Live Like You Were Dyin’
Life is valuable. “Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.” Psalm 90:12 (LB)
Don’t turn over a new leaf. Turn over a new life.
“Life is a dash between two numbers on a tombstone, and everybody should enjoy that dash” Dr Neil Shulman (Movie Doc Hollywood)
Dash - Separating a beginning and an ending. What do you see? That 1 or 2 inch mark stands for a whole life.
Life is fleeting: “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath.” (Psalm 39:4-5 NLT)
18 times a minute you breathe, 25,920 times a day FREE of Charge
When you think about it, we don’t have much control over many things in life:
Born, Parents, Time period/culture
Death - Only God knows - Our lives are in His hands
One thing we do have control over
We get to decide how we are going to use our dash - How we will spend that time?
“You do not know what will happen tomorrow! Your life is like a mist. You can see i for a short time. But then it goes away.” James 4:14 (NCV)
The greatest enemy is not death, but a life unlived!
William Wallace said, “Every man dies; but not every man lives”
What Really Matters Most in this Life (Prioritize)
God matters.
(Philippians 3:7-8) “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…”
(Luke 12:20-21) “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
(1 John 2:17) “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
2. The People in your life matter.
God gives us people to love and things to use, not things to love and people to use
Focus on your relationships and express your love to those closest to you.
(Galatians 5:13-15) “Serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
(Matthew 25:35) “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
(Ecclesiastes 4:12 NLT) “A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
Live Like You Were Dyin’
1. Live With Passion
Passion is the spark of life. Without it life has no meaning. It means object of desire, deep interest, zeal, fervor, enthusiasm.
“So love the Lord your God with all your Passion and prayer and intelligence and energy” Mark 12:30 (Message)
"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.'” Luke 7:31,32 (NIV)
Jimmy Durante said, I sing so pretty I make myself cry
•Jesus is saying we played the music of life for you, but you didn’t dance. you didn’t enjoy life. You were always waiting to live. you were stuck!
•Then when the pain and problems came your way, you didn’t cry, you didn’t experience life. you tried to avoid risks at all costs.
•Go ahead DANCE as though no one is watching you, LOVE as though you have never been hurt before, SING as though no one can hear you, LIVE as though heaven is on earth!
•You may be extroverted or introverted, it doesn’t matter - God made you to feel things deeply.
•Jack London eloquently described this kind of life: “I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy permanent plant. The proper function of man is to live, not exist. I shall not wast my days in trying to prolong them, I shall use my time.”

2. Live your life in view of eternity.
The most important issue you will ever face in life pertains to where you will spend eternity.
(Deuteronomy 30:19) “This day I call heaven and earth as
witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death,
blessings and curses. Now choose life…”
•At the end of your life it won’t matter How much money was in your bank account, how many awards you won, how many goals you achieved. Did you love God? Did you love the people in your life?
(Hebrews 9:27) “…man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”
Here’s what you need to know NOW
1. God loves us and does not want us to perish.
John 3:16,17 — For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
1 Timothy 2:4 — [God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2. All people have sinned. Sin causes separation from God.
Isaiah 59:2 — But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you….
Romans 3:23 — For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
James 2:10 — For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
3. Heaven is a free gift. You cannot earn or deserve heaven.
Romans 6:23 — For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 2:8,9 — For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.
4. God wanted us to be brought back into relationship with Him. For this reason, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin when He died upon the cross.
Romans 5:8,9 — But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
1 Corinthians 15:3 — For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
5. We receive God’s forgiveness through faith, by trusting in Christ.
John 1:12 — But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name.
Romans 10:9,10 — …if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
