Ethel Baber

Intro

When someone dies it is hard often to deal with. As followers of Jesus, we sometimes wonder and speculate about whether they knew Jesus or not. Maybe we think we could have done more to tell them, or find out at least.

Maybe we do know there faith and can celebrate that we can know for sure they are with Jesus. I have done to many funerals for people that no one really knew where they stood with the Lord, it isa sad thing to be a part of. It is something we can never take for granted as I have known people that have gone to church their whole lives and didn't become followers of Jesus till they were very old.

for those that do not know Jesus as their Lord and savior, you have other questions. Funerals make you question the point of life knowing that your whole life leads up to the time you die. What happens? How do we react when people die or deal with the fact that that person is gone.

There are a few things we need to know from this. It is possible to celebrate the life of someone and find some joy in their death, yes I said Joy. And the fact that life is short, and we have a limited time before we go to meet the Lord, and we all will one day, but His reaction to us will be different depending on if we know Jesus or not.

I wont take much of your time, but Let us go through these things.

Life is Short

James 4:13–17 CSB

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like vapor that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is sin to know the good and yet not do it.

The first thing that I want us to remember is the brevity of life. In the grand scheme of things we need to remember that our life is short.

There was an illustration used by a famous preacher to help us understand the brevity of life in regards to eternity. The preacher took a long rope the length of the auditorium in the church and in front of everyone marked a red mark on it. then he rolled out the rope and asked them if they could still see the red mark that he made. They could but it was hard to find. that small mark made barely a dent, hard to see.

Our life is short, when you think of eternity we are barley a blink.

In this passage in the book of James, we read that we try to plan our lives. There seems to be some sort of futility to the planning our our lives.

Ecclesiastes goes over this as well, but the idea is we do not know what our life will bring, how long it will be, what is going to happen to us? Our life is but a vapor, we are here today and gone tomorrow.

Instead we are to live for the will of the Lord, it is the only thing worth boasting in.

This is the first thing that I want to remind us of, our life here is short. We try and scheme to plan our lives, which isn't always a bad thing. But the point is there is a finality to life and our main focus needs to be on something it isn't always on. Which leads me to our next point.

Focus on Jesus.

If our life is so short, and but a vapor in the wind then what is it that our focus needs to be on? I want to go to a passage of scripture that explains this well.

John 14:1–3 CSB

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.

Jesus promised that He went to prepare a place for us. When He was teaching the disciples that he had to go, he had to die he promised them that he was going away to prepare a place for them so that they could go to be with Him.

But there was a slight problem, they where not sure that they knew the way.

John 14:4–6 CSB

You know the way to where I am going.” “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Our life is short, and we can go to be with Jesus some day when we die, for all of us are going to die one day.

Jesus said that He is the only way to heaven, to be in the place prepared for all followers of Jesus. We must go to Him, we must seek His forgiveness for all that we have done, all of the sins that we have committed.

A good life is not enough, going to church in itself is not enough, you must give your life to Jesus.

So What?

We can celebrate the life of someone who has gone to be with Jesus. But honestly this season has left me with a few thoughts I wanted to share with you guys today, hard things to share that I would rather keep to myself.

The first is that Life is short, we sometimes do not know where people stand with God.

if life is short then why do we waste it wondering? I have had the opportunity a couple times on peoples death beds to ask them if they knew Jesus as their Lord and savior, I was not sure before then. They said they did and they would soon go to be with Him.

That is waiting to long though. I would encourage you today to not wait till it is to late. Any followers of Jesus out there, if you see people that you go to church with, maybe are friends with that claim to be followers of Jesus but have never admitted it to you, ask them. Do not be scared, ask them if they know Jesus as their Lord and savior. Ask if they have a relationship with Jesus.

We must encourage each other to know Jesus and to live for Him. If someone asks you that, do not be offended, have joy that they love you enough to want to make sure that you will know the way to Jesus after this short life. (the time I was witnessed to).

Maybe you are here and you do not know Jesus as your Lord and saviour.

You followers of Jesus, it is your job to point them to Jesus. But if you do not know, then please turn to Him today. You to can find the way to Jesus again when you die, do not wait till it is to late.

Life is to short to spend time wondering where people are at, or if they have a relationship with Jesus. When people die, we want to celebrate a life sent to Jesus, Do not wait to long.