The Rewards Of Faithfulness

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.