Predestination I

Sunday morning while it was preaching I made this statement:

Living in Christ makes all the difference now,  at the point of death and beyond. 

Let me say something else today, at this point:  You do not get to jump back and forth!     You cannot move from one to the other!   You cannot lose your salvation!   I cannot tell you how many times I have heard it said to me, “ Well, I tell you preacher, I was up there and then I was down here, but I am back up there!”

That is foolish and that is not how the bible speaks about salvation!   You are either saved or  you are lost  - you are not saved and then lost and saved and then lost! 

God is not a confused God.  He's not a cruel God. What kind of God would want his children to live like that?  The moment you come to that intersection you choose Christ, and you say God here I am, forgive me of my sin, I repent, and I will commit to follow you - you are his! 

When we are born again we cannot become unborn.  That means now we belong to Christ.  If you've never come to that moment or if you said no to him, then you are  in hell...  maybe not yet physically, but spiritually you are separated from God...  and you do not bounce back and forth.

If you are a Christian, one of the things that Jesus came to do was to destroy the power of death!   He came to destroy the fear of death!  {See Hebrews 2}.   You realize that John on the island Patmos saw Jesus holding the keys.   KEYS to what? Death.

I have been in church  enough to know:  The man with the keys is a man in charge.   Jesus has the keys of death, why?  Because he defeated death!  Why is Easter such a big deal?  Because it is the day that we are reminded that death cannot hold those who belong to Christ.

Death has been defeated, grave where is your victory? Death where is your sting?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, we have victory and we do not have to fear death! 

That makes all the difference in the world for us.  And so when you come to the moment of death and you are in Christ you can live through that moment with a sense of peace.

In John 14, Jesus said to his disciples let not your heart be troubled...

Jesus in that moment taught us that- when Jesus shows up, and I believe the moment you close your eyes and death you open them in life to Jesus Christ.    It is amazing to think that the moment I die,  I will be ushered into the presence of God, and it is comforting to know that we are not alone in that valley of the shadow of death.

So for the Christian we are not to fear death, because when you are living in Christ, his presence makes all the difference in the world.  God does not want you to be afraid of death. He wants you to live differently while you are here...

Death for the Christian is like sleep for a child.  Have you ever been on a road trip with your child and your son or daughter falsely for my car?  And while they were sleeping and pick them up and place them in their bed? 

And the next morning they woke up and said, How did we get here?  I thought we were driving in the car?  That's the last thing I remember I fell asleep...  And we look at our children and we say things like yes we were in the car, you fell asleep. And while you were sleeping, I Picked you up and carried you to your bed, then when you woke up you are at home. 

That, I think, is what it is like for a child of God to experience death.  We lay down in death and close our eyes, and Jesus shows up and he picks us up, and he carries us through that valley of the shadow of death brings us to our new home in heaven. 

As a Christian we do not have to fear death!   It is a precious thing for a follower of Jesus!  Psalm 116 says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saint”

 In the eyes of God, it is a precious thing because he is bringing you home to him.   If you're not a Christian when you're down here on earth - death is a fearful thing.  Do you know why?  It is because you don't know what's on the other side. 

If you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and you are only hoping that after you die it will be okay.  You have no, absolutely no assurance.  Want to take time in the stillness of your own heart and life to invite Jesus to make a difference in your life today?