Someone once said, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die — I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” This is probably how many of us here today feel. But the fact remains; death is as much a part of life as life itself.  Every family faces death at one time or another.  Death reminds us how tender and fragile life can be.

The Book of Ecclesiastes says it well when it says, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die.” It also says in Chapter 7:1, “The day of death is better than the day of birth.”

Download the entire Outline by clicking on the links below in either PDF or Word formats: Eternal Home LIfe and Death - PDF - Word The Force of Death - PDF - Word

John 14:1-3 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.  2“in My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  3“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

This is one of my favorite Scriptures, because it gives me so much hope and excitement as I look towards eternity. 

---

Please contact Pastor Ken Birks for any questions or comments
at ken@straitarrow.net

Our Eternal Home

Billy Graham wrote in his book “Facing Death,” “Today we are told how to look young, stay trim, keep healthy, have a good image, think positively, make more money, and have more friends.  All these – indicate that we are trying desperately to cling to this present world.  The truth is, life is transitory.  “What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes’ (James 4:14b) If we want to make the most of life, we need to face the fact that it is going to end.”

Just think, the greatest carpenter that ever existed on earth and in heaven is building a dream home for you.  Think about some of the most beautiful homes you have ever seen and the talent that went into designing and building one of those homes.  It is nothing in comparison to what Jesus is preparing for you.  All of the greatest talents that have ever existed in designing and building homes came from Him. 

Jesus is the Door to this eternal home.

John 10:9“I am the door, If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

2 Corinthians 5:1-2, 8 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven. (8) We are confident, yes, well pleased to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

The apostle Paul had such a glorious vision of eternity and heaven that he was in great turmoil over a desire to depart and be with Christ or to remain in the flesh.  He realized that there was nothing in this life that offered any comparison to what eternity offered.

Philippians 1:23-24 For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. (24) Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you.

This is the reality that must take shape in our lives if we are to be properly prepared to deal with, not only Juanita’s death, but others as well.  When this truth becomes reality for us death loses its sting.

This is why the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes wrote:

Ecclesiastes 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

Eternal and Heavenly Realities

1. Heaven and Eternity are beyond our Wildest Expectations.
2. Our Place in Heaven is created according to our own Desires.
3. Heaven is a Place of No More Sorrow, Pain and Crying.
4. Heaven is a Place of Eternal Beauty

Remember: Jesus is the Door to this eternal home.  There is no other way.