12/18/2023
THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW AND DO IF WE WANT ETERNITY IN HEAVEN
If you want to be saved there are four requirements:
Believe- Jesus is the Son of God and that he died so we could be saved
Confess- Jesus as Lord of your life.
Repent- Turn away from sin and sinful people and things that might make you sin.
Baptism- Die to the old you; be buried; and rise again as a new creation; a member of Christ’s family a new Christian.
You will receive the Holy Spirit to Guide you and help you in every thing you do.
You must listen to the Holy Spirit.
Everything you are scared of doing and that makes you not want to be a Christian; amazingly isn’t scary or hard to do once you make the choice and are baptized. Everything is not perfect and you fall backward sometimes, but that is what is so amazing about God, he will forgive you and you can keep trying. It is the most wonderful journey I’ve ever been on. This is my own testimony.
How to make God smile.
Love the Lord
Trust him completely
Obey him wholeheartedly
Praise him and thank him continually
Use your Abilities for his work
Psalm 147:11
Then it is time to discover your purpose, nothing matters more than knowing Gods purpose for your life, not success, not wealth, fame or pleasure.
Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason.
If you don’t know your purpose, then you end up doing to much; this in turn causes stress, fatigue and conflict.
How would you answer these questions if you were at Heavens gate?
What did you do with my son, Jesus Christ?
I hope to say, “I accepted him, loved him, trusted him, gave thanks to him, and I followed him”.
What did you do with what I gave you?
I hope to say, “I shared, I loved, and I used my abilities for your work Lord”.
The first question determines where you spend eternity.
The second question determines what you do in eternity.
Life on earth is just the tryout before you make the team; the warm-up before the big game. It is unhealthy to live in denial of death and not consider what is inevitable. Earth has many choices; eternity has only two, Heaven or Hell.
God is the vine, we are the branches. We must bare fruit. Sometimes we need to prune the branches (get rid of bad people or things) in order to bare fruit.
Fruit of the spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Goodness, Kindness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self control.
Live each day as if it were your last.
People want to live forever because that is the way God wired us so that we could live forever with him in eternity. (He is the creator, we are the creation and the Bible is the owners manual).
Just imagine what Heaven would be like if he just let any body in. We might as well come back to earth. Back to the fighting, turmoil, hurt and selfishness.
Life on earth is a test; God continually tests our faith, obedience, love, integrity and loyalty.
Character is both developed and revealed by tests. God constantly watches your response to people, problems, success, conflict, illness, disappointment and even the weather. He also watches simple actions such as opening a door for others, picking up a piece of trash, or just being polite to someone.
God tests faith through problems, hope by how we handle possessions, and love through people.
1 Corinthians 4:7
SIMPLE OUTLINE:
BELIEVE John 3:16
John 11:25-26
Mark 5:7
James 2:19
CONFESS Romans 10:9-10
REPENT Matthew 7:21
Matthew 10:32-33
2 Corinthians 3:17-18
BAPTIZED Mark 16:16
Matthew 28:18-20
Romans 6:1-4
At this point you are in Christ’s family; now you have to be careful not to fall away.
Recipe for faithfulness Acts 2:42
