{"id":44707,"date":"2010-03-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/getting-in-on-gods-goodness\/"},"modified":"2010-03-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T18:55:38","slug":"getting-in-on-gods-goodness","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/getting-in-on-gods-goodness\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Getting In&#8221; on God&#8217;s Goodness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are two ways the Bible says you can get to heaven. Plan A is to earn it. That&#39;s the performance plan. And to earn it you only have to do this: never sin and always do what&#39;s right for the entire time that you live. Just be perfect.<\/p>\n\n<p>Since none of us qualify for Plan A, God came up with Plan B, which is this: You trust Jesus Christ when he says, &quot;I am the way, the truth and the life.&quot; He was the only perfect person who ever lived, because he was God. He came so we could know what God is like. And by trusting and establishing a relationship with him, you get in on his goodness.<\/p>\n\n<p>Ron Dunn took his young son to a carnival one time for his birthday. His son picked six boys to go with him, so Ron bought a roll of tickets. Every line he&#39;d come up to, he&#39;d pull off seven tickets and give them to all the kids. When they got to the Ferris wheel, all of a sudden there was this eighth little kid with his hand out.<\/p>\n\n<p>Ron said, &quot;Who are you?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The kid said, &quot;I&#39;m Johnny.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Ron said, &quot;Who are you, Johnny?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Johnny said, &quot;I&#39;m your son&#39;s new friend. And he said you would give me a ticket.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Ron asked me, &quot;Do you think I gave him one? Absolutely.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[310],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3451,3540,3573,3575,3584,3585,3586,3718,3719,3723,3737,3738,3839,4077,4078,4085,4088,4167,4293,4341,4399,4460,4463,4615,4780,4782,4828,4830,4845,4870,4877,4887,5298],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-44707","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-atonement","tax_ctp_tags-calvary","tax_ctp_tags-christ","tax_ctp_tags-christ-anointed-one","tax_ctp_tags-christ-substitute-for-humanity","tax_ctp_tags-christ-suffering","tax_ctp_tags-christ-suffering-servant","tax_ctp_tags-cross","tax_ctp_tags-cross-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-crucifixion","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-death-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-easter","tax_ctp_tags-good-friday","tax_ctp_tags-good-news","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-grace","tax_ctp_tags-hope","tax_ctp_tags-jesus-christ","tax_ctp_tags-law","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-mercy","tax_ctp_tags-messiah","tax_ctp_tags-peace","tax_ctp_tags-redeemer","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection","tax_ctp_tags-resurrection-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-righteousness","tax_ctp_tags-sacrifice-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-savior-christ-only","tax_ctp_tags-works-righteousness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Getting In&quot; on God&#039;s Goodness - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/getting-in-on-gods-goodness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Getting In&quot; on God&#039;s Goodness - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are two ways the Bible says you can get to heaven. 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