Our daughter Hanna, her husband Kyle and their three kids invited us to go with them this past week to Palm Springs. They were given a free week here so they rented a big van and we drove down with them, and are headed back home tomorrow. Kyle and I golfed, we all went to Sea World and got soaked at the dolphin show, road up this giant tram, and spent many hours in the swimming pool and hot tub. One of the golf courses was the most beautifully landscaped golf course I have ever seen. Lots of water with waterfalls, plants, flowers, trees, and sand, lots of sand. Many of the greens were islands with a bridge to it. Needless to say I lost a lot of balls in the water. It was a lot of fun to play, and because of the reduced tourist attendance there weren’t a lot of people.

I would have just as soon stayed home and painted my boat as to spend hours driving and all the time on the various activities that we did here, even with the gorgeous weather. But what made it special and very worthwhile was the time we got to spend with Kyle, Hanna and three awesome grandkids.

Healthy relationships that are abounding in love take work to establish and maintain, but they are the most significant source of joy in all of life. God is a Trinity of personalities and we are created in His image, we were created for loving community and family.

There are several key principles that get violated by so many families; first and most important is to forgive one another quickly of anything. That is absolutely the most critical of all principles. God blesses families and fills them with joy, but families with bitterness in them forfeit all of God’s blessings. The second principle is to always talk graciously to each other, always, always. The third principle is to always be thinking about how you could improve as a husband, a wife, a son, a sibling. We naturally think critically of our mate and others in the family on how they could improve, what they could do and ought to do. But instead, do what Jesus said to do, “take the log out of your own eye before attempting to take the splitter out of your husband’s eye.”

In our culture today “blaming and shaming” is what most do when relationships get strained. That is the guaranteed way to destroy your relationships with your own selfishness.

Jesus Christ says in the Bible, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to God except through me.” simply put Jesus is saying if you want to go to heaven instead of hell forever it will be by faith in Me, no other way. Two-thirds of the people in the United States don’t believe that, have never heard that, or just shrug their shoulders and ignore it.

Every one of those two-thirds will have a time in their life where they will wonder about God, heaven, life after death, and the possibility of hell. It might be during a severe trial in their life, or the opposite, a moment of joy and blessing, or a scare of death from sickness or a near accident. Whatever the reason, whenever there is even a moment of curiosity about God, Jesus, and life after death the wise person will seek answers and seek God.

Psalms 105:3-4 Let the heart of those who seek the Lord be glad. Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually.

James 4:8
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

We have a massive fear of death sweeping across our country and the world caused by media hype and government manipulation in order to control people. What people ought to be fearing is what happens after death. Death is an incredibly positive event as a follower of Jesus, but an incomprehensible terrible event if you are not in God’s family.

At a moment of curiosity choose to seek God. He promises that if you draw near Him He will draw near to you. Seeking God is simple; read the Bible, start with the gospel of John, attend a good church, talk to some Christians that you may know, and pray some simple prayers asking God to reveal Himself to you.

Don’t let Psalms 10:4 be a description of you, “the arrogant do not seek for God.”

I listened to the NCAA basketball championship game between Baylor University and Gonzaga University while riding in the car Monday evening with my son-in-law Kyle. He grew up in Northeastern Washington and has been a Gonzaga fan for many years. I am not a strong fan of Gonzaga, but I am an admirer of good coaching, and Mark Few has established himself over 21 years at Gonzaga as one of the best coaches in NCAA division 1 annuls.

They went on to the championship game unbeaten this year, and if they had won the championship they would have done what no team has done since 1976 when Bobby Knight coached the Indiana Hoosiers to a perfect 32-0 season.

I played basketball for a very small High School and two years at a very small college, but I remember those days well. The hard hours of practice as if nothing else in life mattered except winning basketball games. The ecstasy of winning and the agony of losing were the ultimate in emotions.

Saturday Gonzaga won the quarter final game against UCLA with a 30 foot last second three-point shot. I imagine that the emotions Saturday night were off the chart for everyone on the team, especially the starting point guard Suggs who made the amazing game winning shot.

But Monday night after losing by an embarrassing 16 point margin to Baylor I can’t imagine the pain they must be feeling as their dream of a National Championship and a historic undefeated season came to a crashing end.

I have had some major dreams in my life that died. I remember that as I was mulling over in my mind the pain and disappointment of those unrealized dreams that I knew that I would recover and get over it. I also knew that I would not let the failure deter me from pressing on to some even bigger dreams in the days ahead.

Many people never recover from a crushing disappointment or failure in life. The pain was so intense that they choose never to put themselves in that kind of position again, and never aspire to do anything great with their life after that.

When we get to heaven we will see clearly and we will realize that the effort to win, the diligence to accomplish significant things with our life, and the sacrifices we made to change the world were what shaped and made the character that we took with us to heaven. The pursuit of dreams is what God uses to make us like Himself.

I am a believer in eternal security, that is if we are genuinely born-again into God’s family we are secure, we will not lose that salvation. But I am also a very strong believer in the reality of pseudo-salvation, where a person thinks they are saved, adopted into God’s family but aren’t really.

I am not a proponent of overemphasizing our security to the point that we never question the validity of our salvation. I overhard a conversation between two people which began with one of them wondering if they were really saved based on their recent binge on sin. The other person said “sure you are, don’t let the devil try to get you to doubt your salvation.” I thought to myself, “I am not sure why the devil would do that, it seems like he would be doing the exact opposite!”

If someone wonders about their salvation to me, I don’t talk them into believing they are really saved, I lead them to Jesus again, and have them walk through the steps of faith again. If their name is already written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, recommitting their life to Christ will just solidify it in their own mind.

One of the reasons for a pseudo-salvation in many is because of an incomplete presentation of the gospel that they responded to. I hear over and over the phrase, “invite Jesus into your heart”. The gospel is (1) Jesus is God, infinite, Almighty God, equal and one with God the Father. (2) Jesus emptied Himself of all that He was as God and became flesh, just exactly like us. (3) As a man Jesus live a perfect and sinless life. (4) Jesus was nailed to a cross and while He was there God the father took every sin I ever committed and put them on Jesus, and looked at Jesus as if He actually committed all of them, and then punished Jesus in my place, He died on that cross for me. (5) And then 3 days later Jesus rose from the dead, and is alive today.

There isn’t a single element of the gospel in the invitation to “invite Jesus into your heart, ” and it is certainly vague theologically especially to kids. It is the truth that sets us free, not a sincere feeling.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Can you imagine standing before Jesus at the end of your life thinking you were going to be spending eternity in heaven and hear Him say these words. That would be a shocker for sure. There will be no second chance, no reprieve, no parole. In light of the consequences it would probably be a good idea for all believers to ask themselves if hearing Jesus say, “depart from Me” is a possibility for them.

2 Corinthians 13:5-6 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?

Being a Christian doesn’t mean that we are perfect, but it does mean that we want to be, that when we sin, there is guilt, grieving, a godly sorrow. Casualness, complacency, and comfortablness with our sin because, after all, we are forgiven is a sure sign that we may hear those shocking words at the end of our life.

Part of the reason for pseudo salvations is because we have interpreted “believe in Jesus” as giving mental assent to historical facts, like believing in Abraham Lincoln.

Believing in Jesus is personal and relational. I believe that He is God, that He loves me, that He wants me to be with Him forever. Believing is understanding that I have a major problem that keeps me separated from Jesus and that is my sin. I believe Jesus died for me, personally, He was punished for my sin in my place because He loves me and wants me to be with Him forever and was willing to pay that price. Because I truly believe in Him, I love Him and want to please Him with my life. Is that true for you?

Patty and I have been married for almost 52 years. I have divided our marriage in two parts, before Google maps and after Google maps. Before Google maps we would often get into a fight when we went on a trip or went to a location that I wasn’t familiar with. I would get lost and Patty would nag at me to stop and ask for directions and I would refuse, sure that I could figure it out on my own. At some point her frustration would boil over and she would say loudly, “why can’t you admit you are lost!”

When I talk to people about trusting in Jesus as their Savior so they can go to heaven instead of hell when they die, I get all kinds of resistance. I have come to the conclusion that people have this independent, I can do it on my own, pride that keeps them from trusting Christ. The first step to being “born again” is admitting that we are lost and can’t save ourselves. God requires perfection if we insist on earning our own way into heaven, it only takes one, little sin to disqualify us.

It is so hard for people to admit they are lost and can’t do it on their own, but until they do there is no salvation and when they die God will say to them, “depart from me” into that place of torment forever.

I was talking to a fellow about becoming a Christian , and he asked me why he should, what would change in his life? I responded that the issue was what happened after he died, was he headed for hell or heaven. He assured me that he had been a pretty good person, and was confident that God would let him in. I told him that the requirement was that he was perfect, never having sinned once, not even a little one. He scoffed at that as being ridiculous and unattainable by anyone. I told Him, yep, you are right, the only person who was perfect was Jesus, and that is the point. God put my sins on Jesus, all of them, and Jesus was punished by God the Father in my place, he paid my bill. He died on that cross, was buried and rose from the dead 3 days later. Our part in receiving forgiveness and eternal life from God is to acknowledge that we can’t save ourselves and accept the free gift of God by believing the gospel. He told me the most amazing thing, “I will just take my chances.”

The consequences of failing on those odds are very serious. Eternity in hell with no parole or second chances once you find out that your gamble didn’t pay off.

The fear of death has controlled most of the world for this last year, especially the United States. That fear has separated people and messed up many families, friendships, and churches. A great gift from God is freedom from the fear of death. We are celebrating that gift tonight, tomorrow night and Sunday at JBC.

Hebrews 2:14-15
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

The Apostle Paul was’t afraid to die, in fact, he was looking forward to it. Why would anybody who truly believes they are headed for heaven want to stay here any longer than they have to?

Philippians 1:21-23 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;

Jesus died on a cross and paid the penalty for our sins so that we could live forever with Him. We are celebrating His death tonight at our “Good Friday” service and His resurrection on Easter. If you would like the “hope” of eternal life to be part of who you are, I invite you to join us.

We are celebrating at Jefferson Baptist Church at 7:00 pm tonight, 7:00 pm Saturday night, and 9:00 and 11:30 am on Sunday morning. The “Good Friday” service and Sunday 9:00 am service will be on Youtube so you can watch it from your home.

Hebrews 4:12-13
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

The Bible gives us very clear instructions on how to be born again into the family of God, how to have eternal life in heaven with God. Jesus said that He was the only way into heaven, there aren’t multiple ways, there aren’t even two, just one way, only one.

Some have asked, “how do you know that the Bible is really the Word of God?” When a person who is seeking God or answers from God reads the Bible the Supernatural power of God works in their inner person, and their is an experiential proof that the “Word of God is living and active,” you just know that what is being read is true. The problem is that many don’t take the step towards being a seeker. God promised that if a person would seek Him they would find Him, God will see to it, He will become real to them and the Word will come alive as they read it.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

1 Chronicles 22:19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God;

1 Chronicles 28:9 for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him;