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This is our worship service for Sunday, 1-02-2022.
Countdown to Worship
“Lion and the Lamb,” Leland.
First Worship Offering
New Year Prayer.
Second Worship Offering
“Ryan Stevens,” The Eye of the Storm.
Second Worship Offering
“Nobody,” Casting Crowns.
Communion Service
Dana Smith.
“Only Jesus,” Casting Crowns.
Today’s message:
The Case for Heaven
Lee Strobel
Closing Prayer: Ken Smith.
Sermon Notes:
The Case for Heaven
Lee Strobel
With the chaos of this world going on all around us, today more than ever people are questioning life’s fragility. For some, this has even surfaced a fear of dying. What we need to focus on is the eternal life that God offers us through his son, Jesus! Best-selling and award-winning author Lee Strobel joins the Real Life family to share the hope found in God’s Word and teach from his latest book, The Case for Heaven: A Journalist Investigates Evidence of Life After Death.
Although we all experience our own individual fears universally everyone, at some point fears death.
Hebrews 2:15 NLT
15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
King David expressed his fear of death in Psalms 55:4
Psalms 55:4 NLT
4 My heart pounds in my chest. The terror of death assaults me.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NLT
11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.
God has placed a desire in us to expect to live forever so how are we supposed to live with the fact that our mortal bodies will die?
How do we cope with the fear of dying?
- Denial
- Distraction
- Delay
- Depression
Death has a perfect record – 100%. Everyone dies.
God brings hope.
Others trying to cheat death they try to leave a legacy and leave a positive mark on the world.
John 14:1-3 NLT
1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Some try to live on by great works or deeds but they are soon forgotten.
Dying without God is dying without hope.
Hebrews 2:15 New International Version
15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Jesus is the answer to our fear of death.
Through Jesus we can find peace, love, and joy forever.
Jesus is both the creator and the witness of Heaven.
John 14:1-3 NLT
1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Let Jesus release you from the fear of death.
1 John 5:11 New International Version
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 New International Version
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:9 New International Version
9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” —
the things God has prepared for those who love him —
You will never regret being courageous for Christ.
So many are desperate for the good Word of Jesus.
Romans 6:23 NLT
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
The free gift of eternal life is yours for the taking. Jesus is ready. You can accept it at any time and it is free.
God is always able. God is always ready to receive you.
Don’t pass up what God is offering.
Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT
6 So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”
Jesus has opened the gates of Heaven for everyone who is ready to accept His gift of grace.
1 John 5:13 NIV
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Lord Jesus, as best I can I do believe You are the Son of God, sent by God to save me.
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