Ten Ways God Rewards a Life on Mission*

When you live for more than comfort or success—when you live on mission for God—He promises real and lasting rewards. In this episode, Pastor Chris Teien unpacks ten powerful ways God blesses those who share His heart for the harvest. Based on John 4 and other key Scriptures, this message will challenge you to live with eternal purpose and be part of God's redemptive plan. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/16335674

Key Points:

1. Joy in Serving God – John 4:34–36
   True joy comes not from ease, but from doing the will of the Father.
2. Provision for Your Needs – Matthew 6:33
   When you prioritize God's Kingdom, He takes care of what you need.
3. Purpose in Being Sent – Luke 10:1–3
   You're not wandering—you're sent. Every day is part of God's mission.
4. Fruit from Planted Seeds – Mark 4:26–29
   What you share today may grow in ways you’ll never expect.
5. The Power of God in You – Philippians 1:12–14
   Even hardship can be a platform for God to show His power through you.
6. Encouragement to Others
    Your faith in action motivates others to step out in boldness.
7. Clarity in Your Calling – Ephesians 2:10
   You were made for this moment—for good works prepared in advance.
8. Joy in Shared Eternity – Revelation 7:9–10
   Imagine heaven filled with people who are there because you said “yes” to God.
9. The Privilege of Rescue – Jude 1:20–23
   Evangelism isn’t pressure—it’s participation in God’s rescue mission.
10. More to Give, More to Do – 2 Corinthians 9:6–11
    God blesses those who use their lives to bless others.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
 – A squirrel gathering golf balls instead of nuts
 – A missed opportunity to plant grass (and how it relates to missed evangelism)
 – Pulling cars from the ditch as a picture of rescuing people spiritually

Notable Quotes:
 – “Don’t let the season of life end with you wishing you had done more for eternity.”
 – “You always come out ahead when you put God first.”
 – “We’re not just surviving—we’re sent.”

Actionable Takeaways:
 – Reflect: Am I living sent, or just staying busy?
 – Pray: Ask God for opportunities to plant gospel seeds this week.
 – Act: Share a Scripture, testimony, or invitation with someone today.
 – Commit: Start your day with God, asking Him to use you.

Mission, Evangelism, Kingdom of God, Gospel, Christian Living, Faith, Purpose, Discipleship, Rewards, Spiritual Growth

Challenge:
 Live like someone sent. Be a seed-planter, truth-teller, and rescuer—trusting that God will reward every step of faith.

17m1022de

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

I was having lunch with some pastors over at the golf course. And while we were having lunch, we saw a squirrel that was gathering, getting ready for the fall, getting ready for winter. And the squirrel was working hard. We saw that squirrel who'd run out to the golf course and he'd grab what he was thinking was good for a harvest. And he'd run back to the tree and he'd go back and forth. And he's going to have a terrible winter because those were not nuts, those were golf balls. So the squirrel would run off, grab a golf ball, run back to the tree, drop off the golf ball. Unless he's been trained to retrieve golf balls, I'm I didn't see anything like that. To me, the squirrel is confused, thinking, hey, I live at this place where all these people are hitting walnuts, white walnuts across the greens, harvesting the wrong things. The rewards of working for a greater harvest. You and I are supposed to be workers working for Jesus to bring in the harvest of souls so that lost people can be saved. The seed that we plant is the word of God. You know this, I know this, but I come to the end of seasons, and I wonder why I didn't do the important things before the season ends. And what's really weird is that the season of your life could end, and you could be looking back, going, why didn't I do more of the eternal important things more than all the stuff that I did? And it's something that's important, going out and sharing my faith with others, with looking for spiritual opportunities to share my faith or to plant seed. What are some things that are seed? Well, the word of God, the memorized word of God that you speak or put in a card or send it an email or shoot out in a text, or Bible tracts that we have on the back table that make it clear on how someone can receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. You can either read through them, read this through with them, or hand it to them and assume they'll read it. That always works better if you read it through with them, because then you know that they understood, or at least heard it, and then you can leave the tract with them. And then we have these How to Find God New Testaments that really cover stuff about the Christian life in the front. There's digital versions of this, there's the New Life Bible app, there's all sorts of things for your phones and your tablets. We have no excuse for not spreading more seed, but do we spread that seed? A couple weeks ago, we were talking about the Jesus and the Samaritan woman, and while I was studying that, and I was thinking, I need to plant more seed. I need to be focused on that. I need to be planting seed everywhere and trusting that God's gonna do something with that. Just the little things we do actually plant seed. When we share our faith, when we share, oh, I went to church, or I went to this Christian concert, or I saw this really great Christian video, and you talk about it to other people, that can be like planting seed. So sometimes you throw out something in the conversation and try to lead it to spiritual conversation, and what you're trying to do is you're trying to get them drawn into the conversation, and then you're trying to draw them to Jesus. You're trying to do what you can in the conversation to go from whatever you're talking about to pointing to the cross, to point to Jesus. That is planting seed. Alright, so Jesus, the disciples had gone out to find him some food. He's hungry, he's tired. The disciples are like, We got a Jesus. There's no Jimmy Johns and the deliverance, so we're gonna go to town, we're gonna get you some stuff, we're gonna get you some food, and we'll be back. So you just wait, we got it covered because we know you're hungry. We don't want you to be hungry. In John 4 34, Jesus explained, My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. You know the saying, four months between planting and harvest. But I say, wake up and look around, the fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike? You know the saying, one plants and another harvest. And it's true. I send you to harvest where you didn't plant. Others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest. The harvester people placing their faith in Jesus Christ. They're going from death to life, they're going from being a child of the devil to a child of God. That is bringing in the harvest. So, number one, if you do this, if you work for a greater harvest, number one, you will be rewarded by the joy of working for God. The joy of working for God. So many people want to do something worthwhile with their life. They're in a job and they're like, I wish I could do something more meaningful. I knew a guy that went to school for nuclear medicine and got his job and did the stuff required of his job, and he was still helping people, but he just didn't feel like it was enough. And he said to me, he said, I wish I was a teacher. I wish I should go back to after all of that to become professional that he is. He's like, I should go back to school and become a teacher. Because I want to help people. You're helping people with the medical stuff, but maybe it's not as rewarding. But just think of the reward of bringing people to Christ, to be used to bring people into a right relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a great thing. It's a great thing to think about. Somebody that you have led to Christ. It's a great thing to get a card from a pastors have more opportunities than this. Maybe I maybe not. Hopefully you're sharing your faith. By default, I get to share mine all the time. But up here and other things. But to get a card from a wife that says, thank you so much for leading my husband to Christ, he's the person I hoped he would become. Or now he's the person or not on the way to becoming the person I would hope that he would become. What a great thing to see transformed life, to see people changed from godless to godly. And it's not just praying a prayer and having them come to Christ, but it's then trying to help them to grow in their faith, trying to disciple them, trying to help them to understand what it is to live the Christian life, rewarded by the joy. Jesus says, My nourishment, my food, because he was hungry before, comes from doing the will of God and from finishing his work. And sometimes we get so excited about doing something that we even forget we're hungry. We just are so excited about the opportunity that we have, the thing we're doing, that we were hungry, but we're not hungry anymore because we're just focused and we're in the most exciting moment, and it's such a great thing. And Jesus, he's shared his faith with the Samaritan woman, and then she went and got all of her friends and all this stuff, and he's telling his disciples, it's like, man, the food's okay, but this is even more important to share, to harvest. And then he says, the fields are already ripe for harvest. It means that people around us are ready to hear about Christ. There's already an acknowledgement or a sense of sin and loneliness and something's missing in their life. And when you tell them about the life they can have in Jesus, about the fact that Jesus came, that he died on the cross for our sins, that he rose again and he's alive and wants to have a personal relationship with us, there are many people that are waiting to hear that, ready to hear that. And there's other people that aren't. There's other people that are quick to dismiss that or whatever, but sometimes when you share your faith, even if they reject it, you're planting a seed, and eventually that seed can sprout, and either you or someone else will harvest that opportunity to help them come into a relationship with Christ. So someone's got to plant the seed, and someone's got to be willing to help people across from death to life to do the harvest. You've got to do both. If no one's out there planting seed, then the other part doesn't happen. Or if people are planting seed and no one's harvesting, then that's not working out so good either. I sent you to harvest where you didn't plant. Others had already done the work. Now you will get to gather the harvest. What a great thing. What a great thing to fill the church with new believers in Christ. What a great thing to be a church that is leading lost people to Christ. Rewarded by the joy of working for God. Number two, rewarded by God providing all you need. So do you pray that God provides all that you need? So many times we think that the way that we get more is by just working more hours, doing more things. But the Bible says in Matthew 6.33 that if we seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, he'll give you everything you need. So if you think about that, what does God really want? He created us to worship him, he created us to have a relationship with us, he created us to carry out his work to make disciples. So as we are doing that, as we're focused on doing the things that God truly desires for our life, then we will be provided for. That God will see and know our heart and our desire, and then he'll provide us with the things that we need. So we'll be rewarded by God providing all you need because we're focused on Him, that we're serving Him, we're putting Him first. And as a result, the Bible promises that as we seek His kingdom and His righteousness, that He will provide all the things that we need. We often have not because we ask not, and we often don't pray about the things that we need. Sometimes we think we need a certain thing, and as we pray and pray about it, we realize that it's not God's will, and our heart changes, and we no longer are thinking that we need those things anymore. Sometimes God knows we need things and He wants us to pray so that when it is provided, that He can be glorified in that answer of prayer. It is a great thing, but we need to bring people to God. So, number two, rewarded by God, providing all that we need because we are putting God first in our life. So that would mean that with your day that you have spent some time with the Lord, wouldn't it be a great thing if every day that you spent some time in God's Word? It'd be great if you could read through the entire Bible every three months or six months or whatever, which is good. But some people don't read that fast and sometimes you'll miss things. So if you could like can make a commitment to even seven minutes or 15 minutes or 30 minutes in God's Word each day, it'd be a great thing. Actually, it works better in the morning for most people so that they don't forget, so they don't become too tired or too busy to put God first. You always come out ahead when you put God first. I got a video here to show you.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

It's considered all roads lead to God. And this makes us away.

Chris T 12:56

How do people know that Jesus is the only way? If they haven't read God's word, if they're not familiar with it, if they have grown up in a house that knows nothing of God, if they've lived in a place that knows nothing about Jesus, someone has to tell them. How will they know? Unless someone goes and tells them, and that needs to be us. So number three, we can be rewarded with being on a mission from God. Now, don't think about the blues brothers, but we're on a mission from God. And Luke 10, 1 through 3, that's a same kind of deal. The Lord chose 72 other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them. The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest. Ask him to send more workers into his fields. Now go and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. So there needs to be many people out there bringing in the harvest. You and me and everybody else around us need to do all that we can to be out there bringing in a spiritual harvest. And Jesus says, I'm sending you out as lambs among wolves. So we're supposed to be peaceful and we are supposed to do what we can to draw people to Christ. We're supposed to trust God for the results. When we're rejected, we're supposed to trust God for the results. But when you go out, there's a spiritual battle that happens, and there is a spiritual battle between Satan doesn't want you sharing Christ, and some people that aren't Christians don't want you sharing Christ. So they'll see what you're doing and they will try to distract you, they'll try to run you off the road figuratively. Actually, when my kid was learning how to drive, we put these student driver magnets on the car. Actually, there's three of them right here. So if you've got a kid that's learning how to drive, you can have these because I think we're done with them. Unless I wait six years for my granddaughter. So I'm done with these. Usually you put these on the car, and it's like a warning to other drivers that says, This driver is inexperienced. This driver may make sudden stops, weird lane changes, or do other strange things. And excuses because they're a student driver. They're learning stay back 500 feet. Kind of stuff. So we put this on and it worked pretty good. But we were down by Mancato State University late at night, and I tell you, these became a target for college-age kids who thought that they should do everything they could to harass the driver, to try to pull in front of him and do all sorts of other crazy things. It was not helpful to have these on, but we don't live by their just know that sometimes when you're trying to do the right thing, that people will do things that you don't expect. And when we're on a mission from God, we become a spiritual target. We are often there's conflict, people try to reject us, our message, try to drown out the message, try to make fun of us, all sorts of other things. But know that it happened 2,000 years ago, and it still happens now. But just think of those people that you share Christ with, and they do understand, they do receive, they do believe, and their lives change. What a great thing, what a great ministry, what a great mission. To be on a mission from God is a great way to spend your life. Number four, rewarded by seeing your planted seeds grow. Mark 4 26. Jesus said, The kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day while he's asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens, and as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, and for the harvest time has come. So be rewarded to see your seeds grow. You're planting scripture seeds, the word of God seeds. You're doing these things, and God is at work. And sometimes you can easily look back and see the fruits of your labor, to see that you invested your life in this person and look at what God has done with their life now. Sometimes you share Christ with somebody, they get saved, and then they grow in their faith and they lead many other people to Christ. And what a great thing to see your seed grow, to be rewarded in that way, to see God at work. You don't get the credit, it's not like you changed them or saved them. You didn't do it, but you were used of God to make that happen. What a great way to spend your life. Number five, rewarded by experiencing the power of God. Don't we all want to see the power of God? Isn't it exciting to see God at work in our lives to see answered prayer? I'm not big into saying that somebody has the gift of healing that if they touch you, you'll be healed because that's just their thing. But I am big into praying for people and trusting that God can heal them and then seeing God heal them and wonder what a wonderful thing that is. It's never the person that healed them, but it's God working through the person and that prayer that helped them. And wouldn't it be great to see the power of God? But to say that you are all powerful for God, and you know, when you share the message, everybody listens because you're such a great orator or you're such a great salesperson or whatever. That's not how Paul led people to Christ. Philippians 1 12. Paul writes, I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the good news. What? He's in jail and things aren't going so good, but he's saying, Praise God, because this is leading the prisoner, the guards to Christ, and making a difference even during hard times. I want you to know everything that happened here has helped me spread the good news. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. Number six, being able, rewarded by being able to encourage others. When you are living for Christ, when you're sharing your faith for Christ, when you're planting seed, when you're thinking, okay, today, God, give me the opportunity to be used by you to say a prayer in the morning, something like, Lord, here I go. I don't know what the day has for me, but Lord, if you need to use me, I'm available to be used by you, to be able to take time out of your schedule, to make time in your schedule for people that need to hear about Jesus. You can encourage them and you can encourage other Christians that see you doing it. The things that you do can motivate others to proclaim their faith, to live for Christ, and to take a stand for Christ. Number seven, rewarded by being able to fulfill your purpose. What is your purpose? I've got a picture of a pumpkin and a bunch of different squash and things on there on the picture. And so, what is your purpose? What did God create you for? God created you for a reason. Ephesians 2.10. We are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. One of those things is to lead people to Christ. One of those things is to glorify God in the way that you live your life, to be rewarded by being able to fulfill your purpose. That means that you can fulfill your purpose and you don't even necessarily have to switch jobs or careers or move to a different neighborhood or go on a missions trip to a third world country or all those other things that you think might be even better. Instead, look, pray, and think about what I can do to fulfill my purpose where I am right now. Oh, what's that old saying? Bloom where you're planted. Rewarded by being able to fulfill your purpose. Number eight, rewarded by being able to experience our Lord together. How many of you ever gone to a Christian concert with a group of people before? And you've gone to a Christian concert with a group of people before, and afterwards, like, oh, it was such a great concert. Oh, it was so fun we did that together. Oh, that was so awesome. I can't wait to do it again. Or maybe you went and hung out, you went camping together, or you did some experience together. And it's like, oh, I can't wait, we should do that again. You know, it's so great to do that together. Oh, I'm going to this event, and it'd be so great if you come with me because we have such a good time. And what if you were inviting your friend to come be at the throne of God at the feet of Jesus and worship him for eternity and say, it's gonna be awesome, you should come with. Oh, you're gonna totally miss out if you don't come, rewarded by being able to experience our Lord together. Revelation 7:9. After this, I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb, and they were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands, and they were shouting with a mighty shout, Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb. The people that have come into a relationship with Christ whose names are written in the book of life are going to be at that party, are going to be worshiping there together. And what a great reward! Wouldn't it be great to be there and be surrounded by your coworker or your classmate or your neighbor and think that God use me to lead this person to Christ and they are with me now for eternity? That is so awesome. Or to have people in eternity say, I'm here because of that person. So I'm here because I guess Pastor Chris had some kind of message on planting seed, and someone actually took it seriously and did it. And that's my friend over there, and here I am today. That'd be awesome. Rewarded by being able to experience our Lord together. The Bible does if you continue in in Revelation 9, Revelation 19 and 20, talks about hell and heaven. And you can't take that out. Jesus talked a lot about hell to explain away hell is a false teaching. That's what the wolves do that Jesus warned his disciples about. But number nine, rewarded by being used to rescue others. From the flames. Jude 120. So actually it's just Jude 20, because there's only one chapter in Jude. So if you want to have devotions and say you read a whole book of the Bible, you can read Jude today. You, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ who will bring you to eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourself safe in God's love, and you must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering. Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy still to others, but do so with great caution, hating the sins that contaminates their lives. Think of yourself as like a rescue. You've got the spiritual fire truck when you're going to try to help rescue people, trying to snatch them from the flames, trying to snatch them from an eternity without Christ. You wake up in the morning and you think, God, help me be prepared. Help me to know what to do and how to say, How can I help snatch these people from the flames to from the flames of judgment? What can I do? Show me how I can do it. And then to do it, it takes courage, it takes risks. You could get burned. People could say bad things about you, you could be falsely accused, people could say you're naive or a religious fanatic or all of these other things, but rewarded by being used to rescue others from the flames. If you're able to rescue somebody, it's a pretty awesome thing. I like to pull people in the winter. I like to pull them out of the ditch. I like to be available to rescue people. And I don't know. It's fun sometimes. It's always risky though, because those people in the ditch, when there's so much snow and ice and everything, for some reason they feel that the best thing to do is to put the car in reverse and to floor it. So basically all their wheels are spinning and they're going back and forth and everything. And so if they hit the dry pavement, they're gonna launch right into the back of my truck. I've actually gotten to the point now where I try to give a good explanation of what not to do. And I also say things like, okay, you realize that if something breaks on your vehicle, that I'm not responsible for it, just so you know, are you good with that? But I like to help rescue people. And then I go tell my Chevy friends for Christmas. It was actually a Christmas present to me, right? I told my Chevy friends on my little Facebook fan site. There's actually a fan site for Chevy Avalanches that on Christmas Day I said, I just pulled two Fords out of the ditch, and they're like, No way. I'm like, serious. Actually, one was a Mercury, one was a Ford, but yeah, and we laugh and we celebrate. Just think about the laughing and celebrating all the joy that comes from snatching people away from an eternal life without Christ. What a great thing to bring them, to pull them up onto the road to eternal life into a life of Jesus. Finally, number 10. Number 10, we're here. Amazing how fast time goes. Number 10, rewarded by God giving you more. What? More? More what? Maybe more money, maybe more possessions, maybe more stuff. You've got to listen. All right, 2 Corinthians 9. As the scriptures say, they share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way, so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two good things will result from this ministry of giving. The needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God for your generosity to them, and all believers will prove that you were obedient to the good news of Christ. I knew a guy that was able to make a ton of money in a very short period of time. So he was able to purchase some stuff in one country and sell it in another country, and the things that he was doing was bringing in a lot of money. He was a godly man, and he told me, he said, I am a channel of God's blessing. God blesses me financially, and I use those resources to bless other people. He said, I am a channel of God's blessing. It's like there's a pipeline coming of God's blessing. And some of it I use for myself so that I have more resources to help other people. And most of it, the other stuff I give to others. I, you know, there was a secret prayer need, he would often give to that. He said, if I start to keep everything for myself, then I know that God will cut off that flow of blessing. So yes, he had a huge house. Yes, he had a bunch of stuff, but he used it for ministry, he used it for God's kingdom, he did all of these things. And the same thing is true in your life. God can bless you as you are focused on building his kingdom. If you have a big house that's used to entertain people, to have small group Bible studies, to do stuff that builds the kingdom, you get to enjoy that house while it's getting used by the people that come to visit and everything. Can be a God thing. Never judge anybody because they have a big house. They might need that big house to fulfill God's purpose and plan in their life. God can give you more so that you can be more effective in ministry. God can give you more so that you can use those resources to reach more people. But let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just pray that you would give us more, more of a passion for lost people. Lord, you, Jesus, came to seek and to save those who are lost. We pray you'd help us to be creative about planting seed. We pray that we would be ready to harvest and ask people if they've ever come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And if they say no, ask them if they'd like to right now. And if they say, What do I need to do? I'll believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Maybe they could pray something like, Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin and come into my life and save me. Make me the person you created me to be. I want to follow you. Lord, help us to have this eternal focus as we go from season to season, because soon we'll be at the winter season of our lives and our lives will be spent and we'll look back and we'll see the things that we've done, how we prioritized you or haven't. Lord, help us to be confident that we have used our life and our resources wisely. And if you choose to bless us with more, if you choose to give us more, Lord, help us to give that back, to share, to use that to help others come into a relationship with Christ and to grow with you and to build your kingdom. We just thank you so much in Jesus' name. Amen.