Fearless Campaign Week 4 Series

Fearless #4 Fear of Life’s Final Moments

Did you know that there’s an application on Facebook that will tell you when your life will end? I have been informed that I will die on January 19, 2016 in a car accident. Apparently a gigantic cupcake falls on my car. What’s worse is it seemed like I’m still driving around in a compact car, may be an old escort!

Have you ever given much thought to your death?

- How it will happen? Disease or accident or something else

- What will happen? Quick, painful, see it coming or totally out of the blue

- When will it happen? Could it be soon or will it be a while? Will you outlive your friends?

- Where will it happen? Will you end up in a nursing home or will it be on a boat, a car? Will a giant muffin fall on your car?

And what about after you die? Have you given much thought about that? Will it be like the movie “ghost” where black demonic figure’s come from hell and drag you away kicking and screaming? Or will you arrive at some pearly gates and Peter is asking you how to spell chezslovakia?

I have been with many people facing death. I’ve been with people as they slipped into eternity. I’ve been with family’s struggling through the valley of the shadow of death.

Death is the strongest predator on the face of the earth – He relentlessly tracks down each victim, catching and wrestling them down to the grave!

Death is seen day and night going to and fro throughout the earth stalking his prey. He is seen lurking in the shadows, with the souls of men in his grasp. He is the terror of the night.

He plays no favorites and is not prejudiced: He leaps upon young and old; man, woman, and child alike. Red, yellow, black or white!

He is coming after us and we cannot stop him.

Death is like being a mouse stuck in a tank with a snake. The end is coming. We cannot avoid the inevitable, it will happen. That snake will eventually swallow us.

Aren’t you glad you came this morning? Do you feel like shouting?

Death leaves in his wake sorrow and pain and emptiness and grief and screaming and sobbing. He’s especially gleeful when his ugly activity is blamed on God. He laughs as we dress up death, but it still death. Death steals away life and love and is permanent.

The first funeral I ever went to was the first funeral I ever preached. I remember peeking into that room to see what a dead body look like. And even now I think, “just a couple of days ago this body was filled with life, that had was filled with knowledge, this person was loving and sharing in contributing, and now it’s over, all of that knowledge and love is stilled, gone, ceased, and over.”

Ecc. 9:5 For the living know that they will die,

but the dead know nothing;

they have no further reward,

and even the memory of them is forgotten.

6 Their love, their hate

and their jealousy have long since vanished;

never again will they have a part

in anything that happens under the sun.

Is that it? Does death always have the last word the final say?

We cannot escape death. I can’t believe how many times at funerals the people walk away in total denial that someday they will be the one in that coffin and we will be talking about their life, their relationships, their priorities.

One thing that I have definitely observed through the years when it comes to death is this simple formula…

The Closer to God people are…the better they handle death

The farther away from God people are…the harder they handle death

The more sure of heaven we are…the easier it is to handle death

The more unsure we are of heaven…the harder it is to handle death

There are lots of earthly traditions and teaching about what happens at death…here are a few…

Heaven: Eternity is spent in Heaven or Paradise with God, in a state that is beautiful beyond our ability to conceive. And some believe everybody will be there…

Hell: Eternity is spent in Hell with Satan and his demons. All are tormented and tortured, in isolation from God, without any hope of mercy or relief.

Annihilation: The body rots. One’s soul, spirit, memory, personality, awareness, body, and mind disappear and are no more. One atheist said he was going to the “great perhaps.”

Transmigration of the soul: Our soul and spirit are reborn into a human fetus or newborn child.

Reincarnation: Our soul and spirit are reborn into another living entity - not necessarily human.