HEAVEN AND HELL – INTRODUCTION

1. There was once a military chaplain who was surrounded by members of his unit.

2. His fellow soldiers said they had a question for their spiritual leader.

3. They wanted to know if their chaplain believed in “Hell.”

4. The chaplain said “no”; he did not believe Hell is a real place.

5. Upon hearing his response the soldiers asked him to resign as their chaplain.

6. Their request was based upon this logic:

7. If there is no Hell, a chaplain was not needed.

8. If Hell does exist but the chaplain didn’t believe in it, he was leading people astray.

FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL SUNDAY NIGHTS I WANT TO DEVOTE ATTENTION TO THE SUBJECTS OF HEAVEN AND HELL. THE PLAN IS TO GO BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THESE TWO TOPICS.

a) Tonight is an introductory lesson to both places.

b) We want to ask and answer the question, “Why do these two places exist?”

c) Why did God create an eternal Hell and an eternal Heaven?

2) When God created the world, He put some specific laws into place.

3) One of these laws is known as “sowing and reaping.”

4) In the physical realm, the principle of sowing and reaping is recognized universally.

5) We can plant something like a seed, and it will produce a harvest.

6) God tells us in His word that sowing and reaping are not limited to agriculture.

7) There is a spiritual part of man that “sows and reaps.”

a) Jesus hinted at this in one of His parables.

b) In places like Mk. 4 Jesus spoke of the “parable of the sower.”

c) He pictured the Word of God being presented to people and it taking root in a person’s life.

d) Of those who become God’s people, some “bear fruit” (Mk. 4:20).

e) Others bear no fruit or the fruit tree dies. In these instances the harvest is lost.

8) 2 Cor. 9:6 also applies the idea of “sowing and reaping” to our earthly lives.

9) A little while ago we heard an even more direct expression of the thought.

10) Gal. 6:7 says “God is not mocked.”

11) As human beings, we each “sow” something with our lives.

a) It may be good or it may be evil.

b) We may live our lives for self or for God.

c) We may be religious and religiously wrong, or religious and religiously wrong.

d) As time passes, each of us is creating a record.

e) Based upon that record we will “reap.”

12) Stated another way, we are determining whether our eternal destiny will be heaven or hell.

13) In the world we find people who think they can sow two kinds of seed.

14) On the one hand, they can sow “good seed.” They can have a spiritual life and God.

15) Along with the good seed, they can have “bad seed.”

a) God does not give us that choice.

b) A little earlier in Galatians (the 5^th chapter), we read about two choices.

c) We are told there is the “flesh” and there is the “spirit” (verse 17).

d) The Christians who received this letter were told these matters are “contrary” to each other.

e) If we are sowing seed of the flesh (a life opposed to God), we are not sowing to the spirit.

f) Rom. 8:6 says the “mind of the flesh” is death.

g) If we sow to the flesh (think, act, and live contrary to God’s will), this is the road to hell.

h) Rom. 8:8 says life after the flesh “cannot please God.”

i) Rom. 8:13 says if we choose the flesh we “must die.”

16) Almost all of us know someone who is living after the flesh.

17) They party and carry on in various ways and may even brag about what they have done.

18) God tells us these people are planting seeds. In fact, they can’t get their crop in the ground fast enough.

19) Those seeds grow and produce a crop.

20) For many, “harvest time” comes during this life.

21) If the seeds of the flesh are not destroyed before a person dies, the eternal destiny is destruction.

22) No person can sow to the flesh and expect to reap eternal life with God. It will not happen.

IF THERE ARE ONLY TWO CHOICES WHEN IT COMES TO SOWING AND REAPING AND SOWING TO THE FLESH IS THE WRONG ONE, THE ONLY RIGHT CHOICE IS SOWING TO THE SPIRIT.

a) A lot of the people in our world think about, talk about, and expect to go to heaven.

b) Very few look at heaven from the standpoint of sowing and reaping.

c) Heaven is like a “harvest” (reaping).

d) For us to be part of the harvest, we must be involved in the planting.

2) Earlier several passages from Rom.8 were given.

3) In addition to talking about the flesh, Paul also made points about the “Spirit” in Romans 8.

4) Instead of walking after the flesh, we must have a life after the spirit, Rom. 8:4.

5) This means “minding the things of the spirit” (Rom. 8:5).

6) We abandon the flesh and ways of the world, 1 Cor. 2:12).

7) Whatever “defiles” our life avoided (2 Cor. 7:1).

8) Gal. 6:8 says if we “sow to the spirit” we shall “reap eternal life.”

9) How we live and what we do determines our eternal destiny.

10) Our eternal fate is not dependent upon our parents or ancestors from long ago.

11) It is not based upon fate, chance, culture or anything else.

12) If there are only two choices, and only one is good, two things would seem logical:

a) First, everyone would choose life after the spirit.

b) Second, all who chose the best way would continue to stay on this path.

13) We might suspect both things to be true, but this is not the way things are.

14) First, most choose to live after the flesh.

15) There are reasons for this.

16) Sowing to the flesh is far easier than sowing after the spirit.

17) In fact, a person does not need to do anything in order to sow after the flesh.

18) We might say life after the flesh is an “automatic choice” for many people.

19) It is like a “default setting” on a machine.

20) If you do not change the setting, a selection is made.

21) Too, sowing to the flesh can be fun.

a) It is fun because it is often popular.

b) It is fun because the flesh offers a wide range of pleasures.

c) I know of at least 5 New Testament passages which say the flesh is fun.

d) Never put yourself in the position of saying that sin cannot be fun.

e) God says sin can be a lot of fun.

f) Lk. 8:14 speaks of sin and associates it with “pleasures of life.”

g) Tit. 3:3 refers to various “lusts and pleasures.”

h) Heb. 11:25 specifically refers to the “pleasures of sin.”

i) In James 4 (verses 1 and 3), we are again told sin is fun.

j) There are a lot of people who enjoy sin so much they do not want to forsake it.

22) Too, encouraging people to sow to the spirit means they will have to work.

23) After people agree this is the best way, staying faithful to the way of the spirit involves on-going effort.

24) If we have been a Christian for very long, we know of people who have left the faith.

25) Virtually every congregation has people who sowed for a while and then left the field.

26) If we are going to one day reap, we must sow and sow in the right manner.

27) Many who become Christians are poor spiritual farmers.

28) In our culture we sometimes see in the church what an interesting but potentially bad idea.

29) We are inundated with the idea that “bigger is better.”

a) If a man has a 40 acre farm, an 80 acre farm is twice as good.

b) If one scoop of ice cream is good, two scoops are a whole lot better.

30) New Christians can approach the faith in a way almost guarantees burn out.

31) There are those who have the idea they will do everything and do it all the time.

32) A few years ago there was a cultic movement with in the church.

33) It was called Crossroads or the “Boston movement.”

34) The basic thrust of this cult was Christianity all the time.

35) Practically every word the people spoke or any act they did was related to evangelism.

36) It was not enough to have on Bible study a week.

37) If one study a week was good, seven was a whole lot better.

38) If seven was better than one, 10 was a lot better than seven.

39) It took a little time, but that movement shriveled; people left it. They could not keep up the pace.

40) From the standpoint of a preacher, I have seen brethren die in the field.

41) They approach sowing in a way that almost guarantees burnout.

42) God appears to have used the “sowing and reaping analogy” for a season.

43) Farmers farm, and they work hard at that task.

44) Their lives also involve other things. They rest. He does not to try to cram everything into one year.

45) He may enlist help. He does not expect or necessarily work for immediate results.

46) No farmer thinks he can feed the world by himself.

47) I want to read a portion of Gal. 6 that was not previously read – verse 10 – READ.

48) God says sow. We need to do that and do it with earnest.

49) We cannot, however, neglect how this verse is worded: “as we have opportunity.”

50) A farmer does not have an opportunity to put in a fully day on his farm each day.

51) If he does nothing or is a time waster, he is going to probably lose his farm.

52) Farmers find a balance and so we must as well.

53) If we seek and maintain that balance, we will be life long sowers ready for eternity with God.

54) Heaven and hell exist, and our choices in this life are the seeds we sow.

55) What are we sowing right now as we are living our lives?

56) What kids of seeds are we sowing with our children and grandchildren?

57) What kinds of seeds are being put into the fields of our communities, nations, and world?

58) What seed are we trying to plant within this local congregation?

59) We need to sow and sow the right seed as often as opportunity becomes available.

60) Tonight if you realize you have been sowing the wrong kind of seed, you can change.