Oh, when the auditor leaves from our annual audit, man, our administrative team is high-fivin'. Partly because, well, we've been blessed to get a clean audit year after year, and partly it's just because it's over! They work pretty hard to be ready for all the things the auditor wants to check out.

In the business world, and sometimes even in the Christian world, audits aren't always happy. Auditors can find things that get you in trouble with your boss, with the government, even with the law. Audits uncover hidden secrets.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Audit Of A Lifetime."

Now, I have a meeting scheduled with the auditor in the future. Except, I don't know when it is, because the appointment is with The Auditor, and only He knows when my audit of a lifetime is going to be. Fact is we're all facing the audit of our lives. Our word for today from the word of God in Romans 14:12 says "...each of us will give an account of himself to God."

There will be no exceptions, "...each of us." There will be no excuses, "...will give account of himself to God." No blaming your spouse, your parents, your kids, your friends, your coworkers, your environment. I will answer for me and me alone. Also, there will be no secrets. Romans 2:16 says, "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ." The Auditor knows every website we've ever visited, every e-mail or conversation we've been involved with, every sin we thought we got away with.

Many times I've seen a road sign with these stark words: "Prepare to meet your God" (Amos 4:12). Since heaven's all-knowing Auditor will expose everything about my life, it actually makes sense to work on what I'll face in His presence. The Auditor has let us know what He'll be auditing. I'd like to know that now.

Now, I know He'll be auditing the words I speak. Jesus said so; "Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless (or worthless that means) word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36-37). All our words, including the gossip, the angry stuff, the putdowns, the dirty stuff, will be there to meet us on the day of judgment and there will be no denying my own words.

The Auditor's also going to examine why I do what I do. The Bible says, "Wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts" (1 Corinthians 4:5). I'm not too excited about those new full body scans that they're installing at airports; they reveal what no one else can see. But that's nothing compared to God's full heart scan at the judgment seat. No matter how good what I've done may be, it will burn if my real motive was me, not Him. God cares a lot more about why we do than what we do. If it wasn't for His glory, if it wasn't because of pure love, it will never survive the audit.

Then Jesus said, "Give an account of your management" (Luke 16:2). The audit is going to be about what I've done with what He's given to me: my money, my influence, my home, my abilities, my opportunities. I'm suspecting that a lot of us are going to be feeling the shame and sadness of what might have been, of how much we could have done and should have done.

And then this warning. "When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not...speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 3:18). Whew! God will confront me with all the people I didn't tell about Jesus, whose eternity depended on hearing about Him.

And here is the hardest-hitting exposure of all, the audit of a lifetime, "...the books were opened. Another book was opened which is the Book of Life...If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:12, 15). What an unspeakably awful moment.

Jesus checks the Book of Life to see if a person's name is there. If it's not, it's too late. It's entered there when you pin all your hopes on the Christ who died on the cross so you would never have to have that moment. You could have your name put in His book today by giving your life to Him.

The audit is coming, be ready for the audit. Prepare to meet your God.