Death -- Getting Ready to Get Low

Of all the things we don’t see coming in our life, there is one thing you would think we would all see clearly and certainty: Death.

I can show you some verses in the Bible that say that we are going to die:

Genesis 2:15–17 NIV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

James 4:13–14 NIV

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Jesus breaks onto the scene reversing the curse of death.

John 11:21-

John 11:21–26 NIV

21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Do you need more passages to tell you that you are going to die?

Of course you don’t. You’ve had people in your life die. If you haven’t, that experience is coming — and we don’t know when.

Part of the challenge is that we don’t know when we are going to die...

Is WHEN really the main concern? Especially in light of the mist thing?

What if instead of WHEN, we focused on THAT. Replace the WHEN with a THAT.

If you knew when you were going to die, would that shape how you live at all?

If you knew THAT you were going to die, would that shape your life at all?

Ben Rector Song: Live Like the World is Gonna End

Ben lists some great things in that song worth you doing under the knowledge that you know the world is gonna end… but there are a couple things he didn’t mention that are worth mentioning...

“I'd be dancin' like a fool! I'd be laughin'. I'd be cryin'.

Callin' anybody who

I'd ever hurt and reconcilin'.

I'd call everyone I loved -- Say what I was scared to say to them.

Now that I think about it: Maybe I should always live

Like the world is gonna end.”

You need to prepare for your kids

You need to prepare your estate

You need to prepare for eternity

John 3:16–18 NIV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Hebrews 9:27 NIV

27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,

Isaiah 53:6 NIV

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

John 3:16–18 NIV

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

John 3:

John 11:25 NIV

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;

john 11:25

And then… we never die. Ever. Our lives are… eternal.

Lead in time and prayer of faith.