John Bevere - How to Claim Your Full Reward
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Well, when you have an eternal perspective, you live differently than if you have a 70- or 80-year perspective. You set goals differently; you do things differently, and you endure things you wouldn’t necessarily endure. For this reason, John the Apostle writes in 2 John, verse 8, «Look to yourselves.» Everybody shout that: «Look to myself!» You can see immediately John is not speaking to the person sitting next to you; he’s talking to you. He says that we do not lose those things we work for, but everybody say «but» that we may receive a full reward.
Now, everybody shout «reward!» How many of you know God is a rewarder? Come on! How does he introduce himself to Abraham? He appears to this guy and says, «I am your Shield, your exceeding great reward.» What a way to introduce yourself to somebody when you’re God!
But the thing that really got my attention one day is that John doesn’t just say «reward.» Notice he says «full reward.» Now, I started thinking, for John to specifically say «full reward,» what does that mean? That means there is a partial reward scenario and a no-reward scenario. Isn’t it interesting that John doesn’t write and say, «Hey, live in such a way that you’re going to get a partial reward.» Why doesn’t he do that? Because, listen to my words: God wants you to receive the full reward. As a dad of four sons, I can say that. Why? Because I want my sons to receive rewards. But as a wise father, I’ve learned something: You don’t reward your sons unless they earned it or deserve it. Why? Because I’ve learned if you reward children without them earning or deserving, you take away incentive, and incentive is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Now, John is in his 90s when he pens these words. Why does he say this with such intensity in this little short book? Because he knows something that a lot of believers in America do not know and do not understand: that one day, every one of us is going to stand before Jesus Christ as our judge. You say, «Whoa, whoa, whoa! You just put a damper on this whole night! You just busted the balloons! Jesus is my Savior!» Yes, I know he’s our Savior, but one day you’re going to stand before him as judge.
You say, «Where do you get that from?» 2 Corinthians 5. Glad you asked! Look at this. Paul says, «We are confident, yes, very well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.» Now, we know right there Paul is only speaking to believers. How do I know that? Because when an unbeliever is absent from the body, they’re not in the presence of the Lord; they’re in hell. That is not a mean, harsh statement; that is just a statement of fact. You have to remember Jesus said that he didn’t come to condemn the world; it was condemned already. He came to save it; he came to save us out of what we condemned ourselves into.
All right, so back to the main point: Paul is only speaking to believers. Now look what he goes on to say: «Therefore, we make it our aim,» or simply means «goal,» «whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him.»