Our Instruction Manual To Eternal Life

Our Instruction Manual to Eternal Life

July 16, 2000

As we start this mornings sermon we are not going to have just one main text but we are going to read several scriptures and talk about all of them as we go.

I know that you have all heard me use a lot of these scriptures and we will be using them a lot more.

To start with I want to read Matthew 6:33

33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

This is the first thing that God wants us as His people to do, First we need to seek out Gods kingdom and become born again and then all of the other things of life will have a fuller meaning.

If you put God first, He will put you first!

How do we do this?

Romans 10:9-11

9 For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who believes in him will not be disappointed.”

So what the scripture is telling us to do is to tell Jesus that we are truly sorry for all of our sins, for the way that we have been living and for all of the bad things that we have been doing and most of all, mean it!, when we say it!, we have got to feel it in our heart!

When we ask Jesus to come into our lives we need to be ready to make a commitment to Him that we are ready to start our new life in Christ!

Now that we are ready to start our new life we need to do as the scripture says in Matthew 5:48

48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

So how does this perfection take place in our lives?

Just as I said last week, we are starting out just like a new born baby, and how does a new born baby start out on milk.

They don’t start out eating meat they start on milk.

That’s the same way that a new born Christian starts out one step at a time.

Don’t try to read the whole Bible in the first day, don’t expect to have the power in your prayers that you want to have, but most of all don’t allow yourself to become discouraged!

Discouragement is one of the biggest things in a new Christians life that can cause to fail.

Being a child of God is a growing process, it’s not just boom I am someone new and I’ll never make another mistake as long as I live!

You have got to grow and know that you will have your up’s and down’s, you will make mistakes and you will sometimes fall back but what you need to know is to always get up and shake yourself off and start all over again.

Before long you will be like the new baby starting to walk and soon you won’t be falling near as much as you were in the beginning!

Let’s look at what Paul says about Pressing towards the Goal in,

Philippians 3:12-21

12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection! But I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ Jesus saved me for and wants me to be.

13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,

14 I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

15 I hope all of you who are mature Christians will agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.

16 But we must be sure to obey the truth we have learned already.

17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.

18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.

19 Their future is eternal destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and all they think about is this life here on earth.