Charlotte.
Psalm 116:15.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants
Man’s average lifespan.
One of man’s greatest quests through medical science is to prolong life.
Up to the flood (1656 years) Over 900 years Genesis 5
After the flood: Reduced to 120 years Genesis 6:3. My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.
Subsequent average: 70-80 years Psalms 90:10. Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
In the Millennium man’s lifespan is increased. Isaiah 65:20. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
Death.
God himself ordained for man to die. Genesis 3:22-24. And the Lord God said, The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever. So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
God instituted death as a blessing to grant redemption from this body that is under sin’s curse.
Romans 7:23-25.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 8:23. we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
Death.
It is not good for fallen man to live too long. Genesis 6:1-3. Then the Lord said, My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.
You may think it gives a person more time to repent, but
76% of Christians decided to follow Jesus Christ before the age 16.
85% of Christians decided to follow Jesus Christ before the age 21.
The older you get the harder your heart gets.
Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, I find no pleasure in them.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Death.
Why did Jesus weep at the tomb of Lazarus?
I have heard different ministers speak on this passage and I know we can extract different truths from the same passage, but my persuasion is that Jesus wept not because Lazarus died (He was going to raise him to life and had purposely delayed coming until he had been dead for 3 days)
I believe that Jesus wept because they did not see beyond the grave.
Although we grieve at the death of a child of God, we do not grieve like the rest of men who have no hope.
Death for the child of God is rest, falling asleep in Jesus.
We are all faced with death.
None of us can say that we will be alive tomorrow.
James 4:13-16.
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. 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. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.
Hebrews 9:27.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
Your appointment with death.
Charlotte acknowledged Christ as her Lord, not just with her mouth, but with her life.
There are many who profess to know Christ and may even be involved in Church/ Christian activity, but they don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, they are just religious.
Isaiah 29:13.
The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I’ve lived a good life”? Luke 18:9-14.
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: God, I thank you that I am not like other people robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I never knew”?
Romans 1:18-20.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I have my own religion”?
Galatians 2:21.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
If we could be righteous through any other religion, Jesus died for nothing.
We do not reach Christ through righteousness, we reach righteousness through Christ!
John 14:6.
Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
What will you say at your appointment?
Will you say “I believed in God”?
James 2:18-20.
But someone will say, You have faith;
I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
You believe that there is one God.
Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless
Aren’t we all “Children of God?
We are not automatically children of God, we have to be Born into God’s family.
John 8:44.
Jesus said of the Pharisees… “You are of your Father the Devil”
2 Corinthians 6:17,18.
Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you and I will be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty.
Aren’t we all “Children of God?
It is up to us to make the decision and to turn from our sin to God.
John 3:1-5.
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do except God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him,
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
Born of water.
Born of water is not a reference to “Water Baptism”
Jesus in this context was answering Nicodemus regarding natural birth from a mother’s womb, where the unborn child is surrounded by water, and when the water breaks the chid is born.
1 Peter 1:23.
Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.
Why do we have to be “Born Again”.
Man is spiritually dead as a result of disobedience.
Genesis 2:17.
But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.
Ephesians 2:1-5.
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world…..God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.
Colossians 2:13.
When you were dead in your sins and uncircumcision of you flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins……
Man is Tri-partite.
Man is Tri-partite.
The Body: Makes us conscious of the world through our 5 senses.
The soul: Makes us conscious of ourselves and it too consists of 3 parts, our mind, will and emotions
The spirit: Makes us conscious of God and at the time we are Born Again it is quickened by the Spirit of God.
Genesis 2:7.
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.
John 20: 19-22.
On the evening of the first day of the week… Jesus came and stood among them…and with that He breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
Christians should not be afraid of death.
Christians should not be afraid of death.
Hebrews 4:14-15.
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death that is, the devil and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
In fact the Christian walk starts with a burial.
Colossians 2:12.
Having been buried with him in baptism,
in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Galatians 2:20. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul did not fear death.
Paul did not fear death.
Philippians 1:20-26.
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me.
Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.
God’s perspective on death.
Psalm 116:15.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants
Isaiah 57:1-2.
The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace;
they find rest as they lie in death.
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