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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

The Stars in My Crown

So, tonight I want to take us on a little Bible study, because if we ultimately reset our lives according to the Scripture, the Bible says that we actually get something.

And let me show you this reward that we receive.

And let's just pray again before we read the scriptures.

Father in heaven, Lord bless us tonight as we think about the scriptures tonight which are sacred and inspired.

They can't be understood unless the Holy Spirit comes and spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

So send your Holy Spirit tonight in Christ's name, amen.

Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.

Now, they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for a what?

So there's this idea of competition in the scriptures, and many times there are metaphors that are related to athletic events.

And Paul is used to the, you know, the Roman games, the Greek games, he has this in mind, and they were competing for a perishable crown that had a wreath that was, you know, a garland of leaves.

And so it would perish, it would go back to dust.

You're saying, you know, everyone who competes is temperate in all things, whatever they eat, whatever they drink, whatever they do, they do to win that crown, which is perishable.

How many of you have been training hard, trying to remember a list of stuff that you realize you'll probably never see that list again your whole life.

You go, why in the world did I have 560 slides to review?

By the way, that's why I don't give really those kind of exams anymore.

I just say, hey look, give a Bible study in the community or use your information in the community.

And they're going to study much harder for that because they don't want to be embarrassed while they're studying with someone else.

Anyway, So imperishable crown, but for an imperishable crown.

I took the NCLEX exam a couple, I don't know, a couple years ago just to see if I could pass it again.

So, could I pass that again if I, or would I pass out?

So, I took the exam, you know, I actually got like 78%, which I guess is enough to still be a nurse today.

But that was years ago, so you do actually remember stuff.

But you know, the reason I remembered it the second time I took the exam was not because I was cramming like the first time, it was because I could remember all these patients and I could remember those people and what they were going through, you know.

So we do it to obtain here, it says, a perishable crown, not a perishable crown, but an imperishable crown that does not fade away, actually.

And verse 4, rather, 1 Peter 5, verse 4, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of glory that does not fade away.

How many want to have a crown of glory that does not fade away?

It's not gonna just rot How many have any awards from when you were younger maybe athletic awards my wife does she was like number 1 and everything she did like She she she could run She could jump.

He clears it up in this great epistle, First Thessalonians.

It's actually the first epistle that was written in the New Testament.

It wasn't the Gospels that were first published.

And 1 Thessalonians is all about, guess what?

Every single chapter is talking about the second coming.

Every chapter says Jesus is coming again, he's coming again, he's coming again, he's coming again, right?

But look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, and we want to look at this crown.

First Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 19 and 20.

What is our hope or joy or crown of what?

Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?

So what is this crown made up, this imperishable crown of glory that does not fade away.

It's made up of the people that have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and are ready for him at his coming.

You know, Wes Peppers called me yesterday and he says, you know, tell me what's going on with Suzanne.

Tell me what's going on with, he had all these names that he talked about.

Because he realizes that the only thing that lasts here are people that have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ.

The people have reset their lives by the gospel, by the prophecies, and they're living for God.

And then he told me that his dad, you know his dad who was watching this series with us, His dad talked to him for 3 hours.

He said, my dad never talked to me for 3 hours ever.

He was always on drugs or doing this or doing that.

But now his life has been reset by the series that you guys all heard, and he's planning to be baptized.

This is the dad that he was about to kill, remember that?

He said, you know what, there is this crown of rejoicing.

Now you can start wearing that crown right now, right?

How many of you rejoice when you see somebody that has accepted the gospel and they're just rejoicing in the Lord.

You see them there, and they're just, man, you're just going, praise the Lord.

Paul is speaking about the souls who had come to Christ and the church through his ministry in Asia.

There were many people that made up his crown of rejoicing.

The word repentance means they had changed their minds.

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The Stars in My Crown

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