Take It Easy

You either chose to enter into a personal relationship with Him by accepting Him as your Savior and spending an eternity in Heaven with Him, or you chose to reject the gift of Salvation by rejecting Him and thus you will spend an eternity in a place called hell. And despite all the jokes you may have heard, it will not be some big party down there, but a place of eternal pain and suffering.

But even if you chose to enter into that personal relationship with Him, you still have a choice to make. In the verses we just read it states that we can choose to live godly in Christ Jesus or not. You see it is one thing to make Jesus your Savior; it is another thing to make Him your Lord. By making Him your Lord I mean giving Him the control of your life to be used by Him to bear fruit.

Jesus Himself explains this principle in the parable of the Sower. He gives four different illustrations for those who hear the word of God. The first hear the word but the devil comes and draws them away before they get saved. We have already covered that part. The second is those who receive the word and get saved and they are excited about their decision about receiving Christ and then they stray away because they don’t have any root. Then it talks about those who fell among the thorns, or those who get saved then lose focus of their priorities by the things of this world. But the last one that it talks about is the ones who just don’t make Jesus their Savior; they make Him their Lord.

Luke 8:15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.

To do that you not only have a choice, but you also…

You have a Challenge (Vs.14)

“Continue in the things which you have learned”. This is so important to all who are here this morning. Let me share with you what I feel this challenge is so important.

First of all let me talk to our graduates or our young people who are here this morning. There will be a time in your life when you will be able to make your own choices. Once you get out on your own, (that means you put your own food in your belly and your own roof over your head), you will be faced with a lot of choices or opportunities you might say. At the age of 21 you will be considered adult enough to make the choice of where you go and what you will do once you get there.

And if the truth be known, that is where we lose you. The world has a lot to offer you, a lot of fun. But I will tell you that is not a lasting joy. In the parable of the Lost son, he was probably having a blast before he found himself in the pigpen. So you have a challenge. A challenge to continue what you have learned. Weather it is something that your parents taught you or something that you have learned in church or maybe from a good Christian friend. Stay the course. Keep Christ first in your life. It will save you a lot of headache and heartache.

Then I want to talk to you who are older. Parents, teachers, grandparents, those older Christians in the church. We need to be the one who teaches them. Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.