Kings Of Tomorrow (Part 2) Props Of Another Age - Rod Mills

​In this series we’re looking at two lens that are essential for us to see reality accurately: the lens of creation and the lens of eternity, the spiritual world. In order to have good depth perception, it is critical to see through two eyes, not through one. In the same way, these two lens are required to have spiritual depth perception, to have a three-dimensional view of our spiritual and physical operating environment.
If we don’t think about eternity accurately, we won’t see this life accurately. We must see this life through the lens and purposes of eternity.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):






​
​We are starting this is our second part of this series. I've been working for several years actually studying this. And really excited to spend some time over the next year. In this study, I call it it's a long view series that I call kings of tomorrow. And it's really a study about how, how revelation and knowledge of eternity and of Heaven impacts how we live today. In guys, listen, it changes everything, everything changes. And this is important that we not only have knowledge of what the Bible reveals to us about our coming inheritance in the coming ages, but also that we can see there, it's important. Have you ever noticed how different it is when someone tells you, they go, hey, I want to tell you about this car I'm wanting to buy, and you've never seen it before. And they go they tell you this and they tell you that and they tell you that and you're like, well, let's see one, you know, I want to look at it. And then when you see it, it your perspective is different when you see it. And that's true of almost anything that when you see it, it changes. Now, we know Paul said that we see through a glass darkly. That's the old King James. And the New King James says we see through a mirror dimly he saying what we see of that which is to come. It's kind of like looking through a dark glass or something that's not clear. But we do have some view. And Scripture gives us some incredible glimpses of what is to come. And we don't often think about them, because they're not often talked about in teachings in various places. It's just something that's not a common topic. And so today, we'll start our second, our second part of this series, but I just want to do one quick review on to scriptures. And remind us that we talked about the two lens. And in order to have good depth perception, you have to be able to see through both eyes, that's very important. If you have depth perception, if someone loses an eye, it's very difficult to have depth perception, even if they have diminished vision in a particular eye, it can be difficult to have depth perception and kind of see the full three dimensional aspect in quite the same way. And we talked about two different lens and one lens is seen the heavenlies or the eternity or God through the lens of this creation. And we looked at Romans chapter one, verse 20, I'm gonna read this. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. Even his eternal power in godhead, Paul tells us that the very nature of God, his fingerprints, if you will, the fingerprints of his character, and his nature is literally imprinted on the creation. And the more we become scientifically advanced, the more we see the incredible, fantastic nature of God in the creation. This is important because it helps us see that the world that we live in the creation we live in, has a much higher source, a much higher realm. It opens our eyes to the horizons of eternity. The other is also read Psalm 19. We won't reread that at the moment. But we see that we see that Paul talked about Colossians in Colossians chapter three, and I'm going to read verse two through four. He said, Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God, when Christ who is our life appears, you also will appear with Him in glory. Now, this is a really strong command. It would have been a weaker command if he would have just said, Set your mind on things above. But he didn't just say that. He said, Set your mind on things above. And then he says, not on things of the earth now is he saying don't think about earthly things. Like you have to think about earthly things, right, you got to think about how you're going to get your car repaired or how you're going to take care, have that issue with your in your garage, or how you're going to pay the bills, or how you're going to do your job. So we understand he's not saying that we don't think anything about the earth. And so how do you set your mind on heavenly things, and not on earthly things and still do your earthly responsibilities. And I like to view this as a lens. So if you wear glasses, and you you put your glasses on you all the time, even though you're looking at other things, everything you're looking at, you're looking through that glass. So 100% of the time that you have your glasses on, you're literally looking through the glass the whole time, you might be cooking, you might be driving, you might be doing your job, you might be working at a computer. But the fact is, that every moment that you have your glasses on, you're looking through the glass. So I tend to see Colossians three in this respect, that Paul's saying, set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. So that when I'm doing my finances, I'm looking at my finances, through the lens of things above the higher perspective. Everything has to do with the things to come with the age to come with the kingdom of God, with the calling of God with everything that we're doing, we want to be looking through these lens. And so now we've talked about two different lens we talked about seeing eternity through the lens of where we are the glory of God and the creation, and seeing our present age and what we're involved in through the lens of the heavenly, so that everything I'm doing I've got these glasses on with both of those lens on. So then I'm seeing in this respect. This is kind of where we stopped in our last session. So today, I would like to talk about something I want to call the props of another age, the props of another age, a reading from Luke 16, verse 10, and 11. Jesus, this is written in red, Jesus says, He who is faithful in what is least, is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust, in what is least, is unjust, also in much, therefore, if you have not been faithful, and he uses an example here, the unrighteous mammon, he's talking about money. But again, money is just one example. He gives the principle first, then he uses money as an example. He says, If you've not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches. So Jesus tells us that the physical things and the things in this life are props. This is my term that demonstrate to us, what is my level of faithfulness to God. And God says, These are little things. In fact, we understand how Jesus feels about money, he doesn't think it's that big of a deal. But he does say that your faithfulness with it, he uses it as an example your faithfulness with it, is also a reflection of what your faithfulness is, with much more. And when he says much more, he's talking about more than just much more in this life. And so I tend to look at this as everything that's given to me as a gift in life is a prop, that that reflects back to me what my level of faithfulness is in the true riches. Now, if that is true concerning money, how much more true is that concerning my marriage? Or how much more true is that concerning my relationship to you and my faithfulness to you? My commitment to our relationship, my commitment to invest into your life if it you see where I'm going with this? So, if Jesus uses money as an example and says this, my term is a prop to demonstrate to you what your faithfulness is, what the true riches, how much more are these things that are way more important than money to God? A reflection of that faithfulness to the those things that are much greater in the age to come. And God intentionally doesn't show us what many of them are. That's interesting. If we don't think about eternity accurately, it's been said that we won't see this life accurately, if we don't think correctly. And our mindset is not in eternity in the right ways that God intends us to, then our mindset concerning all these things on the earth, will not quite work. And God is Jesus is literally saying, hey, I want to add a whole new dimension to your thinking about all these things in your life, they have much greater meaning than you think they do. And he uses money as the example money, your marriage, your faithfulness, your obedience to Me your willingness to invest into the people, I've called you all these things, we must see this life through the lens and the purposes of eternity. There are higher purposes at work in this age. So can you see this, that everything that's given to me, God has a much greater purpose in that thing, but it has to do with things to come in the coming age. And in the coming life. If we try to look at this age, through the purposes of this age, instead of the purposes of eternity, we will eventually arrive at futility and meaninglessness, let that sink in. In other words, no matter how there's a lot of people who want to do good with what they have Christians and non Christians, but no matter how much you want to do good, if you cannot connect it to the reality of the spiritual or the eternal realms, then it's going to be very challenging to experience the significance of how important this is to you and to your destiny. You'll never find the significance you're looking for. If you live that way, where you can't see the connections, everything in this life has eternal connections, extremely extraordinary connections, something as small as money, Jesus says, is connected to the true riches, something as as unimportant to God as money. And we know, you know, it's important, but Jesus says, the love of money is the root of all evil. So he uses an extreme example, to show us that everything in life if if something that God says is so dangerous, has an extension, into the true riches, how much more does everything else. And Luke 16, Jesus reveals to us a critical secret of the kingdom of God. Now catch this are temporal resources. Don't think of this just as money? What are your resources, not just money, your talents, your time, your abilities, your capabilities, your responsibilities in this life, everything that we have been given, have corresponding resources, capabilities, responsibilities, and opportunities in the coming ah, this is really important. This has got me thinking many times, because I'll think about it. And I'll say, Well, Lord, you know, you've given me this particular gift in my life, or you've given this, there's this particular relationship you've given to me in my life. And I start thinking, I'm like, what is the what is the eternal riches that are connected to this relationship? Are you tracking? Okay, so, Lord, you gave me this talent in my life, you gave me this ability, this special ability in my life, what is the true riches that's connected to this, that if I'm faithful, I will be faithful in that. Everything so now, what we start to see is that everything in our lives has this divine string that goes right up into the heavens and attaches to something extraordinary in my inheritance, changes everything, doesn't it? Now suddenly, I'm very concerned about every dollar I have and how it is given, how it is invested, how it is placed, how it is allocated everything, every relationship in my Life, I believe has a corresponding destiny, a corresponding God saying, Are you going to be faithful in this relationship? You see what I'm saying. And it really gets exciting, because you realize that life has way more meaning we were created as spiritual, eternal beings, none of us will ever be satisfied. No matter how hard we try Christian or non Christian, we will never be satisfied with significance that is constrained by the definitions of temporal life. Are you with me, you'll never be satisfied. It's impossible. It doesn't matter how rich you are. It doesn't matter how important you are, it doesn't matter how famous you are, it doesn't matter how you fill in the blank, it will never produce the significance. Because we are created as spiritual beings with a spiritual destiny that God says is to be kings and priests unto our God in a creation that has not yet happened. And something in our souls knows that people don't know what to do with that, when they don't have a framework, they struggle for significance in this life, because they have that need inside that was built in them as a spiritual being by their Creator. But in anything they do in this life, it's never going to reach and receive the significance that they need, because that significance is rooted in eternity, because we are eternal beings. So God wants to open our eyes and cause us to see that my faithfulness with my time, with my days, with my relationships, with the money, he's given me with the talents he's got, everything has a core a spot corresponding riches in the age to come. And all of a sudden, it gets really exciting. Because that is what Paul says, is above and beyond what we can ask or even think it's far beyond that. Jesus words, in Luke 16, have profoundly impacted my perspective. So that I view these resources, I view these capabilities and responsibilities that I have in this life, like props on a stage of this temporal life, and how I obey God with each prop. How I handle each one in obedience, each resource. Every one of these are corresponding to these beautiful rewards like we've talked about. Now, here's a warning. This is just something I caution. And I feel like this is a mistake that we have all made in different times and places in life, seasons of life, maybe many swaths of our life, it really dilutes and waters down and weakens this powerful secret of the kingdom. If we view this principle, in ambiguous generalities, track with me. So if I just look at and go, yeah, if I'm faithful with this stuff, all this stuff in my life, I'll be trusted with a true riches. It's interesting how Jesus didn't stop, but he actually gave an example. Are you with me? That's why I use the word props. What do you think? If you think if you think of it like this, if you just think of this principle, in some nebulous generality, then what it does is it loses the power of how important each thing in my life is in your life is right. So Jesus knowing this, take something that's kind of extreme, like money might unrighteous mammon, because he wants us to see that everything we're given has a corresponding riches. You see what I'm saying? It's if you think of this in nebulous generalities, the power of this principle, it'll be lost. The power of this principle is in the fact that specific areas of faithfulness in this life translate to specific areas of reward in the coming ages. This is why it's so important for us to see this because then every single thing becomes in it carries an eternal significance. Whereas if I'm looking at it in generalities, it doesn't do you guys can you kind of see that? I'm just trying to make sure I'm communicating this clearly. As a father. There are many times when I wanted to open up new areas of privilege or responsibility for my kids. But I was watching and waiting for faithfulness and maturity in very specific areas to ensure they were ready for the reward that I wanted to see opened up to them. Now I want to tell you as a dad, man, I was like, I was trying to I want I was leaning forward, because as a father, you love your children. And you're like, Man, I just wonder, I just want to see him get into that I want to see them walk into this, this area of reward, but there's a certain area of faithfulness, they must develop. And some people thought I was crazy. Some of you know this. But our younger two sons, I they wanted to fly gliders and Civil Air Patrol. And man, I wanted to get them in there as soon as possible. Woody, I was like, and so I got them in there. 12 and 13. And, and man, it's like people were like, are you crazy? Man, your son's flying an airplane without a motor at 5000 feet in Alaska. And he's 13 years old, he's 12 years old. And the thing was, what I was, as a dad, I wanted to see them get into that. So I'm looking for areas of responsibility and maturity, so that I can get them into that as soon as possible. I believe that's the heart of the Father, I believe the heart of the Father, he's going, Oh, you have no idea. Now, this works in this life. Also there. I'm not denying that we're faithful in certain areas in this life, and there's a reward in this life. But most of the teaching on this scripture constrains itself to this life by many teachers and preachers in the faith. And Jesus is saying, Hey, this is way bigger than this life, right? And so there's this desire of the Father, and I use this illustration mainly. So we'll see the desire of the Father is, hey, look, God, I've given you this relationship, be faithful to this relationship, be faithful to the, to this to this, whatever calling that I've given you. And God, he's the heart of the father's going. I see over here, I can't tell you, I can't tell you what it is. Because I need you to be faithful because that's what your heart is not because you just want the reward, but because that's what your heart is. But I want to tell you, it's kind of like a Christmas time, you know, you're you're almost want to tell them what the present is, you're like God, I want to tell you what the gift is. I can't tell you, it's really good. And the heart of the Father is yearning for us into this faithfulness. Now, the same is true, this required faithfulness, is true in ministry with most leaders that I'm serving, and investing into in ministry. You guys, I don't know if you know this, but in my heart in mind, there is this. I'm always looking at all the time. This has happened to me, every single week, I'm looking at the people in our spiritual community, our spiritual family. With most of people in our spiritual family, I already have like, in my mind, I'm going huh, they're so close, they're ready for their, you know, just they're almost ready for this, it's time to, to move into this next level. And there are certain areas of maturity and growth that have to happen in people. This is the heart of a shepherd. This is what we do as shepherds, whether it's shepherds in our own home or shepherds in the kingdom. But in order to see people released into greater areas, there is areas that have to there's areas of faithfulness that people have to arise to, but they can't arise to it just because you tell them well, you know, this is here, there has to be a heart movement toward that faithfulness in God. And I believe this is the heart of the Father. And I believe he's doing this with us all the time, for rewards in this life and for rewards in the coming ages. Many of you do this with your children, or with people you oversee in your job, people that you've been in leadership, you see people or your students in cases where your teachers, you see people you go, I see they're almost ready. It might be a co worker that you're ministering to. And you're like they're almost ready, if they could just, you know, you see that. And God's doing that with us also, how much more is God intentional and specific in his correlation between our faithfulness and obedience to specific areas of reward he's seeking to move us into in the coming ages because I believe this whole world was created with the next creation in mind. And we said this last week, some people look at the garden they look at all this like God started all this. And then somehow he didn't know there was going to be a problem. And there's a problem when may and fell in when Satan fell. And then he had to come up with us a plan B. This is not Plan B, we are on Plan A, and God's intentions all along have been longer than what any angels or demons or humans thought. Because God's plan was the new creation, another creation to come from the very beginning and before the beginning. Based on Jesus words in Luke 16, I do believe that every area of this life has a corresponding I'm going to call it ocean of blessings that God desires to pour out rewards in the coming ages. And I tell you think of this as a bigger than just, oh, yeah, you've been faithful and unrighteous mammon, okay, I'm gonna give you a little resource in the age to come. Most of the time, when God gives he gives way more way far beyond what we anticipate his heart is to give. And so when we think we're getting a bucket of water, God has the Pacific Ocean in mind. This is the way he operates. This is his desire, He, God is a giver, by His very nature, he's not a taker, he's a giver. So God does devises ways and plans to give and you think, oh, Lord, yeah, I'll be faithful. And you'll give me a huge bucket or a dump truck load is such and such, and you don't know what it is. And he goes, Oh, no, oh, no, I'm thinking like, that. I'm thinking like the Pacific Ocean, you're thinking buckets and dump truck loads of water, and I'm thinking of the Pacific Ocean, I'm on a different level than you are. The true riches are far beyond what Paul says, We can ask or think, Lord, give us revelation, we need more than just the knowledge of this, we need to be able to get a glimpse of the heart of God. That's the key. If you and I try to break the code and go, Well, God, what's the ocean, you know, what's the ocean, we need to go back first to the heart of God, the heart of God, and to see and to feel the heart of God is to see and feel his desire on the ocean level, not on the bucket level. You can't just, you can't just think this as a fact, it has to be an experience from encounters with this father, who loves us so much, that he will not let us go astray, he will keep putting the guardrails up. And if he if it's required, he'll even allow tribulation or trouble. But he is intent on getting us to those oceans of blessings and rewards. Now, the same is also true with trials, guys, trials and difficulties. The same thing is true. Can you see this, that God is calling us with faithfulness in the dark valley, when we're in pain and difficulty and brokenness, and maybe it's our own brokenness, maybe it's trials that we caused, maybe it's trials that other cause, maybe it's both, or maybe it's just God called us to go to war. And it was a hard time. It was difficult. But it was a dark valley. But God, He, God is a giver. Remember, he, he doesn't willingly put any of these things on us. We I'm quoting from the prophet Jeremiah, where he talked about this, I think it's in Lamentations. I don't have the quote in front of me. But even discipline, The Lord doesn't bring discipline, because he wants he doesn't do it from the heart. He does it because he wants us to be rewarded and blessed. And this is the heart of the Father, God give us eyes to see that in the difficulty of life, every single trial has a corresponding reward in the coming ages. And that reward is on the oceans level. It's big, it's extraordinary. And we want to be faithful to you in the trials and the difficulties. We'll talk about this at a later time from the book of James, because God is in the business of making us ready, that is ready for what is to come and the ages to come. If it is a huge responsibility and faithfulness and this life, I believe that it also corresponds to a huge area and eternal life and faithfulness to take care of your car is different than faithfulness to take care of your marriage. Okay? So tend to think of this on on the same scale. In other words, something as small as money has a huge, true riches reward. Something as great as marriage or something as great as relationships or something is Great as responsibility and faithfulness to spiritual family, it has a much higher importance both in this life but then in the coming age, I believe there's a proportional oceans level there too. In other words, if it's that much greater in this life, is it not that much greater in the coming age? You guys kind of track with that, see what we're saying? It has often been said that what we do in this life, echoes in eternity. And I want to say if we take Jesus words to heart and Luke 16, and there's other places where he says these words or similar words, it is a lot more than an echo. What we do in this life, determines our destiny. In eternity, it launches or confines our destiny in eternity. And so I pray that God will give us a revelation, listen, folks, this, it's not enough to just get this information download. So I'm asking you to pray that God will give you revelation that is revelation means unveiling it means to see. So pray that God will help you to see and you may need to press into this in the Scriptures. And the Lord. Many of these things, he does not give revelation unless people ask, seek and knock for it. He gives it to those who ask to those who seek to those who not to those who seek the kingdom first. He gives us the kingdom. And then much, much more, he says is added to us, even in the needs in this life. And so I'd like to close in prayer. And right now I just asked you open your heart and and seek the Lord say, God, this is my desire. I don't want to just know the facts that rod talked about or that Jesus talked about in the Bible. I am I'm praying for revelation, I want to see this. I want to see how significant you know, even the little things, you know, you might feel like, well, it's mundane. You know, yesterday, I was thinking about this, I was over here and the kid the grandkids had been here and there was crumbs and cereal and mozzarella cheese on the floor under the table. And I had the broom and I'm just out and I'm I'm just cleaning the dining room just sweeping it up. And I started thinking about this. And I was like, Lord, you know, what's the equip? I mean, I'm keeping my floor clean, right? Is that not? You know, I know this is not in the Bible. Cleanliness is next to godliness. But the point is that even something as mundane as sweeping the floor, and cleaning your house, and making it a place of beauty, a place for what we call an atmosphere of worship. That's what my one of my spiritual father says, When God put Adam and Eve in the garden, he put them in a beautiful garden that he designed to create an atmosphere of worship. And so in our home, we do things to create an atmosphere of worship. And you might think, well, this is not really that big of a deal. I'm just sweeping the crumbs into mozzarella cheese on the floor. And yet there is an equivalent, there is a corresponding eternal riches that connects to our faithfulness, if it's done in faith, what's the difference between sweeping the floor and faith and not sweeping the floor and faith? But you never thought about that digit? Maybe you have. The scripture says whatsoever is not a faith is sin. What does that mean? When it talks about when we talk about sweeping the floor, doing my finances or organizing the garage, or being faithful to my spiritual family are being faithful with the spiritual gifts God has given me whatever it is, if we do it, because we are seen, and and seen and believing that there is an eternal, corresponding Equivalent, and equivalent is not the right word, because it's not the same. But there is a corresponding riches true riches, Jesus says, Then suddenly, I'm sweeping the floor in faith, I'm not just sweeping the floor, so I won't be embarrassed. You see what I'm saying? And so what may God give us eyes to see? So the everything we do we do in faith, faithfulness to our spouse, faithfulness to the call of God, faithfulness to, to the people that God has called us to? And I'll tell you, I love this. I sent this word out. Today. I mentioned it earlier. And whenever the Lord provided a change of direction in my life, and I said, Well, Lord, how do we do that? And he said, invest your life into a dozen or so families and their friends and family and go do ministry. Just take them out and do Ministry in the nation's. And the Lord literally said, be faithful to these people commit your life to them. We don't hear talk like that in the church a lot of times, they just a lot of times it's just attend church no be faithful to one another. There is an enormous reward in the heavens because of faithfulness. And it starts in our own homes, being faithful to our spouse, faithful to our children, faithful to the people God loves and calls us to. Now I realize I can't be faithful to everybody in this city, right? It's not possible. I can't be faithful to everybody in the world. It's not possible. But I can be faithful to the people God has called me to in my natural family, and in my spiritual family, and the Lord loves it. And when he rewards us, He rewards us based on how he feels about what we do, about how it touches his heart. And this is the blessing of heaven. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much, that God you have given us an inheritance that is eternal, and that is extraordinary. And God, we just say, Father, we pray for a revelation, I don't want to just do the things in life because I have to do them. I don't want to just be faithful to my wife, because that's what I'm supposed to do. I want to do it because that's what's on your heart. I don't want to just sweep the floor. So I won't be embarrassed when people come to see me. Lord, I want to sweep it in faith, I want to do it in faith, I want to just do everything so that I see and connect it to eternal things and the true riches that you are bringing us into. And I pray for my friends, those who are here today, those who are on Zoom, those who are listening to this in the teaching library in the nations, that you will give us a revelation of the true riches and their connection to every single thing that we do and have in our lives so that we will be people who rise to our full destiny in the coming ages. And in this life we pray in Jesus name, Amen and Amen.