Living for Eternal Rewards: A Call to Commitment

what God is wanting you and me and us to do is to live in light of the future not only in light of the now when you go to college they ask you what is your major that's going to affect the length of time you invest it's going to affect things once you make that long-term decision once you decide you want maximum reward and Glory it's going to affect choices in time Matthew 6: 19- 21 it tells us to store up Treasures in Heaven [00:00:03]

you can know the difference between the maturity or immaturity of a child and the maturity of a parent because children only live for the now all they're concerned about is now any if you have children that think money grows on trees they don't talk to you about saving they don't talk to you about investing they don't talk to you about 401s or 403bs and they don't they don't get into all of that because they want what they want now [00:45:48]

but as you mature as you grow in understanding of life you understand that a good portion of Life must be future oriented that's why you encourage them to go to school you you're encouraging them to be future oriented whether or not they like studying now you have a retirement fund or savings account because there is some part of your life that you understand must be future oriented [01:16:32]

he says I want to motivate you to live your life with a future orientation for the reward and here is the phrase of inheritance it is my hope that every head of household here has a will the reason you want a will is you want to control what you have accumulated and where it goes when you are no longer here because if you don't decide that somebody else will decide it for you or some system will decide it for you [01:47:64]

Paul calls God having an inheritance he calls it the reward of inheritance and he wants to incentivize you and me to get all that is in his will for you every believer is in God's Will and he wants to incentivize us to get the maximum reward that he has willed for every believer he wants to incentivize that uh Airlines want to incentivize travel so what do they have they have different levels of uh recognition for your relationship [03:10:84]

so God wants us to love him yes because of the price paid but he also wants us to pursue reward salvation is free rewards must be earned salvation is a gift but reward comes from work and so he speaks to Christians about pursuing their inheritance pursuing the reward Revelation 22:12 Jesus says I'm coming back and I am bringing my reward with me to reward every man according to what he has done [05:13:88]

so what God is wanting you and me and us to do is to live in light of the future not only in light of the now but to live now in light of the future when you go to college they ask you what is your major what do you want your major to be they're asking you a question about your future because once you say I want to be let's say a doctor you can't then say but I'm only going to go to school for four years [06:17:88]

once you decide you want maximum reward and Glory it's going to affect choices in time but if you don't have a great love and a high incentive for reward then you'll be satisfied to be a casual Christian to be a a nerdy well Christian you're going to just be satisfied to get to heaven but not get the benefits of heaven so what are some of these rewards what is God going to give you by way of reward [07:12:24]

those Christians who rise to the high level of commitment who gave God their all not perfectly because none of us is perfect but consistently wanted to serve Christ love Christ follow Christ and even when they fell short they bounce back to get in syn back with Christ these will be the celebrities of Heaven these will be the ones you recognize [08:20:03]

those Christians who have exceeded the norm will have a name and all the other Christians will point to oh did you see him did you see him did you see her look look look at that because God is going to give them Divine approval and celebrity recognition in John chapter 12 verse 26 Jesus says these words he says in John 12 verse 26 if anyone serves me he must follow me and where I am there my servant will be also [09:19:32]

if anyone serves me my father will honor him so your service to Christ will bring honor from God this is not something every believer gets this is something some Believers get because of their service for Christ there will become recognition I remember an incident when when I was at the National Religious broadcasters where people meet or do television or radio and we were at this annual event [10:05:76]

what would it look like in heaven if the king of the universe calls your name if Jesus says look at Jane or look at butch or look at bill or look at Betty CUA I know them y'all all here but I know them now he called my name because I had a relationship with him as Governor here in Texas he had been to the church numbers of times we had eaten dinner together numbers of times and so that relationship gave us a familiarity [11:37:56]