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Well, good morning, beloved. Good morning, beloved. Good morning.
Thank you. Well, it has been a bittersweet week this week in the life of Bethlehem Bible Church.
Donna Marcello, you may know her as Donna Flanagan, died on Friday at Beth Israel Hospital.
It had been her desire over the last three years, suffering with breast cancer, to excel and honor the
Lord. Her granddaughter was born on Monday. I mean, just last week
I was looking at Donna sitting right there. And she had a desire to see her granddaughter, and she went and saw her on Monday, and then
Tuesday, little baby Gracie. What a good name. What a sweet name. She got to cut the cord, and Coach Amy threw all that.
And then she got home on Tuesday night, and down at the bottom of the cellar, doors on her way up collapsed and was without oxygen for about 30 minutes.
And as far as we know, went straight to heaven that very moment. Rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, and then finally died on Friday at 742 in the evening.
47 years old. Who would have thought when I preached last
Sunday night from Psalm 90, Lord, teach us to number our days, that someone in our congregation within two days would die and see her
Savior. Carol, is Carol here today, her mom?
Where is Carol? I love you. I love you both. As I sat there with the family,
I was thinking to myself, I'm so glad Donna was born again.
It makes me so happy to know that in the midst of death and how ugly death is,
I kept thinking about Satan saying to Eve, the day that you eat of this fruit, you will not surely die.
And then to watch as Donna took her last few breaths, thinking, I wish I could see things that weren't happening now.
That is, angelic messengers rushing her soul to heaven. To listen to the throng in heaven that now
Donna is part of. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. I thought, I wish I could see all those, but I can only see them by faith now and not by sight.
I was driving home from the hospital on Friday thinking, Lord, I don't want to be the same. I don't want to be the same person.
Life is too short. Life goes by too fast. When there's a death in the family, everyone just has to reevaluate everything.
Psalm 116, it says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.
Literally, the Hebrew word is, it's valuable to God. It's a beauty to God. And I thought, in a way,
I want to exhort the congregation this morning to live like this could be your last day. Not to scold.
Not to tell you I told you so. But just to learn. To be reminded.
To keep an eternal perspective. Ecclesiastes 7 says, It's better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting.
Because that is the end of every man. I thought,
I want to live for the glory of God. You'd ask Donna how she was doing. And here she is dying of breast cancer.
Metastases in her brain. And you would say, how you doing Donna? And what would she say to you? That's exactly right.
That is the quote, I'm doing great. Just standing there in that kitchen last Sunday.
Cleaning the kitchen. I thought, that's how I want to live. I'm doing great.
I deserve death, destruction, damnation. And God has saved me. God has forgiven me of my sins.
And I want to live today like it counts for eternity. I'm doing great. So if you're a visitor today, this is going to be a different kind of service.
There's a sermon to start the service today. Before we sing. Before we pray. Before we do anything else.
I want to share with you from God's word. What the Bible says about living like this is the last day of your life.
I want you to live like you could see God today. And if you'll take your
Bibles and open to the book of James. I want to learn from Donna's life. I want to learn from the family's life.
I want to make sure that if today is the day where I see Christ Jesus face to face.
Then I'm ready. And that I live like I'm ready. I don't know if you've ever seen anyone die.
But there's something about death that just cuts everything down to the proper perspective. Doesn't it?
The latest episode of 24. Did the Red Sox win? Beloved, it means nothing.
And James is a book that can help us today to see things in proper perspective.
To look at things in proper perspective. James is a book that basically says we can't judge our
Christianity by what we think. By what we say. Who we think we are.
But what God says about our lives. One person said that the book of James is called the epistle of reality.
And that's one thing a death in the family will bring. What is real? What is true? What is important?
And James, as one man said, is a book that is so quick and powerful. The book itself,
James, is like a two -edged sword. Quick and powerful.
And I'm so glad that God cared about us enough and loved us enough to give us the book of James so that we could think for him.
And to think properly. And to analyze these situations as we should. We think
James is maybe a book that really was a sermon. It was prepared for public reading.
Doesn't have a lot of personal names in here. And James is a sermon and it's for a congregation.
Very much like Christ in lots of quotes. Lots of figures of speech.
And James must have been a super exciting preacher. And James can help us this morning to realize that we should live today for the glory of God like Donna did.
Whether you eat or whether you drink mundane routine things. We should do all for what?
For the glory of God. The catechism was right. What is the chief end of man?
To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And James doesn't want us to miss out.
James wants us to make sure that we cut through the haze of the world that says, you know what, you're going to live an old rich life.
Live it up. And James accepts none of that.
No dilly -dallying around. He is just straightforward. He doesn't pull any punches. And he said, I want you, beloved, to live in the constant recognition that you could see
God today. I mean, if you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today?
George Whitefield was asked that question. And they asked him, if you were going to die in a week, Dr. Whitefield, what would you do differently?
Or what would you do with your life? And he took out his little day timer in the 1740s.
It wasn't a day runner, but it was like a little day timer. And he said, this is exactly what I would do.
What was already written. Because he was planning that one day he would stand before God.
And it was a short life, and life was brief, and he wanted to live for the glory of God. That's why we're made.
That's why we're on this earth. And so let's read James chapter 4, verses 13 through 17.
I had Romans 9 already. I had the final message on election already. And as I just thought about Donna and her life, and how she and my mother would sit right there, both struggling with cancer.
I thought, I want to learn from them. And I want to live for the glory of God. I want to be different.
I want to know what real priorities are. And James chapter 4, verses 13 through 17 can really help our congregation do that very thing.
Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow, we should go to such and such a city, and spend a year there, and engage in business, and make a profit.
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You're just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live, and also do this or that.
But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
Therefore, to the one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him, it is sin.
Why don't we just pray, and then we'll get into the path. Lord, we thank you that you're such a great
God and Creator, Savior and Friend. We're thankful that you're a God who keeps
His promises. And when you started a good work in Donna, you were faithful to complete it.
Thank you, Lord, that you've given us your word. We want to live for you, and we want to excel today, and we don't want to get caught up in what the world gets caught up in.
And with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we want to love you, and we want to love our neighbor as ourselves.
But we're weak, and we're frail, and we need your help. And so, Lord, today I would ask that through your word, you would perform your work in those who believe today.
That you would help them to see what proper priorities are. That you would help us to learn from a lady who would serve you to the last breath.
That you would help us to learn, even from James, your inspired writer, that we are not self -sufficient.
And that we have only your goodness to protect us and guide us. And that we want to live in recognition of you and your glory.
And that you would help us today to use these words of scripture to make us live like today is the last day of our life.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, when we come to the book of James, he tells us things that we already know.
But we all need good reminders, don't we? We know these things, and yet he tells us what we already know.
And so, this morning for the outline in James 4, 13 and following, let me give you about five reminders of things that you already know when it comes to life and living before God and being dependent on God.
But I want to remind you anyway, so I'm going to call them five obvious reminders that will help you,
A, think biblically, and B, they'll help you live for the glory of God. Five obvious reminders, and let's start with the first one found in verse 13.
Obvious reminder number one. Sometimes you need an alarm clock to wake you up to plan your life with God in the center.
In other words, here is a wake -up call from James that we need to be startled to remember these things.
Something to get our attention. Do you see it in verse 13 of James 4? Maybe it's a death in the church, a death in the family, or just words of scripture.
But sometimes we need a wake -up call, and that's exactly what verse 13 is. Come now, he says.
This is, listen here, see this, see here. He's trying to get someone's attention, and I could probably get your attention this way.
That's exactly the verbal way he's trying to get someone's attention. Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we'll go to such and such a city, spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.
These people that James was talking to, they said this all the time. We've got our plans, we've got our five -year plan, we've got our ten -year plan, we've got our retirement plan, we've got our mutual fund plan, we've got our portfolio plan, we've got our college plan, we know when we're going to marry, we know how many kids we're going to have, we're going to have all these things.
And James says, the people that talk like that all the time, P .S. it's okay to plan, and it's good to plan, but it's planning in light of who
God is and how He can change things. The people that make their plans all the time, like the
Jewish business people in those days, they need kind of a wake -up call. Not kind of a wake -up call, but a wake -up call.
People get busy. I wonder what the Blackberry users were thinking this week when they were blacked out for a day.
Palm pilots and computers and Outlook calendars and all these things, and forgot one little thing,
God. And these people are exact.
Look at how precise their planning is. Is the devil in the details? They took time to think of everything.
God should certainly be there today or tomorrow. So, we'll go to such and such a city, spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.
It's kind of like braggartly. Self -assurance, self -confidence. I know my life's in control and I've got it all planned out.
Travel plans today or tomorrow. They know they're going to make their journey. We shall go. They know the exact destination.
It's like going to a missionary wall map and going up and taking the little pin and putting it right in that spot to such and such a city.
We're going to this exact city. Spend a year there and do business. Do emporium is the
Greek word. Make a profit. For sure we'll make a profit. And the interesting thing is this isn't immoral behavior, is it?
This isn't some sinful, unrighteous, horrible conduct, but it's working hard and planning without having the
Lord set continually before them, honoring God, planning through Him, consulting Him, praying to Him for wisdom and guidance.
Practical atheism is what it is. They weren't mixing business with religion, taking
God for granted. I can think of Isaiah 56.
Come, they say, let us get wine and let us drink heavily of strong drink and tomorrow will be like today, only more so.
We've got it all figured out. Friends, James is trying to say sometimes we need a little wake -up call.
We are not self -made men. We are not self -made women. We might get away with ignoring
God for a while, but this is our Father's world. And I don't know about you, but I struggle with kind of a credit card mentality sometimes, and that is, well,
I need something. I don't really have the money, but I can always charge it. Lack of dependence on God.
It's kind of like the illustration Napoleon was about to invade Russia and a friend tried to say, you know what?
Don't go. He couldn't change Napoleon's mind, so he quoted this proverb to Napoleon.
Man proposes, God disposes. Napoleon was so mad and so resentful of this comment, he snapped back and he said with anger in his eyes,
I dispose as well as propose. He was invaded by Russia and that was the beginning of his fall.
Even though it hurt and the family is grieving and I'm grieving, pray that God will take
Donna's life and give us the wake -up call that we don't live forever and let's live to the glory of God.
It's an obvious reminder. Furthermore, look in verse 14 at the second obvious reminder. Not just planning our life with God in the center, but number two, our life is unpredictable and short.
Your life is unpredictable and short. I mean, it is hard to deal with deaths.
How often do we see people who are dead? We can't even say the word dead. There's too much finality.
We say passed on, expired. I was singing about it last night. We can't even call things that we eat by the right name.
You can't say I'm eating cow because that somehow is weird. We have to say beef and venison and pork.
James says to help us. James may be authoritative, but it is for the good of the people in the congregation and for the glory of God.
How do you take a group of people who are hurting to live for God? Number one, make
God the center of your life and all your planning. And number two, remember you. Verse 14, yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.
You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes away.
You don't know. We have no accurate assessment of tomorrow. We have no crystal ball. We don't know the details of the future.
That's why Proverbs 27, 1 says, Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring what?
Forth. Our life's just a vapor. Appears for a little while.
It's just like mist. We have a little tea kettle at our house, and the water comes up out of the kettle and vapor, and it's just gone.
I can just watch it evaporate before my very eyes. Our life is transitory.
Our life is like a cloud or a grass, our breath, the Scriptures say, here today and gone tomorrow.
I think it's pushing it, but with the life insurance man who was really high pressure, he said, If you don't buy a policy from me now, think about it tonight and call me in the morning.
If you wake up. Eternal God and the changing nature of man.
Psalm 102 says, My days are like a lengthened shadow, and I wither away like grass. But thou,
O Lord, dost abide forever, and thy name to all generations. So while I'm here, I want to live all out for God, don't you?
I want to say today could be the day. I would hate to have the Lord return when
I'm dilly -dallying around. Turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 90. This is the passage
I was preaching last Sunday night. Many of you weren't here, but those of you that are, just bear with me as I just review this quickly, trying to remember that we don't live forever.
And it is good. It is not morose. It is not strange. It is not unbecoming to think of life and death.
It is not wrong to say, You know what? We need to live in light of our death. I mean, even the culture knows it.
What's the country song? You ought to live like you're what? Dying. It's true.
I am one day closer. And look at Psalm 90. This is written by Moses.
He's out in the wilderness. He's burying 87 people a day, if you calculate the 1 .2 million people that would die there over the age of 20.
87 funerals a day. And what does Moses say? You can imagine there would be some gravity to what he says, some graveness, some importance.
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. You're our rock and fortress and refuge, he says.
And You go way back before the mountains were born. You gave birth to the earth and the world. Even from everlasting to everlasting,
You are God. God, we exalt Your name because everything else in this world is changing, including the death of loved ones.
At least You're stable and firm. It says in verse 3, You turn man back into dust and say,
Return, O children of men. Weak, frail man, back to dust.
Back into a pulverized, crushed dust. From dust to dust. Whether it's
Churchill or Aristotle or us, it is easy to die. For a thousand years in Your sight, verse 4, say, are like yesterday when it passes by.
Or as I watch in the night, You've swept them away like a flood. They fall asleep in the morning.
They're like grass which sprouts anew. And now look how fast it changes. In the morning it flourishes and sprouts anew.
Toward evening, it fades and withers away. Friend, we are a breath away from our
Maker. Moses knew there was a short life span.
And he says in verse 10, For the days of our life, they contain 70 years. Or if due to strength, 80.
Verse 12, So teach us to number our days. I mean, can't you hear Steve Lawson preach on Friday night?
That very message? Resolved to live like today is our last day.
That we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom. I did some calculation. Teach us to number our days.
I am 46. And if I live to be 70, which is a big if, I have 8 ,700 days left.
One less than yesterday. Moses certainly learned arithmetic when he was in Egypt.
But one man said, Of all the arithmetic rules, this is the hardest. Teach us to number our days.
We're good at birthdays. But Moses said, If you're wise, you'll realize every day is a gift from God.
Giving attention to eternal things. We have a short life, so we want to spend it wisely.
Obviously, reminder number three. See your life in the hand of the sovereign God. Verse 15.
Let's go back to James chapter 4. We want to plan our life with God in the center.
We also want to realize our life is short. And thirdly, we need to look and know that God is the sovereign.
We don't control this world. We control nothing about this world. We think we do. We act like we're in control.
But James 4 says, I don't want you to do that. Instead, instead of bragging about all your plans,
James says, You ought to say this. And you know the passage. It's an obvious reminder. You know the verses.
I do too. But there's something about having the loss of a loved one like Donna here a week ago and then gone that just settles everything down.
All the sediment of life just is kind of gone. And you can see through something clearly. It's like taking a beaker of water, putting it in a bunch of mud and stirring it up.
You can't see through it. But then if you just let it set and settle, you can begin to see through it again.
And that's exactly what these passages do. They just make all the important things come shining through after the world settles down.
If the Lord wills, we'll do this and also do that. We should live and also do this or that.
Instead of the arrogance, instead of planning with God outside the box, instead of doing what the world does, we do this.
If God wills. The Greeks used to say, If the gods will. And here the word
Lord means sovereign, kurios. He's the one who's master, boss, sustainer,
Lord, authority. It's not a personal name of God. It's the God who is the sovereign
God. If the Lord wills, that is the Christian motto. If Amy Carmichael wrote a little book of poetry and it was entitled what?
If in my notes, I wrote with God, our planning is only with pencil or because of God, we make plans.
And by the afternoon, they're gone. God is the one who works all things after the counsel of his will.
We don't. If the Lord wills. I thought to myself, is that how I think?
Is that how my congregation thinks? Acts 18. I will return to you again if the
Lord wills. First Corinthians 4. But I will come to you soon if the Lord wills. First Corinthians 16.
I hope to remain with you for some time if the Lord permits. And Hebrews 6.
And we shall this do if God permits. Many times
I sign my name, Mike Abendroth. And just before I write the letters, capital D and capital
V. What would those mean? That's right. God willing. Dio Valente.
Lord willing. That's how the Methodist used to sign their letters. D V. It's not a catch word.
It's not cliche. It shouldn't be ritualistic. It's just that's how we have to plan. We sometimes, when we're driving across country,
I remember when we buried my mother and then driving from Omaha to Massachusetts. And so you have to get your mind off of driving and off of grandma and mom and all that.
So for me, I have this little rule. And the rule is we'll do touristy things if,
A, they're cheap and B, they're right off the road. But I happen to be married to a lovely lady that will push me beyond my comfort zone.
And when it says, you know, 90 foot deep caves, 25 miles that way, somehow we end up going over there.
And you know, what is that? What is the man who takes you down to those dark caves? I mean, we went seven stories down in this elevator and then there's some boat down there in this lagoon.
And, and you know, a good cave director would say, what? Stay close to your guide.
And they can remind you that way by just turning off all the lights just for a quick second. And you're thinking, you know, what's going on?
It's exactly what James is trying to say. My hand is under the sovereign
God. And if the Lord permits, I'll do this or I'll do that. And I'll do this. And planning is good, but planning that should have the, the umbrella over it and the foundation under it with the words
DV written. We all know this, but, but we forget. The fourth obvious reminder is found in verse 16.
We want God at the center. Life is short. Our lives are in the sovereign hand of God.
And number six, verse 16, obvious reminder, number four, anything less than this in verses 13, 14 and 15 is sinful.
Anything less than being dependent upon the Lord in our lives is sinful. Now, these verses just blast out, but as it is, you boast in your arrogance.
All such boasting is evil. I would never call it that. If I didn't put
God at the center of my life, and if I forgot that I was a frail, weak person, and if I got forgot,
God is sovereign over my life. I'd kind of say, you know, kind of too busy.
Had a little amnesia today. Kind of slipped my mind. And what does
James say? It's evil. It's arrogance. It's boasting.
I mean, he has a way with words. I don't want to act this way before God, do you?
To live my life as if I have it all under control when I don't, and then come across to God in a way that's just boasting and evil and arrogant.
Muhammad Ali -like, I'm the greatest. And he says right in the passage, verse 16, but as it is, actually, in point of fact, he's saying, this is what happens all too often.
And the passage in the original, in verse 16, says you boast in your arrogances. You're so self -confident.
You're not just arrogant. Your arrogance is multiplying. We don't want to be that way.
He's using this language, maybe to give them a good wake -up call and slap them around a little bit verbally, but it's almost like he's using such harsh language that who would want to do that?
So we just bend and say, I wouldn't want to act that way. That's not how I would want to come across before God. This is the cure for boasting.
And then verse 17 gives us our final reminder. Reminder number five. And this is almost like a
PS in verse 17. He's basically saying, don't forget this because you know better.
They're all obvious reminders. And here this obvious reminders for sake of redundancy. We know better.
We've been taught. We've been told. And he says in verse 17, therefore, here's kind of why these other verses were there.
Here's the driving point to the one who knows the right thing to do. This verse has nothing to do with anything except the local context.
It has to do with living before God, him being the center, knowing our life is weak, knowing
God's sovereign, not wanting to boast or brag. If you know the right thing to do, those other obvious reminders and don't do them to him, it's what?
Sin. We wouldn't want to sin. We know we have a Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ has paid for our sins.
And how horrible it must have been for the second person of the Trinity to be punished by God for our sins.
He never sinned and yet he was punished in our place as God's just wrath was poured out. Why would we want to somehow sin when we know what sin does to the
Savior? We wouldn't want to sin. Very abrupt James is. He says, don't do that.
You know the right thing to do, the good thing to do, the praiseworthy thing to do, the excellent thing to do, the morally good thing to do, so do it.
Don't procrastinate, he says. You might be wondering this morning why
I preached a sermon before we sang a song, preached a sermon before we had an announcement.
I've never done this in 10 years to just start preaching. I did it for lots of reasons.
One reason is, even though Donna is in heaven and even though everything is fine with her and she is rejoicing, but you have a death in the family and things change.
I have to think about things a little bit differently. And when I bury people and I'm there when they die,
I always pray this prayer when I'm driving home. I just want the radio off, I want the cell phone off, and I always pray,
Lord, I want to be different. I want to be different.
Whether it's burying my mom, burying Daniel O 'Brien's mom, Elva, we're burying the two twins right here, the
Farrar twins. I want to be different. God is wisely placing these road signs in front of us and these strips with nails on them that the police use to just say, slow down and think about real life.
What's important? Why it's important? So I thought, you know,
I want to live today like it's my last day. And shouldn't that affect my singing? If today you were going to go to heaven and you were doing congregational singing, friends,
I doubt you'd just be concerned about the person to your left who, I guess this is left, your left, my left.
Well, they can't, you know, I'm not a good singer and I'm kind of embarrassed because, you know, I don't really want to sing too loudly or bring too much focus on myself.
I can't wait to get right down there and sing because I'm singing at the top of my lungs because God deserves my worship and I'm too busy thinking, well, what do people think of me and what's going on?
And they'll think that's the church where the pastor can't sing and can't carry a tune. When you bury people, you don't care.
I want to live that God's returning. We have the imminent return of Christ plus we could die.
It should affect us. We lost our friend and comrade, Donna. And if I think to myself,
I don't want her life to be in vain, which it's not, how much more do I transfer from thinking about Donna to thinking about if I'd want to honor
Donna in such a way, how much more do I want to honor the Lord? And I wanted the service to start off with a sermon so we could think about everything else in the service knowing that this could be the last day.
And even if it's not, God is pleased with us if we think that it is and we worship that way.
It should affect the way we listen to the sermon. It should affect the baptism. When Rick Barry gets baptized,
I hope you all think, I'm living for God. This could be the very end. God, thank You for saving somebody like Rick who basically almost wasn't even seeking for salvation and God intervenes.
And God, I haven't been baptized either and today's the day. Today's the day where I need to say
I'm ready to obey You, God. I can think about affecting giving. I rarely talk about giving.
For those that are visitors, you'll find me rarely speaking about giving because I think Christians give. You don't have to prod them along.
But if I really think about what I own and how much I give, not to the church, not to the salaries, not to the missionaries, but to God Himself, this could be the end.
It should affect our giving. It should affect our prayers. So I wanted to have this at the beginning because it's important.
Would you turn to 2 Corinthians 5? And we need to just wrap this up. 2
Corinthians 5, Tommy Nelson calls this one of the most underpreached doctrines in all the Bible. And may we use our friend and comrade
Donna's life to remind us of this very thing. I could just see
Donna sitting right there smiling when I preach. I could see her.
You're in her seat, pal. Beloved, I'm not trying to scold you.
I'm not trying to get after you. There'll be another day for that. But this is the real deal.
If you don't bury me, I will bury every single one of you. And if you want your deathbed to be soft, you'll live all out today.
You won't be laying there thinking, if I only should have, if I only would have. I thought,
God, in my life, you've given me someone who I've cared for and loved, and now I've watched die.
I don't want to be the same. Donna sells Girl Scout cookies. So we ordered like five boxes or something.
Translation, my wife ordered them. And so Donna gives me right over there big boxes and stuff.
And I get my wallet out. She's like, I won't take any money. Nope, just going to buy them for you.
And you know it's a gift. And you preach to me and I buy you Girl Scout cookies. That's the deal. So I had my sermon all ready yesterday for Romans 9 to carry on the passage.
I just saw it last night at 9 o 'clock. I can't preach that sermon. I could. It's done. It's in my office.
I want to be different. I want God. I want to be a man who is consumed like Jonathan Edwards and like Donna and others for God's glory to be magnified.
So I said, Lord, alright, I just want to remember the goodness of Donna. So last night I went down into the freezer and I pulled out some caramel delights that Donna personally handed me.
I know I'm supposed to be on a diet. I got a big glass of milk and I ate about six of those cookies with great glee.
God, thank You for giving me Donna. Thank You that she was the kind of person that just wants to be told the truth.
She just wants to be told what the Bible says. And if she says, you know what, Pastor, I want to glorify
God and I've been listening to this lady on TV and what do you think of Joyce Meyer?
I say, you ought not to be listening to Joyce Meyer at all. She's a heretic. She's wrong. She shouldn't be preaching. You know what
Donna would go? Okay, I want to do the right thing. So I just loved sitting there last night all alone eating those caramel delights and I was very, very glad that I had enough willpower not to eat the whole box.
But I wanted to. I don't want to manipulate you.
I don't want me to give you some sob story to kind of make it all right.
I just want to say that the God of the universe had so fashioned Donna's life to give her to us that it should make a difference when we lose a loved one.
We should be sad. We should embrace the family. We should be here tomorrow to celebrate and worship.
Would you do me a favor? Take some time off and come and be here tomorrow. 10 .30.
I can't think of any believers in the family except the one sitting here and maybe there's a couple I don't know about.
And already I was talking to the family and they're saying, well you know what, this whole born again thing that Donna's into, we want to make sure we honor her religion and there's something different about Donna.
And I also want Donna's family to see there's Christians who can sing the praises of God with a tear in their eye.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but we will still bless the name of the Lord even if it hurts us.
When my mother died I thought, you know, I hurt, but I will still kiss that rod that has inflicted that upon my mother.
My mother's not sad anymore. She's in heaven. If you say to your boss,
I have a family member who died and I need to go to a funeral, I guarantee they'll let you off. Would you please come and sing the praises of God to glorify
Him for Donna's life and also to see the family? There are going to be so many people here tomorrow.
I can't go around and preach the gospel to every single family member that needs Christ. But you can.
You're the church. I'm not the church. We are the church. And so please come. Now back to 2
Corinthians 5, verse 9, Therefore also we have our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
We want to please God, Paul says. And then here's this under -preached doctrine, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
And basically what Paul is saying there is, thankfully we don't stand before God to pay for our sins.
Those have been counted to Christ. We never have to pay for our sins, but we will stand before God and there will be a reckoning for what we've done in the body, whether good or whether worthless.
There will be a divine reckoning and God will, based on what we've done as Christians, bestow rewards to us.
In a time like this, it motivates me to want to do the right thing. I know I'll stand before God and give the reckoning.
And I want to say, God, today is yours. Use me for your glory. We're your children. I want to honor you.
His Son deserves no less. Derek Thomas said,
The Gospel is not that He has counted our trespasses against us, but that He has not counted our trespasses against us, but against Christ.
God, through Christ, loves His people. And He's given us a great love. And we can never pay
Him back. But God requires that we honor Him and glorify Him and live like Jesus Christ did, loving
God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength and loving His neighbor as Himself. And I want to do that.
And I know you do, too. And it is the Spirit of God that will help us. And so now, as we continue the rest of our service, would you sing for the glory of God?
Would you give for the glory of God? Would you watch baptisms and all these prayers and everything we do, knowing that this might be your last worship service?
Because last Sunday morning, it was Donna's. And I think God honored her. Bow with me, please.
Father, we would ask now that Your Spirit would help us. I'm thankful that Your Spirit is all -knowing, that He can minister to all of us at the exact same time, that we can do nothing without Christ Jesus.
And so we're asking You humbly. We're asking You as needy people to spur us on, not just for a day, not just for a service, not just with loudness, but from our hearts, from our souls, with everything we have, we want to praise
You. Father, would You protect us from complaining? Would You help us to see how
Your sovereign hand is over everything? Would You help us to minister tomorrow to Donna's family?
Father, I pray for every one of those members of the family who is not born again, that You would be gracious to them and grant them salvation.
That You would use our testimony and Donna's testimony and the message tomorrow to tell people that Jesus Christ forgives sinners.
And Lord, we'll praise You that He has been raised from the dead and now ushers all those that look to Him to eternal life.
Father, as the pastor of this church, for our church, may we never be the same again.