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songs out of the Mountain Baptist hymn, songs, hymns, and spiritual songs. We'll sing Rejoice in the Lord. So that's near kind of like the back near the Christmas songs. But if you would stand, we'll sing Rejoice in the Lord. God never moves without purpose or plan, when trying is servant and molding a man. Thanks to the Lord, though your testing seems long, in darkness he giveth a song. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. When I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as long as I could not see through the shadows ahead. So I looked at the cross of my Savior. Instead, I bow to the will of the master that day. Then peace came and tears fled away. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gone. Now I can see testing comes from above, strengthens the children, and purges in love. My Father knows best, and I trust in his care. Through purging, more fruit I will bear. Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistakes. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, Lord, again. We just want to thank you, God, just for all of your blessings and all of your mercy and grace that you've bestowed upon us. Thank you, God, for salvation, that it's free and that it's everlasting. I pray, Lord, now that you would just bless. And everything we say and do, help it to be to glorify your name. For it's in Jesus' name we ask all, but amen. All right. And if you would turn in your psalm books, we have a new psalm we're going to try. I feel like this is probably the easiest one we've done. So yeah. Psalm 117 in your blue psalm books, Psalm 117. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise Him, all ye people, for His merciful kindness is great toward us. And the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord. Amen. Welcome to Mount Baptist Church on the Sunday morning. And just some announcements here. One, just be in prayer for those that aren't feeling well. Just seems like there's always something going around. And then as far as service times today, everything should be normal. We'll have our soul winning time at 1 PM. So be sure to meet up here before that so we can get teamed up and go out soul winning. And then the regional soul winning times on the list there, just be on the church group there to know the exact times and locations there. Upcoming events. This Wednesday, we'll be doing the Lord's Supper after the Wednesday night service. And so you want to be in your places there. And then the next Sunday is going to be Easter. So actually our soul winning time, our normal 1 PM soul winning time, we're going to move to Saturday there at 10 AM. We're going to meet at the church building here about soul winning. And then we're going to have a fellowship in between the services. So I think Ms. Paul, we were just talking about the ladies know what they're making and everything, but she's going to kind of put the list on the main church group. So if any of the guys, if you guys want to bring something, then you can. But we're going to have a fellowship in between. Hopefully it's nice and we can be outside too. But we'll have candy and everything for the kids and for the adults. I mean, we can have candy too, right? But yeah, so and then if you want to go out soul winning on Sunday during that time, you're more welcome to. We'll find a place for you to go. But especially with us, with our kids, we're probably going to be here making sure they don't like go jumping in the pond or something like that when we're going doing the candy stuff. So but so that'll be coming up. And then I guess the soul winning marathon in Washington, PA got rescheduled to the 15th. So I know brother Richie wasn't feeling well, but also was not the best day in the world either. It was like I think state emergency wind advisories and all that stuff. Brother Dave, you don't know anything about what was going on Saturday, but everything's just normal. Yeah. So so that's coming up on the calendar there. Our chapter memory for the month. We're in a new month. So happy April. But we're in Psalm 11. Psalm 11. It's a shorter psalm. But some good verses in there. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? And it's a verse in there. But also the Lord triath the righteous. But the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hate it. So actually, we have that song. We sing Psalm 11. So it should probably help to memorize it. And then James 1 12 is our memory verse for the week. Blessed is the man that endured temptation. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. So that's our memory verse for the week. And then birthdays. I don't think we have any coming up yet, at least this week. And then pregnancies. Be in prayer for Tiara Alesko, Amanda Spina, Jennifer Simes. And just be in prayer for these ladies that everything goes well with the pregnancy, and the delivery, and everything. Eventually, it's nice sometimes to have the due dates on there, which, whatever. If anybody knows the due dates, just so that you kind of know what time frame that the lady is in as far as the first, second, third trimester. Are they about to give birth? Usually, we figure that out. If they're about to give birth, we can figure that out. But either way, pray for these ladies on the pregnancy list there. That's about all I got for announcements. The offering box is in the back there. If you want to give Tiara their offering. The mother baby room for the mothers babies only. I think brother David, you're reading this morning, right? So we're going to be reading Revelation chapter 4 this morning after brother Dave sings one more song. Only you, though. Solo. Yeah, you're right. All right, take your song books and turn to song 121. Song 121 in your song books. I would be honest with you. I wasn't listening at all about the birthdays. So we don't have any birthdays? No? OK. All right. But brother Aaron, didn't you guys just have an anniversary? We didn't get to sing for you? You can thank brother Nick for reminding me. So we don't want to leave you all out. We know this is a pretty special time that we get to sing for you and stuff. When was your anniversary, brother? All right, awesome. Wait, OK, March. Cool. Well, happy anniversary. How many years? Nine. Man, that's great. Awesome. All right, well, we're going to sing happy anniversary to you. Do you all want to stand up? Yeah, yeah, OK, that's what I'm talking about. See, see, see. All right. Lane, pay attention, OK? I'm not going to forget that. Every time somebody stands up, I'm going to look at you. I'm going to eyeball you, OK? All right, so we'll sing happy anniversary to the Fords, nine years. Here we go, ready? Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary, God bless you. Happy anniversary to you. There you go. All right, we got it. OK, so we'll sing song 121. Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace over all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect yet it floweth for every day. Perfect yet it groweth deeper all the way. State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Hidden in the hollow of his blessed hand. Never folk can follow, never traitors stand. Not a surge of worry, not a shade of care. Not a blast of hurry, touch the spirit there. State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Every joy or trial, call it from above. Traced upon our dial by the son of love. We may trust him fully, all for us to do. They who trust him wholly find him wholly true. State upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect peace and rest. All right, take your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 4. Look at Revelation chapter 4, and we'll have Brother David read that for us. Revelation, if you found your place, amen. And the Bible reads, after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voices I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne and sight like under an emerald. And round about the throne were four and 20 seats, and upon the seats there saw 20 elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, and thunderings, and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto a crystal, and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes were thrown behind. And the first beast was like a lion, the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had the face of a man. And the first beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had one of them six wings round about him. And they were full of eyes within, and they rested that day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And then those beasts give glory, and honor, and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever. The four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and roast of him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Let's pray. Dear Lord, I thank you for this opportunity to come back to church, and pray that you will pass with me spirit, and help us be unified. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So you're there in Revelation chapter 4, and I'm preaching a sermon. Basically, I'm calling it Crowns for Believers. Crowns for Believers, and I'm going to be preaching on the subject of basically getting crowns. And we're going to be dealing with crowns that I believe every believer, or basically every believer, I think will have a crown. But there's also other crowns that we can be rewarded with, depending on how we live for the Lord after that. But here in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 8, you may say, well, what are you using the crown for? Well, we're going to be ruling and reigning with Christ for 1,000 years, but also forever. So obviously, if we're ruling and reigning, I'm going to be getting into the fact that we are made kings and priests. But here we have these 24 elders, and they have crowns of gold upon their head. And I want you to go back to verse 8 there. It says, and the four beasts had each of them six wings upon them, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, saying, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and 20 elders, so these are saved people. These are Christians right here. We don't know who the 24 elders are that are before the throne, but at the same time, these are believers. And it says, they fell down before Him that sat on the throne and worshiped Him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. And so if you think about the idea of winning a crown, and you say, what's the big deal about having a crown, is the idea that you can take that crown and cast it before the feet of our Savior. And the idea is that forever we can be glorifying the Lord for what He did. And basically, what we do in this life reflects on how we can worship and glorify God for all eternity. And so I'll be getting into the different types of crowns, but go to 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9. So the first thing to realize is that when you get saved, God has made us basically kings and priests. And the Bible uses the term a royal priesthood. So notice what it says here in verse 9, 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 9 says, but ye are a chosen generation of royal priesthood and holy nation of peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of righteousness into His marvelous night, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And so this royal priesthood is not just the Jews, right? Well, obviously, it would be only for the Jews that are believers, right? But it's to the Jew first and also to the Greek, but it's to him that believeth. And the idea here is that this royal priesthood is made up of all believers. Unto you, therefore, which believe, He is precious. And it goes on to say that we are the ones that are this holy priesthood or this royal priesthood. Go to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. And the first thing I'm going to show you is that, as believers, I believe every believer will have a crown for being saved, that basically we are. And you say, well, I'm a woman, so I'm going to be a king? No, you're going to be a queen. So the idea here is that I don't believe gender changes. When we get up to heaven, we're all hydrogenous beings with no gender. No, it's going to be man and woman. But when it comes to women, the Bible talks about, in Christ Jesus, there's neither male nor female, meaning that there's nothing to stop you from having as many rewards or crowns as a man would. Because the idea is that you have different roles in this life. And obviously, there's different roles of man and women. But at the same time, when it comes to rewards, you could have as many or more than men, depending on how you live for the Lord. So when we say kings and priests, a lot of times in the Bible, it says, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And it will use the terminology that you become the sons of God. He gave you the power to become the sons of God. Obviously, that's an all-encompassing kind of like mankind would encompass women. Obviously, when we're talking about becoming sons of God, that would mean like daughters of God for women. And there's other places, obviously, where the Bible talks about you shall be his sons and his daughters. And so don't get caught up on that and be like, well, that means I'm going to be a king and I'm a woman. No, you're going to be a queen and will be kings. But this applies to all believers. So notice what it says in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 4. It says, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, and grace be unto you, and peace from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So how are we made kings and priests? By him washing us with his own blood. And he didn't wash us from our sins in his own death, like John MacArthur would like to say. No, we're washed in his blood. It's the blood of sprinkling. But what we're talking about here is salvation, right? We're talking about you're saved and he's made us kings and priests, which is where we get the term royal priesthood that's used in 1 Peter, OK? Another place where it states that is in Revelation 5. Revelation 5, verse 9, it says, and they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book, to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. So who are made kings and priests? Those that are washed in the blood. In both cases, we see that being the case. And in 1 Peter, when you see the royal priesthood, it's talking about those that believe that part of that holy nation and those that are that holy or royal priesthood, that chosen generation. And so when we're dealing with being kings and priests, that applies to all believers, OK? So every believer would be considered men, kings, women, queens, you know, we're royalty. And you say, well, OK, what about the least person in heaven? Because it talks about how if you're well done, thou good and faithful servant, thou has been faithful, or a few things, thou make thee ruler. What about the person that doesn't do anything? Well, the Bible says, know ye not that ye shall judge angels? So let's say you have the least, I mean, I'm talking the bottom of the totem pole, saved person that didn't keep any commandments at all, didn't love the Lord, like just got saved, you know? And just like the minimum just got saved, you know? They didn't do anything else after that, OK? They're still saved because he that believes on the sun hath everlasting life. That person is still a king or queen. They're still royalty. And you say, well, who are they going to rule over the least out of everybody in heaven? Angels. I mean, in the end, there's somebody that they're ruling over, or some beings that they're ruling over. I mean, if we're judging angels, that means we're ruling over them, OK? So but when we're talking about a royal priesthood, it means that we're not only kings, but we're also priests. And go to Exodus chapter 29. And this is where I'm going to show you why I believe that just believers in general will have a crown, OK? And I mean, the fact of being king, you know, being that royal priesthood for being a believer makes sense that you would have some kind of crown of some sort, right? But the idea is that you can have multiple crowns, OK? So when you get saved, everybody, I believe, will have a crown. Everybody will be royalty, if you will, once you're a believer. But notice what it says in Exodus chapter 29 and verse 5. Exodus chapter 29, this is dealing with the garments of Aaron, or the high priest. It says, verse 5, and thou shalt take the garments and put upon Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod. And thou shalt put a mitre upon his head and put the holy crown upon the mitre, OK? So what you'll see is a lot of times with a priest, you'll have a mitre, but then there's also a crown that's put over top of the mitre. And it's just a headpiece of some sort, right? And so you kind of get the term crown because you think about the crown of your head, right? So a crown goes on the head. But I believe, and you say, well, that's the high priest, though. Jesus is the high priest, and I understand that, right? Obviously, Jesus is the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. We'll go to Zechariah chapter 3 because I believe that these garments, if you will, represent salvation in the fact of how we're being clothed with this. Because Joshua, and Joshua also would represent, I mean, he's obviously the high priest, so he's going to represent Christ. But at the same time, notice what it states here about Joshua, the son of Josedek. So not Joshua, the son of Nun, this is way later. But in verse one of Zechariah chapter 3, verse one, Zechariah 3, and he showed me Joshua, this high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee, is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. So notice what the filthy garments are representing, but his iniquity. And you think about, and if some have compassion making a difference and others say with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh, and you can even see a brand plucked out of the fire, and you see these filthy garments that are spotted by the flesh, we're talking about our sin, our iniquity. And it says, he's taken away basically these filthy garments and that represents that he's taken away our iniquity. And I will clothe thee with change of raiment. So this is the, obviously as saints, we have the righteousness of saints, which is the fine linen. Obviously it's the righteousness of God that's imputed unto us. But that change of garment, right? Even the flesh is regarded to kind of like a garment to where we're gonna drop this garment and we're gonna obviously put on a new garment and we're gonna have a new body and all of that, right? So, but notice in verse five here, so when we're talking about Joshua, I mean, you can see that representation of salvation there of the filthy garments, new garment. And then it says in verse five, and it says, and I said, let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord stood by. So this is, obviously Joshua, the son of Josh, that is a real person, right? Obviously there's a lot about him that represents Christ as far as things that were done for him. But I believe as Christ was glorified and as he, it says he'll change our vile body to be like unto his glorious body. So if you say, well, this is talking about Jesus, it's like, well, we're gonna be like him, right? We're going to, our bodies are gonna be changed like him. So Jesus obviously is the king of kings. But what does that mean? Well, if we're all kings and priests, he's the king of kings because we're all kings, right, or queens. And the idea there is that at his garments, we're gonna be like him. And depending on how, obviously there's better resurrections depending on how you live for the Lord and all that. But I do believe that every believer will have this mitre, the crown upon a mitre kind of thing as far as because of salvation, right? Just the simple fact that being royalty, you have a crown, okay? So knowing that, I mean, that's obviously, it's always good to see these blessings that God puts on us that, I mean, think about that. When we get saved, obviously saved from hell, which is the most important thing, right? We're not gonna spend eternity in hell, but we have everlasting life and we're gonna live forever and we'll be with the Lord forever. That's a blessing in itself. But then you think about all these things on top of that, that we're gonna be ruling and reigning with him. We're gonna be kings and priests, the garments that he gives us. I mean, think about it. It'd be good enough, in my opinion, that we don't go to hell and we're in heaven and you dress me in rags. I mean, at that point, it's like, the Lord has done more than he had to just to save us from hell, right? But there's all these other blessings that are piled up on top of that just because we believed, okay? So there is that blessing when it comes to, I believe we'll all have crowns for being believers, okay? Now, the thing, though, that we wanna think about is that all we're gonna have. And I think there's gonna be a lot of saved people in heaven that that's what they have, right? They have the bare minimum. They have what they believe on Christ and God clothes them with new garments. They set a fair mitre upon their head and that mitre may have a crown over top of it as well. And they're there and it's great, obviously, that they're there, but there's no other crowns, right? There's no other, the rewards aren't there like it will be for others that serve the Lord. So this sermon is really to kind of show, okay, what are some of the rewards that you can have for serving the Lord, for keeping His commandments, I mean, think about coming to church week in, week out, soul winning week in, week out, trying to live a holy, separated life week in, week out. And you say, what's the reward? Why are we doing this, right? And there's many reasons why you could say you're doing it. One, because you love the Lord and you just want to, He deserves it, right? You can say, well, I'm doing it because people need to get saved and I don't wanna see people go to hell. And those are all valid, great reasons, right? But there's also other reasons in the fact that the Lord will reward us with other crowns. And if you think about it, if there's a time where, let's say these seraphims, the seraphims are those beasts, those four beasts in Revelation, when they're saying holy, holy, Lord God, holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, the whole earth is full by glory, and they're all praising Him. And at that point, we're throwing our crowns down at His feet. Wouldn't you like other crowns to throw down at His feet to show Him that you love Him, right? And I think everybody will have a crown. Every believer, right? Every believer could throw down the crown and say, you're worthy, right? But imagine that you have multiple crowns. Right? That you could throw down, oh, I have a crown of righteousness I'm gonna throw down. I have a crown of life I can throw down. I have a crown of glory that I can throw down, right? And the crowns I'm gonna go through, I believe every single believer can obtain, okay? So none of these crowns, I believe, are exclusive, okay? To any person, office, male, female, I believe that all these crowns, every single believer can obtain if they so choose to serve the Lord, okay? So let's look at one here that you may say, well, is that really a physical crown? And I believe it might be, but I'll say this, is it's definitely a crown that'll go on forever. Either way, go to 1 Thessalonians chapter two. And this is what the Bible would call a crown of rejoicing, a crown of rejoicing. Now, whether this is a physical, like, gold and silver crown that the Lord gives us, I'll say this is that this is a crown that will be there for eternity either way, okay? So in verse 17 there, so you're in 1 Thessalonians chapter two and verse 17. It says in verse 17, but we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I, Paul, once and again, but Satan hindered us, for what is our hope or joy, notice this, or crown of rejoicing, are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy. So this crown is like literally the people, right, that they want to the Lord. Philippians chapter, you don't have to turn there, I want you to go to Psalm 126. Philippians 4, one says, therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. So you may say, well, you're talking about people. Okay, yes, he is talking about people, right? But let me ask you a question. If you win someone the Lord, will they be there before the Lord forever? Yes, it's an eternal crown of rejoicing. This might actually be the best one, you know? I'm kind of hitting this one first, of a crown that may not be like some physical crown that you'd have on your head that you're casting, you're not like throwing your, you know, your converts before the Lord, right? You know, like, get up there, you know, like, obviously, you're not doing that. But there could be maybe a crown that would be a crown of rejoicing that would represent for soul winning, you know? Listen, I have not seen nor hear heard, neither had to enter into the heart of man what the Lord had to prepare for them to love him. I mean, the idea is that there may be a lot of things that we don't even know what he has prepared for us, right? That's just gonna be, hey, oh, you know, I didn't even know that was gonna be a reward. So whatever you think that these crowns are gonna look like or whatever you think these rewards are gonna be, it's gonna be way more spectacular, way more magnificent than you could ever imagine, okay? I believe it's gonna be so spectacular and magnificent that even if you saw it, let's say you died, saw it, came back, you wouldn't be able to even explain it. Kind of like how Paul talked about the man that was caught up into the third heaven, but it was not lawful for him to speak those things or to utter those things which he saw. And it's more so the fact that I believe it's like trying to describe a new color, right? It's like trying to describe a new sound, like how would you do that, right, if you had nothing to compare it to? So in Psalm 126, this is obviously a passage that we use for soul winning a lot, but I want you to notice this terminology that's used here. In Psalm 126, and I have a saying that so in tears shall reap in joy, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with what? Rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. I mean, think about this, when we go to heaven we have all our sheaves with us, right? We have all those that we want to the Lord. Isn't that a crown of rejoicing? I mean, that's what Paul is stating though in 1st Thessalonians chapter two is that are not ye a crown of rejoicing in the day, right? It says, I'm sorry, of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming. So at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we're all caught up together in the clouds. All those that we want to the Lord are this, it's a crown of rejoicing, right? It's kind of like, think about the things that you can have in eternity that will show the Lord that you loved him while you were here. And I think souls saved, like winning people to Christ and having converts, having people that you've won to the Lord may be the best. I mean, when you think about these crowns that I'm going through, I mean, those are living people that you can talk to and see for eternity and for all eternity, we'll be rejoicing together. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter one in verse 12. And what I want you to see here is that we're all rejoicing together. And I believe the converts are gonna be rejoicing over seeing you, right? I mean, those that you want to the Lord are gonna be rejoicing that you gave them the gospel for all eternity, right? And there's rejoicing all around is what I'm trying to get at here. And this is something that will be for all eternity. And so it's something that we don't really think about, because obviously we're going out, we want to get people saved, we don't want people to go to hell and we could, that's enough, right? Kind of like in our minds, they're like, they got saved, they're not going to hell, praise the Lord. If that was it, as far as any type of reward, I mean, I'll go with that, right? But I believe that there's gonna be a bigger reward that we don't even realize when it comes to being a soul winner and bringing in the sheaves as well. Second Corinthians chapter one, verse 12, it says, for our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had a conversation in the world and more abundantly to you were, for we write none other things unto you than what ye read or acknowledge. And I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end, as also ye have acknowledged us in part that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. Kind of the same terminology. He's basically saying you're our rejoicing in the day of the Lord Jesus, you're our crown of rejoicing. And you can say, well, that's just metaphorical. Fine, okay, let's say that's metaphorical, it still says crown, and I'm talking about crowns for believers. Let's say it's just metaphorical, you don't actually have a physical crown when you're in heaven. Does that change how that would, how that, would that change the fact that that's gonna be glorifying God for all eternity? Right? The idea there is that that might actually be the best crown. And I'm not here to put these in order of best to worst, okay? I'm just telling you what the crowns are, that you can receive, okay? So that one is kind of a, like I said, it could be metaphorical, it could be just like, we're using the term crown, because obviously those that you win to the Lord are associated with you forever, right? But these next ones, I believe, I personally believe these will be physical crowns that will be given to us if we do certain things, okay? And the thing is with these crowns, go to Second Timothy chapter four, Second Timothy chapter four, those that believe you can lose your salvation, these false gospel preachers out there, they'll look at these crowns and they'll say, well, you need this crown in order to go to heaven. Like if you don't have this crown, you're not going to heaven. It's like you just completely missed the boat as far as the fact that these are rewards and it's not salvation, okay? Listen, I'm gonna be getting to the, at the end of the sermon about the fact that the crown is referred to as a prize, okay? And a prize is something that you earn or you win, okay? And when it comes to salvation, salvation is a gift, okay? And a reward is something that you earn. And it's something that I try to teach my kids when it comes to this, that a gift is something you get, you didn't earn, it's just something that we give you because we love you, right? You think about a Christmas gift, you think about a birthday gift, stuff like that, you didn't have to do anything for that. Yeah, I mean, if you get a birthday gift, all you have to do is be born, right? So, I mean, that's kind of the whole reason for a birthday party, right? You were born, you get a gift, right? And, but when it comes to, let's say a prize, for example, a reward, a reward is based off something you do, okay? So for example, my kids with homeschooling, they have like this little sticker chart where if they do their schoolwork without complaining, they get a sticker for that day, okay? And when I say, when we say complaining, we mean like they're not like just on the ground, like I don't wanna do schoolwork, kind of like complaining, okay? We're not like, because obviously there's times where you're doing something and you're like, ah, I can't get it, and you're like, no sticker for you! You know? It's not, we're not that much of a stickler with it, okay? But obviously if they're just like refusing to do it and they're like, I don't wanna do it today, then they don't get a sticker, okay? So anyway, for the week, they get stickers for each day and if they have a sticker for each day at the end of the week, they get a prize. Whether that's a treat or whether that's like to go to the store and buy like a small toy or something like that, they get a prize, okay? But that's not a gift, okay? Because they had to earn that, okay? So that's the difference, and these people, obviously the natural man received is not the things of the Spirit of God, and it says neither can he know them because there is fullness unto him because he is spiritually discerned, and you know what, when they look at a crown of life, righteous crown of glory, they're just automatically like, well, that's salvation. Everything to them is salvation, right? Everything that's stated in here is how you get to heaven, even though the Bible clearly states that if by grace and isn't no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. That if you're justified by faith, it can't be of debt, it can't be of works or it would be not reckoned of grace but of debt, which is what that would be, meaning that if we tell our kids, hey, you get a sticker, you don't complain each day for a week, then we're indebted to give them something because we told them that we would, right? That's not a gift, and so, obviously, these people are, so all that aside, when you look at this, crowns, these crowns I'm going through, even the crown of rejoicing, bearing fruit and getting people safe, that is not a gift, that's a reward, okay? And in second Thessalonians four and verse five here, we're gonna get into the first one here, and this is not some hierarchy of order, okay, that I'm just going in the order that I wanted to, so. Second Timothy chapter four and verse five, it says, but watch thou in all things endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make foolproof of thy ministry, for I am now ready to be offered in the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. So notice that Paul isn't making this, this isn't just, you know, exclusively to him, it's basically all those that love his appearing, okay? So he's saying, there is laid up a crown of righteousness for me. But what is the crown of righteousness for? Because I fought a good fight, I finished my course, and I kept the faith. That's not saying like, oh, now you're saved, right? The thing about the fruit of righteousness, right? The fruit of righteousness is, you know, you think about peace and long life and all these different things, you have a reward for doing righteousness, and when it comes to what I believe, living a righteous life as a Christian, you could end up receiving a crown of righteousness for that, okay? And think about this. But unto all them also that love his appearing. So he's basically saying, it's not for me only, but it's also all them that love his appearing. Now, what are we talking about here? Well, loving and waiting for the Lord, think about what it means to love the Lord, okay? Well, in John 14 and verse 15, and you can turn to some of these if you want, but these are just some shorter verses that I'm gonna be reading off here. John 14 and verse 15, it says, if you love me, keep my commandments. He did not say, if you wanna go to heaven, then keep my commandments. And the Bible doesn't say, if you wanna go to heaven, you have to love me, right? Now, obviously, don't get me wrong, people that believe on Christ obviously love him enough to believe on him, right? Does that make sense? We're not saying like, you know, someone that believes on Christ just hates the Lord, you know, or doesn't love the Lord. That's ridiculous, okay? It's just as much as you need to love the Lord enough to put your faith in him and what he did for you, you need to love the Lord, you know, you need to know the Lord enough to know who he is and to believe on him, but like loving him and keeping, you know, like, and knowing the Lord, that's something that goes past just getting saved, okay? So don't get me wrong, obviously, I believe every single believer loved the Lord enough to believe on him, right? But notice that we love him because he first loved us, okay? But when it comes to loving the Lord or loving his appearing, we're talking about keeping his commandments and keeping his commandments are, you know, is where the righteousness comes in as far as if you're keeping the commandments and you're not transgressing, you're keeping his commandments. Now, no one does this holistically, obviously. No one's walking through this world after they're saved and just keeping every single commandment, never breaking anything. The idea here is that you're trying to do it as much as possible, you're trying to live a holy separated life. 1 John 5, 3 says this, it says, "'For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous.'" This goes all the way back to the 10 commandments. I mean, in the 10 commandments, in verse six of Exodus 20, it says, "'In showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.'" Right? So the loving God and keeping his commandments are just something that's used throughout time that if you love God, keep his commandments. And this goes into, if you love your neighbor, keep his commandments because that's the whole law. The law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The two greatest commandments are the love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might, and down the list. And then it says, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. So when it comes to loving the Lord or even loving in general, it's talking about keeping the commandments because that's fulfilling the law. Because if you love people, if you love your neighbor, you're not gonna murder them. You're not gonna cheat on their spouse or commit adultery. You're not gonna steal. You're not gonna lie to them. Does that make sense? It's very simple, and that's why it's not grievous, meaning keeping his commandments is not a grievous thing to do, it's actually a very good thing to do because you're actually helping people and not hurting people. You're doing what you should be doing. And Jesus says in John 5, 14, I'm sorry, 15, 14. So if you think about this, John 14, 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. 15, 14 says, you're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. And that's on top of being saved. Just like Abraham, Abraham believed God and it was imputed on him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. Why? Because he had works that he did after that. He didn't just believe on Christ. He didn't just get saved. He actually did the works as well and that made him a friend of God. And I believe that those that are the friends of the Lord, they're gonna be given a crown of righteousness. And so it's not talking about salvation because how do we get righteousness imputed unto us? Is it by keeping the law? The Bible says that it might be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. So when we're talking about righteousness to get saved, we're talking about God's righteousness being imputed unto us. If we're talking about righteousness in order to be the friend of God, then yes, we're talking about us keeping his commandments and trying to live for him and be his friend. That's something that will earn you a crown. And particularly a crown of righteousness, okay? So the next one I wanna show you, you go to James chapter one, and this is our memory verse, James 1, 12. And that's the crown of life. And people just, I mean, like I said, these false teachers, people that believe you can lose your salvation, all this stuff, they wanna just say crown of life, that's salvation. And it's just insanity. It's not what the Bible teaches. And you as believers know, okay, we're talking about rewards here. We're talking about being rewarded. We're talking about being able to glorify God for all eternity on what you did in this life. Because if you do what you should be doing now, that's eternal value, okay? And if you wanna do what you wanna do now, and you just wanna live in the flesh, that's all temporal. That's all gonna be done away with. And for all eternity, you're gonna be thinking about I wish I would have done more. And I think every single person is gonna say I wish I would have done more. Think about this. If you got two of the crowns, but there was one you didn't get, wouldn't you be like, man, I should have got that other one, right? And not to be silly about it, but it's kinda like if you're collecting things, right? You're like, I want them all, right? I wanna get it all. Don't you want to be able to throw down three crowns instead of two? Or two crowns instead of one? You know? And so this is the thing, obviously when it comes to serving the Lord, there's other reasons why we serve the Lord. And people are just constantly like, why? If you believe that salvation's by grace alone and faith alone, that you can never lose your salvation, why in the world would you ever go to church or do anything? Why would you ever serve the Lord? Why would you just go out and just kill people all day long? Because I'm not a psychopath, one. But two, I mean, there's many reasons. Time would fail me to tell you of all the reasons why I wanna serve the Lord. Doesn't mean that I do it perfectly all the time, but I'll say this, all those people that think you have to serve the Lord are all gonna split hell wide open and they're not gonna get any crowns. They don't have a crown for being saved, they're not gonna get the crown of righteousness, they're not gonna get the crown of life, they're not getting the crown of glory, they're not getting the crown of rejoicing, they're getting nothing. They're gonna be, their crown is gonna be a bunch of coals heaped up on their head. That's what their crown's gonna be. Because they didn't regard the crown of thorns that our Savior did or put on when he went to the cross. They didn't actually give him the glory for what he did. Now, in James chapter one verse 12, actually the crown of life is mentioned twice, so we kinda see two different, we see different things that kinda show us, okay, what is this crown, how do you obtain this crown, right? And James 1 12 says, "'Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, "'for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, "'which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.'" So notice how that loving him and obviously keeping his commandments and all of these, that's what we're dealing with, right? We're talking about serving the Lord, keeping his commandments, we're not talking about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ to get these crowns, we're talking about serving the Lord. And in this specific case, we're dealing with enduring temptation, okay? So let's keep reading there. It says in verse 13, "'Let no man say when he is tempted, "'I am tempted of God, "'for God cannot be tempted with evil, "'neither tempted be any man, "'but every man is tempted when he is drawn away "'of his own lust and enticed, "'then when lust hath conceived, "'it bringeth forth sin, "'and sin when it is finished bringing forth death.'" So we're talking about sinning, being tempted to sin, there's no temptation taking you, but such is as common demand, and what we have to realize is that, "'Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, "'lest he fall.'" Because you know what? You can be tempted just like anybody else, but the idea here is that if you can endure that temptation, then you can win a crown. If you can get through that temptation and not fall in that time of temptation, I believe there's a crown of life waiting for you, okay? And go to Revelation chapter two in verse eight, Revelation chapter two in verse eight, here's another mention of the crown of life. Now, there's something that, you know, there's just certain things that we don't know. Is there a crown for every time you endure temptation? Is it just one crown? Or is it a crown for every single time you endure temptation and you don't fall, right? I mean, there's a lot to think about with that as far as that we don't know, right? Like I said, there's a lot of things we don't know, or we don't know how magnificent it will be or anything like that, but enduring temptation, it says when you're a tribe and you endure it, it says ye shall receive the crown of life, okay? Go to Revelation two in verse eight, and unto the angel of the church and Smyrna write, these things set the first and the last, which was dead and is alive, I know thy works in tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be what? Tried. And ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, he that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death, because who is he that overcometh? The world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. So if you're a believer, not gonna be heard of the second death, but if you endure tribulation, trials, you'll get a crown of life. Now, you could look at this as obviously, you know, it says being faithful unto death, okay? Now, if you think about that, as far as your life is concerned, this could be a martyr's death, where this just could be talking about being faithful unto death, and you die a natural death, right? So when it comes to this, I believe that it's living a life being faithful unto the Lord, right? You're enduring unto the end, if you will, and there's a crown of life waiting for you, okay? And maybe there's crowns of life that are given to you for enduring temptations, and maybe like this big crown of life, if you live your life and endure unto the end, and you're faithful unto the end, right? I mean, think about those that weren't faithful unto the end. I mean, think of Solomon, think of Saul, right? Think of those that didn't endure unto the end. They're still saved, they're still in heaven, right? But maybe they didn't get that crown of life that they could have had if they were just to the end. And then how many preachers, and how many Christians have you seen that were like on fire, but then just stopped? And then they just lived the rest of their life the way they wanted to, and they just stopped. Still saved, right? They still have eternal life. But do you think they're gonna get that crown of life if they're just not holding out faithful to the end, right? And I'm not saying they're unbelievers, okay? When we're talking about holding out faithful unto the end, let me give you an example of that. In Matthew chapter 13, I want you to turn, well, you can turn with me to Matthew chapter 13, verse 20. Matthew chapter 13 and verse 20. There's a parable of the sower. Because we're talking about the trying of our faith. We're talking about basically being faithful unto death. So we're talking about temptations, but we're also talking about being faithful unto death. We're talking about the trying of our faith. In 1 Peter chapter one, as you're turning there to Matthew chapter 13, it says, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, or in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So notice how the trying, the temptations, are also dealing with the faith, right? The faith that you have, and that being tried, and you being tempted, but enduring that temptation and being faithful throughout it, okay? That's what we're dealing with. Matthew chapter 13 and verse 20, notice what it says here. It says, he that received the seed in the stony place is the same seed that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. So here's a saved person. They hear the word, they receive it with joy, and anon means like immediately, right? It just means like they immediately received it, right? It was just like, boom, they got saved, okay? Notice what it says in verse 21. Yet hath he no root in himself? Notice this, but deareth for a while. Now, deareth is just a shorter way of saying enduring, right, endureth for a while or deareth for a while. For when tribulation and persecution arise, because of the word by and by, he is offended. So notice that what caused them to be offended, you know, what caused them to kind of fall away, if you will, is the fact that tribulation and persecution, which is coupled with what? You're gonna be tried, you're gonna have tribulation 10 days, right? In Revelation, for example. Then in Luke chapter eight in verse 13, parallel passage, which we're gonna be getting to, Lord willing, this week, is Luke chapter eight, so spoiler alert. We're gonna be dealing with the parable of the sower, but in verse 13 here, it says, they on the rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation, fall away. So it's not saying like they're unbelievers, but they're obviously not being faithful unto death. Does that make sense? What does that mean? They're not enduring unto the end. They're not enduring temptation. They're not being faithful through that temptation. They're being offended, and they're basically, they fall away. Now, go to Colossians chapter two. Be like, okay, well, how do I endure temptation? How do I not fall away in time of persecution and tribulation? And these are believers. These people that fall away, not enduring temptation, they're saved, they're going to heaven, they have eternal life. They received the word with joy, and they're saved. But they weren't rooted and grounded, okay, which means, you know, basically they didn't have the strong root to deal with these trials and tribulations. In verse six of Colossians two, it says, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so remember what they do? They received it with joy immediately, right? It was immediately they received that with joy. So they received Christ Jesus the Lord, but it says, so walk ye in him. So here's what they didn't do, okay? Here's why they didn't have a strong root. This is why they didn't have a root, right? So walk ye in him, and it's gonna qualify, what does that mean? What is that gonna do if you walk in him, okay? Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. So those at the Sony ground, why did they fall away in time of temptation? Because they weren't rooted and built up in him and grounded in the faith. And how do you do that? Walking in him. What does the Bible talk about when it's talking about walking in the Spirit? It says, if you walk in the Spirit, you shall not fulfill what? The lust of the flesh. And what does it talk about after that? The works of the flesh, which goes down the line of all the different commandments that people break as far as everything from murder to stealing to whatever, right? So if you're walking in the Spirit, you're keeping his commandments. You know, he that saith he loved him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. So when we're talking about loving his appearing, walking in the Lord, we're talking about being rooted and grounded in the faith so that when trials and tribulations come, we can endure it. So that when we're tried, our faith is tried, we'll endure that and we're not gonna fall away because we don't have root in ourselves, because we're not rooted and grounded in the faith, okay? It's like people that have a surface knowledge of a lot of things, but they haven't studied it out. They're not, it's kind of like they're challenged on it. They're challenged on it, they're just like, well, this is what, I've heard people preach on this. I mean, this is what I believe. And then you're challenged on it and then you don't have an answer because you haven't sanctified the Lord God in your hearts and you weren't ready to give an answer to every man that asks you for a reason to the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. You weren't ready to do that. You weren't rooted and grounded. So then when that time comes, you're offended. And you're just like, ah, I can't defend it. I can't deal with this. Therefore, they fall away. And if you fall away during these times of temptations, you're not gonna get the crown of life. You're still saved. I mean, you still received the Lord, didn't you? And if you come unto Him, He will know why He's cast you out but at the same time, there's rewards to those that are rooted and grounded. I mean, you think about it. Like, what would be the point of being rooted? We all just fall away and just live in the world, right? I mean, that's what the unsaved people think. And they're just like, yeah, well, why would you? You know, just go out and drink and be married. I mean, but obviously there's many reasons and this sermon is one of the reasons. One of the reasons why we should live for the Lord because the Lord will reward us with crowns. And so we have the crown of righteousness. We talk about the crown of glory and you could just say, okay, well, that's just saved people and every saved person that I win is like a crown that I'm winning. And that's great. Maybe He gives us a crown for being a soul winner. Maybe there's like a soul winner's crown of rejoicing. The Bible uses that terminology. It could just be the people and if that's the case, praise the Lord. But there's also the crown of righteousness, the crown of life, okay? That if you endure and you endure temptation and you're faithful unto death, listen, you don't have to die or martyrs death to be faithful unto death. Just be faithful until you die. Be faithful until Jesus comes, right? I don't believe the people that are caught up in the rapture are gonna not be able to get that crown of life because they didn't technically die, right? I think it's just basically stating you would be faithful for all your life, right? The crown of life would be faithful throughout your life. But then there's the crown of glory. Go to 1 Peter chapter five, 1 Peter chapter five. 1 Peter chapter five, verse one. Now this one has, a lot of times, people think that this is just for pastors. I don't believe that's the case, okay? I do believe pastors can get it and I think in this case, He's speaking to pastors. He's speaking to bishops, elders, right? But I don't believe this is all inclusive to just them. This is something that I believe anybody can win, okay? And notice what it says in verse one, 1 Peter chapter five, verse one. It says, the elders, which are among you I adore, whom I'm also an elder. Okay, so who is he and who's he talking to? When he's talking about being an elder, he's talking about basically an elder that is a bishop, a pastor, and the rest of this is gonna make that very clear. But he's one and he's talking to the elders. He's speaking to them, okay? So this is why a lot of people think, well, this is just for pastors. I don't believe that's the case, but I'll give you my reasoning, okay? Because notice what it says right after that. It says, who I'm also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory. Okay, and these are key words that I want you to think about here. A witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory, okay? So he didn't just witness what Christ suffered, he's also a partaker of the glory, which I believe is because he actually suffered, okay? He suffered for Christ. That should be revealed. So the partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, the flock of God is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly, not from filthy lucre but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. So you can definitely see he's talking to pastors, right? Now, what I believe is that if you do this and you're a pastor like this states here and you're basically not doing it for filthy lucre, you're doing it of a willing mind and you're doing it the way the Bible says right here, right? You're being a pastor the way it should, that you'll receive a crown of glory. And I believe that if I do what 1 Peter 5 says as a pastor, that there will be a crown of glory waiting for me. But I do not believe that's only reserved for pastors, okay? I believe that in this context, he's talking about pastors because the question is, when you're looking at the crown of righteousness, what are we talking about? Righteousness, how do you get that? Being righteous, right? Being, you know, fighting the good fight, walking in the spirit, loving the Lord, right? When you're talking about crown of life, it's talking about in your life, you are, you know, basically enduring temptations and you're being faithful throughout your whole life, right? You're thinking about that. And this, you're talking about a crown of glory. Well, the very first verse is talking about why. Because you're a partaker of the glory and specifically because of sufferings. Go to Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight. And simply this, if we suffer with Christ, we'll be glorified together with him, okay? And I believe that in suffering for Christ, you can receive this crown of glory, okay? And I don't believe it's just for pastors. I think that pastors a lot of times are gonna be dealing with the sufferings of Christ because they're like the target, right? I mean, think about that. When you think about the church, who's the target? The pastor. The pastor's the target. If we ever have someone coming at our church about our doctrine or what we're preaching or what we're really, I mean, it's all gonna come at me. Obviously you as well, right? But ultimately they're gonna be like, this pastor over here preaches this, this pastor's leading up the church over here and it's gonna be targeted at the pastor. But that can also be targeted at the church members and you could be dealing with sufferings for Christ that are outside of what I'm preaching or whatever, right? It could just be what you're saying and what your stances are and going on from that, okay? So Romans chapter eight and verse 16 says this. It says, the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and of children than heirs of God. Okay, so notice how that's like automatic, right? You're a child of God and you're all the children of God by what? Faith in Christ Jesus. That means you're heirs of God. Now, Galatians four hits on this as well, but notice what it says, and joint heirs with Christ. So notice that it's not just heirs, joint heirs with Christ, if so be, so this is kind of the like, if this happens, right? If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. So notice that that's how Peter starts off. This isn't talking to pastors here in Romans eight. I mean, just talking to Christians in general, right? So if you suffer for Christ, and I'm not gonna go through all the verses about talking about suffering for Christ, being partakers with him and like all these different verses that talk about it, but really, if you suffer with him, I believe that there will be a crown of glory waiting for you, okay? For the sufferings that you've done or that you incurred, okay? That there's a reward for that. And so you have the crown glory and so again, I believe all these crowns, every single believer can obtain. You can have crowns of rejoicing because every single believer can win someone in Christ, can't they? Every believer can have the crown of righteousness because everybody can fight the good fight, keep the faith, love the Lord, love his appearing, right? Every believer can do that. Every believer can have that crown of life because every believer can endure temptations. There's no temptation taking you, but this is his common demand, but he also gives a way of escape from those temptations. I mean, everybody, it's not just the pastors, it's not just the men, it's not just the women. Everybody can endure those things and be faithful unto death, okay? And then when it comes to the crown of glory, can not everybody suffer the sufferings of Christ? Can we not all endure sufferings for Christ? I mean, throughout the Bible, anybody was dealing with that or could deal with that. And so every single one of these crowns, you can win. And I believe that we should try to. And you say, well, how do I know I have it? I don't think we'll know until we get there, right? Obviously, the Apostle Paul is under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost when he says I have a crown laid up for me, right? But we can assume, we can think, but in the end, I look at it as if I don't get any of these. I look at it as if I don't have, I haven't obtained any of these. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God and Christ Jesus. So I'm pressing toward that and I wanna have that prize. But in the end, I'm gonna look at it as if I haven't obtained it, I'm working for it, right? I'm going for it. And hopefully, when I get there, listen, I want all of them. You're like, you're greedy, I don't care. I want all of them, right? And I don't think that's greed. I think, I don't think it's greedy to want to be able to praise my Savior for all eternity as much as I can, okay? Because ultimately, that's why I want it. I don't want it, I don't want the crowns just to be like, hey, look at me, everybody, look what I did for the Lord. I wanna be able to take all the crowns if I have, let's say I have multiple crowns that the Lord has given me for what I've done and be able to just throw it at His feet and say, you're worthy. You were worthy then and you're worthy now and you're worthy forevermore, you know, you're worthy. And be able to do that for all eternity, yeah, that's what I want. So I'm gonna work for that. Now, go to Revelation chapter three, Revelation chapter three, and I wanna look at another passage here dealing with a crown or the idea that we wanna obtain these crowns, right? This is a goal we should have. I mean, after salvation, I mean, shouldn't we be trying to go on onto perfection? After salvation, shouldn't we be moving forward, you know? We want to go forward, we wanna win crowns, we wanna have rewards, we wanna serve the Lord. I wanna know more than I did last year. I wanna keep moving higher, pressing on the upward way, right? New heights I'm gaining every day. And we're searching for that higher ground. We're constantly just trying to move up, move up, move up. And, you know, Revelation chapter three and verse seven here and notice what it says. It says, and to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right, these things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name. So notice that he's talking through this church and saying, you know, you have, I've set this door before you, you have a little strength and you haven't denied my name, you've kept my word, and I'm setting this door open for you. And listen, when it comes to obtaining these crowns, you know what you have? You have an open door. Now sometimes we need to find out where those open doors are at, right? Like we need to know, we need to figure out which doors are open. You think about soul winning, right? Different areas may be an open door, different areas may be shut. And, but listen, there is an open door to get a crown of rejoicing. There is an open door to get a crown of life, crown of righteousness, crown of glory. There is this open door for you to get it. And the question is, will you go through that door? Will you actually take that opportunity? That's what it says in Revelation 3 and verse nine. It says, behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan which say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee. So all those anti-Christ, Christ-rejecting Jews, guess what? They're gonna know that Christ loved us over them, and it wasn't because of their nationality, it wasn't because of their bloodline. That's another term for another day. Now verse 10 here, it says, because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them which dwell on the earth. Now I've preached on this before, but this is dealing with, I believe, there's gonna be a time where people are gonna be taking the mark of the beast, and saved people are gonna be killed, obviously because they're not gonna take the mark of the beast, and that's the anti-Christ whole modus operandi is to basically kill all Christians. He's making war with the saints. And I believe that if you're keeping his word, you're not just saved, but you're keeping his word, that God will keep you from that hour of temptation, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Even if you were to be put into a fiery furnace, you'll be saved out of that. In your patience, possession of your souls, and it says that not a hair of your head shall perish. I believe that if you're keeping God's commandments and doing what you should be doing, during the great tribulation, God will bring you through it. But notice what it says in verse 11. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Now, what is this talking about, no man take that crown? Meaning this is that there are people that can cause you to lose that opportunity. It's not saying like you have a crown in heaven and some guy goes and takes it, right? Because it talks about how like, no one can break through and steal, right? If you lay up treasure in heaven, no one's breaking through and stealing that. The idea there is that you have the opportunity, you have this open door to get a crown. Don't let anybody cause you from not getting that crown. You could go, this is so many avenues. You think about like family members and like following the Lord, being a disciple. What do you have to do? You have to love God more than wife, father, mother, children, anything, even your own life. You need to love God more than that so that what, that you can win that crown. Take a press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, right? Let no man basically take that crown, that no man take that crown, meaning that how do you not have anybody take that crown? Hold fast that thou hast. I mean, hold strong, keep going, keep his word. And another place that uses kind of similar language to that is in 2 John, 2 John in verse eight. It says, look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. That we receive a full reward. So we want to get the fullest reward we can, whether that's crowns or whatever, there's other things I believe that we'll be rewarded with other than just crowns, okay? But I believe these are some things that we can look at and say, okay, I want to strive to get these, right? In 1 Corinthians chapter nine, we go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine. And when it comes to this, think about the the judgment seat of Christ, right? It talks about laying upon the foundation, the foundation is Christ, right? So you're saved, but you lay on upon the foundation, you build this house, and it talks about us building up spiritual houses and all this. You build up the spiritual house, you have the option of laying up wood, hay, and stubble, or gold, silver, and precious stones. The wood, hay, and stubble aren't, it's not sin, it's just the fact that it's not eternal value, okay? It's not something that's gonna endure the fire. So when the fire hits that pile of wood, hay, and stubble, gold, silver, precious stones, the only thing that's gonna be left is the gold, silver, and precious stone, because fire just purifies that type of stuff, but it burns up completely and consumes wood, hay, and stubble. When it states this, when it says, well, you lose those things which you have wrought, or someone take your crown, what we're talking about is that at the judgment seat of Christ, the Bible says, those that, I'll just read this, you're in 1 Corinthians chapter nine, but in verse 15 of chapter three, it says, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, yet, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. So you suffer loss completely, and everything's burned up, guess what, you're still saved, you're still saved. But you're gonna suffer loss because you're gonna be looking at the things that you could have done. You didn't get that full reward that you wanted, did you? Some man, someone caused you to lose that crown, right? Or take that crown from you because you were too focused on things that are temporary and not on things that are eternal, okay? But in 1 Corinthians chapter nine and verse 22, it says, to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak, I made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain. And every one that strives for mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we, what, an incorruptible. These are incorruptible crowns that I'm preaching on this morning. These are things that cannot, once you earn those, they can't be taken away. But listen, you have to earn them. And people, men can cause you not to earn them, because they can cause you not to go through those open doors that you need to go through. And men, also, people can cause you to not do what you should be doing so that you'll have a full reward, that you'll actually lose a reward because you're not doing what you should be doing. And Paul's stating here, I'm fighting, I'm running this race and it's not to get a corruptible crown, but an incorruptible. And notice what it says in verse 26, it says, I therefore so run not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as won that beat at the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I preach to others, when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. Think about the person that's in the stony ground that you keep under your body, you bring into subjection. Why, you starve the flesh and you put off the old man, you put on the new man, you walk in the spirit, be rooted and grounded in the faith so that you obtain the prize. And Paul's basically saying, I need to do the same thing. And he's like, Paul's basically saying, I can fall too. I can fall during temptations or different things like that. He had a thorn in the flesh that he besought the Lord thrice to get rid of and the Lord said, my grace is sufficient. So Paul had issues, every Christian has issues that can cause them to not win the prize. And we're not talking about salvation. We're talking about crowns. We're talking about incorruptible crowns that we can all win. Don't let anybody take that crown from you in this life. Don't let someone cause you to not have a full reward. When you can obtain that full reward, it is out there for every single Christian to obtain every single one of these crowns, to obtain a full reward, to have a great reward at the judgment seat of Christ. And the question is, will you take those open doors? Will you actually do what God wants you to do? And I think personally, the reason that we should be excited and wanting to win these crowns is because of what happens in Revelation chapter four when the 24 elders are casting their crowns before the feet of their savior. Think about this. How many crowns do you wanna be able to cast down? Right? One? I think everybody will have one. Well, at least have one because they're all saved, right? Do you want two? Do you want three? Do you want four? You know, the idea there is that I want as many as I can get because I wanna be able to glorify Jesus as much as I can for all eternity. And so I think that's a good reason and we should obviously be trying to serve the Lord as much as we can. Let's end with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for these passages. And Lord, thank you for the fact that you reward us for working for you. And Lord, you deserve all the glory. And if we never got any prizes, Lord, you'd be worthy anyway. And Lord, we just thank you for everything that you give us and beyond. And Lord, we love you and pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. But today we'll come and sing one more song and we'll be dismissed. All right, take your song books and turn to song 176. Song 176 in your song books. We'll sing Jesus Loves the Little Children. I guess we're just gonna sing one song, 176. ["Jesus Loves the Little Children"] Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. You are dismissed. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Jesus loves the little children of the world.