Three Important Appointments In Life

We all realize the need for making appointments in life. Appointments are as much a part of our lives as breathing itself is. There are two kinds of appointments.

Some of these appointments are VOLUNTARY APPOINTMENTS and some of them are INVOLUNTARY APPOINTMENTS. But whether they are VOLUNTARY or INVOLUNTARY we recognize appointments are necessary in life.

Every Sunday we have a voluntary appointment to be in the house of God.

• We have an 10 O’clock appointment for Sunday School

• We have an 11 O’clock appointment for the worship service

Setting the time for these appointments helps us to arrive at the same time. Without them we would be coming at different times which would cause chaos.

• Sometimes we miss appointments because we forget about them.

• Sometimes we miss appointments because of circumstances that come up and prevent us from keeping them.

However, the Bible mentions three appointments that we all have.

We are going to keep all three of these appointments!

Let’s look at these three appointments.

First, let’s look at-

I. THE APPOINTMENT OF DEATH

Death is something we do not like to talk about. Some people will not even attend a funeral.

We are told:

• In the world today approximately 155,000 people a day die,

• 6458 an hour,

• 108 people a minute,

• Every second 2 people die.

• For every breath you take approximately seven people have died.

Death is everywhere, and it happens to everyone. And we do not even want to talk about it!

But we must talk about it because one of these days we are going to be one of those numbers.

I think about death frequently.

• I drive by the cemetery daily and I can see the flowers on my mother’s grave from my car.

• I drive by the Mausoleum where one day my wife and I will be buried.

• I read the obituary column and I see friends who have past from this life.

• I conduct many funerals as a pastor. Yes, I frequently think about death.

Illus: I even think about how I will die. If I had my choice I would like to die like a preacher friend of mine. That is, after a busy day of serving the Lord he went to sleep one night and woke up in heaven.

God’s Word tells us to NUMBER OUR DAYS. Young and old die but when we reach a certain age we know that we are running out of numbers,

The DECISION of when we are going to depart from this life has already been made by God almighty. HE SETS THE DATE, TIME AND THE PLACE!!!

We do not have a thing to do with making this appointment, GOD HAS MADE IT FOR US AND WHEN THAT TIME COME EVERYONE IS NOT GOING TO BE ONE MINUTE LATE!

When this appointment comes:

• Sadly, some will go to their eternal home in hell

• Joyfully some will go to their eternal home in heaven.

Every sinner will be sad when that appointed comes, but every Christian will be glad!!!

Illus: An elderly couple passed away and found themselves at the pearly gates. Peter was there to welcome them.

• First he showed them their mansion. The man overwhelmed by the sheer luxury of it all asked, "How much does this place cost per night?" Peter replied, "Sir, this is Heaven, it doesn’t cost anything."

• Then Peter took them to the dining room where table upon table was piled high with the most delicious foods you could imagine. Again overwhelmed by the glory of it all the man asked, "How much for the meals?" Peter said, "You forget, this is Heaven, it’s free."

• Peter then took them out back where they saw a fantastically beautiful golf course. As the man stood there open-mouthed Peter said, "Now before you ask, there are no greens fees, this is Heaven, everything is free."

• The man looked at his wife and said, "You and your confounded bran muffins, I could have been here 10 years ago!"

When we Christians have our appointment with death we go to that glorious place call heaven.

However, again, we have no choice about when our APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH will be.

Illus: This is why it is wrong for us to take our own life or someone else’s life, because when we do, we are exalting ourselves to make a decision that is God’s decision alone.

When death takes place some folks accuse God of killing people in the same way that he condemns others for killing.

We must not forget that ALL LIFE HAS BEEN CREATED BY GOD and all life belongs to GOD.

Now if I kill someone I am taking a life that belongs to Him, but when God take a life He is taking a life that belongs to him. God has every right to take it because He created all life and all life belongs to Him.