God is a Rewarder

Getting Reward

• Grace Given –> Use Grace –> Reward for using Grace

Faith that pleases God is the Faith that believe 

• God exists
• God is
• and God is a rewarder

Hebrews 11:6
American Standard Version (ASV)

⁶ And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that (diligently)seek after him.

When the reward is delaying, remember,

• Don’t throw away your confident
• Great Reward is waiting
• Endure

Hebrews 10:35-36
American Standard Version (ASV)

³⁵ Cast not away therefore your boldness(confidence), which hath great recompense of reward.

³⁶ For ye have need of patience(endurance : Present tense ), that, having done the will of God, ye may (future tense) receive the promise.

Amen –> Endurance –> Seeing the blessing

Moses Reward

Hebrews 11:24-26
American Standard Version (ASV)

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;

²⁵ choosing rather to share ill treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

²⁶ accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of reward ( he looked to the reward ).

• Moses could be the next Pharaoh down the line, but he gave up

In it’s context

Hebrews 11:5
American Standard Version (ASV)

⁵ By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God:

• Please God –> by Faith -> Faith that God is a rewarder
• You are ready to give up worldly things because you know that God is a rewarder

Paul’s Reward

• Paul Labored more abundantly through Grace

1 Corinthians 15:10
American Standard Version (ASV)

¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Reward explained by Jesus

Matthew 19:27
American Standard Version (ASV)

²⁷ Then answered Peter and said unto him, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee; what then shall we have?

Mark 10:28-30
American Standard Version (ASV)

²⁸ Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.

²⁹ Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the gospel’s sake,

³⁰ but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

1. for my sake,
2. and for the gospel’s sake

Receiving

• Quality Relationship
• Quality Lands
• Don’t limit God

Shunammite’s Reward

What about Children?

• Children are both Gift + Reward

Psalm 127:3
American Standard Version (ASV)

³ Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah; And the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Bible example for Children as Gift and Reward

• Shunammite took care of Elisha

2 Kings 4:12-17
American Standard Version (ASV)

¹² And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.

¹³ And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.

¹⁴ And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no son, and her husband is old.

¹⁵ And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.

¹⁶ And he said, At this season, when the time cometh round, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid.

¹⁷ And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season, when the time came round, as Elisha had said unto her.

Peter and the Boat

• What ever you give up for His sake, you get 100 folds.
• Peter caught nothing over night.
• The instant Peter allowed Jesus to step in to his career, the boat attracted multitudes of fishes.
  • Same Boat
  • Same Place
  • Same Lake
• Peter received net breaking, boat sinking loads of fishes.

Others using you

• Let the church use you for their blessing
• Let’s not use the church for our benefits.

Giving time to God?

• God multiplies time back

Giving wealth to God?

• God multiplies wealth back

Giving your youth to God?

• God multiplies their Youth
• God keeps them young

Giving your career? 

• God multiplies your impact in your career
• Eg: Peter giving his boat to Jesus, and his boat became a magnet for blessing

It is Possible to Serve the Lord with wrong reasons

• It is possible to Server the Lord and preaching for wrong reasons
  • for fame
  • for fortune
  • for self recognition
    • Resulting in bitter and anger when its not achieved.
  • Possible to server your interest

Man in the Bible are reward motivated

David’s Reward

• David came in obeying his parents to the battle field
• One simple step of obedience lead him to the throne
• He was there to hear what Goliath was saying in the last day ( out of 40 days )

David heard the challenge of the Goliath 

1 Samuel 17:24-27
World English Bible (WEB)

²⁴ All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were terrified. ²⁵ The men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. The king will give great riches to the man who kills him, and will give him his daughter, and make his father’s house free(from tax) in Israel.”

²⁶ David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, “What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach(shame/condemnation) from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

²⁷ The people answered him in this way, saying, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”

Reward for David

• great riches to the man who kills him, and
• will give him his daughter, and
• make his father’s house free(from tax) in Israel

David want to hear the reward again

• David asking with eagerness : “What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel?” 1 Samuel 17:26
• People repeated the reward again : “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.” – 1 Samuel 17:27

Remove the reproach from Israel

• Main Problem is the reproach ( shame/condemnation)
• Remove the reproach ( shame/condemnation)
• Philistine meaning “to wallow in the dust”
• Devil ( serpent ) food is dust.

Ruth’s Reward

• David’s great grand mother.
• She is not a Jewess
• Moabite ( present time Jordan on the east side of Israel )
• Don’t relocate because of career opportunities. Relocate only because God tells you to.
• Naomi relocated outside Israel, resulting in the death of her husband and their two sons.
• Ruth was married to Naomi’s son
• Ruth said “Your God will be my God” to Naomi

Ruth 2:1-12
World English Bible (WEB)

2 Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz (means “in him is power/strength”). ² Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I find favor(confessing favor).”

She said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³ She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened (happenings happen to you when you trust God’s favour : from the root word “happ”, from that word other words like “happy” came from) to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

⁴ Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “May Yahweh be with you.”

They answered him, “May Yahweh bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was set over the reapers, “Whose young lady is this?”

⁶ The servant who was set over the reapers answered, “It is the Moabite lady who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she rested a little in the house.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go to glean in another field, and don’t go from here, but stay here close to my maidens. ⁹ Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. Haven’t I commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink from that which the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, since I am a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz answered her, “I have been fully told about all that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn’t know before. ¹² May Yahweh repay your work, and a full reward be given to you from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

• Flee to him for refuge
• God says , because you have run to me for refuge, a full reward is waiting for you
• To reward for trusting Him?
  • God is finding reasons to bless you
  • God will find every excuse to bless you and reward you
  • God’s goodness in its purest form

Esther’s Reward

• you don’t find God’s name ( GOD or LORD )
• because its the time when Israelite’s were worshiping other God’s
• But still God is behind the scenes.
• The word “Jesus” is hidden in the book of Esther
  • Eg: First starts with “J” and then after 4 letters “E”, after 4 letters “S”, after 4 letters “U”, after 4 letters “S”.
    • Original words : “Yahweh”, “Elohim”
• Haman, the right hand man of the King Agaserius ( King of Persia )  was an Amalekite
  • Amalekite’s are the people who were attaching the children’s and elders ( meek people ) who where walking behind when Moses brought people out of Israel.
  • God says ” He has always have a war with Amalekite”
  • This Haman didn’t like Mordecai, a Jew in captivity, much older than Ether (cousin of Esther) adopted Esther, and raised her has his own daughter.
    • Mordecai refuses to bow as other people because he is an Amalekite
  • Haman got permission to exterminate Jews
• 13th month, extermination of the Jewish people
  • 13 is a number for evil in Bible

 

Esther 5:13-6:13
World English Bible (WEB)

¹³ Yet all this avails(worth) me nothing ( Bitterness towards Mordecai : bitterness not good), so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

¹⁴ Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows be made fifty cubits high, and in the morning speak to the king about hanging(impale/crucify) Mordecai on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet.” This pleased Haman, so he had the gallows made.

6 On that night ( God is always on time ), the king couldn’t sleep (events getting turned around in one sleepless night ). He commanded the book of records of the chronicles to be brought, and they were read to the king.² It was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who were doorkeepers, who had tried to lay hands on the King Ahasuerus. ³ The king said, “What honor and dignity has been given to Mordecai for this?”

Then the king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.”

⁴ The king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had come into the outer court of the king’s house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows that he had prepared for him.

⁵ The king’s servants said to him, “Behold, Haman stands in the court.”

The king said, “Let him come in.” ⁶ So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?”

Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?” ⁷ Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, ⁸ let royal clothing be brought which the king uses to wear, and the horse that the king rides on, and on the head of which a crown royal is set. ⁹ Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’”

¹⁰ Then the king said to Haman, “Hurry and take the clothing and the horse, as you have said, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king’s gate. Let nothing fail of all that you have spoken.”

¹¹ Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”

¹² Mordecai came back to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered.

¹³ Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of Jewish descent, you will not prevail against him, but you will surely fall before him.”

The Feast of Purim 

• It’s the day when Haman planned to destroy Jews
• The Fast of Esther, observed before Purim, on the 13th of Adar
• More info
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_of_Esther
• Another Haman trying to destroy Jews
  • The Gulf war ended exactly on the Feast of Purim
• God is repeating history

God can move the smallest things to change great events

• How events turn around in one sleepless night
• How an empire was shaken because a baby cried in an arc by the river Nile ( Moses )
  • Babies cry is the smallest thing
• God can make anyone’s heart change in one sleepless night, thinking about you.

Greatest Reward

• First mention of the Hebrew word Reward

Genesis 15:1
World English Bible (WEB)

15 After these things Yahweh’s word came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

Reward for serving Him

John 12:26
World English Bible (WEB)

²⁶ If anyone serves me, let him follow me. Where I am, there will my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor(VALUE) him.

• Honor : Value in Greek : as if you are the most valuable person

• Don’t serve your interest.

It is possible,

• Serving your own needs
• Serving your insecurities
  • Because you are insecure you want to be a leader
• David wrote Psalms 23 and played harp when he was with the sheep, but God heard it and kept it in the center of Bible
  • God saw the way when David wanted to rescue one sheep from the Lion’s mouth. Not even letting one sheep to be left. And God want’s kings like that.
• Mordecai was not famous but was serving the Lord, but when time came he was honored

Other notes

• One day when Jesus returns all will say “Baruch Hashem Adonai ( Blessed be the name of Adonai )”