Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones

Welcome to Tribe’s podcast. Hey. We just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you’re ever in Jackson Hole, we’d love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person.

To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com. Yeah. I can’t move on to the next type of worship until the one more time. Yeah. The resolve.

Alright. Open ended question. What’s the what’s how’s it feel in here this morning? What’s the vibe? Not temperature wise, but, what’s the spiritual vibe in here?

What are you picking up? Oh, angel angel vibe. Short lived. Anything else? Always ask our team in the morning as we’re doing set up.

Like, hey, what’s the what’s the spiritual climate? What’s the vibe? I try to put my fingers on the pulse of what’s going on, but I also am curious to see if anybody else picks up on anything. And just so you know, it’s not like I’m, like, picking up on, like, something. Like, I’m just curious, open ended.

No. I I didn’t. I I did not peace. Okay. Yeah.

That that’s what I was getting. Yeah. Peace. Yeah. Yeah.

Holiday weekend wasn’t quite sure. Like like, our team was like, alright. Who or what are we gonna have? What’s gonna be the vibe on the holiday weekend? Things are usually a little different.

And, I would agree with that. Maybe, it is angels are biblical. To talk about angels is not unbiblical, although, the new age movement has gotten really fruity with angels. And in the new age movement, angels do a lot of things that that is way outside of their biblical job description. Corey, I like it.

You’re right you’re right here on the front row. I love it. And Corey loves yep. Yep. I love it.

I love it. But angels are biblical. They, we biblically speaking, we cannot command or dispatch angels, but they have various, assignments. The assignment that we’re most familiar with is that of a messenger. But the fact that you would sense that they’re here, like, sure.

I’m down with that. And maybe they are ministering peace to our hearts today over this service. So I like it. We’re not talking about angels today, but I just thought I’d lean into that teachable moment for just a second. Would you put up the second John verse, please, sir?

Alright. This is where we’ve been kimped out. Last week, I fully intended for us to get from point a to b on this idea of wood, hay, and straw, and we only got to a. And so today, we’re gonna get to b and then continue on. So this is like week three part two.

And this verse in second John, if you’d like to open up your Bibles, turn there. You can turn to second John, chapter one verse eight. This verse is up here on the screen, and it says this, watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward, your full reward. And I know I I love how you are becoming more educated and more confident in this.

But the idea of a full reward, when it says full reward, there is an intended implication that a person could receive a full reward or what? A partial reward, whatever that looks like. And not only a partial reward, but also if you were to swing all the way to an extreme, no reward. And if you’re brand new, to to Tribe or if you haven’t been here in a few weeks, what in the world are we talking about? I will tell you right now what we are not talking about.

We are not talking about salvation. We are not talking about salvation because you cannot work to be saved. You work because you’re saved, and that work earns you reward. So when you look at that word reward in the Greek, the English understanding of that Greek word reward is similar to what we would think of in terms of, a paycheck or a salary or wages. Wages are worked for you.

Go to your job. You do a great job at your job, and then you are rewarded with a paycheck. It sounds a little bit weird in our vernacular to say, oh, I was rewarded with a paycheck. You’re like, no. I earned a paycheck.

So this verse does not apply to salvation, and we’ve we’ve talked about that. We’ve mowed over that grass a lot. Would you put that, chart up? The not that one. That one.

Okay. Okay. At least you’ll have Panera. Alright. So this should be familiar to you if you’ve been with us on this journey so far.

Like at the airport, you are here in this life. You are alive right now, even if you’re maybe not quite awake. But Your blood pump is going to stop working someday, or Jesus will come back. Alright? She didn’t serve that.

Oh, I know there’s so much to develop with this. Perhaps I keep threatening that. It’ll be a whole new series. The Bible is very, very clear. After everybody dies, every single person in all of human history from every nation and tribe and language and people group throughout all of history will face judgment.

At that judgment, there is only one criteria, only one thing that God is looking for. And what is that? Righteousness. So right standing with God, righteousness, God’s standard of righteousness is moral perfection. That’s it.

That’s all. If you are perfect, then God’s like, good job. Well done. Now is that possible for any of us in our own standing? Absolutely not.

But how is it possible? Through Jesus. So Jesus runs the race. He wins the prize. And he freely gives us the prize.

Standing with Jesus. But if we ask him, if we admit that we are a sinner, that we have broken his moral law, we understand the consequences, the penalty for breaking God’s law. And we ask Jesus to forgive us, to come into our heart, to apply his blood to our life. Jesus says, I got you, you, fam. And please, Lord, don’t hear any disrespect when I say the the the gravity of that wonderful thing that you’ve done for us.

And then righteousness is attributed to our account. We don’t go here. We then look at another type of judgment, and we’ve talked about all this, so go back and listen. And that judgment is less like a courtroom for a Christian and more like a medal ceremony in the Olympics. So the person who wins the Olympic event, they pretty much know when they cross the finish line if they won.

When it’s the, like, the final round, not the qualifying rounds or any of that, but this is the medal round. They break the tape. They know that they’ve won, but there’s something about the validation of their winning that happens when they are invited onto the winner’s podium and have the and have the gold medal placed around their neck. Right? You’re all you’re all with me.

So the eternal reward, that type of judgment is more like a medal ceremony. And the award that we receive is based upon our work. Are you with me so far? Our life will be evaluated. We’ll stand before Jesus, and he will say, you have invited me into your heart.

My righteousness has been imparted to you. Great job. Now let’s talk about reward, and let’s review your life. And you’ll sit down with him. There’ll be a big screen, just you and him.

And he’s gonna have the remote, and he’ll be able to fast forward and look at everything that you did in your life. And then that will be compared to, like the Bible says in Psalms 139, it will be compared to the book of your life. Accomplish your life, how you lived your life, exercising your own free will, will be compared with all of the things that he had in store for you. Your calling, if you will. Joe.

Okay. I have an interesting question. What if, like, God calls you to do something, like, he calls you to your your calling, but then you don’t do your calling well. Like, how do you how does God wrestle with that? You don’t do your calling well.

Yeah. Your reward will be affected. Well, if you if you don’t fulfill your calling well, then there’s some lack of obedience that’s occurring. And the way that I interpret your question, unless you wanna clarify your question more. And the Bible says that everything not done in faith is sin.

We will not be rewarded for sin. Does that help? Oh, here he comes. So welcome to Tribe. Part of our format for part of our format for Tribe is is discussion oriented.

Instead of just me going through the the content, I want us to engage with these things together. I guess the question you have to ask is, what’s your what is your, what is your definition of well and who’s making that definition? From a worldly standpoint or from your own standpoint, you think you’re not doing it well, then God may be saying, No, you’re doing exactly what I want you to do. You’re just basing your standard off of what the world says. This is what yeah.

This is what the world says as well. I love that. So so, what Jacob is saying is, well, we would need to define terms in order to get a more accurate answer. So that is really good. Were you gonna I also think that you shouldn’t adopt, like, a victim mentality.

I don’t have the tools to do it, so I can’t do it. So then you create excuses for not pursuing it, which that’s a conviction that the holy spirit will certainly put on your shoulders, and you know you know what you need to do. That’s just whether or not you’re acting in obedience to do it. So imagine being called to be a leader of a nation who needs to skillfully, compellingly articulate the goals of that nation, but you were born with a speech impediment. Okay.

Well, thanks for ruining the incredible punch line that I was ramping up to. So so in in some ways, was Moses born with the skill of eloquent speech and or the ability to form words well? The Bible says that that Moses said that I’m slow of speech or slow of tongue. We don’t know exactly what that means, but it most likely means either a speech impediment or maybe it was, like, super, yeah, shy, like in like, social anxiety or something like that. So the takeaway is that based upon your estimation of your skills and your ability, you may feel completely inadequate.

And if you do, I would suggest to you that is a strong indication that you are right on track for what God is calling you to do. If there’s a calling on your life and you’re like, Woo hoo! Yes! Yes! I got this!

I could do this with one arm tied behind my back. God’s like, then But he does know. Yes. So there’s a there I I mentioned this earlier this week to a friend that I was having coffee with. But, Hudson Taylor, the famous Christian missionary to China, who founded the Inland China Mission, said the work of God often comes in three phases.

Impossible, difficult, and done. Mhmm. Would you turn to first Corinthians chapter three, and then we’re gonna look at I think I I have there’s 10 through 15. Would you, there’s a similar slide that has specifically verse 13 through 15. There we go.

So turn there. And it’s also up here on the screen. Paul is speaking, and he says this. But on the judgment day and then you can write a little arrow underneath the word judgment and put reward. This is for Christians.

Reward. Fire, and we’ve talked about this. What do we artistically imagine that fire being? It it does not say in the text, so that’s why I say, artistic using our imagination. What likely is that fire?

The eyes of Jesus as described in the book of Revelation, that he just looks at you you, and he knows just by making eye contact with you. Fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. Under that word work, you can draw another arrow out to the word calling or assignment. If the work survives, the builder will receive what?

A reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved. That is directly related to salvation. But like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames, or in the Texas translation, by the skin of their teeth.

There are six different types of building materials listed in the previous verses. Give me one. Wood. Another. Coal.

Another. Another. Yes. And one more. Silver.

Silver. Oh, wait. There’s one more. Sorry. One more.

Yeah. Alright. So for you linear thinkers, Paul describes six different types of building materials. A person can build or fulfill their calling or work towards fulfilling their calling to build the life that they have been called to live out of wood, hay, or straw, or by contrast, gold, silver, or jewels. It has been my heart’s desire to get to the gold, silver, and jewels and the reward, but we have to because your work was built with wood, hay, and straw.

We have to. We have to. We have to. And last week, we were almost there, but the discussion was so good we didn’t quite get there. And so we’re going to drill down a little deeper into this idea of building our lives with wood, hay, and straw.

There is a term for that in the Bible. Can anybody think of if you were to build with wood, hay, and straw, there is a term or a phrase that the Bible uses to describe that. Can you think of it? It is fairly translation specific. So you may not be it just may not be in your translation.

Vanity. Pid a leg, pid a leg. Let me in or I’ll hold your blouse down. Can you say that at church? This church.

I just got just got confirmation. Yes. You can say that. Spoonerisms are allowed. Vanity.

Work what did you say? Works of the flesh, and three little pigs. Okay. So let me give you a hint, and we’ll turn to a Bible verse. Verse.

And this phrase and this concept is really, really important. Like, don’t talk to me, like like, if you’re if you’ve never been a parent and you see a parent sitting down with a child before they go outside to play in the mountains here, like, don’t scare them by talking to them about rattlesnakes. That’s just gonna frighten their child and do emotional scarring. I mean, yes, it could if you’re, like, mean spirited about it. But a good parent tells their children about dangers of going out there so that they can go out into the world to be informed and avoid those things.

I am not trying to scare you with with building your life out of wood, hay, and straw. I’m trying to be a good parent. And a good parent always ends with, but the the mountains and the outdoors and the wild is an incredible place, and I want you to go and explore and live a full life. Just don’t fall into a dangerous river or get swept away by an avalanche or, you know, these things that come with being in the outdoors. That’s why I am talking to you about Wood Haynes.

So I’m trying to be a good parent to you. Hebrews chapter six. And, again, we’re looking for a phrase. Hebrews chapter six verse one. Would somebody with the mic please read that out loud?

The reason why we have a mic, I know that in this smaller venue, cozy venue, that it seems like you don’t need a mic. It’s superfluous. However, we have lots of families that tune in to the livestream each and every week, and we want them to hear your questions, comments, or connections as well. Hebrews chapter six verse one. And it’s also up there on the screen.

Okay. So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go instead and become mature in our own understanding. Surely, we don’t need to start again with the fundamental in in the importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith on god in god. Okay.

So your translation may say evil deeds. What is the does that phrase evil deeds, what how is it said in your translation? Dead works. That’s the phrase that pays today. Dead works.

Lissa was right on the money in horseshoes. It for sure would have counted when you said works of the flesh. Dead works. It’s a bit of an oxymoron, isn’t it? Because by definition of dead, it can’t work.

But the writer of Hebrews is using that phrase specifically and intentionally to grab our attention. This should be jumping out in neon lights. Dead works. That phrase, dead works or evil deeds in the Greek, I don’t have it up here on the screen, but you can just listen. It’s called, Necron Egrand.

Yes. That is the appropriate response. What do those two words there should be hyperlink in your brain for those two words. Necron. What comes to your mind?

Necromancy. Necromancy. Romance with the dead. What else? How about a medical professional?

Necrosis. What does that mean? Flesh that’s dying. Any other words? Necromancy, what’s the medical?

Necrosis. Thank you. I was in my mind, I was putting the wrong emphasis on the different syllable. Any other, modern English word that we get from that Greek root? Necro well, that’s enough.

The second part of that word, dead, evil deeds, nekron ergon. Where do we get Ergon? Ergonomics. Ergonomics? That’s what Ergon.

Okay. Lord of the Rings. You have Eragon. Eragon. Good connection.

Good literary connection. What does it take in order to do work? Like, think think, a basic physics principles. There you go. Energy.

And maybe you might be able to see it better for all you visual learners. If I had put that word, Nekron, Ergon, up there on the screen, you might have been able to make a little better connections. But you’re exactly right. Energy. So, Nekron, dead, Ergon, energy.

Dead works. That’s what the author of Hebrews is talking about here today. Let’s look at another passage in the book of Hebrews, chapter nine. So flip a few more pages down. And would somebody please read verse 14?

Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our conscious consciousness from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Okay. We see it again. Sinful deeds, but the Greek phrase is the exact same.

Now a discerning reader of scripture will look at these two passages and say, this sounds like it’s awfully lot. The author is talking an awful lot about salvation. But, Brian, you’re talking about dead works and reward, wood, hay, and straw. Are are you trying to pull a fast one? Are you trying to to make the scripture say what you want it to say?

Good observation. The answer is no. I’m not trying to manipulate scripture to get it to say what I want it to say, But I wrote this down in my notes. The author of Hebrews is pointing out that salvation cannot be earned through works. It’s dead, dead works.

In terms of fulfilling your calling, life, That you knew your calling, but you did not rely on the Lord to fulfill it. It. And you fill fulfilled your calling through your flesh. Maybe this is what you were talking about. When it comes time for we’ve used this analogy here last couple of weeks.

When it comes to, like, at the end of the board game comes what round or what phase of the board game? Scoring. Slash arguing. Slash arguing. The arguing phase.

The in our house, the arguing phase. The well, the read the the reinterpreting of the board game rules phase. The attempt at reinterpreting the board game rules building materials in order to build those houses and roads for the scoring of the game. And the building materials themselves don’t count, like, or that doesn’t count for anything, but the houses built and the roads built, those score you a bunch of points. It doesn’t matter how much ore you have at the end of the board game.

It counts for how many points? Zero. But look at all this ore that I’ve collected. Sorry. Scores you zero points.

Similarly, in the game of life, when we go to stand before Jesus for our reward, we can attempt to tell Jesus, but look at all of this ore that I collected. Look at all of this that I did with my gifts, skills, and talents. And Jesus is gonna be like, counts for zero. Or consider this. Look at all that I built, but it was built with my flesh.

Look at all these amazing things that were accomplished. If it’s done in the flesh from our own effort, energy, resources, ergon, Jesus is going to be like It will be consumed by the the fire and count for zero points. Two types of dead works. Two types of dead works we’re going to look at and talk about. Dead works unto salvation and works unto reward.

We’ve spent some amount of time talking about this. Two types of dead works. We’ve talked about this one a good amount, works unto salvation. Is there any way possible for a person to earn or to work for their salvation? No.

Now this is contra, stands upstream, resist the current of every other religion in the world that tells you there is a pathway where you can earn work towards your own salvation, major religions in the world. In Ephesians chapter two, Saved you by his grace, when what? You believed. And you can’t take credit for this. It is a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward for the things that we have done, so that none of us can boast about it. So that none of us can boast about it. Salvation is a free gift from God. Now, I promise I’m the Lord must have known that Jacob would be here. Because it’s not on the screen, thankfully.

But I wrote this in my notes. I enjoy whenever we come across a passage that’s familiar to us, we tend to slip into our brains tend to slip into, oh, I know this information already. I know this passage already, and we kind of tune it out. So I like to look at verses from a little bit different angle that causes us to think in a new way or in a fresh way about something that is familiar to us. It’s not on the screen, but you can close your eyes, and one of you in the room can close your ears and listen to this same passage from the Passion translation.

I promise you have not read from the Passion Translation. And I really appreciate that Jacob’s like, it is not a translation. I agree with you. It is not a translation. It’s a transliteration.

So to be fair. So let’s look at this same verse from the Passion Translation. Well, you can’t look at it, but just listen to it. Okay? For it was only through this wonderful grace that we believed in him.

Salvation. It was a gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ so that no one will ever be able to boast. For salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving. That that passage from from the Passion Translation beautifully dovetails into what we were talking about, dead works unto salvation. That’s pretty familiar with us or to us at this this state.

But what about dead works unto reward? This is, this is what I’ve been trying to get at for several weeks. Two types of dead works. Dead works under salvation, got it. At this point, we may be beating a dead horse, but it’s important.

But what about dead works unto reward that will, when we stand before Jesus for final scoring, renders zero points. Dead works unto reward. Let’s look at Matthew chapter seven verse 21 through 23. And it’s up here on the screen. I’ll go ahead and read it.

Jesus is saying, not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, kingdom of heaven. Yes. That is is that reward or work or reward or salvation? Salvation. Yes, you are right.

But it also applies. To reward. Only those who actually do the will of my father in heaven will enter. Of the father in heaven in order to enter the kingdom of God? Receive salvation.

Bend the knee of your heart. Die to your flesh. Receive Jesus as your savior, and out of thankfulness and gratitude, you commit your whole life to following him. Lord, what do you have for me? On Judgment Day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, How many of you can say that you have done any of those, whether by the spirit or by the flesh?

But I will reply. I never knew you. Get away from me. From me. You who break God’s law.

What is the linchpin phrase of that passage? What do you see as the linchpin? The key phrase in that passage. What do you see? In your name Oh, that okay.

Alright. So double. And what did you see? I never knew you. Not no as in, like, you get have you ever gotten a text and you’re like, this is not a spam text, but their name is not in my contact list?

And then you have to do that awkward thing of, oops. Hey. Sorry. I think maybe your contact drop dropped out of my phone or I don’t know. What do you say?

And then you have to ask them, who is this again? And they had just texted you like you had just been to their birthday party. Yeah. It’s awkward. Sorry, your name is not in my contacts on my phone.

I’m not denying that you didn’t do those things, but you’re not on my besties thread. In this particular passage, this person is trying to litigate their case for salvation before the judge. But I did this, and I did this, and I did this. And Jesus is like, you totally missed out on the one thing. That one thing is to know me.

The Greek word know is a translation from the original language that Jesus likely spoke these verse like, spoke these words in Aramaic. So in Hebrew, that word no is the same, it was used as a Hebraic idiom for a husband to know his wife, and it comes with it this idea of intimate connected relationship that comes from time spent in spiritual intimacy with Jesus? How can we know, have an understanding of what God has called us to apart from cultivating an intimate relationship with him by spending time with him on a daily, hourly basis, being obedient in just the little things. Now I have one, two, three, four, five non scriptural quotes that I would like to share with you that hammer home this point of the danger of dead works. And you you can’t write the quotes down unless you either have your computer or your phone with you.

The best that you could probably do would be to take a picture of these quotes and marinate on them. Okay? These quotes, I I’ve pulled from an author by the name of Watchman Nee. How How many of you are familiar with Watchman Nee? He’s dead and gone, but he still speaks to us through his writings today, and he does a masterful job of skillfully articulating the difference between works of the flesh and works of the spirit.

Works of the spirit result in reward. Works of the flesh result in what? Dead works Let’s put this first one up here. Dead works are not only the simple things we do. They are any works which have their source in ourselves and not God.

They may be perfectly good in themselves, but they do not spring from life. Zoe, God kind of life. They are dead before God. How does this sit with you? Okay.

Okay. Hit them with another. We must see that what God condemns is not only our bad deeds, but our best deeds done apart from Christ. These are dead works, for they have not the life of God in them. Can a person lead a worship set from the flesh and have it be dead unto the Lord?

Can a person can She said, I’ve done it. Honest confession. Can a sermon be preached and have it have zero eternal profit? I’ve done it. His word is still living in active.

Can you build an orphanage from your flesh that benefits thousands of orphans? Yes. Can you go to the mission field and proclaim the name of Jesus and see people get saved, but your work of going to the mission field score for zero points. Yes. Let’s get it.

Let’s get him with another one. Help me out, Hawks. Now, the things done may not be evil or improper. They, in fact, may be good and godly, such as reading the Bible, praying, worshiping, preaching, but if they are not undertaken in a spirit of complete reliance upon the Holy Spirit, then the flesh is the source of The old creation is willing to do anything, even to submit to God, if only it is permitted to live and be active. For someone who feels like they may have an understanding of what Watchmeni is saying here, could you take this quote and and say it in your own words to help us?

How would you if you read this to somebody and they said, What would you say to help them understand this? Let’s say it’s a Christian. Okeydoke. Romans eight six. So letting your sinful nature control leads to death, but letting the spirit control leads to life and peace.

That’s good. Jay? I’m a big sports guy, so I was that’s where I go. But I think of, like, like, a a varsity team that’s, like, winning national championships. Now there’s, like, some players that, like, will do anything just to be on the team.

Like, they’ll sit on the bench and never never see the court at all just to be, like, on the team and say that they’re a part of it. But they never actually Play. Play. Just so that they can say they were on the winning team or whatever. Okay.

Chris and then maybe Jacob had a question. My was the last sentence. The old creation is willing to do anything even to submit to God if only it is permitted to live and be active. So in my quick processing of that, it’s saying our flesh is willing to do anything to live, even submit to God on occasion so that it may, on occasion, uprise and and be the source of some of our works is what that’s saying. Is that correct?

Yes. Okay. Yes. Which is why we have to kill our flesh, not let it live and sometimes be in control. Yes.

Your flesh would say, don’t don’t don’t kick me off the team. Don’t kick me off the team. I’ll just ride the bench. Just let me just stay on the team. And then our flesh once there’s there’s a lot to this to unpack this quote, but let’s say a person has been called to student ministry.

You’ve heard from the Lord How you hear the fact that you feel confident in that, though that that that’s another, pull out. You know what you’re called to do, what your assignment is. Your flesh would say, okay, okay, this is the work of the Lord, but I’m going to think of ideas for youth events. I’m going to meet with this with these students. I’m going to take the guys out to the park to to play spike ball.

I’m going to meet with potential donors for for fundraising, and I’m going to give the pitch. And and I’m going to to do these talks based on what what I think from the Bible, these students should hear. Bible these students should hear. God and his Holy Spirit is like, I mean, if you want to in your own effort, energy, and strength, go ahead. Not only will is it a fast track to burnout in your own strength, but you will score zero points because you did it from your flesh.

Two more quotes to to hopefully galvanize this principle. Watchman Nee says, the cross is the only place God has for natural man. The cross. God will not use it. He has utterly condemned it.

Condemned it utterly. You want one more? The old nature is willing to do anything for God, even submit to him, provided it can continue to be something. But the spirit will never allow this. The cross cuts off the life of the old man so that only Christ may live.

If at the end of our conversation that we’re coming to today, you are being confronted with the possibility that much of what you have done in your life in the name of Jesus up into this point actually could be motivated or sourced from your flesh, good. Good. Let it burn now. Let it burn now. So that you can say, Lord, from this point forward, I want to accomplish all that you’ve called me to do by your spirit, in partnership with you, in fellowship with you, led by you, energized by you.

And Jesus is like, I never thought you’d ask. Let’s roll up our sleeves and do this together. He has another quote on here, and he says it a bunch of many ways, many different he says it many times, many different ways, but Watchmen E essentially says that there are many works that were begun in the spirit but then ended in the flesh. This is a total, hypothetical example. He calls you to start a podcast and and in his heart, he’s like, I got I got 10 episodes of this podcast to get out this thing that I am energizing you to do.

And and God says in and that’s it. And you’re on episode six and the the the views are skyrocketing and people are getting all this traction. You get to episode 10 and it’s like meteoric rise, like so wildly and the emails are flooding in about how it’s helping you and what it’s doing. And I can’t wait for the next episode when’s the next. And then God in his still small voice says, and just fold that up, tie it up with a little silk bow, and put it up on the shelf because I’ve got the next thing for how about one, two, I was gonna go with this one more and then the and then you do that next episode and it is 10 times as popular as your tenth episode.

Well, surely, Lord. And you can see how it perpetuates and how it goes. You spend the rest of your life with a wildly popular podcast. And God says, you get credit for those first 10 episodes well done. But, Lord, I got invited to to speak on blurry creatures.

I got invited to be on the Sean Ryan show. I was on Joe Rokin for my podcast. He gonna be like Scores you zero points. Thoughts, questions, or pushback to all that I’ve said? Jacob, let’s go to Jacob.

Let’s go to Jacob. Let’s go to Jacob. Question. I don’t know how you’re quite gonna have to understand. Yeah.

I just don’t know what’s going on. I just don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know. I just don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know.

I just don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know. I just don’t know but I I welcome that today, and then we’re gonna worship the Lord one other way, and I’ll handle that this morning. But I do I think there’s a danger also in looking at this and saying, well, I’m not gonna go do works, things just in case they mount to zero. I think we still need to you still need to get out there and do it and listen.

And sometimes it takes being in your bible and doing the work for him to come to you and say, alright. Good, child. Like, that’s what faith is, is stepping out sometimes when we don’t know. So I just worry about people going, okay. Well, I’m not gonna do something because maybe it’s not.

Oh, that’s great. Jesus addresses that specifically. What does he say? These are Jesus’s words. You wicked and lazy servant.

You took that talent and you buried it in the ground because you said I knew that you are a shrewd master. I like the balance that you’re bringing. Get out there. You ever tried to steer a car without power steering? Like, while you’re parked, it’s like, but just a little bit of forward momentum, and it helps that that steering wheel come around.

Good. Yeah. I think I’m just gonna say kind of what you were saying just in a slightly different way because it’s how my brain works. Great. So in case anyone else but I think, like, my counselor always says, like, if you have let’s say you have a habit of reading your Bible every day, every morning.

That’s what you do. You wake up, you go and you sit on your couch and you read your Bible in your quiet time. That’s good. That’s what you know, we’re called to do that. But if you start noticing that you’re going and you’re like, you’re sitting down and you’re just going through the motion or you, like, have this anything in you that’s like, I have to go read my Bible now.

Like, that’s what I have to do. She says, your habit that day or until it’s that feeling is gone should be just to reacquaint yourself with a relationship with the Lord. Because then you’re just going through the motions and it’s a dead work. And that I think is what it always comes back to is it’s a relationship with the Lord. If you’re not seeking his face and his heart in everything that you do, it’s a dead work.

Because this entire book is about him wanting to have relationship with us. He doesn’t need us to do anything. He can do anything himself. He is omnipresent, omnipotent. He doesn’t need us at all.

He wants us, and he wants us to do everything to be closer in relationship to him. And so if that’s your goal, you’re doing a good thing. If it’s not your goal, it’s a dead work. Yes. Mary and Martha.

Mary and Martha. Martha was, like, working in in the kitchen and she’s making a meal for Jesus. What if you could receive a full reward by devoting your life to just sitting at his feet? Jesus says, Martha, you’re troubled by so many things. You’re doing all this great stuff, ergon.

But only one thing matters. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken. Like, have you ever thought, like, why why he says that? It will not be taken from her. What what does that mean?

I think he’s thinking of reward. Yeah. I was gonna ask permission to nurture without me is is master class level of the flat. Like, he’s if you can read him, it’s incredible. It’s so so so rich and these are worth marinating on big time.

But thinking of Jay’s sports analogy, I was just gonna encourage you if you’re if you’re overwhelmed, we’re like, yeah, I believe in this. It makes sense. But, like, yeah, like feeling nervous to not go out out and do it. Like, you’re not Steph Curry the moment you step on the court. That’s an NBA player who makes about every shot that he shoots from any place on the court.

So start with a granny shot. It was an encouragement to just get out there and start with a granny shot, not being nervous that, like, we’ll all burn or it’ll just behave. Let’s start somewhere. So that’s my encouragement. Like, and the more you I’m saying the same thing.

The more you walk with the Lord, the more familiar it becomes. You just have to start somewhere. Don’t be discouraged by this master class level. Start somewhere, which is Okay. Obedience in the Holy Spirit.

Yes. You are exactly right. And give me the scriptural precedent for what you just said. Jesus’s words, not a master class or Jedi level obedience, but but defend what you just said with scripture by Jesus’s own words, granny shot. What?

What Give you a hint. Okay. Give me a hint of what all I can see is that’s when you give it That was too much Brian coming through. That’s like Too much Brian. Mug has my name on it.

That’s all I was thinking. Oh, yeah. It does have your name on it. You cannot So when you give a cup of cold water to a what? Is that what you’re just wanting to say?

Yes. Is it in Matthew? You cannot. Okay. For any shot.

Let me state let me state. You ask. Even when you give a cup of cold water to a child, you cannot even do something that simple without gaining a reward. Yes. Because Jesus asks you to.

Granny shot. Granny shot. Yeah. When Jesus asks you to. How many of you this is a all skate question.

So I’d like everyone to participate. How many of you have the physical ability and the resources to hand a cup of cool water to a child? Okay. None of you raised your hands. I literally said this is an all skate.

Okay. By show of hands. Alright. Let me help you. By show of hands, how many of you have the physical ability to do that?

In my name. In my name. We we gotta land the plane here Because the the cup of cold water and the reward is a great segue to lead us into how we’re going to turn the corner a little bit and for the next couple of weeks talk about this reward. What does it look like? And what do we do with it.

And it’s just so beautiful and and I’m this is, the entire point of the whole four week conversation that we’ve been having is get to that been form of worship. Okay? Holy Spirit help us, help us, help us. Would you, with your expertise at being omniscient, point out any area of our life where we are working for reward out of our flesh, we submit and surrender ourselves to you, that if there’s anything that we are pursuing that is not what you have called us to, or maybe you’ve called it called us to it, but it is being done out of our flesh, would you point that out? Would you give us the courage to just surrender it to the flames?

Bring it to the foot of the cross. Just by way of quick example, I don’t know if you know who, Francis Chan is. He’s like a Christian pastor, author, speaker guy. He had this, insanely successful church in the South that was growing and growing and growing and growing and growing and growing, reaching lots of people. And God’s like, Ann, good job on that assignment.

Now let’s just drop off into obscurity for a few years. And he’s like, okay, just stepped away. No scandal, nothing but success. And he was like, sure. I’ll let it go.

Lord, would you give us a heart like Francis Chan? Would you give us a heart like Moses that said, just show me your glory. I’ll forsake all of this other stuff. Just show me your glory. May that be the cry of our hearts, whatever you have for us, Jesus.

You take a quick moment to talk to him from your yourself, and then we will continue on. I’m sure you could think of lots and lots of examples. Kathy Truitt in Chick fil A. Business is cranking. Add one more day a week.

Kathy Truitt, founder of Chick fil A is like, nope, ain’t gonna do it. And I’m sure that you could think of more, so many examples. Help us. In Jesus name, everybody said. One last form of worship in the form of bringing our tithes, and we’re going to receive an offering the this morning.

So our tithes, I’ve heard pastors say it’s like paying the rent. Not like you gotta pay the rent here, but, like, paying the rent for the gravity that you take advantage of, the oxygen that you breathe, the molecules that hold your body together. All of these things are at the implicit command of the lord, the job that you have. So, lord, we bring our tithes as a way of saying that we love you and that we trust you. And in just a moment, I’ll I’ll share those ways with you.

But today, we’re also going to receive above tithe, we’re going to receive an offering. So tithe is baseline, and the Bible is super clear that goes to your local church. If you call tribe home, great. Tithe here. If you have another local church that you’re visiting from, tithe there.

And then beyond the tithe, there’s a special thing called an offering. So it’s above and beyond. And last week, I mentioned to you that we were going to receive a special offering. So I’ll describe what that offering is, give you an opportunity, and then we’ll give altogether. So, There is a demonically inspired narrative circulating around the world that many millions of people have believed and many in the church and even some entire denominations have believed a demonically inspired narrative that the war that’s being conducted in in Israel, and in Gaza and against the Houthis in Yemen, and in Southern Lebanon is a war of colonialization and is a genocide.

And, we could probably think of 10 other buzzwords that you’ve heard to villainize Israel. And one of the things that I love about this church is that you think with both the left and the right side of your brain, and that you are guided by biblical principles that is that confirms the reality that Israel has a right to exist. They have a right to their own sovereignty. They have a right to defend their their people. And defending their people means having a defensive army.

So it’s known as the Israeli Defense Force. And there is a group of 10 active duty soldiers who are on leave that have their particular unit has suffered a lot of casualties and been through a lot. 10 soldiers from this unit, have been selected by a Christian organization in America to come to The United States for a little bit of r and r, for some rest and relaxation, some rejuvenation, recharge their batteries, be able to create a space to to process some of the difficulties that they’ve been through, and they’re coming to this organization is bringing soldiers to Jackson. When we found out about it, we we contacted this organization. They contacted us.

And we said, how can we help? And they said, well, a really practical thing that you could do would be to give towards the, cooking and preparing and serving of meals while the guys are here in town. So we can we can do that. And so last week, I said that we were going to receive an offering this week that will go towards, feeding these soldiers that are here in town. When you give, let’s be super clear.

When you give, you you can give without a carte blanche support of Israel. You can give and have your heart break for the thousands of innocent civilians caught in this conflict that have lost their lives. There is no conflict there. You can love and support Israel and have your heart break at at what has happened. You can love and support Israel and fully admit that no government or no individual or no person is perfect.

And so with that being said, our fundraising goal last week, I said our fundraising goal was 3,000, and that’s what our fundraising goal is. 3,000. And, almost a thousand has come in already, which is great, but I wanna give you opportunity to give. So let’s be really clear about the differentiation. I’m gonna pray over the tithes and offerings, and I’ll say amen, and then it’ll be an opportunity to make an offering.

So for the tithe, Lord Jesus, I ask that you would bless people’s giving today, that as they bring their tithes in to the local church that you would use these funds to make your name famous at tribe, in Jackson Hole, the surrounding region, and even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Thank you for being so good to us. It is with a grateful heart and as a declaration of telling you that we trust you, that we bring a portion of our finances to you. We pray these things in Jesus’ name that everybody said. Now for the offering, if you give by cash and you’re like, this is my tithe, but I would like this to be my offering, cash, like, it’s not like you probably have an envelope in you, but maybe, like, fold it up in your connect card and you can write, IDF meals.

In that way, we can dis delineate between, cash that comes in for the offering and cash that may be excuse me, cash that comes in as a tithe and then cash that may come in as an offering. Does that make sense? And the reason why it’s a it’s important to us to delineate those things, just to use a couple of administrative words, tithes tithes money that comes in for our tithes is an undesignated fund. Tribe uses those funds at tribes discretion for for whatever needs to happen for the work of the ministry. Anything that comes in that that is designated IDF meals, that is called restricted giving, and that has to go to and is specifically for what we just talked about.

If that makes sense. Maybe it’s not important to you at all. So, when you tithe electronically through the Text to Give number, you just do that. There’s your tithe. $150.

Well done. Good and faithful servant. Now for the offering, we don’t have a slide, but it’s it’s just the same. Give dollar amount and then one word, lowercase is fine. You just put IDF meals.

And also on the website, there’s a drop down. Just like Wind River or Missions, you can give to IDF soldiers. So whether you are giving of your tithes right now or if you’re giving of your offering right now, these are ways that you can give. So this would just go to the general fund for your tithe. And then for the offering, you can just put IDF meals after the dollar amount.

Why don’t I pray over the offering and then we’ll get out of here. Okay? Lord, we trust you. Your word says that your word will not return void. Jesus was the word made incarnate with an earth suit.

God, in a similar way, I ask that as money comes in for this offering, that it will not return void, but will bless these soldiers and that they will somehow, someway, either out of the mouth of the host or by your spirit, you would impart the knowledge to these soldiers that it is Christians who are loving them and who want to see their hearts turn to you, Jesus. Be fed by these meals and that it would be a witness to your goodness, Jesus of Nazareth, as their Messiah. God, I ask that that you would feed them well in their bellies and feed their spirit by provoking them to jealousy, that they would turn their heart to you, Jesus. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, everybody said. Okay.

I appreciate, your your your patience, as we go through this as if it’s a burden for you to be able to give a special offering. If you stand up, I’ll pray for you and then we can skedaddle out of here. And about anything that we’ve talked about or about this offering today, I’m always available for questions like, let’s let’s talk it out. Want two? Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the turning of the seasons, the beginning of fall.

What an amazing time here in Jackson Hole. God, I ask that you would give us the courage to evaluate our lives so that we can submit any works of our flesh right to the fire. Consume. And that you are a careful accountant to give us a full reward for all that we have done and are doing according to your spirit. God, I command a blessing over each and every person here.

Works of the spirit, works of the spirit, works of the spirit, works of the spirit over each and every person here. Give us a great week. We love you too, dad. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. And everybody said, amen.

I love you. Have a great week. Enjoy the fall weather. You got this.