Summary: There is a day that we are going to face judgment as followers of Jesus Christ, so we should pay attention to this and make sure that we make that a good day.

Fire Series Part 5 by Pastor Rob Ketterling

We are continuing our Fire series, and I want to let you know that this week is a continuation of last week. And if you missed last week, you're still fine; this sermon will entirely make sense. But I would encourage you to go back and listen to last week's sermon in the Fire series. Because last week we talked about the great white throne judgment and the fact that everyone will have to stand before God and will be judged did we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, did we repent of our sins or not? And the Bible says in that moment, those that accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, those that have done that, the Bible says your name is recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life. We talked about this last week.

And the key thing is to get your name in that book. You want your name in there, because if your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life, the Bible says you're spending eternity with God in heaven, paradise. It's yours. If your name is not in the Book of Life, the Bible is very clear that you will spend your eternity in the lake of fire separated from God in this eternal punishment. And we don't want anyone to go there. Wasn't even created for man. It was created for the devil and his angels, fallen angels. But yet, when you don't repent of your sins, the Bible is very clear there is punishment for that.

But the amazing thing is you can get into the Book of Life by simply asking Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, forgive you of your sins, and accepting the price he paid on the cross. If you do that, you get in the Book of Life.

And last week in the sermon I said this doesn't motivate us to go out and tell people like, "Turn or burn!" You know, that is not an effective evangelism strategy. How many know that? That doesn't work. Okay. But it should motivate us that we know the truth, and we should do like Jude 1:23 talks about, snatching people out of the fire. We should be out snatching people out of the fire, rescuing them from the lake of fire and saying, "We know that God loves you and you need to get in on this. It is our responsibility to share that message with you."

Now, I want to let you know that as we continue this, we have the great white throne judgment, but then we have a new judgment that is going to take place for those that are believers in Jesus Christ. Those of us that know Jesus as our Lord and Savior will have an additional judgment. And although the great white throne judgment is a pass/fail you're either in the book or not in the book, you are either in heaven or in the lake of fire; it's a pass/fail this judgment that we're going to face that we're going to talk about today where our works will be tried by fire and check to see how pure they are, this judgment is not a pass/fail. This is one that will be graded according to the quality of what we do.

Okay, so I'm going to be very clear. It is not A's, B's, C's and F's, like that. It is more like the quality of a diamond or the quality of gold. Like, what value is it? It's going to be quality. Is it worth something or is it worthless? And so every one of us is going to face this judgment. And I want to let you know, as your pastor, I want to make sure that this day is good for you. I want to make sure that when you stand before God and he judges everything you did on this earth after you knew him as Lord and Savior, that that is a good day for you. That he can judge what you did and say, "You did a lot and it was with good motives, and you have a reward for this." So I want you to understand this. There is a day that we are going to face judgment as followers of Jesus Christ, so we should pay attention to this and make sure that we make that a good day.

So I'm going to read in I Corinthians chapter 3, and then I'm going to read from

II Corinthians chapter 5. And the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. That's why we call it I Corinthians, II Corinthians. He's writing these letters to them and helping the church to grow, helping them to correct error, and he's writing to the church at Corinth. So we are going to read what he says, because he gives us insight into this judgment that's going to take place. And the first passage is going to be spot on. It is going to make total sense. The second passage is going to have a little bit that will make sense, but I need to read it because I will come around to it at the end of the service.

I Corinthians 3:10 15. It's on the screen for you to follow along.

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

II Corinthians, chapter 5, let me read this starting at verse 9.

9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Okay. So the Apostle Paul is telling us our works are going to be tried by fire. The things we do as believers are going to be scrutinized. God is going to look at that, and he is going to burn them up and decide what's good and what's bad. This made total sense to the Corinthian believers and Corinthian church because they had just endured a big fire. So in the town of Corinth, they had just endured a big fire. And what had happened, everything that was made of things like marble and granite and gold and precious stones, it endured the fire. But the things that were made of wood, hay and stubble were burned up and destroyed. So they would have like marble columns standing where all the wood was gone and only the marble was left. And it was making total sense to them. "Okay, so you're saying that God is going to decide what is really valuable and what's not valuable." So they are making sense of this.

Paul also feels the need to do this for the church there because they were getting prideful. They will were starting to say like, "We're a pretty amazing church. We are doing pretty great things. We've got a lot of spiritual gifts going on. We are good givers, good servers." And they are doing it from a prideful position.

So Paul is saying, "You're doing all the right things, but you are starting to reek of pride. And when you have a wrong motive, God is going to burn that out. And that is not the way he wants you to live." So he's rebuking them. He's kind of telling them you've got to pay attention, and he is using an illustration that makes sense to them.

Now I want to be very clear when I talk about this judgment. I want to circle back to something I said earlier, but I want to be very clear. This judgment that is going on is for believers. You are already in heaven. You cannot work your way into heaven. You get into heaven by grace through faith. You receive that, and that has already been settled. This is a believer's judgment, and in this judgment that's going on, you're in heaven. Now some of you may think, "Well, then who cares, you know? Like I'm in, right? You know, I got a ticket to the game. I'm in!" Wrong attitude. Wrong attitude. Okay? You're to understand why those works are important, but I want you to know your works do not get you into heaven.

Once you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior though, it is important to do these works. And it is important to do these works with the right motive, because there is something that's going to happen. There is going to be a day where what you do on this earth matters. So if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and you're thinking, "I can just sit back and not worry because I got a ticket to the game," you cannot think that way, you know? How many know when you go in, even if you're sitting in the cheap seats, you're like, "I wish I was in the better seats." You know? So you want to be somebody that says, "I want to be there. I don't want to just barely get in. I want to do everything I can to have the best possible moment when this happens.

Now, the judgment seat that Paul talks about was called the Bema Seat. B e m a. Bema Seat. And I want to be clear on this as well. The great white throne judgment that we talked about last week was judgment in/out. There's a punishment going on. The Bema Seat that he's talking about now, it's only rewards. It's only rewards. So don't think that you're going to stand before Jesus and he's going to be angry at you in this moment. Instead, what he's going to do the Bema seat was where the ruler would sit, and he would watch, and you'd come up and you'd say, "I won the battle for you and the kingdom."

And he would say, "That's amazing. This is what it's worth to me that you won the battle." And he would give you a reward.

You would say, "I won the Olympic game," or whatever it was. "I won the game, the athletic game. And I won it for our country. I was the best."

And the ruler would say, "Great job. Here's what that's worth to me," and he would give you a gift.

So Paul is telling us there is going to be a day that God is going to judge what you do, and he is going to reward you. Again, it is not a punishment. It is not intended like that. It's a test. It is a moment where he's going to give out prizes and awards to you. And he is going to base this on what you did and why you did it. What you did and why you did it. He's going to judge the motive of the why of what you did.

Now, again, I can hear some of you thinking, like, "Wait a minute. Okay, I used to do bad things, and then Jesus saved me and now I do good things, and now I have to do good things for the right reason." Correct. Correct. You are absolutely right with that. That is exactly how you should be thinking.

Because Proverbs 16:2 says, All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Over and over again he's saying he's going to judge. He's going to judge our motive. He is going to look to see whether it was good or worthless.

And I use the word worthless on purpose, because our Bibles translate this word and they say he's going to judge it whether it's good or bad. And the word bad, it is not a good translation for the word. The word really means worthless. God is going to say, "Did you do stuff on earth that was good or stuff that was worthless?" And he's going to base it on our motives. So it is not like you did evil things, okay? It is just stuff that doesn't matter. It's stuff that was done with wrong motives or you lived for stuff that wasn't important. He's going to say, "What did you do that was really important that was good, and what was with a wrong motive?" So he's going to weigh our motives and look at that and judge our motives, and he's going to give us rewards based on the things we did for the right motive.

Okay, so let me illustrate to you some things. Because I prayed about this. I said, "God, when I stand before you on that day, what are some things I may have received credit in this earth for that I will not receive credit in heaven?" You should pray that prayer sometimes, you know. It is an interesting thing.

When I prayed that, God was like, "Okay, I'll tell you one."

I was like, "Okay, what am I not going to get credit for in heaven?"

And he said, "You went on that Africa trip and you went hunting with your boys."

And I was like, "Oh, yeah."

Let me tell you what happened. What we dedicated our campus in Swaziland, Connor, Logan and I took two days and we went hunting at that game reserve. Now this game reserve was owned by a friend of mine, and he runs it as a ministry. And he said, "Hey, if you're going to be in Africa, would you please come over to our game reserve and see this?" It was a hunting place, and you can hunt. And he said, "We raise money for our ministry by having this game park. We allow people to shoot things, and of course we eat them." And everything we shot, we ate. I just want to let you know we fed people with this. It was not like just shot and left there. It was taken care of in that way and eaten. But he said, "Come on over and you can shoot some things, and whatever you shoot, you'll actually be able to give a donation to missions."

I'm like, "That's awesome. That makes sense to me. How cool is this? I'm doing this for missions." So I shot a kudu and I wrote a check for missions, much more than Becca wished we wrote the check for missions. And so we did that.

Well, that shows up as a tax deduction to me. It shows up as I gave some money to their ministry because I went hunting. But I believe when I stand before God and he convicted me of this he just said, "Hey, when you stand before me, they may show you gave a donation to that 501(c)(3) and that was a tax write off and you helped that ministry. But guess what? Your motive wasn't good."

And I think I'm going to say, "Absolutely, God. You got me there totally." Like, "You got me. It was a fun father son trip. And I was able to do that and the kudu is hanging in my office, and I got my reward. You're right. My motive wasn't right." Doesn't mean it was evil. It just was a worthless motive. How many are tracking with me?

All right, you're like, "He shot a kudu?" Okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. We ate it, all right? Let me give you one that doesn't involve shooting, all right?

When Connor, our oldest son, went on the Global Team with church, the church paid. It was part of Kingdom Builders. We have two boys, Connor and Logan. And Logan's at home with us for ten days. We thought we should pay for Logan to go. Let's send Logan and we will have ten days for Rob and Becca time. Right? Now, we paid. We put him on the missions trip. We did that. That would count as mission giving, but God's like, "You know what, your motive, your motive was really to have ten days Rob and Becca time." And once again, I think I'm going to stand before the Lord and go, "Correct. Correct you are. I got my reward in those ten days. You're right about that one."

All right. So I just think there are certain things. Now here's the way I see it. There are things there are going to be surprises to me when I'm standing in that moment, and surprises for you. There will be checks that I wrote that I was moved with compassion for lost people with no ulterior motive, and God is going to say, "That was gold to me. That was gold."

He's going to say this to you perhaps, like, "Remember that day you were in the nursery and you didn't complain and you served joyfully, and there was that explosive poopy diaper. That was precious stones to me." All right. And he's going to reward you for that. Okay, things that we realize, like things that we do that, yeah, we are not going to get credit and there are others we are. We're going to be surprised on that day, and he's going to judge in the right way.

Now, some of you might say, "Well, if my motives aren't pure, then maybe I shouldn't do anything." You know, and maybe you're thinking, "Thank you, Pastor Rob, for a new excuse to say no to work. I'm just going to say, 'No, my motives aren't pure, and that's why I can't lead a Lifegroup.'" No, no, that is not the way we are going to do it around here, all right?

Because here's what I'll tell you about this. We need to do stuff for God all the time, and here's why. We don't know our motives completely. We don't know our motives completely. We think we know our motives, and we think this, but only God really knows the true desires. Only God knows the true motives. How many know that even bad people that do bad things will say, "But I had good motives, I had good motives." They think their motive is better than it is even when they are doing bad.

And I think that if we don't know our motives, we need to get busy doing things for God and see what God says about our motives. So don't let it just be an excuse, like "I'm going to sit back because I don't know my motive, and I don't think it's pure enough, and so I'm going to sit back and do nothing."

And while I'm on that topic for just a second, let's stop assigning motive to other people. How quick we are to say, "Oh, the only reason they're giving is so they get notice." Or, "The only reason they did that and went on the Global Team is because it was, you know, this time, and they went, and so they only did it because of that and this and that." And so we do this about motives and we assign motives to other people. Let's not do that. We have a hard time knowing what our motive is. Let's not pretend to know why other people serve, give, go and do that. Let's let them do it for God and let God weigh their motives, okay?

Now, another thing that I realize about this is, too, that sometimes we don't know our motives and sometimes we are saying, "Well, if it's miserable, then it must be God. If it's miserable then it must be God, because then I know my motive is pure." You know, like if it's a mission, if it's a Global Team to Indonesia in November, you're like, "Oh, I would be able to skip winter, and Indonesia is warm, so I can't go. Send me to the cold places, Lord." Okay, how many know just because it's miserable doesn't mean it's God. All right? Let's just do whatever God says and let's not try to overthink this here. Let's be active for God because we don't always know our motives.

Another thing that I've realized is wood is needed for the work, it's just not important. Okay, so what do you mean? Okay, ancient Jewish rabbis would debate this. They'd say, "If God knows the motives of our hearts and he knows what we are doing and why we are doing it, we need to do it with a right heart, maybe we should do nothing." And they came to this conclusion: No. Let's thank God for ambition. Let's thank God for people that want to do something for him, even if it is out of wrong motive, because when we get started in doing things, sometimes out of wrong motive it can turn into right motive. Let's be thankful that people that are out there that are enterprising, that are going for it and doing something are at least moving us forward for the cause, and in that movement good motive can come out of that moment. Do something. Get working. Do something for God. So let's do it and think, you know, this wood is needed.

Let me tell you a couple things about this, illustrating this. If I'm going to build an amazing building out of marble and granite and gold and precious stones, you know what I need to get started? I need like scaffolding made of wood. I need scaffolding around the building to get it started. But it's not the main thing, but it's needed to get to the main thing. Or better yet, if I'm mining for gold and silver and precious stone, I may line the mine shaft with wood to hold the shaft open, but it's all about getting to the gold. So there is a need for wood; it's just not that important. So let's not, you know, throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's do this. Let's do all that we can.

And it is interesting, because I think it changes. Things that sometimes start with a wood motive or hay or stubble move to the next level. Imagine this. You know, you join the worship team because you're an amazing guitar player, and you serve on the worship team for 20 years. And you stand before God, and you're like, "Hey, I served you. I did the worship team."

And he goes, "Yeah, but you know what? The first five years you served on the worship team, you did it because you thought you were a pretty hot guitar player. You did it because you wanted everybody to know how good you were." And he said, "But you know what? Here's the thing. Something happened in year six, and you know what happened? You started to change, and all of a sudden your motive became more for me, and that was like a silver time from years five to ten. But year 11, man, you really brought it to another level, and then that worship leading and playing turned to gold. And you know what? Boy, by the end of your time leading worship and being a part of the band, it was gold, silver, precious stone." But it started there and moved to good.

Which leads me to this thought: It takes a lifetime to get to pure motives. It takes a lifetime to get to pure motives. You think, "Well, I'll wait until I get to pure motives." It just takes forever to get there. The longer I serve God the more I realize what was my motive there, why did I do that? Oh, I didn't have a good motive, and I feel like I'm refining my motives. And they are getting better and better and they are getting closer to God.

And the other thing that I've learned about this is the motive percentage moves. Sometimes I'm doing things out of poor motive and then good motive and then great motive and then right back to poor motive. How many know that? And the flesh rears its ugly head and it's back to poor motive. And you're like, "No, no. Don't do that. Okay, back to good motive." Okay, and I'm trying to stay over here, but every once in a while the flesh comes in and I do things out of the wrong motive. But it moves your whole life, and I want God to be able to judge the percentage. He's the great judge. It doesn't give us an excuse not to examine our motives. We need to examine them.

You know, God may be calling you to step out of the stoplight; embrace anonymity. You know, you don't need to give that gift to get your name recognized; you do it in an anonymous way. God may tell you to hold your tongue on the credit. How many know that's really hard? You know, they are like, "Hey, great job, Tim! What a great job. You did great on the project."

And you're like, "No, it wasn't Tim, it was Rob. Rob did a great job!" And you're clapping for him, and you're like, "Hey, he didn't do it." How many know that's really hard to hold your tongue because you want the credit.

God is saying, "Hey, hey, hey, hold, hold, hold. I know who did it. There is coming a day that I'll judge."

But you want to say, "I did it."

But God's like, "Hold your tongue. Have the right motive. Do it because you love me, not because you get the credit."

We can deflect the praise and so, you know what, hey, maybe did you it, and then God is like saying, "Deflect it. Let everybody share the victory. It is not just yours, let everybody share."

The last thought on that would be this: Let's give God something to burn. Let's give God something to burn. On judgment day let's remember this is a moment that whatever we have is going to be there, and he's doing to burn it, he's going to try it; wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, precious stone. My theory is this, I want a giant pile for God to burn. That's my theory. I want a giant pile for God to burn. Knowing that all these piles are going to shrink, I want a giant pile to say, "This is all that I did on this earth for you, God." And then God can burn it down.

And I kind of view it as like how many have ever been to Mongolian Barbeque or a place like that where you put your food in the bowl and you think you've got a lot. And then they go and cook it, and it is like this little plate. How many know that? And the skilled people at Mongolian Barbeque know how to extend the bowl by using firm vegetables, you know, and you get it bigger. And then you pile that plate, and you give them the big thing because you know when it's put on the fire it's going to shrink.

So my theory is this: I'm just going to learn how to extend everything and give God the biggest pile of stuff to burn and hoping that the percentage is good in there. That's what I'm hoping, knowing that I don't always know my heart and I'm going to do everything I can.

You know what? This is a time test. This is a time test. What you do on this earth matters for this day, and the only time you can get anything in that pile is right now. And it's a time test. And I don't know about you, but if I think the clock is ticking and it was getting closer, my theory was like if I had 30 questions left and the teacher said, "One minute," I just went at that moment, A, B, C, D, B, C, D, A, B, C. Let's try to get lucky, all right? You know, quantity of answers. You know, that's how I was trying.

So I'm just thinking let's do all we can. Let's give God a pile of stuff to burn, and he'll test the motives, and over time our motives will get better, okay. He'll know when we did it out of loving God, loving man, and when we did it out of envy, personal ambition, love of praise. He'll be able to judge that.

So why should we be motivated? Why? Couple things. And this is that second passage. Paul gave it to us in II Corinthians 5. In verse 9 he said this, So we make it our goal to please him. You should do this because you want to please him. You should do things for God because you want to please him.

Secondly, in verse 10 he says, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body. He's saying Jesus will reward us. There is coming a day. He told us. He told us this day is coming, and he says, "I'm going to give you a reward based on what you did and why you did it. Have something there to be tested." So we're going to do it because he's going to reward us.

Third, he says, For Christ's love compels us. He said, "I love Jesus. Jesus loves me. It's in me. It oozes out of me. It's forcing me." A follower of Jesus Christ is like a force to go do things because the love of God is in you and through you, and so he's saying, "Go do it."

And then in verse 15 he's basically saying because people will be saved. Because lives will be changed for eternity. That's why you give. That's why you go. That's why you serve. Because lives are changed for eternity. So we just keep doing it. We say, "I don't care why, I just want to go and do this. I want to do it for you. And, God, help me to refine my motives and may they mature and be more like you, and may I embrace anonymity and may I embrace the lowest place, and may I use my gift of serving and may I use my gifts and talents, not to lord over people, but to use that leadership to lift them up." So you're using that to advance the cause, but you do it because people get saved.

So what are we going to do with all these things? You get all this big pile, and he burns it down, it shrinks and there is something. What you going to do? Are you going to decorate your mansion with it? You know? No. Are you going to turn it into a gold chain and be walking around like somebody from Jersey like with a gold chain, "Ya, this is my rewaads. I did this for the Lawrd. I gotta a nugget chain and a nugget bracelet, eh." How many know it's not going to be like that in heaven, okay? No offense, Jersey. All right. It is not going to be like that.

In Revelation chapter 4, here's what it says is going to happen. It gives us insight. It talks about the elders taking their crowns off, victor's crown, all these crowns, martyr's crown, all these crowns, and they lay them at the feet of Jesus. So get this, you're going to have a day before God where he's going to take everything did you for him, try it, test it, burn it down, and then he's going to give it to you. And then you know what you're going to do? You've going to give it back to him. And you say, "I did it all for you. I did it for you because I love you. This is my gift to you." This is the greatest party in the world. And I'm telling you this as your pastor right now: You want to have a gift on that day to give to Jesus.

The Bible says some will be there like they escaped out of fire, like they got saved on their deathbed or they got saved and they never did much for God at all. I have this vision of those people being in the designated clapping section, like, "Hey, we're glad we're here. We got in. I got no gift for you, but I'm here. I'm a designated clapper."

You know what? I don't want to be a designated clapper that day. I want to be somebody that has something and says, "God, I did it for you. I did it for you, for your glory and for your honor. Here, here's the gift."

And I think it's going to matter. And I think it really is an important thing that we stand there and say, "God, we do this for your glory and for your honor."

And I want to tell you, as your pastor I make no apology for asking you to give and to do Kingdom Builders and Global Project and presenting missionaries to you. I make no apology for saying serve, help us to save people, let's be an active church, be in a Lifegroup, let's do this together. Because I know that day is coming. And I want that to be a good day. I want that to be a good day. And if it's possible in heaven for you to look up your pastor, I want you to be able to say, "Hey, thank you, thank you. Thank you for keeping me busy because I had a huge pile to burn. I had an amazing gift for God. Thank you for keeping us busy and keeping us on mission, because I was able to give something to my Savior instead of being in the designated clapping section." That's my goal as your pastor.

Last thought, and I'll close with this. Here is how I think with this. How many know the show Antique Roadshow? How many know that show on PBS, all right? People find stuff in their attic or they have stuff given to them from a relative, and they think it is valuable, and they bring it in to an appraiser. And the appraiser will sometimes say, "No, that painting is not worth anything. Your grandpa wasn't famous. It's a good painting to you, but it's not worth anything." And other times they will find stuff that people bought at a garage sale, and they are like, "That's priceless. That's amazing. That's worth half a million dollars!" And the people are so surprised.

Here is the thing I want to drive home about this. Most of the people, when they find a priceless treasure in their home, don't sell it. I know you're thinking I was thinking they would sell it. Like you find out that painting is worth a half a million dollars, you're like, "Sell, sell, sell!"

Most people that find something valuable in their home, you know what they want to do? They want to hold on to it and they want to give it to somebody they love. They want to give it to somebody they love. And they want to say, "This is for you. It's valuable, and I love it, and I love you."

And I think that's what we are going to do with our treasures. We are going to have them, and instead of saying, "Sell, sell, sell!" we're going to say, "I'm so glad that I can take what I have and give it to the one I love. God, take it, take it. It's yours. It's for your glory. It's for your honor. I love you."

And I think he's going to say back to us, "I love it. Well done. Well done. Well done."

So as we live this week, let's give God something to burn up. Let's pray that it's gold, silver, precious stones. Let's pray that the purity of our motives moves, but let's be working toward that day. Because if we're a follower of Jesus Christ, we are all going to be there, and I don't want you in the designated clapping section.

So, Lord, I pray right now that you would help us to realize every little bit of service matters. The Bible says a cold drink of water done in your name to somebody who's thirsty will be rewarded. I don't know if that's gold, silver or precious stones, but I know you say it will be rewarded. You say everything that we sacrificed in this life will be rewarded in eternity. I don't know how it works, but I know that you said it was there, and so I pray we work accordingly. You said today is the time we can do it. Today is the day we can make a difference. We can bring people into salvation. We can work for your glory and for your honor. And so, God, I pray that we'd work while we can. Thank you, God, for that.

I pray that you'd purify our motives, Lord. I pray that you'd purify us and we'd do it with a right heart. But I pray, God, we'd always be busy on every occasion, knowing that our motives move and knowing that we can be busy for our Lord and Savior, because on that day we want to give you something because we love you.

So blessing on this church. Blessing on them now as they work for your glory knowing they can't work their way into heaven, but they are working for that day to have a treasure to give back to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Blessing on this church.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen