Don’t Get Lost In The Church Crowd

Though someone is on fire for God, their fire is not necessarily my fire. Now follow me here. Do you know one of the things that is abundantly clear in Scripture is my life in the end is not going to be evaluated by the life of another. God sees me for who I am. And you know what? Josiah may be doing good and may be doing right. And you know what? There may be a lot of people that were helping Josiah do what Josiah did. And he was king and they may not have been outwardly rebelling or outwardly resisting. But you know as well as I do where God looks. You see, folks, I don't think this is any small matter. Have you ever noticed how prone we are to strive to find our identity outside of ourself? See, what do you mean? I mean just this. Have you ever noticed how Jesus said this? He said, when once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, this is going to be a picture of a whole lot of people on judgment day. You begin to stand outside and knock at the door saying, Lord, open to us. Then he will answer you. I do not know you, where you come from. Then you will begin to say, you remember what the people said? They said, Lord, we ate and drank in your presence. You taught in our streets. And he's going to say, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity. Isn't that interesting? You know what? He specifically had to say to Chorazin and Capernaum and Bethsaida, do you think you're going to be exalted to heaven? Why would they think that? You know what? Again, we can often try to find our identity outside of ourselves. You see, you can try to find your identity in Israel in the days of Jesus. What could you say? Lord, we were there when you came. We sat under your teaching. He says, do you think you're going to be exalted to heaven? You see, you can think that. Well, we rubbed shoulders with him. He healed my cousin. You see, we find our identity in that. Christ came into our proximity and we take that as, hey, it's okay with us. We find our identity there. You see, some guy could say, hey, we helped Josiah. We were there. We helped with those bones on the altar. You did a mighty work in our streets in those days, Lord. But you know what? You know what the issue always is? God looks at the heart and you remember what was said of Josiah with his heart. But see, God's looking at Judah as a whole. And just because the king goes after the Lord, seeking him, doesn't mean that that automatically sweeps everybody else right into the same category. It's the heart level. You know what happens? Think about this. Who's a Manchester United fan? You want to show your carnality? How about Manchester City if you're really carnal, right? What happens when your team beats Liverpool, the Liverpudlians or whatever you call them? What do they call them? What? Sousers? Scousers. What do you think? We beat the scousers. We beat them? Those 11 guys out on the field beat them. You know what happens? We love to identify. God, we lived in the days of Josiah. God came. Times were good. You see, God looks at the heart. What do you say in this country? I remember back when the one time I seemed to get a bit thrilled about football in your country. England was playing, I forget who. Sweden maybe? It was at your house. And they got beat. And what do you say? We lost. And if you would have won, you beat Germany. We beat Germany. We did? You see, that's how we talk. And brethren, I come back to this. We can get around fiery Christians. We can get around the influence where God is working. And we can feel, we can almost feel like by osmosis we're included. But I tell you at the end of the day, you know what David said to his son Solomon? He said, know the God of your father. Serve him with a whole heart, with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts, understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. If you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. See, God singles us out. God sees every one of us separately. And as I singled out Josiah. Very commendable. What is this? This is nothing else than omniscience. This is God singing. And you realize, brethren, you realize at this very moment, our heart, our mind, our thoughts, all we are is an open book before the Lord. Every one of us. And we can't get lost in the crowd. You see, we can identify with the crowd. But the real issue is, where are you at? Well, I attended a church that had a passion for the souls of people. Making disciples in faraway places. But you never contributed to it. You didn't pray for it. You didn't attend the prayer meetings when we did pray for it. You weren't involved in it. The church I attended, they evangelized Manchester all the time. Or, you know, you can fill in the blank. We visited old people in nursing homes. Or we visited prisoners in prison. Or we visited the college campus. We sought to take the truth there. We sought to take meals to people that were in need. Or we did this. And you see, but did we? You see, that's the real issue here. I mean, that's what I see with this Zephaniah thing. It's like people who associated very closely with the people of God. In the end, he's going to say, I didn't know you. Yeah, but you taught in our streets. Your servants were in our midst. I mean, we saw the works of God in our midst. And he would say what he said to Bethsaida and Chorus in Capernaum. You think you're going to be exalted to heaven? Because what the real issue is, did you repent? Where were you at?