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Your Future: Blessed Or Rotten?
Contributed by Dr. C. David White on Nov 10, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: Your life will either be a runway toward God or a stumbling block to others. You will either be a witness for Jesus Christ or else you will be a Trophy of Hell.
Your Future: Blessed or Rotten?
The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot. Prov 10:7 (KJV)
He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to.
1.) Sometimes choices are too complicated. [Illus. buying a home]
2.) Supermarkets witness the fact that we like to have a wide variety of choices. [clothes, auto & churches]
3.) Spiritually it would seem that there are also a lot of choices.
4.) But are there really? God only recognizes two alternatives in the way that men would live their lives!
5.) Just or wicked. (two paths, courses, directions, ways, roads)
6.) The truth is that God has a plan for your life (Jn 10:10) and Satan has a plan for your life. (Trophy)
Three Facts I want to share with you this morning.
1- Both Paths Start at the Same Point.
1. We are all lost and need to find our way. (Rom. 3:23)
2. One person is not more helpless than the other, we all are without hope unless God helps us.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. 25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Mt. 19:23-26 (KJV)
3. In many ways we are all the same.
4. You are not exempt from success or failure!
2- Somewhere Along the Way the Paths Depart Company.
1. Somewhere there is an intersection. (Opportunity)
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. Duet 30:15-16 (KJV)
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? Eze 18:23 (KJV)
2. Two ways = one choice.
3. If you are going to get off of the path you are on you had better start now!
3- The Two Paths Lead to Two Different Destinations. (Prov. 10:7)
1. Cain – Abel, Peter – Judas, Adolt Hitler – Theodore Rosevelt. (History proves this point!!!)
2. The end of the righteous
1 ¶ Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments. 2 His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches will be in his house, And his righteousness endures forever. 4 Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness; He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 5 A good man deals graciously and lends; He will guide his affairs with discretion.
6 ¶ Surely he will never be shaken; The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. 7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. 8 His heart is established; He will not be afraid, Until he sees his desire upon his enemies. 9 He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted with honor. 10 The wicked will see it and be grieved; He will gnash his teeth and melt away; The desire of the wicked shall perish. Ps. 112 (KJV)
3. The end of the wicked
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Rev 21:8 (KJV)
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. Pr 5:22 (KJV)
Your life will either be a runway toward God or a stumbling block to others.
Jesus is looking for disciples! You?
“Take up the cross and follow Me.”