THREE REWARDS

Matthew 6:1-4 (CSB) - “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Otherwise, you have no reward with your Father in heaven. So whenever you give to the poor, don’t sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be applauded by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you give to the poor, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Yesterday, we saw where Jesus taught about our heart motives for giving. We are to give our gifts Sincerely and Secretly, and God will reward us openly. Today we are going to consider the results of doing this.

Everywhere I look people offer me rewards if I buy this or shop at their store, or buy gas at certain gas stations. I am rewarded on my credit card if I buy a certain amount using their card. People at the Grocery Store ask me “Do you have a Rewards Card?” How about all the buy one get one free ads?

Then we see that God also has a rewards program. When I first thought about this, somehow that seemed wrong to me. I mean, surely heaven is enough reward and besides if all sin is regarded as the same and deserving of hell, how can good deeds then be rated on a scale, and rewarded accordingly? Yet Matthew 6:1 says “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, FOR YOU WILL LOSE THE REWARD from your Father in heaven. “

But what was Christ’s view of the reward factor? When Jesus spoke of reward he was definitely not speaking of material rewards. The first of the Christian rewards is Satisfaction. Doing the right things, following Christ, pursuing goodness, seeking after Godliness, whatever else these may or may not bring they will bring satisfaction.

The second reward of Christianity is a paradox because it is more work to do. After a job well done the Christian reward is not rest and comfort and ease, at least not in this life. Instead, it is more work, greater demands, more strenuous endeavors, larger challenges. The rest will come, but as long as we tread this terrestrial ball there is still work to be done. Lives to touch, grief to address, souls to be saved. While we breathe in this body, God has work for us to do.

Our third reward then is a vision of God, that final rest. All of heaven, the streets of gold, the pearly gates the mansions, the crystal sea all of those things will dim in our eyes when we see God. And we will look forward to seeing him because through our Christian experience we will have walked with him and talked with him. We will go from faith to sight.

There’s a television ad during football games sometimes that features an athlete running up the steps of an empty stadium. No one is watching, but he’s really sweating and grinding it out in discipline. The ad points out that he’s going through all that hard work so that he can receive the reward of winning on the weekend.

God asks us to discipline our lives, to deny self and take up the cross so that we can be true disciples of Jesus Christ. He promises that, while we’re saved by grace and not works, we are going to be rewarded for our works.

We will be rewarded in Heaven for what we do here, and then when we stand before Jesus, we will be like the twenty-four elders of Revelation 4:10-11 “the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever, they lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will, they were created and have their being.”

Jesus is helping us to see that God sees everything we do – and the motive of our heart for doing it. It should cause fear to rise up in our hearts that God is seeing everything – all the visible and invisible that we do. But it should also excite us to the truth of receiving rewards from Him in Heaven.

So, He gave us the Rules: give Sincerely and Secretly.

He describes the Reward: Openly acknowledged by the Father.

That is what it is all about, laying our rewards down at the feet of Jesus because he deserves the glory and praise for it because, without Him in us, none of us would be good or do good, it is just not in us.

Finally tomorrow, we will see the Reality of giving.