Phil 2 JSC, Loss of Reward

This message originally delivered on July 14, 1991.  Unfortunately the end of the Master Tape was cut short, we do not have the last few minutes of this message.

Episode Transcript

Kimber Kauffman (00:00):
Please take your Bibles. And other than that
two places where you proverbs 24is one place. And the last
chapter of the Bible revelation22, as another place, Proverbs
24, Revelation 22.

(00:22):
Proverbs 24, and then one placein Revelation 22. And then
believe me, we're going to begoing all over the Scripture. So
if you have a Bible, ready tohave your fingers nimble. I read
in People Magazine this lastweek about the death of Michael
Landon. They quoted RonaldReagan saying this his tragic
battle with cancer touched thehearts of every American, as it

(00:45):
is indomitable spirit. Then wenton to quote Landon, the first
who said this comment about andlisten to what it says, As
Landon closed his own book witha solid grace that refuse to
succumb to tragedy. He saidthis, and I quote Michael
Landon. It's not like I'vemissed a hell of a lot. He said,
I've had a pretty good luckhere. But something struck me as

(01:09):
I read that, what struck me wasthis that is so typical of the
world in which we live. And thatis, all that matters is the here
and now. And there is never anyreference to what happens after
you die. There's never anyreference to who God is about

(01:30):
the judgment seat. Buteverything just what happens now
Hey, I've had a good luck here.
Now the question though,according to Jesus is this, what
shall it profit a man if heshall gain the whole world and
lose his own soul? Henry WardBeecher said concerning the
judgment of God at the end ofour lives, in this world, it's
not what we take up. But what wegive up that makes us rich, on

(01:52):
the Day of Judgment. Just applyit to this, the Scripture is
full from beginning to end ofproposals of reward. And the
greatest characters have actedon this expectation. I'm
wondering, this is a series thatwe came off of Philippians
concerning this, the beam ofjudgment, the fact that every

(02:13):
person the Scripture says, willgive account of themselves
before God one day for thethings done in the body, whether
good or bad. And the scripturejust doesn't mention that that's
just not some insignificantpoint that happens to come
across every now and then thescriptures are full, teaching
this, prepare for that day.
Whether you're a Christian orwhether you're a non Christian,

(02:34):
that day should have a bigimpact of our life versus look
here in Proverbs 24. I told youto turn there, it's all over the
Bible. I'm just giving you acouple to show you Old
Testament, New Testament doesn'tmatter. The scriptures talk like
this, starting with verse 11, ofthe 24th chapter. Notice what it
says, of Proverbs, rescue thosebeing led away to death, hold
back those staggering towardsslaughter. Now if you say but we

(02:57):
knew nothing about this does notmean new ways the heart receive
it. Does not he who guards yourlife? No it will he not repaid
each person according to what hehas done to get that will they
not repay each person accordingto what he has done. Now, that's

(03:17):
the middle Proverbs. I can showyou many other places, and
Isaiah and all through the OldTestament. But let's just go to
the last chapter of Revelationto see something else. Here we
have the end of the story, thecombination of history, and
here's Jesus speaking about hisreturn. And look what he says in
Revelation 22. starting withverse 12. He says, this blessing

(03:37):
are those, excuse me, verse 12,Behold, I am coming soon. My
reward is with me, what's hisreward? And I will give to every
one according to what he hasdone. Hey, the very last word to
Jesus, this, I'm coming back. Myreward is with me, I will give

(03:59):
you every man according to whathe has done. Please remember
this friends, the quick reviewin our study, Heaven is not the
same for everybody. And hellwill not be the same for
everybody. There'll be degreesof blessedness and heaven,
there'll be degrees ofpunishment in hell, the
scriptures are not ambiguous orextremely clear about that
point. In fact, studying thejudgment should not make us go
oh, man, the judgment make mefeel terrible. This is just sit

(04:22):
instead, if you study the lifeof Paul, Isaiah, Peter, the men
in the Bible, they were stronglyand the women in the Bible they
were strongly motivated as athought about the day of final
judgment. In case you're justwondering if this is just some
things that I'm on. That'scrazy. I want you to see what
some other Christians downthrough church history have

(04:42):
said. Look what it says here, FBMeyer, Alexander McLaren, John
Bunyan, and Matthew Henry Jamesany I mean, these are
heavyweights in the face downthrough the years and look what
they say. We long to see him andto be with him. And such desires
are the work of the Holy Spiritthat are the first fruits of
heaven, but remain Remember thatjust inside the door there is
Christ judgment seat where hewill judge our life and of

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course in our reward prepare mysoul to give account that I
talent about Alexander McLaren.
The judgment seat is meant forus professing Christians, real
and imperfect Christians, andtells us that there are degrees
and that future blessednessproportions to present
faithfulness. Or John Bunyan,the real Pilgrims Progress the
book has been read by morepeople than the only other book
out so that is the Bible. Tothis. It's true. God loves his

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people getting love is not theirsins nor anything they do,
though with the greatest dealfor him. It would be contrary to
His Word wherefores to me is Godwill give a reward to His saints
and children for all they haveand D well done. So truly will
at this day distinguish theirgood and bad works. And when
both are manifest by therighteous judgment of Christ, He
will burn up their bad with alltheir labor, travail and pains

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in it forever. Matthew Henry,the most famous Bible Commentary
ever written here, there is aday coming that will cure all
our mistakes and show usourselves and show our actions
in the true light. And one lastseason. If it is Christians,
always who are in view here he'stalking about the beam of
judgment for Christmas. All thewe have hidden shall be

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revealed, the things we havedone in the body will come back
to us whether good or bad, everypious thought and every act
every thought of sin, everysecret prayer and every secret
curse, every unknown deed ofcharity, and every hidden deed
of selfishness, we shall seethem all again. And who would
know we have not remembered themfor years and perhaps have

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forgotten them all together, weshall have to acknowledge as
they are our own is not that asolemn thing to stand. At the
end of life, it is a solemnthing to do something. For some
reason, this makes you feel alittle uncomfortable, I would
just want to say, we can only bewhat the Bible says. And that is
should have a major impact uponour life, the way in which we

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consider judgment. Now, peoplesay many things about this, for
instance, when it comes tojudgment, you're not gonna hear
too many people talk about it.
If you were to watch the PhilDonahue show, or The Oprah
Winfrey Show, when they starttalking about some study, and a
Christian stands up says yeah,but God is upset with that. Get
out of here. He's crazy. Butyet, notice, here's some things.
The world says God doesn't knowwhat I'm doing. What the Bible

(07:18):
says, you know, my sitting downand my rising up, you are
acquainted with all my ways. Theworld says God can't know what
everybody is thinking. Thescriptures, though, says, The
Lord searches all our hearts andunderstands all the intents of
the thoughts. The world says,God can't remember everything we
say. The scripture says there'snot a word of my tongue, but the

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whole word, you know it alltogether. And by the way,
there's much more than that. Onthis point. The Scripture says,
Every idle word, we'll give anaccount for one day. The world
says, God couldn't be concernedall the things that happen in my
life. The Bible says that onesparrow falls to the ground
apart from your father's will.
You know, I always thought thatthat meant that as Pharaoh died,
lord knows about it to hear whatactually being just a sparrow

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doesn't flutter from one branchdown to the ground. But the guy
doesn't know about it. God knowsabout everything. He's all
sovereign. He's all knowing. Youthink, How can you be that way?
There's no way how can anyonethink that for instance, my wife
asked a person one time to tradethis thing? How can we pray the
same? Because God is so busy.
How can you hear all theprisoners everybody played a

(08:21):
very low view of God causes usto think that this couldn't
happen. God is spectacularlygreater than our greatest
thought we've ever had,according to the Scriptures. How
about this, God doesn't keeptrack of the things I do on the
Scripture says, and all of thesepassages, Psalm 56, Psalm 139,
our chi three, Revelation 20,that there's a book of works in
which all of our deeds are done.
God couldn't possibly care aboutthe details of who I am. And yet

(08:44):
the scripture says the veryhairs of your head are numbered.
Now, as we consider thesethings, I want you to know that
it is very, very important thatyou understand what we've
already covered in case you'renew here today, and you haven't
seen this, the Scripture talksabout the great judgment, it is
appointed on demand wants todie. And after that the

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judgment, well, there isphysical death. And then there
are actually two judgments, onefor believers, one for non
believers, one for believers iscalled the Bema Seat. It's from
the Greek word Dima in the text.
And it's found in Romans 14found in First Corinthians 510,
as we have it here, the GreatWhite Throne Judgment is found

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in Revelation 2011. It is forunbelievers, those that have
refused to confess their sinsbefore God and to ask them what
Christ did for them on the Crosswould cover their sins. Those
people will go to hell, and itwill be the degrees of
punishment will be what will thejudge address great white throne
judgment? In other words, theBible says things like that
it'llbe much more tolerable for a
certain person or a certaincount on the Day of Judgment,

(09:49):
there will be for others. Why?
Because they were more wicked.
But at the Venus eat and this isimportant, it is not a matter of
whether or not you go to heavenor hell The BMI, everyone goes
to heaven. But the Bema isreward or loss of reward, you
will see that clearly come up inthe scriptures in a little bit.
But it says that we will giveaccount of ourselves to the

(10:11):
things done in the body. And thescripture says it'll be the
quality of our works will bejudged. So you see, there's a
great judgment that will comewhether you're a believer and
unbeliever one will be degreesof punishment, for instance,
Hitler will be worse off thanothers, I would imagine, I'm
just guessing now enough tojudge the world. And some
believers will be much betteroff in heaven than others.
That's a little bit of a thoughtthat most people don't like to

(10:32):
hear. Right in that way. Andthat doesn't quite make sense.
I'm going to drive you crazy onthose lights, because I'm gonna
keep going back and forth. Butjust leave office service today.
Go ahead, and then you canrelax, enjoy the message. All
right. Appreciate it. You guyscan see okay, I believe anyway,
quickly in review, concerningthe Great Whites, no judgment,
this is the judgment just forunbelievers. Everyone in this

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judgment goes to hell rememberthat. And the Scripture, by the
way, says broad is the road thatleads to destruction. and many
there be that to be honest,narrow is the road that leads to
eternal life. So you could saythe majority of people will be
going to this judgment unlessthey repent of their sins. It's
based upon works. And notice thecriteria of judgment for non
Christians is number one, theamount of truth known and

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rejected. Number two, the kindsof sins that you commit, some
sins are worse than others,according to the Bible. Don't
let anyone fool you on thatpoint. Most Christians don't
believe that, but it's verytrue. And then also knows the
number of sins that ones commit.
The more sins you commit, theworse is going to be, how can
you avoid the Great White ThroneJudgment repenting of your sins

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and trust in Jesus Christ ordon't die, you have two choices.
All right. Now, remember this.
And by the way, we went overthis very quickly, because we
reviewed this two weeks ago, wepresented this last week we
reviewed it. And again, we'rejust reviewing it, if you want
details of this, get a tape andlisten to the tape because we
have a whole message just onthat Great White Throne
Judgment. Now, quickly, though,I want to say this, before we

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use the overhead again, and thatis this. That's the criterion
for the Great White ThroneJudgment, what is the criterion
for the beam of judgment, so thejudgment for people that will go
to heaven, for Christians, onlysay this, first off the fact of
the Bina judgment, that you willgive an account of your life for
the works done in the body, itshould very much affect our

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lives. Because according toHebrews 11, six, the Listen,
according to Hebrews 11, six, itshould be foundational to our
faith. Hebrews 11 Six says thiswithout faith, it's impossible
to please God. But then the cometo God must believe that He is
and get this, he is a rewarderof them that diligently seek
Him. Now you say that word andyou look it up the same Greek

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words in Hebrews 1035. And 36talks about don't stop serving
the Lord, you will be richlyrewarded don't lose your
competence. When he comes intalking about the Bema, you go
to 1126 and says this, Moseschose rather suffer which was
the people of God rather thannew joy, pleasures and sin first
season, because he lookedforward to his reward Moses did.
And so you see, it should befoundational to our faith, the

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bmsc judgment, the fact that youwill give an account of yourself
before God not to be cast intohell, but for reward or loss of
reward should motivate you intodecisions that you make in the
way you live. I have very, very,very seldom ever heard of
Christians make a wrongdecision. When they say this.
Boy, I am so frustrated in mymarriage. Boy, I'm so frustrated
at work, who I'm so mad at mynext door neighbor who has got

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this problem, whatever it is,and they make the decision as if
the Bema does not exist, thenyou get in trouble. But when
Christians make decisions basedupon the fact that it is not how
I feel, but what God will say toMe on that day, you will then
see that your wife will go downthe road that is called the
straight and narrow, becauseyour goal is to please Him and
not yourself. And that is sofoundationally important. We

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have become so narcissistic, inChristianity that we're so into
it for so we even started theBible for our own purposes,
instead of for the glory of God.
So we are to have this isfoundational to our faith. And I
realized I'm doing quick again,this message is a whole message
in itself. I'm quickly reviewingto get to the point today.
Another point today which youwill see Matthew 619 through 21

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says this laying out foryourselves treasures in heaven,
where moth and rust havecorrupted with these
breakthroughs feel that theyhave for yourselves treasures in
heaven. I wouldn't just say theyare for yourselves treasures on
earth where moth and rust that'scorrect. Read the Bible don't
listen to me quoted i If it saysthat lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven. But what'sthe point there? Hey, we are

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commanded by God to lay uptreasures in heaven. It's an
empirical command in that sense.
It's also commanded the way oftreasures for ourselves. If the
Greek word store up which meansthis, you take your money and
you put it in the bank and itstarts gaining interest. And if
you just keep saving, saving,saving over lifetime, you've got
to do it many times. I readsomewhere in one of those
financial journals that some guystarted saving $40 a week, but
he was so old and he keptputting the bank at six and a

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quarter interest. And by thetime he was a certain age he was
a millionaire You see what hedid? He stored up wealth now,
that's exactly what Christiansis supposed to do. As you do
good as you love people as youfollow God, if you do what
you're supposed to, you'resupposed to be storing up
treasure. So on the day ofheaven, you'll be rewarded. This
is the principle main principlein the Bible, not some obscure
thing. But guess what else?

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Romans two five says, sinners,who will not repent of their
sins and trust Christ arestirring up sins, and they're
building a bank account of sinsand what it is it's gonna turn
into the wrath of God and God'swrath. It's Bill storing up
wrath against the day of wrath,same exact Greek term, they're
building up building up sothere's gonna be a heap of wrath
come crashing down upon thosewho refuse to live life God's

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way. That sounds scary. Thatsounds mean, you think, oh, boy,
we got to do a real hyperfundamentalist, crazy church
today. You think what you want,but I'm just to tell you, my job
is to tell you what theScriptures say. And here's what
the scripture says. Withoutquestion, we do that. So how can
you practically speaking thenlay up treasures in heaven where
you can do this be rich and goodworks, be generous and willing
to share according to FirstTimothy 618 and it take the

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lowest place in societalsituations, you go to a
conference, you go to a banquet,you go to a party, don't put
yourself at the top, putyourself at the low part of it.
The scripture says this do nicethings for those who can't repay
you. Hey, you know what? Youhang out with the rich, you're
hanging out with the popularyou're hanging with those people
you can always get somethingback you know, you gotta rub
shoulders, read people's, if youcan work your way up the job
skill, you got to do all thesethings. But here what Jesus

(16:23):
said, Jesus, in societalsituations, you invite the poor,
the blind, the crippled, thelame, and you know what? At the
resurrection of the righteousall see to it that you get
repaid? What are you talkingabout? You take care of those
that are down and out. You reachout to people that are in
trouble and guess what's gonnahappen, God will reward you at
the Day of Judgment. Anotherthing is this, practice your

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Christian disciplines in secretthings like giving your prayer
life, fasting, anything likethat, do it in secret, the Bible
says the Pharisees praying asthey say on the street corners,
maybe like as Oh man, I took awonderful person, thank you,
Lord, I'm so glad I'm not likethese people like that person
over there. I'm gonna do theseto pray. This is true. I'm glad
I'm not a woman that the womanwas praying. Are you telling you

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now, us, Jesus says they havetheir reward. Nobody meant to be
like this, the people would go,Oh, God, we that guy is praying.
Or when they would give theywould blow trumpet. You know,
it'd be sort of a funnyillustration, as it robs us as
you come forward. And you know,what I'm giving you know, that

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hold out a big check, and thisbig to put in the offering. You
see, we're supposed to do thosethings in secret, let your left
hand know what your right handis doing. The secret. In other
words, do it secretly, the Godwho sees you in secret will
reward you on the BMI at the oneday. So things like that the
general criterion for judgmentis this according to Matthew

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2514, to 33, it'll be based uponfaithful use of what you have
been given out in the amount ofwhat you have, in other words
will be based on availability,not ability, he's not going to
judge me compared to JohnMacArthur, Chuck Swindoll, or
somebody like that, he's goingto judge me for the gifts and
talents he's given me and how Iuse them for his cause. And
also, it's very important thatyou know that it's a matter of

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quality and not quantity. Wehave a big quantity society, but
it's going to be a qualitativejudgment. Now, I have said all
that to get to this week'smessage, and you know what
you're gonna think now, I getit, the first group of all the
positive things that we can sayabout the BBC. And we're gonna
start off on the negative one,and you'll hear why in just a
second. But let me tell youwhat's coming up in the next two
weeks. I want you to know this.
Next Sunday, we morning, Lordwilling, we are going to study

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how the Bema Seat in depthshould motivate your life, I am
amazed, I get so much material.
Now I don't even know how I'mgoing to get it down to what we
need to study. But the Bemashould have a strong powerful
motivation in the way you live.
The week after, we will studyLord willing maximum rewards at
the Bema. And that is there areseven places when it says your

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reward will be great. It'll bemega off, it'll be huge for
doing certain things. And sowe're going to see the maximum
rewards at the Bema forChristians. But guess what we're
going to study this week. Areyou reading anything? Oh, man,
some negative preacher alwayspicking out the worst. Now we're
gonna study how you can loseyour reward. And that is this
loss of rewards. Now, considerthis, in turn with me, by the

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way to First Corinthians 310 to15 on how to lose a reward at
the Bema and by the way, whywe're on this subject. I want to
remind you as you turn there,that psychologists say that fear
of loss of reward is a muchgreater motivator than hope for

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positive reward if you do that.
Fear of loss of reward is a muchgreater motivator than hope of
positive reward. For instance, afather whose story goes a father
gives his daughter 10 quartersand says look, every time I come
into your room and your bedsmade and it's cleaned. And

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obviously those 10 quarters cancome anytime I want throughout
the week. But every time I comeinto your room, and your mess
beds not made, it's all messy,I'm going to take one of those
quarters. But you know why? Thedaughter keeps her room a lot
more clean. Then, if he saysevery time I come into your
room, and it's free, I'll giveyou a quarter, because she
already got those quarters. It'sgoing to kill her if he can take

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one of those quarters away. Sofear of loss of rewards
important now, you think I'mmaking this up? Let's look what
First Corinthians three says. Itsays starting with verse, let's
say, verse 11. It says this, orno one can lay any foundation
other than the one already laid,which is Jesus Christ. If any
man build on this foundation,using gold, silver constantly

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stones, wood, hay or straw, hiswork will be shown for what it
is because the day will bring itto light, it will be revealed
with fire and the fire will testthe quality of each man's work.
If what he has built survives,he receives his reward. If it is
burned up, he will suffer loss.
Now everyone look at verse 15.

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here that the burned up, he willsuffer loss, he himself will be
saved, but only as one escapingthrough the flames. It's
important to get this nowlisten. Your salvation is not
going to be judged at the Bemafor being a is for Christians,
your salvation will not bejudged. Your salvation is a gift
rewards are earned. There's aworld of difference. You see,

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your salvation is assured. Yourrewards have potential. Now, by
the way you live and behave.
Your salvation is the same foreveryone. Listen, you stand 100%
righteous before God and in hiseyes. When you will receive
Christ as your Savior, youcannot get any more righteous
than that. 100%. But rewardswill be different for everyone.
In other words, as far asreceiving salvation, you just

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named people that you respectand we got to as really godly
people do Christians you knowwhat your salvation is equal
them as far as your salvationgoes. But as far as rewards go,
it'll be different for everyone.
Do you notice? gold, preciousstones? rubies, wood paste
double? And what is actuallygoing to happen according to
this text? Is this my friends,listen. You will stand before

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God as a believer. And yourentire life will pass on how are
you going to do this? I'm notexactly sure. But your life will
pass before God. And the thingsdone in your body, whether good
or bad, will come to account.
God will of course have some wayof doing this with how to do it.
I'm not sure. But I want to askyou this question. Do you think

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on that day that the Christianwill have any scene? Do you
think there'll be any sorrow?
Because you see, so much is madeup the day of our Christianity.
It goes like this, it says, Hey,I have no condemnation. Now I
dread Jesus, and all in him hismind, alive in him my living

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head and closing righteousnessdivine. And we think about this,
I am not under the wrath of God,I've been saved, what is saved?
You know, you save what doesthat mean? saved from the wrath
of God. So we know that it's nota matter of losing our
salvation, but yet you knowsomething very much. So I want
you to know that there'll bepeople that will be ashamed who
are Christians at the beam ofjudgment, and how we know that

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Mark is down first, John 228.
You know what it says? And nowlittle children abide in Him,
that when he comes, we may haveconfidence and not be ashamed.
So you see, very clearly, theScripture teaches that there
will be those people who will beashamed when Jesus Christ comes
back. Did you notice chapterthree, verse 15, right here

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before your eyes, he will sufferloss. Now there's other verses
that say things like this, youwill see the things in the body,
whether good or bad, it alsosays this to Christians and
caution. Three, it says this, hewould do us wrong will be repaid
for the wrongs that he has done.

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Now, because very much needs tobe a part of our understanding
of the Bema there'll be a day ofsorrow, it'll be day of
suffering loss. It'll be a dayof shame for Christians that
have not lived for God the waythey would want to let me
illustrate it like this. Theytell me I've never had this
experience, but they tell methat if you lose your house to a
fire, that is tremendouslytraumatic. I understand that.

(24:38):
It's one of the most emotionalthings that can happen to you,
as far as taking it out of youis really hurting is to see your
high school yearbooks, to seeyour clothes to see your
treasures to see your weddingbooks to see everything that you
had that was so precious,destroyed by fire. And you look
at your house and it's just yourbrand new VCR and there it is,

(25:01):
is melted. Now, I want you tothink with me this passage says,
when you stand before Christ,somehow fire is going to judge
your life and how he's doingthat. I don't know exactly.
That's not the point. And yourlife will be made up of
qualities like this either gold,precious stones really, or wood,

(25:23):
hay or several. So whatobviously is going to happen if
it's wood, hay and stubble whenfire tries it, what happens? It
burns it up. Can you think ofit's terrible to lose your
house? Can you imagine? Here youare. And to get this, you are
you are extremely important.
It's important that you'realive. It's important that
you're a person. You know why?
Because God made you in Hisimage. And there's reason to

(25:43):
live just because of that eventhough we've sinned and we fall
away from God, yet he's made usin His image that's important.
It's also important to thinkthis as sinners, he didn't leave
us in that condition. But hepaid the price for us by sending
His Son Jesus to die. Here youwere in rebellion against God.
And even though you wererebellion against him, he still
loved you and sent his Son todie on the cross for you. Now

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that's precious, he paid theprice for you now can you
imagine, as important as lifeis, as important as salvation is
that you then stand before Godand as your wife is displayed
before him, you're saved yet asone escaping through the flames.
In other words, you just barelyget into heaven. Yet, your whole
life is rather, it's justnothing but ashes. There is no,

(26:29):
there absolutely is no purposeto your life, as far as bringing
glory and honor to God andliving your life the way God
wants you to live it. I want totell you, I think that would be
unbelievably sorrowful. When thescripture says that that person
will suffer loss, I think it'sgoing to be unspeakable sadness.
I think we may spend our timeand eternity wishing, I may be

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wrong on this, that we wouldhave been much better and
willing for the Lord down hereon Earth. Now, let's consider
from the scriptures how you canlose a reward because the
scripture says so first off,notice assumptions. And when I
say this, I want you to knowthat it is assumptions now,
first is you're in firstCorinthians three, go over to

(27:14):
the fourth chapter and look atverses four and five what it
says. It says, In FirstCorinthians four, four and five,
My conscience is clear. But thatdoes not make me innocent. It is
the Lord who judges me.
Therefore judge nothing beforethe appointed time wait till the
Lord comes He will bring tolight what is hidden in darkness
and will expose the motives ofmen's hearts. At that time, he

(27:37):
will receive His praise from theLord. But one thing we can
assume is this. If if a judgmentcall says the motives of men
hearts will be revealed. Well,then one thing I think if you
have a wrong motive, it's gonnamake you lose rewards. I'm
assuming this from thescriptures in the middle, we'll
see clear statements from thescriptures. But you can make an
assumption then from chapterfour and verse five, that a

(27:57):
wrong motive. In other words,doing something for your selfish
desire, pretending like thePharisees did that you were
doing something spiritual whenyou really didn't care? Or how
about this one. Anticipating thecoming of Christ, if you want to
turn to secondary for it, youcan, I'm going to just quote it
real quickly to get there. Andthat is this. He says, there's a
crown of righteousness laid upfor me and not to me only, but
to also to all of those wholonged for his appearing. Now

(28:22):
you know what, anticipating ornot anticipating the coming of
Christ, the word there for longfor His appearing is the word of
God, they Oh, well, we get theword agape. And it means it's
the very words that to prefer orto love or to cherish. And that
is this if we don't have aconcern for the coming of
Christ. In other words, getthis, you are so involved in
your own life that you don'teven want to be interrupted with
the glorious kingdom of Christ.

(28:46):
The good possibility, we couldassume that you could lose your
reward. Let's move on notsharing money with others who
could go quickly over to Luke inthe 12 chapter, I want you to
see something over in Lukechapter 12.
This is an amazing passage. Bythe way, Jesus constantly says
things like this. This is onepassage we could look at. I'm

(29:06):
gonna tell you a story quicklyas you're turning to Luke 12.
Another story, you know, hesays, Jesus commands a man one
time guess what this man did?
This man works for a rich man.
He was his money manager. Andguess what the man did? The man
found out secretly, he heard itthrough the grapevine, I think
that he was going to lose hisjob. And so you know what he
did? He went up to a man thatowed his master 1000 bushels of

(29:27):
wheat, he says all make it 800.
And you've got another guy thatother than 500 gallons of oil,
and he says make it 250. He wentto another guy that owed him so
much money, he cut it in half.
And you know what Jesus saysabout that man? He just he
commended him for being screwed.
And then he turns he says this.
You see, by the way, the reasonwhy that man did that was he
knew he was going to lose hisjob, he wouldn't have a place to
stay. So he went around, and hegot people to owe him things. So

(29:51):
when he lost his job, becausethey six months here, eight
months, they're almost there.
Now, that's why he did that.
What do you what Jesus commendsis not that simple act of
cheating out his master, but Hecommends the fact that he's
prepared for the future. Now,guess what Jesus says in that
same parable, He says this Nowyou, when you use your money,
you use it so that you get arich welcome in heaven. You

(30:13):
understand that? You use it sothat in heaven, people will come
up and say, Thank you for theway you use your money, you had
an influence on the rich Welcometo another so obviously, rich
WELCOME TO HEAVEN refers againto the beam and the reward will
not share anybody with others.
Luke 12. Look what happens.
Jesus teaching, a man comesalong and says interrupts his
teaching. He says, Hey, man,Jesus told us to share my hair
is with me. Jesus goes, man whomade you the point or a judge

(30:35):
and arbitrator between you andwe're in verse 15. He then says
this about materialism. Theysaid to them, watch out, be on
your guard against all kinds ofgreed. A man's life does not
consist in the abundance of hispossessions. Now, here's the
story. And he told them thisparable, the ground of the
certain rich man produced a goodcrop, he thought to himself,
What shall I do? I have no placeto store my crops, verse 18.
Then he said, This is what I'lldo. I'll tear down my barns and

(30:57):
build bigger ones there. I'llstore all my green and my good.
And I'll say to myself, you haveplenty of good things later, for
many years, take life, easy,eat, drink, and be married.
You're this picture. This guyhas been blessed in his
business. He says, Man, I've gotso much money. What should I do
with it? I know what I'll do.
I'll build a new house. I'llbuild new barns. I'll fill up
the load. And then you knowwhat, I'm gonna retire early.
I'm gonna have you that justrelaxation and retirement sit

(31:19):
down on the beach in my condo inFlorida, and I live up in
Michigan on the lake in thewinter in the summertime. I'm
reading into a little bitcontemporarily. Okay. Yeah,
that's what I'm gonna do. Soguess what happens? Here's God's
response to that. Look at verse20. But God said to him, You
fool, this very night, your lifewill be demanded from you, then

(31:39):
who will get what you preparedfor yourself. And then notice
the commentary. He just makesverse 21. This is how we'll be
with anyone who stores up thingsfor himself. But he's not rich
towards God. Listen, the worldsays I mean, I get into it, I
really do. So when asked me theother day, what can I do to help
the pastor? And you know, I feltlike saying, I just joking when
I said, Well, there's a handgunthat I'd like to get, you know,

(32:02):
there's, I'd like to do vacationin this place. And I hope and I
sort of realized I had a wholelist of materialistic
possessions in my mind that Iwould like. I found that sort of
humorous. I'm sorry, you guysmissed that it's pointing. In
other words, we're alwaysthinking of what can we get in
this life? What more can wehave? You see? What can we get?
We're supposed to use our moneyin such a way that there'll be a

(32:25):
rich welcome to them. And that'swhat First Timothy six also
teaches. So now use my money.
Now, by the way, after I madethis overhead up, I found for
more areas that we can assumefrom the scriptures. Let me read
it to you from First Peter onesix to seven. When we fail
trials, God sends trials intoour life, and just why. So the
ever coming of Christ when theyreceive glory, honor and praise.

(32:45):
You see, so failing trials, orhow about this lack of
sacrifice. Jesus says, Hey, yougot to sell all and to follow
me. And Peter says him, Lord,Lord Wanat, we've given up
everything to follow you what'sgoing to be enough for us?
That's what Peter said. And I'mglad Peter asked those
questions, because Don't youthink that sometimes, what's
gonna be that we've given upeverything for you? Jesus looks

(33:06):
at Peter right now and saysthis, and this is from Matthew
19. By the way, he says, Peter,nobody has given up a home, or a
job, or relatives or friends,when you make a sacrifice for my
sake, you will be sure that youwill receive at least 100 times
more in the next day. What doyou say, at the Bema? If you

(33:28):
sacrifice now, you are going toget great rewards there. So
hence, we can say this, if youdon't sacrifice now, you won't
get great rewards at the BemaHow about this not so many
others? Jesus said this. If youwant to be first in the kingdom,
then become a servant. Now,what's it got to be first in the
kingdom? Again, if you haven't,if you want to be first, become

(33:51):
a servant out? No. I heard a mantell the story. It was amazing.
So I read it. I read as anuntold story. I read it and the
writing. But he said he was amissionary and he went to speak
at one of the 10 biggestchurches in America. He said
this guy was well known as apreacher. He said if I use his
name, everybody would know whohe was. Nationally known Bible
teaching pastor. He said he wentto his home. He got there at

(34:13):
about seven o'clock at night,and he found out he was staying
at the pastor's home. He was soexcited because he wanted to get
to know this guy. Well, as hemet this guy, guess what
happened? from seven o'clockthat Saturday night till
midnight, they fellowship and itwas just wonderful at a big
dinner, had great fellowship, hejust had the most enjoyable
encouraging night. The nextmorning, he got up to go to
church. And he opened his doorto come out the bedroom, and

(34:35):
what did you say on the floor?
But here's us. And that pastorhad taken them and polish them
buffed them get them all readyand ready for him to go out the
door. He said it had atremendous impact upon him. This
guy was not just some big leaderthat told people what to do and
where to go and and as theGentiles they lord it over them,
but that he was one who servedand Jesus says this if you want

(34:58):
to be first in The next you canassume you can lose rewards. If
you're not a servant, you canassume you're gonna lose rewards
if you don't sacrifice, it'sgonna have to be some choices
that we value the next day ismore important than this age.
It's very important that youunderstand it. And then also, if
we're not buckling underpersecution, you realize what
persecution comes your way yousay, I'm gonna live for Christ.
I don't care what anyone elsesays, I'm gonna live for Christ,

(35:18):
you lose a job over it. Or youno longer you lose some friends
over. You know what the Biblesays, Rejoice because great is
your reward in heaven. I takesome friends, you study the
Scriptures. It's radicallydifferent than the world in
which we live. It is absolutelythe opposite of everything we're
gonna hear. We're going to coldgo for the gusto. Get it now.

(35:38):
Hey, there's a great day comingin. Now, that's if that's making
some assumptions. Let's move onand do this. clear statements in
the scriptures. Here is someclear ways in which you can lose
your reward. We've alreadytalked about this one, Matthew
six one through 18. Don't doChristian disciplines are doing
creasing discipline, such aspraying, giving you facts in
order to be seen by men, you'renot going to remember that I've

(35:58):
been so guilty this, but I'mgoing to use illustrations from
way back because I'm tooembarrassed to tell you some of
my present day illustrationsabout it. But I can remember
when I first started studyingthe Bible with all my friends, I
had my Bible anybody had a Biblehere? Anything you got, somebody
has a Bible around here. And Isays, and I studied, I remember
Second Timothy. And I mean, itwas like a coloring book, I had
lines drawn and words drawn inthis drawn circles and points.

(36:20):
And I started realizing, about afew months ago, that I was doing
that back then. So that peoplewill see how spiritual I was by
how my bible was so muchencouraged to mock the Bible.
Maybe this isn't true for you,I'm just telling you my own
heart's desire. And that is Inever forget, sitting in church.
And I would just hope the pastorwould say turn to Second
Timothy, because I've beenstudying that, you know, even if

(36:42):
it was a passing reference, Iwould turn over there and look
it up, or Jay, but in otherwords, you and I wasn't it was
all you know, and I was sort ofsitting in a church with you
like one of these, you know,people, Oh, okay. Let's see
that, you know, because I wantto people that that may sound
silly to you. But I want to tellyou something that may sound
silly, you've actually come toyou know, this, anytime you do
something in the name of God,but you're doing it to try to

(37:03):
make other people think howwonderful and great you are,
then you'd lost your reward.
It's got to be done for theLord. And you got to keep that
in mind doing those kinds ofdisciplines. That's pretty
clear. Notice this one helpingare associated with false
teachers, I really want you toturn your go to Second John,
verse eight. I want you to seethis way back right before the
book of Revelation. There'ssomething extremely important

(37:26):
for you to see. Second John,verse eight. Here's another way
in which you can lose reward,and that is this helping are
associated with false teachers.
Look what it says. starting withverse seven, in his little
epistle of Second John way inthe back of your Bibles. It says
this fall, I'm gonna listencarefully. If you don't have a

(37:48):
Bible, listen. Many deceiverswho do not acknowledge Jesus
Christ is coming in the flesh,have gone out into the world.
And he says person is thedeceiver and the Antichrist.
Everybody says, Look at Verseeight, watch out, that you do
not lose what you have workedfor, but that you may be
rewarded fully. Anyone who runsahead and does not continue the

(38:12):
teachings of Christ does nothave God. You know what this is
saying? You see, if you get out,look at verse 10. It says this,
If anyone comes to you and doesnot bring this teaching, that is
sound doctrine, of course, donot take him in your house or
welcome him. The Scripture says,In those days, people were
traveling evangelist preachingthe gospel all around Europe and
North African everyplace else.
And guess what? If they came toyour house, and they use that
you found out that they were notteaching that salvation was like

(38:34):
faith alone in Christ Jesus, butthey were teaching something
else. You are not even to say hito them. You would have nothing
to do with them. Going to breakinto your house? Don't get
greedy, whatever you do, don'tshow many hospitality. Yes. Over
and over in the scriptures. Ifthe person was preaching Christ,
you were supposed to bring themin love them, feed them, care
for them and provide for them.
Yeah, the point here is this. Itsays in verse eight, watch out,

(38:57):
be on your guard. If youassociate with false teachers,
you're going to lose your rewardmy friends, here's why. Today
everybody's a Christian. Youknow, we have a joke in our
family. You say there's a thirdstring tacked on the Dallas
Cowboys isn't having a regulardevotions, you know, recently
says you know, everybody'ssupposed to be Christian. Oh,
this guy Oh, yeah. He's aChristian. Everyone's was
because you go to someplace. Oh,like a church is a church man.

(39:19):
They're all they're all thesame. Listen, you know that Paul
says in Galatians chapter five.
I'm gonna tell you what theBible says it may sound shocking
to you, but he says this. I wishthose men who are teaching
circumcision was necessary forsalvation. I wish the knife
would slip. You don't think I'mtelling you the truth. You read
the lesson. 512 That's what hesays. I wish they would mutilate
themselves. Nobody's saying. Itis so serious to preach another

(39:40):
gospel. He says that if I preachit if an angel from heaven
preaches it, no matter whopreaches it, let him be
accursed. The Gospel message isto be guarded by the church. The
scripture says to the pastors inTitus chapter one, hold firmly
to the message and the Greekword actually means this cling
tenaciously to it. Am I giving alocation s3 for you guys to come
up You're going to take thispurple away from me, that will

(40:00):
be the idea I'm not going to dothe matter what, in the past the
point is this friends, we cannotassociate with false teachers,
those that preach salvation atscrewing up the doctrine and
Person of Christ, somehow mixingit up, if you do you lose your
reward. I hear people all thetime. And as a pastor, again,
you probably think, Oh, thisguy, just some radical crazy

(40:20):
man. But I want to tell you,whenever I hear somebody say,
oh, in our church, you know, thepastor said that it's alright
to, you know, or this or that itdoesn't really matter if you get
an abortion doesn't reallymatter if you're homosexual, God
loves everybody, it's all thesame clear violation of the
scriptures. Now, I'll tell yousomething, when you send money
to people on channel 40, andthey're not preaching the true

(40:42):
gospel, and a lot of those guysaren't, you do all this kind of
stuff, you know what's gonnahappen, you're gonna lose your
reward. That's what it says,Have nothing to do with them.
Don't associate with them. Watchout by the way, there are some
great guys teaching on sale 42,but you got to have discernment
to know the difference. Andalways need to run that in the
ground. So you got to be carefulhelping associate good closers

(41:02):
to 18. Real quick to see thisagain, you you don't expect it
the middle of Colossians butright over there and Colossians
218 You see it again. Look whatit says. Do not cautious to a
team do not let anyone whodelights in false humility, and
the worship of angels disqualifyyou for the prize. Such a person

(41:23):
goes into great detail aboutwhat he has seen unspiritual
mind puffs up with idle nosesdisqualify you from the prizes,
the same phrase used in FirstCorinthians 924 to 27 When Paul
doesn't want to be disqualifiedfor the prize of the Bema. This
is talking about the Bema. Andyou know what happens here?
These people in philosophy werecoming along and they were
saying, oh, man, you gotta beatyour body. Oh, man, you can't

(41:43):
get married. Oh, man, you getall kinds of weird teachings
going along with the Christiandoctor. He says this they'll
disqualify you for the price.
Don't let them to have aninfluence on you stay away from
them run like they're the playyou what the Bible says. And
second Peter, it says for thefalse teacher, the blackest of
darkness is reserved for themand judgment. It is a serious
thing to turn away from the truegospel and you gotta understand

(42:06):
some of the friends when itcomes to separation. The Bible
separation is not to be fromother believers. Separation is
for those that call themselvesbelievers but live in disorderly
lives or from false teachers.
We've got to understand that youlose your reward there it is
extremely clear who get thisthird point. Lack of rigorous
discipline towards godliness.

(42:28):
Now, don't let familiaritybreeds contempt is your turn to
First Corinthians nine. I knowwe've talked about this passage
a lot. But look over to FirstCorinthians chapter nine.
Another way in which you canlose a reward is by not being
rigorous in your disciplinetowards godliness. Listen, so
many people are like this thisday, we have such a longing for
comfortableness we want to havelife so easy. You want everybody
wants, everybody wants joy andpeace and happiness. But they

(42:49):
don't want the discipline thatgoes with it. Not everybody
wants Oh, give me all thebenefits. But don't make me pay
any prices. Man. That's whateveryone says. Well, liquid
liquid Paul says FirstCorinthians one verses nine,
verses 24 through 27. See howmuch he's talking about the beam
in your liquid. It says, Do younot know that in a race all the
runners run, but only one getsthe prize? Run in such a way as

(43:13):
to get the prize. Everyone whocompetes in the games goes into
strict training, they do it toget a crown that will not last.
But we do it to get a crown thatwill last forever. Therefore I
do not run like a man I do notrun like a man running
aimlessly. I do not fight like aman beat in the air. No, I beat
my body and make it my slave sothat after I have preached

(43:34):
others, I myself will not bedisqualified for the price. I
want you to notice four things.
First off from verse 24. Yourlife is supposed to be live so
that you can attain rewardsliquid it says you're running a
race. He's making it like anathletic contest run in such a
way as to get the prize there itis you're supposed to run in
order to be qualified to theBema. But notice verse 25. And
secondly, I want you to knowthis obtaining imperishable

(43:54):
crowns or rewards requiresagonizing self control. Look at
verse 25. Everyone who competesin the games goes into strip
training, they do it to get acrown that will not last we do
it to get a crown the wholelesson he's talking about the
Olympic Games, if you want todistrict training, so you can
win the mile or the two mile orthe 10,000 meters or whatever
you have. And they woulddiscipline themselves eat

(44:17):
properly run hard so they canwin. He says they do it to get a
crowd, a wreath that you put onyour head and then it fades off
and turns brown in the weeds butthe leaves fall off of it in a
few months. We do it to get animperishable crown that lasts
forever. Not only that, look atverse 26 says this, so don't
live your Christian life with asense of aimlessness or
uncertainty. He says look whenhe says I don't run like a man

(44:38):
running aimlessly. In otherwords, just imagine a big track
me to go get ready. Here it isthe Olympic championships. And
what would you guys do? All of asudden you saw your pastor out
there at the Olympic trials nextyear. 1000 people watching and I
get ready to run and as soon asgoing around the track this way.
I ran up the stairs. He startedheading out this way and just
started running off into thewoods running aimlessly Paul
says I don't run aimlessly I runto stay on the track to get the

(45:02):
word I will also says I don'ttry to just Shelterbox because
he says in verse 26, I don'tlike not like a man beating the
air. He's actually using theterm shadowbox. I'm not trying
to get a box, but he justwarming up. I'm actually trying
to hit my opponent. His point isthis your Christian life is not
to be with a sense ofaimlessness or of uncertainty,
which is supposed to know whereyou're going, you're supposed to

(45:23):
be going after with all yourheart. And there's the reason
why so many people are turnedoff with Christians, as we got a
bunch of aimless Christianswalking around not knowing where
they're going, or what they'redoing. There needs to be a sense
of purpose in our heart, anddirection, like Jesus Christ,
our example. He said, his facelike a flint to go to Jerusalem,
because he knew it was time forhim to die. Another thought that

(45:45):
the disciples get to have usdon't go there, nothing stopped
them. He's going to accomplishhis mission. So Christians ought
to have that type of sense intheir life. And then lastly,
look at verse 27, severelydiscipline your body, so you
won't get disqualified. Now,people don't like this this
David, can you just tell me isthis in the scriptures? Or is it
not? Look at verse 27? No, Ibeat my body, I make it my

(46:06):
slave. So I have not preach toothers so that when I preach to
others, I would not bedisqualified for the price.
What's he saying? So that's theDay of Judgment, I won't lose
out because I preached onething, but I didn't follow it
myself. And you know what thatis, If any man wants to be my
disciple, let him take up hiscross daily deny himself and
follow me. If we're going tolive for God, we've got to say
no to the godly, to the ungodlypleasures and, and things of

(46:28):
this world that turns away fromdata, we've got to say yes, to
virtues that are right and true.
And I'll tell you, as atestimony, the longer and I
mean, I don't I only know alittle bit about this, but the
little bit I know by experience,I will tell you this, the longer
I go saying no to what is wrongand saying right to what is yes,
I don't always do it. But themore I do that, and the more I

(46:48):
go into strict training, so thatI can be a good soldier and a
good athlete and Christ army, Iwant you to know, the more joy,
the more peace, more happinessthere is. But if you just live
the way you want to live, if youjust go by your own feelings,
and you just tell people the wayyou feel, and you just do what
you want to do, when you want todo and how you want to do it.
I'm going to tell you something,you're disqualified for any

(47:09):
prize at the DNC lack ofrigorous discipline towards
godliness. The Scripture teachesit right there. You can be
disqualified. Right? There itis. It's not something you have
to wonder about. How about thisone?
I love this one. go to CostcoStreet and it's your turn in
there. You know what everybodythinks this everyone thinks, oh,

(47:31):
wait a minute, the BBC. Youknow, you got to go to church,
the BBC. The pastor is gonna saygive some money in the church.
The pastor is gonna say, hey,you know, help missionaries out
and witness to your neighbor andpray with your wife, hey, if I
do all those things, I'llprobably get some rewards visa.
You know what? It's not justthat. Look what it says. Not
being a hard faithful workerwhat they're talking about in

(47:51):
Christian circles. No