4) Serving people. If we are taking a posture of longing for His coming… In Matthew 24:45-46, he talked about the servants in the house (talking about people in the church), and he talked about two kinds of servant.
The first servant was the wise servant, who gave the house ‘meat in due season’. They were current, in what they shared with people, in the house of God. For a preacher, it means he's hearing God, and what God's wanting to say now. He's bringing a ‘now’ word, not just some old thing. For people in the church, it means that we are sharing what God is speaking in our lives.
Then it says… if that servant thinks in his heart: my Lord delays His coming… (not going to happen, don't worry about it). It starts that way - no expectation of the coming of the Lord - “then he begins to beat the fellow servants”. He mistreats other believers. Notice how it starts: “the Lord delays His coming” - it's okay, no need to get ready, no need to make any changes, I'm in church, I'm okay... Then the attitude to the believers goes off, they start to beat them. We beat people, but not usually with sticks - it's usually with words. It's the way we treat people; the attitudes and words, and way we treat people. Then it says: he begins to eat and drink with the drunks, and his life becomes careless. His friendships become among the unsaved, in a way that their lifestyle influences him.
So those are the four key things I see, about what's involved in the Crown of Righteousness:
- Loving or pursuing intimacy with the Lord
- Seeking His kingdom, as our priority
- Serving people
- Committing to character transformation.
The crown of righteousness is reserved for those who love the Lord, and His word - enough to let it change their life. Are you growing? Are you changing? Are you pursuing the Lord? Are you serving? Have you been stumbled? It will not be given to those who say they ‘love the Lord’, but they hate their brother.
1 John 4:20 – “If someone says: I love God, but he hates his brother - he's a liar! If he can't love the brother he does see, how can he love the one he can't see, the God he can't see?”
1 John 4:21 – “And this commandment we have from Him: he who loves God, must love his brother also”.
It won't be given to those who say they ‘love God’, but they've got issues with people, and they don't do what God tells them to do. Many believers will say they say they love God, but it always fronts up: do you do what He tells you to do? Do you apply His word to your life? When it comes to people - how are you treating them? It's always down to that! Paul lived his life constantly from a view of eternity.
The next crown is called the Crown of Life. That's the fourth crown; and the fifth crown is the Crown of Glory. Let me just talk about the Crown of Life…
James 1:12 – “Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for after he's been approved (or tried), he will receive the Crown of Life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him”.
The crown of life is the reward or honour that God gives us for persevering through tests of our faith - staying with it, when the pressure's on to let go; or overcoming temptation. It's a reward for trusting God and staying on course. Notice there: “blessed is the man who endures temptation”. That word ‘temptation’ means: to be put to a test, that tests your character, your heart, or the reality of your faith. It says: “they endure”. That means they endure the temptation - they bear it calmly, and they carry on without getting all discouraged, disheartened. That's what this is about.
Many people, when they go through a bit of pressure, they lose their love for the Lord. They stop praying, stop coming - they're not passing! The testings are designed just solely for this - it's to test your faith, and trust in the Lord, and the quality of that. It's about developing character. There's always tests that come. Many believers suffer persecution, even to the point of death. Right across the world, from the beginning of the Bible, right through until now, people are dying for their faith! They're having their heads cut off, their throats cut, because they refuse to quit. There are people in prison in China, people dying around the world, because they refuse to deny Christ.
For us, losing our life is probably not like that. It's more like… today I stop being focussed on myself, and I just focus on doing what God called me to do. Every believer is going to experience their faith being tested – everyone; and there's a reason why it must happen. You can either pray for God to rescue you, when difficulties come; or you can ask God to show you what to do, so you can grow through it. That's basically the choice you have.