A Gift on the Table

7 Days

Day 3

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For the last two days, we’ve seen an incredible gift from God that is being offered to each and every one of us: a gift with eternal implications. And yet, as one writer said, it is as if we are all driving a sports car that is hurtling towards a deep chasm, and all we’ve done is build enough billboards to distract us along the way until it’s too late. Thank God that everyone reading this today still has time to turn our attention to what matters most. Let’s get started.

Summary

How is it possible that the storyline with the biggest implications, the one with eternal ramifications, is not the single greatest storyline being discussed on Earth today? How have we not plastered it on every newspaper, on every website, and on every social media platform?

Humanity has a 100% mortality rate, and without a savior, we are thundering towards an eternity separated from God. How is it possible so many are living day to day completely unprepared?

"While I lived, I provided for everything but death; now I must die, and am unprepared to die." -Caesar Borgia

Your eternal state is decided long before you take your last breath.

Remember John 3:18: Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. At this very moment, your eternal state is clear, whether you believe in Jesus or not. Praise be to God that if you haven’t placed your faith in Him, and you are reading this, you still have time to turn your eyes upon Him and make that choice.

God doesn’t send people to Hell. He sent his Son to Earth to save us from Hell.

Hell isn’t a place that was prepared for us. It was created for the Devil and his angels.

Our sin, our separation from God, is the condemnation we stand underneath, and yet the good, compassionate God has sent us a Savior and a message, “believe.” This is amazing, Grace. Recall the story from our first day together, of the man lying unconscious on the tracks of an oncoming train. In that story, just like in ours, a man jumped in and saved us. In our case, Jesus Christ put himself between you and the condemnation that was thundering toward you. This is the divine interception. He takes all of it, all of the condemnation and the wrath, and gives you life.

What's Next?

Before you move on to the questions, take a moment just to thank Jesus for his sacrifice on your behalf. Thank Him for the divine interception.

What does it mean to be “prepared to die?” What can you do to prepare for what comes after death?
How does the understanding that God doesn’t send people to Hell change your view of God?
How does it change your view of Hell?

Scripture References

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

7For we live by faith, not by sight.

8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—

52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

13Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

14For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

15According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.

11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,

13their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.

14If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.

15If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

9not by works, so that no one can boast.

10For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Louie Giglio

Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.