He Lived and He Died

Well, the old physician that was bored with retirement decided to open up a unique office which he called Dr. Geeser's Clinic. He had an unusual arrangement for paying if you were helped in his office. If you were cured, you paid $500. If he didn't do anything to help you, he would give you $1,000. That's pretty unique. And so one young entrepreneur decided, I think I can get some money this way. He smelled an opportunity to get a little bit of money. So he decided to go to to Dr. Geeser and he complained that he had lost all sense of taste. Well, Dr. Geeser instructed his nurse to give Mr. Young three drops from medicine bottle number 25. But Mr. Young gagged as he realized it was gasoline. Dr. Geeser said, congratulations, you just got your sense of taste back, that'll be $500. Well, that kind of irritated Mr. Young. He wanted to get his money back and so he decided to go back a week later and complain of something else that he thought surely Dr. Geeser would not be able to help him with. So he goes in and he says, I haven't trouble with my memory. So Dr. Geeser said to his nurse three drops out of medicine bottle number 25 and Mr. Young said, no, no, no, wait a second, that's gasoline. Dr. Geeser said, congratulations, you just recovered your memory, that'll be $500. So he decides after a couple of weeks, okay, okay, no more of this, I'm going to get the guy this time. So he goes back and he says, I'm having trouble with my eyesight. Thinking, you know, Dr. Geeser's no eye doctor, he's not going to have anything that can help me with my eyesight. So I'll get my $1,000 back this way. So he goes in, says I'm complaining, or I'm having trouble with my eyesight. Sure enough, Dr. Geeser said, you know, I have nothing that I can help your eyesight with. So here's your $1,000 and he handed him a $10 bill. Wait a second, that's not a $1,000, that's $10. Congratulations, you just got your eyesight back, that'll be $500. The moral of the story is just because you're young don't think you can fool an old Geeser. And I tell the story because we come this morning and our journey through the first 11 chapters of Genesis to Genesis chapter 5 where there are a lot of old Geesers, really old Geesers in Genesis chapter 5, people that lived over 900 years. At first glance, Genesis chapter 5 appears to be a very uninteresting list of names with their children and the ages that they lived. That would be of interest only to the most abstract of theologians or maybe historians, right? Well, there's a whole lot more in this chapter than what you get at first glance. There is a pattern of these names in this genealogy. You find the name is mentioned. They lived so many years, they had a son, then they named that son, lived so many more years, had other children, lived the total of so many years and died. That refrain repeated over and over and over again. But in this passage of that common recurring refrain, there is a theme that pops up. He lived and he died. He lived and he died. He lived and he died over and over and over again. That is stated. Eight of the nine people listed in this genealogy, it is stated they lived and they died. Only one exception that we'll look at as we get into the message. But this passage deals with issues of life and death. Really when it comes down to it, those are the two greatest challenges of mankind. We have figured out how to go to the moon, we figured out how to send space probes to Mars and even the far flung limits of our solar system. But we still struggle with how to live and how to die. And so really this chapter touches on the two foundational issues that we all struggle with and that is how to live and how to die. Now before we jump into the chapter and see how they address those amazing topics, there's one thing you have to deal with whenever you come to chapter five in Genesis and that is wow, did people really live to be over 900 years old? Methuselah, 969 and seven of the people of the nine in this chapter over 900 years? Really? Did people live that long? There have been some who've tried to explain that in other ways thinking well maybe they did time differently in those days, maybe those are more like months. But that doesn't work because if you go by months then some of them are having children at ages five or six. So that doesn't work. I like the old German Lutheran commentator, H.C. Lupeold and what he says about this issue of the aging of people here, he says he who is duly impressed by the excellence of man's original state. In other words how God created Adam perfectly. He who is duly impressed by the excellence of man's original state will have no difficulty in accepting the common explanation that even under the curse of sin man's constitution displayed such vitality that it did not at first submit to the ravages of time until after many generations had passed. He said it well. God created Adam and Eve perfectly with perfect genes and even after the fall and the ravages of the curse and sin it took a while for all that to kick into the point that it actually started decreasing life spans. And so people did live over 900 years. Now you get to the other side of the flood and you find ages dropping quickly. So probably another part of that was that vapor canopy that surrounded the earth that we saw in chapter one. A part of God's way of giving us a greenhouse type of atmosphere and vegetation and so forth on planet earth and keeping us from the harmful rays of the sun. That probably contributed to it as well. But I'm convinced these are literal ages these men did live this long. But that's not really the important thing in the chapter. What this chapter really focuses on is the major issues of life, death and life after death. So let's pick apart the chapter and see what hints we find in this seemingly boring list of names and ages that can help us understand what life is all about, what death is all about and what life after death is all about. First of all this chapter helps us to understand life. Understanding life really tells us some things about life in this chapter. By the way it's important how you look at life. In the peanuts comic strip Lucy is waxing eloquent about the deep meaning of life as she often does and she's telling Charlie Brown life is like a deck chair on a cruise ship. Some people place it where they can see where they're going. Some people place it so they can see where they've been and some people place it so that they can see where they are. Charlie Brown responds I can't even get my deck chair unfolded. And some of you are there this morning you're having trouble figuring life out. You can't even get the thing unfolded. You can't figure out how it works. Well this chapter gives us insight on a very foundational level as to how life works. There are four components to life all of which are foundational and basic as we would expect from the first 11 chapters of Genesis about how life works. The first is the very foundational concept of life in the image of God. Life in the image of God. Look at verse 1. This is the written account of Adam's line when God created man. He created him in the likeness of God. He created the male and female and blessed them and when they were created he called them man. Together man kind is made up of male and female Adam and Eve. But they're created in the likeness of God. We saw that in chapter 1 the image and likeness of God refer to the same thing. And it's restated here because he's telling us some foundational truth about understanding life. And so where you have to begin if you're going to understand what life is all about you have to understand we were created in the image of God. Now let me remind you of what that means. We saw back in chapter 1 when we looked at the creation story that to be created in the image of God primarily means two things. We were created as humans with the capacity to make moral choices. We can choose between good and evil right and wrong. We have that capacity to do that. But primarily it means that we were created with the capacity to have a relationship with God. That's what being in his image means. It means that we share something with him that enables us to relate to him. Unlike the animal kingdom we have the ability to have a personal relationship with the God of the universe. That's part of what it means to be in his image. And so you will never understand life unless you understand first and foremost you were created to have a relationship with God. God made you so that you could have a relationship with him. You know that's exactly where Paul started with a pagan audience in Athens in Acts chapter 17. He started with the idea that God created all things. And he says in him he created he created us so that we might find him and live in him. In other words Paul says God created us to have a relationship with God. That is so basic and so foundational. Everyone in this room was made by God in order to have a relationship with him. We were made in the image of God. But there's more to the story of life than being made in God's image. There's also in verse 3 life in the image of man. We are not only made in the image of God. We're also made in the image of man. Look at verse 3. When Adam had lived 130 years he had a son. Now notice in his own likeness in his own image and he named him Seth. It's very important that we understand the change here verses 1 and 2. We're made in God's image which means we share something with him that enables us to have a relationship with him. But since Adam, since Adam and his sin, all of his descendants starting with the first one Seth are made also in Adam's image which means we share something with Adam and that is a sin nature. The human nature corrupted by sin has been passed down to every one of us since Adam. And what that means is that we are born. We come into this world separated from God. Although we were created in his image to have a relationship with him, we are born outside of that relationship because we also carry within us the image of Adam, the image of man, the sinful nature that has been passed down to every human being since then. We are born with that nature corrupted by sin that causes us to have a tendency to sin, a propensity to sin. You don't have to teach a young child to do wrong. They automatically will do wrong. They'll steal a rattle from their brother and hit him over the head with it. You don't have to teach them to do that. You have to teach them to share. You have to teach them to do right because born in us is a sinful nature with a propensity, a tendency towards sin. That's what it means to be created in the image of Adam and the image of man. And if you don't understand that, you don't understand the second basic component of life that you are born separated from God. You are in trouble. You're in trouble from the get-go. And that is that you're separated from God because of this sin nature in you and in me, we all have the same problem. If you don't understand that, if you don't understand that you were created to have a relationship with God, but that relationship is broken by virtue of being an Adam's image and having a sin nature, then you will never realize that you need a savior. You will always go through life thinking, I can do it on my own. I can be good enough to get to heaven on my own. If you don't understand that your whole nature is corrupted because of Adam's sin and you're born into the human race, if you don't understand that, you've missed the first two components of understanding life. But that in itself leads me to the third component, which is hinted at here. And that is the restoration of life through Christ. Okay, you were made to have a relationship with God, but you come into this world separated from God, spiritually dead to the things of God, but there is the possibility of restoration of life through Christ. You say, well, John, I don't see Christ's name in this genealogy in chapter five, and you can read the whole chapter and he does not appear there. But there's something very interesting that happens in chapter five, which will ultimately lead to Christ. And that is that the promise, God's promise in Genesis chapter three, that the seed of the woman, singular, the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and undo all of his work that he did through tempting Adam and Eve and bringing sin into the world. That promise begins to be fulfilled in chapter five. In verse three, Adam has a son and notice he named him Seth. And the whole reason for the rest of the chapter is to begin tracing the line of Seth down to Noah. And then in chapter 10, the line of Noah will be traced to Abraham. And Abraham is called out by God to be the father of a people that he will make a covenant with through whom he will bring the promise of Genesis 3.15. The Messiah, the seed of the woman who will be our savior. And so you have the beginning of the promise of the Savior being fulfilled right here with Seth being born and his genealogy traced down through. And the rest of the Old Testament, among other primary purposes, the rest of the Old Testament is designed to show us how we got from Adam to the birth of Christ. How God fulfilled that promise made Adam and Eve that he would send a savior. So we have in seed form here in chapter five the very promise of restoration of life through the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. And the point is he is the only hope. You see the line of Cain, Adam and Eve's other living son, is briefly mentioned in chapter four and then he fades off the pages of Scripture. He will not be seen again or talked about again because the focus is now on the promise, the promise of a Messiah and how he got here. And that begins with the birth of Seth and on down through his descendants to Noah and then to Abraham and then on through the Old Testament all the way to Christ. Christ is the only hope for mankind. Christ is the one who came to redeem us from our fallen nature, from our being in the image of Adam to restore us to being in the image of God. He takes care of the Adam thing and brings us back to God enables us to have that relationship with him that we were created to have building block peace of life. Number three is the restoration of life through Christ and it's found here in Genesis five. Three foundational building blocks of life. You were created to have a relationship with God. You don't have one from the moment you're born because of Adam's nature residing in you. You're a sinner. But Jesus came as the promise of God to die for your sins so that you might be restored to life if you trust Jesus as your savior and eventually in heaven be restored fully to the image of God. It's a wonderful truth but there's one other piece of the puzzle, one other building block of this foundation of understanding life in this chapter and it is for those who've already come to Christ as savior for those who know him as savior and that is the joy of life in walking with God. The joy of life in walking with God. It's pictured in an amazing guy in this chapter who is different from all the others mentioned his name is Enok. In verse 21 when Enok had lived 65 years he became the father of Methuzallah and after he became the father of Methuzallah Enok walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Now if you're really observant you notice things have changed. Every other time in this passage Adam lived 130 years had a son and his likeness named himself after Seth was born Adam lived 800 years. Same with Seth, same with Enoch, same with Kenan, same with Mahalal El, same with Jared. Then you get to Enok and rather than bearing a child, living so many years bearing a child and after a child he lived so many more, no no the word live is replaced by the word walked with God. See Enoch did not just live he walked with God and he goes on to say Moses tells us in verse 23 all together Enok lived 365 years, Enok walked with God and he was no more because God took him away. So Enok didn't just live he walked with God and therein we find another important building block of the foundational understanding of life and that is if you know Christ is your Savior the only way to live is to walk with God. You say well what does that mean to walk with God? I know that Adam and Eve evidently God came down and manifest himself in the garden they literally walked with him on. Is that what it means? No. It means to live in obedience to God it means to live in a close fellowship with him. Adam would hide from God because of his sin. Kane would leave the presence of God because of his rebellion but Enok walked with God. So walking with God is the opposite of hiding from him it's seeking a relationship with him and it is the opposite of rebellion against him it's obedience to him. So that's what it means to walk with God is to have obedience to him to live in line with what he teaches in the Bible to live in obedience to him and to walk in close fellowship with him. I love the way the writer of Hebrews expresses it where Enok's name pops up again in that hall of in Hebrews 11 5 by faith. Enok was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away for before he was taken. Now watch this. Before he was taken he was commended as one who pleased God. In other words his lifestyle was one that pleased God. He sought God's face. He obeyed God's word. He lived in a way that God was pleased with. That's the only way to live. And it's not an easy way to live. Now Enok appears another time in the New Testament it's in the little book of Jude when Jude is warning about false teachers and he says hey Enok preached this message a long time ago in Jude 14 and 15 Enok the seventh from Adam prophesied about them false teachers and ungodly people. See the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him. You have to get the impression that Enok lived in a tough time don't you? Ungodly people ungodly acts ungodly sinners defiant words. I don't think it was always easy for Enok to live for the Lord in a way that pleased him and to walk with God. I think sometimes you pay the price for that. So it's not the easy way to walk with God but it is the only way to live for a believer to walk with God. It is the only way to live. If you know Jesus as your Savior you will seek for purpose and meaning in life in futility if you seek it anywhere else than living for Christ. There's a whole book in the Bible to tell us that we've been through that book the book of Ecclesiastes where Solomon writing a missionary track to Gentile nations basically said you can look for fulfillment in life every way you want to get all the education you want all the wisdom you want get all the fame and popularity you want get all the money you want have all the fun you want do everything you want to do and at the end of the day you'll be empty you'll be empty because it is meaningless it's like soap bubbles it does not provide any meaning all is vanity. Solomon said but about seven or eight times in that book he brings us back to where you do find fulfillment in meaning in life and that is in a relationship with God and that's what Genesis 5 is laying for us down as a foundation you were made to have a relationship with God so you've got this hole inside until that's filled with God there's a hole inside it was made for God's size presence so you're made for a relationship with God you're born into this world as a sinner outside of that relationship but thank God he sent his son Jesus to restore that relationship and give you life in Christ and so for crying out loud the only way for you to live is to live in obedience to Christ and in fulfillment of his pleasing hymn that's the only way to live and find fulfillment in life that is what life is all about chapter 5 of Genesis lays it down in foundational form understanding life this is what life is all about but this is not all about life this chapter has a heavy smell of death so this chapter helps us not only to understand life but also to understand death it's very clear that the experience of death is the experience commonly of everyone in this chapter only one exception will get through in a moment but everybody else dies eight times it is stated he died he died it's a common refrain he died he died he died he died okay enough John we don't want to talk about death all the time but we need to understand that death is the common experience of all people now obviously given the exception that the Lord may come back at any time and rapture those who are his home to be with him we understand that but the common experience of all people is that we are going to die and we need to face up to that that's foundational that's basic Stuart Briscoe it was a pastor for many years in Milwaukee he actually came from the united kingdom and he wrote a book called spirit life and in that book he tells the story about when he came to America he was just amazed at all these friendly people that showed up at his house to visit with him and they also had insurance and he said one day I was talking to one of those guys and he's explaining to me his product you know and he's trying to be very kind and swab and business and he's saying to Stuart Briscoe you know we all must plan for the unforeseen events of life and if anything bad were to happen to you and Stuart Briscoe said stop stop talking like that you're upsetting me that goes kind of shot and he said well I'm sorry Mr. Briscoe I didn't mean to upset you but you know we all have to face the fact that unforeseen things can happen and if they stop Stuart Briscoe said stop talking like that you're upsetting me and the guy was stunned then he said what did I do what did I say to upset you and Stuart Briscoe said you're treating the only certainty in life as if it is uncertain because you keep saying if something happens if you die you need to say when you die because we're all going to die and then Stuart Briscoe turned it around and asked him when you die what's going to happen to you and he turned it into a witnessing opportunity but he's right we dance around the subject of death like oh something bad might happen someday we are going to die and we have to face that we are mortal we are all terminal and we're all going to die someday that's the common experience of everybody in this chapter with just one exception but people die I mean it's all around us isn't it natural disasters in the Philippines just this past week with that incredible hurricane typhoon that hit them war in the Middle East in Syria famine in Africa violence in our cities aging and disease hospitals and nursing homes all around us we cannot escape death it is the common experience of people so rather than trying to close our eyes to it it would be better to open our eyes wide and understand death so let me go on to give you the biblical explanation of death the Bible very carefully explains what death is all about it's common in this chapter and it happens over and over and over again but what really is death well to tie all this together we need to look first of all at Romans 512 it's on the screen for you therefore just as sin entered the world through one man we already saw that in chapter 3 right came into the world through Adam just to sin enter the world through one man and death through sin and in this way death came to all people because all sin and that's a fairly simple explanation sin came into the world through Adam and because of Adam sin he died and everybody born after him dies because we all sin we inherit that a sinful nature from Adam which causes all of us to sin too so we all die and it all is traced back to Adam now the Bible uses the word death in three different ways first of all the Bible speaks of spiritual death by the way the concept of death basically has to do with separation that's what death is all about separation so the Bible first of all speaks of spiritual death and by that it means separation from God if Ephesians 2 1 talks about the fact that we are all in dead in trespasses and sins that's spiritual death we're all born apart separated from God we are spiritually dead so that's the common experience of every person who's born into this world but then the Bible speaks of death in the second way that is physical death and that is the separation of the soul from the body there comes a point in everybody's life where the body can no longer physically sustain the life that resides within the body the soul and so the soul leaves the body separates from the body and that is physical death and by the way it included and started with Adam verse 5 says all together Adam lived 930 years and then he died and that is God's answer to the blasphemous lie of Satan in chapter 3 when he told Eve you will not surely die this is God's answer Adam died physically his soul left his body and so will yours someday so the spiritual death there's physical death but the Bible also speaks of an eternal death or what the Bible calls the second death and the second death is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire an eternal place of punishment so their spiritual death we're all born separated from God unless something's done about that through Christ as we've already seen then you will remain spiritually dead but someday you're going to die physically too and your soul will leave your body if at that point you still do not know Jesus as your Savior you will spend eternity paying for your own sins God will allow you to do that if you so choose but you will spend an eternity in the lake of fire paying for your own sins now the Bible teaches that death is an enemy God doesn't want us to experience that kind of death in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 25 and 26 Paul says for he must reign Christ must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet the last enemy to be destroyed is death it's an enemy but it will be destroyed and you know how it will be destroyed Revelation chapter 20 verse 14 then death and Hades or hell were thrown into the lake of fire the lake of fire is the second death or eternal death you see everything that's led up to that spiritual death physical death all that that leads people into a place of punishment called hell all of that will be sent to the lake of fire and that is when the last enemy will be destroyed and those who have trusted Jesus as Savior will live forever in heaven in his presence with no more death no more death in God's new creation that's what the Bible teaches about death my friend you come into this world separated from God someday your soul will be separated from your body and if you do not trust God's provision of Christ for your salvation then you will experience an eternal death in the lake of fire that's as simple as I can make it what the Bible teaches about death it all is seen in in highlighted form in Genesis 5 he died he died he died he died he died over and over again but you know what the Bible doesn't stop there with the story that starts in Genesis 5 because this chapter does help us to understand the life and it does help us to understand death but it also gives us a glimpse of life after death and helps us to understand life after death the Bible makes it clear that death is not the end for us physical death is not the end for us I often like to point out at funerals at a graveside this is not a final resting place what's often called it's not there's nothing final about what you do when you place somebody's body in the ground that's only temporary the soul has already gone out into eternity and someday that body will be resurrected and reunited with the soul so that's that's not the end there are two things that may happen to you after death number one is life in God's presence life in God's presence and it's highlighted for us illustrated in verse 24 with Enoch Enoch walked with God then he was no more because God took him away amazing I would like to know exactly how it happened that we're not told that he details here but it's obvious he doesn't die Hebrews 11 5 tells us that he did not die he's walking with God he's pleasing God with his lifestyle and one day he was no more in the sense that he was no more on this earth God took him away God simply took him into his presence in heaven now maybe this is a sign of what would have happened if there had never been any sin and people would have just entered into the presence of the Lord there would be no death I don't know for sure God's presence may have been here on earth with people in the created state but certainly it's a picture of the rapture that someday Jesus will come back and take us home quickly to be with him as the Bible teaches the point is this it is possible to live in God's presence forever when you leave this earth God took him he was with the Lord and there is here a statement that pierces the gloom of chapter 5 in all of these statements he died he died he died he died he died not in it he went to be with the Lord the Lord took him he didn't die the Lord took him he's in the presence of the Lord so it is possible to escape death and that promise is fulfilled in Christ I want you to look at these two verses Jesus said them at a graveside speaking to two grieving sisters of Lazarus this is what Jesus said about this whole scene at a graveside Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life the one who believes in me will live even though they die did you catch that even if you die physically you don't stop living you just go on living why because at physical death the soul is separated from the body and goes to be with the Lord just like Enic went to be with the Lord and notice he goes on to say and whoever lives spiritually lives by believing in me if you trust Christ is your savior so you have eternal life you will never die in what sense the eternal death the second death the lake of fire you will never die do you believe this so what Jesus is teaching us is that when a believer in Christ dies physically when the soul leads the body you're just going through a doorway into the presence of God you don't stop existing you don't stop living you just start living in a better place you just change neighborhoods you just go to heaven to be with the Lord that's why Paul could say in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 or say when we are confident I say he's talking in the context they're about death we're confident I say and would prefer to be away from the body that's physical death and at home with the Lord that's life in the presence of God and he would say the flippians and flippians 123 I'm torn between two I have a desire to depart and be with Christ to depart this life the soul leaving the body is to be with Christ for a believer so if you know Jesus as your savior death for a believer is just a doorway into God's presence it is just an immediate entrance into God's presence I love the way Catherine Marshall describes death in terms that a little child can understand Catherine Marshall was the wife of Peter Marshall who back in the mid-part of the 1900s was a pastor in Washington DC and served as chaplain of the senate for a while and he died suddenly of a heart attack actually had a heart attack in the pulpit and then suffered a second heart attack and died and after his death Catherine Marshall wrote his biography called a man called Peter and in that biography she tells the story of something that happened to a family and their church a young boy who was terminally ill and he's talking to his mother asking his mother questions about death well it hurt what's it like what's going to happen and this is the way the mother explained it to him Kenneth she said you remember when you were a tiny boy how you used to play so hard all day that when night would come you would be too tired even to undress and you would tumble on the mother's bed and fall asleep that was not your bed it was not where you belonged and you would only stay there a little while in the morning much to your surprise you would wake up and find yourself in your own bed in your own room you were there because someone had loved you and taken care of you your father had come with strong arms and carried you away to your room to your bed Kenneth death is just like that we just wake up some morning to find ourselves in the other room in our room in the room that was made for us and it's all because someone came with strong arms and loved you enough to die for you and at death when you fall asleep will carry you to your room wow that's what death is for a believer by the way it's a great way to explain death to children but that's what death is for every believer it's simply to wake up in God's presence having been taken there by someone stronger than you someone who who provided for your salvation who loved you enough to die for you and that's Jesus life in the presence of God but I cannot close this message without quickly saying something about life apart from God's presence you see the blessed prospect of being in God's presence is not true of everyone that is only for those who have accepted God's remedy for your sin who have trusted the payment that Christ made for you on the cross obviously if Christ has made the payment and that's the way you get into heaven and you choose not to accept that payment then you've got to pay your own debt you've got to pay for your own sin that's what John chapter three is all about Jesus said this in these very familiar verses God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life so there it is you believe in Christ as your Savior you go to heaven to be with him eternal life for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him through Christ whoever believes in him is not condemned but but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they've not believed in the name of God's one and only son and there are other places where God says the same thing Christ says the same thing my friend if you believe in Jesus is your Savior if you trust him is your Savior you will have life in God's presence when you die if you do not trust Christ as your Savior you will spend life apart from God's presence in an awful place of torment described in Revelation 20 is the lake burning with fire the lake of fire this is basic truth friend this is foundational truth found in one of these foundational chapters of the Bible do you understand what life is all about the understand you were made to have a relationship with God but you're also made an Adam's image you got a sin nature which separates you from God but Jesus came as the fulfillment of God's promise to crush all that Satan had done and to give you life if you will trust him as your Savior and when you do the only way to live from there on out is to live in a way that pleases God do you understand what life is all about the understand that you will die someday it's the experience of all people and you will die someday and if you've not trusted Christ you will live forever apart from God's presence but if you've trusted Christ as your Savior you will live in his presence listen all of this is found in seed form in Genesis 5 this foundational story this is life this is death and this is life after death that's what it's all about I would urge you today to prepare for death by trusting Christ as your Savior and if you've done that I would urge you to stop looking in other ways for fulfillment in life but to find fulfillment in pleasing God walking with God that's about together Father thank you for your word which is clear help us not to mess it up make it unclear help us to understand it as you've given it to us and I pray Father that you would be at work in our hearts today if there are those who really don't understand what life is all about what death is all about and how to have life after death I pray that today your spirit would be at work in their hearts and they would be willing to let go of whatever's keeping them from you and trust you for life we ask in Jesus name amen