Essentials Of The Faith / Adult Sunday School Class / Out Of The Box

There's Just No Way

            Myth: It’s too late for me

 

One of the most frustrating times of my life was spent at a nursing home several years ago. Susan’s grandmother lay dying. We were at her bedside witnessing to her and asking her if she would ask Jesus into her heart.  Her answer, “It’s too late for me.”  There was just no changing her mind. When we heard of her death, we hoped that God reached her with someone else.

 

Anyone hear this argument?

 

Has anyone told you that they were so bad that God wouldn’t want them?

 

Could someone like Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein ever be found in heaven?

 

 

            Reality: It’s never too late to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, well almost.

 

Criminal comes to faith shortly before death

 

Luke 23:26-43

 

As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then
   “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
      and to the hills, “Cover us!” ‘For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[e] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There was a written notice above him, which readKsc THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Does this mean you can live life the way you want to, pray the “sinner’s prayer” and get into heaven?

 

No. It’s your heart that’s important and God knows what’s in your heart.

 

  1. Acts 15:8
    God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.
    Acts 15:7-9 (in Context) Acts 15 (Whole Chapter)

Can someone wait until the last minute to consider Christ?

 

Yes but what about:

 

o       sudden death or mental incapacitation

o       second coming

 

You have no idea what God has in store for you or when and how his plans will unfold.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3

 

 Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape

 

As for people thinking that they are too bad for God to be interested in them, name some people who did awful things but were used by Him:

 

David, Saul, …

 

When is it too late to receive Jesus into your heart?

 

When Christ returns or when you die.

 

What can you tell the non-believer who says it’s too late to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior?

 

The Bible doesn’t set a time limit on when you can accept Jesus into your heart.  It’s only too late when you die.