Are You Ready?
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.
Today we begin a series that God laid on my heart a year ago. We are going to talk about heaven, Death, Hell, Life and Purpose. We are going to deal with “The End”
I was a teenager when the Left behind series came out. Everyone was excited. They were pumped about the end. the thought of walking on streets of Gold can entire anyone. The focus of most discussions that I have heard on heaven have to do with the surroundings. Gold streets, the pearly gates and all. The marvelous scale upon which the new jerusalem will be. What a sight to behold. but most talk leaves out the central purpose of heaven.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Eternity is about God! Knowing God and living life with God forever.
That is the goal. It isn’t Gods stuff. God is the reward. Spending time with him is the reward.
If that doesn’t appeal to us, something is off. because it should.
This series is less about the paint color of your mansion and more about the the immense wonder of eternity with our King.
Life my friends is a gift. Not a right!
Life my friends is a gift. Not a right!
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Paul had nothing but grief in life. After the Damascus rd, Paul was routinely beaten or imprisoned for preaching Christ. There were not many moments where Paul was not struggling for the kingdom. Yet he makes this declaration!
If I die, Praise God I will be better off with Him. But if He leaves me here, I will live for Him. Whether living or dying Paul's life is intertwined with Christ.
Paul understands that whether He lives or not, that is up to God.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
Life is a gift, and if we loose sight of that, we will lose sight of so much.
In college I would do nursing home ministry on Thursday mornings. One day it said buy someone on the team after we left, “Boy they sure are living on the edge of eternity.” Talking about those in the nursing home.
The reality is however that those on they were no more on the edge they you or I are.
Good health is a gift. If you have it, praise God.
If you don’t, Praise God
WE don’t exist to only worship when we feel like. We exist to worship God, in the good and the bad. Life is a vapor. It is a shadow.
If you are given tomorrow. Use that day, to praise God and to love those around you.
"Lord, stamp eternity on our eyes.
"Lord, stamp eternity on our eyes.
"Lord, stamp eternity on my eyeballs." Jonathan Edwards
The temptation of this age is to pretend that we control life and death. That we can affect it. Sin can speed up the process of dying, but you and I are fallen, and therefore will end up dying.
But we live in an age where the culture in order to profit lies to people to get them to believe that there are no consequences to their actions.
Pew research did a study a few years ago about death:
37% Think about death often.
57% give some thought or no thought to it at all.
18-49
32% think about death
67% give either some or no thought to death.
So you have 67% of 18-49 year old adults who are as on the edge of eternity as anyone else and they never contemplate their death. No wonder no one thinks about God. Everyone feels invincible.
So what, you want us to think about death more? Well Yes! Death is part of life, and we especially as Christians, should boldly face death. Just like Jesus did.
Before move on however. How did Jesus tell us to face death.
Jesus, never ran after death! He ran after the Father! Likewise we are not called to pursue death, or to pursue life. WE are called to pursue Christ. When we do this, the transition from this world to the next is simple.
Are you Ready?
Are you Ready?
“Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will be in the presence of God.” Billy Graham
For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.