David--The Fear Of Death Series

Fear Factor: “David—Fear of Death” (1 Samuel)

M. Cameron McDonald

February 29, 2004

Intro:

ILL: SAM KINISON WAS A FAMOUS COMEDIAN IN THE LATE 198O’S INTO THE EARLY 90’S. HE GAINED HIS STATUS AS ONE OF THE MOST RECOGNIZED COMEDIANS FOR BEING AS CRUDE AND SHOCKING AS WAS CULTURALLY ACCEPTABLE AT THE TIME. HIS ANTICS WERE ALWAYS PUSHING THE ENVELOPE MORALLY.

BUT SAM KINISTON’S LIFE ENDED YOUNG WHEN HE WAS INVOLVED IN A BAD CAR ACCIDENT. SAM’S BEST FRIEND WAS FOLLOWING BEHIND HIM IN ANOTHER CAR THE DAY THE CRASH HAPPENED. AND WHEN HE SAW THE CARS COLLIDE, HIS BEST FRIEND PULLED UP IMMEDIATELY AND RAN TO ASSIST SAM. AS HE APPROACHED THE CAR HE SAW SAM IN THE DRIVERS SEAT AND HE DIDN’T LOOK GOOD. HE HAD BEEN BADLY INJURED BUT WAS STILL CONSCIOUS, SO HIS FRIEND JUST KIND OF HELD HIM WHILE HELP WAS ON THE WAY, AND HE SAID SAM JUST KEPT REPEATING, “PLEASE DON’T LET ME DIE, I DON’T WANT TO DIE, I AM NOT READY, PLEASE DON’T LET ME DIE.” BUT ONLY SECONDS LATER SAM DID DIE.

A. You will die some day, are you ready?

a. You know most people would really rather not talk about it; death is an unpleasant subject to think about.

b. I think if everyone of us were honest we would admit that none of us really wants to die. Infact, if it were possible we would like to avoid the whole process all together, we would kind of prefer to be like Elijah and never die, just kind of quit doing whatever it is we are doing and hop into the chariot of fire.

c. And this is no special revelation to us; in the Bible we are told that Death is the last enemy. It is to be hated and avoided and even feared somewhat.

d. But as Christians we have the assurance of everlasting life, and for us that is not the problem, the problem for us and every human being is how are they going to get there. How is death going to happen to them.

EX: Will we go quietly, peacefully in our sleep at an old age, will we be struck by lightening or with a ravenous disease that causes us pain, will we drown, or be in a car accident. Those questions have plagued every human mind since the dawn of the ages; we all have this fear this uncertainty of how we are going to die. And it is that mystery that has kept us on our toes for so long, its that mystery which prompts us to schedule regular doctor’s appointments, buy tons of pills and multi-vitamins, to purchase the safest car built with anti-intrusion steel and 64 air bags, to exercise and watch what we eat

e. And as people we all want to go to heaven but it’s the getting there part that scares us, well, quite literally to death.

ILL: I was on the internet the other day and I came across a rather odd website called “Death-Clock.com” On this site you were asked to answer a few questions about yourself, to type in your date of birth, height and body mass index and after you clicked on a button in a few minutes it told you the date you were going to die and how much time you had left, and it began a count down. According to this website I am set to expire June 11, 2068. And by just clicking a button to download this clock, your desktop can now have this mortal reminder counting down your seconds left to live.

But in a sense don’t you wish that were true, don’t you wish you could just magically type in a few buttons and via-la there would be your date of death, we kind of wish we were like a gallon of milk in the grocery store that we all had stamped on us this expiration date.

f. But we all know it doesn’t work that way, God never intended it too, I think we don’t know when this will happen because God wants us to live everyday as if it were our last, living with an eternal mindset and not an earthly one because the things of this earth are so frail, temporary, and uncertain.

SCRIP: (James 4:13-14) Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

B. Just a few years ago death was not mentioned in polite society.

EX: William Randolph Hearst wouldn’t even permit the word death to be uttered in his presence.