What Is Your Incentive For
Living?
By Senior Pastor Prince
Guneratnam
Incentives are important
for living. For students, the incentives are certificates, diplomas and
degrees. For working adults, they are increments and promotions. For athletes,
gold medals become their motivation so for every group of people, there are
incentives for living. It is not easy to accomplish something that requires
hard work, commitment and discipline if there is no incentive to motivate us.
Likewise for Christians, it is not easy to walk with Jesus and do the will of
God, but God said that He will be our strength to help us. “‘Not by might nor
by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).
As
Jesus related what was going to happen before He comes back, He warned His
disciples saying, “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on
you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You
will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. But it will turn
out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore settle it in your hearts
not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; For I will give you a mouth
and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.
You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and
they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s
sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience possess your
souls. But when you see
The
incentive for the disciples to pursue living for Jesus and to keep trusting and
believing God was the promise of Jesus, “Your redemption draws near”. What does
this mean? Paul says in Titus 2:13-14, “Looking fir the blessed hope and
glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself
His own special people, zealous for good works.” The reason why we can keep on
in our Christian walk is because Jesus is coming back for us. He is our
incentive. The Bible says that this is a blessed hope, which means confident
expectation. It is not the kind of hope that the world has. It is not “Hope so”
or “think so” or “may be so” that He is coming back, but it is an affirmation
that He is coming back. It is the imminent, personal and pre-millennial return
of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor
the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:13).
We
have an incentive for living because Jesus is coming back very soon! Worldly
people look for worldly incentives, such as fame and fortune but at the end of
it all, they discover that there is only emptiness and hopelessness. Judas
though that if he had thirty pieces of silver, he would have found his purpose
for living. This became his incentive to betray Jesus. When he finally got what
he wanted, he was full of guilt and emptiness. The Bible tells us that “he
threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged
himself” (Matthew 27:5). When we seek after worldly incentives we will end up
in dissatisfaction. Think about Elvis Presley, the popular rock star whose
incentives were fame and fortune. He ended up dissatisfied and he died a
miserable and hopeless death. On the other hand, the incentive for a Christian
is satisfying and fulfilling. Polycarp, one of the early church bishops, who
was threatened with death and burning unless he denied Christ, said these
words, “Four score and ten years, Christ has done me no wrong, why should I
deny Him?” Polycarp not only found an incentive to live for the Lord and serve
Him but he even found a reason to die for Him.
Hebrews
11:24-27 says, “by faith Moses, when became of age, refused to be called the
son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people
of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of
Christ greater riches than the treasures
of Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook
How
is our service for Jesus Christ? Are we suffering for Jesus? The Holy Spirit is
asking us to lift up our heads because Jesus is coming back soon. Why is this
blessed hope a confident expectation? How can we be sure of this blessed hope?
There are three reasons.
Firstly, Jesus Himself said that He was coming back again “In
My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will
come again to receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also”
(John 14:2-3).
Secondly, the angels confirmed that He is coming back again as
recorded is Acts 1:9-11, “Now when He had spoken these things, while they
watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And
while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men
stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you
stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into
heaven, will so come in like manners as you saw Him go into heaven.”
Thirdly,
the apostles also proclaimed the soon
return of Jesus Christ. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the
dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And
thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these
words” (1 Thessalonians
Jesus
is coming back for us. Therefore, it is worth living for Him. The blessed hope
gives us the incentive to live a holy life. “For the grace of God that brings
salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present
age” (Titus 2:11-14). John says, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it
has not yet been revealed what we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has
this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).
Do
we have the right incentive to live, to give, to go and pray? How are we
managing our time, finances and work in the light of eternity? “And this Gospel
of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations,
and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). We must live in obedience to the
Great Commission; evangelism must go on till Jesus comes again. Let us live our
lives as the salt and the light of the world in view of the soon return of
Jesus.
Missions
Report, July 1998