The Rewards for the End

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I I was uh watching a little video about rats.

I like rats.

Uh they're nasty, but they're tough.

And this video put showed this guy put these rats in water and and they wanted to see how long they would swim before they drown.

Just, you know, look, I do that to I did that to my son.

He wanted to be a Navy SEAL, so I taught true story, true story.

Tied his arms behind his back, tied his legs, and I threw him in a pool.

And I had to pull, and every time he tried to get to the side, I'd push him out.

I wanted to see how long he would last.

I would save him.

I'm not gonna let him drown.

But he was he was cool.

He he he paramedics helped when they came.

Um so he put these rats in the water, and they wanted to see how long the rats would swim before they drowned.

So 15 minutes they started sinking, and right before they drowned, they took the rats out, dried them off, and 10 minutes later they put the rats back in the water to see how long they would last.

They had just swam to exhaustion, they saved the rats, took them out, dried them off.

10 minutes later they put them back in the water and they said, How long do you think the rats would last?

60 hours.

Because they had hope somebody was gonna come get them.

Now, I don't know what y'all are going through, but God has saved you thousands of times in the past.

Don't forget it.

When David killed Goliath, Saul said to David, You can't do that, and he says, Listen, I killed a lion and a bear.

I'm gonna tell you a quick story, then I'm gonna pray for you.

A glove is made in the image of a hand.

And the glove is made so the hand can go in the glove and give the glove life, purpose, and meaning.

You take the glove out, the hand is dead.

We were all made in the image of God so God can live inside of us and give us purpose, life, and meaning.

I'm gonna pray in a minute.

There are some of you who came here tonight saying, I want Jesus in my life.

Jesus made you in his image so he can live in a relationship with you.

We pushed him away, we rebelled against God and ruined it.

But the good news is that God became man in Jesus Christ, came down and lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died, and then he rose from the dead.

And he's given you opportunity to live inside of you that he would forgive you of your sin and start over.

So let's all bow our heads and close our eyes and pray.

Lord, thank you so much for your faithfulness.

There are people here tonight, one of the campuses, somebody in the prison, someone watching online.

They know the gospel.

They know that they're a sinner, they know the penalty of sin is death, and they know you died and rose from the dead.

If you would like to ask Christ to be your savior and come live inside of you, because he made you in his image, so he can do that.

Just pray this prayer with me in the privacy of your heart.

Pray, dear God, please forgive me of my sin.

Fill me with the Holy Spirit.

I repent.

I want to follow you and be your disciple.

As our eyes are closed, heads are bowed on all the campuses.

If you prayed that prayer, just slip your hand up really high.

I can see you.

God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless you all over the room, and I'm sure on all the campuses.

Lord, thank you for your faithfulness.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Give the Lord a big hand.

Come on, church.

You may be seated.

You will get instruction at the end of the service on what to do.

Um, every time I go speak, I get home, I'm gonna get home late tonight.

Um, and I get home, and my wife will say, How'd it go?

And I said, I had a good time.

But I don't know about everybody else.

Because everybody in all the places that are watching are gonna have a different experience today.

People up close are gonna get spit on.

People up there are gonna be like, well, he didn't come say hi to me.

Some people are gonna say, I didn't hear, I didn't couldn't see the screen.

Everybody's gonna have a different experience.

I'm gonna propose to you that everybody's gonna have a different experience in heaven.

That we're not all gonna have the same experience.

Now, I'm not saying you're gonna have a bad experience, and I'm not saying you're gonna be jealous of someone else's experience.

That's probably not gonna happen either.

It's like having a house on the beach in in the boo, as we call it Malibu in California.

If you have a house on the house on the beach in the boo, you're not complaining, but you're having a different experience than the guy next to you.

So I want to talk to you about how you can maximize the experience you're gonna have in heaven, and it has to do with your the rewards you're gonna get for how faithful you lived on earth.

Yes, God is going to reward you for how faithful you are living your life now because he knows the difference between the things you're doing by faith and the things you're not doing by faith.

He knows the things when you're being phony and when you're being real.

Can I get an amen?

And you know that's true because you know when other people are being phony.

At least you think you know.

But it has everything to do with the rewards.

Revelation chapter 22, verse 12.

Revelation 22:12

It says, Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward, everyone say reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work.

What?

I am the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Luke 6 35, be love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return.

Everyone say, hoping for nothing in return.

So just in case you're thinking about I'm doing this for myself as reason.

Listen, you're doing it, hoping for nothing and re to get nothing in return, that's when you get the reward.

And then it says, Hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high, for he is kind to the unthankful and evil.

Mark 9 41 for whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ, assuredly I say, He will by by no means lose his reward.

Say reward.

I want you to get all the rewards that God has for you, and I for sure want all the rewards that God has for me.

Can I get an amen?

I'm trying to help you get paid.

I'm gonna read a verse, they don't have the they don't have it for the screen, but I'm just gonna read it to you.

Matthew 6, 19 and 20.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

So how do we do that?

When Jesus was uh arrested and tried by Pontius Pilate, he had to stand on a little um stool called a bama seat.

Everyone say bamis seat.

It was like a miniature stage, but it was only a stool about that high.

And when he stood on the stool, they would use that stool to preach from or be judged on.

And Jesus stood on the stool and he was judged guilty, and then they crucified him.

2 Corinthians 5, 9 says that we are going to stand on the bamous seat of Christ.

And then when you die as a believer, I'm not talking about being judged and going to hell, that's a different judgment.

But as a believer, God knows everything that you do and will remind you of everything you've ever said.

I was with some friends today and I was reminded of some stuff I said years ago.

And when I heard what I said years ago, I was like, dang, I said that.

I was like, I felt so bad.

And you are gonna stand on the baby seat of Christ, and God is going to judge you and for every word you've said, every thought you've had, every action you've ever done.

Now, it's not gonna determine whether you go to heaven or not, it's gonna determine the rewards you get.

Look what it says in 2 Corinthians 5, 9 to 10.

Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to him, for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

I'm gonna say this a little slower.

I don't know when you accepted Christ.

When you accepted Christ, then you started to walk by faith theoretically.

Started to read your Bible, pray, do try to be the best person you can be by trusting in the Lord.

And ever since then, God has been running a tab for you.

These are my words.

Anyone get rewards for uh uh AMX cards and all that kind of stuff, y'all know rewards?

Can I get amen?

Amen.

Okay.

Uh I have a theory that when you go on vacation, you should go vacation someplace that's better than where you live.

I mean, you can go on your if you want to do a missionary thing or a camping thing.

I mean, that's cool, but you know, when I when I when I go on vacation, I want to go someplace that's better than my house.

And I want to get served better than my wife serves me.

I mean, we serve each other, just for y'all who my wife doesn't rub my feet.

I rub her feet, but she doesn't rub my feet.

She don't like it.

It's cool.

So when I go on vacation, I want to go someplace where I get my feet rubbed.

If you've never had a foot massage, you are missing out.

It is way better than a body massage, I'm telling you for real.

So, anyway, so but I'm telling you the truth.

So, one of the things we do to go to places like that is gather points.

Everything you do is racking up points, and those points are gonna impact your experience in heaven.

Those points are gonna be tested.

Your actions, your words, your thoughts, everything, how you treat people, how you respond to people is gonna determine whether you get a reward or not, which is gonna impact your experience in heaven.

Listen, don't settle.

Don't settle for just getting in the door.

Because you can come to the concert, right?

I'm going to the concert.

I went to a Bruno Miles concert and I was like six rows back.

I looked up, there were 5,000 people like a mile away.

I'm like, I'm glad I'm not up there.

Don't settle for just I'm getting in.

Now, heaven, no matter where you're at, you got a house in the suburbs in heaven, you're gonna be great, you're not on the beach in heaven.

I uh and I'm speaking metaphorically, obviously, and that's cool, but you want the best experience in heaven, and it's gonna click on you in about 20 minutes when I'm at the end of the sermon to teach you why.

Look what it says in 1 Corinthians 3:9 3 9 to 15.

1 Corinthians 3:9

We are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, you are God's building.

According to the grace of God which was given me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.

But let each one take heed how he builds.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stone.

Everyone say gold, silver, precious stone.

You could build on it with that or wood, hay, and straw.

Say wood, hay, and straw.

Each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire.

Everyone say it's F-I-Y-A.

Say fire.

It will be revealed by fire.

There are different metaphors in the Bible.

There are animal metaphors that compare us to animals, and whenever there's an animal metaphor, it's usually telling you what's not good about you.

Then there are plant metaphors.

Vine and branches usually tell us about spiritual growth.

And then there are manufacturing metaphors, fire, that talk about what you really are made of.

So who you really are and the integrity of your faith and your relationship with God is gonna be tested by fire.

You can fool us, and I can fool you, but none of us can fool God.

The Bible says there are gonna be people standing in pulpits like me that have built churches and healed people, and God's gonna say, I never knew you.

They fooled the people, but they didn't fool God.

And if you're worried about, well, that person's getting away with this, that person's getting away with this, nobody's getting away with anything.

God was gonna set it straight at the end.

So he says he will reveal by fire.

Everyone say fire.

And the fire, say fire, will test each one's work of what sort it is.

If anyone's work which he has built endures, he will receive a reward.

So when the fire blows on your life and all the things you think are secret, it's gonna blow it up.

Whatever's left over, that's your reward.

That's what that's gonna be the basis of your reward.

So you none of us can get away with anything.

And then it says, if anyone's work is burned, some people are gonna come into heaven, they're gonna be they're gonna be walking like George Jefferson, they're gonna be walking up in heaven, and and and the fires are gonna come, and it's gonna be a big explosion and a little tiny nugget like that.

It's because if anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved as through fire.

So your works have to pass three tests.

Number one has to fast pass the integrity test.

I'm sure all of y'all are leveraging, you know about AI, artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence, you have a lot to say, I have a lot to say about it.

I'm not gonna get into the good and the bad of it.

Uh, but there is one use that I have seen where it can actually read your mind.

Where someone was watching a video and they were thinking what they were seeing, and AI was saying what they were thinking.

I don't know how those people do that stuff, but they do it.

And so when you do something that AI can actually, uh how they're gonna use it, I don't know, but it doesn't sound like anything good can come out of that.

That it can actually look at the intent of your heart.

Y'all know about the social scores that's coming.

This companies are have social scores, they have to have a certain amount of wokeness to their policies, and we all know about that stuff.

That's coming to individuals, and they're gonna give you social stores based on what you buy, what you say online, but I wonder if it's gonna go to what you think.

And them trying to determine and impact what you think.

Well, if AI can determine what you think, don't you know God can determine what you think?

And so if you think about all the things you've done in your life since you got saved, the people you pray for, the people you witness to, the sermons you preach, the good deeds you've given, the money you've given, the the helping the homeless person across the street, fabulous.

God's gonna say, let me show you the tape of what you were thinking at the time.

We got guys in our church, they'll be they'll be coming to church real early.

We got a lot of youngins in the church, a lot of little honeys in the church coming up right straight from the beach.

And dudes being in the church, hallelujah, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

They're looking for the honeys in the church, and it's like God, I was in church, yeah, but you were looking for a girlfriend.

Now I'm not saying it's not a good place to look for a girlfriend, but what was in your mind?

What was in your mind when you said, Oh, that, oh, thank you.

I oh, you're so sweet, she's so sweet.

And in your mind, you're like, I can't stand her.

The Bible says in Psalm 34, 7, if you delight yourself in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart.

If your heart's desire is to delight yourself in God and your mind is focused on delighting yourself in God, God will actually implant in your heart his desires.

His desires will become what your meditation is.

Your meditation receives more desires, and all of a sudden you are thinking and meditating only on what God is putting in your heart.

But if your delight is not in God, if your delight is in you getting what you want, getting your way, making manipulating things so it can benefit you, your mind is not in the right place.

And you may achieve something that seems honorable to other people.

God said it was all for you, it's all a sham.

And you wonder why people who seem to be doing less than you get more blessed.

Because there's something in here that's happening differently.

1 Corinthians 10 31.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.

God, that's my intent.

Every sermon I speak, no matter what I have in my notes, I'm always down here going, Okay, God, give me something fresh right now.

I got that.

You gave me all this, but just I just want to make sure I'm still connected to you.

I don't want to think, okay, I got my notes, I don't need God.

So I ask God, give me something between the time I start walking up or the the morning of right while I'm sitting for worship, give me something fresh that I can say when I get up there that you don't have here.

And it's just a little me, a me and thing, me and God thing.

And what it does for me, it keeps me connected to that fresh word.

And I want to encourage all of you, God wants to give you fresh word all the time.

Someone, someone, someone gives you a dirty look at Starbucks, there's a reason they gave you a dirty look.

God wanted you engaged in that conversation.

I and when someone's sitting next to me on the airport, they're getting the gospel.

I I had a lady sitting next to me on the day the other day, and she said, Oh, I'm sitting next to you.

I said, Oh, you in trouble.

Why would God put you next to me for four hours?

I sat next to a guy recently, he was 20 years old, and I shared with the gospel with him for three hours.

I said, Bro, are you gonna get saved?

He said, I don't know.

I said, Bro, do you have any idea that I gave you the best of my whole 40 years of ministry for three hours?

But I was calm.

The students came over and she said something, and I said, I gotta take a break from you.

I didn't say that to him.

I said, I'll just be right back.

I gotta go talk to her because I think something's gone on her.

And I sat with her in the jump seat right there where the students said, she got saved.

I said, Okay, I still got it.

Okay, I'll be right back.

Number two, first, our works must be passed the integrity test.

Second, our works must pass the faith test.

When you do things, do you do them for the right reason?

And do you do it by faith?

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

So I come from a diverse family, which is why I have this complexion and this silky smooth hair and these green eyes.

I have a white grandmother, uh, half-black Chinese grandmother, and two black grandfathers.

And my father told me growing up that I was adopted from Puerto Rico.

I'm not.

I'm not.

But he told me that all the time.

He don't speak any Spanish, but he just knows made up because if you're in New York, anybody here from anybody in New York, this is Puerto Rican, okay?

So he's like, made it, made it.

So I grew up thinking, okay, I'm gonna learn Spanish.

And I'm gonna marry a Puerto Rican girl.

True story.

So all my life growing up, I'm walking around Puerto Rican neighborhoods going, where's my wife?

True story.

So, I don't know, eight years ago, I figured church is 20% Latin, I'm gonna go learn Spanish.

So I'm gonna go to school.

So I fly down to Costa Rica to go to school for two weeks.

I don't know anybody.

I could say hola.

And I have no idea, I don't know the people down there.

I got on a plane and I'm thinking, what am I doing?

I can't, I'm going into a country that has another language that I don't speak, and I'm going to a place where I hope somebody picks me up at the airport to take me to a place I've never been to learn a language I don't know and sleep in a place I and I and I and I was down there for 12 days and I did this.

I took a step of faith.

So when you look back at all your life, what you're gonna do today, what you're gonna do tomorrow, what you're gonna do all this week, and God starts speaking to you, are you gonna take steps of faith?

And if you ever say, if you ever hear someone say, I'm not a person of faith, every human being that's ever lived is a person of faith.

Here's why.

I was I was at a gang conference, I was speaking there as a for the on behalf of the faith community.

They said, Well, you know, we have Pastor Miles McPherson from the Rock Church, and he's part of the faith community.

So they had the police there, they had uh the business community, they had the politicians and all these different you know, technology uh education, and I am from the faith community.

And I got upset, holla, holla, holla, holla.

And we all know each other.

I said, I just want to correct something that was just said about me.

We're all from the faith community.

You believe in education, you believe in law enforcement, you believe in business, but all of us, every time you take a breath, you are exercising faith.

Because you've never seen air and you don't know what it does in your lungs.

By faith, you go, I hope it keeps me alive.

Thank you, God.

I hope it keeps me alive.

Thank you, God.

Matter of fact, real quick, Yahweh is one of the well, as far as I know from what I heard, the only word that you don't need to use your tongue, and it is actually your breath.

You inhale and exhale God's name.

Yahweh.

Every time you breathe, you say God's name.

It's an act of faith.

When you love somebody, you take your heart, and by faith, ladies, you give your heart to some dude, hoping he won't break it.

It's a step of faith.

And fellas do the same thing to the girl.

I don't jump off the stage, even though I would not get hurt at this height, but I wouldn't jump off the ceiling because I have faith there's something I've never seen called gravity that would take me to the ground.

We all are creatures of faith.

So do your actions pass the faith test.

Romans 1:17, the just shall walk by faith.

Romans 1:17

Number three, our works must pass the sacrifice test.

Does what you do cost you something?

First it's an integrity test, then the faith test, then the sacrifice test.

Oh, it's easy.

Listen, when God gave his one and only son, what if he had a thousand sons?

I got 999 more.

Just take that guy.

He had one.

It cost him something.

David took a census that he wasn't supposed to take, and God unleashed a plague that was killing a bunch of people.

And David needed to make a sacrifice.

So he went to buy a piece of land to make the sacrifice on and buy some ox.

And the guy who owned the land said, I'll just give it to you.

And he said, No, no, no, no, no.

I think we just sang this song.

2 Samuel 2.24.

No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.

When you brought a sacrifice to God in the Old Testament, you couldn't bring him garbage.

You had to bring him your best lamb, your first lamb.

You couldn't bring him a lamb that had a broke leg and catches a hair missing.

It couldn't even go bad.

It would stutter and it'd go bad, bat, back.

And you had the good lambs over there.

But you give God a jacked-up lamb, you couldn't even give that lamb away.

God said, no, no, I want the best lamb.

I want the lamb that's gonna cost you.

Matter of fact, if you had to give God the first lamb, because if you if trusting that God was gonna give you another lamb, the principle of first fruits, you gotta give God first, trusting that He's gonna give you another one.

It wasn't like, first let me get a herd of lambs, and then I'll give him one.

No, no, give me the first one.

Has to cost you something.

So here's my question.

Do your deeds, is your life marked by integrity?

That your thoughts and your intentions match God's thoughts and intentions?

Are you walking by faith?

Are you actually serving, loving, forgiving, giving, studying, fellowshipping based on faith, not knowing what it's gonna get you?

It's like God, I'm just doing this because you said so.

And then are you making a sacrifice?

You know, um people ask me all the time, my wife and I have been married uh for 39 carried a two, it'd be it'll be 40 years next year.

And people say, Well, how did you how did how did you how did you stay uh uh uh married so long?

Well, I'm a perfect husband.

My wife and I the opposite.

I like talking to people, she don't like talking to nobody.

If I say, hey, Debbie, why don't you come with me?

She's like, Do I have to talk to anybody?

I said, that's what humans do.

I like to travel, she doesn't like to travel.

I like I like activity and change and risk.

She's like, I need to know the next 17 years in a plan.

And I believe that God brings opposites together.

We don't, but here's a problem.

We don't realize we're opposites until after we get married, we're stuck.

How many of y'all realize that your spouse was opposite after you got married?

He's like, how did I not see this before?

It's a trick, it's a it's a scam.

God's got it all scammed out.

I'm I'm listening to listen to the point of gonna make it, then you're gonna believe me.

Because marriage is not about making you happy, it's about making you holy.

And the only way you could be holy is if you serve somebody.

And the only way you're gonna serve somebody for a long time is if you're stuck with them because you got married to them and you love them so much.

So the only way my wife and I have stayed together so long is that we keep serving each other.

Do we do it perfectly?

No.

However, that's the gig.

God stuck you with somebody, and you're not supposed you're supposed to stay stuck together, God stuck you with somebody, so you get and say the only way we're gonna make this, honey, the only way we're gonna make this is if we serve each other.

Because if I try to get my way and you try to get your way, we're gonna fight and it's gonna be a mess.

So if we serve each other, but if I serve you and you serve me, and I love you according to your love language, and you love me according to my love language, we'll be holy.

It has to cost you something.

And what it's gonna cost you is your pride and your ego.

Oh, come on, somebody, come on, somebody.

So, so, so, so, so, so here's the deal, here's the deal, here's the deal.

So, I I have lived this life of integrity, I've lived this life of faith, I've lived this life of sacrifice, and now I get my rewards.

So, here's what it looks like to get your rewards.

Watch this.

I'm the man.

I've been living good.

So I I got my my robe of righteousness, I got my crown of righteousness, my crown of life, my crown of glory, my clown, Victor's crown, my swag chain, because I've been faithful enough in these streets, you know what I'm saying.

But here's the problem: none of this is for me.

Number four, you have the integrity test, you have the faith test, you have the sacrifice test, but our rewards are actually objects of worship.

Revelation 4 9.

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, and the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, say you are worthy.

Oh Lord, to receive honor and glory and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.

Dear God, you are worthy for everything we have ever done that's worth anything.

We thank you, Lord, for our health.

We thank you for our families, we thank you for our churches, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for everything we've done that has helped any person.

We thank you for the strength to pray, the wisdom to pray, the ability to read your word, and we honor you and glorify you and exalt you and tell you it all belongs to you.

Thank you, God, for your faithfulness.

Thank you, God, for your patience.

Thank you, God, for your power and your strength.

Thank you, God, for your preeminence.

We magnify your name.

And Lord, here we are in 2023.

Our world is a mess.

We're trying to make it day-to-day.

But you sit on your throne as glorified, magnified, powerful as ever.

And we tell you, we lay our complete life, our burdens, our fears, our apprehensions, our need, our want, our emptiness, our depression, our discouragement.

We lay it all at your feet.

And tell you, without you, we are nothing.

We can't know anything without you, we can't do anything without you.

We simply need to obey you, do what you do, say what you say, think what you think.

So we tell you thank you, Lord.

Let's all bow our heads and pray.

Lord, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your faithfulness.

On October 7th, myself and 30 people were getting on a plane in Israel to leave to come home.

At 6 30 a.m., we were walking on the plane.

And people were getting text messages that bombs were dropping.

The war had started.

Our plane took off at 7 a.m.

We had no idea what was going on until we got to Germany four hours later.

Lord, in the spiritual realm, we are surrounded by attacks constantly.

We are surrounded by people who think about us negatively.

We are surrounded by demonic presence planning and scheming our destruction.

But greater is he who's in us than he was in the world.

And as I was on that plane, not knowing what was going on, as a matter of fact, I was asleep.

We can be so blind to the things around us, but one thing we know for sure, Jesus loves us, that he died and rose from the dead for us.

And my prayer over Gateway Church, all the campuses, the prisons, the global uh ministry around the world, global gatherings, that the Spirit of God would draw you close to Him and open your eyes up to the miraculous things he's doing on your behalf as believers, that you would take the gospel to the world like nobody's business.

Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we honor you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Hey, God bless y'all family.

God bless y'all.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.