 Today I want to present a topic that I called the Rewarder, and I want to talk today about from a scripture that you probably already know, but I want to focus on a little different detail of the scripture, and it comes from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6, so we're gonna read from Hebrews 11 verse 6, and it goes like this, but without faith it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Today I want to talk a little bit about God who rewards, God who has a nature of rewarding those that seek after God, those that go after him, those that commit their life to him. See God says this, those that come to me must believe, and what did he say? They need to believe in two things, they need to believe first that he is, meaning that he exists, that God exists, and second he says that he rewards. Now to me when I started meditating the scripture was kind of weird, I mean I could think of many different things that God could say that conditions upon coming and pleasing him, like maybe the first condition makes sense, you know, you have to believe that God exists, obviously, if you want to receive something from God, if you want to have a relationship with God, first basic concept, first basic thing, you have to understand that he exists, he believes, so that makes sense, that we don't question, I hope none of you here be like, well that's, you know, that's, that's confusing, but it's pretty straightforward, but the second thing he says that I'm a rewarder, to me I could think that God could say, you know, you have to remember that I'm holy, you have to remember that I'm righteous, you have to maybe say I am love, or whatever other characters, why did God choose to say that two things that you need to remember, two things you need to believe when you come to me is that I am, that I exist, and that I reward, and I begin to study that, because I begin to look from Genesis to Revelation, and I begin to notice that everywhere, from Genesis to Revelation, God reveals himself, and he makes sure that people knows that he's a rewarder, he comes to Abraham, and he says, Abraham, I'm your shield, and I'm your exceedingly great reward, he was telling Abraham, Abraham, come follow me, come, come walk before me, and he makes sure to tell Abraham that, listen, when you do that, I'm your shield, I'm your protection, I'm your exceedingly great reward, and throughout the Bible I can bring you scripture after scripture from Old Testament, all the way down to New Testament, all the way to Revelation, when Jesus said, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me. I mean, God, why reward? I mean, my justice is with me, or my, you know, my love, or my holiness, or whatever, why, why the reward? And today I want to spend a few moments, and I want to take you through a few things, and just to show you why God wants to see, why God wants us to see and regard and believe that he rewards those that follow him, those that seek him, and those that go after him. Do you want to learn today, church? You know, everywhere throughout the Bible, throughout the parables, Jesus represents himself, or represents father as a rewarder. And I believe that as a person that likes to give, as a person that likes to give, for example, a person has a nature of giving, he looks for opportunities to give, right? In his nature he gives. A person that has a kind soul, a kind nature. You know, we say, what a kind soul. A person loves to do kind works, right? A person on a negative side that is a liar in a nature, what he does, or she does, they lie. Or a thief in a nature, what did they do? They steal, that's what they are. When God himself, he says, I'm a rewarder, he reveals his nature. That means that God loves to grant you with great things, that God loves to bless you, that God looks for an opportunity to reward, just like a giver looks for an opportunity to give, and just like a kind person is looking to do kindness. That's God's nature. First thing I think, I believe, the reason why God wants us to see himself, wants us to see him as a rewarder, is so that we, he wants us to believe that he is not a taker, but he is a giver. Have you ever had a situation where you heard or you heard somebody that said something about you, said something about your reputation, said something about your character that wasn't true? For example, somebody said that you were a liar, and you know, you didn't lie. I mean, it's offensive to you. I mean, it's your character, it's your name. Or somebody said that you stole something, you took something without asking, and you know, they called you a thief, but you know, you didn't do such an act, or you're not a thief. It would offend you, wouldn't it? I mean, you would take it personally. You would take it offensively, correct? I believe that many people have a view of God as a taker. He wants to take your time. He wants to take your money. He wants to take your energy, your effort. He wants you to serve him. See, most of religions in the world, they demand something of a view. They demand worship. They demand, they demand adoration. They demand recognition. And a lot of times when we come from the world, we'll have that kind of mindset is that God is this big God, and he demands things. He takes things. He takes my tithe. He takes my offering. God is the one that takes my energy and my worship, my concentration. He takes, you know, because I have to come to church on Sunday and Wednesday, and then I have to come on Friday, and then I have to do a home group. And then, you know, I have to be an example to, you know, God, I just give, give, give. And I believe God left it specifically in this scripture. He said, he who comes to me, he needs to understand that I exist, that I am, and that I reward, that I don't take, but I give. That I am a giver. I understand the thing that God gets upset and he gets offended. When we have a prospecting and a view of God, that as God who takes God, that only requires things of us. I believe that the God is not a burden, but God, he came to lift our burdens. He didn't come to give us religion, to get a set of rules and load us up. He came to give us relationship, and he gave us, he came to, to lighten our burden. So there was a story. There was a lady, a Lisa, and her husband. They had a successful business. They were an oil business. In Mississippi, they were drilling. They had some chunk of lens here and there, and where they were drilling oil, and then they were producing oil, selling oil, and the business was doing okay. And then for the next couple of years, the business started going down. And so all of a sudden, they start laying off people. They start letting go of people. They start selling off even some of the equipment. And they came to the point where they were facing bankruptcy. The business completely stalled for a long time. They couldn't find oil and, and they would just, that was just on the verge of bankruptcy. And so one time, as Lisa was flipping through the channel, she came across Joloz since TV show. And I see she would start listening to, to the message. She really got encouraged. Then next time that you did with her husband, they start listening and they really got encouraged and they say, you know, we need to fly down there and we need to be there at the service. So they booked the flight from Mississippi down to Houston. They flew there. They were there. They came there on Saturday. They were there on, on, on Sunday service. And after service, they flew back. And in their heart, they felt like, you know what, we need to make this our home church. We need to keep coming. So every single week, they booked the cheapest flight that they could from Mississippi, Mississippi where they were living. And they flew on Saturday, rented a hotel, stayed at the hotel, went to the service. And after the service, they were greatly encouraged. They would go back and go back to their town, go back to the city. And that, and that kept going for some months. And as they were doing that, as they were staying commitment, that was a sacrifice for them. They barely had any money, but they stayed committed to God. They stayed committed. They, they, God saw their sacrifice. One time when they came, they really got encouraged. They came back, they got back home. The husband just felt this ocean of the Holy Spirit. He felt this prompting to drill in this specific land, to drill in this specific place. And they came, and he started to drill. He hired the workers. They took out a loan and they started drilling. They drilled one hole. They drink two holes. They drink, they drilled five holes and the drill 10 holes, nothing. But deep down inside, he says, I know, I know, I received something. God will honor us for the sacrifice that we've made. We will find oil in this lane, they continue up, I'm going to, to the, to the services in the meantime, continue to fly. They drill 20 holes, 25 holes, 30 holes, 35 holes and nothing. And so his workers starting like, you guys, you're crazy. I mean, how many more holes are you going to drill in this place? I mean, it can only go so far. I mean, you're wasting all your money. I mean, look, we don't mind. We're working for you. His friends started, they were in the same business and said, Hey buddy, are you okay? Why, why are you drilling so many times? You know, there's nothing there that this land is done. But he said, no, you know, deep inside of my heart, God put it when I was there, that I need to drill. He drills 40 times. He drills 45 times, nothing. Drills 46 times, 47 times, 48, they strike oil. And now, no, they don't take commercial flights over to Houston. They have their private jet and they're flying every single day, every single service there and, and come back here for Monday to do business. They honored God. They committed, they sacrificed and God honored the decision. God is not a God that takes. God rewards. God is a giver. I want you to get a bright perspective. Number two, I think the reason why God wants us to see him as a rewarder, and so that we have a right perspective of him. Like I already mentioned is that nobody likes to view. Nobody likes, you don't like if somebody views you in a bad light. If somebody sees you as a thief, as a, as a person that always takes, as a nagging person, a person that always, you know, you've had some of those friends, the type of friends are when you go out, oh, and I forgot my wallet, you know, don't raise your hand. Okay. We all have those. Okay. I forgot my wallet. And every single time when you go out somewhere, they always forget their wallet. Okay. You know, we don't like, not necessarily don't like those kind of people, but you know what I mean. Okay. They just get a little burdensome. I don't want you to see God is that every time you go out, do something for God that God only takes. God specifically left this in the scripture and he specifically throughout the Bible, he mentioned and he always reminded us that he is a rewarder. Anything that you do for him. A possible disciples came to Jesus and they said, Jesus, we left our homes, we left our families, we left all things behind. What are we going to get in return? Jesus said that in this life, you're going to get more houses, more cars. I'm paraphrasing, obviously. You're going to get more, more friends, more families. You're going to get more, but how much more in eternity? Jesus told the disciple, listen, I'm not a taker, I'm a rewarder, those that follow me. I believe that the right perspective produces right expectation. When you have an expectation, when you have perspective that God rewards for everything that you do, you will have an expectation. You will have an expectancy to wait and expect your reward. Expectation is simply an expression of your faith. Expectation is a breeding ground for a miracle. See, if you go with the kind of attitude that God always takes, God, you know, I have to do this for God, I have to do this instead of I get to do it. I have to go to church, I have to go to prayer meeting, I have to do home group, I have to go to home group. Then you create this kind of negative expectation that it's always give, give, give, but I really never take back. And therefore, you don't have an expectation. You don't have this awaitance on God that God is waiting to reward me for what I did. God is waiting to reward me that every time I get up and more and spend time with him. God is waiting to reward me for every time I do something for his name's sake. God is waiting to reward me every time I sow my tithe, every time I help somebody in need, every time I pay for somebody's guest, buy somebody lunch. God is waiting to reward me. When you have the right perspective, you have expectation and expectation as an expression of your faith. The reason why, another thing, why I believe what God wants us to expect the reward. See, God created us so he knows who we are, how we function and he, because he created us that way. I believe that, and I'm not going to go too much in psychology, you can read that more on your own and do some study, but in psychology, there's such a thing as that you reward a behavior that you want to repeat. Let me break this down to you. When Iliana was born, and she was about two months or about there, and I decided to teach her how to hold her own bottle and feed herself. No, I'm not a cruel dad. I was just experimenting a few things. I had to have some kind of example. The way I did it is this, is that I gave her a bottle, put her hands on it, I gave her the bottle and she starts sucking it. Whenever she let go of the hands, obviously the bottle would fall. I would wait for a few minutes to see, she's looking for a bottle, she's looking for a bottle, trying to find the bottle and there's no bottle. And then I would take again the bottle, put it in her hands and bring it to her mouth and she'd hold it and again let go and it would fall. And so by this, what I was teaching is that I was teaching a behavior, behavior of holding the bottle, the reward was the milk, right? And so she understood after some time that if I hold the bottle, I get to drink the milk for a little bit longer. And so sure enough, it worked. From probably about two months or so, three months, she was holding her bottle on her own. People are actually, our friends were surprised, like she holds her bottle already. Yeah, few experiments, it worked. The other time, when she just started walking about eight months or so, we taught her to throw away her own diaper in the garbage. So how did we do that? We gave her the diaper and we led her to the garbage. We helped her toss it into the garbage and we went, she'd get all excited and we'll give her a treat. And so after about a dozen of those times, no, it sounds cruel, okay, but look, it works. It works. Okay. After some time, you'll get my point here if you haven't got it already. After about a dozen of times, she was more than happy to take her diaper and throw it in a throw it in a trash bin. Okay. And right now she even learns a few words. So she goes, ew. I was like, yeah, what are you going to do about it? And she takes it and she goes and sometimes the drawer, they're locked. We have a little rubber band, so she doesn't go and go in there and try to take out things that she shouldn't. And it's like, and she'll call us and to make sure that she sees that we put the diaper in the trash bin and we go, yeah, and she's happy. And what happened is that we rewarded the behavior that we wanted her to repeat. See, God created you and me and he understands how we function. He created us to function this way. That's why he said, I'm the rewarder. So by rewarding the good behavior, God reinforces that God encourages us to continue to live in character, to continue to live in pursuit of Him, to continue to live in seeking Him, independence on Him, to continue to serve Him, to continue to serve people. Because God is the rewarder and He knows if I reward His good behavior, Her good behavior, it will be repeated once more. I believe God wants you to see today, wants you to see Him as a rewarder. I believe that God wants you today to recognize that He's not a taker, that He sees everything that you do for Him. He sees every time you're in the background and you're not noticed and you carry the load, He sees it. Every time you put work in and maybe it doesn't get recognized by your boss, it doesn't get recognized by your leader, it doesn't get recognized by your pastor, that He's looking at that moment, He's waiting to reward you. That's why Jesus warned the Pharisees. He said, the fact that you go around and pray in the corner streets and fast and you let people know that you fast, He said, you already received the reward. He said, but if you do it secretly, if you do it for me, if you do it with quality, if you do it with integrity, if you do it, if you put your best in it and expect me to reward it, He said, what's done in private will be rewarded in public because I am God and I cannot deny myself and I'm God that rewards. I want you to change your perspective of God and begin to expect God to honor your commitment, to honor your dedication, to His kingdom, to relationship with Him, to the local church, to what you do for Him, everywhere you are in Jesus' mighty name, amen. Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 24, he says, run the race in such a way that you might get the prize or reward. In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1, Apostle Paul also who at least we believe up was Apostle Paul who wrote it, says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily ensnare us. I believe that there is a thief that's trying to rob us, rob you of your reward and Bible says he is devil himself and he is looking how to steal, Bible says he came to steal, heal and destroy and one of the tasks that he's trying to do is to steal the reward that you so earnestly working for, you so earnestly expect and the way he does, we just read in Hebrews 12 1, he does it by two things, the way he steals your reward is by sin or by weight that Bible says easily ensnare us. Let's talk about sin, sin while you might offer something to you with the right hand, with the left hand it will take everything that your life depends on, it will rob you of your reward, it will rob you of your prize, sin is poison while it might taste good in the beginning but at the end it kills you. So if you have something in your life whether it's lost, whether it's some kind of addiction, whether maybe disobedience to parents, maybe mistreating your spouse, mistreating people in your life, maybe you know lying or cheating or whatever it might be, whatever sin it is in your life you have to get rid of it because it will steal your reward. Satan is a thief that's his nature, God is a rewarder that's his nature, he wants to reward, he wants to give, Satan he's here to steal, the way he steals from your life is he puts some cigarettes, he puts some alcohol, he puts a little bit of parting, he puts a little bit of mistreatment, you mistreat your spouse, you mistreat your kids and he brings sin into your life so that he can trap you and so that he can steal the reward that God has for you. You have to catch the thief, kick him out of your life, get rid of sin so that you can enjoy the blessed life that God has for you. Now that's pretty clear for us and I'm sure most of us that we understand this but there's a second in Apostle Paul says that there is the weight that weighs us down and he says you have to run the race to get the prize. Now the weight can be many things, it can be fear in our life, there's stopping us from moving forward, it can be anxiety, the weight can be laziness, lack of motivation, the weight can be lack of focus or negativity or bad habits that not necessarily sin but they're just things that keeping us down, you know, watching too many Netflix shows, spending too much time playing video games, instead of reading a book, you know, we watched some nonsense on YouTube and all this stuff like, you know, some of the memes that's going around, he said, started looking for an apple pie recipe, ended up being convinced that 9-11 was a conspiracy theory. Okay, that's kind of how it is with our lives, that weight that easily ensnares us. You know, we spent half a day figuring it out, who got traded to what team and look, I like all this stuff and it all has its place, all has its time but sometimes we don't notice how it takes two to three hours, you know, make sure we catch up with basketball, make sure we catch up with NFL, make sure we catch up with Kardashians and whoever will join us and all this stuff and at the end of the day, we wonder why we lack focus, why we lack motivation, why we lack, why we lack the determination to reach the goal, reach the price, reach that thing that God has for us, reach that business, reach that opportunity that God has for us because Apostle Paul says that there is a weight that ensnares us, that slows us down to run the race and if you're going to run the race, Apostle Paul says, run it so that you can receive a price at the end, run it in such a way, run it with an endurance, run it with the persistence, run it with consistency so that when you're done running, you get your crown, you get your price, God can say, good, faithful servant, here is your reward, lay away the weight, lay aside the weight, put away the sin so that Satan has no access to your life, so that Satan has no access to your life, but without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, encourage you, be a diligent seeker, be a person that is committed to God, commitment to God always pays off, commitment to God always pays off, commitment to God will get you through hard times in life, commitment to God, love for God will get you through the most difficult times in your life and it will get you to the blessed life, see in order to get the reward you must meet the demand of the reward, have you ever seen one of those lost dog posters somewhere in the neighborhood and which says, you know, lost dogs and so a description of it and it says reward of 200 dollars, 500 dollars, right? If you would go up and look for the dog around, you didn't find and then you come back to, come back to the owner and say, hey, I saw the poster, I looked for your dog, give me the reward, you'd be like, well, where's the dog? You say, well, long, I didn't find a dog, but I went around these neighborhoods and I looked for it, people would be like, get out of here, okay, what's wrong with you, right? But God says, I reward those that seek me. You don't have, he said, he, he, he doesn't say that I reward those that find me, I reward those that, that, he says, I reward just for you making an effort to come to church, just for you making an effort to come to, come to morning prayer, to make it your home group or to do home group, come into leaders meeting, spending time with God, taking time to talk to somebody about Jesus, sharing the gospel, God says, I will reward you, you say, but you know, I talked to them about Jesus didn't get saved, God says, no, it doesn't matter to me, I'll deal with them, that's not your business, I reward the fact that you tried. See, everywhere else in the world, come on, let's put our hands together for Jesus, come on. See, everywhere else in the world, you get a price for competing and winning, God says, I give you a price for competing, just for you being in a race, just for you running your race. Seeking God is the demand, blessed life is the reward. Seeking God is the demand, blessed life is a reward, God is not a taker, he's a giver, he's the one that can bless you beyond what you can think or you can imagine, he's the one that can give you successful marriage, he's the one that can give you successful business, he's the one that can give you a successful career, God is the one, when he rewards, no one can match his reward, when he rewards, no one can come close to what he can give you in Jesus mighty name. Seek the reward, not a reward, seek a rewarder, not a reward, make a priority to see God, make God your number one priority, make God the one that your soul longs for. David says that my soul thirsts for you, my soul longs for you, no wonder God has called him and met after his own heart, you know, when Ruth came out and she was completely hidden, she didn't know anything about God, but she decided to leave with Naomi and she said Naomi, your God will be my God, I'll do what you want me to do and because she made Naomi's God, her God, Bible says in Ruth chapter 2 verse 12 that she received full reward, God does not abandon, God doesn't forget, God doesn't leave those that put trust in him, God says that I have not, Bible says that, David says actually I have not seen a righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread. Make God, make pleasing God your number one priority, Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 says seek the kingdom of God first and everything else will be added to you, serve God, service people, remember God is the rewarder, you know, I come from a very large family, my grandma comes, my grandma had 16 kids and when they were growing up in, it was back then in the Soviet Union times, it was already difficult as it is economically wise, but even worse because they were Christians and because they believe God, a lot of social programs were not available for them, a lot of things were disclosed for them and because having a big family was much harder to provide for them and their neighbors and other people, they told them you guys are crazy, you have a lot of kids and you believe in some kind of God or you get persecuted for you and your kids, you will starve to death, there will be nothing out of your family, but lo and behold, when you put your trust in God, God never abandons you, yeah, do they go through difficult times, yes they did, do they go through hard times, yes sure they did, but God saw them through all of it and today if you look at the family, family is big, family is well put together, you see people in the family are serving God, there was some few troubles on the way, a few things, but if you look at all the kids are serving God and everything is well, they are doing well financially, they have their own businesses, today we live in America, we enjoy in this land and if you look at those neighbors around on left and right that condemned and said you and your God and your children will starve to death and if you look at their families, they are destroyed by alcohol, destroyed by drugs, some of the kids already died from overdose and there is nothing of them, when you put your trust in God, God will never abandon you, will never leave you, will he go through hard times, yes, will he use the hard time to shape your mold to prepare you, to produce quality character in you, yes, but at the end he always and always rewards those who seek him, I'll finish with the story, I had a permission to share from Estevan, he's in my home group and he came about a year ago to our church and he came to my home group and with you know I had a privilege and I still am to disciple him and talk with him and he just prior to that recently graduated got a degree in this very good job that pays very well but for a very long time he couldn't find a job so he got to the point where he depleted his savings, even you know waiting, trying to apply for different jobs, going to different places and you know things just were not looking not looking so well for him and he would come to me and be discouraged and say you know what I don't understand, you know I'm praying, I'm tithing, I'm giving even above my tithe and I see my friends applying for the same jobs and they're complete heathens, they don't want anything with God, they don't do anything with God and they got the job over me and then I applied there and then somebody else that I know they got a job over me, he said look don't get me wrong, I'm happy for them, they're good people, you know they do the best that they can but you know it's kind of getting discouraged because I come here every single morning I spend time praying, you know I do my best to see God and I tithe and I do all these things, why is it not happening and I can, I kept encouraging as I said God, I said as the one, look God will always stay faithful, I shared some testimonies from my personal life, from other people's life, I said look hold on to God, continue to do what you do, continue to come to pray, continue to tithe of a little that you have and God will come through you know fast forward until two weeks ago you know he calls me and says or texts me and says listen I just want to tell you that I got the job, I've been really wanted, I've been praying and it's been really good and I have, it's a government job, it has a lot of benefits, it has all these great things and I'm starting at the entry level and it's already good pay and I have so much more room to grow, come on let's put our hands together for Jesus Christ acknowledge God in all your ways and God will make your way successful that's what Bible says put God first in your life, make him a priority, seek him diligently, see the word seek means make it vital, make God vital in your life, make him your very breath, make him your very existence, make God a person that you can live without and I can promise you that with God you'll live a better life than anybody else out there in Jesus' mighty name. Have you received something this evening?