YOU Are the Reward of the Cross

You are what He wants for His inheritance, and He has it, and He’s going to get it. But Michael, that does not apply to you. Daniel, that does not apply to you. He is not going to inherit “a saint”. One saint. It says the holy ones are His inheritance. I come back to you and say to you, His inheritance is not a great gathering of God’s people; His inheritance is…the inheritance He wants is Colossae. He sent a brother named Epaphras to Colossae to make sure He got, He the Lord got, His inheritance. He wanted a little Asian girl. He sent that man and another man out to Corinth to get His inheritance, a girl. Wow! He wanted that girl. He sent those men by the Holy Spirit. He has an inheritance that is plural, and she’s a girl, and you are that girl. And that’s the revelation you and I need.

Then he stopped and said, “Wait a minute, there’s another revelation we need.” So, I shall read this. “I pray…” gosh, I wish I could talk about the heart, the eyes, and enlightenment. How many hearts need a revelation? Can someone look and tell me really quickly? You flunked. I know what you’re thinking, and that’s correct, but it is the hearts…that your hearts be enlightened. It’s the hearts of all the saints that be enlightened to see what you’ve gained. And it’s not that you just understand. If God gives you a revelation, Daniel, from Him, it’s a revelation; for you, it’s an enlightenment. Well, it’s also a revelation that you’re enlightened.

Danielle, you have two eyes that you can’t see, but you have got them. They’re your inward eyes, and they are stuck inside your heart, the place where all your motives are. And all that you are…all the wellspring of your being is your heart. May God enlighten your eyes to see the inheritance of Jesus Christ. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know, experientially know, that when Jesus Christ got called to something, He had a lot of hope it would come to pass. The Holy Spirit will show you that Jesus Christ was called; He got called to something; His something was an inheritance; He’s excited about it, and that the Holy Spirit enlightens you, that you might see that He has a great hope beating in His breast toward the day that He gets His full inheritance. But there is more.

I don’t know how to say this, and I wish, boy, I wish we were all shouting our heads off. And I do feel so inadequate. He does not tell you to have a revelation, that he hopes that the Spirit, and He prays that the Spirit will give you a revelation of Christ’s inheritance. He doesn’t say that. He says that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of your heart and enlighten you so that you might see the riches of the glory—oh, church with a headache; oh, Christian with a headache. Jesus Christ looked at His inheritance and was blinded by the richness of its glory. I think I’ll say it again. The Father showed the Son His inheritance, showed Him His calling, He had the hope, and when the Son looked upon His inheritance—He who mined this earth with gold, He who strewed the galaxies across an empty void, He who is Himself the glory of the Father, He who looked into the face of ultimate glory in looking at the Father… I told you that before God did anything, He was rich in glory. Do you remember that? He was rich in wisdom, that He was rich in kindness, and rich in His mercy, and rich in His grace, and that His glory was rich, and His grace was rich, and His glory were His riches…all of these things, all of these things, before there was you.

I don’t know how to say this…That he was astounded by so many riches, and the brothers and sisters who gathered in Constance, you must not leave that un-embraced. Oh, Chicago, I know you started out as a bunch of waifs on the sidewalks, and I know that you know one another too well and still love one another in spite of that fact. May God enlighten your inward eyes to see that Jesus Christ looks down there on Clybourne Street and is blinded by the incredible riches that gather there. Praise the Lord. Amen. You would say amen…sitting down there in Ireland all by yourself, why are you saying amen? (laughter) Because it’s glorious. Yes, but brother, it’s supposed to be real, too.

Excuse me. Oh, I belong to a wonderful little group; we get together and praise the Lord. Six years later, you can’t find them. I don’t think they ever saw the riches of their own glory. And I don’t think I will either, or you will, unless the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and we see that your glory is incredibly rich. You know, when I first saw this, I talked about inheritance, Jesus Christ wants an inheritance, and it’s the Holy Ones, and that sounds like it would be just as far as you could go. I saw that it was not even that Jesus Christ was looking forward to His full inheritance —the holy ones —but the revelation is that you might see how rich His inheritance is—and you’re it. And you’re it. And you are it. And you are that inheritance. And you are that glory. And you are that richness. Kalia, you should be walking the streets of Tirana, grabbing people, dragging them to your home, chaining them to your chair, and saying, “Sit down and listen to me.” You ought to be grabbing Christians on the street, brother. God’s people don’t know they are His inheritance, and they sure don’t know that they are glory, and they certainly don’t know that that glory is rich. That’s who you are. Walk in it.

Isn’t this wonderful? I haven’t even gotten to the point that we had this meeting for. I’m totally frustrated. I wouldn’t change a word of anything that’s happened so far, but I don’t know whether to stop now and come back in the morning and finish this. Or to press you. How tired are you? Can you handle another few minutes?

…that we don’t study the Bible? I would like you to know that I have not skipped a single verse in this book. Last time I heard a Baptist talk about this passage of scripture, he went through it and said, ” Isn’t heaven going to be glorious?” And that’s all he had, was heaven. Just a word—don’t forget that, would you please? I pray that the eyes of your hearts might be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance, which is in the saints. You remember at the beginning of the week, when you read this chapter, and it just didn’t make any sense at all, there were just too many superlatives and unfinished thoughts?

Now, then, Paul of Tarsus says another part of the revelation is this, and before I go into it, I want you to know that there is a parallel passage here. It’s in chapter 2, verse 5 and 6, in which everything that is said from this point on of Christ is also said of the brothers and sisters who meet in Constance and the brothers and sisters who meet in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Denver. Abel, have you and Danielle been listening? Where is Danielle? There he is. Have you been listening? Abel, have you been listening to this? You gather. I don’t know what your doctrines are, but if you have any, I would really, really recommend you drop them.

But anyway…one other revelation. I don’t know how this brother could have wrapped it up any better than this. The next few sentences are absolutely beyond human comprehension. That before God chose us and marked us off and then later created…you know, he really wrapped this whole thing up real neatly so that it wouldn’t leak anywhere, and His passion for you, the Ecclesia, is awesome. So, He says that you might see the riches of the glory of Christ’s inheritance. Christ’s inheritance is you, the body of believers. And just in case there was some poor little soul sitting down there listening to this saying, “Oh, I know that includes everybody except me.” Or if a church feels that’s for everybody except me. He added another prayer for wisdom – revelation into experiential reality. Into experiential reality.

By the way, before I go any further, have you ever heard me preach a negative message? Well, have you? Have you. Chicago, have you ever heard me bring a negative message? Have you ever heard me get on the case of the church of Jesus Christ? Well, you know the church of Jesus Christ gets fussed out every Sunday morning from 11 to 12. I would like you to imagine a 747 sitting on the runway, and I would like you to see cables fastened all over its wheels, the back wheels, the front wheels, the nose wheel, and tied down, really well tied down, and all the engines are at full blast. And that preacher is standing in front of that 747 saying, Why don’t you fly? Why would anybody insult God’s people by standing up at 11 a.m. and barking at them and biting at them and fussing at them and criticizing them when the only thing under God’s heaven they’ve ever been allowed to do is sit? Is this true?

Well, brothers and sisters, the only thing they do in a case like that is shoot the preacher. Burn down the building and let God’s people cut the cables. Let God’s people just start being the church. Now, there’s some sweet little girl down in Colossae saying, This is not for me. I cannot possibly be glory. I can’t be rich glory, and I’m sure not His inheritance. I know He’s not anxious, and I know He doesn’t have some great hope, and I don’t even understand what the calling is, but I know that He can’t get this done in me. Did you know that little saint is absolutely correct? Because this was not written to a saint.