It's good to enjoy life and have fun - the kind of good clean fun that God approves of. The Bible doesn't tell us we should never go to a concert. It doesn't tell us we can't have fun. But it is easy, especially when we are young, to push the realities of life and death so far out of our minds when we're having a good time that we begin to live like there is no death and no eternity. That my friends, is a dangerous thing.

How many of you have ever attended a funeral?

What did you think about it?

Those of you who have never attended a funeral, why haven't you?

Is it because:

How many of you have ever gone to a concert?

Did you know that God has said that it is better for you to spend your time at a funeral than at a concert? I know that sounds a bit strange, but listen to what it says in Ecclesiastes 7:2-

"It is better to spend your time at funerals than at festivals."  (The Living Bible)

What in the world could that mean?

Well, I stopped reading too soon. It goes on…

Can you imagine how it would sound for me to apply that? The phone rings…

"Hello, Dave? Yeah, a bunch of us are getting together to go to Portland for a concert in the River Park. You wanna join us?"

"Thanks, guys, but I've already committed myself to go to a funeral that is happening across town. God told me He'd rather I would go there."

Why would God rather see you and me go to a funeral than a festival? Well, a funeral, especially if it is for someone you've known, perhaps even for someone who is young like you, forces you to think about something none of us typically wants to think about - the idea that death doesn't always wait until we're old to come calling.

Last year about this time I attended the funeral of Levi, a boy barely twelve years old who was cut down by cancer. You just don't think about someone that age dying. A couple of years ago I officiated at a funeral for a young man right here in Sweet Home in his twenties who died of AIDS. I think one of the most sobering funerals I ever attended (actually, it was a series of funerals) was for the entire cheerleader squad of our rival High School in the Northern California town where I grew up. The school's cheerleaders, during my junior year, climbed into a car with a man who had graduated a few years before. He had been drinking. They rounded a corner on their way to the football game and the young man took the turn too wide. The car drifted out across the white line and was hit head-on by a logging truck. In ten short seconds, everyone in that car was on the way to judgment and eternity. They were all killed instantly. No one in the entire care was yet 20 years old. The leader of the cheerleader squad, a beautiful young high school senior, was mangled so badly that the only way they could identify her was by her long blonde hair.

We just don't think that things like that could ever happen to us. We figure we'll keep right on living, but that isn't always the case. That's why it's good to take in a funeral once in awhile.

It's good to enjoy life and have fun - the kind of good clean fun that God approves of. The Bible doesn't tell us we should never go to a concert. It doesn't tell us we can't have fun. But it is easy, especially when we are young, to push the realities of life and death so far out of our minds when we're having a good time that we begin to live like there is no death and no eternity. That my friends, is a dangerous thing.

The time we spend here, no matter what we do, will be over sooner than we expect. Then the only thing that will matter is our relationship with God. We dare not neglect it while we're young. If we do we could lose it for eternity.

There is a story Jesus told in the Bible about a very successful young man who was having a great time in his life. It seemed like everything he did was successful. Every business venture he entered produced baskets full of money. When his warehouses were so full of the product he sold that there was no more room, he ordered that they be torn down and bigger ones be built. He was on a roll. Why bother with serious stuff? His life seemed so secure that he decided he would just retire, drink, party, and chase women. Actually, that's what he did. After all, why not? If you've got it, why not flaunt it. You only go around once. You gotta get it while you can. There was only one thing he didn't figure on. He didn't figure on dying so soon. "You fool," Jesus said. "Tonight you die. Now who gets it all?"

There are plenty of examples of people, young and old, who never figured on death.

In August of last year, down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, an 18-year-old young man was riding in the back seat of a car with a group of friends. They were all drinking and having a good time. They passed through a school zone at what local police later figured was about 75 miles per hour. The young man was hanging out the open window, screaming and waving at a group of girls when he hit the "End of School Zone" sign. Ambulance drivers found his head 200 feet away from where he came into contact with the sign. One moment having a great time - a moment later facing the judgment unprepared.

Am I trying to scare all of you? Just a little - I'll admit it - because I've heard the way some of you are living. The fact is I'm scared for you. The Bible says, "It's a terrifying thing to fall in to the hands of the Living God."

Most of you know that we have already buried a member of our youth group here just a couple of years ago. Whether Jerome was prepared or not, we'll have to leave in the hands of God. I just want you to realize that it can happen to you.

The most important thing you can do at this moment is to make sure your relationship with God stays where it ought to be. That's why people in the church like our youth leaders spend their time with you. That's why we're all up here tonight.

"Well, I've been baptized," you might be thinking. That's good, but you know it doesn't end there. You must do your best to be faithful to God or your baptism is a meaningless mockery.

I hope you'll consider these things. I love every one of you too much to not tell you the truth - and I'm telling you the truth tonight.

Be ready to meet God so that whether you live a long time or whether we attend your funeral this time next week, you know you're ready.

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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