Alright, if you'd like to open your Bibles, if you have them with you and join me in the Scriptures, I'm going to begin in 1 Corinthians 3 this morning for our study time. And what we're going to do this morning is we're going to return to the series of messages, studies that we're doing on the subject of eschatology. We've taken a few weeks break from that in that we had our Easter holiday. My voice is still getting used to talking again. Cindy and I just had 10 days off and I probably, my poor wife, I probably said 10 words while we were away. And so I'm not quite used to talking here, but you can know that I'll get back in the swing of things here in a few minutes. knocking the rust off of the pipes so to speak. What we're going to be returning to is our study on eschatology in which we've been looking for, gosh as I'm thinking back, we've been studying now for probably five or six months on the subject of or the overall theme of of what is ahead in this world. What is God's plan for the end of history? What is the culmination of all things? How is God bringing all things to a grand climactic final event at the end of all of history? And what we've identified overall is that the great single thing that's waiting at the end of all history is the second coming of Christ. And attached to the second coming of Christ, or in a sense flowing out of it, are the three main reasons for which the Lord is returning. And we've seen that in our most recent studies that one of the main reasons the Lord is returning to this world is He is returning to judge all people. We've seen that every single person that's ever been born or ever will live is going to, on that final day, stand before the Lord and give an account for their lives. We've also identified that the Lord is going to, on that day, separate all people into two categories, or into two groups. What he calls, by way of imagery, for us to more readily understand a group of, on one hand, goats, and a group, on the other hand, of sheep. And the goats, of course, being those that, as goats tend to be, those who are familiar with the nature of goats, who have been all their life long stubborn and resistant to the will of God. and the purposes of God. And we're going to be in time to come. We're going to be looking at what is awaiting that group of goats on the Day of Judgment. But the last couple of studies, what we've been focused on is what is the Day of Judgment going to be like for the sheep, those on God's right hand, those Those that God identifies as submitted to Him, submitted to His will, who belong to Him, who He owns as His own. Those who are true believers, those who name the name of Christ, but actually are truly from God's heart identified as belonging to Him. And our last study, and this was nearly a month ago now, before we took our break, we started to look at our judgment day, those of us who are the sheep of the Lord, as being a day of judgment for the purpose of reward. And we looked at, and I would encourage you, if you don't remember that study, or if you weren't there for that study, please pick up a copy of the tape for that and listen to that, because I'm not going to go into the background material and the whole concept of why God rewards us on the Day of Judgment. I'm assuming that you understand that concept now, that you're on track with that concept, and what we're going to do today is just dig into the actual details of what the nature of our rewards are going to be when we are judged on that final day. So turn with me again, if you would, to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And pardon me while I take one more sip of water before I dig in here. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And we'll read. Last time, in our last day, we read the first 15 verses. I'm going to leave out the first portion and just pick up from verse 6, 1 Corinthians 3, 6. Paul is writing here, of course, to the Corinthian assembly of believers, an assembly that Paul himself, by the grace of God and God's assignment for his life, had started as a church of people, meaning Paul had come into this town, this city of Corinth, where the gospel was unknown and never before heard. And he began to proclaim the gospel and those people that responded to the message and believed the message, he then took and organized, gathered together on a regular basis, and formed them by God's hand of grace, formed them into a church of people, an assembly of people who belong to the Lord. And that's what he's referring to here. Let's start in verse 6. I planted Apollos watered, Apollos came along later and helped minister to this seed of a church that God had originally planted through Paul. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth. Now, he who plants and he who waters are one. And what he means by that is we're all involved in the same work, we're all working on the same team, hopefully. Whether someone originally starts a church or whether someone later comes along and waters the church, it's all for God's purposes, it's all accomplishing God's work for God's kingdom. And so he says those two, both Paul and Apollos, are one. But, verse 8, each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers, you 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 a foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Now I want to emphasize as we start our study this morning the very last phrase in verse 15. And that phrase being again, yet so as through fire. And the idea here is this, in this whole section, Paul has been describing what is awaiting all believers on the day of judgment. And what is awaiting is an evaluation, a judgment of our lives and a judgment of, as we're going to see, our works. And in our works, in our lives being evaluated and judged by the Lord himself on that day, God is going to make determinations individually as to what our life and our work meant as far as God himself is concerned. But he wants to, as he's laying this whole concept out, Paul wants to, at the end of this section, make sure that the Corinthians don't misunderstand the main point here. And I want to just, even though we emphasized this last study, it was a month ago, and so I think it's well worth reemphasizing it for a brief moment here, and that is, in our consideration today, and I'm going to talk about different things in terms of our evaluation, our judgment in the eyes of God on that final day, and the reward or loss of reward that the Lord is going to assign to us on that day, that the one thing we don't want to misunderstand is that when we're considering possible rewards and possible loss of rewards, it has nothing to do ultimately with the possible loss of our salvation. The issue of salvation is something, as we talked about a month ago, that's settled and sure and certain and predetermined before we come to that day of judgment. God is not going to be evaluating those that he calls the sheep on his right hand from the standpoint of whether or not we get an entrance into the kingdom, whether we merit a place in his future and eternal plans. That is something that should be settled in your heart now, here, today, in history, and not be a question or a consideration at all on that final day. The issue is settled at the cross in what you in your heart have done with the cross, whether or not you believe that Jesus truly is God's salvation for your life. And if that's a settled fact now, then that will certainly be a settled fact on the final day of judgment. But God is going to be evaluating something else other than whether or not you merit entrance into the kingdom. He's going to be evaluating and determining, and He's going to be giving greater or lesser response to each individual that's going to be judged on that day. So let's dig into this a little bit and see what we're talking about. The first thing I want to consider is this. What is it that God will reward on the final day? Because Paul uses this term, let's just highlight it a couple of times here. First is in verse 14, just before the end of the section that we read. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. And then in verse 15, if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss. Now again, the loss there that's being suffered is in relationship to what Paul just said he's going to potentially receive, and that is a reward. So the idea of this judgment for the believer, for the sheep, is that God is going to be sitting down on his throne, and he is going to be evaluating whether or not the believer is going to receive from him on that day a reward that will have an effect and an impact on that believer's eternal experience of the future. And we'll talk a little bit more, I believe, next week about the eternal nature of the rewards. I'm just looking today at the actual reward itself, the nature of the reward. And also, there would be an evaluation for whether or not that believer is going to suffer loss of that reward. Now, the important thing to understand here, though, is what is this reward concept? I mean, what is it that God is going to give to us on that day? When we normally in human terms talk about a reward, There's a couple of aspects in our society, in our culture, where we still use the concept of reward. If I said to you, if you sit patiently through this message today, at the end of the message, waiting for you in the fellowship hall is a special reward, what concept is in your mind? I mean, you may be thinking, well, he's just probably talking about the donuts and the bagels. But, you know, if I say to you there's a special reward waiting for you, what concept do you have in your mind? That I'm just going to come along in the fellowship hall and pat you on the back? And say, you know, good job for sitting patiently through the service? If I promised you for sitting patiently through the service today, you will receive a special reward in the fellowship hall afterwards, and I came up and only patted you on the back and said, good job for sitting patiently through the service, you would feel what? You would feel gypped is what you would feel. You would feel like I had somehow pulled one over on you. Yeah, disappointment would be at the very least what you would be feeling. You'd be feeling like, wait a second. You promised me something, and all you gave me really was a pat on the back. Now, we do know, we do know, and this is a wonderful promise, and I don't want to denigrate this promise or make light of this promise, because it comes from God, and believe me, it's going to mean something much more significant than any pat on the back I could give you at the end of a service today. And that is, on the final day, and we've read this before together, when these sheep that are on God's right hand are identified by God as His sheep, He's going to say these words to them on that day, Well done, good and faithful servant. And those words coming from God's heart and God's mouth to our lives are going to mean something incredibly significant to us at that moment. But what I want us to see is this, is that that in and of itself is not the reward that God promises. God is going to speak those words to certain individuals on that day, and it's going to mean something very special to them, but the reward that He promises is over and above hearing those words, good and faithful servant, well done, good job. Way to go. It's going to be much more than that. What is the actual reward that God is giving? Well, the term that Paul uses here when he says in verse 14 again, if any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. The word that Paul uses is literally the same word that's used throughout the rest of the Bible and translated as the word wages. And as wages, from the standpoint of, and we all understand this, when you go and agree to do some work for someone, for the promise benefit of a payment at the end of the work that's done, then the person that has hired you is going to pay wages at the end of that time. That's what is promised. And Paul uses that exact term to describe what it is that God is promising to His sheep on that day. He promises to pay us wages. And those wages are going to be something beyond the pat on the back, the awesome, holy, powerful, eternally significant pat on the back that we're going to receive of well done, good and faithful servant. But the wages themselves are beyond the words that God will speak. There is something in and of themselves. The reward is something of substance that God is either going to give to the believers on that day or withhold. Because again, in verse 15, there are those who will experience the suffering of loss, of reward that could have been given, but is being withheld by the Lord on that day. We know the concept, biblically speaking, this is mentioned several times in the scripture, and that is this, the Lord Jesus originally spoke this, the laborer is worthy of his wages. And the Lord works on these principles. There's an economy to God's kingdom, just like we have an economy in our society. And when a laborer goes and does work and receives wages, that's an expression of a healthy economy in action. And there is an economy in God's kingdom in which He assigns work to His people and promises that if they do that work in a particular way, and we'll look in detail today about what it is that God is looking for when He assigns this work, He promises to pay wages on the final day when He comes to meet us. And you see this played out in different parables, for instance, like parables where individuals are given what are called biblically talents, which is an amount of financial amount to take care of. And whether or not that person takes care of that finance in the way that God wants them to, He is going to give them a reward for how they've handled that responsibility of that finance. Or He is going to withhold reward, in fact, even take away reward that would have been due if they mishandle that finance. So with this concept of wages, let's look again in 1 Corinthians, starting back in verse 8, chapter 3, verse 8. Let's look and see about what our part is in this. with the concept that God has promised reward, and the reward that He promises is wages. Wages are always attached to work that is contracted, in a sense. Let's read in verse 8. Now, he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. Now, when this little word, own, is used in this context, what it implies is ownership, meaning what belongs to a person. In a sense, if I agree to do work for you, and at the end of the week you agree to pay me, even before you've paid me, even before the final moment at the end of the week where the money actually moves from your hand to my hand, after I've done the work that we agreed for me to do, in a sense, that money belongs to me. Can we all agree to that? In other words, let's say I've worked a full week's responsibility, and it's what you and I agreed to, and you agreed to pay me for that work, and we come to the end of the week, and I come into your office expecting to receive my payment, and you say to me, well, you know what, I've decided not to give you the money that I promised you after all. I've changed my mind. What is my response going to be at that moment? Is my response going to be, well, you know, that's fine because it doesn't really belong to me. Is that how you would respond in that kind of a work situation? What are you going to say? Hopefully you're going to say it in a gracious way, hopefully you're going to say it in a nice way, but you're going to say, you know, wait a second, there's a misunderstanding here obviously on your part, but that money did belong to you before we agreed for me to do this work. And then once I actually did the work that we agreed to, that money now belongs to me. It may be in your hand, but it belongs to me. The concept here is that God has promised his people something. And what he's promised is to pay them a reward based upon work that's given. And once the work is done, then the believer is in a position to actually own the reward that God has promised. Now the good thing that we have going for us is that there is no possibility on the final day of judgment that we're going to walk before the throne of God and have God pull a fast one on us in terms of any work that he's assigned, that we've done, he's promised, and yet he's going to withhold payment. Now, we read already that there's going to be a group that's going to experience what Paul calls a loss of reward, meaning God is going to withhold reward from some. But we're going to see that the withholding of reward is in no degree, in no sense an arbitrary withholding of reward, as though God just decided to withhold something that was actually due to someone. God is going to pay to everybody that deserves it what he has promised to reward them with. And the reason I'm emphasizing this using economic terms, marketplace terms, business terms, is these are the terms that God has chosen to portray this whole process. and reality to our hearts with. God chooses to use marketplace business terminology to describe to us the transaction that will take place before the throne of God on the final day of judgment between Him and His sheep. He wants us to look at this in a business mentality. When I say look at it with a business perspective, what should be communicating to your heart is it's a serious thing. It's not something to take lightly. God is doing business with His people when He gives them work and promises reward for that. And so the whole idea here is that we have this promised reward, but let's look again at the end of verse 8. Each one will receive his own reward. according to just God happened to be in a more generous mood at that moment as you came up to the throne on the final day, and then, you know, God's generosity played out, and then it's my turn next, and I happen to get short shrift of the rewards that are coming. No, you are going to receive the same thing I'm going to receive on that day. The identical thing, and that is this. Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. Meaning the determination of what you receive on that day will already be decided before you actually appear before the throne of God. It's not going to be something open for negotiation on that day. It's not going to be something like we get before the throne and we start having a conversation with God. You know how it is, you know, where if you... If you have kind of an idea of what you could get out of a situation, you go and you start a process of negotiation, like when you go to buy a car, you start negotiating. And it's not known ahead of time how good of a deal you're going to get out of that business exchange until the whole thing plays out. There's not going to be any negotiating for reward on the final day. You're going to come before the throne of God. God will already have completely determined what's due to you. You're going to appear, He's going to reveal exactly what it is you deserve, and then He's going to give that to you, or withhold what you would have received had you met the requirements of what the reward is all about. And so the requirements are this. Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. And the word according to, or the phrase according to, just simply emphasizes this is the standard of judgment. This is the standard of evaluation for reward. Rewards on the final day for the sheep are tied exclusively to what? His own labor. And put my name in there, put your name in there. I will either receive reward or have reward withheld from me according to my best intentions on the final day, throughout the course of my life. Through the thoughts that I had in my mind. Through what? I'm going to be rewarded only based on one thing. Only based on one thing. On the work, the labor, and God chooses this word intentionally, I'm sure. The word work has its own meaning, but it just seems that the word labor even communicates more powerfully to us. Labor means effort. It means work. It means something that you have done, and that has attached to it this promised benefit at the end of the labor. So the whole idea here is that the labor that you either are or aren't doing today, and that you either did or didn't do yesterday, will or won't do tomorrow and for the rest of your life, is what will determine what you are going to receive before the throne of God on that final day. So, as a result, if we're operating in our lives with what is called, appropriately, enlightened self-interest, Self-interest is where you're only concerned about yourself, you're selfishly only thinking about yourself. But enlightened self-interest is the good kind of self-interest, where you're aware of the rules of the game. You know that this is the way that God has set up his kingdom to operate and to work. And in that enlightened perspective, you reorient what you are choosing to do with your present life and what you will choose to do for the rest of your life based upon what you may or may not receive from Him as wages on that final day. And so in enlightened self-interest you would think, if I know that I'm going to stand before the throne of God and my life, and not just my life in general, but now specifically my labor, is being evaluated before the Lord for the potential of reward, as we'll see next week, reward that's going to have a dramatic effect on the way I experience all of eternity. Then, in enlightened self-interest, what am I going to do with that understanding, that perspective, that knowledge? Well, if you're smart, if you're smart and you want a certain wage at the end of the week, And you work on this kind of basis. You know, some people work, you know, by what is called salary, meaning you get paid a certain amount whether you actually do any work or not, right? And then other people work by, we have different ways of describing this, but has anybody here ever worked by what is called piecework, where for every piece of work you do, you get paid a specific amount for that piece of work? That's what God works by, or that's what God is going to reward by. He's going to reward by piecework. Excuse me one second. That means for every piece of work you do, God will either reward you, or if you fail to do the work that He's assigned, He will withhold reward from you. And each piece of work has its own attached reward. Now, if I know that, then what am I going to tend to do? And if that's valuable to me, of course. I mean, I can know that the day of judgment and final reward or loss of reward is waiting for me out there. And if it just doesn't mean that much to me, if it's not that important to me, if I don't value that potential reward that highly, then it's not going to really motivate me to do anything much differently with my life today or for the rest of my life. But if I'm really understanding the value of it, you know how some people will dedicate their entire life's work to something, the acquisition of a certain thing of great value to them. And what we're talking about is something, of course, that's going to have value not just for, you know, a brief moment of 40 or 50 or 60 years of a lifespan, but we're talking about something that's going to have value for ever and ever and ever for the eons and eras and ages of God's eternal kingdom future. Well, if that bears its value upon my heart, then what I'm going to tend to do is this. I'm going to tend to work harder, work more than if I didn't bear that value in my heart. But let me ask you this. Is it just any work that God is going to actually give reward for? Is it just a matter of, you know how it is if a parent is just trying to teach their child the value of work? You know, a young child. They'll assign them work and promise them like a reward attached to that work. And the work may not actually mean anything to the parent at all, meaning it may not do anything good for the family other than teaching the child a lesson. Or like in the military service, they have a term for this. where they will teach recruits the benefit of work and how to work by giving them what they call busy work, you know, grunt work, which is, you know, the sergeant will say to the recruit, I want you to dig a hole. And so the recruit digs a hole. And as soon as he's done, the sergeant comes along and the recruits proudly, you know, pointing to the hole. What now, sergeant? Now fill it in. And so he fills it in. And then when he's done filling it in, he says, what's next? Dig a hole. And then what's next? Fill it in. The whole point is, the hole has no purpose other than to just teach them to work. That's not what we're talking about here. Is God going to reward us just for activity? Just for, as long as we fill our lives with as many activities as possible, as many works as possible, that we can be guaranteed or we can have hope and expectation for great and awesome reward on the final day. Now, unfortunately, it doesn't quite work that way. The only thing you can be rewarded for is work, but not just any work will be rewarded. Okay, let's read through again. Starting again at the end of verse 8, Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, now here Paul is describing some of his own work, I laid a foundation and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how much he builds. Each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now, if any man builds on a foundation with gold, silver, precious stone, wood, hay, straw, and all of those are equally good materials to build with, of course, right? No. No, those are not all equally good to build with. Which would you rather live in, a house of gold or a house of hay? Well, I hear some of you hesitating. I'm not quite sure why. I mean, you know, it might be interesting as a little outing or something to live in a house of hay for a day or two. But we're talking about something that's being evaluated here for eternity. And the whole idea here is that this the listing of these six potential building materials, gold, silver, precious stones, are in one category. Wood, hay, and straw are in a second, different, distinct, and opposite kind of category. And then he goes on in verse 13 to say, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it. What day are we talking about? The day of judgment. The day of evaluation will reveal it, will cause the work itself to be made evident. And what he's talking about here is not just that what's going to be made evident on the Day of Judgment is that you did work, but whatever work you did is going to be made evident as to what kind of work it was that you were doing in your life. Because, it says, the day will show up because it is to be revealed with fire. And the fire itself will test the quantity of each man's work. No, again, There's a key term here in this verse. The fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. Now, we're not told exactly what the nature of this fire that's being described here is. It's some kind, I think we can be confident to say this, it's some kind of spiritual fire that God is going to use to evaluate the works that we do in our present life on that final day. And in some sense, whether this is just imagery or literally taking place, that doesn't matter. The point being that God is in a sense taking all of our works that we've ever done in the whole course of our life, as believers, and he takes those works in a pile and places them in a fire. And the fire is going to burn all of the works that we've ever done. And depending on what kind of work it was, the work will either survive the fire, or it will be burned up in the fire. If it's a gold kind of work, or a silver kind of work, or what God calls a precious stone kind of work, it's going to survive the fire. You all know this, you can't burn gold, or silver, or precious stones. Precious stones we mean like gems, like a diamond. If you take a diamond and put it in your fireplace, I don't recommend you do this when you go home today. Just take the concept, okay? If you take a diamond and put it in your fireplace and make the hottest fire you know how to make in your fireplace and it's allowable under the law, what's going to happen to that diamond at the end of that time that the logs burn? It might get some soot on it. that you'll later have to wash off and polish the diamond, but the diamond itself will be unharmed by that process. Now, if it's set in a gold band, for instance, what would happen to the gold band? It might melt if the fire gets hot enough, but what would happen to the gold itself? It would just turn into a liquid form, and would it then turn into something else? Because, like, when you burn a piece of wood in the fire, at the end of the fire is the wood the same as what it was before. If the fire burns hot enough, the wood just goes somewhere. It's gone. I mean, there's some ashes left, but what happened to the wood? Well, it went up in the fire. But gold, silver, precious stone, they can't be burned. However, on the other hand, in this second category, I've already mentioned wood. We have wood, hay, and straw. What happens to all three of those in a fire is they're burned up, they're gone. So the whole idea is God's going to take the whole pile of our life's work and He's going to place it in this spiritual fire of His evaluation process. At the end of that process, whatever survives the fire is going to then be rewarded. Each man's work will become evident. For the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains after the fire, he will receive a reward for anything that remains. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, meaning all of the wood works all of the hay works, all of the straw works that we've done will be burned up and we suffer loss. Meaning at the end of the process, God is going to look at that and say, you know, you may have thought that you were going to receive some wage from me for this thing that you did, but I want you to understand that that was nothing but straw in my sight. And as a result, I'm not going to pay you anything for that. However, this other thing that you did, because it is of golden nature or of precious stone nature in my sight, in other words, it has lasting value to God Himself, He sees it as something of value, then He says, I will pay you for that. I'll give you a due wage for that work that you did. And so what's going to be significant on that day is not how big of a pile we have when we start. the process of evaluation. It doesn't matter how big your pile is when you start. All that matters is how big is your pile when the fire has already burned the pile. How big of a pile comes through the fire. And believe me, how big of a pile comes through the fire will mean something on that day. Because as we'll talk about in more detail next week, the things that come out the other end of that fire, God is going to assign specific rewards for each piece of gold work each piece of silver work, each piece of precious stone work, and what He's going to give you is something that is going to change the way you experience eternity forever and ever and ever and ever. And even if you have one thing like that, you are going to be so thankful and so blessed and so appreciative, because it's going to blow you away how valuable that really is to you on that day, because when you see it in that light, how valuable it really was to God in the course of your life. So, with enlightened self-interest now, understanding the nature of the evaluation on that day, yes, I'm going to work more, I'm going to work harder, but I'm going to work, as they say in business now, work smarter. What does that mean? It means, here's the thing, I'm really interested in what's going to happen to me on that day. I am, I'm interested in that. That's a fascinating thing to me. The idea that what I'm doing right now in my present life and what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life, will either be given by God something that's going to be of great, much, much, much greater value than anything I could have ever acquired in this present life, and for all of eternity, or else I'm going to see what I could have had of that category and lose it on that day. Oh yeah, I'll make it through as he says in, again in verse 15, if any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet so is through fire, meaning I'll still be grateful and appreciative, like we talked about a month ago, that if I receive nothing else other than my salvation, I have no room for a complaint. I'm not talking about like, oh, I saw I could have had that and now I got something to complain about. I'll see very clearly at that moment on that day that anything I don't receive, I didn't deserve and I shouldn't have, but I could have had if I had chosen differently. lived differently, worked and labored differently. Okay, so what kind of labor is it that God is actually going to reward? He's going to reward gold, silver, precious stone kind of work. He's going to burn up wood, hay and straw kind of work. Let me ask you this simple question, and I'm not asking for hands or responses here, I'm just asking you to consider this. Is it possible that there are both kinds of work that are on our personal account waiting for evaluation on that day? All of us I'm talking about. Me, you, every one of us. Meaning, is it possible that there's a single piece of work that you've done that's of precious stone quality that you're going to receive awesome reward for on that day? Yes, it's possible. There could already be something on your account like that. If so, good for you. I mean, that is unbelievably incredible that you're going to be rewarded with something that's going to place you in the privileged position of being blessed by God for all of eternity, above and beyond the gift of salvation. But is it also possible that there's work that you're doing? I mean, spending time, effort, stress, all of the above, you are hoping is going to mean something, and at the end you're going to see, what in the world was I doing? Thinking. You know, I mean, this is waste. All of that for nothing. It's burned up, it's gone. Look what I could have had if I had been doing it this way instead, or this thing instead. So how do we figure out, with enlightened self-interest, to work smarter? Because I'm telling you, I'm more interested in the pile of gold, silver, precious stone stuff than I am the wood, hay and stubble stuff, the wood, hay and straw. How do we build one pile and reduce the other one? Well, let's look over in the book of Ephesians. Let me give you a quote as you're turning. I don't know, some of you have heard this name before, some of you may be unfamiliar with it. There's a man by the name of Jim Elliott who lived back in the, actually died back in the 1950s. He died as a missionary, a young man. He was killed in his service for the Lord in the proclamation of the gospel, killed in the activity of doing mission work. But before he went, he wrote a journal, a daily journal, and wrote down in his journal some of the spiritual thoughts that motivated his life. And in consideration and description of this concept that we're talking about today, of a final judgment, judgment of believers for possible reward, Jim Elliot wrote a two-line poem that expressed expressed in a beautiful way the whole focal point of this. He wrote it this way, only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. And his whole idea was this. He was thinking ahead. He wasn't waiting to be surprised on the final day. He was thinking ahead. And in thinking ahead, he recognized, you know, what is it that actually God is going to find value in when he considers my life and evaluates my life? And he nailed it by saying it this way, only what's done for Christ will last. Now what does that actually mean is what I want to talk about for just a minute. It's an easy thing for you to, let me use myself as an example and let me use Clint Delaplane as an example. What I'm doing this morning hopefully is something that God will on that day evaluate as valuable to him in the proclamation of his word. And that may be easy for you to look at and say, okay, I can buy into the idea that you're going to be rewarded for faithful teaching of God's Word on that day. Or like what Clint spent the last several years of his life doing as a missionary to the whole region of the world in Nicaragua and Costa Rica that God had called him to. I think it's easy for us to look at the work that Clint was doing and to say, Most likely, Clint's going to receive reward for that work, the sacrifices, the life commitment that went into that whole process of him being there and doing that work. I think it's easy for us to say that. The question is, and I want to talk to all of us this morning, is what about the rest of us, those who aren't missionaries, those of us who don't happen to be in, for instance, a pastoral teaching position or something of that nature, that's an easy call as far as possible rewards connected to that activity. Well, let's look at Ephesians chapter 2. I want to broaden out our concept of what I'm going to call spiritual work, gold, silver, and precious stone kind of work. And we're going to read from Ephesians 2 verse 8 through verse 10. Paul here is briefly describing the story of each one of our salvations, and then describing on top of that what is meant by God to flow out of our salvation, or to follow our salvation. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. That is the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, And that created in Christ Jesus is the recreation or new creation that takes place when you're born again. The moment of your salvation is the moment that you are created in Christ Jesus. We are created in Christ Jesus at the moment of our salvation for a purpose, for the rest of our lives. And that purpose is created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Now, it says that God was involved in preparing something for us to do, works for us to do. And He prepared works for us to do when? When did God actually make preparations? Beforehand. Before what? Well, in the specific context, He's talking about the moment of our salvation, the moment we're recreated in Christ. But I don't think, and I think this is a good assumption, good conclusion, I don't think that Paul is emphasizing here that, you know, for me it was February of 1979 that in January of 1979 God had actually no clue what I was going to be doing with my life. And then I happened to get saved and then He just scrambled and came up with some plans for me at that point. You know, when did God prepare beforehand works for me to do? Before I was born, and yes, you're right, before the foundation of the world. Meaning, God had eternal plans in mind. Not just for the world at large, the universe at large. Of course God's got a plan for the whole universe and the whole world, but God had a plan for me. Meaning, before I was born, as he describes in places like when he spoke to the prophet Jeremiah, and he said, before you were even in your mother's womb, I knew you, and I had plans for you, and God had a plan for my life. And the plan was what we're going to describe, or I'm going to describe, use this term, a life assignment. God had a life assignment for me. Now, I couldn't start on my life assignment until when? Until number one, there's a couple of prerequisites here. One, I had to be physically born into this world. I had to actually get born and become a human being. And then I had to be recreated in Christ Jesus. I had to be born again. But from that moment forward, I'm now in the moment of my life assignment. And the idea being that before the foundation of the world, God mapped out what I ought to do with my life as a new creation in Christ Jesus. And He assigned specific labor to me. Not just generally go out and do good Christian stuff, Tim, but specific work that He didn't give to you. And what's going to be evaluated, what's going to matter on that day as I then come to the end of my life, and the possibility of either carrying out my life's assignment has come and gone, And now I stand before the throne, and here's the pile of all the stuff I actually did. And here's the fire. And what comes through the fire, what God calls gold, silver, and precious stone, is these works, in verse 10, that He prepared before the foundation of the world for me to do. Anything else is in the other pile. It's just going to be burned up. It's just going to be lost. It's not going to be of any significance. But here's the thing, if I do the things that he's called me to do, this is why Paul was able to talk in terms of, in evaluating his own life, in terms of talking about, he said, you know, I've finished the course that God had laid out for me. I've run the race. I've done the work that God has given to me to do. But God doesn't give to all of us the same work, does he? There's not many of you have been given the same assignment that I've been given. There's not many that have been given the same assignment that Clint has been given. The question is, what assignment did God map out for you? What assignment has God given to you? And there are specific things that are attached to that. It can't be just a generalized, go out and do work, because then you're not working smarter. You're just working, and you're going to be shocked on the day to find out what fits in what pile. You need to know now, now, what it is, that God is calling gold, silver, and precious stone for your life, for your life. Now I can give you some general guidelines to describe that, but unfortunately I can't tell you what your life assignment is. I'm just really, really glad I have some sense of what mine is. I do know this though, you have an assignment, a very specific one, one that God mapped out in eternity past that matters so much in God's kingdom and His economy and His his overall plan, that he is promising things that will powerfully bless you for eternity future if you do it, and he will withhold those same things from you if you don't. It's very, very important that you get from him what your life assignment is all about. Well, what kind of things, I said general guidelines, what kind of things fit into this concept? Well, for me, you know, like I said, what I'm doing this morning, this is part of my life assignment. Being a shepherd to a church, being a teacher of God's Word is part of my life assignment. I think it's a significant and important part of my life assignment. It's a priority assignment from the Lord. But it's not the only thing. I have a life assignment as a husband. How I live out that aspect of my life has a lot to do with what I will either receive or have withheld from me on that day. For many of you, you have a life assignment as a parent. How you carry that out in the sense of, you know, are you doing golden kind of parenting? Or are you doing, you know, wood, hay and straw kind of parenting? What about those of us who, you know, just go out and work what is considered to be just a regular job out there for a living? You know, is that just... I've got to do this, you know, and I've got to pay the bills, of course, and it's just too bad that I spend so much of my time on a daily basis, and none of that's going to matter for eternity. No. Is your work ever biblically considered, whatever your work is, because my work is a little bit different than yours most likely, but is your work, whatever it is, part of God's life assignment for you? The answer is, absolutely it is. Absolutely it is. How you go to work every day, the perspective you bring to your work, what you're doing there, as Paul describes in other places, whether you do your work as unto the Lord or with eye service, meaning you're doing it only for the person that's actually paying you the physical wages here in this present world, that has everything to do with whether or not you're going to be rewarded for the work that you do. And I'm not talking about the wage you receive at the end of this week, I'm talking about the wage you receive from the Lord. at the end of your whole life. Tim Cunahan does work as a machinist. He's in a machine shop. He's working with metal and making parts day in and day out. I just know, I know, there's got to be days for Tim where it's just slogging through another piece of metal. on those better moments when he understands this is what God has given me to do in order to provide for my family and to be a more godly husband and father and to represent the Lord more effectively in that environment that God has placed me in. And I also happen to be making a living while I'm there doing that. then the possibility of receiving eternal reward for making those machined parts day in, day out, day in, day out, suddenly comes into perspective. So the kind of things that God assigns you has all of that. It's all about what kind of worker you are. It's all about what kind of husband, what kind of parent, what kind of citizen you are in the nation that God has chosen to place you, what kind of citizen of your community you are, what kind of neighbor you are in your neighborhood. Those are things that God evaluates. and has given specific assignments to you in each one of those contexts. And of course, what kind of church member you are is something that's obvious. That's why I saved it for the last. You know, what kind of church member you are. And again, let's look again in verse... We're still in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Let's look again... Oh no, we aren't. Get back over there. Sorry about that. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. There's a phrase I want to reemphasize here. And we're coming right to the end of our time here. And you'll get my pat on the back for patiently sitting through the service. Alright, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and we're reading in verse 13. Each man's work will become evident. For the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. I don't know if you have a study Bible. If you do, you might have a notation next to the word quality. Does anybody have a little notation next to the word quality in a side column reference that describes what word Paul is using there? It's literally what sort it is. In other words, what God is evaluating again from the pile is, what sort of work is it that you've done as a husband? What sort of work is it that you've done as a parent? What sort of work as a citizen? What sort of work as a neighbor? What sort of work as a church member? All that matters is not that you go to church, Once the issue of your salvation is settled, what matters is what sort of work did you do as a member of the church? Not how much work did you do, but what sort of work did you do? Do you know you're supposed to work in church? You're supposed to work as a member of the church. God has given you a life assignment as a member of this church. And all that matters to him, and as a result, all that matters to me is what sort of work are you doing as a member of the church? What sort of work are you doing as the mate of your spouse? What sort of work are you doing as a friend to the friends that God has placed you in their lives? What sort of work are you doing as a member of the United States of America? What sort of work are you doing in your community? What sort of work are you doing as a neighbor to the people that God has you next to? All those things are going to matter on the day. And they're going to matter much bigger than I can possibly describe it right now. They're going to matter so big. So big. Let's pray. Father God, we live out our lives, I'm thinking right now of the description that C.S. Lewis gave of, we're like kids who are satisfied with mud pies rather than the real thing, rather than what we could have as we consider what our lives will mean to you on that day. How we live out our lives, the choices we make, the priorities of our hearts, We fall so far short, Lord, of what is available to us and what you have in your heart to pour out to us on that day. I pray that you would be pleased to use this study this morning to stir up a holy response in each one of our hearts that would be more pleasing in your sight so that we would live with an eye toward that day. And I thank you for that grace 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.