The Danger of Merit: Why Grace Alone Saves

• Rewards and Motivation [00:30:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses personal anecdotes about Apple Watch rings and credit card rewards to illustrate human attraction to incentives, setting up the theological discussion on heavenly rewards.
• The Last Judgment [00:34:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor connects the scripture reading to the Nicene Creed's focus on the last judgment, establishing the context for why believers should aim high.
• Resurrection and Eternal Life [00:36:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the 'reward of heaven' as an eternal, incorruptible house built by God, contrasting it with our current 'earthly tents' (bodies) that are defective and temporary.
• Resurrection Body and Eternal Home [00:37:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the resurrection body as an eternal, incorruptible house built by God's hands, contrasting it with temporary human dwellings.
• Clothed with Christ [00:38:59 ▶️ 📄]
  > Explains the biblical metaphor of being 'clothed' with Christ, distinguishing between those who have faith in Him and those who remain spiritually naked.
• Judgment Seat of Christ [00:43:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > Discusses the necessity for all to appear before Christ's judgment seat, referencing the Nicene Creed and distinguishing between salvation by faith and accountability for works.
• Works and Grace [00:47:07 ▶️ 📄]
  > Addresses the tension between salvation by grace and accountability for works, using 1 Corinthians 3 to explain that believers' works are tested by fire but their salvation is secure through Christ's merit.
• Spiritual Metrics [00:49:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Uses the analogy of an Apple Watch to describe three metrics for Christian living: faithfulness, wisdom, and pure motives aimed at God's glory.
• Divine Judgment and Testing [00:51:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that God tests believers' works through the 'fire of judgment' to determine quality, not salvation status.
• Stewardship of Daily Choices [00:54:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > Application of the metaphor to mundane decisions like prayer vs. doom-scrolling, spending money, and general faithfulness.
• Grace and Works [00:55:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > Debunking the idea that forgiveness makes life choices irrelevant; asserting that salvation makes every moment matter for eternal reward.
• Christ's Substitutionary Work [00:55:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the analogy of the dog wearing the Apple Watch to explain how Jesus earned rewards on the cross for believers.

• Sermon Illustration [00:30:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a story about walking his dog, Calvin, late at night. He describes his addiction to closing the three rings on his Apple Watch (stand, exercise, move) and how he forced himself to walk the dog again just to earn the final 50 calories needed to close the 'move' ring and get the celebratory animation.
• Sermon Illustration [00:33:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor mentions using specific credit cards for gas and airplane tickets to maximize rewards, and specifically favors a hardware store credit card to earn points toward a 12-inch dual bevel miter saw he recently purchased.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of 'tents' to describe human bodies. He notes that these tents have defects from birth and wear out over time (rickety poles, embarrassing noises), contrasting them with the 'eternal house' (resurrection body) built by God that never breaks down.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of sawdust from a miter saw clinging to clothes and skin to illustrate how stress infiltrates every part of a person's life, contrasting it with the 'stress-free' clothes of heaven.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about using a charcoal chimney starter and seeing a pile of sawdust in the garage, which leads into a reflection on cleaning up and the fire of judgment.
• Sermon Illustration [00:49:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the modern analogy of an Apple Watch with three rings to explain the spiritual metrics of faithfulness, wisdom, and pure motives that God evaluates.
• Sermon Illustration [00:51:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a story about starting a charcoal grill with a chimney starter. He notices a pile of sawdust from a miter saw, gets fascinated by the fire, and throws the sawdust into the flames. This causes a massive flare-up ('poof') that singes his eyebrows, illustrating how 'sawdust' (worthless works) burns up quickly and dangerously compared to solid materials.
• Sermon Illustration [00:55:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a humorous anecdote about his dog. He wonders if he could put his Apple Watch on the dog to earn step counts/rewards for him. He uses this as an analogy for how Jesus hung on the cross ('earned us those rewards') so believers can receive the rewards of heaven through Christ's leadership.

• Pastoral Charge [00:46:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > To put faith in Jesus Christ today to avoid spiritual nakedness and receive the reward of heaven.
• Pastoral Charge [00:56:36 ▶️ 📄]
  > Come to Jesus Christ for the reward of heaven.
• Pastoral Charge [00:57:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > Go out and do good works by His strength.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:01:56] Red one? Oh man, okay. So, yellow is awful. We hate yellow. I'm going to stick that over there.
[00:02:06] Well, once again, welcome to Corinth, where our mission is to proclaim and worship Jesus as Lord.
[00:02:10] We're so glad that you're doing that with us today. If we haven't met yet, my name is Amy, and I'm one of the pastors on staff here at Corinth. Now, if you look around, you might notice
[00:02:17] you have more elbow room than you normally do. We were kind of expecting that today. A couple of really big things are happening. First off, it's Memorial Day weekend, so some folks are just out
[00:02:28] Second, it is Confirmation Sunday at Corinth, which means we took a bunch of our younger families with students and we asked them to be here at 7.30 in the morning so those kids could be confirmed at the 8.15 service. That was a really sweet time. If you're interested in knowing more
[00:02:42] about that, you can actually open your bulletin at any point. We put the pictures and the names of the 16 people that we confirmed this morning in that bulletin for you. That was a great
[00:02:51] celebration and we give thanks to God for the faith that those 16 young people are demonstrating today. So if you're seated close to the center aisle here, we've got a black folder. You may have to stretch for it because you've got more elbow room than normal, but that is our friendship
[00:03:04] pad. We'd love for you to sign it and let us know that you are here today. If you're new to court, there's a blue card in there. We call it our visitor connect card. You can take that out and
[00:03:13] fill it out in hard copy, or if you like, you can scan the QR code. It takes you to the exact same form, just the online version of it. Either way, we love to have that so that we know that you're
[00:03:23] a new visitor, we can send you a little bit of information about our church and open that line of communication if you have questions about who we are, what we believe, how you can get involved,
[00:03:31] anything like that. I want to draw your attention to a couple of announcements. All of these are actually on the back of your bulletin, so you can get more information later if I go a little too
[00:03:40] fast for you. The first is our children's musical. That's going to be one week from today on May 31st in the Student Center, which is the room kind of right behind us. If you were to turn around and
[00:03:50] walk through two walls, you would be in the student center. The children's musical is The Pilgrimage. It was written by our own Dr. Peter Corneliuson. He's our worship director, he's our organist, and he is a remarkably talented man. So Peter has written this show called The Pilgrimage.
[00:04:04] It's being performed by Corinth kids. So as you all know, if it's like one thing to learn something about who Jesus is, it's another thing to perform and teach other people who Jesus is. And our kids
[00:04:16] are taking a really big step in their faith and their walk with Jesus by actually presenting this musical for you. Everyone is invited. There's no charge. We would love to see you next Sunday at
[00:04:26] 4 p.m. in the Youth Center. Also coming up this summer, we've got a bunch of women's Bible studies that are starting in the next few weeks. So ladies, we would love to not lose connection with you over
[00:04:36] the summer. It's a different schedule for most of us, but there are still some great opportunities to connect with Jesus and other women. There's a QR code there. If you want to scan, you can read a
[00:04:45] little blurb about each of the studies. There's also information on there about how to sign up, and you'll see Jen D'Aurelia's email is on that slide as well. She is the person to talk to if
[00:04:54] you have any questions about any of those women's studies or anything else going on with adult ministries right now. Also, in just a couple of weeks, our youth in grades 6 through 12 are going
[00:05:04] to Student Life Mission Camp. That's going to be at Lee University out in Tennessee. Student Life does a great job of putting on an awesome camp to celebrate who God is, but Student Life Mission
[00:05:14] Camp combines that celebration and knowledge of God with actual hands-on service in the community.
[00:05:19] So if you've got kids in grades 6 through 12, we'd love for them to go to Student Life Mission Camp with our youth this summer. Also coming up in just a few weeks beyond that, Vacation Bible School is
[00:05:29] going to be June 22nd through 25th right here at Corinth. That is for age 4 through rising 6th graders. So that feels far away, but I promise you June 22nd is not very far away at all, and right
[00:05:42] now is the time to sign up your kid. If you've got a four-year-old through sixth grader who's going to attend VBS, go ahead and get them signed up for Rainforest Falls. Or if you happen to have
[00:05:52] some time on June 22nd through 25th in the mornings in particular, we're still looking for some volunteers to help with Vacation Bible School. So you can use that same link to sign up either to
[00:06:02] send your child or to volunteer, or if you're the bravest of all brave souls, to do both of those things. Okay, and then finally, ladies night out. This is coming up on June 10th. The ladies are
[00:06:14] going to Bisque Boutique to do an evening of fellowship and pottery painting, so if you want to get involved in that, ladies, there's a QR code you can scan to learn more and to sign up.
[00:06:23] There's more information, like I said, on all of those things and a lot of other stuff going on at Corinth in your bulletins, so make sure you take those with you and read them thoroughly. Now, as
[00:06:34] we start to turn our attention to worship, you may know that we are in week five of a sermon series on the Nicene Creed. And I told you a couple weeks ago that the Nicene Creed is this very old creed
[00:06:44] that was written in response to people trying to figure out who is Jesus and what is it that we really believe about him. So the Nicene Creed is kind of long. It sounds kind of clunky sometimes.
[00:06:55] It's not the normal language that you and I use when we talk to each other. But it is a creed that's been in use for hundreds and hundreds of years as the church has tried to define the
[00:07:05] boundary lines around what is it that we say is true and that we believe. So we have read the full creed a couple of times. Today we're going to read just the first two paragraphs together, and that's
[00:07:16] to draw your attention to where we stop. When Pastor Nick gets over here in a little bit, he is going to be preaching on this end section where Jesus ascends to the Father and will come again
[00:07:27] in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. So Pastor Nick is going to share with us what that means, that Jesus is going to come again, that he's going to judge,
[00:07:36] and that he will rule forever. So I invite you to stand as we say together the first two full paragraphs of the Nicene Creed. Church, this is what we believe.
[00:07:47] I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father
[00:08:04] before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.
[00:08:31] For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
[00:08:35] He suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
[00:08:43] He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
[00:08:47] He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
[00:08:52] and his kingdom will have no end. All right, we're going to learn more about that later, but now as our band comes up and gets set for our worship songs, I'd love for you to take about
[00:09:01] two minutes and greet some folks around you. Tell them we're glad that they're here.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:09:05] Good morning, church. We're so glad that you came here today to worship with us, to dig into God's word, and to fellowship. I love getting to see everybody greet each other.
[00:10:11] I'm going to start us off by reading from Psalm 96, verses 1-4.
[00:10:20] Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name.
[00:10:27] Tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above
[00:10:39] all gods. This morning, I know that sometimes we might not want to clap or sing. Maybe we just want to stand and mouth the words. But worship is so important in our church and not just here
[00:10:53] on Sundays. Every day, worship can look like sharing the gospel with others, giving a kind word, sharing his light and being the salt and light of the earth. But we just want you guys to
[00:11:07] get your minds ready for worship, and I'll start us off with some prayer. Father God, thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for the rain. Thank you for this congregation. Thank you for worship,
[00:11:17] Lord, that we can bring that to you this morning and at each day that we can sing about our salvation, Lord, that we can only get from you. You are worthy of all of our glory and honor and
[00:11:28] praise. Let us take away any distractions so that we can be focused on you because you deserve it.
[00:11:33] In Jesus' name, amen.

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:12:30] struggle. He is strong when you are always loved. He is my shepherd. I have all that I need. He lets

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:22:06] me rest in green meadows. He leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and
[00:22:22] comfort me. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for today and the opportunity to worship together.
[00:22:27] Thank you for providing for us and guiding us in every season.
[00:22:32] Help us to trust you when we feel unsure and to rest in your peace when we're weary or anxious.
[00:22:38] Lord, I pray that you would walk with us through every valley and remind us that we are never alone.
[00:22:43] Fill our hearts with your goodness and let your presence be our comfort today and always. Amen.

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:23:17] As the band gets their stuff out of the way for Pastor Nick to preach, we're going to turn our attention to our offering.

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:26:54] This is a great time for you to come forward.
[00:26:56] You can bring your tithes and offerings, or you can give online.
[00:26:59] I always like to remind people we don't do an offering and a service because it's like a transaction or you're paying for this great band, although they were great, weren't they?
[00:27:07] What we're doing is we're furthering that mission.
[00:27:09] If you were paying attention at the beginning of service, I told you our mission is to proclaim and worship Jesus as Lord.
[00:27:14] It doesn't cost you much to be here, and it doesn't cost you anything if you go out to the grocery store or wherever this afternoon and tell people about Jesus.
[00:27:20] but when we pool our resources, we get to do incredible things like offer Bible studies all summer long. We get to host vacation Bible school. We get to send missionaries all around the world and we can really expand that impact of proclaiming and worshiping Jesus. So this is your invitation
[00:27:35] to participate in that mission. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for these tithes and offerings, for the many ways that you've blessed us and the opportunity today to share those blessings with others here in our community and around the world. We pray that where these
[00:28:12] offerings are used, that people will come to know you and to trust you and to follow you.
[00:28:17] We pray that you would take control of this world in a way that we've never seen yet and that it will become more and more like the world you imagined and that people will be like Jesus
[00:28:27] because of you. We pray this in your name. Amen. So our scripture reading this morning comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 5 beginning in verse 10. The Apostle Paul writes, for we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building from God
[00:28:49] an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands meanwhile we groan longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling because when we are clothed we will not be found naked for while we are in this tent we groan and are burdened because we do not wish to be unclothed
[00:29:08] but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the
[00:29:20] spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight.
[00:29:34] We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
[00:29:41] So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
[00:29:46] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

[00:30:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:30:09] Good morning.
[00:30:18] Let's pray again.
[00:30:19] Lord, it's good to be in your presence.
[00:30:21] good to worship you and be still before you and lift up our hearts but lord you are the god who lifts up our hearts father i pray that the words that i share wouldn't be my words but would be
[00:30:37] your words that i would simply get out of your way and decrease so that you might increase and anoint the message give us ears to hear for what you want each one of us to hear amen you know i'm
[00:30:53] a sucker for rewards. I'll give you an example. Not too many nights ago, I was out with my old dog, Calvin, and it was for our late night dog walk. And, you know, just drag him down to the
[00:31:07] corner of the block and drag him back. He doesn't want to go. He just wants to sleep all day.
[00:31:13] But it's time to go. And so, you know, I'm out there and I got my Apple Watch on. And some of you guys know this that the app if you have an apple watch it's got this app called the activity
[00:31:24] app and it's got this this thing this kind of game where you try to close three rings in one day first you've got this this little blue circle that goes around in a circle and that measures
[00:31:36] how much standing you're doing throughout the day and as as the more you stand the circle fills out and then when it completes there's like a little party going on in my phone celebrating the fact
[00:31:49] of all the time that I stood but wait that's not all because then there's the exercise ring which is kind of outside of that the with these three concentric circles the green one is in the middle
[00:32:00] and if you do 30 minutes of exercise it starts filling up and then when that completes you get this party breaking out on your phone this celebration this and that's your reward and then the outside circle that's the hard one that's the move or movement circle and that's
[00:32:19] this red circle that kind of fills up and fills up. And when that completes, and if it's all three are completed, it's like your watch is about to take off for Mars. And so, you know, I fall for
[00:32:34] that stuff. So, I'm coming back with the dog, and I glance at my watch, and I notice it's like 1153 at night. But I also notice I'm just about 50 calories away from closing that move circle.
[00:32:47] and if I close that move circle having already closed the blue circle and the green circle I'm going to get that party and so I lean over to Calvin says Calvin sorry to share this but
[00:32:59] we got to go back down the block again because I need to close that circle I'm a sucker for rewards I'm a sucker for other types of rewards maybe you are too maybe one or two people in this
[00:33:14] room have a credit card with rewards and maybe you have if you do maybe you have different credit cards, and you know that, oh, if I'm buying gas, I use this credit card, but if I'm buying airplane
[00:33:26] tickets, I use that credit card, because it's how the reward system works. I have a credit card like that. It has to do with a hardware store. Now, I shop at all the hardware stores locally in town,
[00:33:36] but there's one local store I do favor, I have to admit, and, you know, because here's what happens is when I get to the kiosk, and I punch in my cell phone number, and I put in that credit card,
[00:33:46] I'm earning rewards, you see. And so this is how I thought about it. It's a couple months ago, I want to invest in this 12-inch dual bevel miter saw. And so I made that investment. Then I get
[00:34:04] back and tell Mrs. Perrin about it. I said, well, you know, think of all the rewards I'm getting when I buy that. I know it's expensive, but I'm earning rewards. Like I said, I'm just a sucker
[00:34:16] for this stuff. You know, when we look at this passage in 2 Corinthians 5, why are we looking at this passage? Because today we're focused on that part of the Nicene Creed that has to do
[00:34:26] with the last judgment. And Paul talks about last judgment in the first 10 verses of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and he talks about rewards. And the takeaway is this. At the end of the day,
[00:34:41] when we walk out of here, the main thing we want to see is this, or the main point that Paul has for us is this, that since we'll be standing before the judgment seat of Christ,
[00:34:55] let's aim high for a lasting heavenly reward. We're all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so where are you aiming? Are you aiming high? Paul mentions in our passage two kinds of heavenly rewards. First, there's the reward of heaven, the reward of heaven. In his
[00:35:16] day, Paul wrote a handful of letters to the Corinthians. We have two surviving, and these two surviving letters also happen to be inspired and in our Bibles, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.
[00:35:29] In 2 Corinthians, Paul's beginning to talk about his trials and his struggles and his pain. Some of those trials are pretty severe, and he, as he talks about his pain, he does it, even in this
[00:35:45] passage through the lens of resurrection because resurrection changes or should change everything every way you look at your life and the reason he does that in this letter is because he wants the corinthians to think about their struggles just the way that he thinks about his struggles
[00:36:02] through the lens of the resurrection body that we're getting and i have to think that if paul were here this morning he'd want these corinthians in this room to think about his way too what is
[00:36:16] the reward of heaven? Well, Paul tells us about it starting in verse 1. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven,
[00:36:29] not built by human hands. Now, today, whether you live in a mansion or a cardboard box, the truth is we're all living in tents, the tents of our bodies. And there's two problems with these
[00:36:45] tents of ours. First, right out of the box, there's defects. We're just born with them.
[00:36:55] Number two, these tents over time just wear out. You know, as our tents wear out, the canvas gets old and sometimes wrinkles on you. As the tents go through time, the poles, they start getting
[00:37:13] rickety, maybe even break. And sometimes these tents, they make embarrassing noises at all the wrong times. And that's the way, that's life with our tents. There's problems with our tents, but there's good news. Paul says in this verse, there's going to be a day when you die, you're
[00:37:35] going to set the tent of our physical body aside, our corruptible tent, and there's two stages to this, actually. The first stage, we go directly, immediately into the presence of the Lord, and we're disembodied and we're going to hang out with the Lord for a while.
[00:37:50] Then, stage two, this is the real good news, comes the resurrection.
[00:37:54] When the resurrection comes, Paul says that we're going to get this new house.
[00:37:59] God doesn't want us to be homeless.
[00:38:01] He's going to give us this new house, and it's this resurrection body.
[00:38:05] And there's two things you need to know about this new home of ours.
[00:38:09] First, that it's an eternal house.
[00:38:11] And if you've ever moved house, and many of you have, you know it's a ton of work.
[00:38:16] But when we move into our resurrection bodies, we have a permanent residence and never have to move again. The second thing you need to know about this house is unlike any house that you or I have lived in, this house is built by not human hands, but God's hands. And while homes
[00:38:35] made by human hands start breaking down all too quickly, homes made by God never break down. They remain incorruptible and immune to any type of imperfection. Now, according to Paul, not only do we receive a new house, but we also receive a new set of clothes. So, let's go to verses two and four.
[00:38:59] Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we're clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling.
[00:39:15] so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
[00:39:20] You know, over the years, I've discovered a handful of people, or met a handful of people, who no matter what happens, no matter what awful things happen, they're always putting this extremely positive spin on it.
[00:39:35] And they're always telling you to look at the brighter side and forget the problems.
[00:39:40] And when I read Paul here, I don't see that at all.
[00:39:43] paul says when he considers his trials he groans the way we groan when we're going through life stuff but he also directs his thinking to the resurrection body that's to come everything has to be done with the perspective of resurrection and so here's what he says there's going to be
[00:40:08] time when even though we're groaning now we're going to take off these clothes and some of us if we've never been clothed with christ we're going to realize that we've been naked the whole time there's others of us who've put our faith in christ and therefore been clothed with christ
[00:40:27] and we're not talking about denim or cotton or linen or even so we're going to be clothed with with jesus himself and this my friends is the reward of heaven you know i discovered with that
[00:40:43] miter saw and you know you cut long enough in the garage and that sawdust just gets everywhere it just floats in the air and you're kind of and the sawdust just goes up and it gets in your hair
[00:40:58] gets on your shirt gets on your trousers gets in on your shoes it gets in your shoes and in your socks, like, how does it get down there? It just, it just finds, like, every crevice of your bodily
[00:41:11] surface, and then just, sawdust just clings to you. Now, I know when I'm all done, I'm not walking back in the house and just dusting off like this. I know Mrs. Parent would say, no, you change your
[00:41:22] clothes. When we die, what we're doing is setting aside our old clothes for new clothes, clothes that are immune to sawdust, you see. Maybe you're here this morning, and you got stress going on in your
[00:41:38] life. Maybe you're in school and you're stressing about, well, finishing up school, but you've been stressing this spring about what's going on at school. Or maybe you're at work and you have a stressful job situation. Maybe your relationships at home are stressful. Or maybe you've looked at
[00:41:53] the bank account or your credit card statement and you're stressed out. And the way stress works, it's like sawdust. It kind of floats all around you and seems to infiltrate every part of your body, and you just walk around like you're covered with sawdust of stress. What Scripture tells us
[00:42:11] is there's going to be a day we're going to come, we're going to take off all those clothes, we're going to get new clothes that are stress-free, that are sin-free, that are completely unburdened, absolute freedom. Now, I share this because if you want to know what we're doing Sunday by Sunday
[00:42:28] when we gather in this room and come here and worship the Lord, you know what we're doing?
[00:42:31] God's letting us try on those clothes just for an hour so just just put those clothes on this is a foretaste of what it's going to be like forever and we need that reminder we need to remember
[00:42:46] where we're going with this resurrection body and and this is like God's changing room where we're trying it out so that's the the important thing to know is that God is doing all this for us now does that mean everyone receives this reward unfortunately no and i say this because of
[00:43:11] verses 9 and 10 so let's go there so we make it our goal to please him whether we're at home in the body or away from it for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ so that each
[00:43:24] of us may receive what is due us and the things done while in the body whether good or bad now again paul says that every one of us even the apostle himself is going to stand before the
[00:43:35] judgment seat of christ and when we do appear he's going to give us the things that we deserve in our body now this is exactly what the nicene creed says so let's go to that slide with the
[00:43:45] nicene creed and this is what it says he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no
[00:43:56] end you see those who have clothed themselves with christ in this life will be clothed with him forever in eternity. But those who have not clothed themselves with Christ in this life will be found naked and judged accordingly. How much do those clothes cost? Well, think about it.
[00:44:19] Over 2,000 years, God has been constructing a new house and weaving a new set of threads for us.
[00:44:28] What price could you possibly put on such things? You and I, we can't afford that. We can't earn that, but thankfully there's someone else who has. And that person who's earned those rewards is Jesus Christ. And if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, what he does is he shares his house
[00:44:52] and the reward of his clothes with us. So if you're not clothed with Christ, it doesn't matter how hard you try. It doesn't matter how sincere you are. It doesn't matter how nice you've been
[00:45:03] to other people. None of that matters if you're not closed with Christ. But if you are closed with Christ, guess what? The works that God's really looking for will come out. No ifs, ands, or buts. Now, as I'm talking about God's judgment, there may be somebody in here this morning,
[00:45:22] and you got your arms crossed, and you say, okay, you Christians are crazy. Because first, you're telling me that you have this loving God, and secondly, you're telling me that this loving God's going to send me to hell if I don't believe in him. Is that right? If that's where you are
[00:45:41] this morning, let me say something. At the end of the day, God lets us have what we want. When people say, God, I want you to be part of my life, I want to be with you, he honors that. By the same
[00:45:58] token, when people say, God, I don't want to be part of my life, go away, he honors that too.
[00:46:06] and for people who are apart from Christ I believe what happens is the presence of God continues to recede and then when we die you see there's no turning around and when we die we are
[00:46:19] just the ultimate the result of the path that we've already set for ourselves in this life when God judges us for being outside of Christ it's because we've been spiritually naked and he's withdrawn his presence utterly and unceasingly, and such is the destiny falling on everyone
[00:46:41] who's received Christ in this life. Friend, let this not be your destiny. We have lasting reward, though, for each one of us who are in Christ. There's reward of heaven, and you can put your
[00:46:56] faith in him today if you haven't done so. Here's the other reward Paul talks about. It's the reward in heaven, not just the reward of heaven, but the reward in heaven. Paul teaches that as Christians,
[00:47:07] we have earned rewards waiting for us in heaven and he teaches that again in verse 10 for we must all appear before the judgment seat of christ so that each of us may receive what is due for us in
[00:47:19] the things well done in the body whether good or bad so paul says again we all going to appear before the judgment seat of christ believers unbelievers the apostles paul himself and so when paul says that we're going to be judged for things in the body he surely means that the things
[00:47:37] that we've thought, the things that we've done, the things that we said, our motives, all this is going to come into the light of Christ, and we're going to be held accountable. Now, if you're
[00:47:47] tracking with me at this point, you might be confused, and here's why. Because you say, preacher, I don't get it. You just said that when God saves us, it's not by our works. It's because of what
[00:48:01] he's done, right? I go, that's right. But now you're also telling me that Paul says that we're held accountable for our works. Is that right? I go, that's right. Well, how does that work? Well, to
[00:48:16] explain that, let's go back to that other letter I talked about, 1 Corinthians, and here's what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul's talking about his apostleship, and he says this, by the grace god has given me i laid a foundation as a wise builder and someone else is building on it
[00:48:34] but each one should build with care if anyone builds on this foundation using gold silver costly stones wood hay or straw their work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring
[00:48:47] it to light it will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each person's work If what he has built survives, the builder will receive a reward.
[00:48:58] If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss, but will yet be saved, even though as one only escaping through the flames.
[00:49:05] Now, let's go back to 2 Corinthians 5.10, and this helps us make sense of what's that saying.
[00:49:10] You see, when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ, there's a reckoning.
[00:49:16] It's almost like this.
[00:49:18] It's almost as if Paul says, you know, you've got your spiritual Apple Watch, and I want to know with those three rings, have you been faithful? Have you faithfully served my kingdom? Have you been wise in your decision makings? And what about your motives? Are you
[00:49:37] living the Christian life for yourself so that you look good or you live in the Christian life for his glory and his glory alone? Those are the three metrics that Paul cares about and they
[00:49:49] should probably be the three metrics that we care about. So, Paul puts that in front of us, and we have to decide what we're going to do. Paul also says, look, when we get before Christ,
[00:50:11] if we've served faithfully, if we've served wisely, if we've aimed high and served for His glory, then that's all going to come out. But the thing is, when Paul serves, it wasn't because of his
[00:50:27] merit. He served by God's grace. If he was wise, it was by God's grace. If he was faithful, it was by God's grace. If he served with pure motives, it was by God's grace. And it's going to be the
[00:50:36] same way with us, friends. When we stand before God, God wants to measure not what we've done, but what He has done in us. Remember Genesis, back in Genesis, what God says after it was all done,
[00:50:49] after the first creation? He gives Himself a report card, and He looks back at creation and said, it was very good. At the second creation, when He measures the creation that He's made in Jesus Christ, He's going to look at our lives, and He's going to say it's good, as He gives us
[00:51:07] the grace to be wise, to be faithful, and to live lives that are pure. But how does God do this? God does this by testing us through the fire of judgment that Paul talks about. So, a few weeks
[00:51:19] ago, you know, I walked out of the garage because I'm starting the grill, and I'm not a gas grill guy. I'm a charcoal guy, and I have a chimney grill starter. It's like this metal cylinder,
[00:51:30] and what you do to get started is, you know, you get some newspaper, and you get some wood, and you get a few charcoal briquettes to get it going, and you light it up. And if you got a lot
[00:51:41] of wood in there. You got a nice flame coming out of this little metal cylinder. I had it on my grill just sitting there, and I said, this is looking good pretty soon. We'll have some briquettes in
[00:51:50] there, and we can cook hamburgers, and we'll be good, and so that's going on, and then I got to get something out of the house. I walked back into the house through the garage. I see the miter saw
[00:52:01] there, and there's a pile of sawdust. I mean, it's a big pile, and I said, man, somebody got to clean that up, and I guess that's got to be me. So I'm thinking about this fire outside. I'm thinking
[00:52:15] about someone needing to clean up the sawdust, and I get to thinking, you know, is it just me, or is there something about being a child in fascination with fire? You know, I don't know
[00:52:32] about you. When I was a kid, I was kind of a pyromaniac, you know, and maybe some of you were too. There's just something about it. So, I was standing in the garage, and let's just say
[00:52:41] I was getting in touch with my inner child at that moment, and so I had the idea of just kind of grabbing as much sawdust as my fist could hold, and I walked back in the driveway, and I saw the
[00:52:52] flames, and I stood in front of the grill, and I said, what would happen if I threw this sawdust into the fire. And I found out. Because as I threw that sawdust, there was a poof. Exactly.
[00:53:18] Have you ever been in a situation, maybe in the kitchen, where you run your knuckles by your nose and you smell singed hair? I didn't even need to run my knuckles in front of my nose. I could smell
[00:53:29] it. Oh, my eyebrows are still there. That's a good thing. It was this big pull. I have to think. I don't know how this is going to work, guys, but Paul talks that our work's going to be tested by
[00:53:42] fire, that when we stand before the Lord, it's not a question of us being in and out of His love or His covenant people. He just wants to know the quality of the work, and so our work's going to
[00:53:51] be tested by fire, and so that means I have a decision to make. Am I going to be laying a foundation in my life of gold, silver, and costly jewels, or am I faking my way just by putting
[00:54:04] sawdust down. You see, I preach a lot of sermons in my life, and if I'm standing up here, I'm just doing this to look good or for my glory, but if I'm doing it for God's glory, then I'm laying a
[00:54:19] foundation of gold. If I'm faithful in what I do, when I take the dog out at night and I got my phone out and I'm thinking, you know what, I could either be doom scrolling right now or I could be
[00:54:30] praying for my family and my friends, I have a decision to make. I could either be laying down sawdust, which will burn up in the end, or I could be building a foundation of gold and silver and
[00:54:44] costly stone, you see. When I have choices to make about how I spend my money, I have a decision to make. I can invest in sawdust, or I can invest in the kingdom. Here's why this is great news.
[00:55:00] Sometimes people say, well, God forgives us, so what we do with our life doesn't matter. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because God has saved us, everything deeply matters. Every decision you make by every moment and every hour of every day of every week of every month, you sow what you
[00:55:16] reap. And the decisions that you're making are either dropping a lot of sawdust right now or laying down gold. And so you get to decide what to do. But you can't do this by yourself. Remember
[00:55:33] I told you about when the dog was younger, and today I drag him down the street. He used to drag me down the street. You know, he takes these 10 steps. I always wondered, you know, with my Apple
[00:55:47] Watch, when those circles got really close to closing up, and I knew I couldn't make it, what if I took it off myself and put it on the dog's wrist? He could earn those points for me, those
[00:56:01] rewards, and that's exactly what Jesus Christ did with his wrist when he hung on the cross. He earned us those rewards and he can earn the rewards that we have as we let him lead and and lead us through
[00:56:15] this process like i said i am a sucker for rewards but i'd rather be a sucker for rewards than a sucker about rewards if you don't know jesus christ this morning don't be a sucker come to him
[00:56:36] for the reward of heaven. If you are a Christian and you're living life like your choices don't matter and it shows, don't be suckered. What you do in this life as a Christian matters.
[00:56:53] Paul sums it up beautifully in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, 10. He says this, for it is by grace we have been saved through faith, not by works so that no man can boast.
[00:57:01] we are god's workmanship created in christ jesus to do good works friends this week let's go out there and do his good works by his strength let's pray thank you lord for paying the exorbitant
[00:57:21] price of the new clothes and the new home that you're planning to give us help us to lean into that new clothes and new house and walk into it.
[00:57:31] Help us to live consistently with that.
[00:57:34] And Father, give us the grace we need so that when we pass through the fire, we will pass fully intact.
[00:57:43] And we rejoice that you give us the grace to do that.
[00:57:49] Do this even this week, we pray.
[00:57:52] Amen.

[00:57:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:57:57] Will you please stand and sing this last song with us?

[00:58:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:58:00] ...to make us righteous.

[01:03:25] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:03:25] Our works are nothing.
[01:03:26] it will get us nowhere Lord so let us remember that anything that we do is for your glory not for our own but for you Lord we love you

[01:03:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:03:37] close receive now this benediction now to him who was able to keep us falling and present us before his glorious presence with great joy to the only God our Savior be glory on our majesty power and dominion
[01:03:53] both now and forever more amen go in peace