How To Get To Heaven

If you were to die and go to heaven and stand before God—and trust me; that will one day happen—and God would ask you the question, “Why should I let you into heaven?” what would be your reply? What would be your answer? It might indicate whether or not you are saved, whether or not you have trusted Jesus. If you say, “Well, I’m a good person,” that’s not the best answer. The Bible says our righteousness or goodness “is as filthy rags.” You say, “Well, I was christened as a baby, I’ve been confirmed, I’ve been baptized, I’m a religious person, I’m a good person, and my good works outweigh my bad.” The Bible is very clear that being saved is not by what we do; it’s “not by works of righteousness” that we’ve done, as it says in the book of Titus.

It is according to God’s mercy that He saved us, and the Bible explains it as “the washing of regeneration” and “the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” That means we’ve been born again. Jesus told Nicodemus, a very, very religious man and a very good man by earthly standards, that “You have to be born again…”—that’s that washing of regeneration—“…if you’re going to see the kingdom of God.”

So being a good person, going to church, being baptized, being religious—as we’re going to see from Paul’s own life—will not get you into heaven. There’s only one thing that will get you into heaven, and that’s by faith or by trusting in Jesus Christ, Who died on the Cross, was buried and rose again from the dead. Jesus came to save us, and only He can give us the hope of heaven.

Paul uses three words, and I want to mention them to give you the context of this chapter. He’s talking about salvation, and he uses three words to describe our salvation. In verse 9, Paul uses the phrase “found in Him.” This is what theologians call “justification.” Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner to be righteous, based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. In verse 10, he uses the phrase “know Him.” That’s what we call “sanctification.” So it starts with being justified, being declared righteous, and then God begins to make us righteous. It’s the work of God in our lives whereby He transforms us to be more like Jesus Christ. Then in verse 20, he uses the phrase “look for the Savior.” This is what we call “glorification.” So verse 9, “found in Him,” I’m justified; verse 10, “know Him,” I’m sanctified; and verse 20, I “look” for Him.

When Jesus Christ comes back—I believe Jesus is coming back. Do you believe Jesus is coming back? I had a dear friend of mine, a pastor, text me from Australia. Pastor Keith Carmody pastors a little church about an hour south of Perth in a little town called Secret Harbour. He said something that blessed my heart. He said, “Keep fighting the battle. The war is almost over. We’re almost home.” I thought, How true that is; we’re almost home. Whether the Lord takes me by way of death, or whether the Lord comes to rapture me, either way, I’m going to be home in heaven and I’m going to be glorified.

The minute I see Jesus Christ face-to-face, everything will be behind us. All the pain, all the tears, all the sorrow, all the hardship. The Bible says, “He will wipe away every tear” from our eyes. I look forward to that day. I long for that day. I pray, “Even so, come Lord Jesus.” Don’t you?

So I have been justified, declared righteous. I’m being—present tense—sanctified, made more righteous. And one day I will be perfectly righteous, because I’ll be glorified. I’m not a “glorified” John Miller yet. But one day I will be, and one day you will be, and “We will be like Him and see Him as He is.” So the whole context of this whole chapter is about salvation.

Now my answer to the question—I’m going to give you my outline. My answer to the question, how to get to heaven, is not by good works, verses 1-6, but by faith in Jesus Christ, verses 7-9. In verses 1-6, Paul says we’re not going to get to heaven by our good works. In verses 7-9, Paul says that we get there by faith in Jesus Christ. I want to talk about that faith and what that faith really means and what that faith really is.

Paul warns us, in verses 1-6, that we’re not saved by our good works. The context is that false teachers had come into the church in Philippi, which is a Roman colony with a group of believers, which was very near and dear to the heart of Paul. It was a church that supported him financially. He loved the believers in Philippi.

By the way, he’s writing this letter, along with Ephesians and Colossians and Philemon, from prison. He’s in Rome and he’s in chains. And when he writes to them, he’s warning them about false teachers. They were known as “Judaizers.” Why were they called Judaizers? Because they were telling Gentile Christians that for you to be a saved person, for you to be a Christian, you have to become a Jew. So they were Judaizing Gentiles. In the early church, that was a real issue: Can Gentiles be saved? Can Gentiles go to heaven? The Jews believed that God only created the Gentiles as fuel for the fires of hell. That’s a really nice thought. God made you so you can fuel the fires of hell. That’s the only reason why God made you.

So the early church was mostly Jewish, but the Gentiles started coming to Christ. In Philippi, it was a Roman colony, so there were a lot of Gentile believers. These Jews showed up and said, “You can’t be Christians unless you’re circumcised. You can’t be Christians unless you follow dietary laws.” That’s from the Old Testament: “Don’t eat this and don’t eat that. You can’t be Christians unless you worship on certain days, certain holy days. Do these rites and rituals.”

Does that have a familiar ring? A lot of times people say, “Well, you can’t be a Christian unless you’re baptized. You can’t be a Christian unless you get a haircut.” Back in my hippie days when I got saved, I had long hair and a beard. I was saved, but people kept asking me, “When are you going to get a haircut so you can really be saved?”

I went to work for a Christian organization—I don’t know why they hired me—and they were all praying that I would be saved. But I was saved! I actually said, “I look more like Jesus than you do. What’s the deal?” You’re going to judge someone’s salvation based on the length of their hair?! Or the color of their skin? Or a rite or a ritual? Or what they do? God looks at the heart. That’s an awesome thought. God doesn’t look as man looks; God looks on the heart.

So Paul is warning us here, in verses 1-6, about the Judaizers, who trusted in themselves. They put their faith and their rites and rituals in their religion. Paul said, “No; that will not get you to heaven.”

Let’s read verses 1-6. Paul says, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe…”—He says that he’s going to warn them here. He thinks it’s important. It’s not a burden but something to keep them safe—“…Beware of dogs…”—He uses these figures of speech to describe these false teachers or Judaizers—“…beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Paul is saying that “If anyone could get to heaven by being good, I’m your boy.” That’s a paraphrase, by the way. “I’m your man. I’m your guy. You think that your goodness and your good works and your righteousness and your religion is gonna get you to heaven? If that’s true, then that would be true of me. There’s no one more devoted or more committed than I.”

In the first three verses, Paul warns us again about false teachers. It was necessary that they were safe, so he tells them they needed to rejoice in the Lord. That’s interesting because that’s one of the themes of Philippians. The Judaizers were rejoicing in their religion and their rites and rituals but not rejoicing in Jesus. When you realize that you are saved by grace through faith—grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—then everything is praise to Jesus Christ for saving me by His grace.

If you think you are saved because you do something to earn it or merit it or deserve it, it’s praise to me; “Look how wonderful I am.” The Bible says that God saved us by His grace that it might be “to the praise and glory of His grace” who first trusted in Christ Jesus.” When we get to heaven, it’s going to be all praise and glory and honor be to Him Who died for us. We’re not going to be looking at our merits or our goodness.

So Paul says that “It’s important that I warn you.” Next he says, “Beware of the dogs.” The Jews called the Gentiles “dogs,” and now Paul calls these Jewish false teachers “dogs.” He’s not talking about the canine breed; he’s talking about false teachers. He says, “Beware of evil workers.” These were legalists, who were promoting a legalistic way to be saved. Next, he says, “Beware of the mutilation” or the “concision.” There’s the key word there. That word means the mutilators, because it is a reference to the rite of circumcision. He’s saying, “All they’re doing is mutilating you.”

Then notice in verse three Paul says, “We are the true circumcision.” That’s what he’s saying in the contrast there. The word “for” there is the reason or the rationale. “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers…because we are the true circumcision. We worship God in the Spirit.” He gives three descriptions of what I believe is a Christian: “worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and…”—I love it—“…have no confidence in the flesh.”
I’ve always felt these are three great descriptions of a true Christian. Number one, “we worship God in the Spirit.” God is a spirit, and they that worship Him, worship Him “in Spirit and in truth.” It’s not material or physical; it’s spiritual. You can go to a liturgical church and light candles and chant and go through the actions—that’s fine—but God’s looking at your heart. You can come to this church and you can sing songs and clap, but is your heart right with God? You can lift your hands to God, but is your heart right with God? It’s so easy to check out; “Yah, here we are. Praise the Lord,” but your mind is somewhere else. Are your really worshipping God “in Spirit and in truth” as God has revealed Himself in his Word?

Then notice the second description, verse 3. They “rejoice in Christ Jesus.” I love that. You know why Christians are always praising Jesus and talking about Jesus and worshipping Jesus and telling people about Jesus? Because Jesus saved them. Jesus is their Savior. It’s all about Jesus, and we rejoice in Him. We don’t rejoice for our circumstances; we rejoice in the Lord, verse 1. Circumstances can rob us of our joy. You get on the freeway on your way to work, and everybody decided to get right in front of you and go real slow. Don’t they know I’m a pastor? “Get out of the way! I’ve got places to go and things to do.” Circumstances and things can rob you of your joy. People can rob you of your joy. “I love humanity,” said Charlie Brown; “It’s people I can’t stand.” They get in front of me in line. They cut me off. They say mean things to me. If it weren’t for people, I’d be a happy person. But my joy isn’t in people; it’s in the Lord. Nothing can rob us of our joy if we’re worshipping God in the Spirit and we’re rejoicing in Christ Jesus.

Then, in verse 3—this is very important—“Have no confidence in the flesh.” You could actually summarize verses 1-6 as confidence in the flesh, and verses 7-9 as trust in Jesus Christ. If God asked, “Why should I let you into heaven?” the proper answer is, “Because I’m trusting Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I put my faith in Jesus. I’ve invited Him to come into my heart and forgive my sins. I’m trusting Him as my Lord and Savior.”

Jesus said in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The word that starts those Beatitudes is “blessed,” which means “O, how happy.” “O, how happy are the poor in spirit.” That means that you’re completely bankrupt before God. Coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, you come naked, poor, wretched and blind. You don’t come to offer your goodness. You don’t come to offer your righteousness. You don’t come to offer your church attendance. You come and say, “Lord, I’m poor and wretched and naked and blind. Lord, please forgive me and help me.” You humble yourself before Him. That word “poor” means complete, abstract poverty. It’s the lowest you can get. It’s actually the word used for a beggar who has nothing. He’s just begging for crumbs. “…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That’s how we come into the kingdom of heaven: broken and poor and humble before God. Then God forgives us and restores us and makes us His children.

Not only does Paul warn us about these false teachers, but in verses 4-6, he warns us about a false confidence. He uses himself as an illustration. He says, “Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.” He says, “We have no confidence in the flesh, but you Judaizers or you false teachers, if you want to trust in your righteousness, then I could have done that.” In verse 4 he says, “If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.” Now Paul lists them for us: “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

I want to point out the things that Paul was proud of. In so many ways, they are the very same things that are keeping people from faith in Jesus Christ today. In verse 5, Paul was proud of his ritual. He was circumcised at eight days old. At eight days old, they would circumcise the Jewish boys. That was in indication that you were fulfilling that ritual or rite.

I meet a lot of people who are proud that they’ve been baptized. I ask people, “Are you a Christian?”

They say, “I’ve been baptized.”

“Uh, that’s not what I asked you. I didn’t ask you if you’ve been baptized. I asked you if you are a Christian.”

“Well, I’ve been confirmed. I’ve taken communion. I was born in America. I live in Menifee. We’re all Christians; right?”

We have this crazy idea that our religion or our race or our creed makes us a Christian. No. I become a Christian when Christ lives in me. When Christ is dwelling in my heart through faith. I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’ve even met people who say, “Well, I’m a Christian, but not a born-again kind.” There’s only one kind of Christian, and that’s the born-again kind. You can’t see the kingdom of God unless you’re born again by the Spirit of God.

So Paul is proud of his ritual—he was circumcised. He was proud of his relationship—he’s “of the stock of Israel.” In other words, he was from the line of Jacob and not Esau. “I’m an Israelite.” In verse 5, thirdly, he was proud of his respectability. He was a very respectable man. “I’m of the tribe of Benjamin.” Benjamin was a respectable tribe. It was the tribe of Benjamin that actually stayed faithful to David during the divided kingdom period. He was the last of the twelve sons of Jacob through his beloved wife, Rachael. It was the area assigned to them where Jerusalem was located. So Benjamin was a respectable tribe. I’ve met people who feel that they’ve led a respectable life, so God should let them into heaven.

In verse 5, Paul was proud of his race. He was a “Hebrew of the Hebrews.” Why would he say that? Why wouldn’t he just say he was a Hebrew? He says he’s a “super Hebrew.” He said that because the Hebrews or the Jews that would follow Greek culture were called “Hellenists.” Alexander the Great hellenized the Roman world at that time. They were following Greek culture and thought. They were Hebrews by race, but they weren’t Hebrews by culture. They were hellenized Jews. Paul said, “No, not me. I’m a Hebrew following Hebrew culture.” So he was a very devoted Hebrew.

He was proud of his religion, verse 5. “I’m a Pharisee.” You don’t get any more religious than a Pharisee. The word “Pharisee” actually means “a separated one.” They were a group of devout Jews who separated themselves from all that was secular and devoted themselves one hundred percent to nothing but keeping every jot and tittle of the law. The Scribes would write it out, and the Pharisees would live it out. Before Paul got converted, he was a Pharisee. He had his phylactery, his robes, his prayer shawl. He was very devoted. He did everything, so he said, “I’m proud of my religion.”

How many people today believe that when they die and stand before God, they’re religion is going to get them into heaven? Religion can’t save you. Only relationship with Christ can save you. Religion is reaching out trying to find God. Christianity is God reaching down to find us in our sin. So Paul, as a Pharisee, was very religious and proud of it.

Then, in verse 6, Paul was proud of his reputation. He said, “Concerning zeal, I actually persecuted Christians. You guys think you’re something? Well, I actually opposed the church.” Do you know that you can be very zealous, but you can be wrong? You can be sincere, and you can be wrong? People think you get to heaven because you’re committed and you’re sincere. That’s one of the biggest fallacies I encounter so often. “Well, they’re sincere. Do you think God’s going to reject them because they’re sincere?” You can be sincerely wrong. It’s not about sincerity; it’s about being right and the object of your faith being Jesus Christ. If you place your faith in the wrong thing, it’s very dangerous. If I go into my garage and drink poison sincerely believing it’s Cool-Aid, I’m going to die. No matter how sincere I am. The object of your faith is the thing that is important.

Paul was also proud of his righteousness. Notice verse 6, which says, “Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Can you imagine trying to witness to this dude? It would be insane. “Hey, you need Jesus Christ.”

“Do you know who you’re talking to? I am a Pharisee! I am a Hebrew of Hebrews, I’ll have you know! I was circumcised at eight days old. As far as the law goes, I am blameless. And you’re telling me I need Jesus, that I need to believe in Jesus!!”

Do you know that a lot of people respond to the Gospel in just the same way? But we sing,

Nothing in my hand I bring.
Simply to Thy Cross I cling.

And others sing,

I bring everything in my hand.
Look how wonderful I am.
Look how great I am!

I don’t know what you have faith in. Believe me, everyone has faith. You are trusting something to get you to heaven. What is it? If it’s not Jesus Christ, it’s not sufficient and it’s not adequate. If it’s not Christ alone, then nothing can get you to heaven. Your good works fall short. Your good works are filthy rags in the sight of a holy God. So verses 1-6 make it very clear that we won’t get to heaven by good deeds.

Now we have verses 7-9. It’s very clear that salvation is by faith in Christ. Paul says, “But…”—“But” is an intended contrast—“…what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” Now Paul becomes an accountant. I’m horrible with figures. I’m horrible with math. I’m horrible with that stuff. But Paul opens the ledgers or the books of his life. He looks at the plus side, and he looks at the negative side. Paul said, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.” So he looks at his gains, but he counts them as loss for Christ. Then he said, “Yea, doubtless, and I count…”—in verse 7, it’s in the past tense, “counted.” Now it’s in the present tense, “count”—“…all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…”—catch that phrase “the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”—“…for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung…”—or “refuse,” “garbage” or “manure”—“…that I may win Christ.”

So Paul is saying that all these things that were a plus to my account—my circumcision, my religion, my race, my righteousness—are like a pile of manure in comparison with the righteousness which is of Jesus Christ. “…that I may win Christ.” I love that phrase. So he talks about knowing Christ and winning Christ.

Then in verse 9, he says, “…and be found in Him…”—“in Christ”—“…not having mine own righteousness…”—and there are only two kinds of righteousness: self-righteousness and God’s righteousness. Self-righteousness, which is good works or God’s righteousness, which is given to you by faith in Jesus Christ—“…not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

Paul does two things. First of all, we become right with God and we get to heaven by rejecting self-righteousness. In verse 7, he esteemed his gains as loss. All of Paul’s religion is actually negative. It’s nothing. It’s just refuse. Secondly, he said that accepting Christ’s righteousness is by knowing Christ and then winning Christ, “that I may win Christ,” and then “be found in Christ,” and then he possessed “the righteousness, which is of God by faith.” So Paul esteemed his gains as loss, he esteemed his gains as refuse and he rejected his own righteousness. Then he accepted Christ’s righteousness, which comes to him by faith. That is so very important. That’s what a Christian is. He is one who knows Him, is found in Him and has the righteousness of God imparted to him by faith.

I’ve picked this text to purposefully preach to you because of two things. It’s profundity and its simplicity. And I know that as I’m preaching it, people are thinking, Gee, can John say anything new? Can John say anything different? It’s like one string on his guitar. That’s because it’s the Scriptures. I’m saying what the Bible says over and over again—faith in Christ. We’re saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. I’ve been saying that for over 40 years, and I’m not going to stop saying it until the Lord takes me home. Because that’s what the Bible says. We always want to get into all these other issues and all these other things.

The question is, are you right with God? I just felt this urgency today to make it very, very clear. Are you right with God? Do you know Jesus Christ? Have you been born again? Are you going to go to heaven? I don’t assume I’m preaching to the choir. I don’t assume that all of you know Jesus Christ. It may be that you just came today. You may have been coming for weeks. It may be that your husband’s been dragging you for months. Or vis a versa. Maybe you’ve brought your husband, and you want him to hear the Good News.

I want you to know that you can be saved today. I want you to know that Jesus Christ can forgive your sins today. You’re not going to get to heaven because you’re a good person. You’re not going to get to heaven because of your religion. You’re not going to get to heaven because of your race. You’re not going to get to heaven because of the good things you do. You get to heaven because you, by faith, reach out and take the hand of Jesus Christ.

You say, “Oh, you Christians! You’re always talking about faith.” You know how the world interprets faith? They interpret faith by saying we psych ourselves up to believe something that’s really not true. That’s presumption. You know, we all exercise faith every day. You got in your car, by faith, and started your car. Either you stepped on the brake and you pushed the ignition button or you turned the key and it fired up, or you got outside and you kicked it and got it started. I don’t know what you did.

I was with a friend the other day. We’re looking at our VW busses, and we’re talking about how he has to push-start his every time to get the thing going. He’s a pastor. The congregation comes out and helps him to push his car to get it started after church. That takes a lot of faith to drive something like that.

You’re sitting in the pew by faith right now. When you came into the sanctuary, did you crawl under the pew to make sure that all the screws were tight? How do you know it’s not going to collapse? You eat by faith that your food is really what it’s supposed to be. Especially in a restaurant. You don’t know what they put in that stuff. You get in an airplane. Think about faith. You don’t interview the pilot first. “Have you been drinking? Are you doing drugs? Let me see your license.” You just get in that airplane and it takes off. You don’t even know who’s flying it.

I remember the first time I flew in an airplane. I was just so freaked out. We leveled off at about 30,000 feet and the pilot walked by. I thought, Who’s flying the plane?! You just grab some dude in the seat and say, “Hey, you’re in charge”? That’s scary.

You get in an elevator. How do you know the cables aren’t frayed?

In southern California, we build these big freeway overpasses. Why?! There’re earthquakes here. At the 10 and 215 interchange, San Bernardino, there’s a huge overpass. Every time I go over it I say, “Lord, not now! Not now, Lord! Not now, Lord!” I punch it. “Oh, praise God. Get me over this baby,” you know. It just takes faith to go anywhere in California these days.

The Bible says, “Have faith in God,” and you say, “Oh, no. No; I can’t do that.” Why? I put together a little graphic that’s an acrostic. Here’s faith:

Forsaking
All
I
Take
Him

Faith is just simply saying,

Nothing in my hand I bring.
Simply to Thy Cross I cling.

Jesus gave us a story that summarizes, and I’ll close with this. It’s called the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. Not “Republican.” A publican is a tax collector. Nobody likes tax collectors. They were the low-lifers, crooks, criminals, Jews who worked for the Roman government to collect taxes. Jesus said this parable, earthly story, that was true to life but has a heavenly meaning. Luke tells us in his 18th chapter that Jesus told this story, because some people trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, and they despised others.

Jesus said that two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, a very religious Jewish man, and the other was a publican, a worldly party animal, an ungodly tax collector. The Pharisee stood up in the temple and prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men.” What a great way to start your prayer! “I give tithes of all that I possess.” He thought God was clapping His hands and saying, “Aren’t you awesome!” The Pharisee said, “I fast not once a week but twice a week. I do all these righteous deeds. And I thank you, O God, that I am not like this publican over here, this tax collector.” I believe that he’s praying out loud, and the tax collector can hear him say, “I thank God I’m not like that tax collector over there; he’s messed up! I do all these wonderful things!” He went on and on saying “I,” “I” “I.” He had a brag session about how wonderful he was.

Then Jesus said that the tax collector prayed. The tax collector wouldn’t even look up. He looked down and covered his face. He beat on his chest and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” That was his prayer.

Jesus said, “Which of those two was justified before God? Which one left the temple that day right with God?” The answer was the publican.

You can come to God and plead your righteousness. “God I’m good. God I’ve been baptized. God I do this and God I do that.” Or you can come to God and say,

Nothing in my hand I bring.
Simply to Thy Cross I cling.
Naked come I to Thee for dress.
Lord, heal me and forgive me.
Wash me in Thy precious blood.

I’ll never forget that day when I accepted Jesus Christ, and I came naked and poor and wretched and blind. I said, “God, I’m sorry. Please forgive me. God, give me new life. God, come into my heart. Change me. I’m sorry for my sins. Please forgive me.” What a blessed day that was, and I’m still rejoicing in it; that God has washed away all my sins. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And theirs only.

Are you here and say, “Pastor John, I haven’t forsaken all and taken Christ”? “I’m still holding onto my goodness. I’m still holding onto my righteousness.” Or maybe you’re a bad person and think, “I’m not good enough to go to heaven.” There is no one too sinful. The publican was a sinner, and he said, “God, be merciful,” and God forgave him. Jesus said, “No one who comes to Me will I turn away.” “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

I don’t care, and God doesn’t care what you’ve done. If you’ll come to Jesus Christ, He will forgive all of your sins. Your past can be forgiven. You can have a clean heart with God. You can know God as your personal Savior and Lord. And you can know that when you die, you will go to heaven. Jesus died on the Cross for your sins. He was buried and He rose again. You, individually, have to say by faith that you believe that; that you put your faith in Jesus Christ, and you trust Him as your Savior. Then you can have eternal life. You’ll know that when you die, you will go to heaven.

But if you don’t know that, I want to give you that opportunity right now, right here to trust in Jesus Christ. I want everyone to be given this opportunity to say, “Jesus, come into my heart. Jesus, forgive my sins. Jesus, be my Savior.”

Maybe you’re reading this and you don’t know if you’ve ever really made that commitment or trusted Him. Then now is the day. Today is the time to trust in Jesus. Let’s all bow our heads in a word of prayer.