I woke up this morning and was very surprised to hear a voice say these words to me, “The more you want from this world, the more difficult and the harder it is to pass the narrow road to heaven.”
I have never heard or read these warnings before from anyone, not from my mother, not from my preachers, not from the Bible teacher, and not from the Biblical scholars on the Internet.
What has my “want" have to do with preparing myself for the Kingdom of God, I ask?
And so, I decided to search the Scripture and see what Jesus had said about our wants.
First, I look at the Ten Commandments. There are not too many wants that I see there except in Exodus 20:17, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that [is] your neighbor's." When we do this, it is the equivalent of stealing.
When I take my neighbor’s wife, I am stealing his wife from him. When I take his dog without his permission, that is the same as stealing his dog from him.
For example, I have been following my church pastor for decades. We enjoy the messages that we heard from him. One day we heard that he is retiring. I was surprised to hear that he is retiring at 55 years of age. A couple of weeks later I found out that he has eloped with another pastor about half his age from another church. Apparently, he had one too many wants that he should not have wanted. He took away the wife of another man.
Brothers and sisters, we should be careful with our wants.
Why? Because in the process of getting our wants, we may violate God’s laws and commit sin. I don’t know what consequences we or our children will have to bear as a result of the mistake that we do. Jesus said in John 4:37, "For in this the saying is true: `One sows and another reaps.'”
We, our children, or our grandchildren may reap what we sow today. Our descendants may rejoice together in what we have sown today, or they may be sorry for the rest of their lives because of what we did today or yesterday.
Be careful about our wants and what we do to achieve them. No one can escape the law that says that we will reap what we sow, no one! Be careful with our wants, and how we achieve them because they can prevent us from living with our Father in heaven.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23, "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. Many will say to Me on that day, `Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"
Readers, these people whom Jesus rejected have shown their great faith in Jesus, they have prophesied in the name of Jesus, they have cast out demons in the name of Jesus, they have done many wonders in the name of Jesus, yet Jesus told them: depart from Me.!
When Satan took Jesus to a high mountain to tempt Him, Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan!" Matthew 4:10
Do you see any similarities between what Jesus said to Satan in Matthew 4:10 and what Jesus will say to these disobedient Christians in Matthew 7:23 on Judgment day? Do you realize why?
The will of the Father is not only that we have a good relationship with Him.
The will of the Father is that we follow His Commandments.
We must do what He wants us to do for Him, and not think that we are doing His will when we are not. The people described in Matthew 7:21-23 are not doing God's will. They are only doing their will.
The reason why there are now over 45,000 Christian denominations worldwide is that we think that is what God wants us do for Him. The people described in Mathew 7:21-23 think that they are doing God's will, but they are not.
They are wrong, and Jesus rejects them. They are not following God's law. And that's why Jesus called them "practice lawlessness."
Brothers and Sisters, when Jesus returns to judge us on Judgment Day will we hear Jesus say to us "Welcome", or will we hear Him say, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness?"
Jesus said, "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as [it is] in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." Matthew 6:9-13
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