I want you to take your Bible, though, because you can't come to church and not spend some time in the Word of God. And so I have something appropriate along the lines of awards that I want to talk about tonight. And it's interesting, the word award does not appear in your Bible. It's not there. There is another word. It's the word reward. That word does appear a little over 200 times. So it's there quite a bit. Now we're in the book of Daniel. If you want to turn there by way of beginning. Just to read a passage about some rewards or awards. Daniel chapter 2. And this is a familiar story, as we might remember. And this is, well let me just read it. Let me start at verse 1. It says, And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep break from him. It was so intense, his dream woke him up. Has anybody ever had a dream like that? Was so, yeah, so intense. It woke you up. Hopefully you weren't in the middle of a fight and, you know, beating your wife up or maybe the other way around. Dreams can get really intense and realistic sometimes. Okay? Verse 2, Then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. He wants, what does this dream mean? Mine usually means it has to do with what I ate the night before. Well, that's not so in the Bible. Many times dreams meant something very important. Verse three, and the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream. Kind of sounds kind of funny, doesn't it? I've dreamed a dream. Okay. And my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king, in Syriac, O king, live forever, tell thy servants to dream, and we will shew the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me. I dreamed a dream and it woke me up. As soon as I woke up, I forgot what it was. But I know there was really something. Has that ever happened to you? You woke up, you knew you dreamed, but once you woke up, you don't have a clue what it was you dreamed. But it was still kind of like, well, that was really something. That's the king's problem, okay? If ye will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. Now that's pretty serious. Well, my king, you've had a dream and it was terrible. Tell us what it was. I don't know what it was. You tell me what it was. How am I supposed to know what you dreamed? I wasn't in your dream. I had a dream I was the president one time. I did remember that one. And it was very distressing. Because, man, you got to pick all those people. You got to nominate all them people to fill all those jobs. It's like, Rick, you want to be in charge of the FBI? I got to pick somebody who knows something. Yeah. The only thing I can remember is I picked my nephew who had just made Sergeant Major to be in charge of my personal protection detail. So Bridget texted Ronnie and said, hey, your uncle dreamed he was the president. You're supposed to be in charge of his protection detail. And he texted back, I accept the position. So I got that one covered. Should that ever happen, I'm covered there. Anyways, the king tells all these wise guys, you tell me what it was. And if you don't, it's not going to be very good for you. you're gonna be put to death. I'm gonna turn your house into a dump, a literal place, a dumping place. Wow. Verse six. But if ye shew the dream and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, shew me the dream and the interpretation thereof. Let me pray. Father, help us now, I pray, in the moments that we spend thinking about the rewards that you wish to bestow upon us. I pray you'd help us to learn just as a simple truth we can apply to our everyday life. We thank you for all these boys and girls and the hard work they've done to memorize those who have earned earned awards and some maybe they didn't get recognized tonight but they're still progressing they're still learning and they will be awarded when they reach that level. I pray you'd bless them and help them. View this now please in Jesus name. Amen. The king says to all these guys who are his counselors, they're the magicians, etc. etc. etc. They're supposed to be the guys who know all about stuff and they can give good counsel to the king. And apparently it's not an abnormal thing for the king to ask for the interpretation of a dream. That falls within the scope of their job. Except there is a problem. He doesn't remember what the dream is. And they kind of complain about it. King, there's no man can do that. We can't do that. And basically he says, well, it stings to be you. And just leaves it at that. And they got X amount of time. And we know how the story goes, don't we? Because then the guy who's in charge of the guards, he goes to Daniel's apartment, knocks on the door, Daniel's coming, he says, sorry, Daniel, you're toast. What? Yep, the king had a big pepperoni pizza, had a dream, he doesn't know what it's about. And the wise guys, they don't know what it was and what it means. And so he's ordered all of his counselors to be executed. Daniel is like, that is, don't you think the king's a little rash? Of course, but he's the boss. Doesn't really matter what I think. He's the king. Well, can I go? I'm obviously ad-libbing a little bit. Can I go see him and ask him about this? Well, you can try. Okay, so he goes to see the king. And he tells the king, oh king, if you'll give me till tomorrow, I'll tell you what your dream, I'll tell you your dream and what it means. Does Daniel know what the dream is? No, he doesn't have a clue. But he knows who does know. He knows the Lord knows. And if the Lord wants to preserve his servants, the Lord will show Daniel what the dream is. And then he'll tell him what the dream means, and he'll tell the king. And that's exactly what happens. The next day when he comes to the king, he says, alright Daniel, tell me the dream. And Daniel right away says, oh king, there's no man alive that can do what you asked. It's almost like he's setting himself up to be Sorry, couldn't do it. But then he says, verse 28, but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. And then he tells them, this is what you dreamed. And this is the dream, the big vision he gets of the, you know, the big giant statue with the head of gold and the shoulders, neck and shoulders of silver and the belly and thighs of brass and the legs of iron and the feet and toes of iron and clay all mixed together. Nebuchadnezzar is given a vision of the entire human history from start to finish. That's amazing. God revealed this is the plan. These guys are going to be in charge. These guys in charge. These guys in charge. These guys in charge. How many is that? Four? Five? Whatever. We get down to the iron and the clay. Those guys are in charge. And then a great big boulder comes out of heaven. Smashes the whole thing. And that stands for the Lord Jesus. Because he's the king of kings. The king of all kings. So Nebuchadnezzar is given this amazing vision. Revealing all of human history And Daniel reveals it to him now I want you to look at verse 48 because that's in line of kind of our theme tonight After he expresses all of that to the king, look at verse 46, let's start there. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshiped Daniel and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him. He wants to worship him like he's God. Well, that's not right. The king answered unto Daniel and said, of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods. and a Lord of Kings, and a Revealer of Secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret." Now notice verse 48. made Daniel a great man and gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. He gave Daniel a reward. the reward that he promised. He promised, did he not, back in verse 6? But if you show me the dream, I'll give you gifts and rewards and great honor. Now, I don't think Daniel did that to get great honor. He might have been motivated by something a bit more personal and that is he didn't want to die. Okay. But also he wanted to honor God. Later on in his life, the same thing happens with another descendant of Nebuchadnezzar's when he sees the great big finger writing on the wall and he says, if you tell me what that means, I'll give you all this stuff. And Daniel says, keep your junk, I don't need your junk. But I'll tell you what it means. I think that's Daniel's attitude. He's not trying to earn awards or rewards as a way of promoting himself. But when he does what's right, God gives him a reward. Now, in this case, he gives it through the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, but Daniel is rewarded. Those two words, award and reward, are almost identical in their meaning. And that's not a preacher's speech, that's Apple Dictionary. I don't think that's a great fountainhead of biblical knowledge, necessarily. But if you look up reward in Apple Dictionary, it's recognition for something given out of recognition. And then if you look up the other word, it says, something given out of recognition. It's almost identical definition. So rewards are the same as awards. They're basically the same thing. Awards. Go to Matthew 5. We understand the concept of awards. So who won the Super Bowl? Thank you, the Philadelphia Eagles. I had to look it up, to be honest. We don't know yet who's going to win the NBA championship, do we? That's a fan speaking. The Knicks are going to take it. We'll see. Who's going to win the World Series? It won't be the Rockies. The website I looked at said that the Dodgers are the favored to win. I don't know. Yeah, they may think they are. So here's my point. Awards and rewards are given out of recognition. of something that was accomplished, something that was done. Sometimes something heroic that was done, like I mentioned on Monday, that sergeant who saved that 14-year-old girl from the drive-by shooter. He didn't do that to get the soldier's ribbon. But he was awarded that because that's what he did. It was in recognition of his service. Somebody who earns a Congressional Medal of Honor. They don't say, you know what, I think I'll go put my life totally at risk in a stupid way just so I can get the Congressional Medal of Honor. That's not how that works. They did something. And it was amazing, it was recognized. Whether it's a military member, or it's a police officer, or it's a firefighter, or it's just a citizen of our country, given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, I think it's called, or whatever, they're being recognized for something that they did. So we understand that. I want you to notice in Matthew chapter 5, because I want us to go from man recognizing man and giving an award, a reward for some accomplishment, some achievement. And I want you to notice what the Lord says. Matthew 5 and verse 12. After he gives kind of those amazing things, after the beatitudes, blessed are the so-and-so and so-and-so and so-and-so, okay? And when it get to the end of the beatitudes, look what Jesus says in verse 12. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your, what's the next word? Reward in heaven. You know, giving boys and girls an award for accomplishing a lot of memory work, that is not a bribe. That's a recognition of work well done. And the Lord's going to give you a reward when you get to heaven on the assumption that you're going to heaven. I mean, that has to be settled first, doesn't it? If you're not going to heaven, You're not going to get a reward. You're going to get punishment because if you haven't trusted Christ as your Savior, whether you're a boy, boy or girl, mom or dad, grandma, grandpa, if you haven't trusted Christ as your Savior, you're still in condemnation. But on the assumption that you're going to heaven, the Lord's going to give you a reward. He's going to give you a reward. Now how is that going to work? Go to chapter 10. Just go over a couple of pages. Chapter 10 and verse 42. Jesus says, And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones, A cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple. Verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his, what's the word? Reward. Actually, the Lord sort of expects us to behave in such a way that we would be worthy of a reward. We would be worthy of being recognized as doing right. That's interesting. Chapter 16. and verse 27. Okay, so he's preparing for a reward. He's expecting us to be worthy of a reward. Verse 27, For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according to his works. He's planning on rewarding you. He's preparing. And so the question for us as we think about that is, are we preparing? Are we getting ready for that day? I mean today was, it was awards night for Anchor Club and we gave some pin on medals and some Olympic medals and I almost got to give away this cool plaque I made. Then there were the trophies. But the reason that they got those is because those boys and girls prepared, didn't they? They were diligent enough. to do their lessons and anchor club and memorize their scripture. And in reference even to the race day, there had to be work done on that car, on the kit. And the painting and the planning. The point is, awards don't come because you just happen to fall on your face. There has to be preparation and diligence on our part. And that's important because the Bible tells us, and now go if you would please to 2nd Peter toward the back of the New Testament of course. Hebrews, James, 1st and 2nd Peter. So 2nd Peter, chapter one, And verse 11, and as Peter's writing to believers who've obtained like precious faith, and if that's true, which means that you've gotten saved, there's an anticipation that you're going to grow. That's the grace and peace that's multiplied in verse 2. According to his his power and the truth of his word We have these great promises and so because of all that in verse 5 we're giving diligence We're addressing the things in our own life and Peter uses the analogy of a of a bricklayer actually and Because all those add to your faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, etc. Those are like courses of bricks. Grammatically, that's how it's laid out. First, you don't put the top brick on if you don't have a foundation. You got to have the foundation, then this course, and then the next course of bricks. They build on top of each other. And so that is with us and our Christian growth. Right now we're preparing for awards day by adding to our faith. Now look at verse 11. So it goes through that whole list. For so an entrance, meaning your entrance, for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Your reception into heaven, the greeting that Jesus gives to you. Now, all of us would love to show up in heaven and have the Jesus Christ welcome us at the pearly gate, so to speak, and say, well done thou good and faithful servant. enter into the joy of the Lord. But that's not going to happen on accident. At the very least, we have to be adding to our faith. If that's the kind of entrance that we want, then we have to get ready for it. It's not going to happen automatically. It's not like some, in some settings, you know, kids play a game and everybody's a winner. If everybody's a winner, that also means everybody's a loser, which means nobody won. What was the point? I don't know about you, but if I'm playing a game, I want to play to win. I don't want to play to lose. I want to play to win. I shouldn't want to play to win so bad that I'm going to cheat, but you have to watch Joe. So I've been told. His attitude is, if you don't catch me, I guess it's not cheating. I think that depends on the game you're playing as well. But anyways, I'm being silly here. The point is, if you want your entrance into heaven to be, well done thou good and faithful servant, you have to be a good and faithful servant. It's just that simple. We could go back to 1 Corinthians 3, And that whole passage where Paul talks about our life and standing before the Lord, the wood, hay, stubble, gold, silver, precious stones. That's the judgment day before the Lord Jesus Christ. And our reward is proportional to the faithfulness of our living in the present. So if we want a great reward when we get to heaven, It's not like we get to brag about how rich we are. I mean, compared to Jesus, are we anything? No, that's why in other places it talks about them putting the crowns at his feet because we recognize we're not really deserving of anything. It's all his grace and mercy. But because of his grace and mercy, I ought to live in a way that brings him honor and glory. And he's gonna recognize that. Revelation 22 in verse 12. So now we're at the end of the New Testament. In fact, we're at the end of God's revelation. And look what Jesus says in verse 12. And behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." When He comes back, He's bringing your reward. That's what He says. That's what he says, right there. And behold, I come quickly. Meaning when he comes, he's not delaying. When the time comes, boom, that's the time. And when I do come, I'm bringing my reward, that which I'm going to give to you in recognition of you living your faithful life for my honor and glory. I'm bringing that with me. That makes me... It's not indiscriminate, is it? I think the word I want is, it's qualified. It's qualified. As your work is. So there's some proportionality there, isn't there? So that leads us to a question that we, all of us, as God's children, we could ask ourselves, hmm, is my life worthy of a reward? Now, it's not a, you're not comparing your reward with my reward, and I'm not comparing my reward with your reward. We're comparing my life before salvation to my life after salvation. And therefore, it doesn't matter if you got saved yesterday, you can have a reward coming if you choose to live faithfully in the time that you have. Award day, now that's my term. That's coming. That's coming. And so we ought to get ready. I think it would be terrible to go into heaven to think somehow we're going to brag, I made it in by the hair of my ginny gin gin. I don't think we're going to be bragging about that. Are we? We'll be like, shame on me. Look at my savior and I'm in his presence. In fact, Romans says that in his presence all the miles will be stopped. And the tear, I mean we think about no tears in heaven. That's not till after the millennial reign of Christ. Which means there's a thousand years of crying. And that's not the unsaved who are crying. That's the redeemed who are crying. Why would we be crying? I don't know, it might be the faces of my friends and loved ones who I never gave the gospel to. They're not enjoying heaven and I should have told him maybe it's crying because of my savior was worthy of everything and all that I was but I limited it for current comfort and now I see that Whatever I would have suffered, as Paul says in Romans, the sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared to the glories that shall be revealed in us. I don't know that there'll be any dry eyes in heaven actually for a thousand years. There's nobody who's been perfect, amen? But the Lord in his grace and in his wisdom knows who did right. He's gracious enough that even if we totally muffed it, if we trusted Jesus, hey, that's the ticket in. But he says, you know, you might want to think about that and be prepared. So my question for you tonight as we close, what will your award night be like? When you stand before Jesus, just before he lets you in. That's the image that's... I'm not trying to be dogmatic about what it's going to be like because none of us have been there yet. Boy, it'd be pretty bad, wouldn't it, to be at the... I have this vision of this, like, conveyor belt. I know, that sounds weird, but there's a pile of hay, and a pile of wood, and a pile of rubble, and kind of mixed in all of that, there's some gold, and silver, and some precious stones, and that's the pile of my life. And it's on the conveyor belt. And it goes through the fire. And the Lord says, go stand at the end, catch what comes out. Okay, you got the image? On your way to the end of the conveyor belt, there's a giant basket to catch what comes out. There's a five-gallon bucket or a teaspoon. Which one do you pick up? You're planning that now. You're prepping now for how that's gonna work. Award night. I don't say that to scare you. I think it's something worthy of thinking about. If the Lord talked that much about it, we ought to think about it, plan for it. He wants it to be a glorious day. And being in heaven will be glorious, amen? Even if I do only make it in by the hair of my chin, chin, chin, that's got a whole lot better than the other option. But he wants it to be magnanimous. But he leaves that up to me. And he leaves that up to you. If you have some needs, spiritual needs, questions, if I can help you, please don't hesitate. That's not, like Daniel, it's not that I have the answer, but I know who does. Okay? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your loving grace, for the truth of your word, and to pray you might help us that we would live our lives in such a way in light of what we know is coming. We know going to heaven is in the future. And I pray you to help us live in light of that truth and live for your glory. Would you guide and direct now, please? Again, we thank you for the boys and girls and all the work that they've done. Would you bless them, please? Help us now as we break. and already planning for next year and getting ourselves prepared to do bigger and better with an outreach in this regard. Guide and direct now we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.