Our Responsibility To Our Eternity
Our Responsibility • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsWe have a responsibility to not letting others keep us out of heaven.
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Introduction
Introduction
Good evening, brothers and sisters. On behalf of my family and I, I want to thank each of you for all the work that goes into a gospel meeting like this.
I want to thank you all for your hospitality and love you have demonstrated to us.
As most, if not all of you here know, we have been studying each lesson on the theme of “Our Responsibility.”
We have looked at “Our Responsibility To God.”
We have looked at “Our Responsibility To God’s Word.”
We have looked at “Our Responsibility To God’s Family.”
We have looked at “Our Responsibility To Our Family.”
We have looked at “Our Responsibility To Our Community.”
Tonight we are going to look at “Our Responsibility To Our Eternity.”
The Bible is clear, this life is short in comparison to the eternity that awaits everyone.
14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
1 “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
Since this is the case we are responsible for making the most out of this life by preparing for the afterlife and making sure no one gets in our way, hence the reason God wrote...
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
Our Responsibility Is To Be A Christian
Our Responsibility Is To Be A Christian
What is a Christian though?
What is a Christian though?
I know this sounds like a silly question but I assure you it isn’t. It seems to me, that the Lord’s church has taken the denominational definition rather than the biblical definition for a long time now.
I grew up thinking that when I obeyed the gospel that made me a Christian. From the moment I came in contact with the blood of Christ and rose out of that water grave, that new creation I had become was a Christian.
This is what is taught from many of our pulpits and it exactly what the denominational world has always said.
Now, you would think you could find this in the Bible but you can look hi and low and it isn’t there. In fact you only find the word Christian three times and you never find a child of God calling themselves a Christian. Notice...
26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
Now these disciples didn’t call themselves this, it was given to them by outsiders. We also know that the events in happened about 10 years after . So for 10 years or more no child of God was even called a Christian.
We know that the events in happened about 10 years after . So for 10 years or more no child of God was even called a Christian.
28 And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”
Once again, Paul never calls himself or his brethren Christians this was the title given them by outsiders.
16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
Verse 14 clearly shows that the term Christian was meant to be a slight by those outside the faith but Peter turns that “insult” into a positive and says instead of being insulted by the term “live up to it.”
Here is the point, when you obey the gospel you are added to the church () and the kingdom of Christ () which means, you are adopted into God’s family making you a child of God ().
But a Christian, which literally means Christ-like or resembles Christ, is one that is living such a life that others recognize who their Master is, Christ, and these others call them Christians.
You can be a child of God and not be Christ-like or Christian.
4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
These were Israelites that had obeyed the gospel but were perverting it and Paul says these children of God were “severed from Christ.”
For some reason, and I don’t know when, we began to drink the kool-aid false doctrine that you don’t need to be Christ-like to be a Christian.
Listen I know, I’m probably challenging some of you
It’s a lot easier to call my self a Christian than to actually be one, which brings us back to the title of this point. It is our responsibility to be a Christian not call ourselves a Christian.
Being a Christian or Christ-like
Being a Christian or Christ-like
To be a Christian we must be walking in fellowship with God.
1 John 1:
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
To be a Christian we must be striving for spiritual perfection in our life.
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
To be a Christian we must repent when we miss the mark of righteousness and transgress the law of Christ.
9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
We as finite beings are not going to be perfect on our own (). But if we are striving to get better every single day, repenting when we fall short, the blood of Christ will continually make us perfect before God ().
As finite beings or created beings we are not going to be perfect on our own (). But if we are striving to get better every single day, repenting when we fall short, the blood of Christ will continually make us perfect before God ().
To be a Christian we must let our light shine so that God is glorified.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
To be a Christ-like child of God we must be walking step by step in fellowship with God striving for spiritual perfection by admitting when we fail through repentance. By doing such in our lives the world of darkness around us will see our love for God and glorify Him, not us.
All of this, being a Christian, can only be accomplished if we are “hidden in Christ” so that only Christ can be seen in us.
3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Col
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Our responsibility, as God’s children, is to live in such a godly way that those around us cannot help but notice we are “Christians.”
And if we are Christians we have been promised an eternity with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in heaven ().
Our Responsibility As A Christian Is To Fend Off Satan
Our Responsibility As A Christian Is To Fend Off Satan
Satan is good at his job
Satan is good at his job
It’s amazing how many Christians have fallen for Satan’s lies and lost that precious designation.
Sound gospel preachers that once taught God’s Word on MDR and now, because their child or relative divorced for a reason other than fornication they change their doctrine.
My uncle Gregg
Remember Peter, he succumb to Satan and who knows how long it would have been if not for Paul.
Satan might rage like a lion but he presents himself as an angel.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
Some of Satan’s methods to get us to fall
Some of Satan’s methods to get us to fall
Satan will use our friends to try and trip us up.
Worldliness doesn’t like to be alone. When we go from the darkness into the light our friends won’t like it.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Satan will use our family against us.
The sad truth is most people are not raised in the Lord’s church and that means when they are converted they will have family that typically isn’t happy with them.
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mt 10:35
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Satan will use our place of employment.
I can’t tell you how many times, as a welder, I have had people tell me I have to miss the assembling of the saints or else I wouldn’t have a job when I got back.
Brothers and sisters if you think, on the day of judgment, you will be able to go to God and tell him I needed to work more than worship with the saints like commanded () to provide for my family you are truly mistaken.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Mt 6:25-33
Brothers and sisters if you think, on the day of judgment, you will be able to justify any reason under the sun for choosing your job, kids sports, or anything else over gathering and worshiping with the saints every time they gather like commanded () your are truly mistaken.
There will always be more unrighteous than righteous, let them have those jobs if they are unwavering and let us be about keeping the Word of God.
Any excuse you give God on the day of judgment will not be good enough to answer the question of why you neglected your spiritual family for worldly reasons.
We aren’t talking about reasons for missing, we’re talking about excuses for forsaking or neglecting your spiritual family for worldly reasons.
Conclusion
Conclusion
If we want others to see the light of Christ in our lives we have to be about being Christ-like.
We are responsible for where we will spend eternity, whether with God in heaven or with Satan in hell, it is up to us.
Brethren stand strong for your God and stand up for your God when Satan and others try to drag you down and bring you back to the filthiness and destruction of sin.
20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
2 Pt 2:
Invitation