Matthew 25:31-46 Working From the Heart

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. Pastor Don Filsak is preaching through a sermon series called The Rest of the Week, Loving God from Monday to Saturday. Let's listen in.

Well, good morning.

Church Announcements and the Call to Simple Faithfulness

Welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. I just want to say thank you for coming out on this Sunday morning to worship our great God. Glad that you're here. You received a worship folder when you walked in.

You can check that out. That's got different activities and events that are going on, different information that's there. So take advantage of that. And at the same time, that's not the primary way that you get connected to information here.

That's just kind of a sampling of different things that are going on. But if you'd be willing to fill out the connection card that you received, and the primary thing that we're looking for on that connection card is your email address.

So if you're willing to share your email address with us, we do send out a weekly email called the eCast. And the point behind that is that's got all the links, all the connecting points for the church, showing kind of what's going on and all of the budget information is on there, what's going on with the youth ministries and all that.

And so that's the primary way that we want you to get connected. Fill out that connection card, turn it in, in the black box out on the table out here. And that's how you're going to get connected there.

And then remember that any offerings you would choose to give this morning also go in that same black box that's out there on the table in the entryway. So any offerings, there's an envelope provided.

If you're not going to use that envelope this morning, we just ask that you please recycle that. We can reuse those envelopes. We don't want them to end up on the floorboards of your car or, you know, in the garbage on the way out.

If you're not going to use that envelope, just, there's a place to recycle that right on that same table out there. But glad that you're here with us. Here at ReCast Church, we're committed to trying to keep things simple.

As a matter of fact, our name is an acronym for our core values, replicating community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth. The S in ReCast standing for simplicity. And we believe that everybody under that, under that, under that umbrella of simplicity is that we believe that everybody needs three primary things, and it's our desire that in our vision statement everybody can communicate this that's been attending here for a while, and that is that under simplicity we believe that everybody needs to be growing in three areas.

Growing in the sphere of faith, that is taking in God's word, believing it's true, and then living according to that. That's what faith is. So growing in that understanding of God's word, and then going out and living according to that.

Then growing in community is just simply actually recognizing that we need others in our spiritual walk and others need us. It's a very significant component of what we believe is essential for the Christian life and that we don't grow in isolation.

It's very easy to think of church as something that we come in on Sunday morning, take in a show, and leave. And we need more than that. If you're honest with yourself, you recognize that you need accountability relationships, you need people to invest in, people investing in you, and then the last thing is growing in service.

And that's that component that you have been gifted, you have been given a specific form of gifting to serve one another. And so growing in service, growing in that opportunity to expand out in your ministry to others.

And so others need you as well. And this morning we're going to be considering really that third component, growing in service, as we're talking about working from the heart. We're in the third part of a five-part series called The Rest of the Week, and you see that there.

And the idea behind this series is trying to connect what you do Monday through Saturday with Sunday morning, because I think we have not done a great job of that in the church in America. We have this notion that we worship God on Sunday morning and then we go do whatever we do all week.

And then we come back on Sunday and we worship God again, aside from maybe a smattering of maybe you read a Bible verse every morning or you pray before you eat or something, and God has very little to do with your Monday through Saturday, but then Sunday comes around and then you worship Him.

And we, I don't believe that. I don't believe that that's an accurate portrayal of what God desires for us all week long, and that is that what we do can be moved to worshiping Him, whether that's our employment or our lack of employment, but then volunteering or the service that we render to our families, the work that we do, all of those things.

And so, that's kind of the notion behind this series. Two weeks ago, we saw in Scripture that God created humanity for work, and work is therefore a good thing, even though it is broken by, to some degree, by sin.

How many of you experienced some dose of the results of sin in your work this past week? Like you. You're gonna look back and you're gonna say, something didn't quite function right, something didn't go, a relationship wasn't quite the way that it was meant to be, and I recognize that that's part of sin, but this is a working relationship that needs to happen.

I see people laughing, I see people kind of ribbing each other, I see that, yes, I think that's reality. All of us have experienced that to some degree in our work, in our home, in the relationships that we cherish, in the places that God has us to serve others.

We recognize that there is fallenness there. But last week, we saw through the example of a guy in the Old Testament named Basilel, that each one of us has a specific shape or form to the usefulness that God has for us.

We all have a vocation, we all have a calling, and that calling kind of amounts to a skill set, experiences, all kinds of things rolled up in us, and also, I would suggest to you that part of your calling is your, if you are employed, your current employment.

That that is a portion of that, a section of that, that you need to take seriously. So some of us might be questioning our calling, questioning our employment right now, and yet what I would encourage you to do is contemplate and consider the way that God has called you to where you are at right now, and serve whoever you are serving, whoever you are working for, whoever you are being useful for, for the glory of God, and that's what we're going to get to this morning.

But before we jump into our text, I want to remind everybody what our definition of work is. It's important that we kind of come back to this each week as we're talking about this significantly over these five weeks, and work, defined by one of the books that I'm reading through right now, is the form in which we make ourselves useful to others.

Again, there's no exchange of money that occurs in that definition. My definition of work does not, is not synonymous with the employment concept that the state issues to us. So you might be sitting here and saying, I don't work, I don't have employment, I don't make a paycheck, I'm not employed by someone.

Do you work? Are you useful to others? And the answer for all of us is yes, yes, we are useful to others. And whether the state calls you unemployed, or whether they say you're gainfully employed, either way, we work.

And there's a form in which you are useful to others. Now remember, it's very important for us to keep that concept in our minds that employment is not, work is not synonymous with employment. But this morning we're gonna, we're gonna look at the quality of work that God desires of His people.

So we know that God wants us to work, He wants us to be useful to others, but what about the quality that God desires of you in your employment, in your vocation, in your calling to be at home with the kids, whatever it might be?

If you genuinely believe with me, if we're genuinely taking by faith what we looked at a couple of weeks ago, that God made us to work, that that's a part and parcel of who we were before sin entered the picture, who we are now that sin is in the picture, and who we will be after sin is no longer in the picture.

We are still going to be workers. And if you believe that, and you believe that He has given you a shape or a form of usefulness to others in your current roles, then we must also conclude that God has an interest in the way we perform our work day in and day out.

He has a, a desire for the way that you work. The way that you perform your vocation, the way that you do Monday through Saturday. God has an interest in the way that we do those things. But I mentioned before that I'm not convinced that we've done a great job connecting our work to our service.

I believe that a Christian in America could be a lousy employee, could be a lousy employer, and come to church and never really make the connection that the way we work throughout the week matters. We could have a really poor attitude about our employment and still think that we're doing okay in worshiping God.

And I would say that's false. I would say that is not true. That in our minds, it's very essential that we link together Monday through Saturday with Sunday morning, with the Word of God, with our connection, with the Spirit walking with us throughout the day.

The way that we work does matter. Some of us, if we're honest, you think about this, maybe you haven't thought about this that deeply, and maybe it's a latent issue in some of us, but we were raised with what I would call a lifeboat mentality, or what some have called recently evacuation theology.

Maybe to you growing up it wasn't called that, but if you were raised in a church similar to mine, then you would have caught that notion of lifeboat mentality or evacuation theology latently. Like, it was never taught, those words were never used, but it's something that probably is in you to some degree, if you were raised like me in a church here in West Michigan.

The only thing that, lifeboat mentality is like this, the only thing in life that matters is the Bible and souls. Any of you ever heard that? The only thing that's really going to last for eternity is God, Scripture, and the souls of mankind.

And so, if that's true, then the world is like a sinking ship, and our goal is to get as many people in the lifeboat as possible. That's the only reason you're here, some pastors will say. The only reason you exist is what many will tell you, and I believe that's false.

I believe that is detrimental to your work, that is detrimental to your vocation, that will get in the way of your understanding of what it is that you are called to do. Now, do souls matter? Absolutely.

Should we be out proclaiming and evangelizing and telling the truth of what God has done for us and being ready to give an answer for the hope that's in us? Absolutely. But through avenues that God is providing for us.

So if you have this mindset that the world is like a sinking ship, then what does that imply for our nine-to-five employment? What does that imply for our vocations, where we aren't necessarily, in that context, strictly there for the purpose of winning souls?

Some have actually gone so far as to declare that what you do nine-to-five, if you're employed in secular employment, you're not working for the church, you're not working for a parachurch, you're not a missionary, then what you're doing nine-to-five is, I'm sorry, you're just arranging deck chairs on the Titanic and it's already hit the iceberg.

How many of you think that that might be a waste of time? Are you getting what I'm saying? If that's your mindset, if that's your mentality, then why are you doing what you do nine-to-five if that's what you really believe?

How many of you think that that might be a downer, if that's what you think? If you think that all that you do nine-to-five is arrange deck chairs but the boat is going down, whoa, that's going to have a dramatic impact on the way.

What's your motivation? Why are you working? Why are you doing what you do? And this stuff is significant. So is a waitress at a restaurant wasting her time? Is plumbing of any significance in a world that's considered destined for destruction?

Is there any value to designing instruments for surgeons to use? Surgeons in the room might think, yeah. What about performing surgeries? And those who are going to eventually die? Huh. I hope you understand that my answer to all of these questions is that there is dignity, beauty, and crazy awesome potential to honor God in our work that goes far beyond the paycheck that you receive at the end of the week or at the end of the month.

It's far beyond that. In our text this morning, we're going to see that Jesus Christ grants us the ultimate motivation for the way we ought to perform our vocations. So let's open our Bibles here to Matthew 25, 31 through 46.

That's going to be our big chunk of text. I am going to read just briefly Colossians 3 .23. Those of you that are kind of nimble in your Bibles, you can feel free to run over to Colossians 3 .23. It's a short verse.

You don't have to go there. Matthew 25, 31 through 46 is the bulk of our text. You can just listen in as I read Colossians 3 .23 real quick. If you need a Bible though, you don't have a Bible on your lap or a device to navigate there, just raise your hand for me and one guy will bring you a Bible here.

We want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God in your lap. And if you have a device and you're looking for a good app to go to, I recommend ESV Bible is the title of it and you can go to either one of the app stores or any of the app stores and it's in there.

It's really easy to navigate and I really appreciate that one. But Colossians 3 .23 says this and it sets the stage for our Matthew passage. Paul writes to us, whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men.

And then Jesus says, Matthew 25, 31 through 46, God's very word to us this morning recast what he desires for us to hear and take on. Jesus says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

I was a stranger and you welcomed me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you and thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and welcome you in or naked and clothed you? And when did, when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me.

Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me. You cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, but you gave me no drink.

I was a stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. And then they will answer saying, Lord, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you?

Then he will answer them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I thank you for your calling on our lives, your interest in our days. Father, the power that you have by your spirit to transform our hearts and to change us into people of compassion, into people of love, into people who serve others.

Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to see that service to others goes so much more beyond just serving at the gospel mission or what we do here volunteering on a Sunday or on a weekend. But Father, we have an opportunity to serve every single day of our lives in the vocations you have called us to, in our families, in our work, in our volunteering, in all aspects.

We have an opportunity to take our lives and turn it over into worship of you by serving others. So Father, I pray that you would move in us as we have an opportunity to sing praises to you. I pray even now that you, Father, would move in our hearts to recognize the salvation that is provided through Jesus Christ and let our hearts exalt and rejoice that at the end of the day, it is not strictly what we have done as this judgment seems to indicate.

But Father, in the end, it is because of our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that we have a King that we hunger and thirst for service to. And I pray that you would even now accept our worship and our praise and these songs as worship to you in Jesus' name, amen.

Pete's Farewell and a Family Update

As Pete takes a seat, I want to say a couple of words about him. So you can go ahead and sit down. But the reason I'm talking about Pete is this is probably his last Sunday with us. They're taking off.

It definitely is his last Sunday up front leading in worship. And just a couple of things that some of you who have been attending here for a while might not know. Pete was the very first person, when we started Recast, we were five couples coming from another church to get started here in Matawan.

Pete was the first guy here in this community to give his life to Christ through the ministry of Recast Church. So we celebrate that and at the same time recognize that he's on his way to South Korea following his vocation.

And so if you have been blessed by his ministry, it's been cool to see him kind of come full circle to when we moved in next door to him, he was not a worshiper of Jesus. And he's had the opportunity over the course of time to actually get up front and lead us in worship of the one who he did not know when we came into this community.

So we rejoice in that. And I'd encourage you to go up and just wish them well, Pete and Carissa. And just continue to pray for them as they embark on this next phase of their lives going before their employer is taking them to South Korea at this time.

And just remember to be praying for them and just thank them for the ministry that they've had here. So take advantage of that. One other quick announcement is I just got a text that those of you who know Jonathan and Tara Miedema, they just had their baby.

So we can rejoice in that as well and just thank God for that. As a matter of fact, let's just take a moment to pray before we jump into the sermon here. Father, we rejoice and we thank you for the way that you've worked in our body here.

We thank you for decisions to follow you. We thank you for the way that you've led in Pete and Carissa's life. Father, thank you for their faithful service and ministry to us here. Father, for the way that you're calling them now, I pray that you would go before them and give them guidance and direction, lead them to a good church where they can use their skills and their abilities to serve others there in that foreign country, help them to adjust well.

Thank you for Jonathan and Tara, and Father, for the birth of their little one. I pray that you would continue to keep them safe and growing and for everything to continue to work out well. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

By the way, those of you who are like hungering for details, you can talk to my wife about that. I don't even know the name yet, so. What is it? Asher. Asher. Little Asher. All right. Well, get your Bibles open to Matthew 25, 31 through 46.

If you want to, if you kind of know your way around your Bible, you can start at Colossians 3, 23. We're going to be in there for just a minute, just kind of setting the stage. But the first question I want to ask you during Colossians 3 and then Matthew 25 is the question simply, why do you work?

Why Christians Work as for the Lord

Why do you put yourself out there in a position of usefulness to others? And I think if we're all honest, there's a variety of reasons, some good, some bad. We are a mix, by the way, of we are sinful human beings, and so there's all kinds of difficulties in sussing out our own motivations, if any of you have noticed that, where it's hard to figure out whether you have pure motives for anything in life.

And so the question, why do you work, kind of can bring up a whole bunch of different things to our minds. But if you tell me you're employed, and you're actually working for an employer, and you're getting a paycheck, and you tell me that your compensation has nothing to do with your work, I would consider and believe that at first blush you might be lying to me.

If you're telling me you're employed and you work for somebody else and you're being useful to them, and that's the sole reason, you know, that compensation is irrelevant, I'm not sure if that's true.

For many of us, our compensation is not the primary reason we work, but I think we have to be honest and say it factors in there somewhere, right? And I want to dispel a myth at the beginning of this that I personally think can be a big hangup for us in a discussion of motivation for our work, because Paul and then Jesus are going to lay out corresponding, connecting motivations in our text this morning that can often get muddied when combined with your salary.

So I know that I mentioned that not all of us make compensation for our work, some of us are volunteers, some of us are stay-at-home moms and are there, and that's our vocation at this time, but I think I personally have been guilty of thinking, in my mind, that getting paid to do something decreases the possibility that my purpose in doing it is pure.

Do you hear what I'm saying? Like, I kind of question, does that sully my motivation? Does that get in the way? And I think it can. But stop for a moment and consider if you can both get paid for something and simultaneously do it for the Lord, and I think you will come to the same conclusion as me that it takes more of a concerted effort to not just work for the paycheck, but it can be done.

We can actually both simultaneously make an income from our activity and serve the Lord in that usefulness to others as well. But I think through this, we have to ask ourselves some questions. Think about this, when things get tough at your work, would this thought ever run through your mind?

At least I'm getting paid for it. Does that thought run through your mind? At least I'm getting paid for it. So, I mean, that's bedrock, right? You're getting down to motivation, you're getting down to the reason that you're doing this task.

Well, at least the paycheck's coming in, right? And consider how that sounds different and looks different. First of all, how does that portray your primary motivation for doing what you do? Because think, there's something else you could say in that context, that going gets tough.

Well, how about this statement? At least this is where God has placed me for now. At least this is where God has me right now. Is that a possible motivation during the difficult times to keep chugging ahead, to keep forging ahead?

Or how about, at least what I'm doing right now is received as worship to God. At least, even in this difficult circumstance at work, where things have broken down, and the boss is breathing down my neck, or whatever, or the people that are under me are just not getting their tasks done, or my peers are pressing in and shooting for my job, or whatever it might be, at least what I'm doing, I'm doing out of a desire to honor God and it is worship to Him.

Well, all that kind of, you know, set up and talk about compensation, but let's talk about work that may or may not involve compensation. Because in Colossians 3 .23, Paul tells us, whatever we do, how many of you know that phrase?

Think about it. Whatever we do. Does that sound like it encompasses a whole lot of human activity? Whatever you do. Whatever you do. That's a lot. But in context, Colossians 3, of Colossians 3, Paul is speaking specifically to bondservants.

And a bondservant is possibly the closest that we come to the employer-employee relationship in the New Testament. A bondservant has voluntarily entered into a contract with a master to serve them, and the details, the duration, and the work are laid out in advance and agreed upon by two parties.

So, that's the nature of bondservant. Now you have the, you have different words in Greek, and this is a specific type of servant in the Roman Empire. It's a recognized position where the person's time and term as a servant is done.

They are no longer a slave. They've been set free, and instead they go back to their master and they say, working for you was pretty good, how about we make up an arrangement, and an arrangement is actually made.

So does that sound like employment to you? Sounds a lot like, it's employment. I will do this for you if you'll do this for me. So Paul follows this up by saying, whatever that work looks like, whatever you do in the, in terms of being a bondservant, work heartily as for the Lord.

The phrase work heartily is a compound word in Greek that means out, literally, out of soul, ek souke, souke, soul, ek, out of, ek souke. Out of your soul, heartily, be engaged in your work. Do your work with your heart in it, engaged.

Give something of yourself to your work. Don't just put your back into it, but put some of your, your soul into it. And why should we do that? What does the text say? Why, why should we do that? Because your employer is really nice, they're a good person, so put your soul and your heart into it in, in, you know, in proportion to the kindness and compassion and niceness of your boss.

Is that what the text says? Do it because they're, you work for somebody who's nice. Or do it because, you know, put your soul and your heart into it because your employer compensates you really well, taking care of you, so put your heart into it.

Or how about, do it because your job is fun and put your heart and soul in that. Because, I mean, how many of you have parts of your regular vocation, whether you're stay at home, whether you're volunteering, whether you've retired and you're on to a second career or on to that, that, that retirement that is enabling you to allow a vocation of volunteering or whether you're currently employed, what, what's motivating you?

Is it fun? How many of you have aspects of it that are fun? Raise your hand if there are aspects of your job that you consider fun. Now keep your hand up if there's aspects that are the opposite of fun.

I think all of us have the same, the same hands raised for both of those, right? Aspects that, aspects that are joyful and delightful and then how many of you know that both are your calling, both of your, both are your vocation, whether it's the, like people like me who, the paperwork is the pain, right?

I don't like the paperwork and some of you are like, paperwork, bring it on and I'm like, I don't get it. I don't understand you. I'm trying but some people love that, you know, just filling out forms all day.

I, I don't like that but there's aspects to the way that God has created us that make some parts of our job delightful but is that, so is that, is that standard? Is that, is that measure gonna sustain you in the long haul?

If you do with your heart what's fun, is that gonna keep you going month after month, week after week, hour after hour, serving in the service with your heart engaged? I'd guess that some of us in this room have been employed by the same employer for years.

What is sustaining you? Is your heart still in it? And I would say there's probably some of us if we're honest in the room that our heart is slowly become withdrawn from our work for a variety of reasons and we slowly pull back and we're not quite engaged and Paul here is saying, work heartily.

Get your soul into it, get your heart engaged. Whatever you do, whatever your work looks like, whatever occupies your time and usefulness to others from Monday to Saturday, work from your soul and here's the motivation.

Here's the sustaining thing that's gonna carry us forward. As if you were serving who? The Lord. As if you are serving Jesus Christ. As if your work is for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ himself.

Not as if you are working for humanity. Not as if you are working for men. Now, let me ask those of you who are currently employed. Who are you employed by? Did you get a name in your mind? A company, an organization, an individual, you get somebody in your mind.

Who are you employed by? That should be a pretty quick answer for all of us. I hope you know who you're employed by, right? But now let me ask everyone in the room a subtly different question. This is not just strictly for those that are employed in the eyes of the government but who are you employed for?

Who are you employed for? And everyone in this room, whether employed according to the state or not, should be able to say, I'm employed for the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm employed for him, by somebody else, for him.

Some of you are employed for the Lord as volunteers. Some of you are employed for the Lord as stay-at-home mothers. Some of you are employed for the Lord at an actual business. But notice how Paul wants us to be thoroughly motivated by serving God in our work.

We are to work as for the Lord and not for men. If our employment is for, let's say there's all different kinds of motivations, all different kinds of people we could be serving, I'd say probably the number one problem is that we would serve an individual and that would be ourselves in our employment, right?

And so if our employment is for ourselves, if our employment is for our business, if our employment is for our boss, we will have a very shaky and inconsistent foundation for our work. And our temptation will be to run down, if we're serving ourselves, the road of greed, down the road of fame, or down the road of power, or down the road of advancement.

We work for men. We will open ourselves to all kinds of disillusionment and discouragement in our work. All sorts of weak and unsustainable motivations will be ours if we are serving men. That's the end of it.

Now should we, by the way, should you be serving, I mean, you kind of hear me go, well, Jesus didn't tell me to fill out this report, so I'm not filling out this report. Don't get carried away with this, right?

I mean, you serve Christ by serving your employer well. You hear me? It's important. But at the end of the day, trying to please this boss, trying to make this work, trying to please yourself is not going to be sustainable.

Paul commands us to do our work from our heart and soul as if we were serving Jesus. And Jesus, in Matthew 25, 31 through 46, tells us that this idea that we can serve him through our daily activities is not just some kind of trick motivation.

Well, you're serving your boss, but psych, you're really serving Jesus. Like you're trying to trick your mind into thinking, like you've got to, okay, when you walk into your boss's office, you need to kind of picture Jesus standing there with sandals on and then you've got it, right?

It's not some kind of mind trick that you're doing to yourself here. There's more to it than that, but it's actually one of the central motivations for our entire lives according to Matthew 25, and it will indeed be the basis of judgment in the end.

It's a pretty significant thing that we're looking at here in Matthew 25. Jesus was extensively teaching about his kingdom throughout this section from 23 to 25, and judgment, kingdom and judgment, and he concludes his teaching in the book of Matthew by an explanation of the final judgment.

This is the last teaching that we see of Jesus recorded for us in the book of Matthew. Jesus says, I'm going to return. I'm going to come back, and I'm going to come back with my angels, and I'm going to come back in all of my glory, and I will sit on a throne.

Now, either this guy was an egomaniac or he was right. He says, I'm coming back. I'm going to be the one. I'm the king. I'm the one who's coming back to judge, and I'm going to separate people according to sheep and goats.

Interestingly, it's important for us to notice this, I think. The division happens before he utters a word. Did you notice that in the text? The first thing he does when he comes back is he says, sheep, goats, and we're already divided.

We're already there. But wait, he hasn't said anything. He hasn't indicted us. He hasn't said anything about us, but I think that this is significant. We arrive on that great day as either a sheep or a goat.

We will arrive there, and it will have been decided by us through our lives and our recognition of the king. Which side are we on? We don't become a sheep. We don't become a goat in the judgment as he tells us the nice things that we've done or the bad things that we've done.

We're already there. But like a good shepherd who knows his flock, he knows who are his and he knows who are not. And consistently in Scripture, by the way, the way that we live is an indication for what we are.

The way you live is an indication of your being, your essence, who you really are. Jesus said that you can't, you can tell an olive tree because it grows olives. You could tell a tomato plant because it grows tomatoes.