You invest in people... and they fail away, or they fall away. You can get very overwhelmed and say: I don't see any results; or you can be doing it unto the Lord, and just maintain your joy, and your happiness, despite the disappointments. God is watching all of that; and the Eternal Authority, and Responsibility... it's out of proportion to anything we did!
In Luke 19:11-27, it talks about the wise servants - faithful over little; ruling over much. One was faithful over little - then ruled over 10 cities! Can you imagine being given responsibility for 10 cities - for their reformation and restoration; proper governance; reshaping the culture, the finances - that's a big responsibility! So obviously, there's various levels of responsibility.
3) The last one is: Eternal Glory. Eternal glory; Resurrection Glory. In Revelations 3:5, it talks about how they'll be ‘clothed in white garments’. It's indicated that it's a ‘reward’. There are: rewards of Intimacy; rewards of Authority, and with it, Responsibility; and rewards of Glory.
There are other rewards that are mentioned... Perhaps one that I'll mention is the Honour; an Acknowledgement of your life pleasing God. There’s quite a few that come to mind, as I think about it... That God will ‘honour’ you: “well done, good and faithful servant” - well done! You did well, with what you had.
Remember, it's not about us working hard, to try and get something. It's about our love increasing; and the passion overflowing, in our desire to serve the Lord - and He sees our love for Him, our love is expressed by obedience to Him. He says: I just want to do all I can to acknowledge that - far more than you can ever imagine; I'm looking to reward you! He's not looking to punish us! He's looking to see what, in our life, that He can acknowledge - that requires honour in the coming kingdom.
Of course, the last thing is that some will suffer ‘loss’, at the Judgement Seat. Some will suffer loss at the judgement seat!
1 Corinthians 3:15 - “...if their works are burned, then they'll suffer loss, but they'll be saved, yet so by fire.”
So ‘suffering loss’ - it's not physical suffering; it's just the forfeiting of rewards. In other words, it's saying: there was a cheque being offered, of $1 million; but I mucked around - I didn't get to the bank on time, and now I can't cash it! That's sad - that's suffering loss! That really is suffering loss. You didn't do it in time, and now it's been taken away from you!
2 John 1:8 - “watch out, that you don't lose what you worked for; but you may be rewarded fully.”
He warns us: make sure that you don't be ‘cheated out’ of what God is wanting to give you. Jesus warned people too....
Revelations 3:11 - “...hold fast what you have, that no man take your crown.”
There are warnings in there, in a number of places, about suffering loss! The ‘loss’ means: not that I'm going to be in pain, I’m not going to be hurt - it's nothing to do with that. No, I will experience the love of God - I'll experience many things in the coming kingdom. However, the thing that will be sad is: the loss of what I could have had.
We must believe that God is able to reward people brilliantly. It's His nature to be generous. It's His nature to be kind. It's His nature to be gracious. It's in His nature to be Just - to give what is deserving and will be recognised.
As you look around the world, you can see that people are dying for their faith, in some countries. Then you see in the west, for the most part, that people are passive, lukewarm, and indifferent. For many people, the core problem is that they have no passion going on, in their life for Jesus. There's compromise of all kinds; and this is what Jesus talks about, in the Book of Revelation. He talks to the Seven Churches of Revelation, and identifies what's good, and what is lacking, in their lives; and HE encourages them to overcome - and then offers many rewards, for those who overcome.
This topic is a very big topic. There is a lot more in the Bible, about the nature of the rewards; and there's also quite a lot in the Book of Revelation, about the actual challenges that God calls us to overcome. At some point, we'll look at each of those... What are the specific challenges that will come that you will need to overcome in your life?