Great Expectations A Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Great Expectations Keyword: "rewards” Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Matthew 6:1* Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. Questions 1. What is the condition Jesus gives for being rewarded by our Father who is in heaven?   2. Does it surprise you (after all, we are firm believers in salvation by faith alone through grace alone) that Jesus talks here about believers receiving rewards from our heavenly Father based on our rightly motivated practice of righteousness?   Practical help Our church runs an annual summer basketball camp for elementary school aged kids. At this camp (just concluded), we handed "Camper of the Day" and "Team of the Week" awards to those kids and to that team that best exemplified the character and attitudes we were trying to instill all week. Did handing out awards violate the Christian spirit of the camp? Not according to Jesus! He talked about rewards being handed out to His followers lots of times — most notably in the Greatest Sermon Ever Preached (The Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7). He said that rewards would be distributed to those who recognized their spiritual bankruptcy, were gentle and merciful, hungered and thirsted for righteousness, and were persecuted for the sake of righteousness. Reward would come to those who gave generously to God's work, who prayed, and who fasted. Over and over again in Scripture, God promises that He will reward us beyond our wildest imagination if we serve Him. The book of Hebrews even says that we must believe that God exists "and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" if we would approach Him correctly. (Hebrews 11:6) God's passion is to bless His people, and He loves to bless for faithfulness. Of course, He gets to determine when, how, what, and where to bestow His blessings. But each of us can rest assured that we will never be disappointed with the rewards God will give for following Jesus. He will even reward for standing strong in the face of sexual temptation and walking away from Internet porn. Stand strong, brothers and sisters — great is your reward! eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2003 by eXXit *Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. ----