The Gold of Jesus

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.

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.

Good morning. Good morning. So good to see all of y'all here this morning. Welcome to Tribe. So good to see you.

There is a little card on your seat. I won't insult you by explaining what it is. It's pretty self explanatory. We'd love to have a record of your visit so you can fill that out appropriately or just make doodles and draw on it whatever you would like to do with that. Welcome to tribe.

Welcome to the TMC, the tribe ministry center. This is the nexus, the hub, the little nest of tribe. It's where we office. It's where we have meetings. It's where we have services on Sunday.

And when was the last time that you went to a church that in the just in the middle of service, you could stand up, walk over to the fridge, and help yourself to a fizzy water. So welcome to tribe. We do things a little bit differently here. Every family needs a black sheep in the family, and so that falls on us here in this community. We do things a little bit differently, but that's alright because that's the way that God made us.

Another unique distinctive about us here at Tribe is instead of just me preaching a message and having it be a monologue, I really want this to be a dialogue. I want us to engage in the content together. I want us to move through what we're gonna talk about together, and so if you have a question or a comment or a connection, all you have to do is raise your hand. We have a mic in the room. I think Adam's running around with a mic this morning and he'll put the mic in your hand.

The reason why we use the mic, of course we could hear you just fine in here, but the reason why we use the mic is so that all of our families that are traveling or out of town they still get to watch the livestream and participate and hear all of your wonderful, amazing, nutritious comments and so that's why we have the mic in the room. So I think we got all of our preliminary bases covered. Lyssa, thank you so much for worship this morning. Whoo. Wasn't that good?

Oh, love it. I love it. If you have your Bibles with you this morning, we're going to start in a passage that we've been visiting a lot, and it's in the New Testament, and it's the book of second John. And in the book of second John, we're gonna look at chapter one and verse eight. We've been talking about this idea of a full reward.

That's the name of this series of conversations that we've been in for this is week four now of this idea of a full reward. And in second John chapter one verse eight, it says this, watch out that you do not lose what you what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your what? Full reward. And it's really important for us to grab a hold of this idea that if in the Bible, it says that there is an option for a full reward, it is clearly implied from the text that if there's a full reward that there can be what?

A partial reward or even no reward. And a lot of people who have been reading their bible for quite some time, going to church, following Jesus, have read this passage, and they're like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Without really ever stopping to think and consider what it means.

And if they were to consider what this passage means, if somebody were to ask them, explain this passage to me, what they might say is, I I mean, I think it has to do with salvation, like a full reward, like you're fully saved. Well, we have been learning as we've been digging into the scripture that that these guys don't work for our salvation. This idea of work in salvation, the Protestant church has done a really good job for centuries to remove us from this idea that our salvation is not works based. But they've done such a good job that our pendulum has swung so far that we don't, as Christians, don't really live with or have a biblical understanding of this idea of reward. So what I wanna say right at the outset is you don't work to be saved.

You work because you're saved, and that work leads to reward. So what is so so what is this reward? And this is where we've been going for this this whole conversation. And our big takeaway for all of the weeks we've been talking about this is when we grab a hold of, as to use a Texas expression, when we grab a hold of this understanding changes our mindset, and it helps us to remember that every moment matters when forever is your measure. Everything we do right now, the thoughts that we have, the actions that we take, the values that we hold, the things that we say no to, they all have significance and importance in meaning, and every moment matters when forever is your measure.

And so last week, what we talked about was building with wood, hay, and straw. This week, we're going to talk about gold, silver, and jewels. And if you're like, what are you talking about? Don't worry. We'll get there.

Let me show you a chart. I've been working on this chart. I filled it in a little bit. I added some emojis for you. So this is a visual representation of where we've been going.

So this dot, this pin represents you right now. Like when you travel through an airport or if you've ever been to an amusement park or something, you're like, where are we? Alright. Just look for the red dot. You are here in this life.

Congratulations. You made it to this moment. Now the next moment, nothing is guaranteed, and the bible makes it very, very clear that one of two things is gonna happen. Either your blood pump is gonna stop working for one reason or another, you die, or Jesus will come back, the Bible says, at the last trumpet. So either Jesus will return or you're going to expire.

After that, everyone regardless of race, color, creed, where you live, what time period, you you will face judgment. Now a lot of people, they don't like to talk about judgment. It's a potentially scary word. I would suggest to you that it's a sobering word. And at this judgment, and if this feels like, wait, where it's hard to keep up.

The best thing you can do is go back and and and listen to what we've been talking about. We go over this in more detail and a slower pace. So we're a little bit racing on. So at judgment, there is one criteria that God is looking for. What's that one thing he's looking for?

Righteousness. He's looking for only one thing, righteousness. And there are two kinds of righteousness. What is one of them? Self righteousness.

And so when you stand before a holy god and he says, what do you have to say about righteousness? For the person that is chosen to think in legal terms, to be their own counsel, to represent themselves, to not have an advocate or an attorney present for them, then they must stand and give an account before a holy god based upon their own merit. And the bible says, there's a great apostle. His name is Paul, and he said that all of the things that I would try to do on my own merit or because of my birth lineage, all of those things, when I stand before a righteous and holy god, he says that it's the equivalent of standing before a king wearing filthy rags. And Paul goes into a little bit more detail on those filthy rags, but the idea is this.

The bible says in the book of Isaiah that no one is righteous, no, not one. And so we cannot stand before a holy god advocating for ourselves. You know you can't fool him. You can't trick him. You can't manipulate him.

You can't pull the wool over his eyes. You can't deceive him. He sees it. He sees and knows it all. And if you are not found with righteousness, right standing with god, the bible says that eternal punishment is is the way that that all of us were headed.

But there's another kind of righteousness. What is that kind of righteousness? Imputed righteousness. Now make sure you touch the corner of your glasses when you use a fancy word like that in this church. Jesus' righteousness, which is imputed, given to us.

Imputed Jesus' righteousness. I'll allow it. Jesus, the bible's super clear, as the only begotten son of God is the only one to get a perfect score on the exam called life. He was born without sin. He lived a life without sin.

He died for the sins of all of mankind. Therefore, he is the only person in all of human history qualified to stand before God and God say, what kind of righteousness do you have? And Jesus would say, self righteousness. And he's like, okay. Checks out.

So I guess there's one person that could stand before god with self righteousness. But here's what's the amazing thing like she mentioned a moment ago. Jesus did not hold on to that righteousness all for himself. In fact, he laid his life down for a lost and dying and broken world. And for the person that says, Lord, I've messed up.

I've blown it. I have no self righteousness of my own. Will you forgive me? Jesus says in the gospel according to Brian, I got you fam. And his righteousness is a gift to us, imputed, so that when one of these two things happen and we stand before judgment, we have no self righteousness of our own, but we say Jesus paid it all.

And god says, you're right. And then for the person, regardless of race, color, creed, religion, your background, where you're from, the time period in history that you lived in, if you look as we do backwards to the cross or before the cross people looked forward to the cross, then there is a different type of judgment and if any of you familiar with the old acquire the fire of days, there was this big skit that they did, the Bema seat of Christ and at the Bema seat of Christ, there is a different type of judgment. But don't think in terms of a courtroom. Think about the winner's podium. So in the medal, when it comes down, you have all of the heats in the Olympics.

You you're running the 100 meter dash and you have multiple heats and then it gets down to the metal round and the person who breaks the tape at the finish line, they know that they've won but it doesn't really sink in until when? They they're standing there and they get the gold medal around their neck. This is when rewards are distributed. And what are the rewards based on? Our assigned assigned work that we've been given.

Did you know that each and every one of you were created beautifully and uniquely? God says, I knew you before you were even formed in your mother's womb. And in Psalms one thirty nine, he says this, that before you you saw me before I was even born, every day of my life was recorded in your book. Did you know that there's a book with your name on it? In heaven, it is the work, the beautiful things that God has planned for you to do.

Now there is some an an interesting discrepancy because there is a book written with all the great things that God has for us, but then there's the reality of the life that we live that may or may not be congruent with the book written for our life. So here's what happens. Will you go back to that chart please? That's why I added the books emoji. The books are open and you will stand before Jesus and he will say, here are all of the amazing things that I had predestined for you, things that I had in store for you.

You ever wonder why you're made the way that you are with all of your little idiosyncrasies and your differences and your uniqueness? And in junior high, all we wanted to do was be like everyone else to just fit in. And then if you had good parents, they were like, no. God made you wonderful and special and unique. He likes you weird.

Stay weird. And I guess that's just what my mom told me. So you will stand before god, before Jesus, and that book will be opened, all of the amazing things that he has planned for you. And then there'll be another book opened, how you actually lived your life, and there will be a time this is an accounting word, a time of reconciliation. The books will be reconciled.

Here's what I have for you. Assignment, you could say. Calling, you could say. And then here's how you lived. And for everything that you did according to the spirit, not the flesh, there will be a reward.

All of the things that you did that you thought were good, well, I'm basically a good person. It will burn. The life built out of wood, hay, and straw will burn. Doesn't matter how many orphanages you built. Doesn't matter how many orphans you were deworming in Somalia.

Doesn't matter if you shaved all the whales. None of that matters. It was what were you called to do. Where are you getting that from? Well, let's look in first Corinthians.

We'll put this passage up. First Corinthians chapter three, this is a good verse to turn to. Let's all turn here. And could I ask somebody to read these few verses? Or you can either read it from the screen or read it from your own bible.

First Corinthians chapter three verses 10 through 14. Whoever's got it. Alright. Hello. You're welcome to tribe.

Yes.

Okay. Because of god's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have, Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials, gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw.

But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

So we 've talked about this as well. We use our sanctified imagination to talk about what this fire of judgment could look like, And what did we what did we come up with? What's the hyperlink that should be in our brain? Jesus' eyes. In the book of Revelation, John sees a description of Jesus.

He's barefoot like the priestly class who is walking among the lamps, tending the lamps as a good priest would do. The bible says that his feet are really tan like burnished bronze. His hair is white as wool, and his eyes, what? Burn like fire. What is this judgment?

The judgment is looking into the eyes of Jesus. When we look into his eyes that burn like fire, he gonna know everything. Everything. He will see us for who we are and what we've done. And he'll just know in that instant, our life that was built with wood, hay, and straw consumed by the fire, but the gold will be refined.

How can you look someone in the eye and be absolutely terrified and at the same time fall more and more and more in love? Because in those eyes, he cannot be fooled. When we look into the eyes of Jesus, all of the walls that we've built up are like nothing to him. Blown away. When we look into the eyes of Jesus, we see a man who lived a perfect life and so he knows.

You ever get around somebody without really high work ethic and a really high standard of work like they produce at a really high level and you're next to him trying to do the same job, and you're like, and it feels like you're like coloring with crayons. No offense to anybody still coloring with crayons. Professionally. But at the same time, we will never feel more loved and accepted. We will see his great sacrifice.

And doesn't say this in the text, but our hearts will melt with humility, and we will just tip over and fall more and more in love with him. These are the eyes of Jesus that everyone will see. What we built with our life with wood, hay, and straw will be burned up. What is built with gold will be refined, and that is what our reward will be based on. Just to give you a few quick quotes from what we talked about last week.

How many of you know who Watchman Knee is? You ever read watchman knee? Oh, boy, it's like that's some high octane reading right there. He said this about what we call dead works, building with wood, hay, or straw. Dead works are not only the sinful things we do.

They are any works which have their source in ourselves and not in God. They may be perfectly good in themselves, but if they do not spring from life, they are dead before God. Oh, I'm gonna mess this story up, but I'll try it anyways. Lord. But Samuel said, wait for me.

I'll be there. The army's bearing down. Saul's looking at his watch. Time is running out. We've gotta get to the battle.

We gotta get to the battle. Who knows where Samuel is? He goes ahead and makes a sacrifice, and then Samuel shows up. So the idea of the sacrifice was really good, but Samuel, the prophet Samuel, had given king Saul specific instructions. It was as if the sacrifice didn't even count.

And then remember in the in the battle, Samuel says, I want you to kill everything, scorched earth policy, leave nothing alive, but then Samuel takes it on himself trying to be a good guy. Saul takes it upon himself trying to be a good guy, and he saves all of the best animals and even saves king Agag. Samuel comes walking up, and Saul's like, look at us. We did it. The battle is won.

The victory is Yahweh's. We did it. And Samuel goes, what is this lowing of cattle and bleeding of sheep I hear in my ears? And Sam was like, I told you, take out everything. Saul messed up.

So this idea of good intentions, we cannot fool the lord. Those were dead works to be consumed by the flames and fire, burned up. Board games, We've used this analogy. Right? So if you ever play you ever play a board game like a resource gathering board game and, at the final round, like when the game is all done, it's time for what?

Scoring. So you gotta score the board game. And the object of the board game was to build roads and houses and things like this, but you have to gather resources and then convert those into, you know, houses and roads, things like that. So you have stone and and these other things and at the end of the game when it's time for scoring, you may have a pile of stone, but in the scoring stone counts for how many points? Zero.

But Lord look at all the stones that I have stacked up in my in my stockpile. Zero points. So we've talked about this. Now it's time to turn the page to talk about gold, silver, and jewels. Everybody say, whew.

Let's talk about gold, silver, and jewels. Before we get into this next part, this is a good chance to check with you. You're being awfully quiet. Thoughts, questions, comments? Please.

I'm just reminded as we're talking about all this stuff, what a level of trust that this requires. So looking at this quote and then the scripture that you read or even the passage you mentioned, Saul needing to trust Samuel. Right? If you trust someone implicitly, you do it without question. Right?

But it but that doesn't happen overnight. It requires time. It requires consistency of, you know, proving that they're trustworthy. So I it's not nothing deep, but it's we haven't spoken of that yet. So it's like, even the root of what we're talking about, I think, is trust in the Lord.

So if you're like, ugh, this is hard to get to. It's like, well, let's go back a step in fostering our relationship with the Lord or with the Holy Spirit and how he leads. And if you trust you know, it's the father who says, like, get down, and the child does it immediately. Where most kids would be like, why? What are we doing?

You know, it's, like, too late. You know, just immediate obedience is not is is a positive thing for someone that you trust. Yes. And it it's at every level. So anyway, just thinking about that.

Like, if this is something that you're struggling with, you're just like, okay, Lord. Well, why why don't I trust you? Or what do I need to do to sort of foster my relationship with you a little a little deeper? Because you do naturally come to a point of trust over time. And the Lord is so trustworthy, and it's a guarantee.

If you put the time in, he's he's trustworthy for sure.

Okay. Everybody remember what Amanda said, and let's see if somehow maybe, just maybe, we will come back to that point in a few moments. Let's hang a hard right and go all the way to the book of Revelation. Revelation. If you get to the maps, you've gone too far.

Go back a little bit. Revelation. So here is the question. What does it mean to build with gold, silver, and jewels? What does it mean to build with gold, silver, and jewels?

Revelation did I tell you okay. Revelation chapter three. To give you some context, John is speaking to several different churches in what is today modern day Turkey. And he's speaking to the church in Laodicea. This is not on the screen, but I'll give you a little bit of background.

In verse 14, he says, write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of god's new creation. I know all the things that you do that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other. But since you are lukewarm water neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

You say I'm rich. I have everything I want. I don't need a thing. But what you don't realize, I would suggest that that is deception or self deception. You've even deceived yourself.

You played yourself. What you don't realize is that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Jeez. So I advise you. Buy gold from me, gold that has been purified by fire, then you will be rich.

Also, buy white garments from me so that you will not be ashamed by your nakedness, an ointment for your eyes so that you will be able to see. What does it mean to buy gold to build with gold, silver, and jewels? It must be paid for. How do we pay for it? Revelation chapter three verse 18 tells us, I advise you buy gold from me.

The gold that he is speaking of in Revelation chapter three is the gold that will be refined and revealed by fire. Okay. You guys are really quiet this morning. Minute's okay. Maybe you're just in absorb mode.

You're taking it in. Okay.

Okay.

Good. Good. Let them burn now. Let them burn now. Oh you're you're just getting this is just your first week.

Our poor tribe fam has endured three weeks of flames. I'm trying to get to the gold. Gold. Gold. Gold.

So how do we build with gold? We build with gold by coming to the lord and buying gold. How much do you think it cost to buy gold from God? Now let's talk about the quality of gold. There's a description in the bible about heaven, and it says that the streets are paved with gold, and that the gold is so pure that it's actually translucent.

You can see through it. How much is that what does gold go for like an ounce these days? An ounce? An ounce right now. Okay.

Let's go. So imagine what is the value of gold that is so pure that it's translucent. How much would a person have to pay for that kind of gold? I I yeah. I can't even fathom their life.

I can't even fathom. So I wrote this down in my notes. This kind of gold costs $0, but it's not free. It costs $0. What is what is Israeli currency?

Shekel. I should have known. Hello. Hello. 0 shekels, but it is not free.

The gold that Jesus offers can't be bought with money, but it is the reward of lives laid down in obedience without reserve. The gold gold Jesus offers cannot be bought with money, but it is the reward of lives laid down in what's the word, Amanda? Obedience without reserve. Let me show you this. Isaiah chapter 55.

I think we have this on the screen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The lord is speaking and he says this, is anyone thirsty?

Thirsty? Come and drink. Even if you have no money, take your choice of wine or milk. In brackets, in parentheses, you can insert gold. It's all free.

Come and drink. The source that we go to to buy gold is not looking within ourselves to accomplish something, to do something great, to make a name for ourselves, to even lay down our lives in some sort of noble cause that that god has not called us to, we go to him. Come to me. Look at the open invitation. Come to me.

Come to me. Remember earlier, a moment ago, Jesus just described our true condition. You say, we've got everything we need. We're fine. Then Jesus says, here's your accurate true condition apart from me.

And even in that condition, there is an invitation. Come to me. Come to me. Can you hear the tenderness of Hashem in his voice where he says, come to me. You don't have money?

You don't have anything to offer me? That's alright. Come to me. What do you need? What do you want?

Is it milk for nourishment? Is it wine for joy? Is it gold that can only be refined in fire? Come to me. Now let me hear from you, what are you thinking?

Because you asked. Just Can you go back to the revelation slide? I just keep thinking about how this will be the thing that we'll always guard against. Is like, this is goes right back to the it's the fulfillment of the garden. Like, Adam and Eve are ashamed of their nakedness, and they clothe themselves in their own garments of their making.

Fig leaves.

Fig leaves. And that is what we try and do all the time is to cover our sin and our shame in our in clothing of our own making. And he's just saying, no. Get it from me. Cover your sin with my blood, with the clothing that I make you, not one that you make yourself.

Woah. And so it's the fulfillment of that.

From Revelation three, hyperlink all the way back to Genesis. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.

At you. Hey. Look at you. Colin back here. Oh oh, sorry.

Lanisha, go ahead.

Sorry, Colin.

You'll be next.

Can you go back to okay.

I see. I like it. You're taking control of my keynote. It's great. When's the last time you got to sit in church and tell the pastor, hey.

Go back to that other slide.

Something that I have been studying for the past, I feel like, I think six months now is the purpose of intimacy when it comes with the lord. And this really the fact that this scripture has that come up during the time, I'm like, wow. Because it perfectly shows that we serve a god who wants to be intimate with us and how easy it is to forget that and how it's like, oh, we only need to obey, obey, obey, but not mindlessly obey. We obey because we want intimacy closest to him. And then when you're able to act in that characteristics, you're able to live out your reward better.

And I say it also as an encouragement because the first week of this, was like, well, why am I even here? I gotta figure out what my purpose is. I got to think about this. I was, like, rephrasing the past twenty seven years of my life all the way down to this birth. Like, was I bored in the wrong state?

And I'm like, okay. Let's breathe. Let's relax. And I was able to just grow closer with the Lord during the part of intimacy he's been able to show me, like, is the path. These are the callings.

This is your identity. Like, walk into that for your reward. So if you're overwhelmed, get close to god. He wants to speak to you because he's good.

I love that. Amanda talked about the right foot, and you're talking about the left foot, but Amanda also mentioned this. It takes two feet to walk. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. In the book of Song of Solomon in the beginning, the young woman says, come take me away with you and then let us run.

Take me away with you speaks of intimacy and let us run speaks of obedience and impact in ministry. Left foot and a right foot, come take me away with you. I wanna get to know you. I want you to get to know me. Search the inward most parts of my heart and to feel loved while being completely vulnerable like you still love me despite all that you know about me and you wanna partner with me, you wanna work with me, come on let's go.

That was a long time for me to remember what I was gonna say. I know we're talking more about heavenly rewards, but I also think there's earthly rewards. I think every time you surrender something to the Lord, there's promotion in that, and the more you surrender, the higher the promotion, or military rank. You just keep surrendering life. You're gonna be elevated and promoted and reward in this life.

I love that. That okay. I have one more verse. Great segue. Let let's turn to this last verse.

First Peter first Peter, I'll put it up on the screen. It's right here verses six and seven. Be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead even though you must endure trials for a little while. What?

How can you say that? Be glad in the midst of

glad glad we're we're purifies gold. That

that Every time we talk about gold in the passages that we've read today, it's all the same. Gold, acts of obedience, surrender. We do this by faith through though your faith is more precious than mere gold. He's talking about earthly gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is revealed to the whole world.

That's a really good one. I don't know if I have this on the screen, but it's in my notes. Obedience. Obedience is how you trade what you cannot keep for what you cannot lose. Obedience is how you trade what you cannot keep, meaning you hold on to your life, you plot and scheme, and you're like, I'm gonna do something great for God.

I'm a and it just it's wood, hay, and straw. But when we hear from the Lord, when we lay down our lives in obedience, that comes from intimacy and we step out by faith. We can't keep that, but we gain what we cannot lose. Yes. You're just saying it.

Colin's saying, so what you're saying is say it for us, Colin.

I just said, so what you're saying is obedience is how you buy gold.

Yes. Obedience is how we buy gold. Or as Jesus says, store up for yourselves treasure in heaven where moth and rust cannot get to it. Poor preacher heard him say that, and now I think slowly every time I have to say it. Yeah.

Moth and rust. Yes. Somebody said, The gold is simple acts of obedience that result in reward as we walk in and follow our calling. Everything else is what the Bible describes as dead works will be consumed and burned up. And it is our calling that we will be rewarded on.

What do you got, Adam?

So by having faith and obedience, do you think he highlights that calling for us?

Oh, that's great. Jesus said, if you're faithful in the little, you can be entrusted with much. I think a lot of people jump to, like, okay. Well, if I'm gonna lay down my life, then that means I gotta go to, like, the the mission field in Kabul, or I gotta do something. I I you know, like, I gotta quit my job.

I gotta shave my head. I don't know. But Jesus is like, hey. Just walk with me. This trouble is full of life.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. Don't worry about tomorrow. Just focus on me today. Jesus says, you cannot receive a full reward without even just giving a cold cup of water at my direction. That's the key is at my direction.

Obedience to our calling into his voice that comes from intimacy is what results in gold being refined in our lives. And all of us will stand someday and give an account. I wanna I wanna some of you have seen this video before. I wanna play a video for you, and then let's transition to one more kind of worship. And so, we'll see if the volume comes up on this bad boy.

Accountant Jones, step forward and give an account of your stewardship. Accountant Jones? No. I don't know. Pastor for thirty five years.

I I had a membership of 750 people. Accountant Jones, I called you to the marketplace. Had you done this, you would have significantly impacted two people. You and those two men would have helped churches with their finances, and those churches would have impacted 751,321 souls. If you would've sought me by, I would've revealed this to you.

Sister Smith, never preached to to patients. I never even been on a a missionary trip, but I only tried my hardest to raise my children your way. Sister Smith, I never called you to Christian nations. I never called you to go to other countries on missionary trips. I called you to raise three children, and let me show my good and faithful servant.

Enter into the joy of your lord. So remember, in regards to the calling that's on your life, you won't be judged according to what you did. You'll be judged according to what you were called to do.

Help us. Help us. Help us, Lord. We submit and surrender our lives to your evaluation. Look and examine our lives with your eyes that burn like fire.

We invite you to burn up everything in our lives that's constructed from wood, hay, and straw. And we ask that you would refine the gold in our lives. Thank you. Your word says, my sheep hear my voice and another voice they'll not listen to. Help us to lay down our lives in simple acts of obedience that results in purchasing gold that is imperishable.

Jesus, how we love you. Will you take just a moment and talk to him from your heart? He would longs to speak with you. He longs to draw close to you.

As we stay in this attitude of worship, just a few more minutes and we'll get you guys out of here. There's something we do when we come together as a tribe family every week and it is an act of obedience. It's a practical way to say, god, I love you and I trust you and if you've invited Jesus into your heart and you've surrendered your life to him, we've already laid it all down. It's all his but this is a practical way as a local church that we come together and we say, lord, we love you so much. We trust you.

We just give a portion of our finances. We call it bringing our tithe or above and beyond that sometimes our offering. And it's not a lot of churches, I know it just feels really rote. You go to church, you sing, you might clap. On a crazy Sunday, you might lift a hand, you know, put it right back down.

You put some money in the box, and then you go to lunch. Right? And it's just rote. But here at Tribe, we just wanna emphasize, like, lord, we do this for you whether anyone's looking or not and we ask him and we trust him, what do you want me to give? What is what is the amount that you want me to give?

Because sometimes he'll push you a little bit out of your comfort zone. He's really good at doing that and so anyway, that's what we do here at Tribe when we're together. So right now, we're going to bring our offering and our tithe to him just to say, god, we love you and we trust you. So we have worked hard to earn money, but we give it to you and we lay it at your food. One, to be obedient.

Two, to be the hands and the feet of Jesus here on Earth. Right? The money goes to do the work of the local ministry. And then three, like Colin mentioned, we just we don't we don't do it for a reward. We do it willingly and freely, but he honors us in our obedience.

And so ways that we give here at Tribe, we don't pass buckets or anything, but we have if you have a cash or check, there's a little box on your way out the door. There's a little black lockbox outside the front door downstairs. You could also give, on our website, tribejh.com, or the easiest way, if you have a smartphone, is to just pull up this number that we're gonna show you, and you type the word give, the dollar sign, and then the amount you wanna give. If it's your first time, you have a little bit of instruction, but that's what we do here at tribe. So, let's whether you're giving now or another time if you have a different rhythm, that's just fine.

Let's pray together as a tribe family. Father god, we say thank you for who you are. Thank you that you honor our obedience. Thank you that you are trustworthy. We come every week and we bring a portion of our finances to you not because you, creator of the universe, need dollars or shekels to work.

You don't. But Lord, it's a partnership that you invite us into and it's such an honor to do that with you. So Lord, I pray that every single penny that is given today will be stewarded well and go and reach people for you and further your kingdom. Lord, we just trust you in that and say thank you in advance for the work of the kingdom that is done. Thank you for softening the soil of our heart every time we obey to keep us calibrated to you and to your heart and what you're doing.

In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Before you leave today, if you want prayer for anything, we have people right here in this room. We call it our VIP room to pray for. If you wanna go, please, nothing is too small.

Nothing is too big for the the creator of the universe, our father who loves us. So please go get prayer if you'd like some. We also have a place on the back of this connect card if you wanna write out a prayer request. Every week, our tribe staff reads these at the staff meeting. You just pray over them and join our faith with you.

So, and if you want to be on the tribe blast list, what's going on? Where are we meeting? What are we doing? You can fill this out and you'll get on that as well. Just a couple quick things.

If you have wanted to go on a mission trip, but you don't have the time or the money to get off work or to get a visa or to do something, guess what? You just gotta get on the tribe bus. And we go to what is truly we've been several times. What is equivalent to a third world country is just a few hours northeast of here? And so we partner with the Wind River Reservation, and we go up there every now and again, and we love on those kids, and we help them, and we serve, and we do what we can.

And it's the poorest county here in Wyoming for sure, and probably in the Tri State area. It's astounding. So we go and we have built a relationship with the ministry that's serving the people there. If you wanna do that, mark your calendar for October second through fourth and they believe it's a Thursday through Saturday and we'll have more details. It's on the fridge as well, right?

Everything important is on your refrigerator so you can check. We got a great group for me. Don't miss. Got a great group forming. Get in on it.

That's wonderful and then Brian, I'll let you speak about this evening and then the last thing is this, next week, don't come here unless you want to be alone. That's fine too. And that's fine too. And that's fine too to have your prayer time. But every now and again, because the only thing we don't like about this space is that our whole tribe family can't come at one time.

That's the only bad thing. We love everything else. And so every now and again, we like to go to the park. We like to go to the Virginian just so we have more space for our whole family to be together at one time. So next week, that is happening at the Virginian.

Also, how many people have church in a bar? Just us. So the bar is closed, by the way but we do have church in the bar. For lots of reasons. For lots of reasons.

So, if so next week, it's just gonna be one service at 10AM. Don't come here. Go to the Virginian. We'll be have church in the bar at the Virginian next week at ten. Alright, Brian.

Please, come pray us out and tell us about tonight. Thank you,

Okay. Okay. Just before you get out of here, for almost two years now, we have been gathering as a tribe fam, not ourselves, but in, support of the Jewish people living in this community who are taking a stand to continue to raise awareness and call attention to the remaining hostages that are still being held in captivity under tunnels in Gaza and calling for their release. They gather the very first Sunday each and every month whether it's rain or shine, the summer heat, the tourists, the off season, the snow, the cold, they have been gathering every month and as a Christian church here in this community, we said we see what you're doing. We want you to know that you are not alone and we will come and support and gather around what you are doing and so heartbreakingly, we're gathered again this month, the first Sunday here in September.

And so once again, I would like to invite each and every one of you to come be with your tribe fam as we support the Jews in this community and for the stand that they are taking. This week or this month, I think we'll be joined by our friends, family at Gateway and so, hopefully, we'll have a good turnout of Christians loving and supporting our Jewish friends. In fact, we got a couple of our Jewish friends here today. Two guys from the IDF that are here in Jackson getting some rest and rejuvenation, and, we've done a little bit of rock climbing. You guys have gone on a wildlife tour.

Don't worry. We got a peak to climb, next week. So Raz and Ellie right? Alright wave at us. Alright.

These are these guys please say hi to them after service and will y'all be there this afternoon?

Yeah. We're going river. We're going

river route, and then we're gonna jump straight there.

Great. But That's okay. It's Jackson.

Yeah. It's Jackson. Yeah. Yeah. Getting right off the river is exactly how the rest of us look.

I'm I'm

proud

And this has ended up being like a soft place to land. You've been an amazing inspiration and a coach to me. And I just I know you all raised money for these guys, and we've been tearing it up in that drive bus, which might need a detailing before we return it.

Get it dirty. Anyway,

I just thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know that you're doing the Holy Spirit's work, and you are being the hands and feet of Yeshua, so thank you.

Let's honor Allie, her husband, and her team who brought these guys out. How's your belly? Is your belly full? Yes, good. Very good.

Stand up. Let me pray for you. Then, we'll get out of here. Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for the deposit of gold that you've put within us. Lord, we ask that you would refine that gold so that we can reflect your goodness and your glory. I command a blessing over each and every person that is here this morning. Thank you Hashem for being so good to us. I pray protection over our IDF soldiers.

I pray protection over the team that's brought them out here. I pray protection over all of our tribe fam. Lord, give us a great week. Help us to enjoy these amazing fall days and use our lives to make your name famous. We pray these things in Jesus name and everybody said, amen.

Amen. I love you guys so much. Have a great week and remember, Travis, you got this.