Okay, we're going to start this morning if you want to join me in the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 4. We're continuing our series of studies on the last things, what is awaiting all people at the end of history, at the end of their lives, how God is summing up life and history, and how everything is going to be coming to a focal point on a specific day in the future known as the day of judgment. We've been talking recently about what that Day of Judgment is going to be like. We've seen that the Day of Judgment is going to be an event in which the Lord Jesus Himself, having returned to planet Earth, is going to be establishing a throne of glory, authority, and majesty. And from that throne, He Himself is going to judge every person who's ever lived or ever will live. The main task of his judgment on that day is going to be a separation process in which he's going to separate all human beings into two categories, into two groups. He refers to them metaphorically as a group of sheep who he's placing on his right hand and a group of goats who he's placing on his left hand. We've talked about how the sheep are the good guys and the goats are the bad guys. And they're good and bad not based upon human perspective of what makes up good and bad, but they're good and bad based upon what he evaluates, what he looks at, what's important to him, what he sees in their heart of hearts and from their lives. And in that separation process, after he separates people into these two groups, he's going to then judge each group differently. But not just as a group, he's going to judge each one individually. And what we've been looking at for the last few weeks in a row now is the judgment of those on his right hand side, the sheep, those who are believers, who belong to him, are part of what is called the household of God. They're going to be judged for two primary purposes. They're going to be judged for his glory, meaning that as their lives are judged, he's looking for those aspects in their lives that bring him glory and honor. and he's going to judge for the purpose of actually rewarding or giving recompense to them for their lives' work, their labor. And we've seen recently that that's going to involve an evaluation process. And that evaluation process is going to be to determine the nature, the kind or sort of work that is done by those people that are on his right-hand side. And the actual evaluation is described as a fire in which all of their lives' works are going to be placed in this fire. And the fire is going to test the quality or the sort of work that it is to determine which kind of work it is. And the categories are described, and I've used terms like one pile and another pile of works, And the categories are, on one hand, gold, silver, and gemstone quality work, work that, even though it's placed in the fire, will last, because it has intrinsic, permanent value to the Lord Himself. And the other pile is going to be a pile of wood quality, hay quality, straw quality work that looked weighty, it looked Like it had a lot of volume to it, but once it passes through the fire, it's discovered to be of no real lasting value. The Lord looks at it and says, yeah, that was activity, but it wasn't activity that I placed any value on. Therefore, no reward, no recompense is being attached to that. Now, what I would like to start with this morning is a passage from the book of Colossians, as I said, in chapter 4. And I'm just going to read a single verse. And this is one of the scariest verses in the entire Bible. And it's not scary for an unbeliever because this isn't addressing an unbeliever, this is scary for a believer. And if you haven't learned by now that there are still things to fear as a believer, learn it now. There are still things to fear as a believer. There is a fear of the Lord that should govern our hearts, our minds, our perspectives, and our lives. And this is a verse that communicates one of those fears. And it is a warning to a specific individual. It's a warning by the Apostle Paul. And it's not just Paul in his own personal, natural, fleshly perspective with a concern for a fellow Christian. This is Paul speaking on behalf of the Lord himself. into the heart and life of an individual believer. We don't have the backstory on this believer. We don't know why he's being warned. We don't know the life circumstances that have led him to the point where he desperately needs to hear this warning, but we have the warning. And let it apply individually to each one of our lives as it needs to be. Chapter 4, verse 17, Paul ends his letter to the Colossians as he's spent four chapters teaching all this great stuff. And now at the very end of the letter, he ends like this, Say to Archippus. Now, Archippus was a member of this Colossian congregation. And if you can imagine, the way this worked in those days was, we all brought our own Bibles with us, and that's a blessing that we have. They didn't have that opportunity in those days. In those days, the way they received this letter, was Paul wrote this letter, he then distributed it by messenger to the assembly in Colossae. And it was brought to the leadership of that assembly. And they brought the letter to the assembly, and there's this one Sunday morning where they're going to gather together as believers, and now, after their worship time, they're going to have the blessing of a special letter read to them from Paul the Apostle, who is elsewhere in the world, can't be with them on that morning. And as they're reading this letter, all this wonderful teaching as Paul is writing to them, all of the glories and purposes of God, and then this is how he ends the letter. And this is being heard by this man for the very first time as it's being read in public in the assembly. It would be like if I were to call out one of your names this morning and read this verse with your name attached to it, and it's the first time you've heard these words, and you knew it was Paul the Apostle speaking on behalf of the Spirit of God. writing these words, say to Archippus, take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it. Now, what's so scary about that? What's so scary about that? I'm saying this is one of the scariest verses in the whole Bible for me. What's so scary? Yeah, the implications are what are scary. The implications that Archippus is not taking heed. And he's not fulfilling the ministry that he should be fulfilling. And not just like some idea, you know how it is, we can sometimes, with even good intentions, fill our lives with Christian activity and ministry even. But it's not necessarily what I've been calling for the last few weeks, life assignment. Where God has, and we know it, God has assigned to us some work to do. Some specific thing that we're to prioritize in our lives and make the focal point of why we're here and what we're to accomplish. And Archippus had a life assignment. He had been given a ministry because this was the ministry which you have received in the Lord. This was some specific assignment that God himself had given to this man. And Archippus was not taking heed to fulfill it. So if he wasn't taking heed to fulfill it, what was he doing? Yeah, that's exactly right. He was doing something else. Does it matter what else he was doing? Not ultimately. I mean, unless it was some grievous sin, of course that would be an even greater scariness and danger. But he could have just been doing some other good things. Or just, you know, relatively neutral kind of things. Not necessarily particularly good, not necessarily particularly bad. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't doing what he was supposed to do. That's the point. And so what I want to talk about this morning as we've been focusing on the reward is I want to talk about this issue of Archippus. And I said we don't have his backstory, so I can't, you know, I can't talk about the details of what was going on with Archippus, but I can say this, the warning to Archippus is God's warning to us. It's interesting how the Lord will at times use specific individuals like Archippus to focus his attention on our hearts where we need it. I'm saying, and as I've said, you've heard me say before, each one of you has received a life assignment from the Lord. You all have your own assignment. And I can say easily, and I could fill in each one of your names, say to fill in the blank, take heed that you fulfill the ministry that you've received from the Lord. And the implications are, if you don't fulfill the ministry which you've received from the Lord, what awaits? Well, the good news is, and this whole thing of reward as we've been talking all along, it's a good news, bad news proposition. The good news is, after you've come to know the Lord, and you've come to the beginning of an understanding that God has given you a life assignment, if you never fulfill your assignment after the day of your salvation, the good news is, you're still saved. Praise God. You'll make it in. You know, it might be biased, we talk in our culture about the skin of your teeth. You know, as Paul says in Corinthians, so as through fire, he himself will yet be saved. And that's the good news. The bad news though, and there is bad news attached to this, the bad news is The loss of what might have been. The loss of what might have been. And I've been trying to emphasize this concept of the loss of what might have been, and I just have it in my heart that I want to take one more week to focus on that, so that's what we're doing this morning. We're talking about the loss, the potential loss of what might have been for us on the Day of Judgment, and on the other side of that coin, the possibility of what yet can be gained. what yet can be gained. Turn with me from here, if you would, to 1 Corinthians 3. We'll re-read the passage that has been the focal point of our study on the Day of Judgment as the believer's judgment for the sake of reward. 1 Corinthians 3, I'll read from verse 9 again. This is the single portion in the New Testament that gives us the most detail on this day. Well worth reading again, for we, in verse 9, are God's fellow workers. Paul here is referring to himself, of course, and Apollos and others who were ministering to the church. You, the church, are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God, which was given to me like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident. The implication there, of course, is it's not necessarily evident today, but it will be evident on that day. For the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality, or of what sort, each man's work is. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, meaning that before it entered the fire it had intrinsic, permanent value in the eyes of the Lord, then he will receive a reward because it's going to pass through the fire unharmed, unchanged. But if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire, or as we were just talking about, by the skin of his teeth, so to speak. The idea here is, in verse 15, that we're focused on, if any man's work is burned up, this phrase, he will suffer loss. The term Paul uses is a term of economics. It's a practical term. It was used in marketplace business that was done. day after day, and it's a term which means to forfeit something. And it's not referring here to a temporary short-term loss. You know how it is if you're in business. Some of you have experience with this. If you're in business and you're investing for the future with the hope of gaining some kind of long-term increase on your investment, You enter into the whole investment strategizing field of things in economics, or you should if you're wise, with the understanding that not every investment you make is going to only ever show increase. There may be short term losses, there may be as the market goes up and down, there may be times when it looks like you're taking a step backwards economically, but you're staying in it for the long term because you're hoping to gain a long term greater benefit. The kind of loss that Paul's talking about here is not that kind of loss. When he says he will suffer loss, he will forfeit what he might have gained. We're not talking here about, okay, I live out my whole Christian life, I understand I have a life assignment from the Lord, I do some stuff toward that life assignment, I do some other stuff, and I come before the Lord on the final day and the Lord evaluates and I find out, wait a second, I wasn't exactly doing everything I should have been doing or doing it the way I should have been doing it. And the Lord evaluates it and I lose out on eternal reward. But because the Lord is so big and so gracious and so generous and so open hearted, he says to me, OK, it's like what we do sometimes with our kids who get an allowance and we say, OK, you haven't done exactly what you should have been doing. So I'm taking your allowance away for three months. And then if you show improvement at the end of that three months, what are you going to do as a wise, generous, kind, big-hearted parent? You're going to restore the allowance. And it's possible to look at this whole concept of reward on the Day of Judgment from the perspective of, you know, maybe what we're losing out on for this person who's suffering the loss of reward is he's just losing out on some, you know, relatively speaking, short-term benefit for eternity. Meaning, okay, if eternity is forever and ever and ever, maybe the loss I'm going to suffer is for the next thousand years, I won't have what eventually I will have. Or maybe for the next, if I really missed out on doing what I should have been doing, maybe for the next 10,000 years. I'll miss out." And then at the end of that 10,000 years, God will say to me, because that's the kind of big-hearted, gracious God that He is, He'll say to me, here, I'm just, you know, you've suffered long enough, I'm going to go ahead and give you what you would have had had you done this in your life on earth. I'm going to go ahead and give it to you anyway. Right? It doesn't work that way. This is a description of a permanent forfeit. a loss of something that might have been gained, but once it's lost, it's never regained, forever and ever and ever. What I'm wanting to describe to your hearts is this, that what we do in our lives now, in terms of fulfilling our life assignment in the way that the Lord wants us to, will absolutely dramatically impact the way we experience eternity. Meaning, 10 gazillion years from now, if God rewards you with something on the Day of Judgment, you will still be experiencing that thing 10 gazillion years from now. But if you lose that for the next 10 gazillion years and the gazillions after that, you will experience the loss of that reward. You won't have that as part of your experience. Now, I want to talk next week about what the actual rewards are. But this week I just had in my heart to focus one more time on what this loss of reward concept is all about. So turn with me from here to the book of Luke, chapter 19. How many of you remember, not all of you do, some of you just know about this like myself through history books. And I would expect, I'm trying to think here, probably most of us would only know it this way, maybe one or two would know it otherwise. How many remember an event in our modern history known as Black Tuesday? Does that ring a bell with anyone? Black Tuesday. Black Tuesday occurred in the year 1929. We're turning to Luke 19, by the way. 1929. It was what was known as the Great Stock Market Crash. And Black Tuesday is an interesting phenomenon culturally and historically for American history. You can read about it and learn a little bit about it. The interesting thing about Black Tuesday is that it was, of course, the single greatest loss economically in all of American history and probably in world history up until that point. And as a result of Black Tuesday, it wasn't just that people lost the money. A lot of people lost their lives on Black Tuesday, not because, you know, some terrorists came in and took their lives or not because of some disease. or something of that nature, some plague or some earthquake. A lot of people lost their lives on Black Tuesday for what reason? They took their lives. And why did they take their lives? Why did so many? There was, you know, one of the greatest number of suicides on any single day in all of, you know, recorded history. And why did so many people take their lives on Black Tuesday? The reason being is because people had spent their entire life investing in something that disappeared in a single day. They suffered great loss on a single day. And the devastation to their hearts, because that's all their life was built on, was the economics of the present moment. The devastation of that was so great that many couldn't bear it. They just couldn't handle it. They couldn't handle the prospect of a future having poured so much in and having it all disappear in a moment's time, out of their control, and a life to be lived ahead that saw that none of that benefit was going to be part of their life experience. They couldn't handle that, and many, many did take their lives. The difference between Black Tuesday and the Day of Judgment for the believer is that there's not going to be any believers committing spiritual suicide on the Day of Judgment. when we see what we lose. But the devastation that those people experience is perhaps the closest analogy I can give you in our history and in our culture to what that experience is going to be like when we see what it is that we're going to lose out on or we're going to forfeit. And I'm not talking here about the kind of loss that, and economics really is the best connection to this. I mean, it's the analogy that the Lord himself uses. I'm not talking about the lotto kind of loss. How many of you have ever, come on, be honest with me now, how many of you have ever played the lottery? Okay? Where, you know, those little one dollar tickets that you can buy. And, you know, why do you do that anyway? I mean, what's the point of the lotto? Here I'm not preaching for or against the lotto. I could care less. Really? It's not the biggest problem in your life that you face. But what's the whole point of buying one of those $1 tickets? Yeah, right. The whole point of buying one of those $1 tickets is the prospect, even as remote as it is, of gaining, yeah, $50 million, $10 million. I'll settle for a single million dollars, you know. And when the day comes and they announce the numbers, And all you've done is buy one single ticket because you, you know, believe that God was leading you to that ticket, right? So all you've done is buy one single ticket. You've invested how much? A dollar. That's what you've invested. And the day comes and they read the numbers and your numbers aren't on there. And you're disappointed, okay? How devastated are you going to be? I mean, you know, you're going to be disappointed. But you're going to go out and buy another ticket the next day, you know. So obviously you weren't that devastated like they were on Black Tuesday. But the whole point is, you didn't invest much. You only invested a dollar. And that's why it wasn't... The hope of a million or five or ten or twenty million was great, but the investment was very, very, very small. And minuscule. I mean, you throw dollars away on things like the lotto. And so, the whole point is that the loss that we experience is really in correlation to the investment that we pour in to the possibility of reward. And what I'm wanting to talk about is the loss of reward that's more like this. You know how some people, well we all make different things the most important things in our lives, and some people, and I'm not talking about anyone here in particular, but some people their house is their most important thing. They invest everything in their home, their house. They, you know, all their extra money, all of their time, all of their efforts are made to make that home and that house the most beautiful and, you know, nice living situation they possibly can and even do it from the standpoint of increasing their investment in that house for the possibility of resale. And what happens to a person that pours everything, their whole life, into building their house the way they want it? They go out to dinner one night and they come home to find the fire trucks out on their street, and they're wondering what's going on, and they drive up and the house that they've poured their whole life, all their money, all their time, all their investment in, is burned to the ground. What happens to that person? You've seen those people on TV, right? They're interviewed, you know? And, you know, the ignorant reporter is, how do you feel, you know, at this moment? And what can the person say? You know, I'm devastated. I'm devastated. Usually they're speechless. They can't even speak. Their whole life has gone up in smoke. And that's the kind of loss we're talking about. Not the lotto kind of loss, but my house has burned down in front of my own eyes kind of loss. Let's read from Luke chapter 19. It's a parable that Jesus told. It is based on economics. It's a money-based parable, but it is describing the future. It's describing the day of judgment for us. Verse 11, now, while they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately. So we're given a hint here by Luke that this parable is really to orient their thinking more long range, not short range. So he said, a nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself and then return. And he called ten of his slaves, and gave them ten minas, and said to them, Do business with this until I come back." Alright, so far in the parable, the essence of this parable is this. Who is the nobleman in the parable? The Lord Jesus is the nobleman. And he's going to a distant country, that distant country being not France, but what? Heaven. He's leaving this earth. at some near future time, to them hearing this. And he's going to a far distant country, the most distant country. And he's taking care of a greater business there, in this most distant country. But before he leaves, he does something in orientation to his servants, to his slaves. Who are the slaves? We are. Those who belong to him. Those who are owned by him. And what he says to his slaves before he leaves is, He gives them something of value, which would represent our life gifts. And he says, do business with these until I come. That's a life assignment. where the Lord says to his slaves, here are your gifts, now do business with this, because I'm coming back and I'm going to evaluate what business you have done. But, verse 14, his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, and this is of course referring to how the nation of Israel had received him when the Lord did come. Sent a delegation after him saying, we do not want this man to reign over us. When he returned, After receiving the kingdom, which is of course what the Lord Jesus has gone to heaven to do, he received the kingdom from God the Father and he sits enthroned in the heavens ruling over that kingdom until the time of his return. So when he returned after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves whom he had given the money be called to him so that he might know what business they had done. The first appeared saying, Master, your mina has made ten minas more. How does that work? Is that like magic? Your mina has made ten minas more. Right, this slave took the mina he was given and did something with it, and produced with the one mina ten minas. There's a sense of tenfold return on an investment. Now, what I want to talk to you about this morning is the concept of looking at our eternal rewards, or the possibility of them, as an investment we're called to make. But even above and beyond that, what I want us to see is this is an investment that the Lord Himself is making. The Lord has invested something into us, and he expects to receive something back on his investment. The Lord's not looking forward to the Day of Judgment as being his Black Tuesday. He wants a return on his investment, what he's poured into us, and he expects to receive that on the day that he returns. This first one had something to offer back to him. The minor has made ten minus more. So what is the Lord's response in verse 17? He said to him, Well done, good slave. Those are key words, right? The words we want to hear from His lips on that day. Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing. What the Lord is looking at here is He's saying, whatever it is I've given to you to do in this life, from His big picture perspective, Understand this, it's a very little thing. Now if he's saying that to discourage us, to say, it's a very little thing, it doesn't really matter that much, so it doesn't really matter if I do anything with that or not for the rest of my life. It's a very little thing, no big deal. Why does he say these words, it's a very little thing? He wants us to understand that it's not too big for us to handle, for us to do something with. for us to take care of, for us to pay attention to. I mean, you may have things that you think are big things to pay attention to. The Lord says it's a very little thing that he's done to give you the gifts that he's given and expect you to take those and use them in an investing way, spiritually investing in the hope and possibility of being rewarded and recompensed by him on that day of judgment. So he says, you have been faithful in a very little thing. Therefore, what's going to happen? In the future, for that person, you are to be an authority over ten cities. Now, I do want to talk, as I said, next week, over the nature of our return on rewards, and this is an aspect of that, but we'll save that. The second came saying, your Mina Master has made five Minas. Now, five Minas, in simple economics, is only half as many as ten Minas. Now, both were given what? A Mina. Both slaves were given a mina. One, on the day of evaluation, returned to the Lord ten. One returned to the Lord five. Was it the problem that the second one's mina just wasn't as good a mina as the first one's mina? Because the second one only got five back from that mina. The first one got ten back. What's the difference between the two? One has been, and this is the implicate, one has been more faithful with the minor than the other. Does that mean the second one is unfaithful? No, because what are the words that are spoken to him? He said to him also, and you are to be over five cities. The implication is, well done, good slave. I'm going to put you over what corresponds to what you've returned to me. Meaning there's going to be some reward in the future that corresponds to what you've returned to me. But then another came, and this is the third, and this is the, by implication, the unfaithful slave. Another came saying, Master, here's your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief. meaning the Lord had left to go to this far country, he gave this person the same exact thing that he gave the first two, and he took it and was, of course, afraid to lose it. He wanted to be able to return to the Lord the thing that the Lord gave him on that day. You gave me this gift, I want to give this gift back to you now that you've returned. Now, of course, the problem here is that the Lord doesn't want his mina back. If that's what the Lord was after, He never would have given the mina to the person in the first place. He just would have kept it. He gave him the mina in order to gain something. As I'm saying, the Lord is investing here. This is the Lord's economy. He's looking for a return beyond just what He originally gave. Something more. For I was afraid of you, verse 21, because you were an exacting man. You take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sell. What he means is, you've given me the mina, now you want more than that back? And I was afraid I would not even be able to give you that back. So I just hid it. He said to him, by your own words, I will judge you. And this is, you know, one of those scary lines again, you worthless slave. Now, the point is, he is a slave of the Lord, but he's considered by the Lord on that day to be a worthless slave of no value to him. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down, reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank? And having come, I would have collected it with interest." Meaning, if you can't invest it, at least put it in a passbook savings account and bring me back 3 or 4% on what, you know, you may not have doubled it, you may not have made 5 times the mina or 10 times the minas that I gave you like these first two, but at least give me my mina plus 3%. But he didn't even give that back to the Lord. So he says to the bystanders in verse 24, take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas. Now, is that fair? Come on, we're talking about something that's going to affect eternity here. They're all three given the same thing. One brings back ten, the other brings back five. The third brings back just what he was given. The Lord says, now take it away from him and give it to the guy that has the most. You know, you'd think, we're all the children of God on that day. The Lord's just going to even things out for us all, isn't he? You know, at least if you're going to give it to someone else, give it to the guy with five, right? Because that at least brings him up closer to ten. No, the Lord says, give it to the person that was most faithful. The person that was most faithful will get more on that day. The idea here is that they're going to be, this is one of the hardest teachings for believers, they're going to be degrees of reward and degrees, as we'll talk about in the weeks to come as we look at the Ghost, degrees of punishment in eternity. But degrees of reward, as it applies to us, means that some of us are going to get more on the Day of Judgment than others. I mean more benefit, more reward. Some of us are going to receive greater benefit and some of us are going to receive much less. And like this slave, If we're going to get in at all, we're going to get into the skin of our teeth. Even the mind I had is gone, it's lost. I'm in the kingdom, but that's it, I'm just barely in. Whereas this other person is just sitting on a pile of minus forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And again, we'll have to talk about next week what exactly that's going to look like for that person. Turn with me from here to 1 Timothy chapter 6 and we'll end here this morning. 1 Timothy chapter 6. What I want to talk about for the last few minutes is the greatest investment opportunity ever. I don't talk to you about money a whole lot, and I never or rarely ask for your money. If I do, it's not for myself, it's for some project like when we had the blessing of sending a large amount to India for the building of that college or purchase of that college. But I want to talk to you about money this morning, and I'm not talking about your financial money, I'm talking about your spiritual money. the economics of the kingdom. You all get, how many here get those spam emails that are offering investment opportunities? You know, I'm talking about the kind of emails that, you know, send, you know, click here to find out how you can be rich in the next 30 days if you just follow our plan. And, you know, we all know they're all scams and they're all a waste of time and you don't want to, you know, you don't want to go down that trail. There's only loss waiting for everyone down that trail. But what I want to talk to you about this morning is there is an investment opportunity that is available to you this morning. I'm going to lay out real briefly an investment plan for you. And my recommendation is that you pour all of your assets and resources into this plan. If you do, I guarantee you, I was talking about the lottery facetiously earlier, but I guarantee you, if you approach this investment plan the way that I'm going to recommend, you'll receive something in proportion to what you've invested that so far outweighs the possible benefits of the lottery. The reason the lottery is so attracted to people, again, is so little invested for such an incredibly great reward or the possibility of reward. One dollar gets, you know, in the really big lotteries, 50 million dollars returned or something along those lines. What I'm going to describe here is something that's even out of proportion to that. Because what we're asked to invest is a very little thing in our present life. And what we're promised is the possibility that so staggeringly blows out of proportion to what our mind can really encompass about what God will give us for all of eternity. Let's read from 1 Timothy chapter 6. I'm going to read a longer section here. We'll spend the rest of our time here this morning starting in verse 3. If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, and evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose," and he's describing here a group of people that considered themselves to be spiritual but truly weren't, He says this group supposes that godliness is a means of gain. And what Paul means by that is a group who were using their spirituality, their religiosity, as an avenue for financial gain in this present life. And believe it, there are, just like there were in Paul's day, people like this, there are many like this in our present day. I'm talking about in the apparent Christian community out there, in the wider Christian community. I'm talking about people on Christian television, people on Christian radio, in the bookstores. I'm talking about people that use religion for the benefit of fattening their pocketbook here in this present life. Okay? That's what Paul's describing. But, he wants us to understand in verse 6, Even though there is a group that misuses their Christian life for the sake of gaining economically in this present life, there is a perspective that he doesn't want us to lose in this. And this is the perspective. That godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. So the investment I want to talk to you about obviously is not an investment that will benefit you at all in this present life. Not any benefit at all. It's not going to do anything for you now because the bottom line is you're not going to be able to take it out of this world when it comes time to leave. I'm talking about an investment that you will be able to make that will carry on beyond your last breath in this physical body. And not just carry on for a short time after but carry on forever and benefit you forever. For we have brought nothing into the world. We cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering with these, we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. This is, by the way, so I don't leave you with any wrong impression. This is the wise and godly reason not to play the lottery. Why? It's not so much that the lottery in and of itself is such a hugely evil thing, but what's at the root of playing the lottery, by the way? What's the root of it? I want to get rich. That's the root. That phrase goes off in your heart every time you buy one of those little tickets. I want to get rich. And this is, of course, what the Lord says. Those who want to get rich fall into great blessing. You know, what happens? Has anybody ever seen those shows after somebody does win the lottery? And then they track their life for the next year, two years, three years. Are those people happier? I mean the ones they've been able to track down and interview. almost without fail. They're worse off a year or two down the line than they were before they won. For those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you men of God. And, and this is by way of contrast, instead pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. What's he talking about? He's saying, look, you can put effort in one of two directions with your life. You can put effort into things like getting rich, an investment for the present life only, or you can invest in things like pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness, which things are an investment in the future. beyond this present life. Fight the good fight of faith, take hold of eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without staying or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in in or unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited. or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, like those who perished on Black Tuesday did, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Now that rich supply that's described there in verse 17, God is described here as one who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. This is the giving of the mina to the slave in the parable. God has given us all the things that are in our lives, for a purpose. Now, one of the more interesting aspects of this is he says that, before he describes the rest of his purpose, he says that those things that he's given us are for us to enjoy. were to actually take joy and use them for our own benefit, but ultimately, if the goal of using them is for our own benefit only, then we will lose out, like the man who hid the mina in the handkerchief. What is the longer range or bigger picture purpose of what he's richly given or supplied to us? Verse 18, instruct them, this is the sheep, those who will be on the right hand, instruct them to do good. to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. Verse 19 is our investment verse. Storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. Let me reread verse 19, or 18 and 19 together. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future. Okay, verse 18 is a very practical orientation of what we should be doing with our lives. We should be doing these things. We should be doing good. If you wonder, you know, is this a work that possibly would receive God's reward on that final day? Well, ask yourself the question. Is it doing good? If it is, there's the possibility of real reward on that day. Ask yourself this question. Is my orienting myself in this kind of life pattern, is this what God would call being rich, not in this world, but rich in good works? Is this thing that I'm doing with my life what God would consider being generous with what He's given to me? Meaning, the whole implication there is He's given what He's given to me, not for me to keep it, like in the handkerchief, but to give it by way of investing it in the world and people around me. That's being generous, and then of course being ready to share with others. And doing all of that accomplishes this one thing in light of this concept of an investment for the future. Doing good, being rich in good works, being generous, being ready to share, accomplishes this. It is a process, spiritually speaking, that is unseen by the believer. You have to trust and believe that this is actually happening in God's economy. That by doing those things, what you are actually doing is storing up a treasure for the future. Kind of like the little squirrel, you know, who goes out and gathers nuts and puts them in his little hole in the tree. We all understand, you know, we know the concept from childhood. He's storing those nuts for what purpose? For the wintertime, when it's not so easy to go get the nuts. He's storing them up for the future. God has put it in the hearts of even little creatures, simple creatures like squirrels, to know the concept of storing up for the future. And people spend their whole life saving up for... What do people normally save up for? retirement. And what's that all about? You know, what is that? I mean, it's the whole thing is still oriented in this present life. My point is what I believe the Lord's point is, we are called to this thing of this desire. This inclination that we all have to store up for the future is a godly thing. It's a spiritual thing. The problem is we just miss use that and misdirect that so often. Our storing up should be oriented toward eternity and not for our retirement. Our storing up should be oriented toward what's going to matter and have value forever and ever and ever. And the idea is, every single time you do a good work, what God calls a good work, every single time you're generous with someone when God calls you to be generous with them, share when God calls you to share, every single time that you're rich in some activity that God has called you to focus your time, effort, resources on, what you're doing is you are stocking something up in a spiritual bank account. for the future and on the final day what's going to happen is God's going to come and open the door and he's going to look at what's in the vault and he's going to put it all in a fire and it's going to be determined which kind and which sort it is and you will be either given the great reward due for those things or you will suffer the loss of what might have been had you been investing in those very things. All of this is to orient our perspective to this one thing. What we do in this present life really, really matters. It really matters much more than we recognize. When we get up in the morning and we orient our days, we organize and prioritize our day, and then we go out and make all kinds of simple choices throughout the course of our day. The things that we're doing every single day are going to impact what's going to happen, not just on the Day of Judgment, but what is going to be received or lost on that day. And next week, as I said, Lord willing, we'll take a closer look at what is it when He does give reward, what is it He's actually going to give us? Is it going to be money? Will that matter? I don't think so, but He's going to give us something that will matter. In fact, on that day when He gives it to us, we're going to realize this is all that matters. This is all that matters. This is all that ever should have mattered. And I'm so glad. I'm so glad that I made this the priority of my present life so that I gained this for all of eternity. Let's pray. Father God, you know, Lord, you know our frame, you know our Our Tennessee, you know that it is so easy for us to focus on things that won't matter on that day. It is so easy for us to prioritize things that are not of any lasting value in your heart and in your perspective. And I pray, Father, pour out upon your people the grace that we need, the perspective, the understanding of what truly counts to you. And I ask, Father, that you would stir up among us and in our hearts the holy reorganizational desire to change the way we live with an orientation toward eternity. I pray that you would accomplish that. I pray that you would work in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, so that when we stand before you, Lord, we're not going to suffer great loss, but that we will be able to anticipate with a holy joy the return from you of what you say we will deserve as we have our lives evaluated by you. And we thank you for that grace that flows from your heart to ours. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. This is a copyrighted product of Tree of Life Christian Church of Canoga Park, California. You are welcome to pass this message along to others as long as it is not sold and it is passed along unaltered in its entirety with source credit given to Tree of Life Christian Church.