It's Your Choice

John 10:10 - The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

1 Timothy 1:15 - This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Paul claims he is the worst of sinners… but all sinners belong in… church.

If we didn’t sin, we wouldn’t need to come to church. But we know no one is without sin, so we should be in church.

Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

1 John 1:8 - If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If we sin, we’ve earned/worked for death… but that’s only the first part of the verse. Then “but” comes along and gives us an out.

A gift is not earned, and it can be refused. The cool thing about this gift is that you can receive it AND give it away.

2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Sin is basically making yourself God. Sin is really pride, selfishness, and greed. It’s putting ourselves above God. We’re doing what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do.

God doesn’t distinguish between different types or severities of sin… they all earn death.

1 Timothy 2:4 - who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God loves so deeply that he made a great sacrifice to restore us to Him.

God’s will is that we repent and follow the will of Christ. He gives people every chance to come to Jesus. He is not willing that any should perish. It is still our choice, because God won’t force His will on us. Sometimes we wish He would, but we always have the choice.

John 1:43 - The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.”

We just need to follow Jesus.

John 6:28 - 

We don’t have to accomplish some great feat, we just need to believe in Jesus. It’s both more simple and more complicated than performing some feat… because it doesn’t require some difficult task, but it requires a transforming of the mind… something very difficult for some.

Hebrews 10:35-39 - Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

“For yet a little while,

And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.

Now the just shall live by faith;

But if anyone draws back,

My soul has no pleasure in him.”

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

We should believe to the saving of our entire being… but it’s our choice.

If someone goes to hell, it’s ultimately their choice. “You can go to hell if you want to.”

Ephesians 2:8,9 - For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

We can’t earn our way to heaven. The only thing we can earn is death. You just can’t work for a gift.

Hebrews 10:29 - Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

The Choice is Yours.