that you're forgiving, you're loving, you're dwelling with her according to knowledge, that you are kind to your wife, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. And you know what, if your wife does not submit to you, you can still serve God in your home towards your wife by loving your wife as Christ loved the church. So basically, I think what the Bible is telling us here is there's no excuse for not serving God. There's so many opportunities to serve God. You know, a wife does it by submitting to her husband, making him his favorite meal. Husbands love their, you know, they serve God by loving their wife, providing for their wife, showing affection to their wife. You know, not being impatient with their wife, forgiving their wife, not being bitter against their wife. Okay. And let me just say this real quick, just so the young people in our church don't get this perception that marriage is just World War II all the time or something. I'm just explaining the things that, you know, the challenges that come with marriage. Marriage is awesome. I would never want to be single. I just make that very clear, okay? It sucks being single, okay? I was single. I was single. I just, I know. So I'm not down talking on being married because being married is great. And once you get married, you realize like, oh, yeah, this pastor right here is awesome. But it doesn't mean that it doesn't come without its challenges, which is why these commandments are here. And when you get married, you have less time to serve God in a local church, doesn't mean you can't serve God in local church, you just have less time to do so. But now you have all these other avenues by which to serve God in your home, okay? So a wife does it with her husband, a husband does it with his wife. Look at verse 20, Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. You're like, oh, man, I'm a young person and I can't serve God at the capacity some of these adults do. Yeah, but you can serve God by obeying your parents. You know, a disobedient child is not serving God. A disobedient, rebellious, scornful child is not serving God at all. They're actually disrespecting, insulting, and bringing a reproach upon God by hating their father and mother, by disobeying father and mother. That's a disservice. And look, a lot of times people, you know, will bring this up and they'll be like, well, you know, how can I serve my wife though? She's not even a Christian. You know, like, it's hard to get her to, like, submit. She's not even a Christian or something, you know? And it's just like, well, you know, the last time I checked, oh, man, this pen blew up. The last time I checked, it doesn't say husbands love your wives and she's saved. Or wives will be like, oh, how am I supposed to serve my husband? He's not even saved. Well, the last time I checked, it says submit yourselves unto your husband if he's saved. No, it just says do it. And you know what, the same goes for kids serving their parents. Oh, my parents aren't saved, you know? And don't pull up the reprobate card either. I've heard that more times than I can count. Well, you know, they just reprobate. Oh, why? Because they don't like you or something? Because they spanked you? Oh, why? Because they took away your Xbox? You know, the Bible's telling us here that we should obey our parents in all things. And this is not even referring to a Christian home necessarily. Obviously, it's being written to Christians, but it's applicable all across the board. Obey your parents in all things. And you know what? That's how you can serve God is by not disrespecting your parents, honoring them, serving them, taking out the trash when you're supposed to, cleaning up your room, honoring father and mother. Why? Because it's as unto the Lord. Look at verse 21. The flip side of this is fathers provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. So fathers, we serve our kids by not provoking them, right? By making sure they don't grow bitter against us. We need to make sure that we are a good example to our children and raise them in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. That is a manner in which we serve God in our household. So you know, teaching your kids in church is important, but let me just say what's more important is teaching your kids at home. Talking about the things of God while you're at home. Making sure Christ is preeminent when you're at home. Look what it goes on to say in verse 22. We're still talking about roles here. It says servants. What's a servant? A servant to an employee. Obey in all things your masters, meaning your bosses, according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. So I don't see anything about services in a church here. This is talking about like in the secular world. So you know, you serve God by obeying your boss at work. You serve God by making sure that you're pleasing your boss well in all things. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but obviously by fearing God. This is what the Bible is teaching us here. And then he goes on to say in verse 23, Whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord, ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. So what is it telling us? It says when you fulfill these roles in its appropriate manner, guess what? God views it as you're doing it unto me. Now this is important to note here, and I thought I put it somewhere here, and maybe I might mention it later. And that is, you know, sometimes again, wives may think, well, I got a really lazy, good for nothing husband. Well, let me just say you're a good for nothing wife for saying that about your husband, if that's you. But let's say it is true, okay? Because there are some lazy, good for nothing husbands out there. And let's say husbands may say this of their wives are like, yeah, she's just a rebellious, cantankerous, boisterous woman, doesn't respect me, doesn't submit. Kids to their parents might be like, my parents are just not Christian. And they're just, man, they make it so hard on me. And they mock me for being a Christian. You know, just think of the worst case scenario regarding these relationships and these roles. Well guess what? Being God, when you're in a situation like that, is like working overtime in the spiritual life. It's like time and a half. Is that even still around? It is, right? I hope, you know, people are looking at me like, what's the time and a half, you've never worked time and a half? You know, time and a half is like you getting paid overtime, double the pain. So think about it this way, I got ink on my hands here, so I gotta, think about it this way. You know, when you serve God in a, you know, a good environment, with good parents, with a good husband, a great wife, great children, you get paid, right? You get paid by serving God in an environment conducive to Christianity, obeying the Bible, just everything, the chips fall in great places, right? It's just like it's easy to serve God. But guess what? If you don't have this situation, you actually get paid more. If you are serving God while you're suffering, you actually get paid overtime. Go to Romans chapter 8. Ah, I knew I had this verse. We serve God by suffering and serving God. You know, and this is important because sometimes people think, you know, oh man, I'm suffering so I'm going to take a break from God. No, no, no, you're going to gain overtime if you keep serving God while you're suffering. You understand something like if you want to get paid overtime, spiritually speaking, you want to earn more rewards, then you got to make sure you keep serving God even if you're in a bad situation because you could actually get paid more than the person who's serving God in a good situation. Look at what the Bible says in Romans chapter 8 verse 16. It says the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children, then heirs and heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. So the Bible's telling us here that we actually get rewarded for suffering wrongfully, okay? Suffering for the name of Christ. And you know what? If you have a really bad husband, a lazy husband, a good for nothing husband, but you're serving him as unto the Lord, that would be suffering for the Lord's sake because you're doing it as unto Christ. So instead of coming up with an excuse as to why you shouldn't serve your husband because he's such a bad husband, instead of coming up with an excuse as to why you shouldn't serve your wife because she's just such a bad wife, just do it and get paid more because you get overtime when you serve God in a bad situation. What is the point that I'm making here? This is the manner in which we can serve God. The manner that we serve God is by what? Fulfilling our God-given roles. I want to help you to have a holistic understanding of what it means to serve God and realize that serving God obviously is preaching the gospel, but it's also just fulfilling your God-given role. And you're like, well, I'm not into any of those roles. Then if you're not married, if you don't have kids, maybe you're a little older in life, you're not in that type of situation, you can still serve God by helping others. Go back to the previous point, just serving God with the members of your body, looking for an opportunity to be a blessing to others. The point that I'm making here is that I want the couples in our church to realize that you are serving God when you go home today. Throughout the week, you're serving God. And you know what, husbands, if you're not forgiving your wife, you're not serving God. And you're like, yeah, but you don't know my wife. Yeah, but the Lord knows your wife, though. And you married her anyways. You know, we need to start taking responsibility for our actions here and stop blaming other people for the decisions that we make. And it's just like you married your spouse, and then your spouse doesn't turn out the way you wanted them to, and it's just like, well, you said I do, though. So saying I do is saying I will take the responsibility till death do us part, because you're making a covenant with God. You know what, sometimes I got to be a little rough like this because of the fact that too much of this is going around, and you know what, we don't want the D word to be tossed around in our church as if it's a normal thing. I'm not talking about damn, I'm talking about divorce. Divorce should never be an option in marriage. The Lord hateth putting away, and divorce is for quitters, okay? For people who just don't want to serve God, they want to come up with an excuse as to why they made a bad decision. You know, folks, if you're married and you feel like she ain't the one, she's the one now. She's the one now. So take advantage of it and serve God in that situation. Maybe it's not the best situation, but it's your situation, and you know what? You can still honor the Lord Jesus Christ in your marriage. You can still honor the Lord Jesus Christ by serving your wife, by serving your husband, by serving your children. Keep serving God through your roles. But obviously, what is the most conducive way that we all know to serve God, and that's preaching the gospel. Because all of us have different roles in this church, right? Some of us are married, some of us are not. Some of us are married with kids, some of us are not. Some of us are married with a lot of kids. Some of us don't have a whole lot of kids. But at the end of the day, we can all preach the gospel. We can all go sowing. We can all give the gospel to someone that is a service for God that extends all across the board, no matter what role you find yourself in. The Bible tells us in, you don't have to turn there, Romans chapter, I lost my place here. Romans chapter 1 verse 8, First I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. For God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. The Apostle Paul here is saying that he's serving God in the gospel of his Son. So we don't want to minimize the importance of serving God in the gospel because we have these other roles to fulfill. And we never want to have an unbiblical, unbalanced view of our roles where it's just like, well it's all about the family and therefore I'm not going to go sowing, I can't do these things, I need to spend more time with my family. No, you need to do both. Now do you have the liberty to do sowing as much as others? Maybe not, but you can still go once a week. Maybe you could go twice a week, but you can just go and serve God in that area because it's a responsibility that we all have as Christians and it's one of the best ways to serve God. What is the point that I'm making with point number two of the manner of serving God is make sure you walk out of these doors today recognizing from here on out I'm serving God no matter what I do. When I'm at work and my boss tells me, hey I don't want you to do this, I'm going to give you something else that's not in your job description and you do it, you're serving God. You know if your boss commands you to do something, you don't feel like doing it and you don't do it or you do a haphazard job, guess what, that's a haphazard job to the Lord as well. That's how God views it. But what if my boss cusses me out? You know, do you really want me to tell you? Look if you feel like getting cussed out at work, you just don't like that, then you just get another job, that's it. But here's the thing, maybe you deserved it, I don't know, it's good to just build some thick skin and just be like I'm sorry I'll never do it again. And you know what, we can't expect for all of our bosses to be Christians, it's just not going to happen. And here's another unrealistic expectation that young Christians can have, it's just like well, you know, I'm just looking for that one job that has like a Christian boss or something like that. Let me just be honest, more than likely, even if you get a Christian boss, it's probably going to be some Church of Christ heretic or something. I just don't think you're going to get a fundamental Baptist as a boss, so just be happy with what you have. I mean we have people in our job whose bosses are just straight atheist liberals, just democratic atheistic liberals, just on the far opposite side of the spectrum of what we would consider to be biblical conservative values, and they flourish in those environments. Why because at the end of the day, you know, behind that liberal or above that liberal is Jesus Christ. And quite frankly, let's just be honest, if you're a good employee, you're a great person to get along with, yes, even the liberal might even like you and might even get along with you a little bit. Why? Because Christians are amicable, they're just people like them. If you're not a jerk, if you know how to behave yourself, if you're a hard worker, you're great to get along, people will like you. And then when you tell them you're a Christian, they might be like, oh man. But the reason they're saying, oh man, is because they're like, man, I like you though, like how can this be? Point that I'm making here is that don't look for a Christian boss, just look for a job that gives you the money. Look for a paycheck. And if he just so happens to cuss you out, you know, forgive him. He's a little, he's under pressure. He has to work, he has you to work with. And if you really don't like it, just go get another job. Point that I'm making here, serve God with the members of your body. You know, when you're a blessing to someone in our church, that's serving God. When you provide for someone's need in our church, you're serving God. When you gift someone something, a cup of water, you know, I always joke around, but it's actually true, but the more he's just racking up the points by bringing me this water every single service. And it's not just water, it's a cold cup of water, keep it biblical. He will make sure that it's cold. And you didn't think like, really, do you think, I promise you in the millennial reign, he will be rewarded for that. He gets a prophet's reward. And you know, it's not because he's like, no offense, I don't think it's because he's like a servant, I think it's because he wants that reward. He's probably like, I'm thankful no one has caught on to this life hack in church. You know what I mean? And I'm grateful for it, though, I'm grateful for it. But I'm halfway joking, but it's true. The Bible literally says that if you give a cup cold of water to a brother, you will receive a reward for it. You know what that means? That means God keeps receipts or the receipts, he has all the receipts. You know, more is, you know, more is going to be at the judgment seat of Christ and be like, God's gonna be like, well, this first packet is just all water. Cold cup, cold cup, cold, that one's not cold, but we'll give you, we'll give you something for that. You know, oh, look at, wow, you just racked up a lot of points right here. You actually believe that verse. You'd be surprised. Hey, you know, you buy a Red Bull for someone. You know, believe it or not, you get a reward, oh, that's so unhealthy, who cares? The motive. Now, I'm not saying go buy someone a cigarette or something like that, I'm just saying, you know, when Adam brings Red Bulls to you guys, you know, you really think he does it because he loves you? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. He does. I know he does. Either that or he's just a Red Bull infiltrator who's just trying to get us all hooked to the Red Bulls or whatever. You know what, though, he's serving God by doing that, though. He's bringing them, he's making sure everyone's stocked even though they complain, oh, this one again, you know. You know, Adam misses his service, you know, he's going to Brazil, and when he comes back, it's not like, hey, Adam, good to see you, thankful you're back. It's just like, where you been? I've had no Red Bulls since, do you even serve God anymore or what, like, where's your service for the Lord, you know. But, you know, we're joking here, but that's actually true, though. Hey, you buy your brother and sister in Christ a meal, that's a reward. You're serving God by doing those things. What, so, hey, you clean the toilets in the church, that's a huge reward because there's some suffering that goes along with that. Anything that you do, and this is how you've got to view serving God, recognizing no matter what I do, if I do it all to the glory of God, just the receipts are just stacking up, the rewards are stacking up. All right, go to Matthew chapter 10, if you would, Matthew chapter 10. Let me just briefly go over this last point here. We talked about the motive for serving Christ, and that is because we love the Lord, and if you experience a time when you don't love the Lord, commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established, and you'll love the Lord again. But that's a prime motive because we love God, we love others, we want to keep people out of hell. The manner of serving God is that we do it with our bodies, in whatsoever we do, in deed or in word, we serve God with the roles that God has given to us, we serve God by serving our wives, we serve God by serving our husbands, we serve God by serving our children, and obviously we serve God by winning souls to Christ. But let's talk about this last point, and that is the merits for serving Christ, and that is the rewards. Actually, I'm sorry, go back to Romans 4, because this is the portion of scripture that I wanted to read here. Now in Romans chapter 4, we use it notoriously to refute a works-based salvation. Romans 4 and 5, we could all quote it by heart, we're probably going to use it today out soul-winning, use it this week while you're out soul-winning, it's just something that's just ingrained in us because it's such a killer verse, because it's just like, yeah, but we're not saved by works, but if you don't work, you know, but saving faith works, it's just like, yeah, but to him that worketh not, though, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, and that's a fantastic verse, but we often neglect the verse right before it, look at verse number 4, actually the start of verse 3, for what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness, not to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. And what is it saying? It's saying that this person who works is, a reward is given to him, not because of grace, but because it's owed unto him. So this is a great verse to help people understand that working for God, doing works for God, and the grace of God actually don't mix, because a work merits a reward, grace is something that you don't deserve, whereas a reward is something that you do deserve. God doesn't owe you salvation, it's given to you freely by the grace of God. After you're saved, though, he owes you a reward if you work for him. The reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt, and essentially God's saying like, I owe you a recompense, a reward, for your labor. But thankfully, if you don't labor, to him that worketh not, but you believe on him to justify the ungodly, your faith is counted for righteousness. In other words, you're still saved. But if you want God to owe you a recompense, owe you a reward, you work for God. And you know, then you have spiritual people, they're just like, yeah, but we don't even deserve the rewards you get, shut up. That's what God says he owes you that reward. That's what he says. A reward is something you receive because of the work that you do, and he's saying, I owe you this, which operates as a great motive and incentives to serve God. You see, we all have a fear of loss and a desire of gain. We don't want to lose rewards by not serving God, lose out on the opportunities to gain rewards. And we have the desire to gain as well. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Let me read to you from Matthew chapter 10, verse 32, it says, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father, which is in heaven. The denial there is not about salvation. The denial in its context is referring to a reward. Because verse 41 says, he that receiveth the prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward. He that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. And here's Brother Maury's verse, and whosoever shall give the drink unto one of these little ones, a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. So he's not losing anything. He just racked up another point today. And the Bible, God is saying like, you guys are all laughing, but you know what, like he's not going to lose this reward. It sounds to me like God keeps very detailed track of every work that you do, as unto the Lord. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter three, this is referring to the judgment seat of Christ. And I don't have time to go into all of the chronology of how this takes place. But it happens at the beginning of the millennial reign, where there's a judgment for Christians, not for heaven and hell, because we're already saved. It's a judgment as far as what rewards you're going to receive because of the works that you did. For other foundation can no man lay that then is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 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. If any man's work abide which he had built there upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. So the Bible's saying if you labor, as unto the Lord, you're going to receive a reward. It's like gold, silver, precious stones. But if you use your members to do bad works, it's going to burn up. But here's the thing, you will be saved, yet so as by fire. So it's showing us that even if you don't do good works, you're still saved. But you will suffer loss in the millennial reign. And here's the biggest thing that we need to take away from this, is you have to understand and believe that there is a millennial reign coming. The Bible says we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And sometimes we don't really think about that because it's so far into the future. But it's going to happen where God pulls out all the receipts, not for your sins, not for the evil things that you've done to rub them in your face, but to say, all right, it's time to cash in. And let's just be real honest. There's going to be Christians who go there and just like, I put Christian in my bio. I put mama believer in my bio. That's how I preach the gospel. And then they're, you know, it's like, okay, put it all in the fire here. And you're just like, hey, at least you're saved, next. That's what's going to happen. And they're just going to be like, but you know that same person who suffers loss, they're going to realize, man, I should have done more when I was like on earth. I should have gone so and I should have served my husband, I should have served my wife, I should have taken advantage of serving God while I was there because now when it really counts, now when I realize how important this is, it's just all going to burn up. So let me quickly go over this. What are some of the rewards? Well, first of all, monetary blessings. There's a monetary blessing that comes with serving God, joy, peace, friendships, character, just God blessing you at your job, God blessing you and your family, God blessing you with sanity, God blessing you with good health, God blessing you with wonderful friendships, God blessing you with knowledge and wisdom to make the right decisions. Those are the monetary blessings that we receive, right? And that's worth it. Here's the thing is that we also get a better resurrection. Now I'm not going to have you turn through all these verses because I'm completely out of time, but the Bible talks about us having a better resurrection, meaning that according to the Bible at the resurrection, some people will shine brighter than others. How is that going to look? I have no idea, but the Bible seems to imply in Daniel chapter 12 that some believers will shine brighter in the firmament than others because of the souls that they've won to Christ. The labor they put in for serving God, which means that some people out there are just going to be like little dim lights. They're going to resurrect the body. Their bodies are delivered. The only difference is they're not shining as bright. And then lastly, go to Revelation 2 and we're done. Revelation 2. So there's monetary blessings. There is a better resurrection that we receive. And lastly is authority in the millennial reign. Let me say this one last thing regarding the manner in serving God, because I think of someone like my father-in-law. And he's not the only one. There's plenty of Christians out there who are 100% incapacitated from serving God at any capacity. They're just kind of laying there. They can't really do anything else. You think to yourself, like, how can this person serve God? Because they can't walk. They can't really talk. Well, you know what? They can serve God in praying. So even something, I don't want to say insignificant because it's not insignificant. We would think insignificant in comparison to other ways of serving God. God rewards people if that's all they can do is pray. Because He's rewarding you based upon what you can do. And so, again, everything that you do, look at Revelation 2, verse 26. He that overcometh, referring to those who are saved, and keepeth my works until the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter, shall they be broken to shivers, even as I have received of my father. And there's an entire sermon that I've done on this. But what the Bible's teaching here is that if you serve God, and according to the Bible, you do this until the end, you receive authority in the millennial reign, meaning that you get the highest honor from Jesus Christ, selecting you to rule over Russia, or I don't know, whatever nations that is out there. According to the Bible, you will have power. Power means authority over the nations. Because when Jesus Christ returns for his millennial reign, He's going to distribute authority to the believers who served Him until the end. So people who were the off scouring, people who served God, they didn't try to become the mayor or the governor or whatever, they put the millennial reign first. And they're serving God for that future recompense. And then you get to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. Now, right now, you may think to yourself, oh, that's not, who cares about that, though, you know? I don't really, whatever, that's not even a good incentive. You say that now, though. But once you're actually in the millennial reign, you're going to be like, oh, man, this actually is the business. Oh man, this is legitimate. Oh man, I wish I could be there. And make no mistake about it, the Bible talks about those who are the least in the kingdom of heaven. That means you're saved, you just don't have any position. You're just like, you know, sweeping the alleys or something. You're like, well, that's just a lowly position. No, take the lowly position now in order to be honored by God later. See, God is not against you having a high position of authority, it's just when do you want it? People who want it now don't get it now, don't get it later on in the future, but if you, you know, abase yourself and serve God at your capacity, you know, you might end up ruling and reigning with Christ in a higher position later. Hey wife, you got a rotten husband? Serve him and you might even end up ruling over him in the millennial reign. Hey, forego trying to rule over your husband now. Stop trying to be a bossy wife now and then later on in the resurrection, you might end up bossing him later. Hey husband, you know, instead of just ruling over your wife with just, you know, like a dictator being a jerk, just realize, you know, if she's putting up with your nonsense and you're not serving God, she might end up ruling over you in that millennial reign. Hey, as they used to say at McDonald's in the 90s, it can happen. It can happen. You know, let's just be honest here and I'm done. Let's just be honest. Let's just be honest. There might be someone in this room who's going to rule over all of us because they're serving God with the members of their body, they're abasing themselves and we don't know who the most spiritual person in here is. We don't know who has a stack of receipts and typically it's not the person who brags about all the receipts that they have too, by the way. You know, it's just someone who's just quietly serving the Lord. You just never know. It might be like some child in our church who ends up ruling over everyone because they just faithfully serve God all the days of their life. The point that I'm making is that let us serve God with our bodies. Serve God in your marriage. Don't see it as a burden. Don't see serving your wife that you're bitter at as a burden. That's a blessing. You get paid overtime. Don't see serving your jerk of a husband as a burden. See it as a blessing. You get more overtime. You're doing it as unto the Lord. Don't see serving your kids as a burden. It's a blessing. Don't see serving your unsaved boss as a burden. It's a blessing. Don't see serving, you know, by cleaning the toilets as a burden. Hey, don't see giving on May 11th as a burden. It's a blessing. You think that you, God's going to be in debt to you for that May 11th offering? You think you're going to out-give God in that way? It's all about perspective, folks. Serving God is not a sacrifice, it's an investment. Because God will owe no man anything at all. He will recompense you in the end. Serve Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for the admonishments of the Bible. Help us to take these hard truths to heart and, Lord, serve our spouse, serve our children, serve our boss, serve in the church, serve in the church, serve in the church, serve our children, serve our boss, serve in the church. Essentially, use our bodies at every capacity to look for any opportunity to serve you. And I think all of us, myself included, sometimes we forget that when we serve others, you take it personal. And I pray that you'd help us to remember that as we go about our days, our weeks, as we just sing the hymns, as we talk to one another, as we go soul winning, as we go back home, Lord. Help us to realize that we're doing it as unto Christ. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please tune your song books to song number 316. Song number 316, I have decided to follow Jesus. All together, nice and strong on that first verse. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back, no turning back. The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back, no turning back. Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed.