The Sunday evening service continued Old-Fashioned Sunday, and Pastor Devon Ortiz opened by walking through the preachers God used to shape how Baptists worship: Charles Spurgeon, John Gill, Andrew Fuller, Basil Manly Sr., Oliver B. Green, Sam Jones, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, George W. Truett, and W. A. Criswell. Different gifts, one shared aim: to take what God had given them and do the most with it for Christ’s kingdom rather than their own. That aim set up the evening’s question, drawn from 2 Corinthians 5: what will we do with what God has entrusted to us before we stand to give account?

Confident, and walking by faith

Reading 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, Pastor Ortiz drew out Paul’s settled confidence: to be “absent from the body” is to be “present with the Lord” (verse 8), and the Christian “walk[s] by faith, not by sight” (verse 7). The question he pressed: do we actually believe that the moment we take our last breath we will stand face to face with Jesus? Many say it in song and creed but do not live it.

The judgment seat of Christ

Paul wrote to a fractured church in Corinth, divided and grown cold, and pointed them to a motivating truth they would have grasped instantly: the judgment seat, the bema seat (verse 10). In Corinth the bema was a public platform at the city’s crossroads where verdicts were rendered and where victorious athletes received their rewards (Acts 18). No one could miss it. To “appear” there, Pastor Ortiz explained, is to be made fully manifest: the masks we wear are pulled away and we stand before Jesus exactly as we are, known by our fruit. The phrase “whether it be good or bad” (verse 10) is not righteous versus unrighteous but worthwhile versus worthless: did our lives bring value, or were they a net loss, spent on things that were not sinful yet wasted? And the grace we will answer for is not only salvation; it is the daily grace of waking, of our faculties, of a Bible, of a church family, of the freedom to worship.

Two judgments, not one

Pastor Ortiz carefully separated the bema seat from the great white throne, which believers often confuse. The judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10) is for believers only; it is an evaluation for reward, where crowns are gained or lost, but the believer is saved either way. The great white throne (Revelation 20:11-12) is for unbelievers; it is final condemnation, where Christ is not evaluator but judge, and the verdict is eternal separation in hell. The appeal was direct: if you have never genuinely trusted Christ, not merely prayed a prayer once but actually seen his fruit in your life, that is the seat to fear. For the believer, there is no such fear here.

What the bema seat is, and is not

It is not purgatory, not a second chance, and not a public shaming. Rewards are earned in this life, not after. It is a divine accounting of what we did with what God entrusted to us, a fire-test of motive and faithfulness, and above all a motivation: to stand before Jesus, cast our crowns at his feet, and tell him how grateful we are. From that, Pastor Ortiz drew four responses.

1. We will not escape it

“Every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). Rank does not exempt anyone, whether pastor, deacon, lifelong member, or brand-new believer. For the saved this is not cause for dread but for aim: to hear “well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Gratitude, not guilt, is meant to fuel it. Pastor Ortiz traced a progression every Christian should climb: “I have to” (immature obligation), up to “I need to,” and finally to “I want to,” the heart that serves because it longs to, never having to be coerced or chastised.

2. Our works will not escape

From 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, Pastor Ortiz set two kinds of work side by side. Gold, silver, and precious stones are works rooted in faith and love, offered because “I want to serve you.” Wood, hay, and stubble are works done for self, fueled by pride or fear, and these burn away. We reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7), framed not as a threat but as an invitation: sow the right seed to reap real fruit, and serve God from the heart rather than going through the motions.

3. There are crowns at stake

Scripture names five crowns, and each is an opportunity to show the Lord our love. The incorruptible crown for the believer who disciplines the flesh (1 Corinthians 9:25); the crown of rejoicing, the soul-winner’s crown, for the one given to the great commission (1 Thessalonians 2:19); the crown of righteousness for those who love his appearing (2 Timothy 4:8); the crown of life for those who endure trials without abandoning their faith (James 1:12); and the crown of glory for the faithful shepherd (1 Peter 5:4).

4. So we do not waste our time

“We labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5:9). Paul organized every decision around Christ, “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). Time is the one thing we never get back. Pastor Ortiz warned against squandering life on nothing, on endless scrolling, games, and shows, and even on “learning about God and doing nothing with it,” sitting in church for years while staying exactly where we started. The bema seat is meant to make us live intentionally, on purpose, with Christ as our life (Colossians 3:4).

The appeal

Pastor Ortiz closed in the old-time style with a poem by F. W. Fisher (1814), which asks whether we loved and served Christ when no one would see and when it cost us, and looks forward to laying our crowns at his wounded feet. His final question to the church: if you stood before Jesus today, how would your judgment seat be? The call was not to throw life away on church activity alone but to live with intention, working and serving so that God is pleased, out of a heart that says “I want to.”