Death, Be Not Proud | Rev. Terry K. Anderson

Death

Be not proud

Death

Be not

proud

The phrase

Death be not proud

is

from the first line of a

sonnet

Written by 16th century poet and

English cleric

Who was made Dean of st. Paul's Cathedral in London?

Sir John done

He employs the poetic device of

irony and

personification

To illustrate to people

that are afraid of death of

The truism that death is

merely a journey

It is a short rest

Before reaching the afterlife

So John done talks to death as if it were a person

Shaming death for being proud of itself

Done refers to death brothers and sisters as an apostrophe

Not the mark of punctuation. That's an apostrophe

but apostrophe as a figure of speech

The word apostrophe

Comes from the ancient Greek and literally means turning away

It involves the speaker or the writer

addressing an inanimate

abject or an abstract idea

By turning its but his or her back on what they are talking about as if what they are speaking of is an

Abstraction or does not really exist a

Modern-day preacher poet

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Put death in bolder relief

When he said death is not a period which ends this great sentence of life

But rather a comma which punctuates it for more lofty significance

Dr. King said death is not a blind alley

Which leads into a state of nothingness?

But rather an open door

Which leads to life eternal?

Robert Ingersoll

Who was not a believer said life is a narrow veil

between the barren peaks of two eternities

birth and

death

Dr. Gardner see Taylor who went to be with the Lord at the age of 96

Close the chasm that Ingersoll could not span

Dr. W. Franklin Richardson made mention to me that when dr. Taylor

learned of the death of dr. TJ Jimison and other great pulpit luminaries

Dr. Taylor's response was always

good for him

Good for him

Apparently we Christians many of us have a problem with death

We use many

euphemisms

to sanitize and

disinfect

This matter called death

We say so and so has expired

Or she or she has passed away

If you from Louisiana they kicked the bucket

Or you from Texas or Oklahoma they've gone to the Ponderosa

Or if you're from California, they move to the great beyond

And if you're in my family, you never talk about death you say if something happens to me

My sister says that all the time if something happened to me

I say you mean if you're getting a car wreck or if you break your leg that's something happening to you

What do you what are you really talking about? She said well if something happened to me

This is what I want to happen. I said no no no let's talk about this something happening to you

And I want to say to do those of us here this morning who call it kicking the bucket or passing on or expired or

Going to the Ponderosa or going to the great beyond or something happened to you

Let me give you an arresting statistic

If the Lord Jesus delays his coming

One out of every one of us in here this morning is going to die

Put it in your phone

Put it on your day planner

Put it on your schedule. You might you might cancel your beauty shop appointment

You might cancel your nail appointment. You might cancel your massage. You might cancel your eye doctor

You might cancel your appointment with your which your which your gardenic colleges

But put this on your schedule if Jesus does not come soon

You and I are going to die

I don't care how pretty you are

I don't care how fine you are okay. How young you are how old you are all of us have an appointment

With death

But for the Christian death is not the grim Reaper

For the child of God death is transportation

Death carries us from one side to the other side. Listen, I

Could fall asleep tonight and not wake up in the morning on this side

I'm going to wake up in the morning either on this side

Or on the other side because to be absent from the body. I

Wish I had a vibrator

Is to be present with the Lord

we know

That if this earthly house I

Wish I had two or three more witnesses of this tabernacle is

dissolved

We have another building a

House

Not made with hands

But eternal in the heaven we used to sing it when I was a boy there's a leak in this old building

and

My soul

Has got to move

Let me see if I can help somebody this morning

All you have

All I have

is a lease agreement

This this house

this body

That I'm living in that you are living in all you have is a lease agreement

and

One day the landlord

Is going to come and say to you that your lease is up

And it would be tragic to have to move with no forwarding address

When this life is over I

Wish I had a believer here when I'm through struggling down here

I have another place to go I have a house not made with hands

Because I am a child of God

Apparently

Some of the Corinthians had come to doubt the resurrection

and the apostle devotes an entire chapter

58 verses

To reassure them and us that the resurrection of Jesus is a real event and

His resurrection from the dead can give us victory in our day-to-day life

Victory over what brother pastor

We Christians have victory over death

Let me let me say something to us that hopefully you're gonna go on talking about

Fear of death is heathenism

Fear of death is heathenism

not Christianity

Because in the Old Testament death was called the king of terror

But in the New Testament death is called sleep

That's why when I'm gone

They're not bringing me to a graveyard because that's for dead people

I'm going to a cemetery

Because the very word cemetery means sleeping place

When I die I'm just falling asleep. I

Wish I had some help to preach it

I'm not dead. I'm sleeping

I'm sleeping in that UK wake me up

But when the trumpet sound

The dead in Christ

Shall be raised first. I wish I had some help to preach it and those of us who are alive and remain

Shall be caught up together to meet them in the air. We shall be raptured caught up

change in

the twinkling of an eye

I

The scripture says two will be sleeping in a bed

One will disappear and one will remain

Two will be working in a field

One will disappear and

One will remain

I like talking about the two people in scripture who did not taste death

One was Elijah

caught up in a chariot of fire

But the one I really like talking about is Enoch. I

Need two or three more Bible reading

The Bible says Enoch

Walk with God

And he was not

Because God took it

One day Enoch and God was just walking and talking and and having a good time like they did every day and

Then God said since you're closer to where I lived into where you live

Won't you just come on and go with me

And God took it

One day I just want to be

took it I

Know that ain't good English, but that's good Baptist talk. I

Want to just be took it one day? I want to just be doing what I'm doing and the law just took me

I'm going home because I want to be closer to where he lives

in my father's house a

Many

Many mansion

If it were not so I

Would have told you

I go

That's Jesus talking now

To prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you

I'm gonna come again

And receive you under myself that where I am

There you will be also

Christ

Overcame death and

Has conquered the grave by his resurrection and

brought life and

mentality to light by the gospel

Paul said I delivered under you

First that which I have also received

How he was crucified and died one Friday

According to the scriptures

How he was buried

According to the scriptures how he rose on the third day

According to the scriptures and Paul said he called me an apostle born

out of due time

To preach to you

the resurrection I

Am not even qualified. He says to be called an apostle

Because I persecuted the church of God

Here it is, but by the grace of God I

Am

What I am and everybody here who's been saved this morning don't brag on how moral you are

Don't brag on how pious and righteous and scripture and illiterate you are

Because all it takes is a moment and any one of us can fall in the sin, but by the grace of God

I

am

What I

Don't don't you just don't you just want to scream

When you talk to these people who who answer their phone praise the Lord

I

I'm blessed and highly favored

I'm too blessed to be stressed and they got a fish on their bumper

And they're always listening to his gospel music and and you can't raise your voice around them because

They're halo might fall off

And and and that's why they cover themselves up so tight because their wings might be exposed

That that's got to be a miserable confining

Cold lifeless dead kind of life

Because you can't appreciate grace

until you've been a liar

You can't appreciate grace until you've seen so wickedly

That the Lord had to cover you with his blood and

When you come here on Sunday morning, you ain't shouting because you got it right all the week long last week

You come here shouting cuz you messed up, but by the grace of God I

Am

What I am I

Should have been dead I

Deserve to be dead

But mercy grace

Surely

Goodness

And mercy

Shall follow me

All the days of my life. I wish I had some noise right here

Yeah

Though I walk

Through the valley of the shadow of death

I fear no evil cuz I got somebody with

Your rod and your staff

They comfort me

He prepared the table before

In the presence of my enemies

He anoints my head because listen, I don't know who my enemies are

They look like my friends

They talk like my friends

They laugh and grin in my face like my friends, but I don't know who my head. That's why I need a shepherd

Who can prepare a table before me

in

The presence of my enemies

And then he anoints my head with oil

So that my cup is

Running over I

Need a I need a witness here

Who get happy when it ain't Sunday? You

Don't even have to be in church

You you you you you you just start thinking about

How many doors he's open

How many tears he's dry

How many ways he's made

How much he led you around that you could have fallen into but he kept you

He never left you

And it's just Wednesday and you start shouting about his goodness. Let me let me let me let me testify before I move on

Sometime when I when I when I turn the ignition in my car

I

Think about the little the little Buick century I used to have

That that they knew it was me coming down the street

Because it smoked so much

They thought I was the mosquito man spraying for mosquito

And then I had to park it where I didn't have to back up

Because my transmission was gone

And

Then look like it had a mind of its own if I left it idling it just take off by itself

And I had to dive in the drivers of winter

To stop it but look where I

Had a little black and white 13 inch television

With some foreign paper on the on the antenna. I wish I had somebody to help me

And my knob was broke so I had to get a pair of pliers I

Couldn't afford cable so I just had three channels, but look where the Lord I

Need one or two more witnesses here who can remember all you had was one pass shoes

All you had was one good suit of clothes

But now you open your closet and got to make up your mind what you're gonna put

down through the years

The last bit good to me

I've got the victory over death

I've got the victory in verse 56 over deception

The sting of death is sin and

The strength or the power of sin is the law

And and when you look at it

And and when you look at sin and the law

It terrifies you

Because you know that because of your sin and

Because you can't keep the law

You're hopeless

But if in this life only

We have hope we are among all men

Most miserable

Sin is the reason Jesus came into work

He lived and he died on the cross and

It is his death that delivers us from our sins because he paid the price for sin

With his own blood

And if the power of death arises from sin

Then the only way it can be done away is

by the expiation and

Forgiveness of sin and sin must be atoned for if death is to be destroyed

Sin gave death a sting and

The sting of death

pierces

pains and

Poisons

The power of sin pierces

The guilt of sin is painful and

The pollution and defilement of sin is poison

But Jesus took the sting

I was trying to save this till I got to the end of the sermon

I shared it with the brothers in the back in our consecration

my daughter

Victoria is afraid of anything that moves or crawls. That's not a person

She's scared of spiders she's scared of roaches

Was bees

Worms anything that squirms moves crawls does not a human

She's afraid of it

As bad as she try to think she is

She'll call me at 10 30 at night to come get a dead roach out of her house. I

Said Victoria is dead. Oh dad. I

Got to get up out of my house and go get a dead roach

She's been that way all of her life when she was a small child about four maybe five years old

We were sitting outside and a wasp came around and

She jumped in my neck and almost squeezed my eyes out of the socket

And I said what's what's the matter? She said dad is a wasp. It's a wasp

And I saw the was flying around and I grabbed it

And it stung me in my hand

And when I opened my hand I

showed her the stinger and

I said it can't bother you now

Because the stinger is

In my hand

One Friday

On a hill called Calvary

Jesus took the sting out of death and

Said oh death

Where is your sting?

grave

Where's your victory? You want to know where the sting of death is Jesus just got to open his hand

He died

Didn't he die and when he died he took the sting out of death and

Robbed the grave of its victory

And so I've got the victory over death I've got the victory

Over deception

Never the next time you go to the funeral of a Christian that's deception you look in there

They fooling you they ain't dead

They just sleep

And one of these days

You're gonna read in the Houston Chronicle in the obituary column

Yeah, the Terry Anderson is dead

That's a misprint

That's deception I'll be more live then

Than I've ever been before I

Will drop this metal of flesh

step out of the narrow

Circumstitions of time and into the

Elimitable experiences of eternity when life's fitful fever is ended I will not be dead

I'm going to sleep

You can't get mad with a man who's worked all day who wants some sleep

Somebody help me talk here

When I've borne my burdens in the heat of the day when my life is ended I want to go to sleep

If you miss me

From singing down here and you can't find me nowhere

Come up to bright glory

I'll be singing up there

I have victory over death. I

Have victory over deception

But I have victory also finally over damnation

It's right here in the text but

Thanks be to God

Who just gives us

Victory

Through our Lord Jesus Christ we don't we don't deserve it

We didn't do anything to earn it

We will never be good enough to merit it

Because of the death of Christ and I believe in his finished work on the cross he just gives us

the victory

And when somebody gives you something that you don't deserve you ought to have sense enough

To just say thank you I

Know what I deserve

But thank you for your grace I

Know what I got coming to me

But thank you for your grace I

Know what should have happened to me

But thank you for your grace

Do you know what could have happened to you between last Sunday and this one?

Somebody ought to help me preach

You don't know how many cars God slowed down to keep from running into you

You don't know what was going on while you were sleeping outside your house

I know you had your alarm system on and I know you got burglar balls

But but but God kept you

You slept soundly last night

Because the death angel was flying over the city of Houston

But your house was covered

Not not not by a burglar system

But covered by the blood of Christ I

Wish I had a believer here

Because some people better by nature than we are

I did not wake up this morning

but God woke us up and

Then God got us to his house

safely on the interstate and

Then brought us to our particular seat in the sanctuary

You could have dropped dead as soon as you got out of your car

Or you could have walked in this church and died in the vestibule

Or you could have sit down in your pew

spoke to somebody

Close your eyes and never wake up again

God's just been good to us

Every move I make

Every step I take

Is by the goodness and the mercy of God Almighty

You need to tell some super saint next to you

Who's trying to act all holy and they they haven't opened their mouth since they've been in the sanctuary

They've never sung any of the songs that we sang this morning

They didn't clap they didn't move from side to side

They didn't give God glory. They didn't put their head down during devotion

You need to let them know that it was not for God's goodness

If it were not for God's

mercy

If it were not for the fact that he looked beyond my faults and

saw my needs

God's been good to me. I

Need one or two more believers to help me close here. I know you were waiting for me to get to verse number 58

You probably thought I forgot about verse number 58, but I didn't forget about verse number 58

There's a whole lot of shouting in verse 58

But you got to read verse 50 on down

Before you can shout about verse number 58

Because in verse number 50 it starts out by behold I

show you a

mystery

We shall not all sleep

But we shall all be changed

in a moment in the twinkling of an eye for the trumpet of God shall

sound and when this model has put on

immortality and when this corruptible has put on in corruption

Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written

Death has been swallowed up in

victory

Oh death

Where is your sting?

Oh grave

Where is your victory?

The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory

Through our Lord Jesus Christ

Here it comes therefore

Whenever you see the word therefore you ought to want to know what it's there for

Here is what it's there for

You got to read on up into chapter 15

If there be no resurrection of the dead

Then we have died in vain

Our faith is in vain

Our preaching is in vain

And we are among all men

most miserable

But thank you Jesus

He died

on a hill called Calvary and his death was sufficient

For God getting a ransom for our sins

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

What can make me

Hold again

Nothing

But the blood of Jesus

I need a believer here this morning

Who know what the word therefore is therefore

Therefore my beloved brethren

Be steadfast

That word steadfast means just be seated

Unmovable

That word unmovable just means be firm

Always abounding in the work of the Lord

For as much as you know

That your labor is not in vain

In the Lord

You're gonna help me close this won't you?

Sometime is hard to be Christian

Sometime it's difficult when the road is rough and the going gets tough and it looks like everybody's getting ahead of you and

Everybody's doing better than you are doing and

Everybody's life seems to be on a keel that your life is not on

You look at them on Facebook and they look so good and look like life is just going their way

And then you look at them on tiktok and it looked like they're just having such a good time

But that's one day out of

365 days

You don't know how much hell they've had those other day

You don't know how mean they've been those other days

You don't know how ugly life has been for them those other days, but you are the thank God

that you have life and

And you have life more abundantly you are the thank God you have peace

That surpasses all

understanding you are the thank God that you have joy

That no money can purchase

You might not live where they live

You might not drive what they drive, but when it's all over

We've got to stand before the same judgment seat

We've got to meet the same God and if you live right

You shall receive your reward

If you trust God

You'll make a way out of no way. I need a believer here right now. I

Need a serious Christian right now

Who's had some good days and?

Some bad days

You've had some sunshine today

You've had some rainy days

You've had some warm days

You've had some cold days

You've had some happy days

You've had some days of depression

But through it all

God kept you

through it all

God made a way for you

through it all

through it all

through it all

God's been good to you if you don't mind testifying

If you don't mind being a witness

Make some signs

That God has made a way for you

Why don't you make a sign?

That God has shown up

Right when you needed it

Why don't you make some sign that God turned it around?

Just in the nick of time

Try to dis a

commonplace

all kinds of diseases

People are slipping away

The economy is down

People can't get enough pay

But ask for me

Ask for me

All I can say is thank you Lord

for all

You've done for me it could have been me

I've done

with no food

and no clothes

All left alone without a friend

Just another number

with a tragic end

But you didn't see fit

To let none of these things be

I'm saved by your power and you keep on

You keep on

You keep on

You keep on

You keep on

You keep on

You keep on

You keep on

Keeping me

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

No, he's alright

Excuse me here

There's some folk in here like me

who've crossed over 50 years old

and the longest end of the rope

is behind you now

and what you're looking forward to

is that great getting up on

Trials dark

on the ever a hand

and we cannot

understand

all the ways

that God will lead us

to that blessed

promised land

but he'll guide us

with his eye

we'll follow

till we die

we'll understand it

better

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