“almost But Lost” Oringinal Written By Jerry Shirley Series

“Almost but lost” Acts 26:28-29

Lori was 14 years old when she was baptized at Blue Springs Community Church, a one-room country church only a few miles from her house. A few months later, Lori dropped out of the church. The pastor and his wife visited her several times, but failed to persuade Lori to return to church. Everyone was concerned for her, but no one suspected the real reason for her absence. Lori was pregnant.

About a month before she was expected to deliver, Lori tidied her room, emptied her school locker, and wrote a note to her mother: “You kept asking me if I was OK and I kept telling you I was, but I wasn’t OK.

I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve got too many problems. I am taking the easy way out.” Lori left that day before her mother arrived home from work. She walked to the railroad tracks near her house, knelt between the rails, and folder hands over her little round belly as Amtrak 168 barreled down upon her. The train engineer, a man who had a fourteen-year-old daughter of his own, later said that when he saw Lori, it was too late to stop the train. He watched her cross herself before she died.

Suicide is not a joke and according to the latest statistics I could find, 117 people in America, commit suicide every single day. [American Association of Suicidology]

Yet every day 1000s of Americans commit, what I call, “Eternal suicide.”

In Acts 26, after Paul delivers one of his most powerful messages, king Agrippa said, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian”. “Paul you got close…just not close enough…”

Will you “ALMOST” become a Christian? Will almost get you to heaven?

If I threw a hand grenade and ALMOST hit the center of the middle section of our sanctuary, there would still be a lot of collateral damage simply because, with a hand grenade, you just need to get close. In the game of horseshoes, the object of the game is to get your horseshoes closer than your opponent, to the post.

See in hand grenades and horseshoes, almost is close enough BUT when it comes to your eternity do you want to gamble with being close enough?

Why would somebody do the right things, and live the right life, only to almost make it into Heaven?

It’s like jumping out of an airplane and saying…”I almost wore a parachute. I thought about it. I closely examined all the evidence and believe that wearing a parachute is a good idea. Then I jumped…”

I have a news flash! You WILL NOT almost hit the ground below! I can pretty much guarantee that if you jump from a perfectly good airplane without a parachute you WILL hit the ground VERY HARD.

My heart breaks every time I hear someone say “I think I’m going to heaven.”

I want you to know that you know you are!

And God’s desire is for you to know that you are saved.

1 John 5:12-13, He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

Either you’ve got it, or you don’t. You are either saved, or you are NOT. There is no ALMOST.

*I don’t want to know that you are a charter member of the church…

*I don’t want to know that you haven’t missed a Sunday in 40 years…

*I don’t want to know that you’ve been baptized 12 times…

*I don’t want to know that you said a few words one Sunday…

*I don’t want to know that you believe Jesus is God’s Son…

*I don’t want to know that you believe Jesus died on a cross…

*I don’t want to know that you believe Jesus rose from the dead…

*I don’t want to know how many years you’ve been teaching that Sunday school class.

*I don’t to know what school you graduated from and what church you’re the pastor of…

*I don’t want to know that you knelt at some altar when you were a kid…

* I WANT TO KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOU BOWED BROKENHEARTED BEFORE THE THRONE OF GRACE, WHERE MERCY FLOWS. I WANT TO KNOW THAT YOU SOUGHT THE FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS AND HAD THE BLOOD OF JESUS APPLIED TO YOUR LIFE AND THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOU KNOW JESUS IS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR…

So why are there people who almost make it to heaven?

1. Many people will hear the truth but never actually receive the truth.