Go! And Choose Your Eternal Destination Series

Go! And… Choose Your Eternal Destination

Introduction: The Reality of Eternity

Today’s message carries eternal weight. The choices we make in this life determine where we will spend eternity — not just for a season, not for a thousand years, but forever.

We live in a world where many avoid thinking about eternity. Some say, “Hell isn’t real.” Others believe everyone will go to Heaven no matter what. Yet Jesus spoke often about Heaven and Hell because He wanted us to know the truth and respond.

C.S. Lewis once said: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”

Where will you spend eternity? That’s the question we’re wrestling with today.

Let’s read together several passages that paint a vivid, sobering, and yet hope-filled picture:

Matthew 10:28 (NLT): “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Matthew 22:2, 13 (NLT): “The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a king who prepared a great wedding feast for his son… Then the king said to his aides, ‘Bind his hands and feet and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

Psalm 139:7–8 (NLT): “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.”

Revelation 20:10 (NLT): “Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulphur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Revelation 14:10–11 (NLT): “They must drink the wine of God’s anger. It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath. And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb. The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night.”

1. The Certainty of Eternity – You Will Live Forever Somewhere

Matthew 10:28 reminds us to fear God, not man. The Greek word for destroy here is apollymi, meaning “to ruin, to bring to a complete loss.” It’s not annihilation; it’s the ruin of all that makes life worth living.

Jesus spoke these words to His disciples as He sent them out to preach, warning them of persecution.

Our bodies are temporary tents (2 Corinthians 5:1), but our souls are eternal.

Charles Stanley once said: “What you believe about eternity will determine how you live today.”

If we believe eternity is real, we will live with urgency — not for fleeting pleasures, but for eternal treasure.

Imagine you’re packing for a holiday. Would you spend all your money on airport snacks, knowing your dream destination awaits? Yet how often do we invest everything in this life and neglect the life to come?

Ask yourself — Am I living for the temporary or for the eternal?

2. The Reality of Hell – Eternal Separation from God

Jesus often described Hell as outer darkness (Matthew 22:13), a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Revelation 20:10 and 14:10–11 confirm its permanence: torment day and night, forever. The Greek word for “torment” here is basanizo, meaning to test by torture, an ongoing state of conscious suffering.

Romans 1:24 tells us, “So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.” Hell is ultimately the full measure of that abandonment — God allowing people to have what they wanted: life apart from Him.

John Piper said: “Hell is not a place where God is absent; it is a place where His presence is pure wrath, not grace.”

Picture a house where light shines in every room — except one, where the door is shut, the light never enters, and darkness suffocates. Hell is the eternal shutting out of God’s light.

Do you see sin as something that leads to separation from God? Or do you still treat it lightly?

3. The Hope of Heaven – Grace for the Undeserving

Here is the good news: Hell is real, but so is Heaven — and it’s not earned by works.

Ephesians 2:8–9 (NLT): “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”

Greek word for grace: charis — undeserved favour.

2 Corinthians 5:21: “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”