Climbing the Mountain of God Stop Nine Finishing the race and hearing Well Done conclusion

Welcome to episode 162, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

162. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we are finishing up the Mountain of God series. I know it's in the middle of the week and I, I didn't time this out properly, but we can't end every episode or every lesson on a Saturday, so we're going to end this lesson on a Wednesday. So So there you have it. I want to remind you, the Mountain of God is just something that I created to try to get my thoughts correct and kind of get this journey, this Christian walk through faith that you and I are going through, and to give a visual representation of something that is going on so that we can kind of look back and point to different stops on this mountain and different things that we're supposed to do as we walk through our Christian walk. Because I don't know when we go to church, a lot of times we sit down and then we listen to what the pastor has heard from God that he's supposed to bring for that day. And so we are going to sit in there and we don't know what he's going to talk about. We don't know what God is going to give to us through our pastor and through the word of God. And each time, I think sometimes when we get to church, the church, we forget that it's made up of men and women and they're imperfect. So they're trying to get to the next Sunday sometimes, and they're busy and they're going to hospital visits and they're praying for people and they're running the business of the church. And I believe that if it's not set up properly at the beginning, there's a lot of distractions that is built into the church and how it's run. So, and you want to get the pat— everybody wants the pastor to come pray for them. Well, the pastor can't do everything. If you've got a bigger church, if you've got a church over 50 or even, you know, 20, 30 people, if you're supposed to be in the word of God, if you go to Acts where they started having some dissension in Acts when the church started growing, and Peter and some of the apostles said, look, we can't be out of the word. Let's go to Acts 6:1. Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve table. And this is a perfect example that each one of us have a place in the body of Christ. And if you've been called to give the word of God or to serve the people the word of God, you have got to stay in the word of God. And that is a challenge because when I'm doing all of my prepping and all of my Bible study and all of that stuff, I've got to do that in between my careers. And so I want to go back to the map and why I created the map is so I could have a systematic way of looking at our walk, our Christian walk through this world or through this life, and so that we can just take different parts or different stops on this mountain and we can start looking at it and we can start digging deep into that and drilling in because there are certain questions that arise at every stop. And so we're gonna address some of those and I think one of the best ways to go about teaching and learning is to ask questions. And I don't think God is nervous or anxious at all about us asking questions. And I think to answer them and to look at the Bible and to get the answer from the Bible, I think, is what God wants us to do. He wants us to learn to drill into his word and to get into the word of God to find the answers to life's problems. And so that's what we're going to do. And that's what I— that's why I created this Mountain of God, so that we had a way to look at specific teachings and specific lessons as we trek up the mountain. And each place— and I want to reiterate that there is a point A and there's a point B, and the point A, both of them require death. And I just want to reiterate that this is not one of those warm fuzzy things when the Christian life— again, we go to Matthew 7, that it's the narrow gate and difficult is the way. You have to start this journey up the mountain by dying. And if I'm talking to you or I'm talking on the podcast, I've made jokes before that I don't think that God is a very good salesman. You know, Satan is a lot better salesman than God. God requires the payment up front. Oh, by the way, this is a cash business. God says you're going to pay for this before you get the reward. And so you're gonna bend the knee, you're gonna repent, and you are gonna die before you ever start walking up this mountain of God. Now Satan, on the other hand, is a lot better. He's a punk, and he's a lot better at selling things because what he does is he allows you to have all the fun, he allows you to have all of the things that you think you want and desire, and the price he hits at the end. The price of sin is death, but Satan don't bring up the death part. Satan just— you just kick that can down the road. When I know that God is in something, I know that God is going to require the price to be paid up front, and most of us don't like doing that. Most of us like, and we have gotten used to, buying things on credit or purchasing things, or not having to go all in right at the beginning. Well, that is not God's way. That is not the kingdom of God. Have to go again to Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The kingdom of God requires payment up front. And again, you've got to die to live. You've got to give to receive. If you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of God, you must be the least. Where on earth is any of that practiced or even required except in the church? And that's why I did this map again. I want us to take a look at— because God's ways are not our ways. We have got to learn God's ways. We've got to get into his word, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You have got to submit yourself to the word of God and to his instructions, and the Holy Spirit said he'd never leave us nor forsake us. He is with us all the time. What we're going to do is we're going to submit ourselves to the word of God, and we're going to specifically look at what it takes to get to the end of this race, or to the end of this life. And again, it's a battle to the death. I've talked about this multiple times. There's multiple things that I've said multiple times. One of them is we're not getting out of this thing alive. The rapture may come. I don't know how that's going to happen. I don't know if we're all just going to drop dead and then be raised, or if we are just gonna, in a twinkle of an eye, gonna switch over into our new bodies. I got— I'm telling you, I didn't write a word of the Bible, and I hadn't really thought about, uh, to a big extent how it— that in that twinkling of an eye, how we are going to be changed. And I believe, if you're asking me and wondering what I believe, and I— this is just Greg-isms or Gregology, is I believe we're all going to die right when that trumpet blows, that our bodies are going to die and we are going to go to be with God. And the reason I believe that— now this is just, again, this is Gregology— is because Jesus died. God was here, walked on earth, and he died. He was the first one to die and to raise again. Everybody that has walked this earth has died, minus 2 people. We got Elijah that was caught up in the whirlwind, and we got Enoch that was walking with God and then was found no more. So those 2 right there, and I think those are going to be the 2 witnesses. And I, you know, and I wasn't even planning on talking about this. I'm trying to get up this mountain again for a summary, but the 2 witnesses I believe are going to come and witness in the tribulation and they're going to witness to the non-believers, and the people are not going to like them much if you read Revelation. But they will also die, these two witnesses. The beast will come and make war against them after like 3 and a half years, and they will be killed. So every person is going to die that has ever walked on this earth. And that's what makes me think that at the trumpet sound, or at the rapture we are going to die. There's a scripture, and again, I no idea why I'm chasing this rabbit, but in Matthew 24:28, for wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. And in my notes here, the eagles in this word can also mean vultures. So I believe that this is where everybody has just been raptured and the bodies are left there and their souls and spirits are taken. It says the dead in Christ shall rise first. And since we are one day closer to Jesus' return, I guess we need to talk about this because I don't know why— and I always make the tongue-in-cheek joke, I don't know why Jesus didn't come last Thursday, you know, he missed a great opportunity— but there's a reason that God has delayed his return, and I believe that he is one day closer to returning today than he was yesterday. But obviously, if you and I are still here, hopefully he hasn't blown the trumpet and come back yet. And as we go up to the top of the mountain into point B, I want to remind you that we are— our goal is to hear well done. And again, I'm going to go back to Matthew 6:33, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Or how I define the kingdom of God is God's way of doing things, and to see the end from the beginning. And I put point B on the map. I should have put— looking back, I should have put it point A and point B at the bottom. But point B is where we're heading from when we bow the knee and die to self, and when we go up to the top of the mountain. I don't think you get there by just casually walking. They are ordered by God. God knows why he created you. God created you for a specific purpose, and that's part of the journey, is to find out where you are in the body of Christ, why God created you. But to do the end— to do it like God sees it, the end from the beginning— that's part of seek first the kingdom of God. God's way of doing things is seeing the end from the beginning. And I believe that we need to— and we're probably going to talk about on the next few episodes is to start with the end in mind. And that is— and I know this sounds kind of morbid, but I think it's a pretty good, pretty cool exercise— is to write out your obituary. And you're not going to be there. To be absent of the body is to be present with the Lord. So you're not going to care what is being said at your funeral. But if you can on purpose write down what you want people to say and then start pointing your life in that direction. I think that is so powerful, and I think that that would be a key— a purpose-driven— and I don't want to sound like the Saddleback guy, but I— the Purpose Driven Life, it is by taking the end from the beginning, figuring out how you want all this to end, and then start walking in that direction with the end in mind and start walking towards. And that's kind of what I'm doing. That's why I'm here on this podcast. Is that I want to hear well done. And I've been, in my mind, I'm thinking that if I help enough of you listening hear well done, then God will say, "Hey, good job. Well done, my good and faithful servant." That's my goal. My goal is to help you up this mountain and to give you tools to make your life more focused and to make your life more powerful in the body of Christ and to help build God's kingdom. 'Cause I think that if each one of us do our little part, then we are going to have a huge celebration in heaven when we get there and we start rejoicing and saying, remember when we set that of our obituary that we said we're going to do this and this and this, and we did all of that? And now look how God's kingdom was grown because we on purpose set out and made a declaration to do it this way, to live life this way. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this episode. God, I thank you for your word. I thank you, Jesus, that you came and lived a perfect life. Thank you for the example you've given us. Thank you for your word. Holy Spirit, thank you for being here. Holy Spirit, we thank you for leading us into all truth. Father God, thank you for the plan, and thank you for salvation and everything that you've given us. God, we thank you, we love you, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you on the next episode.

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