“A Matter of Life and Death"
Psalm 23:1-6
When we set out for Thanksgiving with our children it was 73 degrees here in Florida but as I flew to Memphis and then traveled to St Louis all in one day the temperature had dropped to 13 degrees. Clearly that’s why most of us love Florida. Then as we drove back after Thanksgiving a severe ice storm--- started the day after we left and the temperature dropped to zero as sheets of ice began to form on the road. Fortunately we missed the whole thing. Again that is why we live in Florida. It’s a great place. And we attract a lot of senior adults each year. Many come to Florida to stay, to retire. I don’t blame them. But one of the things that happen that is not so positive is that many of these people come to Florida and they never get into a church. They may have attended church for years but they drop that commitment when they get here and they exchange their commitment to the Lord for a life of leisure and their commitment to God suddenly takes a back seat.
Since we moved here in 1995 the local funeral homes have contacted me and asked me to conduct funerals for many of them because they simply did not have a pastor. And so I preach about 30 funerals a year like that and I am committed to it because one of the things I firmly believe is that every family needs and deserves to be comforted at the time of the death of a loved one. I do not know how people who are not in church, who are not believers, handle the death of a loved one.
So, in preparing for these services I will ask the question, do you have a scripture passage in mind that you would like for me to read or do you simply want me to select one? And over 90% of the time they will say yes, “Psalm 23.” I preached a funeral yesterday and I ask the family this question and they said yes we have one in mind but we don’t know where it is…. but it says something about the “valley of the shadow of death.” This passage is clearly the most quoted scripture in the Bible. And the reason I believe this scripture is so popular is that it speaks to us in the most difficult situation we ever face in life… and that is death….our own death or the death of someone we love and care for.
Now the verse I want to focus on this morning is Psalm 23:4. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…for you are with me, your rod and your staff…they comfort me.” I don’t know about you but when I think of the valley of the shadow of death I picture sitting in a funeral home. That’s why we go there. To grieve. When we started this church 13 years ago we started by meeting in a funeral home. The first message I preached was titled “burying your past.” We met there for 6 months but I recall that during that time, numerous people who we would invite would say “I want to come to your church but not until you get in a different building. We don’t want to attend church in a funeral home.” You see we are simply afraid of death and we don’t know how to handle that fear. You see fear and death seem to go hand in hand. We are afraid for a variety of reasons.
First of all, we simply have too many unanswered questions about death. You see it’s an area where there really are no experts we can talk to about it. Because we don’t know anyone who has been through it and has come back to answer our questions. I did have a fellow recently (true story) who told me he had died and that he went to heaven and that while he was there he met Elvis and that he came back and now he IS Elvis. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to ask him any more questions. The only experts I know of in the NT are Lazarus and Jesus. They’re the only ones that have been to the other side and have come back to tell us about it.
Now here is a truth…we fear things that we lack knowledge of. Here are ten things that are on most of our lists….
1 Fear of public speaking
2 Fear of death
3 Fear of spiders
4 Fear of darkness
5 Fear of heights
6 Fear of people or social situations
7 Fear of flying
8 Fear of confined spaces
9 Fear of open spaces
10 Fear of thunder and lightning
It’s interesting that for many people they would rather die than speak in public. That’s how strong that fear is.
2. We have a fear of the unknown. It can make us anxious. And when we suffer from anxiety.....we sometimes experience what is now referred to as an anxiety attack. And that usually happens because life feels a bit out of control. We want to be in control…maybe even need to be in control so when we lose control we become anxious. Now this fear of death is very natural. Anyone who tells you that they have no fear of dying is probably not being completely honest. In fact the Bible addresses this…listen to what the Bible says about this fear… 14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
God knew that you and I would have this fear and that is one of the reasons Jesus came to earth and gave His life for us….to free us from that fear.
3. We have a fear of what we will leave behind. Will our families be able to cope? Will they be able to handle the financial burden? How will I be remembered? What will my legacy be? Or will people simply forget about me?
4. We often have regret. The most common phrase I hear people say at funerals is “I wish”… I wish I had said this, I wish I had done that….if only I had another chance… but we don’t.
So there are two things here we must deal with…one is our personal fear of death and the other is our fear of losing someone and how we will handle the grief that goes along with that. So on that topic I have invited Lynn Combes to our stage today.
DISCUSSION WITH LYNN COMBES
At this point I had a couple come to the platform and we all sat on stools and I interviewed them regrading the loss of their 7 year old daughter and the grief they had experienced. In my opinion it was very beneficial to the church
I want to leave you with a few quick thoughts….
1. We will not be alone when we die. Jesus said, “I will never leave you.” He said, “I am with you always.”
2. We do not have to be uneducated about the topic of death and grief. The Bible has verse after verse, chapter after chapter dealing with death and what life will be like after death. I was going to list all of the passages in the scripture where there is a reference to death on the back of your sermon notes, so I went to my laptop and looked them up but I realized that it would take 74 pages to print it out. So I thought well I will print the verses that speak to the subject of death. That requires 114 pages to print. So read the book if you want to know.
3. Jesus has been to the other side and has come back to help us. This year I have been reading 3 of Bill O’reilley’s books. Killing Kennedy. Killing Lincoln. Killing Jesus. One things I learned is in 1887, twenty two years after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, his coffin was dug up and opened because there were constant rumors that his body was not in the grave. So they dug it up…guess what … the body was there. But the rumors continued so 14 years later they had to dig it up again. Both times witnesses were present who testified that Lincoln was still in the grave.
Three days after the death of Jesus Christ, similar rumors began to spread throughout the land of Israel. Only this time there were no witnesses who could say that they had seen His body. What happened however is that over 500 witnesses said “I saw Him, out of the grave…in fact I even I even touched Him and talked to Him.”
As great a man as Lincoln was there were witnesses to prove he was still in the grave. If you were to need help with something and you were to cry out to Lincoln for help there would be no response. If a scientist were to cry out to Einstein for help today there would only be empty silence. If someone were to call out to Mohammed or Buddha or Ghandi today there would be no help.
But if you and I call out to Jesus Christ there is instant power available to us... because He’s alive. And He is here today, He’s standing here very close to you wanting to come into your life. Would you invite Him in today?
