When the Lord Settles the Books
- Jul 9, 2023
- 30 min read
Updated: Feb 17
+ Pastor's Council Presented
Sermon Transcription:
The title of this word is When the Lord Settles the Books. Let me start off by reading to you 2 Corinthians 5:1–4. “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened—not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.” Church, this is one of those scripture portions that explains to us what you can expect when you have believed in Jesus. The word says we groan earnestly. We groan, being burdened—not because we want to be unclothed, not because we want to end this life here on Earth, but because we want to be further clothed.
We want what we can see is coming. When the Spirit of God comes to live in your heart, you don’t have to hear it from a preacher; you don’t have to hear it being taught by someone else. When the Spirit of God comes to live in your heart, the eyes of your heart begin to be opened, and you begin to see and measure what is going to come your way from God—what is going to come your way if this earthly body gives in. And you will be able to testify that the Spirit has shown you that you are forgiven, that the Spirit has shown you that you are receiving new life in Christ, and that you will receive complete deliverance from everything that is captivated under mortality. Mortality meaning everything that has an end—anything that still is going to die.
Your spirit, if the Spirit of the Living God lives inside of you, has been made alive with Christ. Your earthly body is not saved; it is still going to die. That’s why you’re going to receive a new body—the Word says a heavenly body.
The Word tells us we who have believed, we who have called on the name of Jesus and believe that we are forgiven because of His blood, we groan, being burdened—not because we want to be unclothed, not because we hate life, but we want to be further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up with life. That every struggle, every tear, every bit of pain, everything you may still go through in this life may be swallowed up by what God has to offer us in eternity in Christ Jesus. Something in your heart begins to see it, and the Word says this is how you can tell. It’s going to cause groaning and being burdened. A state of being burdened—this is what it means. The word “groaning” means prayer with grief; it’s going to cause you to pray with grief. And “being burdened” means to be heavily under something or to be weighed down.
So what it really is saying is: we who are in this tent—in other words, we who are at home in heaven but we are on internship here on Earth, just learning obedience, just following the Spirit. We no longer belong to this world. We no longer live for this world. We got delivered and saved from all of that. Now we belong to another kingdom, and we live in this world as a guest—but a inhabitant of a whole different world with God that is waiting for us, a home that is waiting for us. As guests, we live here on Earth, and it’s causing a grieving kind of prayer life—a prayer life full of pain, a prayer life full of grief. And it’s going to cause us to be weighed down—something that you and I who have believed are able to see because of the Spirit inside of us.
One of the signs that you are actually saved, that you are actually filled with the Spirit of the Living God, that you have a prayer life—you don’t build this up. Just so it gets into your mind, you don’t have to build yourself somehow, some way, a prayer life where you care so much that you actually are able to produce tears, able to show something off in prayer, as it were. This is something the Spirit does inside of every person that He comes to live inside of. He produces a prayer life full of grief that is weighing the person down because they are able to see.
All of this is unnecessary. All of the pain is unnecessary. All of these marriages where the husband is not too fond of the wife. All of these marriages where the wife is fearfully seeking to obey the husband or else he blows up. All of these things are so unnecessary. You can see the power of Christ with the eyes of your heart. You can see the power of the blood being able to deliver someone from under the grip of money that is driving them and causing them to orchestrate their life around what money has to offer. Your prayer life is full of grief, and you’re being burdened because you can see the answer and you can see where God is bringing all of this. You can see the solution that so many are not willing to take a hold of because of distrust, because they do not believe or trust God in the same way that you have. But to have that prayer life full of grief and to be weighed down is a sign of the new birth and is a promise to every believer. Church, I can’t build a prayer life. I’d be the first to tell you: don’t come ask me, “Pastor, how do I build my prayer life?” I don’t know. I got saved, God gave me a prayer life. It was that simple. I didn’t buy it. I didn’t earn it. I didn’t build it up. God gave it to me. I never did a thing for it. I never tried to care more for people. I became burdened for people.
I didn’t start to try to not care what people think of me and just tell them the truth from God, tell them how it is—not caring what they will think of me, if they will still like me or accept me, or whether I’d lose my job. I’ve been that, church. I never cared. I didn’t make that happen in my heart. God gave me a weighing down on my heart, a burden on my heart, that just made me say: I don’t care what anyone thinks—they need to know because heaven is real and hell is real. And everyone goes to hell until that is solved. Over my dead body will I be quiet. When I’m around people and I’m not sure because I don’t see the signs, I don’t see the fruit—all the talk is right, but the fruit is not there—the Lord placed that heaviness and the weighing down upon my heart. The Lord gave me a prayer life. I never asked for it. I never knew I needed it. He just gave it to me.
Then it proved very helpful. It taught me relationship. It taught me many things. The Holy Spirit began teaching me how to walk. Many of you know my story: in the first two months of being saved, I didn’t meet any believer. And in those first two months, the Holy Spirit taught me so many things that later on I heard from people; only later on would I read them in the Word. He all taught them to me just in that place of prayer, where God had gifted me a prayer life, where He had gifted me a burden for people, a burden for truth. It’s simply a sign of the new birth. This is what happens to people who no longer belong to this world. It says it in John 15:9—we’re not going to read—but you are no longer of this world. There is a promise. God promises you are no longer of this world. In other words, this world cannot overcome you. This world has no power over you. Don’t worry—you’re not going to fall in love with this world. You’ve been saved out of this world into a whole new world. You now belong to the people of God.
And when that has happened in your life, no matter where you look, church, you’re going to divinely understand that all mortality—everything that still leads to death—is going to be swallowed up by life in your life.
But there are many people out there where mortality is winning. In other words, death is setting in. Death is setting in in their marriage. Death is setting in in their thinking. They’re becoming afraid of things. They become obsessed planners, trying to control their life and plan it out. They’re becoming slaves to the abuse of the enemy, where anxiety starts to kick in. But they start to think about everything that could go wrong, even though it never does go wrong.
They fall into slavery to someone else. Then the Spirit of Christ, who gives peace, rest, orderly steps—the One who leads us into relationship—causes us to see: we already have all things. We have nothing to worry about. He causes us to see that we will be provided for. We will be cared for. God is in control, so we don’t have to have any kind of control. God has a plan for our kids. We don’t make a plan for our kids. We just follow His plan. When the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you, you can see these things. And it begins to wound and hurt you when others can’t see it. Others begin to spend their life—and consequently their children’s life—because they generally follow where you go.
They begin to spend their life and their children’s life on this world, or they begin to spend their life and their children’s life on their company, or on money. I always believed growing up that I was going to follow, somehow, some way, in the footsteps of my father—somehow take on his company, somehow take on a measure of the responsibility, possibly work in some of the companies of my family. And it had this thing inside of me. Now I know it was identity. At that time, I didn’t know that. But I just felt very, very lucky that I had the family, the wealth, the finances, and the business compared to some of my friends—their family had none of that. I just felt very lucky, and I felt like I had kind of lucked out. But it was also kind of who I was.
I was going to continue this, and I was going to follow into this—what I would have called at the time “blessing.” It was identity. I was finding a measure of my identity at the time—quite a bit.
I was finding a measure of my identity in the incredible accomplishments of my grandfather and, in measure, the accomplishments of my father. And it left me always feeling that I was not enough. It always left me feeling: as long as I can follow into this slipstream, so to speak, things will turn out fine. But without it, I would probably be nothing. Without it, I would probably be a worker at the bottom of the ladder, if you will. It always left me wanting to prove something. And I would point to or hold on to the accomplishments—especially of my grandfather—for a long time. Even after being saved, that was still a temptation: to go places and somehow quickly weave into the conversation some of the accomplishments that my grandfather had seen and that my family now enjoys. That was still, in measure, part of my identity. The Lord had to set me free from those things so that I would have nothing but Christ. And many of you—especially my family—they’ve been watching a longer time. They’ve seen the Lord being allowed to do that in my life. It’s not easy. It hurts the flesh and your pride an awful lot. I won’t lie—it hurt the whole time. But what I am left with is Christ. What I’m left with is what God has done in my life.
What I am left with is a situation where no one can say, “Well, this is how this was all brought about. This is how it all came to pass.” It’s either, “Well, God did it,” or “We just don’t believe. The pastor is a liar.” That’s pretty much it. You either believe God did it, or you think I am a liar. There is no middle road because man did not do it. Flesh cannot understand it. What God has done can only be explained—and will only come to pass—when your flesh has become weak enough. Church, don’t ever underestimate this truth: God will not do His great purpose in your life until you are willing to let Him make your flesh so weak, so broken, that everybody knows there is no way that He could have brought this—or she could have brought this—to pass. God will not do it until you are willing to be made that weak. God does not move in the extravagant and the great ways for others to see. You see it in the people of Israel: until they were made so weak that everybody knew, “Listen, these people have been in slavery generation after generation under the Egyptians. If they could have fought themselves free, they would have done it by now.”
Until they were so weak, if God was going to move publicly, everybody would understand that their God was on the move. Until that moment, God did not break them free. God did not set them free. You see it time after time in the Word. He picks the weak. He picks the broken. He takes Gideon with his men and keeps cutting the men away until he’s left with 300 men against an army that the Word says was like the locusts on the earth. And then God brings in the victory. Then God goes on the move. Then God leads them into His purpose for their life.
So often, God cannot bring us into His purpose over our life. Mind you, remember: every breath is His, and you are spending it. When you do not allow God to bring you into God’s purpose over the life that He is giving, that He is sustaining—and then the Lord opens the books to settle them with you—it’s not going to go well. Church, it’s not just a gospel that says, “Believe on Jesus and then go ahead and enjoy your life.” God loves you too much to be apart from you. If God was only looking to save you from hell and hell alone, the moment that you would get saved, you would get raptured up in heaven. And all of heaven would rejoice that a portion of the bride of Christ finally came home.
The Lord doesn’t do it. He loans you. He literally gives you a loan to this earth a little longer. He’s willing to be apart from you a little longer, that He may have His hands and feet on the earth—that He may have a vessel on the earth, a life that now He gets to spend, that more and more people may hear that the Christ has come, that deliverance is possible. The truth cannot be bent. That truth can only be submitted to, or you’re going to be judged by it. Truth will be held up to you when you are being judged—whether you stand before the white throne judgment or whether you stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The white throne judgment is the judgment where people will receive their eternity in hell and be sent off. The judgment seat of Christ is only for those that have believed on Him. They’re going to be judged by Christ. They’re going to be judged according to the songs that they sing. They’re going to be judged according to the Word that came forth to them every week, and that they read at home, or that they could have read at home.
How do you think, church, it’s going to go for you at the judgment seat of Christ when you had three Bibles at home and, in your entire life, may have read it once from cover to cover? And next in line to be judged is a young guy from China. He’s been in the underground church his entire life. He’s never seen a complete Bible, but everything that he knows, he memorized because he loved the Word. He was running for his life. And you stand there right next to him. Listen: I worship them, church. I showed up on Sunday. I didn’t really read my Bible, but I did find… You think that you will hear from God, “Welcome home, good and faithful servant,” when you have not given your life to the things of Christ—when others are being murdered because they simply love that Name too much to shut up about Him. Some are already in this nation in prison because they will not change the Word of God. They still preach that homosexuality is wrong. They still preach that God delivers from these things because He doesn’t want people to be stuck in a place that will actually hurt them, wound them, and destroy them. God doesn’t tolerate sin because He has a better plan for people’s lives. He does not tolerate sin because He wants His way in your life. He has deliverance and freedom from anything that Satan or hell has ever invented or thrown at your life. We groan. We’re being burdened. Living in and around a city like Portland, church.
If you can live in or around Portland and not have a prayer life full of grief and not be heavily burdened, I promise you—the Spirit of God is not inside of you. I promise you, you are not saved. You are not filled with the Spirit of God. You may believe on Jesus all you want. You may have never laid down your life. You may have believed on His name and never ever trusted what He says. To give yourself to Christ means that He gets to receive all of you. By the way, I know what I’m talking about. I used to live the life of a male prostitute in the Netherlands. I lived the homosexual lifestyle. I wounded, hurt people. I have murder washed off my conscience. Church, I know what I speak about when I tell this world that God can fix, solve, and resolve all things. He can cleanse away and wash you from every sin—but He doesn’t do it until you give yourself to Him wholeheartedly.
He had to bring me to a place where it was a decision point in my life. Now, I could cover this with lies for the rest of my life and get away with it, but God spoke to my heart for the first time in my life. He didn’t mention all the lies that I had. He didn’t mention all the sins that I did. He didn’t mention my rebellion. He said, “I’m seeking to save your life. If you come back now, we’re going to do it together, and we’re gonna go all the way. If you don’t come back now, you will never come back.” He let me know, “This is about your life. I am seeking to save it.” And the only way my life could be saved was if I lost control over it and gave it all over to Him. And this is what He did with it: He set me free. He delivered me from all things.
We are called to repent of our unbelief and to lay down our lives into His hand, and then God will give you a completely new life. Let’s continue reading in 2 Corinthians 5:5–10: “Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him, for we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror, or the fear, of the Lord, we persuade men, but are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your conscience.”
Church, the Word says we must all appear—appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. When you get to appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, you need to understand: no one will come with you. No one can help you. No time is left to think of an answer. No time is left to argue. No time is left to explain something.
There will be no explaining at the Judgment Seat of Christ. There will be the fruit of your life, and that is what you will be judged by. It is going to be the words that you spoke in the past that you will be judged by. Lord, “I give You my life.” You sang it. You’re going to be judged by those words. Well, did you do that? Did you allow Me to do what I had prepared for you—to walk and to work those things out of your heart, out of your mind, out of your situation, out of your family? Did you allow Me to make you into an instrument that will bring salvation to all of your family? Or were you too occupied? Were you too in love with your movies that you wouldn’t give Me your attention? Were you too in love with the career you have in this world that you wouldn’t give Me your time? And I could never speak to you. I could never get you ready. I could never give you that confidence that the Word speaks about, so that when you would be in the presence of people, of course, you would speak the truth.
No one will be with you when you must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Every single one of us, once the books have been closed, will appear before that seat. When time has been folded up and there is nothing left to do—everything God has ever whispered to your heart, Church—that was the time you were called to do it. Whatever you’ve got to catch up on, do it now, because you will be judged as you are when you stand before the Living God. For some of us, that may be tonight. We will be judged for how faithful we were in following the Holy Spirit. We will be judged for what God had entrusted to us. You’re going to see it in the Word. Let me take you to John 15:1–8: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Church, this is how you know who is a disciple of Christ or a disciple of this world: the ones that bear fruit—fruit that causes the kingdom to go forward—was never them. That is God simply doing in their life what He said He would do if somebody would give all of their heart, all of their mind, all of their strength to Him. God says, “I’m going to pick up that life, and I’m going to cause it to become fruitful in My kingdom. I’m going to cause it to bear much fruit.” The Lord Jesus Christ tells us: those that give their life to follow the things of this world—you can tell by looking behind them, what is the fruit? Are the things of this world, or are they the things of God’s kingdom? To abide, as Jesus says, “abide in Me,” means to stay. To stay in a given place, in other words, to not be moved; to stay in a certain state of being; to stay in a relationship; to stay steadfast in expectations. These are all relational words to God.
To abide in Him is to say, “Lord, I’ve given You my heart. I’ve given You my time. I’ve given You my mind. I’ve given You all the resources of my life. No dollar I own is mine. No day I own is mine. No breath I own is mine. Lord, I give it all to You, Father. What would You have me do?”
Just like Saul prayed, “Lord, what would You have me do?” He thought he was serving. God came to find out he’d always been dead, made alive in Christ. Now, his first prayer: “God, what would You have me do? Lord, I give You the reins. I give You control. What will You have me do?” And he didn’t move until the Lord began to speak to his heart. He didn’t move until God began to show what God would have this life spent on. Let me read to you again, verse 8: “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”
Church, every single person that gets filled with the Spirit of God bears much fruit. You don’t have to do anything for it. It’s not hard work. It’s not the right connections. It’s not getting up earlier than someone else in the morning. It’s not coming from the right family. It’s none of that.
It is simply God keeping His promises. When He fills a vessel with His Spirit, He is going to cause that vessel to become fruitful by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. And then, when Jesus settles the books, the very works that He prepared—the very power that was used to walk in those works, the power of His Spirit—it all belongs to Him. Yet, you will receive the rewards. You will eternally receive rewards for things that only God could have done, only God could have caused, only God could have prepared. All God does is show you one step at a time: “Come ahead. Walk here. Take the next step.” He is showing you where to go. He is telling you what to do. He is showing you what to limit your life to. And He shows us that, if we are willing, if we trust, the eternity that is going to be given to us is more than a hundred times over worth it—to just lay down this really short life on Earth if we trust Him.
Then He promises that you will receive reward for the things that He did. He shares His inheritance with His children. When Jesus settles the books, all things, Church—all things—will come to light. Let me read it to you from Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. Again, Jesus speaking. I’m going to read verses 14–18: “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one—each according to his own ability—and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded them and made another five talents. Likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his lord’s money.” Now, first of all, don’t confuse this with the word talents that we have today. This is not talking about your ability to play guitar, or your ability to do sound in the church. This is talking about money—literally. And the measure of money used: one talent in their situation back then would translate to roughly one million US dollars today.
So, with that in mind, reading the parable: He gives what would be equal to five million dollars to one servant, two million to another, and one million to another servant. They were servants in this house. They worked for the master. The master owned their lives—just like your life and my life in the Kingdom. He bought us with a price. We belong to Him. Some receive this much, others receive that much. And Jesus is not making a point about money. Jesus is not making a point about somebody somehow making God’s kingdom work with finances. We know very well that only by the hand of God does He build His kingdom. But Jesus is beginning to reveal a parable that has a very powerful and purposeful meaning. Also, in that time, one talent was equal to 20–25 years of a good job. So, the amount we’re talking about—the five talents, the two talents, the one talent—represents decades of work.
So, we have Jesus share this parable where He likens the kingdom to a master of a house who entrusts incredible amounts of value to the servants within the house—some more value than others. But in the lowest case, it is still an incredible amount of value, just handed to the servants without doing anything for it. And then the Word tells us right away: these servants made their days about their business, and it multiplied. And then we read about that last one, who received what would be equal to one million dollars, and he put it in the ground. He just put it aside. Yet he received this incredibly valuable thing and did nothing with it. No wonder the master was not happy when he came back. The master—we’re going to read it in a minute—was even going to say, “If you would have put it in the bank, at least there would have been some kind of interest. At least someone else could have done an investment with it.” He’s likening it to an incredible amount of money that is able to cause things to move forward.
The master holds the servants responsible for whether or not this incredible amount of value has been used to move things forward.
You may say, “I can’t believe that this guy receives a million and just puts it in the ground and doesn’t do anything with it—even though he sees the guy with two million run around and double the money, and he knows the master is coming back. It doesn’t make sense to me, Church.” This is what I see when I look at the church of the Lord today: Every person that has the Spirit of God deposited inside of them—this is what this parable is about. There are two things God deposits into lives: His Spirit and His Truth. Some of us receive more of the Spirit. Some of us receive more of Truth. But all of us, even the least, still have this incredible amount of value that is able to move things forward. And so many Christians behave as if that one talent is about a thousand dollars. “It’s just not worth me changing my daily routine. It’s not worth even trying to see this thing go somewhere. It’s more like a thousand bucks to me. But if I understand that the guy with the five talents moves around, I understand that the guy with the two talents moves around. But me? I just go to church. That’s what I do in the kingdom of God. I just go to church.”
Let’s continue reading, starting in verse 19: “After a long time, the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed, and I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed.’”
Church, I want to stop right there for just a moment. Here’s what is going wrong: Two people in this parable receive great amounts of value from their Lord. They adjust their lives, and it is now being spent based upon what their Lord gave into their life. And that one servant said, “Well, I know this God. I know this Lord to be a Lord of absolutes. He’s going to make up account, so I better not lose any of this. I’m going to hold on to the very thing I need. I’m going to hold on to my salvation. I’m going to hold on to my forgiveness. I’m going to hold on to the Spirit. I’m going to hold it all for myself. I’ll have it when He asks for it. I’ll have just right enough, and that is enough for me.” This is the servant that would not make his life. This is the servant that did not spend his or her life on the things—the value—that God had deposited, that the master had deposited in his or her life.
You may not see today, Church, who that is in your church. You may not see today who that is around you, who are with us online. But when the books are made up, and God closes the books, and the Lord Jesus settles the books—which are closer to you than you think, which are nearer to you than the flesh would ever have you believe—when those books are made up and are being settled, you are going to be judged by what God poured out into your life. Either you let that freely flow out of your life into the lives of those around you, or you have positioned yourself in life in such a way that you said, “I’m going to bury this all deep down, but I’m not going to let it come out. I’m not going to let it go anywhere. It’s not going to multiply. I’m goTo then find out that the end of this parable is not good. This is not talking about an unbeliever, Church. This is a servant in the house of the master. This is someone who received incredible value from God deposited into his life.
Let’s continue reading: So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming to have enough for myself.” When you stand in front of the Lord. I would have received it back, my own, with interest. Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For everyone who has more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, Church. We read in the Word: “If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” This is a person who doesn’t want to abide in Christ. They don’t want to abide in what God has purchased for them in Christ.
They don’t want to be stuck always speaking about Jesus. They don’t want to be stuck having a life that only serves the kingdom. They don’t want to be stuck in God’s kingdom—they also want this world. They want both. And the Lord Jesus, with this parable, is showing us: it doesn’t matter how much you contribute. It doesn’t matter what the Spirit and the truth inside of you produce—you’re not going to be treated any worse when there’s a smaller return. But if you keep it to yourself and yourself alone, He says, cast this unprofitable servant into outer darkness. Now, you let me know if that’s a good ending. You let me know if you think you’re still going to heaven if you’ve always believed on Jesus, you’ve sung, and told Him, “I’ve given you my life,” and everything that He has poured toward you—you’ve never allowed it to change your life. You didn’t want a changed life. You didn’t want a surrendered life. You didn’t want a life that was about Jesus. But if you abide in what God has given you in Christ, you will never be found unprofitable. You will never be found without fruit. You will always see God advance His kingdom somehow, miraculously, through your life.
You know, the Spirit of God does something to the hearts of those people that He comes to live inside. We see Jesus. Jesus, He says, “Zeal for your house has consumed Me.” And that’s not speaking of a house made with hands, Church—that’s about you. The Word says you are the building of God. You are being built up by the Spirit of the Living God. And Jesus tells us, under the fullness of the Holy Spirit, “Zeal for your house has to the point where it made all the more sense to give His life for you. And when that same Spirit comes to live inside of you and me, and that Spirit begins to work the seal of God into your heart, to be in a measure burdened with the zeal for God’s house—this zeal for God’s people, this zeal for those that are not hearing, the zeal for those that are not laying down their life, the zeal for those that are not on a road that is leaving clear kingdom fruit behind, the zeal for adults that are at risk of eternal hellfire—even though they are stuck in churches.
When that zeal is suppressed, when you do not allow the Spirit of God to move you, Church, you are always grieving the Spirit of God. You’re either being moved by the Spirit, or you’re resisting Him. You’re either following Christ, or you’re walking by yourself. It’s one or the other. There’s no middle road in this world. You’re either on the narrow path, or you’re on the wide path. Many ways to heaven, also Jesus, but many ways Church. You either abide in what God has given you in Christ, or you’re abiding in what you have in this world. Remember, it means to be stuck in it. It means to stay in it just stay in a given place, to stay in a certain state, to stay in a certain relationship, or to stay in certain expectations. You either abide in Christ, or you abide in everything you have in this world. I want to read to you Mark 4, verses 19 and 20. We’re going to read from another parable spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ.
First, He talks about Satan stopping the work of God in your life and how he does it. Then, He talks about persecution seeking to do the same thing—persecution for the sake of the Word inside of Him. And then He speaks about becoming unfruitful, which is what we’re talking about today. Let me read to you, verse 19, what the Lord Jesus Himself says: “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground: those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit—some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” Church, the Lord is seeking to change your life, to change it around completely. I will never lie to you about this: if you ever feel like God is trying to mess up your life, you are feeling the Holy Spirit work in your life. He is trying to mess it up so badly that you would lay it down so He can give you a new one.
He doesn’t want to adjust the life you have; He wants to take from you the life that you have and give you a complete new one—a complete new purpose, a complete new purpose serving God’s Kingdom in this world, a complete new purpose causing eternal rewards for you to be stored up. Don’t be deceived, Church. The Word says, “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If your treasure is in heaven, your heart will be after God’s Kingdom at all times—whether you work a secular job, whether you’re in ministry, whether you’re unemployed. It doesn’t matter; your heart is going to be after God’s Kingdom wherever you are. But if your treasure is on earth, your heart is always going to end up wavering off. You’re just going to have a vague memory from time to time; somebody else is going to bring it back to mind. It’s not the Spirit. He’s not in your heart. Your heart’s not changed.
If that is you, the Lord is willing to do it all for you today. He’s willing to give you a prayer life. He’s willing to give you a changed life. He’s willing to give you a future in His Kingdom. He’s willing to give you rewards in heaven. He’s willing to give you perfect peace. He’s willing to break off all of the fear, all of the anxiety—today, in one moment. All of those powers will be broken. None of it shall stand before His throne. What you are invited to do is lay your life finally in His hands. The one you have believed—this God—is calling you to entrust your entire life to Him so that He may give you the life that you are called to live. You are purposed to live a life that fulfills you beyond anything else can. Only the life God designed can do that. Only dead life cannot make you fulfilled. Lord, we stand before You today. Lord God, every person that is willing to be changed completely, Lord, You know their heart. Your reward, Lord God, will be leveraged upon them.
Lord Jesus Christ, You say for us to take courage. You tell us, “Behold, My reward is with Me, I’m coming soon.” Lord God, I pray, Lord God, that we may be a people, an eternal people, Lord God, living in this short time for another Kingdom. Lord God, that we may be found to not be unprofitable servants—Lord, who did receive so much from You, yet kept it all hidden away.
Lord God, Lord Jesus, You spoke against it time and time again. You told us, “Who will hide a light under a bushel?”You gave us parable after parable explaining to us that You pour all of this wealth in Your name into our hearts, into our minds, by the Spirit of God, for a purpose to which You have called us. And those that respond to Your call, Father, You respond to them. You give them riches. You give them wealth in heaven. You give them all things eternally. You give them honor. You give them an honorable job eternally, Lord.
And those that prove to be unprofitable servants, our God, time and time again warn, Lord God, that we will be judged according to what You freely give. Lord God, we could never earn our salvation. We could never earn our forgiveness, Lord. But because You have forgiven us so freely and poured into our life so freely, we will stand before the Judgment seat of Christ and give account to You for what we have done with this lifetime—filled with power, filled with promises, filled with truth, filled with Your Spirit. God, we will all give account, one by one. And it is my prayer, Lord God, that no one in this church, no one who is faithfully with us online, should stand there and say, “I did not know. I did not know that I couldn’t just believe and be fine. I didn’t know that I couldn’t just come to church and be fine.”
Lord God, You have called us with a higher call. You have called us to be a people of divine priesthood. You have called us to be a people that multiplies. You have called us to be a people of power. You have prophesied over us that we would lay our hands on the sick and they would be healed. You have prophesied, Lord God, that wherever we would go, You would go; that Your presence would not abandon us; that You would be for us, Lord God; and that the angel of the Lord would come round upon the righteous all day long. Lord God, that we would have the confidence that this Word speaks of. Lord God, that we would walk, Lord God, as bold as any has ever walked in the name of Jesus. Lord God, we pray that You lead us into our call.
Thank You, Lord God, that You have given a call upon every life that has ever lived. Lord, and thank You, God, that You have opened the door into that call wide open for all those that have been saved. I pray, Lord God, that we will take that one step, lay down our life, and enter into Your call, and suffer the loss of all things that we may have Christ crucified always. If the Holy Spirit is moving on your heart at all, and you want to make a commitment to God and say, “Lord, I’m going to respond to Your Word,” Church, I’ve given you so much Scripture. I’ve given you many places where it says the same thing, time and time again.
-Pastor Stan Mons
