Sunday Morning Podcast November 29, 2015. Bro. Dave Goble.
TEXT:MATTHEW 5:12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
LUKE 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.
MATTHEW 6:1 Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
There is an eternal reward, for either heaven, or hell. Our reward will be according to the life we have lived in this world. The steps that gain us a reward for heaven, will not be based in pride, but instead from a humble heart. We live in a time, where people don’t often talk about eternal rewards, good or bad. It is hard for some to think and realize of a literal hell, that awaits with an eternity devoid of God, for the disobedient. It is far more encouraging to think about a Heaven that awaits the fully obedient and faithful. When fleshly, and not spiritual thoughts and desires are allowed to dominate our life, ..it leads to spiritual confusion. Thankfully, God inspired biblical scholars, to write about heaven and hell, about eternal destinations to gain, or to lose. The results of how you apply it, will have a lot to do with how you are living your life today.
In this scripture, Matthew 25:31-40, there is a clear definition of the judgment that will take place. God depicts the obedient as sheep, and He likens the disobedient as goats. If we live the obedient life, reaching out to all those in need with a godly love, we will be rewarded an eternity with Jesus in heaven. If one lives disobediently, inattentive to the lives around us that are in need, Christ describes us as goats, with a destination of hell. Jesus points out that as we treat others, so we treat Him. He teaches the need to love others as our own self. We will be measured by God, of how we choose to live, whether on God’s holy highway, or that of the broad ways of this sinful world, religious or not.
Our spiritual choices or decisions must not depend on what we personally think, or have been taught. It must be based only on what God’s word actually teaches. It must be founded in God’s Will. Have we cared so much for others, that we actually were burdened for where they might spend eternity? Jesus has given us an example in all of these things. To inherit the eternal reward of heaven, we need to invest all we have spiritually, clinging close to His side. “Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they might lay hold on eternal life.” I Timothy 6:19 Are you laying up in store, good things for the coming times, that lead to eternity? To allow sin to conquer your life, is to inherit the rewards of hell. To submit to all God would lead you to, gains you the rewards of the obedient, and an eternal reward in heaven.
The way of the sheep (obedience), is the way of rejoicing, and the reward of heaven. Eternal Rewards…. Heaven or Hell?