And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

And so here we are. Five days of looking at the stewardship that will be reviewed, the God who is watching, the shrewdness that converts the temporary into the eternal, and the faithfulness that proves you can be trusted with what really matters. It all comes down to this. When you die, there will be a reception. And the question is... who will be there?

According to this passage, the people whose eternal destiny was affected by your stewardship will be at the gate. They will welcome you. The one whose life was forever transformed because you gave toward missions and the missionary was able to stay longer and reach the person he had been working so hard to win. The person who just needed to know that somebody cared, and you sowed a seed of love, and God sent someone else to harvest it. The student who desperately needed to go to camp, and you helped make it possible, and that very weekend they gave their life to God. Those people will be greeting you in heaven.

So here is the question right now. Who is going to be there? One? Five? A crowd? Or will you arrive by yourself with no one to welcome you but Jesus? How is it that we cannot go to Walmart without being greeted by someone we know, but when we get to heaven not a single person is at the gate? It is because we did not leave the 99. It is because we consumed the blessings instead of converting them. It is because we managed the Master's resources for our own comfort instead of transmuting them into something eternal.

See...this whole series has been about learning to leave the comforts and stability of the 99 in order to go find the one. And today Jesus gives us the ultimate reason to do it. Because nothing you experience with the 99 will go with you into eternity except the joy of bringing back the one. That is the only thing that crosses from this life into the next. Not the house, not the car, not the savings account, not the vacation. People. Just people.

Jesus said transmute the temporary into the eternal, and now you know what that means. It means take what will burn and convert it into what will last. It means stop asking how much you are gaining from God's resources and start asking how much God is gaining from what He gave you. It means look at your time, your money, your ability, your relationships and see them not as things to enjoy but as seeds to sow.

Just like a farmer who knows the harvest does not come from seed left in the barn, your welcome committee does not build itself. It is built by every conversation you had, every dollar you gave, every hour you spent, every risk you took to leave the 99 and go after the one. So start today. Start with one. Who is your one? Because building your welcome committee in heaven starts right here, right now, with one name and one step of obedience.

Transmute the temporary.
Invest in the eternal.
...and build your welcome committee.

Write down one name. Just one. Someone whose eternity could be affected by your willingness to invest in them. Pray over that name and then take one step today. Send a text, make a call, extend an invitation, share your story. You do not need a script. You just need a willing heart. The welcome committee starts with one.