Sunday Morning Podcast December 20, 2015. Bro. Dave Goble.
TEXT ECCLESIASTES 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
People generally consider the events of a death, or celebrate a birth. Why would anyone remember the day one is born, more than when one dies? Often it is the day of death that is more remembered than one’s birth. For it is at death, when some will remember how you lived.
There is an element of where many celebrate Christmas without real recognition of Christ’s birth. This a time when God’s people need even more to take every opportunity to focus and worship Him. We are given many opportunities to make choices that will determine where we end up after death. It is important that we take advantage of these opportunities, for it will testify of what we have accomplished spiritually.
Birth doesn’t testify of accomplishments, for you have not yet had experiences that would indicate your efforts and choices. Birth cannot show whether or not you took the opportunity to help someone or not. It cannot show whether you lived by faith in what God did for you, or if you lived a life of doubt and fears. Jesus our example, is not remembered so much for His ancestral lineage, He is remembered more for what He later did for us, in the ultimate sacrifice of His life on the cross.
Christ’s example is what our destiny should be. To live so others might also see their destiny to be delivered from self and sin. To not live for Christ negates any good that might have been, had we chosen God. It would be better if we had never been born, if we refuse to live for Jesus. This is as a spiritual betrayal of Christ. God’s feelings on this is found in the story of Judas who betrayed Jesus. (The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of Him: but woe to that man, by whom the son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born! Mark 14:21) If Jesus had not given His all, there would not seem a significant reason to celebrate His birth. For His birth was prophesied about to bring the purpose of His death.
What does the Lord require of our life? Micah 6:8 tells us: “He hath shewed thee O man what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God? These are things we will be remembered by at our death. How did we choose to live? Were we just? Were we merciful and humble? Did we, as the scripture tells us to in Matthew 22:39 “love our neighbor as ourself?” Where you are at death, will be determined by your lifetime decisions.
What does your life celebrate? Of Jesus death and resurrection? Or of only His birth? Will your life at death testify that you gave Jesus your best?