Romans 8:8 – “So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God”.
Without faith… we cannot please Him; and living in the flesh, living according to our mind, emotions, circumstances… we cannot please God. We must have faith; and we must be led by the Holy Spirit. If you search the Bible, there are a whole number of things which are the will of God, and which please Him if we do them, so I'll leave you to search that out…
The second thing then, related to Jesus evaluating our work, is that God's eternal purpose is the plumb line for evaluating our works. Amos had a prophetic vision…
Amos 7:7 – “Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, and with a plumb line in His hand”.
A plumb line is a weight attached to the end of a cord, and gravity pulls the weight down, so when you hold the plumb line it goes directly down and gives a vertical line. Plumb lines are used in the construction of buildings, and they judge whether walls are upright or not. God measures the quality and success of our works: do they align with His eternal purpose? Do they align with His standards? God will never deviate from His standard for measuring success, and that is His eternal purpose.
Success can be considered in all kinds of ways - you might have all sorts of ideas of what success is, but real success can only be found in fulfilling God's will for our life. There are several aspects to God's eternal purpose...
1) Jesus Christ will be at the centre of everything in heaven and earth. In Colossians it tells us that Jesus will have the pre-eminence in all things. One part of God's purpose is to bring honour to His Son Jesus Christ, by giving Him pre-eminence over everything. One part of my life is then to be aligned: that in everything, Jesus has pre-eminence.
2) Father is extending His kingdom through a family of overcoming sons - exactly like Jesus Christ. Another aspect of God's eternal purpose is that He is building a family of sons, like Jesus, who will expand His kingdom.
The eternal purpose is that: Jesus Christ will be at the centre of everything, to have pre-eminence and prominence in everything; and God is building us to become just like His Son, which brings Him such pleasure - to work with Him, in expanding His kingdom. That is what God's purpose is!
He's not going to bring blessing on what you think is good, and what you think is right. He's going to bring blessing upon the things which agree with, and align with, with His overall plan; and then His specific plan, for you. In evaluating our works, we need to see that.
3) The next thing we need to see is, the importance of our heart. Most people just look on the outside…
1 Samuel 16:7 – “The Lord said to Samuel: do not look at his appearance, or his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord looks not as man looks, or sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, the Lord looks on the heart.”
Samuel is evaluating the sons - which one of the sons might be the future king, and they looked good; they looked to be qualified. However, God says: don't look externally; don't look at what they appear to be; God looks on the heart. For example, Jesus was in the temple, and He watched the people doing their giving, and He saw that some people put in a lot of money; but He saw another woman, and she put in two little mites, which was just a very small amount of money. He said: “she has given more than all of them”. This one gave out all this money, and she only had two mites; but He said: I weighed up what this meant to them; and for this woman, this is her whole livelihood.
So, you understand then, that being poor, and having few resources, does not disqualify you for great eternal rewards. The wealthy people that had much, and gave much, still didn't in proportion to what they have, give what the little lady gave - she gave her whole life. She had such a love, and a passion for the Lord, that she gave her very best to Him. God looks at what is going on in our heart, in relationship to our activities.
Proverbs 16:2 – “The ways of man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits or heart”.
We think we're doing well, but God really looks at what's going on in our heart; and the motivation. He looks at what we've done; and also at what has been the driving motivation; the life flow from within it - how much of it has been birthed out of relationship with Jesus, and is an overflow of that relationship; and how much of it has come out of self-centred, or self-promotion, purposes. In all of this, God is using His Son Jesus Christ, as the pattern. If you're going to try to build something, Jesus is the pattern.