In our world today there are many people who think they are in pretty good shape to get to heaven. They don’t steal, they aren’t committing adultery, they don’t cuss, and they haven’t killed anybody (yet). So, they consider themselves to be pretty good but those that I listed are just four of the Ten Commandments. What about the other six? They mostly deal with pride and selfishness. How are you doing on those? What about having anything take God’s place, which is the first commandment? Is there anything or anyone which you value more than God?

Most everyone has trouble with those at one point or another. Everything that we have is a gift from God whether we purchased it or He brought it into our lives. Your children, your wife or husband are all gifts from God, you may not be happy with them all the time but neither is He happy about us and our choices, which is why we have the ability to choose. God wants us to have the choice and the ability to choose Him as an act of love not because we had no choice.

When we were still sinners and blind to the truth of God’s love…did His love for us still exist? Of course it did! Even the smallest detail regarding sin is a sin. The thought you had about someone having more than you do…is a sin. The envy that you feel toward someone you may not even know is a sin. Any word or thought that we say or think that is hurtful or to spite someone is also a sin. Speeding on the highway, taking a pen home from work, using something that is not yours without asking, these are all sins and we will be held accountable for them unless we repent and ask forgiveness.

The world and every created thing in it exist regardless of our position in it or our comprehension of it. The sun and the moon rise and set, the tides come in and flow back to the sea and the seasons change just as God said that they would from the beginning. Animals, birds, fish, and insects all live according to God’s plan because they don’t have a choice regarding what they are or what they do. They glorify God by living and reproducing. We should glorify Him in our walk with Him daily and by our character that everyone sees daily because to some people that may be the only reflection of Christ they ever see.

The same is true in our lives. We wake up and go to sleep at night. We dream, we wake in the morning, eat breakfast and get ready for another day. This is a ritual which will continue until we retire or we die whichever comes first. The true novelty of life is that it shouldn’t be a novelty; we should live it as real as it is and thank God every day that we have that privilege. The life that we are given to live is for God’s glory and His purposes. Whether we choose to work for Him and with Him is our choice but our life will be much greater for it if we choose to walk in His ways and follow His purposes.

While we are here, regardless of our vocation, we should use our time and energy to witness to people by our lives and what they see of Christ through our actions. Remember, the pay for God’s work may be small compared to what others get in this world but our retirement plan is out of this world! No one on earth could possibly measure what the streets of gold or your mansion in glory would be worth. The wonderful presence of God Himself and the fact that you will be with Him for eternity is also beyond anyone’s comprehension.

Our life will be more than we can imagine when we are in His presence and we will be for eternity if we are His. I can’t comprehend one thousand years or one million and eternity is far longer than either of those which is why Christ said that we live like flowers, here today and gone tomorrow. We have to allow Him to work through us while we are here because we only have a short time on this earth, and yet if we belong to Him we will have eternity to learn from Him and to be with Him daily. Heaven will be a place where we will experience freshness and joy all of the time because we will never be tired or run out of things to do, ever!

Even the apostle John couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing when he saw the vision of heaven and the angels and even God Himself. We truly haven’t a clue in regard to what is in store for us and our loved ones in Heaven or even when the earth is remade in the image of the paradise that it was in the Garden of Eden. I have left out reference to scripture in this morning’s sermon because the whole Bible from beginning to end declares God’s majesty and the magnificence of His creation. The sky, the trees, the birds and all the creatures that have ever been on the earth as well as the universe declares His creative power and wondrous love for us. He created all of these things for us to marvel at and consider because He is God, period!

I am bringing this message of praise and adoration before you because it is necessary to realize God’s presence and who He is. We are coming to the end of the church age and our time on earth will soon be done so the time to make your choice regarding who you will serve and where is now, not tomorrow or next week.

What would you say to a person who thinks they are good enough to stand in front of God and declare that they are eligible for heaven? Are you sure about your salvation? If you or a friend of yours thinks “I hope I can get into heaven when I die”, unless your “hope” is in Christ you won’t! If you are counting on your deeds to get there, you will be sorely disappointed. Our righteousness is as filthy rags without the blood of Christ because nothing that we can do on our own will ever be good enough.

John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Give our life to Christ and ask Jesus to save you from your sins today. We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow or even tonight so the time is now. Once you do that and are sincere in your repentance there will be no doubt about where you will go after you die. You will be with Him and then your life will really begin!