Death or Life From Sin - Tim Schrock

Good morning, Lord, bless each one of you, M account

of the privilege to be here with you all this morning.

It's a blessing to get together. I'm going to read

verse three again. Ecclesias is one three. I like that verse.

What profit hath he man of all his labor which

he takes under the sun? I guess we're all under

the sun yet, right, we're all here yet. And I

think it's important that we take time to meditate a

little bit on what is important in life? Really? What

is valuable? What is what I should be doing? What

I shouldn't be doing? What profit am I getting out

of what I'm doing? Am I doing? What is right?

Is it good? Probably? I'm not sure when Solomon wrote this,

but he might have been thinking of all the things

that he got accomplished, supposedly got accomplished while he was here.

But he probably got to the point of realizing understanding

that the things that he was he got drawn into,

he got drawn into the wrong things, or he was

trying to get profit out of things that were not valuable,

that did not have everlasting value in them. So it

does me good too, continue to look into my life

and see what what am I doing am I am?

I doing it right? And I was thinking about that

and I want, I want to talk about life and

death this morning. We're not in a funeral this morning,

at least, we don't have any plans on having a

funeral here today. But I think there are a lot

of things we can learn, and it's good to remember

as we go through life that God is trying to

teach us things. God. God is trying to show us

what is profitable, what is what is the thing that

we should be doing now. I want to share this

morning some things that I have learned from people that

have died or people that are dying. Mm hmmm, experiences

and personal testimonies of things that I have learned. Generally,

we learn basically the same thing, you know, but we

all are different than we One person receives one thing,

another receives another thing, another blessing or admonition, but all

in all, it comes out about the same thing. Death

is something that we do not generally, humanly speaking, we

do not look forwards to. We try to evade it,

at least it seems like it, because we're we have

medicines and doctors and hospitals and people and get sick.

While there'll be a lot of people out of work.

I mean, people are dying sickness. It's it's endless. So

death is a is this something that we all are

affected with? And I'm almost fifty nine and I don't

know how long I'm going to last yet, but it

looks to me like I'm going backwards faster than what

my age should shows that it should be. But whatever,

it doesn't really matter. Maybe God's going to give you more.

But then again, you find death coming for people who

are young. You know, it's just like what for what reason?

Why did he die? Why did I mean, there's a

lot of things that he could be doing, Yet what's

the purpose? We just we tried to evade it. We

try to figure out ways of not making it look

so ugly. Someone doble not long ago that they in

some funeral homes, they or families or people invite these

comics or I don't know what they call them, that

they come into crack jokes and make make people laugh

in the funeral home in the time of when people

are should be should be thinking seriously about life instead

of just making a joke out of things. It's probably

just to try to evade the fact that the reality

of death. I mean, it's just, but is that what

God thinks? Is that what God wants us to do.

I have found it beneficial to when someone dies, some

an accident, or somebody dies, to think about what is

God telling us by this? We sometimes think it, well,

it's just something that happens. It's something that we all

have to go through. We just got accepted. But if

we think about it, then the Bible, God has often

used death and the way people died to teach some

blessing to help us, to remind us. In Genesis two seventeen,

it says like this, but of the Tree of life,

I'm sorry, but if the tree of knowledge of good

and evil, thou shalt not eat, for in the day

that thou eat est thereof thou shalt surely die. And

we've all eaten of that tree. We have all sinned,

and we all will surely die. Now, I know that

the real death that it's talking about here is the

eternal death, the second death what the Bible calls it.

But even our physical death comes from this. So this

surely dying thing is something that should continually be on

our mind, you know, I am surely dying because I'm

sure not as energetic as I was twenty years ago,

so I'm surely going backwards. That in itself should remind us,

you know, of what Our life is very short. But

this surely dying thing is something that we need to

really take serious. I mean, we are surely going to die.

If we don't do something about it, We're gonna end

up in bad hate. It's not something that we can evade.

We'd better face it from the beginning, and we'd better

look at it squarely and think what we're gonna do

about this thing, what can be done. That is one

of the main messages in the Bible that I see

is that God wants us to look at life the

way he looks at it and what he wants to happen.

I mean, what he is looking forwards to, That's what

he wants us to look forwards to. So it's important

to think about that. So death, that death that is

talking about here. That Adam and Eve after three, you know,

the sad day when they were pushed out of the

garden to die. I mean that was just square in

their faces. They just they just felt it, right, I mean,

they felt it right. I mean, it's just they couldn't

do anything about it. The only ray of hope that

they had. They probably didn't even understand much of it,

but they got a slight ray of hope that something's

going to be done about this. But they have maybe

no idea how it's going to happen. But that was

so so real to them when they were had to

leave that day, and the facts, the change that lifestyle,

the change of life that they had from before to after.

I mean, if they would write, if they would have

written a book about all the differences and all the

things that were different from there, from the from before

to after, they'd have a lot of stories to tell.

We don't understand it because that's the way we were born.

But sin, disobedience is terrible. God hates it. It's something

that he cannot stand. Sin disobedience to God's love is

the worst sickness, the worst problem in the whole world.

I mean, we all try to figure out problems and

try to fix problems, but the worst that ever existed

was sin. And if sin has not dealt with and

taken care of, we're all sure they're going to die.

I mean, that's just that's as sure as it. That's

why he used the word surely so Nick in Ezekiel,

he's like eighteen twenty the soul that sinneth it shall die,

and we all have sinned Roman sixth twenty three. The

wages of sin is death. Death. That's what you know. Wages.

We think of something, oh beneficial, We get something out

for what we're doing. We get wages. We wages. We

like that. But it uses that that word here as

this is what we get out of sinning. We like

to sin, well, that's what we get sinning. The wages

is death. We enjoy sinning. We enjoy doing sinful things

and disobeying. We enjoy it. We go after it with

all our hearts. Sometimes we just do a yeah, we

just do all we can do to sin. And we

hate to see what are wages were going to be?

We we don't want to accept that. We try to

evade it. We try to figure out ways. Some people

try to think that after death they're going to be

able to be prayed out of it. Some people try

to invent the idea that well God has merciful. Surely,

sure if I pray every now and then, surely if

I name the name of God. Surely, if I am

not too bad of a person, surely God's going to

have mercy on me. I just can't see how God

could put a person like that into hill. I mean,

that would be the most cruel thing that could happen.

And we try to invent and figure out all kinds

of ways to appease our conscience and to try to

figure out ways to not have to pay get paid

for our sinning. Roma's eighty six says, I mean, let

me look that up. For to be cardinvally minded is death,

but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The

first part there, to be carnally minded, corneally minded is

a person who lets his mind run its own and

it's what it likes, thinking about what I feel today

and what I like now. What about feeling just really

enjoying what's around me and just letting it go and

enjoying what I can get out of it. I don't

know if that can explain exactly what a cardinal mind is,

but it says here the carnally minded, that type of

a person is dead. That's the end of that. Roberts

twenty one to eight. Yah, No, I'm sorry. I got

to look that one up to Proverbs twenty one to eight.

The way of man is forward and strange, but as

for the pure, his work is right. I'm sorry, that's

the wrong one. It's the wrong reference. Well let's just

leave that one anyway. So death, the way is of

sin is death. What are we going to do about it? That?

It's it's a serious It's something serious, and we need

to we need to stop and think about it. What

is going to happen? But in First greens Is fifteen,

Postle Paul was talking about death and and different things.

But at the end of the chapter, at the first

greens Is fifteen fifty four says like this, So when

this corruptible shall be put on put on when this,

when this corruptible shall be put on incorruption, and this

mortal shall be put on immorality, immortality, then shall be

brought to pass the saying that is written, death is

swallowed up in victory, oh death, whereas I sting o grave,

where that victory the sting of death is sin, and

the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be

to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord

Jesus Christ. The sting of death is sin, and the

strength of sin is the law. That is what that

is what sin does to us. It brings us death,

and the law condemns us as sinners and condemns us

to death. But we thank God that He has given

us the victory over that death and over this sin,

and that we are no more under the bondage of

this wage, of those wages that are condemning every one

of us. So if we look at it, if we

think about that and what Jesus has done for us,

let's read. Let's read some verses on that and Psalms

two three and four. Let us break their bands asunder

and cast away their cords from us. I'm sorry, I'm

not reading my notes right it. Psalms twenty four twenty

Psalms twenty three to four. Yay, do I walk through

the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear

no evil, for thou art with me thy riding their staff,

they comfort me though I'm walking in the middle, in

the midst of this type of life, and in this

world where death and sin and death abound, and the

majority of people are sinning and they're dying. The first

and the second death in the midst of all that

I fear none of that evil, for thou art with me,

and thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. I mean,

that is such a blessing to know that there's a

that ray of hope that Adam and Eve felt is

real for you and me today. But it takes exercise,

It takes effort to make sure that we are under

that protection and that Blessings one hundred and sixteen fifteen says,

precious is in the sight of the Lord the death

of his saints. Turn that around about the ones who

are dying in their sins, how the Lord. It saddens

the Lord's heart to see his children dying forever and sin,

But to think about the preciousness in the sight of

the Lord. To have those who have dealt with this problem,

who have been concerned about it and have done something

about it, and have learned from life, and are giving

themselves over to the Lord so that they can die

in the Lord Roberts fourteen thirty two. The righteous will

have hope in his death. Hope. It's not just maybe

I can make it, maybe he'll have mercy on it

on us. No, it's a hope. It's something real it's

something that we know is true, is sure. But that

doesn't just come by living a careless life. It takes

exercise to see what is happening in our lives and

what we are doing. In Romans Philippins one twenty one,

for me to live is Christ, but to die is Gain.

I mean the bustle Paul, his life after he was

converted changed completely. His living while he was here is Christ.

I mean Christ was his was in front of him

all the time. He had him as first in his life,

in every thing that he did and every decision that

he made, and that made it that he could say

that dying was gain. That's a blessing to have that testimony.

So it's good to think about death and the way

people have died and what has happened when they die,

how they have died. You know, we often in funerals,

we often try to figure out all the good things

that that person had to try to I don't know

why do we do that. We try to be positive,

and you know, we just hope that he went to heaven.

I just hope he was right with the Lord. And

if he wasn't, why we at least try to find

some good things that he did. So at least we

at least we can console ourselves a little bit. That

is sad when we have to do that. I remember

when Pabulaiota was dying, he told us, said, you who

are going to speak in my funeral, I don't want

you to just butter me up and say all the

good things that I did. You tell the people that

I was a sinner and all the bad things that

I did, but that Jesus saved me. Those are very

important messages. And if we go to a Hebrews eleven,

think about what Hebrews eleven is talking about, talking about

these people of faith, these men and women of faith

from the past that have gone before us, these people

who suffered many extremely difficult, hard things, and there were

men of faith. Think of Abel here. It says that Able,

by faith, Able offered them to God a more excellent

sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he

was righteous and God testifying of his gifts, and by

it he being dead yet speaketh. Just think about Abel's

death and the way he died, and the condition of

his heart when he died. It says, it talks about

some good things in life, but It says also that

he's he being dead yet speaketh his testimony. His life

still thousands of years later is speaking to us, and

God is calling us to look at Able and look

how he lived, and look how he died, and focus

on that and make sure that we are imitating that faith.

At the end of the chapter it talks it makes

a whole list of people. It just says, I can't,

I can't tell all these stories. It's going to be

too long. But it says about through their faith Verse

thirty three, through their faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness, obtained promises,

stop the mouths of lions, quenched, the violence of fire,

escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness where

they made strong, waxed violent in fight, turned into flight.

The armies of the Allies Alians, women received their dead

raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting

deliverance that they might obtain better resurrection. And others had

trial of crew, mocking and scourging, yet more over bonds

and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they

were tempted, they were slain, They with sowre, they wandered,

about and skinned sheepskins, goat skins, being destitute, afflict, the

tormented of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered

in deserts, in the mountains, and in dens and caves,

and of the earth, And these all having obtained a

good report through faith, received not the promise God has

provided some better thing for us, that they without us

shall not be made perfect, not meaning that they did

not make it. It's just that they hadn't received the promise

of Jesus. He's trying to show us the value and

the blessing that we have of having Jesus. But then

verse then chapter twelve, verse one, it says, wherefore, seeing

that we also are compassed about with so great a

cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight of

sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us

run with patients the race that is set before us.

You see what it's saying there, See the point we

need to look back at these men and women and

see how they lived and how they died, and see

what and see what effect that had on their life,

and how they lived, and how they accept a different

cult things in life, how they looked up at these things,

and we need to be very careful because there are

sins that doth so easily be set us that it

just takes or takes the place of what we should

be doing. Sin, disobedience, carnal desires, fleshy desires, there's so

many things that are just easy, so easily take the

place of what we should really be doing. And how

are we how are we going to expect to get

through the other side where we really want to be,

where we want to go if we don't take care

of the sin in our lives and these problems and

face life thinking seriously about what we're doing and what

where are we going to end out? If we keep

on doing what we're doing, what is going to be

the end of this? Then it goes on to say,

looking into Jesus, the author and the finish of our faith.

You know, let's not worries so much about it. If

we have Jesus as our guide, we have Jesus as

our focus every day, we're gonna we're going to face

life the way he did. We're going to treat sin

the way He treated sin, and we're gonna be fine,

We're gonna come out right. But we have to follow Jesus,

and that following Jesus is not just that thing of

calling on his name and acting like I'm a Christian.

It's taken interest in what he did, what he taught,

and obeying it, obeying it right, asking him to help

us to obey it. That is extremely important. Accept him

as our personal savior and let him be our guide.

So I'm using this as an example. You we have

all faced funerals, people have died, if that passed away.

Sometimes death looks so unfair and we don't know what

to do about it. But let's focus on what's more important.

Am I ready to die? What if I would die today?

What if I would be in the situation of that

person that has passed away? Was his life right? Can

I do something different? I'm just going to share some

examples of death experiences that I've experienced. I've lived in

Wasslada area for almost thirty years, and before that, I

faced death. But I don't know why. There's so many,

so many deaths and killings and things there. I don't know.

It just seems like sometimes life is so cheap in

some ways. But I have I have this I that

I'm going to try to take a lesson from each

each one of the things that I am involved with

or happened in my close to me, or something I

have to do with. And I've even shared often share

messages and afterwards of things that we can see that

we can take out of this and learn from. And

I think it's good. Not long after we moved to

what was Lalla, one of our first converts was a

man called Juan Laguna. He was a man so stubborn

that all the evangelical preachers said around he will never

become a Christian. He's so stubborn and proud, he will

never come. But as he got older, he started seeing

life the really what really, what it really was, and

he started coming to church. He walked about over an

hours hour walk to get to church to listen. He's

a man who didn't know how to read. He was

very simple in the way of knowledge. But he started coming.

And the day he accepted Christ, Mark Theodor was having

meetings and he had said to earlier that morning, is

that I'm going to accept Christ tonight when he gives invitation.

We didn't know if it was true or not. We

was just marvel that could it be possible? But that evening,

before Mark could even finish saying that the invitation was

going to open up, that man was walking up the

aisle and he fell down on his knees in front

of the pulpit and in a loud voice, praying to God,

confessing his sins one by one so everybody could hear it,

considering him as a considering himself as a sinner before

the Lord. And that man changed, and soon after he

became very sick, laying in his hemmock bed bed made

kind of like a hemmock with serious physical problems, very

large stomach, very bad case of diarrhea, had to make

a hold of the bed with a bucket underneath. And

me it was something that you know, you just look

at and it you just come into the house, it's like, oh,

this can't be. But you look at his face. He

would smile, he would welcome you in, and he would

very soon start talking about how I'm ready to go

see the Lord. I'm just longing to go. I'm ready.

I confessed my sins, and he wanted to be baptized,

so he was baptized very quick, very soon. I'm baptized.

I made my promise. I'm ready to go. You know,

we'd go visit him sometimes and try to read the

Bible to him, but he ended out encouraging us. And

because of his conversion, his whole family, almost all his family,

have accepted grace. His daughters were very proud of him,

very sinful, but they, one by one they came to

the Lord, his wife, and today his extended family is

reaping the results of this man in his old age

taking care of his life before he dies. And that

has taught me a lesson. You know, we're getting older.

Life is short. We don't know what's going to be when,

when it's going to come. One thing that he lamented

was I've served myself so long and I've not done

much good. But if he would know today, which he

probably does, I don't know the minister that he had.

He preached louder messages. I mean, he preached messages that

were stronger, more evangelistic than in message that anybody can

preach today. A man like that, when he's dying, his

message has a lot more impact and value than when

we're not. When we are we're not sure, you know

how long we're gonna stay. His outlook on life changes

completely it's very valuable. Sometime later, there was a young

man called Wang Situ the seventeen years old. He wanted

to become a Christian so bad. He'd come to church

and he'd sit there and say, I'm gonna accept Christ.

On Sunday half was the church. He'd go out and

later he'd said, I can't, I just can't. He shed tears.

He wanted so bad. Something was holding him back. He'd

love to go to the dances. He'd go Saturday and

walk to town an hour and a half walk, come home

in the middle of the night. That's the type of

boy who was. He was working for us and he

one day I was working. He said, Tim, do you

believe in dreams? And I said, I don't know. Sometimes

they're quite a weird dreams that person has. He said, La,

last night, I dreamt that's some armed GUIs came to

my house and they shone through the cracks of the

bamboo with a flashlight and shone on my face. And

another man came and went inside and took me out,

and they took me out and killed me. Do you

believe in dreams? What do you say to a person

like that? I don't know. I said, I don't know

if I believe that or not. I can't believe that

they would do that to you. I said, but remember

one thing, God is speaking to you. Please answer his call.

Don't let it go. I think that's what he's time

to tell you. I said. Some time later, not too

long later, exactly that same thing happened exactly the way

he had dreamt. That's exactly the way it came out,

in order, exactly the way. He said. Wow, do I

believe in dreams? Sometimes I do. I have to believe

God was speaking to him. And this young man came

home that night almost midnight, so tired he just threw

himself of the bed with his clothes, with his boots on,

went to sleep, and he wasn't asleep morning hours, and

so they came and got him. And next morning we

found him tortured to death on the road. Oh the horrors,

horrible thing that took to wash his body and get

him ready to know him where he is. I mean,

speaks to you the mercy of the Lord. Seventeen years

old at about round sometimes at the same time my

brother in law, Ross's brother, single young man, and I

don't forget how old I was twenty one, twenty two,

twenty three. He was at our place for about two

weeks and went home. Two weeks later, they called and

said he was in a motorcycle accident and he was

killed and died. Died on the way to the hospital,

hit on collision out in a straight stretch from the road.

Just the truck just pulled out in front of him.

I mean, it's just like, why should this happen? But

he was ready to meet the Lord. He was a

young man struggling, just like any other young man was.

He had purity issues that sometimes he wasn't sure if

he's going to make it, but he kept on fighting.

He did not give up. And the ones who were

close to him give good testimony that he was right

with the Lord when he died. And just think about

these two young men going to both funerals. It really

makes you to think, you know what life is all

about and making use of your life, taking the opportunities

that God gives you. I talked about before that mercy.

We think God is merciful and he wouldn't do anything,

He wouldn't send people to hell like that. But that

both of these young men had all the opportunity they needed.

God pled with them. He brought Christian people to his

to his life, and helped him and begged with him,

and he did not listen to him. Had all the

opportunity of losing his faith and following his own desires,

but he did not. Things that have life, that death,

people who are dying have taught me make use of

the opportunities that God gives me. That's very important. Sometimes

it's hard to forgive a man of a boy named

Hidem He came to our place do our robbery, and

our place one of the first robbers we had. He

wanted my money. Later on through the years, I don't

know how long, ten to fifteen years. He was just

a He was a man that the thought that he

had everything under control. He'd use evil prayers he carried

in his cap. Nobody can do anything to me, He

boasted that the police can't catch me. The police can't

do anything to me. And you'd be so prize how

much that thing worked. It's surprising how some of that

stuff works. But that's what he would live with, and

he boasted about that. He's just very outspoken. And he

stole my some of my calves and my cows, and

I had a hard time forgiving this man for what

he was doing. But I the Lord kept working on me.

Two of his brothers already had been killed because of

similar things, you know, And I was just sometimes thinking

that that's just be good if he would just that

would just happen to him, to teach him a lesson.

But God taught me to forgive and forgive and forgive

this man. I remember one day, one Sunday morning, I

was preaching. There's a tavern across the road from our

church house, and he was there drinking with somebody else,

with a friend supposed to a friend of his, and

I remember preaching. He got on his mule and came

went racing by the church house in front of the

church house with a beer can, just spilling beer and

just whooping and howling as he went by. It wasn't

too long before that that the police had got him.

Someone had turned him in for stealing other cattle, but nobody.

Everybody was scared. I wouldn't go press charges. Other people

were scared because of his aggressive ways of being, so

nobody did. So that had let him go. See, he

was just just telling everybody, you know, I'm free. I

can do what I want to. Nobody can do anything

with me. Went home to church that afternoon about two o'clock.

They called me on the radio and said, Hidro got

killed with this supposed buddy, drinking buddy. They got in

fight over a woman, and hide came up to his

house just right there, close to the church house, and

and the guy inside said don't come in or I'll

kill you. And he said, I don't care, you won't

kill me. And he stepped in the door and he

took the other guy took his machete, short little machete,

and chopped him, cut off his head through it out

in the middle of the road. So I go down

and I'd been thinking about this before. What am I

going to feel if this manner gets killed? Now? As

I went down there, Lord, what are you telling me?

Can you forgive this man truly? Or are you going

to feel like? Good? Good rizds, good riddits. That evening,

we picked up his body, put it on the back

of the pickup, dropped his head in a gunnysack, took

it to the church house where his dad was supposedly

a Christian, laid it on the table and get it

ready for for the night watch. I put his head

back to his body and tried to fix it in

a way, and I was going to leave, and here

comes his dad up there and picks the head up

by the ears and holds it up to everybody to see,

and said, boys, I want you to know that this

is what happens to disobedient boys. Oh my poor man

he was. He's so sad about all his boys turning

out wrong. I don't know what he did, if the

dad did something wrong, but anyway, but that was a

true lesson. You know this. They do what they want

and they think they have all under control. And he

was using satanic powers and they work. Then they worked

for years. He always won. They can never catch him,

but that time comes in it. The devil always comes

in it. His powers always come to an end. They

work for a while, but they come to an end.

And you know that's the way sin is. Sin will

always catch up with you. It will never never do

anything good for you. Something to remember. And we need

to love the people like this and to forgive them.

It wasn't long before that that Pablo had seen him

in town, and he put his hand around him and

said idle. It's time you get right with the Lord.

You're living a dangerous life. Oh yes, I know, I know.

I will sometimes just casual, you know, give people a chance.

We need to give people a chance if we fight

with them, if we try to deal with him, if

we try to get rid of him. God is giving

us opportunities to help people like that. That tavern that

I talked about in front of our church house was

something that was very that we never liked. Sheppey Mill

and his wife Tedessa built their house and put up

a little store and started selling beer liquor, the only

place in Kusuri that they would sell that. So it

became a routed place, a place fighting, a place of

all kinds of things happening. Sunday's drunks would come in

the back of the church, sit on the benches on

the back, making noise. One especially he'd love to come in.

He'd talk out loud and couldn't be quiet, saying Amen,

Praise the Lord, and trying to copy what the preacher

was saying, and just making people laugh, just being comical. Well,

how can you have church that way? I mean, just

donehandy and all because of that bar out there, All

the fights, all the men going home drunk, drinking up

their money, when the women and the children need money,

need food. It was just so sad. Some of the

churches around there, people the community got together and made

up a letter and said, let's sign all sign this

thing and take it to the police to get them

to shut this thing down. And they went to the

police and the police said, you gotta be the church.

Church house has got to be the only three hundred

meters from the from the bar, from the place they

sell this stuff to be able to shut it down.

And they were further away. We were the only ones

that were closed. So they came to us and said,

please sign this letter. We want to shut down this tavern.

We talked about and we decided we will not sign.

And it looked kind of weird, but we decided that

it's not our business as Christians to try to shut

down all the evil places and try to make Kusuli

a most better place to live. That's not our business.

That's God's business. We started praying almost in every prayer meeting,

we'd pray that God would shut down this, that he

would save chip it and tedis they would bring salvation

to them. One day, CHAPPI came up two minut up

there by the church house and said, thank you Tim

for not signing that letter. I said, chee, I didn't

sign that letter because I'm agreed to what you're doing.

I am not agreed what you're doing. Please reconsider what

you're doing. We are praying for you every prayer meeting. Well,

thank you, he said, thank you. He had a problem

with drinking and it wasn't too long after that he

got sick and died. Well. His wife kept on going

and I different times talked to her. She would come

to me and say, please sign this. I said for

what reason? Oh no, no, this is something. No, I

know what you wanted me to sign for. You want

me to sign so the police every year they had

to renew their license to be able to sell liquor.

And I said no with tisaid, please stop your business

and get right with the Lord. Yeah yeah, she said, yeah, yeah,

that's all far she got. It went on for quite

a while, quite some years. Finally she got sick and

she wasn't very She got cancer, and because she was dying,

we were hoping that she would come to our church

and we could help her. And now she might be converted,

but she went to another church that were, sorry to say,

they just don't deal with sin. I'm sorry, it's not

to be critical, but they don't deal with sin. The

poor lady was not helped. She did it the easy way. Yes,

she started to stop selling that stuff as you're getting

sick and supposedly accept the Christ. But the horrors of

her death a mission just makes you shiver to think

about how she died the last days of her life.

She was in her room. She didn't want anybody to

visit her, in a dark, closed room. She would see

visions of horrible things at night. How can you help

a person like that? Supposedly a Christian, suppose that she

died in the Lord, but I'm afraid she didn't. Not

with that type of the death, that type of death,

you know, it makes you shiver. Those things are happening

all the time. Are we making a difference for them?

Did I do? Did I do everything that I should

have done for them? Finalance their decision? But the Lord

punishes in his time. We just need to pray for them,

and we're not praying that God would kill them. Like

one lady said, I prayed three days and fast the

three days, and my enemy died after three days. We're

not killing people, We're not asking God to kill them,

We're asking God to save them. The funeral of chap

Emil was about to surround the same time the time

when my father in law died, and attended both funerals. Again,

you know, these funerals are person I was sad when

my father in law died, but I don't know. I

think I cried more for Chepis funeral that I did

for my father in law because it's so different facing

the funeral, when you know that that person's right, he's

ready to go, I will see him again. That's so

that's a blessed feeling and it brings joy in the

time of weeping. But in a time like a chipp

him in like a Hastenim, it's only sadness and just

to think where he is and what he's suffering. It

just brings sadness to people who are who you know

are close to you. I one of them. Just about

two years ago, Marcello Montenegro and Paulaiota died about the

same time. They said they both had cancer, and they

both said that they're competing to see who would go first.

They were both rejoicing in the feeling good about death,

and just desiring the day would come when they could

go with be the Lord. You go visit one. I

went to visit Marcella one time, and he said, Tim,

you know I went to visit Pablo. Oh he did. Yeah.

They took me down in the car and we visited

a while. And you think you know what we talked about.

Do you know what we talked about? I said, well,

I could guess, yeah. I said. We didn't talk about cattle,

because both of them love cattle, love to have good cattle,

and that would be a thing to talk about. No, no,

we didn't talk about cattle. We were talking about heaven.

Two men dying, dying in the Lord. Two men that

have total different paths, live total different lives. I remember,

years before Marcello got in talk contact with us and

asked us to please come help them, there was three

or four three or four families that were not happy

with some of the things that were happening in their church,

and they wanted to come back to the Bible. So

we started going way back in. We had to walk

every two weeks to go back for instruction class, and

it was just a joy to see them learning and

to sit down with them and they just drink it

in none resistant. Thing was a difficult for Marcello all

along because they grew up in It was back in

the areas they fought, some of them thought fought in

the war. They carried their pistols and the law was

the person who had the weapon. So when robbers would

try to take them, they would shootouts and a lot

of people killed, different people killed, rich guys killed even

though they had their guns. And Marcello would have been

one of them. And he was fine until some robbers

started coming and harassing him and required money, and he

got He kept on and kept on until he got

so bad that he got bitter against the Lord and said,

I can't stand this anymore, that God is not doing

anything about it, and I can't stand this. I am

going to set these people straight. And he bought a

pistol and he got embittered against hasimed To and Pablo,

who his wife lived and was a lot in the

church where Pablo was pastoring, and Ha seemed to was

a pastor back there. He got embittered against them and

said a lot of things are their fault. But he

bought himself a pistol, and he started dealing with things

the way he thought it should be. And as years

went by, he got so bitter that he said, I

the Lord won't break my heart, not unless not even

if I get cancer, he won't get he won't get me.

I I won't change. I'm just so bittered. I I'm

gonna die this way. And he even because of fear

and everything. You know, you can boast a lot of things,

but the fears and things. He even went to which

to find out some things about who's going to who

the robbers were, and what they're doing and stuff like that. Well,

the first when you got cancer that the children took

him to the doctor and the doctor said, you know what,

you have cancer. He got so mad. I'm not going

back to these stupid doctors. They don't know what they're

talking about. I don't care. And the family had a

hard time committing him to go on back and do

some other tests. But anyway, the cancer was was so

far gone that they could not do anything about it.

And in the process, the Lord got working on him,

and this man was truly converted, re dedicated his life

to the Lord, and it was such a dramatic change

in his life. And he was a man of a

lot of money. He had big farms, a lot of cattle.

He was a rich man. And at times when you

talk with him, he would he would say, one time

I was building my shop. Was I was building a

shop bigger because I didn't have room for all I

fixed refrigerators and freezers and small engines and stuff like that,

so it wasn't I didn't have big enough, and I

was building it bigger. And he had gone by one

day and I stopped in one day and he said, Tim,

I seen that you're building a bigger shop. Tim, I

wants you to tell you be careful, be careful. These

earthly things do not matter. Don't get wrapped up in them.

What good do they do? Now? What do good does?

All my money and my farms, the things that I

fought over and lost my salvation, was losing my salvation

for what good are they? While he was getting bitter

like that, he was saying, when I die, I don't

want you to even put me in a casket. I

want you to just make a hole and throw them

in the hole. I'm just no good. I'm just trash.

But after a while, when he when he got converted,

he started saying, that's fine, that's fine. If you make

a box for me, that's fine. If you kill a

cow for my funeral, which is accustomed to do. You

know there, that's fine. But you know, I want you

to know. I want you to do something. I want

you to do that. Not for me, not because I

was rich. I want you to help these poor people.

Give all those people that come, give them food and

give them a whole bunch. Give them one day, give

them two days. I want to give my things to

the poor. I want to help those people that I

fought against. He was a changed man, and he told

he told me different things. He'd tell us every time

we'd go, he'd say, please, please get right with the Lord.

Make sure that you are right with the Lord. At

the same time, Pablo got sick and he had cancer too.

That's why they were competing who would die first. But

the one thing that blessed me was he said he

gave public testimony and said, you know, when I found

out that I got cancer, when I was going to die,

there's nothing to do. The first thing that came to

my mind, Is there something that I need to make right?

That's interesting. Almost every time a person when he finds

out he's going to die, the first thing he does

or the first thing the preachers asked, did you did

you reconcile with everybody? Yeah, we got to call that person,

this person, my mom, and my dad, and my husband

and wife and my children. I need to make everything right.

Did all the children come? Did you make everything right?

So Pablo had that in his mind, and he said,

you know what, I got to think. I couldn't think

of one thing that I had to make right, and

I just give testimony and said, it's beautiful to live

for the Lord every day, to make sure that I

go to bed in the night and to know that

everything is right. It's the Lord, so that when death comes,

all I can do is reach you. All I have

to do is rejoice. I'm right with the Lord. The

death of these two men have really impacted my life,

and I want to take the message that they gave us.

Take them seriously, make use of the life that I have.

Marcelo feels that he lost his life. In the past,

he messed up, but his last three months of his

life he did more evangelizing. Maybe I could say than

what I did in ten twenty years. The Lord can

do wonderful things if a person is willing to allow

himself to be that way. God wants to use us.

And God is expecting us to take these examples and

to stir us up, to wake us up to the

reality of life, and that we can become men and

women of faith, and that we can become some of

these leaders that it says in Hebrews thirteen. Remember those

that already gone, remember the way they lived, and look

at their example of life. And then look at these

people who die without the Lord, and see where they go.

And it's not just the evil people, it's the ones

who are religious, religious people that Jesus cried over when

he came over Jerusalem, over looking over Jerusalem, cried over

these religious people. Where are you going to end out eternity?

It brought tears of Jesus eyes. And we need to

look at this and see where we are going, what

we are doing. So I want to finish reading the

last verse of chapter fifteen the first Trindians. Therefore, my

beloved brother, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work

of the Lord. For as much as ye know that

your labor is not in vain in the Lord, that's struggling,

that's striving, that working is not in vain. It's not

that vanity that the that the right over Ecclesiastics was

talking about. It's something valuable, something worthwhile living for something

that will go all the way through. And in Revelations

there's some verses talking about blessed the theay that are

dying in the Lord, they're extremely blessed, and that it

talks about the ones who are sinning and where they

will go. It's very sad. So and we need to

take all this and as beloved brethren, we need to

be steadfast. That's a good word. Steadfast. That means a

keeping on going, a firmness in the right direction. Are

keeping on unmovable. Not let this world and the things

of this world draws and suck us in. Let's be steadfast, unmovable,

like the person who has three months to live. That's

the way we should live, always abounding in the work

of the Lord. Abounding is the worth of I mean,

you could stretch that out, how long, how big is abounding.

It's like, let's do it, and let's do it hard.

Let's do it for all we're worth in the work

of the Lord. And as we are working in the

things of this life the world that we need to work.

And as we are working, let's abound in the work

of the Lord. Going through our daily work, have that

foremost in our life, something very hard to do. We

get so easy to get wrapped up and focusing on

making money, making life easier, doing things, going places, and

doing all kinds of things. That's fine, like we need

to do those things. But let's abound in the work

of the Lord. Because you know that that abounding in

the work of the Lord is going to beat you

to your advantage at the end, because your labor is

not in vain. It's not something that's gonna end with

the box that you're going to be put in. It's

not going to end there. It's going to go on

forever and ever. Such a blessing. So here we are,

older people, young people. Here's my family today, my wife,

my two children. We all have to decide what we're

gonna do with our life. Where's our future? What God?

What does God want me to do? Is it here?

Is it there? It doesn't matter, it's where we are

what matters? Where are we today, Lord, bless you