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00:00I read a couple of days ago 170,000 people die per day. That's about 7,000
00:19per hour, 119 per minute, and 1.98 people per second. When I mention death, I know
00:32what it does. It makes everyone uncomfortable. We don't like to talk
00:35about death. We're gonna have a bunch of parties coming up in the holiday season
00:40and if you want to get out of a conversation just say, hey let's uh let's
00:45talk about death. Isn't it funny how we use all of these other terms but death?
00:52He clocked out, we say. They passed away. He met his maker. He kicked the bucket.
01:07Lost his life. Ceased to be. We'll call it all of these other terms and
01:17phrases but what it is, death. And in an audience this size, some of you are not
01:26going to be here next year. I'm not trying to scare anyone. I'm just talking
01:33about in reality. 20 years from now, a lot of us will not be here. 30 years, 40
01:41years, we're not gonna be on this side of the dirt. And that's a sobering thing to
01:50think about, isn't it? Death is inevitable. It's the ultimate intruder. We can put it
01:59off and say it's not gonna happen to us or people around us but if I could
02:03interview every single person here and who's online and at our other locations,
02:10I think we would all have a story about death. We've just seen and read about the
02:19the deaths with this brutal hurricane. We've heard about the deaths that are
02:24happening right now in the Middle East and death is all over the place. It
02:30surrounds us and confounds us. What I want you to understand is death is
02:36inevitable to be to be Captain Obvious. George Bernard Shaw said, one out of one
02:43die. He also said, the stats on death are quite impressive. Think about it. One out
02:54of one die. We're not gonna beat the odds. We're not going to dodge it. It's
02:59inevitable. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 2 says, there's a time to be born
03:04and a time to die. Death, it's important. Number two, as you're following, is not a
03:11punishment for believers. Sometimes people think, oh I I'm gonna die as a
03:17punishment. No, it's a result of living in a fallen world, a broken world. Number
03:29three, death is the culmination of our sanctification. We've been in this series
03:36on theology. Sanctification is that process after salvation of being set
03:44apart. It's growing and maturing in our relationship with Christ. We move through
03:51infancy, through adolescence, then we're into maturity, adulthood. So the bookends
04:00of sanctification would be our salvation and the glorification. Yet the
04:07sanctification ends right before glorification. The glorification would be
04:11those of us here who've trusted Christ who will live forever in heaven. So
04:18that's the stopping point, if you will, of sanctification here on this
04:24earth. Therefore our obedience to God, I'm still on number three, is more important
04:29than preserving our own lives. And read about so many matriarchs and patriarchs
04:37in Scripture. Read about so many of the martyrs. They understood this and lived
04:42this and lived this out. So then it comes to this question, how do we face
04:48our own death? We're gonna die. How do we how do we face it? There was a
04:54conversation one day that I heard about this guy in his 60s was talking to kind
05:02of a kind of a young up-and-coming businessman. And he began to ask him
05:07questions. He said, well tell me about your plans. So the businessman said, well
05:11you know I want to start this business and I want to make this amount of money.
05:16And the the older guy goes, well what next? He said, well maybe I can then afford to
05:26get married. And the older guy goes, you never can really afford to get married.
05:30But what next? He goes, have kids. What next? Get this house. What next? Retirement.
05:38What next? Investment. He said, what next? He said, well I guess I'll die. And then
05:49he said, well what next? And this young successful guy goes, I haven't
06:01planned for that. And the wise man said, young man, you're not ready to live until
06:11you're ready to die. And I've got to ask you straight up, man to man, man to woman,
06:17are you ready to die? Now obviously I want to live, you want to live. I don't
06:25want to die now. You don't want to die now or tomorrow or next week or next
06:29month or next year. But are you ready to die? We think about death. We're like, I've
06:40got a will, man. I have an estate and I've got trusts for my kids. Good. That's
06:47lovely. And we think about death in a general term. But do we think about death
06:58in a deep way? I'm talking about six feet deep. I'm talking about a personal
07:06way. I'm talking about your death, not your spouse's death, not your child's
07:12death, your death. Philippians chapter one, verse 21 and 23, for to me to live is
07:21Christ and to die is gain. This is Paul talking. If I'm to go on living in the
07:27body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I don't know.
07:34I'm torn between the two. I desire to depart to be with Christ, which is better
07:40by far. And then we go to the death of believers and non-believers. You see that?
07:50How do we treat that? Well, those of us who are in Christ, we will be, and I'll
08:00talk about this in a second, resurrected the moment we die. The moment you close
08:09your eyes on this planet, you'll open them up into eternity in a nanosecond.
08:17The Bible says that. The Bible says that we will live forever. Now, if you just
08:26contemplate forever, forever, forever, it'll blow your mind. It blows my mind
08:32because we can't even comprehend it. It's another dimension. So when believers pass
08:41away, there's sadness, obviously. There is hurt. There's pain like we can't
08:51imagine. Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died. We have other people in
09:00Scripture weeping in death. When our daughter died three years ago, in fact,
09:09this Thursday was her birthday. When she died suddenly, Lisa and I, our family,
09:18so many of you, her friends, we wept. We have great sorrow in our lives because
09:26of that. And death is mysterious, and mourning in one way never really stops,
09:35yet heaven has become sweeter to us. Heaven has become more and more realistic
09:46because the Bible says when we worship, just like we were worshipping and
09:51singing, we're joining with the angels and all of the saints, all of your loved
09:59ones and mine, who've graduated from this life into heaven. And that's an awesome
10:07thing. So as a believer, we're going to be saddened when someone passes away, but
10:12also there's going to be this joy because we know where they are, and we're going to
10:19join them very, very soon. Well, how do we react to the death of non-believers?
10:32When we're dealing with non-believers, those people who have rejected Jesus,
10:39we have to understand that eternity is real, that there are different places,
10:52different destinations that we reside in forever, heaven or hell. In the Bible,
11:04there's no purgatory. Catholicism talks about purgatory. There's one problem with
11:11it, it's not in the Bible. There's no green room, there's no holding cell,
11:19there's no long lines, it's either heaven or hell. And I'll talk about those subjects
11:27in just a moment. Yet, when a loved one that is not a believer dies,
11:35we should not, as Christians, say, well, they're in a better place because there's
11:41a great chance they're not. It's a time for Christians to say, life is short.
11:49It's a time for Christians to say, I have a greater urgency now to tell my neighbor,
11:54my friend, my classmate, the guy I play golf with regularly,
11:59about the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, too, we don't know what the person,
12:05the unbeliever, went through right before they died. Did they remember a song from
12:12Sunday school back in the day? And did they trust Christ? We don't know.
12:16So, we don't know. We have to understand, though, that God is fair.
12:21We have to understand that God will simply give us a greater measure of what
12:26we wanted on planet Earth. God's going to say, if you did the
12:32Derrick Henry thing, he's known for a stiff arm, right, Derrick Henry? Correct?
12:37If you did the Derrick Henry thing and stiff-armed me at every juncture,
12:42at every interchange, God's going to say, you know what?
12:45I'm going to give you a greater measure of what you desired.
12:49You'll have the forever stiff arm. You'll be in a place called hell for the
12:54rest of your existence. On the other hand, those of us who have
12:57trusted Christ, those of us who have been saved by grace through faith,
13:04we're going to have a greater measure of that. We'll spend eternity in heaven.
13:12Death is certain. That's what I'm trying to tell you.
13:16It's certain, yet we're uncertain about what happens after we die.
13:24And this is what I want to spend the lion's share of my time on today.
13:28I have 11 minutes left. I want to talk to you about the agenda,
13:35what is going to take place the moment you die.
13:39Let's say, for example, you are involved in a business meeting,
13:44and it's the most important business meeting of your life.
13:47You know that this business meeting can change the geological plates of your
13:54finances and your opportunities forever. You prepare for this meeting.
14:02You see the agenda, and the agenda is what's going to happen
14:08in the meeting. You're prepared for every question and
14:13everything the person asks you and challenges you with because, remember,
14:19it's going to change the course of your life financially.
14:25I think all of us, if we knew we were going to have a meeting tomorrow like that,
14:30would be prepared, wouldn't we? I think we would do our homework.
14:33I think we would dress nice. I think we would brush our teeth
14:38and use cologne. I think we would do a lot of research,
14:41and we would Google this and Google that, and we would smile.
14:44And, man, this meeting is going to change the course of my life.
14:51I want to talk to you about a meeting that you can't put off,
14:55that I can't put off. And this meeting is going to be
14:58with the God of the universe. You're going to sit down at His table.
15:04The moment you die, the Bible says, the moment you die,
15:08you'll be resurrected. You die and you're resurrected.
15:13That's the first thing I want you to understand. The first aspect,
15:17the first item on the agenda is the resurrection, the resurrection.
15:23You close your eyes here, you open your eyes there.
15:28So our souls, the essence of who we are, will go directly into the presence
15:36of the Lord, and we have this meeting, a resurrection meeting.
15:44The Bible says in Acts 24, verse 15, there will be a resurrection
15:49of both the righteous and the wicked. Now, it doesn't take someone brilliant
15:55to understand that a resurrection is going to take place.
16:01Our creation, the creation shows us about resurrection,
16:06the cycles of life and death. You think about a seed.
16:10A seed's kind of dead, right? And you plant it in the ground.
16:16It's watered, sunlight, et cetera. It grows into a beautiful plant,
16:22producing fruit, and then the whole thing starts over.
16:27So we have this cycle of life and death and life and death.
16:33Think about a caterpillar cruising around. Caterpillars are ugly.
16:38U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi ugly. They make this cocoon-like structure.
16:43It's like a tomb, and then they burst forth. That's a butterfly.
16:53So the cycles are all around us. Think about physics.
16:57Albert Einstein said, matter may change states, but it will not be created
17:03or destroyed. A hint of the afterlife. Think about philosophy.
17:11Philosopher Immanuel Kant said, since justice is not applied fully,
17:17it must be applied in the afterlife by the judge who settles all accounts.
17:23Study anthropology. As anthropologists look at different
17:27people groups, almost all of them have an advanced knowledge and system
17:35of the afterlife. On top of that, there are over 10 million
17:39near-death experiences. So it's front and center.
17:45It's obvious there's life after the grave. My grandfather had a near-death experience.
17:58He became a believer in his 60s. He literally died on an operating table.
18:06When he came back, he told his wife, my grandmother, that he was in heaven
18:12as a baby. And he said, I didn't want to come back to earth.
18:19He said, Jesus told me, his name was Homer. Is that a great name?
18:23Homer, I've got more for you before you come see me in eternity.
18:31And it revolutionized his life. So we die. You've got the resurrection.
18:43Now you've got judgment. Hebrews 9, verse 27, just as a man is
18:49destined to die once and after that to face judgment, we will face judgment.
18:56God will look at you, and he'll go through this agenda, and he'll say,
19:00okay, okay, one question I have for you. Here it is, here it is.
19:03What did you do with Jesus? That's the question. What did you do
19:11with Jesus? And we have a choice. Because the third part of the agenda
19:20after the resurrection and judgment is separation. People always tell me this,
19:27Ed, how could a good God allow people to go to hell? We make that choice.
19:36God does not slam-dunk anyone to go to hell. You make that choice.
19:42I make that choice. Matthew 25, 32, all the nations will be
19:48gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another.
19:54As a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Resurrection. Judgment.
20:05What are you going to do with Jesus? What did you do with Jesus?
20:08God the Father will ask you. Separation in one of two places,
20:16and following the separation, we have heaven and hell. What is hell like?
20:27I'm sure you've wondered. It's being able to do anything and everything you've
20:31always wanted to do alone. It's called the outer darkness, Matthew 25.
20:43It's called the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, Matthew 13, 50.
20:49Gnashing of teeth would be, let's say, you're on the 18th, and if you sink this
20:54putt, you'll win $100, and you push it to the right, gnashing of teeth.
21:04Well, we're talking about gnashing of teeth on another level.
21:08It's a place where the worm never dies, Mark 9. The fire is never ceased.
21:14Hell. Hell. We determine our own destiny. On the other hand, heaven is going to be a
21:24place so amazing, so awesome, so incredible, words can't describe it.
21:34We'll have connection, and community, and purpose like we can't even understand.
21:43So you see what's going to happen? Resurrection, judgment, separation,
21:50and then you have the second coming, and we're reunited with our bodies.
21:59Now, this is important. Obviously, all of it's important, it's theology.
22:07We die, we're resurrected, our spirits, right, the essence of who we are,
22:14are in the presence of the Lord. We're either spending heaven or hell
22:20in eternity. When Jesus comes back, don't miss this now, for the second coming,
22:26he brings with him the spirits and the souls of those who've died.
22:36Our bodies and souls will be reunited. If you understand that, just nod your head.
22:45Our bodies will look like the resurrected body of Jesus. They'll be perfect.
22:58They're going to be youthful and also full of maturity. No sickness, no death,
23:07no pain, no drama. It is going to be awesome. We throw the word awesome
23:17around too much, but that's what's going to happen. And then, five,
23:23the final judgment, the final judgment. When our souls are reunited with our
23:29bodies, and we spend eternity in either heaven or hell forever, and ever, and ever,
23:35and that is a heck of a long time forever. But let's go back to what I just talked
23:43about earlier. Let's go back to the resurrection. Let's go back to the
23:47judgment. Let's go back to the question. You're looking across the table
23:56at the Lord. He's saying, and he's going to ask you this one question,
23:59what did you do with Jesus? What did you do? We have two responses.
24:12The first response is, you know, Lord, I relied on my goodness,
24:19on my performance to get into heaven. I was better than most people.
24:26I was better than ax murderers and serial killers. I was a lot better
24:32than my neighbor. I was a lot better than my husband. I'm telling you, Lord,
24:38I performed the best way I knew how. I grew up Baptist. I grew up Catholic.
24:48I was baptized, pasteurized, homogenized. God, I tried so hard. I performed.
24:57And God's going to say, it's not about that. Because if you are relying
25:05on your performance, you're not going to make it. That's not the gospel.
25:13You're not going to make it. Because God's standards are perfect.
25:19No matter how well you perform or I perform, the Bible says, all of our works,
25:27all of our performances fall miserably short. So if you're relying on that,
25:33you're in severe trouble. You're in eternal trouble right now. Right now.
25:42Well, I mean, I really try. I'm a good guy. I'm a good girl.
25:51I keep my nose clean. I even throw some money in the offering plate.
25:55Good for you. Are you relying on your performance? Because see,
26:01word on the street says we can perform our way in. Did you know that?
26:07Word on the street says that God's going to grade on this cosmic curve.
26:13He's the benevolent grandfather. He's going to wink and say,
26:17boys will be boys, girls will be girls. Come on into heaven.
26:21You performed your way in. You weren't perfect, but...
26:24Now, if you're perfect, you can get in. So are you relying on your performance
26:34or on the performance of Jesus? Again, God's going to say,
26:39what did you do with Jesus? Because Jesus performed for you and me.
26:43He did the work. He lived a perfect life, died a sacrificial death,
26:49rose again, and offers you and me eternal life. Have you made that decision?
26:58Every time I speak, four things are in play. The first one is the request.
27:07I am giving right now the gospel request to every single person,
27:11thousands and thousands of people. Right now, the gospel is being put out
27:20to all of you. Okay. The Holy Spirit of God is doing the work
27:28of regeneration in people's lives right now. I don't know who, but He is.
27:34He's preparing the soil for you to become a follower of Christ.
27:40I'm not saving anybody. Salvation is from God. I'm just a conduit, you know,
27:47just an instrument. So you have the request, you have the regeneration,
27:54and some of you are experiencing it right now. Then you have your decision to repent
28:02and have faith in Christ. And then the fourth thing is, it's your response.
28:10You either respond and say, Jesus, have your way in my life like you saw
28:16on the video, I'm down on one knee, I put the other knee down, or not.
28:25That's what's happening every time someone shares the gospel. So I have confidence.
28:32I mean, when I was driving in this morning, I was like, I know some people here are
28:37going to be saved. I know it because of God. But everyone is not going to be saved.
28:44God wants everyone to be saved, but everyone's not. So the question is,
28:51what are you going to do with that question? Are you going to rely on your performance,
29:00which will get you nowhere, or the performance of Jesus Christ?
29:13Death. It's inevitable. Death. It's the ultimate intruder. Death.
29:25As a believer, it's our graduation into heaven. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?
29:37Lord Jesus, thank you for providing us salvation. Thank you for providing us a way,
29:50the way, the truth, and the life to know you. And it's my earnest prayer as the gospel call,
29:58this request has gone out. It's my prayer as the Holy Spirit is preparing right now
30:06the soils for many, I believe, to follow you. As others are repenting and having faith
30:19to follow you, as still others are responding to this gospel call, it's my prayer that you
30:30would just say this to Jesus. Just say, dear God, I admit to you that I'm a sinner,
30:45that my goodness performance has fallen short. I repent. I turn from my sins and turn to you.
30:54I trust you, Jesus. I put my faith in your perfect performance on the cross and how you,
31:05you shattered death and how you are seated at the right hand of the Father and how you, Jesus,
31:18how you want to invade my life. And right now, Lord, just say that invade my life. I give you all
31:24that I am and all that I will ever become. As our heads are bowed and eyes are closed,
31:32if you prayed that prayer with me for the first time, would you lift your hand?
31:36Don't be shy. Heads are bowed and eyes are closed. All right, hands going up. You prayed
31:41that prayer with me for the first time in your life. Awesome. Incredible. It's the best thing
31:46you'll ever do. As our heads are bowed, I'm going to ask you to do something. After I conclude
31:51this prayer with amen, someone will come up to you because they're looking and seeing these hands,
32:02and they're going to give you just some information about the greatest thing in the world,
32:08your walk with the Lord Jesus. So Father, we give this time to you, and we believe, Lord,
32:16in your gospel and this great response. In Christ's name, amen.