Special Thanks

The entire church would like to say a special thanks to brother Jim Laughlin and his son Shane for painting our Family Life Center.  It looks spectacular!

Thank-you-word-cloud

Where Will You Spend Eternity?

Here are the completed notes from the Sunday Morning Worship Service March 6, 2016:

Where Will You Spend Eternity?
You Cannot Afford to be Wrong!

Scripture: Luke 12:15-21
Matthew 10:28 – “Fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”

1. The Established Truth of Heaven and Hell

A. Heaven

  • Heaven is a literal place
  • Scripture testifies to the existence of Heaven
  • Jesus testified to the existence of Heaven

B. Hell

  • Hell is a Literal Place
  • Scripture testifies to the existence of Hell – Revelation 20:15
  • Jesus believed in Hell and warned of its existence – Luke 12:5; Matthew 23:33
  • Jesus died an excruciating death to provide a way of escape for us so we would not have to experience it
  • No amount of denying Hell will change its existence

The Description of Hell

10 Characteristics of Hell

  1. Immediate – Luke 16:22, 23
  2. Torments – Luke 16: 23, 24
  3. No relief – Luke 16:24-26
  4. Thirst – Luke 16:24
  5. Unquenchable fire – Luke 16:24b; Matthew 13:42; Matthew 25:41
  6. Remembrance – Luke 16:25
  7. No escape for all eternity – Luke 16:26; Matthew 25:46; Rev. 19:20; 20:10
  8. Outer Darkness – Matthew 8:12
  9. Weeping and gnashing of teeth – Matthew 8:12
  10. Undiluted wrath of God for eternity – Revelation 14:10, 11

The Proximity of Hell

  • Luke 16:22, 23 – Hell is immediate (Psalm 73:17, 18)
  • The lost walk in slippery place over this burning Hell (Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God – By: Jonathan Edwards)
  • The lost are always exposed to sudden unexpected judgment. As the lost walk in slippery places every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning.

2. How People Will Miss Heaven and End Up in Hell

8 Ways People Will Miss Heaven:

1- Unclear or inaccurate message – Acts 8:30, 31

2- Stay as they are – John 3:16
Dead in trespasses and sins – Ephesians 2:1

3- Ignore preparing for eternity – Luke 12:15-21 (our text)
Facebook Post:

  • Too young to think about God
  • Too self-sufficient to think about God
  • Too much happy to think about God
  • Too busy to thin about God
  • Too tired to think about God
  • Too late to think about God

4- Trust in the wrong object – John 14:6

Self

  • Good deeds
  • Keeping the commandments
  • Baptism
  • Name on a church membership roll
  • Receiving Communion
  • Prayer
  • Christian heritage
  • Religion brought up in

5- Failure to repent – Luke 13:3
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Acts 3:18, 19
18But those things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
19Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

  • People want their sin more than they want a Savior
  • People want a Savior but not a Lord

6- Unbelief – John 3:18

  • Agnostic
  • Atheist
  • Not really given it much thought

7- Sticking to a conversion experience
Sticking to a conversion experience rather than considering what God’s Word clearly says

8- Pride – Proverbs 16:18a
a. Pride led to the fall of Satan – Isaiah 14:12-14 (1Timothy 3:6)
b. Pride was a key ingredient in the fall of man – Genesis 3:6
c. Pride was a choice weapon used of Satan in His attack upon Jesus – Matt. 4:5, 6
d. Pride is a part of the world’s system – 1 John 2:15, 16
e. God hates a “proud look” – Proverbs 6:17
f. Pride shall abound in the last days – 2 Timothy 3:2
g. Keeps people out of Heaven
Proverbs 16:18a – “Pride goeth before destruction”

  • Pride keeps you from seeing yourself as a sinner
  • Seeing yourself as hopeless and helpless without Christ
  • Responding to the invitation and come to Christ

3. The Eternal Life Giving Message of the Gospel

Facebook post: “There’s a whole world of people that need to hear the true gospel and many of them are in the churches.”

Based upon God’s Word, a person can absolutely know for sure if he or she has eternal life and is going to heaven
1 John 5:12, 13
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

  • Gospel means Good News
  • That’s what I want to share with you today – Good News, but first the bad

A. Understand all have sinned – this includes you!
Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”
Because of your sin you are separated from God and facing eternal punishment
Romans 6:23a – “For the wages of sin is death”
Revelation 20:14 – And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

B. Understand that you cannot earn God’s forgiveness by being good
Ephesians 2:8, 9
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

James 2:10
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

C. Eternal life is only through Jesus Christ
Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
John 14:6
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

D. Believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, was buried and that He arose again
John 3:16-18, 36
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

Romans 5:8
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 Corinthians 15:3, 4
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

E. Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
John 1:11, 12 – “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”
Romans 10:9, 10 – “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

F. Right Now, where you are, you can receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior
Romans 10:13
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

  • Are you willing to repent of your sin and pray to receive the Jesus and His work on the cross for your forgiveness?
  • Tell God you believe in His Son Jesus and that you believe He died for you and rose again.
  • Tell God you are willing to turn from your sin and that you are personally receiving His gift of eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you would like some help making it personal, you can pray this prayer, but mean it. You will be talking to God not just reading words. Make this prayer your own:

This is the most important decision you will ever make!
Be sincere, God knows your heart.

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. (Romans 3:23)
I believe Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins, was buried and
arose again. (Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4)
I now turn from my sin and accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. (John 3:16-18)
God, please forgive me and save me. (Romans 10:13)
In Jesus’ name I pray and ask. Amen.

If you have just received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please let us know so we can rejoice with you and get you some information to help you get started right in your new relationship with God!