#3 - we saw the scripture in Luke 19:17 - if you're faithful over very little, you'll have rulership over cities. So thirdly, Eternal Glory. God intends to manifest His glory. It'll be in several ways. One will be through a resurrection body. There'll be other ways God will manifest His glory, but it'll be in different measures.
Matthew 13:43 - "the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
Reward #4, the Bible describes Eternal Garments. There's quite a number of scriptures that refer to garments of different kinds, and the garments will vary in glory depending on how the believer lived. If you go to a special function, you'll notice how everyone dresses up - they dress up in their best.
If you go to a graduation for example, you'll notice how they dress up, and they have different kinds of aspects to their clothing, and when you look at it, you know: oh wow, oh that's a Master of Science. Oh wow, that's a PhD in arts. You can recognise it from the different clothing they're wearing, and so it will be that in eternity we will be clothed in garments - garments of glory, and they will probably have different kinds and styles and colour, and God's creative in all of that. But they will indicate the life we've lived on the earth.
Revelations 3:4 -"he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments".
We're not clear exactly what the garments are, but they will be aspects of God's nature and His glory.
Reward #5, the Bible describes Victor's Crowns. We'll look into this next week, but a crown is a reward, or an acknowledgement, that you've run a race and won - you're the victor. You've won! Always with a victor's crown, there was something you overcame. Some will receive crowns because of their private victories.
James 1:12 - "Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he's been approved, he will receive the crown of life the Lord has promised to those who love Him."
Our love for the Lord is demonstrated by obeying Him and overcoming temptations which are frequent in life. Each temptation is a chance to prove the quality of our love, and our faith, so when we overcome or endure temptations and pressures, then God's approval comes, and we receive reward in the next life.
Reward #6, Honour and Praise. In the eternal kingdom, or millennial kingdom, we will receive varying degrees of praise from the Lord. God doesn't say "well done" to everyone. He will actually be quite specific and acknowledge each person's life.
1 Corinthians 4:5 - "Don’t judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, then each one's praise or affirmation will come from God, because God knows the hearts."
He knows the intents. He knows what's really going on. What he's saying, or the context of it is: don't judge people. Don't think that you know what's really going on in their life. You don't really know their heart and intent - but God does, so leave judging to Him, and when the time comes, then everyone will receive the praise that's appropriate, because God, who sees all, will reveal and acknowledge what's worthy of acknowledging. There are varying degrees of praise, and we saw in Luke 19:17-19 how the man's commended: "well done good and faithful servant, you're also over five cities". There's honour and praise. In other words, God will publicly, and openly, honour each of His children for what they've done.
Reward #7 is Riches and Treasure, or treasure in heaven. Jesus spoke about laying out for yourselves treasure in heaven, which is incorruptible. Neither moth nor rust destroys it, and it can't be stolen - Matthew 6:20. Jesus called us to lay out for ourselves treasure in heaven, so what that must mean is: there's things you can do, which cause an accumulation of wealth or reward from God in heaven.
It's quite good to study the scriptures: what are the true treasures then, what are the real treasures of life - and you'll find that they're not what you think they are. The real treasures are usually not what you can touch with your hands, because you've got to leave them behind - they're corruptible; they're the things that can't be touched. For example, wisdom is better than riches and gold, because if you have wisdom, then wealth and whatever will come to you. That's a whole other series of studies that we'd have to look at, as to what are the true treasures in the kingdom of heaven, because if you'll labour for the true treasures, then you'll gain other things as well.