The Art Of Dying Well

Bunbury

Sun am

7/11/10

“The art of dying well”

Intro: There is an enormous amount written / said about right living these days..... loads of magazine articles / TV programs / radio interviews that are dedicated to helping people live well.

Today we are beginning to realise that that living well means having a right balance of physical / emotional life, eating right, getting exercise / friends / money etc.

All these things may be valid in one form or another & we shouldn’t just discount them.

But there is precious little written said about dying well!

You never read magazine articles w/ the smiling face of a man & woman in their mid thirties w/ a caption underneath that says .... ‘ 10 tips on dying well”

It’s almost as though that part of life (that’s what dying is, a part of life) is something that people want to shove away & forget.

The underlying thought is ...... I’m too busy w/ living to think about dying!

*** I went to the funeral of a young man only about 30 who was unexpectedly killed in a motorcycle accident. Looking around at the funeral I could see people in shock ..... people, I think, were asking themselves “How could this be happening?” The thing that struck me more than anything is the reality that this young man had given no thought to dying well.

But this is not just the business of the unsaved ..... in fact I think more than anyone else it should be the preoccupation of the saved to dedicate t/s to the art of dying well.

I want to preach t/m on ‘The art of dying well’.

Text: Genesis 25:7-8 (NKJV) 7This is the sum of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred and seventy-five years. 8Then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.

# 1. The thing that no one wants to think about.

A. Death is the one thing that no one wants to think about.

a. Everybody is too busy w/ life!

i. And this is the way that it’s always been ...... men have always been too busy w/ life to think about death.

ii. Jesus points this out in speaking about the days Noah ...... their problem was that they were too busy to give time to thinking about death.

Luke 17:26-29 (NKJV) 26And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

28Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

iii. Here are two different generations of man who were doing the very same thing!

iv. And has it really changed ...... is it very different today ..... people are too busy w/ life to think about death!

v. Not only are they too busy w/ life to think about death but they are too busy w/ life to think about the One who gave them life.

b. But think about the brevity of life.

i. We often don’t u/s things until we they are put into perspective ..... or in other words until they are place alongside of something else that we can compare them w/.

*** In 2002 I was in Essex, England in a little town I had never seen b/4....... as we walked through the streets of the town I came to an old pub. It was one of those old oak beam pubs. My friend told me it was over 550 years old. As I stood there I realised that this pub had stood here 5 centuries b/4 I came along & if Jesus should tarry it will be here 5 centuries after I’m gone! I was suddenly struck by the reality of my own passing / brief life.

ii. So what I’m getting at here is the fact that your life is going to over in a flash!

James 4:14 (NKJV) whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

iii. Listen to the warnings sounded out in the Scriptures again & again ....

(Job 9:25-26 NKJV) "Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good. {26} They pass by like swift ships, Like an eagle swooping on its prey.