CAN I STILL GET INTO HEAVEN IF I...

Do you all have those kind of friends that say...I know you're saved but can you? Or, you can have a little bit of fun. You can come to the club with us and just not dance or drink. Sound familiar? I use to have those type of friends until one day I got a reality check. Someone close to me asked me, why are you walking the line? I said what do you mean? They were like...why go if you're not going to participate? At the time I said nothing but it really gave me something to think about. Why am I going? I'm sure I'm not the only one who this has happened to. It reminds me of this scripture I heard a pastor talk about. In Matthew 8 Jesus was talking about the cost of following Him. We see a man agreeing to follow Jesus, but also the bible says, he says, 'I need to bury my father first.' Jesus says to the man, let the dead bury their dead. Wow...kinda gangster. Why would He say that? Actually sounds kinda mean right? The poor guy wants to bury his dad and Jesus says No. Come with me. What, Jesus? Some people would say...that's not loving. And guess what? To some.. You're right. It's not. So what was Jesus point? Well you've gotta kinda know a little bit of history to know Jesus' point. Back in those days and in that culture the son that buried the father got a larger inheritance. Cha-ching - Yep... your aha moment! It's about the money. It's about the actions. Changes a lot now huh? So, this really wasn't about him burying his dad but about the money! It was a ...look what I did moment...I'm so awesome...I'm going to bury my dad...we make everything including serving Jesus all about our actions. But, the problem was not the what his intended actions were, but why! Jesus knew he didn't care about burying his dad at all. This man was telling Jesus...I gotta go make a couple of more dollars! So it was all about the money for him. Jesus seemingly being mean was dealing with his why! Same thing with us. God always deals with our why! Why are you doing it? Is it helping you get closer to Jesus? Is it helping you help others find Jesus? My friends, be free today.  The question is not, 'can I still get to heaven if I?' The question is, Why do I want to do these things?