I Thought I Had More Time

I Thought I had More Time

Hebrews 10: 27-28

Intro: I saw a book of letters that children have written to God and I want to share a couple of them with you this morning.

. Mike writes, Dear God, what is it like when someone dies? Nobody will tell me, I just want to know. I don’t want it to happen to me. Your friend Mike.

. Jane writes: Dear God, instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you got now. Love Jane

. On Wednesday of this week James Gandolfini died. He was one of the stars of the HBO series The Sopranos. I have never watched the show but I understand that he was a very good actor. He was in Italy with his son who had just finished the 8th grade and they were there for a father son trip among other things. Reports say that his son found him passed out on the floor of the bathroom of their hotel room. He was pronounced dead soon after arriving at the hospital. The reports say that he was still breathing when the ambulance arrived but died at the hospital.

. As I let this sermon percolate as I call it, I wondered what might have gone through this man’s mind as he lay on the floor of the bathroom.

. I don’t know anything about his relationship with the Lord but I can guess that at least one thing went through his mind.

. I’m only 51 years old. This shouldn’t be happening to me.

. I thought I had more time.

. My guess is that many who die thought they had or wished they had more time.

. The fact is we don’t really have much control over it do we?

. Death is something we don’t like to talk about isn’t it?

. Death is something we don’t even like to think about isn’t it?

. We are back in Hebrews this morning as we continue our journey through the book

.

. Just to review, the writer of Hebrews has spent the first eight chapters laying out the case for Jesus being the greatest being to ever live.

. Lays out the case that Jesus is not only a man but that He is God’s son and that He is superior to Moses and all the prophets.

. He is superior to the High priests and in fact He replaces all the priests past present and future.

. Jesus made the sacrifice that was necessary for the forgiveness of sin. Not through the blood of animals on an alter but through His blood on a cross.

. He talked about the old covenant that God had with Israel and that now there was a new covenant not only with Israel but with all mankind.

. Church was going to be different now.

. The way to God was going to be different now.

. Now we all had access to God through and because of Jesus.

. Here in the last two verses of chapter 9, the writer gets to the heart and the harsh reality of the matter.

. Let’s look at our scripture. Hebrews 9: 27,28

. 27And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,

28so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

. There are three things that we see here in these two verses.

. First, Death is certain.

. The writer of Hebrews tells us that death is certain.

. We’re all gonna die.

. Now I know that some will say preacher that’s not technically right because of the rapture. You may be right but since we don’t know when that will happen, we are going on the same premise as the writer of Hebrews.

. We’re All Gonna Die Folks.

. Look at the first part of verse 27 again:

. 27And just as each person is destined to die once …

. Three friends were discussing death one day and one of the guys asked the other two what they would like people to say about them at their funeral.

. The first one said, “ I would like folks to say that I was a great humanitarian. That I cared about the downtrodden and less fortunate in the world. That I was an asset to the community.

. The one that asked the question said “ I would like for them to say that I was a great husband, a great father and an example to my children”