Jesus' Most Outrageous Sayings - They Shall Never Perish - Part 6

Eternal Security. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
[inaudible]

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, as many of you know, I was led to Christ by a
street preacher named BobEckhart in chapel hill, North
Carolina.
The year was 1971.
However, I really attribute mycoming to Jesus Christ, not so
much to this street, preacher,but rather to a dear
African-American lady who servedas my housekeeper for the first

(00:26):
17 and a half years of my, of mylife.
Her name was Coralie Goodman.
And this dear woman prayed forme for 21 years.
As far as I know, she's the onlyfollower of Christ, whoever
prayed for me before I actuallycame to know Jesus as my
personal savior.
And I believe that I'm afollower of Christ today because

(00:47):
of the prayer life of this dearwoman.
Now four years after I came toChrist in 1975, Corley Goodman
was here in a hospital in, uh,in Washington, dying of cancer.
And I went to visit her.
And I remember as part of thevisit, I said to her, you know,
I'm really looking forward toseeing you again in heaven.

(01:07):
And she turned to me and said,well, I really hope so.
And I said, well, what do youmean by that?
And she said, well, I reallyhope that when I die, I'm going
to heaven folks.
I was flabbergasted as a youngbeliever.
I was stunned that here was thelady who had led me, prayed me
into the kingdom of God.
And she lying on her death bed.
Wasn't even 100% sure that whenshe died, she was going to be

(01:31):
with the Lord Jesus in heaven.
And so I had the wonderfulprivilege of taking the Bible
out and right there in herhospital room, sharing with her
that as a follower of JesusChrist, her place in heaven was
utterly secure and have beenever since the first day, she
trusted Christ as their personalsavior.

(01:52):
Now I believe that there arepeople all over America, exactly
alike, Coralee Goodman.
That is they have indeed reallytrusted Jesus Christ as their
personal savior, but they'remissing the joy that comes from
knowing that their place inheaven is utterly and eternally
secure.
And that's what I want to talkto you about today.

(02:13):
Remember, we're in a seriesentitled Jesus's most outrageous
sayings.
We're going through the gospelaccounts in the new Testament,
picking out 12 of the mostradical things Jesus ever said,
and then spending a week on eachone of them answering the
question.
Well, so what now we've alreadydone five.
If you missed any of them, getthe tape for the CD from our

(02:35):
bookstore today, we're ready fornumber six.
And so if you brought your Bibletoday, I'd like to invite you to
turn with me to John chapter 10,Matthew mark, Luke, John chapter
10.
If you did not bring your Biblein your hearing, our main
auditorium reach right under thearmrest next to you.
And you'll find a copy of theBible.
We're going to be on page seven60 page 7, 6 0 in our coffee or

(03:00):
John tin in your copy.
Now, as you're turning, let mejust remind you that here in
John chapter 10, the Lord Jesusis explaining his relationship
to us as believers by using theimagery of a shepherd in his
relationship to his sheep.
And so let's look beginning atverse 11, Jesus said, I am the

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good shepherd.
The good shepherd lays down hislife for the sheep.
In other words, Jesus is sayingthat just like a good human
shepherd is willing to sacrificehis life for the physical
welfare of his sheep.
Jesus says, so I, as theultimate good shepherd, I am
willing to sacrifice my life forthe spiritual welfare of my

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sheep.
He goes on verse 17.
I laid down my life only to takeit up again.
No one takes my life from me,but I lay it down of my own
accord verse 18.
I have the authority to lay mylife down and I have the
authority to take it up again.
This authority I have receivedfrom my father.

(04:06):
Now, of course, what Jesus istalking here about is first of
all, the cross, where he isgoing to lay his life down.
And then of course theresurrection where he has the
authority to take his life backup again.
Well, a little later the Jewishleaders come to him and they
asked him a straight upquestion, verse 24.

(04:26):
They say, okay, we've listenedto you.
So tell us now, plainly once andfor all, are you the Messiah?
Jesus answered verse 25.
I did tell you plainly, but youdid not believe me because you
are not part of my sheep.
And then Jesus now says one ofthe most outrageous things that

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anybody's ever said.
He says, verse 27, my sheep hearmy voice, which is why you guys
don't hear my voice.
Cause you're not one of them,but my sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow mewatch and I give them eternal
life and they shall neverperish.

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Now look at what Jesus says herein this verse.
He says, first of all, thateternal life is a gift.
It's not something you and I do.
We know nothing we do to geteternal life.
And therefore Jesus goes on tosay, there is nothing you and I
can do to lose eternal lifebecause it's a gift.
And Jesus says, it's a gift thathe never ever takes back once

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he's given it, this is why Jesusdeclares.
I give them eternal life andthey, my followers can never
perish.
Now think about it for a moment.
If there were anything you andI, as followers of Christ could
do to lose our eternal life, tolose our place in heaven, even
one crazy way out off the wallthing, then Jesus could not have

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used the word never here.
He could have said, I give myfollowers eternal life and they
will almost never perish.
He could have said, I give themeternal life.
And they will.
In most cases, never perish.
He could have said, I give themeternal life.
And they, unless they dosomething really stupid, they
won't perish, but they, Jesusdidn't say that.

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What did he say?
He said, and they shall neverperish period.
And by saying that Jesus makesit crystal clear that his
followers of Christ, there isnothing, anything known in the
universe that you and I can everdo.
No matter how radical, no matterhow extreme, no matter how
offensive to God that will costus our eternal life or our place

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in heaven.
Remember, there's nothing youdid to get your eternal life.
So there's nothing you can do tolose it.
You say, okay, lawn.
Well, I understand that I reallydo.
But what if somebody else comesalong and takes my eternal life
away from me?
I mean, what if the devil comesalong and he takes it away from
me?
Isn't that possible?
Well, Jesus covers that just foryou who are worried about that.

(07:08):
He says, look what he says,verse 28 and 29.
He says, no one can snatch mysheep.
Out of my hand, my father whogave my sheep to me is greater
than anybody.
And no one can snatch my sheepout of his hand.
Folks.
When Jesus Christ says that as afollower of Christ, you will

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never perish.
Let me just tell you, you cantake that to the bank.
Now you say, well, Lorna, I seewhat you're saying, but you
know, you're pulling an awfullot out of one word, never.
I mean, you're taking this oneword and making it walk on all
fours may be a little bit.
I mean, are you sure the rest ofthe Bible supports that?
What you're teaching here abouteternal security?

(07:51):
Well, yes I am.
And let me show you that.
But before we do it, let'sdefine eternal security, eternal
security, as a phrase, the twowords never appear in the Bible,
but they describe a truth thatdoes appear in the Bible.
Eternal security means that whena person embraces Jesus Christ
as their personal savior, whenthey placed their trust in the

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blood of Jesus shed on the crossto be their only covering for
sin, their only payment for sin,their only entry ticket into
heaven.
That at that moment, Godimmediately gives that person
salvation, eternal life, aguaranteed spot in heaven.
And their salvation is eternallysecure regardless of what that

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person may do or not do fromthat point on, in other words,
the Bible teaches that oureternal life and our place in
heaven is based not on humanperformance, which changes day
by day and moment by moment.
But it is based upon what Jesusdid for us on the cross, which
never changes.

(08:59):
Now, let's see if the rest ofthe Bible teaches this true John
chapter five, verse 24.
Here's what Jesus said.
He said, whoever hears my wordand believes in me has present
tense, eternal life.
And that person will not becondemned watch for he or she
has crossed over from death intoeternal life.

(09:22):
Now the key to understandingthis verse is the verb has
crossed over the verb, literallymeans to move your place of
residence, to change youraddress, to move.
And what the Bible is telling usis that when you and I trusted
Jesus in a real and personalway, we changed our address.
We moved our residents from aplace called eternal death to a

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place called eternal life.
But there's more, the tenths ofthe verb that used here has
crossed over is perfect tense inGreek.
This is an unusual tense.
It's not used very often in thenew Testament.
So when it's used, it'ssignificant, what does the
perfect tense mean?
The perfect tense in Greek talksabout a completed action.

(10:05):
That then has a result that goesall the way on into infinity.
That is unchanged.
That is irreversible, and thatis permanent.
We could diagram the perfecttans by putting a big dots up on
the screen and saying, thisrepresents some past completed
action.
And then drawing a line all theway into infinity saying this

(10:27):
represents the ongoingirreversible permanent result of
that act.
You say lawn, God bless you upthere.
We didn't come in for a grammarlesson.
You know, we're out of highschool son.
What, what is the point?
Well, here's the point and nowyou've got enough grammar, you
know, enough free grammar tounderstand what I'm about to
tell you.

(10:47):
Let's go back and let'sretranslate John 5 24 in light
of knowing that the perfecttense is used there.
All right, I'm going to give youthe RSV translation.
That is the revised Solomonicversion of his verse.
So here we go.
It says the person who believesin me, Jesus says has eternal

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life and will never be condemnedfor that person.
Here comes.
The perfect tense has crossedover is crossed over and always
will be crossed over frometernal death into eternal life.
When we embrace Jesus Christ asour personal savior, God
irreversibly transfers us from astate of eternal death to a

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state of eternal life.
And there is no going back ever.
Period.
End of story.
It's done.
Or as Jesus said in John chapter10, I give my sheep eternal life
and they shall never perish.
There's no going back now ifyou're here today and you've

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never trusted Jesus in a realand personal way, this is
important information for you toknow that when you give your
life to Jesus Christ, hetransfers your place of
residence.
As far as he's concerned from aplace of eternal death, which is
where you are now.
And that's not a good place tobe to a place of eternal life
that you can't ever lose orforfeit friends.

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I don't understand why everybodyin the universe, once that deal
is explained to them, doesn'ttake it because it's the
greatest offer ever made to thehuman race.
And if you're here today andyou've never taken God up on
that offer my question to you iswhat in the world is holding you
up?
What in the world is stoppingyou.
You need to grab this.
This is the greatest deal everoffered to you or any other

(12:34):
human being take it.
They said, well, you know, Lon,I've actually run into a lot of
people who say, I don't thinkanybody can really know for sure
that they're going to heavenlike that.
Well, that's not what God saysin the Bible.
As a matter of fact, God saysthe exact opposite.
First John chapter five, verse13, I am writing to you.
John says, who believe in JesusChrist so that you may, what

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look, what's the next word knowfor certain that you have
eternal life friends, God saysin the Bible, it's normal for
every follower of Christ to knowfor certain that they're going
to heaven.
It's expected that every one ofus knows that God wants us to be
certain.
He wants us to be definite.

(13:19):
He wants us to be confident.
He wants us to be convinced andhe wants us to be utterly sure
about the fact that when webreathe our last breath here on
this earth, the next breath wetake will be on the shores of
heaven.
And there is not one singlething you or anybody else can do
to change that.
Hey, praise the Lord for that.

(13:41):
Huh?
Cause if you could mess it up,you would.
And so what I I'm glad God gaveme a plan to get to heaven.
I couldn't mess up if I tried tomess it up, nor can you, cause
that's the only hope you and Igot to get in there.
And that's exactly the kind ofplan he gave us.
My sheep will never perish.
Jesus said, that's just the wayit is now.

(14:03):
That's as far as we want to goin the passage right now,
because it's time for us to askour most important question.
And you know what that questionis.
I know you had a couple of weeksoff, so you're a little rusty.
I understand that.
So come on now let's grease itup.
And here we go.
1, 2, 3, you said lawn.
So what say, all right.
I think I got that.

(14:24):
And the dot and the line was alittle much, but I think I got
what you're trying to say there,but uh, so what difference does
that make to my life?
Well, friends, I think it makesa huge difference.
Let me talk to you about thatbefore you leave here today.
I want you to understandsomething very important.
I want you to understand thatyour salvation, your eternal
life, your place in heaven isnot based on some feeling that

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you have.
It's not based on someexperience that you, it's not
based on some heightenedconsciousness or some exalted
state of mind that you have youreternal life.
And your salvation is based on alegal covenant, a legal contract
that God makes with you.
And every other believer whocomes to Jesus Christ to put it

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another way.
The foundation of our eternalsecurity is based on the legal
covenant that God makes withevery one of us as followers of
Jesus Christ.
This is why God says Hebrews 1016.
And this is the legal covenantthat I will make with every
follower of Christ.

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Now, what are some of the termsof this covenant?
Well, the first term that wefound out about in John 5 24 is
that this covenant isirreversible, that this covenant
is irrevocable, that thiscovenant is permanent.
Once it's made, there is nothingyou and I can ever do to change
it or to revoke it.
But then there's more terms thatthe Bible tells about.

(15:54):
Let me tell you some of theother terms of this contract
that God makes with you.
When you come to Christ, theBible tells us, or God Hebrews
10, 17, that our sins and ourlawless deeds, God will remember
no more.
What a great term of thecontract.
He tells us also Philippiansfour, three, that is a term of
the contract.
Our names are now inscribed inthe Lamb's book of life.

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Another term, Micah chapterseven, verse nine.
God tells us that he buries oursins in the depths of the sea.
And the good thing is he puts upa little buoy right there and
says no fishing.
That's a great thing.
Another term of our contract,Romans eight one is that there
is now therefore no condemnationto those who are in Christ.

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Jesus, another term, Galatiansfour, six, we now become God's
special adopted children.
I'm going to preach a wholemessage on that coming up.
According to first Corinthianssix 19, we are in dwelt by the
holy spirit himself.
Another term of the contract,Romans 8 33.
We are granted permanentimmunity from prosecution for

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our sins in the courtroom ofGod.
Another term, Romans 8 30, 8,nothing can ever separate us now
from God's unconditional love.
And finally, and there weremore, but this is the last one
I'm going to share with youEphesians one 13.
Another term of the contract isthat God brands us with his

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permanent seal of ownership.
Look, the verse says, havingbelieved in Jesus Christ, you
were marked literally you werebranded with a seal.
The promise, holy spirit.
You know, I don't know about youguys, but I love old westerns.
I love John Wayne and I loveClint Eastwood.
I love Jimmy Stewart and uh, Ilove him.

(17:46):
It doesn't get any better than aSaturday afternoon, lying at
home all afternoon in the bed,watching old westerns.
That's kinda my thing, you know,but anyway, I used to love raw
high didn't you guys ever watchraw high?
All right.
Well, some of you are too youngto remember the series, but
you'll remember the song.
Cause the blues brothers sang itin the movie.
Rolling.
Rolling, rolling.

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Keep them doggies rolling.
Raw hide.
You remember head them up, movemouse, move them out, hit them
up.
Hit them up.
Move them out.
RA ha remember the song?
Yeah.
All right.
Well, in all these old westerns,you remember what they do when
you own an animal.
What did you do to showeverybody in the world?
You own the animal what'd you doyou're branded it.

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That's exactly right.
And what the Bible tells us isthat God brands, every single
one of us who comes to Christ sothat every angel, every demon,
the devil himself, everybody inthe universe knows whose
property we now are.
Thank the Lord.
He doesn't use a hot poker.
Thank the Lord.
He uses the indwelling holyspirit, but he puts his brand on

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us.
That's part of the contract.
And you know, once you brandedan animal, you could never ever
get that brand off.
Well, God doesn't take his brandaway.
Either friends.
This is the wonderful contractthat God makes with you and me
and every follower of Christ.
So in order to lose oursalvation in order to lose our
eternal life in light of thiscontract, I want you to think

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what would have to happen.
Number one, for us to loseheaven and eternal life, someone
would have to cast theindwelling.
Holy spirit out of you and me.
Number two, someone would haveto eradicate God's brand from
your hive.
Number three, for you to loseyour salvation, someone would
have to cancel your adoptionpapers as a child of God.

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Number four, for you to loseyour salvation, someone would
have to talk God intoremembering your sins and your
lawless deeds.
Once more, when he says he's notgoing to do it.
Number five for you to lose yoursalvation, someone would have to
sneak up into heaven and eraseyour name out of the Lamb's book
of life.
When God's not watching numbersix for you to lose your eternal

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life, someone has to re-talkGod, into rewriting Romans eight
one so that it now reads.
Therefore there is now nocondemnation to those who are in
Jesus Christ, except in thefollowing circumstances.
Number seven, if you were goingto lose your eternal life,
someone would have to scuba divedown and dread your sins up from

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the depths of the ocean.
Number eight, someone would haveto turn you from a sheep to a
goat in the sight of all mightyGod, number nine.
Now somebody would have tosnatch you out of the hand of
Jesus Christ himself and mostimportant of all for you and me
to lose our salvation.
Someone would have to make aliar out of all mighty God,

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because he made a bindingcontract with you and me saying
he would never do any of these10 things.
We've just named 10 things hewould have to do if indeed you
and I could lose our place inheaven.
The point is this, when you andI genuinely believed in Jesus
Christ God, at that moment,ratified, consummated, a legal

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contract, a legal covenant withyou and me, a covenant that is
irreversible, a covenant that isirrevocable, a covenant that is
permanent, a covenant amongother things that guarantees us
eternal life and heaven withoutequivocation.

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Now you say, all right, lawn,whoa, stop, stop, stop.
Okay.
I see what you're what you'resaying, but you know what?
I got some real questions abouta lot of this stuff.
For example, what about a personwho claims to be a follower of
Jesus Christ, but they live likethe devil.
What about that person?
Are they still going to heavenand lawn?
What about a person who claimsthat they once were a follower
of Jesus Christ, but now they'verejected him, renounced him and

(21:49):
gone on.
Are they going to heaven andlawn?
What about the fact thatsometimes I don't really feel
like I've got eternal life, eventhough I think I am a real
follower of Christ.
I don't feel like I'm going toheaven sometime in lawn.
If I'm eternally secure as afollower of Christ, if I can't
lose heaven, then does that meanit's okay for me to go live any

(22:09):
way.
I feel like living to Rob steal,to cheat, to sleep around and do
whatever I feel like it.
Cause I'm going to heavenanyway.
Is that okay with God?
Well friends, those are greatquestions.
And you know what?
There are answers to them.
I'm not going to answer themthis morning, but I'm going to
send you out to the bookstore.
If you've got those questions topick up a CD that I've already
done from the spiritual bootcamp series called some eternal

(22:32):
security questions and we'llanswer every single one of those
questions on that CD for you,you go out there and you pick it
up and we'll answer yourquestions, friends.
These, this is the fabulous newsof the Bible is that you and I
have a relationship with Godthat is secure.
You know, my youngest son,Jonathan plays baseball for a

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college baseball.
He plays for Johns Hopkins up inBaltimore.
And I went up to see him, uh, toplay on Friday afternoon.
And after the game we went out,we were talking and as we were
sitting at dinner, he said tome, well, he said, was telling
me about a guy on the team whowas a junior who had worked two
years hard to get a startingspot.
And then, uh, he started for thefirst half of the season and he

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really didn't hit very well.
And he really didn't play allthat well.
And he lost his starting spotand how discouraged this kid
was.
And I said, you know, John, it'sreally sad.
You know?
I mean, I said, I feel bad forthe kid.
And, and, and he said, well,dad, but you know what he said,
if you play athletics, you getused to the fact that it's all
about the numbers.
Dad, it's all about performance.

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There is no such thing assecurity when you're playing
baseball.
And you know, I got to thinkingabout that on the way home.
And I thought that's just nottrue about sports friends.
That's true about life.
I mean the military, you get acouple bad fitness reports and
guess what?
There goes your career.
It's true in business.
You post some bad profit numbersfor a couple of quarters and you

(23:59):
watch what happens to your job.
It's true in school, you get badgrades and parents, and I'm
going to help you on this.
You get bad grades.
If you're a teenager in here,particularly in your junior year
and you can kiss that college.
You want to go to goodbye.
You guys study.
Yeah.
Am I right?

(24:20):
Well, whatever.
Okay.
I'm trying to help you.
If you're a mom and a dad here,come on, give me some support.
Hey you, in relationships, yousay the wrong thing to somebody
at the wrong time or do thewrong thing.
You can lose a friend in aheartbeat.
You can lose a neighbor in aheartbeat.
Folks.
This is a tough world.
There's no security in thisworld.

(24:41):
Wouldn't it be great.
If there were something in thisworld that was secure and
unchanging and that we couldcount on regardless of our
performance, whether it went upor down or all around.
Well, that's the great news ofthe Bible.
The great news of the Bible isthere is something in this world
that we can count on.
That is secure, regardless ofwhat happens to our human

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performance.
And it is our eternal life.
It is our place in heaven.
It is our covenant, our contractwith all mighty God.
There is nothing you can do tomess this up.
There is nothing you can do tolose this.
And I'm here to challenge you tobelieve God when he tells you
this and enjoy it to do yourselfa favor and believe when God

(25:25):
tells you and really enjoy yourrelationship with Christ.
And so in closing, let me saythat if you're a follower of
Jesus Christ and you're goinghome today on the beltway and
some idiot kills you on thebeltway, don't worry about it
because when you breathe, yourvery last breath here on earth,
God's promise to you.

(25:45):
Is that the very next breath youbreathe will be on the shores.
They haven't.
And your performance doesn'tmatter.
Even if you were speeding.
When you got killed, you stillgo into heaven.
If you go out to lunch after youcome to church here today, and
you choked to death on yourshrimp cocktail, don't worry
about it because the last breathyou breathe here on earth,
trying to breathe through thatpiece of shrimp.

(26:06):
The next breath you breathe isgoing to be on the shores of
heaven.
It doesn't even matter if yourdoctor told you not to eat
shrimp.
It's okay.
Hey, if you are watchingbaseball this summer and the
Cubs win the world series andyou have a heart attack, it's
okay.
Because the next breath youbreathe is going to be on the
shores of heaven.
Even if you're a red Sox fan.

(26:27):
It's okay.
Honest.
And finally, if you come homeladies one day and your husband
starts to tell you how much hecares about you and starts
telling you how you complete himand starts telling you about how
much he appreciates you.
And he asks you to take a momentand sit down and tell him all
about your day.

(26:47):
And you have a stroke rightthere.
Don't worry about it becauseyou're going to heaven.
And there's nothing you can doto mess it up.
This is the great news of theBible.
And you're going to heaven.
Why not?
Because of your performance?
No, no, no.
You're going to heaven becauseJesus made a contract with you

(27:11):
and Jesus keeps his word.
What a wonderful thing to knowin our world.
Second Timothy chapter two,verse 13, one of the greatest
verses in the Bible, even whenwe are faithless, which happens,
sometimes God remains faithful.
He cannot deny himself friends.

(27:35):
Jesus is going to keep his wordto you.
That's the basis of our eternalsecurity.
What a wonderful thing to havein this life.
I hope you'll enjoy it.
Let's pray father, thanks forreminding us today that our
relationship with Christ, oureternal life, our eternal
security is based upon thecharacter of all mighty God.

(27:59):
The fact that when he makes thedeal, he keeps it and has
nothing to do with ourperformance.
And I pray that you would sinkthat truth deeply into every one
of us here.
So deeply that it changes theway we relate to you.
And it changes the way we thinkabout our everyday Christian
experience.
What a wonderful thing it is toknow that even though at school,

(28:23):
at work in relationships, ourperformance can really cost us.
It's wonderful to know that inour relationship with all mighty
God, it's not based on ourperformance.
And so Lord bring a joy to ourlife that comes from knowing we
are eternally secure in ourplace with Christ.
Thank you for Jesus.

(28:44):
Say I give my sheep eternal lifeand they shall never perish.
Lord help us rejoice in that Ipray in Jesus' name and God's
people said, amen, have a greatday.
Bless you.