[0:00] Amen. So last night I googled to see how many words I would need in order to be able to speak for a half an hour.
[0:13] And it looks like I may have been a little overeager. So we may be going a little long tonight. And that's fine if you feel like you need to get up and go, you can. Last time I preached, I went 10 minutes short, so I kind of feel like I got some time in the bank.
[0:30] So I'll use that today. All right, if you've got your Bibles and you should have your Bibles, please open to 1 Chronicles chapter 27.
[0:41] 1 Chronicles chapter 27. Our starting point today is probably a bit of an unconventional starting point. 1 Chronicles, if you're familiar with it, is a book that's heavy in and on history.
[0:57] There's a lot of genealogies and lists of names and locations, occupations of people. And because of its dryness, there's probably a great tendency for a lot of people to skip past it.
[1:10] I think it becomes a graveyard for a lot of Christians on their way through the Bible. You know, and they'd rather kind of bypass it and go on to something that's a little bit more interesting. You know, something like the rebellion and apostasy of the nation of Israel.
[1:23] You know, that's a lot more interesting. We all feel better about ourselves when we see things like that, right? So this passage that we're going to be looking at is a list of chief officers who have been appointed to the service of King David as overseers of 24,000 men each.
[1:41] And they've served the king in whatever capacity that they are needed month by month throughout the course of each year. So let's begin with verse number one.
[1:53] It says, Now the children of Israel, after their number, to wit, the chief fathers and captains of thousands and hundreds, and their officers that served the king in any manner of the courses, which came in and went out month by month throughout all the months of the year, of every course, were 20 and 4,000.
[2:11] Over the first course for the first month was Jashabiam, the son of Zabdiel, and in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[2:22] Of the children, Apirez was the chief of all the captains of the host for the first month. And over the course of the second month was Dodai and Ahohite, and of his course was Mikloth, also the ruler.
[2:37] In his course, likewise, were 20 and 4,000. The third captain of the host for the third month was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, a chief priest. And in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[2:49] This is that Benaiah who was mighty among the 30 and above the 30. And in his course was Amizabad, his son. The fourth captain for the fourth month was Asahel, the brother of Joab, and Zebediah, his son after him, and in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[3:10] The fifth captain for the fifth month was Shamath, the Israelite, and in his course were 20 and 4,000. The sixth captain for the sixth month was Ira, the son of Ikesh, the Tekoite, and in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[3:24] The seventh captain for the seventh month was Helaz, the Pelonite, of the children of Ephraim, and in his course were 20 and 4,000. The eighth captain for the eighth month was Sibachai, the Hushathite, of the Zorites, and in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[3:42] The ninth captain for the ninth month was Abiazer, the Anedothite, of the Benjamites, and in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[3:55] And the tenth captain for the tenth month was Mahari, the Netophathite, of the Zorites, and in his course were 20 and 4,000. The eleventh captain for the eleventh month was Benaiah, the Pirathanite, of the children of Ephraim, and in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[4:14] The twelfth captain for the twelfth month was Helaz, the Netophathite, of Othniel, and in his course were 20 and 4,000. Now the verses that I want to draw your attention to are verses five and seven.
[4:30] I'll read those again. The third captain of the host for the third month was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, Benaiah, a chief priest, and in his course were 20 and 4,000.
[4:41] This is that Benaiah who was mighty among the 30 and above the 30, and in his course was Amizabad, his son. The fourth captain for the fourth month was Asahel, the brother of Joab, and Zebediah, his son after him.
[4:56] And in his course were 20 and 4,000. So in these verses we see that each of these men, Benaiah and Asahel, had sons which followed them in the work of the service of the king.
[5:12] The Bible is silent regarding the other sons of the other ten men. I'm assuming that they all had sons. We don't know much about them because the Bible chooses not to share that with us.
[5:22] So we don't know why these didn't follow in the footsteps of their father, whether they were unfit, whether they were unrighteous. We don't know. You know, of the 12 disciples, there were but three that the Lord chose to invest more richly in, Peter, James, and John.
[5:41] And the apostle John, of course, was the one who Jesus loved. Of the 12 spies, there were but two who proved themselves faithful, Joshua and Caleb.
[5:53] And here, of these 12 captains, there were but two, it would seem, whose sons followed in their footsteps. So, you know, it begs the question, why do some sons follow in their father's footsteps while others do not?
[6:09] You know, when we read of Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, that they were called sons of Belial, we're not all that surprised because we know that Eli himself was a man of questionable character.
[6:24] But then when we read of Samuel, that his son is Joel, Abiah, that it said of them that they walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment, it should cause us to pause for a moment and wonder, how can this be?
[6:42] You know, and how is it that David, a man after God's own heart, had so many sons also that were of suspect character?
[6:53] And Solomon is the one that we know about, that followed in his footsteps of David, at least for a period of time. The other ones that we read of, we read no good about any of them.
[7:05] So, sometimes that's hard to conceive. And then how is it then that Ahaz, of whom we read in 2 Chronicles 28, he did not that which would write in the sight of the Lord, like David his father, for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and made also molten images for Balaam.
[7:28] Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the sons of Hinnom and burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
[7:44] Wherefore, the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria and they smote him and he was delivered into the hand of the king of Israel who smote him with a great slaughter. And in the time of his distress, did he trespass yet more against the Lord.
[7:57] This is that king Ahaz. Then how is it that this wicked man is succeeded by, is followed by his son Hezekiah, of whom we read in 2 Kings 18.
[8:12] Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea, son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem.
[8:25] And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places and breaking the images and cut down the groves and breaking pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.
[8:40] He trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he claved to the Lord and departed not from following him. And the Lord was with him and he prospered whithersoever he went.
[8:55] So then, stupefying still even more, how is it that Hezekiah, the greatest king since King David, is followed by his son Manasseh, of whom we read in 2 Kings 21.
[9:12] Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of a heathen whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
[9:25] For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed. And he reared up altars for Baal and made a grove as did Ahab king of Israel and worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them.
[9:37] And he built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he made his son pass through the fire and observed times and used enchantments and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards.
[9:54] He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. How does Judah's most righteous king after King David produce Judah's most wicked king up to this point?
[10:07] Why? Why do some sons follow in their footsteps while others do not? In the Old Testament scriptures, the Jews, the nation of Israel, are many times referred to as daughters.
[10:26] Daughters of God, daughters of Zion, daughters of Jerusalem, and so on. But we, in this dispensation, who are in Christ Jesus, on the other hand, are often referred to as sons.
[10:38] Galatians 4, 4-7 says, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
[10:51] And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son.
[11:02] And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. And 1 John 3, 1 says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
[11:15] And that's you and me, we who are in Christ. We are sons, God being our heavenly Father. And just as Timotheus was the Apostle Paul's own son in the faith, so do we also have spiritual fathers, in addition to our physical fathers, our fathers in the flesh, who led us to a saving faith in Christ Jesus.
[11:38] And we had, most of us, spiritual mentors who have led us onward in the walk of faith. And we have, within the word of God, a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us to provide us faithful examples to follow.
[11:50] So, why do some sons follow in their footsteps while others do not? And as sons, how does the church of Philadelphia, the church of the open door, the church that gave us the King James Bible, the greatest church of all, greatest church age of all, how does it lead way to the church of Laodicea, this present day, the church of the closed door, the apostate church of these last days?
[12:29] Psalm 12, 1 says, Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men.
[12:41] The godly man ceases because faithful men have failed first. And if we go backward, one psalm to Psalm 11, we read in verse 3, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
[12:59] If the faithful fail and our foundations are destroyed, we are truly in a heap of trouble. And sadly, that sounds like the day and age that we're now living in, you know, the faithful have certainly failed.
[13:20] Turn with me now, if you will, to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, verse 12.
[13:46] 2 Peter 1, verse 12, it says, Wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know them and be established in the present truth.
[14:01] If we are going to be faithful to those who went before us, if we're going to, Lord willing, lead up sons and daughters who are following the path of the Lord, we're going to have to constantly remind them of certain foundational truths.
[14:24] And today, I don't want to necessarily talk about doctrinal foundation. We're not going to go heavy. We'll save that for our pastor. Today, we'll just stick with some practical foundations that we need to resort to.
[14:41] Deuteronomy 6, 6 through 7 says, And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
[15:04] If children are going to follow in the footsteps of their fathers, if we're going to follow in the footsteps of our spiritual fathers, then they are going to need to be furnished with constant reminders of the way in which they ought to go.
[15:23] All of us. You know, sometimes it's not something new that we need to be taught, but rather something that we already know that we need to be reminded of.
[15:34] You know, our foundations don't need to be relayed. They need to be built on they need to be rested on, and they need to be returned to.
[15:47] You know, we don't need to turn over some new rock with some new doctrine. We need to stick to the ones that we know and obey them.
[15:58] If we just turn over now just a page, perhaps, to 2 Peter 3 now, verses 1 and 2. 2 Peter 3, verses 1 and 2.
[16:09] It says, This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles, of the Lord and Savior.
[16:29] So tonight, in the few moments that we have left, I just want to give you a few things to remember, a few things to be mindful of if we are going to follow in the footsteps of our spiritual fathers and not end up as so many others have in this day as shipwreck, which ought to be a great fear of each and every one of us.
[16:54] I'm going to give four things to remember. Nothing that our pastor has not taught us many times in the past.
[17:08] I'm just going to be a different voice. All I'm hoping to do is to remind you of a few things that you already know. You know, like, we don't need to be like the Athenians of the Apostle Paul's day who spent their time and nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
[17:28] We don't need something new. We just need to put into practice those things that we already know. Okay, so number one, every one of us here tonight is going to die.
[17:43] And we're either going to spend eternity in heaven or hell. You know, if I ask for a hand a hand count, I'm sure everybody here knows that.
[17:54] That's nothing new, nothing that you haven't heard, nothing our pastor hasn't taught us. Hebrews 9.27 says that it is appointed unto men once to die that after this the judgment.
[18:05] So we are all, we're all going to die and after this is judgment, after this is a judgment. Every one of us is going to die and every one of us is going to face a judgment.
[18:19] Someone once said it's not the dying that scares me, it's the judgment, it's the judgment that scares me. We are all saved or lost, we're all going to wind up in front of God and that ought to concern us.
[18:37] According to Revelations 20 verses 11 through 15, all the lost are headed to the white throne judgment and whoever's name is not found written in the book of the life is to be cast into the lake of fire.
[18:53] And if this Bible is true and if it's right then all those who die without Christ go to hell and then they are taken out and judged at the great white throne judgment and then their souls are cast into the lake of fire where they burn forever and ever and ever.
[19:16] And if we as Christians truly believe this then the question ought to be what are we doing about our family members and our friends and our neighbors and our co-workers who are unsaved.
[19:31] The Bible tells us that we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. And believe me when I stand up here I don't stand up here above any of you all.
[19:43] I have nieces and nephews who are still unsaved. You know I work in a workplace full of unsaved people and I worked at Ratliff's Barbecue for 20 years and after 20 plus years at Ratliff's Barbecue I can tell you that I didn't see one person saved and it's because my life wasn't right at that time and even when my life did get right I didn't have enough of a soul consciousness for those who I worked with and today having sat under the preaching that I've sat under for the last few years it burdens my heart and I pray for these folks and it's like in Ezekiel I feel like their blood is on my hands because I didn't share with them and even when I did get the opportunity here and there I think I tried to share in clever ways rather than just going to the simplicity of the word of God and letting it do the work on cutting their hearts you try to reason as a philosopher convince them through my own words and that's no good because the word of
[20:47] God will never come back void if we rely on it and I didn't we need to be concerned then for the lost if we truly believe that there is a hell and a judgment to come then we need to be praying for those who are unsaved we need to be witnessing to them there is an eternal heaven and eternal hell and the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life and all other ways lead to hell there's no other way so that's reminder number one everyone here is going to die we're either going to spend eternity in heaven or hell those are things that we ought to be talking amongst ourselves about making sure that we're all where we ought to be in the faith number two the most important thing in a
[21:47] Christian's life the most important thing in your life and my life is our fellowship with Jesus Christ again nothing new nothing that our own pastor hasn't reminded us of time and time again now there's a difference between our relationship with Jesus Christ and our fellowship with him our relationship was and is assured the moment we trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ the Bible says that a man must be born again once we are born again we become a child of God we become a son and the Bible says furthermore that now Christ is in you and you are in Christ and you are sealed until the day of redemption you know and that is our standing in the Lord and it cannot be reversed it cannot be changed because he saved us sealed us put us into the body and he's coming back for us we are his child and like brother Brian shared with us on this past
[22:57] Sunday he said if you didn't want any of this then you never should have gotten saved to begin with so it doesn't matter what you do from here on out once you've been saved you know you will never sever your standing in the Lord but your fellowship your state of course varies from day to day our state can be something very different we may not be living like we're supposed to be living we may not be doing the things that we're supposed to be doing we may not be walking with the Lord the way we're supposed to we may not be doing the basics we find our life in all sorts of trouble I got saved when I was young really young by the time I got to junior high and high school I found myself in a lot of trouble far away from the father's house kind of an often on again walk with the Lord Lord and a lot of the stuff that I did back then still still haunts me today you know to stand up here behind this pulpit and preach it's humbling you know because I can think of a million reasons why
[24:10] I shouldn't be here you know but there's a more qualified person certainly in this audience today that is a more godly man that would be better suited to stand here than my own self so but I'm thankful so thankful that the Lord was merciful to me and I'm thankful that that my boys my sons up to this point have avoided many of the mistakes that I made so I wish I could take all the credit for that but I can't you know hopefully what I've been in the last nine years has been an example to them but prior to that you know that was I was not an example by any means God wants us to be then in fellowship with him and the most important thing in our lives as Christians is our fellowship than with the Lord Jesus Christ and that's why we were created you and I were created to bring pleasure to
[25:14] God that that's the meaning of life you know there's a lot of people out there that are trying to figure out what the meaning of life is and it's not some mystical cryptic far off indecipherable impossible thing to figure out Revelation 4 11 says thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created we were put here on this earth to bring pleasure to God that is our purpose in life and when we fulfill our purpose in life by bringing pleasure to our Savior that's when we also will experience the most pleasure our own selves when we're walking with the Lord there's a peace that we have that we do not have when we're not walking with the Lord you know there's this you know how many of you have that unsettled feeling whenever you're driving on the road and you see a police car in your rear view mirror and you hope that you're driving following the speed limit and that your registration is up to date or whatever it is
[26:26] I mean even if you know that you're doing everything right there's this nervousness that we have and probably the same nervousness that you have when you swim in the ocean in the Pacific coast you can't see below you you never know what's down there so and when we're not walking with the Lord there's this fear that we never know what's going to happen you know this fear that that maybe today is a day that I don't make it home when I drive to work or when I drive home from work and now I've got to stand before the judgment seat and answer for my lack of fellowship and the life that I've been living that I should not have been living I knew better then and just because God loves us that doesn't mean again that we're in fellowship with him so our personal fellowship with him is what is important we who are parents are always going to love our children but there are things that they do that drive us nuts once in a while some more often than others and we may not like them for a little while until we get our fellowship restored with them we get upset and that fellowship is broken we're frustrated because we've asked them time and time again to pick up the needles in their bedroom off the floor way up downstairs kicked around by the cats we ask them to pick up the trash in their room and they don't do it and I think we can get frustrated and I guess if that's the worst problem that you have with your kids that's you're in good shape but we get we get upset with our kids John I know you don't understand that someday you will and our fellowship is broken for a period of time until we get things worked out but we're never going to stop loving our kids and they're never going to stop being our kids so we're never going to stop being sons sons of God there's a thousand books and a thousand voices out there nowadays telling us what the meaning of life is soul winning missions church building children's programs at least the meaning of life for the church and now in these last days you know there's this great emphasis on social programs putting into homelessness and child trafficking and abortion and racial discrimination and all these things have some importance but this is not the meaning of life as far as the church goes the most important thing in our life is that we walk and talk and that we have fellowship with and feel the presence of God in our lives first John 1 3 says that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship was with the father and with his son Jesus Christ do you know how you stay in fellowship with the Lord one important way to stay in fellowship is to keep your sins confessed to walk in the spirit to have a life of prayer and obedience to love Jesus Christ more than anything and anyone in your life in the whole world he is to be preeminent he is to have the first place in our hearts if we love someone or something more than him it doesn't matter what else we do it doesn't matter how much time we spend in the Bible it doesn't matter how much time we attend church it doesn't matter how much money we put in the box these things are not a replacement for our fellowship with him so Jesus Christ is to be the most important thing in our lives
[30:26] and everything else is to be secondary all right so number two that shouldn't be anything that you've never heard before just a reminder and number three number three to be a good Christian means that you need to take care of the basics in the in the armed services the army navy marines and so forth everyone has to go through basic training at least that's what I'm told I never joined the armed service so I'm just reiterating what's been told to me it doesn't matter what your end goal is once you've enlisted whether it be to be a mechanic in the motor pool whether it's to be a soldier or an officer or a clerk or eventually end up in the kitchen or as a medic it doesn't matter what your end goal is everyone who is enlisted has to go through and has to have the basics and it's been said that basic training doesn't make you ready for war but you can't be ready for war without basic training so I'll repeat that basic training doesn't make you ready for war but you can't be ready for war without basic training a man can't be ready for war until he's had some basic training and there are three basic things that you and I have to have implemented in our lives or we cannot be a successful Christian these things again there's things that our pastor is constantly reminded not up here to again to share anything new he's preached on this and taught on this many many times so number one is time in the book number two is time in our prayer closet and number two or number three rather is time sitting in this church and we're not going to grow in the Lord unless we get these basics in our lives they're the basics needed for every good Christian and they cannot again they can't be substituted by some other thing your sincerity and your zealousness in some other area in your life is not going to be any sort of substitution for these basics they can't be ignored they can't be neglected and why is that well first the Bible is God speaking to you
[33:01] Isaiah 34 16 says seek ye out of the book of the Lord and read we need to be Bible readers we need to be in the book every day we are not going to survive we're not going to thrive as Christians without time in the book and I'm not going to harp any more on that because I know our pastor says that repeatedly and constantly so you know there's nothing else I can add necessarily to what he's already said the second thing is if the Bible is God speaking to us then prayer is us speaking to God and this is our fellowshipping and communicating with him 1 Thessalonians 5 17 says pray without ceasing we need to be prayers and when we don't talk or fellowship with one another our relationships suffer you know when husbands and wives for whatever reason don't talk to one another their relationships suffer and we're no different in our relationship with the
[34:14] Lord God when we neglect to be in conversation with him on a regular basis our relationship with him is going to suffer how do you think God feels when the only time we ever have anything to say to him is when we have a problem or a struggle or a trial in our life I mean try it out in your own personal relationships here all you ever shared with your wife your spouse your friends was your complaints at some point your relationship is going to suffer your fellowship is going to suffer with one another and while we can't turn off the noise in our lives for a little while each day we need to learn how to stay in fellowship in spite of that noise and we don't have to be kneeling in some dark room somewhere in order to talk with him we can pray anywhere we can pray on our drive into work on our drive home in our backyard or watering or doing laundry you know all throughout the day there's many occasions where we have time when we're alone when we can speak with the
[35:35] Lord and we wonder sometimes why God isn't real to us and why isn't moving in our lives why we can't seem to advance in our spiritual lives and move on and grow and mature it's because we don't spend any time with him and how is he ever supposed to transform and conform our lives if we have no interest in him and no relationship with him we aren't going to have good fellowship with the Lord if we don't ever spend time with him and he expects us to spend time with him he wants us to spend time with him right from the very beginning God's been a communicating God right from the garden he walked and talked with Adam and Eve he's always been a communicating God that's why he left us the Bible so he could communicate with him we could communicate with him he could communicate with us but like so many other things he's not going to force you and I to spend time with him so that's up to you and I and our pastor just recently said that he felt like he doesn't emphasize enough the importance of prayer you know we constantly talk about the importance of reading the Bible sometimes we under emphasize the importance of prayer and so I just wanted to reemphasize that a week later after he said something this past
[36:56] Sunday is that we do we need to be prayers and third we need to be a church going people Hebrews 10 25 says not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the matter of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching the day in this passage of course we know that it is the day of the Lord but the day for us is the day of Christ the rapture and Christ is coming back soon so now the Bible says it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed and the closer we get to the end and it should be pretty obvious to all of us that we are getting close the more we need to be in church and I know that I'm preaching to the choir here because you guys are all here tonight you know and most of you are faithfully here but it's just a reminder then that we all need to be here as much as we possibly can and if you're one who is not here as often as you should and maybe you need to like consider what those things are in your life that you might need to give up or get under control so that your priority is being here in church and of course we know that people get sick and people have work and there are some legitimate excuses for why people can't be here but there's also a lot of people that aren't here that could very well be here they just haven't made it a priority so we're going to need to change our priorities and you're never going to be what you need to be for
[38:48] God if you blow off church and this church cannot move forward if you and I are not here on a consistent basis and if you're like me and you want to see this church grow then you need to be here every opportunity that you get I don't think some of us consider enough how discouraging it is for our pastor to have a visitor show up or visitors show up on a Sunday and have a lot of his regulars not here or a Wednesday night for that matter you know when we're here we're an encouragement to him we're an encouragement to one another and we're a testimony to any visitors that might show up so we all have a vital role in the growth and success of this church you don't just have to be the pastor or the teacher in order to be important we're all important we all have a role we all have a ministry that we can fill a way that we can minister to one another again the idea that we can't be of any value unless we're standing up here behind the pulpit is crazy so we're able to reach each other and others here in ways that one another can't you know Mark has a way of reaching the people in a way that John can't and John has a way of reaching people in the way that others can't likewise with
[40:12] Gary and with brother Richard back there and brother Russell you know I can go around the room and name every single one of us we all have strengths and gifts and means of reaching others affecting them we need to be here we need to be in church and number four the final point the final thing that we need to be reminded of and remember is that the next prophetic event to take place is the rapture of the church and the judgment seat of Christ and again nothing that our pastor hasn't told us over and over and over the next thing that you and I can look forward to is Jesus Christ coming in the air and each of us hearing individually come up hither and hearing our names called out first Thessalonians 4 13 through 18 tells us about the rapture and first
[41:13] Corinthians 15 52 says in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed and then every one of us here we're all going to the judgment seat of Christ and as we should all know by now this judgment is not to determine our salvation we've already got that taken care of we'll just reiterate that one more time it's a judgment for reward it's a judgment for an internal inheritance it's where our works will be put through the fire and it will determine what if anything we did for God and there are some who also believe that in addition to the trying of our works that any unconfessed sin that we have when we die or when we are raptured and leave here that we'll have to deal with that at the judgment seat as well so one more reason to stay in fellowship and confess up our sins and make sure that we're walking with the Lord and make no mistake we are all not going to be judged equally the one who saved the one who saved the one who served the Lord faithfully for 35 years and the one who's content to just be saved and didn't give a rip about his life afterward not going to be rewarded equally they're both saved both in heaven forever but they're both not going to get the same reward and again that's something that our pastor has taught us there's nothing new
[43:02] I'm not bringing anything new that you guys have all never heard before so the question then is how is hearing this and being reminded of how has it transformed our lives or how will it transform our lives because time is running out the Bible says look up lift up your heads for your redemption droth nigh and now is not the time that we should be looking down distracted by the worries and cares and allurements of this world and there's going to be a great tendency to do that as the year comes to a close this being an election year there's going to be people that are so distracted by the direction of this country and that should not be our concern you know as much as we love America that shouldn't be our concern we should be concerned about our fellowship with the Lord we should be looking up anticipation of our Lord and Savior the Lord Jesus Christ you all have heard this before only one life shall soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last again James 1 22 says but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves if we believe all these things and are satisfied simply with believing these things and not doing them then the Bible says we're deceived we have deceived ourselves and one day when we stand before
[44:37] God we're going to be surprised by what we face God help us then to not only believe all these things but to do them as well and I trust that these reminders will be of some help to you today and in the days going forward let's close with a word of prayer we'll go on from here brother Gary could you please close us in prayer power you out them and the door you can try you because of