Life and Death in Perspective

Transcript

GR 622
11/21/1982
Life and Death in Perspective
Philippians 1:21-26
Gil Rugh

The Book of Philippians in your Bibles, Philippians and the First Chapter, Paul has been relating in the section beginning with verse 12 which we looked at in our last study together, something of his personal circumstances and we noted how Paul turns the subject not to his own suffering but to the impact of the Gospel as a result of his suffering. In other words, Paul is not looking for sympathy or pity for his own personal circumstances, but rather he is shifting his situation through the ministry that God has given him. How are the events in my life today affecting my responsibility as a minister and ambassador for Jesus Christ, and he says it has been to the good that I have been imprisoned for in effect the Gospel has been proclaimed in new ways to new people as a result of my imprisonment so that my suffering has been for the good.

Also in connection with this Paul begins a consideration that we touched on last week which flows into our study this morning and that is on the possibility of his death. You cannot talk about suffering without talking about the ultimate end in suffering, the ultimate physical end and that is death. As Paul contemplates the reality of his human suffering the difficulties of his present situation, he also realizes that this suffering could possible culminate in his physical death. Now what about the subject of death? How do I evaluate my life and ministry if it’s to conclude very quickly, if in effect I am on the brink of death?

Well, I want to spend our time this morning looking at what Paul says in these few verses and with that other verses particularly where Paul discusses the subject of death because I really believe that behind it all the reason that Paul could endure suffering as he did was he was prepared for death. I really also believe that it is true that a person cannot really live life to the fullest if he is not ready to die because death is a sure thing for all of us unless Jesus Christ intervenes at the rapture. It is one thing we can all be sure of. We have all different personal circumstances and situations here, but one thing is sure if Jesus Christ does not come in the next hundred years will have passed through death. It is a reality and usually the awareness and consciousness of death is heightened at a time of suffering. When we are healthy and feeling good and things are going well, death is something distant and far-off.

I spent some time in connection with the study reading some articles on death and I am not going to take time to read those to you. I am sure you have read a number of them yourself. It is good to be reminded, but I was interested in one person’s comment supposedly an intellectual person appeared I believe in US News and World Report and not too long ago. The person commented that talking about death is pornographic in a technological age. That we ought to be discouraging such talk because we are on the brink of breaking through that kind of barrier called death. The reality of it is we still die and we make progress in one disease and another crops us and what happens? Death is still a reality.

We should a little bit with me before we look at these verses into some of The Old Testament passages on death. The Book of Psalm we will start out, Psalm 39 and maybe you didn’t wake up this morning thinking about dying so I want to put in the mood. And so we will just look at some of what the Scripture says reminding us about the brevity of life and then we will look into what The New Testament says is the hope in the face of death. Psalm 39 and begin with verse 4, Lord make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days. Let me know how transient I am. Note David feels that it is healthy that he be reminded of how transient he is, that he is a temporal being. He says remind me of that. Don’t let me forget it.

Behold you made my days as handbreadths and my lifetime as nothing in your sight. Surely every man at his best is a mere breadth. Surely everyman walks about as a phantom. Surely they make an uproar for nothing. He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them. Reminder here no matter what we invest our lives in here, no matter what kind of power or riches we acquire our life can be measured as handbreadths, just very brief and temporal. Look over in Psalm 49 verse 5, why should I fear in days of adversity when the iniquity of my foes surrounds me. Even those who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches no man can by any means redeem his brother or gift to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of his soul is costly and he should cease trying forever that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay.

A point here, no matter how much you have you cannot buy your way out of dying. There is nothing you can do no matter what. You say I have hundreds of millions of dollars and you still not live to be 200 years old. It doesn’t matter. It is irrelevant. Jump down to verse 16, do not be afraid when a man becomes rich when the glory of his house has increased for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he congratulates himself and though men praise you when you do well for yourself he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the lights. Men in pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Now here is a basic difference between men and animals. The point being made here is that physical life terminates for both. Even our dog is going to die and you know what no matter how much smarter I think I am than him, no matter how much more wealth I have than him, how much more influence. And I sometimes wonder if I have as much influence as him at home. But all of that you know what we are both going to die. There will come a day when they will dig a hole and put that little dog in the ground. They will come a day when they will dig a hole and put his body in the ground. There is a sense I am just the dog. We are both going to die.

And you know all the pomp and all the riches and all the power that you acquire, you know what, there will come a day when they will dig a hole and put your remains in the ground just like they do with a dumb animal. Look over in Psalm 90, isn’t this encouraging, aren’t you glad you came this morning? Psalm 90, well you ought to be feeling for me I have it prepared this all week as well as preach it this morning. Psalm 90 verse 10, I love this because it is a reminder how fixed the times of our lives really are. Psalm 90 verse 10, as for the days of our life they contain 70 years. Now, isn’t it amazing a thousand years before Christ, David said the basic average lifespan is 70 years. You go through periods of time and places in the world where that lifespan drops back and we are in a generation where it seems that lifespan is significantly shorter.

We stretch a little bit beyond it, but if you look at the insurance charts today, what is it? Well, we have stretched a couple of years beyond that perhaps for the average lifespan but we hang around 70 years, 30 score years and ten and he goes on, or if due to strength 80 years. Maybe you are a good physical specimen and you have 80. Yet their pride but labor and sorrow for soon it is gone and we fly away. Who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear is due you. So teach us to number our days that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. You see why David wanted to be reminded of the brevity of his life. Teach us to number our days.

You know what happens in a society like ours where death is put away people die in institutions. We isolate and insolate ourselves from the reality of death. They live make believe pretended lives. They invest their lives pretending that death will not overtake them and we need to be reminded that we will die and if your life does not have more significance than the little sphere of this physical realm you are to be pitied because no matter what you do it is going to be cut and you are going to leave it all behind. Jump over to Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes Chapter 2, Solomon the wisest man that ever lived Ecclesiastes Chapter 2 verse 16 and we just have to jump into these sections. I encourage you to sit down and read the Book of Ecclesiastes if you have not done that recently.

Note verse 16, for there is no lasting remembrance. He just made the statement this is vanity, emptiness, futility for there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool in as much as in the coming days all will be forgotten and how the wise man and the fool die alike. Solomon says what emptiness with all of my brilliance and all of my wisdom I am going to die just like the fool dies. No difference. Solomon has been proved true. Solomon died; his body was put in the ground just like the greatest fool that lived in his kingdom. With all of his brilliance he couldn’t change that fact.

Look at verse 18, thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun for I must leave it to the man who will come after me and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity, emptiness. Now isn’t it amazing how people try to control their wealth after they are gone but leave it to their kids and their kids live it up and waste it or they leave it to someone else? You say I fool them I put it in a trust fund and so it doesn’t get wasted for another generation. But the fact of the matter is when we are gone someone else has it and our control over it is gone. You leave it to someone else.

Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun. When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill then he gives his legacy to the one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and great evil. For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun because all his days, his task is painful and grievous? Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity. Solomon knew what was like. We thought it was new today. People lose sleep over their jobs and so on. Solomon says it is just the way it is today.

And you know what I can’t even get to sleep at night but I am going to die and leave it to some fool who never even worried about it and he will waste it. A couple of more passages since this is so good. Chapter 5 verse 15, we won’t appreciate the hope that is given in the passage we are going to look at and we don’t have impressed upon us the reality of what death really is. Chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes verse 15, as he had come naked from his mother’s womb so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand and this also is a grievous evil exactly as a man is born thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind? Spend all your life beating your head against the wall for wind. You can’t grasp the power of the wind.

I have mentioned before I watched our daughter be born and would you like to know what she came into this world with, nothing. That’s not a surprise. When she came into this world she was stark absolutely naked. She didn’t have anything. On her hands she wasn’t carrying any diamonds or rubies much to my dismay, nothing. Empty handed, and you know how we will go out of this life, with nothing. And you now see the futility of it. Some of you have gone and seen the treasures of King Tutankhamun, King Tut, because they unearthed his tomb and all the precious things he had been buried with, where were they? In that hole in the ground; he could take nothing with him.

One more passage and then we have to go to the New Testament. Isaiah and this forms a transition for us. Isaiah Chapter 40, I think it’s important that as we as believers recognize that the message that was given by God is that we are to remind one another of the brevity of life so that we can order our lives around that which is of eternal value and significance. So verse 6 of Isaiah 40, a voice has called out, then he answered what shall I call out? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades. We are just like the grass; the flowers of the field and you go out and look at the lovely flower gardens and then what happens? They have withered and gone.

Guys that’s what’s our lives are like. Just a brief period we flourish, we bloom and we are gone. But there is a contrast. But the word of our God stands or abides forever. That’s a significant transition. There is something in life that is eternal in value and importance and it is the word of God that stands in stark contrast to all the wisdom, all the power and all the riches that men have because all those things are temporal but there is something which stands for eternity and that is the word of God. And our relationship to that eternal word determines whether our life really has been invested in that which is significantly on death.

Come over to the New Testament, Book of Philippians. As Paul talked about his sufferings in verse 20 which we looked at last week, he says that his earnest expectation, and that’s a word which denotes an eagerness. That word earnest expectation denotes the stretching forth of the head. It’s the basic root idea is with the head stretched forth like when you are looking for something your head stretched out and you are looking around denoting the eagerness. The anticipation he used in Romans 8 where the whole creation groans in expectation, eagerness for the unveiling of the sons of God.

Paul says my eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness Christ shall even now as always be exalted in my body whether by life or by death. The focal point of Paul’s life as we talked about in our last study is the exaltation of Jesus Christ and that ties to what Isaiah said in Chapter 40 the word of our God stands forever. It is the truth of God. It is the truth of God is revealed in his son Jesus Christ which is of eternal and lasting importance and significance. Paul says my life revolves around him. So the next statement for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now that’s remarkable.

When we look at the passages we read in the Old Testament you have the repeated idea that to live is exciting and to die is lost. You gain while you are alive and you lose when you die because you leave it all behind, no matter how many homes you have, no matter what kind of bank accounts you have, no matter what kind of position you have when you die it will all be left behind. So humanly speaking death is the greatest lost and yet Paul says for me living is Jesus Christ and dying is an advantage. And that is what is unique about a Christian. That is what is unique about one who has come to trust Jesus Christ as personal savior as the one who loved them and died for them because in that moment of time when we trust Jesus Christ as revealed in the word of God we are cleansed from our sin and brought into a personal relationship with God that prepares us to live our lives focused around God in eternal purpose and prepares us to move from this life into the presence of God so that what we have is not wrapped up in this life but is prepared beyond this life.

For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So my life centers in Jesus Christ. He is what life is all about for me. See what happens here. Look at the next verse. If I am to live on in the flesh this will mean fruitful labor for me. Note how Paul used life. He says if I could just live a little longer I could increase my net worth. If I could live a little longer I might move from second vice-president to first vice-president or president. If I could live a little longer I might develop a new concept or idea and get it in print. All those things are transitory because even if I do live another five years the fact is those things will be left behind. But you know where Paul focuses if I live on in the flesh this will mean fruitful labor for me.

You know what he is talking about? He is talking about the ministry of the word of God in the lives of other people and that is labor which bears fruit not only in this life but in eternity. So Paul’s life revolves around Jesus Christ and that enables him to invest his life in what has eternal importance and significance. So if I live on in the flesh fruitful labor, labor that will bear fruit for me in the eternal context, I do not know what to choose. Paul says boy this is a dilemma. If I live I can have more fruit in my labor which will tie to the rewards that are laid up for him in glory. We are going to look at life after death in a moment. If I die that is the greatest and best gain that I could ever hope for.

So it’s somewhat of a dilemma. It’s hard to choose. Now who else but a child of God could say you know it’s a hard choice of whether I would live or die. That’s just not the way the word lives. There is no choice at all. You give everything to squeeze another day out. But Paul says boy here I am with a choice: what I really want to do. Now he is writing under the inspiration of the Scripture, I take it this is reality. I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart. Key word to depart, we will see it elsewhere where Paul uses it. It can be used in a couple of ways. I think Paul is probably talking here about the taking of a tent, the analogy he will develop in writing to the Corinthians. To depart, you break camp. So you move out, also used of a ship that leaves the harbor and sails out. To depart, that’s how he views death as a departure.

It is not an end, it is a move to depart and be with Christ which is very much better, much more better literally. Three fold comparative here. Just pound it on. How do I express how much better it is to be with Christ? It’s much more better than being here. We say well it is hardly good English but it gets the point across. It is just not better, it’s more better. You know it’s not just more better, it’s much more better to go and be with Christ. Note how he goes on. Yet to remain on in flesh is necessary for your sake. So you see his dilemma here. If he stays on in the flesh that will be to the Philippians’ advantage because Paul will be able to administer to them further and more effectively with the word of God which will bring forth fruit and so you know how Paul looks at it it’s to your advantage that I stay and administer the word. It’s my advantage that I go and be with the Lord.

I am convinced of this I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that your proud confidence, your glorying in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. Paul is convinced that it is going to be delivered at this time and that is going to cause the Philippians great joy as they see the work of God in brining Paul to safety again. But Paul’s attitude in it is to my advantage to go and to be with the Lord. I take that’s true for every single believer. That’s why when a child of God experiences physical death we do not weep for them. O isn’t it tragic that they could not have lived another week? Isn’t it too bad they couldn’t have stayed to see their great, great, great grandchildren? There is advantage to us who are left.

We lose something in the departure of a loved one. There is sadness over that separation but for that one who is a believer in Jesus Christ to experience his physical death, it’s a great gain for them. I can honestly only be happy for them even though it may bring me personal sadness. Turn over to the Book of Second Corinthians Chapter 4, the end of Chapter 4 verses 16 to 18 Paul talks about the subject of physical suffering. He says even though this outer man, this physical body is experiencing decay that our inner man that inner person is being made new and strengthened day by day. So that’s how Paul could look at the physical deterioration and suffering. He put it in a balance of what God was doing in his inner life.

He says in verse 18, we have to be looking not at the things which are seen, for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen, for the things which are not seen are eternal. So I have to get my eyes where they belong as a believer. I have to look at those things which really matter in light of eternity. That’s different than today. We have great emphasis on physical health and well being. That’s fine. I believe we ought to take care of our bodies. No problems with exercise. No problems with vitamins, good eating habits, that’s all fine, but the fact of the matter is three score years and ten, maybe even 80 years. This morning driving here to church passed a person jogging down 84 Street, reminder again and I jog, so I am not anti-jogger, don’t send me any notes.

But I thought now here they are out trying to keep that body as healthy as possible. Have they given any thought at all to their relationship with God and the fact that death is sure? Paul says physical suffering that reminds me of death. This body is deteriorating. It is decaying. Some of you have experienced in your physical body. That reminder that this physical body is deteriorating but Paul goes on then in Chapter 5 to give his greatest discussion of the subject of physical death. We know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and he says in this physical body we grow longing for the new house.

What he is talking about is this physical body is like a tent. There is going to come a time when this tent is folded up and put away but God is prepared for us a body which is characterized by glory that is suitable for his presence in heaven. Verse 4, for indeed while we are in this tent we groan being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed but be clothed in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. My goal is not to die. My goal is to experience the glory that God has for me. So I am not eagerly looking forward to dying but I am eagerly looking forward to the glorified body that God has prepared for all of us who are his children.

Death is an enemy. Paul eludes to that in First Corinthians Chapter 15. None of us look forward to the process of dying but how different it is confront death as one who knows what is beyond death, as one who has for sure and certain promise hoped after this life. Verse 5, now he who prepared us for this purpose, the purpose of glory in his presence who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. God has prepared us. He gave us the Spirit which dwelled in us. That’s God’s down payment, God’s guarantee that he is going to see the process through to completion.

Therefore being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage I say and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Note here Paul says again his preference it is far better to be out of this body and to be at home with the Lord. We have had funerals the past year a believer from this body, this local body. Now their physical bodies were placed in the ground. But you know where they are this morning? They are enjoying the glories of God’s presence. I have to say it is far better for them to be absent from that physical body and to be enjoying the glory of God’s presence. What joy is theirs, that’s reminder.

Now in that context note these closing verses before we look at a couple of other passages. Verse 9, therefore also we have as our ambition whether at home or absent to be pleasing to him you are reminded about the temporalness of life. You are reminded about the fact that you will be called into his presence that ought to make you ambitious to live your life in a way that is pleasing to him. The world is ambitious. They give their lives. They destroy their health in the pursuit of those things which are so precious and yet so temporal. Paul says that’s the way I want to live my life for Jesus Christ. I know that someday I am going into his presence and I want above all things to be pleasing to him, and you know why? For we must all appear before the beam of seat of Christ.

That time when we stand before him to be recompensed, in verse 10, for the deeds in the body. So a reminder that after physical death I am going to stand before Jesus Christ and he is going to reward me according to the faithfulness of my service for him in this physical body. Now that’s remarkable because only believers have the opportunity to invest their lives, to be ambitious about those things which will bring reward after physical death. That’s remarkable that I have the privilege of investing my life in something which will bear its returns after this life so I can invest the years that I have here, and I don't know how long I have whether God will give me days or months or years. But I am privilege as God’s child to invest my life in service for Jesus Christ so that when I stand before Jesus Christ after death I bear the returns on my investments in effect.

Now that’s what really counts much talk about investments today, much talk about getting a good return and watching out for inflation but we as Christians where are our concerns. Some Christians get worried to death over the economy, worried to death over the conditions of the world. Praise God my investments aren’t tied up here. Praise God that I am only a stranger only temporarily passing through and as I pass through I am in the process of investing in eternity. You know what happens with physical death and I want you to be clear I am talking about for a Christian but we are all eternal beings, whether you are a believer in Jesus Christ or not you are eternal.

The Bible indicates James Chapter 2 verse 26, that the body without the Spirit is dead. What happens at physical death is that the person themselves move out of their body and when that occurs that body is physically dead. Now that person does not cease to exist whether they are a believer or a non-believer, no matter what their condition. At physical death what transpires is a person leaves their body. The Scripture indicates they immediately either go into the presence of God in glory or into the state of torment and suffering. The ultimate end of the torment and suffering is the eternity of hell. For those who go into the presence of God it is the eternity of heaven. So we are all eternal beings, all going to live on forever.

So don’t misunderstand, there is no such thing as annihilation. There is no such thing as ceasing to exist. This passages you are reading indicates there is no such thing as soul sleep. You know what happens when you were absent from the body you were present with the Lord. What does Paul say, I would like to depart this body and be with Christ which is very much better. No such thing as soul sleep. Now the body talks about the sleep of death. It talks about those who are asleep referring to Christians who have died physically. What it is talking about is this physical body. If I die physically today my body will become inactive. It will not be used just like when I am asleep but I as a person will go on functioning. I would have moved out of this body and into the presence of God in glory.

Now the future time he is going to call this physical body back to life and in an instant of time he will glorify it transform it to make it suitable for his presence in heaven for eternity and then I will move back in to that residence that he has prepared for me but it would be this body but this body in a transformed glorified state and then would dwell in his presence forever. Turn over to Second Timothy Chapter 4, this is Paul’s last letter. On this occasion Paul will not be released from imprisonment. He is aware of that. This imprisonment will culminate in his physical death. There are no hope like writing to the Philippians that I am going to be released. He has been rearrested. He has been re-imprisoned and his death is certain.

Verse 6 of Second Timothy 4, for I am already being poured as a drink offering. I am already being sacrificed. The events that will culminate in his death have already been set in motion. The time of my departure, that is our word again. To depart and be with Christ is far better. Paul says its departure time for me. I am leaving. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not to me only but to all those that love his appearing. You see what Paul has anticipation of now the crown of righteousness.

I have invested my life, Timothy, in that which is of eternal significance and now I am ready to go and realize my investment. I have often looked at Paul’s life and wonder how he felt. He gave himself without reservation to the ministry of the word of God and yet here comes the end in a Roman prison with no real possessions to amount to anything humanly speaking. He didn’t have to worry about a long will. He didn’t have to worry about dividing up his inheritance among the heirs. Here is Paul, sit back and look and say wow here I am at death and what have I done with my life, isn’t it exciting that I have to look back and say everything I have done is here but rather to say everything I have got is there and now I am going to get it. So you can confront death totally different with a totally different attitude.

He is departing and going into the presence of Christ. One other passage how this is possible. Hebrews Chapter 2 verse 14, since then the children share in flesh and blood. He himself likewise partook of the same. What he is talking about here is those that were to be redeemed were physical human beings so Jesus Christ the son of God in order to provide redemption for humanity himself became a human being. So he left the glories of heaven became a man so that as the God-man he might provide redemption. And note how verse 14 goes on. In order that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the Devil and might deliver those who threw fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

You know what Jesus Christ accomplished in his death. He accomplished redemption, redemption that sets us free from the bondage of Satan and the bondage of sin. He sets us free from the power and bondage of death itself. I need not fear death. Jesus Christ has conquered death. I know that I shall stand in the presence of God himself as one who has been redeemed. I know that this very body well at a time in the future be glorified and suited for God’s presence for eternity. You know I should live my life in fear of death. I should live my life distraught because I might get cancer by breathing the air or eating my dinner. I realize cancer can be a tragic thing, heart disease can be a tragic thing, all these things are unpleasant.

As I said no one looks forward to the process of dying. Remember what we talked about in suffering, all kinds of suffering that becomes a vehicle for Jesus Christ to be exalted in my life. And so in that process of suffering I am privileged to be investing in eternity. Now note the difference here. I am not saying that you can prepare for eternity by suffering. You can only prepare for eternity by believing in Jesus Christ that he died for you, but when you have come to believe in him then you are privileged to live your life as his servant and even through the suffering that culminates in your death to be investing in the rewards that he will bestow upon those that belong to him.

What a tragedy. Greatest tragedy in this I guess its two-fold: one, that there are people who live their lives within the confines of the physical, those who have no relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. All the emptiness and futility. What a tragedy? I often wonder what drives the unbeliever on day after day after day when sooner or later something is going to get him and he is going to be gone. How do they get up and face the day? O what a futile life to live your life invested in the confines of the physical which is so temporary. What a tragedy that after this life you have nothing but separation from God for eternity. There is another tragedy.

There is a tragedy that those who come to know Jesus Christ the savior gets absorbed in this world system and we lose sight of who we are and what we are all about. I get just concerned about the security in this life as the believer does. I get just as worried about the course of events in this life as the unbeliever does. And I have to stop and say, “Gil, what is your life all about?” I am privileged to be investing in eternity and that ties to my faithful service for Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a job to support my family. It doesn’t mean I can’t have a night’s out. It doesn’t mean that there is not a place for other things but that’s not what life is all about.

I trust we will be like Paul who could say I have learnt to live with much; I have learnt to live with nothing. I have learnt to be content in whatever circumstance I am. Jesus said that even when a man is rich his life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. That’s not what life is all about. What’s life all about for you? Do you really know what it is to have a personal relationship with God himself? To walk in hope and anticipation of glory in his presence. Some of you may not be far from death. It always unnerves me to preach on death. It seems every time I do someone in the body is taken home to be with the Lord, and yet that’s a glorious hope, a glorious anticipation. If you would’ve died today, are you ready to meet God?

Believer, is your life being invested every moment of every day in anticipation of seeing Jesus Christ face to face. You are one week closer to that than you were last Sunday when we studied Philippians. Have you been investing faithfully this week your life and death which counts for eternity. What a glorious privilege.

Let’s pray together. Father, we would ask with the psalmist that you teach us to number our days that we might apply ourselves to wisdom. Our lives go by so quickly, the time passes. Father, guard us from consuming the time with those things which are frivolous, Father, with those things which in light of eternity will make no difference and have no value. Thank you for privileging us as your children to invest our lives in that which will bear eternal rewards. God, guard our hearts and minds that we might have singleness of purpose; that we might have as our driving ambition to be pleasing to Jesus Christ.

Lord, I pray for those who are here who are not your children, who do not have a personal relationship with you through faith in Jesus Christ. God impress upon them the futility and emptiness of life apart from you. Father that they spend their life as a breath. Lord that they might see that the only hope in life and eternity is salvation by faith in the death and resurrection of the savior who loved them and died for them, and we pray in His name, amen.