Choose to Live Without Regret

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.” 2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-5

 

PONDER THIS

I went to visit a man on his deathbed, and I will never forget what he said to me. He said, “Pastor, I am saved, and I’m going to Heaven. I am not afraid to die. But I am ashamed to die because I’ve not been a soul winner.”

Can you imagine never really trying to bring a soul to Christ and going to Heaven to face the Lord Jesus Christ empty handed? You say, “Well, if I just get to Heaven, it’ll be fine with me. Just build me a cabin in the corner of glory land.” I cannot explain it, but the Bible says clearly, plainly, and unmistakably, “If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss.” One of these days in the clear light of eternity you will say, “Oh God, why was I not a soul winner?”

How can you say you love Jesus and not be concerned for souls that He died for? Or, you say, “Well, I just don’t have a love for souls.” It’s not a love for souls that motivates you. Jesus Christ said to Peter, “Do you love Me? Then feed My sheep.” We share because we love Jesus. Yes, I love people, but the chief motivation of my life is His love for me and, therefore, His love through me.

What are some things in life that you regret? Why?

Who are some of the lost souls around you that you need to invest in?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and ask God to reveal some people He desires for you to love by sharing the hope of Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

If He Calls, He Keeps

[The Lord] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9)

What are you depending on to ensure that your faith will last until Jesus comes?

The question is not, Do you believe in eternal security? The question is, How are we kept secure?

Does the perseverance of our faith rest decisively on the reliability of our own resolve? Or does it rest decisively on the work of God to “keep us trusting”?

It is a great and wonderful truth of Scripture that God is faithful and will keep forever those whom he has called. Our confidence that we are eternally secure is a confidence that God will do whatever is necessary to “keep us trusting!”

The certainty of eternity is no greater than the certainty God will keep us trusting now. But that certainty is very great for all whom God has called.

At least three passages put the call of God and the keeping of God together in this way.

“[The Lord] will sustain you (keep you) to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:8–9).

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” (Jude 1–2). (See the same reality in Romans 8:30, Philippians 1:6, 1 Peter 1:5, and Jude 24.)

The “faithfulness” of God guarantees that he will keep safe forever all whom he has called.

John Piper 

Do You Trust God’s Guarantee?

PRAY OVER THIS

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:11-14

 

PONDER THIS

Do you know what the word “guarantee” means in verse 14? It means a down payment. If you are going to buy a house, you put down some money to begin with and that means you’re coming back for the whole thing. Now, the Holy Spirit that you have in your heart who seals you into Christ is the earnest, the pledge, that one day our Lord is coming back for his purchased possession. Why? He’s got so much invested in me. He put the down payment in my heart. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. Thanks be to God for this salvation and guarantee we have in Jesus. When others are wandering like ships at sea on a dark and stormy night without a rudder or a compass, God has pulled back the veil of eternity and shown us what happened before the world was brought into space. He has shown us what we’re going to be and what we’re going to have. And even more than that, He has put the down payment in our hearts. It is a promise that He is with us until He comes again.

What excites you about the gifts you have received from Jesus?

How are you reminded of your inheritance in Christ?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some time to write about what it would look like if you always remembered your heavenly inheritance. Pray over what you’ve written.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers