The Standard of Jesus
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10:8-10
“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!’ Matthew 7:21-23
Yesterday in The Walk we talked about meditating on scripture, and how it should challenge the way we think and believe about what we have always heard concerning kingdom matters. Today is a day that will challenge everything you have ever been taught. Let’s revisit the scriptures above. We have been taught all you have to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and you will be saved. (Romans 10) What did Jesus say is the standard for entering the Kingdom of God? Jesus says, “he who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7)
Their response was, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” Let’s put ourselves in their shoes. They have died and now stand in the presence of Jesus and he is saying I don’t know you. This is scary. How could he not know us? We did the will of the Father. We prophesied, prayed for others, gave our time, talents and resources, went to church, and read our bible. Jesus is saying this is NOT about DOING things listed in the scripture. It is about HEARING and OBEYING!
You copied the life of someone who hears and obeys- But you did not hear and obey for yourselves. This is what it means by “you who practice lawlessness.” The will of the Father is to hear and obey for our own lives.
When he says I never knew you, the word know is the same word in scripture where it says Adam knew Eve and they had a son. Jesus is saying I never had intimacy with you to the point where it produced anything of value in you. I never knew you. Understand, Jesus is saying there’s a level of intimacy I’m talking about only preserved between a husband and wife. That statement is important because Jesus says this relationship is supposed to look just like a husband and wife. Think about before you got married. Did you have to ask anybody about anything you wanted to do? You spent the money you want to spend. You go where you want to go. You do what you want to do. You were in control of your own life. (Pastor Tim)
To be able to hear and obey the Father we must surrender every part of our lives to Jesus. Just like a husband and wife surrender their lives to each other. If you haven’t had a good example of what this looks like, ask Him to show you.
Questions to ponder:
Have you surrendered your life to the point of hearing his voice and then obeying His words?
Do you watch what others do and just copy and paste to your own life?
