How to Be Certain You're Going to Heaven

what happens after I die everybody wants to know the answer to that question now the Bible tells us that everything you see is temporary and what you don't see is what's going to last the Eternal realities are things you don't see the things you see right now are all temporary if they're material or they're physical they're not going to last your body is not going to last that's obvious uh your this building is not going to last the the the trees and even mountains erode everything that's material Fades away but the things that are going

to last are things we can't see we can't see God we can't see the angels we can't see the God's holy spirit we can't see Heaven the Bible says those things are going to last forever 2 Corinthians 4:16 says this uh our bodies are gradually decaying and becoming weaker uh anybody want to give a testimony on that yeah okay our bodies are gradually decaying and becoming weaker but our Spirits inside of us are growing stronger each day now these little troubles that we Face here on Earth are getting us ready for an eternal glory that

will make all of our troubles seem like nothing now listen to this the things that are seen don't last forever but the things that are not seen are Eternal and that's why we keep our minds on the things that we can't cannot see now our bodies are like tents that we live in here on Earth some of us have big tents uh but when these tents are destroyed God will give us each a new place to live and our new bodies and our homes are in heaven and they will last forever now these physical tents

that we now live in right now are heavy burdens and we Gran not just because we want to leave these bodies that are going to die but because because we want to exchange them for bodies that will never die God is the one who makes all of this possible and he has given us his Spirit to make certain that he will do it so always be cheerful now as long as we are in these Earthly bodies we are away from the Lord so we live by faith not by what we see I can't see God

I can't see Heaven I can't see angels I can't see all the the spiritual reality so he says we live by faith not by what we see now we'd rather leave these bodies and be at home with the Lord in other words in heaven but whether we're with the Lord or whether we're away from him we still try our best to please him after all Christ will judge each of us for the good or the bad that we do while living in these bodies now the point that Paul is making here in 2 Corinthians is

that spiritual realities are more real Than Physical realities uh that these are the things are going to last forever and we need to focus on those things 1 Corinthians 1312 and the Amplified says this in fact let's read it aloud together right now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim reflection of reality but one day we shall see reality face to face you were made to last forever you were made to last forever one day your heart's going to stop and that's going to be the end of your body but it's

certainly not going to be the end of you the Bible says that you and I as human beings were created in the image of God which means God put in US eternity in fact the Bible says this in Ecclesiastes 3:11 he has planted eternity in the human heart and that's why no matter how good things are on this planet there's still a longing in you and at some point in your life you go there's got to be more than this and the truth is there is more much much more Heaven you're going to spend far

more time on the other side of death than on this side on this side you get 60 800 years on the other side of death you get trillions and trillions and trillions and trillions of years this is the warm-up back the preschool the first lap around the race but the real life is going to go on in eternity and the Bible says that this side is getting ready for that side life is preparation for eternity you were made to last forever and he put eternity in your heart God has prepared two Eternal places heaven and

hell heaven is real and hell is real and they're by the way not just states of being they're not just some kind of amorphous nobody float in the clouds wonder where it is they are literal places [Music] Jesus said this in John 142 and3 I'm going to prepare a place for you now notice Heaven's not an accident it is a prepared place and he says I'm going to prepare a place for you now first notice it's a place it's not a state of being it is an actual place I'm going to prepare a place and

who is heaven prepared for it says what for you God is preparing it for us to be a part of his family and he says and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where you may be also he says I where I'm going I want you to go to and Heaven is the presence of God but it is a place Matthew 25:34 Jesus says this come you who are blessed by my father take your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of

the world notice that when God created the world world he was also creating Heaven God has been preparing Heaven since the beginning of the world says from the creation of the world from the foundation of the world why because this is not your permanent resting spot this is not your permanent Abode I'm grateful that we don't live forever on this planet why this planet's broken because of sin and suffering and sorrow and sickness and evil nothing works on this planet there's nothing perfect on this planet except the word of God no relationship is perfect no

job is perfect no body works perfectly everything's broken on the planet because of sin so I'm glad we don't have to stay on a broken Planet we're going to go to a place of perfection and he said we're going to spend eternity there that heaven is a real place but hell is also a real place and notice here on on the scripture here's what the Bible says Jesus said then he that's God will say to those on his left depart from me you who are cursed into the Eternal fire prepared for read it with me

the devil and his angels now the Satan's angels are called demons they Satan rebelled against God and so God created a place now notice that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels it wasn't originally intended for human beings did you get that he said I'm going to prepare a place for you it's called heaven but he said hell was prepared for the devil and his angels now if I choose to rebel against God just like Satan did and I choose to reject God and I choose to say I'm going to be my own

God I'm going to do what I want to do be what I want to be say what I want to say then if I Rebel like Satan I go where Satan goes but it's not originally planned for human beings it was planned as a punishment for Satan and his angels so there is a real heaven and there is a real heal you get to choose where you'll spend eternity you get to choose where you will spend eternity it's your choice now this is the same kind of choice that God gave to Israel uh in the

Old Testament back in the book of Deuteronomy uh God says this to the people of Israel he says today I'm giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse now you'll be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God or you'll receive a curse if you reject me you you Rebel against me you say I'm going to be my own God and you reject me and my commands let me show you another verse in Deuteronomy 30: 15 and 19 it says this see I have set before you today life and good

or death and evil he says here's the choice you can choose between doing good and life or you can choose between doing evil and death he says if you obey my Commandments by loving the Lord your God see that's the most most important commandment the most important commandment is that you learn to love God with your heart and soul and mind and strength and by walking in his ways he said if you do that then he says you'll live and you'll multiply and I will bless you but he says if your heart turns away from

me to worship other things now why would anybody worship other things besides God cuz we want to you can worship a lot you can worship your car you can worship your career you can worship status or sex you can worship your salary you can worship possessions or position or power or Prestige or popularity you can worship yourself everybody has a god even atheists have a god it may be themselves but in you there is a inbuilt wired desire to worship and if you don't worship the true God you're going to choose something else and a

false god is called an Idol and God says you don't have any other thing before me anything you put before God in your life you worship if you put your career before God if you put making money before God if you put uh having fun before God anything you put before God becomes your God in your life and you worship it and he says if your heart turns away from me to worship other things and to serve them he said then you will perish there therefore he says choose life you get a choice choose life

that you may live I hear people all the time say well how could a loving God send people to Hell God doesn't send people to hell you choose to go there it's like there are two doors in eternity and one goes to heaven one goes to hell and the one that goes to heaven says you come to Jesus this are the this is the house rule he's already paid for your ticket into heaven he's already forgiven you all you got to do is accept it you just accept what he's done for you it's a free

gift of Grace you go to heaven you want to go to hell you just do your own thing you say I'm going to be my own God I'm going to do what I want to do I'm going to be my own God I don't want God make I don't want anybody telling me what's right or wrong I don't want to tell anybody tell me what to do I want to run my own life now if I choose to walk out this door I certainly can't blame God he's done everything possible for you to go to

heaven he's already paid for it all he's made it so easy you just have to accept it by faith and if I say thank you no I'd rather stick with what I love more then that's not God's fault that's my fault it is a choice does God have a right question does God have a right to make house rules for his house well yeah it's his house and in heaven he has a right to say you want to come to Heaven here's how you get here how do you get here not by earning it not

by working for it not by being good but simply by accepting the grace that his son did for you by dying on the cross for you and if I reject his condition for entering Heaven he's not being unloving I'm just being dumb he's not being callous I'm just being illogical and can anybody blame me can anybody blame God if I choose a I'm going to go my way out this door into eternity no it's my choice now there's no second chance after you die you get to choose where you're going to spend eternity but you

have to choose now while you're alive not after you're dead in other words I can't walk out this door my way and then say oh oh by the way I don't like this I want to go back over here now God says I gave you an I gave you an entire lifetime to make the right decision and you didn't take it you kept putting it off putting it off putting it off I gave you entire lifetime so there is no halfway house between Heaven and Hell there's no little intermediate State there's no limbo there's no

Purgatory the moment you die you either go straight to heaven or you go straight to hell and it's a choice here on Earth and God has done everything to make sure you get into heaven is there a way for me to absolutely know for certain I'm going to heaven here's the good news yep you can absolutely confidently know that you're going to heaven the Bible tells us how to do it now notice the next verse how do I settle my destiny John says this in 1 John 5:13 I write this to you who believe in

the name of the son of God that's the door Jesus I'm writing to you who believe in the name of the son of God so that you may know not guess not Wonder not hope that you may know with settled and absolute knowledge that you already have life yes eternal life God says I don't want you guessing if you go out to the mall today and you you ask somebody hey where are you going when you die they're going to say well I hope I'm going to heaven friends Hope's not enough it's too important it's

too important to to to not know for certain you see only a fool would go all through life unprepared for what we know is inevitable death do you know a recent statistic this is amazing the recent statistic shows that the mortality rate in the world is 100% you're going to die so am I someday I don't know when hope it's a long time from now but uh you're going to die and uh only a fool would go all the way way through life going yeah I know I need to decide this but I'll put it

off I'll put it off I'll put it off I'll put it off friend you don't know if you're going to drop dead tomorrow I could walk out of here and have a heart attack in the next hour before the evening Services I'm not guaranteed next week next month next year much less next hour why would you put off something you know is inevitable and could come at any time you need to settle this today and when we finish today we're going to pray a prayer that I want everybody to pray so that everybody here knows

for sure you're going to heaven because God has paid for everything possible for your ticket it's already been paid for by Jesus Christ so he says I want you to trust me and I want you to know that you can know absolutely certain you have eternal life so how do I settle it well your ticket to Heaven is in Jesus Christ look on the back of your outline 1 John 5 11 and 12 let's read it aloud together God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son he who has the son

has life and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life that's about as clear as you can get now friends this is why Christmas and Easter are so important if Jesus hadn't come at Christmas and he hadn't died on the cross and then come back to life 3 days later lat on Easter we wouldn't be having this discussion we would all be hopeless there would be no hope for us Heaven's perfect and we're not but God came up with a plan and as a plan that somebody would die for all

my sins and all your sins and he would do it himself so that we by his grace could go to heaven and that's why Christmas and Easter are so important look at this next verse the cross is the answer to our problem it says in Colossians 1:22 to 20 21-22 at one time you were separated from God and you were his enemies in your minds and the evil things you did were against God in other words God I'm going to run my life nobody has a right to tell me what's right or wrong nobody has

a right to tell me what to do I'm going to make my own choices he says you you know you rebell just like Satan did but now God has made you his friends again and he did this through Christ's death in the body when he died on the cross so that he might bring you into God's presence what's God's presence heaven and when he brings you in how are you going to be it says as people who are holy with no wrong and with of which God can nothing of which God can judge you he

said I'm going to wipe the Slate clean this is the etos sketch verse of the Bible you you make all the mess you turn it upside down you shake it and it comes out clean and pure again he says that's what I'm going to do in your life life now the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life and where is that verse found John 3:16 chapter 3:1 16 now this

is the verse that you see the guy with colored hair standing in the end zone holding up at all the ball games John 3:16 it's the most important verse in the Bible if you only get one verse you want to get this one cuz this one is your ticket to heaven now notice I've underlined six words God's only son perish eternal life and the first letter of that g o p l that's the gospel and what is Gospel gospel is the Old English word for good news that's all it means the gospel is good news

when you hear about gospel music that means music that's about what Jesus did for us when you hear about gospel preaching it means somebody's teaching what Jesus Christ did for us that God's only son came and gave his life for us so that we would not perish but have everlasting life let me summarize what that verse teaches in four words A B C D and again listen as if your life depends on it because it does this is how you walk through the door named Jesus to get into heaven AB b c d a is

admit the first thing I do is I admit I need a savior to get to heaven now that means I admit I'm not perfect Heaven's perfect and I'm not I admit I've blown it I've made mistakes I'm flawed I've sinned and we just admit it we own up to it now this is the hard one for some guys why because of Pride so there's one thing that'll keep you out of Heaven your ego your pride your unwillingness to say I need God in my life because people say well I'm a self-made man I've noticed that

a self-made man tends to worship His maker that's deep you guys that's really deep and in order for you to get to heaven you have to humble yourself you have to admit God is God and I'm not and I need need a savior I can't earn my way to heaven I can't pay my way to heaven I can't be good enough to get to heaven I need a savior now believe me if you didn't need a savior God wouldn't have wasted the time sending Jesus to die on the cross if there was any other way

for you to get to heaven don't you think he would have done a less painful way than come himself and die on the cross for you there was no other way for you to get into heaven and so first I admit that I need a savior second the B is I believe that Jesus died for me I believe that Jesus died for me and believe means more than head knowledge it means I trust in I rely on I I surrender to I I commit myself to it's more than head knowledge Romans 10:9 says this if

you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead that's what Easter's all about you will be saved now what does it mean to confess to your mouth Jesus is Lord I mean we don't have Lords and Ladies today we don't have kings and queens and vassals and counts we don't have a feudal system we're a democracy so what does it mean Jesus is Lord Lord is just the Old English word for Boss Master the guy in control it means to say Jesus you're the

chairman of the board of my life Jesus you're the CEO you're the boss you call the shots I'm putting on a sign over me that says Under New Management that's what it means to make Jesus the Lord of your life say you're I'm under new manager I'm no longer calling the shots in my life Jesus Christ you are the manager the Lord of my life so I admit I need a savior to get to heaven I believe that Jesus died for me I confess him as Lord and see I commit myself completely to him I

commit commit myself completely and say Lord I want to do your plan for my life I want to do the purpose you put me here on Earth to do not my purpose I'm going to go not my way anymore I'm going to go Jesus way I'm going to go God's way I'm going to go the way that God created me to go and I commit myself to you now that commitment you need to do it publicly you need to make a public commitment to Jesus Christ I mean how about if I said to my wife

honey I'm committed to you so let's get married uh but let's don't tell anybody about it what kind of commitment would that be she goes hey Buster Are you ashamed of me you won't tell anybody about me if you won't tell anybody about me then you're not really committed to me a private commitment is no commitment at all you got to make it public so I stood up one day in public and I said I do in front of a bunch people and I wear a ring everywhere I go and this says ladies don't even

think about it and I'm sure so many ladies do think about it uh what fantasy world am I living in you know but the point is I wear this cuz I'm proud of my wife and I love her and I am committed to my wife till death do us part now what is the wedding ring of the Christian Life well there are two ways baptism and joining a church now being baptized joining a church doesn't make you a Believer it shows shows that you are it's a wedding ring this ring doesn't make me uh married

it just shows that I am Jesus said this look up here on the screen he said if anyone acknowledges me publicly here on Earth I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father which is in heaven but if anyone denies me here on Earth I will deny that person before my Father in Heaven Are you ashamed of Jesus Christ does anybody know you're a Believer does anybody know you stepped across the line have you been baptized if you haven't been baptized what are you waiting on and this is a way of doing it it's a

way of making it public Jesus said if you're ashamed of me then I'll be ashamed of you in heaven but he said if you stand up in front of me publicly I'll stand up for you in heaven another way you can stand up publicly is join a church now friends it doesn't matter which church you join as long as it's a good Bible teaching Church what does joining a church mean to saying I'm not ashamed to say I'm a part of the body of Christ one day you're going to stand before God you're going to

stand before Jesus Christ your savior who died on the cross for you and there'll be nail prints in his hands and he's going to say now what did you do with your life he's not going to be interested in hearing well you know I joined the country club yeah well I joined the PTA uh yeah well I I joined a sewing group yeah well I joined uh I joined save the whales yeah I I joined any other s social or service organization he's going to say did you join my family did you join the body

of Christ my body did you join my church which I died for wait a minute you joined everything else and you didn't join my body my family that I'm going to take with me forever what were you thinking I admit I believe I commit my public expression of that commitment as baptism and and being a part of church that doesn't save you it just shows that you are it's it's the not the root it's the fruit and then D I depend on God's promise I depend on God's promise and when I depend on God's promise

what is the promise that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life now in order to remember that promise God gave us two symbols baptism and communion and he said I want you to remember this what I've done for you what it cost for me to get you into heaven you couldn't get to heaven on your own so I came to Earth and died on the cross and if you'll put your trust in me you walk out through this door named Jesus immediately into the presence of God into heaven you think about

the greatest things we've ever done here on Earth and you think about a billion times better than net and that's what heaven's going to be let's bow our heads if you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ you do this this moment I'm going to lead you in a prayer and I'm going to ask everyone here to pray it in their heart let's just say this dear God you are God and I'm not and I admit it and I'm humbling myself and I'm letting go of my pride and I'm saying I realize I admit that

I need a savior to get into heaven I know that I could never be good enough I know that I've done wrong I'm flawed I've sinned and I need a savior to get me into heaven thank you God that you so loved the world that you gave your son Jesus for me that if I would believe in you I could receive eternal life so Jesus Christ I believe that you died for me and today I commit myself to you I want to change I want to repent I want to I want to be what you

want me to be not what I want to be and I commit myself completely to you to follow you to trust you to serve you to know you to love you and I'm going to depend on your promise that you've said whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life I want that Assurance so that there's no doubt in my mind that I've committed myself to you and I've trusted you for my salvation thank you for dying and for loving me I pray this in your name Jesus amen