What is Your Story? - Don Castleberry

♪♪ Praise the Lord. We're glad and happy to be with you once more today. Praise the Lord. It's a good, good day to serve Jesus Christ, even if you are locked up in that prison. Hallelujah. So, Father, I pray today for each one, Lord, that their ears are opened and their eyes are opened to see and hear the blessedness of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in their lives. Amen. And may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart in your sight, God, be moved, acceptable unto you, O Lord God, my strength and my redeemer. Praise the Lord. Well, I want to talk to you this morning or this afternoon or tonight or wherever you, whatever time it is where you are about what is your story and what is your story going to be at the end of your life? You know, we've heard the story of many times about the birth of Jesus, how Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was born, and the story about Bethlehem and how His life ended up crucified,

died for our sins, shed His blood for our sins, that we might be saved. But I want to ask you today, what is your story going to be like at the end of your life? You know, there's a lot of stories in the Bible, good and bad, as to how men's stories wound up. But God always gives us direction. You're living out your story right now. You have control of how your story is going to be the rest of your life, what is going to be at the end of your life, and you have control of it, even though you may be locked up at the present time. You know, Jesus says, enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in there. But narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there'll be few who find it. Most are living their life for their own self right now in the world. But Jesus gave us the way, the truth, and the life. If we will just listen to it, follow the Word of God, and do what He said do. Now, He also says in Matthew chapter number seven, He says, not everyone who calls on Me

and says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter. What does that mean? The commandments that God gave in His Word, that Jesus gave, that the apostles broke oven at the power of the Holy Spirit, is what you must do. That is the will of God. Many will say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in Your name. We cast out devils in Your name. We performed many miracles in Your name. But I'll tell you, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who break God's laws. Man's laws were broken when you came to this prison, and you were sentenced because you did that. But have you ever thought about, you broke God's laws first? You broke His laws first, and then the law got a hold of you. And you probably heard the words, don't do that, before you did what you did that brought you here. But it's not too late. If you're hearing my voice today, if you're breathing in and out of your mouth, if your lungs are expanding and decompressing, you have a chance. You still have a mind to choose what you want to do today.

Now, some people back in Malachi chapter number three had some issues. They hadn't been obeying God. And I'm gonna read you some things. It's in Malachi chapter number three, beginning with verse 13. You said terrible things about me, says the Lord. But you say, what do you mean? What have we said against you? You have said, what's the use of serving God? Have you ever said that? Think about it. Think about you talking to your seller last night. Did you ever say that? What's the use of serving God? The same thing these people did, listen. What are we getting? by obeying His commands or by trying to show the Lord of heaven's armies that we're sorry for our sins. You know what, right now I'm not sorry for my sins. I know I'm locked up in this prison, but I did what I wanted to do at that time. And so far, it's not too bad. I mean, I've got pretty good food here, got a place to sleep, you know, and the guards are not too bad if you just be sweet to them. Here's what they say. Here's what we're going to do, God. Think about this. God, from now on, we will call the arrogant blessed.

For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm. May I say to you, judgment day is coming. If those words ever come out of your mouth and you do not have Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The Apostle Peter had a story. I'm going to read you a little bit out of that, out of Matthew chapter number 26. And you got to remember, excuse me, 24. But anyway, you got to remember the night before Jesus was crucified, he and the apostles had what was called the Last Supper. And you've seen that photograph many, many times. But they were all saying, when Jesus said, somebody in this room is going to betray me. And they all said, well, is it me, Lord? Is it me, Lord? And Judas Iscariot said, is it me, Lord? And he said, you have said it. So was Judas Iscariot. Then they also said, Peter said, Lord, you know, even if I have to go with you to the death, I will not forsake you. And Jesus said to Peter, before the cock crows in the morning, you will deny me three times. And that's exactly what happened. The Bible says that as Jesus was being questioned, that Peter was outside. And the maiden asked him, do you know Jesus?

He said, no, I don't know him. And he was standing by the fire with some men. And they said, you're Galilean. You speak just like they do. You're Jesus' friend, aren't you? Jesus said, no, I don't know him. The third time, one asked him, I know who you are. I saw you with that Jesus. He said, oh, no, that wasn't me. And he cursed. And then he realized what Jesus had said. He had said, before the cock crows in the morning, you will have denied me three times. And the Bible says that Peter went out and wept bitterly. And he ran. He ran away because he did not want to be identified with Jesus the Christ. That story does not end there. And we'll continue with that story in just a little bit. We're looking at the scriptures again. Why would God record scriptures like that? He's telling a story. Now, this is not a parable. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. This is the truth, all the truth. So help me God. This really happened. So Judas, he's got an issue. Judas is a treasurer. He's greedy.

He's covetous. He wants more money. Even the scripture, the root of all evil is the love of money, was not even written yet. He didn't know it. He was just a thief. So he went to the Pharisees and the chiefs. And he said, what will you give me if I turn him over to you? And they told Judas, we'll give you 30 pieces of silver. He said, OK. He said, we will go to the garden tonight. And the one I kiss is the rabbi. And then you take him, but don't hurt him. That's basically what he said. So he went there. He kissed Jesus, said, rabbi. Jesus said, friend, do you betray me with a kiss? He knew exactly what was going on. And Jesus said, I was in the temple teaching day after day, and you did not take me. But now you take me with guards, and swords, and spears. And they took him. And then he left. He said, Jesus said, the words of God have to be fulfilled. And they were fulfilled, and they took Jesus. And they took him to the governor pilot. So later, Judas Iscariot went back to the chiefs, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And he said, I betrayed Jesus. And he threw the 30 pieces of silver on the floor.

And they said, what is that to us? You just live with it, bro. So he went out and hanged himself, committed suicide. The Bible says his bowels gushed out on the ground. What do you think the end of his story was? The end of his stories. He's eternally separated from God and a living, fiery hell separated from Jesus forever. But what about Peter, brother Don? That's a different story. Peter repented of his sins. In Acts chapter number two, you will find out that there were 120 men and women in the upper room. And they did exactly what Jesus had said. Jesus said, tarry in Jerusalem. Don't do anything, wait. They waited 10 days. 120 in the upper room. I guess they ate, maybe they were fasting, I don't know. But suddenly, a sound like a body wind rushed into that room and tongues of fire landed on each one. And Holy Spirit began to do his work in those people's hearts. And they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Peter was right there. He didn't have to commit suicide because he betrayed Jesus. He repented of his sin. They went outside and all the people said,

we can hear our own language and our own name. People said, no, they're just drunk. No, they wasn't drunk. It was only nine o'clock in the morning. But Peter preached his first sermon and 3,000 people got saved under the power of God. Two different stories. Now let me ask you again, what is your story gonna be? Is your story gonna end like Judas or is it gonna end like Peter's? Peter was later martyred for his faith. He was crucified upside down, tradition says. Because he said he was not worthy to be crucified right side up. Martyred for his faith in Jesus Christ. One day I'll meet him in the halls of heaven. I don't know if you go fishing in heaven, but Peter was a fisherman. So if we go fishing in heaven, I wanna go with him. I know there's no death in heaven, so I don't know what we're gonna eat. We sure can't eat some trout or maybe some good red fish or whatever, but nevertheless, we're gonna be happy. What's your story? You got into this prison. You were sentenced by a judge. I don't know how much time you got, but I tell you this, any time in a prison is too much time. You may have made a decision for Jesus Christ

while you're here. You may have not made a decision for Jesus Christ while you were here. But you gotta have a story. I'm gonna turn over to Revelation chapter number 20 now. It talks about the final judgment. This is a judgment for unbelievers. Believers don't go to the great white throne judgment. Believers go to the judgment seat of Christ. At the judgment seat of Christ, the Bible describes this, that Jesus has sheep on the right and the unbelievers on the left. And he asked the unbelievers, hey, I was sick, you couldn't come to visit me. I was naked, you didn't clothe me. I was in prison, you didn't come see me. I was sick, you didn't come see me. Anyway, there are six criteria there Jesus asked them and they say, hey, Jesus, we didn't know about that. He said, well, because you did not do it to the least of these, you didn't do it to me. me." And then he tells them their end. And their end is eternal separation in a place called hell from Jesus Christ. And then he looks at the other, the believers, the sheep, and he says the same thing. I was naked in your clothing. I was hungry. I was thirsty. I was homeless. I was sick. The sick criteria there are mentioned one more time. And they say the same thing. Lord, when do we see you in this situation? He said, because you did it to the least of these, you did it to me. They go to heaven for an eternal tea with God and Jesus and Holy Spirit forever and forever. And the others go to hell. What's your story? How's your story going to end? For the first 37 years of my life, I lived

for me. I had my own rules. I did what I wanted to do. I could care less what God thought. But on that cold cement floor in that county jail on January 9, 1977, when Jesus Christ visited me and saved my soul, and I was implanted by Holy Spirit right there, when I got up, I never have doubted one second I'm a saved man. And my mind was still messed up. I had to be transformed, took a lot of years. But today I can tell you for sure that my destination is heaven. And that's where I'm going to wind up. Revelation chapter 20, verse number 11. Now this is the apostle John who had a vision of heaven, went to heaven apparently. And here's what he saw. I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. It said the earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were open, including the book of life. You'll notice that that says books. As far as I've researched, there's seven books that will be open, not including all the books of every person that have lived on this life, and action recorded of every word you said. Words that should be justified by the words of your mouth. The books were open and the book of life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books, according to what they had done. Not according to what they had supposed to do. The sea gave up its dead and death in the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Well, wait a minute, Don. I didn't think you could work your way to heaven. I do this because I love Jesus Christ. I'm already saved. If I quit today, if this is the last sermon you ever hear from me, I'm good, but I don't plan to quit because I want to honor and glorify God every opportunity I have. And it says death in the grave or thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. So let me ask you, what's your story? How's your story going to end up? You have a chance. What will be your story when the books are opened? Are you going to repent of your sins? Are you going to ask Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins? Are you going to say, Jesus, I have sinned. I agree with you that I'm a sinner and that I need to repent and ask you to please forgive me of my sin and dedicate the rest of my life to you. I want to read to you back in Malachi chapter number three. And this is what happened to those people. You remember that I read a while ago that the evil people told God from now

on we're going to call the arrogant blessed for those who do evil get rich and those who dare God to punish him suffer no harm. But here's the Lord's promise of mercy to those who've repented of their sins, who love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, their neighbors and themselves. Malachi chapter three, verse 16 starting, then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other and the Lord listened to what they said. God listens to his redeemed people. He'll listen to you if you have not repented of your sin, but that's the prayer he's going to hear. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names, hold on, wait, they're writing, he's writing down the names of those who fear him in a book. A scroll was written, a brand new scroll, to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name. They thought about him first before they did anything displeasing to God, before they did anything displeasing to Jesus the Christ. They obeyed and followed the commands of the Holy Spirit who lived in them as a believer of Jesus Christ. Here's what God said because of their commitment. They will be my people, says the Lord of heaven's armies. On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. May I tell you this morning without one ounce of pride, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you are God's own special treasure, just like I am. He said, I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. Today some of you may have heard God's name taken in vain. Today you may have heard other profanity of those who as yet have not made a commitment to Jesus Christ. May I say to you today, a commitment to Jesus Christ is the best decision you'll ever make in your life. When you truly love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor

as yourself, then you'll put yourself aside for the glory of God and the majesty of Jesus Christ. If you believe that you have a want to, to get saved right now, pray this, Father God I'm a sinner, but I don't want to do that anymore. I repent of my sins, please forgive me. I believe you, Father God, raised Jesus from the dead, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that he sits now at the right hand of the Father. I confess it with my mouth, I believe it in my heart of God, therefore I'm a saved man. If your heart has changed over the next few days, weeks, if your character has changed, you're a saved man, you're on your way to heaven. You'll have a hunger for the word of God. You'll have a hunger to listen to sermons. You'll have a hunger when somebody comes in to teach the word in your chapel. You'll have a hunger when a three-day crusade comes through your unit. You'll have a hunger for the word of God like never before. You'll begin to really, really want your celly and your homie to be saved. You will begin to care whether he goes to hell or not, and you will explain and tell him what Jesus has done for you, amen? God bless you as you seek him today, in Jesus' name, amen.