WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS : THE JUDGEMENT OF GOD
MARCH 6, 2022, 9:30AM
ED YOUNG
Hi everybody. How are you guys doing? You doing well? Thanks for being at Fellowship Church. I want to say hi to all of our different locations and hey, thank you for being online. Thank you for being a part of our prison campuses, we're in three different prison campuses. I want to say hello to Allaso Ranch, our retreat center on about 1100 acres in East Texas. If you've not been there, you need to show up, it's really something else. Also, our Frisco campus, our Dallas campus, Fort Worth campus, and right here, as they always say in the magic city of Grapevine. Gorgeous, Grapevine Texas. One of the top vacation spots in the Western hemisphere.
Do you ever hear this? "Hey, don't judge me." Do you ever say that? I have before I'll confess. "Hey, don't judge me, man." I always put a man after it because I'm feeling convicted. Basically. I'm feeling like, "Wow, you're calling me out." So, I'll just go, "Hey, don't judge me."
When I say don't judge me or when you say that, that's a statement of judgment. Don't judge me. I would say don't judge me or thou shall not judge, or other phrases like this would probably be one of the most misquoted, misunderstood, miscalculated, sayings of Jesus ever. Because when Jesus said don't judge, He wasn't saying that we shouldn't call out sin or we shouldn't say that is an immoral behavior. He wasn't saying that. What he was saying was that He is the ultimate judge.
Over 600 times, 600 times in the Bible, the Bible talks about judgment. Judgment. I think about the different judgements in the Bible. Think about Adam and Eve, they were judged. Noah, the judgment of the flood. Tower of Babel, another judgment act of God. Then we think about Egypt, the Egyptians they were judged. And obviously, the ultimate was when Jesus took the judgment, get ready to clap, for our sins on that cross, He was buried and because He was holy and righteous death couldn't hold him down. He rose again. And now we're facing some more judgements. I didn't mean to say that to depress you. Jimmy Evans and I want this series to encourage you. To put wind in your sails.
There will be several more judgements. And two of the big ones I want to talk about, you can call the first one judgment A, and the second one judgment B. Everyone, everyone, everyone hearing my voice, everyone on planet, everyone who has ever lived will be judged. Everybody will be judged. Now, judgment is not a sexy topic. It's not going to sell books. It's not going to be on coffee mugs or t-shirts. We're not going to have a bunch of merch in our bookstore that says, "Judgment is coming. I'm going to be judged." No, no, no. That's not popular. You won't hear very many worship songs about, "God is going to judge me. I can't wait for the judgment." No, you're not going to have that.
We are though going to be judged. Judgment. There will be a time of accounting. There will be a time where we have to show the Lord Jesus. I'm talking to Christians and reveal to him what we did with all of these aptitudes, and abilities, and gifts and opportunities that he's given us. I think for too many Christians were like, "Okay, I'm a Christian. I've got that get out of hell card. And that's fine with me." Well, it should be much more than that. Obviously, we're saved by grace through faith. We then have to work out what the Lord has worked in. God does not zap us to heaven the moment we're saved, the moment we're rescued, we're here for a reason. We should have that thought, that awareness, that responsibility, that one day we're going to be held accountable for everything, everything we've ever done. Now, that's like, "Whoa." Some of us say, "Amen." Others say, "Oh me."
These message maps, I design these for you. I painted this watercolor. You can see of a levee breaking behind it. I sometimes when I'm studying, not all the time, I'll study for a while, then I'll just do a quick watercolor. I don't always do watercolor. I'm just into watercolor recently. Watercolor is tricky. It's tough. It's not easy. Once you throw that paint on the canvas, I mean, that's it, you can't take it back. Other types, talk about art for a second. Other mediums, you can, if you're painting with acrylics or oils, "Oh man, I messed up." Paint over it. Not watercolor. When that levee breaks, you're in trouble.
The Bible says though, and I'm going to run through this one task of the Holy Spirit. God, the father. God, the son. God, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is inside of our lives, he works from the inside out to help us become the kind of people that the Lord Jesus desires. One task of the Holy Spirit is to CONVICT the world of the upcoming judgment. So, your first blank is the word convict, convict. We should be convicted. I don't mean just guilt or shame. I don't mean feeling down or dark. Just convicted. Okay. I'm going to have to give an account one day for everything God has given me.
Now, the cool thing about that is we all have unique gifts. You have gifts I don't have; I have gifts that you don't have. You've been gifted by the God of the universe. I don't care what people say about you. I don't care what your parents said about you. I don't care what your coach said about you. I don't care what your boss is about. You my friend, are gifted by the God of the universe. That's positive, that's some really heavy stuff. So, I should take those gifts and use those gifts as an act of worship. I'm going to be judged by how I used the gifts God's given me.
For example, I have the gift of speaking. I'm not necessarily the best speaker out there, but I know I have this gift. It was affirmed by people. And I believe God called me. I've never heard his voice, but I believe He spoke to me in a powerful way, not audibly, but He spoke to me in a powerful way to begin speaking. I have this gift, okay. It's not better than your gift. I'm just saying it's a gift I have. And I'll use myself as an example because I'm on this stage.
One day, I'm going to be held accountable at the judgment regarding how I stewarded this gift. Did I preach? Did I teach the entire Bible, or did I go I'll just teach the fun parts, the positive parts? I'll just try to have this Christian pep rally and that'll be it, but as far as the difficult stuff, like pride and anger and lust, I'm just going to stay away from that. I mean the judgment of God, I'm not really going to hit that. I'll be judged regarding how I used the gifts. Did I teach truth? Did I rightly divide the word of God?
Think about your gift. You might have the gift of leadership. You might have the gift of making money. You might have the gift of singing. You might have the gift of organization. Who knows the kind of gifts? You want to have the gift of sharing your faith. You will be judged based on the abilities that God has given you. So, when I think about that, I should go, "Whoa."
You know what that sounded like? Blippi. You every watch Blippi? Whoa. Didn't it? I've been watching with my grandkids. Google Blippi. Man, this guy is incredible. How many people have ever heard of Blippi before? Oh, he's amazing. He's mesmerizing. Whoa. I'm starting to talk like Blippi. I'm losing it.
The Bible says in John 16:8, “When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement:” Judgement A. It will take place after the rapture. What's the rapture? The instantaneous snatching away of those here who are believers. It'll be invisible. Conversations will end in mid-sentence. Quarterback will go back to pass. He will throw this beautiful tight spiral. There will be no receiver there. A bank president will walk into the board room and half the people are gone. A mom will look to her teenage daughter to say something. She'll be gone. The rapture.
I like this shirt. Do you like this? I do. It's one of my favorites. And sometimes people ask me, "How do you get your collar to stand like this?" Well, it's not because this is some great shirt. It's because of these. Are you ready for this? I've told you this before but let me tell you again about this little secret. I have these little magnets. See it? Well, I have a collar stay. Now, guys, a collar stay, I'll take that out too if I can find it. A collar stay helps keep your collars right. If not guys, you'll be like a pterodactyl. You'll just fly away. Before I discovered collar stays, I levitated several times. Whoa. This works because a magnet is attracted to something like its nature.
That's how the rapture in a way will take place. We have the nature of Christ. We have the righteousness of Christ inside of our lives. When the rapture happens, that's what will happen. One does not have the collar stay and one does. But because see, I've had that trained on this side, look. Now it looks pretty good, doesn't it? Okay. John 16:8, “When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement:” Don't judge us about spelling judgement. There are two ways to spell judgement, with the E or without the E. I could already tell some of you smart people were like, "Oh, he misspelled judgement, honey." Well, you're judging me. “When He comes, He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgement: about sin,” In other words, what this text is driving at time. God's sense of time is totally different than yours and mine.
Think about what's happening right now with Russia and Putin and Ukraine and everyone going insane, and China and Pelosi and Biden and congressmen, and the corrupt FBI and CIA, the corrupt IRS. And here, we're going to investigate people for corruption. It's the corrupt investigating the corrupt about who's investigating the corrupt, and let's have more corruption and more corruption and more corruption and more corruption. Everything is corrupt. And our country has become more and more corrupt because we have people who are self-centered sinners running the show. And when you have a bunch of self-centered sinners running the show, you're going to have a lot of self-centered sinning going on. We see this movement Wokeism, critical race theory, Marxism, postmodernism. We see us rolling toward the end.
Most of us will watch March madness, right? March madness basketball, everybody? If you're a great player, which I was not ... If you're a great player, you're going to have one eye on the clock. It could be the shot clock or the game clock. And you'll have the other eye on your team, and you'll have the other eye, hopefully on the hoop. Great players do that. Players who aren't that good, they so focus on the clock that they forget to play, or they play so much, they don't think about the clock.
We have to have one eye on eternity and one eye right here on this earth, this sin stained earth. And I don't mean at all to try to make you feel bad, but it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And as I've said about the end times, this should encourage us because we win. However, it's easy to see where we're going.
So let's talk about Judgement A, the first judgement, the judgement of you and me. I'm talking about Christians. If you're a Christian, if you're a believer, listen. If you've been born again, listen. If you're not, you can count ceiling tiles. I would still encourage you to listen. This is for those of us who are Christians.
2 Separate Judgements. The first one is after the rapture, after the magnet hits the collar stay, after this supernatural snatching, here's what's going to happen. The judgement seat of Christ is for believers, those who have received Jesus Christ. We've made that faith reception. It's for believers who must give an account for their lives in service to Christ. That's heavy.
2 Corinthians 5:10, “For we must all…” There it is again. I have a friend of mine, and his mom always says, "We all," when there's kind of a family conflict. She goes, "We all have problems." I'm going to say this to all of you. “We all”, I'm talking about Christians. We all, I'm talking about believers. We'll face judgement. “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ,” The picture here in the original language is of the Greek games. The guy that would call the shots for the Greek games was stood up in this elevated box, and he would look and judge, and reward and give crowns out, wreaths out to those who perform the best with their abilities.
Next time Jimmy Evans is going to unpack this more and more. That's the picture here. That's Jesus, the judge. “For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” Again, the rapture's taken place. Boom, we move into the judgment. I'm talking about believers. We must give an account and we will give an account of everything.
This judgment will be so specific. It'll make the IRS seem like they're the biggest generalists ever. That's how serious this is going to be. It's going to be about trophies and rewards on one hand. So, there's going to be triumph. Yeah, hallelujahs. Woohoo. But also, again, this is not popular, there's going to be tears from those of us, I'm talking about believers who fumbled the ball, who took their eye off the shot clock, who didn't take this life seriously, who just said, "You know what? I've got a get out of Hell card. Everything's cool with me."
Wow. That's a scary, scary thing.
Talking about rewards. I remember the first trophy I ever received, it was so embarrassing. I was in the third grade, played peewee football, went to this banquet and they gave every kid a trophy. I didn't deserve a trophy. I was horrible, but I was so excited to get that trophy. Old coach Holden came up, was giving these trophies to all the kids, "This next player whose named little Eddie Young," and I admit I almost ran up on the stage. People were laughing. I didn't know why they were laughing. They were laughing at me because I was so eager to get a trophy. And when he held the trophy out to shake my hand, I just grabbed the trophy from him and all the parents laughing.
Why do we like trophies? Hate to confess this, but I fish in fishing tournaments and I want to win trophies there. And I'm an adult, and we have these banquets. They're like adult peewee football banquets. It's not about money. It's just trophies. Why am I that way? Sad. We though watch the Golden Globes, the Oscars. The Heisman trophy. We are into trophies, aren't we? I believe that's a desire given to us by God, just like we had this judgment chip in our lives. We had this trophy chip as well. What kind of trophies are you going to receive? I don't know.
1 Corinthians 3:11-13 really breaks it down. It says, 11 “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.”
Now, check this out. Here we go. We're standing there. I'm standing there. You're standing there. Every believer, every single believer is standing there. You can turn the page now. And many of us will just have a little pile, some a big pile of wood, hay, and stubble, which just will be in our feet. And the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will come with this flame, gone. Wood, hay, or stubble, the SUPERFLUOUS activities with no SPIRITUAL VALUE. What are you chasing? What are you doing? What am I chasing? What am I doing? That's basically just wood, hay and stubble. How we glorified SELF and built OUR KINGDOM. That's going to go up in flames, versus gold, silver and precious stones. SIGNIFICANT activities with HUGE spiritual value. How we glorified GOD and built His CHURCH. And that's the only thing that's going to last. What does it mean to glorify God? It means to reflect His attributes in everything we do, say, touch and feel as an act of worship. The only thing Jesus ever built was the local church. What, and how will we be judged. SERVING, did we serve? It's not about me. I'm my biggest issue. You're your biggest issue. Serving will be judged based on that. Serving, are you serving others? Are you serving within the context of the church? Are you using your abilities and aptitudes here in this house?
SHARING, are you sharing the good news of Jesus with others? Are you sharing your faith when God gives you opportunity? Are you inviting? Are you engaging when God gives you an opportunity after you pray those high risk prayers for others? Are you articulating your faith?
Many of us, I believe in judgment B, let me skip to judgment B just for a second. Many of us will see our coworkers, our neighbors, our family members go to Hell and we will go, "Man, I had such an opportunity. I was a part of a church that prayed, and thought, and planned so much about people, far away from God, yet I didn't leverage it. I didn't invite them, I didn't engage them. I didn't pray for them." How heavy is that?
Some of us here, God has given some of us an ability to make a lot of money. Why? Are you here just to recreate, procreate, do deals and die? That's it. Great. You know how to make money, that's awesome. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. You're blessed. Good. How though are we leveraging that for eternity? How are we leveraging that when it comes to the bride?
Husbands, what if you hung out with your wife, your bride, maybe once every six weeks. You didn't see her. You're like, "No, no, I'm too busy. I've got to go on this hunting trip, this fishing trip. I've got to go on this golfing outing. I've got to go on this business trip. I'll just see you. Maybe, I don't know, Christmas and Easter." Well, go ahead and call the divorce lawyers up because that's just not going to happen is it? I meet people all the time, especially in my line of work, who tell me, "Yeah, I'm a Christian." We'll talk a little bit. "Where do you go to church?" They'll name a church. Okay. "And tell me the pastor's name?" "What is the pastor's name? Forgot that name." I'm not the ultimate judge, but if you're not regularly showing your love and support and attendance in church, if you're not loving and honoring the bride of Christ, the church. I really have to doubt if you're a Christian. Just from my theological study, my background, I would put a big question mark, whether or not you're truly born again.
I'm not judging you. I'm challenging you to take inventory of your life. We're going to be judged on this stuff. You're going to be judged on how you used your different abilities, whether you sing, dance, whatever creativity, whatever you do, and that is for those of us who are believers.
You're going to go to heaven, but you're not going to get and hit the levels, because there's levels in heaven that God desires. And instead of triumph during that judgement, there's going to be a lot of tears.
Judgement B is the judgement for those who don't know Christ personally. The judgement of the Great White Throne. The first is the judgement seat of Jesus. Judgement A. Judgement B. This is after the 1,000-year millennium, after the devil has been slam-dunked into the lake of fire. You have the Great White Throne judgement. The judgement of the GREAT WHITE THRONE is for UNBELIEVERS, who must give an account for their works ALONE. It's going to happen. We're moving toward this, and you can see the corresponding scripture, Revelation 20:11, "Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it." It talks about, "the books were opened," the Lamb's Book of Life. You're either in the book or you're not. And if you're not, and all these people are going to be unbelievers, you'll spend eternity in hell.
"Well, I cannot stand for a God, who would slam-dunk someone to hell." Well, sorry. No cigar. And I like to smoke cigars. That's why I have this burn right here on my eye, right up here. I don't smoke that many cigars, so don't DM me or email me. But the other day, I'd been speaking a lot, I thought, "No one's at home. I'm going to smoke a cigar."
I'm sitting out there, by our pool, just making a burnt offering. Now, kids don't do this. I didn't start smoking cigars, until I was 40-something. Okay, I'm smoking a cigar, and all of a sudden, boom, I get stung by the mother of all wasps. Ah! I take the cigar and go, "Ah!" I burned... See? Yeah. Look, you see this burn? I put some makeup on it. You can see it right there. It was wicked.
How does that make sense? Well, heaven will be a place of burning, of fire, but the last part of Revelation 20:14 says, “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.” Born once, die twice. Born twice, you die once. And will be judged, those who don't know Christ.
All THOUGHTS, WORDS, and ACTIONS will be judged against God's perfect standard. No one can make it in based on works. No one, because we're all sinners.
A couple years ago, I was invited to sit in an owner's box to watch a professional football game. No, it was not Jerry Jones. It wasn't him. It was another owner. I got this badge, and my name was on the badge. We had to go through all of these levels of security to get into the owner's box. And the security was old-school. They had a clipboard at every station. "Young? Yeah. Okay. Ed Young. Yes. You can go ahead."
Escalators, and elevators, and this, and that, and walking through metal detectors. Finally, we walk into this box. The carpet was so thick, I think it sucked the shoes off of my feet. Priceless oil paintings. A former president was there, Secretary of State, Hall of Famers that I'm not going to mention, all these people. I'm thinking, "Whoa, this is sweet!" Caviar, and the best of the best, anything you wanted. The perspective, oh, my goodness.
It was awesome. As we would say, it was stupid. As I'm looking at the other commoners down below, I was thinking, "How many times have I gone to a game?" I'm not thinking about the owner's box. Maybe I'm sitting in the nosebleed section, paying way too much money for overpriced junk food. Just sitting there, cramped in these little seats. But, wow, if your name is on the list, you can have access to the owner's box.
I want to ask you this one question. Is your name in the Lamb's Book of Life? Is it? Because if it is, you have perspective. You have an all-access opportunity to glorify the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, here and forever.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for this time. Holy Spirit, thank you for convicting us and I pray for a greater conviction amongst those here at Fellowship, about the judgement. If you're here and you've never, ever made a decision to give your life to Christ, just simply say, "Jesus," that's right, just say, "Jesus, I admit to you that I'm a sinner. I turn from my sins and I turn to you. I ask you, Jesus Christ, to come into my life. I give you everything, Lord."
If you said that, in a few moments, we're going to tell you what to do next. Others here, other believers, it's a time of inventory. It's a time where we think about those that God has placed around us. It's a time we think about our gifts and abilities. God, we want to use everything, our talents, our treasures, and our time, for you. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
