Back a few years ago, when I was pastoring a small church in Kansas, the capital city of Kansas, Topeka, started looking for a new slogan that would promote tourism and help foster a positive image for the city. The new slogan would be especially important since Topeka would be celebrating its 150th anniversary. So with that thought in mind, local officials launched a slogan campaign that would be open to all the residents of Topeka. Local officials had high hopes that the residents of their city would come up with a winning slogan. Unfortunately, the residents of Topeka did just the opposite of what local officials wanted them to do. Residents started submitting slogans that were sly put-downs of the very city where they lived. Residents of the fair capital of the great State of Kansas submitted slogans like, “Topeka, you won’t get a lot of unwanted relatives visiting you.” And this one: “Topeka – not as bad as you think, it’s even worse.” The list went on, mostly with slogans that aren’t positive at all. The submissions were so discouraging that according to an AP news release, the Topeka Convention and Visitors Bureau was considering forgoing a city slogan entirely.
Now I don’t know if Topeka was really that bad of a city or not. I never visited there and I only passed by it once on the highway. But it seems to me that before Topeka could lay claim to a slogan that would have promoted a positive image of itself, there needed to be damage control done to correct the city’s image among its own residents.
In thinking about this story in relation to our series on the Judgment Seat of Christ, I want us to realize that one day – the Judgment Day to be exact – the way we lived our lives will tell the whole story of who we really were on earth. When our lives will be opened up for judgment by Jesus Christ, Himself (see John 5: 17 – 30), our words, actions, motives, attitudes and intentions will all be examined – whether they were good or bad. So then the question that we ought to be asking ourselves now and answering now, is what does the way we have lived our lives say about us? Relatively good things or bad things?
The apostle Paul gives us some interesting words about how Christ will judge our lives in 1 Corinthians 3. Paul says the first thing that will be examined is the foundation of our lives. Any builder will tell you that if a building has a poor foundation, it will start having all kinds of problems. Eventually, the building itself will at the very least become too dangerous to live in, and may even collapse. If you are a Christian, you needn’t worry – the foundation of your life is Jesus Christ. And the foundation of Christ is always solid, able to stand up to anything life throws at it. Any other foundation that we choose to build our lives on will ultimately not be able stand the test on Judgment Day.
But after the foundation, what do we do then? That is the question we will be looking at in a two-part sermon “How Will We Be Judged?” I invite you to join us or to download the sermons when they become available. It is my hope that after we are judged, our lives will not have been disappointing to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as the slogans were to the city of Topeka. I hope to see you on Sunday!
