Matthew 16:24 - 28

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.

28 Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”

If we desire to follow after Jesus so that we can gain the reward of eternal life with Him in heaven, then we must give up our own priorities and make Him our priority and doing the things that He wants us to do which can include the persecutions of the world because we are believers in Him. We have responsibilities which is “our own cross to carry.” We have our own trials and tribulations which we have to shoulder.

If we chose to make our physical life desires our priority then we can be assured our eternal spiritual life will be one of eternal death. But if we give up our physical pleasures in order to obtain our eternal life in spiritual paradise by following Jesus and choosing to do what His word instructs us to do, then we have eternal life with Him in heaven.

We have to choose between desire to fulfill our earthly desires and the opportunity to have eternal life in heaven with Jesus. If we choose to strive to have earthly riches and fame, and we place those goals as our priority on earth then we give up eternity with Jesus and His Father. Is losing eternity worth the riches of a few years on earth?

When Jesus does return at the end of the world then everyone will be rewarded or punished based on the works they have accomplished while on the earth. If we choose to follow His words and are faithful to Him then we have a good reward, an eternal reward spent in heaven with Jesus, the angels, the saints, and the Father.

Some of those who were standing there listening to Jesus speak, were alive when the kingdom (church) was established, the kingdom is not in the future, it is here now and has been since the book of Acts was written. Don't pray “thy kingdom come,” it is already here.