Open your Bibles to I John 4:19.

Last week we opened this series with “Is It Worth It?” and I gave examples of an athlete, a junior executive and a student, working hard, determined to reach their goals. In the athlete example, I used the Olympic games and how an athlete strives to win the gold. Once an athlete stands on the platform with the gold around his neck, do you think that athlete wondered if it was worth the effort? Of course, it was worth it! Then I asked at the end of the message, if you think eternal rewards are going to be worth it? The rewards are far greater. We cannot even imagine how great the rewards will be, or even what they will be. For the most part, we only have a glimpse in scriptures exceeding any of our imaginations. I’m sure when we get there we can look back and say, “It sure was worth it!”

Now we will look in the scriptures for the purpose of rewards. I have mentioned that there’s plenty of teaching about eternal rewards in the New Testament. Old Testament rewards, with perhaps one exception, are temporal. Jesus kept teaching about eternal rewards, so what is the primary purpose for rewards to be handed out in glory? If you have never thought about it now is the time. This teaching has been neglected for far too long. For the life of me, I don’t understand why because there is so much information in the New Testament scriptures concerning eternal rewards.

Every human being needs motivation. We need motivation! I will repeat: every human being needs motivation. Now some need more than others, but I have never met a human being yet, starting with myself, who didn’t need motivation. I’m going slowly so you don’t misunderstand me. In the scriptures, rewards are God’s primary means of motivating us. You might be asking yourself why? It is simple—and you will see it as I lay it out—to obey Him. Now God rewards us in a variety of ways. He also motivates us in a variety of ways. Let’s look at three examples.

First, He motivates us by love. It amazes me that He keeps loving those He has chosen, no matter what. Even before we were chosen God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He keeps loving us and that should inspire our love for Him in return; and if we love Him scriptures tells us to keep His commandments. I’m not talking about the Ten Commandments. You know the commandments in the New Testament that I have referred to; the main two say we are to love God and love one another.

I John 4:19 reads, “We love him, because he first loved us.”

The same author writes in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

So, as I said, He motivates us by love and that should inspire us to love Him in return and

furthermore, if we love Him, He also commanded us to love others.

Secondly, He motivates us by fear. It’s not very comfortable to listen to and we might not like to hear it, but the Apostle Paul made it very clear that He motivates us by fear. We have been too II Corinthians 5 before, but let’s go to it again. We read and looked at verse 10 last week, but let’s read it before we get to verse 11,

“Knowing therefore the terror” could also be translated as fear. Knowing therefore to be put in fear of the Lord. Knowing therefore what? To keep it all in context, there is a judgment seat of Christ coming in verse 10 “that every one may receive the things done in his body”. This is where eternal rewards will be issued; therefore, we will give an account of what we did in the here and now, so Christ can reward us. Obviously, we are also going to hear things we might not like to hear, but there will also be good things if we have participated for His glory in proclaiming the Good News to others and sharing what God’s only begotten Son has done for mankind. Knowing therefore to be put in fear of the Lord—knowing we must be accountable for what we participated in—we then therefore persuade men. In other words, you don’t want to be left out. You are fearing that the Lord is going to tell you “Hey listen, you did nothing! You are here because my Son saved you, but you did nothing as a disciple.” Like I said, this has nothing to do with your salvation. This has everything to do with your obedience to Him in the way you participated as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

What does he mean by “I trust also are made manifest in your consciences”? We made known to you what we are about concerning Jesus Christ. Therefore, the things we have done to put us in the category as a recipient of rewards is what Paul is referring to here. God uses love to motivate us and He uses fear to motivate us. I’m just giving very brief examples.

Another example is: He motivates us by rewards. I believe rewards are one of the prime motivating forces in our lives. As I said earlier, He used a reward system in the Old Testament and except for one occasion that I can find, it was only a temporal reward plan. It was for the here and now if they would obey. There might be others, but here in Daniel 12:3 in the Old Testament, Daniel talks about the time of the end. Verse 3 reads,

Those who participate in turning many to righteousness will shine forever and ever, which in a sense is another reward. Righteousness in simple terms is basically being right with God which can only happen through His only begotten Son. There is no other way; no other god, no other system, no other religion.

Once again, even though this is the Old Testament, it is for a later time when all things are said and done. Everything else in the Old Testament is for the here and now in a temporal sense of rewards. Let’s just put it this way, they are earthly rewards, but a reward system is still in place whether it is temporal or eternal. You see, God uses it as a system of compensation—let’s just call it that for now—delivered to His people. God mentions it repeatedly. An example of what I’m referring to is in Deuteronomy 7.

Verse 12, “Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: And he will love thee, and [he will] bless thee, and [he will] multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.”

So basically, what the Lord is saying here is that He will compensate His people for the type and manner of life they live. He is rewarding His people for the here and now—which are earthly temporal rewards—but it is still the same biblical principle in either the Old or New Testaments. One just happens to be earthly temporal rewards. The other type of reward that Jesus focused on, and what we should focus on, is eternal rewards. Throughout the gospel records Jesus through and through referred to this biblical principle. Look at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:11,

Verse 10, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward”— Where? He didn’t say here and now did He? He said— “in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

I have been to Matthew 6:19 many times,

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth [the earthly rewards], where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

These are just a few examples. The epistle record is filled with motivation by reward! Let’s go to a few of them. You are going to get a page turning exercise along with this rewards teaching, but it’s important that we cover these points as we lay down the framework.

Colossians 3:23, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.”

The word heartily in verse 23 literally means diligently from your soul. In modern terms we would say, put your heart into it so you can accomplish something. Do it diligently from your soul or put your heart into it so you can accomplish something, and as part of your inheritance you shall receive a reward.

Christians talk about needing to spread the gospel of grace, the Good News, worldwide but most Christians, most ministries and churches just spread it from church to church. That is all they do except for the few on television or radio and they butcher the salvation message. Not much is happening in reaching the lost of this world. What Paul is saying when he instructed Timothy is: “Put your heart into it and get behind what we are part of. We need to accomplish this—not just for the benefit of others—but also for our benefit.” The same message is in I Timothy 6, just said differently.

Verse 18, “They that do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate [basically sharing material things is what he is referring to here]; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation [the treasure]against the time to come…”

We heard Jesus say, “But lay up for yourselves treasures…” and now Paul is just reiterating that. Don’t tell me God doesn’t want to reward us. I just gave you a few examples, but I could have gone to other stories and parables.

“Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come…”

 

Why? So, you can enjoy it in full when you receive your inheritance. This is not isolated doctrine that’s tucked away in scripture where you can’t find it. It’s all over. It leaps out of the pages. The principle of eternal rewards is everywhere in the New Testament. I can hear some saying, “Well, isn’t that kind of selfish? You’re doing it for selfish motives. You’re obeying God so you get something out of it.” Now, I grant you rewards should be accompanied by other motives as well; for instance, our love for the Lord expressing our gratitude to Him for all the kindness, mercy and goodness He has shown and given to us. We should have a desire to bring Him glory which we know will give Him pleasure, but also as an act of obedience, because He has commanded us to do so. “Lay up your treasures” is not a suggestion, as I have said so many times. In the original it is a command. He is not giving you a choice and if you are His obedient disciple you are saying, “Yes Lord, I got it. I will put my heart into it to accomplish what you want me to—.” There is nothing wrong with doing something to receive a reward or else Christ would never have mentioned it.

Does anyone ever question an athlete (when he wins the prize or the tournament), why he is standing there receiving his trophy? You don’t say, “Well, that’s awful. He shouldn’t have done that. That is so selfish of him. How can he walk away with that trophy?” No, although it might get to that point with all the crazy lunacy these days, but that’s not how you perceive it. Neither should we question the rightness of a disciple of Jesus Christ wanting to win favor with his Lord. Would you? There is nothing wrong with it. If anything, it is a biblical principle and it should be one of our motives as we live out our life as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I’m sure as a little boy or girl you obeyed your parents. Let’s pick your father. Why did you obey him? Well, there could be several reasons. One, because you love him; two, you respect him; three, because you feared him. I have been there. I don’t know about you, but my parents believed in corporal punishment. If I needed it, they didn’t hold back and when I disobeyed, I received punishment. Looking back now, I think it wasn’t a bad idea because it was one of the motives of wanting to obey them, but there was also something else if you think about it. If I obeyed my parents and even my grandparents, I got to enjoy some of the privileges for being obedient. It used to irk me if I was disobedient. Not thinking at the time, because I was a dumb kid, I used to hate it when I lost my privileges because of my disobedience. So, if you think about it, fear, and everything else I have mentioned, is a perfectly acceptable motive. Wouldn’t you obey your heavenly Father for those same reasons? Obeying is going to earn some privileges.

So, what is the purpose for rewards. Let’s go back to where I started, and I will finish here before we move on in this teaching. The purpose for rewards is to serve as motivation to obey the Lord. Even Adam and Eve were motivated to obey the Lord. They were told what to do and what not to do. Along their journey they decided to disobey the Lord and they lost their privileges and the rewards they were receiving in Eden.

Now, there are other reasons why we should be motivated, but I think these are the big three and out of those three, love and obey should be the top two. If we are faithful and we don’t take our eyes off the prize, Christ wants to reward us. This is opinion, but I believe that He is going to be terribly disappointed once we are at the judgment seat of Christ giving an account of our life and He is not going to be able to give us His treasure chest of rewards. Once again, it is the messengers of God’s Word who should be delivering this important message. It should go side by side with giving because the primary way of receiving rewards in the scriptures is through your giving; giving of material things and time and talent.

Your eyes should be on the prize. You should be diligently pursuing with fervent passion to hear that great report, not just a good report, but a great report from the Lord “well done good and faithful servant” and I repeat I’m not preaching about salvation. I’m talking about the good works, the works of an obedient disciple who loves and fears the Lord, one who fears that others won’t hear the Good News that they should know. So, the purpose is to motivate us and hopefully I have motivated you to get on board with this biblical principle.

To be continued. . .

Copyright 2019 Faith Cometh By Hearing

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In 2 Corinthians 9:7 it reads, “God loveth a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is Hilaros which means when someone is prompt to do something, they are ready in mind, with a joyful heart. In the Septuagint it also means to cause to shine. Today I am looking for Hilaros Givers who are ready and full of joy for the opportunity to cause others to shine by hearing, learning, and growing in God’s Word. Join with us today and participate as a Hilaros Giver. If you wish to participate use the following link:http://www.teachingfaith.com/giving

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