Death is defeated

As Christians, we have to fear death. We are afraid of death, but a trembling fear we should not have. We go to sleep one last time and we are with Christ. Tell someone... 

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God has a super huge plan. We all have to do our part as He assigns to us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, brothers and sisters in the Lord and hopeful family members to come. It's easy to join the family. All you have to do is ask the Lord and He'll help you. He'll take care of it. The one and only God. That's and you ask through Christ in Christ's name. Muhammad won't be able to help you. Buddha won't be able to help you. None of these guys that lived, unless they trust Christ, they'll be right along with the legions of people in hell. So please trust Christ. He is the only way. He's the only one that defeated death. That's what I want to talk about today, is how Christ defeated death. Death has a lot of fear tied up with it just because people don't go and come back from it. Kind of like going to the store and coming back. You just don't come back with reports of it. There's some that say they died or whatever, but but for the Christian, it is truly defeated. And it is still a fearful thing, but we don't have to be fearing it because it's a momentary. It's like we go to sleep one more time and we wake up and we're with Christ. It's very similar to a caterpillar. When it dies, when it goes into its cocoon, it comes out a butterfly. That's kind of like what's going to happen with us. We're going to come out like Christ with a perfect body. Can you believe that? That would be all right with me. I've got shoulders and knees giving me troubles, and I could, I would be just fine with a new body. In 1 Corinthians 15, 54 to 57, when uh Brother Paul was saying that death has been swallowed up in victory. Christ snatched the keys away from the devil. And the devil did have the keys to death. He was holding them because of sin. And with sin came this great gulf between man and God. And Christ bridged that gulf. And he is the only bridge. He is the only door to God. He is the only one of all the people ever been born that defeated death. Now he brought a few people back himself from death, but they still had to have their next death either with old age or accident or what have you. As Christians, we literally step over death. Christ has done it for us. It has no hold over us whatsoever. It literally tries to grab everyone, including us, but it can't grab us because of what Christ did. Not because of anything we've done, but because of what Christ did. And if people that don't know the Lord, death will grab them and pull them to eternal death, pull them to hell and all kinds of trouble. And it's our job as Christians to help people find their way to Christ. We tell them about what Christ has done for us and what he can do for them. He can defeat addiction, he can defeat depression, he can defeat everything. In Matthew 17, 20 and Luke 17.6, Christ talks about having just a little bit of faith, but it's a solid faith. As a mustard seed, it's tiny. But if you you hold that faith and you grow it and you work with it and you work it with Christ, it'll grow into a massive faith that He could use it greatly in you. And you can, through Him, defeat all the troubles that's coming your way. Not a few of them, not most of them, all of them. Every one of them. Sometimes He has to give you strength to carry some burdens that you might have done to yourself in a past life or something. But that will help you to help others come to find Christ. We can't save anybody. We just set up the introduction, folks. And as followers of Christ, we do follow Him and we do His will, not our own. Sometimes they align, but a lot of times they don't align. And since Christ defeated death and He defeated death for each one of us that choose to follow Him, to take up our cross daily and follow Him. We're to be mature in that faith day by day, moment by moment sometimes. We're all here just for a little while. And there's no such thing as a part-time Christian. Either you are or you aren't. If you're on the fence, there's a good chance that you're not a Christian. So you need to be looking at it. In Philippians 2.12, it talks about that. Working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. When I was first saved, Satan had my head so messed up, I kept, it was in my head that it couldn't be that easy. It couldn't be that easy. I have to do something. I have to do something. But there's nothing we can do. We trust that Christ has defeated death and that he did die and his blood washed away our sins. That's just the way it is. It might sound kind of different to some folks, but sin is dying. Each sin is death. It causes death. And blood is life. And the life covers the death, and the life is victorious through Christ. And each one of us needs to make sure that we're part of his family. Matthew 7, 13 and 14, when Christ says, Small is the gate, narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Now that's kind of scary, folks. We need to work on and make sure that each one of us, you can only do it for yourself. We can talk to others and try to help them find the path, but it's up to them working with God, letting God work in them. I hope everybody listening is going to be part of the few. I wish it were many, but it Christ Himself says few find it. And since Christ did defeat death, it is our duty to follow him if we're his. And there's a lot of churches that preach, speaking a few words, you know, saying, I'm so sorry, and that's it, and you're good to go. That is not what it says. That's not what the Bible says. We take up our cross daily and follow Christ. And repentance is a very big part of what Christ Himself said. Matthew 4.17. So just saying just a few words isn't going to do it. We follow Christ. We follow him moment by moment, day by day. And one of my favorite verses is 1 Thessalonians 5.17 talks about praying continually, praying without ceasing. That just means keeping an open line of communication right to God Himself, the Creator. He wants to hear from you continually. He is able to do this, believe it or not. Just because our little finite minds can't understand it doesn't mean God can't do it, because He surely can. And Christ has given us the strength to throw all the old garbage that used to bother us right into the grave. And just leave it there. Let it be dead. Just let it be dead and leave it alone. We follow Christ in a new life. Satan can't stand that we have life. Because him and his other demon fellows, they're not going to have it. They're going to have eternal death. Hell was created for Satan and his angels and lawbreakers, sinful people that don't accept Christ. Now, as a Christian, we still sin and we ask continually, I'm sorry, and we pick up and we carry on. We repent of what we did. That doesn't give us the permission slip, but we remember for what Christ did for us, that he did die for us, and that he rose to defeat death because we couldn't do it. We were in serious trouble. And God Almighty had to send his only son here to help us, to bail us out, if you want to hear it that way. That's the truth, because we could not do it. And he did defeat it. I love Easter maybe more than Christmas. I know Christmas is and Easter both have been kind of covered and sidelined by like Christmas with Santa Claus and a tree and the presents and the elves and all this junk. That's pretty much what it is. There was a St. Nicholas that did good things, but not like with magic reindeer and stuff. Same with Easter, with a bunny. And I think that a bunny and little rabbits and all, just signs of life, maybe like with eggs, just newborn. Because when Christ was raised, we get baptized and we're raised just like He was. And we still have to face death one time, but it's like a final sleep, and that's it. He defeated it for us, brothers and sisters. He defeated it, defeated completely. It is finished, he said on the cross in John 19 and 30. When he said those beautiful words, it is finished. And when he died and shed his blood, it washed our sins away. And when he rose, he gave us the right to follow him into eternity. If we cling to him and trust him. Well, brothers and sisters, I'm going to get off of here. I pray the good Lord save your souls and his face shine down upon you. And remember, death is defeated. Christ is alive and always will be. And he's right there waiting on you with open arms. Until next time, this is Brother Rick saying, I love you in the name of Jesus Christ.