Facing Death Everyday
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I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!
I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I’d do this if I wasn’t convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus?
1 Corinthians 15.31
Other translations:
The Message - I look death in the face, practically everyday
Death is Certain
Death is Certain
Everyone is Dying, Everyday. Death is not a question of “if”, but of “when”.
Dying is part of the cycle of time
A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up.
All go to one place (the grave)
Even if he lives two thousand years, he doesn’t enjoy the good God gives him. Everyone is going to the same place.
Dust returns to the earth
Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed;
then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!”
Ecclesiastes 12.6-8
We can prolong death’s arrival. But we cannot escape it.
We can prolong death’s arrival. But we cannot escape it.
Death is not a question of “if”, but of “when”.
We can prolong death’s arrival. But we can escape it.
eat healthy food, sleep well
live in a secure place
Death can be a Choice
Death can come according to the natural course of life. Or we can choose “how” to die.
Or we can choose “how” to die.
natural course of death - old age, sickness and diseases
we choose our kind of death, when we choose our kind of life
the manner of living that we choose also determines the manner of our death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life.
“Let me die with the Philistines!”
He refused to die slowly in prison, in the hands of his enemies.
How to Face Death Everyday
How to Face Death Everyday
How do you look death in the face, everyday?
Our Belief - What we believe determines our manner of living.
Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?
Why are we also in danger every hour?
I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
1 Corinthians 15.29-
Paul believed in resurrection
IF there is no resurrection - there is no profit in risking one’s life!
But those who did not believe -
“Let us eat and drink...”
Choosing Life is an act of faith in God
“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;
in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it.
“But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them,
I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants,
by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Deuteronomy 30.15-
we choose life when we choose to -
love God
obey His voice
hold fast to Him
Our Living - how we live determines how we die.
“living” - existence
according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Philippians 1.21
We choose death and life, everyday.
we choose our kind of death, when we choose our kind of life
the manner of living that we choose also determines the manner of our death.
Example - Samson’s death
And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life.
“Let me die with the Philistines!”
At first - he lived for himself, misusing the gift of God
In Prison - he refused to live long and die slowly in prison, in the hands of his enemies.
Putting life at risk - for what purpose?
Why are we also in danger every hour?
1 Corinrinthians 15.30
Many put their lives at risk as a way of enjoying this life, without the hope of resurrection.
playing dangerous games - bungee jump, etc
long and dangerous journeys - sailing alone across the Pacific Ocean; climbing Mount Everest
Examples of senseless way of risking one’s life
the minister who was bitten by a venomous snake during worship
Filipino minister who risked his life by going into Abu Sayyaf territory
Choosing life in Christ is also a risky manner of living!
If we had forgotten the name of our God Or extended our hands to a strange god,
Would not God find this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
But for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
WARNING - when you choose life in Christ, you put your life at risk everyday!
Psalm 44.20-26
For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life;
indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;
2 Corinthians 1.
Our Dying - how we die determines whether God will be glorified or not
the minister who was bitten by a venomous snake during worship
Filipino minister who risked his life by going into Abu Sayyaf territory
Paul - put his life at risk in his missionary works
Die in faith
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
Die having finished your course and your ministry
Hebrews 11.13
“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20.24
Die for Christ
we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
2 Corinthians 4.8-11
Conclusion
Conclusion