Sermon Central
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You Don't Have To Be Perfect To Get To Heaven, But It Sure Would Be Nice
Contributed by Dean Meadows on Oct 3, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: A salvation message that stresses God’s grace is sufeciant for your salvation
You Don’t Need to be Perfect to get to Heaven, But it sure would be Nice
9/30/02
Have you ever known anyone to say; “Some day when I straiten up, I’m going to make things right with the Lord”? They think that is one of the qualifications of salvation. They feel with the life they are living that they could not live up to the expectations of a Christian Life. They’re several problems with this theory.
First the problem is that it takes the anointing of the Holy Spirit to overcome some of our bad habits. You simple can’t do it on your own. I’ve heard several amazing stories about people who have went through every rehab there was without recovery. They accept Christ and never touch the stuff again or have the desire to touch it. The acceptance of Christ gives us a helpmate to overcome these temptations with the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,”
It is not always the case though. I still struggle from time to time with my temptations of the past.
John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
I am not free from the temptation; I’m free from the dept. My sins have been paid for.
Second, you never know if you ever will have the opportunity to get those things right. Some people start out by saying after I sow my wild oats and have some fun, then I will make things right. Then not being saved they usually settle down and with someone else who is not right with the Lord and they start getting so busy in their life with their career and their families and God takes a back seat. Than as the kids grow up and move on in their own life’s, you become hardened to the fact of hearing about this Christ that you never accept Him because of the hardness of your heart. So you end up not ever accepting Christ, taking yourself and more then likely your family and grandkids to an eternity in hell be cause of your “I’ll just wait attitude”.
Do you know the majority of people who accept Christ are under the age of eighteen? This is why it is so important for us to have strong youth programs. The longer you put off salvation than the more the odds go against you ever accepting Him.
Sometimes opportunity knocks and we don’t answer and we never have another chance to answer again. The truth of the matter is, you don’t know if you will live to see tomorrow or even the lunch you plan on eating after church.
James 4:14, “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is just a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanished away.”
The last problem with the theory is that you can be as good as you want. You can straiten up every bad part of your life and that still isn’t good enough.
Good people die every day and spend an eternity in hell.
The title of my sermon today is, “You don’t have to be perfect to go to Heaven, but it sure would be nice.”
We can’t be and never will perfect. There was only one perfect man who walked this earth and he is here but I don’t see Him setting in any of those pews and it isn’t Mac Davis.
Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was tempted as we are, yet with out sin.”
Several of the Godliest men I know of all fell short of perfect.
Adam probably had a more personal relationship with God than any other man on this earth. He actually walked around in the cool of the evening in the garden having so real one on one conversation with God, and yet he fell to the temptation of disobedience, losing that sweet fellowship.
Remember Noah, God destroyed everyone else on the earth except Noah and his family. Was it that Noah lived a perfect live that brought his and his family’s salvation?
Genesis 6:7-8, “So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”.
What did Noah do with that grace God showed him? He came out and offered a sacrifice then grew a vineyard and got drunk.
Moses the one choose to be used by God to lead the Children of Israel out of their bondage committed murder. Who would have thought God would use a murderer for such a task. Even after seeing all the pledges and the miracles and seeing God make all the provisions for the Children of Israel, Moses sin of unbelief caused him not to enter into the Promised Land.
