Eternal Rewards Pt. 6

This is Ronald Hopkins, and thank you for joining the Life Center Church.

And so in this series, we have been describing from the Word and from the Word's perspective about this eternal reward system that God set up for his children.

And so in that, we talked about heaven.

We talked about hell.

And after going back and re-watching and re-listening to last week's message, I said we were going to cover some things today.

But after Minister Agent brought this to my attention because I was going to actually rush into this.

But it would have left so many questions because there are so many things that happen after people are in heaven.

So I mentioned that today we would talk about what happens when we come back down to the earth.

But there are so many events that have to transpire that it probably would have left you with some confusion and a lot of questions.

So I am going to take my time with this.

Because today we're going to talk about a subject that you really don't hear, that we should hear about it, that there's a lot of fear, and that is the rapture of the church.

Now, we sang that song, but it was a little bit incorrect because everybody won't see him.

I'm going to show you from the word that the only people that will see him in the clouds are those that are his.

Remember, Christianity is about a relationship.

And I shouldn't, in a relationship, have to say things to make you want to do something.

You should do it because I'm in a relationship and I'm in love with you and you're in love with me.

If we understand that from a natural standpoint, why wouldn't God be even greater?

I'm going somewhere with this so you understand the nature, the real nature and character of our God.

Now go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

Because there are things that are happening right now in the body of Christ that I need you to be aware of.

There's something that's called apostasy.

Not in the world, we know that's going to happen, but there are things that are happening in the body of Christ that Holy Spirit already knew it and he warned us.

Teach us.

Because before the return of Jesus happens, there will be wide apostasy that would happen in the church, not in the world.

The world is not born again.

They don't follow God, they don't follow Jesus in the church.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse number 3 says, Let no man deceive you by any means.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

The spirit of delusion is running rapid in the body of Christ.

And Paul says, Let no man deceive you about what's happening or what you're gonna hear.

For that day shall not come except there come a falling away first.

And that man of sin will be revealed, the son of perdition.

So the rapture of the church comes first, then the Antichrist is revealed, then the tribulation.

But I also want you to see that there will be a falling away, a departure.

Want this to sit in for a minute because you see this happening.

We're watching it right before our eyes.

People who once believed the word no longer believe it.

People who used to go to church, they stopped going to church because now they have no conviction, they now live by convenience.

People who used to live by faith, they no longer subscribe to trusting God.

They trust in their education, their ability, their bank account, or lack of what's happening in the bank account.

This doesn't just happen.

It's gradually, then suddenly.

It's gradually, then suddenly.

So you will see that there is a falling away of people who once follow God that slowly fall away.

And they eventually depart from it.

That's why it's important to have community.

So apostasy involves a deliberate departure from or abandon of faith.

Let me help you understand something.

There's a difference between struggle and departing.

And here's the dangerous part that you're hearing.

You're hearing preachers and pastors and teachers teach it because this has been a theological debate over the years.

Can one lose their salvation?

People will argue over this all day long.

I'm gonna show you some scriptures today, and they will show you as well to show you that you can lose your salvation.

But I'm gonna show you scripture that says something a little different.

He said, Let no man deceive you.

Go to John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

Let's look at not the apostle Paul as great as he is.

Let's look at Jesus.

Look at Jesus.

What did Jesus say about this?

What did Jesus say?

John chapter 10, verse number 28.

John 10 · chapter mention

It says, My sheep hear my voice.

I know them.

And they follow me.

Watch this.

And I give unto them eternal life.

What did Jesus say?

They shall never perish.

Jesus says, I'm the one that gives you eternal life.

And because I give you eternal life, how can you perish?

If I'm the one who gave it to you.

Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

There is a difference between sin and deliberately walking away.

You have to make this distinction.

Stumble.

Sin and departing.

That's quite different.

Let me give you another one.

Go to James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

Because any believer can stumble.

Any believer can struggle.

Any believer can make a mistake.

You mean to tell me if I make a mistake, then you're going to take eternal life away from me?

Just because I made a mistake, there is no perfect individual that's walking the face of the earth.

So we might stumble.

Anybody ever stumble?

Because we're walking toward perfection.

That's why grace, which is not a license to sin.

That's why the mercy of God is there.

James chapter 5, verse number 19.

James 5 · chapter mention

Watch this.

It says, My brothers and sisters, if any among you strays from the truth and falls into error, and another one turns him back to God, let the latter one know that the one who has turned a sinner from error of his way save one's soul from death and converted a multitude of sins.

That is, obtained the pardon of the many sins committed by the one who has been restored.

Let me give you one more.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established.

So we're not talking about people who make mistakes.

There's a difference between making a mistake and deliberately knowing and you're walking away.

That's a different conversation.

Not if you made a mistake.

Because you thought because they were on their way to perfection, God wouldn't let them in.

You have to be very sensitive and mindful about who you say is getting in.

Because by the grace of God, nothing by his grace that we're getting in.

So who are we to decide somebody else is getting in?

See, the more and more I'm understanding this, and the more and more I'm studying this, and the more and more I'm in this revelation of Jesus, you gotta understand.

Jesus dealt with those churches.

He didn't deal with them for the fact of what they taught.

He dealt with them about what they did right, what they did wrong, and he gave them a warning.

Get yourself together.

Pull it together.

Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Verse number 14 says, For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

Your spirit is perfect, not your body.

Not your mind, not your will, not your emotions.

Your spirit man is perfect.

Now different conversation is those who deliberately walk away.

Let me give you one verse on this because I'm gonna speed this up.

1 Timothy chapter 4.

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Want you all to see where I'm at.

My perspective about your salvation.

Okay, thank you, Lord.

How many of you have children in here?

And we teach our children what's right and what's wrong.

If they make a mistake, do you disown them?

Woo! Make it clear, make it clear.

You just you just throw them out because they made a mistake?

You don't want any, you don't want anything to do with them because they made a mistake?

What makes you think God would do the opposite?

So you gotta be watch, watch what people say because it may not be accurate.

It sounds good, but it may not be rooted in the truth.

1 Timothy chapter 4, verse number 1 says, Now the spirit speaketh expressly, then in the latter time some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

This is where the apostle Paul is talking about people apostasizing, the falling away.

And because they are falling away, they now give heed to the doctrines of devils and seducing spirits that are keeping them away.

Okay, let me give you this last one.

Hebrews chapter 3.

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

Verse number 12 says, Take care, brothers and sisters, that there not be any of you a wicked, unbelieving heart, which refuses to trust and to rely on the Lord.

A heart that turns away from the living God, but continually encourage one another every day, as long as it is called today, and that there is an opportunity, so that none of you will be hardened.

Look at this.

And to settle rebellion by the deceitfulness of sin, it's cleverness, decisive glamour, and sophistic sin is sophisticated.

It looks pleasurable, but if you knew what it would do, or what it would produce, then you probably wouldn't entertain it.

It says, for we believers, oh, we believers have become partakers of Christ, sharing in all that the Messiah has for us if we only hold firm to our newborn confidence, which originally led us to him until the end.

Now, I want to point something out to you because believers can have an unbelieving heart.

You might say, how can a believer have an unbelieving heart?

Easy.

When they yield to sin.

When they yield to their flesh.

And if you yield to your flesh long enough, your heart no longer becomes sensitive toward the things of God.

And let me help you out.

God now allows you to become a reprobate mind.

Somebody who wants to do what they want to do because you're yielding to your flesh and it feels good.

God will allow you to become and have a reprobate mind.

And this is how people walk away.

You just can't do whatever you want to do.

You just can't go wherever you want to go.

You can find yourself going down a dangerous road if you don't stop, repent, and turn in a different direction.

Okay.

Now let's go back to 1 Thessalonians.

I thought I'd take this side journey because I have a responsibility to teach the whole truth.

Not entertain social media.

God's called me to pastor the life center church.

Be mindful of who you listen to.

I'm trying to tell you this.

That's why God set up the church.

That's why God set up the church.

And you have to understand that the only thing that is stopping the Antichrist from being revealed is not a podcaster.

So if that is the case, you have to understand and recognize how powerful is this thing called church.

And if that is the case, I should be a part of a local assembly and not a Lone Ranger saying, I can just watch from at home.

Very dangerous.

Remember, I showed you that there's a falling away.

Church isn't what it's supposed to be.

You're not there.

Yes, the church, we are the church, but you are supposed to be a part of a local body.

And when you get before the Lord, you're gonna stand before him because you didn't do your assignment at the church that he called you to be a part of.

While you at home chilling.

See, you you living for today.

I'm living for eternity.

God set up this eternal reward system to reward his sons and daughters for living for him while you're on the earth.

Praise the Lord for that.

Praise the Lord for that.

But how you live when we come back down here?

When he sets up shop, it's all determined by what you have been doing for him while you have been here.

And this sliver of time.

A very small one at that.

Because you don't understand time.

You should talk about that.

The Bible says one day is as a thousand years.

One day is as a thousand years.

One day is like a thousand years.

So when you go back and you look at the Old Testament, they according to God's timetable, didn't even live one day.

They lived 925, 935.

They didn't even make it in the mind of God on the earth one day.

Come on, Pastor.

Bring that.

So you're saying, I'm old.

And you're not even forty-five minutes old.

Remember, we just sang that song, in a little while.

Your timetable is not the same as God's.

That's why you don't have time to waste.

You think you have time, but you have not even been on the earth one minute yet.

Can I just add a little something just to help perspective?

So some of you all might say, like Pastor mentioned, I have time.

But and God's timetable, because a thousand years is as a day, and a day a thousand years.

So what he's saying, I'm deploying all of these assignments into the earth.

Almost like you're on an airplane.

I'm deploying them.

And you have 30 minutes to accomplish everything that I need you to accomplish on this earth.

How did you because you did the math?

So the pastor is 55.

On God's timetable, how old are you?

Let me see if I can find it.

Yeah.

So he's saying, I'm deploying all of these assignments.

You are an assignment.

You're an assignment, an assignment in the workplace, an assignment in the medical field, an assignment in ministry.

And he's saying, When I release you into the earth, I'm releasing you on my timetable.

You have 30 minutes to get down there, grow up, have kids, do all these things, and complete the assignment that I have given you.

A lot of you all your loved ones have gone home to be with the Lord, maybe 10, 15 years or whatever.

And for them, because a thousand years is as a day, and you're looking like I've seen them 15 years ago, when you get up there, it's almost as if maybe 10 minutes have passed and they're gonna look like, What are you doing up here?

Because God's timetable is quite different.

We're literally right now living on a very slow kind of pace of time.

If as a thousand years, it's as a day, and a day a thousand years.

We're on a slower pace of time.

So if you're 55, then how old are you, honey?

I have to bring it next week.

Bring it next week because it was very interesting.

So because I'm 55 and you calculate those numbers, I've only been in the earth 45 minutes.

Yes.

In a thousand years, a thousand years is one day.

I've only been here 45 minutes.

So you don't have time.

You need to discover why you are here and get on your assignment.

Now, first Thessalonians chapter 4.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

We should be living like he's returning.

If you had revelation of that, you wouldn't waste time.

You'd value the time that you have, and you would do something with your life so that he's glorified.

Even what you watch on TV, what you listen to, if he's not getting glory from that, you're wasting time.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse number 16 says, For the Lord Himself, when you think about that, the Lord Himself, He's not sending the angels, the Lord Himself, so He's the one that's coming to get you.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first.

So the dead in Christ shall rise first.

So those that have died before us, they're going to be resurrected first.

Go ahead and show that graphic.

Those that are dead shall rise first.

Now I want you to understand something because this goes back to what we've been teaching.

And I want you to get this picture in your heart, not in your eyes, in your heart.

Remember, their bodies are in the grave.

Then where are their spirits at?

Which I've been showing you, their spirits are in heaven.

So God is so an artist that their spirit man is going to meet their resurrected body in the sky.

Out of all the people that are right now in heaven, how would their spirits know their bodies?

The dead in Christ shall rise first.

Then those that remain and those that are alive.

Somebody say, that's me.

You didn't sound too excited about that.

Somebody say, That's me.

At the same time, not a separate event.

At the same time, show that graphic.

So this body that we know will be transformed.

I'm going up.

You know what's interesting about this?

It did not say those who made a mistake.

It didn't say those who didn't confess their sin before they died.

Your salvation isn't based upon works.

That's why you better be mindful of what you're saying.

Because you you don't know.

You don't know.

Who are you to say who's going up?

He said all believers were going up.

Because when you read the tribulation and what's going to happen, do you honestly think that God will want his children to be down here to experience the wrath of God?

Let's go back to what I showed you in Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

It's like the days of Noah.

It was the righteous.

Be mindful of who you listen to that's saying that people are staying down here.

Because did God say that or did they say it?

Or is it their interpretation?

Because they could interpret things wrong.

That's why the Bible says those who teach it will be held at a more stricter.

Because we could lead people in the wrong direction.

Pray for us.

And we can teach people legalism.

Very dangerous.

Woe to the pastors.

Gotta be mindful.

Yeah, I know that's not popular, but I'm here to teach the truth.

I'm trying to tell you, I'm not quick to say that person went to hell.

How do you know?

Because I showed you from the word that the bodies are not in hell.

Bodies are in the grave.

The spirits right now are before the throne.

Not their bodies.

So is that their interpretation?

Because you don't have chapter and verse on that.

Remember, Jesus says heaven and earth will pass away, but not my words.

So give me the word on that.

And let's let the word in its proper context not pulling one piece out based off your interpretation.

That you could interpret it wrong.

It says the Lord Himself shall ascend from heaven with a shout.

Very interesting, this word, because this word shout is a command.

It's in order to move forward and to take your position.

So the dead or those bodies will come out of the grave because Jesus is now giving them a command.

So heaven or Jesus, who's in heaven, gives the command, and the voices or the body respond.

To his voice.

First thing.

Then he says, with the trump.

When the trumpet of God sounds, death has to surrender what's been holding it down.

Death is not the end.

Sometimes what happens when you have homegoing celebrations, the people that attend are sad because they don't understand that that person is no longer here physically, but they're still alive.

They didn't die.

They just transitioned.

They're just in another city.

They had a reservation.

They had a designated time to be here.

And when they finished their assignment, then they went on.

If they were born again.

If they were not born again, they still finished their assignment, and they still had a designation.

From this scripture and the scriptures that I've shown you, the unbelievers don't hear the trumpet sounding.

Remember, it's a command.

So if they're not following God while they're on the earth, how can they follow him to go up?

The shepherd, that's why I showed you John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

The shepherd knows his sheep.

So only his sheep will hear him when he gives the command.

While we are here on the earth, we start knowing his voice.

Even in the nature, if you talk to a shepherd and they have sheep, the sheep know the signals and the voice of their shepherd that they follow.

And if you took another shepherd who had a different sheepfold, they would have a different signal or different voice, and those sheep would follow their shepherd.

Let me give you something else on this.

Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse number 55 says, O death.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

O grave.

Where is your victory?

So what happens when a believer, his spirit, leaves his physical body, they don't even feel death.

See, we have a different perspective because we believe that they're in pain.

They're not in pain at all.

You think they're in pain because you're looking at them.

But their spirit leaves their physical body and the body goes back to the original state.

The apostle Paul uses the word sleep.

That's why you can look at that body and it just looks peaceful.

Why?

Because the body is actually sleeping.

When he gives the command, that body will now wake up.

But that body will be, let me show it to you.

It's gonna come alive and it's gonna be transformed into an perfect body that has no defaults.

And the Bible says they will be caught up.

Let me see how much time I got.

I got time.

Okay, she said, because this is the other thing.

The Bible that we read now does not say, or you won't see the word rapture.

But yet people are arguing over this.

You cannot argue with the fact of this event will take place.

It will take place.

When you actually study the word rapture, it comes from a Latin word.

I took Latin in high school.

So Latin helped me.

My degree is in English, so it helped me understand words.

So the Latin word for rapture is rapture, and it actually means being caught up, snatched away, the catching away.

So the body of Christ, God's children, will be caught up or raptured up or snatched away just in the nick of time.

In the nick of time of what?

Start.

Start.

Persecution is going to start more than what's happening right now.

And in the nick of time, the Father will then say to the son, now is the time.

Don't nobody, don't nobody.

I know that's not proper English.

No one knows when that's gonna happen.

That's why we have to live like it's gonna happen today.

Okay.

The greatest thing about the rapture is not that we will have transformed bodies.

The greatest thing about the rapture is that we're gonna meet him in the clouds.

And we will see him face to face.

Let me give you a couple more scriptures, then we'll close.

1 Corinthians 15.

I'm gonna read this from the New Living Translation.

It says, But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret.

We will not all die, but we will all be transformed.

It will happen in a moment.

In the blink of an eye.

It's faster than you can blink.

It'll happen that fast.

When the last trumpet is blown, for when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever.

And we who are living will also be transformed.

For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die.

Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

Then verse number 18, Paul, if you go back to 1 Thessalonians, he says, Comfort one another with these words.

We should be comforting our loved ones with these words.

You will never die.

Your loved one will never die.

They're not dead.

See, we when we don't have the right words to say, we say filler words.

I'm sorry for your loss.

Loss?

Whatever is lost can be found.

So I didn't lose, I gained.

Amen.

Amen.

Comfort one another with these words.

Now, let me close here because we're gonna have a new body.

And I'm setting this up so you understand how we're going to function when we come back down here.

So we will have an immortal body, a perfect body, a transformed body.

Let me help the ladies out.

There'll be no more menopause.

Some of the men looking at me like, what are you talking?

If you don't know.

Now, let me show you these couple of things because you have a new body.

Philippians chapter 3, verse number 20 says, But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we eagerly are waiting for him to return as our Savior.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies, watch this, like his own.

Read your Bible!

So the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.

So we're gonna have the same kind of body that Jesus has to this day.

He's the only person in heaven with a body.

If that is the case, what can I do with this body?

Because this is gonna help you understand when we come back down here how these bodies are gonna look.

And what these bodies can do.

Go to Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

I gotta show you this.

I gotta show you this.

Luke chapter 24, verse number 30 says, and it came to pass as he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

And their eyes were open, and they knew him.

And he vanished out of their sight.

With a glorified body, Tina put that graphic up.

You'll be able to appear and disappear.

You won't need a car.

See, you caught up in a BMW and you caught up in you won't you won't need a car.

Remember, it says we're gonna have the same body as he had.

Verse 36 says, and thus as he spake, Jesus himself, he stood in the midst of them.

And he said unto them, peace be unto you.

But they were afraid and terrified, supposing that they had seen a spirit.

And he said unto them, Why are you troubled?

Why do your thoughts arise in your hearts?

Look at my hands and my feet.

He says, Handle me.

Look at me.

For spirit does not have just flesh.

Put that next graphic up.

Because with a glorified body, you can be touched.

I didn't say you can have sex.

With a glorified body, you'll be able to touch people.

Let me give you one more and then we'll close here.

Verse 40 says, and when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.

And while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, Don't you have any food?

And Jesus gave them some fish and a honeycomb.

And he took it and Jesus ate it.

Put that last graphic up because with a glorified body you will be able to eat.

He didn't say get full, fall asleep.

There are some more lambs that we eat.

We're gonna have a body just like his.

And I wanted to show you this because when we come back down to the earth and this glorified body, how do you how do you think that you are going to get back and forth?

There's no Ubers and anything.

Can we know Ubers?

See, we haven't been taught this stuff from the Bible because we have a misconception about heaven and a misunderstanding about New Jerusalem and the New Earth.

How do you think you're gonna get from the New Earth to New Jerusalem?

It's gonna come down.

They're gonna be together.

Okay, we just out of time today.

Every head is bowed, every eyes closed in prayer.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Jesus.

You set all this up for us to be with you forever.

Thank you, Lord.

Now where every head is bowed and every eye is closed in prayer.