Life From Death

Title:  LIFE FROM DEATH

Text:  1 Thess. 4:13-14

Introduction:

            The leaves are starting to fall from the Fruitless Mulberry tree in my front yard.  Right now I can clean them up when I mow the lawn, but soon that won’t work and I’ll have to rake them.  The leaves fall because they have died.  If you don’t mind them lying on your lawn, they would eventually become natural fertilizer that gives life back to the earth.  I wish I could convince my wife that cleaning them up is interrupting God’s original recycle program. 

I love the Fall…it’s my favorite time of the year.  It’s the season when the air is clean, crisp and the colors are fantastic.  It’s the season when certain trees and plants become dormant and prepare for the long, cold winter.  Parts of the plant have to die, like the leaves…but beneath the surface lies the bulb or roots that spring to life in the Spring.

God has put in nature His wonderful salvation story that those who have fallen asleep in Christ are raised to new life.  Read Text. 

People don’t like funerals.  Many don’t attend them because they don’t like want to be reminded about death.  But most of those who attend them do so out of respect for the one who died or for the family that is left behind.  I recon that’s why you are here.  I’d like to share a couple of thoughts to consider.

I.       BE A GOOD STEWARD OF THE GIFT OF LIFE.
A.  I look upon life as a gift from God.  I did nothing to earn it.
B.  So in appreciation of the gift of life, I gladly live each day to do the most I can with it.
C.  I can’t say I have always done that.  There’s nothing like your own brush with death to get your priorities straight.  (accident, priorities)
D.  Life is a gift to leave your footprint in the lives of others.  It’s after death that we pause to consider the footprints they left behind.
E.  Some people are so afraid to die that they never begin to live.
F.  Everyone dies…but not everyone lives.
G.  May it be said that when the sun sets on your life…that you made an eternal difference in the lives of others…and that you loved your Lord passionately.

II.    MAKE THE PREPARATION THAT TAKES AWAY THE FEAR OF DEATH.
A.  You don’t know how to live until you found the new life that is found in Christ.  The one who has become intimate friends with the Giver of Life isn’t afraid of death.  1 Cor. 15:20-26
B.  He that has the promise to live forever should never fear dying.
C.  Death has been called by some as the last sleep.     No…it is the door to the final awakening!
D.  When you settle the future outcome of your soul with the Lord…you will come to view death as the final gift of the Lord so that we can leave this earth and go to Him.

Conclusion:

            There are natural seasons to our year and a time for leaves to fall.  There are also seasons to our lives.  The wise man is the one who makes preparation for the Spring.  If I don’t see you again here…I hope to see you next Spring when I awaken from my sleep.  You see, I’m intimate friends with the Giver of Life.