Hey, good morning.
Good morning.
Hey, we're from Steadfast Baptist Church.
I just want to give you an invite to our church.
Okay.
Oh, perfect.
There you go.
Thank you, sweetie.
Do you go to church anywhere?
No, I was actually looking for a church home.
Oh, okay.
Great.
Well, we're in Cedar Hill, kind of in South Dallas area.
You're more than welcome to come.
But we're also just asking everyone, you know, God forbid if you were to pass away today, are you 100% sure that you'd be going to heaven, or do you think you might have some doubts about it?
No, I'm 100% sure I would be.
Awesome.
Glad to hear that.
What do you think that it takes to get there, ma'am?
Making sure that you have the right relationship with God.
Okay.
Knowing that He has your back and not the woman's.
Okay.
So some people think it's by faith alone.
Some people think it's by good work.
Some people think both.
Which one do you think you fall under?
Both.
Both?
Okay.
Making sure that I have my spiritual self intact and also making sure I pay it forward and living the way that God lived his life today.
Awesome.
Yeah, and of course, you know, God definitely wants us to do that.
He wants us to live a really honoring life to Him.
But of course, the truth is that we're not perfect, right?
We're all sinners.
So when it comes to getting to heaven, the Bible actually says that it's not by how we live.
It's actually a free gift.
If you had a couple minutes, I'd love to just show you that right from the Bible.
Would you want to see that real quick?
Sure.
Awesome.
What's your name?
Natalia.
Natalia, I'm Dylan.
Say, hi, Bethy.
Hi.
So first thing we have to know, of course, like I just mentioned, the Bible says,
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
No one's perfect, right?
We all sin every single day.
And the bad news is that because of that, the Bible says that we all have a punishment that we deserve from God because of that sin.
The Bible says right here, For the wages of sin is death.
So when we die, there's one of two places we can go.
Heaven or where?
Hell.
Hell, right.
And do you believe hell is real?
Yes.
Well, how would you like describe hell in your own view?
You're living your internal debt that you placed here on earth.
Okay.
Like you're living that constant.
Yeah, it's eternal.
Do you think that hell is like a real, like a physical place?
Okay, yeah, absolutely.
It's a weak belief.
You know, the Bible describes that the people in hell are there for forever.
They're being tormented day and night.
They have no rest.
So it's definitely a really bad place that I don't want anyone to go.
But the Bible actually does give us a list of the type of people that are going to go there someday.
And this is the bad news first.
It says, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters.
It's a bad list, of course, right?
But notice here it says, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
You know, I know I've told lies before in my life.
Have you ever told a lie before?
Yeah.
Everyone has, right?
Exactly.
And all this verse is teaching us is that even if all you've ever done is told a lie,
because we're sinners, we deserve the punishment of hell.
That's what we truly deserve.
But that's not what God wants, right?
Of course, God doesn't want us to go to hell because God loves us.
And the Bible explains how God loves us.
It says, but to, oh, I'm sorry, wrong verse there.
It says, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
It's like the way he showed us that he loves us was by giving us his son, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin.
And so since he was born of a virgin, he had no earthly father because his real father is God in heaven, right?
And so the reason that made him special is because he's 100% man, just like us, but also 100% God in the flesh.
Do you believe he is God? Awesome. Yeah.
And the reason why that's important is because since he's God, he lived his whole life never sinning one single time, right?
So whereas we sin every single day, the Bible says that Jesus was perfect in all ways, never sinned.
And you know, when he was about 30, honey, don't touch that.
When he was about 30, he started like his ministry, did a lot of amazing miracles.
I'm sure you've heard how he rose people from the dead, walked on water, did all those great things.
But of course, most importantly was that he preached the word of God.
And since he was preaching the truth, the Jews hated what he was saying.
They ended up lying about him, put him on the cross and brutally tortured him and killed him.
And why is it, you know, that Jesus had to die on the cross?
For everybody sinned. Exactly, exactly.
And he loved everybody and I guess wanted to change.
Yeah, that's an incredible amount of love because the truth is that he died for every single person, past, present, and future.
So he took the whole sins of the whole world in his own body.
And he didn't deserve any of it because he was perfect. He never sinned.
But he willingly sacrificed himself for us.
And his body was buried, of course.
And when his body was buried, his soul went somewhere for three days and three nights.
Do you think it was heaven or hell?
That part I'm kind of uncertain about because I feel like he was in the in-between.
Okay.
Not knowing exactly where he should give all his praises to because I know he created heaven and hell.
He did.
But I know that, I don't know, it's just that part I'm kind of unfamiliar with.
Well this is going to be an interesting verse to you then. I don't know if you've ever seen this before.
So this is Acts chapter 2 verse 31.
It says,
So when Jesus died, his soul actually descended to hell for three days and three nights.
Now of course he didn't stay there.
And some people wonder, well why would he have ever gone there?
If he's perfect, if he's God.
But remember, he had to take all of our sins in his own body.
And what's the punishment for our sin?
Spending in hell, right?
So since we deserve hell, he loved us so much that he took our sins and he paid the punishment that you and I deserve in hell.
So that way we don't have to go there.
It's pretty amazing, right?
Yeah.
But he didn't stay dead because three days later what happened?
He rose.
He rose again from the dead, exactly.
And because he rose, do you think now everybody just automatically goes to heaven no matter what?
No.
No. There's only one thing we have to do to get to heaven.
And this is the really good news.
The Bible says right here, what must I do to be saved?
How do I get saved from hell?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
Now did that say go to church and you'll be saved?
Live a good life and you'll be saved?
Repent of all your sins.
Right, repent of all your sins and you'll be saved.
No, it just says believe, right?
And what does it mean to believe?
It doesn't mean that you just believe he exists, right?
Because like let's say there was a bunch of cops back here behind me and I say, hey, I believe those cops are real.
Does that mean that I trust them?
Not necessarily, right?
So what it means to believe in Jesus, of course it means you believe he's real, but what it really means is that you're trusting what he did for you to take you to heaven and nothing that you do, right?
Because a lot of people, what they're doing is they're trusting part way in Jesus and part way in themselves.
They'll say, oh yeah, I believe in Jesus, but I have to repent of my sins.
I have to go to church.
I have to confess my sins to a priest.
I have to do sacraments.
And so they're thinking they have to like help Jesus get them to heaven, but he doesn't need our help.
Yeah, he's already there.
Yeah, he's the one that lived the perfect life.
We're the lowly sinners.
We can't attain heaven by our lifestyle.
So in Ephesians 2, he explains that a little more.
It says, for by grace, now that's something we don't deserve, right?
Are ye saved through faith, that's believing in Jesus, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
See, if salvation was by works or what we do, our lifestyle, we'd be able to boast, right?
Like what if I said, hey, I'm going to heaven because I'm such a great guy.
I go to church.
I help old ladies cross the street.
I read my Bible every day.
Who would I be trusting in, Jesus or myself?
Yourself.
Myself, right, because it's all about what I'm doing.
But if I said, hey, I'm a sinner.
I don't deserve heaven, but I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins.
I'm only trusting that to get me to heaven.
Now who am I trusting in?
God.
Exactly.
And that's literally all we have to do to be saved.
It's good to have a good lifestyle.
It's good to have a relationship with God.
It's good to obey His commandments.
But we have to realize that if we're trusting any of those things to get us to heaven, we'll actually go to hell because we're trusting in ourselves, right?
So we have to change 100% and put all of our faith in Jesus Christ.
And you know the most famous verse in the whole Bible, I'm sure you know it, it says,
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth, not whosoever repents of their sins, right?
Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So that's the really good news.
That's why the gospel is called good news.
Because if I said, Hey, I have good news for you.
All you have to do to get to heaven is be perfect, never sin, read your Bible every single day, never repent of all your sins, that wouldn't be good news, right?
Because we would fail immediately.
The good news is that you don't get to heaven by nothing you do.
It's 100% what Jesus did.
So, you know, so far I've said that we're all sinners.
We deserve to go to hell.
But God doesn't want us to go there.
He died for us that we didn't have to go there.
And all we have to do to be saved is believe in Jesus Christ.
But also, the Bible explains that salvation is a gift.
So it says, For the wages of sin is death.
That's the bad news.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So the gift that God wants to give us is eternal life.
How long does eternal last for?
Forever.
Forever, right?
So it never ever ends.
And it's a free gift.
So if I said, Hey, I want to give you this Bible as a free gift, but you have to pay me $100.
Would that be a gift?
Or, Hey, I want to give you this free gift, you just have to wash my car.
Is that a gift?
Not necessarily.
No.
You want something that's better.
Exactly, right?
So it's the same thing with salvation.
God says it's a free gift.
So he's not saying, Hey, there's a free gift going to heaven, but you have to obey all the commandments or you're going to go to hell.
That wouldn't be a gift, right?
And that gift is eternal life, which you already said is everlasting.
So here's the really good news about salvation.
Is that according to the Bible, you can never lose your salvation no matter what.
So a lot of people think like, yeah, salvation is by faith, but if after I get saved, I commit a really big sin, God will cut off my salvation and send me to hell.
But I want to show you that Jesus actually taught the opposite.
He actually taught that you can never lose your salvation no matter what.
He said, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, notice this, hath everlasting life.
So the moment you believe in him, he says you have right now everlasting life.
And of course we know that lasts for forever, right?
Yeah.
And shall not come into condemnation.
So if you believe in him, you have everlasting life and you'll never go to hell, he says.
He says this, but is passed from death unto life.
So the moment you believe in him, you are passed from death unto life.
So it's not like a lifelong process, cleaning up your life and someday you might pass from death unto life.
He says the moment you believe, you're passed from death unto life.
Right?
So let me just ask you just a simple scenario.
Let's say someone believes in Jesus and they do something really horrible, really bad sin.
You know, for example, like adultery is a bad sin, right?
Let's say someone's married, they believe in Jesus Christ and they commit adultery.
Do you think God would then take away their salvation or do you think that they would still be saved?
I believe that they'll still be saved.
They just have to repent for what they did wrong and not lie anymore.
Yeah, you're exactly right that they would absolutely still be saved.
But that doesn't mean that he's not going to be punished.
Yes.
Right, so this is a pretty interesting verse.
It says, but as many as received him, to them gave you power to, notice, become the sons of God.
Even to them that believe on his name.
So when we believe in Jesus, we become his sons, his daughters, his children, right?
Now when my children do bad, I correct them.
Do you think that's because I love them or hate them?
He loves them.
Because I love them, right?
And so when they do wrong, I don't want them to suffer the consequences of doing wrong and I want them to learn and to do better, right?
So I correct them.
But no matter what my children do, they're always going to be loved by me and they're always going to be in my family.
I'm not going to kick them out of the family because they sinned, right?
So it's the same thing with God.
Once we believe in him, if we sin, he is going to punish us because he's a loving father, right?
So if you believe in Jesus Christ and a guy goes out and commits adultery, God could take away his health, his money, his car, his house, his family.
He could really destroy his life.
But is he going to go to hell?
No, because he still loves him, right?
And we don't get to heaven by not sinning.
We don't get to heaven by doing good.
We get to heaven simply by being his son, by believing in him, right?
Just like it literally does not matter how good or bad she is, she'll always be my daughter, right?
And I hope she does good.
And God hopes that we do good.
But to be his son or daughter, all we have to do is believe in Jesus Christ.
And once we do that, we're saved for forever.
So, of course, let me just do a quick recap.
This will be the last thing I show you.
So, in the beginning I said that we've all sinned, that's the bad news, that we deserve hell.
God doesn't want us to go there, so what did God do for us that way we don't have to go to hell?
Repeat the question.
What did God do for us so that way we don't have to go to hell?
He died for us.
Exactly, and he didn't stay dead, right? What happened?
He rose 30 days later.
Amen.
And now that he's done that, what do we have to do to be saved?
Give our life up to him.
So, do you think that that means that we have to live a good life, or does that mean that we have to put our trust in him?
Put our trust in him.
Right.
Complete trust.
Exactly. So, if someone believes in Jesus Christ and they still sin, are they going to heaven?
Yes.
Of course, right?
Let's say someone believes in Jesus Christ and they just never do anything for God ever again.
Do you think that they'll still be saved?
I know that's a really extreme example, but I'm just trying to make sure that I'm communicating this well.
It does.
Yeah, they would.
Yes, they would.
Exactly, exactly.
Now, I hope no one does that, but I'm just using an extreme example.
I was like, whoa, wait.
Because I don't want anyone to do that, but I just really want people to understand that salvation is nothing by what you do.
You could literally get saved, do nothing for the rest of your life, and still go to heaven.
Again, I hope no one does that, but I just want to make sure that's understood.
And then once we're saved, how long are we saved for?
Eternal life.
Eternal, right? Can you ever lose that?
No.
No, right? God can punish us, but he's never going to kick us out of the family.
So, this whole time, I've just been telling you, all we have to do to get to heaven is just believe, believe, believe, right?
It's not a lifestyle. It's not cleaning up our life. It's not repenting our sins. It's putting our faith in Christ.
How do we put our faith in Christ? This is how.
It says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
And then it says, for whosoever, that's me and you, right?
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.
All you have to do to make sure you're 100% saved is just ask God for the free gift of salvation.
And if you believe the things I've shown you today, I'd like to just lead you in a quick prayer, and you could just repeat after me.
Alright? Awesome. So, repeat after me.
Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know I deserve hell. But I believe you died on the cross for my sins.
That you were buried and rose again. I'm only trusting you and not myself.
Please save me now. Amen.
Thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you for that time.
There's a video on the back called The Bible Way to Heaven on that card.
If you have any unsaved loved ones, make sure that they know that it's not by going to church that saves them.
It's not by going to a priest or anything like that. It's just faith in Christ.
And we'd love to have you at a church service if you'd like to come, alright?
Thank you.
Alright, nice to meet you. God bless you.