Jeopardy: Losing Your Rewards, Part 1

Greetings, friends and new listeners and welcome to this program of the Archie Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Otz, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

The message we bring you today is timely and trustworthy. Jeopardy, losing your rewards. I hope you will hear with your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you how you should respond to this inspired word, Jeopardy, losing your rewards. Hallelujah. You may be seated.

I want to thank you all for pressing your way out on a night like tonight. And I just thank the Lord that we can come together and enjoy His presence. I tell you, I want to go to heaven because I've read the book of Revelation and I didn't read anything in there about snow or ice or in fact, it said there's trees there that bloom every month. So it must be warm.

It must be tropical. So I want to go to heaven. What about you? Amen. Praise the Lord. And not only that, I want to go to heaven because I want to see Jesus first and foremost.

But since I'm going, since I've made up my mind that I'm going, I want to receive heaven's best. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight. But we're going to start by reading a verse of scripture in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17.

As I got into this message, a lot of things, you know, led to one thing led to the other. So what I've decided to do is to break it up into two parts. And I'll minister the first part tonight and I'll minister the second part the next time I preach because both parts can stand alone, but yet they dovetail together. And so that's what we'll do. But tonight I want to begin in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. And we can read this together. Are you ready? What's the first word?

Say it nice and loud. All. We don't want to miss, this is a determiner. And in this case it's very important because it is modifying the word scripture. All scripture is given by inspiration of who?

God. And is what? Profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Now, very quickly, I just want to sort of zoom in on some key things here. This could be a message unto itself. But I want you to see that all scripture, and that means from Genesis to Revelation, all scripture is inspired of God. Men wrote it, but the word of God says they wrote it as the Holy Spirit carried them about. As the Holy Spirit took them up into, just carried them into heavenly places and under the inspiration of the Lord, they begin to write. Just like today, God uses people in the gift of prophecy and they begin to flow under the anointing and words come out.

And this is the same way only it was put down to paper. And even those parts of the Bible that are historical in nature, God still chose for them to be in there because the Bible says in another place that the Old Testament is for our admonition and learning, that we might by faith and patience, we might understand and know how that we can run the race and finish victoriously. And using their example, we can know what to do and what not to do. But all scripture is profitable.

That means it's going to benefit me in some way and it's going to do it in one of these four ways. And I won't really dwell on these. Most of them are explanatory doctrine and reproof. We need doctrine to teach us what we're to do in the first place. We need reproof when we're not doing what we've been taught to do.

Amen. And then if we continue, we need to be corrected because to correct something means to put it up on its feet and headed in the right direction. And that instruction in righteousness because the Holy Ghost comes to teach us and he teaches us the word of God. And so if we will allow ourselves to receive all scripture, we will find that it will benefit us because we will be perfect. And when we use that word perfect, of course, we know that it is referring to the person who is mature in Christ and is developed in Christ and at the place where they are, they're allowing the Holy Spirit and the word of God to thoroughly furnish them.

And that's what I want to be. I want to be furnished. You see, the Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. We become born again. We're like a brand new house. This body that once was filled with sinful notions and desires, God, he just cleans us up.

He cast out everything unclean and filthy. He makes us a brand new house. But then he wants to put in some brand new furniture. I mean, if a person was blessed enough to be able to build a house from scratch, they don't want to go up the Salvation Army and get somebody's leftover broken down sofa and bring it in their brand new house. They don't want to go up on the dump and find somebody's discarded dining room set with the legs about to ready to fall off and the cushions all ripped up and bring it in their new house. I mean, if they had a brand new house, they'd want some pretty brand new furniture to go in that brand new house. And that's what I love about the Lord. He not only made us a brand new house, but he's going to furnish us with some brand new furniture. God doesn't have hand-me-down, secondhand, used stuff.

Everything that he does for us, he does new. And for, I'd say, I guess about the last eight years or so, it's been a part of what the Lord has been working in my life that I read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation every year, just as a matter of course of reading it through. And I got to tell you that there are some passages that after you've read them once, maybe twice, you start getting really bored. There are some places in Exodus and Leviticus that talk about sockets and screws and it's like, okay, do I really need to read this? You know, I read this once.

I did read it once or twice. And you know, now I don't really care about how many sockets to put in and how to screw it and where to hang it and how many yards of material you need. I mean, do I really need all this, Lord? And so kind of, you know, you can get stuck in some of those passages and you're reading it, but your mind is, you know, at Walmart or something. You know, you're just not into this, but you know, it's in the word of God and we're not, you know, don't get shook up. We're not reading a whole book of Exodus or anything like that, but we're just going to take a glimpse at a few places. Let's look at Exodus 35.

Now I'll start you off in a good place and then we'll just go around a few places. And remember, I'm giving you just a tad of this and a tad of that, but if you read all, well, Genesis is fine, but once you get past Genesis and you get into Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, except for a few interesting stories here and there where people usually messed up and the Lord had to do something which teaches us, we can really get bored by some of this stuff. But all of this is for a purpose because what was the very first thing we read tonight? All scripture. So here we are in Exodus, the 35th chapter and very quickly, we'll look at verse 30.

And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord hath called by name, Bezlaiel, the son of Uri, the son of her of the tribe of Judah. And he hath filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship and to devise curious works. And the word curious here, it just means very detailed, intricate things. Think of something like the embroidery on this sweater.

I know I look a little gaudy tonight, but it's for a reason. And to work in gold and in silver and in brass and in the cutting of stones to set them and in the carving of wood to make any matter of cunning work, delicate, intricate work. And he has put in his heart that he may teach both he and Aholiyab, the son of Ahishamak of the tribe of Dan. Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart to work all manner of work of the engraver of the cunning workman of the embroiderer in blue and in purple in scarlet and fine linen of the weaver, even of them that do any work and any of those that devise cunning work. Now, listen to all of the how God anointed these men and all of these gifts that he gave him to do what?

To build, to make something out of wood and things. God, he just so anointed these people. He gave them all of these gifts. I mean, to me, it sounds like if I didn't read all the verses in front of it and behind it, I would think he was talking about a preacher or a teacher, that he gave them wisdom and knowledge and understanding and skill. And he gave them all of this so they could build something.

But you see, it's very important because everything God does, he does perfectly. When he stood out there, when everything was just void and darkness and water and he created everything, he made it, he said, it's good, it's good, it's good. He kept saying, it's good. And then he says, it's very good. That's all God knows how to do. He doesn't know how to do anything but excellent.

Everything he does is excellent. And so he called these people and he gave them all the skill not to preach the gospel, to be carpenters, to be engravers. And we might ask ourselves, now, where did these people out in the middle of the Sinai desert, where did these people who had been slaves for 400 years, where did they get silver? And where did they get gold?

And where did they get fine linen and purple and all of this? I mean, where did they get all this stuff so that he could call these people to do this wonderful work that he was going to give them to do? Well, if you remember when they were leaving Egypt on that night, that they went to their slave masters and they went to borrow of them and the Bible says that God gave them favor so that they were saying, here, take the gold, take the silver, take the jewels, take it all. And the scripture is very interesting because it said, and so that they gave unto them such things as they would require. And I thought, require?

What do you mean? Now, why do you need to take silver and gold and jewels out in the middle of the wilderness? And they had told Pharaoh they were only going for three days, remember? He said, let us go three days so we can serve our God.

And of course the plan was that one, they were never going to come back. And that's why whenever he said, okay, you can go, but leave your wives. He said, no, we got to take our wives. Okay, you can go, but leave your children. No, we got to take our children.

Okay, you, your wives and children can go, but leave your cattle. Well, we need our cattle because we need something to sacrifice because they weren't coming back. And so they needed these things because they weren't coming back. And they needed these things because God was going to use them to build a tabernacle. These people were going to be in the wilderness for 40 years and they needed to go to church. They needed to go to church. So God was going to have them build a portable church, a portable tabernacle so that wherever they went for 40 years, they took church with them and he had them make it so they could tear it down and build it up and tear it down and build it up. And yet it had to be excellent because that's all God knows how to do. And it had to be beautiful because everything God does is beautiful. So there they were, they had a portable tabernacle, a portable church and everywhere they went, the glory of God and the presence of God went with them in that tabernacle.

And you know what? I have a portable church too. I come to faith tabernacle, but I have a portable church. I go wherever I go, God's presence is with me. My body has become a portable tabernacle of the Lord and everywhere I go, God's presence and anointing stays in me and with me. I come here to fellowship with the saints and commune with the saints and so that we can minister one to another. We can be here for God to bring people in, but wherever I go, I still have church. When I'm walking down the street in my neighborhood, I'm having church.

Whatever I'm doing, I can be doing some chore or some kind of thing and I'm having church because God has given me this portable tabernacle and you have one too. While we're next to this, let's flip over to the 26 chapter. 26, 15 and thou shall make boards for the tabernacle of Shittimwood standing up. How many really can get into, you know, reading about boards? Now maybe Benny because he's a carpenter and there might be a couple other here, but the most of us, so it's 10 cubits.

I don't know what that is. Shall be the length of the board and a cubit and a half shall be the breadth and two tenants. There shall be in one board and one against the other and thou shall make it for all the boards of the tabernacle and thou shall make the boards for the tabernacle. Twenty boards on the south and you go on, there'll be 20 on the north and there'll be 20 on the east and be 20 on the west and thou shall make 40 sockets of silver under the 20 boards and two sockets under one board for two tenants and two sockets. You know, you get the idea, don't you?

I thought you would. So what does this mean to us? Okay, let's turn to the 27th chapter and let's look at verse nine. And shall make the court of the tabernacle for the south side southward. There'll be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of a hundred cubits long for one side.

Okay, real quick, how many yards is that? I don't think you knew. And 20 pillars thereof and 20 sockets, brass, the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver and likewise on the north side and so on and so on. And it repeats it over and over again and you'll go a little further up and it'll go back and repeat and tell him all over again.

So this is how it is. And so we might think to ourself, well, why is this important? What does this mean to us? First of all, we need to understand that when Moses went up in the mount, he was up there with God 40 days.

How many remember? 40 days and 40 nights. And he got more than the 10 commandments. It doesn't take 40 days and 40 nights to get 10 commandments.

I can do that easily in 40 minutes. No, God was given him all kinds of instructions and part of it was all of this. I mean, Moses had to be very smart. I mean, I think the Lord just had to give him a photographic memory because how can he remember these sockets and the cubits and the boards and it goes on and on and this is just a small part of it. But God was given him a pattern and when he told him to build it, he says, I want you to build this just like the pattern that you saw up on the mount, which is identical to that which is in heaven. Everything that God had Moses make, it was a replica of the actual holy place in heaven. And that's why it had to be absolutely precise. He had to do it perfectly.

You've got people today are jack legs. They, they cheat here and they cheat there and, and that's why houses are crooked and foundations are cracking. They don't care, but know everything that Moses did, it had to be perfect.

Everything down to the nails and the brads. All right, let's, let's turn over to Exodus, the 30th chapter and let's look at, um, another portion here. I mean, there's so much that's in here that, you know, I'm just giving you a little dibs and dabs. Verse 23 take now also three principal spices of pure myrrh, 500 shekels, sweet cinnamon, half so much. That's 250 shekels. I still don't know what that is. Even 250 shekels and of sweet Calamus, 250 shekels and of Cassia, 500 shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary and of olive oil, olive and hen and hen.

I have no idea what a hen is. I've heard of Benny hen, but I haven't heard of olive oil hen. And now shall make it an oil of holy anointment and an ointment compound. After the art of the apothecary, it shall be a holy anointing oil. And he goes on to tell him that he's going to take this holy anointing oil and he's got to anoint every piece of furniture in the, in the, in the sanctuary, the candle, the altar, the shoe, the table with the shoe bread. Everything's got to be anointed later on.

Every piece of when the, when they put on their clothes, it's got to be anointed. And you know, I just heard something the other day that's very, very interesting in there's, um, hiding places that they're beginning to discover in the land of Israel. And in one of these very remote hiding places, they found a flask of this anointing oil. It has been there now for, uh, several thousand years at least. And they found this and, and you say, well, this is so significant because when they rebuild the temple and the Bible's clear that the temple will be rebuilt, they're going to have to have the anointing oil to bless and anoint all these things. And isn't it just, you know, some coincidence that they just happened recently, very recently, it was just on the news that they found this anointing oil because it was a secret how it was all put together. And it was, it was so holy and precious that they were forbidden for anyone to make it at home. I mean, if they would say, well, this is, you know, if they got the formula that's here and they made it at home, they were not allowed to do that. It was holy. It could only be used in the holy temple by the priest.

Ordinary people couldn't use it or make it. So it's very significant. All right, let's look at Exodus 39 and I'm almost done with all this. Uh, this here, I just want to give you a little idea of what, where we're going and how this relates to us. Let's look at verse two, Exodus 39 and he made the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet and fine twine linen. And they, now I want you to listen to this. And they did beat the gold into thin plates and cut it into wires to work it in the blue and in the purple and in the scarlet and in the fine linen with cunning work. They made shoulder pieces for it to couple it together by the two edges. Was it coupled together and the curious girdle that just means very ornately embroidered girdle of the ephod that was upon it was one of the same according to the work thereof of gold, blue and purple and scarlet and the fine twine linen as the Lord commanded Moses. What I want you to see is they took pure gold and they beat that gold till it was flat, as flat, as thin as they could get it. And then when they had beat it as thin as they could get it, they had to cut it into thin, thin, thin, thin wires.

Why? Because unlike this fake stuff that I'm wearing tonight, it was real gold. That was the thread that they used to make the priest garments.

Think about that. The thread that they made out of real gold. Think of the work and the time that had to go into beating that gold down to get it so thin to cut it thin enough that they could use it as thread.

Isn't that amazing? So you see that everything that was down to the threads, down to the screws, down to the bolts, down to every last thing, it was meticulously and ornately designed. No detail was overlooked or skipped.

Nothing was insignificant. Everything was extremely important and that Moses had to follow everything down to the minute detail and record it to the minute detail in the Word of God. Now, I realized that it was important for Moses to get the blueprints and the instructions just right because after all, he had to go to the carpenter, Biesliel and the other guys and say, now here are the blueprints. You've got to do it just like this. And I know he had to go to the seamstresses and the tailors and he had to say, here's the pattern. This is how the clothes have got to be made. You've got to make it just like this. He had to go to the apothecary and say, now you have got to make sure down to the ounce that you make this anointing oil just like this. I understand that Moses had to write all that down to give to all those people so they could do their job.

I understand that. But what I don't understand is why do I care and why do I want to read these things and why does the Bible say all scripture is profitable? Even this stuff that is boring to me because I don't even understand most of it. So why is it if all scriptures is inspired of God and is profitable for you and profitable for me in some way, be it doctrine, reproof, correction or instruction in righteousness, how can all of these laborious technical passages, how can they possibly affect me that I should be concerned about reading them?

What could they say to me? Well, before I answer that question, I want to show you how the Lord answered it to me one morning very recently. And I got to tell you that it is the morning prayer and the morning time. Those are the answers to prayer. They're freshest. They're the answers to prayer.

They're the least contaminated by the flesh or by our emotions or by our circumstances or by the influences that we face. And usually that's when we'll get the purest word from the Lord. And so I was praying as I often do, and I like to walk and pray and I always ask the Lord to wash me and to cleanse me and to just take the water of His word.

I visualize myself going to the ladder of the word and having Him wash me and cleanse me from any contaminants. And I just rejoice in the Lord and I rejoice in His word. And a lot of times I'll say, oh, your word is the joy, the rejoicing of my heart.

I love your word. I just exalt in the word. I just get happy in telling the Lord how much I appreciate His word.

And this is what I was doing this one morning. And I often will say things like, oh Lord, I love every word, every word of your word. I love, I love every word. I'm from Genesis 1, 1 to Revelation 22, 21. I love your word. And so I was praying like this one day and I had happened to be trying to get through these passages in Exodus about all these sockets and screws and things like that, you know. And as an afterthought while I'm praying this, I said, even those boring chapters of Exodus I love. I just said it, you know. And after I said it, I heard the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and He said, but you know they're not, I said that seems so irrelevant.

I love them. He says, but you know they're not irrelevant. Those passages are not irrelevant, but they too can add to your spiritual growth. And so, you know, I kind of take him back and so I begin to just open my heart and incline my heart and meditate on what the Lord was trying to tell me. And I begin to understand, I begin to, the Spirit begin to make known to me, just as God is so meticulously, painstakingly creating every screw and every socket down to the threads of the garments, down to the ounce of the ointment, the things that were in that tabernacle that was a temporary tabernacle that was just, it only existed for a short period of time.

Just as God was so careful to prescribe everything for that earthly tabernacle, because it was made after, identical to the heavenly tabernacle that exists in New Jerusalem, so that His presence and His glory could come down and fill that place. And I want you to turn there very, just for a moment, let's pause and turn in Exodus, the end of Exodus, the very end of the book, and see what happens. Verse 33 of Exodus 40, the last chapter, and He reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar and set up the hangings of the court gate.

And let us read this next sentence together. So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So just as God caused that place to be made just perfectly, and when it was finished, according to the pattern and care was given to every minute detail, the glory of God came down and filled that place to such a degree that Moses could not walk in the door. He could not penetrate the glory cloud that filled that earthly tabernacle. Amen. And so there was that holy place where God came down and just like that in my life, because now what know ye not that your body is the temple of the Lord and the word in the Greek means the holy place, the naos, the holy place.

In the Hebrew it is the kodesh hakodeshim, the holiest of holies, because we are now the kodesh hakonenim, we are the holy priest. Just as that glory filled that place, God has allowed every detail of my life, every experience that I've experienced, everything that's ever come into my life, God is making it a detail so that he can work on me. Sometimes I feel that hammer beating away, just beating away. Say you're not flat enough. You got to get down a little flatter. Amen.

Got to get down a little lower. And sometimes I feel the pressure of God's hands and I feel that big old needle going in and out of there. How many say amen? Oh, but just as God did that for that, he put so much attention to a temporary tabernacle. How much more is he going to work on me? How much more is he going to work on you when he said, I will dwell in you. I will be in you. My anointing will abide in you. Don't you know you have an unction and anointing of the Holy Ghost.

He dwells in you. Yes, he's going to tighten the screws. Ouch. Ouch.

Ouch. Yes, he is. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, he's going to work on us because just like the glory of God filled that place after they had been obedient to follow the pattern and it was finished. So, I mean, you know, so Moses finished the work.

You have to read all those boring details to understand the significance that Moses finished the work. Amen. And just when it was finished and complete and God was pleased because God's glory will not come where there's uncleanness and disobedience, where there's flesh, all of that had to be sanctified and anointed and his glory came down and God gave Moses the pattern.

Amen. What an eye opening, heart transforming word of the Lord, Jeopardy, raising your rewards. Saints, I must tell you truthfully, when God revealed to my spirit how much everything I do and how I do it and why I do it for his kingdom will determine what eternal rewards I will receive or forfeit, it revolutionized my Christian walk. My whole life, all my life has been serving God, but I didn't always do it with the best attitudes.

I had tendencies to pride and self-righteousness and even pouting that I did not see his problems. And we're not talking about one's salvation or going to heaven. We're talking about our works being tried once we're in heaven. Paul said that every man's work shall be made manifest and revealed by fire to see what sort, not what size, what quality, not what quantity it is. Paul said that we all individually will stand before the beam of the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in our bodies, whether good or bad.

He referred to Christians, not sinners. And he said that if our work survive the fire, we shall receive a reward. They will come forth as gold, silver and precious stones. But if they do not survive the fire, they will be burned as wood, stubble and hay. And he shall suffer the loss of his rewards.

For me, this is a sobering reality. I don't only want to go to heaven. I want all the rewards I'm eligible to receive.

And I believe you do too. Find out seven things the scriptures say that will be tried from our words to our works, our giving, how we act and endure in trials, our motivations. There's even a reward for those who love and look for the Lord's coming in the rapture.

I call it the Maranatha reward. Today's message, Jeopardy! Losing Your Rewards is available as a two CD set for your love gift of $15 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK-104, mail to Archie Hardy Ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Or go online to archiehardy.org, that's archiehardy.org, where you may also order on MP3. But to order Jeopardy! Losing Your Rewards by mail, offer SK-104. Send your minimum love gift of $15 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott singing Maranatha.