In this sermon, the speaker reflects on his past actions and realizes that he had been serving with the wrong motives, attitude, relationship, and resources. He feels remorseful and believes that his life has been wasted. However, he experiences a moment of forgiveness and love from the Lord, who dries his tears. The speaker then has a vision of standing in line to present his life before the Lord, and he is given a package to carry. Ultimately, the sermon emphasizes the importance of serving God with the right heart and motives, and the need to turn away from wickedness and follow God's ways.

And so here Almighty God, the one who has the power to point a finger and send constellations into the sky, burning in their place and following their orbit, Almighty God stands and holds out his hand to omnipotent man in his own realm and sphere and says, as I live, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn and live, turn ye, turn ye for why we die. Here is a man that's learned that there's only one way to carry the ark of God. Have you learned? Have you learned that the only way up is down, the only way to live is to die, the only way that faith can bring forth is to fall into the ground and die. What we have is the fact that these people had a name to live. What we have is the fact that they were of Israel, but they were dead because they didn't keep his commandments. Oh, they went through the motions of serving Jehovah, but they cared and they served the gods of the land. The essence of sin, what is it? The essence of sin is self-love. The essence of sin is self-love. As you are going into all the world, preach. That's the commandment. And I said to the guy, where was the bima? Oh, he said, you speak Greek. I said, no, I don't speak Greek. You said bima, that's Greek. I know it's Greek. Well, why do you say bima? Because for many, many years I've been expecting to stand before the bima. He said, you can't, it isn't here anymore. When they remade this, they didn't put the bima in there. I said, what was it? Well, he said it was a balcony where the judges sat and where they would bring the people that had won. They'd come up on some steps and the judges at the bima would give them a crown of laurels. Can you imagine these fellows going out and getting killed or someone trying to kill them and all they get when they finish is laurels? And I, it faded away and I had a vision. Now, I don't know whether I was awake, whether I was asleep, whether I saw it or whether I imagined it and I don't care. It was more real than anything that was around me. I saw a vast temple on a high hill and then in a moment I was in a line of people going into great doors at that temple and in another moment I was up to the door and a servant, probably an angel, reached over and brought a package and said, here, take this. And I picked the package up. It wasn't large and it wasn't heavy. I carried it with me through the doors and there I saw the Lamb seated upon the throne, more glorious than anything that had ever been written or painted of Him. And in that moment, I knew what it was. I was to appear before Him. And there in my hand was my life and my works were going to be tried, whether good or bad, whether wood, hay or stubble or gold, silver or precious stone. The line moved and I was next. A servant said, give me the package and I did. There was a furnace there at the foot of the, where the Lord was seated and a flame that burned with nothing to fuel it. And my package was put in there and the flame covered it. A moment later, the servant picked up a tool. I didn't see the tool until later. And I, after I heard it grating on the furnace, and then I heard the voice of the servant say, stretch out your hands. And I reached out my hand to take a crown and the voice said, cup your hand. And the little shovel with the cover on it was put over my cup hand and the light contents from within slid out into my palms. And when I brought it around in front of me and looked, all I had was a handful of ashes. Oh, I'd served. I'd given my food to feed the poor, my money to help the... I'd given my body to be burned. I'd been a missionary. I'd had the wrong motive, wrong attitude, wrong relationship, wrong resources. What I'd done, so much of what I'd done, I'd done to be seen. And I dropped my head. I looked at the Lord and the look in His eyes, they'd be weak. I had nothing to give Him for my life. And I knew that I would have wept drastically. I was there, but my life had been wasted. And I followed my filtering ashes down and I found I was standing in a carpet of ashes. He looked at me. He dried my tears by that look of tender love and forgiveness. And I turned and the next thing I heard was, Mr. Hurry, hurry, we're waiting for you. What are you standing there for? And I walked out to the limousine, shocked. I suppose there have been very few days that I haven't thought about that and asked the Lord to help me so to live and to minister that in that day, there will be something to lay at His nail-pierced feet. Followed Him no more, a son of man. You know, did y'all have that experience? You know, I'd learn about my authority in Christ and I learned that I had been given authority to trample down snakes and serpents and all this and I would enter and nothing would happen. And I remember the Lord spoke to me and said, there was no submission to authority in my life and therefore I had no authority. And I thought, it doesn't say that, but then I remember it says, submit to God, resist the devil. And the way you submit to God is through submission to authority. I mean, it's the only way to break the self-will in us. How many people are looking for, they're looking for their self-worth in the kingdom and they'll present themselves to you, I'm an intercessor, I'm this, I'm this. I mean, you hear it all the time. And a lot of these people have shortcutted themselves to where they're at. They have not been willing to make the hard choices, to serve in the nursery, to do those kinds of things. And they're reading these really spiritual books by these really spiritual authors and they're thinking, this is what I need to be, but no one's telling them how you get there. No one's telling you that this really spiritual author who wrote this really spiritual book had served and discipled and died to themselves for years before God was able to create this anointing. And these people who write the books, I think they forget too because they never talk about that. I promise you, sometimes when I read these books, it seems like everybody's trying to outdo themselves. Who had the biggest vision? Who had the greatest revelation from God? I just get this feeling in my gut. And a lot of these people probably didn't start that way, but they're so far from the nursery. I think everybody needs to keep doing the nursery. I don't care if you are who you are, because there's something about changing a diaper that's humbling.