The Reward of Respects
ISAIAH 65:23
23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.
HEBREWS 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Notice – two things, you must first believe that God exists (no.1), and then after that, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
You must not only believe that he exists, but you must also believe that God is reliable and dependable to those who put their trust in him and have faith when all the circumstances around them look hopeless, like all the woman from last week’s sermon who found themselves in desperate crisis, everything looked impossible for them, but they had respects and put their faith and trust in the Lord.
LUKE 6:33-35
33 And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Notice again – if we obey this commandment to be kind unto the unthankful and to the evil, then God who is the rewarder has promised us that not only is this the proof that we are the children of the Highest, but also that our reward shall be great because he is the Great Rewarder.
The Reward of Respects
**We are continuing from our two messages on Respects from the last two weeks, because we found that in all the examples that we looked at in the lives of the people that trusted in the Lord in their times of crisis, and sort him for help, we find that they were greatly rewarded because they had faith and respects to God.
HEBREWS 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
**God is a great rewarder, and we must believe that he is that, and that he is faithful to reward us when we put our trust in him, especially after the reins have broken and the horse is galloping off at full speed, and we have lost all control of the situation – but if we can trust the Lord under those conditions, then we will find that he is a reliable and a dependable rewarder, because that is when the test of faith really counts.
It’s good to trust the Lord when you have a good hold on the reins, but subconsciously you are probably putting you trust in the reins more than the Lord, so sometimes God has to let the reins break to see if you really do trust him or not. **So it is then that we must believe that he is faithful to reward us if we put our complete trust in him under those conditions.
LUKE 6:35a
35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great,
This is an eternal promise because it’s the eternal word of God; so this is not just a temporal reward, but this is a great reward. Rahab the harlot was rewarded for her faith and respects toward the servants of God, and she was rewarded by God by being given the lives of her family members – that was certainly a great reward.
Noah pleased God by his respects and his faith in the message of his day, and he was rewarded with the salvation of his family also – that was a great reward for him.
Achan (from last week’s sermon) lost his reward and his family because of unbelief and disobedience to the word of that hour.
***All through the bible we see examples of people that their rewards are connected to the salvation of their loved ones.
**Picking up from last week – We saw how that all of the woman in the bible that showed respect to the ministry of God for their day without exception received their loved ones lives restored back to them again.
- Rahab the gentile harlot showed respects to the lowest ranking ministry, and God rewarded her with the saving of her entire family.
- The gentile Shunammite woman by showing respects was rewarded with the resurrection and the return of her only son
- The gentile woman of Canaan showed respects to Jesus even though she was called a dog.
- Martha showed Jesus respects even when it seemed that he had let her down – there was a great reward for her and for all these woman, and their reward was connected to their love ones.
Let’s look at a woman that showed disrespect to one of God’s servants.
II SAMUEL 6:14-16
14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. (In other words, she disrespected him)
II SAMUEL 6:20-23
20 ¶ Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!
21 And David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD.
22 And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight: and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.
23 Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.
Notice - the Lord shut off her offspring because of disrespect, what family she would have had were cut off from her.
**The reward of respect to God and to the ministries that He sends to us (regardless of how low ranked those ministries may seem), that reward is connected to life, and to the life to your offspring.
So the outcome of disrespect is death and the loss of your offspring – this is bible teaching. When Achan sinned, not only did he lose his life but his offspring was cut off with him.
**So we see a clear connection in the bible between your faith in the Lord (and your respects toward his ministers), and this great reward of the salvation of your offspring. The bible promised that your offspring would be with you.
ACTS 11:12-14
12 And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house: This is Peter telling of the story of how God sent him to Cornelius house.
13 And he (Cornelius) shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. (Cornelius’s is being sent a ministry, and we see his great respect and faith in the messenger and the message that God sent to him through that ministry, and by his respect to the message he was rewarded greatly and not only he himself, but it also brought salvation to his entire household – we have seen this all through the bible, look at this great reward – your reward shall be great)
ACTS 16:25-31 Another example…
25 ¶ And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Believe on the Lord, and you will be rewarded because by the salvation of your house.
So we see that the promise of when we can truly believe, especially during a time of crisis, that we are also rewarded with the salvation of our family – this is bible teaching.
**There can be no greater reward for you than the saving of your family, we have seen this all through the bible, and so we must believe that God is a rewarder for this, we must believe that this is the channel that he wants to rewards us in because our reward is to be great.
We saw how that Rahab and many others were rewarded – in all these examples, these people received the reward of the salvation of family members.
Read that quote again that we finished with last week…
MAKE.THE.VALLEY.FULL.OF.DITCHES_ CONNERSVILLE.IN TUESDAY_ 53-0609E
E-3 A lady in my church... Brother Beeler, a Mrs. Weber. She was dying with TB. She was in the sanatorium at the last stages. They sent her home to die: said there's nothing could be done for her. Mrs. Grace Webber, in Jeffersonville. She lived just beyond the Tabernacle, and she had a got five or six little children. So the Angel of the Lord come to me that night and said, "Go, tell Mrs. Webber and tell Mr. Webber, rather, to get things ready; for he's going to be left with those children on his hands; for his wife's going." Well, I went and told Mr. Webber. I told his little girl, little Jean Rose, which is a nurse now. She was a little bitty fellow then. She's a young lady now. It's been seven years ago or more.
I said, "Now, Jeanie, your mother's going to die. She can't live but a little while longer."
E-4 And two days after that, or three days, there was some ladies from the government depot there, where she worked, come in. And she--and Grace, Mrs. Webber, said, "If--if I could only have Brother Bill to pray for me once more," she said, "I seen when my cousin Opal was healed with that cancer, and the doctor just give her 'till morning to live," and her daughter's a nurse also.
Said--and that--the girls from out at the government where she worked with her, said, "There ain't nothing to that guy." Said, "He isn't nothing but a hypocrite." Said, "That's all that religion is, is just a bunch of fake fanaticism."
And so Miss Webber said, "Look, I'm a dying. And I know that, but I just won't stand still for that." She said, "I know better than that." She said, "I been--lived right here around this city, around that man all the time. I seen him from a child, growed up." She said, "I know." Said, "You can call it fake if you want to," she said, "but I've seen it just as--so much, and seen God heal the people." She said, "And I know the man's life and I know it's the truth."
E-5 And it happened to be the Angel of the Lord heard that. And that very night, setting on the side of my chair, in the room, after I got up and went and got a drink of water, about three o'clock in the morning, and setting on a chair, I seen Him come walking through the door. He said, "Tomorrow (Sunday), that they're going to pick Miss Webber up and bring her down. She'll be setting on the right hand side, far back in the Tabernacle." Said, "I heard her, and tell her I heard her, what she said. And tell her, THUS SAITH THE LORD, she'll live and not die." She...?... There you are. You can go down and see her if you'd like to: been about seven years ago. All right. See? His Presence was there when she was taking up for what was right. See? His Presence was there, and He--He found her. So He come and told me what she had said--what she said to these women, and said... And He had respect to her because she had respect unto what was representing God. So God will do the same thing for you. Not to respect to me, but to respect to Him, to Christ, the One Who died for your healing. If you'll just give respects to Him and His Word, God will do the work for you. Amen. That is right.
By showing respects to God and to his ministry, her reward was great in that her life was spared and also her family was restored to her because she would have been separated from them otherwise, but her reward of respects to the ministry was great because God rewarded her by keeping her family together – in other words, her family was about to be broken apart, but her respects to the ministry brought her family back together again.
Opening scripture:
LUKE 6:35
35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
One of the hardest social things for a human to do is to love an enemy, to be nice and to do nice things to someone who is against you and against what you stand for and what you are trying to achieve. But the bible also places a great promise of reward upon the person who possesses and displays this character, and that would also be an evidence that we are the children of the highest, because God is also kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
This word “love” ye your enemies, is the Greek word agapao which is more of a divine love toward your fellow man, it is not based on conditions that if you are good to me then I will be good back to you, it is a love that looks past a person’s faults and sees the person’s needs.
It is not that we have to “Phileo Love” our enemies, like we have to like them as a brother would like and get on well with his fellow brother friend, but we have to have a love that is like the unconditional love that God has toward us who were by nature at one time against him and in effect an enemy of God, we are to also have this same agapao love toward those who are against us in that we treat them well when they maybe don’t treat us well – so this is also a respect that we are to have not just toward the ministry, but also toward one another and right down the rank to our worst enemy – there is a great reward promised by God even if you show respect by doing good to those who are your enemies.
***We see how David in the bible had respect to Saul who had clearly become his enemy – that was the spirit of Christ in David as an example to us.
We must let God deal with people in correction and judgement and not deal with them after our own opinions and ideas.
THE.REJECTED.KING_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-23 SUNDAY_ 60-0515M
21-4 And I heard a voice then that spoke to me that was in the room, said, "This is what you preached was the Holy Ghost. This is perfect love. And nothing can enter here without it." I am more determined than ever in my life that it takes perfect love to enter there.
He is speaking of an agapao level of love that we as the bride of Christ of this hour must have here before we get to go there.
There was no jealousy. There was no tiredness. There was no death. Sickness could never in there. Mortality could never make you old, and the--they could not cry. It was just one joy, "Oh, my precious brother."
And they took me up and set me up on a great big high place. And I thought, "I am not dreaming. I'm looking back at my--my body laying down there on the bed." And they set me up there, and I said, "Oh, I shouldn't set up here."
And here come women and men from both sides just in the bloom of youth, screaming. And one woman was standing there, and she screamed, "Oh, my precious brother. Oh, we are so happy to see you here."
I said, "I don't understand this."
And then that voice that was speaking from above me, said, "You know it is written in the Bible that the prophets were gathered with their people."
And I said, "Yes, I remember that in the Scriptures."
Said, "Why, this is when you will gather with your people."
I said, "Then they'll be real, and I can feel them."
"Oh, yes."
I said, "But I... There's millions. There's not that many Branhams."
And that voice said, "They're not Branhams; them's your converts. That's the ones that you've led to the Lord." And said, "Some of them women there that you think are so beautiful were better than ninety years old when you led them to the Lord. No wonder they're screaming, 'Our precious brother.'"
And they screamed all at once, "If you hadn't have went, we wouldn't be here."
***God was showing that there was a great reward for brother Branham at the end, because that he still went in service to the people and did good to them when he was often treated very poorly by the very people that he was sent too.
THE.FIFTH.SEAL_ JEFF.IN FRIDAY_ 63-0322
383-2 {415} I felt something lick my hand. There was my old coon dog. When--when Mr. Short, down here, poisoned him, I swore I'd kill Mr. Short for it. I was about sixteen years old. He poisoned him, give him a dog button. My daddy caught me with a rifle going down to shoot him, right in the police station. And I said, "I'll kill him." And I said, "Well..." I went over to the dog's grave. I thought...?... him, I said, "Fritz, you been a--like a companion to me. You clothed me and sent me to school; when you got old, I was going to take care of you; now they've killed you." I said, "I'll promise you, Fritz, that he won't live." I said, "I promise you he won't live. I'll catch him on the street sometime, walking; then I'll run right over him." See? I said, "I'll get him for you."
But you know what? I led the man to Christ, baptized him in Jesus' Name, and buried him at his death. I got converted about a few years after that. I seen things different then. See? I loved him instead of hating him.
383-4 {418} So then, but however, there was Fritz standing there licking me on the hand. And I--I looked... I couldn't cry. Nobody could cry. It was all joy. You couldn't be sad, 'cause it was all happiness. You couldn't die, 'cause it was all life. See? Couldn't get old, 'cause it was all youth. See, that's what... It was just perfect. I thought, "Oh, isn't this wonderful?" And the millions... Oh, my. I was right at home. See?
And--and just then I heard a voice and it cried out, said, "All that you ever loved..." (Reward for my service). I don't need no reward. He said, "All that you ever loved, and all that ever loved you, God has given to you."
God is the great rewarder of those that seek him diligently – we must believe that, and that He is reliable and dependable and faithful to us in our time of need if we will just show respects toward God and man.
**The reward for brother Branham was an eternal reward, because a temporal reward for just this short life time is not really all that great. If God gave you ten million dollars but your family was lost at the end, then that wouldn’t be much of a reward, because at the end of your life you’ll have to leave the ten millions dollars behind also, so then there is actually no reward, but God promised that your reward SHALL BE GREAT, then that reward cannot be just a temporal reward of this life.
NUMBERS 18:31
31 And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.
Your household is connected to your reward – this is bible teaching.
If God can reward brother Branham and somehow get his pet dog and his pet horse to heaven for eternity as a part of his reward, than how much more is he able to keep his promise for our family and love ones if we also will show respects in the same manor?