The Valley of Death Why Good is Not Good Enough

The Valley of Death

Why Good is Not Good Enough

God is LOVE

No wonder everything we know and receive from Him is centered in love

God is not looking for good people to fill heaven

He is looking for people who love Him from a heart of gratitude

Death is not the opposite of life, it is a part of life

So we might understand, God describes our relationship with Him

 Like a bride and a groom

The bride loves her family

But the groom loves her like no family or friend could

She is pulled wanting to stay with her family

But wanting to leave and become a wife

This is the picture of death

Many people want to go to heaven because it is better than hell

 Many because there are loved ones in heaven

Many want to leave this life because of suffering

Others to see what Jesus has prepared for them

The streets of gold and gates of pearls

Although all these things are good

The real reason to go to heaven is to embrace the One who has loved

You more than all the love you have ever received from family and friends

Why Good is Not Good Enough

As a pastor I became very concerned for women in

the church whose husbands did not come with them.

I made it my goal to pray for them and their husbands.

I also looked for opportunities to get to know these men.

God had heard my prayer and each one of

those husbands came to know the Lord

and attended church with their wives.

Recently, one of those husbands

passed away at an age of 89.

I was asked to share at the funeral service

 how Carl had come to know the Lord.

Carl was a good man.

He was a good citizen and served in the army,

he was a good worker and provider

working for the railroad for 42 years.

He was a good husband.

 When he died, he was married for 71 years.

He was a good father and a good friend.

Years ago when I was getting to know Carl,

 I talked with his friends and extended family

and the only thing I ever heard about

Carl was he was a good man.

It was easy to become his friend

because he was a good man.

 

After some time of building a

friendship, Carl had a heart attack.

I realized Carl was a good man

but he was not going to heaven.

On one of my visits to his house, I asked Carl if

he was going to heaven and he said he did not know.

I shared with him Romans 10:9 & 10.

There are two conditions found in that passage…

The first is “if we believe in our heart that God

raised Christ from the dead we shall be saved”.

We focus on “Believing”.

 Believing that Jesus is more than a historical figure.

For even the devil believes and trembles.

To really understand what believing is, we

need to see where we are to believe from.

Not our mind as some fact, but “in our hearts”.

Our hearts are the seat of our emotions.

Believing in our heart is a feeling of gratitude.

Gratitude that God so loved the

world that He gave His only Son.

Gratitude that the death burial and resurrection

of Jesus was an act of love so we

might have eternal life with Him.

If you are grateful for something

 you love that something.

To believe in your heart is to have

a heart full of gratitude and love.

This love opens the door for the

second requirement in Romans 10…

“If we confess Jesus as Lord”

The heart of love and gratitude trust Christ the

One who loved us more than anyone else could.

It is out of a heart of love we say I trust you God

with my life and want to do what you want me to

do and say, and go where you want me to go.

In Hebrews 11:6…

 “Without faith (believing) it is impossible to please God”      

We must believe that God exist.

I can’t imagine looking at creation and

not being amazed at God’s

wisdom and beautiful creativity.

There must be a Creator, a good Creator.

Who could this amazing Creator be?

The only one that makes sense throughout

history is Jesus who rose from the dead.

What a display of God’s love.

Before we were created, the first man and woman,

God gave us everything we need for life and godliness.

All the resources we consume every

day come from what God created.

All the godly wisdom we need to live full

lives now and in the life to come have

been provided by God, our Creator.

How can you not believe He exists and not love

Him with a gratitude for all He has given us.

The second part is to believe He rewards

those who earnestly seek Him.

God is on the reward system.

 He rewards those who seek Him.

Over 20 years ago, I showed Carl

these verses and Carl prayed.

His prayer was a prayer of gratitude.

 He opened his heart to the love of

God and fell in love with God.

It was not the prayer that saved my friend Carl,

it was the opening of his heart to God.

You see God is not looking

for good people to fill heaven.

He is looking for people who

love Him from a heart of gratitude.

A few days before my friend Carl died,

 Sandy and I went to visit him.

I shared with him that death is not

the opposite of life it is a part of life.

So we might understand, God describes our

relationship with Him like a bride and a groom.

The bride loves her family but the groom

loves her like no family or friend could.

She is pulled wanting to stay with her family

but wanting to leave and become a wife.

This is the picture of death.

Many people want to go to heaven

because it is better than hell.

Many because there are loved ones in heaven.

Many want to leave this life of suffering.

Others to see what Jesus has prepared for them,

 the streets of gold and gates of pearls.

Although all these things are good…

The real reason to go to heaven is to embrace

the One who has loved you more than all the love

you have ever received from family and friends.

No wonder the first commandment is to love the

Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

It is love that opened the door to heaven

and only love can walk through it.

Good is important…

 But it is not good enough.

Love is the key, it never fails.

Scripture Reading

Romans 10:10-11

Hebrews 11:5-6 NIV

 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him .

1 Corinthians 13:8 NIV

8 Love never fails.

Ephesians 5:22-33 NIV

22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."   32 This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church.