Nuestra recompensa - Una vida servicio, Pt. 4

The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Therefore, go around the world teaching and preaching the gospel to every creature, to the last of the earth. En Contacto, the biblical teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Today on En Contacto, our reward. Salvation is not a reward for our services, but a free gift that God gives to everyone who trusts in Him as their personal Savior. And I'll say it again, because many people get confused about rewards. Salvation is not a reward that God has given us for our works, good conduct, or good behavior. Salvation is the result of the grace, kindness, and love of God for all those who put their faith in Him. Rewards are very important to God's eyes. In fact, when we start reading the Bible, we see how many verses there are in it that refer to our rewards. God never forgets our work. He does not overlook all the good we do for others. God is very interested in all that. And He is faithful to reward His children for their service. And when we think of servitude, and when we think of all the different ways in which we can serve Him, we must remember this, that our service is God who works through us, and does His work for us for His glory and honor. As we have said before, they are divine resources that meet the needs of loving channels. That is how the true ministry and service is produced. What about these rewards? God does not reward us for the service. Please join me in Hebrews chapter 6. This sixth chapter of Hebrews is a biblical passage that deals with those who put their trust in the Lord and then begin to move away and also to get lost. And the author of Hebrews gives them the severe warning that they should not follow.

And then he says in verse 10, he makes a very strong statement that all believers must remember, especially when we exhaust ourselves in serving the Lord. Listen to what he says in verse 10. Because God is not unjust to forget your work and the work of love that you have shown in His name, having served the saints and still serving them. Look at that. God is not unjust to forget your work and the work of love that you have shown in His name, which means to Him, because His name represents all that is, in His name, having served the saints and still serving them. We are in the series on service. And this is the fourth message of the series on service. And today's message is called Our Reward. That is, what about our rewards? How are they? What should we expect and what should we look for? So I will mention first, according to this passage, that this is undoubtedly an incredible message of confidence, that no work, no service or good conduct that we show will ever go unnoticed or ignored by God. I would like you to notice this. Not only does it make promises, but the very character of God is at stake in this aspect of rewards. You could say, well, His integrity is at stake because He makes a promise. And there are a couple of things you should notice. If God makes us a promise, that tells us about His interest, His love and His desire to reward us. When it says here, in verse 10, God is not unjust. Well, just the words just and also justified are equal words, and what they mean is just this. That God would not violate His own divine law. God is not unjust. If God were unjust, He would violate His own law. If God violated a single of His laws,

if He had violated a single, we would have reasons to doubt anything in the Bible, because we would not know if He would fulfill it or not. If He makes a single promise and does not fulfill it, how do I know that He will not fulfill the second promise and also the third? Or that He will fulfill the promise of eternal life, if He does not fulfill the promise of the things that affect His life and mine here and now? Thus, first, it says here that it is not unjust. That is, God's justice is at stake. His own character and attributes are related to our rewards. The second attribute that intervenes here is divine omniscience. That is, He knows everything at all times. He hears past, present and future. He knows everything at all times. Therefore, God has not really forgotten anything, and the only thing he says he forgets is only the sins that were against us, and therefore we can be before him at any time, and God does not tell us when we come to him, ìYes, I hear what you say, but I remember the things of which I have forgiven you.î No, that is, all those offenses are forgiven and forgotten. And when we think about the reward, God has made these promises of reward, yes, he says that by serving him we will be rewarded, and the final chapter of Revelation says, ìI bring my reward with me, which is a way in which we will be rewarded.î But I would like you to note here, look, that no act of service, either giving someone a drink of cold water or helping someone to pick up something that has just fallen, does not matter what we do, God will reward us for each and every act of service, not only the great ones, but for each one, because we are his children, and as they advance in the message they will see in a few moments what happens to us moment by moment, day by day of our life, in every act of service, whether it is good conduct, sacrificial service, or whatever, it is evident what it says in this passage that God does not forget, it is not unfair, he does not forget our work of love. And if you look, there are two things that he does not forget, he never forgets our actions, but he does not forget our reason either, and the reason is very important in what we do. And in these messages, when talking about serving the Lord, he says that we must serve each other, but he tells us to do it as if it were for the Lord,

that no matter what we do for others, we must remember that we really do it in the name of Christ and for him, and the most important part is that God does it through us, and not something that we do with our own strength, for our own glory, for our honor and prestige, and everything else, because those reasons will make us lose our reward, which we will talk about in a moment. So he says that it is not unfair and that he does not forget those things that we have all done. Well, that leads me to think about the issue of the time of our rewards. In case someone says, well, but when will I be rewarded? Well, if you ask most of them that, they will tell you, well, I will be rewarded when I reach heaven. I don't know about you, but it's a bit difficult to wait that long, especially people who live 80, 90 or 100 years and think, he says that he will not be rewarded until he reaches heaven? The truth is that the Bible does not say anywhere that we will be rewarded until we reach heaven. It does not say that. When it says here that God has not forgotten, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be forgotten here, amen? There are things that I would like to enjoy in this life as a result of God's blessings and rewards, and of course, by walking in obedience before him. We know that we are blessed in this life, it cannot be said that all rewards are limited to the future. Well, there are two categories of rewards. There are rewards now, and rewards that will certainly come in the future. But the category of rewards that come now, we can divide it into two more categories. And I would like you to join me in Mateo 6 for a moment, because there are rewards that come now. Pay attention to this category of rewards. There are rewards that come now that never satisfy, nor are they lasting in their value, but they are rewards, and here is a good example of that. Now join me in chapter 6, and I would like you to see from verse 5 that Christ talks about fasting and prayer, and practicing righteousness. But look at what he says in verse 5 of chapter 6. And when you pray, he says, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, to be seen by men. And he says, I tell you the truth, that they already have their reward. What did he just say? They already have. Well, listen, if they already have their reward, it means that it is everything they will receive. So there are rewards that come now, but they are not lasting, nor do they satisfy us too much. And I would like you to go back to the page. Well, in your Bible, please see verse 16. It says, When you fast, do not be austere like the hypocrites who shave their heads and so on, because they hide their faces to show the men who fast. I tell you the truth, that they already have their reward. Well, let's go back to the first verse of this chapter 6 and notice what it says. It says, Beware of doing your justice, that is,

your good conduct and your good works before men. to be seen by them in another way, you will not have a reward." No reward from your Father who is in heaven. When someone says, all our rewards are limited to the future, no. There are rewards that will come now. But look at this. When we serve the Lord or do something just to be seen by others, just for our glory and our praise and our promotion and our benefit, God says, there you have all the reward you will receive right there. And that reward is the praise of men, right? That does not mean, I'll tell you something, that does not mean that we cannot be rewarded by man for something done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, if the reason is correct and people decide to reward us for some reason or reward only you, there is nothing wrong with that. It does not mean that a reward of humanity is necessarily bad. The most important thing is motivation. If our service is for God because we love Him and because we are interested in people, it is one thing. If it is because we want the approval of people, their applause, and to do well, it is another thing. If it is done in the right way, we will be rewarded by men here and now. But finally, our future reward, listen to Luke 14. It says, and you will be blessed, because they cannot reward you, but you will be rewarded in the resurrection of the righteous. Christ says, this is the final reward. I mean, because someone could say, you know, I think there are rewards, but I still do not have my share. I think they have not treated me well or I have not received enough recognition

that there may be in the mind of someone. Finally, we know that this righteous God, who is absolutely straight, totally holy, will do everything that is completely correct with us in judgment, that is, when we are before Him. And so, when examining these verses, that they deal with that. I want us to look at another couple of verses and stop at one, please. Join me in Romans chapter 14. One moment. In Romans chapter 14, Paul also reminds us of this. It says in verse 12 of chapter 14. It says, so that each of us will give God account of himself. And so the moment of judgment will come when we will have to give account to God. Now join me in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and a very important verse that we will see only for a moment. In verse 10 of 2 Corinthians chapter 5, this is what it says. When referring to the bad here, it does not refer to ethical or moral evil, it refers to that it is useless to us. For example, if I preached here on Sunday, and the only reason was because I want, that they think I do it well, or I look good, or whatever, that sermon would be worth nothing. But if I do it because I love the Lord Jesus, so that they know the truth, I do it to expose the word of God, and that they love Him, follow Him, obey Him, and share Him, it is another thing. When it says that we will be judged

by the works done in the body, whether they are good or bad, it does not refer to bad things, or ethical, or unethical. It speaks of things that were useless, that were worthless, and that have no value in the eyes of God. And we will all be before God, as it says here, and we will realize all that. Well, I would like us to see this. In the light of that, in the light of all that, how is God going to judge us? Well, we say, Well, He will judge us at the moment He takes us home. And we will not be judged by the bad at that point, because we will be in that judgment, because we are His children. We were saved by His grace, and the lost will be judged at another time. When we are before Him, we are judged, not to face our evil in life. It is that God examines our lives to reward us for all the good. For many good things that people do, and there are people who will be rewarded for good things that they never thought were good works of service, or whatever, because it was natural and normal due to their love for others. This is how they have wanted to live, and this is how they want to act.

And well, there will be much for which we will be rewarded, and as we never thought. And I would not want to spend my life, if it were you, trying to find out how to serve the Lord in such a way. The majority of those who are concerned with having rewards care about having enough rewards to enter heaven. And I will say it again, salvation is not a reward for what we do. Salvation is a gift from God for His grace. It is the goodness, love, and mercy of God. It has nothing to do with my acceptance of Him. His acceptance and my acceptance of God are based on our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else. The rewards are the result of our service, good conduct, and so on, when we are already saved. Someone will say, very well, if this is what will happen, what will be the nature of these rewards? I would like you to see several things, because something that occurs to people frequently about the nature of the rewards, what does the Bible say about the crowns? There are many kinds of crowns in the Bible. One of the first crowns is the incorruptible crown. Paul refers to this in 1 Corinthians 9, when he speaks of those who have dominion over the flesh. What can that mean? It only means this, when we all strive to live a pious life, we do not always live it, sometimes we sin against God, we fail, because we are children growing up in Christian life, but he says that he will give a crown to those who, look, I think this crown will be given to those who want to walk in obedience to God, and who sometimes go through difficulties, but there is his heart, and he speaks of the incorruptible crown.

Then he speaks, for example, of the crown of life in Saint James chapter 1, which is given to those who bear the problems, trials, sorrows, difficulties and persecution in life, and do not give up, do not lose heart, and always remain firm, regardless of the situation, that is the crown of life. Then he speaks of the crown of justice, which says that it belongs to those who love his coming. Who are those who love his coming? Those who walk with righteousness and live a straight life in Jesus Christ. Then he speaks of the crown of glory, which says, it belongs to those who, he says in 1 Peter chapter 5, who patient the flock. So, does he refer only to the shepherds? No, because when you are a Sunday school teacher, or you disciple someone who is doing, you have to share the word of God with that person, and by sharing the word to that person, God says that he will reward him. Whether he lives a just life, that he wins someone for Jesus Christ, that he shares the word of God, that he walks in holiness before him, here he speaks of crowns that God will give us for all that. Well, in essence, what Paul says is just this. We will be rewarded for each of the aspects of service, regardless of which one. Whether it is to live with righteousness, or to give as it is due, that does not change anything. We will be rewarded. Speaking of the nature of these rewards, well, there is another thing I would like you to consider, and it is one of the rewards that we will all receive. It is a reward that I call our ability to manifest the glory of God. Let me give you an example. Your wife loves concerts. You don't like them. But you attend just to please her. And you are sitting there, next to her, attending, and then, look, the same, listen, the same musical tones reach you. Everything she hears, you hear it.

She is, is, is ecstatic. It seems absolutely fantastic to her. And you are thinking, I hope it ends soon. Well, you are in the same place, listening to the same thing together. One is enjoying it and the other is not. I do not compare it to heaven, but I say that although the two are in the same place, this woman has a great ability to enjoy that type of music because that is how they educated her. Let's say she grew up with that. She loves it. It's her thing. He left the country. He never knew it was a concert until he was 40 years old, and he also swore he would never come back. And here he is, sitting in a concert, and he is not enjoying it at all. Well, it will not be the same difference that there would be in heaven, but some will have the ability, listen to that, they will have the ability to enjoy heaven, I think, more than others. But look, he will not know that he does not have the same ability, so no one will be sad in heaven. But to say that everyone will enjoy it the same, you cannot say it. To say that everyone will receive the same reward, there is not a single verse in the Bible that insinuates it, not even one. And so, part of the reward for the life that we live here, which affects our ability to enjoy everything to the maximum, listen carefully so that you do not misinterpret it, the man here who did not serve the Lord for a long time and was saved until he was 65 years old, and died at the age of 67. But do you know what? He will enjoy heaven to the fullest of his capacity, but he does not have the same capacity. That is why when someone says, ìIt doesnít matter, as long as he gets in.î ìI live until I am 75 or 80, and I, and I, and I die, and I get out at the last minute. What matters is just getting in.î That is not all that matters. Someone has played a bad game on him. Because the Bible says that we will be rewarded accordingly. Look, not only according to what we did, but how much of that we did.

The person who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ until before he dies, and God, for pityís sake, saves him, says, ìIt is enough for me to get in.î No, I assure you that heaven is much more than that. And so our rewards are very important to God, due to our ability to manifest His glory for eternity. There are concrete rewards that He wants to give us, and I donít think anyone can fully understand all the glory, the wonder, and the astonishment that heaven will have for the rewards that God will give us. I think it will be something totally overwhelming for us, but it is certainly something that we can enjoy without a doubt, right? There is another aspect of the nature of His reward, and that is this. We will be given a specific responsibility in heaven. Those responsibilities will clearly be based on, look, our fidelity according to what God has given us down here now. And our fidelity now in everything that, look, what we do. I do not mean to be in a church and serve God. I am talking about his profession. His fidelity in his profession, his fidelity as a mother, his fidelity as a father in taking care of his children, and taking care of the house. His fidelity in serving God in every way, all of that is part of his reward. Well, with that in mind, letís think for a moment about this idea of the methods by which He will determine what we are going to do. What is His method? Listen carefully. We will be judged based on three things. The light of the truth that we had. Second, the opportunity that God gave us. And third, our response to that opportunity. So, two people will not be judged the same. When we are before Him, listen, it will be the light of the truth that we know.

It will be, look, according to the spiritual gifts that He gave us, the aptitudes that we have, the opportunities in terms of our spiritual gifts and talents and others. It will be according to the truth that we know, to the privileges that we had according to the ability that God gave us at birth and the spiritual gifts and what we did with them. God cannot compare, listen, He could not compare us to anyone else. He could not compare our works with the works of others. On the other hand, when we are before Him, we will be before Him for the future and eternal reward for what happens here and now and what will happen until the moment we exhale our last breath. When all that comes together, there will be gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay and straw mixed with us. And as I have told some, I hope not to look like Swiss cheese in the trial, because we will lose things that were not good or correct. And if you have never believed in Christ, you will never be in this trial. You will be in the trial of the great white throne, in which you will lose for all eternity all that is good, because you will be separated from God forever. The trial we are talking about is a trial of rewards for service. To live a devout life and to live before Him a pleasant and honorable life and a life of service to Him serving others. Well, if he had to die today and lead his life as it is and present himself before the Lord Jesus Christ, how much of this would be gold, silver and precious stones, things that are not fuel but durable? What reward would he receive? How much is wood, hay and straw? For he wasted the time of God, wasted his talent and spiritual gifts, was very busy doing his thing to serve others and serve the Lord. He never had a service position in the church because he did not want to. He had things, it did not fit in his schedule, he did not have time. Look, this is the devil's trap. Listen, the devil's trap is that he thinks with little vision.

Think only today, not tomorrow, not in eternity, only today. What is convenient for me today? Today is very brief. Sixty-five, seventy-five years is very little compared to eternity. The wise people are sure that when they die, it will be resolved that they will go to heaven by faith in Christ. Wise men and women live today with the future in mind, and I invite you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And I encourage you, if you know Christ as your Savior, that you cannot allow yourself to waste your life, your time, your talents, your testimony, or waste your evidence by saving them for yourself. His treasure, everything belongs to him to invest in his glory. And the question is, what is he doing now that will affect his reward for eternity? Father we love you and praise you, how patient you are, and we know that you will not be unfair as to forget what we have done, but kindly, kind, loving, good and beneficial. The Holy Spirit now speaks to someone who needs to be saved, someone who needs to be part of this community. Many fathers have thought only of the future reward, but it is not only future, but present. That they get involved in the life and ministry of this church, or wherever they belong, so that their life counts here and now, brings you glory and honor, and for eternity, reap