Hello, and welcome
to this teaching from Calvary Albuquerque. We are excited to hear from
our special guest speaker Doctor Erwin Lutzer, a
clear expositor of the Bible who serves as a senior pastor
of the Moody Church in Chicago. We pray that God
uses this message to strengthen your
faith in the lord. If it does, we'd love
to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/giving. Now I invite you to mark your
bibles in first Corinthians chapter three and
second Corinthians chapter five as
Doctor Lutzer begins the message your eternal
reward, triumph and tears at the judgment seat of Christ. Good morning. Well, this is an historic
week in Albuquerque. It's the balloon Fiesta week. That's always welcome, isn't it? Isn't it great to look up and
see those ornaments hanging all over our sky? So it's balloon Fiesta week. But it's also Erwin Lutzer week. Erwin Lutzer has one of
the distinctive voices in the Christian world, not
only what he has to say, but how he says it. Some people come just to hear
him pronounce the word God. It's just that beautiful, deep,
resonating voice that he has. Erwin Lutzer is the pastor
of the Moody church, in Chicago, the Dwight L. Moody
Memorial Church in Chicago. He's been the pasture there
for, well, since 1980. And he also was heard
on radio broadcasts, three different radio
programs in over 1,000 outlets around the world
and the country. His program is "Running to Win." Do you hear that on
the radio station? We play it every
single day on KMKT, also "Songs in the Night"
and "The Moody Church Hour." He has authored over 40 books. I've got some catching up to do
because 40 books and every one that I've read is good. I want more. He always instructs. He goes deeper. It's inspiring. He wrote a new one coming
out in a couple months. I did a little
endorsement for it. That is another great book. What he's going to share today
is also summed up in a book. And I'm telling you-- here's
why I'm telling you this. Because after
hearing this message, you're going to want more. And he wrote a book called
"Your Eternal Reward." And what he's going
to be sharing today is expanded on in that book. And we have a section
in our bookstore that's just devoted to
his books this weekend. Also, last but not least,
Erwin Lutzer does, hands down, the best Billy Graham
impersonation of anyone I've ever met. Now, I thought I did a
good one and a few people have flattered me and
said it's the best. After this, you'll never
want me to try it again. It's so good. And so just maybe if we
encourage Doctor Lutzer, he would do that for
us again this morning like he did last year. Please welcome Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You're all so kind. And Skip, after
that introduction, I can hardly wait to hear
what I'm going to say. This ought to be good. I bring you greetings
from Chicago, the city of righteousness,
truth, love, justice. I was telling the folks this
morning one day last winter, it was so cold that
according to the media, some of our politicians were
actually seen with their hands in their own pockets. I tell you, it gets
cold in Chicago. And what about them there Cubs? They're in the playoffs. You know, last year,
we were able to buy a t-shirt in Chicago, a Cub
t-shirt, that says anyone can have a bad century. Certainly the Cubs
approved that. In fact, one day last year,
their pitching machine actually pitched a no hitter. I mean-- and this year,
they're in the playoffs. Wow-- the good old Chicago Cubs. You know, you folks
here in Albuquerque-- you're individualistic. You have your own views. And there is a
story about somebody who came down from Washington
DC, an officer from the DEA-- the Department of, you know,
drug department enforcement agency. And he came to one of
your farmers and said, I'm here to inspect your
farm to see whether or not you're growing marijuana. And the farmer here in
New Mexico said, sure. You can go anywhere. But do you see that
field over there? That one over there--
don't go over there. But anywhere else you can go. The official pulled out his
badge and said, look at this-- DEA, the Department of
Homeland Investigation and Drug Enforcement Agency. I can go anywhere I like--
government authority. Farmer, oh, OK. A few months later, that's
of course exactly the field to which the official went. And suddenly, the
farmer hears this shriek when this officer is shrieking. And across the field,
a great big bull is coming and charging the man. And the farmer said,
show him your badge. Show him your badge. Sometimes, we have
authority over things. And sometimes, we don't. I hope you get used to
the Moody church website. Go there. And moodymedia.org is
another one of our websites where you can get books and
CDs and all those other things. And also, God willing,
I'm going to be leading a tour to the sites
of the Reformation in June in Germany
and Switzerland. Some of you may be
able to come with us. I've done it about
a half dozen times and enjoy leading people in
those parts of the world. Well, I just want to
say what a delight it has been for Rebecca and me to
be here with Skip and his wife. And do you folks
realize how fortunate you are to have this kind of
leadership in this church? If Skip and I were closer
together geographically, I think we'd be
together an awful lot. Because we really connect. And you know, he
mentioned Billy Graham. Well, Billy stands six
foot two in his socks. I said that to a friend of mine. He said, that's interesting. How tall is he without them? Depends a little bit on the
socks that you are wearing. I was on a plane. A woman said, you have a
blue sock and a red sock. Your socks don't match. I said, oh yes, they do. Because I go by thickness. Are you aware of the fact
that your pastor has written a new book that is coming out
in a couple of weeks entitled "Defying Normal"? Until you read it, of
course, you're just going to have to be normal. But afterwards, you're
going to be abnormal. You're going to defy normal. Good book on the Book of
Daniel-- readable, welcoming, excellent material. I hope you'll get a copy. And now about Billy
Graham-- well, all right. I'm going to begin in
the middle of a sentence will see where it goes
and we'll take it. We'll see how Billy
sounds this morning. And those of you who remember
the great Billy Graham Crusades, you'll remember
this voice, won't you? The problems and
the perplexities that we face as a nation seem
to be almost overwhelming. Recently, one of
our leaders speaking to a group of students at
Johns Hopkins University said that we may well
be living in the most confusing, bewildering, and
perplexing hour of history. All of our leaders
agree that the world seems to be plunging
headlong toward disaster. However, today, we're here
in Albuquerque in this church founded so many years ago. I believe that in this day
of intellectual, moral, and spiritual confusion, that
this church can have an impact upon the entire world. Now in a moment,
I'm going to ask you to come-- hundreds of you. You simply get up out of your
seats and I want you to come. And for those of you who
have joined us tonight by television, we'd like to
send you some literature. We'd like to send
you a book that has been a blessing to
tens of thousands of people around the world
written by pastor Skip. Just write to me-- Billy
Graham, Minneapolis, Minnesota. That's all the address
you need-- just Billy Graham, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now until the same
time next week, goodbye and may the lord
bless you real good. I just want to
say, Skip, that you have a very responsive
congregation, very friendly. Too bad that we
can't stay longer, but we're going to have
to leave right after this to fly back to
the big bad city-- ah, good city-- of Chicago. My wife and I used to live
close to O'Hare field-- great big huge jets used
to come over our house. In fact, one day I
remember I was just walking from the dining
room to the bedroom and a Flight Attendant
told me to sit down. So as you think about us
in Chicago, pray for us. God bless you. What a marvelous ministry
God has given to you. Well, today, I'm speaking
on the very sobering topic of the judgment seat
of Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible
says that there are going to be tears in heaven. Now, God will wipe them away. But what are tears
doing in heaven anyway? Two possibilities-- one is
that there will be tears because there will be people in
Heaven who will look and find that their son or
daughter is missing. And the very thought that
their son and daughter are lost the eternally well
might parents weap or a wife weeping because of her husband. We understand that. But there may be another
reason why they're going to be tears in heaven. It's the reason that I suspect
is perhaps the correct one, and that is tears
of regret when we think of how we lived in light
of all the opportunities God gave us. I believe that there are going
to be tears at the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. Now, I have to clarify that
when I speak about the judgment seat of Christ I'm talking
about you believers and me as a believer. We are going to stand there. If you're here today and
you've never savingly believed on Jesus, you've never
trusted him as your Savior, you will not appear
at this judgment. You'll look here at
another judgment described in the Book of Revelation,
a judgment that is horrific and terrifying. But today, I'm
speaking to Christians. And the Bible says
we shall all appear. And there are some people
that say, well, you know. It's no big deal. Because doesn't
Calvary cover it all? And the answer is yes, of
course Calvary covers it all. Legally, when you
received Christ as Savior, you're forgiven past,
present, and future. You become a son
or daughter of God. I get that. But that doesn't mean
that God does not judge justified sinners. For example, today, if
you sin, God judges you. God disciplines you even
though Calvary covers it all. When Ananias and Sapphira
died and they arrived in happen after lying-- you know
the story in the book of Acts-- I can imagine they said to one
another, well, what is this? Why did we get judged that way? Doesn't Calvary cover it all? Legally, yes. But still, we're going to be
judged on the basis of what we did with what God gave us. And then you have those super
spiritual people who say, well, you know. These rewards are just crowns. And aren't we just going to
cast our crowns before Jesus any way? Implying it doesn't
really matter how I live. Well, I don't believe that the
rewards mentioned in the Bible are medallions. If we do cast our
crowns before Christ, we're going to have to pick
them up again because the Bible talks about those who are
going to rule with him forever and ever. I believe that rewards
have to do with degrees of responsibility in the
kingdom and where God is going to slot you in responsibility. One day, I had a man
who said, oh, you know. I'm a Christian,
but I'm backslidden. And that may apply to
many of you right now. You say, well, yeah,
I'm a Christian. But my life is all cluttered
with the world at all. And he said, you know? I hope I can just get to heaven. As long as I sit
in the backseat, that'll be fine with me. And I said, you know, what
if, to use your terminology, God wanted you in the front
seat where these folks are? But you're in the
backseat because you've been unfaithful to Christ,
to use your analogy? And because you haven't
pleased Jesus-- don't you think that would
be very serious? Well, yeah, it would be. And by the way, I've got
my eye on those of you in the back row over there. And for you who
are in the front, I often say this-- front seat on
earth is front seat in heaven. You're going to do OK,
especially if you take notes too. And visiting moody church
would help, by the way. I always say, it's not
necessary to visit Moody church to go to heaven, but
why take a chance? You can correct my theology a
little bit there, Skip, later. Now we're talking about
something very serious that has to do with pleasing Jesus. That's why the great
theologian Jonathan Edwards says that he's going to do
whatever he possibly can to do well at the judgment seat. I hope you feel
like he does or did. And I feel that way too. Well, you know, in first
Corinthians three-- and you don't need
to turn to this. I'm only going to
remind you of this. In first Corinthians
three, the apostle Paul uses this illustration. He said if we build upon the
foundation of gold, silver, and precious stones,
it'll survive the fire. If we built on the foundation
of wood, hay, and stubble, it'll burn up. And he says, each man's
work and each woman's work will be tried with fire. He says, those who have built
upon the foundation of wood, hay, stubble, they
themselves will be saved, but so is by fire. The imagery is that they
are running out of a house and the house
collapses behind them. The house represents their life
and everything goes up in smoke because they only lived for
themselves and they didn't live for the Jesus
who redeemed them. What a tragedy. Now let's take our bibles and
turn to the text for today. The text is actually
second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 10. Second Corinthians,
chapter five, verse 10-- you say, well, pastor
Lutzer, I don't have my Bible. But I have it on the cellphone. Well, then find it
on the cellphone. I've gotten used to
that at Moody church. But every once in
awhile, I do this. Now, look at me
for just a moment. I point out this
actually is the Bible. But however you may have it--
iPod, cellphone, whatever. Second Corinthians,
chapter five, verse 10-- for we must
all, and Paul here is speaking about
himself, for we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ so that each one
may receive what is due for what he has done in
the body whether good or evil. Takes your breath away. What I'm going to
do is to give you three characteristics of
the judgment seat of Christ and then three implications that
I hope will change your life. Three characteristics--
first of all, we're going to be judged fairly. We're going to be judged fairly. You say, oh, where's
that in the text? This is, after all, the
judgment seat of Jesus Christ, the one who died to redeem
us, the one who loves us, the one who became our brother. He's going to be
doing the judging. And of course he would
like to have us do well. He is going to be
eminently fair. Standing there in the
presence of Jesus, we will all have to deal
with reality, nothing but reality, no
attorney to tweak it to make ourselves look better. No fact will be overlooked. If you were brought
up in an abusive home, it affected the way
in which you lived and so forth, all
of those things are going to be
taken into account. And when your judgment is over,
nobody is going to dispute it. Because we'll know that the
judgement was indeed fair and just. And you'll be
judged on the basis of what you did it since
you're a second birth, not your first birth. Some of you perhaps were
converted later in life and you have a
very sordid story. Well, after we get saved, we
are saved onto good works. And those are the works that
we are going to be judged for. And in a few moments, I'll help
you understand what that means. So number one, we're
going to be judged fairly. Secondly, we're going to
be judged individually. Your bibles are open. We're going to be
judged individually. Notice what it says. We must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ so that each one
may receive what is due for what he has done in
the body whether good or evil-- each one. You know, I attended a small
Bible college in Canada. And the only requirement
to be in the choir is that you make it
into the Bible college. So we had about 65 students. All students were in the choir. And I'm not a bad singer. But you know, sometimes
we had to learn new music. And so what I
would do kind of is mouth the words and
the choir of course would mask that and take over. And nobody would
know the difference. My dear friend, when
you stand before Jesus, it's not going to
be with a choir. It's going to be you one on one. It is an individual
audition-- just you and Jesus. You say, well, I certainly hope
that it's going to be private. Well, perhaps and
perhaps not-- you know, Jesus told some parables
which would indicate that it would be public. But I thought about this. And I really do believe but
when we are standing there in the presence of
Jesus, we will not care if our friends
are watching, if heaven and hell is watching. The only thing
that will matter is the look on the face of Jesus. We'll be judged individually. Wow-- third, we'll
be judged thoroughly. We'll be judged thoroughly. Now, your bibles are still open. You'll notice how
the verse ends. Each one may receive
what is due for for what he has done in the body,
whether good or evil. When the bible says that we
shall all appeared before the judgment-- the Greek word
is [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]-- we could interpret it for we
shall all be made manifest before the judgment
seat of Christ. We shall be revealed. That's a good way
to interpret it. One commentator said it's
like when we were as children, we would take out our pockets
and turn them inside out and reveal every last
little bit of lint. That's how thorough the
judgment is going to be. You say, well, will
we see our sins? I'll answer that
in just a moment, except to say that this is where
the final adjudication takes place. Here's a man who leaves
his wife and children, runs off, marries somebody else. Let's suppose he's a Christian. He's not acting
like a Christian, but let's suppose he is. And his kids grow up. His wife has to do
all kinds of work to raise them and
all the implications for the children and all. And now are you telling
me that both of them die, the wife and husband,
both are Christians-- Jesus is going to say, well, you
know, let bygones be bygones? Hold hands and
walk into eternity. Are you kidding me? That's why the
Bible says, dearly beloved, writing to Christians,
do not avenge yourselves. Why? God says I am the avenger. Paul says in first
Corinthians chapter four, he says judge nothing
before the time because the Lord
is going to come. And the Lord is going to judge. And by the way, he's
going to disclose the motives of men's hearts. Can you get any more
thorough than that? Wow, this is serious business. You say-- and by
the way, the better you clean up your relationships
before this time, the better, I think, less things to
take care of at the judgment seat of Christ. Will we see our sins? Well, one theologian
put it this way. If we do see them, they will be
represented to us as forgiven. Because remember, this is
not a whipping situation where Jesus gets even with us. It is an evaluation. So it's not as if our sins are
going to be heaped upon us. But I believe that
at that moment, Skip, I believe that at the
judgment seat of Christ, we are going to understand
grace as we have never understood grace before. Because we'll see
how bad our sin was. We'll see the perfection of
Jesus Christ work on the cross. And no wonder we will
say, oh to grace, how great a debtor--
daily forever a debtor to God's grace. Now, I thought about this. What if God were to do this? And I'm not saying
it's the way he will. But what if he were to take
everything that you and I and turn it either into gold,
silver, or precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble? So here, you would
see your whole life in this great big
heap before you? In fact, there's a man
who had a dream like that. He saw his life with
all of this material. And then it was torched. And in the dream,
he saw himself, what all the ashes
had settled down, going through the ashes finding
little bits of gold, silver, and precious stones that
he put into this tin cup. I don't know if it's
going to be that way. But one way or another, the
judgment will be thorough. You say, well, is Jesus
going to be angry with us? I don't think he's
going to be angry. But my dear brother
or sister, today, I believe in many
instances, he's going to be disappointed considering
all that he gave to us, all the opportunities, and
our selfish life squandered. You say, well, Pastor
Lutzer, what is he going to be looking for? I mean, aren't you
interested in that? What is it that Jesus is
going to be looking for? What will survive the fire? Where's the gold? Well, let me give
you an impartial list with some ideas-- number
one, the joyful acceptance of injustice. How are you handling
injustice as a Christian? If you lash out, if
you become angry, if you don't see God in the
midst of your injustice, you're doing badly here. Jesus said this, in fact. He says blessed are you when
men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my namesake. Rejoice and be exceedingly
glad, for so persecuted they the prophets before you. And your reward will be great. Wow. Skip and I have been
talking and pointed out that given today's culture,
Christians are going to have to make decisions. You and I are going
to have to get used to being ridiculed,
being told that we are haters, that we are bigoted just
because of our convictions. And the question is,
how will we endure it? Jesus says rejoice
when that happens. Because your reward
will be great. Wow, let me give
you a second one. Financial generosity-- you know
the story about how, you know, you give money to the Lord's
work and it's in heaven where moth and rust doesn't corrupt
and the Dow Jones Industrial Average cannot touch it. Wow. Hospitality-- Luke 14. I'm paraphrasing. When you call a party,
don't just call your friends whose jokes you already know. You can finish the end of their
stories and all that stuff. Go out to the
street, Jesus said. Find the poor. Find the blind. Find the lame. Bring them in and have a feast. And then you know
what Jesus says? You talk about motivating
people by rewards. He did it through
his whole ministry. He said you will be repaid at
the Resurrection of the just. Amazing how God uses rewards
all throughout the New Testament as motivation. And then things like
your vocation, you know. You don't like your boss. Don't work for
your boss tomorrow. Because your boss
is probably unfair. He doesn't pay you enough. Other people in the office
are chiseling things. They are manipulating
behind your back. Listen-- if you're
going to work for him, you're going to be miserable. So here's what you do. You switch your owner. You work for Jesus. Say Jesus, I'm coming
to work today for you. I'm going to serve
today as if I'm serving you, as if I'm going
to get my paycheck from you. That's what it says in
the book of Colossians. It even says to the slaves of
that day, don't work with eye service as a man pleaser. But serve the Lord
from the heart and you'll receive the
reward of the inheritance. Well, we could go on, but I
have to give you one more, and that is learning
to love the unlovable. Anybody here God brought
somebody unlovable into your life? You say, yeah, I
married the guy. And you know, this isn't Target. You don't have a return policy. You're stuck with this guy. You learn to love him. Why did Jesus bring
him into your life? You've often wonder that. Well, one of the reasons may be
so that you could get a reward. God says in Luke chapter six, he
says if you love your enemies-- and I hope he's not your enemy. But if you learn to love those
and expect nothing in return, you're going to be like
your heavenly father and your reward will be great. God has given us all kinds of
opportunities to get rewards. You say, well, maybe
a few too many, as far as we're concerned. But the simple fact
is, the way we live now has huge implications for the
judgment seat and for eternity. Well, those are just some
things Jesus is looking for. Now what I'd like
to do is to give you three concluding implications. First of all, we learned
that the judgment is going to be fair. It's going to be individual. It's going to be thorough. And now the life
changing implications-- number one, every day is
either a plus or a minus. It's either gold, silver,
precious stones, or wood, hay, stubble, or a
mixture of the two. But every day,
including today, you'll be making an investment that
will show up in eternity. Billy Graham, who played such
an inspiring role in my life and also your pastor's life,
was interviewed by Diane Sawyer. And she said, how would
you like to be remembered? As I remember the interview,
Billy didn't really answer her question. He said something else. He said, I'd like to hear, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. But I don't think I will. And he turned away in sadness. Well, I thought the very
same thing you think. First of all, humility,
Billy, is good. But you're overdoing
it a little bit. That's what I thought. I jokingly say that your pastor
has a sermon on humility. Problem is, he hasn't
found a crowd big enough to preach it to. Humility-- but the second
thought that came to my mind is this. Billy, if you're not sure
you're going to do well, then what about me? And what about you? But in this regard,
Billy was right. He's not going to be
rewarded greatly because he preached to large crowds. That was his calling. That was his gifting. It is God who made him famous. He's going to be rewarded on
the basis of the faithfulness with which he lived
out his calling, what he did with what God gave him. And that's why we can say
with absolute confidence that some of the people who
will be rewarded the most are people whose names
we have never heard. There's a woman by the
name of Sophie Mueller that I've been told about
who invested her life in I think it was South
America, working there with primitive people. She wouldn't come
back to America. When she ran out of
money she stayed there and labored and gave
people the gospel and gave her life
for those people. When she returned to the
United States and died, I think there were six
people at her funeral. She'll be greatly rewarded at
the Resurrection of the just, I can assure you. I can assure you. And she'll be ahead
of all the rest of us. Those of us in public
ministry, we oftentimes get our rewards here. Jesus warned about that. Do you know what really
attracts the attention of God is faithfulness in obscurity. You say, well, nobody's
appreciating what I'm doing. I'm serving the
Lord in obscurity. Well, if you're serving
the Lord in obscurity, God says I like that. Because you're not getting
any thanks or any kudos, any encouragement now. You're doing that for me. So every day is either
a plus or a minus. George Whitfield, great
American evangelist, wanted to be-- he wanted
this on his tombstone. He didn't quite get it, but
it's next to his tombstone. The manner of man
George Whitfield was that day shall declare. I mean, it takes
your breath away. Doesn't matter what
the press said. Doesn't matter what
other people said. Doesn't matter all the
criticism that he received. The manner of man he was
that day shall declare. The manner of man your pastor
Skip is, the manner of man I am, that day shall declare. Because who you are
in the presence of God is who you are and nothing
more and nothing less. You have in the
presence of God nothing to hide, nothing to lie about,
nothing but reality-- who you are in the presence of God. Wow. Every day, you either are
building on one foundation or another or a mixture. Second, I'm going to ask the
question-- what can we gain? Well, I think we can
gain ruling with Christ. The Bible doesn't necessarily
say that every Christian gets to rule with Christ. Perhaps they do. There's a difference of opinion. But I find it interesting that
ruling with Christ in the Bible is often associated
with suffering. For example, Paul says
if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. It's faithfulness
that grants yo that. Listen to the words of Jesus. He who overcomes to
him I shall grant to sit with me on my throne
even as I overcame and sat with my father on his throne. Did you get that? Jesus said if
you're an overcomer, you can sit on my throne. I happen to believe that not
all Christians are overcomers. What a reward for faithfulness. So we can gain
ruling with Christ. What can we lose? Well, you know, I
take the point of view that not all Christians
will hear, well done. I don't think I
can think right now of anything sadder than to
be in the presence of Jesus, welcomed by him into heaven, but
not hearing him say, well done, good and faithful servant. Not all Christians
will hear that. Well, might there
be tears in heaven? You know, in India, there's a
story, a legend that they like to tell, about a man
who was riding along in his beautiful
chariot, a wealthy raja. And along the way,
there was a beggar. And the beggar saw
the chariot coming. And so he went and stood
along the side of the road with his beggar's bowl and
wondered whether or not the raja would've
given anything. To his shock and delight,
the raja got off his chariot, went and said to
the begger, begger, give me some of your rice. Yeah, the beggar was very angry. You are the wealthy
man and you want me to give you some of my rice. But he did. In his anger, he gave the
wealthy raja a grain of rice. Raja said, beggar, give
me more of your rice. By now, the beggar was
absolutely furious. But he did give him a
second grain of rice. And the raja said, beggar,
give me more of your rice. By now, the beggar was
absolutely furious. He took one more grain of rice,
gave it to the wealthy raja, and then walked off in a huff. The raja got on his
chariot and left. In his anger and fury, the
beggar looked into his bowl. And he saw something glitter. He looked at it carefully. It was a grain of gold the
size of a grain of rice. You looked more carefully
and found it just two more. And he began to weep and
said, if I only I had known, I'd have given him
all of my rice. My friend today,
Jesus is generous. Did you know that? What rice are you and
I withholding from him? Is that our pet sin? Is it a relationship where
we refuse to forgive? Is it our own selfish,
narcissistic way of life where everything
revolves around us and we don't sacrifice
for God and for others? What is it that we withhold when
Jesus said, give me your rice and I'll give you gold
that will survive the fire? The gold, the silver, the
precious stones-- there are some of you here who never
received Christ as Savior. What I need to remind you of--
when you believe on Jesus, when you trust him and
his finished work, you become a son
or daughter of God. And as a result of that, you
can begin the process now of serving him. Good works don't contribute
at all to your salvation. It has to be all of
grace, all of Jesus. But when you belong
to him, he gives you the opportunity
of you giving him your rice in turn for his gold. What a deal. In a moment, we're
going to pray. If God has talked to you, what
do you need to say to God? Now, we're only going to
be praying for a moment, but you can't deal with
this in just a moment. Some of you ought to go home. You ought to lock the
door, get on your knees, and say, God, I'm
going to stay here as long as I need to take
care of my need and the issues in my life that are
displeasing to you. It is, after all,
all about pleasing the Jesus who died for us. Let's bow together in prayer. And if God has talked
to you, would you talk to God right now? And if you've never believed
on Jesus as your Savior, you can trust him
even where you are. You can say, thank you,
Jesus, for dying for me, and I receive your work on
the cross as my substitute. I turn from my sin to you. Believe on him and be saved. And if you are a
believer, so, what rice are you withholding from Jesus? You talk to him right now. Father, thank you for
these dear people. Thank you for
their love for you. But oh father, I pray for
myself as I pray for them. Help us, Lord, to be
willing to give you all of the bowl of rice, to
withhold nothing and invest the rest of our life serving
you in obedience, in holiness, and joy. We long, father--
we're unworthy of it, but we long to hear, well done,
thou good and faithful servant. Bless the pastor. Thank you for his
marvelous ministry here and we shall give you
praise in Jesus' name, amen. We hope you've enjoyed
this special service from Calvary Albuquerque
featuring our special guest speaker Doctor Erwin Lutzer. How will you put the truths
you learned into action? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/giving. You for listening to
the special message from Calvary Albuquerque.
