OBITUARIES – What Will Your Obituary Say?
Psalm 39:4-5 (p. 390) Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014
Introduction:
[“Show me Lord my life’s end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth. The span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.]
What’s that mean? What is King David, the songwriter, trying to say? And Rick, why would you chose this scripture to finish the Obituary series?
Well, let’s answer the 1st question first.
[He’s asking, “God, how long do I have to live? It’s pretty short isn’t it? Just a few inches not 100 miles...and compared to eternity...it’s 1 breath. Even for those who think there’s plenty of time. That’s the R.S.V. (Rick’s Standard Version)
[It reminds me of the two golfers who really love golf. As they watched The Masters on TV they wondered: Is there golf in heaven? And suddenly an angel appeared and said, “I’ve got good news and bad news for you both.” The golfers said, “what’s the good news?” The angel said, “There is golf in heaven...on the most glorious courses you could imagine!” “And the bad news,” asked the golfers? “Your tee time is 8:10 tomorrow morning!”]
[Like the preacher who asked his congregation “How many of you want to go to heaven? And everyone but a little boy on the first row raised their hands...and the preacher looked down and said, “son, don’t you want to go to heaven in the future? And the little boy said, “O, I thought you were getting a load together to leave right now.”]
So, maybe most of us would like to ask God, How long do I have before my tee time, how long before my load leaves today...how many days do I have before I face eternity?
The problem with this way of thinking, and it’s how most in the world think, is this...I don’t need to worry about eternity or death right now. I’m good. I’m secure.
I. I DON’T REALLY WANT GOD TO MESS WITH MY DAY TO DAY LIFE.
You remember the poem “Three Dollars Worth of God?”
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk
or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man
or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please
- Wilbur Rees
Three dollars worth of God wants to go to heaven after you’ve lived your life the way you want to...because you’ve said you believe in God...you’ve said a prayer, or you get baptized as a child...you come to church...occasionally...(maybe twice a year)...you’d really like for Jesus to have died on the cross for your sins as Savior, but the power of Easter...The resurrection has no real impact on His Lordship. His authority...$3 worth of God.
Or maybe you view God as “The Strict disciplinarian FATHER. Like the nun with the ruler in parochial school, just waiting to smack you on the knuckles for doing something wrong. So, with guilt as your constant companion you try to write a check occasionally, help with the charities, try to do enough good to override the need for punishment. And yet you never feel good about it, or really worthy.
If those are the way you view God, no wonder you’d want nothing to do with Him on a day to day basis. If He is just a dead man on a cross or a punisher of wrongs, having Him hang out with you every day would be a drag!
And yet while Jesus was here on earth, crowds flocked to Him, including those who would have been “the outcasts, the outsiders.”
He said things like “I’ve come to seek and save that which is lost.” It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick...I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mk 2:17)
He said this because the Pharisees (the rule makers) saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors and questioned why He would do this?
He said, “I have come so that you might have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
And when He saw what this world does to us on a day to day basis Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)
Satan, the god of this world tells us “when things get hectic...when things get stressful...RUN FASTER...WORK LONGER...TRY HARDER.
Many times he even tries to convince (quote, unquote) Christian people. Activity means productivity...it doesn’t!!! Nor does it produce the priorities we want for families or in our spirituality.
Mark Twain said something that fits well here. “The two most important days in anyone’s life...are the days they were born and the day they discover why.”
And the answer to that why is “You and I were born, and hopefully (born again) to have a relationship with God.
It’s the missing piece in your life...in your heart of hearts that will always be there until you let God in. Until that happens we will be “dead men and women walking (sometimes running)” toward a casket...and an eternity, separated from God.
He isn’t willing to just meet you at the pearly gates so you can start a relationship with Him in heaven...He wants you to be His son or daughter now so He can welcome you home.
Rick Warren wrote one of the best selling Christian books of all time called, “The Purpose Driven Life.” He writes “[we’re not completely happy here because we’re not supposed to be! Earth isn’t our final home; we were created for something better.
A fish would never be happy living on land, because it was made for water. An eagle would never feel satisfied if it wasn’t allowed to fly. You will never feel completely satisfied on earth because you were made for more. You will have happy moments here, but nothing compared with what God has planned for you.”] (pg. 50)
Folks, God’s heroes are those who trust this life as a temporary assignment...like King David said, “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered and my life is fleeting away.” (Ps. 39:4 NLT)
The Apostle Paul knew this life was temporary and that God had made us for a purpose. He says that while we live in this temporary body...(he calls it a tent) we groan and are burdened. We long for our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life...and in 2 Cor. 5:5 he declares...“God is the very one who made us for this purpose...and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
What does Easter mean with this in mind?
II. GOD DIDN’T MAKE US TO DIE. HE MADE US TO LIVE.
Either you believe that man arrived here on earth by chemical reaction...explosive bangs...by an accidental meshing of the odds over millions, billions of years...or you believe in “A creator who fashioned a creation.”
If you accept the first...and it takes faith to believe that evolving theory as well...you have no real purpose outside yourself...and no one to be accountable to.
If you believe in a creator...eventually you have to ask “why?” “Why would he create us?”
By the way, with the first theory you will always have an unanswered question...“where did the primordial slime come from in the first place?” Well, maybe it was sprinkled here like a seed by aliens,” (a theory exposed by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion”) Oh really Rick? Then where’d those Aliens come from?
It’s not an intellectual problem we have with God. It’s an accountability relationship problem we have with God...because if He created us, He created us to be in a relationship with Him. And who broke that bond...we did.
GENESIS 2:4-25 (p. 2)
God made everything...God formed man...God took the man and put him in the garden...God made all the animals...God made women out of man so they would be “one.” God says, “Don’t eat from 1 tree.”
Satan, the serpent come along...He leads the man and woman to believe for the 1st time...satisfaction is found in something outside of God....they bite, literally...and sin enters, followed by death. And Romans 5:12 says “Just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, in this way death came to all people...because all sinned.”
You and I aren’t responsible for Adam and Eve’s sin, but we inherited their sinful nature...and every single one of us has sinned.
God could have just given up...wiped out everyone in a flood and said, “I’m through” but He didn’t...
His plan was still life.
Even before the creation and Fall of mankind God had a plan...Peter says, “He (Jesus) was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him (Jesus) you believe in God who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him (Jesus) and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:20-21)
Easter Sunday is all about our belief that God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him. It’s the very core of our hope...our faith.
In the resurrection Chapter, 1 Cor. 15, the Apostle Paul says “If Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” And we’re still in our sins, And those who have fallen asleep are lost. If we only have hope is Christ for this life we are of all people most to be pities.” (v. 14, 17, 18, 19)
If Christ just died on the cross and there is no victorious resurrection from the dead...we’re still lost, there is no hope, and our loved ones are lost when they die...and we have given up the chance to selfishly enjoy this world’s pleasures and we are stupid (loose paraphrase).
But then Paul says, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (v. 20) In Christ all will be made alive: But each in turn: Christ first, then when he comes all who belong to Him.
The resurrection, Easter Sunday is the ultimate proof that Jesus has authority over everything, even DEATH.
Verse 25-26 of this Resurrection Chapter says, “He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The Last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
It’s why Death & Hades are thrown into the Lake of fire at the find judgment in Rev. 21:14. Because in the glorious new Heaven and new Earth before the throne of God and the Lamb, where the tree of bears its fruit every month. “No longer will there be any curse.” (Rev. 22:1-3) And the crystal clear river of life flows from the throne of God and the Lamb...And God’s servants will serve Him there... They will see His face...There will be no night...and they will reign forever and ever.
Death is the last enemy because its “the biggest bully on the block.” It’s the darkest place...and it requires the most trusting faith...to believe my existence doesn’t end in a slow ride in a hearse. To believe that I’ll see Jesus and my dad, and a multitude of people I love who died believing again someday. And that that belief effects the way I live until I die or Jesus returns. That’s faith
That’s what I want my obituary to say!
Like the Psalmist: Remind me that my life here on earth is like a puff of air...so that I don’t waste it on junk (or something like that).
I’m going to end with a great reminder from scripture...A reminder the Apostle Paul sent to the Thessalonians who were worried about not seeing their dads and mates, and Christian friend ever again...Listen.
1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18 (p. 825)
Christians grieve. Like Mary and Martha...but not like everyone else. We believe that Jesus died and rose again. We believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have died before us. We believe in a bodily resurrection. The dead in Christ will rise first. And join those of us who are still alive. And there will be a reunion. Why would I want to go to Heaven if Heaven is here?
