Sermon for Sunday October 28th, 2007

THE REWARDS OF FAITHFULNESS by Bruce Ball

John 14:15-14:16


In the last couple of weeks, I have been talking about the sin in our lives. I have said that just because we are find with sin, does not mean God is fine with it. I said that we tend to look at what we are doing and think it isn’t all that bad, or that God is a loving God and He will forgive us.

We are like the little boy who prayed, “God if you can’t make me sin less, that is okay because I am having a really good time the way I am.” Sometimes, we get so focused on what we want to do; we overlook how wrong it is. And then, we start believing that what we are doing isn’t all that bad, or that God will understand.

I reminded you last week that what we are doing actually IS that bad, and what God understands is that we have chosen to sin over following Him. And let me say this quickly to those who might be keeping a sin in your life rather than giving it up:

God says get rid of the sin in our lives. If we take it upon ourselves to keep it, for any reason, we are refusing to obey His commands. If we refuse to obey His commands, our future will be in hell.

That sounds very harsh and we don’t like hearing it, but it is the truth of God, no matter how much we might want to whitewash it. As my dad used to say, “There will come a day when we receive our just rewards, whether they be good or bad.”

We need to be like the young man whose father tried his best to make him keep his room clean as he was growing up. Many times the father would tell him to clean it up, and would have to follow it up by telling the boy, “Now!” And even then the boy procrastinated.

The boy joined the military after he graduated high school. When he came home from boot camp, he told his dad that he found out what “Now” really meant. It may have taken some time, but the boy finally understood. And we need to have that same understanding about how serious it is to keep doing the things we are doing, knowing God doesn’t want us to.

Picture Jesus standing beside you in your living room. He looks at you and tells you to get rid of the sin in your life, and then follows that up with a stern “Now!” Would you obey or would you disobey? If you say you would obey Him, ask yourself why you are still allowing sin in your life. The answer to that is what I said last week: If we have convinced ourselves that our sin is okay, then we have also convinced ourselves that God is okay with it, too.

But as much as we need to be aware of how much God hates the disobedience in our lives, and that disobedience will bring us punishment, we also need to see the flip side to that. We need to realize that God promises us distinct rewards if we are faithful to His Son and obey the commands.

A survey was done several years ago, where a group of people was asked one question: “What three words would you most like to hear someone say to you?”

The top three answers, in this order were:
· I love you
· I want you
· Supper is ready

I think that pretty well sums up our human needs. We want someone to love us, we want someone to want us, and we need to be fed. And there is only one place we can get all three of these needs met to the fullest degree. That is in God.

God loves us because He created us. God established the plan of salvation because He wants us to be with Him. And God feeds us, physically and spiritually.

We all want to be rewarded, and God offers us many rewards, but to receive them we must do something. That something is; be obedient.

I want to talk about three things this morning: What leads up to rewards, how we qualify for them, and what the rewards will be.


1. WHAT LEADS UP TO GODLY REWARDS?

John said, ‘What manner of love is this?’ The word “manner” literally means “out of this world.” In other words, God loves us with a foreign love; a love we cannot understand. God says His ways are not our ways, and His ways are higher than our ways. So is His love.

I can only describe it by telling you how much one grandfather loved his little grandson. He was visiting his daughter one day and the baby was in the playpen. When he saw grandpa, he wanted to get out of the playpen, but the mother wouldn’t let him. So he began to cry.

The grandfather had so much compassion for the baby that he couldn’t stand to see the little one cry, so he crawled in the playpen to be with the baby.

We are sinful creatures and therefore, are unable to approach God. And because of that sin, we could never be with God. But He loved us with a love so great, He did what the grandfather did; He came to be with us. He sent His Son, in the form of man, to be with us and to offer us the only plan of reconciliation – a belief in Jesus Christ.

JOHN 3:16 tells us,

‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not die, but have eternal life.’

Do you love your spouse, or your relatives? You would say you do, but if I were to ask you to sacrifice your child for them, you would think I was crazy! How could God have given the life of His child for us? He did that because He loves us with a love that is so great we cannot begin to comprehend.

And it is His love that brings forth rewards for being faithful to Him. Let’s read how God explains it.

ISAIAH 54:10

‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you.’

God’s first reward to us His everlasting love and the protection that love gives us. Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love being patient. Kindness is love caring. Faithfulness is love being shown to God. Self-control is when we love another enough to sacrifice what we want for what they want or need.

Talking about sacrifice, how many of us are willing to sacrifice the results of winning an argument with our spouses – just to make peace? How many of us are willing to give up a parking space on a rainy day – just so somebody else doesn’t have to get wet? If we are filled with the love of Christ, we would do these things gladly, but when we are filled with the love of self, we will not.

Jesus said greater love has no one than one who lays down his life for a friend. How many of us would be willing to die for somebody? We need to really understand that is what Jesus did for us. He sacrificed His life upon a cross, so His friends wouldn’t have to.

So what makes it possible for us to receive rewards from God is His love for us. That is something we do not deserve, we cannot earn, and we cannot buy. It is given to us freely, by His choice. But to receive the many blessings it offers us, we must do one thing: Love Him through His Son, willingly and completely.

So now we know what leads up to God offering us rewards, but ...


2. WHAT MUST WE DO TO RECEIVE THE REWARDS?

I was at the mall a couple of years ago, trying to look for a couple of last minute Christmas presents. While I was there, I overheard a boy of about six-years old tell his father he wanted to go see Santa Claus. The father explained to his young son that he was too old to believe in Santa Claus.

The boy argued back that he HAD to believe in him. When the father asked why, the boy said, “If I don’t believe in him, I won’t get any Christmas presents.”

How can we receive any blessings if we do not believe in the One who gives us those blessings? Last week, I said that just acknowledging the Lord is not good enough. We can acknowledge Him all day long, but if we do not believe in Him enough to let Him rule our lives, it does us no good, and we become like that little boy. If we don’t believe in Him, we will not get any of His gifts.

If we want to receive blessings from God, we must have a belief that is so strong that it literally lets us reach out and receive those gifts. But we must remember that all these things are born out of love. The love God has for us, and the love He wants us to give back to Him and to share with others.

We must learn how to love. We say we love our cars, our jobs, our homes, etc., but do we really? We might like them, but would we be willing to sacrifice for them? We are only called to love the Lord our God, and other people.

We see how much we are to love the Lord in MATTHEW 22:37.

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

We are to love the Lord. But just how do we love the Lord, since our love is not the same as the Lord’s? He tells us how to love Him.

JOHN 14:15 says,

‘If you love me, you will obey what I command.’

We do not love the Lord by keeping sin in our lives, or by refusing to obey His commands. If He says don’t do something, and we do it, we are willfully thumbing our nose at Him, and there is no excuse we can come up with that will make it acceptable come Judgment Day.

If we love Jesus, we will sacrifice what we want for what He wants. If He sacrificed His life for us, the least we can do is live our lives for Him.

There was a man who saw a sign in a business window. It said, “Cruises. $100.” He had the money to pay for it, and he wanted to go on a cruise, so he walked in and put his $100. down on the counter. Instantly, he was hit on the head and knocked out.

When he awoke, he found himself tied to a log, floating down the river. About that time, another man who was tied to a log floated down beside him. The other man asked, “Do they serve dinner on these cruises?”

The first man answered, “They didn’t last year!”

It is one thing to not know. It is another to know and not learn. You know what it takes to live for Jesus. It takes your getting rid of the sin in your life. As I said last week, there is no such thing as forgiveness for a sin you refuse to repent from.

But if you do repent; if you do oust the sin; you are showing your love for Jesus, and that is when start receiving the promised gifts.

So far we have found out that God’s love for us establishes the basis for our rewards, and our obedience to Him through Jesus is what we must do to get the rewards. Now you know. Learn this well.

We are now ready to find out …


3. WHAT THE REWARDS WILL BE

When people look at a Christian, they should see someone who is living the blessed life. Now, I am not talking the material life. I am talking about the blessed life. Yet, most Christians have never put on the outward clothing of a blessed believer.

I am talking about being seen as one who has been blessed by the Almighty. I am talking about living your life in such a way that people know you are a Christian without even having to ask.

And, as I said last week, people will see who you really are by the way you live, and the things you do and say. If you claim to be a Christian, and you try to put Jesus first in all you do, people will see it without a word having to be said. But if you claim to be a Christian while living the life of a sinner, people will see through your self-deception and lies, and they judge you according to the truth of your life.

So, to receive His blessings, we must follow the King.

EPHESIANS 1:3 state,

‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.’

"Who has blessed" ... past tense. God says He has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven, and I take Him at His word and believe everything He says. He says what He means, He means what He says, and He never errs in His choice of words.

In JOHN 14:16, Jesus promises a gift to those who are obedient.

‘I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.’

Now before I go any further, let me reiterate that the blessings God gives you will be spiritual in nature. You might live here on earth as a king or as a pauper, but if you are submitted to Jesus Christ, you will be rich in spiritual blessings.

The Beatitudes in MATTHEW 5 tell us of wonderful blessings and rewards.

I am not going to cover every verse in this passage, but I want to cover enough to show you that God has blessed us with everything we need.

Verse 3 says – blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The poor in spirit are those who have humbled their hearts to Christ, and have made a decision to live for Him, not for themselves.

Verse 4 says – blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. The reward for our being faithful to Jesus is that He will be with us through all of our problems.

He may not take the problems away, but He will change us so that we will be able to get through them unscathed. For those of you who have had serious problems in your life, you realize just how much of a reward and blessing that is.

Verse 5 says – Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Meek means to bow down in submissiveness to the Lord God. We tend to think of meek as being cowardly or weak. If you think meek means weak, try being meek for a week.

Verse 7 says – blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. You have heard the expression, “What goes around, comes around.” That is what we find here. When you show mercy on someone for what they have done, God will likewise show mercy on you for what you have done.

Verse 8 says – blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The only way your heart can be pure is if you purge the sin in your life and start doing everything you can to live for Jesus; to start being obedient to Him.

What is the opposite of that? If you refuse to get rid of the sin in your life, you do not have a pure heart. And if you do not have a pure heart … will you see God?

Verse 9 – blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. I talked about this a few minutes ago when I asked if we had ever considered sacrificing being the winner of an argument, for the sake of peace?

My dad used to tell us boys that it never hurts to apologize, even when we think we are right – as long as you don’t compromise any Godly principle by doing so. He said that when we apologize, we make peace, and with peace, there can be reconciliation. My dad was a very smart man.

Verses 10, 11, 12 – talk about how you will be reviled and persecuted for Jesus’ sake. It says those who are persecuted for His sake will go to Heaven.

We have been talking about the rewards of God. I told you that His rewards are spiritual in nature. I have just listed several rewards that our faithfulness through Christ will bring to us.

But I also want to say that God rewards us here in this life, too. God has made you materially rich, whether you realize it or not. You say you have a car payment, a house payment, and you aren’t making what you once did, and things are tight. But I tell you that He has rewarded you with exceeding abundance. Let me explain.

In Mexico, the poverty level is earning $4.00 per day. I know their cost of living is much less than ours, but any way you cut it, $4.00 a day is not very much money. Now, try to imagine what it is like for all those who are living under the poverty level.

Did you know that you have much, much more than the richest of men had just 100 years ago? And the poorest of Americans have more than the average citizen in almost every other country on earth.

Now even though God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms, He has also seen to it that we have been blessed by living in this country at this time. But we tend to overlook that reward because we are looking for at the problems.


(ILLUSTRATION: Have a piece of paper with a black dot in the middle of it.)

Holding the paper up, showing it to the congregation, ask, “What do you see?” Invariably, someone will say they see a black dot.

Now ask what else they see. They will always say, “Nothing.”

Tell them that they are so focused on the little black dot; they have forgotten to see the paper the dot is drawn on.

Explain to them that is how we look at our lives in general. Our problems are like that small black dot, and our rewards and blessings are like the larger sheet of paper.

Yet, we concentrate so much on the small problems in our life, we all but forget to look at the larger blessings and rewards God has already given us. And because we don’t recognize them, we do without them.


God wants us to worship Him in all we do.

A man went to work one day and one of his co-workers asked him how it was going. He replied that he was terribly burdened. The co-worker told him that he seemed happy, not burdened.

The man said he was burdened by all the blessings God had given him, because he had no place to put them all.

That same principle is applied to our giving of tithes to the Lord, as stated in MALACHI, chapter 3, and that principle threads itself through the entire Bible. If we give to God, He will give to us. In MATTHEW, it is written that if we draw closer to God, He will draw closer to us.

Are you giving worship to God with the way you live your life? Are you receiving all the rewards from God that you would like? If the answer to either one of these questions is “No”, then I have some very good advice for you: Start getting serious about your walk with Christ, and God will start getting serious about you.

You have troubles in your life for the same reason you see very little of God’s rewards. You have not turned your life over to Him. You have not made the decision to live like you are a child of God.

You suffer a lack of peace in your life because you do not understand that all you have to do is just get rid of the sin in your life and start walking the walk of a serious Christian instead of just talking the talk of one who is only half-heartedly trying to be a Christian.

We have many rewards available to us from our Heavenly Father, but there is one that is better than all the rest. I am talking about the love He has for us that would allow Him to literally hand His Son over to the hate of this world – all so that you and I don’t have to go through it ourselves.

If you were downtown and you walked into the middle of a robbery, what would you feel like if the robber started to shoot you, but someone else jumped in the way and took the bullet for you?

You would spend the rest of your life praising him, wouldn’t you? But when someone was willing to be hanged on the cross for us, what do we do? All too often, we ignore Him and refuse to think about Him, much less praise Him.

There was a man who was taken to court and was fined $100.00. He pleaded with the judge, saying he was unemployed and had an invalid wife at home with five small children. He gave such a heart-wrenching story; the rest of the people in the courtroom took up a quick collection to help this man out. Even the judge chipped in.

When they had collected everything, they counted it and it only came up to $99.95. They were five cents short. The judge, doing the job he was hired to do, told the man he was unable to pay the fine so he must go to jail.

As the guards were leading him away, he put his hand in his pocket and found a nickel. He ran back to the judge and said, “Here is the nickel, Judge. Now I am free!”

In the man’s mind, what was it that set him free? Was it the $99.95 or the nickel? He was totally focused on that nickel, wasn’t he? To him, that nickel was his saving grace. And for months afterwards, he boasted to friends how he had found that nickel and it set him free.

We are like that man. If we received the rewards from God because of something we did, we would do nothing but boast about what we had done, and we would forget all about what God had done.

By our receiving what we clearly do not deserve, we have no room to boast. All we have room for is to bow down in humble thanksgiving to our Lord and Savior. After all, it was He who paid the fine for us. And He paid it in full, because we could not.

You have to make a decision. You know what decision I am talking about. What are you going to do today? Are you going to make that decision this morning, or are you going to put it off once again?

Are you going to change to please Jesus, or are you content to stay the same, reaping the just rewards for your actions?

Which decision are your making in your heart right now?