You Don’t Need to be Perfect to get to Heaven, But it sure would be Nice
9/30/02
Have you ever known anyone to say; “Some day when I straiten up, I’m going to make things right with the Lord”? They think that is one of the qualifications of salvation. They feel with the life they are living that they could not live up to the expectations of a Christian Life. They’re several problems with this theory.
First the problem is that it takes the anointing of the Holy Spirit to overcome some of our bad habits. You simple can’t do it on your own. I’ve heard several amazing stories about people who have went through every rehab there was without recovery. They accept Christ and never touch the stuff again or have the desire to touch it. The acceptance of Christ gives us a helpmate to overcome these temptations with the Holy Spirit.
2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,”
It is not always the case though. I still struggle from time to time with my temptations of the past.
John 8:32, “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
I am not free from the temptation; I’m free from the dept. My sins have been paid for.
Second, you never know if you ever will have the opportunity to get those things right. Some people start out by saying after I sow my wild oats and have some fun, then I will make things right. Then not being saved they usually settle down and with someone else who is not right with the Lord and they start getting so busy in their life with their career and their families and God takes a back seat. Than as the kids grow up and move on in their own life’s, you become hardened to the fact of hearing about this Christ that you never accept Him because of the hardness of your heart. So you end up not ever accepting Christ, taking yourself and more then likely your family and grandkids to an eternity in hell be cause of your “I’ll just wait attitude”.
Do you know the majority of people who accept Christ are under the age of eighteen? This is why it is so important for us to have strong youth programs. The longer you put off salvation than the more the odds go against you ever accepting Him.
Sometimes opportunity knocks and we don’t answer and we never have another chance to answer again. The truth of the matter is, you don’t know if you will live to see tomorrow or even the lunch you plan on eating after church.
James 4:14, “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is just a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanished away.”
The last problem with the theory is that you can be as good as you want. You can straiten up every bad part of your life and that still isn’t good enough.
Good people die every day and spend an eternity in hell.
Ephesians 2:4-10
The title of my sermon today is, “You don’t have to be perfect to go to Heaven, but it sure would be nice.”
We can’t be and never will perfect. There was only one perfect man who walked this earth and he is here but I don’t see Him setting in any of those pews and it isn’t Mac Davis.
Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was tempted as we are, yet with out sin.”
Several of the Godliest men I know of all fell short of perfect.
Adam probably had a more personal relationship with God than any other man on this earth. He actually walked around in the cool of the evening in the garden having so real one on one conversation with God, and yet he fell to the temptation of disobedience, losing that sweet fellowship.
Remember Noah, God destroyed everyone else on the earth except Noah and his family. Was it that Noah lived a perfect live that brought his and his family’s salvation?
Genesis 6:7-8, “So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”.
What did Noah do with that grace God showed him? He came out and offered a sacrifice then grew a vineyard and got drunk.
Moses the one choose to be used by God to lead the Children of Israel out of their bondage committed murder. Who would have thought God would use a murderer for such a task. Even after seeing all the pledges and the miracles and seeing God make all the provisions for the Children of Israel, Moses sin of unbelief caused him not to enter into the Promised Land.
Samson with the strength of many men could not overcome the temptation of a woman. This is a sin that is common now days. Many a man has lost his strength in God through the temptation of a woman.
We all have heard about the sins of David with Bathsheba. First lust, then adultery, and eventually murder. But yet David was called a man after God’s own heart.
Peter denied Him, Thomas doubted Him. Paul, one of my favorites, said in, 1 Timothy 11:15, “This is the faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.”
Paul said, “What I want to do, I don’t. And what I don’t want to do I end up doing.”
Romans 3:23, tells us that “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.
We all have fallen short and nobody is perfect. And praise God we don’t have to be.
Romans 3:24-26
Praise God for His redemption of our imperfectness though the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Now that we have made it clear that you don’t have to be perfect, let’s talk about the second faze of the message. It sure would be nice to strive to be perfect.
This is found in the last verse of our text in verse 10.
“For we are His workmanship…”
God created each one of us in His own image. God didn’t make any mistakes. We should strive to be Christ like. When the lost look at us they need to see Christ.
“Created in Christ Jesus for good works…”
He didn’t put us here for our good looks. That is obvious just by looking at some of us. How long would you keep your present job if you showed up for work everyday and just sat around looking, in your opinion, good. No we each have our jobs and the activities that we are hired to perform.
God wants us to perform His good works, and He needs for us to do our job and not just set around and look pretty.
I know how I feel when I work with someone who is lazy. It causes others to have to pick up the slack. (Chris and the Porta Potty)
When we are Spiritually lazy, we cause others to have to pick up the slack. They say that in most church’s that 10% of the people do 90% of the work. How much more would we accomplish for God’s kingdom if everyone would do their part.
Luke 12:48, “For everyone much is given, from him much will be required;”
“Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
God has a plan. He has a plan for each and every one of us. The plan is just like your benefit package at your work. You either chose to participate or you chose not to.
There is one more reason to strive to be Christ like.
What you sow is what you reap. Now God says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
But He also says in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, “ Therefore we make it our aim, whether to be present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
We all will be judged someday. If you suddenly would die today, how would your slat look? Do you have some hidden sins that you think no one else knows about?
Hebrews 4:13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Do you have some habitual sins that keep reoccurring?
How many rewards will you receive or better yet how many rewards will you miss out on because of your unwillingness to try to be Christ like?
1 John 2:28, “And now little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
We all need to strive to be Christ like to so that when we stand before Him we can hear Him say, Well done thy good and faithful servant.
So what do we need to do to get to Heaven?
We don’t have to be perfect, just willing.
Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
Romans 10:9, “ That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved.”
To get to Heaven is simple, Believe and Receive.
You don’t have to be perfect, but it sure would be nice.
