Living For Eternity Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• What do you want out of life? Do you want fast cars, a big bank account, and a vacation home somewhere?

• Is there anything wrong with wanting these things? Not really, unless they over take your life.

• Is our goal to get to heaven when our life is over or are we just sailing through life without giving our eternal destiny a thought?

• Do you want your life to count for something or do you want to get to the end of the line and realize you wasted the life God gave to you?

• Do you realize that when you die the only thing that is over is your physical life?

• Our souls are eternal, one day when this life is over, our soul will go to be in the presence of the Lord in heaven or it will end up in hell for eternity.

• There is a big difference between living and existing. There are many people this very day who are living life and there are many who merely exist.

• The only place to find true life is though Jesus!

• On our journey through 1 John, thus far, we have been examining issues that will help to both develop our faith and grow our relationship with Jesus, for the next couple of weeks as we continue in 1 John, we will examine some things one would be wise to avoid if one desires a strong relationship with Jesus.

• Today we will examine some things one will need to do if they are living for eternity in mind.

• We sometimes speak of living for retirement. One who is living for retirement is planning and preparing for the time they will leave the workforce.

• There will come a day when we will leave this world, so I hope we are living for eternity right now. Let us examine some things that entails.

• We will begin in 1 John 2:12-14

• SLIDE #2

• 1 John 2:12–14 (HCSB) — 12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus’ name. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have had victory over the evil one. 14 I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, God’s word remains in you, and you have had victory over the evil one.

• SLIDE #3

SERMON

Living for eternity means you will…

I. Dance with the one who bought you.

• He bought you to bring you with him!

• I used to go to my school dances, Jr. High dances were pretty traumatic for me, inevitably.

• The girl I “took” to the dance was not the girl I ended up with at the end, it was not because I took anther one, it was because she would find someone else.

• Whenever a girl would go to the bathroom with her friends, I seemed to be out a date.

• The girl forgot that I was the one who paid her ticket to get in. I paid for her to go so she could go with ME!

• Why did Jesus die on the cross for you? Did He sacrifice His life to loss you to another? NO!

• He paid the price for you so He could bring you home to spend eternity with Him. He wants you to life forever with Him, but for that to happen, you need to dance with the one who bought you!

• John is writing this to us to encourage us to remember Jesus.

• As we get into verses 12-14, commentators seek to determine if John is speaking of literal age breaks or is he using figurative language to illustrate the levels of spiritual maturity (child, adolescent, adult) that people go through.

• The later is how I am going to explain the passage.

• John begins by addressing CHILDREN.

• In verse 12 and 13 he uses two different words for “children”. IN verse 12 it appears that John is addressing all who are saved. He uses this word in this way around a dozen times. This word has more of the flavor for one born into a family.

• When we first give our lives to Christ through baptism, we are born again; we are born into the family of God!

• The second word used for “children” in verse 13 deals more with a child who is immature and in need of instruction, these distinctions are a bit blurred at times in the New Testament.