Sunday, June 21, 2009

June 21st - Intro to Second Thessalonians

Prayer Requests
Pastor Aaron's New Series on a Healthy Church
Dave Snyder Going to California for His Cousin Michael's Wedding
Michael's Salvation
Day at the Park
Hannah getting braces
Sarah and Tyler going to China
Bethany's Cousin's Salvation
Fee Concert
Compassion International - Elmer and Diana
VBS

Text - 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4

Reader's Note - Much of the class was spent discussing camp

Review:
Where is Thessalonica and what makes it special? It is in Greece, and it is a major hub of shipping and land-travel, since it's on the Aegean Sea and the Egnatian Way. The Egnatian Way starts in Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul and runs to Rome through Philippi and Thessalonica.


Who Planted the Church at Thessalonica? Paul and Silas.

How about Timothy? Timothy was not in Thessalonica at the planting, as evidenced by his ability to go to the city and become their interim pastor.

What year was the church planted? Fall of AD 50.

What happened after the plant? In the spring of AD 51, Paul and Silas were run out of town.

What happened between them getting kicked out and the writing of First Thessalonians? All of the Jewish believers were either killed or run out of town; there was massive persecution in the church, and Judaizers came in to try to convince new Gentile believers that they had to be circumcised in order to be saved.

Paul had lost one church already to the Judaizers, which one was that? The church of the Galatians, so he sent Timothy to be an interim pastor at Thessalonica in order to lead them in the truth.

When was First Thessalonians written? Fall of AD 51.

Why was it written? To edify the Thessalonian church, ensuring they knew that salvation was by grace through faith in Christ's substitutionary crucifixion and his resurrection. The Thessalonians also got it into their heads that if they died before Christ returned, they would miss Heaven; the first letter was to fix this problem.

Where do we find this information? Mostly Acts 17 and First Thessalonians, but also a little bit in Galatians and First Corinthians.

What makes First Thessalonians peculiar amongst New Testament letters? It doesn't quote the Old Testament a single time.

So, introduction to Second Thessalonians, this epistle does allude to Old Testament quotations several times, a few times are almost verbatim albeit Paul doesn't say he's quoting the Scriptures. There are two reasons he may be doing this.

1. The evangelistic efforts in Thessalonica have begun to see Jews saved
2. The Word of God has authority whether or not you accept it as the Word of God

What is the occasion for the writing of Second Thessalonians? Someone has sent them a letter stating that the Rapture has already occurred and they missed it. The letter was signed by someone claiming to be Paul. Due to this, some of the Thessalonians have stopped working and are just sitting around. Paul writes to them to clear this up and let them know there are certain things that need to happen before Christ will return.

If the church in Thessalonica had one major problem, it was they were too caught up in their role in the return of Christ. Our duty is to work diligently, walking in the works which God has prepared for us beforehand, so that we will not be ashamed at his coming. Jesus will take care of his part, let us take care of our part.

Second Thessalonians was written only a few months after First Thessalonians, probably in early AD 52.

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

Paul was an accomplished Pharisee, raised at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the greatest Rabbi's ever to live. After the custom of the Jews, even though Paul was a Pharisee, he learned a trade making tents. This provided him the ability to work while planting churches and not to rely on the fledgling church to survive. He made four missionary journey's and converted much of the civilized world along with his traveling companions. He was converted on the road to Damascus while seeking to do evil to Christians.

Silas is the one we know the least about, but he was a great Christian. He worked with Paul, Peter, and Luke, and did untold good for the early church.

Timothy was a young-man from Lystra. He fell and fell hard for the Judaizer heresies, yet Paul was able to see him saved, and then Timothy did amazing work for the church, despite his rough beginnings and his youth. For the majority of his life he pastored the church at Ephesus. Early in his life he served as the interim pastor at Thessalonica.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

June 14th - Eternal Rewards II

Prayer Requests
Camp! Whoohoo!
John Gillis Preaching
Sarah and Tyler going to China

Praise
Your Youth-Pastor and His Wife

Text – Psalm 73

Real quick, what’s going on in Thessalonica? They’ve gotten a letter from someone claiming to be Paul saying they’ve missed the rapture. If they’ve missed Christ’s return, then they are probably thinking the same things we’re going to talk about today.

Since Dave and Channing and others are going through Psalms this Summer, and in order that a passage in Second Thessalonians falls on the right day that I want to teach it, today we’re going to look at a Psalm that I very much enjoy, Psalm 73, on the excellence of serving God.

How many Psalms are there in the Book of Psalms? 150.
How many authors? 7.

Most of these Psalms were written during David’s day and by David, it was an age of great music and writing. Besides that, other authors include Moses (Psalm 90), the Sons of Korah, which was likely a musical group, Solomon (Psalm 72, 127), Heman, and Ethan.

The one we’re going to look at today is Asaph. Asaph wrote twelve psalms, he was David’s chief music minister. His position was like Jimmy’s, only instead of like Jimmy serving Pastor Aaron, Asaph’s position was right under the king of the nation.

Everyone please turn to Psalm 73. The introduction to this Psalm says this: “A Psalm of Asaph.” These introductions were included to sort of give us an idea of what these Psalms would be used for and how they should be sung. A psalm is a song, and many argue that it should have a rhythmic recital. Psalm 73 doesn’t come with a lot of instruction, only telling us that it’s original purpose was to be sung.

Just to show you some others, look at Psalm 74. This one is called a Maskil, which means it is a teaching Psalm, mainly for the purpose of reminding hearers something about themselves and instructing about God. There are a lot of titles in the Psalms telling how it should be sung, without spending too much time on each one, here they are:

Alamoth – Sung in a high key; some have argued that this should be a girls-choir
Sheminith – Sung in a low key
Gittith – A Joyous Psalm, lots of powerful instruments in the background
Mizmor – This is not a rhythmic psalm, but more of a flowing psalm, accompanied by instruments
Neginah – To be accompanied by stringed instruments
Mahalath – To be accompanied by high-pitched instruments
Nehiloth – To be accompanied by high-pitched instruments and a high-pitched choir
Menazzeh – Administrative, this type of psalm is used for coronations, dedications of temples, and other official events
Maskil – Didactic, specifically for teaching

These can intersect a lot.

So that’s way more introduction than we probably needed, but the purpose of a psalm is often important when we start to read it. Each psalm talks about one major topic; these songs are pretty much a holy version of what we hear today; very few songs try to cover more than one topic, and neither do psalms. The purpose of Psalm 73 is to show that service to God is never wasted.

Lets read it, it’s broken into three parts, and introduction of the problem, a revelation of the solution, and an application:

Psalm 73
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.And they say, "How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

Asaph, whether recounting his personal testimony, or that of someone else, even David, starts out by introducing the problem,

Psalm 73:1-3
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

God has historically been good to Israel by calling them out of captivity, giving them land, prosperity, protection, and a lot of things, but Asaph wonders, “What has God done personally for me?” We might say the same thing…God has historically been good to the church, but what has he done personally for me? Asaph is going to go on further to say, “I’m not rich, I’m not particularly happy, I’m not well fed, my body aches, some people don’t like me…what’s the point?” He says this by pointing out the seemingly peachy lives of those whom don’t honor nor fear God.

Psalm 73:4-14
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.And they say, "How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.

Asaph sees that the wicked live long painfree lives and die peacefully in their beds. They boast in themselves, they make their profits on the pain of others. I talked to a baseball player once who said that since his success was his own doing, he didn’t need to thank God for it. Beloved, how conceited this is to use the machine of our bodies given to us by God and fail to give him the credit.

Example – I picked up a cup and pointed out how incredible picking up that cup is. Science would love to be able to make a machine that was so sensitive to be able to pick up something so fragile as a cup. It is very difficult to build a machine that grips the cup and is able to lift it without crushing the cup.

This psalm contains one of my favorite verses for open-air preaching. I tweak it just a little to say, “When you take the name of the Lord your God in vain, you set your mouth against Heaven, you declare war on the God who made you.” (See Psalm 139:20) Think about how ludicrous it is for any person to declare war on God, it’s even more ridiculous than if one of the young ladies in this class called up the Secretary of Defense and declared war on America.

And you remember from James 3 that our tongue leads our whole life; that out of our mouth our heart professes. If my mouth declares war on Heaven, then my heart must be pretty dark and foolish.

Asaph then goes on to say that because of the prosperity of the wicked, the people of Israel turn back to the ways of the world. If the world seeks instant gratification, and the wicked have instant gratification, then they have to find a way to deny God in order to appease their conscience. They ask, “How can God know?” Oh beloved, this is so idolatrous, our equivalent is asking, “Can God really know everything I do all the time? I mean, there are 7 Billion people and he knows them all?” Oh idolatry! It denies the sovereignty of God; beloved, I promise you, God knew you before you were, he ordered your steps, he knows not only everything you do, but also everything you think, he knows the number of the hairs on your head, and he knew how many steps you will take in your life. Do you know how many steps you’ve taken today? God is just a bit smarter than you and I.

But in order to do whatever we want, we have to outright deny God’s omnipotence.

Asaph gets a little mad at this point…the more wicked someone is, the richer and better off they seem in their lives…he basically says, “Everything I’ve done towards holiness was for nothing! In fact, everything I’ve done for God has made my life worse!”

Asaph says he almost started preaching this, but first he went to the temple, read the writings of Moses, and discerned the will of God.

Psalm 73:15-22
If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.

Asaph sees what their end is…Hell, because God despises them. Some people in Jesus’ day said there was no resurrection, no Hell, no Heaven, no afterlife, and Jesus pretty much calls them stupid for not knowing their Old Testament. We don’t need to see the word Hell, it is described here. The life of the wicked may be peachy, but their end is utterly terrible, destruction, ruin, eternal hatred by God, separation from the only source of good and love.

Oh wow. I imagine Asaph must have gasped when he realized this. He despised himself for his arrogance in questioning God, in wishing he had the life of the wicked, because their end is the end of demons. We’ll talk more about the end of demons in our second lesson on Second Thessalonians in three weeks.

Psalm 73:23-28
Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

We haven’t looked at many other verses during this study, but we need to look at

1 Timothy 4:7-8 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

You’ll never go wrong in reading your Bible, telling people about the wonderful works of God, discerning the will of God: that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. He is continually with us, holding our right hand so that when and if we fall, he will lift us up, because he has ransomed us on Calvary’s cross in order to present us holy and blameless on the last day.

The glory that is to come, the glory that is found in Christ, is so much greater than any piddly pleasure or possessions you might find on here earth. And even better, Heaven lasts forever.

So as we head off for camp, spend the week in prayer, in serious study of the Word of Life, in seeking the will of your Saviour, in desiring to know him and find your whole portion in him, forever.



Prayer
Two things we ask of you;
deny them not to us before we die:
Remove far from us falsehood and lying;
give us neither poverty nor riches;
feed us with the food that is needful for us,
lest we be deny you
and say, "Who is the LORD?"
or lest we be poor and steal
and profane the name of our God. (Proverbs 30:7-9)

Sunday, June 7, 2009

June 7th - Eternal Rewards I

Prayer Requests
George Tillers Family’s and Church’s Salvation
Pastor Aaron Preaching
Camp --> Especially Bethany's friend and cousin
Freedom Explosion (June 10th)
Channing’s continued ministry
Rick's brother passed
Daniel's Grandfather
Sarah and Tyler going to China

Text – Various: Revelation 2-3, 20:11-15, Romans 14:7-12, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15

First of all, Dr. George Tiller was killed last week. He was one of the wickedest men in America with more blood on his hands than most warlords with an estimated 60,000 murders. What made him so bad was that he was an abortionist without a conscience; he had no problem performing late-term abortions, which is when the baby is undoubtedly a baby, it looks like a baby, it has its own heartbeat, if it was born it would survive, and he had no problem killing it, he even killed babies who were born accidentally instead of killed in the womb. Most abortionists won’t perform an abortion after 12 weeks, this is still undoubtedly murder, but at the very least it shows some sort of sanctity towards human life. After 20 weeks the baby has a fairly decent chance of surviving if it is born prematurely.

Ezekiel 33:11 As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

God finds no pleasure in the death of a wicked person, albeit this verse does demonstrate that he does have pleasure when wickedness ceases. His preferred method of this is repentance, but if repentance doesn’t occur, he has no problem squishing a person into eternity. Not us doing it, but vengeance belongs to God.

Genesis 38:7 Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.

Not every death is God putting to death the wicked, such as when Stephen was stoned, or when Paul was beheaded. But sometimes with especially wicked people you can see God’s hand in it.

To make it even worse, Tiller would baptize the babies afterwards so in his weird understanding of Christianity they would go to Heaven. Why would he need to baptize them if they weren't people with souls?

Do all babies go to Heaven? Absolutely.

Matthew 18:10 See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Should we pray for sinners to repent? Yes, we could look at all sorts of verses to that effect, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, 24-26, 2 Peter 3:9, Matthew 28:19-20, and many others. But what is the other way that we should be praying for God to cease their transgressions? Through imprecations, asking him to give them what they deserve.

Revelation 6:10 They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

In Heaven the babies that Tiller had murdered asked how long until their blood would be avenged. God answered them last Sunday at 10am. Many have prayed for God to stop Tiller, and God finally answered; his patience ran out.

This leads to judgment.

Revelation 20:11-15 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

The wicked, those who have not had their sins atoned for, will be cast into Hell for eternity. Baby killers will certainly have their place here, but the Bible says if you’ve broken one, you’re guilty of all, and it says that not only will murders have their place in the lake of fire, but also revilers, people who hate others without cause, and it culminates in saying that even all liars will be punished for eternity as well. The smoke of torment of those in Hell will waft before the Throne of God for eternity as a reminder of his perfect justice.

Where is atonement, reconciliation, and forgiveness found? The Lamb of God who took our sins on himself and bore our reproach, dying in our place, so that our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life represent our citizenship in Heaven, our purchasing, our redemption. So we stand before the Great White Throne, our names are found in the Book of Life; what happens next?

Romans 14:7-12 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Now we have to give an account to God, not of our sins, which have been washed away, for while we were stained in our sins, red as crimson, we have been washed as white as snow. So we’re not going to see if we get to go to Heaven, we go to see if we get rewards for our works in Christ. The word in verse 10 for Judgment Seat is Bema, it references an Olympic judge.

1 Corinthians 9:25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.

Revelation 22:12 Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

First of all, what do we all get?

2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

We all get a crown of righteousness, this is a gift from Christ to us, it signifies our salvation. Similarly, we all get a robe of righteousness. In other words, we’re dressed as the King, which is how his Father sees us, as perfect, coinheritors of Heaven with Christ. Job saw this 3700 years ago,

Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

What’s a diadem? A crown, especially one with a lot of symbolic jewels. Zechariah calls each saint a jewel on Christ’s crown. (Zechariah 9:16)

This crown of righteousness is also called the crown of life, and the crown of glory. Pastors get their crown bejeweled with their flock, that’s 1 Peter 5:1-5, we’re cruising through this because there is a lot to cover. Evangelists get jewels for those they share the gospel with.

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy.

Funny story, I was in Tampa preaching with some friends and we got hungry. We’re looking for a restaurant and nobody can choose, and I saw a Spanish restaurant and said, “Lets eat there!” The food wasn’t that good, but my friend Rick witnessed to the waitress Sarah and hopefully she’ll get saved. Afterwards I told Rick, “You know, since I picked the restaurant, I think I get that jewel.” I don’t think that’s how it works, but it’s a funny story.

After the crown of righteousness that we all get, there is something we all desperately want to hear.

Matthew 25:21 Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.

I don’t just want to hear this once, I want to hear it once for me, then as I stand to the side I want to hear it said for Adam, I want to hear it said for Hannah, I want to hear it said for Matthew, I want to hear it said for Jessica, Abbie, Jamie, Bethany, Kari, Summit’s whole student ministry, and so many more.

Now everybody flip over to Revelation 2; most believers will get most of these things, but some are special.

Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

First, real quick point, who spoke these letters? Christ. Who wrote them down? John. Who does Christ tell us says these things to the churches? The Spirit. Once again, John is pretty much just the secretary, God the Son and God the Spirit are making these promises, when God makes a promise, it is binding.

First promise, he who conquers will be allowed in Heaven, and will be allowed to eat of the Tree of Life; the same tree that Adam and Eve were banned from.

Revelation 2:11 The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

So the believer is welcomed into Heaven and protected from Hell.

Revelation 2:17 To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

After an athlete won a race in the Olympics, one of his prizes was a feast with the other champions. In order to get into this party, you needed a ticket, the ticket was a white stone with your name written on it. After we’re in Heaven, we’re invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, when Christ will wed the church.

Revelation 2:26-28 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. And I will give him the morning star.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam was given dominion over the earth. After he sinned, he lost it. Here Christ is returning that dominion to his saints. This may refer to the final judgment of Earth when Christ returns with his saints following after him, but that’s hard to say.

I will give him the Morning Star once again refers to the Wedding Feast, when the church and the Son of God will be wed together for eternity.

Revelation 3:5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.

Here is our robe of righteousness, and our eternal guarantee of Heaven. Our name will never be erased because we will never die. Not only so, but Christ himself knows our name and confesses it boldly to his Father and the angels.

Revelation 3:12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

We will be Trophies of Grace, to declare the excellencies of him who called us out of the darkness into his glorious light. We will never depart nor grow weary of singing his praises. If you wonder how you can praise God for eternity, I suspect once we get there, there will be no doubt at all.

Revelation 3:21 The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Imagine this, a person with no possible reason to be allowed to be king is invited by the King to sit with him in his royal court. This is us, we don’t deserve it one bit, and yet the Son of God who bought us on the cross will grant us to sit with him as we wear our robe of righteousness and crown of life.

What will our crowns be adorned with? Not everyone is going to have the same quality or quantity of decoration.

1 Corinthians 3:12-15 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

Our works will be tested in the consuming fire of God to determine the motives they were done in. Imagine I send you each out with $1000 and tell you to bring me something back. For $1000 you could fill this room with firewood, or this whole trailer with straw, or you could bring back a couple pounds of silver, or a pound of gold, or a bunch of beautiful little diamonds. Now we throw these each on a fire, what do we have left? Of the firewood and straw we’ve got a handful of ashes. Of the silver we have the same lump we started with, the same with the gold, and the diamonds still glitter. So will be our works, works done for Christ’s sake with his glory as the goal will withstand the fire. Those that were done out of self-elevation or other wrong motives will do no more than provide a spectacular bonfire in Heaven.

So, our works have been tested, our crowns have been handed out, the jewels are affixed, what do we do now?

Revelation 4:10 The twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

We give the crowns back, as was an ancient custom. The lesser king or prince kneels and would take his crown off before the superior king. As a sign of peace, the superior king would restore the crown to the lesser kings head. This is probably what we should expect in Heaven, but ultimately Christ's glory should be our utmost reward.

Finally,

Matthew 6:19-21 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. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And a song...this version is terrible, but the story is awesome: