Getting Ready to Go!
Letting death change the way you live!
Six frogs are on a lily-pad and four decide to jump off, how many are left?
There is a huge difference in knowing something and letting affect your actions.
According to a newspaper report a private school was have a unique problem. A number of girls were beginning to use lipstick. That wasn’t the problem, after they put it on they would press their lips to the bathroom mirror to spread it around. So every day there would be dozens of lip prints on the mirror. So every night the janitor would have to go in clean them off. Weeks went by and finally the janitor had it. So he went to the principle, who made a announcement telling the girls to stop this practice. Still day after day there were lip prints on the mirror. Finally the principle gathered the girls in the bathroom to explain the problem to them. Then she asked the janitor to display how hard it was to get the lip prints off the mirror. He took his squeegee dipped it in the toilet and wiped the mirror clean. Guess what? There was never a problem with lip prints on the mirror again.
Today we are going to talk about our concept of death.
There’s a real light subject, right?
A man went in for physical and got a call from the doctor a couple of days later. The Doctor said that he had bad and worse news. "Give me the bad" the man asked. "Your tests showed that you had 48 hours to live." replied the doctor. "That’s the bad news! That’s the worst thing I have ever heard! How can there be worse news that that?" The man asked. The doctor paused for a moment then replied, "Well, I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday
Even jokes like that cut too close for many people.
Ps. 116:15 – “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
Christians should understand the reality of verses like these.
We’ve all heard them at funerals
But somehow we don’t let it affect the way we act!
Herein lies our problem.
We need to let what Christ has done with death really change the way we live!
We need to let the Christian concept of death change our life!
1. There is no intimidation in death.
In reality in any war intimidation is half the battle.
(We are learning that in Joshua on Sunday nights right now!)
What does you enemy think you can and will do?
Sports are a sort of battle.
And like-wise much of what goes on is an attempt to intimidate the other team.
Football player – spits on opposing players hand. Opposing player licks it off.
Football – kid with glass eye, that he could pop out. Would take his tackler out of game!
That’s intimidation!
Death has historically been used to intimidate.
-"Give me your money or I’ll shoot you."
-Hostages situations, etc.
The world tries to use death to push people around.
How would that fit with the Christian concept of Death?
Phil 1:21 – To die is to gain!
Is it possible that something that benefits us can be used to intimidate us?
Evidently…
I reality that’s as ridiculous as a mugger coming up to you and saying “give me your wallet or I’ll buy you dinner!”
Ooh scary! How about the dinner?
Evidently Dwight Moody was traveling by boat on one of the Great Lakes, and a really bad storm came up. The passengers cowered in fear starting an impromptu prayer meeting for deliverance, which Moody didn’t join. When asked why not he said, “I have a sister in Chicago and one in heaven and I don’t care which I see tonight.”
We discussed last week how Peter was snoring away the night before his death! ( Acts 12 )
Paul actually said back in Phil 1:23 that he had a desire to depart!
Heb. 11:35-38 – Of whom the world was not worthy.
Why wasn’t the world worthy of them?
They weren’t intimidated by death.
Satan should not be able to use death to intimidate the Christian, but too often he can.
Why? because of the next two things we’ll discuss.
2. There is no regret in death.
We’ve all done things we later wished we hadn’t.
Guys do things on dare they probably later regret.
Brother-in-law and friend ate live goldfish.
Another friend swallowing June-bugs, wouldn’t let go so he chewed him up, leg stuck in teeth.
Why do guys do things like that?
Maybe your regrets are more serious than that.
Maybe you regret the things said to your spouse.
Maybe you regret time not spent with children.
Maybe even there is some regret for not living a godly life.
1 Tim. 4:6,7 – Evidently there were no regrets in his life!
Wasn’t anything left that needed doing.
Can you imagine being at a point in your life that everything’s taken care of?
Paul I think outlines two principles for regret-free living
Phil 1:20 – “In nothing will I be ashamed..”
Meaning in nothing will I regret what I have done.
Why is that Paul?
A. Because Christ will be magnified - Vs. 20
We will never regret the life lived in praise of Christ.
You know it’s OK say to say – Praise God!
People around you take His name in vain all the time.
How about giving his name some praise!
You will never regret, on a spiritual level, doing that. However you will regret not doing that.
Matt. 10:32 – “Whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven (and the antithesis) Whoever denies me before, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
B. Because I live selflessly for Christ.- vs. 21
To live is Christ
If I live in it will mean labor, fruitful labor.
His intention was, if he lived, to work for Christ!
Some people go to work and it seems like their guiding philosophy is how to avoid it.
How to avoid being there, how can I call in sick five times a week.
We will never regret a life lived in sacrificial service to Christ.
No one will get to the end of their life and
-wish they’d put in more overtime on the job.
-wish they’d watched more movies or read more novels.
-wish they’d bought that big screen TV.
But they WILL regret not living a life dedicated to God as they go to meet Him
Christ has allowed the victory over regret, by allowing us to live for Him.
And finally
3. There is no sting in death.
You know how siblings can be competitive?
One just has to do better than the other?
My sister and I were in the same class at bible college. In this class is a number of different sorts of competition.
Let me put it this way-
Losing is one thing
Losing to my little sister is entirely another.
1 Cor. 15:56 – Sting of death is sin.
What does that mean?
Let me give you a parallel.
The sting of Losing is losing to my sister.
It makes it that much worse.
Death is one thing – Dying in sin is another
Because it is a double separation.
A separation from life and loved ones as well as a separation from God.
This is why so many, including professing Christians have such a fear of death.
The sting has not been removed from death.
People try to battle death.
Vitamins, exercise, cryogenics
But the battle is not so much with death as it is with sin.
Because if they could get over their sin they wouldn’t need to fight death!
How is that sting removed?
By having our sins removed.
How are our sins removed?
If we believe in God
We repent of those sins.
We confess that Christ is Lord
Acts 22:16 says that we must be baptized to wash our sins away.
And we live a life pleasing to God.
There is no reason to die with the “sting” still in death.
Because we can have our sins taken away.
Conclusion –
Christ has removed death as a intimidation,
Because he has removed its regret through service to Him
And it’s sting through washing away our sins.
Living Longer won’t take away the fear.
Doing more won’t take away the regret.
Living Better won’t remove the sting
Those things can only be taken away in Christ.
He removed the fear, by dying and rising again, making death a doorway to Himself.
He removed the regret by giving us a reason to live.
He removed the sting by dying for our sins.
And there is only one way to experience that victory!
That is by becoming part of Christ.
Remember the question I asked as we started out?
Six frogs on a lily pad four decided to jump.
There were six frogs on the lily-pad because only four decided to jump.
We can let this information change our life or we can continue to live like we are.
I choose to live above the fear, regret and sting of death. How about you?
