Missing cat? Missing dog? Fugitive on the run? We see signs for rewards in the post office, on utility poles and in grocery stores. Have you given much thought to the rewards Jesus talked about? If we are going to teach everything that Jesus taught in obedience to the Great Commission, it is something we should think about. In the chapters of Matthew that we like to call “the core content of Jesus’ teaching” (Sermon on the Mount), Jesus taught that serving with the thought of reward is not wrong. However, if our chief desire is the reward of man, we are missing the better reward. Serving for man’s reward becomes a snare. It can lead us to pragmatic approaches that often actually displease the One we say we serve. I am not entirely sure what the rewards of God are. Here is what I am sure about…God is the first reward and anything after that doesn’t seem to matter too much. If we have Him, we have everything we need and long for. Having His presence, His smile, His approval and knowing that He is for us is “food indeed.” But there are other aspects of His rewards that are hinted in the Scripture as well. I love this verse in Hebrews 6, “God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” God is a good Father and as the hymn stated so well, “It will be worth it all when we see Christ.” So if you are serving the Lord in obscurity at home, in a job that nobody sees or in church and you are feeling unappreciated; know this, the Father sees, He knows and He remembers. In fact, as we will see in the conclusion of Matthew 10, even a cup of water given in obscure locations to insignificant people (by the world standard) is rewarded by the all seeing, all knowing, all loving God. “Your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”