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1Don’t Fear the Grim Reaper2In June 2010 the New York Times published a short article titled “Unplugged: Take the Challenge.” The article was an invitation to readers to give up some kind of technology for a brief period of time. Volunteers were asked to --turn off their cell phone for a weekend, or disconnect from the Internet for a week, or not watch TV, or not log on to Facebook for a while. 3Technology is not the enemy. New technologies have not made us into easily distracted people. 4New technologies have exposed just how distractible we are.5Compared to most people who’ve ever lived, we live in one of the wealthiest places and times on earth. Not only wealthy in terms of money in the bank, but we are also one of the most time-wealthy cultures ever. Think how much time we should save because of modern inventions and conveniences like washing machines, refrigerators, microwaves, grocery stores, and 40-hour work weeks, not to mention cars, computers, and cell phones. 6We should have more time on our hands than ever before, but we don’t. We are busier than ever--more distracted. 7What are we distracting ourselves from? Could it be that we’re avoiding, something we don’t want to think about? You know, that sense of something more--when the lights are low, there’s no one around, TV’s off, and you feel it? That voice that says something like, “Is this it? Is this all there is?” 8Hebrews 2:14-15. The text speaks of the fear of death. It also says we are held in slavery by this fear. Could it be this sense of fear that drives our slavery to other things (distractions).9Very few people live their lives with the conscious fear of death in their minds. Yet the scripture says that Christ came to die for people “who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” The point is not that people are enslaved to a constant, conscious fear of dying, but that they are enslaved to a thousand ways of avoiding this fear.10William Winchester acquired a fortune by manufacturing and selling rifles. He died of tuberculosis in 1881 and his wife, Sarah, in her grief consulted a medium. The medium told her, "As long as you keep building your house, you will never face death."11Sarah believed it, bought a mansion with seventeen rooms and started to build. The project continued for the next 38 years—24hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. By then it had 150 rooms, 2,000 doors and 10,000 windows, and there was still enough money and materials to continue building for another 80 years. But at the age of 85 Sarah Winchester died. The house is still there. It’s a tourist attraction now, but more than that, it is a silent witness to the fear of death.12We are enslaved to the thousand ways we choose to avoid thinking about death. John Piper likens it to cruise control in your car. Your soul gets up to a comfortable speed where you can watch life zoom by, bouncing your eyes from one thing to another along the roadside. Then your soul turns off onto side-streets and you begin to slow down. You start to reflect on more eternal things. You start to think about what your life has amounted to, what it has all meant, and where you’re going when it’s all over. Unable to face these thoughts, the cruise control kicks back in and gets back up to a comfortable speed where you can divert your attention and forget about all of that.13More than 350 years ago, Blaise Pacal--a brilliant mathematician and physicist, made the same observation. He was fascinated with the question: Why is it so many people are so driven to jump from one amusement to the next? Why are we enslaved to our need for entertainment? He says the greatest anxiety of life is the knowledge that one day our frail life will end. We would rather busy ourselves so we don’t have to think about it.14Are you afraid of dying?15For some, it is the fear of the unknown. What comes after this life? Without a voice from beyond the grave, death is like a curtain that hides from us our fate. People don’t know what to expect beyond death and this is justifiably terrifying.16For many people there’s the fear of the loss of all we have and all that our lives stand for. When we don’t know what comes after death, the now becomes more important. We spend our lives investing in our businesses, our jobs, our hobbies, our children, our grandchildren—all good things—but we are prone to cling to all of these things and worship them if we think they are all we have. We don’t know what’s beyond death, so we try desperately to make sure we at least live on in the memories of others. We seek to make ourselves memorable through our achievements or through our personality or through leaving behind remnants of our existence. All of this is driven by this fear of loss in death. 17There’s also the fear of judgment after death. Paul says in Romans 2:15, conscience is God’s moral law written on our hearts, a law to which we will all be held accountable some day. So, if God is real, and if we are created in the image of God, as the Bible teaches, and if He is just and holy and worthy of our love and devotion and worship and obedience, and justly angry at our indifference and distrust and our preference for other things, and if we are going to give an account to this infinite, holy God and be sentenced to heaven or to hell, then death is terrifying if things are not right with God. All of these fears are what drive people to a life of distraction, and we become slaves to those diversions.18Satan brought man into the realm of death (for the wages of sin is death), and he has maintained a dominion over that although subject to the power of God. Satan's hold on men is death. And no one escapes it. It's appointed unto men once to die and after that—judgment. If Satan can continue to control people and hold them in sin, they will eventually die and be catapulted into hell, and then God can’t touch them. 19Somebody had to break Satan’s power of death. 20Max Lucado, in his book, “Six Hours One Friday,” tells the story of a missionary in Brazil who discovered a tribe of Indians in a remote part of the jungle. They lived near a large river. The tribe was in need of medical attention. A contagious disease was spreading across the village. People were dying daily. A hospital was not too terribly far away — across the river, but the Indians would not cross it because they believed the river was inhabited by evil spirits. And to enter its water would mean certain death. The missionary explained how he had crossed the river & was unharmed. But they were not impressed. He then took them to the bank and placed his hand in the water. They still wouldn’t go in. He walked into the water up to his waist & splashed water on his face. It didn’t matter. They were still afraid to enter the river.Finally, he dove into the river, swam beneath the surface until he emerged on the other side. He raised a triumphant fist into the air. He had entered the water & escaped. It was then that the Indians broke into a cheer and followed him across. In order to destroy death a man would have to die and rise again and leave the trail open for others and that's exactly what Jesus did. He said Because I live, Ye shall live also.21Hebrews 2:14-15. Jesus is someone who completely gets our human weaknesses and frailties. He grew up as a peasant among peasants. He worked for years as a skilled laborer, dealing with sweat and pain and calloused hands. He became exhausted. He got hungry. He experienced thirst. He experienced the full range of human emotions. He knew joy and sadness. He was tempted. And when it was his time to die, his divine privilege did not shield him from that human experience either. When you go to Jesus Christ to share our hearts He can say I know, I know, I've been there.22“So Much God”23Hebrews 2:16-18. That big word "propitiation" simply means Christ takes away God's anger at us for our sins.24The one deadly power in Satan's artillery, namely, unforgiven sin. The only reason anybody goes to hell is because of their own sin. And all Satan can do is fight like hell to keep you sinning and to keep you away from the one who forgives sin. If your sins are forgiven and the wrath of God is removed from you, and you stand righteous before God in Jesus Christ by faith, and God is for you and not against you, then the devil is rendered powerless: he cannot destroy you.25We have the Word of God this morning proclaiming that we are free from slavery to the fear of death. We also have a word from God this morning that when the trial comes in our dying, when we are tempted to despair or self-pity or resentment or anger or unbelief, Christ will come to help us. And he will come as one who knows, from his own agonizing experience, just what we are experiencing. And he will give us what we need to endure to the end. 25An American minister, Tony Campolo said he was visiting a church where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing. A few days later he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer….." Campolo knew what was coming next. She was going to say, “He had cancer, but now he is completely healed.” ? Instead she said, "He’s dead. The cancer killed him." Tony Campolo felt terrible.”But” she went on, "Don’t feel bad. When he came into church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to die soon, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.But after you prayed for him, a peace came over him and a joy came into him. The last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read the bible. We’ve prayed. They’ve been wonderful days. And I rang to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing."And then she said something very profound. She said, "My husband wasn’t cured, but he was healed." ? We follow a man who has suffered, just as we suffer; a man who has faced death, just as we must, and a man who heals us of our fear. ................
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