This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, Dear God’s Word on Bibleline, Everywhere, Every Time, Dear God’s Truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular The prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made through the Bibleline website at calvaryoftampa.org. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Heavenly rewards. Will it be worth it? Yes it will. So what I want you to do is all the verses that are on your notes. You ought to take the time when you go home or you can make notes or something like that, but you ought to underline these verses in your Bible. These are important verses. These are motivational verses to help you to serve the Lord. Because you’ve got to have a reason what makes you tick. What do you want?

Why should I serve the Lord? So if you look there in your notes there at the top of the page, 2 Corinthians 5, 10 says this, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. The word all is not to the lost man, it’s for the believer. All the believers. Judgment seat of Christ is a rewarding stand. That’s where you and I are going to stand before the Lord with all the others that are that of trusted Christ is Savior, that everyone may receive, and you ought to take an underlying or circle that word, receive.

You’re going to receive something. See, going to heaven is a gift that’s free. The trip there doesn’t cost you anything, the price has already been paid. But when you get there, you’re going to receive something that you deserve. See salvation you don’t deserve. Your rewards are something you do deserve. It means that after you trust Christ’s Savior, God is going to reward you in heaven for what you have done for Him. So you can have more than just salvation.

There’s more to it than just getting your little pinkies inside the pearly gates. Since I haven’t seen the rewards, I really don’t know what all they are. Now I got an idea of that some of them, but we cannot fully understand. We cannot fathom the idea of what it’s going to be like. But in this verse says that everyone may receive the things done in his body. That means why you are alive on planet earth. According that he hath done that you and me, whether it be good or bad, the things that we have done, whether it was good, as somebody would say, fruitful or fruitless because God’s going to reward you for the fruit and you’re going to suffer the consequences of not having any fruit.

Also, the bad is what God calls in His word, the hay, wood, and the stubble. It’s a wasted life. It’s what’s going to be burned up. It’s not going to be anything left. You’re not going to get rewarded for it. So as you live your life, the time you spend for the Lord and doing what God wants is like gold, silver, and precious stones. Now, I’m talking about the consequences of it. But then the wasted life is the time that you live that’s non-productive, that’s not effective.

But that’s not for the Lord. Then you’re going to suffer the loss of what you could have had. Look in Romans here in chapter 14 verse 12, the next verse. So then, every one of us, everyone shall give account of himself to God. That means that if this is true, there is accountability. That means there must have been responsibility given. So you and I are responsible to the Lord because He must have told us to do something, and He had committed the gospel to us, let us live in this life, in this body, at this time, and we are going to be given an account to the Lord.

Evidently there must be something that God expects. And there must have been something that we produced or didn’t produce. We either you’re obeyed or we disobeyed. Always remember, getting to heaven is a gift that’s free. What you have when you get to heaven depends upon what you and I do for the Lord. Look at the next verse, 1 Corinthians 9, 24, no ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that ye may obtain.

This is talking about you have to run according to the rules. Have you ever noticed when you’re watching a football game they have these guys called refs? What do they do? They just get in the way. They’re supposed to make sure that when the clock ticks down, the ball has to be hiked at a certain time. And if it goes one second over, they usually blow the whistle or throw a flag. Or if the guy jumps across the line and makes contact and doesn’t get back before the ball, there’s a penalty.

All these rules, in other words, if you’re going to play the game, you have to know the rolls and abide within a framework. With the Lord, you see, He has given us a wide range, an area called the will of God. And within the will of God, we got a multitude of choices that we can make that’s still within the range of the boundaries. Just when you and I go outside, the boundaries that there’s a price to pay or it’s a penalty and bug.

But inside of that, God gives us a lot of leeway, a lot of flexibility, a lot of choices, and in that a lot of God’s children may have different ideas and opinions about how we do certain things, but we all have to answer to the Lord. So we’ll have to give an account to the Lord. But if you want to win, and the win depends upon, did you do the will of God for your life? And God’s going to reward you when you get there.

But it’s not like I have to beat somebody else because this is an individual thing. You see, I’m not racing against you. I’m not in competition with you. My enemy is not you. My enemy is the devil. My enemy is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. My enemy is the wicked of the world, the sinful nature. And so we have the battle against the lust of the flesh and the love of the world and all these things.

when we get to heaven, God’s gonna reward us. So keep that in mind. Look at the next plant. 1 Corinthians 3, 8 says, Now he that planted and he that water are one. In other words, it’s talking about you and me. One person will plant the seed, and another person may water the seed. You may lead somebody to the Lord, they come to church. And I may give them some water. And they may grow, but always remember, It’s God that saves the soul.

I’ve never saved a person yet. I’ve had people claim that I did. So he saved me. And I hate to correct him, but off the bat. So I let go for a while and then I have to tell him. I said, only one that ever saved you, he’s the Lord. And so we are just laborers together with the Lord. And every man, get to, shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. But he’s gonna get a reward.

Rewards are earned. 1 Corinthians 3, 14 says, If any man’s work abide, which he hath built their fun, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work. Now, whether or not he’s talking about every individual work or your life as a whole, a God will sort that out. Don’t worry about it. Number one, what is the purpose of the rewards? Well, God wants us to love him more than the things in the world. And God says, if you’ll love me and serve me, I’m gonna do this for you.

So in 1st John 4th 19, it says, we love him. Why? Because he first loved us. This is motivation. I should serve the Lord because I know he loves me. And he proved he loved me. And I guess there’s just something inside of me. I don’t want to betray his love. I wanna be faithful to the Lord. It’s just like if you love your wife, you wanna be faithful. There’s people that don’t love their spouse and so they’re not faithful.

Love your children. Be faithful as a good father or as a good mother. Always be faithful. And 2 Corinthians 5, 11 says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. Because of what we know, it should determine what we do. We persuade men. If you know and understand not only what happens to the lost man, but how it must. I guess you could say, grieve the Holy Spirit, grieve God the Father when we don’t persuade that there is terror. There’s judgment.

Not only on the loss that go to hell, but upon God’s children that are going to really do some grieving. And tears are going to be shed. When they see the loss of what they could have had, but what happens to the loss they could have won That powerful But look here in the next verse done at Matthew and chapter 5 and verse 11 to 12. He says blessed are ye The word blesses many times we say is means to be happy to be blessed to desire the best and and believe that you have the best and that you’re going to get even something down the road that’s better than what you have now.

Blessed are ye when men shall revow you and persecute you and shall say all men are of evil against you falsely for my sake. In other words, what you go through, you go through it for his sake because that’s what God wants to do. If we respond to the way we want to, it’s one thing. If we respond the way God wants us to, well that’s another thing. So what changes your life is whenever you surrender your will to the will of God and do what God wants and respond his way to whatever happens to you in life.

The next verse says, rejoice and be exceeding glad and you ought to underline this when you get your Bible and you underline these verses into Bible. Great is your reward in heaven. Great is your reward. It’s just that we can’t see it. We don’t know what it is going to be like. But understanding, he says, for so persecuted they did the prophets which were before you. God knows what happens to the people who have already served the Lord and loved the Lord.

And a lot of them were persecuted and killed. Read the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews and see what happened to some of God’s prophets. And should we expect better treatment? Well. Matthew chapter 6 and verse 20 says, but lay up for yourselves. Lay up for yourselves. This is what God wants you to do for you. Do you love you? Do you love you? If you love you, you should want the best for you. Well, what’s the best for you?

That’s why we say you’re to love one another. Well, if you love someone else, you should want the best for them. So you learn to make decisions that are the best for you. Love yourself and desire the best for yourself, not only for now, but in eternity, so that when you finally get there, you will have the best. You’ll have the great rewards that God had for you, but would it be a shame to find out what you could have had and you blew it all?

You threw it all away because you didn’t believe it now. I think there’s a lot of people that I’ve seen over here, and they really are committing suicide. If you ask them, is suicide a sin? Oh yeah, everybody believes suicide is a sin. That’s terrible. And yet, slowly, they commit suicide. Now, I have never had the habit of smoking a cigarette. Smoking is not going to send you to hell. You’re smoking when you get there, but that’s not what sends you there.

but it can hurt or harm or ruin your health and you’re slowly committing suicide, but you’re enjoying it. The other way, you know, hang yourself. I mean, that’s too sudden. You know, knife yourself, take some poison. That’s too quick. So it’s better just to do it slowly. You say, are you advocating people to commit suicide? No, I’m not. I am not advocating that. But I’m just saying that’s what people do. you may be doing it in a lot of other ways where you slowly commit suicide as a child of God.

Did you know that when you rebel against the Lord you could be committing suicide? Isn’t there a verse in the Bible that says that there is a sin unto death? That God may take your life because of your rebellion. If He takes your life because of what you did, like committing suicide. I really would prefer. And God even put it in His word, the desire to live a long life. Children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right and that your days may be long upon the earth.

Well, that we’re moving right along. Look what he says here in Luke chapter 6 for 35. But love ye your enemies and do good. Land and hoping for nothing again. And get your reward shall be great. Your reward shall be great. Over and over and over again the Lord stresses this. But rewards are earned. Rewards are the results of your faithful service to the Lord. Now, in the body upon the earth while you’re alive. Looking Colossians chapter three, verse 23 and 24 it says, and whatsoever ye do.

Do it heartily as to the Lord and not in the men. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive. Do you believe that? So then if you really believe this, You have a good reason, motivation to be found faithful, to love one another’s you ought to, and to love the Lord to be found faithful to whatever it is God wants you to do, to live a holy, godly life, because you know it will be worth it all. You believe that?

There’s even a song called, It Will Be Worked That All. You’ve never heard it before. Look at the next statement. In 1 Timothy 6 verse 17 through 19, charge them that are rich in this world. And if I ever find somebody as rich in this world, I’m gonna tell them this. That they be not high-minded. Now why? Because usually people who have a lot of money are high-minded. What do they do? It means that they have so much money.

They usually look down on people that don’t have money. And they’re just a risk. That’s all. There’s a risk involved. He says, and they have a tendency, to trust in their uncertain riches. Why? Because riches are things of this world, things you can have today and lose tomorrow. And so if you’re trusting in those things, then who do you trust when you don’t have those things? Because God can take them away just like that. And He says here, but they trust nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God.

God wants you and I to learn to trust in Him, the living God. And He is certain, see it’s in contrast to the things of the world, that they do good, that they be rich in good works. Now can you do that? You want to be rich? It’s not money. Be rich in good works. Why? Because God says to maintain good work because God is going to reward you when you get to to heaven, that is of greater value than all the money you’ll ever earn.

Laying up in store, you’re laying up something for later. We often say down here, you know, how’s your retirement fund going? I’ll, what are you having your portfolio? You mean a file folder? Your portfolio, you know, are you ready to retire? I am retired, I think. I don’t know if I am or not. I thought it was, but I’m not sure yet. Cause I love doing what I do so much that I guess I just keep on doing it.

But we’re supposed to lay in store for something down the road and down the road isn’t in this life. Look what he says. Layin’ up in store for themselves a good foundation against the what? The time to come. Now this is a life here that we get to live, but is only preparation for the time to come. Do you believe that? Otherwise you’ll think this is all there is to it and all this life is nothing more. This is life of opportunity.

They’re always talking about, you know, America. You know, have a dream. Have your dream homework. this job is my dream. I’ll have to be honest. I have a dream that in the life to come, the world to come, I will have whatever God wanted me to have. Because I believe that I should lay up now for that time to come. And so that means more, and should mean more to you and more to me than the things of this world, which is all temporary and all the wealth is uncertain.

They came out with a new conclusion in case you didn’t know this. They have finally boiled it all down that the greatest cause of death is age. Age. As you get older, it doesn’t matter what disease you don’t have. You’re still gonna die. Did you know that? Special revelation. It doesn’t matter how long they lived in the Old Testament. 800 years, 900 years, and they still what? They still died. So do you want to die healthy or sick? They’re going to die.

So the thing is is where you go and when you die and what are you going to have when you die? To prepare for the time to come. Number two, what is the basis for rewards? In Revelation 22 and verse 12 he says, and behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give, get it to give every man and you ought to underline this in your Bible according as his work shall be. You say, I don’t believe all of that.

Okay, then you won’t do anything. There is a verse in the Old Testament, it’s, you mean, in the book of Hebrews in chapter 10, cast not away to your confidence where would you have great recompense of reward? You see, confidence in what God said about all of this is why you will do what you’re supposed to do. And when you do that, you’re going to have a Great reward. But you see, if you don’t have the confidence, you don’t do the work, you don’t get the rewards.

See, it all goes together. Look at page two. Almost like Paul Harding, page two. In Matthew 16 verse 27, it says, for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels, and then he shall get that word. Reward who? Every man according to his works. every minute. You are going to get what you deserve. Isn’t that what you’ve been hollering about all your life? I don’t get any respect. Nobody loves me. Listen, God does and He’s giving you all the opportunities you can handle.

Did you realize all of your heartache and all of your problems? All of those are nothing more than opportunities for you to prove your faithfulness and love to the Lord Because God wants to give you something for it. Well, wouldn’t you be mad at God if He allowed you to live and gave you no opportunities to prove your love, your loyalty, your faithfulness? You’d be upset with God. So God has really blessed you. And if you haven’t had any problems this week, don’t worry.

Maybe you’ll get some this week and the attitude that you have toward those things you cannot understand or explain is what God’s way of saying, look, buddy, have I got something special for you this week? So God allows the things to happen in our life. And when you understand it, you can accept life a lot better. Look at the next statement, 1 Corinthians 3, 13, 2, 15 says, every man’s work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare talking about the judgment of Christ because it shall be revealed by fire.

Fire shall try every man’s work of what sort of this. In other words, from the eyes, the judgment, the burning fire of God’s discernment to determine whether or not your life that you lived is there any gold, silver and precious stones there or haywood and stubble and it’s going to be according to the judgment of God. That means that your heavenly Father has to keep the books on everything that you have to go through. He said nobody knows what I’m going through.

And God is keeping the books and he’s going to really bless you. And he’s the one that knows how you think and how you feel all of your emotions. And he says if any man’s work abide would you have built their pawn, he shall receive a reward. And then he says, if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved. See, once you’re saved from hell, you can never go there. I have trusted Christ as my Savior.

I can’t go to hell today, I can’t go tomorrow. I can’t go ever. Because I’m saved from it. Because of what Christ did for me. He paid for my sins, so I don’t have to go to hell and pay for them. Now God is saying, because you are His child, I’ll reward you when you get to heaven if you’ll do this for me, if you’ll live this way for me. So how much does a Lord mean to you. Your quality of life is in direct ratio to the caliber of your thoughts.

You don’t think right, you won’t live right. So that’s why the Bible tells us to study his word that we can discern right from wrong and that we will present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable in the God which is a reasonable service, and we will not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Look at the next one.

Second Corinthians 5, 10 says, for we must all appear before the judgment of Christ’s death, and here’s that phrase, everyone may receive the things done in his body. So you know that, you understand that. So that’s what helps you to accept things that happens in life that you don’t have to understand. There’s a lot of people no doubt that they’re trying to understand. What happened to Tebow? Where’s God? God had a heart attack. He fell off the throne. And Tebow was left alone.

That right. Oh, right there. God is still the same God before after. Just like in life, you have to know how to handle success in life, and you have to know how to handle four years in life. What’s not important is whether or not did they win or did they lose? God will reward, say, Tim Tebow if he does what he does for his honor. And if he doesn’t give God honor and credit and glory, then God may take away something that he could have had.

But it’s not just him. It’s everybody. You’re on the same boat. every day of your life on a mountain peak, a mile high city. You know, when I lived in Colorado, it was the only place I knew where I could walk a mile high in the backslidden condition. That won’t move right along. Look in the next verse, Ephesians 2, 10 says, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto. This is what God wants from our life. What?

Good works. Do we do good works to be saved? because the verse is right before that says, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works. But after you trust Christ as Savior, does God want us to live right? To have good work, yes, but not to be saved. We are His workmanship. We are trophies of God’s grace. And God allows us to live in this life so that we could be pleasing to Him.

and God wants to use us for His honor and glory. Titus chapter three verse eight, got an interesting praise here that I really love. He says, this is a faithful sayin’ and these things I will that thou affirm constantly. That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. So evidently they don’t have to, but it is good and profitable unto men. Why should I serve a Lord because it’s good? It’s profitable. It’s profitable for me.

It’s profitable for others. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone just served the Lord and did right? What do they want of a world? You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida, with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing toll free 1-800-576-3771.

That’s 1-800-576-3771. If you wish to hear today’s program again or would like to download a free MP3 of today’s or any previous Bibleline program, go to BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the spinning globe in the upper right corner of our home page. If you’re in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 1030 and at six o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by going to our church website, calvaryoftampa.org.

Thanks for joining us on Bible Live. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend one day it will happen the trumpet will sound we will be changed caught up to meet the Lord in the air so live today and every day believe in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up