Are you really good at making excuses for things you don’t want to do? For example, when it’s time to do your chores or go spend time with those family members you don’t want to see, all of a sudden you have homework that you have to get done.
We come up with excuses for stuff all the time, why we can’t hang out, why we haven’t gotten something done, why our bedroom is a mess, why we are failing. One of the things I have noticed and that I’m guilty of is we always have excuses for why we can’t read our Bible. We could all come up with a million excuses for why we don’t read the Bible more often.
We think that what’s going on on our phones is more exciting than what is happening in the pages of this book. But have you read Genesis 39? The Bible sounds pretty exciting to me.
No one reads anymore, or nobody carries a Bible anymore. That may be true, but do you know you can download an app on your phone and push this little sound button and there is some dude inside the phone that will read the Bible to you?
There are a million reasons why we don’t spend time with God and I want you to hear this. For all of you who feel like God is distant and not at all close to you, it is because you haven’t taken the time to be close to Him. The reason you are close to your family, the reason you are close to your friends is that you spend time with them. The reason we feel distant from God is that we never or rarely spend time talking to Him through prayer, and we never or rarely allow Him the chance to speak back to us by reading or listening to the Bible. A person can’t be close to someone when they don’t spend any time with them.
Some of us are tired of feeling like we are distant from God and feeling like our relationship with Him isn’t that great. If that’s you, take time to get to know this God who loved you so much that He sacrificed His own son on a cross and rose again from the dead to rescue you from yourself. Take time to read how He is always there for His people, the amazing ways He has rescued them over and over, the promises He makes us. We want to make reading the Bible easy and something you guys enjoy. So we have a few tips to help you get to that point, and the first one is–
1. Make sure you have a Bible that is easy to read.
There are all kinds of different translations of the Bible. Some of those translations are easy to read and some are hard. I would recommend the New Living Translation of the Bible. We call that version the NLT. It is the easiest translation of the Bible to understand.
I am going to read a verse of scripture from the King James Bible and then we are going to compare that same verse in the New Living Translation.
The verse we are looking at is found in Psalm 119:9. Here is the King James version of that verse–
“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word.” Psalm 119:9 (KJV)
Do you know anyone who talks like that anymore? I guess that is the way people talked back in the 1600s, but people don’t talk like that anymore. Let’s look at that same verse in the NLT, The New Living Translation–
"How can a young person stay pure? By obeying your word." Psalm 119:9 (NLT)
Do you see how much easier that verse is to understand?
If you want to start reading the Bible more consistently but you don't have one, we have copies of the New Testament available at Remix. Or if you want one with the Old and New Testament, our bookstore has some you can buy.
God speaks through the Bible, and if you are like me you want to learn the wisdom of God so you make the best choices for your life. You have to invest in a good Bible if you want to draw closer to God.
2. Set aside time to read one chapter of God’s Word a day.
Again, it is impossible to be close to someone if you never spend any time with them. Eventually, a neglected relationship grows cold and distant.
Here is the great news. God always has time for you. The question is will you make time for Him? What time works best for you?
Some of us are morning people. You get out of bed and you are ready to go. Others of us are not morning people. You wake up and anyone who talks to you, you want to kill. If that’s you, you might want to pick another time. For some of you, your time will be while you are eating lunch or when you get home from school, or just before you go to bed. What time will it be for you?
Once you have figured that out, set a daily reminder on your phone and write, “My Time with God.” We set appointments and reminders for things that are important to us, and I can’t think of anything more important than spending a few minutes with God each day.
The goal is to read one chapter of the Bible each day. That will take the average person 3 minutes a day, but those three minutes will be the most impactful minutes of your day. Certainly, every one of us can spend 3 minutes with God.
3. Start in the right place.
Many times, when people decide to read the Bible they think they should start reading at the very beginning because that is what you do when you are reading a book. You start at page 1, but the Bible is a collection of 66 different books so you don’t need to start at page 1. In fact, I would encourage you to start off reading the New Testament.
On our Sagebrush app, under the Bible tab, we have a New Testament reading plan. Download the Sagebrush app and follow along with that reading plan. You will start in the book of Luke. If you do this plan every day, you will have read the entire New Testament in only 9 months.
When you and I asked Jesus to come into our life, we not only wanted Him to forgive us of our sins so we could go to heaven when we die, but we also wanted a close relationship with Jesus where He leads us and guides us. It’s so difficult to be led by God if you are not reading God’s Word. You have to make this time a priority of your daily schedule.
4. When you read the Bible don’t read it too fast.
When we sit down to eat, we don’t sit there and say, “ready, set, go!” and then try to eat it as fast as we can. At least, most of us don’t.
When you read the Bible, take your time. Ask yourself– What is happening in this chapter? What are these people feeling? What are they seeing? Why does God want me to know this? What is He trying to say to me?
Let me end by asking you a question. If you were stranded on a desert island and could have only a single book with you, what would you choose?
Somebody once asked this question of G.K. Chesterton. Given his reputation as one of the best Christian writers in the first half of the twentieth century, one would naturally expect his response to be the Bible. It was not. Chesterton chose "Thomas' Guide to Practical Shipbuilding."
That makes sense, of course. When we're trapped on an island, we want a book that will help us get home. We don't want to be entertained or even informed. We want a book that will show us how to be saved.
So, this week I want to challenge you to start reading one chapter of the Bible a day. I want to encourage you to get the YouVersion Bible app. On that app, it has streaks. So each day you get on and read a verse or a chapter, your streak builds. If you come back to Remix next week and show us that you have a 7 day Bible streak, we will give you a gift card. Why are we doing this? Because we know if you can start reading the Bible every day, your life could forever be changed because of what God will reveal to you.
Today we are beginning a brand-new series called “Simple.” In the next few weeks, we are going to try to understand what it really means to have a relationship with God, and hopefully realize it’s not as hard as we make it to be sometimes.
Today we are asking the question: how do you know you are going to heaven?
Let’s be honest, some of us have never thought about this, and others of us aren't sure. We aren't sure that we will go to heaven when we die.
So the question is, why are people unsure of where they will spend their eternity?
The number one reason people are unsure of where they will go when they die is that people base their relationship with God on their feelings.
There was a student who came to a student pastor’s office because he was interested in giving his life over to God. They sat and talked for a while and the student pastor shared with him how a person becomes a Christian. He asked Him. Is there any reason why you wouldn’t want to give your life to God right now? He said, “No.” And right there in that office the student prayed and asked Jesus to come into his life.
When they got done praying, he said, “Is that it?”
The student pastor said “Yep. That’s it.”
The student said, “Wow, I really don’t feel any different. I thought there would be like a beam of light that would blind me or a booming voice from heaven that would speak to me. At the very least I thought I would get a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach.”
We are always looking for a feeling to assure us that we have a relationship with God. If we feel like we are close to God, we think that we are close to God, and if we don’t feel close to God, we begin to wonder if we still have a relationship with Him. Let me tell you something about feelings– feelings are totally unreliable.
How many times have you felt like you were in love, only to find out later that you were never truly in love?
How many times in your life have you done something that you knew was wrong and yet you didn’t feel guilty?
And how many times in your life have you felt guilty even though you didn’t do anything wrong?
There are days I wake up in the morning and I don't feel like getting out of bed. Can you imagine what would happen if I never got out of bed? Some of you know exactly what would happen because that’s your life. You never feel like getting out of bed. You feel like staying up till 3 AM playing the PS5 or binging watching Tik Tok. So you have 35 tardies this year, and will probably be sleeping through summer school soon. You don't feel like getting up, and so your actions have been affected. Basing our life on feelings isn't a good idea, and the same is true with our faith.
I refuse to base my eternity on an unreliable feeling. I need something more concrete.
The second reason people are unsure of where they will go when they die is that they aren’t sure they did it right when they asked Jesus into their life.
Asking Jesus to be the Leader and Savior of your life isn’t about you saying the right words. It’s about us having the right heart.
It is about coming to grips with the sin we have committed in our lives and realizing that we were the ones that Jesus gave his life for.
1 Samuel 16:7 says, “for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
God isn’t listening for a magic formula. God is looking for a person who comes to Him with a heart that is broken over the sin that he or she has committed.
The third reason people are unsure of where they will go when they die is that they still think they can earn their way to heaven.
How many people do you know that think they are going to heaven because they are a good person?
Let me ask you a question. Are any of us here really good?
When was the last time you did something you knew was wrong?
When was the last time you lied to your parents?
When was the last time you said an unkind word or did something that hurt someone else?
The truth is, we are sinners. Jesus said in Luke 18:19 that no one is good except God alone.
We might do a good thing from time to time but our best isn’t good enough in the presence of a Holy God.
God said in Isaiah 64:6 all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.
Let me illustrate how our goodness isn’t good enough. Imagine that everyone in the United States lines up on the shore of California and we are told that we have to swim to Hawaii or die.
First up is a middle-aged man who used to be a great swimmer. He begins to swim, but it isn't long before he begins to get tired. He tries to keep going, but eventually, he can’t go on and he drowns.
Next up is the varsity swimmer. She has been swimming every day of her life for the past 10 years. She begins to swim slowly and steadily--one mile, two miles, ten miles--but she begins to get cramps in her tired muscles. She can't go on. She too drowns.
Next is the marathon swimmer. He starts out swimming strong and steady. He passes the 10-mile mark, the 20-mile mark, and even the 50-mile mark, but eventually, he too begins to wear down. The waves take their toll and he finally drowns.
Although some swimmers are much better than others, there is not a single swimmer, no matter how great, who can swim all the way to Hawaii.
Just as the best swimmer can't swim all the way to Hawaii from California, even the best person in the world can't get into heaven based on his or her good works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Think about it. If it was possible to get to heaven based on our goodness, then there would be no reason for God to send His Son to die for our sins. If you could save yourself there would be no reason for Jesus to be beaten beyond recognition and be nailed to a cross. There would be no reason for Him to rise again from the dead.
So the question is how can we be sure that we are going to heaven when we die? I think a lot of us have done the opposite of the name of our series; we have made following Jesus complicated. Really, it's pretty simple to make the decision, even though it is such an amazing commitment. It makes me think of growing up– one of the simplest ways to learn was when your parents, teachers, or even just yourself used these alphabet letters. So let's not make it too complicated, let's understand choosing to follow Jesus is as simple as the A, B, C's.
The Bible is pretty clear. If you want to be a Christian you simply must:
A- ADMIT YOU ARE A SINNER.
Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”
A person who has a relationship with Jesus has come to grips with the fact that they have blown it over and over again in life. But it is not enough to just admit that you have sinned.
A person must repent of their sin. Jesus over and over again warned people to repent. Stop living your life for yourself and live your life for God. So the first question is have you ever admitted that you are a sinner and do you really do want to live your life for Jesus?
B- BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS GOD’S SON WHO DIED ON A CROSS FOR YOUR SINS AND ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD.
A person must accept the fact that Jesus was who He said He was. We must believe that Jesus died on a cross for our sins and rose again from the dead.
The Bible says in James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.”
Just believing certain facts about God does not mean you are going to heaven. There is one more step.
C- COMMIT YOUR LIFE TO JESUS.
It is to willfully allow Jesus to have full control of your life. Your dreams, your hopes, your everything.
Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord,”
That word “Lord” means boss, ruler, the one who calls the shots.
Now have you ever made a commitment to Jesus that from this day forward, the best you know how, you will live your life for Him? If you can say “yes,” then I have great news for you. You will go to heaven when you die, but it won’t be because you were a good person. You go to heaven because you love God and you want to live your life for him.
I need to ask you again. Do you love God? And do you want to live your life for Him? Because let me tell you what some people do. Some people don’t want to go all in for Jesus. They just want to do the least they have to do to get to heaven.
Can you imagine if you did that with your girlfriend or your boyfriend? Imagine I go to my wife and I say to her, "You know, I feel pretty secure in our relationship, so I want to know what is the least I have to do to be your husband?” How do you think that one would go over with my wife?
What’s the least amount of money that I have to spend on you for gifts?
What is the least amount of dating I have to do?
What is the least amount of time I have to spend with you?
How low can I go? What do you think my wife would say? I think she might have a lot to say, but I highly doubt she would ever answer the question because the question doesn’t need an answer does it? Now she knows how I really feel about her and our relationship.
If you are really a follower of Jesus there should be enough evidence in your life to convict you of really following Jesus. So that’s the question- are you who you say you are?
If you are thinking, “Man, I think I have been playing games with God and I don’t want to live my life like this anymore. I want a real relationship with Jesus. I want to put Him first in my life. I mean He died for me. He rose again from the dead for me, He wants me to go to heaven. I want to go to heaven. If you are ready to get serious and really let Jesus lead your life from this day forward?
If you are ready to get serious, I want to lead you in this prayer. There is nothing magical about this prayer, but if you mean these words God will hear your prayer and forgive you of your sin and make a place for you to be with Him one day in heaven.
Say this prayer out loud:
Dear God, “I know that I am a sinner. I don’t want to live that way anymore. I believe that Jesus is your son and that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. I am committing my life over to you. I know I won’t be perfect but I really do want to follow you from this day forward. Thank you for loving me and thank you for forgiving me. In Jesus name amen.”
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