When we die, and we all will at some point in our life that is a sure thing, we will go and stand at the gates of heaven.  Jesus will say one of two things:

“Welcome my good and faithful servant,” with His arms out giving you the biggest hug EVER!  Or you will hear this, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.”  We read here in Matthew 7:21-23:

²¹ “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Do you understand what this means?  There are actual Christians, churchgoers, servants, preachers, who all do it in the name of the Lord who totally believe they are saved and right with God, but will never make it into heaven.  Jesus will actually say to them, “Depart from me, for I never knew you.”  That is a scary thought.  My heart breaks for these people.  These are the people that are being fed lies.  Many churches today are all about making you feel good, with a light funny feel-good message and there are too many false teachers itching peoples’ ears with lies.  Let’s dive into some scripture and see just what the Word of God says.

We see in 2 Timothy 4:3-4  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Matthew 24:24  For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

Matthew 7:15-20  Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

2 Timothy 3:1-5  3 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. ² For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. ³ They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. ⁴ They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. ⁵ They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

So by the language that is coming out of the word of God we clearly see the many warnings of false teachers, wolves in sheep’s clothing, liars, and deceivers.  Jesus is clearly telling us to guard ourselves and despite all the warnings, this truth will stand that many, let me say that again, that many will say Lord, Lord didn’t I do this and didn’t I do that, I went to church, I served in the children’s ministry, I handed out food to the poor, but you know what you didn’t do.  You didn’t start your relationship with Jesus, you never took the time to get to know Him, because believing is one thing.  As it says in John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

But if we keep reading it says in John 3:36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life, but remains under God’s angry judgment.

So along with believing in Jesus, we must also obey Him, meaning we MUST live a life pleasing to Him in order to see the kingdom of heaven.  The Bible says that many are called and only a few are chosen we read that in Matthew 22:14 and this scripture goes along with many will say Lord, Lord and He will say depart from me.

I believe we all want to hear, “Welcome my good and faithful servant”  Am I right?  Well, it’s simple, you start by being reborn and turn from your wicked ways.  All things are new.  You leave the sinful life behind you and then next you read the Word Of God.  Read it like a child.  Study the New Testament and fall in love with your Savior.  Make it your life’s mission to serve Him, to love, and obey His Word.  Let me ask you this,  “How do we become an expert in something in the world?”  We most often have to take classes, actually many classes at a school.  We need to study and test and study and test.  We need to practice and practice, in hopes that one day we perfect our ability and most times we do this for money a very temporal thing.  So we spend our lives learning and learning, practicing and practicing, to perfect our skills all for more money and for the temporal,  so why don’t we do that with the Word of God?  For our life is only a vapor, here one minute and gone the next.  Don’t you think that building our relationship with the Lord, our Savior, the one who stands in the gap between Heaven and Hell, between eternal life and eternal damnation should that be more pressing of an issue, to learn and learn, to practice and practice, and to perfect?  We are talking about eternity, our eternal life with Christ in Heaven.  Shouldn’t that be the most important thing on our list of top priorities to get accomplished and to instill on our children?  There is a battle in the world, a battle for souls, so you have to decide what you want to hear when you get to the gates.  When you decide that you want to hear good and faithful servant, then repent and become reborn, grab your bible and fall in love with your Savior, Jesus Christ!  Get to know Him, I mean really get to know Him, and learn His expectations for a citizen of heaven and live out your life for Him as your eternal life depends on it.

I will share a habit that I picked up a while back, its reading 1st Corinthians 13 every morning, let me share why. If Jesus is Love and all His motives and reasonings for coming to this earth was to love us through His sacrificing Himself for our sins and He could look past our flaws, our sins and our rejection of Him, If He could Love us and we are called to be like Him then I must remind myself daily of this. For me through this action, the action of repetitive reminding of these attributes that are intertwined in 1st Corinthians I believe that eventually I will become more like Him and see everything through the lense of Love because without it I am nothing.