Standing Firm for Christ - Life of Paul Part 10

Standing firm for Jesus.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
How about taking a Bible, if you would.
And let's opening it together toacts chapter 11 in the new
Testament.
Matthew mark, Luke, John actsacts chapter 11 as we continue
in our study of the life of thegreat man.
The apostle Paul acts chapter11.
You know, when I was growing up,I lived down in Tidewater,
Virginia, and in Tidewater, myfamily, Portsmouth actually is

(00:23):
where I was raised.
My family was part of thesizable Jewish community that
lived down there.
Well, there was this one manthat we knew fairly well.
He, uh, owned a, um, a chain ofbusinesses.
He was quite well offfinancially.
And, uh, I noticed as ateenager, he was always driving
brand new shiny cars, whichteenagers noticed, but I also

(00:46):
noticed something very El veryspecial else.
And that is that he never everdrove all of those new cars.
He never had a Mercedes.
Well, you know, back then justlike today, Mercedes was an
image car.
I mean, it was kind of like asuccess mobile.
And so I went to my mom one timewe were talking and I asked her,
I said, you know how come Mr.

(01:06):
Soandso never buys a Mercedes?
And she said, well, it's verysimple as a Jewish man.
He refuses to buy anything madein Germany.
She said, as a matter of fact,if you look around a parking lot
at the synagogue, you'll seethere.
Aren't very many Mercedes thereat all because in light of the
Holocaust, most of us boycottanything and everything that's

(01:30):
German.
Well, I looked up the wordboycott in the dictionary.
What is a boycott?
It means to engage in adeliberate refusal, to have
dealings with a person or anorganization in order one to
force them to act the way wewant them to or two to punish
them because they won't.

(01:51):
And the reason I bring this upis because a boycott lies at the
heart of the passage that we'regonna look at today.
It really forms the historicalbackdrop for the passage, from
the life of the apostle Paulwe're gonna study.
So come along with us, let'stalk about what happened in the
first century.
And then we'll try toextrapolate that forward and

(02:12):
talk about how that affects yourlife and my life in the 21st
century.
Remember where we are now abrand new church has grown up in
Antioch.
It was a church where Jewishbelievers and Gentile believers
in Jesus mixed together equallyas brothers and sisters in the
Lord and Barnabas had gonethere.
Barnabas was the senior pastorof this church.

(02:34):
And remember he had gone andfound Paul and brought Paul to
town.
And Paul was the associatepastor of this church.
And while Paul and Barnabas werethere, pastoring, look what
happens.
Verse 27.
During this time, some prophetscame down from Jerusalem to
Antioch and one of them namedAgabus stood up and through the

(02:54):
spirit predicted that a severefamine would spread over the
entire Roman world.
Luke, the writer says, and thishappened during the reign of
Claudias Suetonius Claudias wasthe emperor of Rome from 41 ad
till 54 ad.
And we know from records outsideof the Bible, not just Luke's

(03:17):
account here, but we know fromthe writings of Tacitus, the
Roman historian from thewritings of Josephus, the Jewish
historian from the writings ofClaudias himself, that between
his fifth and seventh year orbetween the years of 46 and 48
ad, there was a horrible faminethat struck the whole Roman

(03:38):
world, but particularly themiddle east, the land of
Palestine.
And so we have outside of theBible confirmation that
everything, this prophetpredicted really did happen just
the way he said.
Now, let me stop for a momentand say that if you're here and
you've never trusted JesusChrist, as you're real in
personal savior, maybe you're alot like I was 30 years ago, 30

(04:02):
years ago.
Uh, I, I, I was not against God30 years ago.
I was not against as a collegestudent given my life to God 30
years ago, I understood that youneed to show some faith to come
to God.
However, I was also a scientist.
I was a chemistry major at theuniversity of North Carolina.

(04:22):
And, and I couldn't do thisunless I got some, even a little
empirical proof that Godexisted.
That God was real.
That this whole thing, wasn't ahoax.
Now for me, let me just tell youpart of what helps solve my
problem was this whole issue offulfilled prophecy.
Uh, like the one Agabus saysright here in acts chapter 11,

(04:43):
but there's more than that.
As I've told you before, thereare over 30 prophecies of that
deal with the life, the death,the burial, the resurrection of
Jesus made a minimum of 400years before his birth.
Some of them made as much as athousand years before his birth.
And all of which came true withprecise, accuracy, uncanny

(05:04):
accuracy, man, the probabilitiesof that are astronomical.
And that really helped me to getover this idea that there was no
empirical proof that the Biblewas true.
Now that's just one of, ofseveral ways that we can tell
you that, but it is one of theways.
And you know, the Bible saysIsaiah 46, verse nine for, I am
God.
And there is no other, but me.

(05:26):
But one of the ways Goddemonstrates that to us as human
beings is the next verse says,and I declare from ancient times
things that haven't evenhappened yet.
I take the Bible and write downin the Bible, things that aren't
gonna happen for hundreds ofyears in time in space.
So that when they happen exactlythe way I told you, you can look

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at them and know that I am God.
And there is no other folks.
If you're here and you're like,I was 30 years ago, you want
some proof that God is real.
You want some proof that theBible is trustworthy.
You want some proof that thisChristianity thing is not a hoax
I'd like to offer into evidencefor you.
This whole idea of fulfilledprophecy just is one of a number

(06:06):
of evidences.
Something to think about, well,let's go on what happens next?
Verse 29 and the disciples eachaccording to his ability, when
they hear about this impendingfamine in Antioch, they decide
to provide help for thebrothers, living in Judea.
These guys get together and theydecide to take up a monetary

(06:26):
offering and send it to thebelievers in Christ that are
living in Jerusalem, the Jewishbelievers there, and verse 30,
this they did, man.
I love that.
I love those three words.
I mean, good intentions arewonderful.
We've all, we're all full ofgood intentions.
These guys had a good intentionto help their brothers in
Jerusalem, but it was more thanjust a good intention.

(06:48):
This they did.
They put their money where theirmouth was and took up this
offering.
I love that.
And they sent their gift to theelders in Jerusalem, by barn of
us.
And by Paul, you say, well nowlong, wait a minute.
If I understand what you'resaying correctly, you're telling
me that this sister church,this, this baby church took up

(07:09):
money to help support the motherchurch.
Is that what you're telling me?
Absolutely.
Right.
You say, well, you'll have toexcuse me for saying so, but
that just kind of seemsbackwards to me.
I mean, you're telling me thesebrand new Christians in Antioch,
that they took up money to helpsupport Peter, that they took up
money to help support Matthewand John and all these other

(07:30):
people.
I mean, what's wrong with Peterand Matthew and John?
Why can't they supportthemselves?
Well, we, we said two weeks ago,that's a great question, right?
And we said two weeks ago, we'regonna answer it.
So let's answer that question.
What was going on in Jerusalem?
These guys couldn't supportthemselves.
Romans chapter 15, verse 25tells us about another offering

(07:52):
a little later on that theapostle Paul took up for these
very same believers inJerusalem.
Look what he says.
He says now, however, I am on myway to Jerusalem in the service
of the believers there for thechurches of Philippi and Corinth
, we're pleased to make acontribution to the poor
believers in Jerusalem.
See a few years later afterPaul's third missionary journey,

(08:14):
after he'd been around the Romanworld, establishing churches in
Philippi and Ephesus and Corinthin Galatia, he sets out and
takes up a massive offering fromall of these Gentile churches to
take to the people in Jerusalem.
The believers in Jerusalem, cuzthey're poor.
You say, well now law, wait aminute.
No offense intended, but Jewishpeople generally aren't poor.

(08:36):
Well, no offense taken theseJewish people were, they were
very poor.
These Jews who believed in Jesusand lived in Jerusalem.
And let me tell you, uh, let metell you that that's
historically verified.
FF Bruce, the eminent newTestament scholar, listen to
what he said.
He said the Jerusalem church inthe of apostolic age appears to

(08:56):
have suffered from chronicpoverty.
This helps to explain why itsmembers were called the poor,
say, what's he talking about?
Well, we know from Jewishwritings of this time that the
nickname given to the Jewishbelievers in Jerusalem where the
ed Knights Evites comes from aHebrew word, the word a Evite

(09:17):
comes from a Hebrew word Evon,which literally means to be
poor, to be needy, to bedestitute, even to be bely.
And so the very nickname thatthe Jewish believers were given
in Jerusalem during the firstcentury were the poor guys, the
destitute guys, the beggarpeople that was their nickname.

(09:37):
Now why were they poor likethis?
Why was there continual povertyin this church?
Well, from the same Jewishrecords, what we're able to
discern is that there was somekind of boycott going on in
Jerusalem against anyone who wasa follower of Jesus Christ.
Think about it.
Now we know that the rabbis weretrying to stamp out this whole

(10:00):
Jesus is the Messiah movement.
We know that right now, itwould've been easy for them to
do that.
All they have to do is go to thegrave of Jesus, roll the rock
back, pull out the dead moldybody of Jesus, put it on public
display on a temple Mount andChristianity is over.
However, you can't do that.
Cuz Jesus is raised from thedead.
There's no moldy old dead bodythere to bring out.

(10:23):
So not being able to do that.
The next strategy they tried wasto isolate and boycott and
bankrupt.
The followers of Jesus Christ,living in Jerusalem in hopes
that by doing this, they couldmake the economic price for
following Jesus.
So high, nobody would be willingto do it.
Do you understand?
And this is why every time wefind in the Bible through every

(10:45):
time we find the believers inJerusalem being referred to
they're always poor because ifyou were a Jewish person living
in Jerusalem and you believed inJesus and you told people that
brand, if you owned a butchershop, nobody came there to buy
meat.
Hey, if you owned, if you owneda blacksmith shop, nobody
brought their donkey there.
If you were a lawyer, you had nobillable hours.

(11:08):
If you are living in Jerusalemlike that.
And you know what that means fora lawyer.
As a matter of fact, I love thestory about the guy who goes to
this birthday party for hisfriend who was a lawyer.
And while they're there at theparty, he walks up to the, to
the secretary, to his lawyerfriend.
And he says to the secretary,well, by the way, how old is he?
She said, well, depends.
She said, if you go bychronology, he's 48.

(11:29):
She said, but if you go bybillable hours, he's 93.
I love that story.
don't you like that?
Yeah.
Well, anyway, here's the point?
the point of all that well, I've dealt with a
couple lawyers in my time.
Uh, in spite, the point of all,this has nothing to do with

(11:52):
lawyers.
The point is that in spite ofthe boycott that was being put
on these people in Jerusalem, inspite of the economic price,
that they were forced to pay tofollow Christ.
These people stood firm.
That's the point they didn'tcave in.
They didn't give up.
They didn't back down.
They stood firm in their faithin Christ.
You say, well, how do you knowthat?

(12:13):
Well, I know it because the sameJewish writings tell us that up
until the time of thedestruction of the city, 70 ad,
there was a, a vibrant andoutspoken community of Jewish
believers living in Jerusalem.
You say, well, what happened to'em in 70 ad?
Well, what happened to'em in 70ad is they got ran out of town.
The reason they got run out oftown is because they wouldn't

(12:35):
support the revolt against Rome,that the rabbis organized
beginning in 66 ad, they hadread Roman 13.
They knew it was wrong for themto revolt against God's
established government.
And since they wouldn't supportthe revolt, the Jewish records
tell us the rabbis ran the wholelot of outta Jerusalem.
Wouldn't let him stay there.
So the EF the Jewish church inJerusalem effectively comes to

(12:57):
an end around 70 ad.
Not because these people backedoff on their faith in Christ,
but because they got run out oftown.
But until then for the next 25years after this famine, they're
there and they're outspokenlyand conspicuously there.
And we know that not justbecause of the Bible, but
because of other Jewishwritings.

(13:19):
Now this brings us to the end ofour passage, but it leads us to
ask our question, our mostimportant question and y'all
know what this is.
Right?
Everybody knows what this is.
So ready.
Here we go.
Nice and loud.
1, 2, 3.
So what, that waswonderful.
all right.
You say Lon.

(13:39):
So what you say, you not feel,boy, I feel bad for these guys.
I'm sorry.
They had to go through that, butthere's nobody boycott me in the
21st century cuz of my faith inChrist.
So really this doesn't havedeadly squat to do with me.
Well, let's wait for a second.
Before we make that conclusion,you know, about two weeks ago,
uh, one of the most influentialmen ever to impact my life as a

(14:01):
Christian passed away, his namewas Jackson.
Pastor Jackson had been thepastor at Cherrydale Baptist
church right here in Arlingtonfor 25 years.
But I met him a years ago as aprofessor.
He was a professor in theseminary where I went here in
the Washington area.
And last December, this pastDecember, he celebrated his 90th

(14:22):
birthday.
I wasn't able to go to the partycuz it was a Saturday night and
I was here preaching, but Iwrote him a letter and I wanted
to excerpt just a little bit ofthe letter to let you just see
what this man meant in my life.
So here's a little bit of theletter that I wrote pastor
Jackson.
It was almost 30 years ago thatwe first met at capital Bible
seminary.
You as a professor and me as a22 year old seminary student, as

(14:45):
I sat in your classes, I decidedthat I would try and pattern my
approach to the pastoralministry and my living as a
servant of God.
After your example, almost 30years later, I am still trying
to do that though.
I must confess that I havefallen far short of the bar that
you've established with yourlife.

(15:05):
In my opinion, pastor Jackson,your life is an incredible
example of humility,graciousness, honesty, and
genuineness your faithfulness toyour wife, Dorothy and your
family for almost 67 years.
Pastor Jackson was married toDorothy.
Who's still living for 67 yearshas been a pleasant change from

(15:27):
the track record of so manyothers in pastoral ministry and
watching how you continued totrust God, even through the
crushing loss of your daughter.
He had a grown daughter withchildren who died of cancer a
few years ago.
It has inspired me in numerabletimes to keep trusting the Lord
through the painful experiences.

(15:47):
Brenda and I have been throughwith our severely disabled
little girl, Jill.
Anyway, the point of all this isto thank you for the difference
you've made in my life.
I thank God that he gave me theprivilege to call myself one of
your disciples, friends.
If you asked me what person doyou know?
Who, who epitomizes the wordsfinishing well for Christ?

(16:10):
I would say Jackson, do you knowthis man continued to preach
till he was 88 years old.
This man finish.
If I could finish half as wellas Jackson, I would be thrilled
if I could finish as well asthese followers of Christ in
Jerusalem finished, I'd bethrilled if I could finish like
the apostle Paul finished, I'dbe thrilled.
I, I stand here before you and Itell you honestly before God

(16:34):
that that more than anythingelse in this world, the one
thing I want the most is tofinish.
Well, I want to finish in a waythat doesn't disgrace Jesus
Christ, that doesn't dishonor myfamily, that doesn't disgrace my
ministry, that doesn't dishonorthis church more than anything
else.
That's what I want to do.
And if you're here and you're afollower of Jesus Christ, more

(16:55):
than anything else, that's whatGod wants your goal in life to
be, to finish with honor.
The race that he's put you on.
Just like the followers ofChrist here in Jerusalem did no
matter what the obstacles carcare are, who cares?
What the obstacles are.
We, we, God wants us to finishwell anyway.
Now how do we do that?
How can we do that?

(17:15):
Well, I went this week throughthe Bible and said, how did Paul
do this?
I mean, what were some of thedynamics in Paul's life that
enabled him to finish?
Well, like he did.
And I was able to come up withfour and I wanna share him with
you four things that help thesefollowers of Christ face this
boycott and finish.
Well, four things that help Paulface all that he faced and

(17:36):
finish.
Well, four things that'll helpus finish.
Well, here they are.
Number one.
One of the things that helpedPaul finish well is the number
one.
He was fiercely loyal to JesusChrist above everything else in
life.
Look what he said.
Second Timothy chapter three, achapter two, rather verse three.
He said endure hardship Timothywith me like a good soldier of

(17:59):
Jesus Christ.
Now look what he says.
No good soldier gets distractedby civilian affairs because his
goal is to please his commandingofficer.
Isn't it interesting here?
What he says to Timothy?
He says, Hey Timothy, let metell you something.
A good soldier.
Doesn't get distracted bycivilian events.

(18:20):
A good soldier.
Doesn't get carried astray bywhat's going on out in the real
world.
A good soldier doesn't even getdistracted by what he wants to
do himself.
A good soldier has a goal andhis goal is to please not
himself, but his commandingofficer and Timothy, my
commanding officer is the LordJesus Christ.

(18:41):
And my goal in life as yoursshould be is to please him.
I love what Paul says, actschapter 20.
He says I don't consider my lifeof any account as dear to me.
If only I may finish the courseand complete the task that the
Lord Jesus has given me.
He said this when they told himPaul, you know, if you keep

(19:02):
going to Jerusalem, like you'regoing, there's already been ag
of us.
He's played visit number two.
He's told us they're gonna putyou in chains.
They're gonna imprison you.
They're gonna ship you off tojail.
Do you understand what's outthere?
And Paul said, I don't care.
All I wanna do is finish what mycommanding officer asked me to
do.
My loyalty is not to my creaturecomfort.
My loyalty is to Jesus folks.

(19:25):
If you and I are gonna finishwell, we're gonna have to have
the same kind of loyalty forJesus Christ.
Because if we're loyal toanything else, our own creature,
comfort, our own desires, ourown passions, any other person
or thing above Jesus, the enemywill use that and we are
vulnerable and he will shoot usright out.
The saddle.
Jesus was Paul's none.

(19:47):
One number one without apology.
Number one source of loyalty inlife.
And that's what made it through.
That's why I got through.
That's why I finished.
Well, and the same will be truefor you and me.
This is why Jesus said anyonewho loves father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me andanyone who loves son or daughter
or car or house or furniture orclothing or fame more than me is

(20:14):
not worthy of me.
And he did this.
He told us this to do us afavor, cuz he knows, unless he's
first, we're gonna have troublemaking it.
Number two second thing Paul didthat helped him finish well is
he lived every day in light ofhis eternal accountability.
Second Corinthians chapter five,verse 10 for every follower of

(20:34):
Christ must stand before thejudgment seat of Christ that we
may each be evaluated for.
The things done while here onearth, whether good or bad
friends when you trust JesusChrist is your personal savior.
You are going to heaven, period,period, period.
But as I've told you many timeswhen you and I arrive, we're
gonna have a performance review.

(20:55):
We're gonna sit right there withJesus and we're gonna scroll all
the way back to when we became aChristian and we're gonna review
everything.
We did look what it says here,whether good or bad and look at
the impact that this had onPaul's life.
Very next verse.
Therefore he says, knowing thefear of the Lord, knowing how

(21:15):
scary it's gonna be to sit therewith an all, knowing all, seeing
all powerful God, who, who Ican't hide anything from knowing
how, what a scary thing that'sgonna be.
I am out here, persuading men.
I'm out here doing my job.
Just the way Jesus told me to domy job cuz I know I got a
performance review coming andfriends.

(21:37):
You can fool some of the peoplesome of the time and most of the
people all of the time, but youcan't fool.
Jesus ever believe me.
He knows it all sees it all.
And what the Bible tells us isyou and I go see it all again
too.
When we stand with him, Hey, oneof the best motivators I know to
promote us doing things that,that enable us to stand firm and

(21:58):
finish well is to do what theapostle Paul did and never lose
sight of disappointment.
You and I have coming withJesus.
If you're dabbling withsomething that you might want to
do and you know, you got nobusiness doing this, but boy, it
sure does look good right now.
What Paul says is, Hey, stepback for a minute and ask
yourself if I do that, do Ireally want that to come back up

(22:21):
and have to give an explanationof that in front of Jesus?
When I get to heaven, it'samazing how unattractive that
thing gets real quick.
When you ask yourself thatquestion and how quick the air
comes out, that balloon.
Did you see the article in USAtoday, this week about the IRS?
Did you see that?
And about the audits at the IRS,then what did you know that 10

(22:41):
years ago, your chance of havinga random audit done against you
by the IRS was one in 50 today,10 years later, your chance of
having a random audit is lessthan one in 250.
Now I think that's great news,Michelle.
I say, yeah, that's wonderful.
Well, the IRS doesn't agree withthat, frankly.

(23:03):
And they, one of they quoted anagent and look what the agent
said.
The agent said, the threat ofaudits is the greatest weapon we
have at the IRS in gettingpeople to report their income.
Honestly, when people begin tofeel that there's not much
chance of being audited,significant numbers of them will
fudge on their income numbers.

(23:25):
You know what he's saying?
All he's saying is when peopledon't think they're gonna be
held accountable, human naturetakes over.
They don't mean to be mean orevil or criminal, but it's just
when there's no accountability,human nature begins to take over
and we just start getting sloppyaround the edges folks.
That's true in our walk withGod.
If we don't think we're gonna beheld accountable, human nature
takes over.
Paul never lost sight of thefact he was gonna be held

(23:47):
accountable and that helped himmake it, make the choices that
helped him finish.
Well, number three, how did Paulfinish?
Well, number three, he rootedhis life in the scriptures.
Would you notice?
I didn't say he rooted his lifein time magazine, Newsweek
magazine, sports illustrated,car and driver, Madam mazel or

(24:10):
God forbid the Washington post.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
This is a man who rooted hislife in this book.
This was a man who spent time inthis book.
Who, who, who saturated himselfwith this book who meditated in
this book.
And this is what he toldTimothy.
He said, Timothy, second Timothythree.
You know this in the last days,terrible times will come verse

(24:34):
13, evil men and imposters willgo from bad to worse, but verse
14, how you gonna make itTimothy?
How we gonna stand?
How we gonna finish?
Well you, however, Timothycontinue in the things you've
learned from childhood, namelythe scriptures for they will be
able to give you wisdom and allscriptured is God breath and is

(24:56):
profitable for teaching repproof, correction, training and
righteousness.
And what's the result of beingin the scripture, rooting our
life in the scripture that wemay be thoroughly equipped for
every good work that we might beable to stand firm that we might
be able to finish.
Well, he says, Timothy, hang onto the word of God and you'll be

(25:17):
able to hang on son, hang on tothe word of God and you'll be
able to finish well.
And you know what?
I look around the 21st centuryand I say to myself, we would
have a lot more followers ofJesus Christ finishing well
today.
If we as Christ, as Christiansspent as much time in the Bible
every day as we spent watchingDan rather watching game shows,

(25:39):
reading time, magazine, readingthe paper, think about it.
Now, if we spent that kind oftime in the word of God,
wouldn't we have a lot morepeople finishing.
Well, I believe we would.
So what about you?
Hey, you wanna finish?
Well, God wants you to finish.
Well, let me tell you how you doit.
You root your life in thescripture, not sports
illustrated, not USA today.

(26:01):
The word of God fourth.
And finally, and with this we'redone is how did Paul finish?
Well, he never lost sight.
He never lost sight of theheavenly rewards.
God had promised him look whathe says.
Second Timothy chapter four.
He said, I have fought the goodfight I have finished the race.

(26:22):
I have kept the faith.
I'm done friends, I'm crossingthe finish line.
And I finished, well, look whathe says.
And now there is in store forme, the crown of righteousness
in heaven, which the Lord haspromised to award, not just to
me, but to all who have longedfor his appearance.

(26:43):
You know how Paul ran the racedown here, friends.
He ran the race with his eye,not on the track, but on the
finish line.
And it's amazing how much youand I can withstand.
It is amazing how much you and Ican cope with and not fall
apart.
It is amazing how much we canendure and stand firm when our

(27:03):
eyes are not on that stuff.
But on the finish line, heavenis gonna be an incredible place.
And Paul ran his race with hiseyes, not on this world and what
this world could offer him.
He ran his race with his eyes onheaven and what Jesus had
promised him.
And that helped reminds me ofthe story about this man whose
health wasn't so good.
And his diet wasn't so good.

(27:25):
He was eating all kinds of fattystuff.
And so his wife decided she wasgonna go on a health food diet
for both of them.
And you know, they were gonnaeat the brand and tofu and all
this other nasty stuff.
And so they went on his diet andthey really did help.
His cholesterol went down andall his levels went down.
He lived did.
They lived a long time.
They lived to be very elderly.
And one day they were drivingand the guy hit him and killed

(27:46):
both of'em and they went toheaven and Peter's showing him
around in heaven and he showshim this unbelievable house.
He says, this is yours, man.
It had a hot tub out back and apool table downstairs and a big
screen TV and a bed with thebutton that went up and down all
that.
And they were like, he said, ohno, no.
He said, you don't understand.
Peter said, I, I can't afford ahouse like this.
And Peter said, no, no, no, thisis heaven.

(28:07):
It's free.
Well, they walked out front andthere was a bright, shiny red
Maserati sitting in thedriveway.
And Peter says, oh, he says, no,no, no.
He says to Peter, he says, I, Ican't afford this.
He said, you know, he said, Iand Peter says, no, no, no.
He says, this is heaven.
This is free.
Well, they walk around on theinside and they went in the
kitchen and the guy opens thisbig old refrigerator and there

(28:27):
was chocolate pie and apple pieand brownies and Whipp cream and
ice cream.
And the guy goes, oh no, no, no,no, no, no.
He said, I, I, you know, I'mwatching my cholesterol.
I can't eat any of that stuff.
And Peter says to him, don't youget it?
This is heaven.
You can eat all of that.
And it won't make any differenceat all.

(28:49):
He turns to his wife and hesays, see there, if it hadn't
have been for you in that tofu,I could have been here 10 years
ago.
heaven's gonna be agreat place.
Friends.
Yeah.
Chocolate pile.
You want breakfast, lunch anddinner.
Yeah, my kind of place.

(29:11):
And, and, and one of the ways tomake it through this life and
make it through this life wellis to keep our eyes not on this
life, but on what God has forcein heaven, you know, nothing
would make Jesus happier than tosay to you.
Well done.
Good and faithful servant.
You were faithful in a fewthings.
Now, come in here at theblessing I have for you.

(29:32):
I mean, nothing would make himhappier than to say that to you.
And you know, honestly,nothing's gonna make you happier
than to hear him say it to you.
How are we gonna get there?
How are we gonna do that?
Well, four suggestions.
They work for Paul they'll workfor us.
Number one, be fiercely loyal toJesus Christ.
Even more loyal to him than youare to yourself.

(29:53):
Number two, live every day inlight of our accountability,
everything you're thinking aboutdoing, just ask yourself, do I
wanna see this one again?
When Jesus and I are scrollingback through, it'll help you
make better choices.
Number three, root our lives inthe word of God, spend time,

(30:14):
making sure that the word of Godforms the basis and the
foundation for our worldview andfourth, and finally never lose
sight of the heavenly rewardsthat Jesus has promised you and
me and every other person whofinishes well, run your race
with your eye, not on the track,but with your eye on the finish
line, may God help us do that?

(30:34):
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus.
We, we come to you today and,and thank you for talking to us
about life.
Write down where we live at realand practical.
Of course, Lord, you know, welive in a world that ha is full
of rabbit trails.

(30:55):
It's P full of enticements andallurements to get us off track
and to get us to do things thatwill disgrace ourselves,
disgrace you, disgrace ourfamilies, End us up in the
ditch.
God, I, I want to thank you thatyour heart for us is that we
finish well.
And thanks for giving us astrategy today, that'll help us.

(31:18):
May we take these four thingsand may we build them into our
life and into our worldview?
May these things change the waywe, we live the choices we make,
the way we think.
So Lord, one day we will justlike the apostle Paul will be
able to stand and withintegrity, say, I ran that race.
I finished the course.

(31:39):
I fought the faith.
I kept the faith.
God help us to get to the placewhere we can say that like those
followers of Jeru of Christ andJerusalem like Paul, like w
Jackson use what we've learnedhere today to change our lives.
And we pray this in Jesus name.

(32:00):
Amen.