{"id":769,"date":"2012-11-05T00:55:14","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T00:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/?p=769"},"modified":"2012-11-13T04:32:08","modified_gmt":"2012-11-13T04:32:08","slug":"45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/","title":{"rendered":"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>

\u201cBe careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do you will have no <\/strong>reward from your Father in heaven.<\/strong> So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, <\/strong>will reward you\u201d<\/strong> (Mt. 6:1-4). <\/strong><\/p>

ILL:<\/strong> William Barclay refers to an old saint who said that he would like to quench all of the fires of hell with water and destroy all of the joys of heaven with fire so that men would seek goodness for goodness\u2019 sake and that the idea of reward and punishment might be totally eliminated from life. (Barclay, 179).<\/p>

We have all heard the statement, \u201cVirtue is its own reward.\u201d Which really means doing the right thing is enough of a reward. Don\u2019t hope for something more.<\/p>

We need to be careful of being so spiritual that we want to serve without the thought of reward. We will be in danger of being more spiritual than Jesus, who referred to rewards not once or twice but over and over again in the Gospels.<\/p> Read more [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBe careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do you will have no <\/strong>reward from your Father in heaven.<\/strong> So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, <\/strong>will reward you\u201d<\/strong> (Mt. 6:1-4). <\/strong><\/p>\n

ILL:<\/strong> William Barclay refers to an old saint who said that he would like to quench all of the fires of hell with water and destroy all of the joys of heaven with fire so that men would seek goodness for goodness\u2019 sake and that the idea of reward and punishment might be totally eliminated from life. (Barclay, 179).<\/p>\n

We have all heard the statement, \u201cVirtue is its own reward.\u201d Which really means doing the right thing is enough of a reward. Don\u2019t hope for something more.<\/p>\n

We need to be careful of being so spiritual that we want to serve without the thought of reward. We will be in danger of being more spiritual than Jesus, who referred to rewards not once or twice but over and over again in the Gospels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matthew-6"],"yoast_head":"\n45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4) - Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4) - Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"INTRODUCTION \u201cBe careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you\u201d (Mt. 6:1-4). ILL: William Barclay refers to an old saint who said that he would like to quench all of the fires of hell with water and destroy all of the joys of heaven with fire so that men would seek goodness for goodness\u2019 sake and that the idea of reward and punishment might be totally eliminated from life. (Barclay, 179). We have all heard the statement, \u201cVirtue is its own reward.\u201d Which really means doing the right thing is enough of a reward. Don\u2019t hope for something more. We need to be careful of being so spiritual that we want to serve without the thought of reward. We will be in danger of being more spiritual than Jesus, who referred to rewards not once or twice but over and over again in the Gospels.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-05T00:55:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-11-13T04:32:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff Gulleson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff Gulleson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff Gulleson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/person\/48a8f833658dc28837ea6da8cae17c35\"},\"headline\":\"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4)\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-05T00:55:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-13T04:32:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/\"},\"wordCount\":2296,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Matthew 6\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/\",\"name\":\"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4) - Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-05T00:55:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-13T04:32:08+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/\",\"name\":\"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-logo-jeff.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-logo-jeff.png\",\"width\":550,\"height\":90,\"caption\":\"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/person\/48a8f833658dc28837ea6da8cae17c35\",\"name\":\"Jeff Gulleson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32926dfd19d85be17a6b9bb05f347e8b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32926dfd19d85be17a6b9bb05f347e8b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeff Gulleson\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4) - Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4) - Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson","og_description":"INTRODUCTION \u201cBe careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you\u201d (Mt. 6:1-4). ILL: William Barclay refers to an old saint who said that he would like to quench all of the fires of hell with water and destroy all of the joys of heaven with fire so that men would seek goodness for goodness\u2019 sake and that the idea of reward and punishment might be totally eliminated from life. (Barclay, 179). We have all heard the statement, \u201cVirtue is its own reward.\u201d Which really means doing the right thing is enough of a reward. Don\u2019t hope for something more. We need to be careful of being so spiritual that we want to serve without the thought of reward. We will be in danger of being more spiritual than Jesus, who referred to rewards not once or twice but over and over again in the Gospels.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/","og_site_name":"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson","article_published_time":"2012-11-05T00:55:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-11-13T04:32:08+00:00","author":"Jeff Gulleson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeff Gulleson","Est. reading time":"11 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeff Gulleson","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/person\/48a8f833658dc28837ea6da8cae17c35"},"headline":"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4)","datePublished":"2012-11-05T00:55:14+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-13T04:32:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/"},"wordCount":2296,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Matthew 6"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/","url":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/","name":"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4) - Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-05T00:55:14+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-13T04:32:08+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/sermon-on-the-mount\/matthew-6\/45-what-rewards-really-mt-61-4\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"45. What? Rewards? Really? (Mt. 6:1-4)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/","name":"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#organization","name":"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson","url":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-logo-jeff.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/cropped-logo-jeff.png","width":550,"height":90,"caption":"Bible Lessons from Jeff Gulleson"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/person\/48a8f833658dc28837ea6da8cae17c35","name":"Jeff Gulleson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32926dfd19d85be17a6b9bb05f347e8b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/32926dfd19d85be17a6b9bb05f347e8b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeff Gulleson"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeffgulleson.com\/bible-studies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}