Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
There are two things that this verse says we must believe – i.e., it is required and is not optional.
Believe that He is
First we must believe that He is. This goes beyond just believing that God exists. Demons believe that God exists, but they have no faith in Him. They have no personal application of their belief that He is, no reliance upon Him. Biblical belief goes beyond the mere acceptance of a fact, it involves a commitment to the thing believed. The Amplified Bible typically renders the word believe as trust in, rely on, and cling to.
Another way to look at this is to ask “what is He to you?” That is the personal application. We can relate this to the name God revealed to Moses, I AM. He is my Savior. He is my Healer. He is my Leader and Guide. He is my Provider. He is my Lord.
The second thing Hebrews 11:6 says we must believe is that He is a Rewarder.
What is a reward? The dictionary says a reward is a return made for something done. Vine’s Expository Dictionary says it is wages or hire.
A reward is something earned, based on a promise. Our salvation is not a reward, it is a gift of grace (unmerited favor).
Romans 4:4 (NKJV)
4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
Now that we understand that a reward is something earned and therefore owed, we can ask the question: Should we expect to earn a reward from God? The answer is Yes! In fact, it is imperative that we believe that God is one who gives rewards, according to Hebrews 11:6. We should believe that we are going to get something out of following after God.
God knows how human beings work. He knows that we usually need some sort of motivation or incentive to get us to do things; i.e., a reward for our labors.
Ask yourself this question: would you have gotten saved if there were no benefits to salvation? What if it was “God created you. You should serve Him,” and that’s it? For most people, that would probably not be enough to cause us to want to seek Him. But salvation is so intertwined with a promise of a reward (eternal life, freedom from sin, forgiveness, a heavenly home, the resurrection, etc.) that it is inseparable.
“But Jesus didn’t seek a reward”. Oh yes He did!
Hebrews 12:2 (NKJV)
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Isaiah 53:11 (NKJV)
11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
“For the joy that was set before Him”. There was a goal set before Him, a prize He was hoping to achieve. It wasn’t fame or fortune He was after, but a family – the prize set before Him was us! Isaiah 53 says (speaking of the event in the future) that He will see the outcome of His labors, His sufferings, and be satisfied – He will think it was worth it.
Benefits for serving God
1 Timothy 4:8 (NKJV)
8 For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
1 Timothy 6:6-9 (NKJV)
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
Matthew 10:40-42 (NKJV)
40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
The biggest reward we can receive for seeking after God is God Himself. God told Abram “I am… your exceedingly great reward”:
Genesis 15:1 (NKJV)
1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”
Psalm 19:7-11 (NKJV)
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.
Proverbs 11:18 (NKJV)
18 The wicked man does deceptive work, But he who sows righteousness will have a sure reward.
What God Rewards
1 Corinthians 3:5-15 (NKJV)
5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.
11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
This passage describes the judgment that a Christian will experience – not a judgment of our sins, because those have already been judged in Christ – but a judgment of our works done in the body. The foundation is our salvation that comes from our belief in Jesus Christ. There can be no other foundation than this (vs. 11) – indeed, if you don’t have the foundation of Jesus Christ, you will not experience this judgment of works, but the Great White Throne judgment of sins (Rev 21).
God rewards Quality more than Quantity
The fire tests the quality of the works (not all of our works will pass the test).
Matthew 6:1-6 (NKJV)
1 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.
3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
5 “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you,
Praying and giving – those are good works. Yet the Pharisees would receive no heavenly reward for it because their motivation was wrong – they were doing it to impress others, to gain the recognition of men. And Jesus said that was the only reward they would receive. Why you do something – your motivation – is just as important as what you do.
“Your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly”. There will be many people who will receive great rewards who nobody else knew about; i.e., works are not always external visible things.
In Matthew 11:11 Jesus said that John the Baptist was greater than all the prophets who ever lived. Why? Did he do more miracles than Elijah or Elisha? Did he make more predictions than Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel? No. But, the Word says that he was filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb. He had a lifelong relationship with God that was stronger and deeper than all the other prophets. So we see that God values relationship and fellowship with Him very highly.
The reward is in proportion to what you have accomplished versus what you have been assigned.
Matthew 25:14-30 (NKJV)
14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them.
15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents.
17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.
18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’
21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’
23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed.
27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.
28 Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
There are many things to learn from this parable. First of all, not everyone receives the same calling or is given the same assignment. You have people with huge ministries like Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, who have affected the lives of millions of people, down to the person who will never step behind a pulpit, but he’ll witness to his neighbors.
It’s very interesting the etymology of the word talent; in Bible times it was a unit of measure and weight, but these verses work very well with the English definition of a talent. We all have different talents. You have the 5 talent guys – the superstars whose talents will bring them before kings – down to the one talent guy who can only do one thing. Most of us probably identify with the 2 talent guy in the middle.
So these servants were given different resources to work with, depending on their abilities (and you can think of their abilities as their “talents” also). The first two took what they were given and increased it by the same proportion – they both doubled it. And if you compare the master’s words to them in vs.21 and 23, you see they received the exact same reward, even though the first servant made 3 more talents than the second.
And what were the master’s words? “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things.” So we see that one of the things that God prizes most of all is faithfulness. Another thing we see is that the faithfulness is rewarded with greater responsibility.
So we come to the one talent guy. And what we see in vs. 24 and 25 is that his attitude was rotten. He accused the master of being a hard man, and resented the fact that he would have to do work but the master would reap the profit.
But what if the story were different? What if the one talent guy had gone out and made one more talent? What words would he have heard then? The same as the others – “Well done, good and faithful servant”.
We also see another thing he was motivated by: fear. He was afraid he would lose what he had been entrusted with and be punished for it. He had no confidence in his own abilities, and had a very poor image of his master. Therefore he buried the money and returned it.
I am convinced that if he had gone out and done his best, and even lost the money he was entrusted with, his master would have accepted that. He wouldn’t have been rewarded, but he wouldn’t have been punished either.
Unfortunately he didn’t do that. He returned the money, but also insulted his master in the process. The master’s response? “You wicked and lazy servant….” He was wicked because of his attitude. He was lazy because he didn’t put any effort into what he had been tasked with. The master tells him what he could have done with very little effort – deposited the money in an interest bearing account.
So the result was that what he was entrusted with was taken from him and given to the 5 talent guy. Why him? Because he was the most likely to be able to do something with it. And he was cast out because he was unprofitable – he bore no fruit.
Notice that this is the opposite of what the world would have done. The world would have taken from the 10 talent guy and given to the one talent guy because he was “poor”.
Another thing you have to understand is that these were most likely household servants. They weren’t just wage earners, they lived on the master’s estate, so where they lived, the food they ate, the clothes they wore, were all provided by the master. So when this guy was cast out, he became homeless.
God is looking for increase. He has given us great gifts and great promises, and he wants us to spread it around some way to benefit others.
Heavenly and Earthly Rewards
I don’t think anybody would deny that God has heavenly rewards in store for us. But many people miss the fact that He says there will be earthly rewards also. These manifest themselves in things like health, relationships, peace, but also in tangible things.
God’s principle and His unit of measure is abundance. Abundance means more than “enough”. “Enough” is having your needs met. Abundance means having a surplus. This is just common sense. We know God wants us to be givers (and don’t just think of money here, you give to others when you tell them about Jesus, or pray, or help them in any way. Money is only one very small part of giving). If you have just enough to meet your needs, and you give some of that away, now you have less than you need.
Now God wants us to trust Him and walk by faith, so many times He asks us to do the giving when we can only see that we have just enough to meet our needs (or even less than enough). And He promises that He will make up the difference. But a lot of people stop there – at giving by faith, and God brings in more and you have your needs met.
But over and over again God talks about abundance.
John 10:10 (NKJV)
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
“Oh, but that verse is only talking about spiritual things, like eternal life”. Who says? The abundant life that Jesus comes to bring covers all the areas that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy in. First of all it covers our eternal condition – the devil influences people not to believe the gospel and keep them from being saved. Well, if you’re born again, he’s already lost that one. So then he’ll try to make your Christian life ineffective by tempting you with sin, or messing up your relationships, or stealing your health or your finances. Our lives consist of the here and now also, so the abundant life that Jesus brings covers our life here on earth as well as our eternal destiny.
The parable of the talents we just read talked about abundance also.
Matthew 25:29 (NKJV)
29 For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.
Jesus repeated the same phrase above in Matthew 13:12 in the context of the parable of the sower, so it must be important.
What should we seek?
What should be our motivation in this? Let’s go back to our foundation text:
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
What our motivation should be, the thing that we should be seeking, is to please Him. And it says here that to do that, we’re going to have to have faith. So I should be finding out all I can about faith – what it is, how to get it, how it works – so I can walk by faith and therefore please Him. And part of this is believing that He is a rewarder. So we should seek to please Him, but we should expect a reward.
Let no one cheat you
Colossians 2:18 (NKJV)
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
False humility can cheat or defraud you of your reward. False humility is something that appears to be humility, but is actually unscriptural nonsense. Some people think that being poor is being humble. It is true that many people who are rich are haughty and arrogant, and Paul warns those that are rich against this attitude in 1 Tim 6:17. But that does not mean being poor automatically makes you humble. In fact, many poor people are full of pride.
Another definition of “rich” is having a full supply. It’s the concept of abundance again, of having more than enough. There are many Christians that want to discount any notion of a material reward in this life, and criticize those who preach and advocate prosperity as being unspiritual. Yet it is all over the Bible. For example, a verse that I believe summarizes God’s goal for us concerning prosperity:
2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (NKJV)
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Vs. 8 is more revealing in the Amplified version:
2 Corinthians 9:8 (AMP)
8 And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].
Do Not Judge the Rich
There is a tendency in this world to look unfavorably on the wealthy, that they must have done something wrong to accumulate that wealth, stealing it from others. In some cases, that may be true. Most of the time in this country however, people got there by hard work, having innovative ideas, and taking risks.
And if you see a preacher that has money – oh, that has to be wrong! They must be bilking the people that donate to them! They are only in it for the money!
Again, in some cases, that may be true. But those kind of people usually get exposed.
Jesus said “By their fruit you shall know them”. What is the fruit of their ministry? How many people are they reaching with the gospel? Are people being helped, and set free?
Secondly, how did they get their money? Most of them receive a fixed salary from their ministerial organizations, set by a board of directors. They write books, and receive royalties from them. They make wise investments.
Take Joel Osteen, for example. He has been criticized for having a lot of money. But he has also written several books that became New York Times best sellers.
Thirdly, what are they doing with the abundance that they have? I don’t know every preacher of course, but those I do follow that are well off are tremendous givers. There is a constant flow in and out of their personal lives and their ministerial organizations.
Most of them started out with not much and went through hardships in the early days. They built their ministries over years, and God rewarded them.
1 Timothy 6:17-19 (NKJV)
17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share,
19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.
Look through your Bible, you will see that God has made people rich. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Job – wealthy people that God made rich.
When you judge the wealthy just because they have money, you disqualify yourself from ever being wealthy – or even well off. That attitude has its roots in covetousness and jealousy.
