[Chris Rowland] We make choices all the time. “What time do I need to wake up today?” “What should I wear to church?” “Which tie goes with this suit?” I still might not know the answer to that question. “Should I slow down for this yellow traffic light?”

In our country, the freedom to make our own choices is considered almost a sacred right. We live in a culture where everyone has an opinion about everything, and everyone thinks their opinion is at least as important as everyone else’s opinion. And we revel in making our own choices in what to do, how we behave, how to spend our time. What’s the best soft drink to buy, what car we should drive, and who should be put into office in the next election? When we go shopping, we’re presented with 20 different types of paper towels, and people delight in their great abilities to differentiate between them and pick out what paper towel they think is just right for their family’s needs.

Even for things that may not directly affect us, we love to have an opinion about them. On the popular social networking website, Facebook, you’ll see lots of opinions on there. Lots of people who are agreeing or disagreeing with opinions or choices their friends have made. We watch news programming, and no matter how obscure a particular situation may be or how little it actually affects our lives, everyone seems to have an opinion about it and how it should be handled.

We can’t escape making choices. It’s something we all have to do. We can’t get very far in life without having to choose one course of action over a different course of action. It’s one of the fundamental principles that God built into us as human beings. He gave us the ability to make our own choices. He gave us free will. Mankind loves to make choices, but we aren’t always good at making choices.

About 40 years ago, there was an American psychologist named Walter Mischel. He conducted a series of experiments on four year old children who attended a nursery school. He wanted to see how these children would make choices. I’m not going to totally recreate this experiment for you this afternoon, but I do want to put up a little bit of a visual reminder of it. The experimenter would give the child a choice. I’m setting a cookie up here on the lectern where you can see it. The choice was this: the child could have a treat – a treat similar to this, a cookie or a marshmallow, I think those were the two things he used in his experiments. They could have that treat right away. They could have it immediately, or, if the child would sit alone and would wait for about 15 minutes without eating that treat that was placed in front of them, they would then be rewarded with a second treat.

The experimenters explained to the children. They made sure they understood the consequences that would result from the choice they would make. Mischel observed that some of the children would cover their eyes with their hands, or they would turn around so they couldn’t see the treat. Others would start kicking the desk in front of them or tugging on their pigtails. Some of the kids would stroke the treat like it was a tiny stuffed animal. A few would simply grab the treat and eat it as soon as the experimenter left the room. Well, over 600 children took part in that experiment that he conducted, and one third of them did last long enough to get the second cookie or the second marshmallow that was offered.

We know that the choices we will make in life will have consequences, too. But we will weigh those consequences in our mind to determine the best choice that we can make. It wasn’t necessarily wrong to eat that first cookie. There wasn’t really any negative consequence associated with it. I might decide, “I’m really hungry right now, and I see a cookie sitting next to me on this table. It’s soft, looks chocolatey, looks moist.” It might really hit the spot for me right now, and I wouldn’t need to eat that second one. It’s not a problem. I could choose to eat that cookie and not really be disappointed that I didn’t get a second one. Or I might have thought, “Wow, two cookies. That would be so much better for me than one! I can get twice the amount if I could just wait for a little while.” And my hope, my confidence in that future reward might compel me to control myself and to leave that first cookie alone.

Let’s turn to Romans chapter 8. Let’s begin the sermon in Romans 8 this afternoon. We weigh choices all of the time. How do we choose to live our lives? What principles guide our daily decisions? Our choices determine how we will walk, how we will live our lives. Here in the first verse of Romans chapter 8, Paul wrote:

Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit

Paul describes here two very different ways that we can walk. He calls one of these ways ‘walking according to the flesh’, and the other way he calls ‘walking according to the Spirit’. We walk in those two different ways based on the choices that we make. Some of the choices that we have available to us are paths that will lead us to walk according to the flesh. Some of the other choices we might choose are things that will cause us to walk according to the Spirit.

Let’s drop down to verse 5 here in chapter 8. He writes:

Romans 8:5 – For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

Paul says that walking according to the flesh causes our thoughts to be focused on those things of the flesh, the things of this world, the things of this life. But walking according to the Spirit causes our thoughts to be focused on spiritual matters, on godly priorities, and godly instruction. Whatever we set our minds on will, in turn, influence the choices we make. Continuing in verse 6, it says:

Romans 8:6 – For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Paul is drawing a big distinction here between these two different mindsets, and the ultimate destination where those two paths lead. The carnal path, if you follow that, is going to lead to death. The spiritual path leads to life.

Let’s move down to verse 13, still in Romans 8:13

Romans 8:13 – For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Putting to death the deeds of the body implies a certain mastery over the things of the flesh. The mindset that we have, the path that we walk down, whether it’s according to the flesh or according to the Spirit, is a direct result of choices that we make. It comes back to choices.

Let’s turn now to Galatians 5:16, because Paul talks about the struggle that we have between these two ways of walking. Galatians 5:16 he writes:

Galatians 5:16 – I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

He’s saying that by walking in the Spirit, the lusts of our flesh will go denied, they’ll go unsatisfied.

Galatians 5:17 – For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Paul is describing here a continual battle that is going on inside of us. We have our flesh, lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusting, or fighting, against the flesh. These two conflicting mindsets within a Christian want to overpower one another. They’re both strong, and they’re both going to fight back. Paul acknowledges here that because of this continual struggle, you do not do the things you wish. And he continues in verse 18, it says:

Galatians 5:18 – But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

If we allow ourselves to be led by the Spirit instead of the flesh, then we have nothing to fear from the law, because we’ll be living in accordance with God’s laws. How do we live our lives? Are our minds set on those things of the flesh, and what does that actually mean? What are these things of the flesh? Paul goes on in verse 19, right here, to list the works of the flesh. He writes:

Galatians 5:19 – Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,

Galatians 5:20 – idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,

Galatians 5:21 – envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like –the list is a lot longer than this-; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now we see that many of the works of the flesh are based on certain human needs that we have, but they’ve been magnified or they’ve been warped in some way against God’s law. They’re taken to levels of self-indulgence, to levels that have lack of respect or love for other people. God gives us the free choice in this life to decide whether we will answer His call and obey Him, or whether we will ignore His call.

We can sit here at church services. We can hear God’s word explained to us. We can develop an understanding of what God expects from us, but God doesn’t force us to walk in the Spirit. That has to be our choice. And as Paul described, our flesh lusts against the Spirit. The pulls of the flesh often try to block out our pursuit of spiritual things. Worldly success is tempting. Part of our nature is to want to be successful. We like to be respected. We like to be looked up to by other people, and while there’s nothing wrong with being successful, we need to keep in mind the effect that striving for worldly success will have on our goal of walking in the Spirit.

I worked for my last employer for 12 years before I came to work here, and I advanced as a computer programmer during my time there. I became a respected employee. I had a lot of seniority, and I felt like I was able to contribute to my department -contribute to the work that was being done there. But when it came to further advancement to what I was doing there, there wasn’t much else I could do. I had reached the top of that company’s technical track. My coworkers who were in the same position had gone back to school, maybe to get an M.B.A., or they applied for jobs in management. Sometimes I thought to myself, “It’d be nice to get a promotion.” “It’d be nice to make some more money.” But to stay at that same company, I would have needed to move into management. I would probably have needed to go back to school and get an additional degree. But then I thought, “What would be the purpose of those changes?” Well, I would have been able to make more money. That’s nice, but should that be my goal in life? Should that be what motivates me to do things?

If I had decided to take that path, I’m sure that God would have blessed me. I’m sure He would have, and I probably would have done a good job. But when I thought about it, I didn’t want to be a manager at that company. I had worked there. Pursuing the salary and the benefits of that position were outweighed by understanding all the additional politics that would be required for me to succeed in that type of a job. They were outweighed by the likelihood that having to go to school would mean several years where my time would be taken away from my family on evenings and weekends. They were outweighed by the likelihood that if I were a manager, I would be expected to participate and be on calls for situations that would take place on the Sabbath. So when I thought about making that kind of a career move, I saw too many things I really didn’t have an interest in doing –things that would mean less time with my family and potential conflicts with my religious beliefs. So the only motivation I could come up with to pursue such an option would be a desire for money. It would have to overcome those other factors.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s wrong to want to move forward with your career. I made continual advances up to that point as a computer programmer, but I didn’t have to sacrifice my integrity. I didn’t have to sacrifice my time or my beliefs too much to do so. And if you have the opportunity to move to a better job, do it! Go ahead and take it, but we just need to make sure we have the right motivation when we do so. And that it’s not something that we’re doing out of selfishness or some desire to meet the world’s expectations of where we should be in our careers.

We are given many choices in life. We have so many choices where there is no clear cut right or wrong answer. And God will often bless you either way you choose. He’ll bless you if that road and following that path does not crowd out your relationship with Him.

Let’s turn to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Ecclesiastes 2. King Solomon makes some wise observations about where both wisdom and foolishness lead.  Ecclesiastes 2:12, he writes:

Ecclesiastes 2:12 – Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly –he was going to look at all these things-; For what can the man do who succeeds the king? – Only what he has already done.

Ecclesiastes 2:13 – Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

Ecclesiastes 2:14 – The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Solomon notes that wisdom is more excellent that foolishness. It’s like the difference between light and darkness. What could be more different than those? But Solomon goes on to note something else, that is common, that is the same for both the wise and the foolish. He says, Yet I myself perceived that the same event happens to them all.

Ecclesiastes 2:15 – So I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, it also happens to me, and why was I then more wise?” So what’s the point of gaining wisdom if the wise and the fool both end their lives with the same event? Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.”

Ecclesiastes 2:16 – For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool!

Regardless of how we live our lives, whether we’re following the path of the wise, whether we’re walking according to the Spirit, or whether we’re following the path of the foolish, we’re walking according to the flesh. We still have an appointment with death.

Let’s go forward a few chapters in Ecclesiastes to chapter 9 and read more of what Solomon wrote. Ecclesiastes 9:2.

Ecclesiastes 9:2 – All things come alike to all: One event happens to the righteous and the wicked; to the good, the clean, and the unclean; to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; he who takes an oath as he who fears an oath.

Ecclesiastes 9:3 – This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all...

Because everyone has this appointment with death, those who are evil, they’ll conclude, if both the good and the evil are going to die, it doesn’t really matter how they live. They think there must be no God since the evil get the same reward as the good. So it hardens them, and they fill their heart even more with evil. Continuing in verse 3:

Ecclesiastes 9:3 – …Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

Ecclesiastes 9:4 – But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 – For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; Nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun.

While we live, we still have a chance to change our lives, but once we die, our lifetime is settled, and nothing can be done to change who we were. As long as we live, there’s hope that we can mend our lives and that we can seek God’s forgiveness. So, regardless of the choices that we make, it’s pretty clear that death is inevitable. It’s going to happen regardless of how we live our lives. As children of Adam, we will die. As it was written in the epistle to the Hebrews, “It is appointed for men to die once.” Hebrews 9:27.

With this in mind: if we’re all going to die, why does it matter what choices we make? I think Job posed the question that humanity has been struggling with for thousands of years. I won’t turn there, but it’s in Job 14:14, where he said, “If a man dies, shall he live again?” Shall he live again? Mankind has always wanted to believe that death is not the end. Societies have had various beliefs about an afterlife over time. People want to believe that we have some kind of consciousness after we die.

The Ancient Egyptians believed that getting a reward in the afterlife was a lot of work. They believed that when you die you needed to be mummified, properly embalmed, and entombed and you had to have had a pure heart. You had to memorize formulas and spells from the Book of the Dead. And because it was a dangerous place, the Egyptians would bury food, jewelry, and magical items with the dead person so they would be better able to find their way after death.

The Ancient Greeks talked about the underworld, a place where the souls of the dead people were taken. Many Eastern religions believe in reincarnation. It’s an idea where after one life in this physical world, your soul or your spirit would begin another earthly life, to continue your spiritual development. Many Western religions teach an idea of heaven or hell, where after you die, you’re either put immediately into a heavenly paradise, or you’re put into a place of perpetual torment if you were a bad person.

Mankind has always wanted to believe that death’s not the end. Fortunately for us, it’s not. Let’s turn to John 5:28, and see what Jesus Christ says will happen to all those who taste death, both the good and the evil. John 5:28-29, Jesus Christ says,

John 5:28 – Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice

John 5:29 – and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

Christ starts out here by saying not to marvel at His statement. But truly, it is something to marvel at. I marvel at it. It’s truly an awesome promise that Christ is telling us about. He doesn’t state, “Some people who are in the graves will hear my voice.” No. He says, “All who are in the graves will hear.” That means everyone. It means everyone who has ever lived from Adam until Christ’s second coming. They will all come forth. They’re all going to be resurrected, and it’s after this resurrection that we finally see that separation between those who have done good and those who have done evil.

Solomon was right that death is the great equalizer. That event will happen to us no matter how we will live our lives. But the even that happens to each of us after death, the resurrection, that’s where we finally begin to see justice applied based on how we lived our lives. So we could maybe consider resurrection another theory about what happens in the afterlife. But why should we believe that theory? Why should we believe that resurrection is true and not believe like the Ancient Egyptians or the Greeks or other belief systems? How can we know that this theory that Jesus Christ describes is actually the way things are going to work out? The proof that resurrection is not merely a theory but an absolute truth is because we have a precedent. We have a precedent. Jesus Christ Himself died in a very public way. There were many witnesses. Both His followers saw it, and His accusers saw it. And Jesus Christ Himself was resurrected after three days and three nights.

It’s not the point of my sermon to get into all the proofs and all the accounts that verify those claims, other than to state that the one who proclaimed that we will all be resurrected actually demonstrated that process for us. Those who believe in reincarnation don’t have the evidence. Those who believe in heaven and hell don’t have evidence that that’s what happens. The Egyptian magicians couldn’t provide evidence. Christ provided the evidence of resurrection in Himself. We have firsthand accounts of people who witnessed His resurrected body. Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 15:3 and read a passage from Paul that describes how Christ’s resurrection is central to the message of Christianity. 1 Corinthians 15, we’ll begin in verse 3, Paul writes here:

1 Corinthians 15:3 – For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

1 Corinthians 15:4 – and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,

1 Corinthians 15:5 – and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.

1 Corinthians 15:6 – After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:7 – After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

1 Corinthians 15:8 – Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

He realized that hundreds of people saw the risen Christ. They were witnesses that He had been resurrected. He fulfilled what was said about Him in scripture.

Let’s move down to verse 12, still in 1 Corinthians 15:12

1 Corinthians 15:12 – Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

1 Corinthians 15:13 – But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

1 Corinthians 15:14 – And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

1 Corinthians 15:15 – Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up – if in fact the dead do not rise.

1 Corinthians 15:16 – For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.

1 Corinthians 15:17 – And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

1 Corinthians 15:18 – Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

1 Corinthians 15:19 – If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

If we don’t believe that Christ was resurrected, then we shouldn’t believe that we’re going to have life after death either. If Christ wasn’t resurrected, then our sins can’t be forgiven, and this life is all that there is. It does make us pitiable if death is all that we have to look forward to. We should have spent our time satisfying the flesh if the flesh is all that there is. Continuing in verse 20:

1 Corinthians 15:20 – But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

1 Corinthians 15:21 – For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:22 – For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Here again we see that all will be resurrected. As sure as Christ died and was resurrected, everyone who has lived and died will be resurrected. So we will all be resurrected. We will all be made alive again. But what about what I read earlier about this resurrection of life and the resurrection of condemnation? One of those certainly sounds a little bit better than the other, doesn’t it? So the question isn’t whether we’re going to die once. The question isn’t even, “Are we going to be resurrected?” The real question is whether we will die a second time.

The book of Revelation talks about the second death. In one place it says, “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.” And in chapter 21, it says, “but the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murders, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” So there’s a second death. If we look at the situation, for all of us, it appears that we all have a death and a resurrection coming our way, no matter how we live our lives. But it’s the second death, that’s the one we can actually take steps now to avoid.

God has designed humanity to live two lives. He has designed us to live in two phases. We are all given a physical, temporal, human life in a hostile world that rejects God, and then we die. We enter a dormant state, a state that has been referred to as sleep, waiting until the resurrection. And then at the resurrection, God can transform us. He can transform us into a spiritual body, offering us eternal, incorruptible life in His kingdom. Or, He can destroy us forever through a second death, blotting us out of His book of life. We were designed, though, to have two lives. One physical life that we have now, and one spiritual life after the resurrection.

Let’s examine the concept of two lives for a minute. I’m going to look at the example of this, from our world, of the caterpillar. You’re probably familiar with a caterpillar. It’s a crawling insect. It hatches from tiny little eggs. And the eggs are usually found on a plant that the caterpillar feeds on as it grows. Caterpillars are quite accomplished leaf eaters. That’s what they do: crawl around and eat leaves. They grow pretty rapidly while they do that, and as they grow, they molt. That’s a process by which they shed their old skin. It gets too tight, so they shed that skin and add a new skin so they can keep growing a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger caterpillar.

If you watch that caterpillar, it’s amazing! God created it, and in many ways, it looks like a typical insect. They have legs. Some of them are a little bit fuzzier than others. They breathe. They have heads with eyes, mouths, antennae. It’s a pretty neat animal. When you look at it, there’s nothing about a caterpillar that looks incomplete, that looks like it’s somehow unfinished. But the amazing part is that somehow in the final stage of that caterpillar’s growth process, it will hang upside down from a twig or a branch. It molts one last time, and its skin splits off and falls away. Under that skin, there’s a covering that hardens. It’s called a chrysalis. A caterpillar hangs inside of that hard shell for about ten days, or if it’s late in the year sometimes it’ll actually stay in the shell over the entire winter. But at the end of that time period, the insect begins to open that chrysalis. It struggles its way out. It pumps fluid into its tiny new wings, and what emerges from that hanging shell is a butterfly, with large wings that don’t even look like they could fit back into that little shell, that chrysalis. And that butterfly is soon ready to fly. It’s soon ready to live that former caterpillar’s second life.

When it was in that chrysalis, it’s really amazing trying to figure out what happens. That caterpillar’s organs, its tissues, are all reorganized. The butterfly that comes out of that is much different than the caterpillar it was when it started out. The butterfly lifestyle is so much different than the caterpillar lifestyle. The butterfly doesn’t have to crawl from leaf to leaf. It has wings. It can fly.

Well God has also designed you. He has designed me. He has designed us to have two different lives. Not as a caterpillar and a butterfly –that would be kind of weird, but as a physical human being and as a spirit being. The fate of our second life is tied to the outcome of our first life. We need to live our first life in such a way that we can enjoy that second life that God has offered us. Now, if we live our life as caterpillars thinking that we’ll never be more than just caterpillars, we might miss out on the possibility of becoming beautiful butterflies. We might only experience what it’s like to crawl, when our creator has planned for us to fly.

So how should we live this life? We need to live this first life that we have been given in such a way that we don’t miss out on that second life that God has in store for us. It is possible to live this first life in such a way that we could be resurrected to condemnation, but it’s also possible to live this first life in such a way that we can be resurrected to spiritual life. So how should we live this caterpillar existence that we’re in? We need to live it in such a way that we don’t jeopardize the transformation into butterflies, and sometimes that means that we have to make hard choices. That’s what I want to come back to.

The concept I want to expound on in the rest of this sermon is the concept that’s called deferred gratification, or delayed gratification. That’s what I’ve titled this sermon: deferred gratification. That’s a concept where sometimes we give up things for the present because we know that doing so will result in better things in the future. We go back to the psychology experiment that I discussed, with the cookies. The children could choose: they could eat their one cookie now, with no future reward – that’s fine, or they could choose to forgo that reward, they could defer their gratification for a while and get two cookies later.

This is a principle that we see over and over in our Christian lives, don’t we? It’s something that’s a strong temptation for young people. When they’re trying to decide whether they want to commit their lives to God’s way, whether they want to commit their lives to God’s church, or whether they want to turn their backs on Him, and whether they want to take their chances in the world. Because no doubt about it, most of us here, we would probably be in different places today if we hadn’t responded to God’s calling. We might have taken different careers. We might have married different people. We might have been making a different salary. We might have had better relationships with some of our extended families. Who can say what things some of us have given up in this life because we have faith in God’s word?

We have faith that after death there is a resurrection – that there is a resurrection to eternal life. We believe that, but can we be successful in this life by rejecting God? Can we be successful in this life by rejecting God? We certainly can. People prove that every day. You don’t have to look very far. There are a lot of successful atheists. There are a lot of successful agnostics. There are so many people who live happy, fulfilling lives in this world. And I’m sure you personally know quite a number of them – people throughout our communities who eat, drink, and be merry; people who are maybe even devoted to their families, good parents, have good jobs, and do a good job there; people who are good citizens and good friends of ours, and that’s what a lot of young people see. A lot of young people see that success when they’re wrestling with whether it’s really worth it to walk according to the Spirit when they can have what often appears to be a higher level of success and happiness in this life by walking according to the flesh.

Well, until those 15 minutes have expired and the psychologist reenters the room where the child is sitting to see whether they qualify for two cookies. Let’s look at that situation. The little kid who dismissed the future and cared only about the present situation, their tummy was feeling pretty good. They had enjoyed tasting that treat. Their mouth was probably still full of a little bit of chocolate flavor – not so bad. But the person who waited for the future, who held off of partaking in that treat, they still had nothing except their faith. And sometimes while we’re waiting, that faith doesn’t seem as strong as we wish it felt, does it? When we stay within the church, when we make a choice to live our lives with godly priorities, we have to give up some things, don’t we?

Let’s turn to Matthew 19:28-29. Matthew 19:28. We have to give up some things in this life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying we have to give up all things, that we have to live a life of completely denying the flesh, but we do need to give up those things that get in the way of us fulfilling our purpose. We need to give up those things that just make us fatter, happier caterpillars and could have tragic consequences for our transformation into butterflies.

Matthew 19:28 – So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, -now, this regeneration is the time when we’re resurrected, when we’re brought out of the grave to begin our second lives. He says, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Matthew 19:29 – And everyone  –now He’s talking about us now- and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.

Look at what people have left. They have left a lot of things that are dear to them. They have left houses. They have left their close families. They have left their lands. Maybe they have had to move to escape persecution. These people who Christ describes left these things by making a choice. These things weren’t necessarily stripped from them or taken away from them. These people chose to leave these things because it says here that they left them ‘for My name’s sake’. They gave up those things. They deferred their gratification in this life for the sake of Christ’s name, for obeying Him. Are those people going to be rewarded? It says here that they should receive a hundredfold, a hundred times the amount that they have given up. This isn’t just giving up one cookie for a while so I can get a second one. This is giving up one cookie for a while so I can get a hundred! More than I can possibly eat without going into a sugar coma. This is the principle of deferred gratification.

Sometimes when we look at that, the only part of that principle that seems real to us right now is the waiting, is the delay, but there is also a gratification that’s promised. Christ has promised us a hundredfold for everything that we give up for His sake, if we’re patient. We have to be patient.

Let’s turn to 1 John 2:15. John writes here:

1 John 2:15 – Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

We are to be strangers and pilgrims in this world. The things that we should cherish, the things that we should long for should be those things that come from God, not those things that come from man.

1 John 2:16 – For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.

But what does it say of the world in verse 17?

1 John 2:17 – And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

The caterpillar stage of life ends once we enter the chrysalis. As Solomon wrote in a passage we read earlier in Ecclesiastes 2:16, all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. So whatever success we might achieve in this life, whatever treasure we might amass on this Earth, is all vanity. It’s grasping at the wind. It doesn’t say that ‘some things are going to be forgotten in the days to come’. It says that ‘all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come’. When that day is, I can’t tell you, but if you want to be around in those days to come, if we want to experience eternal life, we need to make the right choices now. We have to have the right priorities now.

Let’s turn to 2 Corinthians 4:16. Making the right choices, choosing to live for the future instead of living for the present, can be difficult. It’s not an easy thing for us to go against society sometimes, but Paul offers us some encouragement here in 2 Corinthians 4:16, he writes:

2 Corinthians 4:16 – Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

2 Corinthians 4:17 – For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

So in the grand scheme of things, the troubles of this life, as hard as they seem, day after day, are momentary. They will not be remembered forever. There is an end to them. Picture a balance scale here. Paul compares the light affliction that we have to an exceeding weight of glory, so the glory weighs exceedingly more than any affliction that we will go through. So even if this affliction that you’re experiencing feels really heavy, remember that the glory that is to come is so many more times greater that even the affliction you’re experiencing. Continuing here in 2 Corinthians 4:18:

2 Corinthians 4:18 – while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

It’s a vain exercise if we focus only on something that is temporary. Esau came in from the field, and he was hungry. He focused on what was seen; he needed some food. But Jacob would only share the food he had made on the condition that Esau sold his birthright to him. Esau went for that cookie that was sitting in front of him. He looked at the things that were seen. He didn’t look at the things which were unseen. The birthright didn’t have any relevance to him at that time because he felt that if he didn’t eat something right away, that birthright wouldn’t have been any use to him anyway. But the birthright did affect him. It affected him and all the generations that came after him. And he knew that as the son of Isaac, the birthright was the key to maintaining God’s favor, but Esau let himself be swayed by the lusts of the flesh. If he had deferred his gratification, things might have turned out differently for him and his descendants.

Let’s turn to Ephesians 2:1. I’d like to look at what Paul wrote here.

Ephesians 2:1 – And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Ephesians 2:2 – in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

Ephesians 2:3 – among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

We’ve all walked in the world’s ways. We haven’t always put God’s ways first in our lives. We haven’t always been guided by God’s spirit. Before our conversion, we lived like everyone else. Like most humans, we fulfilled the desired of the flesh and of the mind. We were dead in our trespasses. We were caterpillars who were likely to die as caterpillars.

Ephesians 2:4 – But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

Ephesians 2:5 – even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Ephesians 2:6 – and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:7 – that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8 – For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

Ephesians 2:9 – not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God has planned for us to sit together in the heavenly places. We are going to experience a new dimension, a spiritual dimension.

A butterfly emerges into a new world, not just a two dimensional world of crawling, but a three dimensional world of flight. When we are raised incorruptible, we will be spirit through the riches of God’s grace. Paul also writes that we are God’s workmanship. We were created for good works, and we should walk in those good works. Our life is not our own. We have a creator who designed us as a craftsman. We have a creator who created you to walk in good works, to walk to please Him and not yourself. That walk involves many choices where we have to rely on deferred gratification – the hope of things not yet seen. We have to keep making choices every day.

Do you find yourself pulled in directions where you’re being asked to or tempted to compromise with what you believe is right? Are you being tempted to get wrapped up and involved in the affairs of this life in such a way that you might put at risk the second life that God has offered you once you’re resurrected? Or maybe you’re someone who hasn’t yet made a commitment to walk according to the spirit. Maybe you’re somebody who is still on the fence, trying to decide whether being a part of the church, whether being a part of the body of Christ is really going to be worth it. Maybe you’re tempted by the possible material benefits that you might have to give up in your life if you choose to follow God’s way.

But God isn’t just offering us another marshmallow or another cookie. He isn’t even offering us a hundred marshmallows or a hundred cookies. He is offering us eternal life in His kingdom. We can turn our backs on His way now, and we can have what we may consider a successful life in this age, but by turning our backs on Him, this successful life will be the only life that we have.

In Matthew 10:39 Jesus Christ said, “he who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Jesus Christ says that we need to lose our life for His sake. That means putting an end to our selfishness, putting an end to our lusts and trying to live our lives according to the flesh. To find our lives we need to lose our lives for His sake. We need to yield our choices. We need to yield our stubbornness and our worldly ambitions to whatever His will is for us.

I’d like to turn to Philippians 3 and look at verses 12-14.

Philippians 3:12 – Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Christ has laid hold of us. God has called us for a purpose, and we must lay hold of that purpose, too. We must press on to the goal that is set before us.

Philippians 3:13 – Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

Philippians 3:14 – I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Our choices should bring us toward the goal. Our choices should take us toward the prize, the calling of God. Let’s forget those things which are behind, those things that are going to pass away with this world. Let’s not be afraid to say “No” to the lifestyle of immediate gratification that our human nature wants to have so desperately. Let’s strive to walk according to the Spirit.

Let’s conclude with Romans 8:18. Because God has promised that whatever we give up in this life for His name’s sake, we will receive a reward that is a hundred times greater that whatever it is that we have given up. God has given us a principle of deferred gratification. He has promised to resurrect us to eternal life as His children.

Romans 8:18 – For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

We have something better than two cookies waiting for us in the future. We have the offer of a second life as a spirit being and child of God. We have no way to even comprehend the glory of that future promise or what it will be like, but let’s put our faith, and let’s put our confidence in the God who created us, and let’s commit our lives and our choices to Him.