Today we all find ourselves emotionally torn in two ways:
None of us want to be here today at this service! Absolutely none of us!
Yet, we want to be here because our love for _______ compels us to be here! We would not want to be anywhere but here!
We go through life putting off many things! We frequently do this with some things.
For example, many of us have driven down the road in our car, and noticed the fuel gauge that told us that WE NEEDED TO STOP FOR REFUELING!
Then something distracted us from the gas gauge and we got sidetracked and started thinking about something else.
However, a few miles down the road, our car begns to skip and jerk and all of a sudden we look at the gas gauge. We find that WE NOW ARE FORCED TO DEAL WITH WHAT WE HAVE PUT OFF DOING.
None of us likes to think about death. Many times when the thought of a loved one dying or of us dying comes in to our mind, we put those thoughts aside for another time.
But today we have to deal with this subject of death. Since we are forced to deal with death today, let’s deal with it on the basis of God’s Word.
WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT DEATH?
Look at Psalm 116:15, we read, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”
The word PRECIOUS and DEATH are not two words we usually use in the same sentence! However, when it comes to a child of God dying, the Bible speaks of this as being PRECIOUS!
What has happened to _____________ is SOMETHING THAT IS PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
WHAT DID GOD MEAN BY SAYING DEATH IS SOMETHING PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT? Death certainly is not something we consider to be precious!
In fact, the family and friends have been crying as if something terrible has happened to ________, but God says, “No, something precious has happened to her!”
For the last several days we have been telling this family that we are sorry for their loss. But something precious has happened.
Let us look at the scripture and see what God meant by that verse of scripture. God sees the death of his children as PRECIOUS because to Him -
I. DEATH IS A SLEEP
Look at Mark 5:35-39, we read, “While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.”
• Notice Jesus said, “…”the damsel is not dead, BUT SLEEPETH.”
• Based on the word of God, we could say that, “_________ IS NOT DEAD, BUT SLEEPETH.”
• According to the obituary column, _______ died last Sunday evening around 6:15 P.M.
• According to God’s Word, ______ is not dead but she “sleepeth.”
Jesus spoke comforting words to a family that had a brother that died. In John 11:25-26, we read, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. BELIEVEST THOU THIS?”
• I believe this
• ____________ believed this
• Every child of God believes this
Illus: D.L. Moody said, “One day you will read my name in the orbituary column telling you I am dead. Do not believe a word of it because I will be more alive than ever before!”
Illus: Two young girls were in a car crash. One of them was killed and the other one survived the horrible crash. However, the one that survived the car crash was almost beyond recognition. They went to the parents of the girl that was dead and told them their daughter had died in the car crash.
Needless to say, this was the worst news that any parent could hear. However, the same police that told them their teenager was dead, arrived at their home several hours later and told her parents she was alive.
There was a mix-up when it came to which one was dead.
The point I want to make is this; they went to the home and said she was dead. Later, they came back to this same home and said she was not dead but very much alive!
Today we can leave here and go to our homes and say, that BASED ON THE WORD OF GOD, ________ IS NOT DEAD BUT VERY MUCH ALIVE!
Illus: Many years ago, Dr. Odell Belger received a telephone called telling him that a man that had attended his church had died. After the Sunday Evening service he and a deacon went to this home. As they drove up to the home they saw cars all around the house. They went inside through a kitchen door and there was a grieving family sitting around the kitchen table.
Dr. Belger greeted the family and try to comfort them. A little later an elderly man came through the same kitchen door that he had come through. As he came into the kitchen, a man in his early thirties jumped up from behind the table and knocked one of the chairs over and ran into another room.
He came back in a few minutes later and apologized for his behavior. He explained that when he got the call he thought they said, “Daddy had died.” What they said was that Eddie had died. When his dad walked into the kitchen, he thought he had seen a ghost and it scared him.
He told his wife, “Let’s go home. We left all the children at home thinking that daddy had died. We need to tell them he is not dead.”
Again, based on the Word of God we can say that ________ IS NOT DEAD! According to the Word of God, that little body in which ________ lived for sixty-one years has been put to sleep!
Sleep is one of the essentials of life. As we live in these mortal bodies, we know that after 10 to 12 hours we have to find some place to lay down and sleep.
In fact, many of us know what it is like to go beyond those 10 to 12 hours. We can hardly wait to find a place to lay down and rest these bodies.
God sees death in this manner. This body that _______ lived in for over sixty years was completely exhausted, and Sunday night, God tucked her in and that little body is now resting.
Sometimes death can be the best friend we have. For the last few days:
• The doctors did everything they knew to do to help ________
• The nurses did everything they knew to do to help her
• Family members and friends stood by her bedside:
1. Holding her hand
2. Speaking words of comfort
3. Caressing and kissing her
With all this attention from the doctors, nurses, family and friends, we still could not alleviate her pain.
But Sunday evening, DEATH stepped into _________ room at the ___________ Hospital at ____ PM and delivered her from her misery; it did what no one else could do for her.
No wonder God speaks of death as being PRECIOUS!
In this scripture passage, the Lord asked this family, “WHY ARE YOU CRYING OVER THE DEATH OF THIS CHILD? She is ASLEEP!”
DEATH IS A SLEEP and -
II. DEATH IS A JOURNEY
Paul talks about his death as a, “departure”.
Look at 2 Timothy 4:6-8, we read, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
Paul talked about life in many ways:
• Paul talked about life as the good fight
• Paul talked about life as a race
• Paul also talked about life as keeping the faith
But when Paul talked about death, he talked about it as a DEPARTURE!
The body in which we live goes to sleep, but the Spirit of man departs from this life into that heavenly life.
In 2 Cor. 2:6-8, we read, “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord…We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
One of the reasons the Lord says death is PRECIOUS in his eyes, is because the moment this body is put to sleep, the spirit of man DEPARTS AND GOES TO BE WITH THE LORD.
Illus: If I ever have the opportunity and can muster up the nerve, I would like to ride in one of those hot air balloons!
• These giant balloons are attached to a large basket that you can ride in.
• Those baskets have long ropes tied to them that anchor them to the earth. When folks are going to fly in these balloons, the men who hold these ropes release them and the balloon BEGINS TO MAKE IT’S DEPARTURE.
Sunday evening, all the ropes that tied the physical life that held ______ to this earth were cut and she made her DEPARTURE.
The word DEPARTURE here is like the untying of a boat from its landing. Once it is untied, then the boat can leave the dock and do what is has been designed to do.
God never designed _________ to live on this earth forever! The ropes that held her here were released, and now she has gone to do what God has designed her to do.
DEATH IS A SLEEP, DEATH IS A JOURNEY and -
III. DEATH IS GOING HOME
The Lord Jesus taught that our destination has been determined.
Illus: I like that song that says this about heave…SOME CALL IT HEAVEN BUT I CALL IT HOME.
Look at John 14:1-2, we read, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
Today, _________ is living in her eternal home and I believe that when she arrived, the Lord Jesus told her, “Welcome Home!”
When we take a trip somewhere we have never been before, we generally look for some information to tell us what this place we will be going to is like.
For example, we might:
• Go on the Internet and do some research
• Locate some brochures that will tell us about the place
But it would be impossible to describe Heaven because we’re trying to describe an infinite idea to finite minds; we’ll just have to experience it.
But listen:
• I do not care how big the house is that you live in
• I do not care how nice the car is that you drive
• I do not care how nice the clothes are that you wear
If you miss out on going to Heaven, you will have missed out on the greatest thing that could ever happen to you!
Illus: We all have watched these game shows where someone almost won a million dollars or a new car. They got so close to winning, but once they found out they did not win, you could see the disappointment in their faces.
If you miss out on Heaven you are going to miss out on the greatest thing that could ever happen to you.
God’s Word says, in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
To help us understand some things about Heaven, God uses things like gold and precious stones to show how beautiful that place will be.
However, there are no words that can accurately describe this great place. God’s Word just simply says it is a place:
• That eyes have never seen anything like before
• That ears have never heard anything like before
It is beyond anything we can imagine! Heaven can not be described; it can only be EXPERIENCED!
When it comes to Heaven, it puts a strain on the human language to describe such a place.
For example:
• When you tell someone that a rose is beautiful, they understand what you mean
• When you tell a chef the meal was great, the chef understands
• When we tell a person that their car is magnificent, they understand
But how can you find words to tell us about heaven?
God has good reason not to give us any more detail about this place called Heaven. If we were allowed to peek into Heaven, we all would be begging God to let us die and go into this glorious place that He has prepared for those who have come to Him for salvation.
Illus: John, on the Island of Patmos, got to peek into heaven, and he immediately prayed, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
Personal Comments:
We see that –
I. DEATH IS A SLEEP
II. DEATH IS A JOURNEY
III. DEATH IS GOING HOME
Personal comments:
