Live Like You Were Dying

Live Like You Were Dying – Part 1

Introduction—

Over the next 30 days you are invited to be a part of a communal project.

I don’t think country singer Tim McGraw ever thought that his song,

Live Like You Were Dying would inspire a sermon series and a home

group study, but that’s what we’ll be doing during this month.

Three purposes for this project

1. Help you get involved in a home group

2. Help you live your life to the full.

3. Help you invite your friends to be a part of this project.

In your home group this week you will be watching a video that will recap and add

another perspective to the thoughts in the Sunday presentation.

You’ll watch the video and then you home group leader will be asking

you for your observations.

Home groups are a real important part of HBCC.

A home group is where the best possible pastoral care takes place.

If you are not in a group,

Then you are missing out on a very important ingredient

for your spiritual health.

So again I encourage you, if you are not in a group make a commitment

during this series to find one or create one.

Inviting your unchurched friend to someone’s home to discuss life and

death issues is a whole lot less intimidating than inviting them

to come to church.

Church is a really scary place if you’re not used to going to church.

So its more likely that one of your friends will come to your

house to watch a video than come to church.

Tim McGraw’s song provides us with an outline for our series.

Let’s watch---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiOcW_YR1G8

The titles for the message today is One Certainty

Then during the rest of the month

Speak Sweeter

Love deeper

Give Forgiveness

Today we need to think about one of the certainties of life.

Taxes.

No, taxes might make for an interesting discussion but we need to talk

about death.

At the close of our session today,

I want you to leave here with a sense of urgency.

Knowing that you have no idea as to how long you are going to

live,

So you need to live your life to the full everyday.

Like the song says: live like you were dying.

I also want to share my opinions with you about what happens when

we die, in hopes that I can remove some of the fear from that

appointment that we all face alone.

First here’s the bad news.

Unless the Lord Jesus Christ returns,

You are going to die.

You are going to experience the death of your physical body.

It is a fact, life is terminal.

It is a one way ticket.

It is a journey that has an end.

The death rate in our congregation is 100% - not one of us is exempt.

The mystery to this certainty is that we don’t know when our breathing policy will

be cancelled.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 (MSG)

No one can control the wind or lock it in a box. No one has any say-so regarding the day of death.

We have no idea when our time will come.

Even if you have the best genetics, not many people make it past their 120^th

birthday.

One of these days you are going to die dead;

six of your best friends are going to be carrying you by the handles of a very

small box;

they will make their way to a hole in the ground

where someone is going to say kind words about you and

then while everyone else goes back to the church to eat potato salad

a hired hand is going to bull doze dirt all over you and replace the

sod, and the dandelions are going to start to grow over the top

of you final resting place.

So what happens when I die?

I created a chart during my study of the book of Revelation of what seems to be the

course of things

In you notes you’ll find the chart.

No let me preface this with a warning that this is only my opinion.

This is not dogma,

This in not even doctrine,

This is just my thought on the topic,

Which is open to discussion and modification.

The chart starts out with being born.

Then there are two types of people.

Those who reach the age of accountability where they must answer

the question—How am I going to respond to Jesus?

And those whom I call non-cognitive innocents,

which would include babes,

those too young to make a decision of Christ or those

mentally incapable of making such a choice.

Following down the left hand side we have the group that rejects the gospel.

Death comes.

There is an intermediate state,

but please do not think I am speaking of the Roman Catholic doctrine

of purgatory.

Jesus symbolically described this intermediate state in his

parable of the poor man Lazarus.

Your scripture reference for that is Luke 16:19-31.

The man who lived a life style of selfishness ends up in a place of

torment,

while Lazarus ends up in a place next to Abraham’s side.

In an attempt to harmonize this parable with other verses in scripture,

I suggest that we call this intermediate state,

Sheol or Hades.

Sheol or Hades has two parts separated by an impassable gulf.

One side is Non-Paradise possible referred to as the

Abyss in Revelation.

The other side I suggest is Paradise, the place Jesus told

the repentant thief on the cross that he would meet

him by the end of the day.

The one who rejects God reconciling grace ends up in the non-

paradise side of Hades that the scripture describes as a place of

torment. (Luke 16:23)

The reason why I believe this is an intermediate state is because the

book of Revelation tells us that there is a bodily resurrection

even for those who refused God’s grace.

Revelation 20:12-13 (MSG)

And then I saw all the dead, great and small, standing there—before the Throne! And books were opened. Then another book was opened: the Book of Life. The dead were judged by what was written in the books, by the way they had lived. Sea released its dead, Death and Hell turned in their dead. Each man and woman was judged by the way he or she had lived.

Unfortunately for these people, what awaits them is the judgment

With an eternal destination of Gehanna,

Or what we popularly think of as Hell.

The road to perdition is rather straight forward.

The road of the righteous is just a little more complicated.

To the right side of the chart,

Those who are accepted in Christ and the Non-cognitive innocents have

three possible destinies.

The first destiny is to die a normal physical death.

Those who die a normal physical death get to meet

Lazarus in Paradise.

The second destiny is to die a martyr’s death.

You gave up your physical life in service to the Jesus.

Martyr’s go to a place oddly called,

Under the Altar. (Revelation 6:9)

It is an intermediate state with more

honor than Paradise.

Third destiny is to be alive at the time of the second Coming,

You don’t die, but you are transformed,

Together all three groups of believers are resurrected.

The resurrected righteous give an account of how they lived

out authentic Christianity.

The righteous are citizens of New Jerusalem,

Participants in the New Heaven and New Earth.

So to sum up,

Those who during their earthly life rejected the invitation of God to be

saved, go away into eternal punishment.

While those who die in Christ, will inherit an eternal reward.

With that said,

What do you think is the most important preparation you can make for the

certainly of death?

The ABC’s o the faith—

Accept the fact that you need a savior

Believe that the savior you need is Jesus.

Commit your self to living out Authentic Christianity,

A life of discipleship.

Unless the Lord returns you and I are going to die.

We have a little glimpse of what happens after we die.

For the believe its good, for those not living a life of authentic

Christianity it the worst possible fate imaginable.

Regardless of our eternal dispositions we do not know how long we have.

We’ve talked about death now lets consider life.

What is life all about?

Watch this video---

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/8915/Thats-Life

To live your life to the full,

to live like you were dying

you need to live what out what time you have remaining

with a sense of urgency,
with a sense of priority and

with a sense of eternity.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY.

Romans 13:11-12 (MSG)

But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed.

Life gives us an illusion that we will always have tomorrow.

We can get caught up in the “Someday Syndrome”.

Someday, tomorrow, I’ll get to that,

Maybe next month I’ll do that,

Next summer I’ll see to that,

Someday.

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the believers in Rome says the someday syndrome

can lull you into a false sense of security.

“Some Day” can rob you of “This Day”

To live with a sense of urgency means to live with an awareness that you

aren’t promised “Some Day”.

You have no rights to a tomorrow,

All you have is right now.

Make your plans for the future --sure,

But live your life to the full today.

Don’t put off to some later date the fulfilling of your God given passion,

The joy of doing your calling,

Don’t say next time, do it this time.

Love and be loved—today.

Embrace today and squeeze the best out of it.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF PRIORITY

Matthew 6:27-31 (MSG)

"Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. "If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.

The past is gone – we cannot retrieve it or relive it.

Tomorrow is an unknown – it is not promised or guaranteed.

All we have is right now and that makes time a precious

commodity.

As something grows scarce its value increases.

Today has more value to it than yesterday because you have

less time now than you did then.

Since you have no idea if you will have any time at all in that illusion

we call tomorrow, right now might be the most valuable time

you have.

In His teaching about worrying about tomorrow Jesus gives us a lesson on

priorities.

How are you going to invest the valuable time you have.

Are you going to invest your time today in what the world

chases after?

Stuff like fashion, like image,

like making someone else wealthy with your

labor?

How are you going to invest your time?

Maybe you should prioritize,

Purchase with your time today what you think is most

important.

It is of higher priority to mature spiritually than

playing video games, going to a movie, or reading a novel.

It is of higher priority to love than to be selfish.

It is of higher priority to create and cultivate and strengthen

relationships that it is chasing after the financial success.

I’ve told you before,

when its all sad in done the only thing that will matter

is not the size of the estate you leave behind,

but rather the quality of the relationships you built.

Romans 13:12-14 (MSG)

The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

To live like you were dying you need to spend your time on the right

priorities,

The best way I can think of to properly prioritize your life is to

ask the Holy Spirit to show you what those right

priorities are.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF PRIORITY

And

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF ETERNITY.

Hebrews 9:27 (MSG)

Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences.

I’ve told you how to prepare for eternity,

You prepare to for eternity by living out the ABC of the faith.

But to live with a sense of eternity,

You have to move your eyes from worldly values to eternal

ones.

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The way you fix your eyes on the eternal is through the practice of the spiritual

disciplines.

The Big daily seven that affix our eyes on eternity are

Bible study

Prayer

Fellowship,

Service,

Worship

Obedience

And Contemplation.

I’d make those activities a priority,

And I wouldn’t put them off till tomorrow.

You never know how much time you have left.

2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV)

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Right now is the time to live like you were dying.

Don’t but living your life to the full off for some other time,

All you have is now, this time.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF PRIORITY

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF ETERNITY.

In you home groups this week you get to discuss this stuff.

You get to think about it, own it, put feet on it.

Don’t miss out on the most important part of the message.

The one you’ll create in your home group.

First here’s the bad news: Unless the Lord Jesus Christ returns, You are going to die.

No one can control the wind or lock it in a box. No one has any say-so regarding the day of death.

Those who during their earthly life rejected the invitation of God to be saved, go away into eternal punishment. While those who die in Christ, will inherit an eternal reward.

What do you think is the most important preparation you can make for the certainly of death?

Since you have no idea if you will have any time at all in that illusion we call tomorrow, right now might be the most valuable time you have.

The best way I can think of to properly prioritize your life is to ask the Holy Spirit to show you what those right priorities are.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The way you fix your eyes on the eternal is through the practice of the spiritual disciplines.

Bible study; Prayer; Fellowship; Service; Worship; Obedience, and Contemplation.

Don’t miss out on the most important part of the message. The one you’ll create in your home group.

First here’s the bad news: Unless the Lord Jesus Christ returns, You are going to _______________.

No one can control the wind or lock it in a box. No one has any say-so regarding the day of death.

Those who during their earthly life rejected the invitation of God to be saved, go away into eternal __________. While those who die in Christ, will inherit an eternal ____________ .

What do you think is the most important preparation you can make for the certainly of death?

Live Like You Were Dying – Part 1

Introduction—

Over the next 30 days you are invited to be a part of a communal project.

I don’t think country singer Tim McGraw ever thought that his song,

Live Like You Were Dying would inspire a sermon series and a home

group study, but that’s what we’ll be doing during this month.

Three purposes for this project

1. Help you get involved in a home group

2. Help you live your life to the full.

3. Help you invite your friends to be a part of this project.

In your home group this week you will be watching a video that will recap and add

another perspective to the thoughts in the Sunday presentation.

You’ll watch the video and then you home group leader will be asking

you for your observations.

Home groups are a real important part of HBCC.

A home group is where the best possible pastoral care takes place.

If you are not in a group,

Then you are missing out on a very important ingredient

for your spiritual health.

So again I encourage you, if you are not in a group make a commitment

during this series to find one or create one.

Inviting your unchurched friend to someone’s home to discuss life and

death issues is a whole lot less intimidating than inviting them

to come to church.

Church is a really scary place if you’re not used to going to church.

So its more likely that one of your friends will come to your

house to watch a video than come to church.

Tim McGraw’s song provides us with an outline for our series.

Let’s watch---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiOcW_YR1G8

The titles for the message today is One Certainty

Then during the rest of the month

Speak Sweeter

Love deeper

Give Forgiveness

Today we need to think about one of the certainties of life.

Taxes.

No, taxes might make for an interesting discussion but we need to talk

about death.

At the close of our session today,

I want you to leave here with a sense of urgency.

Knowing that you have no idea as to how long you are going to

live,

So you need to live your life to the full everyday.

Like the song says: live like you were dying.

I also want to share my opinions with you about what happens when

we die, in hopes that I can remove some of the fear from that

appointment that we all face alone.

First here’s the bad news.

Unless the Lord Jesus Christ returns,

You are going to die.

You are going to experience the death of your physical body.

It is a fact, life is terminal.

It is a one way ticket.

It is a journey that has an end.

The death rate in our congregation is 100% - not one of us is exempt.

The mystery to this certainty is that we don’t know when our breathing policy will

be cancelled.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 (MSG)

No one can control the wind or lock it in a box. No one has any say-so regarding the day of death.

We have no idea when our time will come.

Even if you have the best genetics, not many people make it past their 120^th

birthday.

One of these days you are going to die dead;

six of your best friends are going to be carrying you by the handles of a very

small box;

they will make their way to a hole in the ground

where someone is going to say kind words about you and

then while everyone else goes back to the church to eat potato salad

a hired hand is going to bull doze dirt all over you and replace the

sod, and the dandelions are going to start to grow over the top

of you final resting place.

So what happens when I die?

I created a chart during my study of the book of Revelation of what seems to be the

course of things

In you notes you’ll find the chart.

No let me preface this with a warning that this is only my opinion.

This is not dogma,

This in not even doctrine,

This is just my thought on the topic,

Which is open to discussion and modification.

The chart starts out with being born.

Then there are two types of people.

Those who reach the age of accountability where they must answer

the question—How am I going to respond to Jesus?

And those whom I call non-cognitive innocents,

which would include babes,

those too young to make a decision of Christ or those

mentally incapable of making such a choice.

Following down the left hand side we have the group that rejects the gospel.

Death comes.

There is an intermediate state,

but please do not think I am speaking of the Roman Catholic doctrine

of purgatory.

Jesus symbolically described this intermediate state in his

parable of the poor man Lazarus.

Your scripture reference for that is Luke 16:19-31.

The man who lived a life style of selfishness ends up in a place of

torment,

while Lazarus ends up in a place next to Abraham’s side.

In an attempt to harmonize this parable with other verses in scripture,

I suggest that we call this intermediate state,

Sheol or Hades.

Sheol or Hades has two parts separated by an impassable gulf.

One side is Non-Paradise possible referred to as the

Abyss in Revelation.

The other side I suggest is Paradise, the place Jesus told

the repentant thief on the cross that he would meet

him by the end of the day.

The one who rejects God reconciling grace ends up in the non-

paradise side of Hades that the scripture describes as a place of

torment. (Luke 16:23)

The reason why I believe this is an intermediate state is because the

book of Revelation tells us that there is a bodily resurrection

even for those who refused God’s grace.

Revelation 20:12-13 (MSG)

Unfortunately for these people, what awaits them is the judgment

With an eternal destination of Gehanna,

Or what we popularly think of as Hell.

The road to perdition is rather straight forward.

The road of the righteous is just a little more complicated.

To the right side of the chart,

Those who are accepted in Christ and the Non-cognitive innocents have

three possible destinies.

The first destiny is to die a normal physical death.

Those who die a normal physical death get to meet

Lazarus in Paradise.

The second destiny is to die a martyr’s death.

You gave up your physical life in service to the Jesus.

Martyr’s go to a place oddly called,

Under the Altar. (Revelation 6:9)

It is an intermediate state with more

honor than Paradise.

Third destiny is to be alive at the time of the second Coming,

You don’t die, but you are transformed,

Together all three groups of believers are resurrected.

The resurrected righteous give an account of how they lived

out authentic Christianity.

The righteous are citizens of New Jerusalem,

Participants in the New Heaven and New Earth.

So to sum up,

Those who during their earthly life rejected the invitation of God to be

saved, go away into eternal punishment.

While those who die in Christ, will inherit an eternal reward.

With that said,

What do you think is the most important preparation you can make for the

certainly of death?

The ABC’s o the faith—

Accept the fact that you need a savior

Believe that the savior you need is Jesus.

Commit your self to living out Authentic Christianity,

A life of discipleship.

Unless the Lord returns you and I are going to die.

We have a little glimpse of what happens after we die.

For the believe its good, for those not living a life of authentic

Christianity it the worst possible fate imaginable.

Regardless of our eternal dispositions we do not know how long we have.

We’ve talked about death now lets consider life.

What is life all about?

Watch this video---

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/8915/Thats-Life

To live your life to the full,

to live like you were dying

you need to live what out what time you have remaining

with a sense of urgency,
with a sense of priority and

with a sense of eternity.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY.

Romans 13:11-12 (MSG)

Life gives us an illusion that we will always have tomorrow.

We can get caught up in the “Someday Syndrome”.

Someday, tomorrow, I’ll get to that,

Maybe next month I’ll do that,

Next summer I’ll see to that,

Someday.

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the believers in Rome says the someday syndrome

can lull you into a false sense of security.

“Some Day” can rob you of “This Day”

To live with a sense of urgency means to live with an awareness that you

aren’t promised “Some Day”.

You have no rights to a tomorrow,

All you have is right now.

Make your plans for the future --sure,

But live your life to the full today.

Don’t put off to some later date the fulfilling of your God given passion,

The joy of doing your calling,

Don’t say next time, do it this time.

Love and be loved—today.

Embrace today and squeeze the best out of it.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF PRIORITY

Matthew 6:27-31 (MSG)

The past is gone – we cannot retrieve it or relive it.

Tomorrow is an unknown – it is not promised or guaranteed.

All we have is right now and that makes time a precious

commodity.

As something grows scarce its value increases.

Today has more value to it than yesterday because you have

less time now than you did then.

Since you have no idea if you will have any time at all in that illusion

we call tomorrow, right now might be the most valuable time

you have.

In His teaching about worrying about tomorrow Jesus gives us a lesson on

priorities.

How are you going to invest the valuable time you have.

Are you going to invest your time today in what the world

chases after?

Stuff like fashion, like image,

like making someone else wealthy with your

labor?

How are you going to invest your time?

Maybe you should prioritize,

Purchase with your time today what you think is most

important.

It is of higher priority to mature spiritually than

playing video games, going to a movie, or reading a novel.

It is of higher priority to love than to be selfish.

It is of higher priority to create and cultivate and strengthen

relationships that it is chasing after the financial success.

I’ve told you before,

when its all sad in done the only thing that will matter

is not the size of the estate you leave behind,

but rather the quality of the relationships you built.

Romans 13:12-14 (MSG)

To live like you were dying you need to spend your time on the right

priorities,

The best way I can think of to properly prioritize your life is to

ask the Holy Spirit to show you what those right

priorities are.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF PRIORITY

And

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF ETERNITY.

Hebrews 9:27 (MSG)

Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences.

I’ve told you how to prepare for eternity,

You prepare to for eternity by living out the ABC of the faith.

But to live with a sense of eternity,

You have to move your eyes from worldly values to eternal

ones.

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.

For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The way you fix your eyes on the eternal is through the practice of the spiritual

disciplines.

The Big daily seven that affix our eyes on eternity are

Bible study

Prayer

Fellowship,

Service,

Worship

Obedience

And Contemplation.

I’d make those activities a priority,

And I wouldn’t put them off till tomorrow.

You never know how much time you have left.

2 Corinthians 6:2 (NIV)

I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

Right now is the time to live like you were dying.

Don’t but living your life to the full off for some other time,

All you have is now, this time.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY.

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF PRIORITY

LIVE WITH A SENSE OF ETERNITY.

In you home groups this week you get to discuss this stuff.

You get to think about it, own it, put feet on it.

Don’t miss out on the most important part of the message.

The one you’ll create in your home group.

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