The Wonder Of Immortality
Sermon
Life Everlasting
The Essential Book of Funeral Resources
Object:
A sermon on death preached at a regular Sunday service
The Wonder Of Immortality
Revelation 21; 1 Thessalonians 4
For approximately fifteen centuries, Christendom has expressed the doctrine of immortality in the familiar words of the creed, "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." For many years, Dr. Ellie Jane Wheeler taught English literature at Wheaton College in Illinois. She was noted for her piety as well as her knowledge of the subjects she taught. In May 1919, on Memorial Day, Dr. Wheeler wrote the following letter to the president of the college, her colleagues, and former students:
I greatly appreciate the moment in the chapel that may be given to reading this, for before you leave for the summer I would like to have you know the truth about me as I learned it for myself last Friday. My doctor has at last given me what has been his real diagnosis of my illness for weeks -- an inoperable case of cancer. Now if he had been a Christian he wouldn't have been so shaken, for he would have known as you and I do that life or death is equally welcome when we live in the will and presence of the Lord. If the Lord has chosen me to go to him soon, I go gladly. Please do not give a moment's grief for me. I do not say a cold good-bye, but a warm auf Wiedersehen till I see you again in that blessed land where I may be allowed to draw aside a curtain when you enter.
Just two weeks after writing this letter, Dr. Wheeler entered the presence of her Lord and Master who had promised to take the sting out of death.
Death is a universal experience, yet many folks will not think about it until compelled to. They are offended by the thought of hell and embarrassed by the thought of heaven. Death comes to everyone, pulling kings from their thrones, snuffing out the flickering candle of old age, plucking out the bloom from the soil of humanity and separating the most intimate companions. But whether this is a triumph or a tragedy depends on whether you can say with absolute conviction and assurance: "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." Father Joseph O'Callahan, who was chaplain of the ill-fated Franklin that was all but sunk off the coast of Japan in 1945, wrote in his book: "Death is not horrible when it becomes a gateway to heaven. Death is horrible only when it strikes one who is turned away from God."
However, let us admit that even Christians do not relish the thought of dying. We all want to go to heaven, but no one is in any hurry to get there. And this is natural; the Bible plainly tells us that death is an enemy. God has put into our natures the instinct of survival. But the wonder of immortality is that God grants to mortal men the unexplainable gift of eternal life. This is the sum and substance of the Christian gospel: This is why Jesus died and rose again, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Birth, life, and death are the natural order of things. Physical resurrection and immortality are supernatural gifts when God intervenes in the natural process to rescue from eternal death those who have trusted in him for their salvation. When our blessed Lord rose from the dead and ascended to the Father, he called back over the embattlements of heaven, "Because I live ye shall live also." The physical death which we have seen and will experience, is the cessation of our earthly functions and so we tend to think of it as passing into oblivion. We fight against this by embalming the final remains and buying expensive concrete vaults to extend the semblance of physical life as long as possible. Then as we take our last look at the deceased, it's always nice to remark about how natural they look. There is so much in our funeral procedure that is a denial of everything we profess to believe that we occasionally need to be reminded of the doctrine of immortality.
There has been a great deal of speculation concerning heaven -- many extravagant statements, many wild guesses. Often, our funeral procedure involves a lot of flowery rhetoric and vague poetry to which distracted people resort when unbelief seeks to offer comfort and consolation. This morning, I advance no theories, no opinions, I promise you no astronomical exactitudes concerning the furniture of heaven or the temperature of hell. I only seek to present to you the reality and the beauty of the place where one day all of God's people will be reunited. Perhaps Jesus told us so little about our heavenly home because human language is not adequate to convey the eternal glories of the place he has gone to prepare for us. Paul admitted the limitations of language in this regard when he said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Since we know so little of what it is, let us approach the subject negatively and consider what it is not. The wonder of immortality is that we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever -- a place without separation, without limitation, and without termination.
Many of the heartaches of this present life are caused by separation, and no one knows this better than service families. We dislike saying good-bye even for a short time. The pain of separation is felt even more keenly by millions of families who have been touched by the cold hand of death. Even though that loved one may have died with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, still those who are left behind are saddened by the separation. The empty chair at the table, the picture on the mantle, voices no longer heard, except by the memory -- these are all part of the price we have to pay for living in a world of change and decay.
When Jesus was about to be separated from his disciples, he said: "Let not your heart be troubled ... I go to prepare a place for you ... I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also." All the sympathy and comfort extended by friends in the hour of grief cannot dispel the gloom or heal the wounds caused by separation as do these simple words: "I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, I will receive you unto myself." Hymn writer, John Fawcett, expressed it this way:
When we asunder part
It gives us inward pain
But we shall still be joined in heart
And hope to meet again.
The long night of sorrow and bereavement has been brightened by the light that comes from the assurance that we shall meet again. What hope this brings to those whose lives have been watered by tears of sorrow, what strength it affords to those who have been weakened by the heavy labors of life. It is the hope of a future reunion at God's throne that takes the sting out of death and enables us to endure the separations of the present. This is what gilds the clouds of life's inevitable sorrows with a heaven-sent joy.
Ten years ago, I assisted at a funeral service at the church where I had been a pastor. It was a man who had been a Christian only a year and a half, and yet whose life was consistent with everything he believed. The casket rested on the exact spot where I had once seen him stand to give a public confession of his faith in Christ. I began my part of the service with these words: "He is not here, he is risen; for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." It was the most unusual funeral I have ever seen. There was none of the usual hysteria on the part of the family and there was none of the depression I normally experience after such a funeral. As I drove back home, it occurred to me that this was not a funeral in the usual sense, but a coronation; for even as we conducted the service, he had already passed through the gates of splendor and was in the presence of the Christ he had so recently came to know and love.
In January 1956, five American missionaries were martyred by the Auca Indians in Equador. On the afternoon when the wives of these men received final confirmation of the tragedy, even the reporters were moved at the quiet fortitude with which they received the news. One reporter said: "We expected mass hysteria; we are seeing instead an eloquent testimony to the power and beauty of the faith for which these men gave their lives." Instead of a hopeless end, in Christ we have an endless hope. And even though death is still an enemy, our sorrow is moderated by the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, at which time we will see not only our Savior face-to-face, but also those whom we have "loved long since and last a while."
The famous Scottish singer, Harry Lauder, was stunned by a telegram from the War Department informing him that his son had been killed in combat. Because he knew his boy was a Christian, Harry said: "I would that I could picture to you the joy that lies in the assurance of seeing my boy again." Now, this may seem like a strange thing to say, but I don't believe that our reunion with loved ones is going to be the greatest joy of heaven or even one of the greatest joys. Perhaps we believe so now because we are thinking in terms of the natural and earthly. I believe our greatest joy will be when we see our Savior, no longer through a glass darkly, but face-to-face. At which time all human relationships and earthly joys will pale into insignificance in a life without separation.
Every day of our lives we are made to realize our limitations. We find ourselves torn between the mighty magnetisms of right and wrong, the desire to do good, and the tendencies to do evil. We are caught between the glittering artificialities of the flesh and the seemingly less attractive promptings of the Spirit, between our immediate desires and our ultimate goals. The Latin Poet, Ovid, said: "I see and approve the better things of life; the worse things of life I follow." Even Saint Paul admitted: "The good that I would, I do not; and the evil that I would not, that I do; O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" We must all admit that there is operative within us a law which leads us to do evil even when good intentions are present. At least, most of us will admit this. I had a classmate in college who claimed he hadn't sinned for seven years. I don't know what he was doing for seven years. Maybe he was in a coma, or maybe he just had an extremely broad and generous definition of sin.
The experience of each of us will confirm the statements of scripture that the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. However, we can look forward to a day when we shall be completely delivered from evil and from the sin which doth so easily beset us. In that day, Satan and his hosts shall be destroyed and we shall no longer face the foe. There will be no problems of segregation or desegregation, no problems of nationalism, no tears of the oppressed, no cry of the poor to God. Breaking through the gloom of sin and death, and hovering over the seeming finality of the grave there now abides the certainty of the resurrection morning when we shall no longer see through a glass darkly, but face-to-face; when that which is perfect is come and that which is in part shall be done away.
Also, we shall be free from memories that torment us. Many people go through life never having recovered from something that happened years ago, or never having forgiven themselves for something even though God has. Be assured that nothing in this life can, in any way, mar the eternal bliss that God has prepared for them that love him. The harassing pursuits of life with its perplexing cares and bewildering pleasures will be a faded memory. You may carry a burden all through life, but with perfect confidence, the believer in Christ may look forward to a life without these limitations. This is something we can believe because it is God's promise, sealed in the cross of Christ, recorded in his words of truth and proved in the benediction of unnumbered lives. We read in Revelation 21:
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things have passed away.
This is the hope that comes to those who are sons of God through faith in and commitment to Christ. This hope provides optimism of heart and buoyancy of spirit. It says that however dark the night, a new day will dawn. It proclaims that Christians have a divine destiny. Death and the grave are not life's weary end. It's this future hope that sustains God's people, even though they may have lost the most precious thing in life, and enables them to bear their burdens knowing that eternity will transcend the limitations of time, and the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul gives such a vivid description of the return of Christ that you can almost see the heavens rolled back as a scroll and the Lord descending with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. Then he says the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we who are living at that time shall be caught up with them and so shall we ever be with the Lord. When a person believes this clear to the hilt and with all his heart because God says it is so, there comes to him a power that no temptation can imperil and no experience can impeach.
One of the very first records of Christianity outside the New Testament is a letter dated A.D. 112, sent by Pliny the Younger who was acting Roman governor in Asia, to Trajan the emperor. The governor reports that in Syria a sect has arisen called the Christians. He says, "These foolish people think they are immortal; they go to their death as to triumph, and no threat of punishment has any effect on them." The assurance of eternal life has been a determining factor in much of the church's history because of people who feared not them who are able to kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: "We shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, for this mortal must put on immortality." Then, that which dies is renewed by something over which death has no power and time has no influence. In a day when armies are on the march again, when governments are toppling and values changing, when we are afraid to read tomorrow's headlines, we can thank God that we belong to a kingdom that has no end. John Newton wrote in his hymn, "Amazing Grace":
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright, shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun.
This is way beyond the grasp of the imagination because we simply can't conceive of anything that has no end. You may wonder how this frail body will persevere throughout eternity since most of us are in pretty bad shape by the time we're thirty. In connection with this, rocket scientist, Werhner von Braun said:
Science has found that nothing can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. If God applies this principle to the most minute and insignificant part of his universe, doesn't it make sense to assume that he applies it also to the masterpiece of his creation -- the human soul? I think it does. Everything science has taught me and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.
With this in mind, it doesn't make much difference whether the oatmeal was cold at breakfast, or the Red Sox beat the Orioles, or whether you are a VIP or a peasant. What is your life? At the longest, it's just a flicker in the ages.
All this explains the inherent worth of one human soul. We may marvel at the wonder of creation and the seven man-made wonders of the world, but what shall it profit a person if he/she shall gain the whole world and lose his/her own soul? "The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." This is why the church proclaims that this life is not all; it's not even very much. There is a life beyond the grave; there is a resurrection, there is immortality; meanwhile life does not consist of the things man possesses, because the created world is but a parenthesis of eternity. This life is only a prelude to eternity and in the light of eternity we are all short timers. Let us, therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
I hope that this sermon will not only increase our appreciation of things eternal, but will also revise our standards of values that God's will may be done in our lives as it is in heaven. Surpassing all human philosophies and ideologies is the imperishable reality that our Lord has gone to prepare a place for us and will one day come again and receive us unto himself. This is the wonder of immortality.
Let us pray. Looking to that day when we shall be forever with thee, O Lord, help us even now to realize that time is nothing and eternity is everything; that the cares and pleasures of the world are so fleeting, but that the spirit of man is immortal; that the things of the flesh can bring us no lasting satisfaction, and that our only peace is to be at peace with thee. Teach us the futility of things temporal and the enduring value of things eternal. Amen.
(Reprinted from "Through The Valley Of The Shadows," CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio 45804, © 1976.)
The Wonder Of Immortality
Revelation 21; 1 Thessalonians 4
For approximately fifteen centuries, Christendom has expressed the doctrine of immortality in the familiar words of the creed, "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." For many years, Dr. Ellie Jane Wheeler taught English literature at Wheaton College in Illinois. She was noted for her piety as well as her knowledge of the subjects she taught. In May 1919, on Memorial Day, Dr. Wheeler wrote the following letter to the president of the college, her colleagues, and former students:
I greatly appreciate the moment in the chapel that may be given to reading this, for before you leave for the summer I would like to have you know the truth about me as I learned it for myself last Friday. My doctor has at last given me what has been his real diagnosis of my illness for weeks -- an inoperable case of cancer. Now if he had been a Christian he wouldn't have been so shaken, for he would have known as you and I do that life or death is equally welcome when we live in the will and presence of the Lord. If the Lord has chosen me to go to him soon, I go gladly. Please do not give a moment's grief for me. I do not say a cold good-bye, but a warm auf Wiedersehen till I see you again in that blessed land where I may be allowed to draw aside a curtain when you enter.
Just two weeks after writing this letter, Dr. Wheeler entered the presence of her Lord and Master who had promised to take the sting out of death.
Death is a universal experience, yet many folks will not think about it until compelled to. They are offended by the thought of hell and embarrassed by the thought of heaven. Death comes to everyone, pulling kings from their thrones, snuffing out the flickering candle of old age, plucking out the bloom from the soil of humanity and separating the most intimate companions. But whether this is a triumph or a tragedy depends on whether you can say with absolute conviction and assurance: "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." Father Joseph O'Callahan, who was chaplain of the ill-fated Franklin that was all but sunk off the coast of Japan in 1945, wrote in his book: "Death is not horrible when it becomes a gateway to heaven. Death is horrible only when it strikes one who is turned away from God."
However, let us admit that even Christians do not relish the thought of dying. We all want to go to heaven, but no one is in any hurry to get there. And this is natural; the Bible plainly tells us that death is an enemy. God has put into our natures the instinct of survival. But the wonder of immortality is that God grants to mortal men the unexplainable gift of eternal life. This is the sum and substance of the Christian gospel: This is why Jesus died and rose again, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Birth, life, and death are the natural order of things. Physical resurrection and immortality are supernatural gifts when God intervenes in the natural process to rescue from eternal death those who have trusted in him for their salvation. When our blessed Lord rose from the dead and ascended to the Father, he called back over the embattlements of heaven, "Because I live ye shall live also." The physical death which we have seen and will experience, is the cessation of our earthly functions and so we tend to think of it as passing into oblivion. We fight against this by embalming the final remains and buying expensive concrete vaults to extend the semblance of physical life as long as possible. Then as we take our last look at the deceased, it's always nice to remark about how natural they look. There is so much in our funeral procedure that is a denial of everything we profess to believe that we occasionally need to be reminded of the doctrine of immortality.
There has been a great deal of speculation concerning heaven -- many extravagant statements, many wild guesses. Often, our funeral procedure involves a lot of flowery rhetoric and vague poetry to which distracted people resort when unbelief seeks to offer comfort and consolation. This morning, I advance no theories, no opinions, I promise you no astronomical exactitudes concerning the furniture of heaven or the temperature of hell. I only seek to present to you the reality and the beauty of the place where one day all of God's people will be reunited. Perhaps Jesus told us so little about our heavenly home because human language is not adequate to convey the eternal glories of the place he has gone to prepare for us. Paul admitted the limitations of language in this regard when he said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Since we know so little of what it is, let us approach the subject negatively and consider what it is not. The wonder of immortality is that we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever -- a place without separation, without limitation, and without termination.
Many of the heartaches of this present life are caused by separation, and no one knows this better than service families. We dislike saying good-bye even for a short time. The pain of separation is felt even more keenly by millions of families who have been touched by the cold hand of death. Even though that loved one may have died with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, still those who are left behind are saddened by the separation. The empty chair at the table, the picture on the mantle, voices no longer heard, except by the memory -- these are all part of the price we have to pay for living in a world of change and decay.
When Jesus was about to be separated from his disciples, he said: "Let not your heart be troubled ... I go to prepare a place for you ... I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also." All the sympathy and comfort extended by friends in the hour of grief cannot dispel the gloom or heal the wounds caused by separation as do these simple words: "I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, I will receive you unto myself." Hymn writer, John Fawcett, expressed it this way:
When we asunder part
It gives us inward pain
But we shall still be joined in heart
And hope to meet again.
The long night of sorrow and bereavement has been brightened by the light that comes from the assurance that we shall meet again. What hope this brings to those whose lives have been watered by tears of sorrow, what strength it affords to those who have been weakened by the heavy labors of life. It is the hope of a future reunion at God's throne that takes the sting out of death and enables us to endure the separations of the present. This is what gilds the clouds of life's inevitable sorrows with a heaven-sent joy.
Ten years ago, I assisted at a funeral service at the church where I had been a pastor. It was a man who had been a Christian only a year and a half, and yet whose life was consistent with everything he believed. The casket rested on the exact spot where I had once seen him stand to give a public confession of his faith in Christ. I began my part of the service with these words: "He is not here, he is risen; for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." It was the most unusual funeral I have ever seen. There was none of the usual hysteria on the part of the family and there was none of the depression I normally experience after such a funeral. As I drove back home, it occurred to me that this was not a funeral in the usual sense, but a coronation; for even as we conducted the service, he had already passed through the gates of splendor and was in the presence of the Christ he had so recently came to know and love.
In January 1956, five American missionaries were martyred by the Auca Indians in Equador. On the afternoon when the wives of these men received final confirmation of the tragedy, even the reporters were moved at the quiet fortitude with which they received the news. One reporter said: "We expected mass hysteria; we are seeing instead an eloquent testimony to the power and beauty of the faith for which these men gave their lives." Instead of a hopeless end, in Christ we have an endless hope. And even though death is still an enemy, our sorrow is moderated by the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, at which time we will see not only our Savior face-to-face, but also those whom we have "loved long since and last a while."
The famous Scottish singer, Harry Lauder, was stunned by a telegram from the War Department informing him that his son had been killed in combat. Because he knew his boy was a Christian, Harry said: "I would that I could picture to you the joy that lies in the assurance of seeing my boy again." Now, this may seem like a strange thing to say, but I don't believe that our reunion with loved ones is going to be the greatest joy of heaven or even one of the greatest joys. Perhaps we believe so now because we are thinking in terms of the natural and earthly. I believe our greatest joy will be when we see our Savior, no longer through a glass darkly, but face-to-face. At which time all human relationships and earthly joys will pale into insignificance in a life without separation.
Every day of our lives we are made to realize our limitations. We find ourselves torn between the mighty magnetisms of right and wrong, the desire to do good, and the tendencies to do evil. We are caught between the glittering artificialities of the flesh and the seemingly less attractive promptings of the Spirit, between our immediate desires and our ultimate goals. The Latin Poet, Ovid, said: "I see and approve the better things of life; the worse things of life I follow." Even Saint Paul admitted: "The good that I would, I do not; and the evil that I would not, that I do; O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?" We must all admit that there is operative within us a law which leads us to do evil even when good intentions are present. At least, most of us will admit this. I had a classmate in college who claimed he hadn't sinned for seven years. I don't know what he was doing for seven years. Maybe he was in a coma, or maybe he just had an extremely broad and generous definition of sin.
The experience of each of us will confirm the statements of scripture that the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. However, we can look forward to a day when we shall be completely delivered from evil and from the sin which doth so easily beset us. In that day, Satan and his hosts shall be destroyed and we shall no longer face the foe. There will be no problems of segregation or desegregation, no problems of nationalism, no tears of the oppressed, no cry of the poor to God. Breaking through the gloom of sin and death, and hovering over the seeming finality of the grave there now abides the certainty of the resurrection morning when we shall no longer see through a glass darkly, but face-to-face; when that which is perfect is come and that which is in part shall be done away.
Also, we shall be free from memories that torment us. Many people go through life never having recovered from something that happened years ago, or never having forgiven themselves for something even though God has. Be assured that nothing in this life can, in any way, mar the eternal bliss that God has prepared for them that love him. The harassing pursuits of life with its perplexing cares and bewildering pleasures will be a faded memory. You may carry a burden all through life, but with perfect confidence, the believer in Christ may look forward to a life without these limitations. This is something we can believe because it is God's promise, sealed in the cross of Christ, recorded in his words of truth and proved in the benediction of unnumbered lives. We read in Revelation 21:
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things have passed away.
This is the hope that comes to those who are sons of God through faith in and commitment to Christ. This hope provides optimism of heart and buoyancy of spirit. It says that however dark the night, a new day will dawn. It proclaims that Christians have a divine destiny. Death and the grave are not life's weary end. It's this future hope that sustains God's people, even though they may have lost the most precious thing in life, and enables them to bear their burdens knowing that eternity will transcend the limitations of time, and the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul gives such a vivid description of the return of Christ that you can almost see the heavens rolled back as a scroll and the Lord descending with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. Then he says the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we who are living at that time shall be caught up with them and so shall we ever be with the Lord. When a person believes this clear to the hilt and with all his heart because God says it is so, there comes to him a power that no temptation can imperil and no experience can impeach.
One of the very first records of Christianity outside the New Testament is a letter dated A.D. 112, sent by Pliny the Younger who was acting Roman governor in Asia, to Trajan the emperor. The governor reports that in Syria a sect has arisen called the Christians. He says, "These foolish people think they are immortal; they go to their death as to triumph, and no threat of punishment has any effect on them." The assurance of eternal life has been a determining factor in much of the church's history because of people who feared not them who are able to kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: "We shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, for this mortal must put on immortality." Then, that which dies is renewed by something over which death has no power and time has no influence. In a day when armies are on the march again, when governments are toppling and values changing, when we are afraid to read tomorrow's headlines, we can thank God that we belong to a kingdom that has no end. John Newton wrote in his hymn, "Amazing Grace":
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright, shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we first begun.
This is way beyond the grasp of the imagination because we simply can't conceive of anything that has no end. You may wonder how this frail body will persevere throughout eternity since most of us are in pretty bad shape by the time we're thirty. In connection with this, rocket scientist, Werhner von Braun said:
Science has found that nothing can disappear without a trace. Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. If God applies this principle to the most minute and insignificant part of his universe, doesn't it make sense to assume that he applies it also to the masterpiece of his creation -- the human soul? I think it does. Everything science has taught me and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.
With this in mind, it doesn't make much difference whether the oatmeal was cold at breakfast, or the Red Sox beat the Orioles, or whether you are a VIP or a peasant. What is your life? At the longest, it's just a flicker in the ages.
All this explains the inherent worth of one human soul. We may marvel at the wonder of creation and the seven man-made wonders of the world, but what shall it profit a person if he/she shall gain the whole world and lose his/her own soul? "The world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." This is why the church proclaims that this life is not all; it's not even very much. There is a life beyond the grave; there is a resurrection, there is immortality; meanwhile life does not consist of the things man possesses, because the created world is but a parenthesis of eternity. This life is only a prelude to eternity and in the light of eternity we are all short timers. Let us, therefore, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
I hope that this sermon will not only increase our appreciation of things eternal, but will also revise our standards of values that God's will may be done in our lives as it is in heaven. Surpassing all human philosophies and ideologies is the imperishable reality that our Lord has gone to prepare a place for us and will one day come again and receive us unto himself. This is the wonder of immortality.
Let us pray. Looking to that day when we shall be forever with thee, O Lord, help us even now to realize that time is nothing and eternity is everything; that the cares and pleasures of the world are so fleeting, but that the spirit of man is immortal; that the things of the flesh can bring us no lasting satisfaction, and that our only peace is to be at peace with thee. Teach us the futility of things temporal and the enduring value of things eternal. Amen.
(Reprinted from "Through The Valley Of The Shadows," CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio 45804, © 1976.)
