Recently I have been privy to hearing the “achievements” someone accomplished within the building called a “church.” Well, all the while the Holy Spirit kept placing these verses within my head as I heard these “accomplishments.”

Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV – “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 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?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Now why would the Holy Spirit place these verses in particular into my head?

For one. The people proudly proclaiming what they saw as what was required of them to be one with God through Jesus Christ.

Second, how these verses end: “I never knew you; depart from Me, YOU WHO PRATICE LAWLESSNESS!”

Christ made it very clear in John 14 what you are required to do if you truly love Him:

John 14:15-21 NKJV – “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me,

So, in this list of achievements within this building called a church do they include these commands given by Christ as the Sermon on the Mount:

When you give do so in a way where no one knows it is you giving the money to those in need. (Matthew 6:1-4)

When you pray. Pray in secret where no one can see you. Therefore, if you pray in public and especially in a church you are breaking this commandment. (Matthew 6:5-6)

When you fast do not make a show of it or let anyone know you are fasting. (Matthew 6:16-18)

Now the next one is one of the biggest commandments that most refuse to even accept, acknowledge or even attempt to do.:

Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV – “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

You know what else is considered earthly treasures? Achievements within a building called a “church.”

1 John 2:15-17 NLT – Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

These achievements you achieve through your own desires and wants makes you proud in what you have accomplished and don’t even see that you are walking in darkness.

Ephesians 5:1-10 NKJV – Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

Just because you go to a building called a “church” and you do activities made by and sponsored by this building does not place you in heaven. For they are not commandments offered by Jesus Christ, but by men. This is why Jesus says this right after telling those that are loyal to Him to not store up earthly treasures:

Matthew 6:22-24 NKJV – “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

In churches people belief they are in the light, when in reality, since they are not imitating Christ they are actually walking in earthly darkness. Then Christ makes it clear that churches teach to seek after mammon.

Why do I say this? Because they teach you can keep 90% of your income as long as you give 10% to the church. This is not what is taught in Matthew 6 or 1 Timothy 6. In both of those locations within the Bible it is made clear that we are to live off 10%. Give 10% to those that are True representatives of Jesus Christ. Then have the rest ready at a moment’s notice to help those in need.

Just so you know mammon is defined as riches (jewelry and fancy clothes), money, possessions (objects that gather dust and vehicles [which include luxury cars, trucks, RVs if they are not your actual home, motorcycles, boats, jet skis etc.]) and property (owning huge houses and/or multiple houses [ once again RVs count as a house] as well as land filled with nothing useful to those in need).

This is all churches say you can keep thus canceling out any achievements you may think of to whitewash your filthy garments.

Revelation 3:1-5 NKJV – “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I WILL NOT BLOT OUT HIS NAME FROM THE BOOK OF LIFE, but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”

Revelation 3:15-20 NKJV – “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Those that wish to list their churchly achievements are blind and proud and have been vomited out of the Body of Christ and Christ Himself removed their names from the Book of Life.

Revelation 20:15 NKJV – And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.