1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian Gifts of the Spirit, The final say | Page 4

Monday
Matthew 6 v 19 – 21
Matthew 25 v 14 – 30
The first motivation that I would like to present to you is the motivation of
REWARD.
Both of these passages above speak clearly of a treasure and a reward that
God will give to those who serve Him with a whole heart. Jesus warns us
about storing up treasure here on earth, where rust and thieves can
destroy, but encourages us to rather store up treasure in Heaven. Many
people would see this motive for serving God to be a little self-centred, but
in fact it is not. It is a perfectly legitimate reason to want to use our
spiritual gifts inthe context of the church,so that one day we can reap a
reward that will be of benefit to us for eternity. I love the words of that
song that says, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what
he cannot lose”.
Unfortunately the worldly mind-set of the majority of people suggests that
the things of this earth are of more value than the things of eternity. In the
age of the “feel-good” gospel we have watered down the teachings of Jesus
to suggest that there is no cost to following Christ. They would suggest
further that to become a Christian will be good for your bank account, and
that God has promised to not just make you wealthy, but healthy as well.
These are the people who measure God’s blessing by His physical provision.
I hate to burst their bubble, but would remind them of the conversation
that Jesus had with the rich young ruler (Matthew 19), where he told the
young man to sell all he had and to come and follow Him. Let me reiterate,
however, that God has nothing against people being wealthy, but He does
have a problem with people whose wealth becomes more important to
them than Him and His Kingdom.
Having been a pastor for a number of years now, I have seen people come
to faith and, from the outside, seem to be so deeply committed. But very
sadly, many of them have fallen from following Christ and are now just as
they used to be. One of the greatest pulls back to the old life is the pull of
the world. Where the desire for wealth and physical comfort has distracted
them from the call of God and has corrupted their spiritual value system. If
we could just develop an eternal mind-set when it comes to physical
wealth, what a difference ????????????????????????????????)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????((0