Tombstones Tell Stories

Cemetery's are interesting places when Jean and I used to visit her parents when they lived in Corning, New York. We would often walk in a cemetery, not that we're that morbid most of the time, but this cemetery boarded the back of their yard. There was just a creek between their yard and this cemetery. Actually, Corning had two cemeteries. One was a Catholic cemetery. One was a Protestant cemetery. We're in the north. There are a lot of folks who migrated from Europe. We saw a lot of Italian names, Polish names, lots of interesting tombstones. And lots of interesting inscriptions. It's very sobering to walk through a cemetery and just look at the dates, the ages of people who have passed what is said about them. There was one huge monument in that cemetery to remember 18 people who had died in a tragic train accident on a bridge back I think in the 1920s. And so a lot of sobering stories about people's lives and even how they died. In one of his books, Chuck Swindall has gathered and shared in that book several tombstone stories, several epitaphs from tombstones. I want to read some of them to you this morning. One lonely widow composed this epitaph in a Vermont cemetery sacred to the memory of my husband, John Barnes, who died January 3rd, 1803. His comely young widow, age 23, has many qualifications of a good wife and yearns to be comforted. I guess that's how you did it in the day before Facebook and online dating sites, right? Just put it on the tombstone. Here's a tombstone in England, Sir John Strange, here lies an honest lawyer and that is Strange. Here's an actual tombstone. I know this one gets a joke about a lot, but here's an actual tombstone in Georgia. I told you I was sick. And this grave of Ellen Shannon in Gerard, Pennsylvania reads almost like a consumer tip. Her name, Ellen Shannon, who was spatily burned March 21st, 1870 by the explosion of a lamp filled with RF Danforth's non-explosive burning fluid. I love this one. Ezekiel Aikl in East Dallas, C. County, Sympathari in Nova Scotia. Here's his tombstone. Here lies Ezekiel Aikl, age 102, the good die young. Makes you want to know a little bit more about his life, doesn't it? Well, you can learn a lot by reading tombstones, but quite frankly, most of them don't have any information at all. They'll have a name, two dates, and a line in between. That in itself is a story because that line in between summarizes everything about that person's life. Birth, death, everything else in between passes by very, very quickly. You know, in the Bible, rarely does God linger over the death of anyone, even of the heroes of the Bible. There is very soon, let's go look sometimes at the deaths of people like Abraham and Joseph and David and others who are well known in the Bible call, and there's very rarely much said beyond that they died. Moses is one of those rare exceptions to that. There is a whole chapter given to the description of his death, and in a sense his obituary, or the epitaph on his tombstone, if you will. It's a Deuteronomy chapter 34, and that's where we are this morning. As we come close to the end, I intend to do one more message from Hebrews 11 on what God says about the life of Moses in summary fashion in a couple of weeks. But as we come to the end of Moses' life and approach his death, it seems as though God wanted us to pause a moment and take note because there is an extended description of Moses' death. So it's like God wants us to linger over there for a moment and to see something, maybe learn something, to ponder this man's death and life and see what it has to teach us. So that's what I want us to do this morning. I want us to ponder the death of Moses and see what God records on his tombstone that could be of help, encouragement, and rebuke, challenge, comfort to us. One thing we learn from this story is the solitude of death. By that I mean that you do not take anyone with you when you travel through death's door. You will go through death's door by yourself. You do not take anyone with you from this side. It's often said that you don't take anything with you. You can't take your possessions. Selen the people pause to think that Moses' death is really an example to us that we all approach death's door in a solitary fashion. Notice for Moses there was a solitary approach in verse 1, then Moses climbed Mount Nibbou from the plains of Moab to the top of Pizga across from Jericho. This is on the east side of the Dead Sea. He will look across from this mountain into the land across the Dead Sea. It is a 4,500 foot climb and Moses is 120 years old. But God calls him up that mountain alone. There's nobody with him to help him. He is alone. He approaches his death alone. I imagine him making that climb when we were visiting our daughter, Missy, in Eugene, Oregon, recently on our way back from a mission trip in Japan. They wanted to take us on a hike. It's a well-known hiking space and I'm praying that it will be level land. It was not. It was a mountain about the same size as this, about 4,500 feet and toward the top it is very steep. But they have a path carved out and some of it is in stone and it's quite a climb. I huffed and puffed and blew the house down all the way up that mountain and we got toward the top. I actually made it. But we got toward the top and I said, if I faint, drag me to the top. I want to be able to say I reached the top of this mountain. I got some great pictures. But I think of Moses 120 years old and he goes all by himself up to the top of this mountain which indicates to me he knows he's going to die. He knows that's where he's going because God is told in that. But there's no self-pity evident here. There is no panic evident here. But he approaches that event alone. So there's a solitary approach. Then there is a solitary view from the top of that mountain. Middle of verse 1, there the Lord showed him the whole land. If we were looking at a map today, if you would imagine yourself facing to the west, what we're going to find here is a description of the land in panoramic view from the north to the west to the south. That's exactly what God shows him. The whole land of Israel from Gilead to Dan. That's looking straight north from where Moses is. All of Naphtheli, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, that's northwest. So God shows him this direction first and then this direction. And then he shows him all the land of Jews as far as the Mediterranean Sea. That's due west. And then he shows him all the land of the Negaev and the whole region. That's southwest. So you can see turning as he goes and then the last statement is the valley of Jericho, the city of Palms, as far as Zor. That's looking from just above him to the north all the way to south along the Dead Sea. I've stood on that mountain and I've seen that view and it is not possible with the naked eye to see all the way to the Mediterranean Sea from that vantage point. So when it says that the Lord showed him the whole land, this was like a private viewing, a supernatural miraculous viewing of the land that God would give the people of Israel. You can't see this today unless you go to Jordan because that's where Mount Nebo is. It is an incredible view. You can see a long way but God supernaturally allowed him to see the whole of the land, the north all the way sweeping around panoramically to the south. I just wonder what they talked about. I imagine Moses thinking about this is the land that I dreamed about and that my people will enter and I hope to lead them into this land. I wonder what he talked about as they talked about this land. This was a beautiful view that no one else would share. It was a solitary view of the land, the promised land. And as I think about that, I think about the fact that sometimes I'm not sure it happens all the time. I don't know. There's no way to substantiate this. But I'm convinced that I've seen some occasions where God gives believers a glimpse of the other side before they die. Again, I can't scientifically prove that. But I've seen enough to believe that that does happen sometimes. I will never forget some of the folks that I've been in their presence when they died. Some just slip quietly into the Lord's presence and hardly know they're gone. Others there are dramatic evidences of the fact that they're seeing something that nobody else in the room is seeing. I remember Jay Harvey when he died and he's reaching up to heaven. Here's a man who had been bed fast for a long time and he's reaching up to heaven. He's seeing something that nobody else in the room is seeing. It's almost as though the Lord is reaching down to him and he's reaching up to take his arms. I remember when Richard Martin died and him looking to the side from his bed and reaching out as though someone were reaching out of hand to him and he was reaching out to take that hand. I remember when Peter Fadorzak died and he did the same thing. Their Glenwood retirement home in the healthcare side. I still remember the room he was in, the bed he was in. He's looking up and reaching up. Something very similar happened with my mother who had been in a coma. She was in a coma type state for four days and we had stood by her bedside and sat by her bedside Friday and Saturday and Sunday and that's Monday. Her eyes had been closed those whole four days and she was throughout that whole time taking those infrequent deep breaths, gasping for air. We were sitting on the bedside and we were sitting on the bedside and we were sitting on the bedside and talking on Monday. Several of us in the room saw this. She all of a sudden her eyes flew open and a smile came across her face and she exiled her last breath. She was about what she was seeing that caused her to open her eyes suddenly like that and the smile. I just wonder if God was not giving her a glimpse of the other side. Moses had a solitary view of the land of promise and I'm still convinced that God does that sometimes. Again, I can't substantiate that scientifically but I've seen enough to see that I believe it happens. A solitary view, just you. Getting a view of where you're going. It God allows and then there is a solitary passing after describing that this land he has seen in verse four is the land that it promised to Abraham and all of his descendants in verse five. It says in Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab. God calls him on home and he dies alone on that mountain. Now please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. He was not lonely or empty. I'm not saying that but there was no one else with him. Joshua wasn't with him. No family was with him. He went through that door alone. And all of us enter death's door alone. You cannot take anyone else through that door with you with one exception. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you know him as your savior, he meets you at death's door. He's always with you but in a special sense, he meets you there and he usures you into his presence. The psalmist said, ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And most Bible scholars believe that is a description of death itself. Not just a precursor to death but death itself. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For you are with me. You are rotten, you are staffed. They comfort me. The only one who will accompany you through that door. You approach that door all by yourself. You can't take anybody else with you. But the one who meets you there and accompanies you and greets you at that entrance is the Lord Jesus himself. And my friend, if you die without Christ, you really do die alone. If you die with Christ is your savior. If you've trusted the one who died to pay for your sins as your only hope of heaven, then when you approach that door and no one else can go with you through that door, Jesus is there to go with you. He is there. You know, we struggle with being alone in our day. We're always with other people. Or if we're by ourselves, we've got the radio going or somebody blabbering at us on the television or we're checking emails or looking at our phone and trying to figure out who's trying to contact us or if nobody's contacting me, I'll contact somebody else. We've got to have contact with somebody else. And if we decide we're going to shut out the rest of the world, you know what we do put in the earbuds, let somebody sing to us. We're always around noise. We're always around somebody doing something. When you come to death, nobody goes with you to that door. It is a solitary approach. Maybe God in His grace will give you a solitary view of what lies ahead for you, but it is a solitary passing with the exception that Jesus meets you there and usures you into His presence to be absent from the body for the believer is to be present with the Lord. So the solitude of death jumps out at you in this story and teaches us something about the only one who can go through death's door with us. But there's also a lot to be said in this story about the security of death for the believer for the one who knows Jesus is savior. There is a twofold security in death. Number one, there is a security that death comes in the plan of God. Look at verse five again, and Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in Moab as the Lord had said. He died in the plan of God exactly as God had arranged. I struggle to explain this sometimes in individual circumstances. I honestly do not sometimes I grapple myself in my own mind about the timing of some people's death, the age at which they die. I do not understand, but I believe the Bible enough to believe that God orders our times and even the end of our times. The Bible says in Psalm 139 that all of our days that God had ordained for us are written in His book before one of them came to me. In other words, before we were ever born, every day of our lives that God has ordained to us is already written out in His book, which indicates to me that God knows exactly when our last day will be. I struggle to understand that sometimes, but I still believe it. I can't wrap my mind around it all the times, but I do believe I wish I practiced this more. There's no reason to fear a trip or a ride in a car or ride on an airplane. There's no reason to fear what may happen to you at work or what may come with a certain illness because every day that God ordained for your life is written in His book before one of them came to me. And so your death is already in the plan of God. Paul felt that way about his own life and his own death. He's writing to the Philippians. He's in prison in Rome. This is the first of two Roman emperors. The second time he was imprisoned, he knew for sure he was going to die. He told Timothy in that letter. My times come. I'm at the end. You made that very clear. But in this imprisonment, he wasn't real sure, but he thought the Lord was going to let him live. But notice what's going on in his mind as he approaches the possibility of death. Paul says this to the Philippians. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed if you read the verses before that he's talking about his appearance before Caesar to give an account of his case to argue his case before Caesar. He doesn't want to be ashamed. He wants to be confident and bold with the gospel as he approaches his testimony in the court date with Caesar. He says I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but we'll have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death. So whether I die or whether I live what I'm concerned about is the exalt Christ in the way I live and also in the way I die. He's just committing everything. His life and his death into the hands of the Lord. And he says here's the reason why for to me to live as Christ and to die as gain. So he said, he'll lay it's a win-win situation for me. If I if I live I get to keep on serving Christ. If I die, get to be with Christ. So for for to me to live as Christ to die is even better it's gain and here's the explains it further he says if I am to go on living in the body this will mean fruitful labor for me. Now in fact if God allows me to live I get to serve him longer. That's great. Yet what shall I choose I do not know I am torn between the two I I desired to depart and be with Christ which is better by far. But it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body convinced of this I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith. That's the approach Paul had toward the possibility of his own death. He sought he sought biblically he sought as we're seeking to paint the picture here in Moses death that death is in the hands of God. It's all in his plan. And so he knows what day it will be so we just need to live each day as though if I live okay I get to serve God another day if I die I get to be with him. So what's the downside of any of that the security for the believer is that death is in the plan of God. But here's something else that gives us great security. We've already hinted at it a little bit. It's really fleshed out here and that is that death is also for the believer in the presence of God. Look at it there in verse five. Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab as the Lord had said. Number six he God buried him in Moab in the valley opposite Beth Pior but to this day no one knows where his grave is evidently the Israelites were simply told that it was finished that God had buried him but nobody knows where. This is one of the most fascinating statements in all the Bible. There was only one person at Moses funeral. Think about it only one God was there when Moses died. And again one of the most amazing statements in the Bible is that God buried him that is not said of anybody else in the scripture. Sure. Enoch God took Elijah Elijah God took in an amazing way but nobody else has ever said that God performed the funeral and dug the grave and buried him. God buried Moses and then he hid the tomb so nobody could find it. I'm not sure how he did that whether he just kind of covered everything up to where it didn't look any different than no marker nothing. I think I know why he did it it would have become a shrine like everything else in Israel has become any significant place is covered with a church or some kind of memorial that really takes away from the real biblical meaning of what happened there. I think it would have become in our day it would have become an amusement park you know we would have bus tours to the site of where Moses died we would have carnival rides you know I can just see it roll a coaster that comes down toward a body of water and then when you get there the water parts and you go through on a dry track I can see it that's the way it would look in our day we would do that we would have an imitation Mount Sinai that that ski lift up to it and there'd be smoke and thunder and lightning and all that. It would be better than anything Disney could do that's how we do it today we'd have a 360 degree theater with the wilderness journeys playing all the time all the way through that we'd have get shops with Moses t-shirts and hats and mugs I'd buy the mug. I mean that's the way we would do it today and so God didn't want any of that whether it be a shrine or a tourist attraction God did not want that with his servant Moses. Interestingly enough though there was a controversy surrounding the body of Moses between an archangel and the devil himself that's fascinating this cryptic mention of it in Jude 9 look at this even the archangel Michael when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said the Lord of the Bukes. Now the point of the verse is something entirely different from the dispute over the body of Moses the point of the verse is that we should give the proper respect to angelic beings even demons one of the marks of false teachers is that they don't do that and so Jude is making the point that even an archangel is cautious about how to approach the devil and he just kind of drops that nugget as a side-law line when Michael was there. When Michael was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses and I find myself thinking whoa wait stop right there what is that about what happened there what kind of dispute why were they fighting with the body of Moses well it would be pure conjecture to speculate why because the Bible doesn't tell us but there was something about where Moses was buried or his body the devil wanted him gone. Amazing but the most amazing fact is that God was with him and buried him when he died and my friend if you know the Lord he is with you too he may not perform your funeral service but he is with you and usures you immediately into his presence one of most gripping stories from 9 11 was first reported on Fox News and that is that a man was working on one of the upper floors of the second tower that was hit and he was trying to do some emails before they were already announcing they wanted to evacuate that building because the building next to it was on fire and everything looked unstable and he's doing an email to his son all of a sudden the second plane hit and he quickly emailed his son a plane has hit my tower I will see you in heaven love your dad and hit the send button a few minutes later his son got that email the last thing you ever heard from his dad but God was with that man in that room that day and whatever he went through when he was ushered through the door of death the Lord was with him the Lord was with him the Lord attended him as he ushered him into his presence I cling to that that no matter what my death is going to be like whether it is the result of a long illness or a sudden event or a humanly speaking tragedy or accident I cling to the fact that I know Jesus is my savior and whatever death door looks like for me I'm going to see him there and I'm going to see him there and he's going to be there to usher me into his presence and I say that not because of any way that I've lived but because when I was eight years old I heard the gospel and I heard in that little white church across the road over there that Jesus had died for my sins so that I wouldn't have to go to hell and pay for them myself and I trusted Jesus as my savior that day and since that day I've been in the family of God I've been one of his children and I know what the Bible says about his children he will meet us at death's door and usher us into his presence that my friend is the security of death for the believer we can be secure that it is in the plan of God that rest the timing the way all rests in his plan all of our days were already written in his book but it also rests in his presence that is secure but this passage goes on to describe something else that I think we need to pause over for just a moment and learn from and that is the sadness of death verse 8 the Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days until the time of weeping and mourning was over you know as pastors we deal with death and sadness a lot and it is I hesitate to mention this for fear that I've been misunderstood it is easy because that's a part of our vocation for that to become as routine as a teacher finishing up lesson plans or a businessman closing a deal or a homemaker finishing a meal and so I know that I do and I'm convinced our other pastors do as well we pray that God will allow us with each individual family to enter into their sadness it is legitimate to mourn when someone dies now it's certainly legitimate to to have joy obviously as believers and to express that even with humor certainly legitimate but there is also a sadness to death and if people are not allowed to express that grief then it gets shoved down and covered up until it boards its way out in some very ugly ways there is a legitimate and God-given pattern of mourning Israel understood that they took 30 days to process their grief over Moses I want you to see the reason for sadness the reason for sadness is several several fold really they grieve for Moses why Moses was a part of them their lives were so intertwined with him it's hard to let go of him he's been their leader for these 40 some years when your life is so intertwined with a loved one that you have thousands of bands that tie you together and all of a sudden those are all snapped they're all broken it's like when they are gone someone's cutting off a limb or someone's ripping out your own heart it is certainly legitimate to experience sadness you do not want to let them go even if the end of a long illness there is still a sadness because part of you has been ripped away from you one husband wrote it a wrote about it this way entitled what's wrong with me Lord he said week after week I begged you to take her in agony I wept and waited while she grappled with insidious pain I watched the gradual decline of her once strong and lovely body I saw her lines of weariness her constant discomfort I listened to her broken sobs as she pleaded for release I felt the pressure of her trembling fingers when the gripping pain intensified I sensed her growing weakness her deep depression through sleepless night I listened to her labored breathing in the darkness I cried to you over and over I cried then yesterday morning Lord at the first streak of dawn you answered my prayer gently you took her to yourself you rewarded her with fullness of joy thank you Lord yet even while I thank you I wish I could have kept her just one more day what's wrong with me Lord well that question has one answer it's called grief grief is a legitimate expression of the ripping apart of the intertwining of two lives together and you feel like a part of you has been ripped out if you don't mourn that something is wrong so there is a legitimate place for sadness another reason for sadness is that death is described as our enemy for quickens 1526 death is the last enemy that will be conquered Jesus himself mourned at a graveside the graveside of his dear friend Lazarus he wept and when you find those words in verse 33 of John 11 that he was deeply troubled and spirit it's used several times of our Lord of a broken heart over something and he was looking at Mary and Martha and what death had done to them and their sadness and grief and his heart went out to them he knows that in just a few minutes he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead and yet he enters into their sadness there is a proper place for sadness and the expression of sadness is in the words grieved for Moses until the time of weeping and mourning was over you know there's a sense in which I'm kind of glad this is here for Moses sake sometimes I'm sure Moses wondered what does this nation think of me anyway there was so much gripping and complaining and murmuring and criticizing of Moses through the wilderness and yet here they show they really did love him his ministry and his life had touched them so deeply that it took a month to properly honor his memory please don't misunderstand what Paul says in 1st Thessalonians 413 Paul says brothers and sisters we do not want you to be unenformed about those who sleep in death he's going to give them the information about what happened to them and we'll be rejoining someday in the rapture but he says I don't want you to be unenformed so that you do not grieve and notice it doesn't stop there but you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope there is a proper place for sadness and grief when you lose a loved one in death but that grief is also tempered and measured by hope it's not the grief of a hopeless feeling that they're gone forever and you'll never see them again the hope that we have in Christ the hope that Paul will share with the Thessalonians in the next few verses is that Jesus has taken them to himself and there's a great reunion coming when Jesus comes back they'll be resurrected we'll join them in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord he says wherefore comfort one another there's no comfort needed unless there's sadness and grief but the great thing is that we have the joy and the hope of being in Christ and knowing that heaven awaits us and that's when we can turn mourning and grief and sadness into joy into hope into blessing but there is a legitimate sadness of death that cannot be overlooked and should not be pushed down but there's one other lesson to learn from this epitaph this tombstone of Moses and that is the summary of his life there is a sense in which in verses 10 through 12 in particular God inscribes three things about Moses on his tombstone and I know this didn't literally happen but what God says about Moses here is like what you might see on a tombstone and it's much better than I told you I was sick it's a lot better than that in fact I think my wife's in here somewhere honey if you're listening this is what I want on mine if it can be legitimately said let me give that little caveat there if it can be legitimately said I don't think there's any greater epitaph that could be said of anybody than what is said of Moses here three things first of all he knew God first ten since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face oh even better not only he knew God God knew him you know the little expression Jesus loves me this I know some of you probably have this little wall hanging in your house too we have it in our house Jesus knows me this I love he does know us and we know him that's a personal knowledge in the sense that with Moses as the Bible says here whom the Lord knew face to face God had an unusual close relationship with Moses where he met with him face to face I mean Moses did not literally see the glory of God one time he saw the after effect of that on the mount but but God met with him personally individually and communicated with him with him now we are not guaranteed face to face conversations with God this side of death in fact Paul says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 12 he says for now we see only a reflection as an amir then talking about when the perfect will come when when we get to heaven then we shall see face to face now I know in part then I shall know fully even as I am fully known so we're not guaranteed this side of of death a face to face full knowledge of God but we can grow in our knowledge of the Lord and a very personal in-depth intimate knowledge of him and his ways I was reading back through some of the things that Paul says to those who he wrote his epistles to and he says so many things about this in 2 Corinthians 3 he talks about we with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror or as in a reflection the glory of the Lord are changed into the same glory step by step or from glory to glory little by little as we look at the Lord in his word we are changed into that same image our character gets transformed to look like the one we're seeing in the mirror of his word in in Ephesians 1 he prays for the Ephesians that they may know his love and that they may know him in a deeper way in Philippians 3 he expresses his own heart that he's counted everything in his life and he's passed all of his accomplishments as garbage in order that I may know him and then he says in verse 10 that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death that's a deep knowledge of the ways of God of the heart of God in Colossians 1 verses 9 and 10 he prays for the Colossians that they may grow in their knowledge of him it is possible for us to have a deepening growing personal knowledge of the Lord and of his character in his ways that transforms us from the inside out Moses had written on his tombstone God knew him he knew God but more than that the second thing that's written about him is he followed God verse 11 who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt notice Moses did whatever God told him to do he followed the will of God he followed God to Pharaoh to all his officials into his whole land for no one has ever shown the mighty power performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel he followed God he did whatever God told him to do God showed him the way and he walked in that way he followed God with everything and he said Moses wasn't perfect we've seen some of his blemishes and the Lord knows none of us are perfect we will fail him at times as we try to follow him but the question is this are you living in obedience to the Lord sure sure you mess up and at times you disobey I do too but as a general course of your life the general direction of your life are you following him are you walking in obedience to him as you please with the way you're living he knew God he followed God thirdly he served God again in verses 11 and 12 he did everything God wanted him to do in serving him and I go back to verse 7 he was 120 years old when he died yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone I get from that that he never quit he served God right up and down right up until he died now I understand that God had given him probably supernaturally an unusual measure of health up until he's dead I mean to be 120 years old and his eyes not be dim didn't even need any glasses and his strength is still like it was when he was younger his strength had not diminished any that's not normal but it's amazing you know Moses goes up on the mountain doesn't even have to have any glasses or bifocals I don't seem walking up the mountain on a walker you know he's still got all of his strength it's amazing and not all of us are going to have that in fact probably most of us will not it's the normal course of life to diminish in health and strength as we grow older however we can still serve him and never quit until we die I'm not talking about retirement here I know somebody's going to come up and say you're not going to retire then right I mean probably it wouldn't happen you're wanting me to go ahead and retire I know but probably someone might say that I'm not talking about retirement I'm not quitting you know there really is no such thing as retirement in the sense that you just sit on a lawn chair or in a rocking chair and die in six months the kind of retirement is that you keep serving and I'm trusting God to grant other ways in which I can serve him I just know that my days are numbered as far as the capacity to serve as a pastor of a church like this or pastor any church for that matter but I hope and pray that until the day I die I will be able to serve him and I hope that maybe somehow it could legitimately be put on my tombstone he knew God he followed God he served God I hope it can be put on yours she knew God she followed God she served God nothing greater could be put on our tombstones to summarize our lives then what God says of Moses right here Moses his servant you see death is going to come to us all unless the rapture comes first obviously would not be great if Jesus would just come and we would all be caught up to be with him but if the Lord continues to carry his coming we are all going to die someday death will come to us all and when you approach that door you will approach it alone there may be others in the room but nobody's going through that door with you except your Lord and Savior if you know him and maybe God in his grace will give you a glimpse of him receiving you to the other side I don't know maybe but I know that he will be with you as you approach the Lord and Savior you see death now here's the real question are you ready for that time are you ready to die the only way you can enter that confidently with a yes is if you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior not ready to die until you have known personally and trusted your life to him for the forgiveness of your sins the one who says I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father except through me you cannot go through that door into the Father's presence unless you go through Christ Christ Jesus his death on the cross for your sins is the only way you can approach death confidently and know that even as you cannot take anyone else here through that door with you Jesus will meet you there he will walk through that door with you and usher you into his presence do you know him do you know him let's pray Father thank you that we can know for sure that we are with you when we die we die in the presence of God if we've trusted Jesus as our Savior now Lord I pray for everyone here this morning that we would all make sure that we know Jesus as our Savior that we would make sure that we're ready for death whenever or however it should come so Father for that one who's seated here this morning and not sure about that or maybe is pretty confident that they are not ready to meet you I pray that today would be the day when they settle that with you in Jesus name we pray amen