I first heard this idea in a sermon by Francis Chan.

In Luke 12 we read a parable that Yeshua spoke one day to illustrate how our obsession with greed and possessions is totally the wrong focus for a Christian to have. How we should be focussed on the things of God, instead of being consumed by a desire for more and more “stuff”.

It’s a great point, and totally relevant to our modern greed, wealth, self focused lifestyles.

But part of that parable is that when the rich man is saying how he’s going to build a bigger barn, and take it easy. Yeshua calls him a fool, because this is his last day on the planet and he doesn’t even realise.
Tonight. The life God gave him when he was born will have to be handed back.

We think of our life as our own, but it actually belongs to the one who lent it to us. To God. And one day he will want it back.

And, like the one who gave differing talents to each of his servants in the parable of Matthew 25. He will want them back.
And not only will he want them back, he will also want to know what we did with them, and how we invested them for him.
One day God will want to know what you did with your life. What you have built for him with the life that he lent you.
Or did you just use it for your own pleasures? Or even waste it totally?…
That could be one mighty uncomfortable conversation.

In Matthew 21 there is a parable of a vineyard owner who left his vineyard in the care of his servants and went away.
Then, when he wanted the harvest, he sent someone to see what they had grown. They beat up or killed everyone he sent to get it.
Eventually he sent his own son, but in their delusion they thought that if they killed the son they would inherit the vineyard.
Of course they wouldn’t. It would still belong to the owner who built it. But greed deludes our minds.
They killed the son of the man who had provided work for them for all this time.
So they could steal the very thing he was using to bless them.

But are we really any different?
How are we going to react when God wants his life back?
When he asks for the harvest he rightly deserves from the life he loaned us?
Are we going to kill his son?

It’s not your life.
You will, guaranteed, have to account for what you did with it.
Like the church in Sardis, in the letters in Revelation.
If we do not wake up to ourselves, he will come like a thief, at a time when we do not suspect, and our deeds will be judged.

If you’re still breathing, then it’s not too late.
Wake up.
Realise that your life is not your life.
And start living it for Yeshua, knowing that one day he will want it back.

Be prepared. Live it for him so you can look forward to that day.