How A Man Ought To Die

HOW A MAN OUGHT TO DIE

Numbers 23:10 … Let me die the death of therighteous, and let my last end be like his!

1. Once in a while some one comes along

a. enriches our lives

b. way they live teaches – ought to live

c. way they die teaches – we ought to die

2. Guy Anderson was such a man as this

a. physically strong – loved the land

i. farmer >tractor’s in coffin;

ii. he & Maggie made best Cane Syrup could find

b. emotionally strong – loved his wife & family

i. Men’s prayer room – cried out - his boys & Marian

ii. last days able to attend> words wrong except

c. spiritually strong – loved His Lord & His church

..let my last end be like his..

i. know Bro. Guy died in the nursing home

ii. kept asking to go home >now really @ home

How a Man Ought to Die

1. WITH HIS FAITH IN GOD

A. Faith – easy on the lips but hard to live

1. Tragedy when a man allows heartaches, sorrows or sickness smother his faith in God

2. When a man’s faith dies – walking corpse

a. living dead man

B. Bro. Guy didn’t let life’s hardships steal

1. Last yrs. esp. suffered but like Job

“though He slay me yet will I trust in Him”

2. There was a reason & It’s a simple reason

a. captured the truth of Children’s Hymn

“Jesus Loves Me this I know

For the Bible Tells me So

Little Ones to Him Belong

They are Weak but He is Strong

Yes Jesus Loves Me – The Bible Tells Me So

2. WITH UNDIMMED VISION

A. Pitied is a Man w/o vision

1. focus then is fixed on things of this world

2. troubles & impossibilities overwhelm

3. “where there is no vision, the people perish”

Proverbs 29:18 (MSG) If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves;

B. Bro. Guy Had Vision – not a visionary

1. Heb. 11:27 for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible

2. Vision for His Family – esp those weak

a. often times prayed – called by name – wept

b. dream & desire – church w/him and Maggie

c. grandchildren – prayed for you

3. Vision for His Friends

a. to be saved

4. Vision for His Church

a. Never shoot Basketball – grandchildren & great

b. Never have child in NCA – friends/neigh/family

b. Vision for Eternity

a. heaven to be gained & hell to be shunned

3. DIED IN THE PITCH OF BATTLE

2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

A. Involved in Fullest Ability in Serv. of God

1. Loved His Church – Doors open - HERE

a. after he quit driving & Maggie sick

b. came to church one Wed. – “How?”

i. I Drove! – ever see him drive in last yrs.

ii. Terry quick to come

2. Bro. Guy Loved People

a. If you came to NS Br. Guy shook your hand

3. Bro. Guy Loved His Lord

Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said unto him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

4. LEAVING BEHIND A TESTIMONY

A. Spirit w/Jesus; body committed ground

1. Who he was – how he lived – lives on

2. He was a simple & quite man – last 1st & 1st

B. Jimmy – told me ½ man Daddy was

1. not half Jimmy – all -1 Cor 15:10

by the grace of God I am what I am

Revelation 14:13 (KJV) And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.

5. With Great expectations

1. Great Gain

Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

2. Great Place

Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waits for him.