First Baptist Church
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Celebrating

Do You Want to Know Jesus

In your personal understanding, what does it take for a person to go to Heaven?  How you answer this single question is the most important thing that you'll ever do in this life.

The Bible answers this question!  It's a matter of faith!

F is for FORGIVENESS - Everyone needs God's forgiveness in order to go to Heaven.  Would you be willing to admit that you've had at least three ugly thoughts every day?  Greedy thoughts?  Selfish thoughts?  Lustful thoughts?  Hateful thoughts?  Most of us have more than three ugly thoughts every day.  That's more than 1,000 ugly thoughts in a year.  Multiply 1,000 by the number of years that you've lived and you'll see that your need for forgiveness is enormous!

A is for AVAILABLE - The good news is that God's forgiveness is AVAILABLE.  But His forgiveness isn't AUTOMATIC.

I is for IMPOSSIBLE - It's impossible because of God's pure, perfect nature for ANY sin to be in Heaven.  Uh oh.  Now we've got a dilema!  I have thousands of sins in my live but can't get to Heaven because of them.  So what am I going to do?

T is for TURN - If you were travelling north on US 31 from The Allsteak Restaurant and remembered that you had left something at your table, what would you do?  You would make a complete turn and go back to The Allsteak.  To get to Heaven, you must turn away from something and turn to someone.  You have to turn from trying to get to Heaven on your own and turn to Jesus.  Jesus did something for you that you can't do for yourself. 

H is for HEAVEN - When you turn away from trying to do things your way and accept what Jesus already did for you, Heaven is provided on earth and for eternity.  On earth in that you receive a life of purpose, peace, and joy; for eternity because Jesus will live with you there for the rest of all time.

How can you do this?  Pray to Jesus right now.  Admit to Him how hateful you've been.  Ask Him to come into your life and give you strength to turn away from your old habits.  Thank Him for what He did on the cross for you.  Then tell someone about the most important decision you ever made!