was fifteen and my buddy and I put our pirogues in a little bayou in north Louisiana. Unlike ..... solution was for God
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NKJV: Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. NCV: Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. “Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”
© Copyright 2012 WR Billy Stevens All Rights Reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
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How can I get to Heaven from Here?
Have you ever been lost? I have been lost and knew I was lost. I've been lost and didn't know it too! One day when I was fifteen and my buddy and I put our pirogues in a little bayou in north Louisiana. Unlike those in south Louisiana, this one was filled with lots of logs and hard shallow ground to pull your boat across them. It was duck season and late in the day we decided to try to make it a short distance down the bayou to another bridge – or so we thought. Six hours later, in the middle of the night, long after our flash lights had burned out hours ago, we were deep inside the high banks of this bayou. With every noise on the banks above, we remembered the stories of Sasquatch, the Chupacabra, and the Roux‐ga‐roux! The noises were probably just possums and raccoons, but it didn’t matter. We were severely lost and we knew it! We’d had fun on the way, but now we were just exhausted, frightened frustrated, and tired of fighting. We had set our path and could not find our way out. We were lost. Finally we saw a faint light from the highway and were able to joyfully walk a few miles to a phone! For a long time on that journey, I was having fun and didn’t know I was on a path to being totally lost. My own stubbornness and self‐will got me there. If it hadn’t been for the light we saw, all my self‐will and stubbornness would have never gotten me out. The light helped my good friend and me to have hope and direction to get out of the mess we were in and to the safe place where we needed to be.
Jesus compared a person's life without Him to that of being a lost.
Jesus compared a person's life without God to that of being lost.1 A lost sheep that wandered away from the flock because it wanted to or because it just nibbled itself away from the safety of the shepherd. Eventually it wound up far away from where it was supposed to be, near the shepherd. We are the lost sheep, but Jesus is the good shepherd who searches for his lost sheep and calls them to come to Him. The one who comes to the Shepherd is saved. The Bible uses the word "saved" and it simply means "to be rescued." Jesus is our Savior who saves those who will come to him. He provides salvation to those who want to be rescued. It is just like you searching for your lost dog. You searched high and low, calling his name, and when you found him you held open your arms and called him by name! One of my dogs came to me like that and one of my dog's did not. That is your choice when you hear 1 Luke 15: Jesus tells the story about the value of people and how they are like being lost and worth finding. He describes the value of a person by comparing him to a lost sheep, a lost coin, and then a lost son. Not everyone values the same things as Jesus, but the Father rejoices when someone comes to Him.
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the Master's voice, to either come to him or not. God loves you and has given you a road map to Heaven, the Bible.
God loves you enough to give you a road map to Heaven. "the Holy Scriptures [the Bible] which are able to make you wise. And that wisdom leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." 2 Timothy 3:14–15 (NCV) God's Word, the Bible, also called the Holy Scriptures is able to give you the understanding, the wisdom you need to receive God's salvation. Many famous atheists have attacked the Bible as unrealistic and unreliable, but when they investigated the claims of the Bible and studied it, they became devoted followers of Jesus. From Augustine, C.S. Lewis, to Lee Strobel, atheists who struggled with the existence of God were compelled to believe in Jesus by the sincere truth of God's Word. Not only has He given you a road map, He has also given you a Personal Guide.
God loves you enough to give you a Personal Guide.
Jesus said that He "came to find lost people and save them.”" Luke 19:10 (NCV)
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." John 10:27– 28 (ESV)
"Jesus answered, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me." John 14:6 (NCV)
Sometimes we need more than a map. Sometimes we need someone with us in the vehicle to ride with us there and show us the way or to actually take us there. Jesus is your way to the Father. He is the way to eternal life, salvation, and Heaven. He was sent on a mission to make a clear path for us to get to Heaven and to help us to get there personally. Jesus is God the Son, fully God, existing from eternity past. He stepped out of Heaven to reveal the Father's character to us, the Father's ways, and to make a way for us to be with Him in His Kingdom. Let’s see what the road map says about how to make sure we are not lost like a ball in the tall grass!
God loves you so much that He wants you to know for certain that you have Eternal Life.
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." 1 John 5:13 (ESV) 3
Just what is Eternal Life? Many people believe in Heaven and Hell, but they really don't know for certain where they are going. God loves you so much that He wants you to know for certain. Eternal life is a big word that is rich in meaning. Eternal life means going to Heaven to be with God forever when you die, but it also has a reality for here and now. Eternal Life is not just Heaven when you die, but also a Heavenly kind of life here and now. When you receive eternal life you are immediately forgiven for all of your sins, adopted into God's family, approved and accepted by God, you are given power to overcome sin, and your life is filled with peace, love, and joy. God brings you into this amazing personal relationship with Him. The Bible also calls receiving eternal life as being saved or receiving salvation, because Jesus was sent to rescue/save us from our sins. We all have a problem.
We are like the Lost Sheep
Isaiah 53:6 (NLT) "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all." We have a problem of leaving the Shepherd of our souls and going about doing life our own way. The Bible calls this SIN. Rejection and rebellion from God and his ways is called sin. The Bible says everyone is a sinner and "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away." The Bible says "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23 (ESV) We deserve death in a real place called Hell because of our sin. "For the wages of sin is death," Romans 6:23a.
Everyone deserves death in Hell because of their sin.
Romans 6:23 (ESV) "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." All people deserve death in Hell for eternity, but God sent Jesus to be our Savior. He sent Jesus to make a way for us to have eternal life, Heaven, forgiveness here and now, and a personal relationship with God. You cannot have a personal relationship with a religion or rituals, but only a living person. Eternal life is found not in any particular church, but in a personal relationship with Jesus.” That is why this verse says eternal life is "in Christ Jesus" and not a church. Eternal life is a free gift to you from God. You only have two choices with a gift! Take it or leave it. Today, God is offering you this free gift! God is a loving God who doesn't want anyone to go to perish in Hell. "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that
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all should reach repentance." 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV) The word perish is used to describe a horrible death and to be lost forever, and that is Hell. The problem is sin. This verse says it only takes one "sin" not many "sins" to send a person to Hell. It is no particular sin. Today many people like to excuse their sins by saying sarcastically, "No one is perfect." The problem is that God only allows perfect people into His Heaven. Yes, they are right, no one is perfect. Sin is the biggest problem on the planet.
Sin contaminates and pollutes you. My children asked me one day to explain to them what sin was. I said let's take a picture of crystal clear pure filtered water. Take one drop of water from the potty (toilet) and put into that pure water. Now let me pour you a drink from that. They all said in unison at the top of their lungs… "NOOOOOO!!! Eewwwwww! Yuuucccckkkk! We would never drink that!" And I said "Why?" They said, "It has potty water in it." But I pleaded, "But it's just one drop!" They said "NOOO! It is Nasty!" It is the same way with our sin. Sin has polluted our entire lives. Sin has contaminated your thoughts, your feelings, your speech, and your actions. It has polluted our entire lives. God does not allow the pollution of sin into His Heaven. He is pure and holy and there is nothing impure in God whatsoever. No human is immune from this pollution. No one can remove the pollution from their lives. How does a person become polluted with sin? They rebel against God, reject His rule over their life, and seek to be the boss of their own life. In doing do a person pollutes his life totally. Sin deserves death in Hell, separation from God for eternity.
Your sin has separated you from God.
Isaiah 59:2 (NLT) "It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore." People try all kinds of ways to overcome their separation from God and their sin problem. Education, intellectualism, philosophy, religion, rituals, being a good person, and all kinds of self‐effort cannot remove the separation and fix the problem of sin. Even religion and rituals cannot fix the separation and the personal problem of sin.
Sin is breaking God's laws.
Have you ever broken one of the 10 Commandments? You shall not worship any other gods. You shall not have any idols. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother. 5
You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet.
Q. Have you ever lied? No matter how big or how small? If your answer was “yes” then you have broken one ‐ that makes you a liar. Q. Have you ever taken something that was not yours, no matter how big or small? If your answer was “yes” then you have broken another commandment and you have admitted you are a thief. Q. Have you ever lusted after another person? The Ten Commandments say you are not to commit adultery, but Jesus said even if you lust after another in your heart then you have already committed adultery in your heart. If you answer was “yes” then by your own admission you are an adulterer in your heart. If you were to stand before God today and He were to judge you based on His Laws, would He let you in? No one would be let in, if it were based on keeping His laws perfectly! There is nothing wrong with God's Laws. God's laws are perfect and reflect God who is pure and Holy, a God who does not think like a human. The problem is with us. However, the laws of God are not capable of helping us to receive forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Religious rules only point out how bad we are and condemn us. They are not capable of helping us overcome our problem with sin, they just stand there pointing at us. The laws of God stand in judgment against us, condemning us because of our sin. They cannot save us, rescue us from our sins. People need to be rescued, saved from their sins! When God rescues you He gives you eternal life! Keeping the religious rules and rituals cannot remove the separation that sin has caused, because rules and rituals cannot remove the stain and contamination of sin. Notice what the Bible says about the efforts of people to obtain God's salvation, Heaven, and eternal life.
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Personal Goodness and Good Works will NOT get you Eternal Life!
Ephesians 2:8–9 "For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." People cannot get eternal life (saved, receive salvation) by being a good person. The Bible says that it is "not of yourselves." You cannot be or become a good enough person on your own for God to just let you in because of who you are. The problem is, "you," a severely imperfect sinner. Only the proud and arrogant believe God should allow them into Heaven because they are good people. People cannot get to Heaven through good works. The Bible says, "not of works" because if you could do enough good deeds and good works to earn your way to Heaven, then Jesus did not need to die, and you could brag about how good you are, and you could demand for God to let you into His Heaven. The problem is still the same, you are an imperfect sinner and in your own strength and ability, you have no hope of salvation. Why do you do good works? Are you trying to earn God's approval? Are you trying to make sure you have more good things than bad things? God will not look at you and say, "Wow! I have to let that one in because of all the good things this person has done!" Why not? Because you would be able to brag about how good of a person you are and demand God let you in because of all the good things you have done. There is no pride in Heaven and there is no place for those who brag and boast about how good they are personally.
So how is a person saved?
A person is saved by the Grace of God. "For by grace you are saved through faith," (Ephesians 2:8.) Justice is getting what we deserve. If you break the law and justice is served, you get the full extent of the punishment. Justice would be served if you were sentenced to hell for eternity for your sins. Mercy is not getting all of the punishment we deserve. If you break the law and you get half of the penalty that you deserve, then the judge was merciful to you. Grace is not mercy and not justice, but God's loving favor toward you that you could never deserve, earn, or payback.
Saved by Grace! Grace is…
Grace is God's loving favor toward you that you could never deserve. Grace is God's loving favor toward you in spite of who you are and what you have done. Grace is God stepping out of Heaven Himself and taking all the punishment you deserve for your sins. Grace is God making a way for rebellious people to be reconciled to Him. Grace is God forgiving you completely of all your sins and making you perfectly righteous in His eyes as if you had never sinned. 7
Grace is God giving you the power to overcome any sin in your life. Grace is God showing His love for you by sacrificing His only Son, Jesus, upon a cruel horrible cross for a sinner such as you. Grace is Jesus going willingly to the cross to bear the horrific punishment for your sins. Sin is the most serious problem on this earth. It is so serious that the only solution was for God the Father to sacrifice His only Son to fix it.
Saved through Faith! Many people are trusting in the wrong things for their salvation. They are trusting in their own personal goodness, their own good works, or maybe the goodness of their family members. They are trusting in things that are totally contrary to what the Bible teaches. But unfortunately many churches teach things that are clearly contrary to the Bible. The Bible clearly teaches that salvation (eternal life) is received by faith alone in Jesus's sacrifice on the cross for your sins. "For by grace you are saved through faith, (Ephesians 2:8). "whoever believes (has faith) in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16b
Too many people believe wrong things about God. God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn you! He sent Jesus to rescue you!
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." John 3:16–17 (ESV) God loves you and wants you to have eternal life. It is only by trusting (faith) in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross as you only hope for salvation. God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus to make a way for you to be rescued from your sins.
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What you need to do to receive Eternal Life. Romans 10:9–13 (ESV) "If you confess with your mouth that "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”… 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”"
First you must confess Jesus as Lord of your life. Have you confessed Jesus as Lord of your life? This means that you are rejecting your ways and choosing Jesus' way. It means you are rejecting you being the boss of your life and you are submitting to Jesus as the eternal boss/Lord of your life. It is a statement to God that you have been living your own way without Him and you are rejecting a life centered around and controlled by you. And you now want Jesus to be the center of your life and to control it for His glory and His will. The Bible uses a term called "repentance" and this is what you are doing. You are turning completely away from sin, selfishness, and you being in charge of your life. You are turning to Jesus's ways and Him being in charge of your life. Have you turned totally from you ways and surrendered to Jesus as the Lord of your life?
Second, you must trust in Jesus' death as your only hope of salvation.
v9 says " and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Jesus made the only perfect sacrifice for your sins on that single day in history, when he took the punishment the entire world deserved, all upon himself. This was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit's plan even before the world began. Jesus knew what He was going to earth to do and none of this took him by surprise. Jesus took your place of punishment. Jesus received the full anger of God the Father toward all your sins, fully upon himself, so you could have the opportunity to experience personally the Love of God, not the Justice of God. How do you know Jesus' death was sufficient to wash away all your sins? How do you know that you don't have to do your own sacrifices and good works to wash away your sins? How do you know that God the Father fully approved of Jesus' sacrifice as the only sacrifice necessary for your sins? After Jesus died that day, they took him off the cross, buried him in a tomb, and an event happened that changed the entire direction of world history, the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. The resurrection of Jesus, is God the Father's stamp of approval upon Jesus and His atoning perfect sacrifice for your sins and the entire world's sins. Do you believe this? That's good. But have you placed your faith in His sacrifice as your only hope of salvation? 9
Third, Call out to Jesus! "If you confess with your mouth that "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. … For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”" All you have to do to receive Eternal Life today, God's great salvation, is to call out to Jesus in faith, trusting in his death on the cross as the sacrifice for your sins, and surrender to Him as Lord of your life. God will accept you immediately, forgive you, give you Eternal life, declare you righteous as if you had never sinned, receive you into His family, grant you His great salvation, fill you with his love, joy, and peace, and secure your place in Heaven with Him. All this happens immediately! This is based on you placing your faith in Jesus' sacrifice and not based on your performance. Your salvation is based on Jesus' performance on the cross, not your performance of good works and being a good person. You are saved by grace through faith alone in Jesus' sacrificial atoning death on the cross. What you have heard from this lesson today, may be totally opposite of what you have been taught about the way to Heaven. You are not alone, there are many who have been taught opposite of what the Bible teaches. No one would blame you today if you took time to think about this. But don't take too long, the alternative to Eternal Life is eternal death in hell forever without any chance of getting out. You don't want the justice of God, you want the grace of God!
You can receive this salvation today. And you will never be ashamed of choosing to follow Jesus!
Call out to God in prayer now.
Either out loud or pray silently to him. He is God, he knows. Tell Jesus you are sinner. Ask Him to forgive you of all your sins. Tell Jesus that you want him to be the Lord of your life, the boss of your life. Tell him that you don't want your sinful ways anymore, that you want to follow His ways. Put your faith in Jesus' death as your only salvation. Tell Jesus that you are trusting in his death as your salvation. Ask Him to save you, to give you Eternal Life. Thank God for saving you and giving you Eternal Life! Amen! 10
Welcome to the Family of God!
The Bible says that if you truly repented of your sin, surrendered to Jesus as Lord of your life, and placed your full trust in his sacrifice for your sins, then you have become a child of God! The Bible says that God is rejoicing in Heaven because you turned to follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
How do you know for certain that you are a child of God now?
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." 1 John 5:13 (ESV) First, ask God to help you know for certain whether or not you have become a child of His. God will let you know personally inside your life. There will not be a doubt! "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God," Romans 8:16 (NKJV) Second, has your life changed? "Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) Sometimes a person prays to receive Christ and they surrender 95% of their lives, and keep a little closet for themselves. I shared the Gospel with one lady and she prayed to receive Christ, but two weeks later I saw her again and nothing had changed in her life. I asked her if she had truly surrendered 100% of her heart and life to Christ, or she really kept a little corner of it for herself. She began to weep. She said she had kept an adulterous relationship off the table with her prayer for salvation. She had refused to give it up but she wanted Jesus and eternal life too. It just doesn't work that way. Jesus gave his all for your salvation. If you want to receive eternal life, you have to surrender your entire life to Jesus as Lord of your life and boss over every area, 100%. If there is no change, maybe you didn't truly surrender 100% of your heart and life to the Lordship of Jesus. 11
Third, read the Bible. God put an entire book in his Bible just for you to be able to answer this question. He loves you so much that he wants you to be certain that you have eternal life. The little book of 1 John (only five chapters) has the primary purpose of helping you to have full assurance that you have Eternal Life and are in God's family. Read 1 John (near the back of the Bible). There are about five different tests in this book that describe a person who has eternal life and a person who does not have eternal life. If you have doubts, then simply ask God to help you have the assurance he wants you to have and begin to read this little book of the Bible thoroughly. Circle the verses that describe someone who has eternal life and underline the ones that describe the person who does not. God will show you about your relationship to Him. Read it in the NLT (New Living Translation) or the ESV (English Standard Version) for easier to understand translations. God will help you know for certain that you are now a child of His and that you have Eternal Life and are going to Heaven when you die! The Bible describes that God's Holy Spirit will let you know that you are one of His children in Romans 8:16
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What do you need to do now?
Read the Bible every day.
Begin in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and then the book of Romans. Read these books over and over and over again. Pray as you read and ask God to help you understand his Word.
Talk to God every day. Praying is simply talking to God about everything going on in your life. He wants you to tell him what is happening and all your concerns and needs. He is your loving Heavenly Father. He also wants you to listen to him. Communication is more than one way, it is two way and he wants you to hear his voice and follow him.
Attend church regularly! You need to be in a church that teaches the Bible and these truths from the Bible. You need Jesus friends. You have friends from every area and stage of life. You need friends who are followers of Jesus to help encourage you! Find a Bible study group to belong to and learn what the Bible teaches.
Go and tell others how Jesus changed your life! Tell others about the love of God in your life and how he can change their lives and fill it with his love.
Rejoice that you have been found by the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ! You will never be kicked out of God's family. You are fully accepted and approved by God. Thank Him that His work on the cross is all you need to be accepted, approved, and forgiven by God!
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