Sermon Central
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A Good Man Wants To Get Into Heaven
Contributed by Martin Spoelstra on Jul 21, 2024 (message contributor)
I was recently at the gym having a conversation with someone I just met. Within a matter of 10 minutes, I realized that this man was a better man than me. He had volunteered in more countries than I could count in 10 minutes of our conversation. He was a teacher, he served the poor in many communities around the world, and he taught in many places all around the world. He had travelled to 126 different countries. He had brushes with fame. And since he retired he has volunteered his time teaching in countries around the world. He told me many stories in that short 10 minutes about how he did these amazing things.
When he found out that I was a minister, he told me that he couldn't imagine that God would not welcome him into heaven because of what he had done. He wasn't trying to be arrogant but because of the experiences that he had around the world, he couldn't imagine that he didn't qualify. There were so many evil people that he had come across in his journey that God should accept him and not them.
I stopped him in his conversation and asked him if he would consider a proposition. I asked him whose standard he was using to qualify him for heaven. Was he using his standard or God's standard?
The man paused briefly and then began to justify his good behaviour.
As I left the conversation I reminded him that God's standard is perfection and none of us qualify. The only way to get to heaven is to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.
There is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation. No behaviour's good enough, no sacrifice is pure enough, and no life is admirable enough to open the gates of heaven. Jesus did it all! He died for our sins and he rose again so that we might have new life. When we get to the heavenly gates the only way the door opens is when we declare with all our hearts that we believe that God loved us enough to send his son Jesus. It's a gift. A gift that has to be received.
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