Away From Me, Evildoers

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord.' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of the Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, Evildoers.'"

Matthew 7:21-23

    I never want to get to the end of my life, stand before the judgment seat in heaven and hear the words from the Father," I never knew you. Away from me, evildoers." Unfortunately, some of us may be closer to that reality than we would like to admit. Do you pray out loud in church on Sunday? Do you give 10% of your earnings as a tithe? Do you come down every week to the altar? Great. The problem is, if this is the only way you express the love of God, you are simply a good person, and you won't have a ticket to Heaven. How often do you willingly share your faith with someone you don't know? What about someone you do know? We could go our whole life believing we after we take our last breath on earth, our next breath will be with Jesus. But do we desire it so much that we want to bring along as many people with us as we can? Those things I mentioned before are great, and part of our duty to perform as a Christian, but Jesus desires so much more from us. When we get saved and invite Jesus into our hearts, our ticket to death has been traded in for a ticket of life. Jesus makes it clear He is the only way we can get into Heaven. People who accept Jesus on their deathbeds get the same size mansion in heaven as someone who accepted them as a kid at church camp. But Heaven is big enough to hold everybody and their mother and their mother before them, so why would we not want to share this gift with everyone else? We tend to think if we break a commandment, we are being unfaithful to God, but Jesus' last commandment given to the disciples before ascending to Heaven was to go out and tell everyone the good news. So yes, lying and cheating and stealing and dishonoring our parents is disobedient. So is not telling our coworker about the amazing God we have the privilege  to serve. God's love is expansive and infinite, but so is his justice. He cannot contradict himself, and he is not like Santa Claus who may give a naughty person a good gift, simply because it is Christmas. If there is anything keeping us from him that we choose to keep a hold of, our sin will forever separate us from his love. 

    Don't waste your life just being a comfortable Christian, but go into all the world,(all of your world), and share the good news of Christ, the best gift anyone can ever receive.

Adam Semple- A Young Man on a Journey Through the Sermon on the Mount