Eulogy: Your Decision Only
Scriptures: Luke 16:19-31; Matthew 7:21-23; Hebrews 6:4-6
Introduction
Would everyone please stand up? I want you to look around at the people you see here today. Remember their faces. Thank you, you may be seated. My heart is been heavy today as we come to remember another one of our family members, Keith. Since I heard of his death, I have reflected on what I know of Keith’s life and some of the memories that I personally have of him. There were fourteen of us first cousins on my father’s side of the family. Our birth order sort of grouped us together as playmates at family and church gatherings. The youngest group of first cousins was Keith, Kim, Michael and Andre’. They were the last born of each family and as was expected, could be a little spoiled. They could get away with stuff that the rest of us could not. And they often whined if the older kids were doing things and would not let them join in. Of course when they whined, we got in trouble. But that was 40 years ago. During the last seventeen years I have only seen Keith three times and each time it was due to our family getting together because someone had died. Many times when I was home visiting Keith was away on vacation at the state expense because of some decisions he had made. I last saw Keith last November when we buried my father and the thought never crossed my mind that less than one year later I would be standing over his coffin. Keith was a young man but death does not care about our age, what family we came from or how much we’re worth. That should serve as a warning to all of us. Our lives are as a vapor, one minute we are here and the next we are gone. We do not know the hour of our death and that fact alone should encourage us to take the necessary steps to ensure our eternity, if we want to be with Christ.
I am Keith’s first cousin by blood. How many of you are related to me by blood? How many of you are related to me by marriage? I just need to know because you can say a lot of things to family that you cannot say to strangers. Today I am talking to my family and for those of you not related to me, you’re welcome to listen too. If you get offended with anything that I say today, then that should let you know that there are some things you need to take before God now – before it is too late. But today I am going to have an honest discussion with my family. I am not allowed to white wash the truth and dress up a lie so people can feel good about what they are doing. If you are living in sin, I tell you that you’re living in sin and if you remain, you’re going to hell. My cousin Keith is gone and where he will spend eternity rests with God. But all of you who knew him know how he lived. You know about how he abused his body and had little real time for God. So do not expect me to stand up here and lie to you and tell you that he is in Jesus arms and at peace. He may be, or he may be in hell – that is between hi m and God now and nothing I will say will change that. But this I do know, if you live in sin, regardless of how often you go to Church, you’re going to hell. What matters here today is where you will spend eternity. I do not stand in judgment of Keith, but the truth is the truth and today my heart is heavy as it has been all week.
On Oct 10, 2003, I stood before many of you at Keith mother’s funeral, my Aunt Betty. During that service six years ago, I encouraged those of you who needed to make a change to do so. Since Aunt Betty’s funeral, we have buried several more family members – and yet, many of us remain the same. We sin, we go to Church and fellowship with our other partners in sin, and then we sin some more and go back to Church. We can be overheard talking in the parking lot about the fun we had the night before or making plans to make that special date with the deacon’s wife for later in the week. And what is so bad is that in some Churches the preachers are doing the same thing so they cannot tell you not to do something because they know you know what they are doing. So because you are all sinning together, you become best sin-supporting friends – as only “Christian brothers can be.”
It is so bad around here that you call your fellow sinning so-called Christian to pray for you because you just found out that the woman you’re messing on your wife with is messing around on you with someone else and now you are hurt. All of these things take place because we have taught people “once saved, always saved” and holiness is for those “sanctified” folks who speak in tongues. Well understand, there is no once saved always saved with a real effort to stop sinning. Since we have been taught once saved always saved, we believe there is no consequence for our sins – let me help you change your thoughts on that. God’s word does not teach once saved always saved and as a matter of fact, if you study God’s word closely, you will find that the opposite is true. God’s word tells us that there is a change that needs to take place in the heart and through that changed heart, a life is saved. If you have been baptized and you’re still living in sin, liking sin and worshipping sin, then your baptism means absolutely nothing. Do not let some sin-filled pastor or preacher who is doing some of the same things you are tell you that just because you got baptized you can live anyway you want. It is true that you were a sinner saved by grace but the sin was supposed to stop when you were saved. Forgiveness of sins comes through repentance. Repenting is not saying “I’m sorry” as you plan the next sin; repentance is stopping what you are doing; choosing to go in another direction. It means to do everything you can to stop sinning.
If you sense anger in my voice, then you have sensed correctly. I am angry because somewhere along the line many people have accepted the fact that “We can bring anything before God and He will accept it.” I can bring my lies and adulterous life before God and He will accept it and me. I can bring my hate for my fellow man before God and He will accept it and me. I can bring my drugs and alcohol before God and He will accept it and me. He accepts it because I go to Church sometimes and when I am there that’s as much as God is going to get. There is sin all around us and we embrace it, cradle it, pat it on the head while all the time thinking we are okay with God. It is time to stop ignoring those sinning around us and speak up for we may be the only voice that God can use to deliver that soul from hell.
I. Choices
I have been married for 27 years and if I told my wife that I loved her and yet I did not act like it by being faithful to her and spending quality time with her, she would not believe me because my actions spoke louder than our words. Well, if it works that way with us, why do we think God is different? He is not. As a matter of fact, God don’t believe you no more than my wife would believe me when we tell Him we love Him and yet keep sinning every single day and loving it. I want you to know that hell is a real place and many are going there. I hope that I can scare the hell that you are headed to right out of you so that when you are lying before some minister in your casket, they will have a whole list of things to say about your life and your heart and there will be a great celebration. If after today you still want to go to hell, more power to you. I will grieve your lost temporarily and continue on with my life because you have had plenty of time to make a lasting change. So “Where will you spend eternity?”
If someone lives to be eighty years old, we say they have lived a long life. But if you live to be 300, that is a short life compared to eternity. Eternity is defined as “endless time”. When we die, our spirits will go to one or two places. We will go to paradise where we will wait until Christ makes His return or we will go to hell and wait till the Day of Judgment. In the book of Luke, Jesus tells a story of two men. Some call this a parable, but parables generally do not use proper names. In this story which is found in the 16th chapter, Jesus describes the rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. Let me read it to you. Luke 16:19-21: “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.”
The rich man had everything he wanted and even though he had more than enough, he chose not to help Lazarus who was at his gate, hungry, sick and covered with sores. The dogs that roamed the streets showed more mercy on Lazarus than this rich man as they came up to Lazarus and licked his sores. It has been proven that a dog’s saliva has some healing properties. This is why if a dog has a sore, they will lick it raw trying to help it to heal. This is what those dogs were doing to Lazarus, showing mercy on him trying to help heal his sores. The dogs did more for Lazarus than the rich man ever thought about doing – a very bad decision on the part of the rich man. As Jesus continues the story, both Lazarus and the rich man died and they went to their respective places.
Luke 16:22-23 records the following: “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.” Lazarus went to Abraham’s bosom, or paradise, while the rich man went to hell. You must understand, neither paradise nor hell will be the final place, those are both temporary. When you die, you immediately go to one or the other. Here is what I want you to understand, Lazarus went to paradise, the rich man to hell. Their destination was decided by the decisions they made in this life. Now let me be very specific with you. These are not my words; they are taken directly from the Bible.
If you are a leader within your Church, I want you to stand up. If you are the pastor, associate minister, Sunday school or Bible Study teacher, usher, secretary or hold any other position, please stand at this time because I want to read this scripture to you.
Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
The first thing you need to understand is that being a Christian is about the heart, not how often you go to Church. There are many church goers who will end up in hell because they worship God with their mouths only and not their hearts. This is what Jesus was describing in these verses. He was talking about those who thought they were Christians because of all the “stuff” they were doing even though in their hearts they still lived in sin. So for those of you, who think any thing goes, let me give you some examples of things that will not get you into heaven. Let me start with the short list.
First Corinthians 6:9-10 records the following: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.” Before I go any further, let me make sure you understand who Paul is talking to. He was talking to Church folk – people like us, not people in the world. He was talking about people who went to Church on Sunday and sinned the other six days of the week. He was talking to Church folk who thought anything goes and they could continue in sin because they believed in Jesus. So let me break this down so that there is no misunderstanding. If you are:
Fornicating: this means having sex without being married. If you are out with family and friends and your phone rings and all of a sudden you have to go and make a booty call, just understand, making that booty call is sending you to hell and after hell the lake of fire where it is really going to get hot. If you know someone here today in this audience based on who you saw when you stood up that is fornicating raise your hand.
Adulterers: If you prefer to have sex with someone else’s spouse or if you are married and prefer to have sex with someone who is not your spouse, you are going to hell. You will not get a pass or a get out of hell free card. You are going to hell. If you know someone here today that is committing adultery today, raise your hand.
Homosexuals: If you’d rather have sex with someone with the same sexual organs you have, you’re going to hell and then the lake of fire. I do not care what our society says is acceptable, read God’s word. You were not born that way, it is a choice. If you know someone who is here today that is practicing homosexuality, raise your hand.
Thief: If you cannot be trusted to be left alone in someone’s home because you will steal everything you can carry out of the house, I do not care how many Scriptures you quote, you’re still going to hell and from there the lake of fire. If you someone here today who is a thief and you would not trust them in your home alone, raise your hand.
Drunks, Revilers, Swindlers: If you love to party and have fun with the drinking, pot smoking, cheating and other things that take place during your “relaxation” times, you are going to hell – Read The Book! If you know someone here today who does nothing but party, sneak around, cheat and raise sin, raise your hand.
Everyone one of you who raised your hand know someone here in this room that is going to hell if they do not stop what they are doing, repent, ask for forgiveness and start living for Christ. Now what are you going to do about it? During the summer one of your former football players was killed. Everyone talked about what a hero and great ball player he was and how much he meant to the community because of what he did. What he did was have adulterous affairs and talked about what that meant for his eternity. But the fact remains he died in sin, he was with a woman that was not his wife. If the reports are correct, as he slept, he was shot to death. There was no chance for repentance because he was asleep. Now let me prove this to you by taking you to the book of Revelations:
Revelations 21:8 records this: “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Let me walk you through your life before I close.
1. First you are born into this world. Maybe you did not have the best parents or the best situation, but you were born and you had opportunities.
2. At some point in your life, you make a decision, to accept Christ or to not accept Christ. When you accepted Him, you are baptized as an outward show of what was supposed to have taken place in your heart. If you chose not to accept Him, then you lived however you wanted, doing all the things I just mentioned.
3. After accepting Christ, even if you were the worst sinner to ever live, you repented and your sins, your previous life, was wiped clean.
4. After accepting Christ, you made the choice to follow Him or to go back and live the way you wanted. Maybe you believed that once saved always saved so once you were baptized you had an eternal get out of hell free card and nothing you did would change that.
5. Whether you accepted Christ or not, you died. When you died two things happened, either you are surprised that you are in hell or you end up where you expected to be, in heaven (unless you expected to be in hell).
6. If you end up in hell, you wait there in “pre-torment” until the Day of Judgment. If you go to paradise, you wait there until that same day.
7. One the Day of Judgment, your name will be called and you will stand before God. Here is what the Bible says: “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. (Rev. 20:12) When you stand before God, books will be opened. Everything you are doing is being recorded in books. Once your history is read, the book of life will be opened.
8. If your name is in the book of life, you will enter into the kingdom of God. If your name is not found in the book of life, then you will be cast into the lake of fire where Satan, his angels, hell and death will be. Revelations 20:14-15 says: “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
This is how our lives will play out. So let me go back to one Scripture for those of you who still believe that because you were baptized that you can live any way that you choose and still die and go to heaven.
Hebrews 6:4-6 says “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the son of God and put Him to open shame.”
Does this sound like once saved always saved? Our time is short here and one day we will all pass this way. When your books are opened, what will they reveal? Because most of us have received a watered down version of holiness, we never fully get it that there is a price to pay to live for Christ and a price to pay when you don’t. Everyone one of us here today have sinned and have fallen short of God’s will for our lives. The problem that exists today is that not only do we habitually sin but we believe that God forgives us because we are just “sinners saved by grace”. You must understand that God expects you to stop sinning. As I close, I want to ask each of you to close your eyes. I want you to listen to my voice and hear clearly what I am about to tell you. As you hear my voice, picture in your mind what I am describing. Now everyone please close your eyes, listen to me with your ears and your hearts.
“God loves you and He does not want you to go to hell and ultimately the lake of fire. So I want you to understand what you will experience if you choose to go to hell. Imagine waking up and your house is on fire. You cannot escape and you know your life will end as you will burn to death. You seek a way out but there is fire all around you. You can hardly breathe as the smoke is so thick. It burns your eyes and your lungs. As you try to breathe the smoke overwhelms you and then you feel the heat. As the fire approaches you your clothes start to burn. You cannot drop and roll to get the fire out because it is all around you. You try to put it out, but to no avail. Then your nose picks up the scent of what smells like burning flesh and you realize that you are on fire. You try and try to put the fire out for it hurts so bad but it will not go out. As you realize what is happening, you hear others who are screaming and crying for help as they too are burning. Finally your body goes into shock, and you stop feeling the pain. You have lost so much bodily fluids that your heart stops beating. Your mind registers a sense of peace as you fall into unconsciousness and die. This is what it will be like if you died in a fire, but not what it will be like in the lake of fire. In the lake of fire you will experience everything that I just said; you will smell the smoke; feel all of the heat; hear the screams and feel all of the pain. You will smell your flesh burning as the fire gets hotter and hotter. You will seek death but it will not come because you will have your immortal body and your immortal body cannot die again. You will exist in a state of burning for all eternity.
You may open your eyes now. This, my family, friends and visitors awaits all those who choose to live a life of sin, whether you have been baptized or not! If you saw a house burning and someone inside needing help, would you not try and help them? You would at least call 911 and tell them about the fire and someone possibly being in the building. For those of you who had raised your hands earlier to knowing someone here in this sanctuary who is sinning and on their way to hell, it is the same thing, only in this case it’s for eternity. You know someone who is going to be on fire for all eternity, are you willing to do something about it?
Conclusion
In this casket before us lie the remains of Keith, a father, son, brother, nephew, cousin and friend. He has lived his life. These earthly remains will return to the dusk from whence they came. On the Day of Judgment, Keith will stand before God alone to be judged as will we. God will not need character witnesses because everything you’ve done has been recorded in the books. For those of us who look on these remains, remember the love and cherish the memories that you have of Keith. But as you prepare to leave here today, remember that you will be right here one day. When you take your last breath, the prayers will cease and your life will end. The books in heaven recording what you are doing here on earth will be closed and sealed until the Day of Judgment. Then you will know immediately of your eternal resting place. I beg you to understand that this is real. Your life means something. If you have nothing here on earth, your life still means something to God. It is not too late to make a heart change. If you will not make that change, you will force some minister to stand up over you and try to comfort a family that knows you’re in hell. That will not be a great home-going. Please understand our lives are ending and we do not know the day or the hour so we must be ready at all time. I pray God’s peace for our family and those of you who were close to Keith as you will miss his presence in your life.
