Your Table Is Ready...

When I go into a restaurant to eat, I give my name to the person at the front desk and they hand me a flying-saucer looking disk and tell me that they are going to prepare a table for me and that it will take 10, 15, 30, 45 minutes. The disk is a way for the restaurant to let me know when my table is ready. The hostess assures me that she will come back to get me when all is ready. 

Usually, I sit and wait and wonder with every person who is called if they have indeed forgotten about me. I stare at the red disk, “willing-it” with all my might to flash to let me know that it is time. I watch it thinking that if I blink I may miss the light going off and someone else will get my table.

Then, something strange happens; I settle in. I start to look around and get used to the environment I’ve found myself in. I begin to watch people as the chair in which I am sitting becomes molded to my body. I forget about the red disk and begin to wonder what might be the reason why each of the various groups of people came to eat at this restaurant…perhaps a birthday, or anniversary, I say to myself.

And then it happens! The disk begins to vibrate and to flash like an ambulance racing in the night! At first, I am bewildered; “What does this mean?” and “How do I get this thing to shut off?”; I think as I wake from my slumber. I leap to my feet, and almost embarrassed I race towards the front desk hoping that I am not too late.

All around me eyes begin to wonder why I get to go ahead of them.

And then, something changes in my swagger as I realize that I have been chosen, hand-selected by the restaurant to be ushered in, escorted to my table like royalty.

My hostess has returned to take me to the place that they have been preparing for me! I made it! Food and drinks await me! Everything I want has been prepared ahead of time; the table, the settings, the napkins are all arranged waiting for me!

Jesus said in John 14:2-3

“In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.”

THE BIBLE SAYS:

“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.  But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.  "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?"  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(1Co 15:51-57 NAS)

WE DON’T KNOW HOW LONG WE HAVE ON THIS EARTH.

The Bible tells us that “Now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2).

IN SPITE OF WHAT YOU’VE HEARD, God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.

Jesus said; "I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

Jesus said; "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.  (John3:16-17 NIV).

SO WHY aren’t most people experiencing life as described in the Bible verses we just read?

SIMPLY PUT, IT IS BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE SINFUL; in other words, they don’t live as God wants them to live. Because of that, they are distant, or separated from God, and they cannot know and experience God's love and plan for their lives.

In the Bible we read; "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"(Romans 3:23).

When God made people, He intended FOR EVERYONE to have a loving relationship with Him. But because people have free-will, often they choose to go their own independent ways; doing what they want, and a relationship with God is broken.

The Bible calls this sin. Sin is anything that separates us from God; it means to miss the mark.

In the Bible we read; "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). 

In other words, the price of doing whatever we want results in a spiritual separation from God,

And life apart from God is death. God is holy and just. He cannot simply wink at sin.

His holiness commands payment for our sin.

John 3:18 Whoever believes on Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."

BUT GOD DOESN’T WANT US TO STAY SEPARATED FROM HIM, so He made a way to "bridge the gap" that divides us from Him. This way is through Jesus Christ.

JESUS CHRIST IS GOD'S ONLY PROVISION FOR MAN'S SIN. Jesus paid the price for our sin with His death, burial, and resurrection: sinless substitute. Through Jesus (and Jesus alone) you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.

Remember that we read in the Bible that "the wages of sin is death?" Well, In the Bible we also read that Jesus died in our place;

"God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).  "Christ died for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures...He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).

THE BIBLE TELLS US THAT JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY TO GOD.

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me'" (John 14:6).

SOME PEOPLE WANT TO DO IT ALL ON THEIR OWN, thinking that Christianity is too narrow; there must be several ways to get in.

IF I WAS TO TRY TO GET BACK INTO BODY BUILDING, there would really be only one way to do it: Diet and exercise. No short cuts as shown in the infomercials on TV. No fad diets. I have to follow the prescribed plan. The same is true for getting right with God.

YOU MIGHT BE THINKING THAT GOD IS WRONG TO SEND PEOPLE TO HELL.

It is not God’s plan to send people to hell. Hell was created for the devil and His angels.

People go to hell because they reject God’s offer of salvation. That is like a restaurant where you need a tie to get in and you refuse to take the tie offered to you by the hostess.

If you don’t go to heaven, it is because you have rejected His offer for forgiveness.

YOU MIGHT BE THINKING, "I ALREADY KNOW THIS." But it is not enough just to know this; you must personally and individually receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. After that, you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.

In the Bible we read; "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12)

HOW?  WE RECEIVE CHRIST THROUGH FAITH BY BELIEVING THE BIBLE: 

"By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9).

WE RECEIVE CHRIST BY PERSONALLY INVITING JESUS INTO OUR LIVES. 

JUST TO agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience.

RECEIVING CHRIST involves turning our wills and lives to God and trusting Christ to come into our lives to forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. The Bible calls this "repentance". What that means is to "change the way you think"; in other words go another direction- with our thoughts, words, actions; with how we live our lives.

RECEIVING CHRIST involves agreeing with what God calls sin. The Bible calls this “confession”. Confession means to agree with what God says and remember, Sin is anything that separates us from God.

GOD WILL ONLY GIVE ETERNAL LIFE TO:

1.   Those who are sorry for their sins.

2.   Those who are willing to turn away from what the Bible calls sin.

3.   Those who put their complete trust (have faith) in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection.

THE BIBLE SAYS THAT WE NEED TO CONFESS AND BELIEVE JESUS:

“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved: for with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him: for whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:9-13 

SO, HOW DO YOU GET RIGHT WITH GOD?

1.   Stop trusting in your own efforts to please God and begin to trust in what Jesus Christ has already done.

2.   Ask God to forgive you for your sins.

3.   Invite Jesus to come and live in you.

4.   Ask Jesus to take His rightful place as Lord and Savior of your life.

5.   Turn away from whatever the Bible says is sin.

§  This is only possible after you have made Jesus the Lord of your life.

You can do this right now by praying (speaking to God) in your own words like this:"

LORD JESUS. I WANT TO STOP TRUSTING MYSELF AND WHAT I CAN DO AND START TRUSTING IN YOU AND WHAT YOU HAVE ALREADY DONE WHEN YOU DIED ON THE CROSS FOR ME.

I KNOW THAT I AM A SINNER AND I AM SORRY FOR MY SINS.

I ASK YOU TO FORGIVE ME.

AND I INVITE YOU TO COME AND LIVE IN ME.

I WANT YOU TO BE THE SAVIOR AND THE LORD OF MY LIFE. BY THAT I MEAN STARTING RIGHT NOW, YOU WILL BE #1 IN MY LIFE.

I WANT TO TURN AWAY FROM EVERYTHING THAT YOU AND THE BIBLE CALL SIN.

I TOTALLY COMMIT MYSELF TO OBEYING YOU; EVERYDAY OF MY LIFE.

THANK YOU LORD JESUS"