Latest / Wetumpka Church of Christ Online / Thinking About Life, Death, and Eternity
Transcript
- 0:03It's last week. I had the opportunity to go to
- 0:05the doctor. I'm not sure you normally call
- 0:07that an opportunity but went to the doctor and a man came out of
- 0:11the one of the back rooms there. He was a patient and he was done
- 0:15with everything that he needed to get done.
- 0:17And he looked at me. I didn't know who he was.
- 0:19He said, I tell you this doctor. He's a nice guy.
- 0:20He's a good Christian man. I said, oh, that's great.
- 0:23I said, I'm a Christian. I love being a Christian is
- 0:25that's my favorite. Part of life is being a
- 0:28Christian and that's saying something because I love being
- 0:30Jana's husband. I really liked that a lot but I
- 0:33enjoy, I love being a Christian better and he looked at me and
- 0:36he said, I'm not a Christian. He said, in fact, I don't
- 0:40believe, I don't even believe in God.
- 0:42I said you don't, I said you, why don't you?
- 0:44Why don't you believe in God? And this conversation kind of
- 0:48spurred me into wanting to teach this lesson, preach, this lesson
- 0:52this morning about thinking, right, about about life and
- 0:55death and Eternity. And he said, well, I don't
- 0:56believe in God because God is a murderer.
- 0:59Have you seen how many times and in the Bible where where?
- 1:03God killed people. I mean is that right?
- 1:05For God to do is it okay for God to take the lives of so many
- 1:10people? And he said, you know, you don't
- 1:13read of Satan never taking any lives.
- 1:15And actually I let him know. I said actually you do read that
- 1:18for example in job and Job chapter 1 where he cause great.
- 1:23Destruction Job chapter 2. He took the health that job have
- 1:26had, of course, God being the omnipotent creator of the
- 1:30universe. He did allow that to happen, but
- 1:33it Satan who was instrumental in making that happen.
- 1:36But his point was, hey, how can I believe in God?
- 1:39If God is a murderer? Can God really take life.
- 1:42Well, you know, the fact is he can, he can take life because
- 1:45because he created it, he owns it.
- 1:47He owns life. He has the authority, over it
- 1:52all authority of it, over it, through it.
- 1:56You know, he made. I didn't make myself.
- 1:59I don't know about you. I mean did you did you decide
- 2:01before you were born that you wanted to be?
- 2:03Be what you are. I mean that instead of being a
- 2:05baboon, you decided to be a you know, a human being or instead
- 2:09of being, you know, a peach tree or a peach seed you just or just
- 2:13anything just being in exist. You know, you didn't choose to
- 2:16be in existence. God brought you into existence.
- 2:20And what's the famous Bill Cosby line?
- 2:21Is it well, you know in a very real way and it's not it's not a
- 2:26mean thing to say the fact is I think that we could be very
- 2:32health in our Thinking about life and death reality and
- 2:37Eternity. If we, you know, try to meditate
- 2:41more on on what this is all about.
- 2:44And not just have a physical view of life and certainly not a
- 2:50Godless view of life. But how do we view it?
- 2:53You know, those who at this point in time, do not believe in
- 2:55God, one of their main hindrances is just thinking
- 2:57about how how God fits into this picture of life and death.
- 3:01Because if God, Could cause people to lose their lives.
- 3:05Then is he the moral, the immoral monster that some make
- 3:10him out to be? Well, the fact of the matter is,
- 3:11you know, God created life and he can choose to take the life,
- 3:17the physical life of someone and bring that person into eternity
- 3:22at any moment. He chooses to, and he has done
- 3:25that in the past. That's not to say that every
- 3:28time someone leaves this physical world, that God has
- 3:32caused that to happen. It is simply not the case and I
- 3:35think a lot of people unfortunately attribute things
- 3:39to God when they have no proof of that.
- 3:42But you know, God has many times throughout history, brought
- 3:46judgment upon individuals and Nations that caused people to go
- 3:52out of physical existence in this life.
- 3:56And the fact is our God who is revealed and who really is an
- 4:00all-loving God? And in all holy, Holy God, and
- 4:04an all-knowing. God that same God with all those
- 4:07three. All those perfect attributes.
- 4:10Can consistently remove people from this realm.
- 4:15If his righteous, choosing his righteous will chooses to do.
- 4:20So and sometimes, oftentimes throughout history as we read in
- 4:25Scripture that has been done for righteous judgment sake, in the
- 4:30days of Noah, where every Into the thoughts of man's heart was
- 4:34only evil continually God, destroyed the world.
- 4:39He brought judgment down upon man.
- 4:41He did this. A few chapters later in Sodom
- 4:44and Gomorrah. He's done this throughout
- 4:46history. What all he's doing in the
- 4:48present time. We don't know, because that
- 4:50hasn't been revealed to us. We don't have that information,
- 4:54but we do know that he has spoken to us through his word,
- 4:57what he has done in the past, but God also has Brought the
- 5:03lives of people to an end as mercy upon the righteous.
- 5:11I mean, go back to the flood for just a moment and think about
- 5:14every intent of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil
- 5:17continually. Would you want to be born into a
- 5:21family? Who has a mom and a dad, and
- 5:27grandparents on both sides and maybe great grandparents, on
- 5:30both sides whose every intent of the thoughts of their heart were
- 5:34only evil continually. Would you want to be born into
- 5:37that family? And so is there a sense in which
- 5:41for those who were not accountable, that it was a very
- 5:44righteous thing that it was a very merciful thing for God to
- 5:48remove. Move those individuals.
- 5:50And I'm not saying that you were I have the right to do anything
- 5:54like that because we don't God has all authority and owns all
- 5:57life. He is, as we read Paul, say to
- 6:00those Athenians Pagan Gentiles on that 17.
- 6:03He is the one who gives life and breath and all things.
- 6:07He gives this and says, he's The Giver of it.
- 6:10He's the creator of it. He is the owner of it.
- 6:12He owns Eric Lions. He owns Eric's physical
- 6:15existence. He owns, Eric spiritual
- 6:18existence. Ecclesiastes. 12:7, my spirit is
- 6:21returning to God, who is The Giver of it?
- 6:25And so, our God has all authority in these matters.
- 6:28He has sometimes taking people's physical lives from them for
- 6:34judgment purposes. And also, for merciful purposes,
- 6:40you know, it would be merciful. If every righteous soul in the
- 6:44world, except me by the grace of God, righteous only.
- 6:48By the grace of God, if everyone left this world to me and I was
- 6:53stuck in this world with billions of individuals who want
- 6:58to follow Satan rather than Jesus Christ.
- 7:00Would it be a merciful thing for God to remove me from that
- 7:04situation and maybe go ahead and put me take me into the realm of
- 7:10paradise. You know, when you think about
- 7:13Enoch and Elijah for just a moment.
- 7:15I mean there is a sense in which even though we don't talk about
- 7:17them as dying. I wonder sometimes if there's
- 7:21really that much difference in them quote, unquote dying and
- 7:25God taking them. Enoch walked with God for about
- 7:28three hundred and sixty-five years.
- 7:29I believe it was and then God took him.
- 7:33Elijah God took him. And then we have that picture
- 7:35there in second Kings chapter 2, where it was in a chariot of
- 7:40fire with horses who escorted Elijah into the Afterlife.
- 7:48Well, you know, whether right before that Elijah's heart
- 7:51stopped or whether, you know, God, he was still living in God
- 7:54took him into the Afterlife. I don't know that.
- 7:56There's a whole lot of difference in the standpoint of
- 8:00him, not being here anymore on this Earth and God removed him
- 8:04from this situation. The fact is our God and by the
- 8:09way, you know, was it fair for God to take Enoch?
- 8:12I mean, he say where he lived 365 years, what not long enough
- 8:15for him to live. Well when you consider his son
- 8:17Methuselah lived to be 969, Nine years old.
- 8:20It was like in a sense. Maybe it was kind of like well,
- 8:23he left this Earth at about the age of 36 or so. 36 times 10 or
- 8:29so, but you get get the gist. I mean, he could have as things
- 8:33proceed naturally, possibly lived to be, you know, another
- 8:37six hundred more years and yet for God and whatever his
- 8:41righteous purposes were chose to deliver Enoch from this realm to
- 8:48another realm, you know, a lot of people accuse God of things
- 8:54and they assume things about God and about.
- 8:56About, you know, life and how God could take life.
- 8:59Well, the fact is, God can end life whenever he wants to.
- 9:04I mean, when you think about the return of Jesus, the end of time
- 9:07and judgment, isn't there a sense in which he's taking, he's
- 9:11going to take everyone's physical lives at that point in
- 9:13time. When our God is Not is not the
- 9:18immoral murderer that people make him out to be, but our God
- 9:22has righteous reasons for what he does.
- 9:25And I believe that sometimes if we will meditate more on what
- 9:30God has done and why we are here and have a better view of a
- 9:37more. When I say better view, when we
- 9:39talk about a right thinking about these things.
- 9:43Talking about a right-thinking is God's thinking, we're talking
- 9:47about Bible thinking we're talking about christ-like
- 9:49thinking we're talking about thinking, like the Holy Spirit
- 9:52wants us to think because these are the matters that he has
- 9:55revealed in his word. We're talking about Christian
- 9:58thinking, and brothers and sisters.
- 10:01I, it seems that too often. If we're not careful, we can
- 10:05find ourselves. So immersed, in the physical
- 10:08world, in this Physical Realm, in which we live that we allow
- 10:12the world to Try to conform our thinking into the way they
- 10:17think. Rather than God telling us
- 10:19through his word. This is how you are to think
- 10:22about about life and death, and Eternity.
- 10:30I mean, Jesus is going to come back one day.
- 10:33And if there are 8 billion people, or 10 billion people,
- 10:37or, or two people on the planet, at that time.
- 10:42Their lives. And if he comes in our day and
- 10:45our time, our lives, our physical lives at that moment
- 10:49will be quite different and the righteous will receive these new
- 10:54bodies, and there will be a judgment and there will be a
- 10:56separation and to eternal life and eternal destruction.
- 11:03Some might say, like this atheist.
- 11:05I met, who was a very nice man. By the way, I probably should
- 11:08have asked him. Why are you so nice?
- 11:10I mean, I upon what objective standard.
- 11:12You know, where are you? You thinking, you need to follow
- 11:15to be to be nice, but you know, the fact is yes, God has taken
- 11:20life and he has every right to do.
- 11:22So for a number of righteous reasons, and I think that if we
- 11:27will consider what scripture teaches us about life and death
- 11:32in eternity, No, no one's guaranteed.
- 11:35God, didn't create. It's a now I'm going to
- 11:36guarantee you that you're going to have a certain amount of time
- 11:38on this planet to do what you want to do for as long as you
- 11:41want to do it until you want to cease doing it.
- 11:45That's not how this works. He didn't create this Physical
- 11:47Realm to work that way from beginning of time to the to the
- 11:52end of time. You know, another reason I
- 11:57wanted to talk about this for a few minutes this morning.
- 12:00Is because it I wonder if in this last year, I suppose about
- 12:06this month, right? That in during a pandemic, which
- 12:10I'd never seen anything like this in my lifetime and most
- 12:13people alive today. Probably haven't.
- 12:16I wonder if we could use a reminder during covid-19 2020
- 12:22and 2021. If we could use a reminder.
- 12:26About God's view of life and death, and Eternity.
- 12:32Because there has been a major hysteria in the unbelieving
- 12:38world about it and certainly Christians are concerned about
- 12:43it. Certainly Christians don't want
- 12:46to get a disease that would cause them great sickness or
- 12:49perhaps caused them death, but shouldn't Christians have a very
- 12:53different view of disease and death than non Christians should
- 12:59entire mindset. Be very, very different.
- 13:02And I have grown a little more concern over time over the last
- 13:07year that perhaps too many Christians around the world to
- 13:12many of us. Perhaps have put so much
- 13:16emphasis on human life on physical life that we have
- 13:22diminished. Maybe, you know, the most
- 13:25important parts of life and I'm I'm certainly not saying that
- 13:30physical life is not precious. Because physical life is
- 13:33precious and isn't that just a sweet little hand.
- 13:37You see, on a, on a sweet big hand.
- 13:39They're in this picture me physical life is precious.
- 13:42Why is it precious? You know, why did this gentleman
- 13:46that I was talking to in the doctor's office the other day?
- 13:48Why did he seem to Value life? Why had he been going to a
- 13:51doctor for literally years for his condition?
- 13:56Well, because he valued his life.
- 13:58Why did he values his life? And why would I'm sure he would
- 14:00say. He valued his wife's life and
- 14:02whatever children if he had children their lives.
- 14:06Well, because God is the creator of life.
- 14:08You say, if, if a theistic evolution is true, if we are, if
- 14:12we are on the same, if we have the same value as a stick of
- 14:15bamboo or as a babbling baboon or as a, you know, as a piece of
- 14:20bacterium, is that the singular form for the plural bacteria?
- 14:24Jason, you're the English guy here, right?
- 14:26Benjamin bacterium, is that right?
- 14:28If you are as valuable as a piece of bacterium.
- 14:33Where is it piece of bacteria? Anyway, you know what?
- 14:35I'm trying to say. Then I mean, how valuable really
- 14:39is human life. Well, it's not see if God exists
- 14:44and he created life. And if he did as scripture says,
- 14:49created Life In His Image and whatever all that involves
- 14:54certainly in context in Genesis chapter 1, it deals clearly and
- 14:59immediately immediately with the difference in the life that God
- 15:04created in His image, making them Adam and Eve male and
- 15:08female our great. Great great.
- 15:10Great, grandparents and so forth.
- 15:12And that their lives were far different than all of the plants
- 15:16and animals. That God had just made on days
- 15:20three and five and six of creation, which he told Adam and
- 15:24Eve to subdue to have dominion over to rule over to be good,
- 15:29stewards of God made us very different than they have.
- 15:33God made us with with Spirits. God made us in his In His Image.
- 15:40He made life precious. In fact, life is so precious
- 15:43your life and my life. Physically speaking.
- 15:46We're talking about our physical.
- 15:47Uncle lives there. They're so precious that God
- 15:49says this God. In essence says, I would contend
- 15:55in all of scripture talking about the the sin of murder in
- 15:59patriarchal times in Mosaic times.
- 16:02And in the New Testament times being a sin that you can't even.
- 16:06And I can't even lawfully take our own lives.
- 16:11I would say that is implied in those statements of murder being
- 16:15wrong in the hands that shed in. And blood God, not approving of.
- 16:19In fact God hating. You see job who has suffered
- 16:24more than anyone. I have ever met in my life.
- 16:27And in Job chapter 3, He was cursing.
- 16:30If you will, he was wishing the day of his birth.
- 16:33He was wishing that he had never been born.
- 16:36He was suffering, immense, pain, and anguish physically,
- 16:40mentally, and emotionally, but job would not take his own.
- 16:45Life life is so precious. And we have no Authority because
- 16:51God is our ruler. He Jesus is our King.
- 16:53God is The Giver of Life that that we don't even have the
- 16:57right regardless of how bad things get in this life.
- 17:01To even take our own lives though.
- 17:04Maybe some of us have in our lives, just wishing that our
- 17:09lives, you know, would be over, and I'm not suggesting here,
- 17:13that every person who has ever taken his or her own life.
- 17:15We're in their right Minds. Ends and will be held
- 17:18accountable for that and in the day of judgment, that's not my
- 17:21call. That's not your call.
- 17:23Mental sickness is a very real thing.
- 17:25I'm saying, life is precious physical life is precious.
- 17:31We are, aren't we are? We hardwired with a desire to
- 17:34live? I don't think that we need to
- 17:37feel guilty, because if you try to keep me from breathing, I'm
- 17:42going to try to breathe. Okay, I mean aren't we hardwired
- 17:47with a desire to live with a desired to live physically?
- 17:52A number of people in this Auditorium.
- 17:55Got have had covid over the last several months.
- 17:59When I was told that I had covid, you know, I didn't sit
- 18:02there and say, well, I'm so glad I got this, you know, when I got
- 18:06covid, I didn't say, well, I hope that this caused me causes
- 18:10me. Great pain and sickness and and
- 18:12I hope that this causes me to die.
- 18:16No, I aren't we all that? We all have this innate sense in
- 18:20us and he's survival instincts. Yeah, sure.
- 18:25And so, we shouldn't feel guilty about wanting to live even
- 18:27though we know the biblical truths about life death and
- 18:32Eternity. The fact is a long life is a
- 18:36blessing, right? That's not to say that we're all
- 18:41going to live long lives. But throughout scripture.
- 18:43It does seem, I mean, wouldn't go back to to Abraham and see
- 18:46how how we read that. God said, You shall be buried at
- 18:51a good old age. Doesn't that sound like a
- 18:55blessing to potentially be buried at a good old age.
- 19:01You can read in the Ten Commandments where the first
- 19:03commandment with promise that Paul reminded us of, and
- 19:05Ephesians chapter 6 1, through 3, that that first commandment
- 19:09with promise was to Your father and mother why that your days
- 19:13may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving, you
- 19:16know, one of the reasons to obey.
- 19:18God that God told the Israelites and Deuteronomy chapter 5 and
- 19:21verse 33 was that you may live that you may prolong your days
- 19:26in the land. There's nothing wrong with
- 19:29wanting to if the Lord allows us to live a good long life.
- 19:36Have you ever read? Psalm 91 verse verse 16, where
- 19:39the song? Must said with long life.
- 19:43I will satisfy him and show him my salvation with the long life,
- 19:48or how about Proverbs chapter 3 verses 1 and 2.
- 19:50My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart, keep my
- 19:54Commandments for length of days and long life and peace.
- 19:58They will add to you. There's there is in a very real
- 20:02sense. There's a blessing to having A
- 20:06long life, but do not confuse a Godly desire for a long life
- 20:11with being scared to die. Again, trying to have a balanced
- 20:18approach with some of these thoughts about what the Bible
- 20:22teaches about life and death and Eternity.
- 20:26Let's not confuse a Godly desire for a long life with being
- 20:30scared to die. And again, I understand that.
- 20:33We all have this innate sense in us, you know, for survival.
- 20:40And we want to continue to live but it should not be because we
- 20:46are actually scared to die. God, blessed Abraham with a long
- 20:50life. I mean, yes, it was a little
- 20:51shorter than Methuselah's life, but it was 175 years long by the
- 20:58time Abraham lived. It seemed that the lifespan of
- 21:02mankind was much shorter After the flood, then it was before
- 21:06the flood. And he was blessed with his long
- 21:08life. But you know, what was Abraham's
- 21:10attitude? What is it?
- 21:12That the Hebrews writer tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 that he
- 21:15longed for that? He waited for that city, which
- 21:18has what? Foundations, whose Builder and
- 21:22maker is God, you know, the same Apostle who quoted from Exodus
- 21:27chapter 20 in Ephesians chapter 6, children.
- 21:30Obey, your parents in the Lord for this is right, honor, your
- 21:32father and mother which is the first commandment with promise
- 21:34that it may be what that it may be well with you.
- 21:36And that you may well that you may live long on the earth, the
- 21:41same Apostle who reminded the church at Ephesus and the
- 21:45children in that Congregation of this blessing.
- 21:51Was also the one who Cody read for us today.
- 21:56From Philippians chapter 1 and I'm just going to read it again
- 21:59Force. I love this paragraph.
- 22:02Brothers and sisters, I believe that.
- 22:04If this congregation, if everyone in this church, if we
- 22:09could just continue to develop more spiritual maturity and have
- 22:14this mindset about our lives, what we could do in service to
- 22:19the Lord, for whatever time we have left.
- 22:21I suppose could be immeasurable. As Paul reminded the church
- 22:26there in chapter 1 of Philippians.
- 22:28Verse 20 Christ will be magnified in my body whether by
- 22:32life or by death for to me to live is Christ.
- 22:36And to die is, is gain. But if I live on in the flesh,
- 22:39this will mean fruit from my labor.
- 22:41Yet, what I shall choose? I cannot tell.
- 22:44Prime hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart
- 22:47and be with Christ, Which is far better.
- 22:49Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more necessary or more
- 22:52needful for you. And being confident of this.
- 22:55I know that I shall remain and continue with you.
- 22:59All For You. Our progress.
- 23:02Enjoy a faith. Let's not confuse a Godly desire
- 23:06for a long life. With being scared to die, you
- 23:11know, most people are it seems afraid of death.
- 23:16And again, I'm not, I'm not here.
- 23:17I'm not talking about this survival Instinct that every
- 23:20human being who is not struggling, maybe with mental
- 23:25illness with every human being has, but Most people are scared
- 23:30to die. Why?
- 23:34Well, there are a variety of reasons.
- 23:35Some people are scared to die because they actually think I
- 23:39suppose that this physical life is all there is.
- 23:43And so, why would you just want to go out of existence?
- 23:45Why not? Just, you know, continue to live
- 23:47here as long as as you can, just make sure that you can continue
- 23:52to live another day. And so, I don't want to go out
- 23:55of existence. They think, you know errantly,
- 23:58but that's their thoughts. Atheist, who don't believe that
- 24:01there is an afterlife. or maybe there are those who think and
- 24:05there are that they just simply don't know and it is the unknown
- 24:11that just scares them to death, excuse the pun but They're
- 24:18scared of death because they don't know me, you know, we can
- 24:24be kind of scared if we're starting at a new school, right?
- 24:27That can be kind of scary for kids.
- 24:31You ever done that before you ever started a new job and
- 24:35you're kind of intimidated by it.
- 24:37You have no earthly idea of really, in a lot of ways, what
- 24:40you're walking into and not wanting to scare you into not
- 24:43working. Okay.
- 24:43I'm just saying it can be a little scary because of the
- 24:45unknown. Some people are and that this
- 24:48hurts me hurts. My heart.
- 24:50Some people are scared to come inside of a church building
- 24:53because they've never been inside of the one before and it
- 24:56makes them uncomfortable. To think about it.
- 25:01And we want to make people. If there's ever someone to make
- 25:04people feel comfortable. It's those people who if that's
- 25:07one thing, keeping them, keeping them away from the Lord's
- 25:10Church. That's why we want to be so kind
- 25:13and sweet to people because we want them to, to want to, but a
- 25:17lot of people they're scared to death because they're scared of
- 25:20death that they don't know. They don't know what's going to
- 25:23happen on that day. And then, there are there are
- 25:26those who who were scared of death because they know They
- 25:31believe that there really is eternal life and eternal death
- 25:34and they have not prepared themselves.
- 25:37For eternal life. So they are possibly convinced.
- 25:44That they're going to be lost eternally and yet for whatever
- 25:49reason they do not have, they're not alike.
- 25:52They're not using that as motivation.
- 25:57To want to change their lives by the grace of God and become
- 26:02Christians. Some people have become
- 26:05Christians and they were walking in the light and then they
- 26:08turned away just like they were doing in the first century.
- 26:11And they turned back to as we're studying the book of Hebrews in
- 26:15the Sunday morning Auditorium class.
- 26:19The Hebrews writer didn't want them to turn back to something.
- 26:22That wasn't as good, something that was going to cause them to
- 26:26be Almost turn back to what's better.
- 26:29What's right? What's good?
- 26:31There's some people who have become Christians in the past
- 26:34and they just quit on Jesus, brothers and sisters, God knew.
- 26:41When you became a Christian and I became a Christian, he knew we
- 26:44were going to be perfect sinlessly.
- 26:46Perfect. But he does call us to be
- 26:50different. He does call us to be redeemed.
- 26:54He does call us to walk. In the light just as a father,
- 26:59wants his own child to live, right?
- 27:01And do, right. You don't have children thinking
- 27:04that your child or your children are going to be perfect.
- 27:07Who had, who had children here thinking?
- 27:08I want to have children because, I believe my children will be
- 27:12the first perfect people besides Jesus Christ ever walk on this
- 27:15Earth. You have children, you lead
- 27:18them. You nurture them.
- 27:19You bring them up, you train them, you love them.
- 27:25God loves us and calls us cause us to a greater calling.
- 27:32That is not one. That's afraid of death.
- 27:35Christian's desire to live, not out of fear of death.
- 27:38Oh death. Where is your sting death is
- 27:40swallowed up in Victory. I am the resurrection and the
- 27:43life. Jesus said, whoever believes in
- 27:45me though. He die.
- 27:46Yet shall he live? Paul said Jesus abolish death
- 27:50and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
- 27:53And I love what the psalmist said in Psalm 116.
- 27:55Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.
- 28:00Is that the biblical view of Christian death of saintly
- 28:04death, precious in the sight of the Lord.
- 28:10That's right. That's Godly thinking, that's
- 28:16Bible thinking Christians, desire to live, not out of fear
- 28:20of death, not fearing, the unknown, we know Jimmy quoted
- 28:25from first John chapter 5 verse 13 for us today in the adult
- 28:28Bible class here in the auditorium.
- 28:31You can know that you were saved by the grace of God, through the
- 28:35work of Jesus Christ. We can access eternal life
- 28:41through him. He paved the way he paid the
- 28:44debt. Follow him, love him serve him.
- 28:48We don't do this for Earthly. Gain for Earthly Pleasures.
- 28:51We do it for Christ. We do it to love, we do it to
- 28:54serve, we do it to sacrifice. We do it to show others the way
- 28:58we do. We live to teach.
- 29:03What's your desire for living another day?
- 29:08What's my desire for wanting to put my head on a pillow?
- 29:12In my bed tonight? Is it to earn an extra hundred
- 29:16dollars? Is it to get another piece of
- 29:20gold coinage that I don't have any of?
- 29:22But maybe you know, I need one piece.
- 29:24Anyway, is it to buy another piece of stock?
- 29:29Is it to watch another Atlanta Hawks basketball game?
- 29:32Is it to watch another Alabama game or an Auburn game or to win
- 29:36another national champ is that What makes me alive?
- 29:43That's right. What makes you alive?
- 29:48Why are you living? Why do you desire to live?
- 29:53I'm here to tell you if it's for Earthly game.
- 29:58And if that's how you meet your lord and savior one day, it's
- 30:00not going to be a good outcome. If our desire for living it is
- 30:04for Earthly Pleasures. Oh, I got to live because I got
- 30:09another vacation to go on. Nothing wrong with taking a
- 30:11vacation. Jen.
- 30:14And I just had a three-day getaway down in Orlando just the
- 30:16two of us and it was, it was a great time.
- 30:18We needed it. I mean, a year of covid can wear
- 30:21on your right. But we don't live our our minds
- 30:27it is I got to live another day. I got to go another year because
- 30:30I need another, another pleasure of this life know, we're living
- 30:36for the next life. That's the Christian mindset.
- 30:39What's your view of life and death and Eternity?
- 30:43God wants us to think like he wants us to think he wants us to
- 30:48think with not with the physical blinders of this world.
- 30:53Where were just feeding at the physical, trough of consuming,
- 30:57all the physical pleasures of this life.
- 31:00We live and we will live better. If we will live.
- 31:08For to me to live is Christ. It's all about Christ.
- 31:14And if I die, it's game. Let me ask you this.
- 31:17Do you think that Enoch once he was taken up into the Afterlife?
- 31:22Do you think if someone had said Enoch, would you like to go back
- 31:25down to that old world? Absolutely, not.
- 31:31Hmm. No, I'm just assuming that you
- 31:35would have to pry him out of the spiritual realm in which he was.
- 31:40Do you think for a moment that Lazarus poor Lazarus, the beggar
- 31:44Lazarus, who who sat at the rich man's table with sores?
- 31:50And was just would have loved just some of the one of the
- 31:54pleasures of the rich man. Do you think for a moment he
- 31:57wanted to come back into This world after he received paradise
- 32:02and Abraham's bosom. Absolutely not.
- 32:05So to live is Christ and to die is gain.
- 32:10Why are you here? Why am I here?
- 32:15We're here for Christ. We're here for the king.
- 32:20I'm here to serve him. I'm here to love him.
- 32:23I'm here to worship Him. You know, what?
- 32:27If every time we gathered for worship, we gathered for worship
- 32:32and our mindset was, this may be the last time I get to worship
- 32:36him. This side of death.
- 32:43Here, I Am to Worship. And one day, I'm going to be
- 32:48there to worship. We're here to live to serve to
- 32:57sacrifice, but isn't it better for me to die to have no more
- 33:00pain? No more suffering, no more
- 33:02sorrow to go on to Paradise to be with the Lord, to enjoy
- 33:05eternal life to have no more sin to commit, no more sin.
- 33:09See no more sand, beat being on around anymore, sin.
- 33:13No more funerals, no more death. Is that better Eddie is better?
- 33:19It's absolutely better. And I can't wait but I have to
- 33:24wait because I haven't been given that yet.
- 33:28I don't have the right to make that happen.
- 33:30That's not my call. You say well, why not are,
- 33:34because God has all authority and he knows all the
- 33:36ramifications of every single thought and deed.
- 33:40I don't have that that right? But I sure am looking forward to
- 33:43that right, but isn't it better for me to die?
- 33:46Well, he hasn't given us that right.
- 33:48God has given us, the task of doing good in his name, with
- 33:51whatever. Time that we have left.
- 33:56I love what the psalmist says, in Psalm 90.
- 33:58This is actually Moses writing. Probably not long before the
- 34:07Israelites who didn't die in the wilderness to go into the
- 34:10promised land. He said, teach us to number our
- 34:14days. Whereas James reminded us life
- 34:18is like a vapor. Let's live daily.
- 34:25Like we have little time left. I don't know how much time I
- 34:30have lived. You don't either.
- 34:36If anything, maybe covid has reminded us of this, I don't
- 34:40like covid. We should never happened.
- 34:44It's here. It's been here for a while and
- 34:48there have been pandemics throughout history.
- 34:51And there's been death and people die everyday.
- 34:56You imagine walking out of walking out of Egypt, with over
- 35:03600,000, men of fighting age men, males, 20 years and older
- 35:09600,000 of them not including all the other males and not
- 35:14including all the women not including all the children.
- 35:20And nearly all of them died in the wilderness during 40 Years
- 35:24of wandering. Can you imagine how many deaths
- 35:29they witness? Death is real in this life.
- 35:37But it should cause us to just be motivated.
- 35:41To live eternally to live to have eternal life in the next
- 35:48life. And isn't it best?
- 35:53Don't we live best when we live daily in this life?
- 35:59Knowing that this could be my last day.
- 36:04In this life. It may be, it may not be.
- 36:10I have to say there was a country song that was written
- 36:14several years ago by Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman.
- 36:18You probably know what song that is.
- 36:20It won the country music song of the year.
- 36:22I believe in 2004. It was sung by a country singer.
- 36:26You may have heard of his name is Tim McGraw.
- 36:31He said I was in my early 40s with a lot of life before me and
- 36:34the moment came and stopped me on a dime.
- 36:37I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays, talking
- 36:40about the options and talking about sweet time.
- 36:43I ask him when it sank in that, this might really be the real
- 36:47in-house. It hits you.
- 36:48When you get that kind of news, what you do?
- 36:54He said and I'm skipping a few words here.
- 36:57I love deeper. I spoke sweeter.
- 37:02I gave forgiveness that I've been denying.
- 37:06I was finally, the husband. that most of the time I wasn't, And I
- 37:13became a friend. that a friend would like to have I finally
- 37:19read the good book. I took a good long look.
- 37:23Of what I do, I could do it all again.
- 37:28He said someday I hope you get the chance to Live Like You Were
- 37:33Dying like tomorrow was a gift and you've got eternity to think
- 37:38about what you do with it. What could you do with it?
- 37:46What did I do with it? What would I do with it?
- 37:53Someday, I hope you get the chance to Live Like You Were
- 37:57Dying. I fully believe that Eric is a
- 38:05better version of Eric, when Eric lives every day.
- 38:12Knowing. I'm going somewhere else whether
- 38:17it is today, whether it is tomorrow or whether it is next
- 38:22year or whether it is when I'm 80 years old.
- 38:28Life is, but a vapor. What matters is?
- 38:34That I recognize my Lord and my savior and his greatness, and
- 38:41his goodness, and his grace, which brings salvation to man
- 38:49and to live in light of that. To love to serve to live.
- 38:57And I believe, Eric is a better version of Eric when he lives
- 39:01every day, like he is dying. Because the truth is, I am I'm
- 39:07dying. And so, were you?
- 39:13But what's waiting for us on the other side?
- 39:18Is really more than we could ever imagine.
- 39:23So why why not? Give your God your best today
- 39:32and every day? You're not a Christian, become a
- 39:38Christian today. Knowing that when you are
- 39:43covered with the lamb, the blood of the Lamb.
- 39:47God sees the blood and not your sin, knowing that you can be
- 39:52safe in the arms of Jesus today and forever and forever.
- 39:57In a more realize sense as our faith becomes sight.
- 40:02Won't you respond to the grace of God?
- 40:05Won't you respond to the love of Jesus?
- 40:08Won't you respond to the spirits exhortation, the calling?
- 40:15God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of
- 40:19him to save through faith, confession of Faith, turning
- 40:23away from sin being immersed, in water for the Forgiveness of
- 40:26sins. And if we are not living right
- 40:28today, make a change today as we stand as we sing.