What Will You Obituary Say? Series

OBITUARIES – What Will Your Obituary Say?

Psalm 39:4-5 (p. 390) Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014

Introduction:

[“Show me Lord my life’s end and the number of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You have made my days a mere handbreadth. The span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.]

What’s that mean? What is King David, the songwriter, trying to say? And Rick, why would you chose this scripture to finish the Obituary series?

Well, let’s answer the 1st question first.

[He’s asking, “God, how long do I have to live? It’s pretty short isn’t it? Just a few inches not 100 miles...and compared to eternity...it’s 1 breath. Even for those who think there’s plenty of time. That’s the R.S.V. (Rick’s Standard Version)

[It reminds me of the two golfers who really love golf. As they watched The Masters on TV they wondered: Is there golf in heaven? And suddenly an angel appeared and said, “I’ve got good news and bad news for you both.” The golfers said, “what’s the good news?” The angel said, “There is golf in heaven...on the most glorious courses you could imagine!” “And the bad news,” asked the golfers? “Your tee time is 8:10 tomorrow morning!”]

[Like the preacher who asked his congregation “How many of you want to go to heaven? And everyone but a little boy on the first row raised their hands...and the preacher looked down and said, “son, don’t you want to go to heaven in the future? And the little boy said, “O, I thought you were getting a load together to leave right now.”]

So, maybe most of us would like to ask God, How long do I have before my tee time, how long before my load leaves today...how many days do I have before I face eternity?

The problem with this way of thinking, and it’s how most in the world think, is this...I don’t need to worry about eternity or death right now. I’m good. I’m secure.

I. I DON’T REALLY WANT GOD TO MESS WITH MY DAY TO DAY LIFE.

You remember the poem “Three Dollars Worth of God?”

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,

but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk

or a snooze in the sunshine.

I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man

or pick beets with a migrant.

I want ecstasy, not transformation.

I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth.

I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please

- Wilbur Rees

Three dollars worth of God wants to go to heaven after you’ve lived your life the way you want to...because you’ve said you believe in God...you’ve said a prayer, or you get baptized as a child...you come to church...occasionally...(maybe twice a year)...you’d really like for Jesus to have died on the cross for your sins as Savior, but the power of Easter...The resurrection has no real impact on His Lordship. His authority...$3 worth of God.

Or maybe you view God as “The Strict disciplinarian FATHER. Like the nun with the ruler in parochial school, just waiting to smack you on the knuckles for doing something wrong. So, with guilt as your constant companion you try to write a check occasionally, help with the charities, try to do enough good to override the need for punishment. And yet you never feel good about it, or really worthy.

If those are the way you view God, no wonder you’d want nothing to do with Him on a day to day basis. If He is just a dead man on a cross or a punisher of wrongs, having Him hang out with you every day would be a drag!

And yet while Jesus was here on earth, crowds flocked to Him, including those who would have been “the outcasts, the outsiders.”

He said things like “I’ve come to seek and save that which is lost.” It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick...I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mk 2:17)

He said this because the Pharisees (the rule makers) saw Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors and questioned why He would do this?

He said, “I have come so that you might have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

And when He saw what this world does to us on a day to day basis Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)

Satan, the god of this world tells us “when things get hectic...when things get stressful...RUN FASTER...WORK LONGER...TRY HARDER.