The speaker discusses the importance of faith in Jesus for salvation, emphasizing that good works alone cannot earn one a place in heaven. They explain that Jesus took on the sins of humanity by dying on the cross, offering the gift of eternal life through faith in him. The concept of saving faith is highlighted, stressing that it involves trusting in Jesus alone for salvation, not relying on any other actions or rituals. The speaker uses the analogy of a parachute to illustrate the exclusivity of faith in Jesus for eternal life. you today is a question I ask lots of people and here it is, if you were to die and stand before God and he were to say to you Jenna why should I let you into my heaven what would your answer be? As I mentioned we've grown up in church as children my sister and I always went our mom took us and we were in Sunday school classes I feel like if I had to answer to God on something like that that I would just remind him that I know about him I know some of the principles we were taught right from wrong as children we work now my husband and I as a couple to invest that in students which is so difficult sometimes but just really doing our best to be good people and make sure that the good in our lives really outweighs what's wrong my grandma always said that God is love I think that's true that was something that was important in our families that we really just did our best gave our best to each other as families and held strong to those values well your grandmother was right I believe God is love no doubt about that and I appreciate your answer Evelyn with so much bad going on in the world it's great to see people that want to choose the right thing to do good but what you tell me is if I remember correctly if I can stress it you said God is love and you also said that you would tell God that you're living a good life you're trying to do the best you can and that by what you do you hope that you can go to heaven when you die would that be correct yes I appreciate you sharing that with me you know that's a really incredible question and I ask lots of people that question and you might be surprised at how many people answer the same way you answered they say that they are good people there are a lot of good people out there by the way and sometimes they're religious people sometimes they're not but many people say I would say to God I do good I live the right way I'm trying to do the right thing and I hope that's good enough for you now what I'd love to share with you today is that we can actually know that we have eternal life we can know that when we die we'll go to heaven and the Bible says these words were written that you might know that you have eternal life my life when I was younger I was fearful of death because of that unanswered question what happens on the other side very very afraid but at some point in my life I received the gift of eternal life it really changed everything I thought about life and about death and as I come away from that I look back at that experience and realize all my fear is gone I have every confidence that if I were to die I would spend eternity with God in heaven and I'm really grateful that he made that possible for me and I want to tell everybody else about that too you know you shared with me that you would say to God that you live a good life and that you hope that's good enough for God and let me share with you what the Bible says about that you mind if I share a verse with you not at all the scripture makes it very plain it says in Ephesians chapter two for by grace you have been saved through faith and that's not of yourselves that the gift of God is not a result of works that's no man's supposed in other words the scripture not only this part but in every other place in scripture affirms the fact that heaven is not earned it's not deserved it's a free gift from God I like to say it like this heaven is not achieved it's received now those words sound a lot but they're not the same if I achieve something then I do it on my own and I deserve the credit for it but if I receive something somebody else has done something and I can only receive it as a gift from them that's what the Bible says about eternal life it says there's no way that anybody can do a nothing good thing to get to heaven and that heaven is a free gift and it's not earned or deserved that make sense yeah I will come back to that in a minute if I can and because that is a key truth but first let me ask another question if you don't mind it's a question that people ask me all the time when I talk about Jesus or church and I get to the subject of the fact that Jesus died on the cross two thousand years ago and was buried and rose again the third day I have lots of people that ask me this question that I say why is that so relevant and that's an easy thing to understand why people want to know that because we live in an age with lots of information we know about world religions we know about all other religious leaders as well so that's a great question why is Jesus so outstanding why does he stand out above all other religious leaders have you ever wondered why he's so relevant yeah of course I'm sure you've heard of Jesus as you were growing up and he is probably the central figure of all history and yet the Bible tells us why he was so relevant and I'd love to share that with you if I can can I show you as well as tell you why Jesus is so relevant okay yeah I'm gonna I'm gonna do this by using my hands and by demonstrating the truth about Jesus if I can let me just have this left hand and hold it up for you for just a minute and let me let this hand right here represent my life and you can let it represent your life as well let me put this booklet here on top of that hand and let's let this booklet represent everything I've ever done in my life good or bad I try to imagine that for just a few minutes just multiply the number of years you are old and multiply that by 365 days of the year everything you say everything you do even things you think about and maybe even those you didn't do that you should have done and you've got a record with your life some of us are good and some of us bad would you agree with that yes I have to confess the same thing not everything in my life is perfect some of the things in my life are bad and even sinful and embarrassing I wouldn't want you to be able to read the book about my life and you probably don't want to read the book about my life the reality is God knows every page of our lives let me let this other this right hand represent God I'm gonna hold it up about us all and this hand right here represents God and the scripture says about God that he's a loving merciful God but at the same time he's a just judge that he will by no means let the guilty go unpunished and that's a real problem for us and the reason it's a problem is because all of us have sinned and all of us have fallen short of God's glory and so there's a barrier between ourselves and God I can't rise above the level of that sinfulness and I can't undo what I've done I have no way to get to God because of my sin I can't solve the problem but here's the great news Janet God can solve the problem and he does in the person of Jesus Christ let me let this hand be lowered and let it be on the same level as my first hand my left hand I want you to see by that that Jesus Christ came that he took on the form of a man and lived a perfect life the Bible says that when Jesus Christ lived that life he laid down his life at the end of about 33 years of life the Bible says he that knew no sin became sin on our behalf but here's what I want you to see I'm going to share another verse with you at the same time I'm going to move this hand to this one I want you to watch what happens 2,000 years ago Isaiah said this he said all of we like sheep have gone astray each of us are our own way but God has laid on him the sin of us all you saw how I moved the book from this hand to that one that's what happened 2,000 years ago by an act of God God himself put our sin upon his son Jesus the Bible says that Jesus died on the cross he was buried he rose again the third day and he dealt with our sin and removed it and now the Bible says as far as east is from the west that's how far he's removed our sin from us now there's no separation between myself and God he offers me to get to the eternal life and as he offers that I have the opportunity to reach out and receive it by faith I put my hands together like that and clasped them to just symbolize the fact that I took my faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone and that's how the Bible says I received the gift of eternal life are you tracking with me there yes sir it's a pretty important truth it really is in fact I think it's the most important truth in all of mankind I really do and the Bible says the only way that we can receive that is by what the scripture says is saving faith let me explain what saving faith really is because we have lots of kinds of faith in our eyes saving faith is not just intellectual understanding it's not just mental knowledge of what Jesus did we know lots of things and lots of facts about lots of people but that doesn't mean we trust him for anything so it's not just head knowledge saving faith is also not trusting God to help us out of a jam it's not trusting God to help us get through our problems there's nothing wrong with that but that's not what saving faith is saving faith instead is putting our trust and faith in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation that's a really really big deal that means that we trust him and no one else I want you to imagine something with me I don't know if you've ever been parachuting before have that has that ever happened to you no me either and I'm not sure I want to do it but if I ever had to jump out of a plane at 15,000 feet above sea level as I plummet to the earth I'm only going to be looking for one thing I'm going to be grabbing for that ripcord that opens the parachute that's my only hope to break the fall and let me land on earth safely because it's that one thing it's the only thing I'm looking for the Bible says this the Bible says Jesus is the only one that we can trust to forgive us of our sins and give us the gift of eternal life so saving faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone let me put it one more way just to be clear saving faith is not Jesus plus baptism it's not Jesus plus church attendance it's not Jesus plus good works it's just trusting Jesus Christ alone and the Bible says in John 6 47 Jesus himself said he who believes in me has eternal life that's a powerful fast tense and it happens at the moment we put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ I've shared a lot with you you've tracked with me you've been along with me the whole time let me ask you this question does that make sense to you yes and if it makes sense to you I want to ask another question and that question is would you like to receive to get eternal life yes that's awesome then I'm so glad that you want to do that you know the way that we put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ is through prayer and it's through a very simple prayer that we ask him to give us the gift that he offers to us but before I lead you in that prayer if you'll allow me I want to ask just two or three key questions number one do you want to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation yes number two do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to give you forgiveness of sin yes and then the third question is one of the most important that is are you willing to turn away from everything else you've trusted in and anything in the way of displeasing God in order to put your full confidence and full trust in Jesus Christ alone yes and if that's what you want to do I'd love to lead you in a prayer I can lead you in a prayer just a phrase at a time not magic words but it's a way for you to express your trust and confidence in God and I can lead you just a phrase at a time would you like for me to do that okay yeah let's pray together just follow after me dear Lord Jesus dear Lord Jesus I understand you died on the cross for me I understand that you died on the cross for me and now I know that I need to be forgiven for my sin and now I know I need to be forgiven for my sin today I ask you to forgive me today I ask you to forgive me and give me the gift of eternal life and give me the gift of eternal life I turn away from my sin I turn away from my sin and everything else I've trusted in and everything else I've trusted in and I put my full confidence and I put my full confidence and my full trust in you and my full trust in you I ask you to be my Savior I ask you to be my Savior and I ask you to be my Lord and I ask you to be my Lord in Jesus name I pray in Jesus name I pray amen