Check out this poem that a student director here at Sagebrush wrote.
"Did you ever think when the hearse rolls by, that you would be the next to die? They’ll wrap you up in a nice clean sheet. They’ll put you down about 6 feet deep. And all will go well for about a week and then your coffin will begin to leak. The worms will then crawl in and begin to eat."
Aren’t you glad you read it?We don’t like to talk about death. It makes us uncomfortable. We don’t want to talk about death. We want to talk about life. We like life. We play a game called life, and even one of the most popular cereals is a cereal called “Life”. I don’t think they will ever try to sell a cereal called “Death”. What should I have this morning for breakfast? I know. I’ll have a bowl of death.
One of the strangest houses in the United States is known as the Winchester House, in the Bay area. It was built by Mrs. Winchester. You’re probably familiar with her last name due to a rifle that is associated with her name. Mrs. Winchester lost her husband and her only child, and out of grief or guilt or reasons now lost to time she became obsessed with the occult. She began a massive building project based on the belief that as long as she continued to build her house she would not die.
She had sixteen carpenters employed full-time for thirty-eight years. The house contains 47 fireplaces, 950 doors and 10,000 windows--more windows than the Empire State Building. There are secret passageways and hidden rooms and stairs that run to the ceiling and then stop at the ceiling. She had doors that open to brick walls. All this was done apparently to confuse Death.
She was still building when Death came, and Death was not confused at all.
Friends, all of us are going to die so let me ask you the obvious question. Are you ready?
Are you ready for what happens after you die? If you aren’t a Christian, if you have never asked Jesus to be the leader and forgiver of your life you should be scared to death of death. The Bible teaches that once you die you will appear before the Great White throne judgment and you will give an account for how you lived your life. For all of you who still think that your goodness will get you into heaven, understand on this day you will understand that your goodness wasn’t good enough.
Look at this. Revelation 20:11-12,"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."
God has written a book and that book is all about you. It is filled with every word you have ever said. Every deed you have ever done. It is filled with every bad attitude and every evil thing you did that you hoped no one would ever find out about. That book will be read to you and in that moment, you will realize that your goodness wasn’t good enough and because you never humbled yourself and asked Jesus to come into your life and forgive you of all your sin, God will look at you and say, “Depart from me you evil and wicked person into the fires of hell.”
If you aren’t a Christian, if you don’t take Jesus seriously, you will on that day but it will be too late for you so if you have never asked Jesus to come into your life and you want to know more about what that is all about, text REMIX to 97000. God doesn’t want you to go to hell and Jesus doesn’t want you to go to hell. In fact he died for your sins and rose again from the dead paying the sin debt you owe God so you wouldn’t go to hell.
If you end up in hell you have to be determined to go there. You have to ignore Jesus and what he did for you again and again. But why would you do that? Instead, talk to one of us before you leave this place because you don’t know, you don’t know when you will die and when you die, you will face God.
Now for those of us who have asked Jesus to come into our life and forgive us for our sins when you die you will face the Bema Seat judgment found in 1 Corinthians 3.
1 Corinthians 3:10-15"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."
So what does this mean? Well to put it simply what we do now, matters in eternity.When a Christian dies, their whole life work, what they stood for, what they did, what they believed in will be thrown into a fire. This fire will test to see if we gave our life to advancing the kingdom of God. The eternal things will last, everything else won’t.
Now this judgment for the person who is a Christian does not determine whether or not you get to go to heaven. That has already been determined. When a person asks Jesus into their life that person gets to go to heaven because they trust that Jesus’ death paid their sin debt and that Jesus conquered death and the grave when he rose again from the dead. We don’t get to heaven based on our goodness but on Jesus’ goodness.
This fire that our lives work is thrown into does not determine whether we go to heaven or not. This fire determines what rewards we will receive from God for the way we live our life after we asked Jesus to lead us.
Think about that. Every kind word you ever spoke that helped someone along the way will be rewarded. Every time you saw a need and met that need, all of that will be rewarded too.
Think about that. God is taking note of every kind deed done for him. Every kind word, every act of sacrifice and service. The Bible says in,
Matthew 10:42“If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."
On this day we will be ecstatic as we see how the monies we gave for his kingdom were used to reach hundreds, maybe even thousands of people that we never got the chance to meet. We will be blown away at the prayers that were answered. We will be dumbfounded as the King of kings and the Lord of lords honors our acts of service to Him.
Some people are going to be rewarded big time because they served God each and every day of their life. They put the needs of other people first and they cared to share Jesus with others.
But there will be some people that never take this whole serving God and others thing very seriously. They will ask Jesus to come into their life to save them from hell, but they won’t live their life for God on a day-by-day basis and when their life’s work is thrown in the fire there won’t be much to reward that person for. The Bible says that they will be saved but only as one escaping the flames. They had an amazing opportunity to give their life to something amazing, but they spent it living for themselves.
Here is the big question. How does this day look for you, as a Christian? When your life’s work is thrown into that fire will anything of value come out of that fire that God will reward you for?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
Or will your life’s work just burn up because everything you did, you did for you?
Here’s the truth about all this: serving God brings fulfillment now and eternal rewards later.
Are you hoping that one day, you will stand before God and hopefully hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” What are you living your life for?
If you are a christian you are claiming to be a servant of God, but so many Christians never get around to actually serving God. They are too busy, they have other priorities, or they just don’t want to. If you were to make a list of things you spend more time doing than serving God, how many things would be on that list?
It’s sad, but it shouldn’t be this way. Why are our phones more important than serving God? Social media, video games, sports, the list goes on and on. If you are honest, how much do you spend every week doing something that will further God’s kingdom, compared to your own kingdom?
Some of us might not feel like we have very much to offer God. You are wrong, friend. God created you, breathed life into you and He has a plan and a purpose for your life. It’s time to give to him the little bit you have and let him use what you have to make a big difference. How can you leverage what you are good at for the kingdom of God?
You have to start somewhere. You have to start sometime. Today is the day. Take that step today and start serving the Lord to make an eternal impact. How can you serve God this week? Actually, think about some very practical ways that in your life you can serve others. Then take that with you this week and let's live it out.
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