Asking for A Friend | Part 3
Friday, September 4th 2020
You’ve got questions…but you are a little uncomfortable asking them out loud, so why don’t you ‘ask for a friend’!
We’ve all got questions, so let’s see if we can help get some answers together!
No question is off limits, and Dave will do his best to answer as many questions as possible, so ask away!
Check out this week’s questions in Asking for a Friend, Part Three
What happens when we die? Where do we really go?
Hebrews 9:27-28 NLT
And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, so also Christ was offered once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.
Matthew 25:45-46 NIV
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Matthew 7:22-23 NIV
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Is our salvation pre-determined?
Proverbs 16:9 ESV
The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
Romans 8:28-30 NLT
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
1 Corinthians 1:23-24 NLT
So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Once we are saved, can we lose our salvation?
John 10:28 ESV
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
What happens to those who never had a chance to experience God, like a remote tribe somewhere?
Romans 1:20 NLT
For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Is cremation a sin? Is it against God’s laws? If it is a sin, will you still go to Heaven?
Will people who commit suicide go to Heaven?
Does God see a difference between someone who is seriously mentally ill versus someone seriously unhappy? How will it end for them?
Psalm 51:5 NIV
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
2 Samuel 12:22-23 NLT
David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.”
I have friends and family members who are in loving, committed, gay marriages. Is this a sin and will they be saved if they continue to live this way? Secondly, how do I raise my kids in an environment of blurred lines of sexuality?
Romans 1:25-32 NLT
They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Deuteronomy 11:5,19-21 NLT
Your children didn’t see how the Lord cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here…
So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.