Eat, Drink & be Merry, for Tomorrow we Die
One of my favorite Dave Matthews Band songs is "Trippin Billies"
I love the sound of the song, the vibe, the intro and the lyrics paint a portrait of friends hanging out, having a good time. It would be a perfect Miller Lite commercial song.
Part of the verse of this song actually comes from the Bible, "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (Isiah 22:13, 1 Corinthians 15:32b)
We have all said from time to time, "live today like there is no tomorrow." It is a motivation for us of sorts to................be on guard of how we are living. But many of us, especially this generation, has mistaken this "logo" to mean party hard, have no regrets while acting first and slide stepping the consequences to come.
Many of us whole hold on to this "eat drink and be merry now" lifestyle aren't really thinking about the second part of that phrase, "for tomorrow we die." Let's suppose that we did die tomorrow. What do you have to show for yourself? Was it all spent in gratifying your selfish pleasures to indulge in sinfulness or was there a better reason for living?
The scary part of this is, and I have experienced this first hand this month, today doesn't guarantee you a tomorrow. My wifes father passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack and then just 3 weeks later my wifes younger sister passed away. Neither of them had terminal illnesses and neither of them knew that death was coming. There was nothing that they changed in thier life to bring this upon them. They were living life like every other day. Following thier same routine and schedule.
I know that neither one of them were in great standing as far as thier relationship with God goes. They were experiencing familiar situations in life that we all will face from time to time. You know those moments where life is unfair, we get bad stuff happening to us when we really and truthfully can't recall anything we had done wrong to deserve this streak of bad circumstances. I believe that if we were to die right now 90% of us would not be where we wanted to be in our relationship with God. I mean if we are honest with our inner hearts and the scary thing is this, we put God off to a later date thinking we will have time to correct things and get straight. But the reality in all of this is.............we don't get to choose when that day is. Many of us will never get that chance to make things right with or be in a comfortable place when we die unless we take the warning of 1 Corinthians 15:33-34 to heart.
"do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning for there are some who are ignorant of God - I say this to your shame."
The time to get right with God is right now. When you live in a daily relationship with Him, he can fullfill you in many more ways than your current path can. You might say, "but you don't understand where I am at. You don't understand the pain and misery I am experiencing. You can't relate to what I am going through."
I have lost 2 dearly loved ones in a matter of 30 days, my family has become a floor of eggshells to walk around on, our financial situation hit an all time low in this same month. The stress of life has become so hard that one day you think about suicide (not as a reality option) but you do think about it and then the next day you are so pissed at God for taking away a young lady like my sister in law who had the world in front of her with a new marriage and a 1 and half year old daughter. The weight of the world is pressing in and you are looking for relief only to find that around the next corner is something to punch you in the gut again.
But, through this, I have become right with God. I have been bowed in my heart in such a tremendous way because I know that God is still God. I know in the depth of my despair that my heart and peace still rest in his hands. I had to come back to my senses and stop fighting with God. In the midst of the worst 30 days in my life I was shown the grace and strength to move forward. Why? Because I never failed to believe that God couldn't do it. I knew He could, even though I didn't want it at times.
That is where I want to challenge you tonight. You may believe that you have a legit arguement against God and that is why you are turning and running away. My friends, it's not that God has refused to help you in the midst of your hell, it's because you have failed to reach out and grab his hand. How many of you need to come back to your senses tonight? How many of you need to stop living for yourself and extend your hand towards God's?
Stop masking your pain in a bottle or a pill. Stop the never ending search of "true love" in the many beds of people who are only using and abusing you for thier own pleasure. Stop dealing with your pain by inflicting pain upon your body. Stop being misled and stop fighting God. Come back to your senses and come back to the one who first loved you.
I love the sound of the song, the vibe, the intro and the lyrics paint a portrait of friends hanging out, having a good time. It would be a perfect Miller Lite commercial song.
Part of the verse of this song actually comes from the Bible, "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." (Isiah 22:13, 1 Corinthians 15:32b)
We have all said from time to time, "live today like there is no tomorrow." It is a motivation for us of sorts to................be on guard of how we are living. But many of us, especially this generation, has mistaken this "logo" to mean party hard, have no regrets while acting first and slide stepping the consequences to come.
Many of us whole hold on to this "eat drink and be merry now" lifestyle aren't really thinking about the second part of that phrase, "for tomorrow we die." Let's suppose that we did die tomorrow. What do you have to show for yourself? Was it all spent in gratifying your selfish pleasures to indulge in sinfulness or was there a better reason for living?
The scary part of this is, and I have experienced this first hand this month, today doesn't guarantee you a tomorrow. My wifes father passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack and then just 3 weeks later my wifes younger sister passed away. Neither of them had terminal illnesses and neither of them knew that death was coming. There was nothing that they changed in thier life to bring this upon them. They were living life like every other day. Following thier same routine and schedule.
I know that neither one of them were in great standing as far as thier relationship with God goes. They were experiencing familiar situations in life that we all will face from time to time. You know those moments where life is unfair, we get bad stuff happening to us when we really and truthfully can't recall anything we had done wrong to deserve this streak of bad circumstances. I believe that if we were to die right now 90% of us would not be where we wanted to be in our relationship with God. I mean if we are honest with our inner hearts and the scary thing is this, we put God off to a later date thinking we will have time to correct things and get straight. But the reality in all of this is.............we don't get to choose when that day is. Many of us will never get that chance to make things right with or be in a comfortable place when we die unless we take the warning of 1 Corinthians 15:33-34 to heart.
"do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning for there are some who are ignorant of God - I say this to your shame."
The time to get right with God is right now. When you live in a daily relationship with Him, he can fullfill you in many more ways than your current path can. You might say, "but you don't understand where I am at. You don't understand the pain and misery I am experiencing. You can't relate to what I am going through."
I have lost 2 dearly loved ones in a matter of 30 days, my family has become a floor of eggshells to walk around on, our financial situation hit an all time low in this same month. The stress of life has become so hard that one day you think about suicide (not as a reality option) but you do think about it and then the next day you are so pissed at God for taking away a young lady like my sister in law who had the world in front of her with a new marriage and a 1 and half year old daughter. The weight of the world is pressing in and you are looking for relief only to find that around the next corner is something to punch you in the gut again.
But, through this, I have become right with God. I have been bowed in my heart in such a tremendous way because I know that God is still God. I know in the depth of my despair that my heart and peace still rest in his hands. I had to come back to my senses and stop fighting with God. In the midst of the worst 30 days in my life I was shown the grace and strength to move forward. Why? Because I never failed to believe that God couldn't do it. I knew He could, even though I didn't want it at times.
That is where I want to challenge you tonight. You may believe that you have a legit arguement against God and that is why you are turning and running away. My friends, it's not that God has refused to help you in the midst of your hell, it's because you have failed to reach out and grab his hand. How many of you need to come back to your senses tonight? How many of you need to stop living for yourself and extend your hand towards God's?
Stop masking your pain in a bottle or a pill. Stop the never ending search of "true love" in the many beds of people who are only using and abusing you for thier own pleasure. Stop dealing with your pain by inflicting pain upon your body. Stop being misled and stop fighting God. Come back to your senses and come back to the one who first loved you.