God has promised us several things when we set our affections on Him. This daily devotional begins looking at the benefits promised, which include riches and honor.
Nuggets
- Our lives here on earth determine the treasures stored up for us in Heaven.
- God will honor those who are obedient to Him.
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Devotions in the On Things Above series
We have been looking at Beveridge’s sermon entitled Setting the Affections on Things Above. We are still in section five looking at the why we are to set our affections above.
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The why looked, to me, like the benefits we receive. Let’s jump in.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
When we look up the definition of affection in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, it says, “the state of being affected.” Affect means “to act on and cause a change in (someone or something).”
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The Benefit of Treasures in Heaven
“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt. 6: 19-21 CSB)
Our lives here on earth determine the treasures stored up for us in Heaven.
We may not be hoarders, but we sure like to accumulate. For some, it is just having the new and improved. For others, we do have the sense of needing things.
The things on this earth are temporary. “… Earth and heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them” (Rev. 20: 11 CSB).
What will be important is the treasures we are collecting in Heaven. Vaughan said those treasures would be “everything done for God’s grace and glory …” He gave us a list of some areas where our choices could go for or against God’s grace and glory.
- Friend choice
- Motives
- Faith
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Davis equated this storing up with making deposits in a bank. However, unlike a bank, we know that God is self-sufficient. He does not need other beings to help Him run the storehouse. Because He is omnipotent, the treasures will be completely safe.
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Collecting our treasures shows the priority that we are making God in our lives. It is the evidence of our belief.
The Benefit of Honor
“Therefore, this is the declaration of the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘I did say that your family and your forefather’s family would walk before me forever. But now,’ this is the LORD’s declaration, ‘no longer! For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disgraced’” (I Sam. 2: 30 CSB)
God will honor those who are obedient to Him.
Let me give you a little background here. Eli was the priest at Shiloh. He was the priest to whom Hannah entrusted the education and raising of Samuel, the great prophet.
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Eli’s sons did not follow through on the sacrifices as God directed. They would appropriate portions of meat before it was cooked.
This angered God so much that He chose to disallow Eli’s family from further service as priests. In fact, God decreed that Eli’s sons would die on the same day.
I gave you that background to get to where we want to be. “… For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disgraced’” (I Sam. 2: 30 CSB).
God said that He would not put up with people disobeying His laws and commandments. He had very specific instructions for how priests were to conduct the sacrifices.
We are living sacrifices. He has very specific instructions for us.
I know I am a broken record about this, but that is because I feel it is important. We can’t keep on sinning and think God will turn a blind eye.
God isn’t in the business of giving fire insurance. He is in the business of bestowing salvation on us when we genuinely admit that mankind was separated from God after the original sin, making us sinners; believe Jesus paid the penalty for those sins to become our Savior and Redeemer; confess God as Sovereign God; and demonstrate that commitment by submitting to living our lives following His laws and commandments.
- Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with good and eternal life.
- The consequences of sin are spiritual death and physical separation from God.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
• Eternal life is the promise of living eternally – even if we have died in this life – because we have admitted, believed, and confessed.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
This confession has to be genuine. It has to be at the heart level.
The demonstration part is important after conversion. It is not part of salvation, but it is a big part of evidence of our salvation.
Barrow brought up the point that this judgment came from God Himself. He didn’t delegate it to Gabriel to tell who the person who told Eli. Twice in this verse it said variations of “… this is the declaration of the LORD …” (I Sam. 2: 30 CSB).
Jortin described what it is to honor God. He wrote, “To honour God is to frame to ourselves just and worthy notions of Him, of His perfections, of His power, wisdom, justice, goodness and mercy, to reflect upon them with pleasure and respect, to love Him, to trust in Him, to desire to resemble Him as nearly as our nature permits, and in all things to consult His will as the rule of our life. To honour God is to declare openly before men by our behaviour that we reverence Him, and would choose above all things to approve ourselves to Him. To honour God is to be constant in the performance of all public acts of religion. To honour God is to improve our abilities, and to discharge the duties of our station in a manner which shall procure respect to the religion which we profess.”
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How else do we honor God?
- Macaulay said we trust and serve God.
- The Homilist said we should revere Him.
- Spurgeon said we honor God by believing in His Word and acknowledging that He has authority to rule over us.
- Myers said we hold on when the tempest is raging.
- Gibson said we follow the greatest commandment.
- Hackett said we live in harmony with Him.
Glossary
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Why should we honor God? I mean, this is Sovereign God we are talking about. Does He really need us?
- God created us to do just that.
- We get joy out of doing it.
- Honoring God leads to imitating God.
- Our spot in eternity is riding on it.
- God possesses immense power.
- God’s character — His love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and all His other attributes — are perfect.
- God provides for us.
- We should be grateful for His goodness.
- We should acknowledge that He is Sovereign God.
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Yes, God gets the honor, but we get so much, too.
- He equips us for His work.
- He adopts us.
- He gives us joy.
- He keeps His promise that we are pardoned.
- He gives us peace.
- He gives us righteousness.
- He gives us a crown of glory.
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We have to remember that this is an if…then situation. If we honor God, He will honor us. We can’t have one without the other.
Making the Connections
Let’s go back to Eli a second. By all accounts, it looks like Eli did right. He conducted his priestly functions as was required by God. He was respected as a priest.
So, where did Eli go wrong? Alford wrote, “They [The sons] knew that their father’s piety was just conformity to what he saw around him: was just amiableness, propriety, acquiescence in that which he found among the servants of God in his tabernacle.”
Alford further explained it this way. He wrote, “Eli, falling among the decent and the religious, knowing his duties, and having inherited perhaps a feeling of their sacred nature, did what was expected of him: his sons, falling among the unprincipled and profligate, being taught to look on their sacred duties as decent forms merely, did what was expected of them: ran riot with their ungodly companions; being destitute of leading principle, drifted onward from bad to worse; openly disgraced the solemn service of the sanctuary by their greediness and by their sensuality.”
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Alford’s Honor and Shame
https://biblehub.com/sermons/auth/alford/honour_and_shame.htm
Conformity to others isn’t what God wants. He wants conformity to Him.
How Do We Apply This?
I love what Vaughan had to say. He wrote, “You send on your affection to occupy heaven; you have a present enjoyment of your reversion. You increase your treasure in heaven by continued acts of faith in Jesus Christ.”
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We are changing our character to imitate that of God’s. That stores up our treasures while it makes this life more enjoyable. We do it because of faith.
What do we need to do?
- Always look to God, even through the times we may be struggling to obey Him. We have to do this with our inward life as well as our outward life.
- Don’t be like Eli who had religion but not a relationship with God.
- We need to obey God’s laws and commandments.
- We should observe all of God’s ordinances. Ordinances are an expression of the disciples’ obedience.
- We must believe His truths.
- When we sin — and we will — we need to repent.
- We need to be docile to that God, in all of His wisdom, can teach us.
- When God tests us and allows trials, we need to patiently accept His Plan.
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I plan to finish up Beveridge’s benefits in the next devotion. I am having some minor out-patient surgery. Hopefully, I can still get it done.
Father God. You promised to reward us when we obey You. Thank You for the riches and the honor You will give us. We pray that we will be obedient to You. Amen.
What do you think?
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