Read verses 5-7 and relate, then verse 8 for text.
1. Look to yourselves:
* Examine your own heart: Ask God to allow you to
see yourself as He sees you. Pr.3:5,"...lean not
unto thine own understanding."
* Take stock of your spiritual status: Realize your
maturity in God or the lack thereof.
* Make your election and calling sure: II Tim.1:12,
Paul tells timothy,"I know whom I have believed,
and am persauded that He is able to keep that
which I have committed unto Him against that
day."
* Realize this is an Individual responsibility: We
are accountable for our stewardship.
II Cor. 5:10,"For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ..."
2. Lose not those things that we have wrought:
* This has nothing to do with Salvation: Eph. 2:8-9,
"For by grace are you saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:not
of works, lest any man should boast."
Titus 3:5, "But according to His mercy He saved
us..." It is all by the finished work of The Lord
Jesus Christ on Calvary. We didn’t have anything
to do with it! Praise God, I’m glad I didn’t have
anything to do with it, because when I’m involved
in things, they can go wrong!
* Stewardship not Redemption: We are redeemed by
the Blood Covenant, the free gift of God.
Redemption has nothing to do with Stewardship.
Stewardship is the opportunity given us as the
result of Redemption. Its not how much we
do...but how we render it to God. Jesus gives the
example of a cup of water given in His name or in
the name of a prophet, shall not in no wise lose
its reward. James 4:17, "..to him that knoweth to
do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
We are Saved to Serve!
3. But that we receive a full reward:
* Reward consist of three levels: Full, Partial,
and Loss of Reward.
Full Reward: Consistent, I Cor. 10:31, Serving
Faithfully. Col. 3:17, "whatsoever ye do in word
or deed, do all in the name of the lord Jesus.
Consecrated: (set apart) Loving God with a full
heart. Fruitful: Ps.126:6, "..he shall come
rejoicing bringing in his sheaves." Jn.15:2,"and
evey branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it,
that it may bring forth more fruit."
* Partial Reward: Is when the believer is
spiritually unmatured, they have not grown in the
knowledge of the truth as God intended for them
too. They have not given God all the glory...We
are to let not the left hand know what the right
hand doeth.
* Loss of Reward:
This is for Unfaithful Stewardship; not doing
what God wanted us to do, and not giving Him all
the glory for what He’s done. Sometimes "we" keep
some of the acknowledged right of what He’s done
as if we did it. I Cor. 3:15, "If any man’s works
shall be burned, he shall suffer loss." This loss
of reward is also of being more carnal than
spiritual: the stewardship is as wood, hay, and
stubble. And because sometimes we are cold and
indifferent.
Conclusion:
To receive a Full Reward, God wants:
Our Hearts-yielded unreservedly to Him.
Our Love-all of it, Duet.6:5
Our Members-as instruments of Righteousness,
Rom.6:11-13.
Our Bodies-as a living sacrifice, Rom.12:1
