Life Is Like A Box Of Chocolates Series

Introduction:

1. A few years ago one of the biggest movies of the year was "Forest Gump." Actor Tom Hanks played the role of a handicapped man whose mother believed in him to the extent that he was willing to try anything. He would often quote one of his mother’s favorite lines. "My mother says life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get."

2. You probably noticed that this morning’s sermon is entitled, "Life is Like a Box of Chocolates." However, I want to suggest that life is like a box of chocolates not because you never know what you’re going to get, though that’s true, but for another reason altogether. Have you ever noticed how foods that no one in the family likes don’t get eaten very quickly. When you open candy around my house, it’s going to be gone pretty quickly. However, you could open a can of hominy and it would last a long time because no one is eager to eat it. That’s sort of the lesson that I want us to focus on this morning. Life is like a box of chocolates in that it never lasts very long.

Cell #1--

When we’re young we rarely ever consider the fact

that we will someday " Die."

3. When you’re young it looks like life is will last forever. One pastor illustrated it like this. Talk about death to a child and she says, "Die? What’s that?" To a teenager, and he says, "Yeah right, not in my lifetime."" The twenty something says, ""Sure, some day." The forty something crowd says, "Not yet but, I’m already at half way there." By the time people get to sixty there’s much more peace for those with faith, they say, "That’s OK, I can still live with purpose." When you’re old and your body is failing you may say, "With faith in God, death is my friend." Vance Havner once said, "The hope of dying is the only thing that keeps me alive."

4. When it comes right down to it we all know that unless Christ returns first we are going to die one day. There’s actually a sight on the internet that will help you figure out about how long you are going to live. You put in your date of birth, how fit you are & it will the date of your death.

Cell #2--

The site on the internet that will estimate how much longer you will live is www.deathclock.com.

5. However, the place that will help us best get some perspective on life and death is the scriptures. This morning we will focus our attention on the 90th Psalm. Let me give you a few basic facts about this psalm that make it special.

Cell #3--

Psalm 90 was written by Moses. It is one of the oldest psalms.

6. You may remember that the Jews were supposed to enter the promised land after they left Egypt. However, because of their lack of faith in God they instead wandered in the wilderness for 40 years while everyone twenty years old and up died. One person did the math and figured that if there were a million people above the age of twenty at the time that they would have had an average of nearly 70 funerals every day during those years. As the nation’s leader Moses had probably participated in more funerals than he cared to think about. Perhaps this psalm came out of a time when he was doing some personal soul searching. We don’t know the details, but the message it contains has some great lessons to teach us. With that in mind, this is where we will focus our attention this morning.

Cell #4--

Gaining an Accurate View of Life’s Big Picture

Prayer

Cell #5--

Psalm 90:1-17 NASB

1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

2 Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth & the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.

3 You turn man back into dust & say, "Return, O children of men."

4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the night.

5 You have swept them away like a flood, they fall asleep; In the morning they are like grass which sprouts anew.

6 In the morning it flourishes & sprouts anew; Toward evening it fades & withers away.

7 For we have been consumed by Your anger & by Your wrath we have been dismayed.

8 You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

9 For all our days have declined in Your fury; We have finished our years like a sigh.