Listen Again: Aim For Heaven! - Part 1

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.org.

or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. Okay, men, how's everybody doing? Good. I'm glad you showed up on this beautiful evening rather than staying on the golf course. Are y'all glad to be here? Bob, you glad to be here?

Good, good. Well, guys, come on in. I want to welcome everybody that's with us on live stream. I hope it's more people than we got here tonight, but I'm really excited about the message that the Lord has put on my heart tonight. I really believe that outside of, well, how should I say this? I really believe that this could be the most important message you've ever heard in your life, not because I'm giving it, but because of what I have to say from Colossians 3, from God's Word. It's really what the Lord, I think, wants to say to all of us, because we're living in a world that is coming apart at the seams. And in Matthew 24, that's what Jesus said the world would be like near the end.

We are 10 years from the end or 1,000 years, I couldn't tell you. I know this, every day we live, we're one day closer. But when I look at the world, I would just say this, you better be ready because the end is coming. So with that said, I want to go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank You for this day. Thank You, Lord, for the Word that You've given me, and I pray, Lord, that You would, and I know You will, that You'll take Your Word out and send it out, anointed by Your Spirit, and that it will penetrate the minds and hearts of everyone who's listening, both here in this sanctuary, and Lord, I thank You for this wonderful sanctuary in which we get to meet. But I also know, Lord, that You will penetrate over the Internet to those who are listening via live stream. And so, Lord, I pray that You would touch our hearts, dear God, that You would change us, that we would hear this and be changed, and that we would begin to really have a better understanding that this world is coming to an end, that our lives are like a mist, we're like a vapor.

One minute we're here, next minute we're gone, and we need to be ready for that day. So, Lord, I pray that You would encourage the men with this message, that You would challenge them, that You would inspire them, dear God, I want to live a life for You. It's in Your name that I pray. Amen. So, guys, I've entitled tonight's message, Aim for Heaven.

Take dead aim for heaven and keep your eye on heaven. We're going to be in Colossians chapter 3, and I want to begin tonight at the end. At the end of Colossians 3, guys, you take your Bible up and turn it open to Colossians 3, because really we're handling the Word of God, and you want to be reading the Word of God anytime you're sitting under someone's preaching.

Why is that? You want to make sure the preacher is telling the truth, and so you need to have the Word of God open. So, at the end of Colossians 3, Paul writes in verses 23 and 24, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for who? The Lord. Not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a what? A reward.

Did you all hear that? It is the Lord Christ you're serving. This should be our motivation. We serve the Lord Jesus Christ who rescued us, if you're in Christ, from the dominion of darkness, and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Now listen, men, when I think about all the sins from which God and the strongholds, from which God has delivered me and forgiven me, how can I not serve Him with my entire life, what's left of it? That's my motivation. I'm telling you, that's why Russ Andrews is doing what he's doing, because I owe so much to my Savior, and the least I can do is to serve Him with everything that I have. Am I doing that?

No. I don't think we ever really give Him everything we have, but we do the best we can with His help. Secondly, God has promised a reward not only to me, but to all of us who follow Him faithfully, who live a life worthy of our calling.

And so tonight I want to answer two questions. Why should we live a life worthy of Christ? And secondly, how do we do it? In other words, how do we live a life worthy of the Lord? And that's really been the theme of Colossians thus far. It was the theme of the end of Hebrews. It's all about, you know, we've gotten all this doctrine, now we need to understand how to live it out, how to be the men that God wants us to be. And so first let me explain why we should live a life worthy of Christ.

And one reason, it's not the only reason, but one reason is because one day, men, I want you all to think about the end of your life. Each one of us will have to stand before Jesus Christ, mano a mano, and give an account of our lives. Did you realize that? You'll be there all alone before Jesus.

And your whole life, He knows it all, if you thought word indeed. Did you know that there are two places of judgment in the Bible? One is for believers and the other is for unbelievers. And listen, they are vastly different, like comparing light to darkness.

One is called the great white throne judgment and the other one is called the judgment seat of Christ. We've talked about, you know, Matthew 7, 13 or 14, where it says enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the road and broad is the path that leads to destruction. How many enter that?

Many. But narrow is the gate that leads to life and only a few, what, find it. So listen, most people that we know are on which road? The wide road. And I want you to understand this, when the wide road comes to an end, it ends at the great white throne judgment. When the narrow road comes to an end, it ends at the judgment seat of Christ. Where are most people going to end up?

At the great white throne judgment. Billions of people. Most of our friends. Many, many people who go to church who are clueless. In John chapter 5 verses 28 and 29, Jesus says, Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their grace will hear his voice and come out. When Jesus said Nazareth come out, who came out?

Do you know what happened if he just said come out? Everybody would have come out, but he called Nazareth out. One day Jesus is going to look at the world and he's going to say, come out. And those who have done good, that means they've placed their trust in Jesus Christ and Christ alone. Those who have done that will rise to live. But those who have done evil, that is they've rejected God's grace and mercy, they will rise to be condemned.

So here's the million dollar question. What's actually going to take place at each one of these judgments? Well, first, one will be a place of weeping, regret, unbearable sorrow, guilt, fear, dread, condemnation, darkness.

I can't even come up with enough words to describe how bad it's going to be. It's a place of eternal judgment. The other place will be a place of joy and hope and excitement and celebration. And I believe incredible laughter and a place of eternal reward.

So which place do you want to be? In Revelation chapter 20 verse 11 through 15, John describes the great white throne judgment. John, who was the disciple whom Jesus loved, he loved them all.

He loved them all. But John had a very special relationship with Jesus. You may recall that of the 12 disciples, 10 were martyred for their faith. Judas was committed suicide.

John was the only one apparently who was not martyred. However, he was exiled to the island of Patmos. And guys, I've been there. It's a real island.

It's in the Aegean Sea. It was a penal colony. If you ever saw Papillon, anybody see that movie?

It's kind of like that. And so John was exiled there. And while he was there, Jesus appeared to him. And he told him, John, I'm going to show you some visions. I want you to write down what you see. And when you get to Revelation chapter 20, Jesus gives John a vision of the coming great white throne judgment. And here's how John describes it. And then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Who is seated on the great white throne? Jesus. He's the judge of the world. The father's given all judgment to the son. Earth and sky fled from his presence and there was no place for them. I believe that's their place for them to hide. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened.

Remember that. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done.

You don't want to be judged because of what you've done. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.

And each person was judged according to what he had done. Then it says death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And guys, I don't personally believe, I could be wrong. I don't personally believe that it's actually a real lake of fire. I think that's symbolic of a place of eternal torture, guilt, where the worm devouring the wicked never ceases. It's a guilty conscience that will just drive a man insane. And you want me to get a pill from a psychiatrist.

You want me to commit suicide. It's a place of darkness. It's a place of fire. Your soul is burning with guilt.

I can't come up with words to describe how bad it's going to be. Do you want to know why Jesus said you must be born again? Because if you're born twice, you will only die once. But if you're born once, that's right, you'll die twice. And the second death will last for how long? You'll never die, but it's like dying. You want to die, but you won't be able to.

And it will last forever and ever and ever. This is why I was so upset with that minister down on... Should I say where it is, Jim? No. Downtown Raleigh, who I listened to the whole sermon. He gave a sermon on John chapter three. And he basically implied that Jesus never meant that you had to be born again. And he did that by twisting the words.

And what's so sad is he's probably leading most of the people in that congregation down the wide road. And do you know what I would like to do? I'd like to go punch him out. But that would not be Christlike, would it? And he's smaller than me.

I think I can take him. So anyway, I'm not going to do that. But this is what I was so upset about.

I mean, I can get upset right now thinking about it. Jesus said that if someone leads a little child away from me, it would be better if he had a millstone tied around his neck and he was cast into the deepest ocean. Do you know who I think will probably suffer the greatest judgment of the great white throne judgment? False teachers, false ministers, false preachers who lead masses down the wide road. And they'll probably have to stand there as their congregation falls by them and Jesus looks at that minister and says, You are condemned because I never knew you and you led so many of my people astray.

Jeremiah says, Woe to the shepherd who leads the flock astray. The coming great white throne judgment will be a placement of condemnation. It will be a place to which all those who refuse God's grace and mercy will be summoned.

They will be summoned and you won't be able to skip court. You will physically be brought there, physically. Your soul will be in a physical body and you will stand before Jesus, the judge of the world. It will be a place where the lost will stand before Jesus to be judged because they refused to come to Him in this life. If you really believe that, then how come you're not sharing your faith with the friends you love if you really believe it?

I'm guilt-discharged. I walk by people every day and I don't share this with them, but I believe it. Now here's the good news. That's all the bad news. I want you to understand that this truth, not a single believer will ever stand at the great white throne judgment.

Do you know why? Because our sins have already been judged. Where were they judged? At the cross.

Let's hide it. At the cross. There are two places where your sins can be judged. They can be judged in this life at the cross by faith in Jesus.

Or you will die in your sins and then you'll be judged according to the things recorded in those books that will be opened up. Do you know what happened to the book that has all my sins in it? Where was it nailed? Where was it nailed? It's nailed to the cross. And God burned it up, ripped it apart.

He cast all my sins into the depths of the sea. So where are we going to stand? Listen, I hope everybody hears it in Christ, but listen, if you're not in Christ, I'm warning you because I love you. I don't want you to stand before that great white throne judgment when it's too late. When the Lord appears in the sky, it will be too late. The day of grace will be over.

So where are we going to stand? We're going to stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Paul writes about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10. Now listen, when he says for we, he's talking to the believers in Corinth. And guys, I've been to Corinth and I've stood right there before this huge rock that had four Greek letters on it, B-E-M-A, and it's the bema.

That's how you pronounce it. So Paul says, For we must all appear before the bema, the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. I think that good or bad simply means eternal or temporal. Who are you living for? What are you living for?

Eternal things or temporal? Every single believer will be invited to stand before Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ. The Greek word from which we get this phrase judgment seat is bema.

It was before the bema. Think of this as the platform right here. And I'm the judge and you just run a race. There were 100 runners in it and you came in first place. Think about the Olympics when those winners stand on that platform, gold, silver and bronze.

They're the victors. The judgment seat of Christ is a reward banquet where the rewards will be handed out to the victors, to those who live their lives for the world that's coming and not for this world. I share this with my Friday morning Bible study and a man who's sitting here tonight, I won't call him out, but he said, How come we don't hear this in the church?

I said, Good question. There are a lot of things you don't hear in church. But when you come to this study, I'm not going to skip over anything in the Bible. We're going to get right through it verse by verse. And if we get to something uncomfortable, do you think I'm going to skip over it? No, we need to hear it. We need to hear the truth, even if it makes us uncomfortable, even if it puts fear in us, because it's the truth that will do what?

Set a man free. So let me ask you, if your life were to end right now, do you feel like you're ready to stand before Jesus? I'm talking about the great wife on judgment, I mean at the judgment seat of Christ. Are you satisfied with the way you're living? Are you pleased with the way you're living? Or do you want to live better? Or do you want to live better? Do you want to live a life that's more pleasing to God? Do you want to run with more vigor?

Do you want to run to win the prize? Did you know that one of the reasons Christianity flourished during the days of the Roman rule was because their belief in future rewards? Now listen, Jesus has told us about these rewards for a reason. It's not some selfish thing.

I'm not thinking about coming here so I can win some award. My friend J.L. Williams who planted 500 churches in third world countries, he wasn't waking up in the morning going, I'm going to go plant another church because I want more reward in heaven. But, in the back of his mind, he knows that in serving the Lord that he did because he loved Jesus, he knew that there would be reward in heaven. In Revelation chapter 22 verse 12, Jesus says, Behold, I'm coming soon. My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.

In Matthew chapter 5 verse 12, Jesus says, Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven. There's a great book by David Jeremiah. It's entitled, Until I Come, How to Wait, Watch, and Work Until Christ Returns. You need to all read that book. David Jeremiah, Until I Come. In that book he says, the Bible tells us that after the church is taken to heaven, individual believers will be judged for their works done in the body as Christians.

At that time, special rewards will be handed out. Now, I want you to understand this truth. Your works do not save you.

You understand that? You're saved by one work, and that's the work of what? Grace, but it's also the work of faith that God gives you.

It's belief. Jesus said the one work that God requires is to believe in the one he sent. I think that's John 5, 29. But once saved, your works matter. Your works one day will pass through the fire.

You can read about that in 1 Corinthians 3, 10 through 15. And your works will be, they'll either wood, hay, and stubble, or gold, silver, precious stones. And they'll pass through the fire of God's judgment. If it's wood, hay, and stubble, that is if you live for yourself, they'll be consumed. You won't have any reward except for one. You'll be saved.

But only by the hair of your chinny, chin, chin. But that's not a bad reward. Fire insurance. So at the judgment seat of Christ, crowns will be handed out to those who ran to win the prize, to those who ran victoriously, to those who have been faithful in their service to the Lord. Revelation 14, 10 says, For we believers will all stand before God's judgment seat.

Now according to the Bible, I know this is not in Colossians 3, but Colossians 3 talks about this inheritance. And I want you to, I want to say, it's kind of like a, if you're on a basketball team and at the end, I talked to my friend Wes about this Friday morning, that, you know, at the end of basketball season, they would give out MVP, you know, best sportsman award, best hustle award, whatever. And so you weren't really thinking about that during the season, but you kind of knew that that was coming. And so you worked to please the coach, because you wanted to get one of those awards. So there are five crowns that will be handed out. You ready? You want to earn some of them?

Here they are. First you have the crown of victory. 1 Corinthians 9 verses 24 through 27 says, Run in such a way as to get the prize.

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last. But we do it, believers do it to get a crown that will last forever. See, everybody here on earth is working for crowns that just don't last.

They fade away. I was in a guy's office today and he won a club championship and he had this trophy up there that looked old and ugly. And I thought, you mean you can have that thing.

You can have that thing. Therefore, Paul says, I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and I make it my slave so that after I preach to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. I heard a Grant Casseberry minister stand up here a couple of Sunday mornings ago and he said his main goal as a pastor is not to be disqualified. How do you earn this crown of victory?

It begins by allowing the Holy Spirit to control your life. This crown will be given to those who live for eternal things, not for temporal, who live for the world to come, not this one. This crown will be given to a man who lives to please God and not man. Who are you living to please?

Your friends or God? Are you living for the dot or for the line? Do you all know what I mean by that? If you're living for the dot or the line, think of you're born right here. That's a dot and there's a line going this way into eternity. You're going to spend eternity somewhere and it's just a line really that's just nothing but a stream of dots. So this first dot is your life on earth.

It's 75 years plus or minus, whatever. So are you living for that dot or the line? I hope you're living for the line. You'll forget about that dot after you've been on this line about 10,000 years. It'll just fade in memory, fade in your memory. Jim Ellett said, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

C.T. Studd, the great British racquetball player, whatever they call themselves, said only one life. It will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. This first crown will be awarded to those who die to this world and live for Christ. Secondly, the crown of rejoicing. 1 Thessalonians 2 19 says, For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes? Is it not you? Paul was talking about those who He led to Christ.

This is the crown that will be given to soul winners. There are some people out there who are not ashamed to talk about the Lord and with everybody they encounter, they just talk about Jesus. They may go to a restaurant and engage the waitress. They say, anything I can pray for you about?

Are you struggling with anything? I'm a minister or I'm just a follower of Jesus. They share their faith with a friend. When is the last time you shared the gospel with a friend?

That's convicting, isn't it? When I was in seminary, I took an evangelism class, and we had during the course of a semester three months turned in 18 witnessing reports. In other words, we had to give 18 encounters during that semester while we shared the gospel with somebody. And do you know what I realized I had not been doing for about 20 years? Sharing the gospel. I know people that get on an airplane and they're sitting there waiting for the plane to fill up, and they pray, Lord, I pray that you'll put somebody beside me that needs to hear the gospel.

Do you do that? Third, the crown of righteousness. Paul's last words when he was in prison were to his son in Christ, Timothy. And this is what I really want on my tombstone. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there's in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who long for his appearing. Do you long for the appearing of Jesus? It's hard to long for his appearing if you're living in sin. It's hard to long for his appearing if you're living for this world and just accumulating things.

So many Christians, and we all, listen, I'm not casting stones at anybody. We're all guilty of these things. We get caught up in the things of this world, the stock market, politics, making money, living for the weekend. We aren't really longing for Jesus' return because we're too busy living for the pleasures of this world. Does that describe you? Are you looking forward to the day when the clouds part and there will be the Lord? Are you living a life of obedience?

Are you longing to see Jesus? If you are, then there's a crown waiting for you. It's known as the crown of righteousness. Fourth, the crown of life. This is in James 1-12.

This is the fourth crown. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. I think about Joni Eareckson, I didn't even think about this until right then, who became a quadriplegic at age 17 and she's been confined to a wheelchair. She's about 70 years old and she loves the Lord. She paints with her mouth. She sings.

She's also had breast cancer. You think she's not going to get the crown of life? All of heaven will stand up and applaud Joni Eareckson when she stands before Jesus at the judgment seat of Christ. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local triangle men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net. This is the Truth Network.