Las Vegas Faith Center - Gods Word, Faith Messages, Spiritual Coaching and Religion Studies

The Reproach for Christ

The Las Vegas Faith Center
Message from Sunday, February 7, 1999

The Reproach for Christ - Church Sermon
by Tiger Todd - Sr. Pastor

In today’s message, just as in my previous messages, I promise I won’t use all thirty of these scriptures today. Actually, I have about thirty other scriptures to use today! We can’t seem to preach just one message on Sunday any more. And we had two great keys come out of our Thursday service, which focuses on money. As these keys come out, I can preach through the key almost to the end of the message, but then the following week, it seems we need to continue the message in order to review, and bring us back up to speed. So that’s what I am going to do again today.

Does anyone recall where we left off last week? For those of you who might not have been here last Sunday, it’s good that we can go over this again. Last week’s message was entitled “Lord + Christ=Glory”. We know from Colossians 1:27 that it is Christ in you, the hope of glory. “The Christ” was not talking about Jesus. Actually, sometimes it was, because Jesus was the “Head Christ”, but the Book of Nehemiah lists lots of Christs, it lists a bunch of deliverers, a bunch of anointed ones. So, when Paul is talking to the church and saying “it is Christ in you, the hope of glory”, God is trying to find out what’s in you. Your glory is going to be different than the hope of glory where I am concerned, because I am supposed to walk a different course, do a different thing than you are. Samson’s hope of glory was to free Israel from the Philistines. When he was walking in his Christ, i.e., the scheduled plan of his Christ, which was designed to destroy the enemies of Israel, to free Israel from bondage to the Philistines. He was what Nehemiah 9:27 calls a “saviour”. The name Joshua actually means, “saviour”. When Joshua brought the children of Israel into the promised land, he had to save them from the Amekelites, the other “ites”, and the people in Jericho. He was called to go and deliver the people.

Moses was the first deliverer, and was probably also named “Joshua” by his mother. Remember, the name “Moses”, an Egyptian name, came from Pharoah’s daughter. Moses means “drawn forth out of the water”. So, as we follow what each of their particular missions were, they were all different, but the hope of God getting the glory in their life was when they did exactly what they were supposed to do. Unfortunately in the Bible, we have just too few of them doing what they were supposed to do.

We’re going to get to something today that joins the messages, and it’s something that ought to make you see the Christ in you more easily. We have a line drawn here on the chalkboard, and as you can see, it’s called “A day in the life of a Saint”. The word “saint”, loosely translated, or “saints” plural (translated 61 times in the New Testament), is the word “holy”. Half the time they translated it as “holy”, and half the time it was translated as “saint”.And it really messes up our interpretation of the holy spirit, because we find out that there are lots of “holies”. But in the “Day in the life of a Saint”, we are going to call this one days worth of work, and this line would represent the Christ in you. But we found that if you walked in your Christ, when you’re doing what you are supposed to do, not what you want to do, then the spirit of the Lord comes upon you, and you get one hundred-fold.

We found out that Samson was merely Samson, just hanging out with the boys, having a great time, until something came against him, i.e., a Philistine. And as soon as the Philistines came against him, the spirit of the Lord came upon him, because that’s what his Christ was designed to do. On one occasion he ripped the gate off the city and threw it on them, because it says the spirit of the Lord came upon him. Well , everyone’s Christ is different. My Christ is not to destroy Philistines. The Christ in me is to answer questions, to troubleshoot. My Christ is wisdom and understanding. It’s a pretty basic type of Christ. But if I want the spirit of the Lord to come upon me to produce glory to my Father, then I have to walk in what the Christ is in me. It won’t work effectively for me to be walking in someone else’s Christ. I can’t be making myself chief of music, because our chief of music has a Christ in him for music. I can’t even play chopsticks. But my chief of music sure can. The spirit of the Lord will not come upon me if I’m trying to be chief of music, but if I did try, I’d have just a mere mortal day regarding music. Samson was a mere mortal, except he had a Christ in him. It says this in Ephesians Chapter 2, It says, Wherefore at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel or strangers in the covenants of promise, (he had a covenant with God and he was part of Israel, which means he had a Christ).

Now, Gentiles can have a Christ in them by getting born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed by the word of God. So, we can utilize the same thing today. We can have you in one day doing something else, but you can be doing what God wants you to do and make it seem like a hundred days in one. We’ve all experienced something like that. So the key is, if you really want to glorify your Father, walk in your Christ, or as Romans Chapter 8 says, walk in the spirit.
One of the key points to Thursday night’s message on “Money Matters” is that you’ll never get so spiritual that you’ll stop sin or distraction in your life. It can’t happen. You’ll never get so spiritual that you’ll get all the prosperity and all the promises in the Bible.

Turn to Third John 2:2. It says Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. If you have a cross reference, you’ll see that the word “wish” is poorly translated. The better translation of the word should be “pray”. The disciples and the apostles of the land did not go around “wishing”, but it says Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. That’s a key prayer of the apostle John, that you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. It doesn’t have anything to do with your spirit, it doesn’t have anything to do with your Christ, and it didn’t have anything to do with the spirit of the Lord upon you. Your prosperity is a direct result of your understanding, which is what you do with your soul, your mind, your will, and your emotions. You understand more, and then you prosper more. But notice it is a continual process, the verb means “as you are prospering in your soul, you are getting healthier in your body. As you are prospering in your soul, you are getting more prosperous financially. As you are prospering in your soul, you are getting more prosperous socially. And as you are prospering in your soul, less and less negative spiritual stuff will occur in your life. But we have been trying to go from this spiritual thing to fix our soul, and all the while, we were supposed to deal with the soul, and then fix our spirit.

Now, do you think the spirit, who is you, can’t be more valuable than your flesh? (Or else the first person that lost a finger or an appendage would die). Jesus put it this way in Matthew Chapter 6. Why take ye thought for rainment? Why take ye thought for food? Is lunch at Wendy’s more valuable than you are? No. So we have a value thing here. If the Bible also tells us, ” faithful over little, master over much”, and if we learn how to be faithful over our bodies and our souls, then our spirits will be in good shape. So it’s not about, I wish…..no, no, no, you just have to be willing, obedient, and continue to put yourself in a position to understand more. It can mean understanding more about anything. You could be understanding more about cars, and learn better how to walk in the spirit. It doesn’t matter what the understanding is. It just means the fact of understanding….as your soul prospers, you will prosper, the real you, the spirit in you. And by the way, that was there for no extra charge.

Turn to Romans Chapter l:16, please, and get ready to underline a word here. You know, it really peeves me when the spirit of the Lord does this to me in the middle of a well-prepared, well thought out, well prayed-through message when I have to go and do something different. Look at the word “ashamed” in this verse. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Underline the word “ashamed”. How many of you have ever been ashamed? Have any of you ever handed out that little teddy bear to a homeless person? Then you’d be ashamed. How many of you know that if some monstrous big homeless guy came running back to you with that teddy bear, he, too, would be ashamed. OK. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Now wait a second. Do you remember what Jesus preached? Do you realize that Jesus did not preach the gospel of Christ? Why? It wasn’t his gospel to preach. He preached the kingdom of God. Remember Mark Chapter 4, it says, “He began to say unto them in his doctrine” He preached the kingdom of God. Well, John the Baptist preached a totally different gospel, too. He was called to preach baptism and repentance. But the Apostle Paul had been given a whole new thing. Look at Chapter 2 in verse 16 the Book of Romans: In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Whoa! The apostle Paul is feeling pretty proud here, huh? He’s calling it his gospel. Well, it was! That’s what his Christ was supposed to do. Now, they stoned the apostle Paul to death about five times, but he’d just get up alive, dust himself off, and go back into town and finish his message. Do you think he could do that without the spirit of the Lord upon him? So that produced some sort of glory, didn’t it. We have two thirds of our New Testament penned by this man, the apostle Paul, according to his gospel. Jesus had his own gospel, and it was to establish the kingdom of God and then, only to preach to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Well, that would leave us out, wouldn’t it, if it wasn’t for Paul’s gospel. It even freaked out Peter in Acts Chapter 10. It said, Of a truth, God is no respecter of persons. Peter was saying, “I have no idea the Gentiles could get what we got!” Bigot. He was! The angel came over there and said, this Italian, Cornelius, needs to get filled with the spirit and he is doing all this stuff, and Peter said, “No way”.

Turn to Mark Chapter 4. Let’s attack this hundred-fold situation. But I need to lay the groundwork to get to this stuff. By the way, the Upper Room is a wonderful place where we have no notes, because truly, which holy spirit was supposed to lead and guide us into all truth? The spirit of Truth!. That’s what he was called. We thought it was the Comforter, because the King James Bible capitalized “comforter”. But Jesus said, “Another comforter”. Well, that means there is at least more than one, so we’ve been kind of silly in our reading. That one leads us and guides us in all truth. And I’m telling you what, he is all over the Upper Room, because we start to read one thing, and all of a sudden, he ties up the package. What if you were just reading scripture, and I’m not just talking about, “Well, let’s learn a little about love, let’s learn a little bit about patience, let’s learn a little about long suffering”. No. He’s telling us when Jesus is coming back. He’s telling us about what our next step is. And we’re talking about some really important, valuable information. The world is doing all they can with technology to try to find out the very information that shows up at the Upper Room. It’s a wild night when you have no prepared notes, and God just gives us what we need to know.

Mark Chapter 4:13. We’re going to read part of the parable of the sower. He said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables? We’re going to understand that if there is anything about the kingdom of God, if there is anything about the second coming, if there is anything about the Father returning, if there is anything about Christ in you, the hope of glory, it will have some sort of relationship to the parable of the sower. He says, The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. These are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time; afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
The first thing you need to know is that there was only one sower. But he only had one time where he sowed, where he got thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or hundred-fold. The other times, the same sower got nothing. And it reminds me here, we have a day in the life, and, you know, I’m not getting ahead, I’m not getting any further, I mean, I was five years nursing the same $193,000 debt. Years! I was working day and night, trying everything, but obviously, it wasn’t the right stuff. No harvest. Three months after I changed some things, I was completely debt free, and really had no natural way of understanding how I had gotten there.

OK. Today we are going to pick on Eli. Suppose today that Eli has glanced at Muscle and Fitness Magazine, and has found out that a new Corvette and $50,000 goes to the winner of a contest, the person where the most change occurs in their body in three months. But Eli finds out that the deadline is tomorrow. Uh, Houston, we have a problem. Well, what if this principle were in operation? You think that’s silly, but Samson was just a man, and everything he did was just like a standard man, until the spirit of the Lord came upon him. But when it came upon him, a thousand men were not too many to not only knock down, but to kill. To destroy. So this is not far-fetched. Now, look at where you’re going to prosper as your soul prospers. You’ll need to bombard your thinking with these kinds of ideas before you will ever prosper and walk in these ideas. But people such as Samson have walked in them. WE have walked in them. The problem is, we did it by accident. I want to walk in it on purpose. Jesus was the only man that walked in it every minute of the day. It says, he never sinned, he was never out of the will of God, and therefore, the spirit of the Lord was always upon him.

I sense someone still has trouble with the spirit of the Lord vs. the spirit of Truth. Does anyone remember how the spirit of Truth arrived on the Day of Pentecost? It arrived as a large, rushing, mighty wind. As fire sat on each of them, it went into them. Does anyone remember how the spirit of the Lord landed on Jesus? Like a dove. And then, there was a voice from heaven, and from that moment on, the miracles in the life of Jesus began. There were no miracles for the first 30 years of his life. He obviously had a great father, Joseph, teaching him things…he taught him building, he taught him the Bible. Jesus amazed people at 12 years old with his understanding. But there were no miracles in the early years, I mean, if you bumped into Jesus in the school yard, you didn’t get healed. They didn’t have big healing lines in first grade. No. Only when the spirit of the Lord came upon him did things begin to happen. He had a specific Christ. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, he said, to preach the gospel to the poor, to set at liberty them that are bound, recovery of sight to the blind, fix broken hearts. The spirit was upon him to do that.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me to do something different. But, if we are the body of Christ, and we get our body together, do you realize that I can preach, and recovery of sight to the blind can occur because I am part of Jesus’ body. He is the head. If I have an anointing for wisdom and understanding, you can have wisdom and understanding beyond your years, beyond your age, and beyond any intellect you could possess. It’s because we are part of the body. Someone might have an anointing for prosperity. Money just can’t stop chasing them. You could walk in that. Of course, the spirit of the Lord won’t come upon you to walk in that if you’re doing it to spend on your own lusts. It won’t come upon you to do that if you ‘re looking to get “things”, but he will come upon you to do that so that you can get a voice, so that you can be a blessing to all nations of the earth. That’s why the body is so important. The head, he’s Jesus. He’s the head Christ. He’s in Chapter 4 of Ephesians, it calls him “The Head Christ”. The King James Bible adds the words “which is” in there, but not in the original text. It says Jesus is the Head Christ. But it means just the head without the body. He can’t say, “I don’t have need of you”. He needs the body. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen heads rolling around, but they’re not very mobile without bodies attached to them.

Turn to Deuteronomy Chapter 30. While you’re getting there, I want to discuss the second point from Mark Chapter 4. Notice in the parable of the sower, Jesus said, thirty-fold, sixty-fold, one hundred-fold. Didn’t it sound like it should have been 90? Thirty, sixty, ninety. A typo, maybe? A translator poor at math? Well, there are many understandings of this, and I believe they are actually all true, but the one I’d like to present to you today is that some came up thirty times. Let’s say you are planting apple seeds, when you plant them and get a hundred-fold, are you going to get a hundred apple seeds? No, you are going to get a tree with hundreds of apples, with lots of seeds in each apple, so, you are going to get “monster-fold”. I want to present to you that one hundred-fold does not mean one hundred times. Specifically, it means optimum or maximum return. If you were breeding cows, and you’ve bred them with hundred-fold seed, would that give you a hundred calves? I mean, you’d kill the poor thing. So, hundred-fold means optimum or maximum results. So, when we’re trying to get more out of our day, it doesn’t matter if it was a thousand Philistines, or only one lion, it still manifested as maximum results, it was what the job required to be more than enough.

Remember Psalm 23? My cup runneth over. We need it running over. Constantly and consistently running over. And there is a way to walk in this thing.

Well, let’s read out of Deuteronomy Chapter 30. We’ve read verse 19 a lot, but once again, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: We’ve preached the hint on life and death, actually it’s one of the stories on the web, but look at verse 20. That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, (Say, “He is my life”.) and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. Notice the separator between “He is your life”, and “He is the length of your days”. I always thought that meant, you will live long, be old, and have a full life. Last week I even made the presumptuous statement that the key is not to get old, not to be 90 years old, and decrepit. The key IS to see how much stuff you can do within your 90 years. The key to a life is not just getting an award at the end, where everything was covered, everything was a safe place. No, the key was not to get to 90 and die, but what could you do in your lifespan.

Turn to the Book of Proverbs, Chapter 3:13. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the man that understands more, these are going to be the benefits. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Well, that sounds like Third John 2, doesn’t it? Beloved I pray above all things that you prosper in health, even as your soul prospers. As you understand more. But now back up here to verse 1. My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: (Just like we read in Deuteronomy) For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

Do you think that Solomon in all his wisdom and understanding understood that this was talking about a longer day than normal? Sure, the clock only ticked off 24 hours, but the amount of life you got out of this one day was a hundred-fold. A hundred-fold! Who wants to get more out of a day? If you got paid a hundred times more than you did in a standard day, you’d be all right, wouldn’t you? Ron and I have documented a number of things over the years. Have you ever known that you’ve done something, but it seems you’ve got the hundred-fold? Sharon does it when she’s transcribing my messages. There is no way, without the spirit of the Lord upon her, that anyone could transcribe my messages, let alone do it in a couple of hours. I mean, we’re writing eleven books, and I’ve got one book with X-amount of words. Well, did you know that one message from a previous Sunday, I think it was “Wild Kingdom”, was one third of a book? Our disclaimer should be, “Due to the intense nature, Sunday messages from the Las Vegas Faith Center may not be suitable for small children, the learning impaired, or just anyone who cannot hear more than 1500 words per minute.” In a nutshell, you have to have something working upon you to make that thing happen. And it happens!

When I was in the audio business, I was doing a home in this subdivision, and my customer suggested I go down and see his neighbor. It seems he wanted a big system. And I remember him telling me that the guy had just won the lottery, or megabucks, or something like that. When I went back a month later, working at my customer’s house, I looked down the street, and saw a “For Sale” sign on the winner’s house. And I said, What happened to your neighbor? He replied, He lost his job. The guy had been working at K-Mart when he won the lottery. He didn’t show up for work, and then could no longer qualify for his home loan, because he didn’t have a job. They don’t pay you all at once, it’s like $82,000 a year. So your job is your qualifier. The Home Loan Commissioner probably was saying, “Reapply next year, buddy when you get your next check. Taco Bell is hiring.”

You see, there is a temptation there. I think the greatest temptation Jesus resisted was in the Garden of Gethsemane, not because it was the Garden of Gethsemane, and sweat came down like blood, but because he had already gone 3 1/2 years constantly sticking to what God said, in spite of his own will. Jesus’ own personal will was saying, “Hey, is there another way?” But he still said, “Not my will, but yours be done, God. For this cause I go to the cross.” I present to you that if you knew you could do this on purpose, you’d be less likely to not show up for work the day after you win megabucks. Because megabucks is coming. Hey, it’s in the Book. There’s a reason for it. There’s a reason why Coca Cola is not as good a product as the spirit of the Lord, yet Coca Cola has evangelized the entire world and the Christians still haven’t. It doesn’t have anything to do with their product! It has to do with their money. That’s how the way it works, so just work it. Don’t say, “Well, I don’t need any money”.

You’re married. Do you know, that the Bible says your body is not yours. It belongs to your husband. His body is not his. It belongs to you, his wife. Are you born again? Your Bible says you have been bought with a price, that you are not your own. So, what does you not needing money have to do with your life? If you are not your own, you need to find out what He wants! You don’t feel like doing that? Well, sorry, that time has passed. If you think that anything about you on the planet will allow you to be completely independent, I mean, people just trying to hide out and be alone and saying, “I’m not going to be a servant to anybody”, is fooling ONLY himself! You can’t! You just can’t! You can’t get paid on the planet without somebody else, you can’t be taught anything without somebody else, you wouldn’t have lasted four hours on the planet after you were born without somebody else. So where do we get this independent operator mentality? You are not independent. All you can do, your only right, is to choose who you will serve. That’s why Deuteronomy said, “Choose Life”. Choose the one that brings life. Choose the one that brings understanding and wisdom, so that if you choose this side, you get blessing, not cursing. You get life, not death. You get length of days and riches and honour. Don’t say you don’t need any more. Just say, ” OK, fine.”

Repeat this after me. “Show me the money”. That’s what you say. Don’t get so spiritual. Deuteronomy 8, I believe verse 18 says that God gives us the power to get well…to establish his covenant in the earth. Some people are thinking, “Well, I just need enough for me and my little family.” Hey! I didn’t see you and your little family in that verse. It didn’t have anything to do with you and your little family, it had to do with the one who owns you. The one who owns you will gladly pay your way. It says the husbandman is always the first partaker of the fruit. You have every right to your harvest. But you don’t have the right to do with it what you want to do with it. Go ask God what He wants to do with it.

I don’t have a right to judge what you do with your harvest, because it’s your harvest. You are God’s steward over your life, and I am God’s steward over my life. It’s a wonderful thing if you just understand it, and just say, This is the only way I can really seem to be as free as I want to be. Everyone else is out trying to do that, and they are slaves to everything, to drugs, to this and that, to people, to the love of money, to the cares of this world, to CNN, to the news, and all the while, they’re trying to be independent operators. And all the while, they’re slaves to the stock market, or whatever. Choose Life! Start jotting down things about your Christ. And that’s not even the message.

Turn to Hebrews Chapter 11. For years, I have called this the “Faith Hall of Fame”, and although it’s still the “Faith Hall of Fame”, there’s something else in there that makes it different. Hold your place, and turn also to the Book of Mark Chapter 10. We are going to read out of Hebrews first, but we’re going back to Mark, and flip between the two. Hebrews Chapter 11:3. It starts out, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, and by faith, Abel, and then by faith, Abraham, by faith, but look up here at verse 24, By faith, Moses, when he has come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season; Underline, circle, and put stars around the words “for a season”. How long is a season? Spring, summer, they’re about 3 months? How long is a football season? OK. I just wanted you to read that with some understanding. Now look at verse 25. Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

It starts with talking about faith, but then it talks about something other than faith here. We’re not talking about choosing Door #l, Door #2, or the box. Instead, Moses chose this lifestyle, he chose suffering for a season, thinking it was more valuable than what was behind Door #1, Door #2, or what was in the box. Do you see that from the scripture? Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season; Reproach for Christ. Well, that was thousands of years before Jesus was on the planet when Moses was going through this, so we’re not talking about Jesus. We’re talking about what was in him that got inaugurated the day he saw that burning bush, the day he got his commands, and God says, Go tell Pharoah, Let my people go. Moses chose to suffer that, rather than be Prince of Egypt, rather than go through the whole thing and be whatever he would have been in Egypt at that time. He chose to believe, This is going to pass. And when I have made a declaration to walk in my Christ, although it might be a desert experience for a short period of time, although I might be taking ridicule….He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.

Abraham had to go around as a 99 year old barren man introducing himself as, “Hi. I’m the father of a great multitude. Hi. I’m the father of many nations.” You’ll get reproach for that. I’m going to read a couple of definitions of reproach: Suffering, shame, being taunted, chided, reviled. It implies someone calling you names. That sounds like the whole Christian church world. It sounds like what people think of Christians. They’re already calling us names, so we might as well give them something serious to talk about. We might as well get some, “I can’t believe he’s got so much money”. As we speak, they’re talking at Desert Springs and Saint Rose Dominican about the dead being raised, and about people that were going in for surgery for broken bones, but not having to go into surgery because they were healed after Vicki and I left. They were healed while we were there. They’re going to say some things, so we might as well get the greater works moving. We might as well just go all out and get the riches and honor, and all the other stuff. Don’t just get all quiet and humble and stay alone, and not get any riches and honor, and have no dead raised. If I looked like a homeless person, I wouldn’t even be allowed in any of these places, right? They’re going to ask me for my insurance card. “If you don’t have any insurance, we can’t help you.” So get the riches and the honor.

Suffering is not to be confused with the suffering for sin. Mark it down, even though we’re not going to go there. Deuteronomy 28 verses 14-on talks about all the things that Christians say they suffer for God, but those they suffer for disobedience. Remember that thing about disobedience, that you have to choose life so that your seed may live? This is a different kind of suffering. This is shame, this is humiliation. But if you lose sight of the reward….

Now turn here to Mark Chapter 10. Hold your place in Hebrews, because we’ll get back there in a minute. Here we have the story of the rich young ruler, and I’m going to read it kind of quickly to cut to the chase, verse 17, And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. (According to our scriptures that’s probably how he got the riches). Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, Now that would be like me talking to the rich young ruler over here, and turning to you guys and saying, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And you guys are going, Excuse me? You were just trying to tell us that we were supposed to have money. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! So what was the one thing the rich young ruler lacked? He trusted in the wrong God. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. Then Peter began to say (until the Lord cut him off) unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. I believe that Peter told the truth. I don’t think Peter lied here. Jesus didn’t cut him off and say, “You liar. You’re carrying that big money belt, you’ve got that Rolls Royce donkey.” It’s only rich people that get offended when someone says that rich people can’t go to heaven. And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, (but wait, there is a comma, and he goes on to say), But he (anyone that does) shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, (The rich young ruler came asking about eternal life, but Jesus didn’t answer eternal life, he said, If you are faithful over this life, you will be made master over the real life. If you learn that this life is but just a vapor, and it’s not yours anyway, and you don’t limit God working through you, then you’ll get the eternal life, but it’s faithful over the little) But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

You ought to have houses in every city you want to have a house in. You ought to have a boat, a ship in every port, and you ought to have people who have the spirit of the Lord upon them to run them. I am a steward over a number of things that I don’t own, and that stewardship really helped me to understand this thing with God. With God there are no owners, there are just stewards. And He likes to bless you. Once I worked on a gentlemen’s house, and he trusted me as a steward because of the faithfulness I showed over his house. He gave me the keys to his 55’ houseboat. He lives in Palm Springs, and he’s here one day a year, Which means that for 364 days a year, I have a houseboat. The beauty of stewardship is, all I have to do is return it in the same condition that he left it. I don’t have to pay the insurance, or the slip rental. I don’t have to pay for the engines. I’m a steward, and if we could just start shifting this thing, we could start enjoying the hundred-fold now, in this time. And not just hundred-fold in possessions, but in the thing that is the most valuable, your life. It’s your life! You lay down 40 plus hours a week for a job, and you turn it into money. Your 40 hours of life is gone, but you’ve got it in your hand. Now, what are you going to do with your life? It’s your life. And we upgraded this thought on Thursday night in church, because it’s not always your money. John Avanzini puts it this way, he says, Money is your life handed back to you in a greater form than which you laid it down. But it’s really not, because there are a lot of people that live off someone else’s money. Money is always someone’s life. That’s why when tithes and offerings and gifts come into the ministry, someone has done something for me. I know that’s their life. And the more you prosper your understanding and start thinking about it, the more you will start having a greater respect for money. God will start seeing that you are getting serious about those lives. People will start seeing how serious you now are about your own life. After all, it’s your life, or you wouldn’t do it.

Back to Hebrews 11:24 By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. Do you recall what happened to the treasures of Egypt? Do you recall that God told the children of Israel to go borrow all the treasures of Egypt from everyone? Do you recall that all the people that owned those treasures chased after the Israelites at the Red Sea to get them back? Do you recall that the children of Israel made it through the Red Sea, and the sea closed back in, and all of the people they borrowed from were now dead? Do you have any idea where the treasures of Egypt ended up? With Moses. If we choose rather to suffer….and you know, if you decide to just suffer it, and laugh about it, it just goes by like nothing. Its like, “I know something you don’t know” The first person that tries to take advantage of you, just go up to them and smile, and say, “I know something you don’t know.”

First Peter Chapter 4:1. For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; (talking about Jesus in the flesh) That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you; (reproach, for having changed) Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For for this cause was the gospel preached (this is the gospel of Christ) also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. But the end of all things is at hand; be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity (or agape love) shall cover the multitude of sins Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, (That verse just said, Don’t try to be me, and I won’t try to be you. As God gave to you, you be what you’re supposed to be. I’ll be what I’m supposed to be. We’ll all be together, doing what we are supposed to do) to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Verse 12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. “I know something you don’t know.” If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, (that’s yours) happy are ye; for the spirit of glory (Christ in you, the hope of glory) and of God resteth upon you: (that’s the spirit of the Lord upon you, with your spirit) on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer; or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. I tried to avoid the subject of persecution of suffering, because the only suffering I heard just didn’t jibe with the gospel. “Well, it’s just my cross to bear.” People were limping around, and it was always the church folk. People in the world seem to be well. But now we understand that suffering is not suffering, it is suffering…they’re not happy with their own life, so they’re trying to take it out on you. They’re trying to judge you, but “you know something that they don’t know. ”

When we first started getting the Mystery of Christ back last June/July, someone would come in that we hadn’t seen in five days, only five days, but in five of these days, we were a good number of days ahead of our friend, because he hadn’t been with us for those days. What if you were a year and a half ahead of the rest of the body of Christ in some understanding? What if you were five natural days ahead of the people at work? You’re going to get some reproach. But you’re also going to get paid by the boss. They’re going to be unhappy because every day, you’ve gone up to a new level of management. They’re also going to start putting greater things, more valuable things into your hands, just like they did in the case of Joseph in Egypt. He had the spirit of the Lord upon him to do that in Pharoah’s house, and he saved the entire world because of his wisdom, Pharoah included. So realize that this is not the time to put your Christian brother in a boat and send him down the river. This is the time to try to get the spirit of the Lord upon him in order to catch him up. God’s trying to build some super-men and some super-women. That doesn’t mean we’ve got to leave behind the ones that just missed us for five days. People have things to do. But get with them, and have compassion. We’re going to take reproach, but Jesus said, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. He just took it and said, “I know something you don’t know”. He said, “Lay not this under their charge.” He said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” I know something you don’t know.

Let’s close in prayer. Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name, show each of us today what scriptures apply to us personally. Help stir up the spirit of you that is in us. Show us how to get on a plan where the spirit of the Lord gets upon us, so we can have hundred-fold days, full time. It’s our desire. I don’t know that there’s anyone in here that doesn’t want to get a hundred times more out of life each day than he or she was getting before. We make ourselves available to you to do so. We realize that we are bought with a price, that we are not our own. Thank you for showing us this truth, and thank you that our understanding has increased, and therefore, we will prosper and be in health, this entire body. We thank you for these things, in Jesus’ name. Amen.